Its Good to Eat Cake!!

Lou's Awesome Cake

It’s true, it is, especially when it’s for charity, which automatically wipes out every single calorie in each cake, and therefore makes the cakes in this case – diet food!! The latest Edinburgh Bakers event was a fundraiser for local charity Its Good to Give, which helps young cancer patients and their families, run by the lovely Lynne McNicoll.

Our venue for the evening was Cafe Musa (a great little spot on The Mound if you are ever passing and in need of a cuppa!!). I didn’t take many pictures at this event as I was too busy concentrating my efforts on charitable cake eating, but over on Lucy’s Blog you can find fantastic pictures of all the delicious cakes! (I don’t know how she took the photos without digging in!).  But here is taster of what there was to choose from

Cake Fridge!Yummy Swiss Roll and Legendary MTB!Another Cake Fridge! (with one stolen!!)

We were entertained by magicians, there was a raffle where the top prize was the fabulous cake at the top of the page by Lou and the odd glass of bubbly floating around.  The event was a roaring success with £755 being raised for Its Good to Give! Well done to everyone who made it happen!

Cake eating doesn’t get tougher than this.

Easter Fun!

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Normally we both work over the Easter Holidays, but due to a special birthday in Stuart’s family we were headed en-masse to Wigtownshire to celebrate with his extended family.

The journey down thankfully started out great, clear blue skies – had spring finally arrived?! But then the remnants of last weeks snow hit, plus our sat nav decided to take us off road and up through the highest point in the county!

Welcome to Dumfries & Galloway!A Little SnowSnow Wall!

Saturday seen a surprise early morning visit from the entire family to a very unsuspecting birthday boy! The day was spent catching up, celebrating and feasting on wonderful food (and cake!). 

70 Years Young!Happy Birthday!Dessert!!!!

Stuart’s Uncle has a beautiful garden, and with the beautiful weather we spent plenty of time outside, spotting wildlife and talking to pets.  Spring had appeared after all!

One of the many resident ducks!A TitA Nosey NeighbourWelly DogSpring Time CrocusSunny GardensDaffodil

On Sunday Stuart and I took a wander around Wigtown itself, I love books so this town is perfect for me, well maybe not on Easter Sunday! Though a few were open so we took a look.

WigtownColourful Pretty HousesThe one stop shop!Books Galore!Wigtown Church

Then it was back to Stuart’s Uncles’ for more food, egg painting (for the children of course) and a little Easter Egg Hunt – sadly also for the children! There were squeals of excitement and delight as more and more chocolate was discovered!

Hidden EggsPainted Masterpieces!More Hidden EggsEggscellent Decorated Eggs! (sorry!)

It was soon time to leave, say our goodbyes and head back up to Edinburgh, not without stopping first of course at Bladnoch Distillery for a tour and a wee dram (for me, Stuart got to inhale as he was driving!).

Bladnoch DistilleryMalting BarnAngels at WorkRiver Bladnoch

Monday saw a lazy day, starting with a long breakfast (finishing off the last of the hot cross buns), and then onto the newly opened The Walled Garden at Archerfield, before walking off all that food and the excesses of the weekend along Gullane Beach. And then rounding the walk off with an ice cream – well why not , the sun was out!

Hot Cross BunsGullane BeachA Mr Whippy!!!!The Walled GardenThe BeachGullane Beach

A lovely relaxing and fun weekend, maybe we will take the holidays again next year!

Towers of Terrific Tray Bakes–Take Two

Last nights ‘theme’ for the Edinburgh Bakers was a repeat of one from last year – Towers of Terrific Tray bakes.  Our hosts for the evening where the lovely Ingrid and Stuart from Bon Papilion (you’ve got to try Stuart’s epic scones and the belly busting bacon rolls!)

Here are some of the magnificent tray bakes we all indulged in over some tea and a good old natter (apologies to those whose don’t feature – I was too busy eating and missed the last ones to arrive!)

Pam's Rocky RoadVictoria's Nanaimo BarsAlison's RouladyMy BridgadeirosAlison's Legendary Malteaser Tray BakeKatey's Chocolate Cherry SliceJanis's Snowflecked BrowniesFiona's Rolo SliceLucy's Rocky Road FudgeClare's Lemon DrizzleSue's Date SliceLynsey's FifteensWilma's Banana and Walnut SquaresRachael's Chocolate and Almond Slice

As always we all left with our little goody bags for later / breakfast / mid morning snack, mine made it until midday!

Whisky with Love

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Normally on Valentines Day we like to keep it low key, cook something special at home or be lazy and get a takeaway! This year I was whisked away to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society on Queen Street for a spot of Blind Whisky and Champagne Tasting , two of my favourite drinks!

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The evening started with a tasting of 3 whiskies for him, and 3 champagnes for me. Ben and James, our hosts for the evening, talked us through each of the champagnes, but for the whiskies, there was a little quiz, with each of them telling us a fact about the dram of which one was a lie! I tell you I’m not sure if I would trust the staff at the SMWS again, they were both very good liars!

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We were then treated to a tasty Beef Pie with Mashed Potato and Green Vegetables, before moving onto the next part of the tasting – the blind bit! We were each blinded folder and presented with two items to smell and one to taste – miraculously we managed to guess all 3!

Then it was onto the final 2 whiskies and champagnes.  The last part of the quiz was to create our own Tasting Notes for the final whisky – there were some interesting one, including ours – A Punch in the Face with a Smile – the official society notes were somewhat different!

We had a fun evening with some tasty whiskies, great champagnes (some new which we had never had before) and some good hearty food! A slightly different way to spend Valentines Day!

Pancakes!

Fluffy Pancakes

I love pancakes, and we often make them at the weekends as part of a lazy breakfast.  So, given today is officially Pancake day it would seem unsporting not to indulge!

I had a wonderful stack of pancakes during the summer in Cornwall, and I decided to recreate them this morning.  I used the following recipe for Fluffy American Pancakes that I found on the BBC website and then sandwiched some fresh Strawberries and Greek yogurt in between – yum!

Fluffy American Pancakes (Serves 4-6)

Ingredients
135g Plain flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
½ tsp. Salt
2 tbsp. Caster Sugar
130ml Milk
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. Melted Butter (allowed to cool slightly), plus extra for cooking

Method

  • Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl.
  • In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
  • Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing.
    Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
  • Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter.
  • When it’s melted, add a ladle of batter (or two if your frying pan is big enough to cook two pancakes at the same time). It will seem very thick but this is how it should be.
  • Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm (½in) thick.
  • Repeat until all the batter is used up. You can keep the pancakes warm in a low oven, but they taste best fresh out the pan.

The good thing about Pancake Day is that its OK to eat Pancakes all day!  Crepes for dinner I’m thinking!

100th Post Birthday

100th Post!

I can’t believe this is my 100th Post!  When I was eventually convinced to start a blog by Stuart just over a year ago I didn’t actually think I would stick with it, how on earth would someone as quiet and shy as me (hahaha)  find enough to create 10 posts never mind 100!!  But its been easier than I thought.

I started this blog partly because I like to try everything (there are so many unfinished projects lying around our house!) and also as an outlet for my baking, cooking, photography and love of travel.  Though looking back it would seem there was a lot of baking that went on!

Here is a quick flash back to some of the things I’ve gotten up to and in most cases enjoyed over the last 99 posts:

Rainbow Ruffle CakeGoodbye Christmas, Hello New YearGoodbye Christmas, Hello New YearVoluptuous Aubergine ParmigianaThrough the PinholeFifteensJupiter ArtlandTart AttackMacaron MakingCelebration of BurnsAutumn DaysNight of the MuseumAn intro to JapanGoing UndergroundCornish CapersManly Mo CupcakesSt Georges MarketOut with the old in with the newHello SunshineBurger HeavenBe LuckyAfternoon Tea at the BotanicsForaging FunFrom Farm to JarCake in the CountryA Proper Autumn SundaySew a needle pulling threadEat StreetCocktail Tasting Menu, The Balmoral

So, what about my next 100 and beyond?  Well over the next few weeks I am planning a little re-design of the blog.  Its about time for a freshen up, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while and plus it will put my apparent IT skills to the test!

I’ll also probably start a few posts on our flat renovations (as I think this is going to be a big part of my world over the next 12 months as we push to get it finished) and looking back to some of the places we travelled to in 2011 / 2012, and who knows what else might crop up! Though you can be sure there will be no climbing anything (hate heights), swimming with any kind of fish (they make my skin crawl), no celery (its evil and pointless) and certainly no squinty lines (I abide by the laws of straightness)

So, its been a blast so far – Happy 100th Blog Post to me!

Easts meets West

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Yesterday afternoon East met face to face with the West, in what was to be later referred to as a Cake Convention of the Edinburgh Cake Ladies and Glasgow Bakers.  The theme this time was showstoppers, and as you can see from the tasty photos below, we weren’t disappointed!

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This amazing cake by Kirsteen Oliver has even made an appearance on STV!!

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And for mine, well I went all pastel and pretty with my Rainbow Ruffle Cake

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As usual, we left in a near sugar coma state, clutching our little boxes rammed full of pieces of cake to take home to eat later, the next day, or dare I even mention it… share.

Be Lucky

There are many times that remind me why I love living in Edinburgh, and New Years Day was one of them. While trying to get over my hangover I read about Your Lucky Day as part of the Edinburgh Hogmanay celebration, and thought it might be something cool to do in order to sort out my head!

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We started at the National Museum of Scotland to collect our lucky dice, the idea is you roll them, the number you got relates to a card which has a location on it, all in the Old Town. You get to the location, enjoy whatever there was on offer (they were all surprises) and then roll again!

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During our 3 hour mystery tour round the old town, we ended up at Greyfriars Kirk for a Ceilidh, St Giles Cathedral for a performance by two singers, an exhibition at the City Art Centre, a band playing at The Tron, Old St Pauls Church on Jeffery Street, The Storytelling Centre and finally a Rockabilly Hoe-Down at the Roxy.  We also visited Lady Luck – The Cult of Fortuna at the museum, hopefully bringing us luck in 2013!

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The finale of the event was a Street Spectacular called ‘Big Bang’ by the Plasticien Volants on Buccleuch Place.  The street was closed off and hundreds of people turned out for this display.  Lights, music and large inflatables entertained the crowds for 45 minutes.  What a great way to welcome in the new year!

YOURLUCKYDAY_EDINBURGH_JAN2013 47YOURLUCKYDAY_EDINBURGH_JAN2013 56IMG_0751YOURLUCKYDAY_EDINBURGH_JAN2013 51YOURLUCKYDAY_EDINBURGH_JAN2013 62

Sadly we did miss one or two spots due to time, but it was a great afternoon out visiting places on our doorstep that we have never been to!

Goodbye Christmas, Hello New Year!

And so the Christmas festivities are over.  The few days of gluttony have passed and it’s onto New Year preparations and planning what resolutions we won’t be keeping!  For us, this Christmas was about celebrations, spending time with friends, family and each other, and generally enjoying having almost 2 weeks off work to do guilt free nothing!

Our festive celebrations started with our friends wedding in Peebles, in the beautiful Cringletie House Hotel.  It was a great day with fantastic food, great music and a bar with an impressive whisky selection!

Iain_Louise_Wedding_DEC2012_370 1

We then had to rush back up to Edinburgh as my parents were arriving.  The next few days seen us have a nice family Christmas Eve lunch at Centotre, a lovely Christmas Day walk in South Queensferry ending with hot chocolate in Orocco Pier, and Stuart’s family joining us on Boxing day for another feast!

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As we aren’t big Turkey fans, Christmas dinner is not ‘traditional’ for us!  This year, having bought Jamie’s 15 minute Meals, we went for Golden Chicken, Braised Green and Potato Gratin (it definitely didn’t take 15 minutes!), followed by this quick and easy Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding, using some Panettone I brought back from Italy with me in October!

Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding (From BBC Good Food)

Ingredients

50g Butter, softened
250g Panettone (about 5 medium slices)
2 Eggs
142ml Carton Double Cream
225ml Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp. Caster Sugar
Icing Sugar, for sprinkling

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 160 C / Gas 3 and grease a 1.5 pint shallow baking dish with a little butter
  • Cut the Panettone into wedges, leaving the crusts on
  • Butter the slices lightly with the rest of the butter
  • Cut the slices in half and arrange them in the dish, buttered side up
  • In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, milk, vanilla extract and sugar
  • Pour evenly over the Panettone
  • Put the dish in a roasting tin and pour hot water around it to a depth of about 2.5cm / 1 in.
  • Bake for 35 minutes until the pudding is just set (it should be yellow inside and nicely browned on top)
  • Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped or poured cream or even ice cream!

This is also nice done with Pain au Chocolat instead of the Panettone!!

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After a few days break of gluttony, its now back on the wagon for the New Year Feasting!