As you probably know, my darling Baby Bird celebrated her first birthday a few days ago and I’d been busy crafting and planning her party for weeks. I saw a picture of a cake on Pinterest ages ago, and KNEW that that was what I wanted to make for her – this is how it turned out…

It’s called ‘petal icing’ for obvious reasons and it’s simpler than it looks – trust me.

First though, I have to make a confession… I cheated – I didn’t actually make the cake part from scratch!

There was so much going on, so I took a risk and grabbed a couple of boxes of Ina Paarman’s Vanilla Cake mix at the shops – and my risk totally paid off! The cake was amazing – not too wet, not to dry, solid enough to be stacked easily (I made it three layers high) but light enough to the taste – simply delicious.

The icing was a simple buttercream that I tinted with red food colouring until the desired colour was achieved. You need quite a bit depending on the size of your cake – I had to make two batches – as I mentioned, the cake was three layers high (so icing required for between each layer, as well as to ‘crumb coat’ the entire cake before then piping the petals on) so stock up on loads of icing sugar and butter!

An now – here is a link to the tutorial I used to create the petal effect – as I said, easier than it looks!

Mine isn’t perfect but not bad at all for a first timer! I figured out that I should have put the dots closer together in order to eliminate spaces between each petal. A ‘crumb layer’ of icing is also essential (in case you do have a few spaces, but also to keep the cake moist – mine was slightly darker than the outer icing so it looked quite cool) and you don’t have to use a special cake knife to smear each petal, you can use a spoon like I did.

Mmmmmm…..

My sister-in-law gave me a bag (mini sack?) of Barrett’s Ridge Beer Bread to try, and I finally got round to making it two weeks ago to accompany my first ever batch of homemade potato and leek soup (recipe courtesy of Alida from Simply Delicious). Both soup and loaf were a huge success!

If the thought of ‘making bread’ scares you – do not be afraid! It’s called ‘beer bread’ for a reason: all you have to add to the premixed bag of ingredients, is one times 330ml can of beer – any beer! How much easier could it get?

There are four flavours to choose from: Original, Garlic & Herb, Chilli & Garlic, and Italian Cheese (we tried the cheese one) and the easiest way to lay your hands on some, is to order it directly from Yuppiechef.

I added some chopped up pumpkin seeds to the top of my loaf (something I had in the kitchen that I wanted to use up) but you really don’t have to add anything extra – it tastes delicious as is – crunchy crust, dense and flavoursome inside, great with soups, a braai, anything really – TRY IT!

A few weeks ago – prior to the nuptials of one times Che Dyer (nee Kershaw!) of Indieberries – myself, Keri from Midlands Musings and Che met up for coffee, a chit chat and some chocolaaaaaate tasting!

Che had a box of Saszali Chocolates from Cape Town for us to sample and WOW, we were impressed! Having worked within the confectionery industry for a while when I first moved to London, I like to think that I have a refined palette for these sorts of things – Cadbury’s, Nestle etc have NOTHING on a hand crafted chocolate made with quality ingredients and the finest cocoa…

Not only are Saszali chocs beautifully presented (the individually crafted chocolates, as well as the packaging and over all design) – their range of flavours is incredible!

I’m a big fan of beautiful packaging and attention to detail – I love how each chocolate is wrapped with a description of it’s flavours and how each flavour is exotically named.

Read more about Saszali and the ladies behind the brand HERE - think you guys need to open up an online shop so that everyone can savour the magic!

My friend Meg from The Counter (she of chocolate brownie fame!) has started a new blog. It’s called Little Food Baby.

Addi decided she needed to check it out for herself. As of this morning, she can pull her self up.

“Is this a blog about me Meg?!”

Thumbs up from Baby Bird x

Recently attempted Chicken Stuffed with Goats Cheese & Thyme served with Dauphinoise Potatoes for a dinner party – mine didn’t look at pretty as the original recipe pictures but it was damn delish. Relatively easy for something that sounds so posh but definitely not a meal for the calorie conscious!

 Goat’s Cheese & Thyme Stuffed Chicken Breasts 

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 100g firm goat’s cheese
• 1 tsp thyme (fresh/dried), plus 2-3 sprigs
• 4 rashers streaky bacon , thinly sliced
• 2 courgettes, sliced
• olive oil
• 250g vine tomatoes

1. Heat oven to 190C
2. Cut the chicken breasts almost in half on the long side and open them out. Put goat’s cheese on each piece of chicken and sprinkle with thyme leaves Fold chicken over to enclose the cheese, then wrap each breast in two slices of the bacon (use toothpicks to secure if necessary like we did – my friend Brig had to help me wrap because Baby Bird was demanding attention!)
3. Arrange overlapping rows of courgettes and tomatoes over the base of an oiled casserole/gratin dish. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and thyme sprigs (I didnt have Thyme sprigs so added fresh basil leaves to the dish instead!) Sit the chicken parcels on top
4. Bake for 40-45 minutes until the bacon is crisp and golden and the courgettes are tender

{ Think I had the oven on too high for mine – or may have had too much wine and forgotten about the food!}

Dauphinoise Potatoes

• 500ml double cream
• 500ml milk
• 3 garlic cloves
• 8 large King Edward or Maris Piper potatoes (I used Maris Pipers)
• 100g Gruyère cheese (or similar – I used Jarlsberg because there was no Gruyère where I went shopping)

1. Heat oven to 190C
2. Pour cream and milk into a large saucepan, add garlic cloves and bring to a simmer
3. Slice potatoes finely (about 3-4mm) and add them to the cream, simmer for 3 minutes until just cooked. Gently stir to separate and keep from sticking to the bottom of the pot
4. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place in a wide shallow ovenproof dish so that they are about 5cm in depth. Pour the garlic infused cream (discarding the garlic!) over the potatoes – just enough to seep through the layers and leave a little moisture on the surface (I made the error of pouring too much cream mixture into the dish so my potats drowned a little and didnt evenly brown…)
5. Scatter over the cheese and bake for 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft and browned (increase the heat for 5 minutes if not brown enough)

{ Too much cream mixture = drowning potats! }

After making some delicious pumpkin cupcakes recently (recipe), I had some leftover tinned pumpkin that I wanted to make use of so I concocted the following recipe as a healthier alternative and am happy to report that it turned out really well! Try it for yourself if Healthy Pumpkin, Seed & Nut Muffins sound like something you might enjoy…

NOTE: In my experience, tinned pumpkin is quite hard to find – I’ve only really seen it in the shops around Halloween time, but you can order it online if you are willing to pay (I got mine from here a while ago when I wanted to order some other American food products…) Just use normal cooked and mashed or pureed pumpkin if you are unable to lay your hands on some…

INGREDIENTS

1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup oats
1/2 cup bran
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon all spice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup cooked, mashed/pureed pumpkin (tinned or fresh)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (sunflower or olive etc)
3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk (soya or normal)

METHOD

Couldn’t be easier! Throw all ingredients into a large bowl and mix by hand or with a beater until all ingredients are combined. Spoon the mixture into muffin trays lined with paper cases and bake at 180 degrees Celsius for approx 15 minutes (depending on the size of your muffin trays and speed of your oven – I always find my oven cooks faster than others…)

TIPS

* Dont over-fill your muffin cases – up to the halfway mark will be sufficient
* Test whether your muffins are cooked through by stabbing one in the center with a toothpick – if it comes out clean, they are ready

With the arrival of Baby Bird, hubby and I have taken a slightly lazy approach to meals over the past two weeks opting for convenience over all else now that time is minimal, and while we get used to our new bundle of joy. We’ve indulged in a few ‘ready-meals’ picked up from the local Sainsbury’s, and have discovered a delicious and beautifully presented brand of meals-for-two from Charlie Bigham’s…

So far we have sampled the Lasagne, the Macaroni Cheese (both oven cooked) and the Moroccan Chicken Tagine (pan fried) and were equally impressed by all three – have a look HERE for the full list of what’s on offer.

Good portion size, stunning packaging and design (I cant help but to judge a meal by it’s packaging!) and full of flavour (something I find ready-meals often lack), plus it doesn’t cost the earth…

Now that we are a bit more used to the changes that a baby brings about, we’ll soon be returning to our normal cooking habits (well, we’ll try!) and these sorts of dishes will be more of a treat than an every day occurrence, but I definitely think they are worth trying out if you are short on time and looking for a quick-fix dinner – ENJOY :)

My first attempt at Red Velvet Cupcakes…

Didn’t go too badly considering I didn’t have enough food colouring; had to use red wine vinegar instead of white; and kind of messed up the consistency of the icing… But no complaints so far from those who have sampled the wares ;)

Used THIS RECIPE from the BBC Good Food website and have finally figured out why they are called red “velvet” cupcakes – the batter, if mixed according to instruction, is smooth, thick and silky – just lovely!

Personally, I prefer a lighter cupcake (these are quite cake-heavy) but the sponge and cream cheese icing combo are just amazing, so all in all a winner!

For anyone keen to give them a try – it looks more complicated than it is, I promise – go for it, happy baking!

Anyone else think this looks like a ridiculously good idea?

The good folk at Ben & Jerry’s have created a new masterselection of flavours: Berry White, Karamel Sutra and Dough-ble Whammy – all with a soft core and two complimentary ice cream flavours – HOLD. ME. BACK.

More info here!