How to create a simple leaf effect on sugarpaste trees

 

A quick 'how to decorate today' rather than a recipe to share :)

 

I've used this technique on a few cakes, most recently on the sides of this Fireman Sam cake.

 

 

It's super simple, and quick to do, but adds a bit of texture and interest to your cake.

 

What to do:

 

 

1. Colour some sugarpaste green. It can be marbled, you don't need to colour it completely.

 

2. Roll out the paste to make it thinner, and pull off the desired size.

 

3. Tidy up the edges, and make into a 'cloud' shape.

 

4. Use a daisy cutter, or similar flower and press randomly into the paste (without cutting all the way through), over and over again to create a texture which gives the impression of lots of leaves.

 

5. Stick it on the top of your 'trunk', which can be made using a lump of brown sugarpaste, flattened slightly and score lines into it with a knife.

 

6. Add as many as you need to create the desired effect.

 

 

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How to make edible tortilla dessert bowls

These are the simplest thing to make, super yummy , and give you a different way of presenting a dessert. You can make them savoury by omitting the sugar.

You need about a tablespoon of butter, and a couple of teaspoons of sugar per tortilla. These are rough measurements, I didn't measure exactly when I has making them, the method was a little rough and ready if I'm being honest.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Melt the butter in the microwave. Brush both sides of the tortilla with the melted butter, then sprinkle the sugar over the top. I used granulated sugar for some (for the children) and cinnamon sugar for the adults. If your tortillas are not very soft it may be an idea to soften them slightly in the microwave first as you need them to bend without ripping.

Then shape the tortilla inside an oven proof bowl, or over the back of a ramekin, or other suitable bowl. Bake for about 8 minutes, but keep an eye on them as you don't want them to burn. Take them out of the oven and let them cool as they are for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Then they are ready to use.

 

 

 

The kids had their bowls filled with mint choc chip ice cream.....

 

And we had our cinnamon sugar ones with strawberries and cream. Yum :)


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How to make chocolate brownie cookies

These little beauties are gorgeous!! They've come about because one of the lovely ladies who attends my classes is dairy free. I like to bake for the students at my classes, so was looking for a dairy free recipe. I found a recipe I liked, but tweaked it a bit and now I'm going to share it with you! Be prepared- the dough needs to chill for AT LEAST 4 hours, overnight is even better. So if you want to make these cookies you have to be patient!

Ingredients (makes 32-36 cookies)

85g cocoa powder

400g caster sugar

125ml vegetable oil

4 eggs         

250g plain flour            

2 teaspoons baking powder            

a pinch of salt

60g icing sugar

What to do:

1. In a bowl, mix together the cocoa, caster sugar and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until fully combined. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas mark 4. Line baking trays with parchment. Roll dough into 2.5cm balls. Coat each ball in icing sugar before placing onto prepared trays. (Easiest way to do this is put the icing sugar in a bowl and roll the dough around inside it). I used 3 baking trays with 12 per tray. I won't lie to you- this is a sticky job. You might have to wash your hands a few times whilst doing this step. But 'stick' with it, they're worth it.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Let stand on the baking tray for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

4. Enjoy!!

At the time of writing I still have some from the first batch we made (we have made another batch since that went into school for the teachers!) and four days on they are still very yummy. 

Let me know if you make them and what you think.

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How to make Skinny Chunky Monkey Cookies

Ok, so the jury is still out on these. I have to be honest with you, I can't make my mind up whether I like them or not. The reason I chose to make them was to do with my quest to find yummy tasting treats that don't pile on the pounds. And this recipe boasted that these are under 50 calories each. Worth a try I thought. So I made them, and took them along to a class I was running, and my family and friends have tried them too. And I think it's fair to say we're split 50/50 into those that like them and those that don't. So you might just have to try them for yourself!  The original recipe I found was here.

Ingredients you will need:

3 ripe bananas mashes

20g oats

100g peanut butter (I used lower fat)

30g cocoa powder

100g unsweetened apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

 

What you need to do:

1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl.

 

2. Mix them together until fully combined, then let it stand for 20 minutes.

 

3. Drop heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto ungreased baking paper on cookie trays.

 

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 170 degrees.

 

And this is what they'll look like when they're baked. Excuse the watery picture, it was very sunny in my kitchen when I took this picture!

And there you have it. Easy peasy to make, I'll leave the taste testing up to you and you can tell me what you think.

 

How to make goats cheese, strawberry and honey crostini

 

After spending a week on a French Cake Break with Rhu Strand from Pimp my Cake with Mama Rhu, and being treated to the most amazing cooking, I took inspiration from one of the local delicacies that we were treated to and added a bit of a twist. The results, I can assured you, are amazeballs!

 

Ingredients you will need:

(this is what I used, you might choose slightly different quantities)

 

1 part baked French baguette

1 block of Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, Kidderton Ash Goats' Cheese, thinly sliced

About 7/8 strawberries, depending on their size, thinly sliced

A drizzle of Sainsbury's runny honey

About 5 fresh basil leaves, torn

 

What to do:

1. Slice the baguette into around 15 slices.

2. Place them on a baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.

3. Transfer to a grill, and place a thin slice of goats cheese on the toasted bread, followed by one or two slices of strawberries.

4. Place under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese starts to melt.

5. Transfer to a serving dish and while still warm, drizzle honey over the crostini.

6. Sprinkle the torn basil leaves over the top, and serve.

 

An easy peasy, whipped up in under ten minutes treat :)

How to make yummy bread rolls, using a bread machine

I love fresh bread, there's little that can beat the taste and texture of it fresh from the oven. But sometimes I just don't have time, or I'm just not organised enough, to make it all by hand. So this is where my bread machine comes into it's own. Hands up who has a bread machine? And hands up who hasn't used it in ages? That's about to change.....

Ingredients you will need:
310ml water
30g butter, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp. sugar
600g white bread flour
1 egg
2 tsp dried yeast

You'll need to add the ingredients according to the instructions for your machine, but for mine it's this order- water, butter, salt and sugar, then flour, egg and yeast. 

Put it on the dough setting and let the bread machine work it's magic. The dough cycle on my machine takes 1 hour and 20 minutes.

As soon as it's finished, you can tip the dough out and break it into 12 pieces, and roll each one into a ball. Put them onto two greased baking trays and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 200 degrees, or until cooked and golden brown.

Then remove them and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Or, leave to cool as long as is needed to enable you to hold them without burning your fingers, break apart, spread with butter and enjoy!!

Reviewing Sweet Silk Sugarpaste by Sweet Success

Now if you decorate a lot of cakes like I do, you'll be after the perfect sugarpaste to use to both cover the cakes, and model with. And, like me, you've probably used a lot of different types in the quest to find it. I've tried Tesco, Asda, Regalice, Dr Oetker, Bako, Covapaste....and possibly a couple of others too. I was quite happy with the Tesco brand for quite a while, but then they 'improved' the recipe, and like many other decorators I know, I found it much harder to use. So I had settled on Covapaste for a while, and it suited me. But I've had a couple of difficult batches of this recently, so went on the hunt again.

I was sent a free sample of Sweet Silk Sugarpaste from Sweet Success. I'm saying that to be totally honest and up front with you. It was a 1kg free sample, but I am reviewing this giving my own true, honest opinions. I am not being paid to review this product.

It just so happens that the next cake I was making was a birthday cake for my daughter, Grace. Now I gave this sample quite a work out. I gave it a good knead, I coloured it, and I rolled it very thin as the cake was a 8" round, 4" deep one, and I wanted to use the same paste for some of the decorations. I'll be honest with you, it did tear a little bit, and when I tried to colour it, it took longer than the Covapaste to fully take on and evenly distribute the colour. But I felt that I'd probably not treated this in quite the same way as I would have done another batch of paste- ie I rolled it far thinner than I normally would, so I ordered some more and had another go.

And with the next cake I had more success.  In fact, I've tried it on this cake.....

 

And on this cake.....

 

And on this cake.....

 

And on this cake.....

 

 

And also on this one.....

 

Although on this last one I had a bit of trouble again. You see I'd forgotten the magic trick that I'd tried with the others- warm the paste in the microwave. Just for about a minute on a low heat, but that's just enough to introduce enough warmth to it, that you don't have to knead and knead and knead it to get it pliable, and the warmer paste takes the colour much more easily, it's softer, it rolls better, it covers better. I forgot about this when covering this one, so ended up with some tears and elephant skin (hence the rocks covering the front- sssh don't tell my nephew, this one was for him!)

So the secret to this, for me anyway, seems to be, if you warm it up, it's easier to use. So for now, although I'll still keep an eye on what other brands are doing, I'll be using Sweet Silk Sugarpaste from Sweet Success. You can buy it direct from Sweet Success, and they make it there themselves. And if you are going to be using a lot of it, you can apply for a trade account so you'll get it that bit cheaper too.

Or, you could enter their current competition to win 1kg of the paste to try for yourself. You can enter over on their fb page.  Good luck if you're entering!!

Let me know if you use it too, and what you think about it, I'll be really interested to hear your thoughts.

xx

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