Thank you chocolates

Last week with the help of my amazing colleagues I managed to pull off an event which has been the focus of my working life for the last six months.  I decided to say thank you for everyone’s help (and for putting up with my horrendous moods over the last few weeks!) in the only way I know: with homemade sweet treats.

Using the techniques I learned at chocolate making class at Coco Chocolate, I set out to make peppermint creams and white chocolate truffles in my humble kitchen.  Having indulged in a certain amount of quality control (and having licked every bowl clean!), I can confidently say that my colleagues will be receiving a delicious selection of chocolates!

Not quite a marble slab: tempering chocolate at home

Making white chocolate truffles

The finished products: white chocolate truffles and peppermint creams

All wrapped and ready to go: a chocolatey thank you

Pudding Club – An Edinburgh First

It’s Sunday afternoon and despite being out last night, I’m not suffering from an alcohol related hangover.  I am however still trying to get my blood sugars back to a normal level after the amazing experience of Edinburgh’s first Pudding Club last night! The plan for the pudding club was similar to that of the many supper clubs that run in Edinburgh but with one key difference: the meal would consist solely of puddings.  Ingenious! Three courses of cake, cheesecake and ice-cream – what better way to spend a Saturday night!!

The groundbreaking Pudding Club idea was conceived by fellow Cake Lady Wendy from Inside Out Chef.  Usually to be found in the kitchen creating bespoke outside catering options including freezer fills, afternoon teas and picnic hampers, Wendy turned her talents to puddings, puddings and more puddings for the night.  And what a menu!

We started with a trio of shooters.  Starting with the wonderfully creamy strawberry panna cotta, I made my way to the sparkling wine and pomegranate jelly and onto the chocolate mousse.  The mousse was honestly to die for. If we’d not been in “polite” company, I’m sure many of us would have resorted to licking the glass clean!

With excitement (and sugar levels!) rising, the first of the many main course dishes was brought out to a choir of appreciative cries from my fellow diners. Drizzled in a wonderfully sweet toffee sauce, the sticky toffee pudding didn’t stand a chance around a table of Edinburgh Cake Ladies.

The three pillow-sized fruit-topped pavlovas were equally endangered as myself and my fellow diners dived in.  Unfortunately, I’m not the biggest fan of cream but this didn’t stop me tucking into the light meringue underneath and the fresh fruit (one of my five a day!) on top.  I had to refrain from picking through the remains to find the left over crispy bits bearing in mind that I still had cheesecakes and ice-cream to devour.

And devour we did! Almost defeated by the previous courses, we took it slowly on with the  rum and raisin baked cheesecake and the blackcherry cheesecake.  And I couldn’t fault either. Having not had baked cheesecake since being in New York over four years ago, I was very much looking forward to the rum and raisin option.  Wendy’s was as amazingly  creamy and light as I remember the best New York cheesecakes!

And despite the hopes of my fellow diners that I wouldn’t be able to finish my three courses (and they would therefore have to “help” me out), I made it to desert: red ripple ice-cream, ginger ice-cream and my favourite, key lime pie ice-cream.

I hear that Wendy might be planning another pudding club later in the year so make sure you keep an eye on her website for more details.  I’m off to do some exercise so I don’t feel too guilty!

Breadshare Community Bakery

Nothing rivals good quality, fresh bread. The comforting yeast smell, the crisp and chewy crust, the slightly rustic look and the depth of flavour are unbeatable.  This is the idea that community bakery Breadshare have tapped into with their range of nutritious, organic, additive-free breads produced in their newly-established bakery in the Scottish Borders.

Having experienced Breadshare’s breads at St Mary’s Market in Edinburgh, I decided to take advantage of a free weekend (in April and May, these are few and far between for me!) and take a trip down to the Breadshare bakery with the lovely Victoria. We were lucky enough to have a peek in the kitchen and were made very welcome by Geoff and Debra who kindly took us through their their bread making processes.

From this modest kitchen in the Scottish Borders, over 800 artisan loaves are produced every week.  The loaves include yeasted breads, Italian breads, sourdough loaves and even the occasional sweet treat.  The loaves are sold in a multitude of ingenious ways: the shop at Whitmuir: The Organic Place, just a few steps away from the bakery door, stocks an extensive range; loaves are sold by volunteers at weekend markets in Edinburgh; and through the bakery’s Breadbasket scheme where locals take multiple loaves back into their own communities to distribute and are paid for their work in bread.

Payment for Breadbasket distributors

The bread itself is made without additives, preservatives or commercially enhanced processes.  There are large mixers present in the kitchen (mixing 60 kilos of bread would be back-breaking without them!) but there are no commercial proofers or proofer ovens.  In this kitchen, the bread dictates the processes and not the bakers.  The bakers and volunteer bakers must assess the temperature of the kitchen on a daily basis and monitor the bread throughout the process to ensure that it it doesn’t over-proof.  These facts put together demand a high level of talent and knowledge from the bakers and also ensure an attractive natural variation in the loaves produced.

Given that the shop was only a few feet away from the bakery and it was the day after payday, I treated myself to a few of Breadshare’s finest loaves.

Olive bread and sourdough bata

Selection of Breadshare breads including a cheese scone and almond bread

I fully intended to freeze some of these, thinking that we couldn’t possibly eat them all. How wrong I was! Two days later there remained only a bit of the bata (perfect for breakfast) and a few slices of the olive loaf. There is no denying that this is quality real bread produced in a community-focused way. I just can’t get enough!

MS Society Cupcake Bakeoff

Wow! What an afternoon! At 1:30pm this afternoon the Cupcake Bakeoff organised by myself, Victoria and Katey kicked off. We had 14 bakers, over 160 cupcakes and a lot of very, very generous people in attendance!  All of these factors together meant that we were able to raise an amazing £460 to help beat MS!

A huge thank you to everyone who baked and to everyone who attended. We couldn’t have done it without you!  I’ve included a couple of photos of the cakes below but unfortunately I can’t comment on how they tasted! Things got slightly hectic and cake-tasting became a little difficult. It certainly didn’t stop me admiring the talent and effort that went into every one of those gorgeously decorated cakes! Thank you! (Thanks also to Alison for the photos!)

The winning cupcakes: Alison's white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes

In 2nd place were Helen's cracking cupcakes (complete with a chocolate case!)

And in 3rd place: Stephanie's peaches and cream cupcakes

Cakes, cakes and more cakes!

MS Society Cake Break

The Cupcake Bakeoff was organised as part of the MS Society’s Cake Break.  If you’d like to organise your own cake event (I’m more than happy to come along!!), you can order your free Cake Break pack containing all the information you’ll need to organise an amazing event! It’s as simple as inviting your friends, family and neighbours, providing them with plenty of cake and then watching the donation boxes fill up.

Scotland has one of the highest prevalences of MS in the world, with over 10,500 people in Scotland living with the condition.  The MS Society is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to enabling everyone affected by MS to live life to their full potential and secure the care and support they need, until we ultimately find a cure.  As a voluntary organisation we rely on the generosity and support of people like those attending the Cupcake Bake Off.

Asparagus and smoked salmon tartlets

After discovering that I can actually make pastry thanks to the Edinburgh Cake Ladies Getting Tarty event, I’ve written a recipe for asparagus and smoked salmon tartlets for the Broughton Spurtle. Check out the full recipe here.

Tealicious – a pop-up tea party

I had been meaning to write this post last Sunday night but a combination of elevated blood sugar levels, excessive amounts of work and a trip to Belfast got in the way.  Today, sitting amongst the remnants of our half-demolished Easter eggs, I finally have the time to write about the fabulous Tealicious!  Anyone who has been to any of the Edinburgh Cake Ladies events will know about the inevitable sugar-crash following each cake-filled event.  Last Sunday evening’s sugar level drop was induced by the talents of two of said Cake Ladies, Michelle and Katey.  With glowing reviews following their floral-themed March event, I was eagerly awaiting my chance to sample this secret afternoon tea and with a cocktails and canapés theme, I was certainly not disappointed!

The afternoon started with savoury canapés including chive blinis, olive and pine nut shortbread and brioche pizzas. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the menu so I think that’s what everything was! I could have devoured endless amounts of all of these had I not been sitting next to the most attractive display of mini cocktail-themed sweet treats.

The real treats were still to come and included such delighted as whisky scones, limoncello meringue pies, black Russian nanaimo bars and grasshopper tarts – all presented spectacularly!

Even once finished the miniature delights on the cake stands there were full size versions of cocktail-themed desserts including a mojito cheesecake (below) and a red wine cake.

I was blown away by the amount of time and effort that must have gone into planning, preparing and organising everything for the event.  I doth my cap to Katey and Michelle and am very jealous of everyone who gets to attend the retro sweet-themed event in May!

Baking for the First Minister

This morning I had the pleasure of being back in the wonderfully modern kitchen at Tennent’s Training Academy in Glasgow.  Instead of taking part in a course however, I had been invited to help prepare a few sweet treats for the First Minister, Alex Salmond, who would be visiting the Academy before opening the new bottling plant at Tennent’s Brewery.

When I received the call from Stephanie at Tennent’s Training Academy, I was a little excited to say the least.  Not so much about meeting the First Minister (I leave the politics to my other half who is very close to finishing his PhD on the subject), but more about the fact that someone had actually thought me worthy of an invite. I am but a modest baker (with blossoming ideas of turning professional one day) and was flattered to be offered the opportunity to bake for the head of the Scottish Government.

I arrived promptly at 8:30am and was presented with a crisp set of chefs whites that matched the rest of the chefs in the kitchen. Although similar in appearance, there was one large difference between me and the others: a professional kitchen is not my normal habitat. I didn’t know where anything was, how much I was expected to get involved or the rules of a kitchen that wasn’t my own.  Would I be entirely responsible for the deserts? Should I be referring to Head Chef John Quinn as Chef John? Was I supposed to shout “yes chef!” in response to orders à la Masterchef?

Despite these uncertainties, I decided to treat my novice status as more of an opportunity than a hindrance.  I took every opportunity to have a nosy at what the others were doing and asked as many questions as they would let me. While the others were engaged in preparing all manner of dishes for a VIP buffet lunch (including grilled oysters, haggis tempura and endless other fabulous dishes), my task for the day was to help prepare three sweet dishes: fresh fruit shortbread towers, chocolate fudge cakes with chocolate sauce and lemon and ricotta cakes, all of which I had made at the baking course in March.

The first of these three was to be presented to the First Minister on his tour around the Academy kitchen when he would meet everyone involved in the day’s cooking.  When I was introduced to the First Minister as “Fiona, who has her own blog”, I was most surprised that The FM immediately made the connection between my baking blog and a film he had seen recently on a similar topic: Julie & Julia.  Anyone who is able to link from my very own modest baking blog to one of my all-time favourite films in just one step will quickly win me over!

I unfortunately can’t really take much credit for the other two deserts which were to be served to the remaining VIPs at lunch. While I did help to measure out the ingredients, I was in fact whisked off to the official opening of the new bottling plant while Head Chef John Quinn took over the baking of the deserts.  Upon my return, I found myself in what, to me, felt like a genuine professional kitchen.  There was an urgency to everyone’s movements, plates crying out to be dressed, dishes being expertly served and the occasional moment of narrowly avoided stress when things didn’t go to plan.  I was glad to be able to stay out of the way and observe the dance the others seemed to be performing while assembling and decorating the remaining deserts at my workstation.

When I eventually emerged from the concentration of assembling and decorating my dishes, everything had been miraculously completed and served.  Plates had started to reappear in the kitchen empty as the VIPs in the room next door relished in the supreme quality of both the ingredients and the cooking.  I may not have been able to contribute much to the day but I certainly appreciated the opportunity to be part of it.  I have absolutely no doubt that I will be back at the Tennent’s Training Academy very soon.  I just have to choose my course!