Hog roast, sugar paste flowers, Graze boxes and (sort of) red velvet cupcakes.

Howdy friends!!!
Hope you're all well and enjoying the deluge of rain we've been getting the last few days in Blighty.
I've had a busy few days with work, job hunting and on Tuesday one of my best friends had a car accident and so I've been visiting her (hence the red velvet cupcakes).
Bank holiday Monday saw a rare beautiful day and a classic village party. We were celebrating the birthdays of two of our residents, both vets, and for the occasion we whacked out the village spit roaster (yep, we have one. Along with a barbecue, a bar and many marquees. We're always up for a party). We had a pig going in circles while many, many jugs of Pimms went round.







There was about eight or nine different pasta salads that different villagers had made (I did my pesto and tomato mix) along with some really tasty sausages and lots of rolls. It was a really lovely afternoon/evening. Then the deserts were wheeled out. Two of everything - chocolate and amaretto torte, Turkish flan (the one that looks like creme caramel) and a gorgeous sponge layered with fresh strawberries and cream. Someone had also made a really dense, chocolaty fudge cake. Being the dedicated foodie I am, I tried them all, but only so I could tell you all how amazing they were.



So that was Monday. Tuesday was a pretty slow day. I'd been to a cake decorating demonstration where I'd seen how to make a rose out of sugar paste and I've been itching to have a go since. I picked up some red sugar paste from Sainsbury's for a reasonable price. What you do is take a lump of sugar paste and roll it into a sausage. Then cut this sausage into 12 equal sections (easiest way is to fold it in half to get two, then each of those in half to make 4 and then cut those 4 into 3). Roll each little section into a ball. Take a plastic wallet and cut off the side and the bottom so that it flaps open like a book. Put your little paste balls onto one side of the folder and bring over the other side. Using the side of your thumb, gently press down on the first ball about half way down, stretching the paste until it looks like a petal - don't make it too thin on the edges though. As you can see, my first attempts were a smidge wonky and way too thin as you'll see on my finished rose.



So flatten out all your petals. Next take a small lump of paste, similar to the ones used for the petals, roll it into a ball and then place it into the palm of your hand and using your finger, roll a cone onto one side of the ball (it should resemble an ice cream cone with a scoop inside).
Now to build the rose. Take a petal and hold it half way up the cone, leaving the scoop exposed. Wrap it around and cone and admire the beginnings of a rose bud. Put the next petal over the join on the first petal, and the third petal over the join of the second, leaving one side of the petal open. Slide the fourth petal into the third, the fifth into the fourth and so on. After six or so petals have been added, start to fold back the tips of the petals so it looks like it's opening up as once you've completed the rose it's difficult to get at the inner petals. Keep adding more petals, folding out and pinching as you go to create little folds in the flower. And there you are, a sugar paste rose.



Mine looks a bit square and my petals were too thin so I couldn't get them to hold much shape but for a first ever attempt I'm pretty happy with it! I'll do more practicing and I'll show you all my new efforts so you can see how I get on.
I just want to make a quick pit-stop here to mention my latest foodie experience  I've been getting Graze boxes for a few months now and I still haven't tried all of the available snacks. I thought now would be a good time to mention them though as they've just launched their guilt free high tea! A little square of cakey deliciousness and a tea bag!! They are so good I had to talk about them. (you get your first box for free!! You get four different little punnets of snacks which slide easily into your bag if you're on the go or will sit patiently in the cupboard for when the hunger pangs strike. Go to graze.com to get yours!!) My personal favorites are the summer berry compote with wholemeal shortbread dunkers, Boston baguettes with smokey BBQ relish and I have a whole lotta love for the chilli and lime pistachios.
I got the call from my friend's dad to say she'd been in an accident while I was eating dinner. I've never really been in a crisis before so I don't know how I'd handle it, and to be honest this wasn't really a crisis (for me anyway). All I had to do was call our other friend, who Abs had been on her way to see, to tell her Abs had been in a crash. Nikki already had a feeling something had happened as Abs had told her she's be twenty minutes an hour and a half ago.
The crash made the local papers and so in an effort to cheer her up, I made Abs some red velvet cupcakes. Now, I say they're red velvet but in actual fact it was just a standard chocolate sponge mix with some red food colouring (Dr Oetker Natural Red) - real red velvet cakes contain buttermilk and a bubbling mix of bicarbonate of soda and cider vinegar which helps the cake rise as well as keep its glorious red colour.
So I made my cake mix and I added a small bag of chocolate chips. Spoon a desert spoon of batter into each of your cupcake cases and back for twenty minutes at 180oC (160oC fan assisted) and check them with the old skewer test.
Leave them to cool for five or ten minutes before taking them out of the tin to cool completely.
Now again, real red velvet cakes are topped with cream cheese frosting (one of my favourite things ever.) but I didn't have any cream cheese and I needed to get these cakes done. I made a chocolate buttercream with a squirt of Dr Oetker Natural Red and, with no time for piping, I spooned and spread over the icing.

I got text from Abs later in the evening once I'd got back from hers saying how tasty they were so I can assume the lack of proper ingredients didn't matter so much.So that's that. Now as you can see I've had a few days off the Slim Fast but I assure you that today I'm back on it (I had a blissful banana shake this morning) and I'm still on my mission to lose two stone by my graduation in July.
I'll be back blogging soon, hopefully bringing more low-fat, family friendly breakfasts, lunches and dinners but for now, enjoy having a go at the sugar roses, whip up some cupcakes and please, please, please give me some comments so I can see how you're getting on!!
Much love, bloggers!! xxx

Grad Ball and its food

Hello my beauties, or as my new Russian friends say, Здравствуйте мои красотки!! 

I told you I'd just finished university in my very first blog and I had my graduation ball last weekend. It was held at Silverstone Race track, home of the British Grand Prix, and as a die hard F1 fan it was a brilliant experience. There were pictures of drivers and cars from times gone by all over the place which was really lovely and I loved getting my hair done and getting all dressed up for the occasion.
My course (Creative Writing) was the only course to get 100% positive feedback in the National Student Survey and as a reward we were given three bottles of G.H. Mumm Champagne for free but since there's a few non-drinkers on our course, there was only four of us drinking it which led to some crazy dancing.

We arrived to a champagne reception and a professional photographer so we had some photos taken together.
We were then led down to the banqueting hall which looked out over the race track.

The theme of the evening was 'around the world' and so each table was a country - we were Morocco. The centerpieces were giant martini glasses with a intricate colourful umberella on top, which we all posed with for photos.

The meal was really nice. We started off with a smoked ham hock and chicken terrine with wild mushrooms with a golden raisin puree, beetroot relish and caper and truffle drizzle, followed by chicken breast served with rosemary gnocchi, sweetcorn puree, onion and cabbage cassulet and a red wine sauce. For desert we had a cherry and chocolate bomb - a hard chocolate casing filled with cherry ice cream, cherry compote and whole cherries, served with vanilla ice cream.

After dinner we were led through to the evening room which was laid out with different areas representing different countries. Where was a Indian market area with lots of baskets filled with vegetables and things, a Chinese garden area with red paper lanterns hanging in trees and then a Middle-Eastern area with long, low couches and ornamental shisha pipes.

We had some pretty good musical acts - Tinchy Stryder, Miss Dynamite, Jaguar Skillz and some DJ's from MTV. We danced for hours, between champagne top-ups.

I'd like to thank Northampton University's Student Union for putting the whole night together as it was a huge success and I doubt they'll get much thanks for it. 

I'll post a new blog sometime this week, possibly more baking and some family-friendly dinners. See you then!!