I have not been baking or blogging the past few weeks as I was getting married and took some time off with so many friends and family in London for the celebrations. This is my wedding cake, decorated simply with fresh peonies – because it is not so easy to get one’s own wedding cake made and 130 hand decorated biscuits finished before the wedding as I discovered! The small shoe on top was on my great grandparents wedding cake 85 years ago, complete with glue where it has been stuck back together at some point! Photos by our good and very talented friend, Rob Ruttenberg.

Photo: By The Make Lounge

I am very excited to be teaching some classes at the wonderful Make Lounge in Islington on Tuesday 7 July and Wednesday 29 July. I have had many requests over recent months for lessons or people asking where they can learn a bit more so they can make special and beautiful cupcakes at home for their friends and family. For full details and to book your place, go to The Make Lounge site here. See you there!

]]> http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/upcoming-cupcake-decorating-classes-at-the-make-lounge/feed/ 2 lavenderbakery cupcakes http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/underground-tea-with-ms-marmite-lover-and-crumpet-recipe/ http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/underground-tea-with-ms-marmite-lover-and-crumpet-recipe/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 00:08:48 +0000 lavenderbakery http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/?p=609 ]]>

The underground tea on Sunday was a crazy day filled with lovely people; friends and friends of friends, a beautiful baby, people who came through Twitter – Porridge lady, Amanda and her friend ZaZa, Chocolate tour Jen and Sara and her daughter of the Cricket family blog. There was family too  – Ms Marmite lover’s mother is a very sweet and interesting lady and was there making sandwiches and generally helping out as was Ms. M’s daughter who had the inspired idea of dunking crumpets in tea. My almost husband designed the menus, helped set up and serve and he even wore a top hat for most of the day.

One of the reasons it was special is that quite often I bake and decorate and don’t always get to see people enjoying the cakes I make, or talking about them – or socialising over a slice or two! So it was really nice to have that feedback and to see how quickly the fresh strawberry and cream filled Victoria sponge disappeared and how pleasantly surprised people were by the lavender cake. It was also nice to work with someone, to turn over ideas and to see what can be done with an Aga, some enthusiasm, great ingredients and a large living room in Kilburn.

Besides the mini lemon and lime tarts, which I really, really like  (see Bellaphon’s blog post and beautiful pictures of them here) the highlights of the day for me were the crumpets (see recipe at bottom of the post) and Ms Marmite Lover’s savoury tartlets, especially the blue cheese ones – which she gives the recipe for on her blog.

The other great result of doing the underground tea was the opportunity to try out some recipes not previously attempted – the Madeleines need some work (but the tins are beautiful!) but the crumpets were such a hit and it would never have occurred to me to try and make them ordinarily. They were especially good served hot with salted butter but also good cold! This recipe I found online, via Skye Gyngell and Bill Granger and  with a bit of trial and error, it worked well (the temperature of the pan needs to be fairly high to get them cooked through rather than stodgy) Egg rings are absolutely necessary – and heating them in the pan before pouring in the batter is also a good idea (thanks to Shunafish for that tip!)

Cupcakes and menu.

The beautiful Aga.

After the tea.

My almost husband assembling a cake stand before the tea.

Creme Patisserie on the Aga – a last minute idea to fill remaining mini tart cases – which we then forgot to top with strawberries and serve!

Lavender shortbreads and Matcha shortbreads on a vintage cake plate.

The tea guests.

Crumpets!

Crumpet recipe:

Tip: If you have time, make clarified butter to cook the crumpets and to brush the egg rings with.

Makes 16

For the crumpets

350ml/12fl oz whole milk
11/2tsp sugar
7g/2/3oz dried yeast
375g/12oz plain flour
A pinch of salt
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the crumpets, pour the milk into a pan and heat until blood temperature. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle over the sugar and dried yeast and stir. Allow to stand for 10 minutes, until the milk starts to froth and bubble.

Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the milk and beat with electric beaters until smooth. Cover in clingfilm and stand in a warm place until doubled in volume (about 11/2 hours). Mix the bicarbonate of soda with 200ml (7fl oz) water. Pour into the batter and beat. Place a pan over medium to high heat and brush with butter. Grease two metal rings and place in the pan until hot.

Spoon two tablespoons of batter inside each ring and cook for 5-6 minutes, reduce the heat if they start to brown too quickly on the bottom. We started them off on the hotter plate of the Aga and then moved them over to the cooler one to finish cooking. The base should be golden and crunchy and the surface covered in bubbles. Once the top of the crumpet appears set but still looks raw, flip over and cook the other side. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

]]> http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/underground-tea-with-ms-marmite-lover-and-crumpet-recipe/feed/ 0 lavenderbakery the-underground-tea-victoriana-menu-3-may-20091 menu and cupcakes cimg8696 after the tea cimg8721 cimg8702 matcha shortbread during the tea crumpets http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/wedding-cupcakes-with-green-swirls/ http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/wedding-cupcakes-with-green-swirls/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 18:45:24 +0000 lavenderbakery http://lavenderbakery.wordpress.com/?p=600 ]]>

Cupcakes with swirls have become one of the more popular designs. This order, for a wedding in London, was five different flavours of cupcake – caramel, apple, chocolate mud, caramel mud and chocolate with vanilla buttercream.

There were butterflies everywhere this week! There is a fabulous exhibition opening at the Natural History Museum in London tomorrow until September, I’m going to go and have a look and admire the real thing!

I am so excited about this. I stumbled upon Ms Marmite Lover via Twitter where some of the London food bloggers had mentioned going to her new restaurant – which is Underground in so far as she runs it from home and the customers come through word of mouth and eat what she decides to cook (which is fabulous) in her living room. The press have picked it up – see Guardian article here and there are others happening in London. And we are going to be doing a tea together on Sunday 3rd May.

Photos are from a practice baking session Ms Marmite Lover and I did – using her lovely Aga.

What made it special the night my partner and I went along for dinner, besides the freshly prepared and delicious food, was the warmth that flowed from the kitchen – Ms M is curious, engaging and a great cook and it was a fantastic experience – and so, we have decided to collaborate on a Sunday afternoon Tea – with crumpets, madeleines, savoury tarts, scones, tea and of course cake. Come with your crochet, come in a hat  – but do come, meet Miss M, meet some random Londoners and eat some cake (hopefully in the sunshine on the terrace!!)

Menu here

Miss Marmite Lover’s blog post about our baking session here

Buy tickets here – concessions and children’s tickets available.

See you there,

Michelle x

For Emma, from her very nice friends! Raspberry with vanilla buttercream.

I was very excited by these cupcakes (chocolate mud cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes) – the needles and thread are very fragile, mini royal icing sculptures!

For an event at The Make Lounge, Islington.