Delicious Dozen bite 10 – The Launch of Auburn Cakes

Hi guys, so I’m afraid to say I have slightly abandoned the Delicious Dozen challenge in September but it’s all for a good cause... CAKE (what better reason is there than that?)! 

I have reverted back to baking because...drum roll please... I have launched my own cake business!

I am very excited to introduce Auburn Cakes.

After finishing my contract with Glasgow 2014 I have not been very good at taking it easy, I really am rubbish at doing nothing! So in one of my long days of funemployment I decided to contact a local cafe which I knew sold cakes from home bakers. I met up with Linda from Cafe La Ronda, showed her this blog and she kindly asked me to become one of her bakers. So now I supply this lovely cafe in Linlithgow with my tasty treats and people actually pay for them!!! Eeeeekkkkk it is so exciting!!!!

Naughty chocolate fudge cake and lemon drizzle loaf

As round cakes seem to be the best sellers I have been making reliable favourites like Vicky sponge, lemon drizzle cake and chocolate cakes to delight the population of the town. Baking for other people and getting paid for it has changed my baking experience somewhat. I have had to think a lot more about the price and quality of ingredients. My lovely friend Karlie took me along to Costco on a fact finding mission. She patiently waited while I got my calculator out in every aisle  to decide if it was worth buying sugar and butter in bulk (just FYI, it is worth it to buy sugar but not butter!).

I know it is still early days but I don’t think I will be making my millions from Auburn Cakes - but it has been fun learning about setting up my own business.  Between registering with the Environmental Health department, to insurance (I know, who thought you could buy cake insurance?), to income and expenses spread sheets (thanks to my father-in-law Phil for sharing his wisdom on this topic) and food hygiene courses I have learnt loads! I have my eye on a logo design and some new bits of equipment but at this rate I will never actually make any money!! I don’t mind really, it's fun and keeps me busy so I’m happy with that!

 

Snazzy new flour tins... they had my name on them so I HAD to buy them

Being back on the baking bandwagon has also given me the time to get back into making cakes for Free Cakes for Kids. This month I did a Frozen cake for 3 year old Ella and a handbag/shoe cake for 16 year old Zohra. 

I was very lucky to have some brilliant baking companions for the Frozen cake, Lizzie, Chloe and Sam came along and I think we made a fantastic baking team. They were great at rolling and cutting out the fondant and Sam and Lizzie made a fab looking Olaf. Olaf really is such a cheery character isn’t he?

Fab baking team! Thanks for all your help guys x

Hello Olaf!

Handbags and shoes

I hope you will forgive me for straying away from the challenge but this has been an exciting first month of my very first business venture.  For those of you who don’t know I have also started training to become a massage therapist so hopefully when I qualify next year I can expand to Auburn Cakes and Pains... a pain-relieving massage followed by a good brew and a tasty cake, what do you think??? Haha...

As I am still enjoying the delights of funemployment I thought it would be a good idea to dedicate October to meals on a budget.

Have a great month xx Kisses and cake xx Linds xx 

P.S I went to a place called Cuckoo's Bakery in Edinburgh last week and I had to tell you about this cupcake... it was chocolate salted caramel with Italian meringue on top... one word: OMG! Whoever thought of putting meringue on the top of a cupcake is a genius!

Delicious Dozen Bite 9 – Ciao Amico! It’s Italian month.

Hello all, how’s things? Hope you enjoyed the last of the summer sun!

So August has been dedicated to the delights of Italian cooking and this time I thought I would try something different, a series of taste tests. Italian food is such a normal part of our diet, we probably have pasta or pizza at least twice a week so I thought it might be fun to see how our versions of Italian food stack up against the real thing! I didn’t manage to cook many different things but it was a very informative fact finding mission!

Pesto pasta

We make pasta with pesto, chicken pieces, some crème fraiche and toasted pine nuts all the time, it is so easy and quick. I thought it was about time I tried to make my own pesto, which turned out to be delicious!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2494/pesto-sauce

Cheesy, Basil goodness x

Real pesto pasta

I don’t think I put in quite enough basil (it wasn't very green) but it still tasted great, and so much better than pesto from a jar. The only thing I have a serious problem with is the price of pine nuts...what’s the deal guys?! I paid £4.25 for a 200g bag, it is ridiculous! Are pine nuts really rare and endangered?? I just can’t understand why they could possibly cost so much. By the time I put them in the pesto itself and added some more toasted ones to our pasta I used up half the bag. Given that you can buy a whole jar of pesto for £1 this means that making your own is not particularly cost effective. Anyway, now that I have finished my middle aged sounding rant I can tell you I will definitely make it again, but not every week.  

Carbonara  

This is another fave in our house and we use a very reliable recipe which I’m sure would horrify Italians!! It’s from the lovely makers of Philadelphia cheese....

https://www.philadelphia.co.uk/Recipes/Spaghetti%20Carbonara?r=9295

Philadelphia carbonara

So, time to try a traditional recipe - with homemade pasta no less! I followed the very simple instructions from legendary Italian Chef Antonio Carluccio. He like so many other people say you must NOT add cream, or onions, or peas or anything else silly like that. Carbonara should just be eggs, cheese and Guanciale (the cheek of the pork) or pancetta (Italian bacon).

http://www.antonio-carluccio.com/Spaghetti_alla_Carbonara

You can watch the man himself cooking up a storm here :- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AAdKl1UYZs

I opted for this Channel 4 recipe to make my own pasta, I reduced the recipe down to 100g of flour and 1 egg which was just about enough for two of us. I mixed it up in the food processor and then it only took about 3 minutes to kneed which was amazingly fast. Our good friends Neil and Karlie lent me their pasta machine which made rolling it out super easy (although the machine is slightly annoying to clean) and I was so glad I had it because it would have taken some serious elbow grease to roll it by hand. 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/simply-italian/articles/all/basic-egg-pasta-dough-recipe

Working the pasta machine!

Home made pasta and traditional carbonara sauce

Scores are in from Dave... it's an 8 out of 10 for the home made pasta/traditional carbonara and a 6 out of 10 for the Philadelphia.

Pizza

Who doesn’t love pizza!! This is our laziest mid-week meal, take the wrapper off and pop the chilled or frozen pizza in the oven = zero effort! Surprise surprise the homemade one was sooooo much better!

 http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/sep/08/how-to-cook-perfect-pizza

I used some strong bread flour mixed with 00 grade flour

Sainburys vs Haines Pizzas

Yummmmmmy

The first time I rolled the dough out I left it a bit thick so it took a while to cook and it was a bit chewier than I would like. My second batch was much better, thinner and crispier, probably because I made a couple of small Pizzas instead of trying to roll out one big one. I think it is probably worth investing in a pizza stone if you are going to make pizzas regularly. You heat it up in the oven before using it so that the pizza is cooked by direct heat from the stone as well as the all round heat in the oven. I think having a pizza stone can really help to absorb the moisture and crisp up the base so I think pop it on my Christmas list and see if Santa thinks my pizzas are worth it!!

Mozzarella and tomato salad

Now this is something I don’t usually make but it is one of my fave things to have in an Italian restaurant so thought I would give it a try. I used Nigella’s recipe which involves baking the tomatoes but most recipes just use raw and I don’t think it actually makes much difference. This salad was great with the pizza’s and would be a super easy thing to whip up for a dinner party.

http://www.styleathome.com/food-and-entertaining/recipes/recipe-nigella-lawson-s-tomatoes-mozzarella-and-basil/a/50698

The same but REALLY different.

In the spirit of taste testing though I did try out two kinds of mozzarella, Tesco Everyday Mozzarella (44p) versus Tesco Finest Buffalo Mozzarella (£2.00). Strictly speaking mozzarella should be made with buffalo milk but most of what you get in the supermarket is made with cows milk. I asked Dave to guess which was more expensive and which he preferred. He voted the Everyday as his fave and said it was more expensive so 50% right! The two cheeses were so different in taste and texture they really couldn’t be compared. The buffalo one was much more like goats cheese and the Everyday one was a little bit rubbery but much more what I thought mozzarella was like. I would be happy with either in my salad but I will probably be sticking with the cheaper one most of the time.

So drum roll please... will we be going with supermarket or home made Italian foods from now on... a bit of both I think. I would definitely make pasta again, it was so fast whereas the pizza did take a while to rest/prove. In the end everything was tasty so they are on the try again list. 

There are so many other delicious Italian goodies to make but the months really aren’t long enough to squeeze them in!! Maybe next year my challenge can be to get round to making all the things I missed out on this year!

Happy eating lovely blog friends! Arrivederci xx Linds xx