Cake and Bake Show 2014

I wasn't going to go to any of the cake shows this year, I really wasn't. We are still in the middle of decorating so I didn't really have the luxury of time, but the main thing was that I still haven't used half the stuff I bought at Cake International in 2012! However, I won two tickets to this year's Cake and Bake Show in London from Renshaw's Facebook, so it really would have been rude not to go!

The tickets were valid for any day and since I was off all week decorating, I decided to use one of my holiday days to do something fun and go on the Friday - I also hoped it would be a lot less busy that day and I was probably right.

I also managed to book myself in for two masterclasses, pastry with Eric Lanlard and cake sculpting with Mike McCarey of Mike's Amazing Cakes, who had come all the way over from Washington State, USA. I knew that there were also demonstrations you could watch on stage throughout the day so I assumed the masterclasses, which cost £8-£10 each, would involve actually doing something. So I was really disappointed when I found that in fact both masterclasses consisted of 50 people sitting in rows, watching a demonstration at the front. In one, I was half way back and couldn't see very well at all!

Having said that I still learnt a lot from both those masterclasses, which I will go into more detail about later (Eric Lanlard is absolutely lovely, did you know that? And Mike is really talented at making 3D cakes).

The Meringue Girls' stand

If you haven't been to the show before, here's what to expect: rows and rows of stands where you can buy products, from small businesses to big brands like Dr. Oetker and Renshaw. Some of them have  mini demonstrations to watch and chatting to the stall holders is really interesting - I met some new people and some familiar faces. The layout is well organised in rows, and you can buy a programme but there are plenty of signs around telling you where the main areas - classrooms, stage etc - are and what time each session takes place. I took my own packed lunch as I knew the on-site cafe would be expensive (which it was), but unlike Cake International, which was almost entirely cake decorating supplies, this show covers baking so there were a lot of stalls selling food you could eat then and there- bread, sausage rolls, chocolate brownies, cupcakes etc. I took a rucksack for convenience and wore trainers for comfort as I knew I would be doing a lot of walking around!

I just want to do a shout-out to some of the people and stalls that I came across at the show:

Blossom SugarArt, where I bought some cookie cutters I'm really excited to use. I think they are also the maker of this brilliant flower mould I used to decorate some wedding cupcakes last year.

They had a few real bargains at the show; I bought this pack of three cookie cutters containing a teapot, teacup and cupcake shape for only £1.

I also bought this pretty cookie cutter and stamp - it includes a cutter in the shape of a dress, which could be decorated either as a party dress or wedding dress, but also comes with a matching silicon stamp which you use to emboss a pattern on the dress. And this was also just £1!


Talking Tables, who had some amazing party decorations and accessories. I was immediately grabbed by three cake stands which are all made of cardboard and fold flat for easy storage - a fish and chip stall, a sweet shop and this, which I couldn't resist buying - even though I probably won't be able to use it until next summer! I paid £15 for this at the show; they have them online for £16.50.

Talking Tables' stand

Culpitt, a cake decorating specialist, from whose stall I bough a pack of 54 Christmas-themed cupcake cases, a pack of 45 gold foil cupcake cases and a pot of edible glue all at £1 each.

 

Sugar and Crumbs, who make naturally flavoured icing sugars and cocoa powders. Some flavours are easy to add in to your baking - for instance, orange zest or a few drops of lemon juice or peppermint essence - but others are not so easy. For instance, if you mixed liquid caramel into buttercream, as I have done before, it ends up a bit runny. So I can't wait to try out this salted caramel flavoured icing sugar!

 I've heard of speculoos before but never tried it - it's a type of caramelised biscuit popular in Belgium and the Netherlands. Lotus makes those little individually wrapped biscuits you get with a cup of coffee, but also now make Biscoff Spread - like speculoos, or a biscuity-version of Nutella that you can spread on toast or use in baking. I got a free sample at the show.






For a long time now I've been looking for cupcake cases that look like little pots - I think they are called baking cups. I found them on the Baker & Maker stand which specialises in unusual and vintage-style baking accessories. I bought two packs, brown stripe and red stripe, each £2.50 for 20. I also spotted these mini chalkboards on wooden pegs which would be perfect to attach to a cake stand or platter of sandwiches, and they were only £1 each. Though I realised later I don't actually have any chalk!



Food Heaven magazine - I thought long and hard about their magazine subscription offer as I would have got a free copy of the new Great British Bake Off book, but I already subscribe to magazines I don't have time to read and didn't want to carry the cook book around all day. Instead, I paid £3 for one of their goody bags and got a canvas tote bag, a copy of Cake Decoration Heaven magazine (worth £4.99 by itself), some fabric-covered buttons and a pot of yellow and green sprinkles. There was also a Renshaw calendar in the bag with a great recipe for each month; I thought initially I might give the calendar to my mum but now I think I want to keep it!

I also spotted Luisa Zissman of The Apprentice fame manning her own Bakers Toolkit stand and signing copies of her book. She's very pretty and surprisingly petite in real life!


I've written before about the time I met Ms Cupcake aka Mellissa Morgan, at a potluck event where I brought some cakes I had made from her book. She said it was the first time she had eaten cakes someone else had made from her recipe (other than the staff in her shop) and so I was quite nervous but she really liked them! Mellissa was at the Ms Cupcake stand at the Cake and Bake Show and recognised me; when I reminded her that I'd made the cakes from her book she actually remembered they were the mint choc chip ones which was really cool. I bought a salted caramel pecan cookie sandwich from her stall - which I forgot to photograph- and it tasted heavenly.


One of the first stands I saw as I came in was Cake Decorating magazine's. They had a section showcasing their partwork magazine and the various freebies that come with each issue, had a man and a woman doing a live cake sculpture (which they said would take all three days of the show - when I visited you couldn't tell what it was going to be yet!) and best of all they were running a competition where you could be filmed making something to decorate a cake. I'd arrived right at the beginning of the show so was the very first person to take part!

I went up onto a podium and shown the cupboard of coloured fondant, plus some tools on the table in front of me. I wasn't filmed myself, as the camera was trained directly on the worktop, and projected live onto a big screen so passers by could see what I was making. I asked if the camera was recording sound as well and was told it was, so I decided to explain what I was doing as I went along.

I could make anything I wanted but the obvious choice was something I had made before; I also didn't know how much time I would have so didn't want to make anything that would take ages, so I chose a sheep. I've explained in a previous post how to make a fondant sheep so I was able to do it from memory, though I was doing it quickly and also got very sticky from the fondant - I asked if they had any icing sugar to sprinkle on the worktop or my hands but they didn't. So my sheep wasn't exactly perfect - but he looked OK-ish. It's definitely harder to work when there is a camera filming you!

It was really fun though and I enjoyed explaining what I was doing as I went along. Quite a few people stood and watched for a few minutes at a time and a couple came up to ask what I was doing, and how I was making it - I think they thought I actually worked for the company whose stand this was! I think I did a pretty good job selling the benefits of edible glue so perhaps I should have asked for a commission! 

All the entries were being displayed on a table and at the end of the three days a winner would be chosen who I think wins a subscription to the magazine. As I was the first person to take part I didn't know how good the standard would be; when I came past towards the end of the day there were only a dozen or so entries (I'm sure some people took half an hour or more over their creations!). The second entry was a pig, I assume inspired by my sheep, and someone else had made a unicorn and someone else a butterfly. I thought mine looked OK in comparison until I noticed someone had made a minion - I'm sure they are going to win! If this is your creation please let me know...

 Cake Boss had a large and busy stand - they were one of the main sponsors of the show. Buddy Valastro of Carlo's Bakery in New Jersey is the "Cake Boss" featured on a TV show of the same name. I've never actually seen it - but now we've moved into our new house we have Sky so I have more channels and there do seem to be a lot of baking shows out there! I didn't buy anything but my boyfriend's mum went to America recently and brought me back a Cake Boss-branded item.

Dr. Oetker and Renshaw each had large stands; Dr. Oetker's had demonstrations and I think goody bags but by the time I got there they had run out. Renshaw was doing mini classes which I think were free but were obviously very popular with long queues so I didn't take part.

The competition section is a big part of cake shows though I felt that this time there were fewer cakes on display than there had been at Cake International in 2012. I had been very tempted to enter the amateur category but I only found out about it the day before the deadline and the theme was quite difficult - exotic adventures. Maybe next time!

There were some amazing interpretations of the theme from some very talented cake decorators.

This one is from the junior under 16 category!

This one is from the amateur category - wow!

Part of the display - I wasn't sure if this was actually cake or not?!

There was a separate display of cakes which were very impressive; here are some of the ones I particularly liked.

It's Paul and Mary!

I had a really enjoyable but tiring day at the Cake and Bake Show - thanks again to Renshaw for the tickets. I didn't buy anywhere near as much as when I went to Cake International which is probably a good thing!

As this post is long enough already I will write about the two masterclasses I took in more detail in another post.

Tuna Melt Bagel

When I'm at a loss for what to have for lunch and don't want to cook, but don't just want a sandwich,  this is my go-to lunch: a tuna melt bagel. It only needs three or four ingredients and a quick 15 minute blast in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 175C. To serve one, take a bagel and slice in half. Mix a tin of tuna with some salad cream or mayonnaise to taste, and spread on one half of the bagel. Spread cream cheese on the other side - I usually use two Laughing Cow light triangles but you could use any kind.

Sandwich the bagel together and wrap in foil. Place in the pre-heated oven for 15 mins.

Carefully unwrap, and enjoy. You probably need to eat this with a knife and fork rather than with your fingers - the cheese melts nicely (I think using the cheese spread is less overpowering than grated Cheddar) and the bagel softens but crisps a little on top. It's really good!

Monitoring Blood Pressure and Eating Right

Recently I was told by my doctor that my blood pressure is a bit high. Now, if she had said I had high cholesterol I would know what to do - cut out fried foods for instance. But my cholesterol is fine (really good, in fact) - it's my blood pressure I have to worry about.

The past six months have been pretty stressful as my boyfriend and I have just bought a house, but spent several months being messed around (in our opinion at least) by the owners, the estate agents and the solicitors. Now we are in our dream home, but having to redecorate it from top to bottom, which we decided to do all in one go before we even unpacked! So it's no wonder perhaps that my blood pressure has risen - on the other hand, high blood pressure - or hypertension - is caused by several things, and stress is not necessarily one of them. The main causes are:

• an unhealthy diet (in particular not enough fruit or veg)
• eating too much salt
• not doing enough exercise
• drinking too much alcohol
• being overweight

I am a fussy eater but do eat a reasonable amount of fruit and veg and my diet is by and large quite healthy - I'm more likely to choose a chicken breast or piece of fish with veg than I am burger and chips. I go to the gym at least three times a week and have a personal trainer, and walk to the train station on top, and I only have a glass of wine every few weeks if that. On the other hand I am overweight - quite annoying given everything I've just described above! I have a sweet tooth and as you can tell, do like to bake - though just because I make and blog about cakes and puddings doesn't mean I eat all of them! Even so, my diet could be better and I do need to do something about my blood pressure.

Salt is probably one of the key culprits in my case. Salt makes your body retain water which raises your blood pressure. The problem is, salt makes food taste nice!

There is a lot of hidden salt in processed foods like ready meals, and also things like biscuits and cereals. Again, I don't really eat ready meals or biscuits other than ones I bake myself so still no clue there. I do add salt to the water when I am cooking vegetables and if I don't, then I just want to add salt at the table. However, I am going to try an alternate - not using salt when I cook vegetables but adding a dash of lemon juice, or fresh or dried herbs, or a sprinkling of chilli flakes and so on when I serve the food. I will also make sure I look carefully at labels when I do eat ready made foods.

5 a day: I do need to eat more fruit in particular as I very rarely get my five-a-day (though I'm often not far off). If you have a sandwich for lunch and then don't have vegetables with dinner - e.g. if I'm having a pizza, as I don't really like salad - then it is hard to get anywhere near my 5-a-day. Other days, I might have fruit and museli for breakfast, fruit as a snack, and three types of veg with dinner. Definitely room for improvement, anyway.

Alcohol: I think I'm ok on that front

Exercise: again I'm doing about as much as I possibly can, at the gym three or four times a week, and of that, a personal trainer twice a week, plus walking half an hour to the station in the morning even though it means I have to leave a lot earlier. I'm not keen on walking home from the station though because it's up hill, but I might have to start making myself!

Losing weight: one of the reasons I plan my meals every week is to make sure I pick healthy options at least most of the time, rather than just come home and see what's in the freezer. I also go to Slimming World in an effort to lose weight, which has been going quite well lately because of all the redecorating we've had to do! Hopefully as my weight comes down, my blood pressure will too.

Monitoring your blood pressure is really important if you are concerned and it's vital to speak to your doctor rather than to try to self-diagnose. At the same time, my doctor admits that her surgery isn't the best place for me to take a blood pressure reading - I am a bit anxious and have also had a brisk 20 minute walk to get there (you are not supposed to take a blood pressure reading straight after exercise).

You can buy blood pressure monitors relatively cheaply to use at home and I had been thinking of getting one so was very pleased when I was contacted by Ozeri and asked if I would like to review one.

I was sent the Ozeri CardioTech Premium Series BP3T Upper Arm Blood Pressure Monitor with Intelligent Hypertension Detection. It normally retails at £119.99 but at the moment is available on Amazon for just £49.99.

I was a bit nervous about using the monitor and figuring out what to do but it's so easy. It comes with the four batteries you need, plus an instruction manual and smart carry-case. It took a matter of moments to set up, just adjusting the date and so on - the blood pressure monitor will store up to 60 readings by date, to allow you to see how your blood pressure has changed over time, and what's more it will do this for two people. You just select which person you want to test by the press of a button.

I don't like the way blood pressure cuffs inflate and do find my arm is squeezed almost to the point of being in pain; the Ozeri CardioTech Premium Series monitor is a lot more comfortable as it has some way of varying the speed at which the cuff inflates to reduce measurement time and increase comfort.

It also has an automatic irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) detection and hypertension indicator, though luckily those didn't come on when I used it! The digital display is really easy to read and the whole thing is so much simpler to use than I was expecting.

As two people can store their readings I suggested to my boyfriend that he use it as well. He actually takes medication for high blood pressure due to previous health issues he has had. He has lost a lot of weight over the last year or so, as he's been doing a lot more exercise, and I like to think that my cooking has helped as that was around the time he moved in with me! For that reason, I've been nagging him to go back to the doctor to check his prescription is still appropriate but he's being a typical man and never getting around to it. He was quite keen to try out my new blood pressure monitor and was astounded by the readings as they were much lower than he was expecting. He's now making an appointment with his doctor to see if his medication can be reduced, which is great!

So for all sorts of reasons I think having a blood pressure monitor at home is a great idea if you are concerned about your blood pressure, though it is definitely not an excuse to avoid going to your doctor. If you do need to monitor your blood pressure though, I think it makes a lot more sense to be able to do it more frequently and in the comfort of your own home rather than once or twice a year at the doctor. I highly recommend the Ozeri CardioTech Premium Series monitor as it's so easy to use and also looks quite nice unlike the big contraptions they use at the doctor's!

 Thanks to Ozeri for providing me with the product for review. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review - if I say I like a product, then I genuinely do.

Christmas Hamper from HamperGifts.co.uk

Christmas hampers were a big feature of my childhood. They came from the milkman and my parents paid a few pounds every week into a sort of savings scheme, which meant they could choose from a selection of hampers just in time for Christmas. It was delivered by the milkman and it was like Christmas had come early, it was so exciting seeing what goodies the basket contained! I have hazy memories of Fray Bentos pies and tinned ham – so it wasn’t just a hamper of chocolates and biscuits, but some staples and things you might want to eat on Boxing Day after having cooked a huge Christmas dinner the day before.

 

I definitely prefer luxury hampers that are full of treats, be it chocolate or posh tea, biscuits and savouries. So I am pleased to be able to review this Christmas hamper from HamperGifts.co.uk. OK, it's quite a while until Christmas - nearly three months - but I'm sure I'm not the only person who is already looking forward to it and trying to sort out with various family members and in-laws where we are going to spend Christmas day!

If you are the type of person who likes to do their Christmas shopping early as well, why not head over to www.hampergifts.co.uk and see if there's anything you like - as well as Christmas hampers they offer new baby hampers, bath & beauty, cheese, chocolate, beer, wine, and some lovely themed hampers like 'breakfast for two' or 'romantic surprise' - great for newlyweds or people who have just moved into a new house (not that I'm hinting!).

The hamper I was sent to review was beautifully packaged, in a reusable wicker basket, covered in cellophane with a big bow on the front. I couldn't wait to unwrap it!

I think I was sent a selection of products as the contents don't tally exactly with any of the hamper gifts on their website, but that means I can let you know which products I think are particularly good, and there is probably a hamper to suit everyone. Prices for the hampers range from £19.99 for the smallest, to £275 for 'the majestic', though there are lots within the £30-£50 range which I think is quite reasonable for this type of hamper.

My hamper contained:

• Edinburgh Preserves honey mustard with whisky - I love mustard and particularly those with honey as the sweetness and sharpness of the mustard go wonderfully together. I'm looking forward to trying this mustard with beef.

• Walkers Chocolates of London milk chocolate praline seashells - 160g box. Nicely packaged so I gave these to a friend as a gift (I couldn't eat everything myself, or you'd be waiting another month for this review) and she was really pleased.

• Apple and apricot meli melo in violet flavoured syrup - 200ml glass bottle. I've seen this sort of thing (bottled fruit in syrups) before but never tried them. See below to find out what I did with them.

• Luxury fruit cake, made by Pittas Foods- this looked lovely, with  caramelized brown sugar on top and packed with fruit. Again it's nicely packaged with a bow round it; I gave this to my parents to try. My mum said it was "packed with large chunks of fruit, nice and spicy, and very moist." Definitely went down well!

• Alice Mcpherson's luxury butter shortbread - this was one large round piece in a cardboard box, so wouldn't exactly go far, but a nice addition to the basket 

• Diane cinnamon crunch truffles - 150g box. None of these are brands I recognise but they all seemed to be good quality and in many cases small local producers, which I like. These truffles were described as 'speculoos flavour'  - speculoos is a spiced biscuit popular in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. I gave these to my sister though I think my boyfriend would have preferred us to keep them!

• Pearl's Flapjack - There were two large flapjacks, one apricot flavour and one cherry and coconut. They were absolutely delicious - very sweet but really moist and hit the spot when I was ravenous after getting home from work perfectly.

• Mini nutmeg grater and nutmegs - this was so cute, with the mini grater and nuts in a little box with a red ribbon round it - would make a great gift and I'm looking forward to using it in my Christmas baking.

•  Baronie Belgian chocolate classic chocolate sticks orange made with all natural ingredients 75g - a lot like Matchmakers but smooth - if I recall, orange Matchmakers have a slight crunch inside them which I never really like. These are solid chocolate sticks but with orange flavour and tasted heavenly - my boyfriend never even got to see them!

• Pearls luxury brandy Christmas pudding - only 100g so not family sizes but a little extra festive treat that you heat up in the microwave.

• Olives et al sunshine rosemary and garlic olives from the Greek Island of Evia - 150g jar. I don't like olives but my sister does so she pounced on these! 

• Edinburgh tea and coffee company breakfast fresh ground coffee 56g pouch - I'm not much of a coffee drinker so I gave this to my mum, she said the coffee was "smooth, rich and full of flavour".

• Cairnsmhor fine foods Parmesan and pepper oatcakes 150g - it's not Christmas without cheese and biscuits and these were lovely.

• Individual wrapped caramels that were strewn throughout the basket - they didn't even make it as far as being photographed! They tasted very good though they were not quite as runny inside as I like.

• A small hessian bag of traditional hand baked biscuits - white chocolate and strawberry flavour. The biscuits melted in the mouth and the chocolate pieces gave a satisfying crunch.

• Big 200g bag of chocolate buttons - my boyfriend demolished most of these. Not the best quality chocolate - it didn't taste quite as good as Cadbury's - but he wasn't complaining!

Here's a quick recipe for the apples and apricots in syrup, which is really easy to make.

Roll out a square of puff pastry and place the fruit on it in a diagonal. I used two pieces of apple (the large pieces in the photo) and alternated them with two apricots, which used up about half the jar.

Fold the corners of the pastry which don't have fruit on them to the middle and seal to make a parcel.

Bake in the oven for about half an hour until the pastry is golden brown.

The picture doesn't do it justice - this tasted just like the things I've bought from bakeries in the past. The syrup from the fruit gives the pastry a lovely sweet coating but isn't so much that it goes soggy, and the fruit is lovely once hot and baked.

Thanks to Hampergifts.co.uk for sending me the Christmas hamper to review.

Alphabakes Challenge - October 2014

I have a feeling that it might be a fairly quiet month for Alphabakes; hot on the heels of last month's K, which I think a lot of people found difficult (check out Ros's roundup here) we have another letter which is a bit limiting. But if you need extra inspiration, you can check out the roundup we did last time this letter came up, because of course we are on our second pass through the alphabet now!

The last time we had this letter was March 2013 so plenty of time has elapsed for those of you who took part then - can you even remember what you made? I'm sure there are plenty of other recipes and ingredients out there, if you take some time to leaf through your recipe books or search on google....

Having built it up to sound difficult you are probably all thinking the letter is X, but in fact this month's letter we are baking with is....

I

That's i for icing, not l

If you haven't participated before, here's all the information you need:

1. Post your recipe on your blog and link it to The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes, stating the relevant month's host. If you do not have a blog, email us a picture and a brief description of your entry which we will include in the round-up at the end of the month.

2. You can use your own recipe or someone else's recipe. The recipe can be sweet, savoury or a mixture! Anything goes as long as the random letter is predominantly featured in the recipe as one of the main ingredients or flavours or in the name of the bake itself (i .e . not as a garnish , or using 'flour' for the letter F!) You can also republish old posts/recipes but you must include the information for this challenge as stated in these rules.

3. Add the logo to your post and add 'alphabakes' as a label to your post.

4. Email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com by midnight (GMT) 25th of the month. Please include:

• Your name (that you want included in the round up or we will use the name of your blog)
• Your blog post URL
• Recipe title
• Photo of recipe (to be included in the round up)

5. You can submit as many entries as you like.

6. You do not have to participate every month to join in.

7. You may submit your entry to other challenges as long as it complies with their rules.

8. If you use twitter, please use the tag #alphabakes and mention @bakingaddict and @Caroline_Makes. We will retweet all those that we see.

9. Have fun! :)