M&M Cookies

m&m cookies were always a staple at our house during Christmas. My mom always made them in addition to snickerdoodles and those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey kiss on top.
They just this Christmas season started having the red and green only m&m’s in the UK. Only about 20 years behind the rest of the planet! I couldn’t find an exact date they were released but the first TV advert where the m&m “spokes candy” put out a bowl of green and red m&m’s for Santa was 1990.
I could only find peanut green and red ones at Waitrose and they were packaged in a special tube. I couldn’t find regular red and green ones in just a regular bag!
I had to settle for the regular colors instead this time
I had a check on the net and there are a minimum of 11 different kinds of m&m in the US (not including the “premium”, minis or ice cream). There are 3 in the UK: plain, peanut butter and crispy. The crispy ones are apparently the most profitable and strangely aren’t sold in the US any more. What’s your favorite kind? I’m partial to peanut and the new pretzel ones which I had when I went home in August. I hope they come to the UK soon!
M&M Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart makes 3 dozen
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups plain m&m’s
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Whisk together the flour and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside. Put the butter and sugars into a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs, vanilla and salt. Mix well until blended.
3. Mix in the flour and then fold in the m&m’s with a spoon or spatula.
4. Drop a tablespoon of dough onto a non stick baking sheet, spacing each 2 inches apart and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
my sister sent me this cute cookie scoop.

Masterclass at Dri Dri Gelato Notting Hill

I was invited for another gelato masterclass! This time by Qype. What a lucky girl am I? I’ve been to two gelato making classes now! Click here and here to read about my previous lesson. I took a lot of pictures. Click here to see them all.
Dri Dri Gelato opened on Portobello Road in summer 2010. They use organic and seasonal ingredients to make authentic Italian gelato. Even though I’ve already been on a class the two places are different and I learned a few new things!
Dri Dri serve their gelato in a traditional pozzetti counter. This type of counter is strictly temperature controlled. The gelato contains no emulsifiers or thickeners and would melt in the usual open case freezer you typically see.
They also serve coffee and traditional Italian hot chocolate. I love this stuff. It’s so thick and chocolaty.
Gelato is apparently a more healthy choice than ice cream. It uses milk rather than cream. Gelato is 6% fat compared to ice cream at 18-24%
For our class we were making Granny Smith Apple Sorbet.
Roughly chopping up the apples
The apples are then thrown into a juicer. Obviously, I was too excited about all that gelato to remember to not turn my camera so if you have a laptop flip the screen around!
The apple juice, lemon juice and sugar mixture are all whisked together with some water.
The mixture is then poured into the gelato maker.
Adriano has an authentic 1960′s Italian gelato makeer which was pretty cool.
It’s cool how it churns. It only takes about 20 minutes for the gelato to become thick and creamy!
But how to get all the gelato out of the machine? A giant paddle of course!
There’s Eamon who works at Qype giving it a go.
The finished product! It tasted amazing. The flavor of the apple was so clean and crisp. It really did taste natural.
Adriano was nice and let us pretty much taste every flavor. The William and Kate was not only cute it was also one of the best tasting! My only regret is not tasting more gelato! I left hungry and not stuffed like I had hoped.
I enjoyed my class at Dri Dri. It’s a cute shop that has a nice friendly neighborhood feel. It’s more expensive than your average ice cream shop but you can taste the quality and it’s worth a trip to Notting Hill if you’re ever in the area. The gelato flavors change with the season so expect to be amazed!
Thanks to Qype and Adriano for inviting me! Can’t wait for more Qype food events!

Cupcake Camp Bournemouth

I attended Cupcake Camp Bournemouth recently. The event successfully raised over £1,800 pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support. I took a lot of photos on the day, click here to see them all. A lot of hard work into organizing the event.

I donated Chocolate Pretzel Man Cakes. There aren’t any cupcake shops in Bournemouth (as far as I know) but there are plenty of home businesses in the area. Nearly all of the cakes donated were from professional bakers. I really wanted to take a picture of each kind donated but it was too busy and the cupcakes dissapeared really quickly!

Here are some of my favorites from the day (if anyone knows who made these let me know and I’ll update each photo).

Bournemouth Beach Hut by Lucy’s Sugar Shack

Fish n’ Chips also by Lucy’s Sugar Shack

Mother’s Day Cupcakes

This was the best tasting cupcake of the day I think! It was a nut and spice combination.

On the whole I left the event feeling a little disappointed. When I left the last cupcake camp I attended, I left on such a high (not just a sugar high). This event had a different vibe.

I felt it was over before it even started. The event was advertised to start at 2pm and run until 5pm. When I arrived at 1:40pm to set up my stand people were already taking cupcakes. I wasn’t pleased when people kept trying to take them before I’d finished getting my display ready! The judging competition was also finished before the start and by 3pm all the cupcakes were gone and it was over. The good news is that people seemed to enjoy themselves and there were lots of kids having fun.

As a baker, in my opinion, I was disappointed that the businesses gave themselves a big profile and I thought the charity seemed to take second place. The event was organized with good intentions however.

I am excited for the next cupcake camp and I’m already thinking about some mind blowing creations!

Willie’s Easter Egg Factory

Willie Harcourt-Cooze “transported” his chocolate factory from Devon to The Tabernacle in London for the day shortly before Easter. He gave a Bean to Bar talk, let everyone make their own Easter egg and hosted a reception with drinks and canapes from his new book ‘Willie’s Chocolate Bible’. Click here to see all the photos I took.
There were loads of people at the event. It was free and open to the public.
Willie started with his “Bean to Bar” talk. He is very passionate! He is the UK’s only independent grower and producer of cacao.
Raw Cacao
The talk consisted of him simultaneously telling us how he got into producing chocolate, the process of how it’s made and making a chocolate mousse cake all at the same time!
Roasted Beans
Beans grown in different regions will have different under tones. Just like with wine. Grapes grown in different regions will taste different.
100% Cacao
We were tasting the different stages as Willie discussed them, which was fun. The raw cacao bean was not very tasty!
Willie made a chocolate mousse inside a chocolate case. He lined the tin with parchment paper and spread the chocolate all up and around so when it was removed it had a bit of a ruffled look.
We got to taste a sample. Willie bought the molds for the mousse from the old Terry’s of York factory after it closed.
And a hot chocolate sample
After that the Easter egg making, chocolate tasting and book signing began.
I bought a copy of the book and look forward to making the chocolate and porcini risotto.
There was a row of chocolate fountains with different types of chocolate to taste. Of the 6 there were two that I really loved!
The Indonesian 69 Javan Light Breaking – Sourced from the Island of Java, these bars are made from a highly prized strain of cacao. The beans are visually striking as they are exceptionally light in color and they have a slightly higher cacao butter content than usual. The beans produce a surprisingly light dark chocolate with soft caramel notes.
The Peruvian 70 San Martin – The beans are sourced from the Departmento de San Martin in Northern Peru in the foothills of the Andes in the lush Amazonian rainforest’s. The beans are grown by small farmers, who are part of a cooperative who provide them with technical and marketing assistance and credit to help increase productivity and profitability. The beans from this region are naturally fruity with tropical fruit flavor notes.
Giant Easter Egg for Great Ormond Street
The staff spent over five hours helping everyone make Easter eggs! They were still going when I left at 8.30pm. Chocolate is poured into the mould. The two halves of the mould are put together and closed with some pins and shaken vigorously. It was then popped into the freezer to set quickly.
It’s a little dark but you can see how the foil is applied to the egg.
Chili and Cacao Nib Tea while we waited for all kids to finish making their Easter eggs.
Malambo provided the entertainment by playing South American music.
Then came the cocktails! Chocolate Sloe Vodka.
The guy sitting next to me thought drinking 8 in one go was a good idea.
It’s not a party without some bubbly.
Willie’s Bloody Mary. I’ve never actually had one before and I loved it.
Cacao and Olive Bread with Smoked Salmon
Wild Mushroom Stew (this was fantastic)
Roe Deer with Chocolate Gravy and Spiced Red Cabbage
Mole Negro with Chicken Breast. The moistest chicken I have ever tasted I think.
Chocolate Cake
This might have been White Chocolate and Orange Blossom filled chocolates.
Willie’s Walnut Whip
Completely stuffed and happy I left and took my Easter egg home!
During Willie’s demonstration he also while making the mousse whipped up his favorite South American breakfast. I made it at home and it was pretty good!
Willie’s South American Breakfast
1 serving
Ingredients
1 egg
half an avocado
1 piece of bread
chili oil
1. Toast the piece of bread and spread the avocado on top (it’s a healthier replacement for butter).
2. Fry the egg and place on top of the avocado and sprinkle with some chili oil. I used some chili infused olive oil from Waitrose.

Fiona Cairns Bake & Decorate Book Review

About a month ago Quadrille contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing Fiona Cairns new decorating book, Bake & Decorate. I had seen her cakes in Selfridges before but I didn’t know she had written any books! One look at that pretty cake on the cover and I was sold. I have a serious cookbook addiction. I’ve amassed about 30 baking ones in a year!
　　The press release says this is her first book. I looked on Amazon and there is another Bake & Decorate. I’m thinking this is a re-issue. I would be curious to know why it was re-issued a year after the first. Maybe this is the new and improved version? After I did all my writing and baking from this book I went and read other reviews (of the older issue). Some criticized the decorating ideas as childish. I think with a little imagination the basic ideas she presents are more than inspiring enough (especially for us beginners). Now on to the actual review!
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　　The book is billed as “easy decorating ideas for the least experienced cook for less money than you think. Fiona shows each aspiring hostess how to achieve glamorous, fun entertaining using easy techniques and tricks”. I found this quite interesting. “She makes 750,000 cakes a year for Waitrose, Harrods, Selfridges…her list of celebrity clients includes Sir Paul McCartney and Bono”.
　　I thought this would be a great opportunity. I like to think that I’m pretty good at baking but when it comes to decorating I’m about as skillful as a Kindergartner with a pot of glitter! This was a good chance to see if I could improve my skills.
　　It was really exciting getting a copy of the book a whole month before it was released for sale! I decided that I would make 3 different kinds of recipes each with a different decorating technique and then write my review based on how they tasted and how easy I found the decorating techniques. I made a layer cake, cupcakes and biscuits. I will post each of the recipes in the days following with full details about the decorating technique.
　　Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I do feel that I learned some new tricks. I feel confident enough to try a sugarpaste decoration next time. The book is half recipes and half decorating ideas using the recipes from the first half of the book. The book is pretty thick, I think it would be a good idea to read the front of the book and also the back of the book before getting started. There are simple decorating tips buried in there!
　　The one thing that a book can never teach is patience. Decorating takes patience and I don’t have much! I like to get to the eating part…
　　Every recipe I made tasted good. No earth shattering recipes but good easy basics. I made a few changes here and there to suit my own tastes but the majority worked. Nothing is more disappointing than a book were none of the recipes work. The book contains more classic flavor cakes like chocolate, victoria sponge, etc as the focus is more on the decorating but there were also a few intriguing ones like star anise and clementine cake.
　　The first cake I made was a White Chocolate, Cardamom and Rose layer cake decorated with glittering roses. This was a huge hit at the office as it looks stunning. The simple addition of five roses in the center really impressed. This decorating technique for the roses was buried in the back of the book. This was the most work intensive from the three recipes I tried.
　　Second up I made iced, layered shortbread biscuits. These tasted great and making the cookies with a little window and an icing drizzle really made them stand out. They would have looked a bit neater if I had actually followed the directions. That’s another story though. This was the easiest decorating technique of the three.
　　Lastly, I made Mint Cupcakes. The chocolate cake was perfectly light and moist and I tried my hand at making crystallized leafs. This was only medium hard. A few turned out really nice and the rest stuck to the pan! The icing was the biggest disappointment of the book and I had to change the ratio of ingredients to make it work (but after that it was fabulous).
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　　I had a great time getting into the decorating part of this book and it does exactly what it’s being sold as. This is a fun book for beginners and I think that with a little practice even I will be able to make a perfectly decorated cake in the near future! I would reccomend it for anyone looking to get a start in some simple decorating.
　　The book is released on March 4, 2011. What I’ve written is not sponsored and my own opinion .