Diary of a Wedding Cake

After a year of indecision, deliberation and at least four cake styles that didn't quite make the cut, I have finally chosen the decorative style for my wedding cake. It has been a difficult decision mainly because I have such disparate and schizophrenic tastes in cake styles that I have found it hard to settle on a particular idea.

At one point I was considering a Winter related cake as I'm getting married close to Christmas. I also quite liked the idea of a Parisian style cake that would fit in well with our honeymoon destination. I have torn out countless picures of cakes from wedding magazines, spent hours trawling Pinterest in search of inspiration and even spent a cosy Sunday afternoon snuggled up on a window seat in a branch of Waterstones with a stack of baking books in the hope that my ideal cake would be only a page-turn away. I have been seduced by rainbow hued confetti cakes, stacked Victoria Sponge 'naked' wedding cakes and floral vintage styles. I keep returning to a particular cake style but I am also a bit scared that I do not have the experience yet to do it justice. I'm a girl who loves a challenge though, so despite some fear that I won't reach this sky-scraper standard, I'm going to have a bloody good go!

Over the next few months, I will be testing out each tier to ensure that I'm happy with the cake recipes and to experiment with freezing/defrosting the un-iced cakes to see if this could help in terms of preparation. I will also need to learn how to dowel up the cakes to ensure that the cakes are strong enough structurally to stack on top of each other. SCARY!

Watch out for more wedding cake updates soon,

Becky BakesWell x

Update...

The BakesWell blog has been a bit quiet of late - I've been settling into my new job and I've been researching baking techniques for the last few months. I want to make cakes and sweet treats that are as near to perfect as I can make them, so I have been reading into the science behind baking. I have been learning about raising agents and how different types of flour affect the finish of baked goods. I am also trying to find the best way of baking cupcakes that are moist, light and evenly baked with flat tops. 

In my baking research, I stumbled across cake flour - a specific type of flour. I'd like to experiment with this type of flour in the next round of taste tests, so once my flour is delivered, Taste Test #2 will be announced...

Taste Test #1 Results

MOBILE USER? CLICK ME TO WATCH THE FILM.

The results are in from Taste Test #1 - Cheap eggs v Posh eggs! Click on the video above to see the test and my findings. The result is based on 4 rounds of blind taste tests and the decision was unanimous...



Have you watched it now? Was the result as you expected it to be? Feel free to use the comments box to ask me questions about the test or to let me know what you think.

Watch out for Test Taste #2 soon!

Taste Test #1 Cheap eggs v Posh Eggs

Eggs perform several vital roles in making a successful sponge cake, so I thought it would be perfect to start here with my first taste test. In this first test, I am focusing on how the chosen eggs affect the quality of the cake's rise, its taste, appearance and its crumb structure.  The prices of eggs have increased dramatically over the last three years and due to this, it can be tempting to cut corners and buy cheaper eggs of a lesser quality than to buy organic free range eggs.

However, I find that every time I am tempted to reach out for the economy battery hen eggs, my conscience stops me. To meet the requirements of my taste test I needed to use cheap eggs. So after some consideration, I decided to use the cheapest free range eggs I can find which are from Aldi and are priced at 99p for half a dozen. 

At the other end of the scale, Posh Birds eggs are the brand I have chosen as my premium range eggs. Retailing at £2.50 for half a dozen, these duck eggs are marketed as 'perfect for light and fluffy sponges.' The brand also touts its eco-credentials with birds that have access to better living conditions and are free to feed and roam in fields on demand.


So, will the posh eggs produce a superior quality sponge or have I been seduced by clever marketing?
Do you think there will be any noticeable differences in quality between the cakes? Feel free to make any predictions in the comments box below.


Pop back tomorrow to find out the results...

Becky BakesWell x

taste tests

I'm quite excited about the new series of posts coming up over the next few weeks - Taste Tests. It is easy for people to think that because a supermarket can produce a cake cheaply, then a baked-to-order cake should also be similar in price. However, using good quality ingredients will inevitably affect the overall cost of a cake made to order. I have decided to create what I think is the ultimate Victoria sponge cake and taste test the core ingredients over the next few weeks using economy range ingredients and premium range ingredients side-by-side to evaluate how the quality of ingredients affects the finished product. 

Watch out for the first post in the series this weekend...

Becky BakesWell x

The Baking Book

Left-hand photograph: My Nan and my Dad in the 1960s.
Right-hand photograph: I'm on the right working the highly fashionable chocolate cake face
Background recipe: Spicy Buns - watch out for it featuring on here soon...

When people ask me where my passion for baking came from, the question is always simple to answer: My Nan. My earliest memories of my Nan's house come from playing bakery in the kitchen with a tray full of magnets that I would pretend were biscuits that I had baked. There were also times where I would pretend to be a TV cook with my cousin and we would make up recipes which we wrote in The Baking Book.

As soon I was old enough to hold a wooden spoon and stir ingredients in a baking bowl, I was lifted up on to the kitchen counter and my baking days began. I would watch how my Nan would rub dots of butter into her pastry, fold the pastry into three and roll, roll, roll to create light puff pastry or she would let me stir the cake mixture in the big baking bowl and put the paper cases into the bun trays for fairy cakes.

Waiting patiently for the cakes to come out of the oven, I would often flick through the pages of the cookery books stored in the baking cupboard. My favourite has always been The Baking Book as I loved to read the familiar recipes written in my Nan's flowing and sloping handwriting.

My Nan has recently let me borrow The Baking Book and I have decided that I will bake some of the recipes contained in the book and share them with you over the course of this year as a sort of thank you to her for inspiring me to bake.

Pancake Day

Don't forget that it's pancake day this Tuesday (12th Feb)! If you're looking for a reliable and tasty pancake recipe, then look no further than the Banana and Blueberry Pancakes I posted about on the blog that I share with my friend: Cooking From Books.

Cooking From Books - Banana and Blueberry Pancakes

Although the pancakes do contain bananas, don't be alarmed if you're not such a fan of them. The bananas just lend a tender and springy texture to the pancake, rather than dominating the taste. You can also serve the pancakes with a squeeze of lemon, a sprinkling of sugar, a handful of raspberries and a dollop of creme fraiche if you fancy that instead.

Handy Hint

Another reason why this recipe is handy is that the batter improves if it's made the day before, so you can make the batter tomorrow night (Monday) and come home to quick, fuss- free pancakes on Tuesday - just give the batter a quick stir and you're ready to get flipping! I love it when a plan comes together... snarf snarf!

Happy Pancake Day,

Becky BakesWell x

Becky BakesWell guest posts

Hey there,

Just a quick note to tell you about 2 new Becky BakesWell  guest posts!

Duck Egg Designs

Image courtesy of Duck Egg  Designs (C)

Click me to go to Duck Egg Designs.

Last Autumn, Thursday nights were spent with a cheeky biscuit (or three), a mug of hot chocolate and Kirstie's Vintage Home. I think that my fella must love me as Kirstie's weakness for a bargain at an antiques fair or her wild eyed looks when she gets near a button box do not ignite the creative spark for him as they do for me, but I love all things crafty and Allsopp related so he kindly obliges! 

If you watched Kirstie's Vintage Home, you might remember seeing Ellie Harrington in Episode 3. I remembered the episode in particular because I was really impressed by the quirky yet sophisticated vintage style achieved in Ellie's kitchen and dining room with the big reveal at the end. One particular feature inspired me and that was the roman blind with the hand stamped duck motif. 

Since the programme aired, Ellie's interior business 'Duck Egg Designs' has developed into a strong brand which has received acclaim and a strong following on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. In a funny twist of fate, Ellie gave me the amazing opportunity to write a guest post for the Duck Egg Designs blog which you can read here...

Click me to go to Duck Egg Diary guest post.

So big thanks again to Ellie for the opportunity!


Cooking From Books

The second post is on the blog that I share with a friend - Cooking From Books. After a bit of a break from posting on there, we wanted to get it up and running again, so my post for the Ploughman's Pasties that I've been talking about on Facebook and Twitter went live on there yesterday, so hop on over to check it out!

Click me to go to Cooking From Books guest post.

Ploughman's Pasties for Cooking From Books.
Image courtesty of Ma Memoire Photography (C)

As I will have more time to dedicate to Becky BakesWell and Cooking From Books from now on, watch out for some Becky BakesWell tutorials, baking films courtesy of Ma Memoire Photography, updates on wedding cake planning and a series of themed posts.


Exciting times are ahead!


Becky BakesWell

From the Bookshelf...

Before Christmas, I decided that I wanted to give the BakesWell blog a bit more variety in terms of content, so that it can be used as a resource for you beautiful people out there, instead of just a diary of my baking thoughts. With this idea in mind, I've decided that I will run a series of posts on here called 'From the Bookshelf'' which will discuss the books from my collection that I find most useful - and boy do I have a collection of cookery books!

#1 The Kitchen Diaries II by Nigel Slater

After much heavy hinting, I received a copy of this for Christmas. I already own Nigel Slater's first volume - The Kitchen Diaries which is well loved and often returned to for seasonal inspiration. On Boxing Day, cheese and crackers in hand, I decided to dive in. After about five minutes, I knew that this book will be one of the most useful books in my collection - you see it's the go-to-guide for learning about ingredients, using ingredients in seasonal way and is packed full of advice on kitchen kit. 

You can still read the book as a cookery diary, flicking to the page with the day's date to see what Nigel cooked on that day and if it tickles your fancy. However, you can also use the book in a more thoughtful way, to gain insight on how to use up leftover ingredients hanging around in the fridge. Living in a more cost-conscious way is one of my aims for this year and I have already turned to this book several times since Christmas, to find ways of using up my leftover veg without it feeling like a second best meal - the cheese and leek pie below is a perfect example of this.

However, the aspect of this book which sets it apart from most is the advice on kitchen kit. I learned from the book that Nigel advises us not to buy expensive woks, but to buy a cheap wok 'made of steel no thicker than a ten-pence piece', so that it cooks the ingredients quickly at a high heat. It is this sort of unpretentious guidance, free from the view that equipment needs to be expensive to be effective, which is so liberating. It is easy to clutter the kitchen with gadgets which are expensive, cumbersome and only perform one task, so it is useful to be reminded that the art of good cooking is the marriage of ingredients you like, cooked simply with care and attention. 

As Julia Childs once said: 

"In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men's underwear." 

Quite.

This book is well worth the money invested in it as it will serve you well for many years, is a pleasure to look at in terms of the beautiful photography that graces its pages and though it's hardly pocket sized, it sits beside my bed so that I can read it with a brew and a biscuit for a bit of bedtime inspiration... Rock n' Roll eh!

Becky BakesWell x

Ring out the old, bring in the new...

This Christmas marks a huge turning point in my life - I am leaving behind a career that I trained for years to do and have been successful in, but has slowly made me ill. I have decided to take a leap of faith and leave the profession to do something else. I'm nervous, but I'm also excited as my new role will leave me with spare time that I didn't have before to indulge in my passion for baking. 2013 will be a big year for me in lots of ways - particularly as I will be taking on the challenge of making my own wedding cake. I hope you'll keep popping by to share the baking adventures!

As money is tight this Christmas, I have been making lots of presents. I will be creating little videos to show you how to make these items in the new year -  I can't put them on here until the gifts have been given out, but I am looking forward to giving Becky BakesWell a bit of an overhaul over the next few months. Help me make this blog even more exciting, by telling me on the comments page what you would like to see more of! 

I thought I'd leave you with a quick photo of the batch of Christmas cupcakes that I was making in my last post and a link to a Becky BakesWell playlist of funky Christmas soul tunes to help you shake what your mamma gave you as you craft, bake and gift-wrap your way into a very merry Christmas! 

Soul Christmas Playlist

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Becky BakesWell x 

Quick snapshot

A couple of quick pics to show what I've been up to lately... 

Sorry this little post is so short today - I'm in the middle of creating a special batch of Christmas cupcakes - pop back tomorrow for more info!

Happy Baking,

Becky BakesWell x

'The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.'

The words in the famous quote above are credited as being uttered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and are ones which I would like to live by. However, this can be hard at times as believing that my dreams for Becky BakesWell are achievable can mean Parkour-style leaps of faith and soaking up words of wisdom and constructive feedback with SpongeBob levels absorbency! The BakesWell blog receives lots of visits, but needs more subscribers/followers. For me, baking is about making my home a cosy place to be and extending the hand of friendship to somebody in sweet form. Our first friendships as children were often struck over a shared bag of sweets or playground swaps from lunch boxes. It's with this view in mind that I'd love this blog to become more interactive and for there to be more of a conversation between me and you beautiful people out there!

I'd like to make some changes and improvements to the BakesWell blog, so that I can give you more of what you'd like to see. Would you like to receive a weekly 'love list' of food/baking related goodies? What about cookery book of the month recommendations? Would you like baking hints/tips videos? How about a place to share your ideas? I want this blog to be a place filled with eye candy, ideas and advice, so I need your suggestions and feedback. Please pass on your ideas on the comments section below!

Thanks for your help,

Becky BakesWell

Show Your Support For Hyde Park Community Orchard!

Regular readers of my blog will know I'm lucky enough to be local to this lovely park in Tameside and that the squirrels who call the park home inspired me to bake my gingerbread squirrels. Adjacent to the cafe in Hyde Park is the community orchard, which was created through funding from the Connecting Communities Fund, supported by Councillor Philip Fitzpatrick. 

More recently, Operation Farm, a local food growing project secured funding from Groundwork UK and Big Lottery Fund’s Community Spaces programme to improve the orchard as a place for local people to enjoy. The orchard contains 44 fruit trees planted by children from local primary schools and students from Tameside College. Types of fruit grown in the orchard include pear, apple, plum, damson and cherry. Honey is also produced from a nearby beehive in the park. 

The park is a beautiful place to spend an Autumn afternoon, especially with little ones. There's a nature-inspired artwork trail, an intricate mosaic laid by local primary school children and designed by local artist Jacqui Symons, which depicts the fruit varieties grown in the orchard. There's also a wildflower meadow, a children's playground, a cafe run by the Operation Farm team and an impressive sculpture of a squirrel carved from a tree in the park by Preston based artist Thompson Dagnall. 

Photo credit: http://hydedaily.blogspot.co.uk/

However this Sunday -  21st October 2012 is going to be particularly exciting in the park! To celebrate Apple Day, there will be a whole host of exciting activities to mark the occasion and to raise awareness of our precious local resource. Check out the poster for the event above and come along to show your support! 

There are other ways to get involved and show your support for the orchard though - you could become a Friend of Hyde Park Orchard by joining the Facebook community group page here. 

http://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfHydeParkOrchardTameside

You could also subscribe to the Hyde Park Community Orchard newsletter, find out how to help the orchard grow into the future and more about the friendly Operation Farm gang at their blog here!

http://operationfarm.wordpress.com/

The orchard has been created for everyone to visit, learn from and cherish and I can't wait to pick my own fruit to make Becky BakesWell goodies with! Pack a picnic and celebrate with us! 

Becky BakesWell  x

Autumn Days

Autumn always seems to be associated with nostalgia for me - in particular, memories of being at primary school. Maybe it's because life can be simple and comforting when you are seven and the only problems I faced were a lost pump from my PE kit or that my handwriting was never going to be as neat as Pippa A's.

Something in the drizzly dampness of yesterday's weather reminded me of my primary school days. A world organised by labelled drawers and coat hooks and rooms which smelled of powder paint and pencil sharpenings. I loved cosy afternoons curled up on the carpet for story time and morning assemblies spent singing hymns in the hall with its parquet floor. I spent a few years inadvertently singing some of the hymns with the wrong words. Did anyone else think it was 'Handstand where ever you may be' or was that just me..?

A lot of my memories of baking around this age stem from time I spent with my Nan. We would go for a walk around Stalybridge and as a treat I would either get to spend some time and some pocket money in the little cake decorating shop on a side street off the Market Hall or we would go to Mellors bakers and my Nan would buy me a gingerbread man.

I loved the spicy, hard biscuit man with his chocolate dipped legs. I would always eat his feet first and leave his head until last - I don't know what that says about me... My love of gingerbread started there, but I wanted to create seasonal gingerbread biscuits that would seem a little out of the ordinary. I live near a park so squirrels tend to hop in and out of the gardens from time to time. The idea of a gingerbread squirrel was born and the rest they say, is history...

Bramcakes

Brambles feature heavily in my childhood memories as I used to go brambling with my mum and in school holidays with my Nan. We used to walk along the tow paths filling up a motley crew of jars, Tupperware boxes and plastic bags with the inky berries to take home for my Mum's crumbles or my Nan's blackberry wine. I'm going through a bramble phase at the moment as they are more tasty than the blackberries in the supermarket, they're in season, fun to pick and free - always useful in a recession! Today I decided I wanted them to go with pancakes as an Autumn alternative to summery blueberry pancakes. Dan named them Bramcakes and the name has stuck. Why not go for a wander and pick some this weekend and give them a try?


1) I rinsed and drained the brambles then drizzled a teaspoonful of maple syrup over them and swirled the berries around the bowl to cover them in the amber liquid.

2) I lightly bruised the berries a little to encourage them to give up their beautiful claret juices.

3) Once the pancake batter had been ladled into the pan, I waited for 'pinprick' dots to appear on the top side and then used a teaspoon to drop some of the berries and their juices on to the uncooked side.

4) The pancakes were then flipped over to get burnished and golden on the other side. The brambles bleed their juices into the pancakes and lend a lovely jammy taste to their fluffy interiors. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream and a shake of cinnamon if you like. 

If I'm brutally honest, these pancakes are not as pretty as imagined they would look but this could be rectified by making a simple cooked sauce out of the brambles. You could just tumble the brambles into a small, heavy bottomed saucepan, drizzle over a glossy slick of maple syrup and swirl the two around over a low heat until the berries burst and create a syrupy Vimto hued sauce. Mmmmmmmm....

Becky Bakeswell ® is now a Registered Trademark!

Wow!!!!!!!! After months of waiting, and various people telling me to get it done, exciting times are ahead for 'Becky Bakeswell' as my much loved business name is now a Registered Trademark! Best get on with some celebratory baking! 

Neighbourhood Batch

Just wanted to give a shout out and some friendly publicity for a great new business idea - Neighbourhood Batch! Neighbourhood Batch is a gem of a small business that's recently opened as a service operating in the London area where people can order from a variety of cakes/cookies/sweet treats and small, independent bakers can sell their goods through the site for an agreed price (taking into account the small fee that the Batch team charge to cover delivery costs). The Neighbourhood Batch team pick up the goodies from the sellers and deliver them to the happy people who have placed their orders! 

At the moment, Neighbourhood Batch is only operating in the London area, but if there are any readers out there who live in the London area, you should have a nosy on the site. Friendly Dan at the Neighbourhood Batch told me that he hopes to expand further afield if there's enough interest. 

This seems to be a good service which supports local bakers and helps to deliver cake happiness to all, so support Dan and the Batch team by checking out the site and the twitter page!

http://www.neighbourhoodbatch.co.uk/

http://twitter.com/hoodbatch

Becky Bakeswell x 

Royal Icing Celebration Cakes - Update

It has been a while since I updated the blog about my cake decorating course - I received my result and my certificate in the post last week and I'm happy to say that I received a Merit! The final cake I had to decorate on the course was a square celebration cake, which I chose to decorate as a Christening/Baby Naming Ceremony cake. As my sister-in-law to be was pregnant, I decided to decorate the cake for the baby. A few days before the cake was completed, she had a baby boy named Ellis and this is the finished design, decorated in honour of him. 

One of the cakes that was not an assessed component of the course was a royal iced Christmas cake. As this cake was not being assessed, I gave it its coat of royal icing, but didn't get round to completing it. It has been bugging me, so I decided to finish it off. I decided I wanted the cake to have a homespun, slightly kitsch feel to it, so I used my gingerbread man run-out decoration as the central part of my design. I made tiny holly leaf run-outs and candy canes, which would be the decoration for the sides of the cake.

One of the challenges of the design was to pipe the 'Merry Christmas' greeting in script style handwriting using red icing. I decided to pipe the greeting in white icing first and then over-pipe this in red, to minimize the effects of any mistakes. The 's' scroll and shell borders 'frame' the cake and the green over-piping on the shell border pulls the scheme together, unifying the various red and green aspects of the design. The finishing touch is red grosgrain ribbon with tiny white stitch borders - perfect for the homespun feel I was aiming for. I might use a number 2 tube in future for the 'Merry Christmas' greeting as the tube can get quite easily blocked and ruin the fluency of the script needed for a perfect finish.

Loved decorating the cakes though and I'm looking forward to doing similar designs for celebration cake orders!

Becky Bakeswell

Introducing...the Autumn Collection

Blustery winds and drizzly days have turned my thoughts to the Autumn months ahead and so I thought I'd give you a sneak preview of some of the treats available to order. With Hallowe'en around the corner, I thought I'd make some Pumpkin Cupcakes - pumpkin pie flavoured sponge with a zesty orange frosting. Yum!

I've paired these with Toffee Apple Cupcakes - cinnamon and apple sponge with a sticky toffee glaze. These would also be perfect treats to serve alongside the bangers, jacket potatoes, chilli and treacle toffee for a Bonfire Night party or barbecue. 

Watch out for the Gingerbread Squirrels and Bonfire Cupcakes coming soon! 

Becky Bakeswell x

Keep Calm and Keep Counting...

It might seem very early to be posting about mince pies and indeed it is - even for a Christmas fanatic like me. However, there is method in my madness. I like to test out recipes a few times to perfect them before making them for other people. The twitchy, perfectionist gene makes it difficult to feel at ease with handing over goodies without being perfectly happy with them. Particularly as I feel that when I bake, I put lots of effort and care and attention into what I do, so it can be hard to put it on a plate for it to be judged. Judged it must be though, if it is to be tweaked to perfection.

The other reason why making some Christmas goodies early is because if you choose what you bake wisely, you can bake in a leisurely fashion and freeze things ready for your culinary rainy day. Or, you could order them from me...  ;-)

I can't ever remember making mince pies myself. It has always been a family affair. I used to make them occasionally with my mum, as part of a childhood baking routine which also involved rock buns, butterfly cakes and the occasional strawberry flan. My real memories of baking tend to revolve around my Nan though. My Nan was a good teacher, and if I'm honest, the central most influential figure in my love of baking.

As soon as I could hold a wooden spoon in my hand and stir ingredients in a big baking bowl, I was scooped up on to the counter top and my baking days began. My Nan also had a fetching assortment of 1960s Doris Day styles aprons which I would dress up in and I would write my own 'recipes' in her handwritten recipe book. Although not necessarily in the right order - "eat it, beat it and bake it' was one of my immortal lines!

My Nan would deviate from tradition with her mince pies by making flaky pastry rather than shortcrust pastry. This made the pies lighter than usual. I used to watch her make the pastry by hand, endlessly folding the pastry into thirds and dotting each third with shortening. She would roll the pastry out neither too thick nor thin and it would be my job to use a fluted cutter to stamp out the frilly edged circles and press each one into the cups of the bun trays. Together, we'd drop spoonfuls of mincemeat into each pastry filled cup and press a frilly edged hat on to each one. My Nan would tell me to 'dibble dabble' them an egg-wash glaze and  into the oven they'd go. It's a tradition I'm looking forward to carrying on with little ones one day...