Cake and Bake Show 2013

Back in September, myself and my ladies spent a day at Earl's Court sampling cake, cocktails and stalking Great British Bake Off contestants. Here are a few photos from our day...

A Selection of Delectable Stalls

 Showstopping Cake Displays

 

 

Intricate Cakes inspired by Fashion through the Ages

Winner's Bake Off Live featuring John Whaite and Edd Kimber

Me meeting Edd Kimber - so exciting!  

A Georgie Porgie Thank You

Hi everyone. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your support and I really hope that you're enjoying my blogging adventures as much as I am. When I started this blog, it was just to fill up my spare time but it's become so much more than that. I would never have realised I had so much potential when it comes to food and cookery if it wasn't for this platform and it's given me a great opportunity to develop myself creatively. It's also opened quite a few doors for me professionally speaking - something that I had never thought was possible through something as personal as blogging, but for this I will be forever greatful. So consider this my thank you to everyone who has supported Puddings and Pies and made it all worthwhile. 

For one lucky winner, I will be personally handcrafting (with love) a big, sticky, gooey, chocolately Mars Bar Loaf Cake. I will then make sure it makes it to you safely and in once delicious piece! All you have to do is like my Facebook page through the competition banner below. What could be easier? 

The Real Food Festival 2013

Yay! Food! Festival! Sunshine! All is right with the world. Okay, perhaps sunshine was a bit optimistic (the one day I go out without my coat) - we did get battered by hailstones at one point... But the food part definitely lived up to expectations. 

"Taking over the whole Southbank Centre site in the heart of London, along the river Thames and around the Royal Festival Hall, the Real Food Festivals showcases some of the finest small producers in the country plus the best street food vendors on the scene, top chefs, live animals and music!" - The Real Food Festival.

So I wanted to share some of our lovely day with you...

We began with a demonstration by Omar Allibhoy (of Tapas Revolution fame), where he cooked six tapas dishes. He did Chorizo braised in Cider (which we promptly had for dinner that evening), Spanish Omelette, Gazpacho, Pan Con Tomate, Marinated Spanish Olives, Gambas (prawns) a la Plancha and Mussels. We picked up some really good tips from him and he has a book coming out in August! Yay! I shall add it to my Amazon wish list. At the end there was a tasting session but it was more of an aggressive free-for-all scrum of people grabbing for tasty morsels. I think I was elbowed in the boob several times. 

Then we explored...

Now we had a good idea of what was at the festival, it was time to start eating. Rob went straight for Barbecoa's pulled pork (£5). Apparently Terry Wogan also enjoyed one of these yesterday... Disappointingly, Rob found it overpoweringly sweet and said that it didn't have the texture of something that had been properly smoked and roasted dry for many hours (as a good pulled pork should). It felt more like it had been stewed in a slow cooker for a day. 

I opted for tapas from Donostia Social Club's food van - An Iberico Pig Cheek with Celeriac Puree (£5).

It was very, very nice. Plus the guys in the van are super friendly. The celeriac managed to deliver both a bitter and sweet accompaniment to the melt in the mouth meat. The sauce was rich and it was a treat to mop it up with a soft, fresh slice of bread. They had plenty of other things that I would have loved to have tried and as they visit Kingston quite often, I feel I will be making a return visit very soon. 

Rob, being the growing boy that he is, decided on a second course. A Black Pudding and Apple Sausage Roll from Little Jack Horner.

I had a conversation with a fellow foodie recently as to the underrated value of a good sausage roll. When treated with love, good ingredients and care, it is a noble and delicious food. Something that Little Jack Horner are definitely doing right. It was impossible to choose just one - I was temped by the Pork and Smoked Chilli.

Time for pudding. I'd spotted Crumbs and Doilies from a mile off. Their selection of cupcakes were to die for. Both full size and miniature - what could be cuter than a mini cupcake! Having trouble deciding, I went for the Popcorn Cupcake - a rum butter sponge with salted caramel icing and laced with crispy popcorn topping. A speciality for sure. It was so tasty. I was tempted to go back for a box but knew that my stomach wouldn't thank me for it. Rob went for a brownie from Outsider Tart. It took him more than a few hours to eat it.

It was a really nice day and I have to be honest - I am not at all hungry this morning. I had my fill. We enjoyed a nice post lunch walk in the sun in Richmond - our home. I just wanted to share with you how beautiful it is. Having serious Richmond love right now...

Think we're off out again in the sun today so I shall bid you adieu! Got a few tasty recipes lined up so stayed tuned for those fellow foodies!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Rainbow Cake

We've all seen variations of the rainbow cake. Layers of gorgeous, jeweled colours smothered with fluffy frosting. They're almost too spectacular to eat. Almost. 

This is my variation on the rainbow craze, a birthday cake for my colourful, crazy friend. The sponge is raspberry flavoured and the buttercream is laced with white chocolate. Instead of several different coloured layers, I've gone for the lazy and slightly psychedelic pools within the sponge layours.  

White Chocolate and Raspberry Rainbow Cake

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter, very soft

225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
200g self-raising flour
25g cornflour 
3-4 tablespoons milk

Raspberry Extract

A variety of food colourings.

150g soft unsalted butter

1tsp vanilla extract

375g icing sugar

150g white chocolate (melted)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4 and line two sandwich tins. 

Cream the butter and sugar together then add the raspberry extract. 

Add the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour between each. Fold in the rest of the flour and the cornflour.

Add a little milk to loosen the mixture slightly.

Separate the mixture into as many different bowls as you have colours. Add colours! 

Spoon each colour into the sandwich tins. Feel free to create crazy patterns. I opted for one colour inside another until they formed rings.

Bake for 25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Turn them out and leave on a wire rack to cool.

Whisk the melted chocolate, vanilla extract and butter together. 

Sieve in your icing sugar gradually and whisk until you have a light and fluffy buttercream. 

Ice your cake! 

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

It seems that I have gone a little crazy for raspberries this month. They're not even in season. But if you bake them into treats then who's to know! It's also been a bit of a stressful month so far - a month of change and hard work. Naturally, I fall to baking to act as stress relief. After a particularly harrowing day yesterday, I not only prepped and cooked chicken livers for dinner (59 pence! How could I say no?) but crafted a batch of these raspberry strewn lovelies. As far as baking goes, these are very straight forward. Using only 40 minutes in total (25 of these are spent in the oven), it will be no time before you bite into a warm, gooey treat for the most depressing month of the year.  For those afraid of cream cheese, give these a try. You'll be surprised by how much you enjoy it.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

NB: Raspberries can be replaced with any other berry of choice.

Ingredients

100g Soft Cheese

250g Caster Sugar

175g Raspberries

200g Plain Flour

2tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

75ml Oil 

1tsp Vanilla Extract

A pinch of Salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C or 170C (fan oven) and line your muffin/cupcake tin with cases. You could also use a flat baking tray.

Beat the soft cheese with 25g of sugar and pop in the fridge for later.

In a small saucepan, heat the raspberries with another 25g of sugar and bash together until they form a coulis like consistency. Try to be uneven in your smooshing as a few bigger bits of berry are lovely. Put to one side to cool.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt. 

Add the eggs, oil, vanilla and stir together thoroughly or use a beater on a very slow speed. Stir through the raspberry mixture. Don't worry if your mixture looks a bit odd and lumpy.

Fill each case to about 2/3 and plop a teaspoon of the soft cheese mixture into the middle of each. Use your finger to push down gently. 

Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

A Belated Happy New Year

Hi everyone!

I'm extremely sorry for my absence over the Christmas and New Year period. I was so busy cooking and then sleeping from having eaten too much that I haven't had time to write anything coherent. Now we're head first into January and the ground outside is covered in an unfamiliar white powder, I can share all that we did over the festive period.

I brought out my mince pie recipe again and tried my hand at a non-fruit Christmas cake for the office. It was based on lebkuchen spices and decorated in the manner of a traditional Christmas cake. I used Paula Deen's recipe from the Food Network, which you can find HERE. With a little additional whisky in the batter.

We also went to Taste of Christmas at the Excel center. What an incredible experience. We were lucky enough to pick up the tickets with our Tesco clubcard points and traveled via the cable car from North Greenwich. This was great fun on it's own and gave us a beautiful view of the surrounding areas. Taste of Christmas did not disappoint on the freebies - we tried everything from cheese to rum to chutneys to my personal favourite - Sipsmith's Damson Vodka. Delicious. There were plenty of places to buy food from. We sampled dishes from Cinnamon Kitchen, LIMA, Jamie Oliver's Fabulous Feasts, The Bowler, Yalla Yalla (an old favourite) and Union Jack's Hot Dogs.

My favourites were LIMA's delicate and flavourful Ceviche and the hearty delicious meatballs provided by The Bowler (which have since acted as inspiration for a catering menu that I have recently designed). 

There were plenty of chefs giving talks and running demonstrations and we were lucky enough to catch The Fabulous Baker Brothers showing us how to make Bacon Porridge and a quick Soda Bread. They tried (in vain) to get the crowd to sing a carol or two with them, but it seemed that the event go-ers weren't as charismatic and exciting as these two.

Another highlight were these tempting Salted Caramel Choux Buns for £1 each, provided by Choux. One wasn't enough but when we returned later for more, they had sold out and I'm not surprised.Next time I'm thinking about a party, I may be giving these guys a ring. 

This Christmas was also a time of experimenting and trying things outside of my comfort zone. So I tried profiteroles from scratch by following a classic Prue Leith recipe. Choux pastry has always been something that I'd been afraid of and I genuinely had no reason to be. I would pick choux over shortcrust any time! For my birthday we had a French themed evening where I cooked a big Bouef Bourguignon (one of my favourite meals) and had a buffet of wine, cheese and oysters. I had a go at shucking an oyster last summer but this time I had half a dozen to get through - somehow not as fun as I remember. They were delicious as always.

If you're a fan of the GBBO (Great British Bake Off), you make have seen them attempt the Austrian chocolate cake, Sachertorte, in the technical challenge. With my incredible new Christmas present, I decided to have a go myself. If I was going to fail, I might as well fail in style. Having never actually eaten proper Sachertorte, I had to trust Rob to tell me that it tasted something like the original should. As chocolate cake went, it wasn't my favourite but the apricot jam and the ganache topping added a nice new dimension.

Rob and I ended up cooking Christmas dinner where we had chicken with all the usual trimmings. A tip for next year is add pancetta to your sprouts! Delicious. We repeated our well rehearsed roast routine on New Year's Day with a gorgeous Rib of Beef. I can't take credit for the meat as that was handled by the master of meat that is Robert White.

Finally I want to share my new toy with you:

You can be jealous now.