Giveaway Mr Kipling Classics Hamper

If you saw yesterdays post all about Mr Kiplings new range of cake slices and it made you rather peckish than your in luck. Today I am giving away a hamper with a selection of Mr Kiplings classic cakes. Now you can have your own #breakforcake time. 

 HOW TO ENTER:

- Enter via the rafflecopter below

- Leave a comment below answering the question in the rafflecopter 

- The more entries you complete the better the chance of winning

T&C

- This competition will close on 24th May 2016 at 12.00am GMT 

- The winner will be chosen at random and notified via email, twitter or facebook

- Open to UK residents ONLY

- You must be a UK resident and over 18

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mr Kipling Exceedingly Good Cake Slices

Sometimes as a SAHM (stay at home mum) I want to have my cake and eat it. 

Being a SAHM means I'm always busy if i'm not playing with Blake, going to groups or just getting out and about I'll be at home doing the housework and/or blogging. 

Come 6 o clock when Stuart gets in from work i'm more than ready to pass over the parenting duties on to him. Once Blake is in bed I like to be able to settle down for the evening with a sweet treat. I also get the odd sweet treat during the day time which is tricky when you have a child taking bites out of the cake you have been looking forward to having. 

Mr Kipling is currently encouraging the nation to #BreakForCake with the launch of its Exceedingly Good Slices .Designed for those of us who want a sweet snack to help break up the day, but don’t want the guilt that so often goes with it, these golden oaty cakes combine great taste with wholesome ingredients such as cranberry, orange and coconut.

The cake slices are individually wrapped so they are perfectly portioned the Slices are available in Cranberry & Orange and Dark Chocolate & Coconut - costing just £1.49 per pack of four.

Being a lover of Mr Kipling's cakes I was thrilled to try out their new cake slices and am very impressed the flavors are such a great combination. The cakes are also filling which is great as you only need one to feel full. They are such a great alternative morning or afternoon snack with no guilt due to their wholesome ingredients. 

Have you tried the new exceedingly good cake slices?

Fathers day with sendmecakes

Fathers Day is just under two weeks away now and they say that the best way to a mans heart is through his stomach. 

Well I was sent some yummy cakes from sendmecakes which make the perfect gift.  Whether for  Birthday & Christmas Presents, Mother's & Father's Day,  Easter, Afternoon Tea , Picnics & Parties , Saying Sorry,  Thank you , Good Luck,  Get Well Soon , New Home  ,Thinking of You ... Or to treat yourself!

Sendmecake are a unique letterbox cake boutique. 

Bringing you delicious cake and bake slice boxes that are made to order in the heart of Kent using local and British ingredients.

The cakes have no fancy fondant icing, no buttercream and no "fake food" ingredients. 

The cakes stay moist for days and are full of flavor because every one of them has a fruit or veg, herbs and spices and only natural extracts to keep them that way.

I was sent a spring variety box which retails at £22 for the purpose of this post. 

The box contained nine yummy slices of cakes and bakes in seven wonderfully yummy flavors. 

- Chocolate and Cherry Jam sandwich

- Lemon and Strawberry Jam sandwich 

- Orange and Poppy seed drizzle 

- Kent Apple and Almond cake

Gran's Lavender shortbread

- coconut flapjack 

and

- Chocolate Brownie. 

I absolutely enjoyed every flavor and feel that this would make an awesome gift especially if you are a cake lover like myself. 

I feel that Dad's would love this treat for Fathers Day and Mum's and children will hope Daddy will share

a slice or two with them. 

Check out sendmecakes seasonally changing and growing range of different and better cakes. 

Order for asap, for a future date or they can be perfectly frozen in their box until required. 

Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Cake

When I got my October Degustabox I was thrilled to see some yummy items that I could have fun baking withso today we finally got around to making a Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Cake. 

With the help from my lovely assistant (my hubby) we made a tasty cake using two of the ingredients from this months Degustabox the Toasted Marshmallow creme and the Dr Oetker coco powder.

Ingredients:

-          225g of butter

-          225g casting sugar

-          X4 medium eggs

-          175g of self-raising flour

-          - 50g of coco powder

- Half a pot of toasted marshmallow creme

 - 10 squares of baking chocolate 

1.

 Pre-heat oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 20cm (8 inch) sandwich tins.

2.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and if the mixture starts to curdle, add a little flour.

3.

Fold in the remaining flour and the cocoa powder with a metal spoon.

4.

Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for approx. 25 minutes until golden brown and firm to the  touch. Remove from oven and leave to cool before turning out onto a cooling rack.

5. 

Spread half a pot of the Marshmallow Creme over one of the layers of cake 

and then place the other layer carefully on top. 

6. 

Melt the cooking chocolate in the microwave for 3 minutes stirring every 30 seconds. 

7

Spread the melted chocolate all over the top of the cake

and pop in the fridge to cool.

Amore Bakery

I've decided that it is time to start writing more about companies in my local area. 

I am all for buying locally and promoting local businesses these days and

am planning on helping the little shops around my area this year when it comes

to buying gifts, a treat for myself or a meal out. 

The first little company I wanted to tell you about is Amour Bakery. 

I recently won a competition to win a range of bakery goodies from them

which prompted me with the idea of telling you all about more of the

wonderful businesses around Leighton Buzzard. 

Amore Bakery is a family run business that makes and sells cakes and other baking goodies

to the trade and public. 

They also run cake making and decorating classes. 

Amore bakery does deliveries not only in Leighton Buzzard

but also around Milton Keynes and Aylesbury. 

I was thrilled to win there competition last week and when my prize arrived 

I couldn't have been happier. 

As you can see my prize was a huge selection of goodies

my favourite had to be the Easter cupcakes though. 

I also gave my mum half the goodies in the box so that she could have a lovely

treat with a cup of coffee. 

Do you tend to buy local?

Bakers Toolkit Food Colouring Pastes

 Bakers Toolkit  is founded by apprentice 2013 runner up Luisa Zissman.

Not letting becoming a runner up get her down, Luisa tried again and gained

investment for Bakers Toolkit and started working day and night with her team

to get the business up and running. 

Bakers Toolkit was born on passion for baking and cake decorating 

They want everyone out there who loves caking to be able to create

professional looking cakes in their kitchen. 

Bakers Toolkits aim is to get their products stocked in all 

reputable cake shops, kitchen shops, craft shops, supermarkets and more

to make sure that amateur and professional bakers  are using their products.

I was sent sent some of their professional Food colouring pastes 

which are pretty awesome. 

I got a pack of 5 different coloured pastes to try out. 

The five colours are : 

- Poppy Red

- Yellow

- Grass Green

- Blue

and

- Pink 

The paste is like no other food colouring as it comes in a handy squeezable bottle

for no mess application. 

You can add any amount to create soft pastel shades up to a bold and vibrant colour.

The pastes are ideal for icing, butter creams and sponge. 

So I am going to have loads of fun baking this year so keep an eye

out for more posts on what I make with this fab product! 

Ways to celebrate your Anniversary

On February 4th 2014 me and Stuart will have been married for two wonderful years. 

We married in a local church and then had a reception at a hall not too far away. 

We had a 4 o clock wedding, with approx 50 friends and family members and 

then a lovely meal and then the snow decided to come making

people leave before the evening had really begun. 

Still we had a wonderful day as it was about us making our vows and

spending the rest of our life together. 

I have decided to compile a list of ideas for celebrating your anniversary 

whether you have been together 1 year or for 50 years. 

1. Write an anniversary letter 

this year I am going to give my hubby a personal letter 

2. Bake an anniversary cake together

I love this idea we can have this as dessert instead of having one when we have a meal out

3. Have a meal out at your favourite restaurant and dress up 

of course the frugal bit of this would be that you order a starter and a main

or just a main to save you £'s and still have a good time. 

4. Have a 2 meals for £x meal deal thing

We will most likely do this for valentines this year however it's a fab

idea if you want to save more £'s instead of going out. 

Most supermarkets do these deals in the past we have got them 

from Tesco, Morrison, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose.

5. Do joint gifts

This year for cotton we are doing a joint gift which after

our anniversary I'll show you.

6. Enjoy a lovely breakfast together 

Make something that you don't normally have that often 

such as scrambled eggs and salmon or pancakes. 

7. Go out for coffee and cake

If your a fan of Costa or Starbucks why not enjoy a mid morning or afternoon

coffee and cake. 

8. Go for an evening walk and watch the sunset

I love the idea of going to a lake we have in our area for a walk and seeing the sun setting.

9. Recreate your first date

10. Play your first dance song

11. Go through your wedding album together

12. Have an annual wedding anniversary photo of you both 

13. If you can afford to go away for the week/weekend or evening just for the night

14. Go and see a show at the theatre 

I hope you like my ideas if you can think of anymore I would love to know :)

Baking with Sugar and Crumbs

If you read my 2014 goals post last week you would know that one of 

my goals is to bake more this year. 

I recently received some lovely range of natural icing sugar and cocoa powders 

from the company Sugar and Crumbs. 

I was sent the following: 

- Chocolate Cherry Coca Powder

- Coconut icing 

- White Chocolate icing

and

- White Chocolate and Raspberry icing.  

The pack I was sent also contained tried and tested recipes including how to use

the icing to make butter-cream. 

As you can see the packaging is very pink and although pink is one of my favourite colours

I feel that it made the whole range of Sugar and Crumbs packaging look as if it was

aimed mainly at women. 

Which I'm not a fan of.

So I decided to whip up a cake yesterday evening using a traditional sponge cake recipe. 

I then went on to trying out the White Chocolate and Raspberry flavoured icing to make 

up butter-cream as directed. 

As recommended if you don't like a strong flavour use half of the flavoured icing sugar 

and half of your usual plain icing sugar. 

I was rather excited as I do love White Chocolate and Raspberry in general

and I also decided to add some red colouring to make it a lovely pale pink colour

since we had some in. 

Once my cake was completed and ready for eating me and Stuart tucked into a slice.

We both thought the same thing with this that it was just too sweet and overpowering

even though we used half of the recommend amount of flavoured icing. 

So if you are to choose the White Chocolate and Raspberry flavoured icing you

may want to change the quantity slightly and use less of the flavoured icing 

so that its not too sweet and sickly tasting.

Review: Bakerdays Christmas Cake

Bakerdays  recently sent me a one of their 

Christmas cakes to show you. 

You can read my review here of there chocolate valentines cake. 

I love Christmas and can't believe its only 2 pay-days away already 

this year has gone extremely fast for me. 

Now Bakerdays let me choose which design I wanted from their 

32 different designs, so choosing one was pretty tough going

as they all look extremely lovely. 

When my letterbox cake arrived I was excited to see how

it had turned out as I loved how my last one looked and tasted. 

It arrived in it's usual box and tin but with a little Christmas card

and a cracker this time. 

As you can see I chose to go with the cute penguin design. 

The fruit cake its self had plenty of fruit and was moist 

and crumbly and certainly one of my favourite Christmas 

cakes I have eaten to date. 

The icing was perfectly sweet and not sickly 

and the marzipan was lovely too. 

 

Pros:

- Loads of different designs

- Great price £14.99 for the letter box cake

- Very fruity, crumbly and moist

-  not overly sweet or sickly

- can be personalised

- makes a lovely little gift

Cons:

None I can think of this cake is overall very yummy indeed.