The big day

Well i finally had to do it..the event has come around and it turns out that its some kind of womans empowerment day... lol i guess it was only fitting that they had a guy make thier food for them on such a day.

Things went well, and while there were no macarons in sight i did make redvelvet mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Bitter chocolate biscuits and just some ordinary cupcakes with chocolate in them.

In addition i made a few chocolate truffles just because i had spare time. I think they all came out pretty well, and the feedback was good so im happy.


I decided to decorate the frosting with pistchio nuts just for acontrast in flavour... the taste of them didnt really have much to do with thier inclusion.

Lol its always nice to see all the random crap that u buy before makign something suddenly become somethign nice and appertizing lookng. Red velvet is certainly an odd looking cake i must say, i was trying to go for purple because of the theme of the event, but i ran out of blue dye fairly early on and got a weird kind of maroon colour lol... i didnt tell anyone obviously haha.


The chocolate Chunks in the bigger cupcakes i thoguht at first were a bit too much but then i thought.. "Who doesnt like chocolate!"

At the front of each of the chocolate chunks is just a small decoration of dessicated coconut.

And heres how i did it!

Lol.. sadly these are not my own recipes this time, but i took inspiration froma fellow blogger. All credit for this goes to them, and im just gonna paste a link to thier recipe here.

http://www.pickycook.com/dessert/redvelvetcupcakeswithcreamcheesefrosting.aspx

Finally its over!

Now to do the dishes.... nah... that can wait til tommorow when the women folk come back!

HAHA only kidding... now where did i put that sponge...

Enjoy! (^_^)

Right.... lol

Ok i have accepted defeat... there is no way im gonan perfect the macarons in the next 3 days so i have decided to make Whoopie pies, Whitechocolate coconut truffles and coloured cupcakes instead... which i will be posting probably on monday after the event!

For the sake of mockery this was my final attempt at the macarons before i finally decided to just not bother...



These dont look like they are gonna turn out too badly...... UNTIL..............................

Suddenly...



Instantly failed lol.... OH well!

On monday ill be posting three different Deliscious things so stay tuned for 3 posts. ill take pics of the event also and see if anyone made anything deliscious that needs to be shared.

Till next time, Ill deffinatly work harder!

Enjoy! \(^_^)/

Still no joy... Gotta keep trying though!

Right so im still trying these macarons... got until the 21st to complete them and have them perfect... Things arent looking good though lol!

Even more anoying is that ive just seen on my facebook feed that an old school mate without any formal pastry training (as far as im aware) is making them left right and centre.... I REFUSE TO ASK FOR HELP FROM HIM! lol... its probably the testosterone kicking in... but ill keep trying until i figure it out for myself.. It will be much more satisfying that way.

In the mean time i have also been asked to make a cake for a work colleages leaving do...

The lucky sod is off to the carribean on a cruise... So jealous.. but i was happy to make the cake. Lol but im out of green! so i improvised!

First off i decided seeing as its the carribean but no specific island ill just go with a general theme! Also the fact that all she does is talk about how sunny its gonna be and bla bla blah...... *insert jealousy here* lol



In order to get this runout done correctly you first need to mix the colours and test them out... I used autumn brown and canary yellow in varying ratios to get the three colours seen on this sun.

First i drew the picture onto some paper, and then put it into a plastic wallet and began to make the outline with a less liquid ammount of icing. Try not to make it too runny or it melts together and becomes a nightmare... But also try and not make it too delicate... this makes it difficult to get off the plastic wallet when it is dry.

You proabably cant see it here but some of the suns rays actualy broke and i had to cleverly possition them back on so that noone would notice lol.



The cake was just an ordinary victoria sandwich sponge cake... jam, cream, vanilla... the usual. To be hoenst it was such short notice that i didnt really think of flavours, it was purely for the looks. If i had thought about it i would of slipped some ginger in there to keep with the carribean theme.

The cake is baked and the two seperate sandwiches are cut into squares so that they match, thi isnt necassary but makes things alot easier... again speed was something i was going for.

Royal icing is then mixed with colouring in order to make a decent covering for the cake whcih is tidied up with a plastic spatula and various other cake decorating tools.

Then the C scrolls were piped around the edge of the cake with a small line ontop of them for extra effect. Prettey effetive i think, and not much to it. Deffiantly have to keep a steady hand though.

My lettering is pretty shambolic so i tend to do fancy writing to hide the fact that i suck LOL.



And there you go! it was pretty simple to be hoenst. If i have more time next time and given a bit more notice maybe i can make something better... but i dont even know the woman that well... lol. Was fun though! And not nearly as daunting as it looks... you should try it. Im sure your local cake shop wuill be happy to talk you through anything.. and if u have any questions feel free to ask me! ill be more than happy to help!

Until next tim guys... Enjoy!

Back to the macarons again... grrr!! lol

Failure and Compensation

Right.. So ive been asked to make some macarons for a friends event... because i love putting my big foot in my big mouth i said yes... knowing that in all my years ive only ever succesfully made macarons once. Thants ONCE out of about 30 tries lol. As a result they were obviously a failure, but ive got a month so ill keep trying... These were the result of my failed almond treats.... they bassically tasted like sugary paper rather than ealgrey infused light almond shells :(



Ah well...

So after my failure i was talking to a friend of mine who i use to work at a cocktail bar with... She also knows a thing or two about food stuff but eventually she concluded that i suck lol... so unhelpful.

But it did trigger my memory as to when i started as a cocktail barman. I found it difficult to judge what liquers would go well with others, as well as what fruit to use or even if they deserved to be paired with somethng creamier.

We had to learn over 50 cocktail in 3 days... was very challenging but we all managed to do it. And of all fo them my favourite was my own variation on a Key West Cooler... which i embarasingly called Fooler Cooler (because i messed up the original so many times, but this one tasted better in my opinion lol).

So colourful and easy to drink, i gaurantee u guys will be trying this out at your next BBQ! The original recipe calls for peach schnaps, but I used malibu as the drink was introduced to the bar during a heatwave in England... and I trying to be all tropical lol... in england... the nonsense of it!

First off your gonna need to have these two bad boys at hand!


Malibu is a Coconut infused carribean rum... Im not sure if it counts as a liquer or a rum, but its deliscious and very fragrant. the coconut really comes through in it. If you cannot get hold of this (you should be able to... its like EVERYWHERE) then another coconut liquer or sum will do just fine.

As well as!


Midori! This is probaably my favourite liquer. The word Midori is japanese for "Green" which is pretty obvious. The colour is amazing and adding it to any drink will make it stand out really. Asides from the colour the taste is of sweet melons. Midori and lemonade is a classic... but its easily drinkable with coke as i have found.

Ok. Lets begin.

Ingredients:

12.5ml Midori
12.5ml Malibu
12.5ml Vodka
50ml Cranberry Juice
50ml Pineapple Juice
Some ice
1 slice of Kiwi and Orange (optional, decorate it however u want)

Method:

1: Pour the Midori and Malibu into an empty glass, then add one of the fruits to the glass.
2: Add ice up to the top of the glass
3: SLOWLY pour the cranberry juice over the ice so that it sits ontop of the alcohol at the bottom (cranberry juice is very light and sits ontop of most things... but vodka is even lighter!)
4: in a seperate tumbler (or boston glass if u have one) add the pineapple juice to the vodka and stir about 10 times. (DO NOT SHAKE, pineapple juice goes frothy and discoloured when shaken)
5: Now slowly pour the pineapple and vodka mixture ontop of the cranberry juice. It should sit on top of the cranberry juice because the vodka has lightened the pineapple juice. Decorate with the other slice of fruit on the side of the glass and add straws. COMPLETE!



There we go! That wasnt too hard now was it... Drink responsibly guys... im gonna try those macarons again.... back to the kitchen!

Until next time... Enjoy!

Clafoutis! Because i got the job!

Well I just finnished my old role at the department of health..... and i didnt know exactly where i would be going after that so as you can imagine it was a bit of a nail biting time. But this morning i got the job i was going for at the department of transport.... So thats a huge weight off my shoulders!

And as an extra bonus i dont start my new job until monday.... which means..... 1 WEEK OFF... SWEET!!!!!!

And sweet news deserves a sweet treat. So i decided to celebrate with a quick and easy assortment of Clafoutis.



Clafoutis is bassically a baked take made of flan like batter, traditionally made with black cherries i think. But as usuall i am not concerned with the traditional lol... One day ill make something recognisable to normal people haha.

For this recipe i decided to once again use use my ramakins (still in love with them) as opposed to a tart or pie dish.



Ok so lets begin.

Ingredients:

120g Plain Flour
Lots of assorted fruit haha (I used Apples, Pears, Blackberries, Blueberries and Raspberries)
60g Butter (I used Flora pro active because it has reduced cholestoral)
300ml Milk
90g Sugar
Icing Sugar (for dusting)
Mint leaves for garnish (i used these but do whatever you tink looks nice)


Method:

1: Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
2: In a small bowl break and then beat the eggs
3: When the eggs are beaten put aside and melt the butter in a small frying pan. When melted take off the fire and keep in a warm place to keep it liquid but not any hotter than it should be at the point.
4: Sift the flour into a large bowl
5: Add the eggs slowly to the flour and mix all the while. The mixture should become a thick batter.
6: Now add the sugar, milk and butter to the mix and whisk until the mixture becomes a loose batter (if too watery add a little bit of flour, but it should be a milkshake consistency.... lol hope thats helpful)
7: Now set the mixture aside and take a bit of butter and grease the dish (or dishes depending on how u are making them) with butter.
8: To the dish thats now buttered and arrange the fruit in it (fill the dish between half to 2/3 full with the fruit)



9: Pour the batter over the fruit and place in the oven.



10: allow to cook for around 40 miutes (dont worry if it raises alot when its taken out of the over it will sink again, i was a lil worried when i first did it lol)



11: When its done take it out of the over and dust with icing sugar and decorate however u like. Deffinatly serve it warm!




And there we have it...

Congratulations Clafoutis!

Enjoy :D!!