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    Entries in blue (17)

    Sunday
    Aug282016

    Cinnamon Raisin Loaf: Rose's Bread Bible Bakers

    Cinnamon Raisin Loaf 'The Bread Bible' 

    Join me on Facebook    Fondant and chocolate work coming up in September.   

    It's almost Christmas, or so said a facebook count down post this week and this cinnamon raisin loaf from Rose Levy Beranbaum would be just the thing for Christmas or an anytime brunch.   

    It started with making a sponge... flour, water, honey and yeast were whisked until a thick airy batter was achieved. 

    The "sponge" is a yeast starter. I did mine in the mixer. 

    Next flour, dry milk powder and yeast were whisked together and sprinkled over the sponge. 

    Off it goes now to ferment, for 1 to 4 hours. 

    Bubbles broke through the flour blanket at the end of the fermenting stage.

    Onto the mixer now where softened butter is added to the fermented flour mixture and beaten until a rough dough forms. 

    A short rest follows, for that dough that is, but you do have time to get a cup of tea now. 

    Back to the mixer, salt is added and the dough beaten to it forms a smooth and shiny ball. 

    Yup, another short rest here. 

    And back to the mixer to add the raisins. I used a mixture of sultanas and currants. 

    After the raisins are added your dough goes off for a couple of hours to do the rising thing. Time for much tea or maybe a yoga class now. 

    Back from yoga and it's time turn out the dough, form a rectangle, business letter fold the dough whilst maintaining as much air a possible.  

    Covered, the dough goes into the fridge for now for an hour to firm up. I left mine for 24 hours at this stage to develop flavour. 

    Make your cinnamon sugar mixture.

    The dough is rolled out to the specified size in the book, Rose's recipe makes two loaves I made many mini loaves because we know I just like "mini food". 

    Beaten egg is brushed onto the rolled dough, cinnamon sugar is sprinkled on leaving a border unsugared. 

    Roll up you dough, just like we did for the sticky caramel buns last month. Place your rolled dough into greased tins to rise for one to two hours. 

    Time to bake!

    When the loaves are removed from oven and still in tins, melted butter is brushed on. 

    Sssshhhh! You aren't supposed to cut your hot bread but here is the a hot mini loaf with the cut crust off, wanted to see if the spiral worked. 

    Fantastic texture in this bread! Toasts beautifully, however it does burn quickly so keep an eye on it.

    I served mine toasted with fresh cheese, berries and maple syrup but it was equally delicious toasted with butter. I liked it fresh and unadorned too reminded me of panettone, a nice one not the slightly dodgy ones the supermarket sells at Christmas. 

    Would I change anything? No, perfect how it was.  

    Want another flavour? Rose has a savoury version in the book and suggests you can leave out the dried fruit if preferred.  A friend suggested candied peel could be added, yes if you like peel go for it. I think chopped dried dates, orange zest and swapping out the cinnamon for cardamom would result in lovely loaf. A versatile enriched base dough suits many flavour combinations.  

    Happy Baking :)  

    Today has been one of the 'Rose's Bread Bible Bakers' bakes where a group of fabulous bakers get together and bake from the pages of 'The Bread Bible'.

    The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum is available from Amazon and all discerning book stores. 

    You might also be interested in  A Trip to the Moon (French: Voyage dans la Lune) cupcake

    Sunday
    Jul192015

    Kourambiethes Rose's Alpha Bakers

    Kourambiethes (Greek Biscuits) 'The Baking Bible'

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    Aristotle wore an icing sugar moustache. 

    With a portly build and chubby hands, I was trying not to stare at the child sized more like a four year old than the eighteen month year old his parents professed him to be. That's how it began, my first after school job babysitting Aristotle in the back of the Greek delicatessen. 

    It was pre Christmas rush, time for freshly baked Kourambiethes. Trays of snowy white crescents and clove dotted balls drifted past, aromas of spiced oranges and roses trailing in the air... then again, it could have been Aristotle's breath!

    Today's bake from 'The Baking Bible' is Kourambiethes (Greek biscuits/cookies), a light shorbread usually made with the Greek brandy Metaxa in the recipe (orange juice if going alcohol free), with or without nuts these are always delicious and never more so than Rose's recipe that uses whipped clarified butter.  

    The recipe starts with clarifying the butter. Lots of butter!!

    Cubed butter is melted.

    Foam can be skimmed off the top of melted butter as your going if desired, using a spoon or a small slotted spoon being careful not to remove too much of the butter.

    Butter is strained through the muslin to remove all milk solids. 

    Chilled clarified butter is unmoulded ready to be chopped, transferred to a mixing bowl with icing sugar.

    My butter weight was short, perhaps due the ummm, zillion (or at least six) folds I made in the muslin. I had to melt more butter to strain to make up weight. I used food safe muslin, using food safe muslin rather than fabric from a fabric store ensures no chemicals unsafe for human consumption are used.

    Oh, better toast the almonds... these are what Australian's call slivered almonds this may differ in other countries, but it's what I toasted and then chopped.

    toasted chopped almonds

    Ten minutes mixing and you have a white fluffy butter mixture, egg yolks, brandy, vanilla are added before the chopped toasted almonds are mixed in and finally the flour and baking powder.

    After chilling the biscuit mixture is shaped into balls (I made the traditional crescent shapes too).

    Often garnished with a whole clove, you see these cookies at Christmas time and Pascha (Greek Easter), though I have had them at Greek Weddings too. 

    Keeping with tradition, I added a whole clove to the center of the round cookies. Despite the "tooth ache drops" smell when you open your cloves pack it won't taste like that once baked, what you get is a lovely touch of spice and a gentle spice aroma. 

    Wish you could taste these, the texture is so light and airy! Don't forget to remove your clove :)

    Would I bake again? Yes, love the light airy texture the clarified butter brings.

    Would I change anything? Yes, I like stronger flavours so I would add either rose water, orange water and orange zest. Salt... I'd add salt, all a bit sweet. Spices; would be nice with nutmeg, cardamom or experiment with teas and coffee. Break with tradition and change the nuts, have a peanut Greek biscuit, pipe on chocolate or perhaps top warm pistachio biscuits with freeze dried cherry dust. 

    How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

    The Baking Bible available from Amazon and all discerning book retailers. 

    You never know when you will need to make a fondant toe... a Cinderella stepsister toe cupcake

    Monday
    Jul062015

    Fourth of July Cheesecake Rose's Alpha Bakers 

    Today's post is Fourth of July Cheescake 'The Baking Bible' or "how I can wreck an amazing cheesecake with bad blueberries'

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    Ahhh I know better, I do, I do, don't use fruit/veg out of season.  And yet I went ahead and used the most expensive and awful winter blueberries with glass half full "oh, maybe it will be ok" mentality. It wasn't, ok that is.

    But, but, but it was the Fourth of July bake and kind of had to be (well did) have to be red, white and blue.

    I tasted the fresh blueberries, a locally grown winter crop. I was sad, they were bad (so I say apparently chanelling my inner Dr. Suess), that's when I decided to halve the recipe. Because we all know half a bad tasting blueberry topping is better than a full size???? Yep, I know doesn't make sense but at the time...

    "Hmmm" (this was me thinking), I don't have a half sized cheesecake pan, ok I would go with the mini cheesecake size like what I used for the Stilton Cheesecakes a few weeks ago... then I'd have the cooking time too.

    Divided (with a calculator, don't judge!!)

    Half the recipe makes exactly twelve mini cheesecakes. I prepared the pan, shortening on bases, disc of non stick baking paper and cooking spray the sides.

    exactly 12

    Half the red velvet cake batter ready to spread/baked in a flattish pan.

    I used a cookie cutter to cut cheesecake bases.

    Followed the rest of the recipe as in the full sized cheesecake by brushing bases with raspberry jam. Joined the base to the cake, made the dreamy creamy white chocolate frosting.

    Blueberries were bitter, yet tasteless with an "accidentally ate a garden weed" after taste. I made a compote with some of the blueberries hoping for sugar magic, there was no magic :( Now had blueberry compote that matched the fresh berries, it was bitter, yet tasteless with an "accidentally ate a garden weed" after taste.

    I spooned some compote onto frosted cheesecakes and topped with three whole berries (I only had 12 berries left whole) and got a friend to taste (keeping in mind I already knew berries were bad but there is always hope taste tester will love it!!!!)... yep, they didn't love it. A smiley face when they tasted the cheesecake and a "pulled face" when they got to berries.  

    Good news only enough berries for four cheesecakes and taste tester was appeased by taking the "naked" remaining cheesecakes home.  

    The cheesecake it's self is amazing, rich yet light in texture. The recipe is unusual with a higher proportion of sour cream to cream cheese and it's many egg yolks what you have is a "custard" a "cheesecake custard". A definite do again, ummm when it's summer here and blueberries are in season. 

    Australia Day is January 24th and our flag is red, white and blue too... perfect cheesecake for our summer celebration. 

    To see the full sized cheesecake with it's lovely blueberry topping 'Faithy' one of the other alpha bakers version here 

    Happy Baking :)

    How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what bread I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

    The Baking Bible  is available from Amazon and all discerning book stores.

    Would I bake again? Yes, I want my step son (a passionate cheesecake lover) to try it. Definetly for Australia day too, the light texture is surprising and sure to be a hit. 

    Would I change anything? I will invest in a half sized cheesecake pan... American cheesecakes are huge compared to what we usually have here.  

    You might also be interested in making a fondant raven or crow for Poe

    Tuesday
    Jun302015

    Sugar, Sugar … White Sugar Chart

                                   Love bite 'The Simpsons' cupcake

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    Years have gone by since I last saw an episode of 'The Simpsons', yet I nevertheless felt a sense of melancholia at the news Season 27 will see Marge and Homer legally separate... but hopefully it won't be for long. 

    Homer made me think of donuts, donuts made me think of icing and icing made me think of white sugar... so here we are a white sugar chart.

    1. White sugar (granulated) 2. Caster/Castor (superfine) 3. Pure icing sugar (pure confectioners sugar) 4. Icing sugar mixture (confectioners sugar with corn starch) 5. Pearl sugar (sugar nibs, hail sugar) 6. Snow sugar (snow powder) 7. &  8. Sanding sugar 

    1. White sugar (granulated), the most commonly used and versatile sugar of the bunch and in a pinch you can process granulated sugar into caster or icing sugar. White granulated is the sugar that you will use in much of your cake baking. With an approximate granule size of 0.5mm (0.19 inch) white sugar is the perfect size to aerate you cake batters. Use it to make toffee/pulled sugar work, caramel, cookies, confectionary and to sweeten your latte when you have decorating fatigue! 

    white sugar is used to make dropped sugar work (how to make toffee toppers here

    2. Caster sugar (superfine), is a used extensively in UK, Australian, New Zealand baking. With an approximate granule size of 0.35 (0.13 inch) it's what you use when you need your sugar to dissolve quickly, don't want to develop a sugar crust or need to dissolve in a cold liquid such as cocktails or punch. Using caster sugar in pavlovas will prevent the weeping that can occur with undissolved sugar crystals. 

    caster sugar is used in the blackberry bash meringue (recipe here)

    3. Pure icing sugar (pure confectioners sugar). I use this the most in cake decorating, it's what I use to make my icings, for dusting, piping and for rolling fondant out on. Pure icing sugar is granulated white sugar ground to a powder, it has no additives so is perfect for royal icing work, and sets to a firm finish when making a heated glace icing. It is however "lumpy" without the additives to separate the tiny granules and will always need to be sifted.

    glace icing like I used today in the Love bite cupcake and this raspberry cupcake (recipe here)

    4. Icing sugar mixture (confectioners sugar). Hate sifting or have young cake decorating kids? This is the icing mixture for you with no lumps, fuss or need for sifting. Soft icing sugar mixture is comprised of 96% cane sugar and 4% tapioca or maize starch in Australia. You cannot use icing sugar mixture for royal icing work as the starches can develop mould. The starches also inhibit "setting" that you get with heated pure icing sugar. 

    pure icing sugar and soft icing mixture

    5. Pearl sugar (nibs, hail sugar), is a popular European sugar. Pearl sugar is resistant to melting so you will see it used topping brioches, choquettes and yeasted buns. My step son Daniel and I love this sugar for it's crunch and the touch of sweetness that it adds without being overly sweet. 

    6. Snow sugar (snow powder, everlasting sugar). Another popular European sugar, snow sugar is the sugar you use at Christmas for your stollens, snowy Christmas cookies and the like. Shipping your aunt a batch of cookies? snow sugar will ensure they will be as white and snowy as when you packed them. Perfect for stencilling too as your pattern won't disappear. Ingredients in snow sugar differ a little brand to brand, the one I use has a little cornstarch, dextrose and vegetable fat added to pure icing sugar.  It has a less sweet mouth feel than icing sugar alone. 


    pearl sugar used in recent brioche post 

    snow sugar is perfect for Christmas stollens and stencilled sugar designs

    7. and 8. Sanding sugar, coarse white sugar available in different grades. With a sparkly finish, sanding sugar is used for decorating cakes, cookies and sprinkled on raw shortbreads/butter cookies before baking. Sanding sugar comes in a wide range of colours to suit any occassion including Halloween!! 

    black sanding sugar glistens on Halloween cupcake

    Happy Baking :)  

    Friday
    Mar202015

    Come on get Happy Partridge Family cupcakes

                                                  come on get happy partridge family cupcakes

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    Ear worm: An earworm, sometimes known as a brainworm, is a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing  wikipedia 

    Isn't it the worst thing (ok not the worst thing, but come with me here) when a song or jingle gets stuck in your head. 

    I saw a bright yellow fluffy Easter chick in a half shell at the supermarket, that made me think of The Partridge Family opening credits, which led me to singing in my head 'C'mon get Happy' for the rest of the day. I didn't know all the lyrics so it was "Hello world dah duh dah GET HAPPY" :D  

    Having a 70's theme party? Or perhaps you mum still has her David Cassidy posters and you want to make her some partridges...   

    fondant coloured with blue, yellow and red

    Trivia; the artwork on the partridge family bus was inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian a dutch artist 1872-1944 

    Start with brightly colouring your fondant, I've used Americolor gel pastes today: electric blue, yellow, pink, purple, red red for the fondant and bright white for the toothpicks I used for the legs. A black food marker was used for the eyes. 

    My partridges shaped from white fondant are "chubby" because I thought it was cuter. 

    I started with this shape and pulled the top over to one side. Insert half a white food colour painted toothpick for each leg on the small partridges. 

    toothpicks painted with white food colour... make sure people know there is toothpicks in these cakes

    Roll out your pre coloured fondant, cut into tear drop shapes (for the large bird I used a round cutter and trimmed to shape). Dampen the back of your partridges and apply coloured fondant shapes. Draw eyes on with a black food marker. Insert the birds into prepared cakes. Roll a small piece of white fondant into a snake shape, cut small pieces off to make birds feet. Apply feet by slightly dampening ends and pressing on base of legs, use a spare tooth pick to secure the feet in place.  

    All done except for song 'C'mon get Happy'  

    and Happy Baking :)  

    Chocolate Hot Cross buns anyone? Recipe here

    Planting an Easter garden you will need quick chocoalte soil 

    Friday
    Nov042011

    An Australian Kind of Christmas Cupcake

                    an Australian kind of Christmas cupcake

    Without a large showing for Halloween and no Thanksgiving, Australians go into "Christmas mode" very early. Christmas work parties are on, shopping centres are crowded and puddings are being boiled. 

    Blue skies promise a hot and sunny Christmas and your not Australian if you haven't sat outside perspiring on a 40 Celsius (104 F) Christmas day, swatting away flies and eating a steaming hot bowl of your Aunt's special Christmas Pudding. 

    Regardless of the hot weather we hold onto our British heritage, so along with the BBQ prawns and couscous salad there will be a hot roast turkey dinner or two, puddings, shortbreads, fruit mince pies and national dishes from the many different nationalities that make up Australia. 

    It can all make for a hodge podge type of meal, but I love it and it's "us"... we have hot roast turkey and duck fat roasted potatoes and all the trimmings plus we have cold seafood and salads. Chocolate peppermint ice-cream pudding for dessert, with left overs and hot puddings to be served on Boxing Day. 

    Today's Koala holding onto a Christmas pudding cupcake is topped partly with fondant and part fondant/modelling chocolate. The 50/50 fondant modelling chocolate is easy to work with when making figures, I do like white fondant for the white details. Happy Baking :)

    The modelling chocolate recipe I used is here

    Hubby Mark is 41 and still hasn't seen snow... but he does love Frosty the snowman.

    Sunday
    Oct022011

    Baby Blue Birds of Happiness Cupcake

                                    baby blue birds of happiness cupcake

    The Bluebird of Happiness; It is a widely accepted symbol of cheerfulness, happiness, prosperity, hearth and home, good health, new births, the renewal of springtime, etc. Virtually any positive sentiments may be attached to the bluebird.

    blue bird of happiness wikipedia

    Join me on Facebook, I'd love to see you there! 

    "Egg birds" a quick little fondant bird that you can pop in a nest. Today it's bluebirds, though I also make white versions of these birds with a closed beak and an added comb for Easter chickens. 

    Start by rolling small egg shapes out of blue fondant. 

    Then roll out modelling paste/flower paste in different shades of blue. With small scissors (I have two pairs of nail scissors in my cake dec kit, one pair curved and one straight) cut feather shapes for the wings. Make incisions in each feather shape to mimic a real feather. Attach three feathers to each side of your birds with water or cake/flower glue. 

    Roll a small amount of white fondant into balls for the eyes and attach. Shape a small amounts of orange fondant or modelling paste into beaks and attach. Allow to dry for a few hours before drawing black dots on the eyes with a food marker. My egg birds don't have feet, but of course you could add them if desired.

    For the nest, using a clay gun extrude brown/chocolate fondant or modelling paste with the finest hair disc. Shape sections into nests, keeping a few single strands to one side. Allow to dry for a few hours before attaching to the top of your cakes with cake glue. Tuck in pieces of your reserved strands to create a "twiggy" nest look.

    Put a small rolled round (dampened both sides) piece of fondant inside the nest, position your birds in the nest. Allow to dry for a few hours. 

    Oh, and if you would like to make marbled fondant it's very easy, just twist together your desired amount of colours. The more you twist, the more muted the colours will become. Roll out.

    Happy Baking :)

    You might also be interested in all the shapes a clay gun can make!!

    Dippy Hippy and Clay Gun Shapes

    Thursday
    Sep222011

    Cupcake Cases, Liners, Papers & Wrappers 

    Cupcake liners can match your theme, just be pretty or act as an inspiration like these two gorgeous cupcake case entries featured today. 

    I'm now on facebook too!

    Ok, these are super cute aren't they? Going dotty with polka dot free-standing cases. These cases can be used for small desserts, ice-cream to hold lollies, nuts or for baking cupcakes. They do have a plastic film interior coating and are made in a wide range of colours to match your theme. 

    Available from The Party Studio (AU) and Bake it Pretty (US) 

    In case you missed these on facebook... gorgeous SK butterfly cupcake cases.

    Available in a range of colours from Squires Kitchen (UK)

    I have a new "good luck' baking charm in the form of a Momiji doll :)

    Momiji (pronounced mom-ee-jee) are collectible hand painted resin message dolls. The adorable dolls are given as small gifts to show friendship and love, each one has a place in the bottom for a hidden message.

    My Momiji 'Pixie' came packaged in a noodle box and is available from Tesora (AU)  

    and Amazon (US)  

    Happy Baking :)

    you might also be interested in...

    vestli house cupcake cases

    or brights

    Sunday
    Sep112011

    Blue Heaven, have we grown up?

     

     blue heaven milkshake and raspberry and vanilla macarons 

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    When I was experimenting with fruit loop cupcakes this week I was surprised to hear how many adults still start their day with a bowl of fruit loops! I fell into the other camp of "oh, they so sweet and artificially coloured!" I can't believe I ever ate them".  Ha! This was as I bit into my artifically coloured and very sweet macaron.

    I wondered if any of us really grow up at all? Are macarons the fruit loops for grown ups?

    Whether it's a pink frosted cupcake, purple macaron or that spearmint green ice-cream cone you like so much, chances are it's the artificial colour that attracted you and the sugary sweet taste that soothes your inner child. 

    'Blue Heaven' milkshakes are an Aussie icon, I loved the blue milky frothiness  as a child and had absolutely no idea what flavour they were. Recent taste testing in our house led to guesses of vanilla/strawberry, vanilla/pineapple, berries; no one had the same answer so I rang McKenzie's the manufacturer of the syrup during the week to find out "What flavour is Blue Heaven" and the answer is... Vanilla Raspberry.  

    If you are having a retro moment and are planning on serving milkshakes to adults, try going "small" with the serving size; a stomach full of milk loses some of it's appeal as an adult. Baby food jars are perfectly sized for job, as we have no baby at home I buy the apple puree and use the puree in cake recipes. 

    Glass baby food jars perfect for milkshakes, mini layered desserts right through to baked chocolate custards.

    That's it for today, happy Baking :)

    you might also be interested in Raspberry Marshmallow

    Monday
    Dec132010

    Baking Straight Cupcakes

                              peace on earth cupcake


    I was thrilled to be invited to give a ten question interview on the gorgeous blog "Haniela's", pop on over and read the interview here and whilst there don't miss Haniela's too, too beautiful Christmas cookie collection!! 

    "Ignorance is bliss"

    Wow, if you use gmail you'll know it stacks your emails under what google call "conversation" view. I turned off conversation view today and now I'm feeling sick! I've only answered the first and second mail from each batch coming from The Lone Baker, I didn't realise there was more mails in the "stack". I think we can safely say that I'm being cursed all around the world for not answering the July wedding emergency emails! Sorry ):

    One of the most popular questions is "how do you bake your cupcakes to look so straight". I do like the look of straight sides on a cupcake and really came across how to do it when I was tackling the other most asked question "cupcake case fall". 

    There is three elements to baking cupcakes with straight sides; 

    Firstly the cupcake tin/pan... I use Wilton, it's not the heaviest/best quality tin on the market but the cup holes have straighter sides.

                        Wilton cupcake tin

    Secondly the liner... You're looking for liners that have straighter sides, higher too if possible.

     

                the centre liner has higher sides

    the centre liner is less flared & perfect for straight cupcakes


                    

                               the fit of the liner

    These cupcake liners in the pan demonstrate liners "fit", the black fox run liner fits perfectly into the tin, the donna hay liner will drop into pan hole with the weight of the batter and the last one is a Wilton case that does not fit the Wilton pan! Note the folding around the edges that happens once it is weighted, this is exactly how they bake with over half the cupcakes I baked with these liners having folds around the side. 

    Thirdly the batter... You need a cupcake batter that isn't too high in fat, (butter, cream, oil, chocolate) so the double choc sour cream cupcake won't be as straight as a sponge or standard cupcake batter. Also avoid the liquid batters that you pour into the cases if you are after straight cupcakes. 

    All these elements will also reduce to eliminate "case fall" too. Other tips for reducing case fall is to remove the cupcakes from the tin as soon as possible to reduce "sweating"; moisture from being left to cool in the pan and humidity can both lead to case fall. Also you might be tempted to under-fill the cases with cake batter so you have more decorating room once baked, however under-filled cases can lead to case fall simply because the case doesn't have enough cake batter to grip onto. 

    Those dreaded minis and that "case fall"

    Alas too late??  I've found a type of mini cupcakes cases that don't fall... I've tried three batters in them, left them to dry, tested refrigerated and froze/defrosted and they've stayed in place. They are the "minis" part of the High Tea range.

    Since they have the same base diameter, it has to be the height of the case that is keeping the case on. 

    Now we come the "alas" part; I went to buy more and I can't find them now, the standard sized 'High tea' range is everywhere but not the mini's... if you have spotted them please let everyone know. 

    It's always nice to get thank you emails and this is an especially nice one from Sophie;

    Subject: Thankyou
    Message: Hi,
     My name is 
    Sophie,
     I am 11 years old,
     I would just like to say thank you for giving me this great advice on how to clean my toffee pan because I couldn't find any other way.
    So Thank you
    Bye

    Thank you Sophie, glad I could be of some help :) 

    Clean you toffee pan the easy way

     You may also be interested in Twirly Swirly Chocolate Decoration ... fab for New Year & Celebrations; 

    Lastly, thank you everyone who phoned/text/messaged/emailed condolence messages on the passing of our beloved 'Marvin the Pug'. He was our darling boy. 

    Back mid week with more Christmas goodies. Happy Baking :)

    Stockists:

    Dove cupcake pick by Birchcraft has now been discontinued... a shame, their metal cupcake picks were lovely... today's dove I painted the toothpick with blue lustre edible paint. Do look for metal charms, scrap booking pieces or metallic dresden's to turn into cupcake picks, you'll end up with something unique & perfect for gift giving. 

    Wilton cupcakes tins ; Australia Everten Online  UK Cakes, Cookies and Crafts  US