Gorgeous desserts plate

We visited Mahalia, Brian, and Skyla yesterday.

Mahalia cook lovely veggie burger and pea soup for us. Her pea soup and veggie burger had a really nice flavour and went well with the cheesy bun beautifully. She is really a good cook! and mum..., and wife..., and singer...;)

For dessert, I got a big portion of treats! Mahalia's key lime pie was, again, lovely. Smooth key lime filling and biscuit base with icecream filled my cake hole nicely:)

I brought my cupcakes too. I loved seeing Skyla's big smiley face when she licked icing. Nothing can beat seeing people eat your cakes with joy:D

Thanks to Mahalia, Brian and Skyla for an amazing evening;)

Carrot cake

Carrot cake is a great way of using up the sadly left out carrots in the fridge. This time I went for the carrot cupcake with a hit of coconuts. I used coconut milk and coconut flakes.

Exotic coconut and cinnamon flavour and moist texture is just what I wanted.

Dressed up with pink icing and animal sugar crafts, they are ready to meet Brian's kid, Skyla, tomorrow;)

Carrot

Creme brulee

We went to Villandry in Chiswick with Catherine and Danny.

The food there was lovely. I had french onion soup for starter and Grilled portbello mushroom, aubergine and courgette with goat cheese.
And of course, to finish it off, creme brulee with rhubarb compote. Initially, the compote was bit bitter for me, but it was really nice when I had it with rich creme brulee.

I liked the atmosphere there too. I'd love to go back there at some point.

Sweetheart cake

We went out for dinner with Catherine and Danny tonight.

They recently got engaged, so I made a little gift for them, Red velvet sweetheart cake. I used this lovely little 10 cm tin that I just got (Faringdon Collection Bakers Pride Non Stick Mini Springform Cake Pan 10cm). The cake came out really well, and it is a good size for two.

I hope they enjoy it. And again, congratulations to Catherine and Danny;)

Ingredients;

Flour 100g

Sugar 100g

Butter 100g

Egg 2

Cocoa powder 1tbsp

Red food colouring 1 tsp

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Ready made marzipan

Ready made icing

1. Sift flour and cocoa powder together.

2. Mix butter and sugar together until it's fluffy.

3. Add egg into 2, and mix well.

4. Add food colouring into 3, and mix well.

5. Fold 1 into 4.

6. Bake in the pre-heated oven (180º) for 25 minutes. 

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To decorate

1. Roll out ready made marzipan to 3mm thick. Make a heart shaped hole in the middle. Cover the cake completely.

2. Roll out ready made icing to 5mm thick. Make the same heart shaped hole as 1. Add on to 1. Make the surface smooth.

Red Velvet Cake

The World of Sweets sticker

I've fought with the printer for last 30 minutes. Finally..., I got this right.

I made "The World of Sweets" sticker to go on the packages to my cakes and sweets.

It is getting there. Website is almost ready to go online too. Exciting stuff;)

Last night experiment, Cottage cheese cake

I'm nowhere near Heston Blumenthal, but I love experiment.

Last might I saw a pot of cottage cheese, sitting in the fridge, waiting to be used up. So, I got up and started to sift flour, not really knowing what I was doing yet.

After a bit of calculation about the ingredients, I took my best friend, Electric Mixer. Mix, mix, fold, and bosch in the oven.

The result was... It looked alright..., tasted alright too.
I was like a lighter cheese cake. Cottage cheese is much less in fat compared to cream cheese, so this outcome is not too surprising.

The verdict... the experiment was fairly successful.

The recipe might need a bit of change, but if you like...

Ingredients;

Flour 100g

Sugar 100g

Strained Cottage Cheese 300g

Egg 1

Vanilla extract 1tsp

Dry fruits 100g

1. Sift flour.

2. Mix egg and sugar together until it's fluffy.

3. Add vanilla extract and cheese in 2, and mix well.

4. Fold 1 and dry fruits into 3.

5. Bake in the pre-heated oven (180º) for 50 minutes.

Cottage Cheese

Desserts at FishWorks

I was in charge of our monthly date this month. I chose a fish restaurant called FishWorks in Richmond (http://www.fishworks.co.uk/).

The amazing couple of large slice of smoked salmon for starter, and the perfectly cooked whole grilled sea bass for main..., at this point, I was pretty much done. But, of course, I can't leave a restaurant without tasting the desserts.

So, here we are... I had vanilla, honey icecream and lemon sorbet. Andy had Eton Mess.

Once again..., amazing three scoops and an beautiful Mess...  I'm happily full and going to sleep well tonight.