Beas of Bloomsbury

One of the really fun things I got to do while in London was to check out Beas of Bloomsbury
I took my dear friend John there for lunch, and we snagged a great table at the back where I could watch all that was going on in the pastry kitchen as we munched on our lunch.

We chose to share a sandwich and a couple of salads, which were both totally delicious. I think it was a cheese and roasted veggie sandwich, and a pasta salad with a really tasty broccoli salad.

We saved room for some cake, which we had to sample! I chose an amaretto cheesecake and a chocolate cupcake with praline buttercream. The buttercream was to die for, and I really loved the oaty crust on the cheesecake.

I then ended up saying hello to the chef, Bea, and I'm so glad I did as they were nice enough to offer me an afternoon of work experience. So I dashed off to the Burkenstock store and snapped up some chef shoes and showed up the next afternoon.

Despite her formidable reputation, she was an amazing teacher, and incredibly patient with me. My first test was to quickly weigh out eggwhites and sugar for meringues. I didnt take too long to do that, so it was on to the next task, whipping up some gluten free orange cakes. These were a snap to make, and totally delicious, I was lucky enough to taste one. It was a simple mixture, which didnt even need any frosting, totally delicious and moist.

I then set to work piping meringues, which I found really tricky, but after being corrected several times, I managed to get it right, and set about piping tray after tray of meringue, which eventually winged their way to selfridges (oooh!!).

Even though it was just an afternoon, I had a fantastic time, Bea had created a really great atmosphere with the people working there, I met two people, Naomi and James, who were both really nice, and it felt like fun to work, which is important as its often a very long day in this kind of business.

I would love to think that this could be my job one day, although its so much better paid being a chemist than a cook/pastry cook/cake artist! Its lovely to visit a bakery like Beas, where quality ingredients are of the greatest importance and attention to detail is impeccable.

Be sure to check the bakery out if you're in London, and also try a lesson with Bea, she's a great teacher!

British Invasion!!

As I look back over my photos, I see that I really didnt take any photos of food on my trip home! I did of course eat lots, but I didnt have a camera handy to take piccies, so you'll have to be content with a little bit of scenery!

I started off paying my dear grandma a visit. She lives pretty close to Teddington Lock now, so I stretched my legs and wandered over there. So pretty. I really loved the weeping willow trees over the river, and the fact that fall was starting.

We had a pretty unmemorable meal at a french restaurant. I often find it a little stressful eating with her as she always feels she ought to leave a clean plate, and doesnt really have much of an appetite, so she has a big stress about being too full and feels ill. Its sad to think that food sometimes isnt so much of a pleasure any more as one gets older.

I then set off to Central London and was given a delicious healthy tofu dish for dinner, its wierd how they have really embraced flavoring tofu and making it much more palatable there.

I had a lovely day in central London with my friend, John, we enjoyed wandering around the British Museum, and also a delicious lunch at Beas of Bloomsbury (more about that later!)

After a couple of days in London, I made my way to my home town of Birmingham. I had a tasty curry with my friends, but we lamented the fact that the curry houses are trying too hard, and that maybe we should have gone back to the homeplace of the balti, Ladypool Road.

I also started on 'project wedding cake', which was

quite a challenge. I baked cakes for 70 people to take to the wedding I was attending at the weekend. My mum served as my sous chef, and we managed to do pretty well, despite a small oven that cooked a little unevenly, and limited resources. Costco came to the rescue, it was great to see that the butter and eggs are all free range. I wish America would follow suit a little more in this regard, after all, theres much more space here to give the animals!! It was also fascinating to see what they had to offer, giant sacks of tea bags and enormous jars of pickled eggs (who really eats those?!!)

I then made my way to a fantasic country house, Treowen in the Monmouthshire countryside, it was a truly beautiful place, and I really enjoyed reconnecting with old friends over a really fun

weekend. We enjoyed fantastic food all weekend, but highlights included the wedding dinner of bangers and mash, with a wonderful sticky toffee pudding for desert, and then a great big full english breakfast the following morning, to mop up all the alcohol that we'd had the night before!

I still believe that the overall quality of food in the UK is often better, although I think its sad that the farmers market concept isnt quite as widespread. I would say that in California we are blessed with an abundance of wonderful fruit all year round, but the dairy produce in the UK is just exceptional.

One of the things that makes me happiest is to see the faces of my favourite farmers when I pick up my eggs and sometimes produce. I was really happy to be back in San Diego and see my favourite farmers stand, schaener farm at the Little Italy Mercado.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I must admit, I'm not really in the mood, making these cupcakes got me feeling a bit more festive.

Hopefully I'll have more to say soon, I've got so much to talk about, a great trip to the UK, fun times at a bakery, a wedding, plus lots of fun in San Diego...

Daring bakers and macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Like most of the daring bakers, I've been meaning to tackle macarons. I've tried them once, they didnt go so well, so I was happy to experiment again.

This could be the holy grail of pastry, I've been trying to work out why, and I think it could be the variation in ingredients, and the importance of the consistency of the batter. The almond meal could be more finely ground or less, and the egg whites could be more or less aged and can vary in size. Of course the technique is also very tricky, whipping the egg whites to a soft peak, not too hard, then carefully folding the nut meal and powdered sugar in.

I'm going to blame this on the fact that my macarons were a little runny. I think I needed more nut flour. Also, I didnt use my common sense and I piped them too close together. The macarons also stuck to the silpat, so it was difficult to release them. I've heard you can put water underneath the silpat to help to release the cookies.

As you can see, my macarons are woefully thin too, although they did seem to develop the 'feet'. One day I'll spend a week perfecting them, but I just dont seem to have the time to commit to it.

A happy accident happened, I realised I didnt have enough almond meal, so I ground up some hazelnuts to mix in, and then filled the macarons with nutella. Delicious!!!

Please check on amy's blog for the recipe!

Autumn is here!

I've been so busy I've not had time to write about how busy I am! I recently had a little get together to celebrate the fact that fall is here. I bought a copy of Martha Stewarts new cupcake book and I thought it would be fun to share some of the cupcakes from it, plus a couple of new ideas.

I was very happy with the book, lots of ideas and lovely presentations, the only downside is martha seems to have an awful lot more friends than I do, and her recipes often yield several dozen cakes, I prefer to make a dozen or two at a time.

I started with everyone's fall favourite, the pumpkin spice cupcake. I didnt have time for the cute pumpkin topper, so I mixed a little of the cream cheese with some caramel so that it created a pretty swirl. I think this was definitely the big winner of the day!

I was also lucky enough to get some meyer lemons at the farmers market. Although they are not in season he had a few extra on the tree. The cupcake was quite nice but not as dreamy and ephemeral as maybe the dorie greenspans perfect party cake is. Meyer lemons make a much less tart curd too, which is worth keeping in mind if you like a bit more zing.

I then got started on a pretty looking 'hummingbird cupcake. It was another lovely tropical treat. I've seen these lovely pineapple flowers before and wanted to recreate them myself. I found them to be a lot of work and it does seem like a bit of a waste of good pineapple as they are just a bit dried out and not as tasty.

I'd also been hoping to recreate smores in a cupcake form, so I had a try at martha stewarts recipe. Being me, I decided to only stick to the cupcake recipe, I topped with a whipped chocolate ganache and a swirl of seven minute meringue frosting, which was lots of fun to burn with my ridiculously large torch from Home Depot!

Last but definitely not least, I made a rich chocolate mud cake, scooped a little out and popped a filling of coconut with cream cheese frosting and topped with a decadent dark chocolate buttercream, topped with an almond to be an 'almond joy' cupcake. Most definitely my favorite, I think this would be a wonderful treat for anyone wanting something a bit more decadent!

I'm afraid I'm out of town, so I cant share any recipes, but I have to share that chocolate mud cake recipe on my return, it was delicious and very moist!

Whats your favorite cupcake?

Fall Foodie Swap

Thank you so much to Laura for organizing this! I partnered with Erin in Boston, who shared some amazing stuff with me, maple syrup, pancake/waffle mix, ginger jam, cranberry honey and some beautiful fall cookie cutters, dishes towels etc. So generous!

I was a little embarrassed with what I'd sent off, I made some little pumpkins out of marzipan which I thought would go great as toppers for pumpkin cupcakes, so I popped in a recipe and added some halloween cupcake cases and homemade caramel syrup for decorating. I put in some spices to give a fall scent upon opening, and added some 'world peace cookies' from Dorie Greenspan's recipe, and a little hand painted bowl from guadalajara, mexico that I found at my local farmers market

Daring bakers and vol au vents

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent, which we are pretty sure in French means, “After one bite we could die and go to heaven!”

Well, this was a fun challenge, I've made puff pastry from scratch twice so far, once in home economics when I was about 12, and once in class at college recently. It really is excellent when you make it yourself.

I was really excited to make vol-au-vents too, I've had them at many parties and occasions, unfortunately they seem to have fallen out of favor recently, being just way too dated, but I really loved those little fluffy bites and was really looking forward to making them from scratch.

The building of the pastry worked very well, but unfortunately when I rolled it out, I didnt persist, getting a nice thin pastry, so they were a little stodgy. I was also kind of worried about weighing them down with a silpat to make them rise evenly, so they were a little loopy when they baked! My husband says they look like geoducks. Ick!


I decided upon two fillings, I remember really loving mushroom vol au vents, so I sauteed some mushrooms and garlic, added a sprinkle of red pepper and black pepper, a touch of 'better than bouillon' mushroom, a sprinkle of flour and then reduced the sauce down. Mmm. Bit ugly looking but very tasty.

For dessert I whipped up some heavy cream with honey, and filled the vol au vents, then added slices of figs and walnuts.

I was very happy to see all the layers in the pastry, although they were really heavy to eat since they were so thick. Oh well, I'll just have to keep practicing!!