The Afternoon Tea Club: Sparkles, Tib Street, Manchester

New Blog post over on "The Afternoon Tea Club" - Check it out :)

The Afternoon Tea Club: Sparkles, Tib Street, Manchester: Environment Laura: It’s like if my mum (who makes very nice cakes) owned a café and I was in charge of decorating it. It’s homely ...

Buttons Cupcakes

The last few times I've made cupcakes, I've noticed that the cake tends to rise a little too much, which can be impractical when icing. To try and rectify this, last weekend, I decided to have a look around the internet for tips on how to get a flat topped cake. It seems that there are several different avenues which you can pursue when doing this, but the most common suggestion I found was to reduce the oven temperature from 180C to 150C.


This seemed practical enough so I tried it out the other day - and you know what? It actually works and here's the cupcakes to prove it!

TOP TIP: REDUCE THE OVEN TEMPERATURE!

If you have any other suggestions for how to make the perfect cake then let me know!

Until next time,

Happy baking!

X

Muppet Cupcakes

The new muppet movie is released in the uk next week, and what better way to celebrate than with a muppet themed cupcake? (you'd have to go to Suffolk to get one, but I definitely think it's worth it!)

They're AMAZING, don't you agree?

Made by: Caroline Deasy and Mandy Rawlins Cupcake Occasions http://www.cupcakeoccasions.co.uk

Happy Baking!

X

Carnation and Shooting Star Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to try out sugar craft decorations and thought that flowers would be a good place to start. So after watching LOTS video's on YouTube, I decided to invest in a flower nail, which arrived last week. (for those of you who don't know, a flower nail is like a really really big drawing pin!)

I have to admit that I entered into this experiment with a bit of trepidation, as from experience, these sort of things are rarely as simple as they first appear - and this looked pretty difficult.

However, I gave it a go anyway and on Sunday I produced my very first sugar craft flowers. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. They actually turned out alright. Don't you think?
(If you want to learn how to do it yourself, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRv5sQnr43k)

Since they turned out so well, I decided to make some cupcakes to put them on top of. Here they are...




I'm quite pleased with the overall effect of the cakes, although my icing could've perhaps been a little smoother, although this can easily be altered!

For the cakes, I used the normal recipe...

Ingredients

55g (2oz) Margarine
28g (1oz) Caster Sugar
55g (2oz) Self Raising Flour
1 egg
1stp Baking Powder
2tsp Vanilla Essence

Recipe

1. Mix the flour, sugar, egg and margarine together in a large mixing bowl for two to three minutes until fully combined.

2. To this mixture add the Vanilla essence and Baking powder and stir again until completely mixed.

3. Fill the muffin cases to just over half way.

4. Put in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 190C (180C Fan) Gas 5 until springy and a light golden colour.



Let me know what you think!

And until next time...

Happy Baking :)

X

Baking Disasters Continued...

It's that time again. Yes, the time when I talk about my baking disasters and oh how numerous they've been!

If you follow me on twitter or have sat with me for at least 30 seconds, then you'll know that I got a K-Mixer for Christmas... Isn't it pretty?

I love my K-Mixer, I really do, but I must admit that it's been something of a bad omen... perhaps I got too cocky, but ever since receiving it, everything I've made has gone wrong!

Let me explain...
On New Year's Eve I decided to make bread. Now I'm no dough expert, but I generally like to think, that I have skills enough to weigh my ingredients correctly. So this I did and everything was fine - so into the mixer it went to blend and kneed. So far, so good. As everything was going so marvelously well, I decided to carry on to the next stage, leaving it under a tea towel to rise for an hour.
Sixty minutes later, I came back and was faced with disaster one - The dough hadn't risen. Now I'm not exactly sure what the science behind bread making is, but I'm pretty certain that that's not meant to happen.

Upon discovering this, I was a little concerned, but nevertheless undetered, so continued to put it in the oven to bake. And you know what? it baked. It actually baked and for one brief moment, I allowed myself to believe that it would all be okay.

It wasn't...

I took the bread out, sliced a piece and spread it with butter... 'mmm warm bread, yum'.

However not all was well and as I bit into my wonderful slice of home made bread, I discovered it's fatal flaw. It tasted of nothing but salt.

I honestly don't have a clue how this happened, because like I said, I'm very good at measuring things correctly, all I know is that it went wrong. And so began the curse of the K-Mixer

Disaster two. Lemon Drizzle Cake, which tasted of nothing but egg (See above)

Okay this was my own fault, I shouldn't have missed out the ground almonds... or maybe it's the curse of the mixer? You think?

Disaster three - Not strictly a disaster because the cake was fine, but the icing was terribly runny and wouldn't solidify no matter how much icing sugar I put into the mixture. Coincidence? I think not!

Okay so maybe it's not the mixer, maybe it's just me, perhaps I'm just losing my touch. Whatever it is, I really hope it ends soon and things start turning out right again - Wish me luck!

Happy Baking!

X

The Afternoon Tea Club Goes Live!

As I mentioned in my post a couple of weeks ago, I'm currently in the process of starting up a tearoom review blog with my friend Laura...

Well I'm pleased to announce that The Afternoon Tea Club has now gone live and can be found here!

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Happy Baking!

X