Our second Bake Box arrived through the post a few weeks ago and I was absolutely delighted that it included loads of goodies that I actually wanted to use. It was themed "bear necessities" or I suppose more aptly, "a teddybear's picnic" with a teddybear silicon cake mould, toadstool and owl cookie cutters, cherry cutters and a lattice pastry roller. Do I need any of these? No. Do I want to use them right now and produce millions of picnic snacks? Yes please!


We were invited to a friend's house for a playdate and tea, so Isla and I made a quick teddybear cake using the silicone cake mould included in the box. When I say quick, I really do mean it - a toddler's attention span is not best suited to intricately-decorated cakes. This bear looks a bit rough and ready but he was lovingly received and delicious to eat.


The recipe included with the box was super quick and we made it the afternoon before our playdate, leaving it to sit overnight. It was too much for the mould so it spilled over during baking, and needed neatening up before demoulding. The next morning we spent half an hour decorating it using a quick buttercream in "light chocolate" and "more chocolate" flavours. We used buttons for eyes and a nose, and giant red peanut M&Ms for his bowtie.

The end result was an instant hit with Isla who insisted on pointing at the cake and chanting ted-dee, ted-dee. If you ask her what a teddy does, she responds by giving herself an enormous hug and saying awwwww. This girl.


I really like this mould and will definitely use it again, ideally spending more time on the decorating so the poor bear doesn't look so frazzled. The recipe was good too, and tasted better the next day after cutting.

We've moved, and the internet has finally been connected up. I'm back online! I have really only missed the internet because I work online... but it's nice to have that information-at-your-fingertips superpower on call again.

A carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Date and caramel scones.

Sometimes it's really hard to let go of things you've had for a really long time.

I've had this blog for two years, now. Even before that, I was running bakercourt on another server run by Vox who sadly had to close down their blog service unexpectedly over night. Our entire Vox community was without home. So, we packed up our bags, made our way around the virtual world, and some of us found our way to Blogger. It has been a good home. There have been ups and downs, but mostly it's been a good. We're here to stay.

And, as long as Bakercourt has been hosted by Blogger, I've had the same template.

Until now. It didn't make any sense having someone else's template on my blog - especially as I work as a designer in my "day job". So, I designed to give the old blogger a brand new dress to see in 2013.

The old orange flowers have been replaced by a lighter, brighter theme that shows off some of my favourite drawings from over the years. For now, it's a simple little blog with a pretty new frock that may or may not change. It's a cheery place. I like coming here.

There has been one teeny tiny hiccough in the move: all of my photos in my posts have jumped to the left. Just like that. But it's okay, we'll get through it. I'll go put the kettle on.

And to leave you with a bit of spring cheer, here's Miriam's amazing recipe for Marshmallow Cheese Cake. It is The. Most. Amazing. Cake. Ever. And, it tastes like birthdays.

Miriam's Pink Emergency* Marshmallow Cheese Cake


Base:
90g butter
185g digestive biscuits, crushed

Filling: 
375g pink and white marshmallows, cut into small pieces
90ml milk
500g low fat soft cheese
6 tsp lemon juice
250ml whipping cream

To decorate: 

6 pink marshmallows and 6 white marshmallows, halved (optional)

Method: 

Grease and line a 22.5cm (9") round, loose bottomed cake tin. In a saucepan melt butter then stir in crushed biscuits. Mix well and press into base of cake tin.

Put marshmallows into a saucepan with milk and melt over a low heat, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool.

In a bowl beat cheese and lemon juice. Stir in marshmallow mixture and blend until smooth. In a separate bowl, whip cream then fold into marshmallow mixture. Spoon over biscuit base and leave to set in fridge for 2-3 hrs.

To decorate, arrange halved marshmallows around edge of cheesecake (optional).

* The name is derived from the fact that the cheese cake started out life as a giant sheep cake which ahem fell over, and then needed to be remade into something else. The pink colour comes from adding hundreds and thousands to the mixture, which is then processed before pouring into the biscuit base. Thank you Miriam! I'm afraid we ate it all and forgot to photograph it, but I may make it this weekend and post a photograph if it lasts that long.

There is a funny TV advert that my family seems to have adopted as their motto. I can't remember what it advertised (frozen pre-cut veg, I think), but it aired in South Africa and it showed a group of older women knitting with a little girl sitting and asking questions. She asked, "Gran, what did you do when you were younger?". The older ladies, without batting an eyelid, say: "We cooked."

The little girl had a think about that, and, then she asked, "Yes, but what did you do for fun?"

The grandmothers looked at each other, thought for a second, and replied, "We baked."

When we're older our grandchildren will ask the same of us and I'm almost certain our answers will be the same (with knitting, quilting, etc. in there too). That's why whenever I catch up with my family on Skype we always exchange pleasantries and reports of the week with a chuckle and an exclamation of 'we baked!'.

And this weekend I baked.

















The EEWI ladies joined forces to bake up a storm for the Victoria Park Celebrates festival on Saturday. There was another sale scheduled for Sunday, so many of us whipped up a few extra goodies that were due to spill over for the next day and thank goodness we did: it was spectacularly busy inside our tea shop.






















The event had a 40s theme so there was bunting, stripes, and pearls aplenty. It was as if the cast of Mary Poppins had stepped out of the TV set and were enjoying a lazy morning in Victoria Park instead. The bandstand, above, was decorated with jolly bunting and had a lot of lovely acts on the go like singers, dancers and bands. It was a cold and wet day so most people gathered under their umbrellas and watched on cautiously, but it was generally quite a lot of fun and a lovely Saturday out.

















This is the view from within our tea shop tent. As you can see, the organisers were being quite ambitious with their beach chairs all set up in rows near the band stand!






















Inside things were heating up as the electricity man finally came to connect the urns and we could start serving tea and cakes. The EEWI has a wonderful collection of cake stands which come out for events like these - aren't they lovely?






















They look even better with cakes on them. I baked the night before and made vanilla cupcakes (the pink and white swirly ones in the picture above), generously-sized chocolate brownies with walnuts and pecans, and courgette cakes. After a whole night of baking I was too exhausted to get out the camera, and promptly forgot to photograph my wares the next morning too. Oops. Everything was delicious, I promise.

















The bad weather may have played in our favour a bit: everyone flocked to the tea shop selling hot tea, coffee and delicious cakes. And they were delicious. We had banana breads, chocolate cupcakes, exceptional chocolate millionaire shortbread, marzipan cake, marmalade slices, and more.

















Aside from tea and cake, and listening to the Charleston Duo, there was plenty of other things to do as well. A children's carousel turned giddily around, Make Do & Mend were in the tent next door organising brooch-making, children could take a closer look at bugs and specimens in another tent, and there were rides to be had too. The rickshaws were done up with festive floral accents, although the hooded-drivers lacked their 40s gear.

















And what would a 40s festival be without a horse-and-carriage?

As always with an EEWI event, a bit of hard work selling cakes, a lot of very good company, and a jolly Saturday indeed.

There are few things as wonderful as an unexpected call from a friend who lives 9000km away, and who has suddenly happened upon your local town for tea.

It is almost as if an impromptu tea date like this is filled with magic and the potential for all things wonderful. There's nothing a cup of tea can't cure, methinks. Or, in my case: a cappuccino with heart-swirled froth, served with a miniature ice cream.

















And, just in case you didn't notice it the first time (and because I was rather amused and delighted):

















Why, yes, that is a teeny tiny wafer cone filled with chocolate ice cream treats. This is, as you can tell, my second cup. The first one came with coffee-flavoured ice cream. Yum.

The lovely Anne and I met up at The Parlour at the amazing Fortnum and Mason's on Picadilly.

















F&M is a food-lover's heaven, with aged wooden shelves stacked up with treats and wonderful things like shortbread, fudge, biscuits, marmalade and suchlikes. They also do amazing homely things hampers, fabric pinboards, designer shower caps (!) and decadent soaps. While I'm on the topic, F&M are celebrating the Queen's Jubilee with all things British and wonderful, and I couldn't walk past the bottles of Majestic Marmalade without taking a photo. See what you think.






















Have a closer look. Do you see that the Majestic Marmalade has little floating bits of gold leaf in it? Majestic, indeed! But I digress.

The Parlour is a lovely tea-taking venue. It isn't too busy or too quiet, it is private enough for a cosy chat, and they have cake.

















This is their Sacher Torte, recommended by the charming waiter.

















And this is their Esterhazy Cake, which we chose because it was laden with hazelnuts and buttercream - who could resist?

We shared our cake and caught up - Anne was in London for the day with her brother who was on a business trip so we had the whole afternoon to ourselves. We spent hours browsing the F&M wares for inspiration and treats, and we made our way down Picadilly for a bit of browsing.

















Look! Heart cheese for Valentine's Day from Paxton & Whitfield Cheese Company. F&M is in an excellent location for a lovely afternoon, and it was the ideal location for our tea date. It's a bit pricier than the average tea shoppe, but I'd definitely recommend it for adding a bit of magic to an ordinary cuppa, especially if you have a few hours afterwards to enjoy the five floors of shopping and the amazing boutique shops nearby.

I've been a bit under the weather this week, with long hours of work and a terrible cold. So, what better way to cheer up a rainy day than with a batch of kisses? Of the baked variety, of course.



Here's another one of those amazing Women's Weekly Books (from Amazon, £3.90) that I seem to be using a bit as a baking bible at the moment. These recipes are really great, I haven't gone wrong with their recipes yet (touch wood, or, as my aunt Karin says, spit three times pah pah pah).
















So, back to the Kisses. They're a sort of sponge-cake-biscuit with a distinctly custardy taste - due, largely, to the custard powder you mix into the batter. The two spongey halves are sandwiched together with vienna cream. They're not as light as I thought they would be - imagine a rich custard sponge with a light sweet and creamy filling. You can easily eat three or four of these with a cup of coffee!
















The recipe is quite easy and comes together quickly, and I'd imagine you could adapt it to give them a citrus zing, or half-dip them in chocolate. I found that I baked them in batches because my baking trays weren't big enough. If you do that, let them cool a bit on the tray before you take them off - they'll hold their shape better. Also, leave the sandwiched kisses for a bit before eating so that the vienna cream sets for a better texture.

The recipe is available in the book, 100 Classic Cakes, and I found it online as well (here at RecipeFinder). I've copied the recipe below.

Kisses

Ingredients 
125g butter
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
¼cup (35g) self-raising flour
2/3 cup (100g) cornflour
¼cup (35g) custard powder 

Vienna cream 
60g butter
¾ cup (120g) icing sugar mixture
2 teaspoons milk

Note: this recipe makes about 40 cookies and can be prepared three days ahead. Kisses can be filled several hours before serving.

Method
Preheat oven to moderately hot (200°C). Lightly grease oven trays. Beat butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the egg and beat only until combined. Stir in sifted dry ingredients in two batches.

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm tube. Pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture, about 3cm apart, onto prepared oven trays. Bake in two batches in a moderately hot oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Loosen biscuits and cool on trays. Sandwich the cold biscuits with Vienna cream and dust with extra sifted icing sugar, if desired.

For the Vienna cream, beat butter until as white as possible. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar, then the milk; gradually beat in the remaining icing sugar.

Unfilled kisses suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.

Perhaps one of the things I love most about being home is being amongst people who love food. Not just my family, mind you, but South Africans in general. Everything happens around food: we socialise at food events like braais or afternoon teas, we get together for family dinners, and we dine at each other's houses with food that would make Come Dine With Me contestants weep. So, while we're on the topic, I thought I'd show you what I was spoilt with. Oh come on, just a little:

















Delicious Greek baklava dripping in syrupy goodness and flaky phyllo pastry, baked and served by my aunt Robyn.

















Another of Robyn's signature carrot cakes with cream cheese/lemon frosting and nuts.

















Chocolate Sponge Cake topped with chocolate rolls and white chocolate detail served at High Tea (it's an amazing coffee shop here).

There were cheesecakes and my mom's amazing chiffon cake, birthday cakes and cupcakes, home-baked biscuits and breads and not to mention the Thai Green Curry, Mexican Sweet Potato Crisps, South African burgers, Jamie Oliver's Satay Chicken and Lauriane's home-baked lasagne! There was all of this food happening and I was 9000km away from my kitchen! Ah well - I'm back now, and I'm completely inspired to cook up a storm. I hope you're ready for photographs!

Emma, my mother's other daughter, turned three last week. She's my half-sister; we're 23 years apart.



And, as no three-year-old's party is complete without the essential baked goods, we got stuck into the kitchen! Cue: a giant two-layered moist chocolate cake covered in buttercream.

















The problem with a cake like this is that it simply does not appeal to small children. If I were making it for adults I'd finish it off with white chocolate shaving rolls or chopped up chocolate whispers, but this is no ordinary cake: it's for a three-year old.

















You need Astros and edible glitter and icing and marshmallows. Astros, by the way UK, are the most amazing things ever! They're tiny little biscuit balls covered in chocolate and coated in candy. We stuck them into the cake around the outside to make it a bit more colourful and appealing.

















This is the top-view of the cake. That's Barney, by the way. It took us a really long time to make this cake and I was completely relieved when Emma screeched with delight, pointed and said, 'Narney!'. Job done.

















There were mini cupcakes too, of course, decorated with edible pearl glimmer balls, smarties, and edible stars. We baked them in edible cases (like ice-cream cones) and iced them with plain purple and yellow buttercream frosting.

















Isn't it festive? This year we had the party at Scallywags - a play place in Claremont filled with children's play things and a nice, big seating area for the parents too. It meant that we simply arrived with our things, set up, and let the staff serve coffee, tea and cakes and clean up afterwards too.

















This area is more for the smaller children, but, behind me is a jumping castle, a giant 'doll house' for the girls and a play castle for the boys. There are also heaps of dress-up things and the kids can help themselves (creating a lot of mess that you don't have to clean up).
















There was a lot of dressing up and running and playing and balloons and laughing. All good things. That's Emma on the left in purple with the butterfly face-painting. I'll show you a close-up soon. The face-painting wasn't great - a bit wonky and in all the wrong colours, but the children loved the novelty!



... and any party where two Spidermans (they can't possibly be Spidermen because there is only one Spiderman, you see), a dragon and a geisha get together and ride on a smiling giant bug - well, it's bound to be magical, isn't it?



Here's Emma again, looking extra cute and hard at play dressing up like a butterfly/geisha/birthday girl. It's tough being three.



The adults also had their own treats set aside in the chic little 'coffee shop' section of the play place where parents can sit down and have a latte while their kids become princesses and dragons and fire-fighters. I don't particularly enjoy scones (gasp, horror, I'm fully aware of what I'm saying!) but there were some anyway, purchased from the Scallywags bakery.



Yesterday I wrote about my wedding-dress-making-expert-baking-aunt Robyn. She baked this beeyootiful carrot cake that features all sorts of interesting bits and pieces inside including nuts and Turkish apricots. The icing is a sort of cream cheese frosting flavoured with a hint of lemon. It's delicious. I'm going to ask extra nicely if I can  have the recipe before I go back to my kitchen in London.

















The adults were also invited to eat from the children's table, if they liked, where they could eat crisps (Simba Twistees are amazing), cupcakes, small sweets, orange quarters and vienna cubes with rosa tomatoes.

















Needless to say it all went down very well! Emma was delighted with her Barney party, her cake, her friends and her purple balloon. The jumping castle was fantastic and the dress-up items were great too.

It makes me wonder - when do we stop having parties like these? Is it because our role models change? Our interests? Our friends? What if I want a Jane Austen themed party next year, with a Jane cake, bonnets and writing desks? Do they even make Jane Austen themed jumping castles?

My dear friend Lauriane has very kindly informed me of the existence of the hilarious and must-have Jane Austen action figure:

We're on the right path! Now, what would a Jane Austen cake look like?