French Cake Breaks

It's February. It's cold, wet, pretty dull most of the time, and we're desperately thinking about some summer sun to brighten our days, and booking a holiday to keep us going til then aren't we? Well, if you are into cake baking and decorating I have the perfect holiday for you!

Last May I was lucky enough to go away on a French Cake Break with two friends, one who has a cake business not far from me in Manchester, and another who is a keen baker and just starting out on the road of learning how to decorate her masterpieces. A fairly mixed bag of experience between us, but what we produced pleased all of us in equal measures.

French Cake Breaks are run by my wonderful friend Rhu of Pimp my Cake and Claire of Gite La Nougayrede.   

Now don't be fooled into thinking that I'm giving a glowing report because Rhu is my friend, what you are about to read is a true reflection of how much I enjoyed the week. Because I did enjoy it. Immensely.



Of the week we spent away, two days accounted for travelling there and back, and relaxation time, and on one day we had a visit to Sarlat Market, a wonderfully typical French market town where you can buy souvenirs to take home, including all the local delicacies.

The remaining time is spent at the gite in classes with Rhu, who is very generous with her knowledge and I picked up lots of extra hints and tips along the way, as well as the teaching for all three projects. Rhu runs a beginner's week, an intermediate week, and now also a fabulous week learning how to make Marissa the mermaid. Oh how I would love to go back and take this week of classes!!

 

During our stay we made a bride and groom, a high heeled shoe and a car, all of which came back in the hand luggage!

 

(I know my groom has a bit of a lean- but I know why it happened and I learnt from it- all part of the class experience!)

 

The accommodation is extremely comfortable and the meals provided are amazing, Claire is a fabulous cook, also making some amazing puddings. Add some lovely local wine to the mix- I'd make sure you pack the elasticated trousers!

 

If you are thinking about taking a French Cake Break, I can honestly, whole heartedly recommend it. I had the most wonderfully relaxing week, enjoyed fabulous hospitality and learnt an amazing amount in the short time we were there. I'd definitely go back if I had the opportunity to. Don't hesitate any longer- go and book that holiday!!!

 

You can find out more about French Cake Breaks here, hear the latest news on fb here and find more about what Rhu is up to here .

 

 

Let me know if you go- I'd love to see the holiday snaps!

 

www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk

 

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Review of Lakeland's Hearts Silicone Icing Mould

Well, I've been lucky enough to be asked to review some more products by the lovely people at Lakeland, so here is the first one, stand by for another couple this week! I have been given the product to try for free, but all views are my own.

So here it is, the Hearts Silicone Icing Mould. I'm a sucker for these silicone moulds, I have quite a few different designs made by different manufacturers, and I use them when teaching some of my own classes, as well as on the cakes I make so I was interested to see how this one would compare.

I'm pleased to say it worked really well. When you first start using silicone moulds like this, you might find that the first one or two you try will stick to the mould. A way to stop this happening, is to use a little smearing of vegetable fat (I use Trex) on the inside of the mould. You could use a dusting of cornflour, or icing sugar, but if you are using a dark coloured icing, you then need to clean it off afterwards. If you do want to paint the hearts you make afterwards though, you will have to go down this route as the vegetable fat will prevent the paste gel sticking, or whatever you are using to paint with.

I tried all the different hearts and found them all easy to use. The one on the middle row at the far right had me flummoxed to begin with, but I had a play and realised you can use this as a feature on a small disc of sugarpaste. Have a look at the photograph below to see what I mean.

 

 You see? The one in the bottom left corner? Cute isn't it?

And here are the cupcakes on a wedding fayre table from last weekend. I'm happy to report they went down very well :)

You can also use them on cookies....

And on cake pops..... (Here is where I would insert a picture of the ones I made, but unfortunately they were eaten before I got chance to photograph them! Take it from me- they work on cake pops too!)

So, all in all, a great product, that I would definitely recommend and will be using myself and in my classes in future. If you'd like to buy one too, you can purchase from Lakeland here .

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Valentine's collection 2014

The Valentine's Collection for Marie's Bakehouse is now available for ordering.

 

Chocolate chip heart shaped cookies, available in white, milk or dark chocolate, and covered in heart sugar sprinkles.
6 wrapped in a gift box, £5, one flavour choice for order.

 

 3 fudge hearts wrapped in a gift box £6.50.

Available in many different flavours including milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk choc and orange, white choc and lemon, milk choc with fruit and nut, dark choc and peppermint.......and many others besides.....one flavour choice per order.

 

 3 Tiffin hearts £6.50
Both available in a variety of flavours such as Malteser, Mint Aero, Orange Aero, Rolo, Smartie.....

or another one of your choice.
  Order consists of one flavour choice.

Tiffin hearts also available in a large size, same flavours available as before.

Gift wrapped for £13.

 

Large fudge hearts, flavours available as previously, gift wrapped for £13.

Large Brownie Heart- Crispy on the outside, dark and gooey on the inside.

My daughter's favourite thing that I bake!!
Gift wrapped for your Valentine! £12

and finally.....

 

Let me know if you would like to order! Last orders taken on Sunday 9th February.

 

Marie x

 

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Time to get organised.....

One of my many New Year's Resolutions is to get organised. Not that I'm a complete disaster zone when it comes to organisation, things do get done BUT I do tend to waste a lot of time 'faffing' (read 'largely wasting time on social media'). If faffing were a sport I'd probably win medals in it.

I need lists to function. Especially since I had children, my memory is not what it once was. And if I don't have lists to remind me what I should be doing, I just can't organise my time.

So that's where these KTWO products come in. They are going to help me get organised (here's hoping anyway).

I've previously had a file organiser bought for me by a lovey friend, and that has helped get me organised with my receipt filing for my business. And that, my friend, is a HUGE task. So I have high hopes for these!

Part of the plan is to build in time to blog more frequently. We'll all be the judge of whether that happens or not.

Any tips you'd like to share with me for getting organised? Any help gratefully received!

Marie x


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Review of Lakeland's Fairytale Village Mould

I already own the Lakeland Fairy Tale Cottage Mould, which I had great fun using and putting together this Christmas themed chocolate house...

 

 

...but this house is big- I used 1.6kg of chocolate and chocolate paste to make and decorate. So when I was sent the Fairy Tale Village Mould I was interested to see whether it would be as easy working with the chocolate house mould in miniature.

 

The mould has enough parts to make four teeny houses, either in chocolate or gingerbread (of course I chose chocolate, yes you know me well!) with mini people and also some trees.

 

Top tips for using this smaller mould would be to use a cocktail stick or similar to ease the chocolate into the tiny gaps for the people's arms and legs. And also, when you are pushing the chocolate out of the moulds, made sure you do it straight away when you take it out of the fridge. If you have hot hands, or the kitchen is warm, the chocolate can start to melt straight away on these smaller parts as you handle them. I made the mistake of leaving mine out for a while before I tried to remove it, and left some of the people's legs behind- hence them being stood in a mould of 'snow' in the picture.

 

I've decorated my house using sugarpaste in red and white because I love those Christmassy colours together, but the possibilities are endless. My two girls are looking forward to decorating the other houses with sweets at some point before Christmas.

 

So here's the house...

 

To give you some idea of size, it's sitting on a 7" square board.

 





I would recommend this mould. They would make a lovely centrepiece for a dessert table displayed altogether on one board, or would make great gifts individually like this one. You could even fill it with sweets before you seal the roof.

I also think this would be great for other times of year. They'd look great in white chocolate, decorated with pastels and made into an Easter Egg hunt theme, or even lined up like beach huts for a summer dessert table.

This is definitely a product I'll be using again.

You can buy it from Lakeland here: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/18207/Fairy-Tale-Village-Mould

I was not paid to write this review, but was sent the mould free of charge. All views are my own.


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Review of Lakeland's Silicone Chocolate Box Shapes

Another Lakeland toy to play with? And it involves chocolate? Definitely count me in!

I've had experience with making chocolates with a hard plastic chocolate mould before, but not with silicone, so it required a bit of thinking about how to go about it, as the methods I used for a rigid mould wouldn't work so well with a flexible one.

I decided to apply the melted chocolate with a paintbrush which helped get the chocolate in all the places required, especially with the more intricate designs. In hindsight, it may have been better to let this harden, and then apply a second coat, as a couple of the chocolates didn't come out without breaking, but that's something to try next time.

I made a caramel sauce, and poured it into the chocolate mould once they had been in the fridge for about an hour (I was busy doing other things at the time, I don't think it necessarily needs this long). I left a space at the top of each mould- I didn't fill it completely to the top.  And then popped the mould back into the fridge.

After about half an hour, I melted more chocolate and added this on top of the caramel, then it went back in the fridge again to set. I tried to pop them out after half an hour, but this perhaps wasn't quite long enough as a couple of them cracked on coming out, so I chilled them for a bit longer (this could have been down to having too thin a coat and not the chilling time- I will need to experiment with this).

Second time lucky, the rest popped out without a problem, by pushing the mould from underneath.

I'm really pleased with how they look!

 

Not perfect, but pretty fab for the first attempt I think!

 

I'd definitely use this mould again. The chocolates would be great for presents, not just at Christmas time, but for birthdays, Mother's Day, and I'd also think about using them on my dessert tables.

I'm looking forward to trying out different flavour combinations- I think salted caramel and a chocolate orange ganache will be two I'll be trying out soon!

If you fancy giving them a go, you can buy them from Lakeland here: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16442/Silicone-Chocolate-Box-Shapes

I was not paid to write this review, but was sent the mould free of charge. All views are my own.

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Peppermint Bark Mould from Lakeland

I love making new things in the kitchen. I get terribly bored doing the same thing over and over again. So an opportunity to play with a new toy is a definite winner. Team that with chocolate, and the fact it's from Lakeland, a shop that regularly does serious damage to my bank balance, well it's got to be a win-win situation!!

The Peppermint Bark Mould is incredibly easy to use. It comes with two sections, so you can make two lots at the same time, but do be aware that the instructions on the packet are for one side, not both, so double up if you are making two.

Melt 200g of milk chocolate, and pour half in each side of the mould, making sure it spreads out to all corners. Pop it in the fridge and go and do something else for a bit. Then melt 200g white chocolate and pour on top of the milk chocolate, half on each side. Bash up 4 or 5 candy canes in a plastic bag, and sprinkle the broken pieces on top of the white chocolate. Push it gently into the chocolate and pop it back in the fridge. After an hour it'll be hard enough to pop out of the mould.

 

And there you have it! And they fit perfectly in a clear Lakeland presentation/gift bag.

Brilliant for gifts this holiday season!

 

If you'd like to give it a go yourself, you can buy it here: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/18503/Peppermint-Bark-Mould

 

I was not paid to write this review, but was sent the mould free of charge. All views are my own.

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