All you have to do to be in with a chance to win is to post a picture of your best cupcakes, cookies or cakes (UK only) and get your friends to Like your picture by sharing on your facebook wall. The person with the most likes on their cakes picture by Monday 12th of December at 9pm will win the book! Share the competition on Twitter too! All the best everyone x

Rachel's offer

Recently a fellow baker signed up for a Groupon Deal to sell her bespoke Cupcakes at a discount price. The cupcakes normally costing £26.00 and made by Berkshire based ‘Need a Cake’ were offered to Groupon customers for £6.50. Rachel Brown the owner, soon found that her dream deal rapidly turned into a nightmare as Need a Cake received a staggering 8,500 requests as a result, substantially more than its usual production level of about 100 a month. Rachel was faced with meeting the overnight demands of that many customers wanting their cakes delivered.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-15791507

Groupon offers discounts on things such as meals in restaurants and spa treatments

Need a Cake, which employs eight people, had to bring in agency staff to try to meet the upsurge in demand. Ms. Brown estimates the extra costs of staff and distribution could be up to £12,500, wiping out profits for the year.

She said: “We had thousands of orders pouring in that really we hadn’t expected to have. A much larger company would have difficulty coping.” She even had to turn away other customer orders as the phonelines jammed, and at one point had twenty five people working in her bakery.

Thankfully the worst is behind her but it serves as a stark warning to other bakers. I’ve not participated in Groupon myself, but another deal recently and thankfully my orders were manageable. However the huge discounts offered by companies like Groupon sometimes mean that the bakers have to absorb the cost of posting the cupcakes which I can verify costs £9.95 with Royal Mail to dispatch PLUS the cost of packaging at £1.50 per box. So if Groupon are taking their 38-50% of the share of £6.50 you can see who comes off worst – the bakers!

Printed with kind permission of Rachel Brown, Owner of Need a Cake, Berkshire.

As well as the usual buzz of demos and workshops the main excitement was the Cake Competitions organized by PME and the British Sugarcraft Guild where Judges in full kitchen whites scrutinize entries such as Tiered wedding cakes, Masks, Figurines, Novelty cakes etc. to award Gold, Silver and Bronze as well as Merit in each category.

I had some personal favourites and as I love Novelty cakes so much I was in awe of how much work went into some of them, with some entrants travelling over 6,000 miles to be here and enter the competitions with their incredible cakes.

                                                                          No doubt about it – cakes rock! There were several Alice in Wonderland Cakes and an abundance of dragons which amazed me. There is the usual nail biting of course where cake makers have entered the competitions and wait to see if they have won. Behind the scenes there are exhibits of students work in each of the various guilds and the ladies of the British Sugarcraft Guild (BSG) keep the art and craft of sugarcraft alive and kicking. So plenty of fun to be had, and yes I did spend too much money but am looking forward to putting some of my new products into practice and am definitely booking a return visit to the NEC next year.

Here’s a selection of my favourite cakes this year – most of them got Gold awards in their category.

Today I visited Boscombe Vintage Market http://www.boscombevintagemarket.co.uk with my friend Barbara and we were amazed at the wonderful array of memorabilia on for sale and we felt like we’d entered a different time zone as all the stallholders got into the Vintage feel by dressing up. The market takes place on the first Saturday of every month at the Crescent in Boscombe.  It was certainly very chilled at the market today and everyone was smiling and friendly – such a change from other markets – we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and picked up a few bargains to boot!

Here’s my attempt at Vintage on my Vintage Montage showcasing my cupcakes which all my friends enjoyed thoroughly!

Bring on the Vintage I say!

Try and resist drooling over my pics long enough to quickly jot it down and I guarantee that your family will want you to bake these babies every day! As I have a hungry husband to feed who hasn’t a pick of fat on him and two equally slim boys I believe these flapjacks contain enough goodness and energy in them to keep them all going and satisfy their appetites. I may however have started an addiction in them to my flapjacks, but hey – you only live once so enjoy eating and baking them and remember it contains nuts (me) and a couple of pecans to boot!

Ingredients:

170g/6oz. of butter

170g/6oz. of Light brown sugar

50g/2oz. of sesame seeds

100g/4oz. of pecans

75g/3oz. of sunflower seeds (optional)

100g /4oz of apricots – chopped

226g/8oz of rolled oats

2 tablespoons of honey

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees. Put pecans and sesame seeds on a baking tray and toast lightly until sesame seeds are golden (about 5 minutes). You can substitute walnuts or almonds if you don’t like pecan nuts. Allow to cool. Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat stirring continually until sugar is melted and you get a toffee mixture (do not bring to boil!) Add in honey, pecans, chopped apricots and oats and mix until everything is  combined. Press into a square brownie tin and bake in oven for 25 minutes until golden brown. The flapjacks will be soft at first so gently mark out 12 pieces and allow to cool. Eat and enjoy once cooled!

If you can resist eating them all at once, they will keep in an airtight container for about four days.

Whilst it may be easy for sceptics to say “it’s only a bit of  sponge love” – I have to disagree with them. Being a Cake Maker is not for the faint hearted! Through trials and errors we have worked our way through countless recipes to provide for you –  the cake eating public, a perfect madeira sponge or cupcake recipe, freshly baked and decorated to your design.  We bring a wealth of our experience and creativity to provide the WOW! factor on your special day be it a Birthday, Wedding or just “Love me” day.

If I was a plasterer or an architect you would want me to quote you for my work and my expertise according to what you felt I was worth having looked at my portfolio and got recommendations etc.

In the same way as Cake Makers we sometimes feel guilty about charging for cakes because we never truly cost up our time and expertise. I can guarantee that in the current trend in home baking, that very few have taken the leap of faith from a hobby to a business. But for those of us who have made that step, then it’s because we have invested time in ourselves and weighed up the cost of what we do.

I appeal to all bakers out there when you go to cost up a cake – please consider the rest of us who have the scars of being cheated on price, but in many ways we only have ourselves to blame for underselling what we do. Fear keeps us from asking for the fairest price. We have taken the cheaper option and undercharged, which in effect does not pay your bills. Neither does it do any favours for other bakers who are struggling to survive these days against the bigger giants who can afford to take a hit because of mass production.

I say this as someone who has lost an entire business in the last few months because of this recession and many other factors. It was an expensive lesson and I would rather get it 100% right next time, but if I had never taken risks I would never have enjoyed the wonderful world of being in business.

What do you think? 

There are varying opinions as to the origin of Valentine’s Day. Some experts state that it originated from St. Valentine, a Roman who was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity. He died on February 14, 269 A.D., the same day that had been devoted to love lotteries. Legend also says that St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer’s daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it “From Your Valentine”. Other aspects of the story say that Saint Valentine served as a priest at the temple during the reign of Emperor Claudius. Claudius then had Valentine jailed for defying him. In 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14 to honour St. Valentine.

Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. The date was marked by sending poems and simple gifts such as flowers. There was often a social gathering or a ball.

Valentine’s Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses. The Romans also knew her as the Goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15th, began the Feast of Lupercalia. The lives of young boys and girls in those days were strictly separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the eve of the festival of Lupercalia the names of Roman girls were written on slips of paper and placed into jars. Each young man would draw a girl’s name from the jar and would then be partners for the duration of the festival with the girl whom he chose. Sometimes the pairing of the children lasted an entire year, and often, they would fall in love and would later marry. Awwww!

For me Valentine’s Day is the one day in the year where lovers can afford to be lavish with one another – splash each other with gifts, cake, cards, Cake, flowers, cake – actually have you noticed I’m obsessed with Cake? Particularly Valentine’s Cakes!

No my husband won’t be buying me any cake as I bake for him every day! However for those of you who love to drool – here are my Valentine Cakes – just dripping with hearts and flowers (red roses and chocolate – what more could you possibly want?)

you can order them from Cake Heaven – right on time for Valentine’s Day!

http://www.facebook.com/cakeheaven

Photos compliments of http://www.andreapittam.com

Here’s her story…

From Kitchen Table top  to Success…

I’m often asked by people – ‘how do you take a concept from your head and develop it into something that becomes tangible?’

Initially when I dreamt of MyBabylog I had the idea because I wanted a keepsake box to store all my daughter’s precious little memories and keepsakes.

Photographs – First baby picture – lock of hair – first tooth – favourite toy – her first drawing etc…etc…

These are things…in my opinion that can never be replaced or replicated in the event of a house fire.

If your house caught on fire… what is the first thing that you would want to save… besides your family? 

So to answer the above question – my passion to preserve family heirlooms and precious treasures

and memories was so strong that I had to do something about it.

I have always been sentimental and kept a horde of everything my darling daughter fed from – touched and played with from the time she was born. My only concern was that everything was scattered all over the house – what would I grab first in an emergency?

 This obsession of mine led me on the quest for a perfect solution to my dilemma and so MyBabylog was born.

I’ve been brought up with dogs (yes I mean actual real dogs). My dad was a vet so we were used to having pets as part of family life and he bred dobermans. I have very fond memories of going into the kennel, which was a huge garage and ooohing and ahhhing over the litter of puppies our dog Sheba had delivered. So we were used to the cycle of life and the poos and cleaning up that went with having puppies.

Perhaps I developed amnesia about the toileting habits of a puppy but the yearning to have a dog of our own was so strong over the years and I honestly couldn’t bear my children growing up without the joys of owning their own dog and not just wishing that every dog they patted on walks could belong to them. You see I had this romantic picture of them running with their own dog and his little ears flapping and this picture just wouldn’t go away in my head.

So finally after doing my best – “Please can we have a puppy” face to my husband he finally agreed and the next month we scrimped and saved to purchase Blue – our adorable, oh so gentle and cuddly Blue Roan Cocker Spaniel, thanks to my friend Rachel Jeffries – dog breeder extraordinaire!

Today we’ve just got back from dog sniffing – watch out I’m not being rude. It works like this – you take your dog out for a walk and he sniffs usually an average of 17-20 dogs per walk – all very entertaining but a great way of getting to know other doggie owners whilst on the beach!  But the greatest joy is actually seeing how it’s helped my young sons become more outgoing and Bleu has taught them about taking responsibility and caring for something else other than themselves.

Yes you’ve guessed it my dream of the boys and their dog running together is now a reality – funny that – what shall I dream up next?

Now if my nine year old was looking at my facebook profile and the immense fun I’ve had this morning poking friends old and new I would be extremely embarrassed by his question. “Ok Samuel… eh well it depends…on what you understand about what a poke is” “Mum that’s not answering my question”….

Ok wikipedia describes poking as

Poke most commonly refers to the action of tapping and/or softly jabbing an object or person using a finger, stick, or similar object etc.

Poke, Poké or POKE may also refer to:

• POKE, a BASIC programming language command
• Poke (game), a card game
• Poke (gesture), different definition for pricking someone with a pointed finger, most of the time used for teasing or showing a certain compassion
• Poke (Hawaii), a dish from Hawaiian cuisine, cubed raw fish served as an appetizer
• Poke (ice cream), a common name for an ice cream cone in Northern Ireland and Scotland
• Poke (Cook Islands), a dish from the Cook Islands known as Po’e
• A character from the science fiction novel Ender’s Shadow
• A fossil word for sack, bag, purse, budget, etc., as in “a pig in a poke.” Still used in the literal sense in some American dialects and in Scots
• Poke, a feature on Facebook where a user can try to get another person to notice him or her

So looking at the above it means different things depending on where you’re coming from. If I’m referring to poke as in Facebook then in reality it’s not rude it’s a bit of fun with no apparent purpose or meaning but a way of saying hello. However being that I’m naturally inhibited, (I know some of you might find this incredible to believe me on this one) I associate poking with staring, or being made fun of, or someone actually poking me with something.  I still feel rude doing it. Am I the proverbial naughty girl, a prude or am I being friendly? If I’m poking any other place, then according to my mum I’m being nosy so what do you think?

Perhaps I need to disassociate negative meanings from my mind and just enjoy poking for the fun of it!

Here’s my boy’s  illustration of poking by light saber