A beginners attempt at sugarpaste modelling

I've said it many times but cake decorating does not come naturally to me.
However and am trying and recently I have done a bit more modelling which I thought i'd share with you. I have never been taught any sugarpaste work so I am working it all out as I go - tips are always welcome!

'The Gruffalo' cakes seem to be popular at the moment - I must admit that I'm not familiar with the Gruffalo although it reminds me of Where the Wild this are which I loved as a child. The brown sugarpaste I used chocolate flavoured and it didn't seem to harden as well as regular sugar paste, even with the help of quite a lot of CMC. However, it definitely tastes better :)

This one I was really pleased with as when I saw the order I really wasn't sure I could do it! In the end I became rather attached to my little old organist :)

I've also just made my first tiered cake which I'll be blogging about very soon so watch this space :)

What are your top cake decorating tips?

Thai Cakes

Where to begin? It feels like so much has happened since I last blogged; I have been desperate to write about it but my laptop is in the computer hospital :(

My boyfriend and I had an amazing trip to visit our friends in Thailand. Having never been to Asia before, everything was new to me and all my senses were in for a treat! I won't bore you all with the day by day account that my family had to endure but I will share a few photos with you and a bit about my food adventure....

The food was amazing - definitely some of the best I've ever tasted. Everything was just so full of flavour; we tried something different each night and (with the exception of a big smelly fruit!) there was nothing I didn't love! The Thai way of eating is to each have a small plate/bowl of rice and share meat and vegetable dishes which you add a small amount at a time to your rice. I think this is perfect as you get to try several dishes and go back for more of your favourite!

They're not big into desserts/cake (why would you be with so much fresh pineapple and mango available?!) but we did find a cupcakery in Bangkok. I tried a white chocolate and macadamia cupcake which was topped with whipped cream instead of buttercream. Despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of cream, I loved the cupcake (the cream had definitely been sweetened!).  This kind of thing is fairly exclusive to the Thai 'high society' but I did also try some more authentic Thai cakes...

These are local to Nakon Sawan, the town where our friends had been living for the past two and a half years. I can't say that they are cake as we know it; one is very dry and the other is very soft and elastic like uncooked bread dough! They both come in very bright colours and a variety of flavours (I could identify coconut, chocolate and strawberry - the rest were a mystery to me!) - I can't say that I'll be getting the recipe!

I do however have a Thai recipe book and a collection of pastes and spices - ready and raring to poorly recreate some amazing dishes!

In a other news, on arriving back in the UK we announced that we are getting married in August so our lives are now a whirlwind of venue bookings, flower arrangements, big smiles and moments of 'I just can't believe it' !

For more on Thailand and travelling as well as some stunning photography, please visit http://www.travelingandthat.com/

A little adventure......

I will be disappearing from here and twitter for a couple of weeks as myself and my boyfriend visit our very good friends in Thailand. It will be the first time either of us has visited Thailand or even Asia and no doubt we will try done new and exciting foods and flavours which I will endeavour to capture in photographs and memory.

Happy Easter, I hope you all eat a silly amount of chocolate and have fun baking :)

Gluten-free cherry and Amaretto cake

Mothers Day weekend this year managed to coincide with my Mum's birthday and my Grandmas's 80th birthday celebrations.As they are both wheat intolerant I decided that a gluten free celebration cake was in order. I have had mixed success with gluten free cake and I needed this cake to have a good structure (no sinking of the middle or crumbling away at the sides!) as I was covering it with sugarpaste. So I wanted to keep the recipe fairly simple but gluten-free flour can have a distinctive taste so I wanted to use a strong flavour. Knowing that my Grandma is a fan of amaretti biscuits I decided on Amaretto and cherry.

I would have loved to use fresh cherries but I couldn't get hold of them (and they tend to be horrendously expensive)so I used natural coloured glace cherries. The night before I baked the cake I soaked the cherries in Amaretto which worked well and the cherries really took on the flavour of the Amaretto.

Recipe:
300g butter/stork
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
300g gluten free flour (I used Doves Farm self-raising flour)
90ml amaretto
2 tsp xantham gum
300g glace cherries that have been soaked in Amaretto overnight (I put cherries in between the two layers as well as inside the sponge so if you just wanted them in the sponge you would only need 200g glace cherries)
raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 160 C and grease and line a cake tin (I used a 9" tin but you could definitely use an 8" or 10"). Cream together butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Mix in the eggs on a high speed. Mix in half the four and then stir in the Amaretto. Mix in the rest of the flour along with the baking powder and xantham gum. Once well mixture, lightly coat 200g cherries in flour and stir in. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the sponge.

Amaretto Buttercream

500g icing sugar
150g butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk
1.5 tablespoons Amaretto

Mix the ingredients together with a electric hand mixer or stand mixer on a high speed. If you are mixing it by hand, get those muscles ready! Cream together the butter and icing sugar. Once they are well mixed and start to gradually add the milk and Amaretto until you are happy with the taste and consistency

Sandwich the two cakes together with jam, amaretto buttercream and the remaining cherries. I covered the cake in sugarpaste but you could simply top with the buttercream or even a dusting of icing sugar for a perfect teatime treat :)



I was very happy with the cake which held together well and was tasty and moist - you definitely couldn't tell that it was gluten free at all!


Happy Baking everyone! x

My Little Paris Kitchen

I love Paris. I first visited four years and fell in love from the first moment I turned a corner and saw the Eiffel Tower. Then it snowed and that was it!

I took my boyfriend for a birthday weekend away last week. We were lucky enough to be able to stay in a flat and so could cook for ourselves to keep the weekend both cheaper and slightly healthier (not that we managed to stay away from the wine and pastries!) Our flatmate is a veggie so we took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy some meaty dishes.


Eggy bread (my favourite breakfast!) with ham and poached egg


Chicken with roasted sweet potatoes and a lentil salad


Rare steak with mushrooms. tomatpes and sweet potato chips

We visited the largest organic food market in Europe to put together a picnic to eat in Luxembourg Gardens. The smell of cheese, chicken and sauteed potatoes were enough to make anyone hungry! We gathered together some cheese, bread, ham, salad and tarts to enjoy despite the Parisian frost.



We visited a little bakery where three years ago we discovered what we now refer to as 'the best tart in the world' (others might call it tart au citron with Italian meringue). Unfortunately they didn't have it this time but we chose two delicious tarts to enjoy under in the shadows of the Sacre Coeur.



So after a wonderful, food filled weekend we sank into our Eurostar seats, rested our aching feet and slept our way across the channel.
I'll be back soon with cakes and recipes :)

Food of Love

I don't celebrate Valentines day. It's not that I hate it, it usually doesn't even register to be honest. At least not until my facebook timeline is full of picture of flowers and champagne. Perhaps we are a scrooge of a couple but we're pretty happy whatever we are and V-day happens to fall a couple of days after my boyfriends birthday so it's still a social week :)


This year however, I was distinctly aware of Valentines day as I have been making Valentines cakes for about a month. And I must admit it was fun - I enjoy coming up with ideas for themed cakes. However when it came to getting back to my baking I was sick of all the pink hearts and sickly buttercream. So I decided that what truly spreads love is bread. Everyone loves bread, even if they pretend not to or, like me, try to avoid it for the sake of an expanding waistline, deep down we all want bread and we want it fresh and warm form the oven. And the best way to share the bread love is clearly a tear and share loaf.


I found this on www.shecookssheeats.co.uk which a great little blog written by Amy Jones (@jimsyjampots) and you can find the recipe here. It was originally made by Jason (@itschefjae) from the second series of the Great British Bake Off who I believe now works in Brixton Village so I am mega jealous of him!


Jason recipe called for each roll to be filled with fried red onion and grated cheddar. We rarely have cheese in the fridge but had just had enough to sprinkle on the top, so inside the rolls I used cream cheese with garlic and herbs. This provided a lovely creamy centre to the rolls.





When proving for the second time the bread didn't rise nearly as much as it should have which was disappointing. I'm not sure whether this was because our flat is so cold or because I had knocked it back to much/kneaded it too much or not enough. I put the dough in a warmer places and it rose a bit more. The bread was tasty but I think the bake was too close. I really need to read up more about bread-making and would absolutely love to do some kind of course in it so that I am able to make the perfect loaf!

But the most important part of this recipe is to enjoy with friends and loved ones :)

Salted Caramel Cupcake Recipe

A while ago my boyfriend posted a guest blog on this page and I promised you the recipe. (You can find his post here) I then proceeded to forget about this promise so apologies and here is it, finally:

200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
2 eggs
200g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
a tin of caramel
salt

533g icing sugar
166g butter
40 ml milk

Cream together the caster sugar and butter. Whisk in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the self-raising flour and baking powder until well combined (but be careful not to overmix, especially is using an electric mixer. Gently stir in 1 tablespoon of caramel (I use the Carnation tinned stuff) and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. You can add the caramel and salt to taste but be careful of adding too much caramel as it will affect the consistency of the cake and how it bakes.

Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake cases. I use an ice cream scoop so that all the cakes are even bt otherwise just fill to case to about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Once the cakes are completely cool, remove the center and fill with the caramel. I have a little device to remove the centers but you can also use a small circle cutter.

The buttercream is best made with some kind of electric mixer. You can of course do it by hand and I used to but you just can't get it as fluffy. Mix the icing sugar, butter and milk for about 5 minutes and then add the caramel and salt to taste.

Pipe the buttercream onto the cakes and decorate with some glitter and either a piece of dime bar or a shard of caramel.

When I make these in the shop I use dime bars as they are quicker and easier but I really like the effective of the shards of caramel. To make this heat 250g caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of water in a heavy based pan over a low heat. Do not stir and heat until it turns to a dark amber colour and reaches the hard crack stage. Pour on to a greased baking paper and allow to cool. Once cool you can break into pieces to decorate the cupcakes.