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Real Food Festival 2011

This is the 4th time that I've been to the Real Food Festival (read my 2010 round up here). The festival is built around the idea of bringing great tasting, sustainably and ethically produced food to as many people as possible.

I've been to so many food festivals in last five years that I thought I'd give my top ten tips for those wanting to make/eat the most of their day.

1. Look at the list of stalls before you go (if available). Get an idea of which ones are on your "must hit" list
2. I always find it best to arrive shortly after the festival opens. It's less busy and easier to look at stalls and chat to the people running them
3. Set a budget for buying food (I always try but end up blowing the budget!)
5. If you have a "favorite" like me, cake/desserts, don't fill up on bread, cracker and chutney samples (as tempting as they are) they are super filling
6. Check out the demonstration timetable when you arrive if you want to watch any
7. Bring a bag to carry your purchases and bring a Tupperware container for lose purchases that you don't want squished
8. Bring cash as most stalls won't be equipped to take cards
9. Bring water (you'll need it after all those samples)
10. For festivals that have restaurant tokens, look at the menus on line before you head out so you don't end up with and odd amount of tokens left over that can't buy anything

Some photos of what I ate and purchased

Fruit punch cocktail. My ticket came with a free cocktail.

Halen Mon Sea Salt from Anglesey, Wales (where Wills and Kate live). I bought some sea salt and smoked salt to use for roast potatoes and steak. I also bought a small tube of vanilla sea salt for fruit and fish.

Mini cake pop from Sweet Tooth Factory. I see them at every food festival and Brick Lane. This is the first time I've bought anything. I really like that they had minis for 50p. I got a vanilla but I honestly couldn't tell if it was vanilla or chocolate. The cake oddly tasted of nothing and was grayish inside. Good chocolate coating and moistness though. I'd maybe try one of their cupcakes next time.

I bought a set of rainbow colored tea spoons at Bellevue Tea

The Dessert Deli was one of my favorite of the day!

Seriously loving the mini cheesecakes in a shot glass for £1.50

I bought a marble whoopie pie from one of my favorite places, Outsider Tart.

Blueberry and Champagne macaron from Lorchidee

Hot chocolate and mini whisk from Jaz & Juls

I bought 2 mini cupcakes from Sweet Things as recommended by Anne

I also bought some chocolate tea from Premier's Tea Limited, a "snacking salami" from Serious Pig and some Freshburst Pearls for cocktails from Imaginative Cuisine (like the ones that were on top of my Choboba bubble tea).

I'm pumped for Taste of London 2011 now!

· cupcakes, festival, london, macarons, tea, whoopie pies

Cadbury Cream Egg Twisted Cupcakes

I had to make one more batch of Easter cupcakes because I've been visited by the appliance fairy! The appliance fairy works at Appliances Online for her day job, but grants wishes in her spare time! She brought Helen from Fuss Free Flavours a mixer. I commented on her blog post and the fairy brought me Mini Cupcakes by Leslie Fiet.

If you would like a wish granted from the appliance fairy leave a comment below making a wish! One of them may be granted! Visit their website for some inspiration.

The frosting on these cupcakes are a little dark for Easter but I really wanted to do something with a Cadbury egg this year and I've already seen a lot of cupcakes with yellow frosting so I styled mine as a Twisted candy bar.

I made a vanilla cupcake and topped it with vanilla frosting mixed with the centers of cream eggs and twisted with some chocolate frosting.

Buttery Vanilla Cupcakes

adapted from Mini Cupcakes by Leslie Fiet (makes about 18)

Ingredients

Wet

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 tbs vanilla

1 tbs vanilla paste

Dry

2 cups self raising flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1. Line a muffin tray or mini muffin tray with paper liners and preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. In a large bowl beat the wet ingredients together with an electric mixer on low speed.

2. In a small bowl stir together the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat on low for a minute. Turn on high and beat for 30 seconds. The lumps should disappear.

3. Fill each case three quarters full and bake for 20 minutes (17 minutes for minis) and set aside to cool.

Twisted Frosting

adapted from Cakespy via Serious Eats

10 Cadbury Cream Eggs (chilled)

Vanilla Frosting (homemade or store bought)
Yellow gel coloring

Chocolate Frosting (homemade or store bought)

1. Cut the cream eggs in half and scoop out the centers into a medium sized bow. Save the chocolate shells to eat later. Mix the centers with 1 cup of vanilla frosting. Add yellow food coloring if desired.

2. In a piping bag with a star tip place the yellow frosting in and push it to one side. Place the chocolate frosting on the other side. When your piping and squeeze the bag the two colors will swirl.

As it's been so hot I put my cupcakes in the fridge so the frosting doesn't melt. The cupcake recipe I used is very fluffy and not overly sweet due to the tart fruit puree. The super sweet frosting balances it out a little.

Happy Easter!

· chocolate, cupcakes, Easter, holidays

Royal Wedding Bubbly Peach Cupcakes

April 29th is almost upon us and with it comes a barrage of TV and magazine specials, tea towel souvenirs and of course cake! Lots and lots of cake. In case you missed it check out my guest post on Cupcakes Take The Cake on Royal Wedding Cupcakes in the UK. I've never had so much fun doing research before!

At the real wedding there will be a fruit cake made by Fiona Cairns and a McVities biscuit cake. I reviewed Fiona's book Bake & Decorate earlier. Read it here and see the three recipes I tested. April 29th has been declared a bank holiday so I have the day off from work. I haven't decided how I'm going to celebrate yet!

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I'm not a huge fan of fruit cake so I made a peach champagne cupcake complete with juicy peach chunks and topped with a luscious champagne swiss meringue buttercream. The cases are made by Meri Meri.
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I bought a mini bottle of Spanish cava at the supermarket which is just enough for the both the cake and frosting. I think swiss meringue buttercream is my favorite kind of frosting at the moment. It's just so fluffy and fun to pipe.

Peach Champagne Cupcakes and Champagne Swiss Meringue Buttercream

adapted from Martha Stewart and Yum Sugar (makes 16)

Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick/115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla (peach flavoring also optional)

1/2 cup champagne or cava

1 cup diced peaches, tossed in flour

Frosting

5 egg whites

1 cup sugar
4 sticks/450g unsalted butter, chilled cut into cubes

a few tablespoons of champagne or cava to taste

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and line muffin tray with paper liners. In a small bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

2. With an electric mixer on high speed mix cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating until combined. Add in the vanilla and peach flavoring (if using).

3. Add the flour mixture in two batches alternating with the champagne until all incorporated. Fold in the chopped peaches.

4. Fill each cup three quarters full and bake for 25 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

5. Make the frosting by whisking the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until warm and the sugar has dissolved.

6. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and beat on medium high speed until smooth and fluffy, about 10 minutes. When the bottom of the bowl is no longer warm start adding the butter one cube at a time. Continue beating until all the butter is added and add the vanilla and the champagne one tablespoon at a time. Don't add too much or the frosting will go runny.

7. Once the cupcakes are cool pipe a generous amount of frosting on each and enjoy!

· cupcakes, fruit, holidays, london, wedding

Ms Cupcake Vegan Bakery Opens in London

Ms. Cupcake opened April 1st in Brixton. She's London's first all vegan bakery. I've been to see her many times in Brick Lane but this was my first ever trip to Brixton! I met Ms. Cupcake at Iron Cupcake almost one year ago.

The shop is very spacious and as you can see the cupcakes are made right there! Not too many shops make their cupcakes on the premises.

Her right hand man Jason was in the shop when I arrived. There he is hard at work making more cupcakes. Anne and I both arrived at the same time and had a coffee outside at Rosie's. I love getting together with my blogging friends for a little cake gossip! My husband and co-workers can only take some much cake talk.

The shop has huge windows all at the front and it was incredibly bright hence all the glare on the cupcake cases. I bought a key lime cupcake to take home with me. The frosting was great and had a really nice lime flavor.

They also have a few vegan books and cupcake paraphernalia for sale.

Anne and I were both tempted down to the bakery by these babies. Vegan donuts! I have never had a vegan donut before and they taste no different than a regular donut. If there is a baked good that London is missing it's donuts. I have made a few of my own donuts.

Jason prepared us a whole plate of goodies to try! I enjoyed the Boston Cream donut the most but the custard was a bit absorbed into the donut. I think that the cookie sandwiches are my new favorite. I really liked the vanilla one and I could eat 10 of them!

I'll definitely be back!

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· cupcake paraphernalia, cupcakes, donuts, yummy places

Coconut Custard Cream Cupcakes

I've had these bookmarked since Thanksgiving. It was a recipe for a layer cake from Bobby Flay's Throwdown! book. I decided to make them as cupcakes instead. White cake brushed with coconut sugar syrup, filled with coconut pudding, topped with coconut custard buttercream and topped with toasted coconut.

It was featured in the December issue of Food Network magazine. I've never seen Throwdown! as they don't show it on Food Network UK, but I can get an imported copy of the magazine sometimes from the newsagent.

These definitely take a lot of work but it is worth it. The sugar syrup keeps the cake moist and the custard that goes into the buttercream gives it an amazing coconut taste and is really soft and fluffy.

These cases are from Wilton and are at most hobby stores in the US. I bought red ones like these at Jane Asher in the UK. They are very pretty but a little bit of a pain. They don't fit in a muffin tray and have to be placed on a baking sheet. be careful not to overfill them otherwise the cupcakes will come out misshapen.

Toasted Coconut Cupcakes

adapted from Food Network Magazine and Bobby Flay's Throwdown! (makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients

Cake

12 tbs cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
2 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 cup milk
6 large egg whites at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tbs + 1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Coconut Custard
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbs cornstarch/cornflour
2 tsp Malibu or coconut extract

Coconut Sugar Syrup
1 tbs sugar
3/4 cup flaked coconut
1 1/2 cups water

Coconut Filling
3/4 cup coconut custard
3/4 cup heavy cream/double cream, cold

Coconut Buttercream
3 sticks (345g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cup icing sugar
3/4 cup coconut custard
pinch of salt

Topping
Toasted coconut

1. Make the coconut custard first by combining the milk, coconut milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Simmer over a low heat.

2. Whisk the eggs, sugar and cornflour together in a large bowl. Whisk the warm milk mixture into the eggs. Pour back into the pan and bring to a boil. Keep whisking until it becomes thick. Scrape into a bowl and add the Malibu. Let the custard reach room temperature and then cover and refrigerate until cold.

3. Make the syrup for the cake. Combine the water and sugar into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir in the coconut and and remove from the heat. Leave for 30 minutes up to 4 hours. Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan, bring to a boil for 5 minutes and set aside to cool.

4. Make the cupcakes. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and line a muffin tray with cases. Whisk together the milk, egg whites and vanilla into a medium bowl.

5. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix the butter in one cube at a time with an electric mixer on low speed until the batter looks like wet crumbs.

6. Add all the milk mixture except 1/2 cup and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the last 1/2 cup and beat for 30 seconds. Fill each cup and bake for 15-20 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

7. Make the coconut filling by beating the coconut custard and cream and whip until soft peaks form.

8. Make the coconut buttercream by beating the butter and 1/3 cup of icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the coconut custard and salt and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the icing sugar until desired consistency is reached.

9. Brush each cupcake with a little sugar syrup and let it soak in a for a few minutes. Don't use too much or the cake will get soggy.

10. Cut out a cone shaped hole into each cupcake and place one teaspoon of coconut filling in each. Pipe coconut buttercream on top of each cupcake and sprinkle with some toasted coconut.

11. Toasted coconut can be made by spreading some shredded coconut on a baking tray and bake for 5 minutes at 350/180 C.

After all that work sit down and eat one of these babies!

· coconut, cupcakes, Easter, holidays, spring

Archive HOT

Real Food Festival 2011

Cadbury Cream Egg Twisted Cupcakes

Royal Wedding Bubbly Peach Cupcakes

Ms Cupcake Vegan Bakery Opens in London

Coconut Custard Cream Cupcakes

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