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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

Royal Wedding Whoopie Pies

Royal Wedding Victoria Sponge Whoopie Pies

I had just enough time to squeeze in one more Royal Wedding treat! I decided to go with a simple Victoria Sponge but styled into a bite size whoopie pie. These are really quick and easy to bring to your local street party! I still haven't decided how to spend my day off from work. Any suggestions?

Victoria Sponge is the most classic British cake, after a fruit cake. It's two vanilla cakes with whipped cream and raspberry jam sandwiched in the middle. It's not overly sweet but a good contrast to the sweet Bubbly Peach Cupcakes I made earlier.

I used cookie cutters to make stencils out of the aluminium foil for the icing sugar dusted on top. A little glitter mixed in there would look nice too. You could also make a reverse template to what I've done.

I used Hannah Miles book Whoopie Pies: Fun Recipes for Filled Cookie Cakes, which is absolutely adorable (I bought my sister the book and in the US it is in cup measurements not grams)! I thought about dying the cake red and blue but figured that wouldn't be sophisticated enough for such an occasion.

Victoria Sandwich Whoopie Pie
adapted from Hannah Miles 'Whoopie Pies' (makes 12)

Ingredients
Cake
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
220g caster/superfine sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
320g self rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250ml buttermilk
100ml hot water (not boiling)

Filling
300ml whipping cream
raspberry jam
icing sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease a whoopie pie tin. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder together in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl cream together the sugar and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy about 3 minutes.

3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Whisk in the buttermilk, alternating with the flour mixture. Whisk until Incorporated. Stir in the hot water.

4. Scoop one spoonful of batter into the tin or onto the tray. Alternatively for a uniform smooth pie put the batter in a piping bag. Let stand for 10 minutes and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from tin after a few minutes and set aside to cool completely.

5. Make the filling by whipping the cream until stiff peaks form. Place in a piping bag and swirl onto a round.

6. Place another cake on top a dust with icing sugar.

7. Enjoy!

· cake, fruit, holidays, wedding, whoopie pies

Cake Pops at Harrods

Exactly one year ago today I went to Harrods to try one of their new whoopie pies. It was one of my first blog posts and it's also the number one post with the most visitors! I thought it would be fun to go back and try another one to see if they had changed at all.

I got to the bakery case and saw that they now also had cake pops! Even better! I went for one cake pop and one whoopie pie.

I chose a Strawberry & Pistachio cake pop. At £2.25 I think it's the most expensive cake pop I've ever had! It's pretty darn cute though. The little hearts are drawn on, not sprinkles. The outside coating is white chocolate. I was also excited to see such an exciting flavor combination.

I was trying to take a picture of it and it wasn't staying on the stick very well because it's actually two cake halves made from a mold. The cake was pistachio and the center was filled with strawberry frosting! The cake was good and moist but didn't have much flavor. I couldn't taste any pistachio at all. The center was light and had a lovely strawberry flavor.

I might be tempted to try another one since I really liked the "surprise" in the middle, but due to the filling there wasn't actually much cake on the stick.

Last time I had a Mango & Lime whoopie pie. This time they only had three kinds to chose from and only in one size.

I chose a Red Velvet whoopie pie with peanut butter filling, £2.50. I think it's a fun idea of putting a classic American filling inside a classic American cake. It also had a pink glaze on the top but same as last time the boxes they pack them in are too small and the glaze all came off on the lid.

The filling is a really perfect light peanut butter swiss meringue buttercream/marshmallow type frosting. The cake part is not very good. It's the wrong consistency and tastes as flat and dense as it looks. It has potential but as the whoopie pies haven't changed since they launched I doubt they will improve.

I think next time I'll stick with a cake pop!

P.S Thanks to the person at Google with a sweet tooth for choosing me as the Blog of Note for April 6th!

· cake, cake pops, fruit, peanut butter, whoopie pies, yummy places

Cake Pops & Whoopie Pies at Starbucks

This week Starbucks launches it's new range of Petites. The website boasts that they are free from artificial colors, sweeteners and hydrogenated fat.

The range consists of a sparkle pop, almond pop, rocky road pop, red velvet whoopie pie and chocolate whoopie pie. I didn't see the chocolate whoopie at the store by Monument but they did have a little chocolate and raspberry square and one other item near the cake pops.

For once us people in the UK don't have to wait! They were launched at the same time as the US. The offer for UK is a free Petite with voucher that would have been emailed to you if you have a registered Starbucks card. Today (March 10) only though so be fast!

I chose a sparkle pop. I can't resits sparkles. I preferred the whoopie pie over this. The sprinkles and chocolate were nice. The chocolate wasn't too thick and the sprinkles gave it a nice little crunch when I bit into it.

I wasn't a fan of the cake inside. It was really moist, almost wet (however, Anne thought they were just moist enough. I shall have to try another one now). I couldn't tell what kind of cake it was really. I think a little less frosting mixed in with the cake would have made it better.

I also got a red velvet whoopie pie. I quite liked the whoopie pie. I could tell the middle was cream cheese frosting. The cake was a little chewey but I kinda liked it! It's never going to be as good as getting a fresh pie from a bakery but for £1.30 I didn't think it was that bad. I liked the red chocolate drizzle on top too.

I had low expectations going in and these have exceeded them. A decent little cake when you want a little something with your latte.

Each petite was £1.30 when I used my Starbucks card. There were offers for buying more than one.

What does everyone think? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

· cake, whoopie pies, yummy places

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

First recipe for Valentine's Day this year! I found this Wilton heart shaped whoopie pie pan at Jane Asher and I'm afraid that any time I make whoopie pies now they're all going to be heart shaped because I love this pan! I love that they look so cute and sleek but are still fun like whoopie pies should be.

I decided to go with the classic red velvet cake and for the filling a vanilla mascarpone cream (mascarpone being my new favorite ingredient). They taste amazing (the cake is so soft when you bite into it) but turned out a little more brown than I would have liked. Nothing is better than a bright red cake. Next time I'll use better food coloring. A small box of these would be so cute to give to a special someone on Valentine's Day.

I got this adorable heart shaped plate at Paperchase. I'm hoping they're on sale after Valentine's Day, I really want another one!

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

adapted from whoopie pies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1/2 cup crisco or trex

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

red gel paste (I was stupid and used liquid which made it a lame orange brown color)

1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup soy milk with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or grease tin. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl.

2. In a large bowl beat together the butter, shortening and both sugars for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time until combined. Add the vanilla and red food coloring and beat.

3. Add half the flour and half the buttermilk and beat on low until incorporated add the remaining mixture and buttermilk and beat until fully combined.

4. Drop one tablespoon of batter on the baking sheet and space each pie about 2 inches apart (I used a piping bag for my pan this time to see if it would result in a smoother surface. It did seem to help a little bit but was a lot more messy and time consuming). Bake one tray at a time for 10 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.

My super 4 tier cooling rack from Lakeland is another story

5. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Vanilla Mascarpone Cream Filling

adapted from Martha Stewart

250g Mascarpone, chilled

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 cup double cream

1 tbs vanilla

1. Beat the double cream in a small bowl until stiff peaks form. Stir the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla together until combined. Gently fold the double cream in to the mascarpone mixture. Refrigerate if not using straight away.

2. Pipe or spread approximately 1-2 tablespoons of filling on a the inside of one pie and sandwich with another pie. Store in an airtight container. I kept mine refrigerated and removed 20 minutes before eating.

You can also check it out here.

· cake, holidays, Valentine's Day, whoopie pies

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

These are the last of the pumpkin posts for awhile now! I had some extra from when I made the Pumpkin Pie Candy Cups and didn't want to throw it away. These are really nice. I made a maple frosting for the middle.

Including these whoopie pies I made 6 pumpkin based desserts. That's a lot of pumpkin! A quick recap Pumpkin Pie with Crunchy Pecan Topping, Mini Pumpkin Pies, Pumpkin Pie Candy Cups, Pumpkin Cake Donuts and Pumpkin Cupcakes

Pumpkin Whoopie

adapted from Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbs cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp all spice

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/2 cups pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt into a small bowl.

3. In a large bowl beat together the brown sugar and butter on low speed until combined. Add the pumpkin and then the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla and beat until combined.

4. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated.

5. Using an ice cream scoop, drop the batter onto the baking sheets spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake one at a time for 15 minutes or until cake is firm to the touch. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing and cool completely before filling.

Maple Cream Filling

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

2 cups icing sugar

1 tbs milk

2 tbs maple syrup

1/8 tsp maple extract (if you can find it)

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter on low until creamy, add the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until incorporated. Add the milk, maple syrup and extract and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.

· pumpkin, whoopie pies

Malteser Whoopie Pies

Apparently today (October 14) is National Dessert Day! I've never made a malted anything before and this is the first time I've actually bought Ovaltine. I do like Maltesers though.

Maltesers are the same as Whoopers in the US. I really liked the filling in these. I started rolling the edges in crushed Maltesers but they weren't really staying.

This worked way better! I put some filling on and then dipped it in the bowl of crushed Maltesers. It has the same look but with more chocolate! It also stopped the filling from sliding out the sides. The picture at the top was rolled.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie

adapted from Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tbs baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature

4 tbs vegetable shortening

1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk (I used soy with 1 tbs apple cider vinegar)

For same recipe with more photos click here.

1. Preheat oven to 375 F/190 C and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl.

3. In a large bowl beat with a electric mixer the butter, shortening and brown sugar on low speed until combined. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes.

4. Add half the flour mixture and half of the milk to the batter and beat on low until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining flour mixture and 1/2 cup of milk and beat until completely combined.

5. Using a spoon (I used my cookie scoop), drop 1 tbs of batter onto the baking sheets, spacing each scoop 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time (I did 2 at a time) for 10 minutes each, or until the pies spring back when pressed gently. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool on the sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Malteser Filling

adapted from Whoopie Pies

Ingredients

4 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature

1 3/4 cup icing sugar

4 tbs Ovaltine powder

3 tbs whipping cream (I used soy cream)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup Maltesers

1. In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar on low speed until combined.

2. Add the Ovaltine powder, cream and vanilla and beat until smooth about 3 minutes.

3. Crush the Maltesers in a food processor and put in a bowl. Spread some filling on one cake dip in the crushed Maltesers and place another cake on top.

· chocolate, whoopie pies

Archive HOT

Real Food Festival 2011

Royal Wedding Whoopie Pies

Cake Pops at Harrods

Cake Pops & Whoopie Pies at Starbucks

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Malteser Whoopie Pies

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