A Sunday outing and afternoon tea - yummy

After a rainy cold week the sun tried really hard this morning to add some warmth and brightness to the day, to celebrate we decided to go out for afternoon tea. My daughter Laura had recommended a little vintage tea room in South Manchester and it was also featured in the Independent’s Top 50 Tea Rooms in the UK.

The "dish ran away from the spoon" is on Burton Rd in West Didsbury, nestling between lots of little independent restaurants, interesting vintage shops, and small designer boutiques.

The afternoon tea consisted of sandwiches, two scones, chocolate dipped strawberries and then three cakes of your choice. After much deliberation I chose roast beef sandwiches, scones with jam and clotted cream, a blueberry cupcake with cream cheese frosting, raspberry and white chocolate blondie and lastly a slice of lemon drizzle cake. Mr R had mature cheddar and chutney sandwiches and lacking any imagination was going to have the same cakes as me, he was persuaded (told) to at least try two different cakes and then we could share some of each others, he then opted for a banana tea bread and key lime pie to go with his blueberry cupcake and scones.

The cakes were truly scrummy but we both failed miserably to eat them all so we have a lovely box of leftover treats to keep us going for a few days.

a box of lovely treats.....................

The tea shop captures the nostalgia of a bygone era beautifully and has lots of lovely vintage memorabilia decorating the walls. Tea is served in small teapots and kept warm under hand knitted cosies which are also on sale alongside the freshly baked cakes - which can be bought and gift boxed for special occasions or just to take home for tea.

What a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon ......................we have promised to have more chilled out Sundays together as life can be so busy.

talk soon x

baking - rather a lot of fairy cakes

After my super quick lemon cake earlier in the week I did a bit of what I call proper baking yesterday. Weeks ago my daughter Vicky mentioned that one of her friends had asked if I could make her 50 little fairy cakes for the 10th May. I said I would and they were going to get back to me with more details - they both forgot. I remembered early on Thursday morning that the cakes were required for Friday - a quick phone call to check I hadn't imagined it all and the order was confirmed. Small cakes with a swirl of vanilla butter cream - not too much and could they be decorated with something red and look pretty! Luckily I had some tiny red hundreds and thousands, small edible pearls and silver cake glitter. I have been stocked up with pretty glittery things since the Cake and Bake Show.

On Thursday afternoon I baked 50 little cakes for Vicky's friend, an extra 34 for the freezer and 4 sponge sandwich cakes also for the freezer - to be turned into birthday cakes for Finn and Noah next week.

On Friday morning I decorated the 50 cakes which were being collected by Vicky at 10am  - I started icing not much after 7am  - but luckily they turned out OK phew what a busy morning................

plain sponge cakes and buns for the freezer - and decorated ones for Vicky .......

I did have to taste one to make sure they were up to scratch - then all packed into cake boxes ready for collection.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, fingers crossed the sun shines it's been so wet, cold and dreary here...............

talk soon x

creative cakes.........

Manchester has just been host to an amazing cake and baking show. I booked 2 tickets for an afternoon at the show and went with Laura - we had such a good time, we both love baking and it was like entering an Aladdin's Cave.

We had to show lots of restraint as if funds had permitted we would  have bought from every stand. As it was we both probably spent more than we had budgeted for.

Lots of the stands had little demonstration areas, we saw some amazing examples of sugar paste work. The demonstrators were so helpful and explained lots of different techniques, giving us oodles of tips and ideas. Unfortunately this did involve buying a large number of products!

Laura bought me some pots of sugar paste in lovely vintage shades, which I have been experimenting with. I bought an amazing little rolling pin that you roll over sugar paste and it leaves a lovely raised flower pattern. The sugar paste can then be used to decorate cupcakes, or even sandwich cakes.

I've got four lovely pots - it's like adult play dough...................amazing stuff

I had a play yesterday, I'm so pleased with the results....................

my cupcakes look quite professional.....................

We were also tempted to buy some silicone moulds, my favourite is a button mould. The mould makes about 20 buttons in three different sizes. To make the buttons I bought some different coloured chocolate melts. I was amazed at the effect they look just adorable.

lovely colours...................

my first ever handmade chocolate buttons - I adore them......................

The show also had a number of cake making competitions, the cakes were absolutely fantastic - such talented bakers in the North!

A number of cooking demonstrations were also running throughout the day, but unfortunately we didn't manage to get tickets for one, but actually I'm not sure we would have had enough time to see everything, maybe next time we should go for the day.

We had such a fun time and I have had the opportunity to try out some of my new products as Barbara had commissioned me to bake a birthday cake and cupcakes for her grandaughter, Esmee's 2nd birthday.

mini button cupcakes..................

chocolate button birthday cake................yummy

I was really pleased with the finished cakes, but I am quite exhausted now, I've had such a busy few days.

Talk soon x

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a spot of baking .........

I love nothing more than having a quiet day in the kitchen and losing myself in my baking. I am always amazed at what can be achieved by mixing a few simple ingredients together. The satisfaction of taking lovely well risen fairy cakes out of the oven, the sweet vanilla aroma of hot sponge cakes cooling, waiting for sweet sugary toppings or melted chocolate drizzled over their tops.

Yesterday I made some simple vanilla sponge cupcakes. When they were cool I poured melted milk chocolate over them and then decorated the tops with chocolate chips, strawberry flavoured buttons and some grated white chocolate (so just a few added calories)

I also made a tray bake, using a Victoria sponge recipe and then added cherries, dried fruit and a sprinkle of demerara sugar on the top, to give it crunch. Lastly I made some of my favourite muffins, Christmas breakfast muffins. The muffins are made with wonderful festive ingredients, cranberries, cinnamon, grated fresh nutmeg and the zest of clementines, they smell amazing the whole kitchen had a Christmas fragrance for hours. The recipe suggests you use a large muffin tin but as these are one of the things I know I will be tempted to eat I make 24 small buns instead and they work really well. Another advantage is that they freeze perfectly, you can defrost a few at a time and warm them up for a few minutes in the oven and have them with a big mug of coffee as a special treat.

One of my favourite things about baking is seeing my cakes and biscuits all cooling on trays it gives me such a feeling of fulfilment. So many aspects of our lives seem to take lots of time before we get a result, or positive outcome. With baking you start with your ingredients, a bit of mixing, into the oven and then what comes out is usually the finished article, ok it might need a bit of decoration and artistry but more often than not the job is done. Then you have the lovely task of filling your cake tins, your cakes can be given to family and friends or even taken into work for a special treat. For me baking is all about sharing, maybe a little vanity comes into it as well as nothing is nicer than seeing someone enjoying my baking.

my favourite cake tin ................

yummy chocolate treats ............

Christmas breakfast muffins ........

simple fruit cake ..........

Now I need to think what to cook for supper - strangely that doesn't fill me with joy!

talk soon x

cupcake commissions ...............

As well as planning for the "Hen Party" afternoon tea I have had two new commissions for cupcakes. The first a Christening and the second a Baby Shower. I baked the Christening Cupcakes on Saturday and delivered them on Sunday morning in good time for the party.

I always feel apprehensive when baking for special occasions as I want everything to be perfect.

mixing my sponge

first batch looking OK ..........

first ever baby hands and feet  (might need a little more practice)

hope they look scrummy  ............

I'm pleased with the duck egg blue butter cream .............

ready for delivery .............

The Christening was a great success - feedback was good and all my cakes disappeared in record time.

I'm looking forward to making some little pink and blue feet for the baby shower and experimenting with some other new decorations, the sponge will stay the same as I think it works well  and I am happy with my butter cream and fondant icing.

talk soon x