Mark and I are super-busy in the kitchen at the moment, cooking up all sorts of seasonal goodies, which will be available for your delectation this saturday (10th December) at FiFi’s Christmas Craft Market.

If you’re in east London, we really hope you’ll want to pop in for a visit- We’ll be at the Rag Factory, in Heneage Street (just off of Brick Lane) from 10-4, selling christmassy cupcakes, hand iced biscuits, chocolate bark, salt caramel fudge, minty treats and cake kits so you can impress people with your baking prowess

Have a little look at the FiFi Market facebook page to see who else will be there and more- http://www.facebook.com/pages/FiFis-Markets/121569177910204

Last weekend Mark and I took off to the Warren Golf Club for the Exceptional Events wedding fayre. It was the first one the venue had done, having not been doing weddings for that long, but I must say it was perfectly set up- Acres of country side, a lovely beamed reception room and a very comfy sitting room, that would be perfect for pre-dinner drinks… And a resident peacock! I do love a bit of wildlife!

We decided to put together a themed display- I’m not a massive fan of wedding fayres where the cake people have just whacked a load of cakes up that don’t connect in any way, so we picked a peach, coral and champagne colour scheme and got creating! Everything you see in the pictures could be taken as individual elements- for example, choose the biscuits as favours (themed to match your wedding, or with the bride and groom’s initials picked out in pearls), cake pops to be served along side your cake on long trays- which’d be lovely on the evening buffet, or even pick a small tiered cake and complementing display of cupcakes to go alongside it- why limit yourself to one cake!

Come and visit us this Sunday, 9th October at Warren Golf Club, for the Exceptional Events wedding fayre. Bit of a last minute booking for us, so I’m off to the kitchen to bake some samples, but if you’re looking for a wedding cake, come along from 11 for a chat (and some cake!). Click the banner below for more info

Mum went to visit my auntie Michelle in the Forest of Dean last week, and she came back with a bucket of bramley apples, for me to bake into something. After a bit of pondering, I came up with a vaguely experimental apple and raspberry crumble cake- It was a bit of a pain to slice, but dolloped in bowls with custard, it made me feel rather autumnal!

Am now planning what to do with the rest of the apples (Nigella christmas chutney, perhaps), but until then, have a recipe:

1 bramley apple
100g butter (at room temperature)
175g caster sugar
1 egg
125ml milk
handful of raspberries
280g sr flour

Crumble topping
50g cold butter
85g sr flour
100g caster sugar
zest 1 lemon

1- Turn oven on to gas 4 (180 C), line a 20x30cm tin (or if you are lazy, like me, buy sillicone equivilent and stop mucking around)

2-peel, core and chop the apple into small chunks, and simmer in a little bit of water for a few minutes until the apples go soft, but before you get to puree mush stage. Drain off anything that looks particularly watery and set aside

3-make the crumble topping- combine flour and sugar, and chop the butter into little chunks. Rub together til it looks like lumpy breadcrumbs, then stir in the lemon zest

4- mix up the sponge- Cream butter and sugar, pour in beaten egg and mix to combine, fold in flour and finally stir in as much milk as you need- the batter should be quite stiff

5- plomp half the batter into tin, top with apple stuff, scatter in a few raspberries, cover with the rest of the mix, then the crumble topping

6- To the oven! Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until the topping is golden and crunchy and a skewer comes out clean (bit tricky because of all the apple, but keep poking at random bits until you’re sure- nothing worse than an under-done cake)

7-Leave to cool slightly, then remove from tin and eat. With custard, whipped cream or ice cream, as per preference! The top should be crunchy, the sponge should be light and the seams of apple and raspberry running through provide a lovely sharp contrast

I’d just finished working on a new cake flavour and no sooner had I added it to the list that Sam and Tom called for a consultation and what did they pick to try,  that self same flavour- a very subtle coconut sponge, with lime buttercream.

I’m glad to say, they picked the flavour for their order (along with lemon sponge) and I made a few extras so I could feast on the leftovers after I’d made the delivery!

The peaches and cream colour scheme was lovely (the venue was decorated with loads of balloons) and it really worked well on the cakes- After much umming and ahing over the sample pictures, they went for tiny peach and ivory blossoms on alternating colours of icing and silver dragee accents

Had a fantastic day yesterday, first mooching around charity shops with my mum, to find lovely cut glass plates and vintagey china (very glad I didn’t buy a rather expensive glass cake stand, and instead dropped in on my nan who just happened to have one at the back of a cupboard!), and then back to the kitchen for a spot of cakesperimentation.

Mum and I had a bunch of recipes we wanted to try out, so we could finally launch the afternoon tea menu, and I’m pleased to say the new ones were all hugely successful-

Eton mess cake- a light airy melted butter sponge, topped with slithers of strawberry and crushed meringue (on the bottom of the tiered cake stand)

Summer berry drizzle loaf- Vanilla sponge, studded with raspberries and blackberries, and topped with fruit syrup covered berries, which sunk through the cake to make it lovely and moist (on the right hand corner of the picture)

Chive and parmesan scones- nice eaten warm plain, but absolutely delectable when topped with cream cheese and fine slithers of smoked salmon.

Notes were scribbled, photos were taken and we are now very pleased to announce the launch of our afternoon tea parties- Dainty sandwiches, home made scones and delicious cakes served on pretty vintage china, in the comfort of your own home, or wherever you fancy! For more information, click here

 A colour scheme of brown with minty green accents definitely provided an opportunity for a bit of an experiement- I love it when you can match a flavour to the look of the cake, so as well as the vanilla and chocolate cakes with tiny blossoms and pearl sprinkles, Sarah and Joe asked us to create a mint choc cupcake to go with the colour!

A few tries later (and many bottles of mint extract), we cracked it- Chocolatey devils food cake, with a secret filling of rich mint chocolate ganache and a topping of minty buttercream

In addition to the cupcake tower, Sarah asked for a dome of brown roses on the top tier- To tie it all in, I added a scattering of minty green leaves and some pearls to finish it all off.

Sarah very kindly send me a photo of the pair of them, looking absolutely gorgeous, next to their cakes, to prove I actually do do this stuff and I’m not just making it up!

Peggy and Alex’s wedding was at the rather fantastical Gosfield Hall, way out in the Essex countryside. I felt like I’d stepped into a game of cluedo (without the murder, obviously)- It was all secret doors in the library and random corridors that looped you back to where you started!

Anyway, I was so so pleased with the finished cake, complete with custom made stand- It all just looked so elegant and fitted in beautifully with the surroundings. And I was particularly chuffed with my first bit of royal icing piping work- you dont have to do that much on cupcakes, but I couldnt get cutters big enough to match the initials on the cupcakes for the top tier, so I gingerly picked up a piping bag and…. pleasantly surprised myself! A bit of gold paint finished it off, and it all matched up a treat, if I do say so myself!

The custom cake stand provided a bit of head scratching too- Polystyrene cake dummies, wrapped in silky ribbons, with gold cake boards sandwiching each layer. A word of wisdom to anyone wanting to make one of these- DONT USE SUPERGLUE!!! It melts the polystyrene, which while looking quite cool, doesnt really stick things together! After ruining a lot of cake dummies, I finally discovered that no more nails worked a treat

I’ve just about recovered from the whirlwind that was the Essex Wedding Fayre- Oh dear lord, it was hectic! Me and the recruits commenced baking on Friday afternoon. Several hours (and a few bottles of wine) later, 600 samples were packed up ready to go, along with all the displays and gubbins… oh and did I mention, there was a wedding going out on Saturday morning, yep- a wedding, so alongside the 600 samples, there was also a giant cupcake and 150 normal cupcakes baked, decorated and ready to go to the venue.

Falling into bed feeling pretty shattered, I was out like a light, and up early the next morning to make a load of decorations for one of the exhibition displays, following a dream I’d had where people were pointing and laughing at the original purple stars theme I’d put together (paranoid much? The overwork must’ve been getting to me!)

Then it was off to the show! (Mark was dispatched to deal with the wedding cakes, along with my younger bro- this weekend was a real family affair!). After a lot of nervous waiting for people to come to see us, where we were ensconced at the furthest possible point from the front door, we got BOMBARDED! The three hundred samples we’d allocated were gone in the first 2 hours, so one of the trusty assistants was dispatched to pick up the next day’s samples and my lovely mum got her pinny on and commenced baking another couple of hundred samples!

The second day was just as busy and everyone was SO chuffed with how it went- If you came over for a chat and a cupcake, hello to you- Hope you enjoyed the show and I really hope to hear from you soon!

xxGem

While all the fun of the Essex Wedding Fayre was going on (with many hands on deck from a band of willing volunteers- Basically if I promise free wine and pizza to my friends, they’re very much putty in your hand!), there was another wedding taking place- Never one to shy away from a bit of hard work, I’d somewhat ambitiously booked a wedding order on the same weekend- Nina and Dave’s wedding required dramatic burgundy roses to match their colour scheme, in delicate filigree wrappers, topped off with a giant cupcake to match