Category "cheshire"

Review of Lakeland's Fairytale Village Mould

19th December 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
cheshire, chocolate, Christmas, fairy tale cottage mould, house, Lakeland, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, review, Urmston, , , , , , , ,

I already own the Lakeland Fairy Tale Cottage Mould, which I had great fun using and putting together this Christmas themed chocolate house…

…but this house is big- I used 1.6kg of chocolate and chocolate paste to make and decorate. So when I was sent the Fairy Tale Village Mould I was interested to see whether it would be as easy working with the chocolate house mould in miniature.
The mould has enough parts to make four teeny houses, either in chocolate or gingerbread (of course I chose chocolate, yes you know me well!) with mini people and also some trees.
Top tips for using this smaller mould would be to use a cocktail stick or similar to ease the chocolate into the tiny gaps for the people’s arms and legs. And also, when you are pushing the chocolate out of the moulds, made sure you do it straight away when you take it out of the fridge. If you have hot hands, or the kitchen is warm, the chocolate can start to melt straight away on these smaller parts as you handle them. I made the mistake of leaving mine out for a while before I tried to remove it, and left some of the people’s legs behind- hence them being stood in a mould of ‘snow’ in the picture.
I’ve decorated my house using sugarpaste in red and white because I love those Christmassy colours together, but the possibilities are endless. My two girls are looking forward to decorating the other houses with sweets at some point before Christmas.
So here’s the house…
To give you some idea of size, it’s sitting on a 7″ square board.

I would recommend this mould. They would make a lovely centrepiece for a dessert table displayed altogether on one board, or would make great gifts individually like this one. You could even fill it with sweets before you seal the roof.
I also think this would be great for other times of year. They’d look great in white chocolate, decorated with pastels and made into an Easter Egg hunt theme, or even lined up like beach huts for a summer dessert table.
This is definitely a product I’ll be using again.
You can buy it from Lakeland here: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/18207/Fairy-Tale-Village-Mould
I was not paid to write this review, but was sent the mould free of charge. All views are my own.
www.facebok.com/MariesBakehouse
www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk

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Review of Lakeland's Silicone Chocolate Box Shapes

16th December 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
cake maker, celebration, cheshire, chocolate mould, Lakeland, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, review, silicone, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , ,

Another Lakeland toy to play with? And it involves chocolate? Definitely count me in!

I’ve had experience with making chocolates with a hard plastic chocolate mould before, but not with silicone, so it required a bit of thinking about how to go about it, as the methods I used for a rigid mould wouldn’t work so well with a flexible one.
I decided to apply the melted chocolate with a paintbrush which helped get the chocolate in all the places required, especially with the more intricate designs. In hindsight, it may have been better to let this harden, and then apply a second coat, as a couple of the chocolates didn’t come out without breaking, but that’s something to try next time.
I made a caramel sauce, and poured it into the chocolate mould once they had been in the fridge for about an hour (I was busy doing other things at the time, I don’t think it necessarily needs this long). I left a space at the top of each mould- I didn’t fill it completely to the top.  And then popped the mould back into the fridge.
After about half an hour, I melted more chocolate and added this on top of the caramel, then it went back in the fridge again to set. I tried to pop them out after half an hour, but this perhaps wasn’t quite long enough as a couple of them cracked on coming out, so I chilled them for a bit longer (this could have been down to having too thin a coat and not the chilling time- I will need to experiment with this).
Second time lucky, the rest popped out without a problem, by pushing the mould from underneath.
I’m really pleased with how they look!

Not perfect, but pretty fab for the first attempt I think!
I’d definitely use this mould again. The chocolates would be great for presents, not just at Christmas time, but for birthdays, Mother’s Day, and I’d also think about using them on my dessert tables.

I’m looking forward to trying out different flavour combinations- I think salted caramel and a chocolate orange ganache will be two I’ll be trying out soon!
If you fancy giving them a go, you can buy them from Lakeland here: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16442/Silicone-Chocolate-Box-Shapes
I was not paid to write this review, but was sent the mould free of charge. All views are my own.
www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse
www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk

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How to make a stripy vanilla and chocolate bundt cake

7th October 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
birthday, bundt, cake, cake maker, celebration, cheshire, chocolate, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, pourable ganache, stripy, Urmston, vanilla, , , , , , , ,
I’ve seen a few stripy cakes around recently, and after treating myself to a bargain bundt tin this week (£1.99 from Home Bargains!!!) I decided I needed to use it, instead of putting it in the cupboard and not using it for months. Not that I EVER do that with new equipment. NEVER. *ahem*
So here’s the recipe for the stripy vanilla and chocolate bundt cake!
What you need:
280g butter or baking margarine
280g caster sugar
5 eggs
280g self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
100ml double cream
200g milk chocolate (I used Cadbury’s Dairy Milk for this recipe)
What to do:
1. Cream the butter/baking margarine and sugar together.
2. Add the eggs one at a time beating thoroughly.
3. Add the vanilla extract and the self raising flour and beat again until thoroughly combined.
4. Take half the mixture and put it in another bowl.
5. Add the cocoa powder to the remaining half and beat until it has mixed fully.
6. Grease the bundt tin. I used Wilton Cake Release, and can’t recommend it highly enough.

7. Add a dollop of the vanilla mixture to the tin.

8. On top of the vanilla mixture, add a dollop of chocolate mixture.
9. Next add another dollop of vanilla, on top of the mixture already in the tin. The mixture will start to spread.
10. And then another dollop of chocolate. Keep adding alternate dollops of mixture until you have used all the mixtures in both bowls. If it doesn’t spread as well as you need it too, just shake the tin a bit and encourage the mixture to spread round to the other side of the tin.
11. This is what it will look like when you have finished adding the mixtures.
12. Bake for around 30 minutes at 160 degrees. Check around 25 minutes- your oven may bake differently to mine.
13. Leave it to cool for about 20 minutes in the tin, then turn it out onto a wire wrack to cool fully. (How fab does that look?!)
14. Once the cake is cool, chop the chocolate into small pieces and put it all in the bowl, and heat the cream until it just reaches boiling point, and pour the cream over the chocolate. Leave it for about 30 seconds to start to melt the chocolate, then beat it together until it has combined to make a smooth ganache. Pour the ganache over the top of the cake and leave to set.
15. Stick the kettle on, cut and slice, put your feet up and enjoy 🙂
I am definitely going to make this again, but try different flavour combinations too. Chocolate and orange, coffee and caramel, white chocolate and lemon, dark chocolate and mint……so many new ones to try!!
If you make it, I’d love to hear what you thought!
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Recipe for Brioche and Nutella Pudding

10th September 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, cheshire, homemade, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, pudding, recipe, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , ,

This is a twist on bread and butter pudding which came about due to the need to use up a packet of brioche…..

What you need for this recipe:
25g butter
6 individual brioche rolls, sliced
350ml whole milk
50ml double cream
2 eggs
25g sugar
6 tbsps Nutella
25g chocolate chips

What to do:

  • Grease a 1 litre pie dish with butter.

 

  • Slice the brioche and spreas the nutella on each slice.

 

  • Arrange a layer of brioche (about half of the slices), chocolate side up, in the bottom of the dish, then sprinkle half on the chocolate chips over the top. Add another layer of the brioche.

 

  • Gently warm the milk and cream in a pan over a low heat to scalding point. Don’t let it boil.

 

  • Crack the eggs into a bowl, add three quarters of the sugar and lightly whisk until pale.

 

  • Add the warm milk and cream mixture and stir well, then strain the custard into a bowl.

 

  • Pour the custard over the prepared bread layers and sprinkle with the other half of the chocolate chips and the remaining sugar and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

 

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

 

  • Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard has set and the top is golden-brown.
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How to make goats cheese, strawberry and honey crostini

11th June 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
baker, blog, cheshire, easy, edible, marie's bakehouse, recipe, Urmston, , , , , , , , , ,
After spending a week on a French Cake Break with Rhu Strand from Pimp my Cake with Mama Rhu, and being treated to the most amazing cooking, I took inspiration from one of the local delicacies that we were treated to and added a bit of a twist. The results, I can assured you, are amazeballs!
Ingredients you will need:
(this is what I used, you might choose slightly different quantities)
1 part baked French baguette
1 block of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, Kidderton Ash Goats’ Cheese, thinly sliced
About 7/8 strawberries, depending on their size, thinly sliced
A drizzle of Sainsbury’s runny honey
About 5 fresh basil leaves, torn
What to do:
1. Slice the baguette into around 15 slices.
2. Place them on a baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for 5 minutes.
3. Transfer to a grill, and place a thin slice of goats cheese on the toasted bread, followed by one or two slices of strawberries.
4. Place under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese starts to melt.
5. Transfer to a serving dish and while still warm, drizzle honey over the crostini.
6. Sprinkle the torn basil leaves over the top, and serve.
An easy peasy, whipped up in under ten minutes treat 🙂

 

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How to make yummy bread rolls, using a bread machine

6th June 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, bread machine, cheshire, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, recipe, Urmston, , , , , ,

I love fresh bread, there’s little that can beat the taste and texture of it fresh from the oven. But sometimes I just don’t have time, or I’m just not organised enough, to make it all by hand. So this is where my bread machine comes into it’s own. Hands up who has a bread machine? And hands up who hasn’t used it in ages? That’s about to change…..

Ingredients you will need:
310ml water
30g butter, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp. sugar
600g white bread flour
1 egg
2 tsp dried yeast
You’ll need to add the ingredients according to the instructions for your machine, but for mine it’s this order- water, butter, salt and sugar, then flour, egg and yeast. 
Put it on the dough setting and let the bread machine work it’s magic. The dough cycle on my machine takes 1 hour and 20 minutes.
As soon as it’s finished, you can tip the dough out and break it into 12 pieces, and roll each one into a ball. Put them onto two greased baking trays and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 200 degrees, or until cooked and golden brown.
Then remove the bread rolls and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Or, leave to cool as long as is needed to enable you to hold them without burning your fingers, break apart, spread with butter and enjoy!!

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Cake International Manchester 2013 – my experience of entering the competition!

19th March 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
1 comment
blog, cake, cake maker, cheshire, decorating, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Have you been to Cake International? It’s been running for many years, but I’ve been to the Birmingham one for the last three years.  The first one, I drove there from Manchester with my mum, spent a fortune on goodies and came home full of ideas, and totally in awe of anyone who entered the competition, thinking it wasn’t anything that I’d ever do myself.

The second and third years I went with cake friends and stayed over near the NEC. It was a really social experience, spending time in person with ‘real live’ cake friends, not just chatting to them over the internet! Each year different friends entered the competition and, with them, I lived through their anguish beforehand whilst making their competition piece, their nerves when waiting for the judges to announce who had been awarded what grades, and their joy and sometimes disappointments at how they had been scored.

But I hadn’t ever entered the competition myself. Well, I lived in Manchester, and the cake had to be delivered to Birmingham before 8.45am on a Friday morning, and I had work, or had to take the children to school, so I couldn’t possibly get it there, could I?
Good enough excuse I thought.

Then Cake International moved to Manchester. And not just Manchester- to Event City, which is less than ten minutes away from where I live in Urmston. So the ‘I can’t get it there’ excuse was no longer relevant. Hmmmmmmmm.

So, when the time came to think about buying my tickets for CI, it was crunch time.  Was I going to buy a three day pass? Or enter the competition and have a three day pass because of it? So I entered the competition. I read through the rules of each class and decided on Class B: Celebration cake with all edible decoration.

I decided to stick with something I knew I could do. Some people enter CI to really challenge themselves, and hats off to them for doing it. There are some absolutely fantastic pieces there, such as this amazing piece from Rhu at Pimp My Cake By Mama Rhu. But I thought I’d make a cake which I’d make for a customer, and just have fun making a cake I enjoyed. Which is exactly what I did.

I like making cakes with lots of detail. Cakes which make you look a little bit closer. Cakes which have decoration at the back as well as at the front. So I kind of went to town with it on this cake.  I didn’t stress, I didn’t worry, I just enjoyed making a cake that I wanted to make.  So far so good I thought.

On the morning of delivery I was still fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Until the point of putting it on the table. Then I started to feel nervous. Lots of people would be looking at my cake over the next three days. The judges would be scrutinising it in a matter of hours. People might wander past it and criticise it. I might be there and hear them! Suddenly I wasn’t quite so calm! But I felt confident enough in my cake to think I might be awarded a merit, and if I was lucky enough to get a bronze, then I’d be thrilled.

After taking the children to school, and going home to bake for a order, I returned to CI at about 11am. As soon as I arrived I went to the competition area and saw a judge with my cake! Suddenly I felt very sick.  Suddenly it really mattered to me what this person thought of my cake, and I needed to know as soon as possible. 

Then I, and other cake friends, waited for the results to be announced. And waited and waited and waited. Three o’clock came round and I had to leave to collect my children from school. On returning home I was glued to my laptop, waiting for Rhu to let me know what the results were. Then Rhu posted a picture for me.

Stunned. Totally stunned. In fact I think my first response was ‘Noooooooooooooooooooo!’ But completely and utterly pleased and proud. Thrilled that one of my cakes, one I’d make in the same way for a customer, achieved a gold at Cake International!
Quick jump to Sunday afternoon, and the award ceremony, and not only did I manage to meet John Whaite (winner of GBBO) who presented my certificate, I was also awarded best in my class. Here’s me with a daft grin, and trying not to cry!
Happy caker 🙂
And just because I have one, here’s a picture of Mary Berry with my cake. Well, almost with my cake. I’d like to think she was at least looking at it!
Would I enter CI again? Yes I think I would. I might even step out of my comfort zone and enter a class I’m not so confident in. I have a few ideas forming…….
So that’s it, my journey to Cake International Manchester.
Any ideas how many eggs the Easter Bunny hid in the garden?? ;0)
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