20/05/2012 · 6:01 pm

The inaugural Plate Lickers supper club…

Last night, Ivana (Miss Igs) and I hosted our first Plate Lickers supper club…the culmination of a lot of list writing, planning meetings down the pub, DM-ing, crockery buying, recipe testing and sleepless nights (we both suffered with supper club nightmares) but it was so worth it! 

Thanks to Becky & Rocco Balzano we had the perfect location for our supper in their gorgeous delicatessen/cafe and I got to put my vast collection of mismatching crockery to use at last…

The menu was a combination of Bosnian and Polish inspired dishes, a lot of them our personal favourites :)…

We’d done a lot of prep work, which meant that somehow we were ridiculously calm when the clock struck 7.30pm and our guests started to arrive…

We started off proceedings with a glass of fizz and Ivana’s Bosnian Pita, a delicious butternut squash and cheese filo pie…

Then it was time to settle down for the the next 5 courses. The buzz of conversation was instantaneous… 

We served chestnut and speck soup in my teacups…

and offered refills…

Next up were the pierogi with 3 different fillings (recipe coming soon)…

which we served with gherkins (no Eastern European meal is complete without them), homemade beetroot and apple chutney, inspired by an amazing recipe which I found here on a blog called ‘Frogs in my kitchen’ and which proved amazingly popular, cabbage salad and sour cream…

Then green apple sorbet topped with a splash of Zubrowka vodka…

The penultimate course was Polish cheesecake with a shortbread base (sernik na kruchym spodzie) with strawberries…

and cream…

With our guests fed and watered and chatting animatedly we took some time out to sample a very special gift that we received from 2 of our guests, Will and Lucy Lowe who are The Cambridge Distillery. We were unbelievably chuffed to be presented with our very own personalised and unique bottle of #Platelickers gin…

It tasted divinely fresh and felt like a very symbolic drink to celebrate the end of our first Plate Lickers supper club. I loved every single minute of the evening and would like to thank all of our lovely guests for making it such an enjoyable evening and Ivana for being an awesome co-host! 

We’ve definitely caught the supper club bug and are already planning the next one on a different theme…watch this space for details!

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Gallery

Just over a week ago I was invited to the opening party of ‘Hunt & Darton Cafe’ a pop-up cafe and live installation performance art project. It’s one of eight commissions thought up by members of  Live Art Collective East, taking advantage of unusual spaces and places in East Anglia as part of the Cultural Olympiad. I didn’t know what to expect but was very tickled by the whole project…Hunt & Darton are extremely funny ladies. I took a few photo’s of the things that had me chuckling…

It’s a fully functioning cafe with a witty, tongue in cheek twist, definitely worth a visit. 

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13/05/2012 · 4:39 pm
08/05/2012 · 8:41 pm

Rosewater wedding cupcakes…a whopping 96 of them…

This weekend was a very proud time for me…not only was I a bridesmaid for the very first time, but my good friends Nic & Will had also given me the honour of asking me to make their wedding cakes for them! I’ve spent the last few months planning, list writing and doing taste tests in preparation but finally, after a whole week of nights spent tossing, turning and (eventually) dreaming about all manner of cake related disasters, the big day arrived! The bride and groom had decided on rosewater cupcakes, which I set about making on Friday. This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what 96 freshly baked cupcakes look like…(I was sadly chuffed to be able to use my stackable wire racks 🙂

The next day, I was up early, I hired a car and made my way to Norfolk to Cliff Barns, the coolest wedding venue I’ve ever seen! It had it’s own dressing up room…

and ‘throne room’ dedicated to the Queen…

and the most awesome kitchen, equipped for every eventuality and made even better by the temporary addition of my KitchenAid…

I set to work making up industrial quantities of rosewater flavoured buttercream icing in white and pastel green to top my little army of wedding cupcakes…

Ansell, my very talented 3 year old helper kept me company (I was extremely jealous of his dinosaur apron!)…

The next day, the day of the wedding, it was time to set the scene. I’d brought along a vast array of cake stands, boxes, teapots, cups, saucers & plates to create the vision that I’d been planning. Here I am adding the finishing touches to it…

Before stepping back to admire the end result…

My friend, Reika, who lives in Japan sent over a hand-sewn bride and groom, which took pride of place…

and of course there was a bit of shameless self promotion 😉 …

The recipe I used was a very simple one, after a few trials I decided that to over complicate something that didn’t need over complicating was just plain silly.

So, to make a batch of 12 of my rosewater cupcakes with rosewater buttercream icing you need…

175g unsalted butter

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

175g self raising flour

30ml milk

1 tsp rosewater (I recommend Star Kay White Rosewater from Waitrose for flavour)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line a cupcake tin with paper cases.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.

Beat in the eggs. Followed by the flour, milk and rosewater. Make sure everything is well combined.

Scoop the mixture into cupcake cases, I highly recommend using an ice cream scoop like this. It will change your cupcake making life for the better!

Pop them into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until light brown and springy when pressed on top.

To make the rosewater buttercream icing you need…

400g icing sugar

200g butter

A splash of milk

2 tbsp rosewater (now this time I chose to use this Rosewater from The English Provender as it had a much weaker but more delicate flavour, which balanced the stronger variety used in the sponge) 

Simply beat all of the ingredients except the milk together well until light and fluffy. Add a small splash of milk a a time until you have a good consistency for piping or spreading onto the top of your cupcakes.

Once your cupcakes are fully cooled you can use your artistic licence to decorate them any which way you like!

I think they make the perfect summer cupcake and it appears that the wedding guests approved as somehow 96 cupcakes were devoured extremely quickly with the last few making it until the next day and providing the perfect post-wedding hangover breakfast! 🙂 

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03/05/2012 · 8:31 pm

Yesterday I was reunited with an old friend…Caravan on Exmouth Market. I used to be lucky enough to work just around the corner and make a weekly pilgimage there as a Friday treat (blogged here and here). Not only is it an awesome cafe and restaurant, they also roast their own coffee on site. If you happen to venture downstairs to the basement you’ll come face to face with the coffee roaster that they use to roast small batches of beans daily. Their flat whites are very good but if you’re a coffee fan I highly recommend asking for a pour over filter or aeropress of one of their single origin coffees. 

Now, my Twitter addiction is well documented on this blog. Some may see it as an affliction, however it’s also put me in touch with some really interesting people. One such person, who I’ve engaged in some Twitter coffee chat with, is Dan, Caravan’s Wholesale Operations Manager. I hadn’t planned on calling into Caravan yesterday but happened to be loitering around Exmouth Market, slightly early for a meeting so thought I’d use the excuse to pop in. I was really pleased when Dan  came and introduced himself and I was able to put a face to the name and say hi in real life!

I enjoyed a filter coffee whilst I was there and then skipped off to my meeting a happy lady, swinging a bag full of extremely exciting goodies (well I actually walked away normally carrying a bag of coffee but you get the idea)…

This morning I made it my mission to try each one of my Caravan coffees in turn, so I apologise, as the majority of this blog post was written in a caffeine fuelled frenzy!

Now I’m by no means a coffee connoisseur, I know what I like and don’t like and these are my general ramblings…

First up I opened the El Bosque and was surprised at how light in colour the ground coffee was. As my first coffee of the day, which I always savour, it definitely had a head start at being my favourite. It was amazingly rich, deep, dark and easy to drink.

Next up was the El Carmen, from the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountains in El Salvador, could not have been more different. It was darker in appearance and really packed a punch when I stuck my nose into the packet for a sniff! The tasting notes said to expect ‘some good notes of demerara sugar’, which I liked the sound of and it sure didn’t disappoint! I’m a bit like a goldfish when it comes to coffee, my favourite is usually usurped by a new favourite pretty quickly, which is exactly what happened here!

I moved onto the Kinunu next, a Bourbon coffee from Rwanda. I have to say I wasn’t bowled over by the aroma of this one…it was quite woody and reminded me of sawdust and in particular, my Dad’s garage. It was a lighter and more acidic coffee than the first two and not my new fave!

Last but not least came the Kilimanjaro AA Tarakea, produced on the North-Eastern slopes of Tanzania’s Mount Kilamanjaro. It was slightly more acidic than the first two but unlike the Kinunu, it was gorgeously dark, fruity and somewhat mysterious. A very good coffee indeed!

I never thought I’d say it but I think I might have coffee-ed myself out!…at least until tomorrow morning!

I’ve heard rumours that Caravan may be growing its ranks and branching out down the road in the Kings Cross area. Being a Cambridge to London commuter this makes me very happy indeed! I sincerely hope the rumours are true and that my weekly treats can be resurrected! If you haven’t visited…I highly recommend that you do, don’t just take my word for it, do your own taste test! 

You can find some much more knowledgeable blurb on their coffee’s here and apparently online ordering is imminent! 🙂

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24/04/2012 · 11:01 am

Plate Lickers Anonymous…

For the last few weeks, myself and Ivana (Miss Igs) have been in cahoots, planning our very first Supper Club in Cambridge!

We’ve been dying to shout about it but have been holding back, that is, until now! We’re both extremely passionate about cooking and decided that there was no better way to indulge our passions than to invite a group of people who love food to join us for a 5 course meal in a secret location.

Our first event on Saturday 19th May will be an Eastern European feast, inspired by our Bosnian (Ivana) & Polish (Me) roots. So expect a hearty meal…

We’ve found a gorgeous location just a stones throw from the City Centre, which will be disclosed a couple of days beforehand.

A Supper Club is a very sociable event and you’ll all be sat together so it’s equally fine to come alone or with friends.

Places are limited, so if you’d like to join us drop us an email to PlateLickersAnonymous@gmail.com with your name and any dietary requirements (we’ll do our best to accommodate you although if you’re allergic to potatoes it might be tricky ;).

The evening will kick off at 7.30pm with a welcome drink and canapes. There is a suggested donation of £27 and we wholeheartedly encourage you to BYO and a healthy appetite! 

Further details along with the secret location will be sent out to you a couple of days beforehand but spaces are limited so don’t prevaricate, to secure your place please get in touch asap.

If at any point you need to cancel, please give us as much notice as possible so that we can offer your place to others and can make sure we don’t waste any food.

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22/04/2012 · 9:01 am

Punting & afternoon tea…the perfect combo…

I’m very excited to share some news about a cakey collaboration I’ve been working on with ’Let’s Go Punting’, a small independent punting company in Cambridge. This summer I’ll be providing birthday cakes for their birthday party tours and ‘Afternoon Tease’ packages for their picnics and hen parties!

In my mind, punting and afternoon tea are the perfect combo, but then again maybe I’m biased 😉 What better way to spend a summer weekend, kicking back and relaxing, whilst being chauffeured in a punt down the river Cam, laughing at the hoards of tourists trying to ‘do it themselves’ and careening into one another…it’s more entertaining than an episode of Britain’s Got Talent I can tell you! 🙂 Anyhow, I digress…you’ll now be able to do all of the above but with the added bonus of enjoying an inimitably English, homemade afternoon tea on the riverside! Take a look at the menu below, which can be booked alongside any of their punting packages…

A selection of delicate finger sandwiches (no crusts of course!)

filled with… 

cucumber & cream cheese

ham & wholegrain mustard

free range egg mayonnaise & cress

or cheese & homemade chutney

Homemade mini scones…

with a choice of either plain scones served with lashings of jam & clotted cream…

or cheese scones served with butter…

A homemade cake…

There’s a choice between either a victoria sponge sandwiched with jam & vanilla buttercream icing…

a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache icing…

or a lemon drizzle cake sandwiched with lemon curd buttercream icing…

and as if that weren’t enough there’ll also be…

Mini homemade brownie squares

and…

Homemade iced tea 

Now, with the British weather being as unpredictable as it is, my afternoon tea’s can be supplied in a lovely reusable picnic bag that can be taken away to a location of choice (preferably somewhere cosy & dry) or if the the sun has got his hat on, can be enjoyed in one of Cambridge’s gorgeous green spaces. You can find everything you’ll ever need to know about booking etc on the ‘Let’s Go Punting’ website…or just give them a bell, they’re a lovely bunch 🙂

All this talk of afternoon tea got me craving scones so, I decided to revisit my good old Be-Ro cheese scone recipe. It’s one that I’ve been using for years and was originally recommended to me by my Mum.

As a slight cheese related aside…whilst wandering the aisles of Asda buying my scone ingredients I stumbled upon a selection of cheeses by none other than Alex James (The previously hot one from Blur). Now please excuse me, if I’m about to sound unbelievably snobby, but I was pretty shocked that not only had Mr James sold out to a major supermarket but also that he’d chosen Asda. Don’t get me wrong, I frequent Asda on a regular basis as a cost effective place to buy the copious amounts of baking goods that I need and even spent a summer (back in the day) as an Asda checkout girl, but…tomato ketchup and salad cream flavoured cheeses Alex! really!? Having done a bit of googling on the subject I found that I’m not the only one who thinks that Mr James may have sold out, Xanthe Clay is pretty vocal about it here along with blogger Fiona Beckett aka The Cheeselover. However, as the saying goes ‘Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it’ so I picked up the most innocuous looking variety…’Alex’s Best Ever Cheddar’…

It was actually ok, not amazing, but a good, strong cheddar, which made it suitable for my cheese scone recipe.

To make 8 small cheese scone you need…

175g self-raising flour

freshly ground salt & pepper (the recipe recommends a pinch but you can use your own taste and judgement on this one)

1/2 tsp mustard powder

25g butter

75g cheese, grated

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Mix the flour, salt, pepper and mustard powder together in a bowl.

Rub in the butter until there are no big lumps of it left and the mixture has the texture of breadcrumbs.

Stir in the grated cheese, saving a little for later to sprinkle on top of your scones.

Add most of the beaten egg and milk until you’ve made a soft dough. Add  little at a time until you’re happy with the texture, if it gets too sticky add a sprinkling of flour. There should be just enough of the egg mixture left for glazing your scones just before they go into the oven.

Once you’re happy with the consistency, tip the dough out onto a surface and roll it out until it’s about 3/4 inch thick. Using a circular pastry cutter, press down firmly to cut out your scones. Try not to twist the cutter as this has a detrimental effect on the way your scones rise…just one firm push is all it should take.

Place each scone on the baking tray, brush with the egg mixture and sprinkle with grated cheese…

then pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they’re golden brown and delicious!…

Serve warm with a generous amount of salted butter…

and a nice cuppa…

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19/04/2012 · 8:11 pm

The winner of my twitter cake poll…ginger cake with ginger fudge buttercream icing…

I’ve spent a lot of time recently revisiting some of my favourite cake recipes in order to perfect them, making sure they’re faultless every single time I make them. This morning, however I woke up with an urge to bake something new, to experience the excitement of trying a new recipe, starting from scratch and hopefully finding a new fave to add to my repertoire! Unfortunately I was also feeling particularly indecisive. I flicked through a few of my recipe books and made a shortlist of 6 cakes but decided that the only way I was going to whittle down my wish list was to ask Twitter to make the decision for me. So I did a Twitter cake poll, asking the cake loving community to decide between…

1 – Squidgy lemon ginger cake

2 – Plum, almond & ricotta cake

3 – Cherry & marzipan cake

4 – Coconut cake with coconut buttercream

5 – Sticky ginger cake with ginger fudge buttercream icing

6 – Apple & cinnamon cake

The response was amazing! perhaps due to the fact that I caught everyone when they were feeling peckish for their elevenses. The sticky ginger with ginger fudge icing came up trumps with the coconut cake coming up the rear as 2nd most popular. I hopped on my bike to the supermarket to stock up on all things cakey, gingery and coconutty…I figured I’d make them both in the next couple of days anyway 🙂

But this bad boy is today’s cake adventure…sticky ginger cake topped with lashings of ginger fudge buttercream icing…

To make it you need…

200g unsalted butter

175g molasses sugar

3 tbsp black treacle

150ml milk

2 eggs, beaten

4 pieces of stem ginger, drained and chopped

300g self raising flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

For the ginger fudge icing you will need…

4 tbsp ginger syrup, drained from the stem ginger jar

300g icing sugar (golden icing sugar if you can find it)

140g unsalted butter

2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and butter and line the base of an 8 inch or 9 inch round cake tin. 

Melt the butter, sugar and treacle in a saucepan over a low heat until smooth and lump free.

Let it cool for a few minutes before adding the milk. Then beat in the eggs and stir in the chopped ginger pieces. Finally sift in the flour and ground ginger and add a pinch of salt before stirring well until all of the ingredients are combined.

Pour the warm mixture into the prepared cake tin and pop it into the oven. If you’ve used a 9 inch tin it will need to cook for about 30-35 minutes. I used an 8 inch and mine needed 50 minutes. I always think it’s best to take the cake out and check it 5 minutes before the recommended cooking time, so after 45 minutes stick a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean it’s ready. If it’s still a bit wet in the middle just pop it back in he oven for another 5 minutes, before checking again. Repeat this checking process every 5 minutes until you’re happy that your cake is ready.

Leave it to cool in the tin for an hour or so before removing it and leaving it to cool completely on a wire rack.

Pierce the top of the cake all over with a skewer and drizzle over 2 tbsp of the ginger syrup, this will add to the moistness of the cake, not to mention giving it even more of a gingery punch.

To make the icing, beat together the butter, icing sugar, remaining 2 tbsp ginger syrup and the lemon juice until smooth and light.

Slather the buttercream on the top of the cooled cake and there you have it…

It is a gorgeously moist, rich cake…I found it a little overpowering what with the molasses AND treacle but I made my housemates do a taste test for me and they all proclaimed that it was a winner 🙂

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09/04/2012 · 7:27 pm

My Polish inspired ‘Easter Eat Fest’…

I owe a lot of my passion and skill for baking to my Polish Granny, known as Babcia to us. At Easter, I think of Babcia a lot as it’s a time when my family get together to eat and celebrate our traditions. Some are more well known than others, we seem to have developed some of our own hybrid traditions which keep evolving over the years 🙂

I came across the photo below of me with my Babcia, taken at Easter many moons ago, smiling and happily clutching the fruits of our annual easter egg hunt. Memories like these make me smile 🙂

As per usual with my family’s traditions and get togethers, Easter revolves nearly entirely around food and eating. Good Friday kicks off early with…

My Mum rises early and makes batch upon batch of hot cross buns with a sticky sugar glaze…

They’re best straight out of the oven so we all loiter around eagerly, waiting for the beep of the timer. My Mum hardly has time to get the glaze onto them before they’re devoured…

Next up on this year’s eat fest we thought we’d give Polish doughnuts (paczki) a go for the very first time. This may be a little controversial as tradition has it that Paczki are made and eaten on ‘Fat Tuesday’, which falls on the same day as Shrove Tuesday. Babcia was the Queen of paczki and made them for us every year. Now, if you thought British doughnuts were unhealthy you ain’t seen nothing yet…

A Polish recipe surely wouldn’t be a Polish recipe without a good splash of Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka…

First things first we let the fresh yeast work its magic…

Before mixing it up with the other ingredients, including a whopping 8 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs and the vodka of course…

It all looked pretty unassuming…

So I left it to rise in the boiler cupboard. After 45 minutes it was making a good attempt at escaping the bowl…

So I knocked it back and put it back in to rise for another 45 minutes…

It turns out that you should never leave paczki dough unattended for that long. I went to check on it and ‘THE BLOB’ had invaded my parent’s boiler cupboard! There was even dough dripping down the boiler onto the carpet (have no fear that bit went straight in the bin 🙂 Cue much hilarity and a major dough clear up operation!…

I decided it was wise to split the remaining dough into two bowls and to keep a very close eye on it for a last 45 minutes.

Then it was time to get shaping our paczki and filling them with jam, which also turned out to be an extremely messy, but fun, task…

Thank goodness my Dad was on hand to be jam monitor. He spooned a blob of sour Polish plum jam onto the dough for me… 

so that I could gently cover it over and shape the dough into a round doughnut ready for frying…

Now comes the really unhealthy bit…we melted 3 blocks of lard, yes, you heard correctly…lard…

Me and my Mum prepared a doughnut production line…

and then got cracking, frying 4 paczki at a time…

and turning them over when golden brown to cook the other side…

There was no denying that the kitchen had a particularly ’interesting’ lardy aroma but we hoped it’d all add to the end result (fingers crossed). As soon as I fished the cooked doughnuts out of the lard, my Mum got to work coating them in a glaze made from icing sugar, lemon juice, water and more vodka…

Then we left them to drain on a wire rack…

They didn’t remain there for very long, merely long enough for them to cool enough so as not to take the roofs of our mouths off! 

This, Ladies & Gentlemen, is paczki perfection…

They were the lightest, melt in the mouth-iest, most delicious doughnuts I’ve ever eaten. Krispy Kreme eat your heart out…Babcia would be proud!

Not bad for a days work…

However, we weren’t done yet…next up I made sernik na kruchym spodzie, which translates as cheesecake with a shortbread base. The shortbread pastry is so delicate and light. It’s filled with a decadent mixture of curd cheese, eggs, icing sugar, vanilla and raisins before being topped off with some shortbread latticework…

It’s baked for an hour and then left in the turned off oven until it’s fully cooled. It emerges looking like this…

I was dying to cut into it to reveal it’s true beauty…

I was really chuffed with my first solo attempt at sernik. Babcia obviously did a great job at passing on her skills…my Dad was extolling its virtues as ‘pure heaven’.

Another Polish Easter tradition is to prepare an Easter basket. When my grandparents were alive we would take it to church on Easter Saturday to be blessed (Swieconka). We always take great pride in our basket, filling it with traditional Easter items such as home-decorated eggs, kabanos, sernik, flowers, a lamb and a small bowl of salt, which all have symbolic meaning. My Sister prepared the basket for us this year…

This little beaut was my contribution…

After all of that cooking, preparation and very enjoyable hardwork, we sat down to do what we do best…eat!…

Happy Easter to all and your families! x

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07/04/2012 · 10:01 am

Triple layer maple & pecan cake…any excuse!

Last weekend I had 3 events to celebrate…

  1. Girls on tour…a weekend away for my good friend Nic’s hen.
  2. My friend Bee growing old very gracefully.
  3. and last but not least ‘The Afternoon Tease’s’ 2nd blog birthday! (I wonder…are blog years like dog years?)
To be honest I don’t usually need an excuse so to have 3 was epic! I thought I’d use them to revisit this divine triple layer (see what I did there) maple and pecan cake, originally from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days recipe book…

It’s a gorgeous cake, very moist and decadent and as I recently discovered after lugging it all the way from Cambridge to Brighton…it’s very heavy!
To give it a go for yourself you need…

120g unsalted butter

400g caster sugar

360g plain flour

1.5 tbsp (this is NOT a typo 😉 I do mean tablespoons not teaspoons!) baking powder

0.25 tsp salt

360ml milk

40ml maple syrup

3 eggs

100g pecans, chopped

And for the icing…

240g unsalted butter

750g icing sugar

60ml milk

1 tbsp maple syrup

pecan halves to decorate

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and grease and line the base of 3, 8 inch cake tins. Personally, I only have 2 tins so I divide the cake mixture between them, two thirds in one and one third in the other. If you do the same you’ll just need to leave the larger cake in the oven to cook for a little while longer.

So, now to get cracking, use a handheld or freestanding electric mixer to mix the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.

In a jug or bowl mix together the milk, maple syrup and eggs. Gradually pour this mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on a slow speed until it’s well combined. Finally stir in the chopped pecans by hand.

Divide the cake mixture between your tins and pop them into the oven. If you’re using 3 tins they will need to cook for 20-25 minutes. Due to my cake tin deficiency, I removed my ‘one third’ cake after 20 minutes and checked that it was cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre and making sure that it came out clean. I left the ‘two thirds’ cake in the oven for a further 10 minutes before doing the skewer test, which I then did every 5 minutes until it came out clean, meaning my cake was perfectly cooked 🙂

Leave your cakes to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing them from their tins to cool completely. 

In the meantime you can prepare the icing…

Pop the butter on a plate in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it (this will minimise the icing sugar snow storm that’s about to ensue). Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the butter and mix with an electric handheld or freestanding mixer until sandy in consistency and your kitchen is coated in a fine layer of icing sugar dust 🙂 

Mix the milk and maple syrup together in a jug and add to the icing sugar mixture gradually, whilst mixing on a slow speed. Once it’s all added, crank up the speed and beat until soft and fluffy!

When you’re satisfied that your cakes are totally cold (don’t jump the gun or your icing will melt), you can assemble your cake. First cut the ‘two thirds’ cake in half. Put the first layer of cake on a plate and spread a layer of about 2 to 3 tablespoons of icing on top of it. I recommend having a glass of boiling water to hand to dip your (palette) knife into, this makes the icing a lot easier to spread! However, make sure you dry your knife after dipping it in the water, you just want it to be warm not wet!

Place your next layer of cake on top of the first one and repeat the process of spreading a layer of icing over it before placing the final layer on top. Pile all of the remaining icing on top of the cake and patiently work it down the edge of the cake so that the whole thing is coated. Use the same method of heating your (palette) knife to get a nice smooth finish. This takes practice so don’t worry if yours looks a bit ‘rustic’ I can guarantee that it’ll taste AMAZING anyway 🙂

To give it a pretty finishing touch decorate the top with the whole pecans that you saved earlier and there you have it…

It’s always nerve-wracking cutting into a cake, especially in front of a gang of hungry ladies…you’re never sure exactly what the inside will look like! Luckily I needn’t have worried, just look at this beauty…

It went down a storm…and proved to be the perfect hangover cure 🙂

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Gallery

Over the past few weeks I’ve been drip feeding my pretty treasures out onto Twitter. But thought it was about time that I put them all up together in a gallery of mismatching gorgeousness!

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06/04/2012 · 11:03 am