CAKE!!!! A review of my new baking products

Well, my first proper cake of the new year and Ive decided that 2014 will be the year of practicing new styles to compliment my tried and tested delights.

So for christmas, I became the proud owner of a cake turntable, a duo icing set, a mini pie maker (present to myself) and a hemisphere cake tin set. My baking cupboard is getting very full!

Today, I tried my new hemisphere pan out and my duo icing set. I've never used either before so pleased that i've had a practice before i have a requirement for something more "proper" to make. Today's excuse was a get well cake for my daughter. She's poorly but not too poorly to want to eat cake, bless her.

Firstly, wondering what on earth size I should use for my hemisphere cake. Each half is 6.5inches in diameter but of course the depth varies and really it looks quite small, so I made a 3 egg madeira cake which in truth wasn't quite enough to fill the tins. By the time they were cooked (recipe said 1.25 hours, I baked for 45 minutes which was a little too much for my liking!) They had risen over two thirds full so I wasn't disappointed. After cooling I turned them out and the popped out the tins so smoothly (lined with butter and flour), very impressive. But of course they had tips and the cakes had to be levels to stick together as a ball.

A LOT of wasted bits of cake. Hopefully, after having now frozen them I can use them for cake pops or something... watch this space! I don't like waste, so fingers crossed I can use them!

Then on to the icing. Made a pound of buttercream, it came out good, very smooth, and I split it to double colour it, red and yellow.
I then constructed my duo icing bag and filled each side with the icing. Not too tricky to assemble but next time I need to make sure the icing is right down the end of the bag, I don't think it would spill out. I'm a novice with these bags, having been spoilt with the pampered chef icer on previous cakes.

After sandwiching the ball together (that was quite easy), I used my new duo nozzle to ice the cake. Thick buttercream should not be piped ALL over a round cake. It would have taken so much icing and been quite sickly. So after about three rows of piped duo icing (it did come out very well though) I decided to spread it over the whole cake, thus ruining the distinct colours. So after spreading the now quite orange icing, I piped on the top. Quite tricky to squeeze the icing out, really needs a lot of elbow grease but I managed. And then I realised how I could use up the icing almost to the end. Really needs pushing down into the bag as far as you can push.

The final outcome, and writing as requested by the poorly child herself is below.....

I'm not sure if i'm meant to decorate the ball underneath and if there is an alternative to leaving it in the pan stand, so if anyone has any ideas, please do share with me!

I wish you all a very happy cake eating, and hopefully my next one will be a little more professional looking!

Holidays during school term..... I have an opinion on this one too! (but no cake :( so sorry)

Good afternoon one and all. So today I thought I'd tackle the current issue of holidays during school term.  Having recently read the story of the poor poor family who got fined by their school for taking their kids out.... well, they were warned weren't they? They ignored the initial fine so it was increased and cost them £1000.

School rules are there for a reason. Schools need to teach children, and have a curriculum to follow and as we are all too aware targets to meet (not only Ofsted). Teachers have to plan their lessons around the curriculum and they fit a HELL of a lot of teaching into one school year.
I can only speak from Primary school experience at the moment, but I know that the learning curve, even at the age of 5/6 is massive. The teachers work bloomin' hard to make every lesson enjoyable and fun, as well as teaching these children.  How disruptive would a class become if on one week, little Janey was away on holiday, she comes back with a nice tan and talks of trips to the beach and ice creams by the pool, and then little Bobby hops off for his two week break to the South of Spain. When Bobby gets back, Jimmy is off, and so on. But poor little Suzy can't go away, because her parents can't afford to take her away in either term time OR school holidays. She has to sit and listen to the other children bragging about their holidays but at least she knows in school holidays she can spend time in the parks and maybe even take a trip to the seaside in the UK, and will have something to talk to her friends about next term.  So not only are the kids disrupted by missing school, but the teachers then have to help them to catch up to their peers, at the expense of their peers, and for the kids who can't afford to go away at ANY time, its a big kick in the teeth.

It is totally crap that holiday companies increase their prices during school holidays, but this is nothing new. its been going on forever.
Personally, I would love to take my kids away twice a year on holiday, but I can't afford to. So instead I save up for one big luxury week away in the summer holiday, and because of that, neither of my kids have an Ipad, or an Xbox or a horse, because I'd rather get them a nice cheaper birthday present, and put some money aside for the holiday.

Of course, there are occasions, when its acceptable to ask a head teacher to take your kids out of school. For example, a friend of mine recently had a family get together in Australia over Christmas. Taking young kids to Australia for under two weeks is going to knock them for 6 jet lag wise, and also, to go halfway round the world, you would want to make the most of it, and they were granted extra time off school. Another friend has requested to take her child out of school a day before they break up for the holidays, because the cost of her holiday was hundreds of pounds cheaper and one day was granted by the head teacher.

Be sensible, children have to be taught, teachers have to teach and exceptions can be made! But to the family who were fined £1000, maybe, if they'd saved that extra £1000 towards their holiday they could have gone outside of term time anyway!

Rant over.

So sorry for no cake today, but the good news is, i've recently bought a mini pie maker (Not quite sure why I need one, but it was half price and looked shiny, so hopefully my pie crusts will be a little more uniform now - same amazing ingredients though) and a hemisphere cake tin in preparation for Lucy's birthday, but I'm sure i'll have a few practice runs before then.

Keep warm, eat cake

Ban this... make that illegal... how about teaching parents how to parent rather than creating new laws??

I'm on a bit of a rant today, I've been reading a few articles about parenting and the hysterical responses of some parents (yes it is on Facebook, so I can't really give credit for intelligent debate).  So the latest plans are -
Making smacking illegal
Ban sweets from the checkouts in supermarkets
Whether children should be allowed on fb etc
Sibling Bullying

Lets start with smacking! I don't mean go out and start smacking, that's a big wrong, and I would never EVER hit a child (mine or others) to purposely hurt them, but what if a toddler, who doesn't respond yet to reasoning is running off toward a road, or a hot oven, or something else that would seriously hurt or kill them. Smacking a hand or bottom gives them enough of a shock to think about their actions.
I admit too that I have smacked my 5 year old too on occasion. Occasions where she has been warned a number of times and again, is putting either herself or someone else at risk, or is about to destroy something of monetary or sentimental value. Surely one smack is better than an hour of yelling! Yelling and shouting has much more of a long-term effect on our kiddies.

Banning sweets from checkouts in the supermarket.
Well, I often take my children to the supermarket and without doubt, every time we queue up at the checkout Molly will ask for some sweets from the display that is so temptingly laid out in good sight. "No Molly you can't" is usually my answer, unless she has been extremely good and hasn't had a treat for a while and I want to give her one. "oh" she usually replies and then we move on, pay and leave!  Not everyone in the supermarket has a whingy child with them, not everyone in the supermarket is a fat lardass who can't control their eating. Some people are normal, balanced and deserve the choice of "ooh, that looks nice, I'll treat myself on my way home". Just because some parents can't control their children, doesn't mean we should all suffer!

Facebook.
I know FB says that you should be over 16 I think to use it, but I know a number of children with facebook accounts.  The other thing is, their parents know too and they have been educated on the use of social media so that they are not going to accept friends from people they don't know. They only put on clothed photos (i see nothing wrong with that on social media) and, as with the above, how they use it is controlled by their PARENTS.  These parent-types seem to be getting  lot of responsibility where children are concerned! How strange.

Sibling Bullying.
This was ridiculous. How a parent can let one child bully their other child is beyond me! Teaching children to respect one another, and teaching them that they are both going to be together for a LONG LONG time is one of the first rules. My almost 2 year old knows not to hit her sister, not to pull her hair, although yes sometimes she forgets and must be reminded again, and my 5 year old knows she shouldn't snatch toys from her sister, and they both know how important they are equally to my husband and I. And they love each other probably more than they love us.
I'm not stupid, I know they will fight when they are older, but fights can be controlled and explained, but to lead on to bullying, where one child is persistently making the other child's life a misery. Maybe, and call me crazy, but just maybe the parents should watch and speak to their children and pick up on anything untoward.

So i guess my point is, its not the governments responsibility to do your parenting. How about parents take responsibility for their kids. Parents discipline, praise, teach and reward their OWN children. What the government SHOULD do is pick out those parents who don't realise that its their job to bring up their children and maybe send them to parenting school. And for those not yet parents, who obviously do not display the ability to have any social responsibility whatsoever, a chastity belt maybe? (I'm being a bit PC here, and didn't want to say sterilise them all!)

Happy parenting, I'm now signing off to tell my children off, then reward them and show them pictures of Dogs and cats kissing on Facebook before they have a fight!
Have fun guys

Just a little cake pic today, as its January, cakes are a little bit scarce but here are some chocolate cupcakes I made the other day

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