Christmas Hampers

Brief blog I'm afraid as I'm desperate to start blogging about what I've been up to more recently!

When I wrote 'Sugar Paste Revolution' earlier you got to see a lot of what went into the Christmas hampers, but that wasn't the original plan, first of all they started out quite simple really, and then I decided to make things a little more difficult, I mean, what's an extra 70 individually baked and iced cupcakes between friends and family!? Ergh!

It was originally going to look like this... 

Then this happened...

Then all kinds of crazy stuff started!

It turned out being (from left to right): Lemon, Mint Chocolate, Vanilla, Chocolate Hazlenut, Chocolate Orange, and Sticky Toffee!

I can't remember how many cupcakes I made in the end, a lot though, I could probably just add them up, but there really is no point! Who actually cares?!

THE END!!!!! 

xxx

Larder of Life

This is just a quick little post,

I have come home to my parents for a few days and its lovely being back in the family kitchen and mums cooking... her rice pudding was just beautiful!
I wanted to share with you her larder, I know it is something most of us bakers dream of!

It really is the larder of life, we all go and hide in there, all kinds of treats for any occasion is in this room, and what a room!

There is a whole other side to this room but you get the gist!

and the fridge?!

Is it any wonder I have spent all my adult life on a diet since I left my parents home.

This is a house full of plenty, if you are hungry you will be fed, if your not hungry, you will be fed! Those are the rules!

And finally a quick introduction to chief feeder Mumma Dent and her Number 1 victim, Dadda Dent!

Will be back with cupcakes later, but for now, you can all see where the madness started!

Laura x

Sugar Paste Revolution!

I mentioned last time that I had gone out and bought some tools of the trade, and by heck! What a difference they made!

I also got to have a chat with the lady in the shop who gave me some tips, which made a difference for me as everything I do has been self taught! I have also re-discovered YouTube which has loads of tutorial videos - my handy tip of the day!


It was at this sort of point I would say I got the cupcake bug BAD! It has been ever since this moment I think about it all day every day, I make sketches of how I want things to look, and what ingredients to use, and lay in bed thinking of new recipes...  I realise this is not the markers of a well balanced person! But I am embracing and running with it!

The Christmas Snowman sketches

All quite individual little characters!

And here follows the sugar paste revolution

Mum's Christmas cake I iced for her

Amongst the flurry of sugar past I tried out a new recipe, well a couple actually. 


Chocolate and Hazelnut:  
I used the Humming Bird Recipe to which I added in 20g of chopped roasted hazelnuts to the sponge, personal preference really, but it worked out really well. It balanced out the smooth Nutella (the most wicked loveliness in the world!) which was now stuffing the hollowed out cupcake. The Icing also took advantage of the industrial size jar of nutella I just HAD to buy! Quite simple, finished with some whole hazelnuts and a dusting of coco powder. Bon appetite! Mmmmmm!

Mmmmm!

 

 

 

 

Sticky Toffee:
My goodness, what a blimming palaver! (sp?!) But probably one of the tastiest little morsels I have made! I gave some of the batch for Darren to take into work, I have recently found out that I have had multiple requests to re make them! They were lovely, but such a lot of effort! To be fair I was making them on mass at the time for lots of Christmas hampers for my friends and family which has probably scarred me more than the recipe! The biggest stress of the whole thing was actually sourcing the Dulce De Leche... I still to this day have not found a supermarket that sells it (if anyone knows of somewhere, let me know!) Instead I used Carnation's caramel which I guess did the job but the icing was very soft, more dribbled on the perfectly piped! I must take this opportunity to make a confession, which I am not proud of. I near on fought an elderly lady for the last tin of caramel in Asda! If you can imagine the store is heaving a few days before Christmas, and our hands both reach out at the same time for the last prized tin of caramel... I got there first! For that I am eternally sorry and I hope her Christmas wasn't ruined. There, I have said it! Not very Christian at all, but was reassured when my grandad replied "survival of the fittest!!"



After I had got over the stress of a distinct lacking of Dulce De Leche it was onto soaking prunes in vanilla and goodness knows what, I do prefer a more simple recipe!
I must just say the only reason I was hell bent on baking these sticky toffee beauties was for my Dad, a true Eastender who loves a sticky toffee pudding. Would he eat these cupcakes I had slaved over, with him in mind. No! Apparently he doesn't like cupcakes?!!!! Im sure I was adopted! He never tasted one, not one. Total disaster, but more for me!

The finished Sticky Toffee

After all this, and I most probably have put you off, but this is the recipe!

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/634889 

Enough for today! Clearly the Dulce de Leche has effected me quite deeply! I will seek some support and move on!      

Laura xx

Christmas time!

Following on from my previous post, time for latest instalment of the backlog!


After the terrifying looking angels/angles?! from my last blog, I decided to try my luck at piping some Christmas tree cupcakes. I learnt some very valuable lessons. 

Lesson One: Gel food dye is awful stuff, well Silver spoon is. It leaves a really chemically after taste in your mouth, most unpleasant! It also requires quite a bit of dye to get to even half the shade you were hoping for. Not good, the photo, makes it look much greener than it did in real life (the shade I was hoping for).


Lesson Two: Don't bother trying to incorporate glitter into your icing, total waste of time. Does it show up? Does it heck! Also on the glitter front, I learnt "dumping" it over your piped Christmas tree cupcakes makes them look like a five year old has helped. No five year old had helped me so I have no excuse! Lesson learnt! Also make sure your glitter is edible and not just non toxic, there is a difference!


Lesson Three: Not really a lesson, more a tip, but to smooth my base out and make them a bit more Christmassy I added a disk of Marzipan with some Icing sugar over, it made them taste really nice (can't remember what sponge mix I used) but it worked well with it and added to the Christmas feel :)



Now feeling like I had conquered the butter icing world I tried cream cheese icing. Well, I have no idea what happened here, a big, but tasty gloopy mess! All I can presume is that  Verity (the Kitchen Aid) and I may have over beaten it! Ooops! Lesson learnt, and I am happy to report all subsequent cream cheese frostings have been a success!

Cream cheese frosting goo disaster!

After this came some slight, and it really was slight recipe "tweaking" I used a basic chocolate sponge recipe with grated orange zest, I also added some to the basic chocolate butter icing. The zest made the sponge beautifully moist. I finished it off with some Terry's chocolate orange segments (thank god they're on offer over Christmas, and they're not Terry's they're mine!). Tasted magnificent, the look... well I tried piping it... it looked like dog ... (you get the gist) so I tried using a spatula. 

Now at this time I didn't have a nice little spatula that makes them look all smooth and professional, I had a big old cooking spatula! It would seem not quite the same effect can be created! Luckily about this time a cupcake shop opened right by me which sold these things, about 150 pounds lighter off, I was fully supplied, and broke!




Laura and Verity! xx

Angels or Angles?

As I previously mentioned, my first batch of cupcakes were inspired by Verity (the Kitchen Aid), the first creation was some cupcakes for Darrens' work.

Lemon and Chocolate!

This was my first attempt at piping, it gets better, I hope :) So these had a warm welcome and it was the start of many great new experiments to come....


I decided to try something a little more daring... Marzipan "craft" and I say "craft" in the most generous sense of the word! I made an orange and spice recipe, the sponge was lovely and wonderfully Christmassy! The decorations, had a lot to be left to the imagination! 

I made, well blobs with a Christmas hat on with equally dodgy piping! I loved them and they looked cute but I still had no idea what they were, and after a lot giggling Darren and I set to making them a little more recognisable!  

So here we have angels or angles, I really never know what the right spelling is!
They all look slightly drunk and have random black boots and look like they stand as much chance of becoming airborne as I do, BUT! They tasted great! It was time for my ward to get a taste of these little beauties! 


And so the tradition has continued, each week a new batch gets made and they rotate between our jobs so hopefully, I don't seem like too much of a feeder. The NHS it would seem is now powered by cupcakes! The world is a great place! Nobody else needs a cup of tea and a cupcake more than a nurse! I am now known as 'the muffin maker' which I love and we all still have a giggle about :)

Retrospect

Hello friends and fellow cupcake lovers!


I am probably starting this blog a bit late, so this entry is a little, retrospective, enjoy!

Baking has always been one of my loves, thanks to the most wonderful woman in the world, my mum :) 
I have many happy memories of me and my mum baking when I was a little girl, there was always time to whip up a "quick Victoria sponge" followed from the Stork recipe (which I still remember off by heart to this day). Baking has been a way of life for our family and watching my nieces grow up, my mum has dusted off the Stork recipe card and is bringing re-found joy to a whole new generation of our clan.

So, by day (and some nights and weekends) I'm a nurse! and by night, my days off and weekends I am whizzing up a floury storm in my Kitchen, creating a lot of mess... I am not a tidy baker!

Total Nightmare!

Thankfully help comes in all shapes and sizes....

Resident Kitchen Elf

Introducing Darren, my poor boyfriend who gets greeted with such visions of destruction on a regular basis when he gets home from work, luckily he loves helping with the clean up operation!

I recently got back into making cupcakes just before Christmas for Darrens' birthday. He works in a big office so a big old tray of cupcakes seemed like a great idea. But this of course is but a lie... the truth is... well, the truth is I had just been given a very generous very early Christmas present....  a Kitchen Aid, Candy Apple Red (for those who know or care!) but to everyone else I had a shiny red new mixer that easily out shone a previous hand held whisk from Argos! There is NO shame in Argos people, but really you cant even begin to compare an Argos special to a Kitchen Aid. 

I cried when I got her, yes it is a girl, but more disconcertingly she has a name, her name is Verity! Verity the Kitchen Aid :D And here she is and me!

That is a look of sheer, unadulterated joy!

So this is/was the start of my cupcake journey... Let the blogging commence!

Much love

Laura and Verity! xxx


.