November brings Cake International to the NEC, and I could not resist another year of missing out.  I have been to London a couple of times, but this was my first visit to the larger, bigger and brighter NEC one.

I actually think it was better than the London event.  There is more space and therefore less elbows to the ribs!  I think there were a few more exhibitors, and hundreds more competitors - which was so great to see.   There are so many talented and skilled cake decorators it is so humbling to see!

I decided to enter a competition again, and with all the travel I decided on entering the cupcake class.  Driving a wedding cake over 200 miles was too much for my nerves to face.

This year the rules had changed for this class, and after a couple of harassing emails to the organisers I was clear that we were to make a dozen cakes comprising of two different flavours and 2 different styles (i.e. 6 identical to each other).

I planned hundreds of different designs, and until I started to make them was I set on two (with perhaps a little altering on the way).

Below are the cakes I made.
I thought I would keep it simple with flavours.  While I do have a cuptail (a cocktail in a cupcake) range I thought the judges would prefer more traditional flavours - chocolate mud and vanilla.

Dragon and wave cupcakes

My wave cupcake was hand painted.  Orange blossoms cut using cutters, and the large blossom - I cut each individual petal, painted and dusted then assembled on the topper

My dragon cupcake the topper was hand painted gold, then the dragon was hand modelled.  These took about an hour each to model.  I used scissors for the scales along the back.

Judges tasting!

 

The crazy thing about this competition was that when my friend went to collect my cakes at the end of the show, 4 of them and the board had been stolen!  I would understand someone taking them all or someone getting curious/hungry and pinching a couple of cakes, but to take 4 and the board...I really don't understand!

 

I did have a blast when I was there on Friday and met up with some of my lovely cakey friends!  I shall continue to enter competitions!

 



Back to blogging ... Ben 10 and Octonauts party

I have been a very bad blogger…in fact I have not been a blogger at all for months!  My last post was just before the children started their summer holiday.  So that explains 2 months silence.  Since they have returned the days and weeks have been flying past.

I have made 3 major cakes.  One for each of the kiddies!

The latest was for James, 5 my boys’ boy.  He is the easiest boy to buy presents for – he loves everything boyish…sharks, planes, Lego, Octonauts and under the sea, Ben 10 , Dinosaurs….. I could go one.  He gives me a brief every year and this year he wanted a combined cake of Octonauts and Ben 10 (although this did change in the days leading up to the party – but it was too late!).  I thought this was even trickier to do than last years dinosaurs and sharkie cake!

I decided on an Octonauts Rescue Mission of Ben 10 and his character Rath.
 

We had a large party with all the boys from his reception class.  I decided to make Ben 10 and Octonaut Cake pops and shark cupcakes for their party bags.   

Ben 10 Cake pops

Octonauts Cake pops

With fondant hats.

Shark cupcakes

These shark cupcakes were so quick and easy but looked so effective with some blue and white 'sea' buttercream piped on top...as I am out of blogger practice I did not take picture on how to make the fins, but I'll try to do some more soon.

Family Holiday in Latchi, Cyprus

So I have been rather quiet, and here is one of the reasons why:
We have spent our family holidays in my parent’s villa in Cyprus.  It is in a fishing village called Latchi which is near Polis which is near Paphos.

3 double bedrooms so we were all comfortable even with Mum and Dad!

We hired a car at Paphos airport, drove the hour trip to the villa and had a truly lovely holiday. 
Everyday was spent with mornings at the Latchi beaches

and afternoons by the pool.  James our 4 year old learnt to swim and Sophia, 7 learnt back stroke. 

  Both were able to snorkel by the end of the 10 days too

 (baby thought she could - but was just a sea monster instead!).

 Most days lunch was on the side patio, allowing the food to go down by laying on the sun loungers.

We cooked in a few nights having bought food at the Papantonio Supermarket in Polis (5 minuets drive) and lit the BBQ for a couple.  Others we ate out at some of the great local restaurants in Latchi and Polis.
There is some great food to be had, our favourite being Moussaka, Loukaniko and Sheftalia sausages.  We loved ordering the Meze where a mix of dips, pitta, and meats came ...ooh and not forgetting the grilled Haloumi Cheese!  Hindsight - should have taken some photos of the delicious food.  I have even made Tzatziki (Greek yogurt with cucumber and garlic dip) several times since getting home!

The villa now has wifi set up, (doesn’t mean I logged onto my emails though!!) and British TV through it.  We barely watched television, but the kids borrowed a DVD from the shop in Polis and had a film night one evening while we were on the mojitos!

We celebrated Daddy's birthday there!

So if you are looking for a lovely restful break then conveniently it is for hire, and you can pick up cheap flights to Paphos.

There are more pictures of inside the villa on it’s Facebook page so take a peek!  3 Bed Villa Neo Chorio, Cyprus to rent
A really great villa to rent near Paphos, Cyprus!

How to stack a cake with a central dowel

I recently had to transport a wedding cake already stacked (safest way to take a tiered cake is unstacked and stack at venue).  I searched the internet for the best ways to do this, and all I could find was using a central dowel which has been hammered into the top of the cake.  The thought of doing this scared me too much, I just can not take a hammer anywhere near a cake that had taken so many hours to create!

So I decided to deconstruct it and dowel in reverse.

 Firstly cut out circles the size of your bottom tier out of cardboard.  Using a compass to get perfect cirles, also the hole created is the centre - useful for cutting out the hole.

I cut out 5 cardboard circles and stuck together with hot glue.

Using a sharp implement (my craft knife was perfect) and cut a circle from the cardboard the size of the dowel.  I cut out 4 of the cardboard layers.

Cover with tin foil to make food safe.

Find the centre of your cake cards for each other tier and cut a hole a tiny bit larger than the size of your dowel (I used a large white polydowel, but the wooden ones would work just as well (pour boiling water over first))

Centre the bottom tier and dowel - secure under and above with some chocolate (or Royal Icing if not doing a chocolate cake.).  You can do this and the following with iced cakes - provided they have been left the covered cakes for the covering to harden.

I roughly ganached my cakes at this stage and made a whole through the cakes with another dowel. 

Now is the time to measure and cut your central dowel as you do not want it sticking out of the top of the cake.

Dowelled tiers too.  Don't forget each tier will still need dowels in.

Between each tier, layer with melted chocolate or royal icing to stick each tier together

I stacked while still needing a couple of layers of ganache - due to the style of my cake, this did aid to its security.



Ganached again while stached.  But now the cake is lovely and secure, perfect for boxing and transporting. 

I wrapped this cake in modelling chocolate, transported then added the final details at the venue.

I placed the cake in cardboard box, placed a non-slip mat in the boot of the car and box on top.  Even with the cake nice and secure I still drove very carefully for 60 miles.

Ok so I drove for the 60 miles - however I did not place the cake in or out of the box it was SOOOOOOOO heavy!  So be warned you will probably need help to carry a cake this big!

It arrived in a perfect condition, and I could finally breath!!

Taa dahhhhh  Here it is fully decorated at the venue!  I was very pleased with how the cake arrived and turned out!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.533988659969555.1073741835.254339047934519&type=3#!/pages/Coco-Blossom-Chocolates-and-Cakes/254339047934519

Sausage and Peppers Parpadelle

Watching UK Masterchef finals when they went to Italy and were taught by Mamma Agata the Italian Sausage Parpadelle sounded amazing and I knew it would be on the menu the next night! (And many nights since!)

At such short notice in deepest west Sussex I was not able to get Italian Sausages, but Waitrose Chorizo Sausages (as in the sausages flavoured with chorizo…not an actual chorizo – if you get what I mean!) were flavoursome enough to last the cooking and remain tasty (have tried with Sainsbury’s roasted onion ones – which were not!)

So I made the fresh pasta (previous blog) and while it rested in the fridge – knocked up the sauce!
I’m afraid I don’t really measure things…but I will try to give as close guesses as possible!

3 tsp oil
1 tbs butter
4 cloves garlic
1 small onion/ 1-2 shallots
6 Italian sausages (from delicatessen) or Waitrose Chorizo flavour sausages
1 red pepper
1 yellow (or orange) pepper
500g cherry tomatoes sliced in half
4-5 sliced basil leaves
1 handful grated parmesan and more for each plate

Fry the onion and garlic in 1tsp oil and butter and when soft add the sausages.  Colour on all sides

In a separate pan, fry the peppers in the remainder of oil until slightly soft.

When the peppers are soft add to the pan with sausages and add the tomatoes.

Cover with a lid, and simmer for 30 minutes.

When done, chop the sausages (I used food scissors and kept them chunky); add the basil, parmesan and a little pepper and salt to taste.

Boil pasta in another bowl when all is ready, mix and plate (or serve pasta and sauce on top) grate a little more parmesan on top and serve.

AMAZING!!!  Seriously AMAZING – no other words!

Easy Fresh Pasta Recipe

I would suggest 100g of flour for each adult serving.

Grade 00 Fine Pasta Flour
Eggs

1 egg per every 100g of flour.

I serve 3 greedy kids and 2 adults, 400g flour and 4 eggs.
Sieve the flour onto a work surface and make a well in the middle for your eggs.  Use a fork to mix the eggs and slowly work in the flour from the outside.

Start to use your hand to mix and knead in the flour and eventually you will get a ball.  From this point knead for 5-10 minutes until the skin is smooth.  Next time I make this I think I will use the stand mixer with a dough hook as it is harder than kneading bread dough!  (having said that I still haven’t used the dough hook …maybe next time!)

Wrap well in clingfilm/a food bag and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (it is actually softer after a rest).
I have rolled out the pasta by hand and in a machine. 

If using a pasta machine, take a ball the size of a golf ball, flatten to a rectangle – dusting with more flour and roll through the largest setting 6 times then roll on each smaller size once until at your desired size (I like 5 or 6) and cut or pass through the fettuccini cutter (if attached to your machine), give a light dusting of flour again to stop it all sticking together.

If rolling by hand allow about 30 minutes (maybe this would speed up but on my first attempt which was 300g recipe it took this long and is really hard work…hence pinching my mum’s pasta machine!!)!

Take a golfball size piece again and on a surface dusted in flour roll into a rectangle – as thin as you can get! 
Fold over lengthways and slice with a knife – about 1 cm apart for parpadelle.

Tah dah lovely pasta!

I use my largest saucepan for boiling in - so there is lots of room for the pasta and it does not stick together.
It does not take long to boil.  This Parpadelle took 3-5 minutes, the thinner fettuccini took only a minute or so - do keep testing it as I think cooked pasta is a personal preferance.

I cannot tell you how much better than dried past this is but BELIEVE me it is! 

It is also so easy, I will still buy the dried stuff for making a very quick dinner for the kids – or a mac-and-cheese, but generally I think I will try to be making fresh from now on!

I made this with the fabulous looking Italian sausage sauce we saw on the UK masterchef finals in Italy...I will blog the recipe I thought they used.

Pleated skirt Tutorial (for a cake)

Here is how I made the skirt on my CI cake.

I used Fondant (sugarpaste/ready to roll icing) with Tylo (or CMC) kneaded into it.

Roll out to about 3mm thick. 

Cut to 5cm x 15-20cm depending on how many pleats and depth of cake.

Using your rolling pin, thin one of the 5cm ends by pressing harder on it and giving a little roll off.

Gently make a fold in the fondant (holding it up for the camera for too long will produce a hole! J - which was still usable - the hole was covered by the next pleat!)

 

Place on the cake, repeat and overlap the previous pleat.

 

You can continue around the cake in one direction, but I wanted a little more movement in mine, so after 5 I changed direction and attached fold to fold with a little water to act as glue.  

Where 2 ends meet, add a full cylinder at the end (instead of folding one side – fold from both and attach with water).

Ta Dah a skirt!