My pics from the Foodies Festival!

Last Sunday, I went to the Foodies Festival at Hampton Court Palace and we were so lucky to have the sun shining on us as it was a fab day!!! Lots of people, great music, food and great tasting!!! 🙂 I was really impressed by the number of stalls there and the variety!

Here are some of my pics from the day! 🙂

We brought a bag of 8 x bitesize brownies for £5 and they were very yummy!

Dan tried the Ostrich Burger!

 

I went for a Moroccan lunch which was delicious!

We brought some dry rub from this stall so that we can make our own jerk chicken!

After a couple of hours, we got some beef noodles to share!

To finish the day, we brought a refreshing lemonade!!!

It really felt like a great foodies festival as the sun was shining! I would definitely recommend going to one if it is taking place in your area. Click here. 🙂

 

May Bank Holiday – Foodies Festival

I love going to cake and bake shows, food markets and food festivals. I love seeing all the different types of food being offered and of course tasting them!!! 🙂 I always wonder when there will be an invention for a pill or potion that you can take and you won’t get stuffed eating all the food from the stalls and of course not to pile on the calories!! 🙂

As this is bank holiday weekend, we have got tickets to go a Foodies Festival in Hampton Court Palace, I saw an offer in the Evening Standards newspaper where you can buy 2 tickets for £15 as normally it is £15 per adult. The Foodies Festival are held from May to August in different towns in the UK, to find out more, click here.

There will be lots of activities going on such as different theatres that you attend for free, food market stalls, and they even provide something to entertain the children! 🙂

Fingers crossed that the weather stays dry for tomorrow so that I can take some pics and share with you all!!! 🙂 Enjoy your bank holiday weekend! 🙂

My 1st attempt of a Zebra Cake!

My Zebra cake!

I saw the Zebra Cake on moresprinkles.com blog and I thought to myself, that I had to have a go at making this! The Zebra Cake is basically a marble cake made of vanilla and chocolate sponge but the swirls are more defined like the stripes on a zebra, hence the name! The cake is really moist and delicious and my work colleagues certainly enjoyed the cake as well! 🙂 Thanks Erinn for inspiring me to make the Zebra Cake, I am sure that I will try a lot of recipes from your blog as they look amazing! 🙂

It may look difficult but the technique is quite simple, you just need a pair of sturdy hands and patience as it takes awhile. Although, I did learn it the hard and messy way!! My hubby was not impressed with the mess I made in the kitchen with all the cake batters everywhere! I didn’t have any squeezy bottles so I thought I would use 2 x piping bags instead but that was not a great idea as the batters just leaked everywhere and I couldn’t stop it!!! In then end I used two ice cream scoops to pour the batter into the cake tin to make the circle patterns. I have read in some recipes that you can exaggerate the zebra lines by adding black colour paste/colour to the cocoa batter. Or you can try using different colours/flavours like strawberry or lemon etc. To finish, I dusted my cake with icing sugar on top but you can always add chocolate frosting to it or chocolate ganache. As Erinn is from America, I have converted & adjusted her recipe suited for UK baking so that you can have a go aswell! 🙂

Ingredients:

• 225g caster sugar
• 4 x eggs
• 250 ml milk
• 250 ml vegetable oil
• 1 and half tsp vanilla extract
• 300g self raising flour (sifted)
• 2 x tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 x tbsp cocoa powder
• Icing sugar to sprinkle on top or you can make a chocolate frosting.

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit or GM 4. Grease 8/9 inch round cake tin  with a parchment paper circle at the bottom.
2. Beat the sugar and eggs for about 2 minutes until lightened.
3. Next add milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla to egg mixture and blend on low speed.
4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix it altogether.
5. Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on low speed.
6. Once combined, scrape down edges of bowl.
7. Mix at medium speed for 1-2 minutes.
8. Now divide batter equally into two bowls.
9. In one bowl, add dark cocoa powder and whisk to combine. You can add black paste or colouring to make the stripes black.
10. Once your batters are prepared, place each batter into either a squeezy bottle or use spoons, in my case, I used an ice cream scoop!
11. Start by dropping a circle of vanilla batter in the center of the pan (about 3 tablespoons worth).
12. Next, in the center of the vanilla batter, drop a circle of chocolate batter (about 3 tablespoons worth). When you drop the batter within the circles, it doesn’t mix, i think this is due to the oil.
13. Repeat steps 11 and 12 until you run out of cake batter. You will end up seeing lots of rings.
14. Place cake on center rack in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean (I baked mine for 45 minutes).
15. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, take the parchment paper off.
16. Sprinkle with icing sugar on top.

Vanilla and Chocolate batters

The beginning bit of the circle

As you can see, the rings get thinner as you add more batter

Ready for baking!

A slice of a Zebra cake!

Jo Wheatley’s Passion for Baking Competition – May

My entry pic!

It has been awhile since I have last baked something for Jo Wheatley’s competition and for this month, it was on scones! I actually wanted to try the ‘Orange & Cranberry scones’ recipe and this gave me the perfect opportunity!!! They turned out delicious and crunchy on the top! 🙂

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 225g Self Raising Flour
• 1 x tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 x tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 x tbsp caster sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 50g unsalted butter chilled and diced
• Zest and juice of 1 orange
• 50g dried cranberries
• Full fat milk
• 1 x egg yolk, beaten
• 4 x tbsp demerara sugar

1. 

   Ready for the oven to bake

   Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6 and line the baking tray with baking parchment. You will also need a 6cm round cutter

2. Sift the flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt into a bowl
3. Rub in the butter with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the orange zest and cranberries
4. In a jug, pour in the orange juice and add enough milk to make 150ml of liquid
5. Gradually add to the dry mixture and work together with a knife. Finish by bringing together with your hands. My dough was quite sticky as I think I poured too much liquid so i don’t think you would necessarily need all of the liquid but enough to bring it together.
6. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 20 seconds (too much working will make tough scones), then roll out to a thickness of 2 – 3cm
7. Using a 6cm cutter, cut into rounds and put them onto the prepared baking tray. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar.
8. Finally, bake in the middle shelf for 12 – 14 minutes.
9. Cool on a wire rack until ready to eat. Scones tend to last 3 – 4 days or you can freeze them in a container and defrost at a later date. Enjoy! 🙂

I submitted my picture on Jo’s facebook page and so far I have received 26 likes so i am pleased!!! 🙂

FB: 26 likes so far!!!

My Niece & Nephew’s Bday Party

Cupcake selection!

Last month it was my niece and nephew’s birthday and my sister-in-law asked me to bake some cupcakes for their birthday party. I decided to make some simple chocolate and vanilla cupcakes as you can’t go wrong with those flavours! It was a sports themed birthday party so I decorated the cupcakes with edible football decorations for nephew and cute cupcake/girly themed toppings for my niece!

Katy’s amazing & yummy cake pops!

There were lots of cakes at their party, my friend Katy made some rugby, basketball and cricket ball, and racing drivers cake pops, they looked amazing and tasted delicious!!! 🙂 She did say it was pretty hard work shaping the racing drivers!!!

 

Baked Choc and Vanilla cupcakes

My cupcakes on display!

Alyssa turned 10 and Kyle turned 7 – their bday cakes brought by their parents!

Beautifully decorated cake pops made by my sister-in-law’s friend

Suffolk Food Hall

Suffolk Food Hall

Sorry, it has been so long since I have last blogged! I have been meaning to add this entry ages ago!!! As part of my hubby’s bday weekend last month, we made a trip to the Suffolk Food Hall!!! And, what a lovely place it is, difficult to find, I must say and our reliable sat nav gave up on the directions and we had to rely on looking out for the road signs!!! I’m glad that we did find it as it is beautiful there!!! 🙂

The Suffolk Food Hall is in a large barn and there are lots of things to buy ranging from cute kitchen stuff, organic veg & fruits, meat, cheese, bread and general food, also, they had an area where you can buy plants & herbs. If you are in that area, it is definately worth a visit, we didn’t eat in the restaurant as had something to eat in the cafe but we did have a peep at the restaurant and the view is really beautiful looking over the bridge and river Orwell. 🙂

Kitchen stuff to buy!

Plants

Veg selection

Fresh Fish

Lots of Cheese!

Cold Meat!

Lovely selection of breads