Back to baking!

As soon as I get a few minutes to myself that's not work involved I totally want to get back to my baking. I miss it so much! Inspired by everything around me I was given a gentle nudge in a very special way by a gorgeous gift from the other half! Love it!!!

Topknot

Xxx

Teaparty Time!

I think girls it is about time for another tea party don't you? been heavily inspired by these snowy nights and my mother in laws dining room!! the woman puts vintage tearooms to shame I tell thee! I snapped a few pics to show you guys and to make matters even more inspiring/worse she made all these cake stands you see before you herself. Not even a lie. I considered ( because I know you are thinking it gals ) stealing one ( hard to hide though ) breaking one ( sheer jealousy? and totally uncalled for? ) demanding one, again ( i'd get a punch to the gub? ) in the end I took photos and applauded her bloomin talents! Look down * points to pics *.

Ok so also on the Mother in Law front, I baked for her birthday, which was scary as she is a Ceoliac and I am worried I do it so wrong orelse forget and stupidly add WHEAT to the recipe!! anyways I had to put all my weirdness aside and bake for her birthday. So I decided on a lovely Pineapple sponge cake, with mixed fruit jam and fruit and icing topping. I am well glad to blog that, the cake rose. Thankgod. I had fears of giving over pancakes! can't put a candle in that can we? So, heres what I did.

Pineapple Cake ( for Gluten Avoiderers )  

Ingrediants: 2 cups of Crushed Pineapple

         175g of unsalted butter

   175g caster sugar

      3 eggs, beaten up :)

                       175g self raising flour (gluten free)

          1 tsp of Vanilla Essence

Get your OVEN heated to 180C/GAS 4

Cut greaseproof paper to fit two circle cake tins

Cream the butter and sugar together till light fluffy and creamy

Gradually add whisked egg and sieved flour to butter mix

(Fold it in mind)

Once all blended add in your pineapple, a little juice is ok but not it all, the fruit will be giving the sponge great moisture!

Finally add the vanilla and again fold it all in till its as evenly mixed as you can get.

Divvy the mix up and spoon into cake tins

Flatten it out as evenly as you can

Pop in the oven for 20-25 mins until golden brown

Now, serve as you like, with any jam you like in the middle of the sponge sandwiches, both by the way should be really soft springy and moist to the touch

Decorate as you please in accordance to Gluten Free allowances

I used Icing and fruit

And SERVE!

I then made some vanilla cupcakes and dyed them pink just for a little something different. Again I used gluten free self rasing flower and just followed a basic cupcake recipe but used Silver Spoon food colouring in Pink and split my cake mix in two making one bowl of cake mix a soft pink and the other a much more vibrant pink. A spoonful of each colour into my silicone cup cases on top of eachother and it baked split in two colours! I then iced them with pink icing and made little decors for them out of toothpicks and hearts (will blog post on that later ) eh walla! have a little look girlies!

So Tea anyone? i'll stick the kettle on.

Toptea

xxx

Bow's Hallowe'en

Wow Knot, awesome pumpkinspiration! I aim to at least have one this year which will be half as good as one of those - do you happen to have a turkey cutter I can borrow? Here's my pumpkin from last year - Jack Skellington - those teeth were not easy with a giant blunt kitchen knife.

Here's a link to the nail polish I'm in love with, they are so cute and I'm a sucker for a gimmick! 


Fringe, the cupcake class was smashing - if your cushions turn out as good as your cupcakes then Mr Fringe will be a happy bunny! I'm not sure whose these are but they were just so pretty! 

And back to Hallowe'en - a much under celebrated holiday in the UK.  I'd love to do it USA style, those guys know how to celebrate a holiday!  This year I want to make loads of pumpkins for the front step and make candy apples to give out to the trick-or-treaters... that's the plan anyway! With that in mind, I decided to have a trial run of the candy apples, and just as well! 


Of course this was a spur of the moment idea at about 9.30pm on a rainy night, involving a bike ride on flat tyres to get vinegar and food coloring before I was all set to go.  The only thing I was missing was a thermometer to keep an eye on the temperature (note to self, buy one of these).  It's a pretty simple recipe which can be found here here.  

I followed all the steps and was feeling pretty smug about how well it was going - the kitchen was filled with the aroma of sweet toffee and so far everything was going to plan.  It takes ages for the recipe to start looking like toffee and not like brown water!  And here's where it all went wrong!  In my smugness, whizzing around the kitchen with my spotty apron on, I grabbed the food coloring and free-poured it straight into the pan... it was blue.  Not shiny red like on youtube, more greeny-blue bubbling potion that the Evil Queen would be proud of. 

A poison apple, sleeping death? Perfect!

Yeah I agree, not the tastiest looking concoction.  This is the really tricky part though, after a google search I had found some tips for how to know if your mixture is ready without a thermometer - apparently dropping some mixture into cold water will let you know, if it goes hard and toffee-like, its ready.  

Spot the difference?

As i found out - not so! The mixture dripped straight off the apples and formed a lovely mess on the baking paper which never dried hard and shiny but stayed a goopy mess for three days.  This didn't stop my better half from eating one of course, his verdict being that it tasted nice but he couldn't look at it when he ate it.  

Some spooky cupcakes too! Made from a kit though
so doesn't count!

So that would be my Hallowe'en adventures so far! Any tips on how to make some appetizing candy apples (other than not using blue coloring?) And what ideas do we have for costumes this year?