Birthday Weekend

This weekend was Mr P's birthday, yesterday to be precise. The weather was cooler than it has been, but still nice for the time of year so we all got out in the garden. We're getting prepared for the arrival of our new hens later this week (fingers crossed). When we first moved up, Bruno was in his 'Houdini' stage and regularly escaped from the garden so we completely blocked off the back and it's stayed that way ever since. Removing the boarding and cutting back the trees behind have added about 5-6 feet to the length of our garden and it's in this space that we will be putting the hen house. It's shady spot under the enormous tree that grows at the end of our garden and the ground underneath seems to have done very well by being left to nature. Hopefully it will be perfect for the hens to scratch around in.

There was quite a lot of dried up old wood so we decided to have a small bonfire. It certainly took the chill out of the air and the children went off to the corner shop in search of marshmallows.

Toasted Marshmallows on our camp fire

It was lovely all being out in the garden, everyone was helping in their own way and Mr P was working incredibly hard as we had to remove a 2 metre concrete post that turned out to be buried a metre into the ground making it 3 metres of concrete that weighed a ton! The time went so quickly and it was only when I popped back into the house that I realised it was close to 8pm and none of us had eaten since lunch, apart from the marshmallows! Time flies as the saying goes.

Yesterday we'd planned a visit to Jodrell Bank for Mr P's birthday. His parents came along too and the weather was lovely despite the cool breeze.

The Lovell Telescope

A printout of readings being taken by the telescope

Interactive touch-screen learning

Dinner after a lovely day

We headed back to Mr P's parents after a nice meal to round off the day.
I'd made some Rolo Cupcakes for Mr P's birthday. They were similar to the Snickers Cupcakes I'd made for him before but instead of peanut butter in the icing I used dulce de leche in the butter cream & topped them off with a Rolo.

So all in all we had a lovely weekend and best of all it doesn't end there. The children are on Easter holidays and Mr P is off with us all week, so there are plenty more adventures to come I'm sure.

Bitter Sweet - Mothers Day

It would have been hard to miss the fact that yesterday was Mothering Sunday. Shops full of cards and flowers, adverts all over the TV and radio, but as someone who has lost their Mum, it's all a bit too much to take.

I lost my lovely Mum around 15 months ago and as anyone who has lost a loved one will tell you, some days are harder than others. The weekend surrounding Mothers Day was incredibly hard for me.

In some ways it's made even harder by the fact that I too am a Mum, so the day could not be ignored. The children wanted to make a fuss of me by making breakfast and giving me their lovely home made cards and gifts. Mr P arranged for some flowers from them all and it would have been very wrong for me to deny them 'their' Mothers Day.

Everyone pitched in and took on the tasks that are usually mine (laundry, dishwasher duties, cooking, cleaning etc) and made sure that I really did have a restful day.

The only task I carried out was to decorate some cakes that I had made for Mr P's Mum. The bitter/sweet part of this was, I got to use my Mum's vintage Kenwood Chef for the first time. I only wish I'd been making cakes for both our Mums.

Mothers Day Cupcakes

I know I am very lucky. I have beautiful children and a wonderful partner who love me very much and wanted to give me a special day, I just wish I had my Mum too, and my Dad for that matter. I still need them. There are so many things I want to share with them, tell them, but I can't. You know the day will come, when you're parents are no longer with you, but fortunately for most that day isn't until you're well on your way in life. In some ways I feel like my life is just starting and they'll never know anything about it.

Valentines Craft and Bake 2012

As part of my 'trying new things' I wanted to start taking part in other peoples blog hops or competitions, not so much for the chance of winning but just to take part and get involved.

The lovely Jacqueline at Cakeboule set up a 'Virtual Valentine craft and bake competition' where she invited anyone to take part and enter either craft or bake entries on a Valentines theme.

Mr P and I don't really 'do' Valentines, not because we're unromantic, but just because we don't feel the need for a special day to say I love you. Flowers are over priced and restaurants are over booked and it's all got a bit commercial. What we do try and do it have date nights at home, where either one of us cooks for the other or we cook together. The children go to bed early (they don't mind at all and even tell me off if I don't get dressed up!) and we have some 'us' time.

All that said, I was more than keen to take part in Jacqueline's competition. I am as soppy as they come and I love a bit of romance. As Jacqueline will be away for Valentines day she's asked that all the entries are in early, which I think is great as it might give other people ideas of things that they could make or do rather than go down the commercial route.

So craft or bake???? Hmmmmm.........I did both!

I always give my children a gift on Valentines day. Nothing big, in fact sometimes it might just be a heart shaped lolly and a home made card, but it's a little reminder that I love them very very much and it makes them feel involved in something that usually passes children by.

For the children I made keyrings or bagcharms whatever they decide to use them for. They were quite simple to make and I think they'll like them, but these I will save for Valentines day itself.

4 Hearts for our 4 Sweethearts

They're made from soft red fleece, stuffed just a little bit and then embellished or embroidered. I had real trouble getting just the 'ring' bit of a keyring (got them now from trusty old eBay!) So I bought keyring blanks.

Then for the baking. I had so so many ideas in my head and I wanted to make them all, but I managed to narrow it down to two bakes that I made today.

First was this heart shaped chocolate cake, topped with chocolate ganache and a simple message. Mr P does love chocolate, so what better way to say I Love You, than on a chocolate cake?

Then I made these Cupcakes, so that everyone could enjoy a little bit of love in cake form!

I made rose one's with little handmade roses and edible red glitter

I made swirly one's again with my handmade roses, but no glitter

And Heart-topped ones too

So this is how I've chosen to remind the one's I love, just how much I love them and not just on Valentines day, but all year round.

Some of the other entries to the competition are amazing and very varied indeed. I really look forward to seeing them all once they're in. And if you want to enter, it's not too late. The closing date isn't until 4th Feb 2012 and I know Jacqueline would welcome new comers. Pop over to Cakeboule if you fancy joining in.

Cake of the week

I don't always have an entry to Helen's Cake of The Week Blog but this week I have two!!! (well. sort of!)

The first are my pink & pretty Cupcakes made for MB's Birthday that I blogged here. She turned 8 and she was really pleased with them

And next up are my Raspberry and White Chocolate profiteroles. An idea I came up with a while ago but the sauce gave me trouble. This weekend I cracked it. You can read here how Mr P and I got it sorted and made these beautifully light little mouthfuls filled with a pretty pink raspberry cream......Mmmmm!

So there you are, not 1 but 2 and one not technically a cake!
Make sure you pop over to Casa Costello to see the other entries too.

So Far So Good....

I'm determined for this year to be a good one. I feel like we're due one, but I also realise that you can't just sit back and wait for good things to happen. There are certain things that I hope will happen, but they are not in my control. So while I watch and wait I'm going to make some good things happen, little things but who knows where they will lead?
I wrote a New Year blog post and I have to say the amount of lovely comments, messages and emails I received really gave me a boost. Everyone commented on what a positive post it was, I had said in it that one of my aims was to be more positive about things and once you write something in a blog and tell the world about it, you have to do it....right?
I'd like to think I've had less downs and more ups, it certainly feels that way and yes I know it's only the middle of January but that's me being positive!

This year I'm going to try and say Yes more. Yes to more things that I want to do. It's no secret that I haven't made many any friends since moving North and that's not because I'm not friendly or approachable, the opportunity just hasn't arisen. Drop off at two separate schools to start with didn't help, nor did finding a job where you work alone in a different location everyday, so how do you make friends?

I met four amazing ladies (Juju, Julia, Helen and Fran)  through the wonder that is Twitter and met up with three of them in Manchester at the Christmas markets. It was like meeting up with old friends, not new ones and the only downside is that we're pretty spread out in terms of where we live, but that won't stop us meeting up as and when we can. I class them as real friends and I'm very much looking forward to meeting up again very soon.
Helen, who lives closest to me, couldn't make the markets, but had previously asked me along to a Clandestine Cake Club. I didn't go. If I'm honest I was too shy to go along. I would have known no one and I had no one to take either so I didn't go (Sorry H x)
 I've previously let too many things pass me by, well not any more!
Helen, amazing lady that she is, was setting up a new branch of The WI and again asked me along. I ummed and arred  about going, as again I would know no one and had yet to meet Helen face to face, but other than that I could find no reason not to go. I had a word with myself. For work I stood up infront of a hall full of strangers on a daily basis and yet I was stalling going somewhere to meet like minded people in my area. So that settled it, I told Helen I'd be there and went along to the meeting.
At the meeting I of course met Helen, in person and sat myself next to a lady, who happens to live very close to me indeed! We'll meet once a month, but there will be sub groups set up with the opportunity to learn new skills or crafts and share interests too. Suddenly I don't feel so alone.

And I've also signed up to go to the next meeting of a local CCC  where the theme is Patron Saint of Cakes. I have no clue what cake I will make and take along, so suggestions welcome! But as the organiser pointed out, it's not a competition, it's just for fun. Fun......yes....I think I remember how that works!

So that will be two new things I've joined or taken part in this month already!
I'm also set on making foodie things that I've never made or maybe never tried before. Some of them are simple, like tomato soup! No, I had never made it before, not until last weekend, that is. As for cakes I want to look more at using royal icing or sugar paste to decorate small and larger cakes. I've never tried, so today I took a tiny step in that direction and made some cupcakes for MB's birthday. I usually just do swirly butter icing but today I did some with Royal icing too.

I hope she'll like them. I've got a little glittery pink '8' candle to stick in the top cake for her.

On the sewing front I aim to make my first garment. I've had the pattern and the fabric for months, just been putting off trying it. Not for much longer, well until next week. It's only comfy pants or house trousers for my girls, but as M pointed out to me the other day if I don't make them soon, she'll have outgrown the pattern!

So, I think it's so far so good on the 'new' front...I wonder what else new will come from there first steps I've taken? New friends, new crafts, new skills.....who knows, but it's all very exciting!

Sticky Ginger Cupcakes

A while back I posted a RBOK, Random Bake of Kindness for Stuart,(the lovely man from the garage who fixed my car in about an hour without it being booked in) and his staff. Well I've been baking for him again!
We looked into getting my car converted from petrol to LPG. Stuart gave us advice and put us in touch with another local garage who carries out such work. He took Mr P to the other garage to see about getting it converted AND more amazingly he loaned me a car while the other garage carried out the work. What does Stuart get out of all this.........nothing. He hasn't charged for his time, or for lending me the car, without which I would not have been able to get to work this week. So I felt more cake was in order.
I decided on some kind of ginger cake. No particular reason, I just felt like it!

I looked on line for a ginger cup cake recipe and found this one. It's not from a blog I follow, or anyone I know I just found it randomly. My only question was how many cakes would it make? The answer to the question is 17 nice sized cupcakes.
I substituted chrystallised stem ginger for the kind in syrup, as that's what I had. It worked fine and I cooked them for about 17 minutes. Other than that I followed the recipe.
We taste tested one last night and they were nice. Moist and gingery, perfectly acceptable.
I decided to pipe them with cream cheese frosting and when I went to the tub to get them out the smell was devine. They had developed a sticky top and when I taste tested *cough* an iced one the flavour was totally different. They had improved in taste tenfold! They were now so much nicer than nice. They were a cake that I was reluctant to give away!

I topped off the cream cheese frosting with a tiny slice of stem ginger and seeing as I had made another cake to go with the cupcakes, I only gave away half a dozen.

Boxed up and ready to go

 The other cake was my old favourite that I've blogged about before, an almond and fruit cake just in case they don't like ginger.


Once again I almost lost my blog post in cyberspace and I've managed to retrieve it but it's a mess! So if you've read down this far, I thank you!  

 

Bowling Cupcakes

I'm going to be cheeky and double up on this blog as these cakes are also my entry to this weeks Cake of the week.

This week sees the last of my three children's birthdays for another year. M was happy with a shop bought cake, thank goodness, as her birthday is in the first week of the new academic term, always a busy time. (I've vowed that I will make her one next year, no matter what!) L asked for a Horse cake which she helped me to make although again because of work it was a little late. But she didn't mind and it was my first entry to the Cake of the week blog.
So next is R's birthday. It's actually on Wednesday but he had his party yesterday, so for him the cakes came early! He originally asked for a chocolate tray bake covered in sweeties but I didn't have a tin that was a good size. They were all too big or too small so I suggested chocolate cupcakes instead and luckily he agreed! I told him to leave it with me and I promised him I'd make them special.
I baked the cupcakes on the Friday night using my usual recipe and then sat down to see if I could pull off my idea.
I was originally going to transfer the sweetie topping idea from the tray bake to the cupcakes but then, from nowhere the idea of Bowling Balls and Bowling Pins came into my head. Well, I say from nowhere, R was having a Bowling party but the idea to put the theme onto the cakes just seemed to pop into my head. I like it when that happens!
So I bought a small pack of ready coloured icing and a pack of white icing and once all the children were tucked up in bed I attempted to make the cake toppers.

Fiddly to make but I really enjoyed it 

The next morning I was up early to decorate the cakes. I piped them with swirls of chocolate butter cream and popped on either a bowling ball or pin to each cake.

Cakes ready to go in the early morning sun

Set up at the party

I was very pleased with how they turned out and so was R. His little face when I showed him the toppers when he got up that morning was worth all the effort. He had a lovely party with his sisters and friends and he still has his actual birthday to come!

My Little boy, not sure how much longer he'll let me call him that!

RBOK - Chocolate Orange Marble Cupcakes

RBOK or Random Bakes Of Kindness is a lovely idea that was started by Vanessa Kimbell. The idea is quite simply that you bake double of whatever you are making, keep one half and gift the other to someone you feel deserves a treat, for whatever reason. I loved this idea and I already quite often share my baking with the neighbours on either side of our house, as a thank you for taking a parcel in or just because I've made something I know the little ones or indeed the big ones will enjoy. I wasn't sure I'd officially take part, until the other day.

I think it's fair to say I've been having a tough time of things lately. I'm dealing with some very difficult family issues and I have been poorly for about three weeks. Work is......uncertain to say the least with potentially more uncertainty to come. Our aged cat took a turn for the worse (glad to say he's now fully recovered) and the fridge freezer is dying a slow death. Add to this three children with birthdays and it gets pretty stressful!

So can you imagine my horror when, whilst driving M to her theatre group a warning light started flashing on the dashboard of my car and to my dismay it started spluttering as we drove along. Once we'd arrived at our destination I looked at the manual and it seems it was something to do with the emissions or exhaust. I know nothing about cars but I knew this could not be a good thing and would probably be very costly, as cars tend to be. I was also worried as without my car I cannot work and if I don't work I don't get paid. Arghhh!!
Seriously......how much more could I take?
The following day I wasn't working as I had to attend court. I was meeting Mr P before hand as he was coming with me. Next to his work there is a garage. From the outside it's like a car grave yard, there are whole cars and parts of cars piled up and lining the drive. The owner is an older man, who under his overalls wear a shirt and tie. Walking into a garage, knowing I know nothing about cars, would fill me with dread, but this is the garage that has been looking after my car since the move north so I went in with Mr P. There was no sharp intake of breath, no muttering or tutting that you sometimes get in these situations, just a simple " leave it with us and we'll take a look" The owner had even agreed to lend me one of their cars if they needed to keep mine for more than the day. We left it there and headed off for our appointment. We came back less than two hours later and the lady from the garage waved us over as we passed by. My car was ready! Fixed and running like new, they had dropped everything  to look at my car. It turns out it was something quite simple, a part that needed replacing and they'd done it straight away. I was so relieved.

That's when I decided to do my first proper RBOK.
So this morning, just under a week later I baked a large batch of chocolate orange marble cupcakes, not something I'd made before, or had a recipe for, but that's what popped into my mind. So after the school run I whipped up a batch.
The recipe I came up with was this

200g unsalted butter
200g light soft brown sugar
200g self raising flour
4 eggs
4 tblsp milk
2 tblsp cocoa powder
zest of an orange
1 tsp natural orange essence

Place all the ingredients into the food processor, apart from the cocoa, zest and orange essence.
Once everything is combined put half of the mixture in a separate bowl. To the mixture that is left in the food processor add the cocoa and mix. To the mixture in the bowl, finely grate the orange zest and add the essence. Mix well.
I used 24 cake cases. They're an odd size from Ikea, not as big as muffins but bigger than fairy cakes. I might only make 18/20 in future.
Put a large teaspoon of each mixture into the cake cases. Take a skewer and swirl the two mixtures slightly.
Bake on 180c/gas4 for about 15-17 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
I topped some of the cakes with a little melted chocolate, but they're nice left plain too.

Marble cupcakes

Once cooled I popped nine cakes into a cake box and six into a plastic tub. I drove to the garage and found the owner in the office talking to his sister who also works there.I gave them the box of nine cakes and explained that I simply wanted to say thank you. I don't think I've ever seen two people more surprised to receive a gift! They really were genuinely delighted and a little taken back!
Next stop was Mr P's work, just next door. I was collecting some hedgehog boxes that he's made to donate to Warrington hedgehog rescue. I swapped him two hog houses for six cakes to share with his colleagues. He seemed happy with that and a few minutes after leaving I got a cheeky text asking what I'd be dropping off tomorrow!
 There are still some cakes left at home for the children to have after school or in their lunch boxes. It felt really nice to be able to make so many people smile, it could get addictive!

The lady in the garage, who I now know is called Barbara made a really good point. She said "So often you go out of your way to help people and it's so rare that they really appreciate it" At least they know I did!

Click here

Snicker cupcakes

It's been a while since I've had the chance to get creative in the kitchen and this idea has been in my mind for a while. Due to today's strikes my booking was cancelled and the children were at home. The weather ruined our chances of going to the PYO so what better than an afternoon in the kitchen.
Mr P, my partner has a sweet tooth I blogged about his birthday cupcakes and the Oreo cupcakes that followed Here. The Oreo ones set his mind to work wondering what other of his favourites I could turn into Cupcake creations. Next came a request for Malteaser cupcakes, which I'm pleased to say turned out well. Then came the request for Snicker cupcakes. Hmmm! I had to think about this one. Not so easy to blitz up a snickers bar to add to the mixture and anyway, I'd done that! No, these needed to be different.
So this is what I came up with.

I started with my usual Chocolate Cupcake recipe and made 12 cakes.

Cooling off in a sunny spot

Once they'd cooled I took a knife and cup into the tops.

Use a nice sharp knife

Cut in a round as if you were making 'TopHat' cakes

Put each top back on to it's cake, so as not to mix them up and set each one aside while you cut the rest.
Take a teaspoon and fill each hole with a teaspoon of caramel.

Pop the lid back on to each cake. Don't worry if some of the caramel oozes out, it will be hidden under the icing!

Speaking of icing, this one's not for the feint hearted!
I made half my usual quantity of Butter Cream icing (200g Butter, 400g Icing Sugar, splash of milk) and added to it a whole jar of crunchy Peanut Butter (or Peanutterbut as it's known in our house!) I found it better to make up the Butter cream first and then stir in the Peanut butter. You want to thoroughly combine it but don't over mix it.
Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe your icing as usual.

I topped them off with a slice of a mini snickers bar. In fact they were treat size Nutty Bars from Asda. I popped them in the fridge to firm them up, making them easier to slice.

I was really pleased with how they looked. They'd turned out pretty much as I'd hoped. But as they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating!

Oozy caramel centres

The family all really liked them, even R who is not a huge cake fan and doesn't like Peanut Butter.

I only ate a half. I'm watching my weight (again!) and I calculated the cost in calories of these little beauties and they come in at slightly under 500 calories each!  I wonder what suggestions Mr P will give me next???

Malteaser Cupcakes

Mr P liked the Oreo Cookie Cupcakes so much that he started making suggestions for other chocolate based ideas. Malteasers were the order of the day. But rather than make my usual chocolate cupcake recipe and just top it off with butter cream icing and a Malteaser or two, (which to be honest would feel like a bit of a cop out) I wanted to make the actual cake part of the cupcake taste malty too.

So I devised a new recipe for a cupcake and crossed my fingers that it would work! I added some crushed Malteasers & some Horlicks powder into the cake mix.

Ingredients
150g Butter/Stork
150g Dark Brown Soft Sugar
150g Self raising flour
3 eggs
75g blitzed Malteasers
3tbsp milk
50g Horlicks powder

I used a whole 230g Share bag of Malteasers in this recipe. Save about 15 for topping the cakes then freeze the rest for a while. I found this really helps when it comes to crushing them.
take out 75g of Malteasers from the freezer and crush. You can do this either in a food processor

Blitzed Malteasers in the processor

or just pop them in a plastic bag, place between a tea-towel and bash with a rolling pin. Such a great stress reliever!

Remove from the processor, if that's the method used and put to one side.

Cream the butter & sugar.

Add the eggs one at a time with a tbsp of flour.

Add the rest of the flour, mix well.

Add the milk, mix.

Add the Horlicks powder and blitzed Malteasers.

You should get a lovely almost toffee coloured cake batter like this.....

Pour into muffin size cases. I got about 15 out of the mixture and put an ice cream scoop of mixture into each one

Bake in a preheated oven at 180c/160c fan/Gas 4 for 20 minutes.

Test with a skewer, if it comes out clean they're done. (Don't forget they have chocolate in, don't mistake melted chocolate for undercooked cake!)

Golden cakes fresh from the oven

Put the cakes on a wire rack to cool.

Take the remaining Malteasers from the freezer and blitz using your preferred method. Make up Butter cream  with 250g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar a splash of milk and the Malteasers. Fill a large piping bag & use a whippy nozzle. Pipe the tops of the cakes like this

Don't worry if you don't get perfect swirls, the bits in the icing make it tricky sometimes

Top with Malteasers

Malteaser Tower

You end up with a lovely Cupcake that gives you a malty aftertaste and a rich butter cream topping. Yum!

Enjoy!