Posts Tagged "manchester"

Monthly Modeller Classes

24th January 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
baker, blog, cake, cake maker, cheshire, class, classes, decorating, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , ,

At Marie’s Bakehouse we offer a range of different classes, but one of our most popular ones is the Monthly Modeller Class. As the name suggested we meet once a month to model something different each time. Here are some of the things we’ve modelled already……
a witch
witch model
an elf
Elf model
an owl
owl model
a dragon
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a beach scene
BSN1
and an afternoon tea
afternoon tea
And these are all the work of students- not mine. We’ve also made a mermaid, Santa, a pirate, handbags, a princess, trains, cars and teddy bears to name but a few!
If you’d like to join us, you can find a full list of classes here with our next class being Ronnie the Robot on Wednesday 28th January 7-9pm.
Ronnie Robot model
We do have a regular group of ladies who come to most classes, or those that come to ones that take their fancy. As well as learning, and being creative for two hours, we have a good natter, cups of tea and coffee and I bring along something I’ve baked (using my ladies as guinea pigs for my latest recipe hahaha), or if I’m very lucky, one of the ladies bakes for us instead!! Everything is provided, all you need to bring is a box to take your creation home.
It’s a really nice relaxing evening, so if you fancy coming one night to one of our Monthly Modeller Classes, you would be very very welcome!
You can message me on my fb page www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse
or via email at marie@mariesbakehouse.co.uk

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Banana muffin recipe

20th January 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
baker, blog, cake, cheshire, dessert, homemade, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, recipe, Urmston, , , , , , , , , ,

banana muffin

Banana Muffin Recipe

I have constantly got over-ripe bananas in my house, that get chucked into the freezer for using on a later date. Time to get using some! Hence the next recipe for the Bakehouse Blog!

Ingredients

200g self raising flour

pinch of salt

3 large bananas, mashed

150g caster sugar

1 egg

75g  butter, melted

Method.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Place 12 paper baking cases in a muffin, or cupcake, tin.

2. Put the flour and salt in a bowl, then set aside.

3. Combine mashed bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter in a large bowl.

4. Fold in flour mixture, and mix until just smooth- don’t over mix.

5. Spoon evenly into baking cases in muffin tin.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until muffins spring back when lightly tapped.

These muffins will freeze well, but they also last for at least three days after baking too. I’m going to play with this recipe and add oats, cinnamon etc, and play about with reducing the amount of sugar too.

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Vouchers available for presents

26th October 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
birthday, Christmas, class, decorating, marie's bakehouse, presents, vouchers, , , , , , , , , , ,

If you have someone to buy for who is into baking and decorating vouchers could be the perfect present for them! Equally if you are stuck for what to buy them, an ‘experience’ present always goes down well.  They’ll also have something to take home with them at the end of the class. A class voucher for Marie’s Bakehouse might be the answer to your present buying worries. We run classes for children and adults, from our very popular Monthly Modeller Classes, to cupcake decorating and celebration cake classes. There are lots of opportunities for people to come along and learn something new.

voucher for Marie's Bakehouse

You can have the voucher personalised, and if you are on the last minute, we can email the voucher over to you for you to print out and give to the recipient.

Our new class list for the Spring term will be published in the next few weeks. If you would like to book for a private class, please contact us and we can discuss what might like to be taught and give you a price accordingly.

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90th birthday cake for a very special lady

14th October 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
birthday, cake, cheshire, edible, flowers, lace, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 
Last week I had the honour of making a very special birthday cake for a very special lady- my Gran! She turned 90 this weekend. 90!! Imagine what amazing things she has seen in the last 90 years!

Alice named

It’s not often I get free reign on a cake, or the chance to make a really pretty girly one. Most of my cake orders involve modelling of some description, but not sugar flowers. I’ve also been itching to make some edible lace but haven’t had an order that has required it yet.  So edible lace and pretty flowers were the order of the day for this cake.

alice name plaque named

For the edible lace I used Claire Bowman Cake Lace. I have to say it was straight forward to use and I would highly recommend it if you are thinking of having a go. I also used the lace in the name plaque to tie it in with the rest of the design.

Alice flowers named

I really enjoyed making the flowers. This is about the fourth time I’ve  achieved roses I would say had a ‘real’ look to them, and I really like the dusky pink tones in these roses. I added carnations as a contrast and then used gooseberry and lilac shades in other wired flowers to complete the look.

Alice with Alice

All in all, I was really pleased with the way the cake turned out, and my Gran was too, which was definitely the desired outcome!

In case you are wondering the top tier was lemon cake, with lemon buttercream, and white chocolate and lemon ganache, and the bottom tier was rich chocolate mud cake with chocolate flavoured buttercream and milk chocolate ganache. Two of my favourite flavours 🙂

I’m looking forward to the next pretty cake I can make!

www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse

www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk

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Witch Modelling Class for Adults and Children

13th October 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
class, classes, decorating, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, modelling, Urmston, , , , , , , ,

 
This Wednesday 15th October 7-9pm sees the next adult Monthly Modeller class, which will be Brenda the witch.

Modelling class -witch

We will also be teaching this class for children aged ten to teens on Thursday 30th November 3-5 pm.
Both classes include two hours of tuition, all equipment, materials and refreshments. The cost is £20 a head, although if two or more are booked on to the tens-teens class, the price will reduce to £17 each.
Contact Marie on marie@mariesbakehouse.co.uk or message on www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse to book.
 
 
 
 
 

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My kind of Christmas Pudding!

9th October 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
chocolate, Christmas, gift, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , ,

Fancy a Malteser and chocolate orange based Christmas pudding treat this festive season?

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It might only be October, but here at Marie’s Bakehouse, we’re getting ready for Christmas! Although I’m quite partial to a spot of Christmas pud, this particular version is a winner every time!
Hidden inside the outer layer of Maltesers is a Terry’s Chocolate orange, and it’s topped with white modelling chocolate and edible holly berries and leaves.
Displayed on a silver board, and inside a Christmas presentation box, it makes an ideal gift or a fabulous edition to a Christmas dessert table!
These beauties are £9 each, or £8 each when three or more are purchased. You can order via email at marie@mariesbakehouse.co.uk, or via my facebook page www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse.
 
 

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Birthday treat at Teacup Kitchen

20th February 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
1 comment
afternoon, birthday, cream, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, review, tea, teacup, Thomas street, treat, Urmston, , , , , , ,

Yesterday was my birthday. I won’t divulge how old I was, but let’s just say I was one step closer to 40!
For the last few years, I’ve used my birthday as an excuse to make a cake that I’ve wanted to try for a while. But this year I was kinda caked out. Last week was a busy one in the Bakehouse.
So we went for a birthday treat to Teacup Kitchen on Thomas Street in Manchester.
My children (aged 5 and 7) had a large piece of Rainbow Cake between them. The cake slices are BIG, so one between them was more than enough.

It was like a battenburg style cake, jam in between the layers and wrapped in marzipan. And it certainly pleased the children 🙂
The other half and I plumped for cream tea with two different flavoured pots of tea, which also comes with free refills. There is a substantial range of teas to choose from, and we learnt ours needed four minutes to brew, being provided with an on the table egg style timer to make sure we left it for the optimal time. A very nice touch 🙂
The scone was delicious…

And certainly made a good replacement birthday cake!
I’d love to return here with some girlfriends, and we could try a selection of the cakes, the afternoon tea also looks very tempting!

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Experimenting with Lakeland's agar agar (part two) Making Marshmallows!

9th February 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
agar agar, homemade, Lakeland, marshmallows, recipe, review, , , , , , , , , , ,

Well, after the success of the panna cotta recipe, I decided to give marshmallows a go! I’ve wanted to make these for ages, so this was the perfect excuse. Like the panna cotta, I thought it was going to be a difficult process and take a long time, but quite the opposite was true.

Homemade marshmallows are quite unlike ones that you buy in the shops. Soft, fluffy squidgy, melt-in-the-mouth clouds of sweet vanilla-y yumminess. I don’t think I’d describe shop bought ones in the same way!
So here’s the recipe:
Homemade marshmallows
3 egg whites (I used Two Chicks)
250g sugar
100ml water
1 tbsp. honey
1 tsp agar agar powder
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
icing sugar
pink food colouring
Method
1. In a small bowl, dissolve the agar agar powder in the water.
2. Pour this into a saucepan, with the sugar and honey and warm to a medium to high heat until the syrup mixture has reached 121 degrees.
3. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until they are firm.
4. Add the food colouring and the vanilla bean paste.
5. When the syrup is ready, pour it slowly into the egg whites and continue to whisk.
6. Line an 8″ x 8″ baking tin with parchment paper, and pour the marshmallow mixture in the prepared tin and use a spatula to spread it.
7. Allow it to dry for 10 hours. It’s usable after a couple of hours, but will firm up more if you leave it for longer.
8. Cut it into squares and roll in the icing sugar.
I found that it was better if I allowed the icing sugar to dry off a bit, and then rolled again in the icing sugar.

Looks yummy doesn’t it? I have to admit, it is quite sticky so if you were thinking of giving it as a gift, you might need to roll it in the sugar again, or even pack it in layers of sugared parchment paper.
And if you think squares are a bit on the boring side, how about cutting shapes instead?

I know, almost too cute to eat right? Almost….
You can buy agar agar from Lakeland here.
I was given the agar agar product to use by Lakeland, but all views are my own.
www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk
www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse

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Experimenting with Lakeland's Agar Agar Panna Cotta

9th February 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
agar agar, dessert, homemade, Lakeland, panna cotta, recipe, review, vanilla, , , , , , , , ,

For those who haven’t used or heard about it before, Agar Agar is a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweed vegetation. It can be used in a variety of dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan recipes as a stabilizing and thickening agent.

I have never used it before, heck I’ve barely used gelatin before, so it was time to have a play with new recipes.
I decided on giving panna cotta a try. It was MUCH easier than I thought.
This is the recipe I used:
Panna Cotta
360ml full fat milk
120ml whipping cream
2 tsp agar agar powder
2-3 tsp vanilla bean paste
Strawberry coulis (recipe further down)
And the method:
1. Put the milk, cream, agar agar powder and vanilla bean paste into a pan.
2. Heat the mixture over a medium heat until the agar agar powder has fully dissolved, stirring occasionally.
3. Heat to boiling point and let it bubble for a minute or two, then remove from the heat.
4. Let it stand for about ten minutes, then pour into 4 ramekin dishes or bowls.
5. When cool, refrigerate for 2-3 hours until set.
6. To release the panna cotta, run around the edge of it with a silicone spatula or sharp knife, place a plate upside down on top of the dish, and turn the plate and dish upside down to transfer the panna cotta on to the plate.

7. Pour the coulis around the panna cotta and serve cold.

Strawberry coulis
125ml water
125g caster sugar
300g hulled and halves strawberries
Method
1. Bring the water and caster sugar to the boil and stir, making sure the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the strawberries and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the strawberries have softened.
3. Puree the mixture, and strain through a sieve.
4. Store the puree in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Looks yummy doesn’t it? I could just eat the bit on that spoon. You know…just to test it….

Mmmmmmmmm!!!
A very easy recipe, but impressive- one that could be used to impress the in laws if the occasion required it!
And here’s a sneak peek of experimenting with agar agar part 2!

Any guesses what I made this time??
You can buy agar agar from Lakeland here.
I was given the agar agar product to use by Lakeland, but all views are my own.
www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk
www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse
 

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Review of Lakeland's Say It With Biscuits Kit

4th February 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
1 comment
biscuits, edible, gifts, Lakeland, presents, review, say it with biscuits kit, stampers, , , , , , , , , ,

Instalment number two of this weeks’ Lakeland product reviews! And this time I got to play with gingerbread dough and stamps!

This is the Say It With Biscuits Kit. Three silicone stamps, the wooden ‘handle’ that they fit on to for easy stamping, a cutter, recipe booklet and 6 very sweet gift boxes should you be able to bring yourself to give them away! It all comes packaged in a cute box so would make a great present for a baker.
I used my own gingerbread dough recipe, but the booklet does contain some lovely looking recipes. It includes a sable (basic) biscuit recipe, that you could easily flavour using a splash of vanilla or almond extract, or grated zest of lemon or orange for further biscuit flavours. There is also a ginger biscuit recipe, a chocolate one (that will definitely get tried in this house, chocoholics? Us?!), and recipes for oat and raisin, choc chip, and even a savoury cheese one. There are also ideas and recipes for filling the biscuits, should you wish to sandwich them together.  So definitely lots of ideas to get you started!
If you have your own favourite biscuit recipe you could also use that of course, but it needs to be a dough which can firm up when chilled, so the pattern doesn’t spread when baked. The instructions recommend chilling the dough before baking, but I’d also recommend chilling after cutting the biscuits for at least 20 minutes, especially if you are re-rolling the scraps of dough after the initial lot of cutting, as the warmth of your hands will warm the dough up too.
Using the stampers is easy. They fit snugly onto the wooden handle, and you can use this to push the stamper into the dough. I would say you need to push it quite firmly into the dough to make a good deep imprint. You need to bake them for the time according to the recipe, so check that for details.
You can see I have two sizes of biscuits on the picture above. The larger ones are made using the cookie cutter that comes with the kit, but I also had a go with a smaller round cutter I have to see what it would look like. I think they both look great. And if you were feeling generous and were going to give more than one away as a gift, I think the mixture of sizes would look lovely in a kilner jar with a ribbon tied around it.
And if you fancy a bit of extra indulgence, how about sandwiching two together with milk chocolate ganache? Mmmmmmm!!
I haven’t tried it yet, but I would also imagine that you could use these stampers with sugarpaste to make toppers for cupcakes, you would probably just need to add a smear of vegetable fat like Trex to the silicone stamper before using it to make sure it didn’t stick.
The stampers have three different patterns: hearts, flowers and a Made For You stamp. They could be used on their own or together, and would make a good gift for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and birthdays….and many other occasions in between. If you like to make homemade gifts and are handy in the kitchen, this could be a good investment for you. With so many variations of flavours, stampers, shapes, and how you could package them you could produce a different gift every time!
You can buy the kit here.
Although I was given the kit for free to review, all the views and opinions expressed are my own.
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