Selling Like Hot cakes

Bake n Beebz had our first venture into business yesterday.

 It has long been my dream to make a lil dollar from my hobby. Myself and Mr Bake n Beebz often think of how much we'd love to bake and sell and work at creating our own business... so we decided to give it a test run at a local market.

On Friday although still hobbling on crutches and slightly mental and under the influence from prescription druggies....I joined Costco, for business annnnd pleasure. Not only did I wanna get my trolley loaded up with some bulk American import bargains but to scope out and buy industrial sized bags of flour, sugar and butter for biiiig quanties of cupcake making. Harry pushed me around in a wheel chair whilst I grabbed and sipped refils of cola.

muffin mobile number 2

...Also joined mainly to buy 2kg jars of Skippy PB. yeeeeaaah PB Buddy!

I spent all of Saturday baking and icing until 1.30 am in the morning. after several hurdles and 10 split icing bags... I had baked enough cupcakes to feed/supply a nation of sweet tooth people with pocket fulls of money.

-5am- Sunday morning/night- Mr Bake n Beebz fired up the Muffin mobile and we loaded up the wagon!
-by 7am we had eaten a Mc donalds drive through breakfast and were setting up our stall.

 Honestly, Business was slow as first, a mixture of freezing weather and kinda pikey/cheapy vibe to the market, kinda meant people were tight with their purse strings. I felt a bit disheartened but Mr BnB kept me entertained and we made up some cakey chants and soon enough my cupcakes started to disappear from the stall. In the end we sold over 3/4s of our baked goods, had a lot of fun and made a nice little profit. good day. I've learnt a whole lot and certainly looking forward to our next sale!

 The best part of it all? eating the poor left overs that didnt sell. its a win, win job!

Blueberry bakewell tarts and the bake off!

My newest reality TV obsession, amongst sooo many, is The BBC's  Great British bake off. An addictive cookery program where over the next eight weeks, 12 of the UK's keenest cooks compete to be crowned Best Amateur Baker. Each week, the contestants – young, old and from every corner of the country –  mix and bake their way through progressively tougher baking challenges. Their efforts are then meticulously scrutinized by the experts who inspect, prod and sample the baked goodies to decide who is the champ!

 My favourite form the start is Jason, (far left)

Hes a young student who is also so passionate about baking and is pretty witty. In last weeks 'pastry' episode he created mini Blueberry Bakewell tarts. Watching this program always gets me craving anything and everything they bake! So inspired by Jason's brilliant recipe and enthusiasm here is my Gluten free version!

I was kindly sent a parcel of Gluten free box mixes to try out by Mrs. Crimbles, they packaged me up a sponge dry mix and a short crust pastry mix. I decided to use and combine both of them to make a quick and easy Gluten Free tart! I only used half of each box as well so i can use the rest at my convenience for the next time my sweet tooth demands a comforting pudding.
Gluten Free Blueberry bakewell tart.
make a small tart for two!

Ingredients

+

• 1/2 (100g) Mrs Crimbles sponge box mix ( with 1 egg white, half the butter called for and 2 tsp of water)
• 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries
• 1/2 (100g) Mrs Crimbles pastry mix (with half the butter and water the box calls for)  
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 2 tsp jam or preserve

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 190 degrees C
2. Weigh out half of the pastry mix (100g) and crumble butter into dry mix. rub with your fingers until it resembles a fine bread crumb, then add 2 tsp of water and combine with your hands until it forms a dough ball, allow to rest for a minute.
3. Dust a clean surface with GF flour and roll out pastry to 0.5 cmm tickness. Drape and tuck pastry into a greased tin or pie dish. remove excess pastry and neated edges with knife.
4. Cover pastry with grease proof paper and baking beans and bake the pastry crust blind in the oven for 15 mintues.
5. Whilst pastry is baking... Half  and Follow the box instructions for the sponge mix adding in almond essence and stirring in blueberries.
6. Remove grease proof paper and beans from pastry carefully and spread jam on the base, pour in sponge batter and return to the oven to bake for an extra 18 minutes.

Serve hot or cold with with custard or ice cream but definitely goes with a good ol cuppa tea.

fresh and hot outta the oven!

 Really, Really genuinely impressed with these Mrs Crimbles mixes! The pastry was pretty perfect, flaky and buttery but not crumbly or tough. Pastry is notoriously a problematic part of gluten free baking and this mix made it easy and trouble free! the sponge mix was also lovely, not too sweet and complemented the tarter blueberries.  The crumb was light yet moist and it rose very well (as you can see!) A big thumbs up. I cant wait to use the remainder of these mixes now!

Gluten free Blueberry, Coconut and Banana Muffins.

 

Yesterday I was in London with my Dad for some work meeting, We packed a homemade sandwich and sat and ate our lunch by the Thames with a  gorgeous view of passing boats, St. Pauls, Southbank and Big Ben. After we decided to have a wander around the city. Its brilliant to take in all the sights and actually appreciate our capital, normally i'd be rushing around from tube station to A and then to B, but it was great to see all the landmarks and be a bit of a tourist :) We meandered through to Covent Garden and walked past a bakery 'Muffinski' outside was a blackboard advertising Gluten Free muffins!

 My heart skipped a beat, I popped my head in, the smell was just amazing. there were 3 GF flavours on offer. i opted for the raspberry and white chocolate. it was yummy! highlight was the crispy top but it was very much lacking in white choc... This morning i still had muffs on my mind so I baked some for my family for a mid morning treat...

Delicously moist and gluten friendly, these muffins are made with

Bananas and have a lovely  hint of coconut because of the flour. The flavours perfectly complement each other in these sweet muffins with a tangy hit from the bloobs.

There pretty healthy too ;)

 Ingrediants
 ¼ cup sifted Coconut Flour
2 tablespoons Coconut Oil or butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soya milk
2 mashed bananas
1 tsp ground flaxseeds
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
⅛ teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup fresh blueberries

 Directions

• In a large bowl mash bananas and whisk in egg,  oil/ butter,  milk, honey, salt and vanilla. 
• Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. 
• Fold in blueberries. 
• Pour batter into lined muffin tray. Bake at 180 Degree C  for 18 - 20 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

Royal Wedding and a Red White and Blue-berry Cake!

Me and Beebz excitedly and tearfully watched the Royal wedding this morning, curled up and cosy on the sofa. I was very much looking forward to the whole event and eagerly awaited the bride and her dress, Its probably because I'm a twenty something year old female, as I'm not particularly a fan of the monarchy, but I was captivated by the whole pomp, splendor and ceremony of the whole event. There was something romantic and genuine about the grand union of Prince Charming and and Ms Middleton. She looked every bit the elegant princess. Jealous!
Whilst the hymns did drag on they were a convenient way to zip in the kitchen and bake up my own wedding cake...

 Red, White and Blueberry Sandwich Cake. 
I wanted to make a cake to celebrate a British occasions and honored the union jack colours.
Cake Middleton...

Not quite as impressive as William and Kate's Little 9 nine tier number but my humble cake was simple, moist and delicious.

 

Ingrediants

• 1 cup Fat free yogurt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1/2 cup blueberries
• 1 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• Strawberry jam and simple a simple icing to decorate.

1. Preheat oven to 180/ 350.
2. Line loaf tin with parchment paper or grease and flour pan.
3. Whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Fold dry ingredients into the batter.
6. Pour into loaf pan.
7. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Remove the cake after a few minutes and let it finish cooling on a rack.
9. Cut cake in half and spread jam onto one side. place side back together.
10. Mix together the powdered sugar and water pour the glaze over the cake. 

Going to pour my self a cuppa, cut my self a slice and enjoy the rest of this regal day. Rule Britannia!