Up first is Marvin from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The head is vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream & the body is rice crispie treats covered with fondant.

Up next is a cake I made for my friend Emma‘s 30th birthday. This was fun as I got to make lots of different fondant pieces depicting her favourite things. She’s got such a wide range of interests that I could have probably added even more. I think she liked the ones I picked! Cake is vanilla with Galaxy chocolate buttercream and all decoration is fondant.

A few more close-up shots of the different elements on Emma’s cake:

And finally I was lucky enough to be asked to make a 2nd birthday cake for my workmate’s son. I made his 1st birthday cake last year, I’m hoping this will be an ongoing tradition! The Handy Manny cake is vanilla sponge with vanilla & raspberry filling, all decoration is handcut & hand painted fondant.

The saw was my favourite tool to create, so much character in those features.

Until next time folks.

As I was without my cookbooks I googled for a simple recipe and settled on a sort of hybrid version of several recipes. I decided to use my own sponge cake recipe as I knew it was easy and didn’t require any fancy equipment. I used an 8 inch square tin but I’d say this would be best in a 9 inch tin, it’s really personal preference as to the size you’d like your lamingtons to be. I went for 16 squares from my sponge which was just enough for us as the icing is quite sweet.

Basic Sponge Cake

175g (6 oz) soft butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing

175g (6oz) caster sugar

3 eggs

175g (6oz) self-raising flour

1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas Mark 4

Lightly grease and line the bottom of your square tin

Combine all the ingredients and beat well until smooth. Pour mixture into prepared tin.

Bake for about 20 – 25 minutes, until the cake is well risen, golden and springy to the touch.

Let the cake sit in the tin for 5-10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.

Once the cake has cooled, cut it into squares ready for dipping.

Icing

225g (1/2 lb) icing sugar

2 & half tablespoons of good cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)

1/2 tablespoon butter

60ml (2 fl oz) milk

200g packet of dessicated coconut

Instructions:

Combine the icing sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl.

In a small saucepan heat the milk & butter until the butter is melted, I kept this on low – med heat and it didn’t take very long so keep a close eye on it.

Add the warm milk to the sugar mixture and mix well to create a fluid (but not too runny) icing. It should be fluid enough to allow the cake to be dipped but not so much that none of the icing adheres itself to the cake.

Have your cake squares, icing, a fork & a cooling rack ready. Place the coconut in a shallow bowl. Use the fork to dip the cake in the icing, making sure to turn it to cover all the sides. This bit can be messy but it’s worth it! Tap the excess icing off the cake then roll it in the coconut. This is where you can check if the icing is too runny, it should be thick enough to not continue to drip from the cake once you tap off the excess.

Place the squares on the cooling rack once they’ve been rolled in the coconut. Let them harden up a little then try to resist eating every single one before you share them.

I had been looking forward to our visit to the taste fest pretty much since we left last years event and I’m glad to say it didn’t disappoint. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperating but we came prepared this time with our own chairs and a multitude of umbrellas at the ready.

We visited Botanic Gardens on the Sunday afternoon, arriving at 1.30pm and leaving at approx 5.30pm. I must say that the admission prices aren’t great so we always make sure to arrive before the price changes to evening admission. 12noon – 4pm was priced at £6 and from 4pm onwards it was £10. I’ve never been a fan of the entry price at all but £10 is quite a high price to pay considering how much people will spend on tokens and drinks. I know that the entertainment is one reason for the entry fee but to be honest I’m there for the food, if its someone I like its a bonus for me. I guess not everyone feels like that and may go at night to enjoy the bands and the bar in conjunction with the food.

So we paid £6 entrance fee and bought one set of 20 tokens at £10 to start us off with the definite intention to buy more (as we always do). We found a spot and even managed to nab a table to congregate around.

I had come prepared with a spreadsheet for each person which included each restaurant, chef and the dishes they were serving. I decided to gather up all the token costs for each dish so that we could decide the best course of action for joining the queues and making sure we had a variety of dishes to share that were still hot.

I took pictures as quickly as I could of each dish and then gathered comments and scores from everyone to compare the different dishes that we shared. I’ve included pics of nearly everything we tried with scores on taste, appearance and overall comments afterwards. Each token costs 50p, I’ve included token cost and £ cost after each dish. Some were definitely worth the higher token price in terms of either taste or quantity while others definitely didn’t warrant the higher cost.

Restaurant: The Barking Dog

Chef: Michael O’ Connor

Dish: Salt & Pepper Scampi, tartare sauce

Tokens: 8 (£4)

Taste: 9/10

Appearance: 9/10

I don’t eat seafood so wasn’t able to try this but it scored highly with everyone else both on taste and appearance. They were perfectly cooked with a great contrast between the crunchy exterior and wonderful spicy interior. A good sized portion presented well with the added contrast of tartare sauce and lemon.

Restaurant: Yellow Door Deli

Chef: Simon Dougan 

Dish: Chargrilled Rockvale chicken, warm coriander, comber potato salad, moyallon bacon dressing

Tokens: 8 (£4)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 7/10

I had high hopes for the Yellow Door deli as it was a definite favourite last year with several of our favourite dishes and once again they didn’t disappoint. They had a good mix of dishes, one vegetarian (which many had neglected) and we ended up trying 3 dishes from their stand. This chicken was beautifully cooked, the picture doesn’t really do it justice. It was moist and succulent. The potato salad had several chunks of potato with a lovely mustard dressing. I don’t recall the bacon dressing if I’m honest but it was a hearty combination and good sized portion for the token cost.

Restaurant: Molly’s Yard

Chef: Ciaran Steele

Dish: Slow roast stout glazed pork belly with chorizo, tomato and lentil casserole

Tokens: 8 (£4)

Taste: 9/10

Appearance: 9/10

I want to point out that Molly’s Yard was the only stand that I visited that had a ticketing system for ordering which I highly recommend for the other stands. It meant you got served in the right order with the correct food with less fuss.

This was a definite favourite with the whole group. The pork belly was perfectly tender and melted in your mouth. The accompanying casserole was hearty and a lovely contrast to the pork with the spicy chorizo and chunky veg mixed through the lentils. The seasoning and herbs were wonderfully balanced.

Restaurant: Balloo House

Chef: Danny Millar

Dish: Dexter rump steak, buttermilk onion ring, triple cooked chips & bushmills pepper sauce

Tokens: 10 (£5)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 7/10

This was the most expensive dish we tried which I’m sure was solely because of the cost of the steak. I ordered well done as I was sharing with my mum but I would usually order medium or medium to well done. Unfortunately the girl serving here was getting confused with everyone ordering different steaks and tried to give me someone elses steak then it turned out we did end up with medium when she finally got the servings correct. I was happy as it meant the steak was the perfect level of tender for me. It was a decent sized portion, the onion ring was wonderfully crispy, the chips had the great combo of crunchy skin and fluffy inside but we couldn’ve eaten many more than three between us. I’m sorry to say the sauce wasn’t particularly exciting, it was a little bland and lacked any bushmills flavour at all. I thought the bap was superfluous & took everything apart to eat it but mum thought it was great as it made it easier to make all the components into a burger and eat in one hand.

Restaurant: The Barking Dog

Chef: Michael O’ Connor

Dish: Beetroot gnocchi

Tokens: 7 (£3.50)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 8/10

This dish wasn’t on the menus on the website so was obviously an addition by O’ Connor over the 4 day festival. It was nice to see another vegetarian option as my dad didn’t have a lot of choice unless he wanted to eat many more desserts than mains. I didn’t try this as I detest beetroot but those that tested it loved the combination of the unusual gnocchi, goats cheese and walnuts. It was nice to see a veg dish that wasn’t the usual curry or stirfry or totally loaded with cheese as the main component.

Restaurant: 27 Talbot Street

Chef: Michael Glinkowski

Dish: Chickpea, lentil & coconut curry with coriander basmati rice

Tokens: 5 (£2.50)

Taste: 4/10

Appearance: 7/10

This was one of the most disappointing meals of the day. It seemed like a great combination but the possibility of tasting any of those flavours were ruined by the completely overwhelming taste of salt. I’m still not sure if the peanuts on top made it unbearably salty or if the curry itself was painfully over seasoned but apart from a hint of curry heat at the start of a mouthful the only taste was salt. I could barely tell there were chickpeas and definitely couldn’t grasp a hint of coconut at all. The portion size was great for the token cost and I sincerely hope other batches of this weren’t quite so salty.

Restaurant: Deli on the Green

Chef: James Devine

Dish: Pork hoi sin with noodles

Tokens: 8 (£4)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 8/10

This was one of the best value for money dishes. There was a large portion of pulled pork which was tender if a little salty for my tastes. I liked the thin egg noodles which also had plenty of mixed peppers to offset the meat. This was well liked by everyone and agreed that the soft pork was a much nicer addition to the noodles than many chinese pork dishes which are usually not this tender.

Restaurant: Galgorm

Chef: Chris Bell

Dish: Spiced chickpea & fennel stew with olive focaccia & basil

Tokens: 8 (£4)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 7/10

Another vegetarian option that I was able to steal a taste of from my dad. This was a good sized portion from the stand with the most expensive dishes (three mains all at 10 tokens each) I’m not usually a fan of fennel as it’s so hard to balance it to ensure it doesn’t overpower the other elements of the dish. I have to say the fennel was wonderful in this dish, you could still get nice hints of it but without it overwhelming the chickpea and tomato based stew. I didn’t try the focaccia but dad said the crunch was a great compliment to the hearty stew.

Restaurant: Balloo House

Chef: Danny Millar

Dish: Strangford prawn fish cakes with roast pepper confit & prawn mayo

Tokens: 7 (£3.50)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 8/10

These were a great size and filled with large chunks of prawn and salmon with a lovely crisp coating. The confit and mayo were beautifully seasoned and everyone that tried them said they were very flavoursome.

Restaurant: Yellow Door Deli

Chef: Simon Dougan

Dish: Smoked chilli onion bhajis with Jilly’s fab peppery wild rocket & coriander lime aioli

Tokens: 7 (£3.50)

Taste: 9/10

Appearance: 9/10

These bhajis were delicious with a wonderful contrast of smoked heat and refreshing aioli. I wish I’d gone back for a portion of my own but we were about to embark on desserts so I closed my savoury belly off for the rest of the afternoon at this point.

Restaurant: Molly’s Yard

Chef: Ciaran Steele

Dish: Belgian chocolate brownie with Molly’s chocolate stout ice cream and chocolate sauce

Tokens: 6 (£3)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 7/10

These scores are my aunt & uncles as I only tried a little corner of the brownie. I’m loathe to order brownies anywhere as I’m rarely happy with their consistency. It seems that many restaurants opt for a more cake like brownie rather than the fudgy underdone taste that I prefer (and always aim for with my homemade brownies) These weren’t too bad, they definitely fall into the almost cake category but were still dense and the sauce was rich and paired very well. I’m not sure why there was a miniscule drop of vanilla ice cream instead of the chocolate stout, perhaps it had run out by Sunday afternoon.

Restaurant: Uluru Armagh

Chef: Dean Coppard

Dish: Bundy rum glazed pineapple & shaved coconut fruit salad

Tokens: 4 (£2)

Taste: 7/10

Appearance: 6/10

A very disappointing dish from Uluru. Reading the description we all expected darkly glazed chunks of pineapple with larger shavings of coconut. The pineapple did not appear to have any taste of rum or even look like it had been glazed and the coconut was distinctly dessicated. It was a refresher after the rich mains and my aunt enjoyed it but it really was not what was stated on the menu.

Restaurant: Yellow Door Deli

Chef: Simon Dougan

Dish: Chocolate pavlova with armagh strawberry & white chocolate chantilly cream

Tokens: 5 (£2.50)

Taste: 8/10

Appearance: 8/10

These were spotted early on in our travels up and down the food stands and earmarked for dessert. I’m happy to say they lived up to their appearance. The pavlova had a wonderful crunch and contrasted perfectly with the white chocolate cream. Perhaps it was to entice the children but I didn’t really see the point in the glitter and candy hearts, the strawberries were nice enough on their own. This dish also had a chocolate cigarillo that you can barely see in the pic. It was a great sized portion for only 5 tokens and loved by everyone. My mum also got to try the banoffee parfait lollipop while she was ordering the pavlova, she said it was delicious and definitely had that banoffee flavour which she thought might be hard to achieve in lollipop form.

Restaurant: Loft Coffee Bar

Chef: Joyce Price

Dish: Sticky toffee cupcake & butterscotch sauce

Tokens: 7 (£3.50)

Taste: 10/10

Appearance: 9/10

This was by far the best dessert we tasted. The cupcake was a warm, fluffy toffee sponge & the sauce was sticky perfection. I chose vanilla ice cream with ours but you could choose whichever flavour you liked. It was a wonderful combination and I could easily have polished off the whole dish myself. Thankfully I had also ordered a double waffle cone ice cream (not pictured), also from The Loft, so I didn’t feel too hard done by. The Loft also had a great range of cupcakes for sale. I was glad to see one stall that was dedicated to dessert and they didn’t disappoint.

Alongside our food we also had soft drinks (3 tokens/ £1.50 each) and coffee (3 or 4 tokens each) from the Illy stand, it was great coffee and at a reasonable price.  I think I’d prefer that the soft drinks and coffee were cash like the main bars as it means you have more tokens to try the food.

Overall we had a great afternoon, they have definitely increased costs over the whole event with the entrance fee being higher and the dishes being slightly higher in token cost but they have also significantly improved the toilets (both in number and cleanliness) there is more entertainment and extra bars. I may balk at the entrance price but it hasn’t stopped me returning for the 3rd year in a row and it’s unlikely to stop me next year unless it changes drastically. I highly recommend bringing your own chairs or blankets to grab a space, it really makes it so much easier to pop back and forward to the food stands.

This year the Yellow Door Deli was the one stand that we returned to most often which definitely makes me even more likely to keep a close eye on what they produce next year.

There were 5 of us and we spent the following:

Entrance fee: £30 (£6 each before 4pm)

Tokens: £65

Total £95

Maybe I’ll see you there next year?!

A quick catch up on cakes from the past few months to get us up to date before I attend the Belfast Taste & Music Fest this weekend. This year I’m even more organised and have created a spreadsheet with all the menus including space to score each dish and add comments. I’ll be doing a lengthy blog post in order to give an overview of the fest next week.

Onwards with cakes. I’ll start with my most recent and one of my favourites. This was for the ever lovely Sera who wanted to celebrate her son’s 1st birthday in style by throwing a fabulous Pirate themed bash. This was so much fun to make, I even found a coin making machine and made all the booty by hand, the coins were Galaxy or Milkybar chocolate. All other decoration is fondant, the lid was constructed from card and covered in fondant.

The rest of the pics are after the jump….

My dads 50th coincided with Mother’s Day celebrations this year so I was tasked with making 2 simple cakes for the party. As he’s a Landscape Architect and vegetarian I designed a vegetable plot that was easy to work around a square cake. All the decoration & vegetables were fondant, the soil was crushed Oreo crumbs. It was messy but was the most realistic soil. The Daisy cake was really simple, just some fondant daisies left for a few days in an egg tray to hold their shape applied to a plain square cake with some quilting testing for the upcoming wedding cake and an added ribbon.

A 30th Birthday Koi cake for a fan of tattoo art. All the decoration is rice crispie treats and white fondant then handpainted.

This is yet another milestone cake for a colleagues father in law. I had to fit a lot on top of a small cake so it’s a little crowded with the birthday boy, his wife, their dog and his favourite jeep.

This final cake was the one I was worrying about the most as it was for my cousins wedding. I did one wedding cake several years ago but it was 4 plain individual tiers with a plain ribbon at the base. I tried to keep this design simple but knew that simple can actually make a cake more difficult as it’s easier to see every single flaw in a plain cake! I originally intended to make the orchids myself but after a few attempts and some panicking a few weeks before the wedding I decided to ask the bride to order more real flowers and I’m so glad I did, it really took the pressure off me. I think the fact that I was a bridesmaid as well as cake maker made this job just a little tougher too! Thankfully it turned out ok on the day. It was a little bottom heavy on each tier but once the flowers were added it really wasn’t that noticeable. I just made sure everyone took snaps from one particular angle.

Two such lovely ladies are @GreatLezBritain (aka Sarah & Lee) They are the British writers for afterellen which is a fantastic website that I have been a fan of since it’s inception. They were the promoters for the recent Heather Peace tour (supported by Jill Jackson)  I was excited about the tour making the effort to come across the pond to our city (take note huge productions; there are fans here who sadly are quite often neglected) Not only were we on the tour schedule, Belfast was the opening night on the two week tour of the UK. I asked Sarah & Lee if they would like a few treats to celebrate the start of the tour and they said that would be lovely. I’m sure you can guess that most of my twitter conversations are about baking & food in general. I’m happy to share that love of food with my tweeps.

I decided straight away that I would try to tackle a completely new (to me) form of baking in order to get images of the artists onto my baked goods. I ordered two sheets of edible icing images online. I took a risk in just googling for UK suppliers but I was seriously lucky in finding Cakes Crazy. They accept picture submissions & instructions via email and are super quick from sending wonderfully edited proofs to receiving the final product and at a great price.  

I quickly came up with an idea to use the album covers as cupcake toppers and larger images to top sugar cookies. I made raspberry & white chocolate cupcakes and banoffee cupcakes, both topped with white chocolate buttercream. The cookies were a simple vanilla sugar cookie. The edible images were placed on fondant before being attached to the cookies and cupcakes. The wife made the fab ‘Team Peace’ bag toppers for the cookies. As an extra and to add some chocolate into the mix I made a huge batch of my favourite brownies.

I had the great fortune to meet Heather & Jill just after their soundcheck to give them the baked treats. They were absolutely lovely and sweetly enthusiastic about the baking despite the fact that everything was running behind schedule due to some insane travel delays due to crazy high winds. Due to these constraints I was only able to briefly say hi to Heather, Jill, Sarah & Lee but I am so grateful for the opportunity to bake for them all and to have enjoyed a fabulous opening night of the tour.

If you’re a fan of great music please be sure to click on the names above to check out their websites for more info on their wonderful albums and all upcoming gigs.

I have one copy of Cupcake Magic to giveaway to my readers.

You will also win this natty apron. I’ve covered over certain letters for blog purposes but the apron has no censorship so you have been warned about the fully fledged cursing!

I’ll also throw in a few extra surprises for the winner from my collection of baking goodies, still to be decided!

This competition is open to international readers, the closing date for entries is Saturday 16th April 2011 at 4pm.

To be in with a chance of winning, comment on this post with your favourite existing cupcake flavour & also tell me; if you could choose any flavour combination in the world what cupcake would you create? Would it have a surprise filling, an unusual savoury topping…? I’ll choose a winner with a random generator and they will be contacted via email so be sure to leave an email address in order to be contacted for postal details.

Good Luck!

Edited to add: you should be able to add your email when you log in to comment so that only I can see it, just in case you were uncomfortable about putting your addy in your comment. Sorry for not clarifying that!

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Congrats Lily Ramirez-Foram. There is an email on its way to you now to arrange posting of your prize. You were picked via www.random.org

 Onto recent endeavours…

This cake was so much fun to design.  I was told that it had to be penguin themed, that’s it.  I decided a scene would give me greater scope for modelling and I knew I wanted to create a winter wonderland effect with the whole cake rather than just placing a few figures on top of a plain base.  It’s one of the few cakes I’ve finished and thought it actually looks insanely close to how it looked in my head while I was designing it!

All the toppers are fondant; the igloo is rice crispie treats covered in fondant. The trees were made with my mini star cutters and I trimmed a few to make them graduated a little at the top.  The ‘water’ in the fishing hole is a little royal icing tinted blue and poured into a dip created in the top of the cake.  I’m committing a cardinal sin by stating that I can’t remember what the cake inside is!  I think it might be vanilla but I’m not really sure!

These cupcakes were whipped up at the last minute to bring into work for St. Paddy’s Day.  I got it into my head that I wanted to make something bright to cheer everyone up and St Pat was a great excuse to make rainbows and pots of gold. The cupcakes were a basic vanilla tinted green and the frosting was the divine white chocolate buttercream.  This buttercream has become my new favourite and will be adorning most of my future cupcakes.  It firms up beautifully, it’s not greasy and tastes sweet with a lovely creamy kick from the added chocolate.  

All the toppers are fondant.  I used a mini heart cutter to make my Shamrocks, very simply adding a stem and sticking them together with a little water.

The rainbows were made by rolling thin lengths of different colours, sticking them with water then rolling them thin with my mini rolling pin and cutting them to size.

The pots are balls of black fondant, a small disc flattened on top with a mound of yellow on top. I rolled a few smaller balls of yellow and flattened them onto the large yellow mound then painted the whole thing with some gold lustre dust. 

And of course I had to tint the cupcakes green, it’s almost mandatory when it comes to St Patrick’s Day baking.

Be sure to check out my next post for my first ever competition!

Enjoy the day of love, however you may be spending it xo

The pics after the cut are in actual timeline order but I wanted to start with this bad boy.  The wife adores all things Japanese so I wanted to combine a few elements into one cake for her birthday.  Unfortunately it was while I was making 2 other cakes so I was pushed for time.  I made the mini Buddha from rice crispie treats, fondant and gold lustre dust, the cake is a simple double layer vanilla sponge with raspberry & vanilla filling and the cherry blossoms were handpainted with sugarflair paste colours.  She loved it!

These 3 vanilla, 3 chocolate cupcakes with Galaxy Choc or Caramac Buttercream were for an order via Twitter.  One of my recent twitter friends decided buying locally made Xmas gifts for his family was a great way to help local businesses & treat his family to unique gifts.  I was delighted when he asked me to make a selection of treats for his parents.  These cupcakes highlight a few of their passions, football, Bowie & Radley bags.

These cookies were to represent their mutual love of Spain where they holiday each year.

These cake truffles were Devils Choc Food Cake inside with a variety of chocolate toppings including Galaxy & Caramac. I love how these look all lined up so pretty in their box.  They taste mighty fine too…well a baker has to taste test doesn’t she?!

This is the whole collection together.  I was pleased to hear they were enjoyed and the thoughtful purchaser even managed to get a taste of the treats when his parents kindly shared them with him.

So I avoided baking all over the Xmas period so come January I was ready to take up a new challenge.  Luckily we have several birthdays amongst friends and family in January so I had 3 cakes to make in one week.  This first cake was for my uncle’s 50th.  He is a huge fan of meerkats, so that was the main requirement for this cake.  It’s a triple layer vanilla sponge with vanilla & raspberry filling.  The meerkats are all fondant, the 50 is rice crispie treats and the sand is crushed digestive biscuits.  I was happy to hear that this cake went down a storm with my uncle and he took to wearing the little meerkats in his shirt pockets while he enjoyed the rest of his birthday party (there may have been alcohol consumed, just saying!)

This dreamy chocolate cake was for my twin uncles who share a birthday with my meerkat loving uncle.  It may look rather unassuming but it’s the inside of this that makes it drool worthy.  It’s a 4 layer chocolate orange layer cake with Terry’s chocolate orange buttercream and a triple layer Galaxy ganache covering.  I suspect I went overboard with the orange but it was a relatively small cake so I knew people would only be having a small slice.  The calorie count on this is off the Richter scale, decadant is the word here.

Another shot of the Japanese cake.  I wish I had been able to get more definition into the face of the Buddha but I was happy with how it turned out considering the timeframe.  The pink of the cherry blossoms doesn’t come across so well in the bad iphone photos, it was much prettier in real life.

A colleague in work was having a fundraiser in work and I offered to make a few treats.  These fifteens always sell well so I knew I had to include them.  Despite the mess I make while rolling the log in coconut I always forget just how simple these treats are to make.

I also made these Malteser buns for the first time.  I wanted to use up some of that mountain of chocolate we got for Xmas and these used a whole box of Maltesers.  They were also quite simple to put together but they had to be cut small as they were extremely rich with all that chocolate.

This weekend I decided to try my hand at a few other confections to add to the repertoire.  I made a woeful first attempt at honeycomb using a recipe I found online but it burnt to a crisp.  I tried Murphys recipe from their Ice Cream Recipe book and it worked!  I may have let it cook a little bit too long so I know I need to hold back a bit the next time but at least I know what I need to do in the future to stop it turning into a charred mess!

This was only my second time making fudge so I wanted to use a tried and tested recipe.  I used the wonderful NotQuiteNigella as she is one of my favourite bloggers and has a great selection of recipes.  I didn’t mix it vigorously enough at the end so there is a slightly grainy texture but I think I can eradicate that the next time.

And finally we have Dulce de Leche Creme Caramel from one of the first baking bloggers I ever followed, Baking Bites.  As soon as I saw this I was intrigued and rather than add it to my reaaaallllly long list of “save it & make it one day recipes” I decided to make it straight away.  Nicole was right, it may seem daunting but it’s actually quite a simple set of steps to create a creme caramel.  I was amazed that they turned out so like her pictures.  As a baking geek I was also extremely happy to use my heart shaped Ramekins for the first time.  Fellow bakers will share my joy at using new equipment with the added bonus of food that turns out a different shape than the usual square or circle…maybe that’s just me?

 Now that I’ve shared that insightful little part of my psyche with you I’m going to move onto more constructive information.  Not only was I finding it hard to find time to bake amongst the madness I couldn’t get past the fact that my baking equipment was a mess.  There was no point pretending any longer, I wasn’t even sure what was lurking at the back of the cupboards and instead of creating a space for everything I was just piling new on top of old and holding my breath hoping the whole Jenga like construction wouldn’t fall down round my ears the next time I opened the cupboard.

I’ve decided to share my organisational skills with the world in the hope that it inspires you to de-clutter or even to start picking up the tools of the trade that you think you might need to embark into the crazy baking world.

First things first, this is the horror before I tackled it:

There was more to this mess but I’ll refrain from bombarding you with it all.

And this is the result, totally worth 5 hours of my precious day off, really.

I’ve decided to delve deeper into each of the boxes to share my  basic baking toolkit.  I don’t consider my  collection to be large but I’m sure some beginners would find it overwhelming.  In order to save your sanity I’ll put the rest after the jump…apologies for the lengthy ramblings!

The Basics

I started my first forays into baking with one spoon and a plastic cup which didn’t even have measurements on it.  The creations then may not have been masterpieces but they were edible so it just proves that despite the need for some tools, fancy equipment does not a baker make.  I’d consider the collection above to be a great starting set.

Spatulas are a must.  I’ve tried several and my favourite for sturdiness & flexibility are Le Creuset.  They may be expensive but in this case, they’re worth it.  A cake tester can be easily replaced by cocktail sticks, skewers or even a knife but at less than £1 it doesn’t break the bank to have one or two of these to hand for quick testing.  Offset spatulas are a recent addition to my arsenal.  They are so useful for icing, especially if you aren’t covering your buttercream with fondant or want a nice crisp edge to your ganache coating.  A pizza cutter is a godsend when working with fondant and sugarpaste,  it cuts cleanly without the drag or tearing that can happen with a standard knife.  I’ve tried plastic ones but they really don’t cut as precisely so metal is definitely the best option.  I didn’t have any modelling tools for a few years but I must admit they’re a great addition to the toolkit.  I tended to use whatever was at hand to sculpt with but having the right shaping tools makes a big difference especially for making figures.  I find a ruler useful mainly for measuring a stacked cake to roll out enough fondant to cover it but it also makes a handy scraper for my silicone mat, I can clear away all the icing sugar and scraps, ready for a fresh piece of fondant. I have a large selection of paintbrushes but tend to stick to the same few, mainly for painting fine detail or applying lustre dusts.  I also use a larger one to clean the icing sugar off cakes with a touch of vodka.

Colours

When I first ventured into decoration, as opposed to just baking something that tasted good, the only items I knew about were shop bought coloured fondant and the watery colours that you buy in any supermarket beside the almond essence and dessicated coconut. I soon realised that those colours weren’t going to cut it.  After a lot of trial & error & some rather vile chemical tasting concoctions I found out about other colour options.  Many of the baking blogs I follow religiously are American and many of the products they extol the virtues of aren’t available here (or at least without exorbitant shipping/ customs costs)  so I found some online friends that used UK brands with similar results.  I use mainly Sugarflair paste colours and lustre dusts.  To be honest I haven’t ventured too far from Sugarflair solely because I’m really happy with the results and cost so see no urgency to try something new.  Feel free to do some research but I find the ones I’ve bought via ebay or through my favourite UK online shops have been reasonably priced & lasted ages.

Black Extra and Red Extra are essentials IMHO, achieving a true black is tiring and black extra takes a little of the hard work away.  I tend to buy a small package of premade black sugarpaste when I just don’t want the struggle.  I rarely buy any other pre-made colours, everything you see on my cakes is coloured by hand.  Aside from the black and red I’d recommend an ice blue, melon & party green.  You should be able to make most colours from those basics without the need for additional colours.  As you can see I also have some lustre dusts.  These are powdered colour that can be brushed on with a dry paintbrush to give a shimmer to fondant decorations or mixed with rejeuvenator spirit to make various sparkly liquid colours.  I have a few colours but the most used are the silver and gold.  Rejeuvenator spirit is also useful for cleaning lustre dust off brushes as it can dry out quickly and clump the bristles together.  Gum Tragacanth is a white powder that you mix with fondant when you’re mixing your colours to give it a little extra strength.  It makes it harden that little bit quicker and stronger.  I don’t use it too often as I’ve had varied results so I try to make fondant figures at least a few days in advance in order for them to harden as much as possible before being placed on the cake.

The variety of shimmers, lustres, liquids & glitters are endless just a few of the basics can make a big difference to your decorating.

Piping

This is one area of decorating that I feel least confident with.  I know that it will improve with practice but being a perfectionist I’m usually reluctant to even spend time practicing as I know it will end in tears.  Despite the lack of experience I have gathered a nice basic set of piping tips.  For cupcakes I tend to stick with a nice large star tip and the smaller tips are used for piping royal icing onto cakes or cookies.  I have attempted basketweave a few times but with very mixed results so it’s something I need to re-visit.  I’m also going to try the flower tips as soon as I pluck up the courage, as I would love to master the buttercream roses that are adorning so many beautiful cupcakes these days.

In this picture you can see a basic small piping tip set, with the couplers and cleaning brush included.  You should be able to pick up a nice combination set for less than £20.  Alternatively you can buy individual tips for a few pounds each.  I’d recommend not skimping on the quality, the plastic ones just don’t cut it & the cheap metal ones just rust.  Also in the picture you can see the pipers best friend, disposable piping bags!  I spent a few frustrating years grappling with material piping bags that had to be washed out thoroughly and dried before they could be reused.  They were hideous and I can’t thank Lakeland enough for introducing me to the disposable kind!  You can also see flower nails in the pic.  These are traditionally used for holding a buttercream flower while you pipe it, they are easily turned while holding a piping bag in the other hand.  I use mine for a completely different purpose.  When making large sheetcakes (usually over 13″ long) the edges can start to burn while the centre is still unbaked.  A flower nail eradicates this problem.  Grease and line your tin as normal, place the flower nail in the centre of the tin with the nail spike facing up.  Make sure it is well greased.  Pour the batter in around the nail, bake the cake as usual and once it’s cooled in the tin, tip it over, remove the lining then carefully remove the flower nail.  There will be a small hole which is practically imperceptible but the centre of the cake will be evenly baked.

Cutters

This area of baking magic is an endless one.  I, along with every baker I know, could extol the virtues of the multitude of cookie cutters available out there or lurking at the back of their baking cupboards for months on end. I’ve amassed what I consider a decent collection but I know plenty of fab cookie aficionados that would beg to differ.  I’ve heard of some who have in excess of 500 cutters, I daren’t even imagine the storage involved there!  The top picture shows some of the most useful sets I own.  I started with the most basic and most widely used, the circles.  I’ve found the double edged plastic sets to be perfect for a wide range of uses, from simple sugar cookies to fondant cake decorations.

The lower picture shows just a selection of my random cutters including vegetables, bones, a variety of gingerbread men & shapes.  I’ve also gathered several sets of letter cutters which have come in very handy over the years for cake decorating.

Tappits

This little selection of cutters takes things to another level.  The flower & leaf cutters are for creating sugarpaste/ fondant decorations.  They are quite straightforward to use and add a nice touch to cupcake or cake decorations.  The tappits are a whole other story.  In my haste to learn as much as possible, over the years I’ve made some purchases that I probably should have thought more about.  Tappits is a case in point.  I saw some fabulous cakes with funky lettering that looked so neat and crisp and I thought I had to have the tools to make that fine lettering because my piping left a lot to be desired!  I asked around and was told that they were tappits.  I scoured the net but found that they were too expensive so I waited until I could find them a little cheaper.  I finally got around to buying some and excitedly rolled my fondant to try them out.  Well, could I figure out what I was doing wrong?  Not one letter would work out for me, they would break or get stuck in the cutters.  I tried several times but to no avail.  So I pushed the tappits to the back of the cupboard and ignored them for several months.

So after more frustration at my lack of piping skills I decided the try the tappits again.  This time I followed the instructions exactlyand amazingly not every letter was unusable.  After a lot of practice I started to learn the tricks behind the tappits, the right length of time to leave the fondant to harden, the perfect thickness to roll the fondant out & they started to become an asset rather than a liability.  I’d recommend a set as an investment because with some practice they can be very useful tools indeed.

Cupcake wrappers

These are somewhat of an obsession with me.  Ridiculously I make less cupcakes than any other baked goods but I have enough wrappers to keep me baking for years.  I think it’s because they’re a relatively cheap item to pick up when you see a cute pattern or different sizes.  I have far too many mini wrappers and rarely make mini cupcakes, I tend to use mine more for cake truffles or little sweets.  As a basic set you could get away with having a white set that cost £1, really its the flavour/ decoration that people will remember but there’s no denying a very unique or cute wrapper will tie a theme together.  I don’t have any pictures of my latest acquisitions which are the lasercut wrappers that have become very popular recently.  I was lucky to receive a few sets for Xmas and have bought a few myself but must admit they’re far too expensive at between £3 and £10 for a set of 12 wrappers to warrant buying in bulk for a cupcake order.  I’m saving mine for a special occasion but suspect I’ll just take them out to look at or use for photos without ever giving them away!

Edible decorations

This is just a selection of the edible decorations or elements to my baking.  The most important item is the vanilla angel delight.  I use a stabilised vanilla cream as a topping or filling on many of my cakes and vanilla delight is a vital ingredient.  I usually have several of these amongst my edibles.  Sprinkles are another item that I could easily get carried away with.  I’ve tried to keep my stock low so that I use up what I have but when I see a new tub of something I haven’t used before I tend to snap it up fearing it will never be seen again.  I tend to buy these pots when they’re on offer in supermarkets or even in pound shops, I recently got some great sugar pearls and sprinkles sets at all less than £1 in B & M Bargains.  The Meri-white powder is a recent purchase.  After a few years of using fresh egg whites to make royal icing I decided to be a bit more food safe and use a powder substitute in order to avoid potential problems using fresh/ raw egg.  I found it a little annoying using the powder instead of egg whites, I wasn’t too happy with the royal icing it produced so I’ve recently been using ready made royal icing mix instead.

Impressions

The green mats on the right are impression mats.  I use these to apply texture to fondant, either for the sides of a cake or on a base to set a cake on.  They’re a little more expensive than some items I’ve bought but work the money to produce a look that would take much longer to create by hand.  I also have 2 large mats with swirl & paisley impressions.  The rulers were part of a kids set but come in handy with their variety of edges.  The roller was a Xmas gift from family.  It’s got a range of parts to create beaded effects or lines to pipe over, add decoration with or create edging in fondant.  I haven’t had the opportunity to use it yet but hope I get the chance soon.

Non-edibles

Above are a selection of items that I’ve gathered over the years which have come in handy but aren’t necessarily essential.  The thin ribbon is used mainly for tying treat/ cookies bags or decoration cupcake wrappers or boxes.  I have kept larger ribbons from gift boxes and used them on plain cakes to add some colour or on packaging.  The labels are for chutney/ jam jars and I used them for the first time this Xmas when I made my own chutneys to give as gifts.  The straws are probably the most used item as I use them as supports in tiered cakes.  I used to have wooden dowels but find that the straws are cleaner, simpler to remove & so much easier to cut to size too!  The lollipop sticks are a recent purchase, I’m hoping to make some cake pops as soon as I have the time so I snapped these up last time I found them on offer online.

So there you have it.  An introduction to a variety of items in my baking arsenal.  It’s in no way an exhaustive list and there are so many more things I’ve realised I didn’t include as I’ve written this post but I’ll save those for another time.  I hope to find the time to introduce my readers to my baking book collection which has grown so large in the last few years & I’ll also have a giveaway of one or two cookbooks that I’ve found very useful. 

As I’ve mentioned many of these items have been bought for me or found in the high street shops, supermarkets or £1 shops but I use online shops quite frequently too.  There are a few links at the side but the one I use the most has to be http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk/ I’ve never had any problems, delivery has always been really quick and they have a great range available.  I’m in no way endorsed by CCC shop, I’m just a very happy customer!