Pinterest Gallery Update

This is a collection of images that used to be on the 'Cookies and Biscuits' page of this blog.

I am now using Pinterest as my gallery but don't want to lose these images off the blog so here they are in their own post.

If you're visiting from Pinterest, please leave a comment to say hello. You can visit the Pinterest gallery at www.pinterest.com/mummypuddleduck/mummypuddleduck-cakes.

Can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man

So glad I took a picture of these before I dropped the tin on the floor! Three survived. Many heads and limbs were severed!

How do you remove icing sugar dust from an iPad?

Last Christmas my mom was given a copy of the Primrose Bakery recipe book. I guiltily copied out a few, well OK a lot, of my favourite treats to attempt at home. (The marshmallow icing is lush, if a little bit of a faff).

This weekend however, my guilt was eased when I discovered the Primrose Bakery app. It's got a good variety of recipes including some of the ones I took a shine to from the book.

 
The first recipe I tried was the bourbon biscuits for our kiddie play date and mummies meeting today.

The steps were very easy to follow and when the screen timed out and went into standby, the orientation changed to landscape and offered a page for each step of the recipe including the measurements and ingredients needed for that step. This was a good format to follow and made it very simple to carry out each step. However I couldn't work out how to get from that screen back to the main menu without fully closing down the app. A bit too long winded when you're covered in icing sugar and cocoa and have sticky chocolate fingers from rolling the dough.

The recipe itself was simple but I'd question the quantities for the water and cocoa mixture for the filling. Mine seemed far too dry.

The verdict from the mummies was that they were yummy! They're perfect with a cup of afternoon tea as they're ridiculously rich and you do need something to wash them down with.

All in all, a successful bake, even if I do have icing sugar in my iPad now!

Charity cake sale

A friend just texted me and asked whether I want to bake some cakes for a charity event she is part of?

Er, YES! It took less than five seconds to consider the request and already my mind is a whirl of potential cupcake toppings and biscuit designs.

The event is organised by New Cross hospital maternity unit in Wolverhampton as part of National Breastfeeding Week 2012. It's planned for Thursday 21 June at Bantock House in Bradmore, Wolverhampton.

Pregnant mums, new mothers, families and health professionals are invited to bring a picnic and join in the fun, including live music presentations and activities. The event runs from 10am to 3pm.

More information can be found on the West Midlands regional infant feeding coordinators network web site http://www.infantfeedingwm.org.uk/nbw.aspx.

I'm thinking big buttercream toppings for the cupcakes, in typical candy colours and some simple heart and circle biscuits with patterns from my new embossing mats. I am going to pack them into little cellophane bags to make them more hygienic for the stall and hopefully easier to transport.

The problem won't be making them it will be knowing when to stop!

Carrot cakes are one of your 'Five a day' - right?

I wanted some cakes with a healthier perception so attempted some carrot cakes today. These were for a family party where cakes haven't been too well received in general so I baked some biscuits to go with them. I had a bargain with the cookie cutters as they were in the sale on Ocado, left over from the Easter stock.

These were really good to make with "baby puddle duck" as she could make the carrots for the top of the cakes out of modelling icing. I made the green tops for the carrots in two ways. Half of them were moddeling icing and half were green writing icing. Either worked OK.

The biscuits were covered in rolled out modelling icing and scored with a knife to show the texture of the carrot. The icing was stuck on with warmed apricot jam.


Yum

Cookie gift tags

This Christmas I am going to make my own gift tags, and they're going to be baked.

I did a few this weekend for a friend who I won't be seeing again until Christmas.

I am really pleased with how they look - I just have to remember to tell people not to actually eat them. Not sure they will taste too good by the time we get to Christmas day!

POST UPDATE: I was so pleased with the cookies that I decided to make decorations for the tree too. Baby puddle duck helped me decorate them so it was a lovely pre-Christmas activity to do together.