A little sweetness

Happy almost Valentine's Day everyone! I'm away from my Valentine this year so have no one to bake for, although I may still make some cookies. As my little tribute to the day devoted to lovers I've gathered together a smattering of some of the prettiest, dreamiest, most Valentine's appropriate sweet treats I've stumbled upon on cake blogs recently. Oh and of course Pinterest which I am now officially addicted to...thanks Gigi for the invite!

A completely and suitably indulgent Chocolate Chip Cherry Cheesecake from Raspberri Cupcakes (new blog discovery, yay!)

Balsamic Strawberry Butter Cake topped with macaron hearts, again from Raspberri Cupcakes.

This super sweet cake with a secret from I am Baker. This was too clever not to post. And not as difficult as I thought it would be (says she who hasn't tried it). 

A gorgeous, soft and fluffy ruffle cake from My Sweet and Saucy.

This beautiful, dark, (and dare I say it for risk of sounding ridiculous? I do, I do dare...) SULTRY, Oreo & Olallieberry Cake from Desserts for Breakfast. I had to google what an Olallieberry was.

And finally this saucy little Pink Meringue cupcake with Raspberry Curd from Martha (the lady with her finger in every occasion pie possible).

Have a happy Valentine's Day everyone. May your day be filled with sweetness and a whole lotta spice! x

P.S. I just found another fantastic hidden heart cake example over at Milli's blog. Check out her work, she is very talented. 

Borough Markets Adventure

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting the famous food haven that is London's Borough Market. My companion was Kristy, my cousin who gets (almost) as excited by food as I do and is up for trying anything, making her the perfect food market accomplice.

As soon as I crossed the road from London Bridge station the smell of barbecue and Spanish food hit me. "It smells like meat! Charred meat!" I said. I was quite excited.

We had a great day ambling around the different market areas, tasting a ridiculous amount of cheese and just devouring food in general, all while taking in the colours, the people, the cultures, the traditions. There were so many gorgeous, vibrant picture opportunities. I tried to capture them as best I could but (disclaimer) I don't think my photography skills did this place justice...

The Borough Market has a long history, having been the location of a food market in different shapes and forms since the 13th century. Given this, the market has a rich, bustling, heritage feel to it and there is a massive variety of food available - including fully feathered pigeons if that's your thing.

There are also some gorgeous fruit and vegetable stalls. I think fruit and veg stalls were the winners on the day when it came to displaying their produce. They have the benefit of colour to work with and the stalls at Borough Market made good use of this, piling the produce high and wide. Like with these oranges.

And all these tomatoes.

And these perfect cabbages.

We tried cheese and bought lard(!) from this happy man below. The lard was, as bad as it might sound to some, pork fat sold in paper thin strips like prosciutto. We were dubious about it and were standing there discussing it's existence when this moustachioed man kindly offered us a taste. We were both sold on the spot. It had a strong, salty, smokey bacon flavour and it was really, really good. He suggested we serve it on hot toasted bread so that it melts into the bread like butter. How could we say no to that?

If buying lard isn't your thing, there are numerous pastries to try. The best I had were some tiny caneles, little doughy pastries with a tender custardy centre and a thick caramelised crust. They didn't look like much but they tasted incredible and I intend on doing more research on these little gems. If you find caneles...buy them and eat them!

My final purchase was a loaf of the pillowy yet crusty Rosemary and Olive Oil bread that you can see below. I spent the next few days eating it with my Aunt's Parsnip Soup and fresh basil, buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and olive oil. I was a happy girl.

If you love food and love history, a visit to the Borough Markets while in London is essential. We went on a Saturday and it does get quite busy after midday so I'd recommend getting there around 10am if you can. This way you have a little more time to peruse and chat to the vendors. It's still a great vibe once it gets busy though.

The markets are open Thursday 11am - 5pm, Friday 12pm - 6pm and Saturday 8am - 5pm. You'll find all the information you need here. Enjoy!

P.S. One last photo, just because I think this girl looks cool.

Welcome to the world baby

This wee post is in honour of my gorgeous new niece, Lilah Boo. Born on Thursday 19th Jan 2012 she is just the cutest little sweet pea as far as I'm concerned. I'm yet to meet her in real life (other than via the wonders of Skype) but that doesn't mean I love her any less. When she was first born the nurses sneakily glued a tiny polka dot lilac bow to her head, I know that sounds slightly odd - glueing something to a new born bubs head - but she did look ridiculously cute so I don't blame them. I like to think the glue was baby safe. I was making cupcakes the other day and decided to dedicate this little creation to Lilah. Welcome to the world sweet little tree frog (I mean that very fondly and my brother will understand). You are already loved so so much and that is a fantastic way to start life. See you (for real!) in April. Aunty Dan x

I'm going public

I almost broke one of my New Year's resolutions already. How bad is that. I'm not usually one for resolutions but sometimes I make little commitments to myself, very rarely ones about losing weight... I basically avoid things that are unrealistic. And seeing as I've thrown myself into the world of cake, clearly losing weight isn't high on my priority list. So this year I've written a little list of things I'd like to do that actually are achievable with a little bit of effort and will hopefully make my life more interesting, more enjoyable and more fun. In an attempt at motivation I'm going to share them with you.

I first wrote this list one night, standing in a Twickenham garden, along with three of my cousins who also wrote down their goals for 2012. We stood outside in the dark, shared our lists with each other, lit them on fire and then threw them into a watering can when the flames got too intense. (Just to be clear, it wasn't lost on us that the whole 'fire, darkness, group of girls under the moonlight' thing had hints of witches coven about it and there were jokes about 'The Craft' bandied about. You know how girls love that type of thing). Then we went back inside and ate a ridiculous amount of pizza.

Here is what was on my piece of paper, now ashes of hope in my cousin's watering can, but no less important or real...or achievable.

1. Write my business plan. I have plans in my head...but it's time I got them down on paper and started to see if these random thoughts that have been floating about for so long actually make sense and could be the start of something new.
2. Do yoga at least once a week. So far so good on this one. But maybe I won't be trying another shoulder stand anytime soon after my accidental back flip last week. Whoops.
3. Be more creative. Stop thinking about things and start actually doing them. The newly named 'Doer's Club' will help with that. Although obviously our creativity wasn't at a high when we came up with that name.
4. Be kind and be true. This one sounds straightforward but I think will prove to be one of the harder resolutions to actually stick to. I think I'm a kind person for the most part but I'd like to start doing more little things for people that really count. 'Be true' means be true to myself. Sometimes I'm easily swayed by people and let them influence the decisions I make. This year I'm going to try and make sure I'm listening to myself and doing what I think is the right thing.
5. Laugh lots. Enough said!
6. Love wholly and deeply. Again, enough said. As corny as it may sound I think it's important no?
7. And this is the one resolution I almost broke...Write a blog post at least once a week. It's Sunday and I almost failed. Only three weeks into the year! I'm so glad I just scraped in. This is one resolution I am determined to stick to. Not that I'm not determined to stick to the rest...but we'll see in 49 weeks time (and 49 blog posts) how I've done. 

Watch this space. Now it's gone public I have added motivation. I hope any resolutions that you've made for 2012 are starting to come to life! I know it's hard but we can motivate each other, I know I'll be needing it. I'm going to try and remember this: baby steps are better than no steps.

Snowflake Cupcakes with Minty Frosting

In an effort to make ourselves more crafty, some of the girls at work and I have decided to do a 'craft challenge' each week. All of us want to be more creative and just, well, make more in general, but we need a little push to actually do it. So to motivate ourselves we decided that each week we'll choose a new theme that we need to create something for. That something can be anything - a painting, a sketch, a photograph, a collage, food, sewing etc as long as it fits with the theme. I got lucky for the first week as I'd been planning on making these Snowflake cupcakes since before Christmas. I swear I had nothing to do with choosing this week's theme of 'blue & white'. It was sheer coincidence. Seriously!

These cupcakes were made using the Brooklyn Blackout chocolate cake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. This cake is one of the best, if not THE best, chocolate cake recipes I have found that doesn't need actual chocolate, just a whole lot of cocoa. I love cocoa.

In the book this cake is a layer cake filled with an amazing looking chocolate custard that I am yet to try (although right now I am wondering what I was thinking skipping that...I must make that chocolate custard). The cupcakes came out light and fluffy with a great, consistent texture and a truly decent cocoa flavour. That might not make it sound all that great but it is.

I frosted the cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream that was whitened with Superwhite (a magical powder that makes buttercream whiter) and coloured Ice Blue. To add to the wintery feel I also wanted to make the buttercream minty and in a twist of fate that was really just a lack of peppermint essence at Waitrose, I added crushed up flecks of Solo mints which worked a treat! I liked the little crunchy bits but I'll admit, they did give me some grief.

For one, they were a pain in the butt to crush up. Solo mints are hard! So I spent about 5 minutes whacking them with a rolling pin. And I had intended on piping the buttercream onto the cupcakes but not only was my Aunt's house too cold for buttercream which made it set too hard for piping but the crunchy minty pieces kept getting stuck in my star nozzle, so the piping plan went pear-shaped. Back up plan - smear on the buttercream and decorate with the pretty glittery snowflakes. Voila. Wintery, minty, icy blue cupcakes which my Aunt described as 'utterly amazing'. Thanks Aunty Jan. Love you x.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake
From The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

100g unsalted butter at room temperature
250g castor sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
45g cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
170g plain flour
160ml whole milk

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, ideally using a stand mixer as this will make your life easier (I used a hand-held which not only took forever but also broke half way through. RIP little mixer). The longer you cream the butter and sugar the fluffier the cakes will be so keep going with this, you really want the mix to look lighter and fluffier. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well in between each addition. Turning the mixer onto low, add the vanilla, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt until well mixed. Finally add half the flour, mix, add all the milk, mix and then the remaining flour and do one final mix until combined.

If you're making cupcakes spoon, pipe or dollop into 12 cupcake cases (in a cupcake tray!) and bake for approx 20mins - but please check this as I have a suspicion my Aunt's oven has a mind of it's own.

If you are making a layer cake, the book recommends you bake the mix in three greased and lined 20cm cake tins for 25 - 30 minutes.

Cool the cakes completely before icing. No one wants a melty buttercream mess, no matter how good it might sound.

Mint Buttercream
150g unsalted butter (if you don't have unsalted use salted)
300g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tbsp water or milk
Solo or other hard mints crushed up
Ice Blue colouring paste

Starting slowly and building up, whip the butter and sugar together until smooth and combined. Add the vanilla essence and water (or milk - its up to you but water based frosting will 'keep' longer) and whip again on high speed for at least 5 minutes. Longer if you like. It takes awhile but the longer you whip the lighter and fluffier your frosting will be.

Frost the cupcakes in any way you like, pipe it or just smear it on and decorate with glittery snowflakes made using Sugar Florist Paste, a snowflake plunger cutter and some 'disco white hologram' edible glitter. Glitter makes the icy blue frosting oh so pretty. Devour cupcakes - or give most of them to your cousin to take to her flatmates and then regret it later like I did.

Practising my skills

As part of my new job I am lucky enough to be able to attend some of the fantastic cake decorating courses that Cakes 4 Fun offer. This week, in the lead up to Christmas I went on the 'Festive Mini Iced Cakes' course, where you learn to cut and decorate five very cute miniature sponges. I absolutely LOVED this course and by the end of the class had developed a very strong affection towards my little cakes. I kept staring at them all doe eyed. This was my first time working with some of the equipment, for example the snowflake plunger cutters and I think the results are so cute!

This little Christmas tree was made from rolling sugar paste (mixed with CMC/Sugarcell to make a stronger modelling paste) into a cone and using scissors to snip the little branches.

By the way, sorry about the very average photos. I was in a rush to meet my friend Abee and give her this! Her favourite colours are pale pink and black.

And to another friend (who is a Pastry Chef at Harrods and a fellow lover of all things baking who encourages me no end) I gave this...

This cake covered with pearlised little reindeers and an edible Florist Paste bow was gifted to my cousin Kristy.

And finally, this little Christmas Pudding cake was gifted to a family friend. I think this is really cute!

I had so much fun in this course, my tutor Jen was absolutely lovely and such a great help. Even though I may be slightly biased because I work at Cakes 4 Fun I can wholeheartedly recommend the courses they offer. We have so many talented tutors and the courses are really well planned to ensure you not only learn new skills and come out with beautiful cakes but you have fun while doing it! You can view the full list of courses available online.

It's been awhile

Hello. I'm back. And a lot has changed, hence why I haven't been posting although that's only a half excuse. For the most part I am too scared and sadly too lazy to post. Which I am so embarrassed to admit but it's very true. I wish I wasn't lazy. Or so easily distracted. I'm making a promise to myself to try and stop. But that's enough of all the 'woe is me'. Things have changed. Over the past 12 months I've moved my little life between three beautiful cities in three different countries. Melbourne, Australia. Wellington, New Zealand. And finally (for now) London, England.

I've left people whom I love dearly behind (just for a wee while) and come to meet new people who I now also get the honour of loving dearly. People around the world never cease to amaze me. There are such great, kind, generous and caring people everywhere. Sometimes, just as you're feeling down, someone, a complete stranger maybe, will pop up and do something kind to remind you that the world is a good place full of mostly lovely characters who find joy and satisfaction in doing nice things just because they can, and because it comes naturally to them. I think that's what makes 'us' as people so special.

As well as a change in world location, I've also had a change in career. Up until August this year I had been working in the advertising industry. Along the way I met some of my favourite people and got to work on some great campaigns but when I got to London and started interviewing something just didn't feel right. I knew that it was time for me to do what I'd been dreaming and talking about for years. Work with cake! And so...I now work at the busy cake supplies and novelty cake store, Cakes 4 Fun, in Putney as a shop assistant. And I am really proud of myself.

I love that people have dreams and more than loving that people dream, I love people who try and make those dreams become a reality. I wanted to be one of those people. Dreams can be scary sometimes and I am still freaking out a little about all the change that is happening in my life but in trying these things surely I can only learn more about myself and hopefully in doing that become a better, more interesting, wiser and more compassionate person? And if not...at least I would have enjoyed eating a lot of cake! I know it's cliche but if you have a dream, go for it! In baby steps or big leaps...just try because you never know what will come from just trying.

D x

P.S. Here's a photo of a rose buttercream cupcake I made the other day. It makes me happy.