For the past year, my mum and a friend/ex work collegue of hers, Jo, have been planning a very exciting new venture- all based around the idea of the traditional British tea.
Yesterday, they opened their very own tea house in the heart of West Bridgford, which focuses on providing a wide range of speciality teas and homemade food, all served in beautiful chinaware that they have been gradually collecting over the year. Their menu features lazy breakfasts, warm quiche with salad, brioche and jam, crumpets and butter, soup with crusty bread, paninis, traditional ploughmans and yep you guessed it...cake! You may wonder if I have any involvement in the cake part, and I can happily say that for the moment, yes I have indeed! My mum is of course an amazing baker and cake decorator (I owe many of my skills to her) and will be doing much of the baking where she can but I will be there to lend an extra pair of hands and help keep up with demand! I will also be setting a celebration cake service through Tiffin where people can order personalised, hand decorated cakes - exciting huh?!
What is the name of this new tea house you ask? Well, after weeks of brainstorming and playing around with different ideas from friends and family, my mum and Jo finally decided on the name 'Tiffin'. You may well be familiar with the 'no-bake' chocolate cake called Tiffin, but the name actually originated in British India. To find out more about the history you can visit the Tiffin website by clicking here.
I hope to see you soon! :)
One of Tiffin's first customers (yes...that would be my dad!)
To find out more, please visit the Tiffin website here.
I do enjoy making gingerbread people, and I especially like to come up with different ways to jazz them up. Last year at christmas time I made gingerbread elves and I expect that I will do them again this year, but as it is still November I thought I ought to do something a little less festive.
I made little hats, scarves and pairs of gloves in icing of matching colours, and stuck everything together with a little royal icing. My sister even suggested making them some little boots, but I decided that they looked cosy enough and definitely ready for the cold winter weather that is gradually coming our way!
This is just a quick post to show you all some ideas for making your own biscuits and cupcakes for Children in Need, a charity run by the BBC which aims to make a difference to the lives of children all across the UK.
I made a bad mistake last week. I thought (for some silly reason) that I had two weeks off for half term at college and so missed last weeks lesson. Clearly I can't read timetables and I was extremely annoyed with myself for missing out on our first session making wired sugar flowers - something I have always wanted to have a go at.
I have made my own video of me making the roses (thanks to my sister for filming me!), to prove that I really did do it all myself! I don't particularly like seeing myself on camera and I'm rather embarrased by the video, but I really wanted to show my dedication to the art of patisserie and cake decoration. I also hope that its useful for anyone thinking about making sugar flowers themself!
Enjoy :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fjDBbkZPHQ&feature=feedu
By the way, apologies for the sideways view half way through the video- I can't work out how to rotate the picture!
Yep, thats right, I've been making Danish pastries again. Our first timed assesment at college involved making four different shapes of Danish with four different finishing methods in four hours...phew! I admit that I was rather nervous about this one...four hours may seem like plenty of time to some but I knew that I'd be working right up until the last minute!
Apricot frangipan diamonds,
Dark chocolate and cherry plaits,
Maple and pecan pinwheels,
Honey and raisin snails.
After this, we had to decorate a vanilla sponge cake with whipped cream and our own choice of additional ingredients such as fruit, nuts and chocolate. There were some really interesting creations amoungst the class- coffee & walnut cream, chocolate curls and one guy even made mini profiteroles to top his cake! I chose a fairly simple and classic look by toasting flaked almonds to stick around the edge of the cake, and fresh fruit symmetrically placed upon the top.
I was happy with the cake but fresh cream gateaux are not really my cup of tea- I much prefer a slice of Victoria sandwich with jam and butter icing. However, saying that, I still think it looks tempting enough!
Haunted Gingerbread House!
Yes, I'm officially mad. I'm sure there are not that many people out there who would consider making a gingerbread house from scratch for halloween but I did- just for the hell of it! I often get wacky baking ideas but I don't always embark on these projects due to lack of time and the cost of ingredients. However, as I have had a week off college for half term, I thought what better way to spend my time than working in the kitchen!
The first step was to make my dough. I chose a slightly different recipe to my usual one as this one contained more flour and I thought that would make a biscuit with a crunchier, tougher texture and so able to keep its structure once assembled!
I made my own templates from cardboard and used these to cut out the dough into the correct shapes. I also made a few tombstones and a pathway so that I could use these to decorate the front of the house.
Once baked, it was time to start on the decorations! I began on the front of the house by adding a door and windows made to look like spooky eyes, and I also added a couple of black bats.
I assembled the house and stuck the sides together with royal icing- a great substance for glueing things. Luckily it dried pretty quickly so I didn't have to hold the walls together for two long! For the roof, I used chocolate buttons for tiles as I thought these would look effective enough and taste good too. To this I added a spiked chimney and lots of extra melted chocolate to fill any gaps.
Each tombstone was covered in grey roll-out icing, and I used my edible pen to write inscriptions on each grave using the names of vampires from Buffy (I thought it might be tempting fate to write names of the living!). I stuck them to the board with melted chocolate, sprinkling this with left over crushed gingerbread, and strawberry laces chopped up to look like little wriggley worms!
Once I had started decorating the house, I found it quite addictive and I couldn't help but keep adding things to it. As you can see from the photos, I made a ghost, black cat, creepy zombie hand and even some little green men. The green men are a bit random but it was my sister's idea and I kinda like them!
Yes, I'm officially mad. I'm sure there are not that many people out there who would consider making a gingerbread house from scratch for halloween but I did- just for the hell of it! I often get wacky baking ideas but I don't always embark on these projects due to lack of time and the cost of ingredients. However, as I have had a week off college for half term, I thought what better way to spend my time than working in the kitchen!
The first step was to make my dough. I chose a slightly different recipe to my usual one as this one contained more flour and I thought that would make a biscuit with a crunchier, tougher texture and so able to keep its structure once assembled!
Once baked, it was time to start on the decorations! I began on the front of the house by adding a door and windows made to look like spooky eyes, and I also added a couple of black bats.
I assembled the house and stuck the sides together with royal icing- a great substance for glueing things. Luckily it dried pretty quickly so I didn't have to hold the walls together for two long! For the roof, I used chocolate buttons for tiles as I thought these would look effective enough and taste good too. To this I added a spiked chimney and lots of extra melted chocolate to fill any gaps.
Each tombstone was covered in grey roll-out icing, and I used my edible pen to write inscriptions on each grave using the names of vampires from Buffy (I thought it might be tempting fate to write names of the living!). I stuck them to the board with melted chocolate, sprinkling this with left over crushed gingerbread, and strawberry laces chopped up to look like little wriggley worms!
It was a long process, but I'm really happy with my finished haunted house. Now that I've made my first gingerbread house, I'll definitely be making one for christmas as it is just so much fun!
My sister did point out that we'll never want to break the house apart to eat but every time I walk past I am so tempted to take a bite! I expect that sooner or later my family will get sick of the site of it and give in to temptation, but for now my house will sit happily on the kitchen side with the little green men :)
.JPG)
