Sarah's Cupcake

Its was my colleague Sarah's 30th birthday last monday so i made her this girly giant cupcake. The colour hasn't come out so well on these photos but the buttercream lcing was a nice pale lilac colour with some lilac pearlescent sprinkles over it. I also used pastel sprinkle and silver dragees.

Spooky Lunch

 another halloween theme bento- chicken katsudon with spooky cheese and nori shapes. yummy and warm for a cold October day.

Autumn Leaves

Again, I took some inspiration from the weather and yum yum bento box to make these autumn leaf friends. This box contains pasta bolognese, cheese leaves, a fresh salad, and a a berry mix. 

I do love when the leaves are on the ground, and they are dry underfoot like crispy corn flakes.

Mushroom Friends

As it has been very damp this autumn, there has been an abundance of mushrooms around. There's also been some programmes on tv recommending foraging and picking wild mushrooms, which has led to quite a bit of work at my workplace (we give poisons advice to healthcare professionals). There has also been an alert from the HPA warning people to be very careful if picking wild mushrooms. So with that in mind, I thought I'd do a mushroom bento... a safe one though. It's from Yum-yum bento box.

the happy mushrooms are made from cheese and salami with nori faces. The bento also contains some tomato prawn noodles, some crispy courgettes and green beans with courgette.

Shopping Cute

I've had the day off work today so I took the opporunity to get my nails done (they've been left in a right state as they haven't had any attention for at least a month, and i attempted to keep them longer than usual which didn't quite work). Anyway, my fab nail lady Nicola advised to get Jessica GELeration nails rather than my usual tips and acrylic. They seem really fab, take much less time to apply, and are really versatile, and come in a range of great colours. Today I chose this lovely purple, which we think should be called 'Cadbury chocolate wrapper purple'

I've also been shopping this afternoon- it seems like a long time since I've had a nice little wander around the shops, and I've picked up some lovely cute things:

Look at these cute badges that I got from Gaf, sure to make any bag or jacket beautiful.

Well of course I popped into paperchase to see what was available there. I've been after a lunch bag for a while, to fit a bento plus fruit, cutlery and chopsticks etc in. And then of course I couldn't resist the set of four boxes and matching fork and spoon set!

More Cupcakes

Phew, I made three more batches of the golden syrup cupcakes last night, as they got a very good reception when i took some to work last week. I've decorated this lot slightly differently:

With some silver balls and pink, orange and white stars. I didn't learn from last time and ended up finishing off the buttercream then feeling a wee bit sickly afterwards. I took a batch into the salon when i got my nails done, where my cupcakes are always highly appreciated, and the consensus there seemed to be that these were my best yet out of the selection I've brought them in the past.

Spanish Fabada recipe

Hi all,

Whilst on our hols in Spain we had something called fabada as part of a tapas meal and it was delicious, so i thought I'd give it a go when I got home. Fabada is a lovely, rich stew made of white beans and chorizo, morcilla (black pudding) and pancetta (definitely not one for vegetarians!). It doesn't make for the most attractive of meals but it's perfect for cold, dark nights!

Its one of those meals that takes a short time to prepare, but quite a long time to cook, but it's actually quite easy to make. Here is the recipe:

500g dried cannelini beans
250g black pudding
250g chorizo
250g pancetta
pinch of saffron
2 bay leaves

1. Soak the beans in water overnight.
2. Put the beans in a large pan (or put half into two pans), just cover with fresh water, and bring to the boil.
3. Meanwhile, chop the chorizo, plack pudding and pancetta into small cubes.
4. Add the saffron, black pudding, chorizo and pancetta into the pan, along with the bay leaves, (add more water to just cover the ingredients in the pan if need be)
5. Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes, then skim off the froth from the top of the stew.
6. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours until the beans are tender. Make sure to stir occasionally and add water to keep the beans covered so they don't split.
7. Once the beans are tender, increase the heat and stir continuoously until the stew reaches the desired consistency. It should be relatively dry and stodgy, but you could make it more liquid if you would like.

These amounts made two lots big enough for a main course for two people, and a smaller amount which is perfect for use in bento lunches!

Another Halloween bento

I continued with the halloween theme for today's lunch:

This bento contains crackers and pumpkin shaped cheese with cucumber face, chilli and coriander prawns, some chicken roll, and a cucumber ghostie, then the upper layer contains pretzels, edamame and pea salad, olives, pickled onions, celery, and a quorn sausage roll.

First bento in a while!

Hurrah! back into the world of bento, and i noticed that many of those in the bento blogging world are making their halloween themed bentos now.

Here's my first attempt at a halloween bento:

My lunch for tomorrow contains an edamame and pea salad with a small pot of dressing, jigsaw sammies, tomato skewers, a quorn sausage roll, and some spooky mini babybel... Alright it's not the most inventive bento in the world, and its nowhere near as good as the other folks, but i'm going to try and go supplies shopping to get some cutters and things during the week. The hub's lunch is similar:

We also have separate small bentos filled with beef dhansak which i have made today... I really will get round to posting my curry recipes at some point... honest!

By the way, we are having a halloween buffet at work, instigated by me, so i'll need to make some impressive frightening feast foods- does anyone have any ideas?

Golden Delicious

I do love golden syrup- it looks like its made out of sunshine and it appears to obey its own laws of physics. So what better than Golden Syrup cupcakes?

I came across this recipe on facebook- its on the Tate and Lyle website and you can find it here. I had one of those wonderful moments in baking- The moment i took the cupcakes out of the oven i knew i had timed it just right and they were spot on, so i was feeling quite smug.

They had risen nicely, were a lovely golden brown, and they all seemed to be a nice size. So i added the buttercream (which was absolutely delicious - i made myself feel quite ill by eating the leftovers) and a couple of sprinkles and they look absolutely fab i think, although the colour scheme of the yellow buttercream and white, blue, and green sprinkles doesn't really go with the cases. I haven't actually tried one yet as they are all waiting to be taken to work where they will no doubt undergo rigorous testing by my colleagues- I'll let you know the responses, and in the meantime, why not give them a go?

 

Twenty20!

hurrah! just noticed I'm up to 20 followers now! thank you all very much for your time in checking my little corner of the blogosphere...

Sunny holidays

The hubs and I got back last week from a lovely sunny holiday in Benalmedina, Southern Spain. Whilst a lot of the area is very 'Englishified' we had some aboslutely delicious food, including lots of fresh fish and seafood paella. Oh and my lovely big ice cream!

Needless to say, we returned from a week of beautiful sunshine non-stop, to grey cloudy rainy britain. Still, at least its nearly christmas.