The Cake and Bake Show Haul 2015

Well I've had fun! Stuffing my face with cake and free samples. Did any of you readers get the chance to visit the Cake and Bake Show in London this year? My friend Lucy and I are making this an annual 'thing' (You can read last years post here). I was hoping that I would do a video on it... until my camera broke.

Thats right. On the one day of filming I REALLY  needed a good camera... erg. Tech. Such is life. I thought I would do a blog post on what I purchased.

Firstly, food because... food. I grabbed some Emily Apple and Banana Fruit crisps. But these are the best crisps I've ever had. They were just soft enough in texture not to be soggy but crisp enough to crunch on and not break your teeth. The flavours are true fruit flavours. Seriously, totally worth buying! 

I got a super weird gizmo. Its a peeler. BUT NOT JUST A PEELER! Its a julienne vegetable and fruit peeler with a cool attachment to make noodles from veg. Lucy was full on impressed with this, that she didn't hesitate in buying it. I was convinced to get one also and the peeler does assist me in daily cooking tasks.

I also got a new piping bag and nozzles... pretty standard. 

For my Halloween bakes this year, I got some pretty sprinkles and cupcake cases from one of my personal favourite places to shop, Scrumptious. I bought some green, purple and orange sprinkles as well as some jazzy violet sprinkles. They have a great selection of sprinkles, decorating materials and cases. I did get some adorable ghostly cupcake cases as well as some Christmasy ones (don't judge me I know its only October). 

To stuff my face with, I got marshmallows from both 'The Marshmallowist' and 'The Marshmallow Company'. From the Marshmallowist, I got strawberry and basil, blueberry and gin, lemon and coconut flavours. Now, I must be truthful, the flavours didn't really come through apart from the coconut. I haven't tried 'The Marhmallow Company' marshmallows yet but I will do and will add what I think here.

I did get some special icing sugars, like I do every year, from another one of my favourite companies: Sugar and Crumbs. I bought: 'Santa's Snowball' which tastes like white chocolate and marshmallows (yum!!), 'Christmas Punch' which tastes like mulled wine and lastly, 'Apple Crumble'... which is what you expect. They make great buttercreams, or as a substitute for caster sugar in cakes.  

Halloween Bakes

Have you started planning your Halloween bakes yet? Check out the links below for some inspiration. 

1. Dios de los Muertos Cupcakes- Ok not really Halloween but great hit at parties.

2.Pumpkin Pecan Bars- Because pumpkin. And its October. 

3.Orange Juice Cupcakes-Juicy and bursting full of citrus flavour.

4.Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie-See number 2

5. Ginger and Treacle Cupcakes

6.Chocolate Cola Cake-Beautifully chocolaty and a little fizzy with the cola. 

7.Horror Film Gory Cupcakes- Ahh that poor sour patch kid!!

8.Gluten Free Zombie Cookies-Well we needed zombies in this list! It IS Halloween after all! 

So what will you be making for Halloween?

Monday Catch-Up: Halloween is Over...Let Christmas Begin...

Its the weekend after Halloween and two weeks after my last Monday Catch-Up, and as most of you now if you've read it, I've been suffering with a bad back. Its been really holding me back from doing everyday stuff. So I've learnt that you really need to look after yourself or it just gets a million times worse. Don't make my mistake, just take care of yourself when you're poorly.

I've had a busy week, I've been baking quite a lot for Halloween including salted caramel brownies, pumpkin pecan bars, pizza chunks and chocolate cupcakes (all gluten free btw-Your welcome Zoe) with Sugar and Crumbs "sugar and spice" icing sugar, that I got from the Cake and Bake Show this year.

Rob and I had a little bit of a 'get together' at our flat, for Halloween and as a house warming, where the drinks flowed and tacky games were played, it was such a laugh and I think everyone had a good time. It was a moment to be enjoyed and we forgot to Instagram any of it. It is a good thing as it proves that we didn't need to document that moment in our lives because we were living it!

My mum also dropped by last weekend, in which we went shopping and had lunch :) which was lovely! I haven't seen her in 3 months and she was so excited to see me and Rob. 

I also had a side trip to Lush Poole, which I got a couple pre-Christmas gifts (for myself...).I'm also pleased to let you all know that I'm almost done with all my Christmas shopping. Its only the 3rd of November and I've got 3 more gifts to buy and I'm fully done! Woo! So when the shops are crammed in December, I'll be at home with my cup of herbal tea and a cookie all snugged up and smug because I did my Christmas shopping ridiculously early. Is it wrong that I've done my cards as well... that's not wrong... is it?

So now that Halloween is done... Bring on Christmas!

Fat Friday #14 Halloween Special

Welcome to the Halloween Fat Friday Special! This is the first Fat Friday to fall on Halloween and I'm having some people over and am doing lots of cooking. Instead, I'm doing a round up of all my
ideal Halloween party recipes for you to bake for yourselves. Happy Baking! and have a spook-taclar Halloween!

Orange Juice Cupcakes

 

                                Ginger and Treacle Cupcakes

 Dios de los Muertos Cupcakes

 

Horror Film Gory Cupcakes

 

Gluten Free Zombie Cookies

Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Muffins

 

 Pizza Chunk Biscuits

 

Pumpkin Pecan Bars

Have a great Halloween, a Happy Fat Friday and a great weekend...Sleep tight...



Monday Catch Up: Back Ache Suck

Welcoming me to Monday catch up! My weekend has honestly not that great. On Thursday, I had a little bit of a twitchy back. I ignored it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I ignored it to the extent that I even carried a suitcase to visit my granparents. I'm absolutely regretting it. Friday-back hurt a little more so I went out and walked around. Saturday-I could just about walk and I got dizzy when I walked around for too long. Which is not great when you're on an shopping trip for Christmas presents. So I'm pretty much bed bound :( . On the plus, I'm being waited on hand and foot! but seriously lesson learnt: don't push yourself to hard, or you'll hurt yourself :/ 

On a more positive note, I've started Christmas shopping early this year. I'm thinking of posting a top ten tips about how unbearably organised I'm am during the festive season. I've only got a couple of gifts so far but the Christmas cards are done. 

I've also been sorting out my Halloween bakes, I'm definitely baking pumpkin pecan bars, and maybe some chocolate cupcakes? 

Whatever I'm baking it's going to be very yummy and won't go to waste. 

Do you have any Halloween plans this year?

The Cake and Bake Haul 2014

I'm so excited to be writing this (finally) after the Cake and Bake show (2014). I did set a budget and totally broke it...erg. Can't even follow my own rules..

Some great Halloween Showstoppers

My friend and I got to the show at 10:30am to bet the crowds. I'm not going to lie, it got insanely busy by 1pm. I had no idea people loved baking so much... or maybe its people love eating cake? Either way its good.

This is my Cake and Bake haul. I know this is a kind of a beauty/fashion blogger thing, with the make-up and clothes haul. But I'm all about breaking the rules and why not a do a haul post? (Also just want to point out that I didn't get paid or sponsored for this post, its all my honest opinion. I just want to point out some really great companies.)

So lets start off with something not even related to baking at all.
Heck Foods is a new company to me and specialise in making "damn good sausages" (all gluten free btw). They have a range of sausages and we got to sample them all. Honestly, there very meaty and plump, I opted for something a little different which was Smokey Chorizo Style Sausages. At 97% meat, I was expecting something really good and I was not disappointed. The smokiness of the paprika really came out and the taste really resembled chorizo. The only critique I have is that it was a little oily, but again that's the style of a chorizo sausage.

The next things I got my crumbly hands on is some amazing biscuits from Furniss biscuits. They boast traditional Cornish baked biscuits and Great Taste Awards. When Lucy and I walked past the stall at Cake and Bake, I was really sceptical because they were just biscuits. But there were free samples calling us over and we decided to stop to have a nibble... good thing we did! I fell for the West Country Cheddar biscuits, it was a cheese heaven in biscuit. I can say you don't need any sort of cheese with these biscuits. The other biscuits I settled on was the honey and ginger biscuits for those moonching on the sofa in the warm while its cold outside. Both a balanced in flavours and great addition to add into the biscuit tin. I would have liked to have seen more biscuits in a pack (8 biscuits to a pack) but the flavours make up for it.  

Its almost Halloween so obviously, Halloween sprinkles! I've been using Scrumptious for a couple of years now. I love the range of cupcakes cases, sprinkles and glitters. I recommend that you check the site out for the full range. This year I've settled on some cute Halloween sprinkles which is ideal for topping up some Halloween treats.

Another treat that Lucy and I both got was orange chocolate brownies. Now that may sound a little standard but, quite simply, BEST ORANGE  CHOCOLATE BROWNIES. Hands down. I mean it takes a lot for me to say  this (type?) but honestly, it really does rival my own brownies. Chocolicous Cakes, don't ever change this recipe, its the best.  Its rich, dark and with that orange flavour hiting you at the end.

I got a couple of moulds from The Crafty Mould Company, who were so friendly to chat too. They can do custom moulds which is something unusual. I fell in love with the dios de la muerte skull and vintage button one as well. Both are super adorable and I'm finding excuses to use them. I can't wait!

I also got 12 of super freakin' cute mini cupcakes from one of my

favourite London cupcake companies, Crumbs and Doilies!

                         

There so lovely and with a variety of flavours all packed in one box. I've even got their cookbook. I would say that it was a shame that the card machine was busted and it was a little inconvenient to get cash out for the box, but the cupcakes made up for it. Ok, the flavours I got in my box:

• Vanilla
• Oreo
• Buttered popcorn
• Rolo Cupcake
• Chocolate
• Eton Mess
• Pumpkin Spice
• Breakfast
• Lemon mess

The other flavours I didn't get to taste because my boyfriend scoffed them!

Lastly, I got really excited about this from Sugar and Crumbs, again this is a company that I haven't heard of but I wish I had! I managed to try practically every flavour of the icing sugar (made into buttercream) I fully wanted them all! I did settle for Salted Caramel and Sugar and Spice flavours, which tastes like cinnamon toast. Its such a good concept and why has no one jumped on this?! Its such a time saver. I'm definitely going to use the mix for Halloween or maybe even Christmas, this year. Give the icing sugars a try, I really recommend the pink lemonade-oh wow!

Also a big shout out to On Macaroons and Loretta Lui who do the most kawaii macaroons ever. There is a new cookbook coming out really soon, which might be on my Christmas list.

And of course, I want to say Lucy, it was such a bloody blast! I had so much fun and I can't wait to hang out again soon!

Did you go to the Cake and Bake Show this year?

Monday Catch Up: Planning my Halloween Bakes

I had such an epic weekend. I finally dragged Rob to watch Box Trolls, which is definitely worth a watch as the story is quite different and really original. No spoilers, but totally watch it. If not for the great Laika animation style. I love all of the Laika films, in fact, I'm dressing up as one of them for Halloween. That's all I'm revealing for now...

So I'm still planning my Halloween bakes. I definitely want to use some bits that I bought at the Cake and Bake Show. But that will be posted on Wednesday, because I've been neglecting Baking Basics 101 lately.

Blog wise-I'm planning to pick it back up soon, but for now, I've got some ideas... Also, I'm hoping to write more recipes that expand the baking and sweet world as well soon. Also I'm thinking of writing restaurant reviews too. I'm publishing a dummy one that I wrote in the summer and I've been itching to publish. Stay tuned for that.

I'm thinking of joining a gym because ever since my holiday in August, I've been getting super lazy >.< and I defos need to get my lazy butt off the sofa and into a treadmill. Not that I'm a good example of gym bunny. I don't like the concept of gym but it keeps you fit and I guess it beats having a treadmill in a cramped flat.

I'm also happy to say that Humpy the Slug has moved on to another house or maybe he found a lovely slipper to settle down with and make sluggy-slipper babies with. So that shoe humper is gone!

I hope you all have a great start to the week!

Fat Friday #10 Pumpkin and Cheese Muffins

October=Pumpkin Season. That's one of the facts of life. It happens every year. Its just all over the place. Pumpkin all over the place... Its not one to argue with a fun tradition. For this weeks Fat Friday, we're going savoury. These muffins are an acquired taste and are best served from the oven while there still warm :)  Don't forget I'm at the Cake and Bake show tomorrow, I'll tweet as I go!

(Penny Note:You'll have some pumpkin puree leftover, so why not make some Spiced Pumpkin Syrup for your coffee?)

Recipe: Makes 12 Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Muffins (Recipe Adapted from Muffins Galore by Catherine Atkinson)

• 300g plain flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 100g goats cheese, diced
• 4 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
• 225g pumpkin puree (I used about half a can of Libby's)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 150ml natural yoghurt

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Jug
• Cupcake Tin filled with 12 muffin cases
• Chopping board
• Knife
• Wooden spoon

1. Preheat the oven to 200c/400f/Gas Mark 6. Line the cupcake tin with muffin cases. 
 2. Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl.

3. Stir in the goats cheese. 

4.Chop 2 tablespoons of the pumpkins seeds, and add to the flour mixture. Put the other 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds aside.

5. In a jug, whisk together the pumpkin puree, yoghurt, eggs and oil.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

7. Spoon the batter into the muffins cases, dividing it easily. Sprinkle the tops with the pumpkin seeds.

8. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen.
9. Cool in the tine for 10 minutes and then put on a wire rack. Serve warm with a side salad if you moonching this for lunch.