Friday Review: Buckingham Palace, Garden Cafe

My life has been a little hectic recently, which means I haven’t had time to write any book reviews so I’ve decided to post something a little different a review of the cakes I had during my visit to Buckingham Palace last week!

Every summer Buckingham Palace is opened allowing members of the public a chance to see the beautiful State Rooms and a special exhibition. This year the exhibition featured a selection of diamond jewellery and other diamond items from the Royal Collection as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Given my passion for shiny things and nice jewellery I had to go visit, but this post is not about the Palace it’s about cake so moving on. At the end of the tour, palace visitors are able to get refreshments in The Garden Cafe which is as suggested by the name, in the Palace garden.

Now I had skipped lunch that day, mostly so I had an excuse to buy more than one cake! And these are the cakes I brought.

On the left is a vanilla cheesecake and on the right is a fraisier, both of which were made especially for the Jubilee, hence the crowns on both. Those were made of a lovely dark chocolate.  These cakes were both really yummy, the cheesecake was so creamy with the strawberry sauce balancing out the flavors and stopping it becoming too sickly which can be a problem with cheesecakes. The fraisier was topped with marzipan and filled with some really nice strawberries and cream. Yummy!
Both cakes were also presented beautifully, and the fraisier actually came wrapped in a sheet of plastic to protect it. A nice touch! And the service was amazing, very quick and efficient (which is not surprising considering the amount of visitors they get each day!) and all the staff were extremely polite.  

To be honest the only thing I didn’t like was the price! Each cake cost me £4.75! But for cakes of this quality and when I take into account where I was buying them the price isn’t actually that bad. So in summary, if I ever visit the Palace again I am defiantly buying cake and if any of you ever visit I would seriously recommend the cakes. The cafe also sells sandwiches but they didn’t have any I liked (I’m quite picky about my sandwiches).
Also I am totally going to try and make my own fraisier, but that will probably have to wait until next summer.

Friday Review: Silicone Cake Cases

This is more of a discussion post than a review I’ll admit, but since I reference my own experiences and several products in this post it made sense to post it under reviews.

Silicone bakeware appears to be the next big thing in baking innovation, especially if the ever increasing amounts of silicone bakeware stocked by Lakeland are anything to go by! And I can see why, silicone is pretty amazing stuff to cook with. Silicone utensils are safe for use on non-stick items and silicone bakeware really utilises all the advantages silicone has to offer.

Silicone is great at transferring heat evenly, which means your cakes always have an even bake and its non-stick properties ensure that half your cake isn’t left behind. This also means you don’t have to spend ages greasing and lining tins although it does help to lightly grease some bakeware, especially the complex shapes that are available. Silicone is also much easier to store than conventional metal bakeware as it can be squashed into a box which helps when space is at a premium, the flexibility of silicone as a material also allows for more complex designs which wouldn’t necessarily be possible with paper cases or metal bakeware. Finally the major advantage especially for cupcake bakers is that it’s reusable, which is very economical if like me you bake a lot of cupcakes. Silicone bakeware is also safe for use in the freezer and microwave in addition to oven use, which is great because you can use one container to make all manner of things!

So far I’ve only found one downside to silicone cake cases and that is that you have to make sure they are 100% dry before you pack them away. If they aren’t completely dry it is possible for them to grow mould in storage. This happened to me with my first set of cupcake cases, in the end I had to throw them away as the mould actually stained the surface.

Currently I have 2 sets of silicone cake cases, both of which are of non-standard design (meaning they are different to normal cake cases). The first set are heart shaped and the second set are shaped like flower pots!

Heart shaped
 I brought these from Lakeland; however I can’t link you to them since they don’t appear to have any in stock at the moment. But if you wait until Valentines I’m sure they’ll be back! These are pretty cute, the only problem I have is that I’m never sure how much I should fill them which does mean that some of my cakes rise over the top of the case, this results in the heart shape becoming a bit lost. Other than that minor issue, which is entirely of my own making, I have no problem with these.

Please excuse the quality of this picture!
But you get a general idea of the cake size/shape

Flower Pots
These are also available from Lakeland and are brand new, and I have to say that I love them. They are adorable, and look fantastic when the cakes are iced and decorated. These are actually muffin cases rather than cupcake cases and are much easier to fill than the heart ones. Just fill them up to the base of the rim, this seems to be enough. They can be a little tricky to eat out of, but that problem is easily solved by removing the cake from the case. I’d suggest leaving any cakes made in these un-iced if you don’t want mucky fingers!

Just to illustrate how much the cake rises when filled to the base of the rim.

With a muffin baked in a standard muffin case.
Sadly I didn't think to take a side-view of this arrangement to illustrate the sizes.

So want to try out silicone bakeware? I’d suggest starting out with cupcake cases; it’s much easier to get a feel for the product with something small. And cupcake cases are relatively inexpensive, so if you decide silicone isn’t for you, you haven’t lost much. The normal shaped cases from Lakeland (linked below) are a great starter set; you can also find silicone bakeware in the home department of many large supermarkets. If you want fancy shaped cases like my heart ones or the flowerpots a trip to a specialist cookware shop is probably going to be required.

Cupcake Cases: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15069/I-Can-Cook-12-Silicone-Cupcake-Cases
Flower Pots: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16187/Lakeland-6-Flowerpot-Muffin-Cases

Friday Review: The Great British Bake Off recipe book

Ok so I'm now having a few technical difficulities with the pictures in this post *grumble*. I'll fix it later!

As series 3 of The Great British Bake Off (TGBBO) started this week, the recipe book that accompanied series 2 of the show seemed like the perfect choice for this week’s review. So this week we have Linda Collister’s The Great British Bake Off, How to Bake the Perfect Victoria Sponge and Other Baking Secrets.Wow what a mouthful!



Available from: Amazon.co.uk

Nice clear layout and the top tips are well intergrated

So what do I like about it?
Well for starters the range of recipes is amazing; every chapter starts with an “easy introduction” recipe. For example the cake chapter starts with a Victoria Sponge, bread starts with a simple white loaf and so on. The recipes then go on to include the “technical challenges” from the show, these are Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry’s own recipes which are aimed at the more experienced baker. There are also the “Best of the Bake Off” recipes, these were invented by the contestants of the show and finally there are lots of normal recipes. These normal recipes also feature little icons which indicate if it's a good recipe for children to try, or good for celebrations etc. Basically no matter what you want to make you’ll find it in here or something pretty close to it. And as an added bonus there is a secret code hidden in the book which gives you access to the recipes cooked in the series finale. 

The chapters are really well organised and are they are all divided by type (cakes, bread, savoury pastry etc.), the general layout is fantastic, quite a lot of the recipes are accompanied by good clear photographs and everything is laid out in a clear manner. The layout really comes into its own when you consider the technical challenge recipes and the introduction recipes though; these pages feature good clear images of every step of the recipe with extremely detailed instructions. This layout makes these recipes a lot less daunting for the inexperienced.

 

Layout used for the
introduction and technical challenge recipes

In addition to all of this the start of each chapter features several pages of advice on how to avoid common pitfalls, what sort of equipment you need and just general good advice. And scattered throughout the book are lots of tips (including many from Paul and Mary) and tricks to make your baking easier and ensure success.

And what don’t I like?
To be honest, nothing. I really love this book and can’t find any real faults with it. The layout is splendid, the photography is superb and it’s full of excellent recipes for every skill level.  Everything is well written and there are lots of handy hints and advice scattered throughout the book. I suppose some readers might find the photographs of the contestants a little annoying, but since this book features their own recipes and is designed to accompany the TV series I think it makes perfect sense to have picture of the contestants!

So final rating? 5/5
This book is fantastic, it’s full of challenging recipes for the experienced baker and easy ones for beginners. There is so much practical advice in here I think success is pretty much guaranteed with every recipe no matter what your personal skill level! I really feel that this is one of the best recipe books available at the moment and is perfect to give someone if they are just getting into baking. Well worth the money! Based on how good this book is I am looking forward to getting the series 3 book!

Friday Review: Cupcakes for Princesses

I thought it was about time I wrote a book review, if only to give you all a break from my obsession with Lakeland! The first book up for review is Cupcakes for Princesses by Love Food.

Available from: Amazon.co.uk

So what do I like?
I love the concept of the book; the book is sold as “the perfect cookbook for every little princess”. I love that, it’s really cute and the princess theme is continued throughout. The chapters are given titles like “party princess” and “pretty princess cupcakes” which is cute and there are some adorable photographs of little girls dressed as princesses. I love all that stuff, it’s very cute and most of the book is pink which matches the theme! There are also some lovely extras at the back, two templates for party name plates (a crown and a star) and some stencils for use when dusting icing sugar onto cakes and biscuits (crown, heart, flower and star). I will admit that these are one of the major reasons I brought this book!

Neat layout and cute photographs

Despite being called “Cupcakes for Princesses” there is a really nice variety of recipes, there are plenty of biscuit recipes and lots of other nice little things. There is even a recipe for mini-meringues! I haven’t tried any of the recipes in here yet but reading through them I can see that the instructions are clear and easy to follow.  The layout of the recipe pages is neat and organised, with every recipe page including at least one photograph of the finished product.

And what don’t I like?
This will seem strange given my praise in the previous paragraph but I don’t like the recipes much. I should rephrase that, I don’t like the cupcake recipes. With the exception of two recipes (warm strawberry cupcakes and lemon meringue cupcakes) all the cupcake recipes are for plain vanilla cakes which are just decorated differently! And on four occasions the decoration is just a vanilla butter cream with some sweets thrown on top! However for me the most annoying “recipe” are the “princess doughnuts”, why? Because this recipe basically tells you to make a simple water icing, dye it pink and then spoon it onto shop brought doughnuts! That is not a recipe in my mind.

Really not a fan of this font

I’m also not a huge fan of the font used throughout the book, it’s readable but I just prefer seeing something simple like Times New Roman or Arial used in publications.

So final verdict and score? I’ll give the book a 3/5
This is an ok book to give a child as their first cookbook, but I wouldn’t recommend it for girls above age 8 or 9. While I happen to find it cute, older children and adults will probably find the princess theme a little childish and I think young girls might get bored with some of the recipes on offer quite quickly.  The layout is generally ok, and the instructions are clear and concise which is good. But while there is some variety amongst the recipes I am really not happy with the standard of some of them.

Friday Review: Professional Piping Set

A piping bag and a set of nozzles are essential items to have when decorating cupcakes, especially if you want to achieve those lovely piped swirls of frosting that professional cakes have. This is the set I have, yet again it is a Lakeland product. I promise I do buy things from other shops, it just happens that my favourite things come from Lakeland!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/2233/Professional-Piping-Set

So what do I like about it?
Well for starters you get a nice selection of nozzle shapes, there are 4 star shapes, a shell and 2 round ones (a large and a small one). The nozzles are also really good, they are stainless steel and extremely well made. These are going to last for a long time; the nozzles also don’t require the use of a coupler which is good for me as I don’t like using couplers that much.  These nozzles produce excellent results; even with a beginner like me using them the icing is always well defined.



These were iced with premade frosting.
As you can see the nozzles produce well defined lines,
 but like with buttercream I ended up with a greasy bag.



And what don’t I like?
The bag. The reusable, nylon piping bag really is awful and lets down the entire set really. The nozzles fit it really well but the bag is simply useless. If you use it to try and pipe butter cream which I often do, the bag gets extremely greasy making it quite tricky to use as it gets slippery quickly. And your hands also get covered in grease which can be rather annoying if you want to keep your sprinkles clean! The bag also struggled with whipped cream; in fact the only icing I have found that the bag agrees with is cream cheese frosting. I would seriously suggest that if you buy this set to invest in some disposable silicone piping bags instead of using this one!

And with cream cheese frosting.
Again well defined lines but no greasy bag!

Coincidentally, Lakeland happens to sell some silicone bags. I haven’t used them myself but they are very well reviewed on Lakeland: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/10666/Get-a-Grip-Piping-Bags

So how do I rate it?
Well, the nozzles get 5/5 stars, they are well made and produce good professional looking results. The piping bag on the other hand gets 1/5, it is very unpleasant to use and honestly is not worth the effort.

Friday Review: Snip & Swirl Icing Bags

As I have so many books, choosing which one to review first is taking a while! So while I decide where to start here is a quick review of a product I recently tried.  Today’s review is for the Snip & Swirl, pre-filled piping bags available from Lakeland. I’ll be talking about the vanilla flavoured one.

Vanilla Flavour http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15467/Snip-and-Swirl-Vanilla-Flavour

This product is quite simply, a piping bag that comes pre-filled with frosting in vanilla, strawberry or chocolate flavour. All you do is snip of the end and pipe onto your cakes like you would a normal piping bag.

Peach cupcakes frosting using the Snip & Swirl Bags.
These were made for the Queen's Jubilee hence the crowns!

So what do I like about it?
Well it’s easy to use, I’m not very good at piping yet but I managed to get very stylish looking cakes using this. You can also control what look you create, the bag has guidelines for cutting along which allow you to recreate the effect of a star shaped or round nozzle. It’s also incredibly easy to alter the size of the “nozzle”, simply by cutting lower or higher on the bag. And most importantly the frosting is very tasty! It’s sweet but not overly so; it also has a nice smooth texture. The fact that these bags are produced by Renshaw probably is the reason why the frosting is such high quality.

What don’t I like about it?
I find it very hard to find a fault with these; they are easy to use even for a complete beginner, taste nice and produce a nice effect. My only fault is that the frosting is not particularly sticky. By that I mean it’s very hard to add further decorations to a cake that has been frosted using them. I wanted to put some sprinkles on the cakes I used them for, and the traditional sprinkle application technique (also known as throwing sprinkles in the general direction of the cake) simply didn’t work! The sprinkles just fell off the cake; I had to physically poke the sprinkles into the frosting to get them to stay!

So overall rating? 4/5
The icing is yummy and the bags are easy to use, but I find the fact that sprinkles don’t stick to be very frustrating as that’s how I normally decorate cupcakes! But would I buy them again? Yep, in fact I already have. Shortly after using them for the first time I purchased another vanilla bag and a strawberry one, I think I shall always have at least one lurking in the cupboard because of how tasty and useful they are.

Friday Review: Lakeland Cupcake Maker

When cupcakes became trendy the market soon became filled with lots of cute and fun things to use to make and decorate them. Everything from fancy cake cases and sprinkles to nifty gadgets to use in the kitchen became available. Chief among these gadgets are the Cupcake Makers!

These gadgets work in a similar way to a toasted sandwich maker, only they have holes in the base rather than a sandwich plate. There are many versions of these appliances available from a whole host of suppliers, and this review is for the one available from Lakeland.

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15861/Lakeland-Electric-Cupcake-Maker-Purple

So what do I like about it?
What I love most about the cupcake maker is the fact is it quick, when I use it I can have a batch of 6 cakes ready in about 20 minutes. No oven required, so it’s better for the environment. I know this because we have one of those fancy Smart Meters that tell you how much electricity you are using, and this really doesn’t use very much at all. I find the fact that it makes 6 cakes at a time is ideal if like me you want to experiment with new flavours, it’s much easier to experiment with small batches and the cakes are always light and springy. I also like how small it is, it doesn’t take up much storage space which is very handy if you have a small kitchen.

And it’s extremely easy to use; you just turn it on and leave it. The power light turns green when it’s warm enough, and mine makes a click noise when the light comes on so even if I’m not looking at it I know when it’s the correct temperature. Cleaning it also easy because of the non-stick coating, if I spill any cake mix on to it I can just wipe it off with no problems.



The power indicator is good and clear to see



So what don’t I like about it?
Well it is a bit tricky to get the cakes out of it; I used to use a fork. (I just stabbed the top of the cake and lifted. Result? Holes in the top of your cake!) However I’ve now solved this problem, I use a pair of bamboo tongs. They are gentle enough to get the cake out without damaging the surface of the cake and also there is no risk of them damaging the non-stick coating. I like the “Toast Tongs” also available from Lakeland: http://www.lakeland.co.uk/14236/Magnetic-Toast-Tongs

See very pale but they are cooked

The other downside is the fact that your cakes come out very anaemic looking. They are cooked but are such a pale colour they don’t always look it! However this problem is solved by simply icing the cake or adding some food colour to the mixture. Because it doesn’t colour the cakes much, it is ideal for making coloured cakes.



However some food dye solves the problem!



And my major issue with it? It’s called a “cupcake” maker, but the cakes it actually makes are NOT cupcakes, they are too small. The cakes are actually more like fairy cakes. But I think that is more down to the fact that many people don’t know the difference between cake sizes so I won’t hold that against it.

So how do I rate it? Overall I give it 5/5 stars.
Yes there are some negative aspects to it but they are easily overcome and in my mind the positives out way the negatives. I’d love to hear your opinions on cupcake makers if you have one!