The Surprise Email

A few weeks after the Ceramic Art London exhibition, I received an email from the Editor of Homes & Gardens magazine.  She had been a guest at the CAL exhibition, and had taken a photo of my cakes, and had contacted another business thinking my designs might suit their brand, and wanted to ask my permission to pass on my contact details to them.

Talk about out of the blue.  This I had never anticipated, at least not so early on in the business.  I know I've been baking for absolutely years, and making cakes for other people, but to do it for a business takes it to a whole new level.

So I received a lovely email from a lady at a high end soft furnishings and perfume store, who was interested in commissioning some of my 'gilded' cupcakes for a press launch they were holding in May, at their flagship store in Marylebone, London. to launch the updated packaging of one of their classic fragrances.

I suggested that I make them some samples, to have a look at what I did, and to give them a chance to tweak my designs.  I delivered these the following week, by hand, to their HQ in the W. Midlands.

They were delighted with the cakes, and asked me to provide packaging too.

The individual packaging they wanted was in the style of a transparent cube, with a pink base and holder.  The cakes were going to be on display for the launch, and then put in each cube, to be sent out in goodie bags for each member of the invited press.

The hardest part of this commission was finding the packaging.  You have no idea how hard it is to find such a simple package.  I was able to find the cubes, but the pink base was frankly impossible to track down in the UK, and the overseas stockists weren't prepared to ship it to me.

In times like this, you need to get creative, and it occurred to me that we could just try to make the inserts, instead of buying them readymade.

A trip to a local hobby store secured some sheets of thick grade, pink card stock, and a clever cutting tool like this one by EK Success

I designed a template, and we (dear boyfriend and I) made the box inserts.  A resounding success story, to a problem that had kept me awake for too many nights.

We delivered them, on time, to London, and treated ourselves to a well-earned coffee in a cute little Italian  cafe  just down the road from the store on Wigmore St.

Here's a picture the organiser of the launch sent me of their evening's soiree, and I got a hand written letter from their director saying how perfect the cakes had been a week later.

Don't the bottles and cakes just go perfectly together?

The First Commission

I have a very close friend who is a ceramic artist, and one of her professional friends asked if I could produce some cupcakes for her upcoming exhibition at the Ceramic Art London at the Royal College of Art.  So no pressure!

The brief was rococo design, rich colours, and 24 of them.  It took hours to ice them, but I was really pleased with how they turned out.

And here they are on display at the exhibition

And I found out only last month that the artist who commissioned them has kept a few in a box, because she loved them so much.

There was another chapter to this story though, so read on to the next post.....

The Flood from Heaven, and Happy Valentines!

Well, really it came from the bottom of our road, where the water treatment plant is for the local water authority. We awoke in late January to a completely flooded garden, and the water still rising.

Thankfully not too much damage was done, but I lost the entire contents of my greenhouse, and so I got a small payout from the water company.  I used part of the money to buy all of us new passports, which cost a small fortune, I might add, and the rest of the money bought this baby, who arrived on Valentines Day <3 :

I have to admit I did squeal when the delivery driver arrived with this one, and OMG! it's SO heavy.

What better to make on Valentines Day, than some cute little celebratory vanilla cupcakes:

Aww, I do like a romantic ending :o)

Catching Up

It's been an incredibly busy few months.

That seed of an idea I mentioned in my post on 1st January this year, has been well and truly planted, nurtured, and is well and truly flourishing.

So, initially I considered taking over the running of a tea room in our local town, but then a few weeks later I discovered that a high street coffee house chain was opening opposite it (they costalot ;-) ).  That made my decision for me, not to pursue that idea.

In the meantime my niece had contacted me about a mum at her school starting her own baking business, had handed out leaflets at the school, and in my niece's words 'is nowhere near as good as you... why aren't you doing this?'

So I did!  I'll make a few more posts to fill in the gaps of the past few months, with pictures to show what I've been doing.

Craving Junk Food & Fighting It... have a Better Than MacDonalds Burger

So here we are, at the back end of the 3rd week of the new year, and you can bet your life that anyone who started a healthy eating regime as of 1st January is probably struggling to resist temptation and cravings right now.

It seems fine to stick to the straight and narrow for the first couple of weeks, and it's quite pleasant to be in a new routine, eating healthy meals.  However, it can get a bit repetitive, especially if you aren't eating a good variety of foods, or making yourself tasty meals.  My cravings aren't so much for the stodge, like bread and cakes, but I do really miss the savoury 'taste fixes', provided by the likes of thick cut crisps, cheesy pastas, and the occasional KFC.

So I've been doing Slimming World since last November, and have managed to achieve my 1 stone award this week, so I don't want to give up while I'm winning.  What I am craving like mad though, is more flavour and variety.  I thought about the kind of food that can give us a real 'fix', and that so many of us seem to give in to, and I thought of MacDonalds Big Macs and Quarterpounders.

I have created a burger that is just as, if not more delicious than a Maccie D's.

Here's my recipe to create this:

Better Than MacDonalds Burgers
Free on Extra Easy

Ingredients:
500g Extra Lean Minced Beef
4 small pickled gherkins (chopped finely)
1 shallot, or small onion (chopped finely)
Salt & pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp English Mustard
4 x wholemeal rolls   (HeB)
4 x low fat cheese slices (HeA)

Fries: 1kg Medium/Large potatoes

Serve with Mixed Salad of choice

Preheat oven to 220*C

Method:  
1.     Peel the potatoes, and slice into approx. 1cm thick chips.  Place in a pan of water, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Place a couple of baking trays in the oven, spray with frylight/light oil to preheat.  Drain the water from the pan thoroughly.  With the lid on the pan, shake the potato chips gently, to 'fluff' the edges.  This helps them to bake better in the oven, with a more even browning.  Place the chips onto the baking trays and spray with a little more Frylight/light oil, and bake for 30 minutes, or until a dark golden brown and crisp.  You may need to turn the chips after 20 minutes, so check on them.

2.    Place the minced beef into a large bowl, breaking up the mince so that it is loose and free moving.  Add the chopped gherkin and onion, along with the Worcestershire sauce, mustard and seasoning, then mix well.  I found using a knife was more effective than a spoon at combining the mix, and then getting your hands in.

3.     Divide the beef mixture into 4.  Form each part into a ball, about the size of a small tennis ball, and then flatten between the palms of your hands.  It may help to place the flat burger shape on a cutting board, and press it flat with the back of a spatula, to get a firmly shaped burger.  The meat should get enough moisture from the seasoning to stick together, but if you find your meat isn't combining properly, use some beaten egg added into the mix, which will do the job.

Preheat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, then place the burgers in the pan.  Cook on each side for approx. 10 minutes each side, until the burgers are thoroughly cooked through.

While the burgers are cooking, prepare your mixed salad, and if you fancy it, make a Slimming World friendly coleslaw from cabbage, onions, carrots and low fat creme fraiche.

I like to warm my rolls, either by a 20 second blast in the microwave, or by slicing in half, and placing cut side down in the frying pan, once the burgers are removed, which gives them a crispness on one side.

Assemble the burgers in the rolls, with a slice of cheese on top, and a generous side serving of chips.  Accompanied with the mixed salad.  Delicious!

Burger, SW chips, salad, coleslaw & 1 syn for the ketchup!

Mixed Salad

Fruity Biscotti

Biscotti in presentation jar

I made this biscotti recipe as part of my Christmas gifts to my family.  It is incredibly easy to make, and perfect to get the children involved with making, if you have them.  The baking is done in 3 stages: once with the dough in long sausages, then cut up baked for 15 mins on either side, to create the crispness of the biscuit.


Ingredients:
350g Plain flour (plus a bit extra for rolling out)
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Mixed Spice (or spice of your choice ie. cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc)
250g Caster Sugar
3 eggs, beaten
Zest of 1 orange, grated
85g Raisins
85g Dried Cherries (or other dried fruit, like apricots, cranberries)
50g Blanched Whole Almonds
50g Shelled Pistachios


Method:

• Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. Put the flour, baking powder, spice and sugar in a large bowl, then mix well. Stir in the eggs and zest until the mixture starts forming clumps, then bring the dough together with your hands - it will seem dry at first but keep kneading until no floury patches remain. Add the fruit and nuts, then work them in until evenly distributed.  Kneading the mix helps to distribute the fruit and nuts fully.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 pieces. With lightly floured hands, roll each piece into a sausage about 30cm long. Place 2 on each tray, well spaced apart. Bake for 25-30 mins until the dough has risen and spread and feels firm. It should still look pale. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack for a few mins until cool enough to handle, then turn down the oven to 140C/fan 120C/gas 1.

After the 1st stage of baking, cut up, and lie sideways before baking further

• Using a bread knife, cut into slices about 1cm thick on the diagonal, then lay the slices flat on the baking sheets. The biscuits can be cooled and frozen flat on the sheet at this point, then bagged and frozen for up to 2 months. Bake for another 15 mins (20 mins if from frozen), turn over, then bake again for another 15 mins until dry and golden. Tip onto a wire rack to cool completely, then store in an airtight tin for up to one month, or pack into boxes or cellophane bags if giving as gifts straight away.

They were a big hit with all the family, and I've noticed that they seem to disappear more and more each time my lovely man goes to make us a cup of tea.  My second batch of these were made using up a lot of the Christmas baking remnants, so they have walnuts, pistachios, almonds and brazils, as well as chopped dried apricots, dried cherries and dried cranberries.  They turned out really fruity, and I actually prefer that tweak to the original recipe.

New Year, new you? Or, just more of the same?

Fireworks over our house

 Happy New Year!!
Isn't is strange that we only seem to consider the New Year's arrival as a time to consider making changes?  Having never really been one to follow the crowd, I've tended to make changes at any given time throughout the year, rather than wait for January 1st.  In fact I said something along the same lines to my 18 y/o son last week, as he seemed to be struggling for some New Year's Resolutions.  It doesn't matter if you don't have any now, but if come April time you feel like setting yourself a goal or challenge, then go for it.  Never be restricted by silly 'rules', and allow your potential to shine through at every opportunity.

There's that well known saying: 'why put off till tomorrow, what you can do today?' and I truly live by that wisdom.  I started a new, and so far successful, diet at the start of November last year.  What! I  hear plenty of people say, with the run up to Christmas and all that lovely food just about to become available, why would you do that?  My initial reason was that I felt it was the right time for me, and I'd thought about it for a while, but spent some time researching what plan to follow.  But it was the perfect time to start a diet, as it prevented me from gorging for about 4 weeks solid (I ate freely for 3 days), and regretting every mouthful for the whole year after.  I was almost a stone lighter by the time Christmas came around, and am still feeling motivated to continue into the new year.

I will continue to maintain the promises I set myself last year, to exercise more, eat more healthily, get fitter and feel better about myself.  I do have one little seed of an idea that came to me during the past week, that I want to see if I can expand upon, which is to embark on some further training, and look into creating my own business, but I have lots to find out about first, before I can do that.

No matter what you do with your 2011, I wish you a safe, happy and healthy one, filled with whatever you would wish for yourself.