A loaf a day keeps the blues away

Today has been another normal run-around day, and to top it off the weather outside has been gray and wet all morning.

I had to go to the shop to get a few extras for a cake order I’m making tomorrow and even though I made a shopping list, I still ended up forgetting half the stuff I wanted to buy, including bread for home.

This is when being a Kitchen Gadget Nut really comes in handy, I unpacked my poor neglected bread maker from the back of the cupboard, gave it a good dusting chucked all the ingredients in for a ‘small quick loaf’ and carried on with my normal life while trusting my little machine to do the rest.

Within minutes I could smell the yeast starting to work and could not resist going right up to the machine and having a good sniff. Less than an hour later the polite little beep informed me that my bread was ready to come out.

There is just nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread, still warm and crispy, to get the taste buds jumping up and down and begging for a slice. Walk into any bakery or local shop just when they are taking the freshly baked loafs out of the oven and you will see people sniff the air and smile to themselves, it’s the smell of comfort and warmth, even on a cold, gray day like today. The only thing better is when that smell is coming from your own kitchen, I think I better go put another loaf in the machine, this one is not going to last long once my kids get home.

Sniff, sniff

The past three weeks have been hectic and I feel like I have become a near permanent resident at my local pharmacy having to run in there every other day for some more flu medication.

It all started with my daughter (10) complaining that her neck and head was sore all the time, two days later she was down and out with a high fever and cold symptoms, it took her almost two weeks to recover and just as she was starting to get better my son (12) started complaining about a sore neck and head (!!). He had me even more worried; none of the medication I usually use for my kids was able to keep his fever down and by that time my hubby and I were both sitting with the neck and head pains so we knew what was coming. My poor hubby ended up with viral bronchitis and I was ‘lucky’ enough to get away with just a bad cold.

The kiddies seems to over most of the flue and both went back to school at the beginning of this week, hubby is still not 100% but at least he is getting better and has gone back to work today, as for me well apart from a blinding headache I think I’ll be right as rain in a few more days.

A few days before our flue fun started I had fun making a pink number 1 cake for a little girl’s birthday, her mom had ordered the cake about a week ahead which gave me plenty of time to plan and make all the bits and pieces to go on the cake.








While I was in the final stages of decorating the cake I had a knock on my door from a frantic neighbor who needed a number 1 cake for a boy’s birthday also for the next day (!!!). Not being one to turn down orders I took up the challenge and started baking a second cake straight away. I used the same basic idea that I had for the little girl’s cake but just made a few color changes to make it appropriate for a boy.




Both cakes got finished in time and both moms were very happy with the results.

My little Lollipop and one of her friends, Boo decided to play around with the bits of left over cake and marshmallow icing – they had a ball and I must say for a 10 and 11year old they did a great job making icing roses and decorating the cakes.



My next project is a number 12 cake for Boo’s birthday next week.

Fun with left overs

Last week I had an order for a 21st cake, I love it when customers know exactly what they want. When it's for someone I know its sometimes fun to have free reign to come up with something for them but when its for a customer I have never met I really prefer them to be as specific as possible. This lady knew exactly what she wanted - a blue number 21 with white icing border and a small bicycle in the one corner.





It made it really easy for me and she loved that she got exactly what she asked for, so we were both happy.

I had some blue and white icing left once I finished the cake and instead of wasting I decided to have some fun and try something new. I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes and filled an icing bag half and half with the left over icing, then I just piped it as usual and finished it off with some edible glitter.





My kids LOVED these and my little Lolipop has already 'ordered' these for her birthday party in October.

New toys

I have to admit that I go totally nuts over kitchen gadgets and I'm always on the lookout for something new to play with.

My Mother-in-law recently found a lovely shop in Johannesburg that specialises in baking equipment and bought me two sets of flower cutters and some edible glitter to try out. I could hardly wait for them to get here and was just about harassing the poor postman on a daily basis till he finally delivered my little pick-up-parcel slip.

The cutter are fantastic and I will post some more pics when I get time to try them on a cake (or even on some cupcakes).

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is another gray, cold day with the wind rattling the doors and the rain tapping the windows, usually I love this kind of weather but today its just making me feel sad.

My kiddies went back to school yesterday after a lovely long holiday, thanks to the Soccer World Cup, and now the house seems way to quiet and empty during the day. I miss hearing them playing upstairs and knowing that they are safe and warm regardless of the freezing weather outside. I can’t wait for them to get home from school.

I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies and shortbread as a treat for hubby and the kiddies for when they get home, I'm sure they will love it. So for anyone else out there who needs a little pick me up today, try these chocolate chip cookies they are sure to put a little smile on your face.



Ingredients:


225g (1/2lb) self-raising flour
100g (4oz) butter or baking margarine
100g (4oz) castor sugar
50g (2oz) soft brown sugar (or normal white sugar)
100g (4oz) chocolate chips
1 extra large egg beaten


To make:


- Heat to oven to 190C / 375F
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl
- Use your fingers to rub the butter/margarine into the flour till it looks like fine bread crumbs.
- Stir in the castor sugar, brown sugar and choc chips
- Add the beaten egg and mix by hand till it forms a smooth dough
- Grease 2 baking sheets with butter/margarine (or spray-n-cook)
- Break small pieces off the dough and roll into balls in the palm of your hand
- Flatten slightly and place on the baking sheet, not to close together as they will spread out
- Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes depending on your oven
- Let them cool and then just enjoy



Notes:

-Both brown and white sugar make brilliant cookies, but if you use soft brown sugar the cookies will be darker and color with a slight caramel taste

- This recipe is very forgiving so if you don’t have castor sugar just use 100g normal white sugar – they will still taste delicious.

Pasta Blanco

Just for fun here is one of my all time favorite pasta recipes, it is stunning as a side dish with grilled chicken, fish or kassler steaks; although it also makes a wonderful light meal with just a green salad on the side. This takes hardly any time and yet it is full of flavor.

This recipe will serve 4 hungry adults.

Ingredients:

1 pkt tagliatelle pasta (or spaghetti)
2 tbs butter
2 tsp crushed garlic
1 container grated parmesan cheese (about 75g or a big handful)
Salt and black pepper to taste.


To make:

- Cook pasta in a big pot of salted boiling water.

- When pasta is just soft drain the water; but keep about 6tbs of the water in the pot with the pasta

- Add the garlic, parmesan, butter, salt and a few good turns of black pepper and toss lightly with a fork till all the pasta is coated and the butter has melted.

- Serve straight away.

Note: This pasta can be quite rich, for a lighter version use only half the amount of parmesan cheese.

Extra Ideas :

- Use lemon pepper instead of the black pepper; it gives the pasta a fresh taste.
- Add chopped up fresh basil leaves just before serving.
- For a delicious meaty alternative add cooked crispy bacon (or chicken bacon or chopped chorizo sausage), and a hand full of frozen peas.

Lesson learned

Not everyone is trustworthy. This is the lesson I learned this week and believe me I have learned it well.

Up till now I have always been willing to happily take telephonic orders even from people I have never met in person. I know this might sound silly and naive but most of the people who phone me have been referred by a previous customer or a friend so I have never had any problems with non-payment.

On Monday I worked for hours on two chocolate birthday cakes for a new customer, only for her to claim that she only ordered one(!!). Even though I had a friend at my house when the lady phoned to place the order and she heard me confirm all the details for the orders I realised I had no way to prove that she asked for both cakes.

At first I was really upset about it but then I decided to use this experience as a learning curve and in future anyone ordering from me for the first time will have to either sign an order form or send me a confirmation email with all the details on. No more blindly trusting people to keep their word, this is my business and I can’t afford to be nice all the time.

The silver lining was that since it was a double-digit cake, I sent half over to my friend's house and both our families got rich chocolate cake for desert. The kids all loved it and the next morning I got another order for a cake from one of my previous customers, so that made me feel all better again.