Whoopie pies

Have you heard of Whoopie pies before? In 2010 they were being described as the latest craze in America - the new cupcake! And having made - and eaten - them, I can see why!

A whoopie pie is kind of a cross between a cookie and a cake, with a buttercream-type filling sandwiched in the middle. Apparently they were a tradition among the Amish community, who would bake them for farmers' lunch boxes. When the farmers opened their lunch and saw what their wives had given them, they would shout "whoopie!".

I'd wanted to try them for a while then my friend BakingAddict posted a recipe on her website and I decided to follow her lead. I'm sure she won't mind if I share her recipe with you here!

http://themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.com/2010/12/chocolate-whoopie-pie.html

The pies are pretty easy to make, though they were larger than I expected - I probably used too big a spoonful on the baking sheet not realising how much they would spread. Not that I minded!

Because it was nearly Christmas I decided to make them a little festive. The chocolate colour reminded me a little of a Christmas pudding, so I made some simple white icing and spread it over the top, and added a little edible holly decoration I had bought along with some other cake bits online. I thought they looked pretty cute, and in a pretty Christmas box they made good gifts for my boyfriend's family!

Cupcake decorating class

I did my first cupcake decorating class in October 2010 and really enjoyed it - so much so that I've done several since then!

I saw an offer on lastminute.com for a "cocktails and cupcakes" class at the Cocoa Box (see end of post for links) that had a 2 for 1 special offer (costing £49 per person normally). I suggested it to my friend Jules and she jumped at the chance.

The class was actually held in the function room of a small hotel in north London and I have to say the cocktail - basically a welcome drink - was a little disappointing. Luckily the cake decorating was a lot better!

There were quite a lot of people - OK, women - and we all sat at big tables with all the equipment that we would need for the class.



We were even given cupcakes to decorate. Note how some of them have risen higher in the cases than others - this would be important later.



To start with though, we learnt some modelling techniques. We each made a flower and a bow, and a little ice cream. To make the waffle print on the ice cream, we were shown how to lay a cocktail stick sideways and press it into the icing, then lay it the other way to create a criss-cross effect.

The icing had already been made, though we were given a copy of the recipe, and put into disposable piping bags. I realised this was where I had been going wrong! It's all to do with consistency, and if your icing isn't too runny, it's actually really easy to pipe and make nice patterns. Also if you haven't discovered disposable piping bags yet, then go get some! I used to use a piping bag which came in a kit with a selection of nozzles, but it got really messy and had to be washed out afterwards. You can buy disposable ones in packs of 50, and all you do is fill the bag with icing and snip off the end- it also makes it a lot easier if you want to use different coloured icing as you don't have to keep washing out the piping bag!

I really enjoyed learning how to pipe the buttercream in a swirly pattern, and discovered that if you pipe from the centre outwards you get a very different finish to when you pipe from the outside inwards.

We also used liquid fondant icing, which again had been made for us. This is where we needed cupcakes that hadn't risen so much in their cases, so there was a little gap at the top. We poured in the icing (if the cupcake had risen above the cake case, it would have run over the edge) and let it set. We then pressed the models we had made gently onto the top of the cupcakes.

The finished product!

Links:

http://www.thecocoabox.co.uk/

http://www.lastminute.com/lmn/pso/catalog/Product.jhtml?PRODID=861178209&CATID=116984

Selling Halloween cupcakes in Islington

I was very excited last October to be invited to bake cupcakes and sell them at a real live cafe in Islington!
I can't actually remember how I came across the event, but it was definitely on the internet somewhere. A PR company called the Chocolate Consultancy was hosting an event at the Look Mum No Hands cycle cafe near Old Street, and had invited various professional chefs and bakers to give demonstrations. As part of the event, a handful of amateur bakers would also be allowed to sell their wares!

At the time I was trying to raise money for the Bobby Moore Fund to take part in Project Namibia - in June this year I travelled to Africa with the charity and helped to renovate a primary school, and raised over £4,500 in the process. I had already done a few bake sales at work and decided this was a good way to try to raise some more money.

As the event was a week before Halloween, I decided to make Halloween cupcakes. I had been to America not long before, and couldn't resist stocking up on baking goodies - I bought Halloween themed cupcake cases and both edible and non-edible cake toppers. I also bought some mini cutters that I used to cut out shapes like the bat from roll-out icing which I had coloured black. I even bought a spider web cake stand from John Lewis especially for the occasion!

Here I am with my cakes... and a T-shirt I also bought in America! It says "Queen of cakes" :-)

It was also really interesting to get the chance to meet some fellow amateur bakers. For instance I got chatting to Jody from Boola's Bakery, and discovered she lives near to me in Sutton. Check out her website here:

http://www.bigboolasbakery.co.uk/

I also met "Baking Addict" and one of her friends, both of whom ended up becoming very good friends of mine. We've had all sorts of adventures together since then!

Check out BakingAddict's blog here:

http://www.themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.com
These Oreo cupcakes below were her creation, and sold out very quickly!

Here are some of the cakes made by other people at the event.

There was a demonstration (and tasting) from one of the chefs at Gu...

... and from Great British Bake Off winner Edd Kimber.

Look at all the nice people who came to eat our cakes!

Sewing at the Make Lounge

The Make Lounge is a cool little craft workshop in London that has a shop at street level, and downstairs two workrooms where they run different classes.

I signed up for their "survival sewing" course last year, as I literally can't sew on a button... which is one of the things they teach! We were told to bring a pair of trousers to learn how to take up a hem as well, which was really useful as I'm quite short and can never get trousers that fit!

There were about ten of us in the class, all total beginners when it came to sewing. Over a glass of wine and some nibbles we learnt some handy tricks. I managed to get the teacher to sew a button back onto my coat for me and then do one myself, and take up the hem of one trouser leg before we ran out of time. I finished the other one off at home!

I've been back to the Make Lounge since then which I will write a separate post about. Technically I didn't make anything in this class, but I did learn a lot!

Check out the classes they offer if you are interested; they're not as expensive as you might think: http://www.themakelounge.com

Shaped cards

Ready-made shaped cards are a great way to make handmade cards more interesting. You can get a wide range of shapes, including shoes, handbags, cars and I have even recently come across watering can-shaped cards which would be good for keen gardeners! The idea is that you save time and have a more professional look by using a pre-cut shaped card, but you can decorate it however you want.

A friend gave me a pack of five boot-shaped cards, and I decided to use one for my boyfriend's sister-in-law's birthday card.

I covered the main part of the shoe in strips of paper that had a raised felt design. Bizarrely, these were actually from Laura Ashley - they have a range of card making stuff that I found on http://madaboutcards.com. The strips were about an inch wide and intended as border pieces, so I stuck them as closely together as I could - I don't think you can really see the join. I then used a piece of sticky felt ribbon along the sole of the shoe and at the top, and covered the heel in patterned paper. As a final touch I added some stick-on gems as buttons.

I was really pleased with the way this turned out and have bought some different shaped card blanks to use in future!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Last year I held a housewarming party with an Alice in Wonderland theme. This is me, as the Queen of Hearts - who made some tarts, and quite a lot of other cakes as well!

I just fancied putting a few pictures on this blog to reminisce... I can't even remember what half the cakes I made were!

I made some cupcakes in little cup and saucer cases - they come in a pack of four and the cup part is made of silicon, so you actually bake the cake in it, then it comes with a little saucer to serve it on. I bought rice paper cake toppers with Alice in Wonderland pictures from Ebay. I think the cakes were chocolate!

I put up loads of 'Alice' themed decorations, including various playing card designs. I also bought some plastic roses (they are actually buttons), again from Ebay, and painted them red... like in the story!

You can't have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party without strawberries....

I also put a doormouse in the tea pot :-) Though this was a 'vintage' (i.e. second-hand) tea pot from a car boot sale, and not the pot I was actually using to make tea in!

Another strawberry-topped cake... I took a day off work before my party and spent most of it baking!

I thought it would be fun to put a 'drink me' note and a shot glass (which was empty to be on the safe side) outside my cat flap, so people could shrink down and enter the house that way!

I can't remember exactly what I made as the party was about a year and a half ago, but I think these are tiramisu cupcakes. They have cocktail stick toppers in them with playing card designs. The strawberry tart next to it is one I bought, not made - in case I didn't have time to bake enough! I did have loads of cake but everything got eaten :-)

We played croquet with inflatable flamingos...

... and decorated biscuits that I had baked.

Lovely!

Not sure what this one is supposed to be!

It was a really fun party!

Christmas cards 2011

Here is a selection of some of the Christmas cards I made this year. I didn't have as much time as I would have liked and so therefore kept them relatively simple. Next year I hope to be able to put a bit more time and effort into them... maybe I should start making them in the summer!

These first ones (above) are a mixture of a decoupage pack and some simple stickers and backing paper.

These next ones (below) use a mixture of Forever Friends stickers and some cute penguin stickers.

Silver and gold outline stickers look effective on a plain green background - and are fairly quick to make!

This one was for my boyfriend, an extra large card using pieces from a decoupage pack.

Christmas decorations

I decided to have a go at making some Christmas decorations after my boyfriend's mum bought me a pack of pine cones. They definitely work out cheaper than buying ready-made decorations- this huge bag was only £1.49 from the local garden centre! I also bought a can of silver spray which was about £3, and a couple of cheap decorations (plastic holly for 50p, anyone?) from Robert Dyas.

All I did - as time is a luxury I don't really have right now - was lay the pine cones on some newspaper and spray them silver. It wasn't as messy as I'd thought!

Then I arranged them in a bowl with the other decorations I bought. They don't look bad at all, for just a few pounds and five minutes work (plus about half an hour for the pine cones to dry).

Cupcake Penguins

Last year I decided to treat myself to a new book - Hello, Cupcake! I came across it on the internet and was intrigued by the book's unusual designs for cupcakes. But they are not as easy to make as you might think!

I would say two main things about this book: firstly, it isn't a baking or recipe book - it is best described as a set of instructions for assembling novelty cupcakes. Secondly, a lot of the products are recommended by name, but they are all American brands. Sometimes I wasn't even sure what they were, and in most cases I found them impossible to buy in this country. However there are often substitutes you can use.

I decided to make penguin cupcakes, as they looked less fiddly than some designs, and I also thought they were really cute! But I'll save the finished cakes til the end of this post..

To begin with, you need to bake (or buy) a batch of cupcakes. I thought plain vanilla would be best but chocolate would probably have worked quite well here too.

The next photo, below, shows several stages at once. For this recipe, I needed a pack of mini ring doughnuts, and a pack of doughnut holes - basically mini doughnuts which in this case had a chocolate filling. The only place I could find that stocked these was Asda, and there wasn't a supermarket I could get to very easily as I don't drive. So my boyfriend - who at the time I had only just met - offered to pick me up from the train station on my way home after work and take me to pick up the stuff I needed. So that's how we came to spend our fourth date at Asda! That was more than a year ago now:-)

I have intentionally left out some of the parts of the process here to not give too much away.

The next step is colouring some more icing to make it black. I decided to use Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge frosting, thinking it wouldn't be too hard to turn brown icing black. Think again! I must have used about half a bottle of black food colouring.Coat the penguins - I'll leave you to work out how best to do it!

!

Then I added a white bib and some wings... can you guess what they are made of?

I used piping icing in white and then black to make the eyes, and half a Fruitella for the beak (which is not what the book recommends but my alternative suggestion). Unfortunately the beak was a little heavy and kept slipping down -and I didn't have a particularly steady hand when I was piping the eyes!

And that's it! Repeat on each cupcake.... obviously I was making more than one when I did each step :-) The black icing was pretty runny and they all look a little messy but I think that just adds to the charm. Be warned though, while the black icing will set a little, it's still quite sticky and these are really messy to eat!

A whole ice rink of penguins!

Simple but classic

Sometimes less is more - I really like these simple cards, which use square cream card blanks - I think cream looks nicer than white, and I prefer square to rectangular cards, but both the colour and the shape can be hard to find. These use simple stickers and greetings and didn't take very long, but I think they look nice.