Parisian Macarons :-)

Parisian Macarons ........ Well where do I start? Notoriously difficult to make, beautiful to look at and a true delight on the palate.

I have tried them before, much to my mouths delight but not a delight to the eye I can assure you, however, this time, I used a different recipe and kept the oven door open a jar and it worked a treat.

I chose pastel pink for the body of the macaron and a lovely hot pink for the peanut buttercream filling. Each and every macaron looks like perfection and the pictures do them every justice!

I truly believe I have mastered the art of the Parisian Macaron and couldn't be happier! They have turned out beautifully and melt in the mouth!

En Francais :-)

I intend to spend some time working on perfecting the French Macaron and also to work on the whoopie pies! I seem to have more time on my hands recently and seem to be looking more and more at the recipe books I was so delighted with at Christmas. I have tried French Macarons previously and although successful, they were not something Mary Berry would have been proud to look at!

I love the look of the French Macaron and the possibilities are endless. Light, delicate flavours paired with flawless pastel colours.

I will keep you updated with plenty of pictures - especially now they look so professional! Please note that the amazing photo above is not mine! However, it wont be long until mine are perfection like those beauties!

Check Me Out :-)

I decided it would be a grand idea to use facebook as a tool to show people what I can do, you can check me out on www.facebook.com/pinkyspatisserie

This has been a success so far and I've had a couple of orders so far including a wedding cake in September! 

Meanwhile, I have been practicing the old photography skills to get the best photos I can, this included an amazing gift of a mini portrait photo booth! The photographs are looking brilliant and I couldn't be happier!

Cupcakes of all Shapes and Sizes :-)

The day came where cupcakes needed to be made. Lots of cupcakes. Lots of different cupcakes. Lots of yummy, sparkly cupcakes. Mmmmmm cupcakes!!! They make my world go around ....... well partly anyway, gigantic beautiful cakes do the other part!!!

So, ginger cupcakes and lemon buttercream, lightly spiced, lightly flavoured and wonderful for these chilly winter nights for a bit of heat :-)

Yummy!!! I love cupcakes and today was no exception! A couple of hours of complete cakiness heaven!!

Waybuloo :-)

So I was asked to do a Waybuloo cake for my friends little girls 1st birthday! Ive never done anything like this before so I decided a simple vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream, four layers and plenty of stickiness!!!

I started off with using a cake pop stick as the support for the Waybuloo decoration and half a cake pop stick as the support for the arms. I coloured the icing using gel colours and set on to making Waybuloo.

I then sat and painstakingly made sugarpaste flowers, leaves and decorations for the final touches.

The finished result, how yummy does that look! I might have to make one for myself (and keep it to myself!)

Christmas pt 2 :-)

So, December 25th, the most exciting time of the year! The one day of the year that I am proudly tired through lack of sleep due to excitement the night before! I am a huge child when it comes to Christmas and I live throughout the year for the excitement of Christmas, from putting up the tree, to Christmas shopping and the big day and seeing the look on peoples faces when they open their gifts!!

I love it, nothing can put me off excitement and this year was no different! I awoke early on and woke up the entire household to open prezzies! Slippers and dressing gown, kettle on the go and excitedly rustling under the tree!!

I was a very lucky girl this year and Santa let me know I had behaved by gifting me with a beautiful Kitchenaid Mixer!!!

I was also gifted with a collection of cakey books, whoopie pie books, cupcake books and an adorable mini-cupcake maker. I spent Boxing Day making cake and using my new toys!!

Christmas :-)

Not updated for a loooooong time so decided I better start with Christmas and move on into the New Year.  Christmas being a busy period, being the one time of the year when people drop in unannounced and being the one time of the year where we let out the belt buckle!

I made a list of everything I wanted to make from the Christmas cake and decorations to pork pies, lemon curd and sweet tarts.

I'll start with the Christmas cake and decorations, a good boiled fruit cake is the starting point of an amazing Christmas cake and this year was no different, two round boiled fruit cakes made in October and lovingly soaked with Brandy until December........

The decorations were made using white fondant icing, I use a silicone flower cutter and mould and add silver balls and lustre dust. I used white polar lustre dust and a peach glitter.

I made fifteen flowers to go around the cake and for the top of the cake - I left these to set prior to using royal icing to attach them to the cake

Finished result!! Beautiful polar white Christmas cake, soaked with Brandy and contemporary finish :-)

Christmas Savouries :-)

After watching the Great British Bake Off and seeing Paul Hollywood's take on Pork Pies I decided I had to have a go! I altered the recipe slightly from using plain pork loin joint to using an Applewood Smoked Pork Loin which most definitely gave the pork pies a taste second to none.

This was the first time I had tried making hot water pastry and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is!

Not quite as pleasing to they eye as shop bought but the taste is definitely worth the hard work! I have made these a couple of times now and have recently opted for a silicone baking tin which has made getting the pies out a million times easier!!!

Sweet Treats :-)

 I decided to have a go at making lemon curd and for a twist made a jar of orange curd too! The lemon curd was a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe and although tart, is a beautiful accompaniment to a lovely bit of burnt toast!

The orange curd was used for the filling for an orange tart which was wonderfully smooth, gorgeous to look at and totally scrummy to eat :-)

Gingerbread House :-)

Typing this now I realise how busy I was over the festive period! The gingerbread house is a typical thought when I think of Christmas so I decided it was time to have a go! I designed a template, made up a huge batch of gingerbread and chained myself to the oven for the afternoon! I used the gingerbread recipe from the BBC good food website and was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was, not to mention delicious. I used royal icing to bond the walls and roof together. I then used a thick layer of royal icing on the roof as snow and a thick layer for snow on the ground.

Yes, they are lights you can see within! I hid a string of l.e.d lights inside for a sweat treat with a twist