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If everybody ate cupcakes, ain't nobody be mad – Kid President

“If everybody ate a cupcake, ain’t nobody be mad” – us grown ups can learn a lot from kids! Especially, this one called #kidpresident. By far, he’s the coolest kid on the internet.

A Pep Talk from Kid President to YOU…this must be the most awesome video ever: We All Need Pep Talk… – thanks Liam Swift for sharing it with me on twitter.

There’s also this video that’s bound to make you smile too… “If everybody ate cupcakes, ain’t nobody be mad” – Kid president is a wise one. If you like this post, share it with family & friends and make sure their ‘good’ tooth’s been pulled!

I must get that @IAmKidPresident to Missie’s Pud Inn Club one day – an awesome serving of goodness! – Missie Cindz :)

{illustration by Cindy Cheung}

'The shoot was inspired by Caravaggio’s paintings and the Italian term ‘chiaroscuro’ – Victoria Made

Chiaroscuro (Light and Dark) – A deliciously styled cake shoot from Victoria made shot by Jess Petrie Photography…

On Sunday 5th August, I was (luckily) invited to join one of my favourite cake makers of Sheffield, the super talented Victoria Watkin-Jones of Victoria Made on a photo shoot featuring her stunning cakes. It was a simply stunning styled shoot brought together by Victoria, photographer Jess Petrie of Jess Petrie Photography plus a whole team of creative wedding suppliers, including Hansley Beard Events & Wedding Design Studio and Swallows and Damsons. I have featured Victoria on the blog a number of times, and she was kind enough to supply cheesecakes for my Missie’s Christmas Pud Inn Club last December as well as feeding me cake during my Sheffield Food Week Challenge last year which coincided with the Sheffield Food Festival…and oh my Cinders, I’m sure you will agree that her cakes look stunning! Victoria’s cakes tastes amazing too – and if I’m honest, they’re often too good-looking to eat (they’re worth keeping in a glass and awwww–ing over) and I hardly ever save cake!

So, I was thrilled to had been given a chance to see a sneak peek of the cakes, jellies, delicate own-made marshmallows and macaroons. The shoot took place at the Sheffield Town Hall inside the Mayor’s parlour (I know, can you believe it? us dropping cake crumbs in the Mayor’s parlour!). The venue was stunning and is open to the public as an intimate wedding and afternoon tea party location. And I’m thrilled to be able to share these photos with you from Jess of this wonderful day.

Jess has art directed and been involved in some amazing wedding photography which are mixed with a story-telling approach, capturing us into a scene or setting as well as a sense of romance – just take a look at her website and you’ll know what I mean. It was lovely to meet Jess in person and watch her work.

This was Victoria’s first art directed and styled shoot and I must say I was pretty impressed with all the effort, time and organising spent on the 3-4 hour shoot! Patience is an under statement!

‘It was Caravaggio’s paintings that drew me the most and to make use of the Italian term ‘chiaroscuro’ (the name of the shoot) meaning ‘light and dark’ with stunning effect.’

Victoria told me more about the idea for this shoot
‘I suppose it’s uncool to like ‘old’ art these days but as a child being taken round various art galleries it was the detail, the story telling and the astonishing skill with light, colour and texture that someone like Caravaggio used to perfection in a time where lighting was provided by candles.’

‘The shoot was inspired by Caravaggio’s paintings and the Italian term ‘chiaroscuro’ (the name of the shoot) meaning ‘light and dark’ with stunning effect. It’s on this that I wanted to base the dessert tables and the shoot. I approached Anna from Swallows and Damsons as her flowers are simply stunning and was so pleased when Jess Petrie agreed to do the shoot – I had seen her work on facebook and twitter and was blown away, was even more blown away to find she is a Sheffield photographer! I’m also very lucky to have Hansley Beard Events 5 minutes away from me who’s shop filled with the most amazing glass ware and vintage china which I made use of’

‘I did two set ups loosely using the ‘light and dark’ expression and styled the cakes and desserts around this. I used gold as a string tying the two tables together but using different intensities of colour on each table. Of course every still life has to have a bowl of fruit and to be honest at times you can’t beat nature so it played an integral part not just ‘filler’’

‘I approached Simon Kriel from the Sheffield Town Hall Events Team who was more than helpful and was happy for us to share the beautiful building for the shoot. We used the stunning Lord Mayor’s Parlour and it the light and layout proved pretty much perfect. Dessert tables are becoming more popular for weddings and they are something that I would like to do a lot more of – the options are endless and styling ideas can run wild, much more so than you can with a single wedding cake. Designing and making lot’s of small intricate sweets is really enjoyable and I think the theatre of a well designed table adds to the ‘talking point’ at a wedding with guests taking time to enjoy and discuss the different desserts on offer to them.’

‘Once an idea is there, the desserts and cakes are designed around it which does take a fair bit of time and tests lots of different skills like pastry, meringues, sugar work etc but it’s definitely worth it!’ – Victoria Made

Once upon a ‘Victoria Made’ cake time…
Here’s a little bit more about Victoria Made and her cakes. Just launched last year, Victoria specialises in very modern and contemporary cakes (just look at the photographs here – wow!) and tells me she always aims to offer something different to her clients and a market that can trend towards traditional ‘ribbons and bows’ styles. Victoria’s cakes are not only for the Sheffield area but for the whole of the UK and are a preferred supplier for Le Manoir, Raymond Blanc’s venue in Oxford, Arley Hall in Cheshire, Blakes Hotel in London and the Dorchester in London. Plus on top of this, she recently created an Olympic torch cake for Jessica Ennis for her homecoming in Sheffield. Victoria is very modest and never takes her position for granted, and finishes by saying “to be acknowledged as being good enough to be recommended by these people is an absolute honour“. A pretty impressive portfolio Vic!

Finally, thank you Victoria for having me and to Jess for her beautiful photos for my blog! I loved it so much and am really proud I was able to experience so many sweet moments of your cakes and to share these with my readers and followers. The atmosphere was fantastic, you all looked liked you enjoyed the whole process too – and I did. I loved the concept and the photos are stunning — Missie Cindz

For more information on Victoria Made
www.victoriamade.com
hello@victoriamade.com
Facebook
Twitter

For more information on Jess Petrie Photography
www.jesspetrie.com

For information about the shoot’s stunning venue, you can contact Simon Kriel from the Town Hall Events Team via email: simon.kriel@kier.co.uk

{All photos taken and provided by Jess Petrie Photography; Art Direction and photo styling, and all cakes made by Victoria Watkin-Jones of Victoria Made}

Deliciously low-fat banana and white chocolate chip muffins. Tastes as good as they look!

Currently, I’m still enjoying the time off away from the studio and instead have been baking away in the kitchen. Today I ran out of cupcake cases to make a batch of muffins to take down to Birmingham with me as homemade New Year gifts for friends – so what did I do? made good use with what I had already of course!

I’ve seen this technique done for all things cupcake-licious many times before so it’s definitely not a new idea, but a useful idea that’s been around for quite some time.

I think this is really handy and fuss-free idea from Martha Stewart and will be an especially handy trick for those times when we run out of liners/cases in the middle of a batch of muffins (and they keep the baked goods from sticking to the pan – that’s always a good thing!).

Delicious low-fat banana and white chocolate chip muffins. Scrumptiously filling, not too sweet and great with a cuppa.

Instruction for Muffin Wrappers

1. Cut 5-inch square pieces of parchment.

2. Spray a muffin tin with vegetable oil cooking spray, or grease up each muffin cup to hold parchment in place.

3. Place 1 piece of parchment into 1 cup of the tin. Use your fingers to make the crease around the bottom edge, pressing along folds to crease. Repeat with other cups and parchment pieces.

4. Pour the cake mixture into each of the parchment paper squares, filling them until they are about 3/4 full.

See Crisp Muffin Wrappers from Martha Stewart for more details if required.

Strawberry and vanilla 'fully loaded' cupcakes made by Stacey Hogan – awesome colours!

…strawberry and vanilla “fully loaded” cupcakes made by Stacey Hogan – Stace isn’t a professional baker but she’s like me, who adores all things sweetly made and who’s found an immense passion in baking at home (Bake In is the new ‘going out’ you see – especially with Christmas just two months away :)….and I certainly wasn’t complaining when she generously said “Help yourself Cindz!”. As the busy and colder British weather draws in (can you believe I had to crank on the heating the other night?) – I’ve been in frequent needs of that pep of sugar to revive me and these bright pink delights did just the trick!

While you may be cursing the fact that I’m posting a photo of cupcakes – I assure you there is always room on the market for these little fellas – who said that the cupcake market was saturated – no, no, no! These cupcake were like mouthfuls of sweet, light, moist clouds of delight in my mouth…and so pretty too – a perfectly-sized winter treat!

Nom.

{photo by Cindy Cheung}

During my Eat Sheffield Food Week 4th – 10th July, I will be Blogging about my experiences for each meal.
I will tell you blow by blow what I’ve eaten today for breakfast, lunch and dinner (each day) and will also include any snacks I’ve had or if there was anything I’ve craved or missed from my old usual ‘supermarket’ diet. I’m over half way through my food challenge week, but have been feeling very tired (all this eating is exhausting stuff) and feel awfully ‘cleansed’ on Sheffield goodness…

Breakfast:
Sheffield Gooseberry Pancakes served with Sheffield Honey – Gooseberries were from PJ Taste’s allotment (Woodhouse area).
Light, fluffy and fruity, these pancakes are the perfect special breakfast. It was my first time cooking and eating fresh gooseberries. This was definitely an experience. They were very tangy, sour and ‘sharp’ in taste, I suppose I didn’t know what to expect really from these fruits – I actually thought they’d be similar to grapes?… I’m still learning a lot about different types foods.

Fresh gooseberries for breakfast

Ingredients
200g Yorkshire wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (Whirlow Hall Farm)
300ml milk (Our Cow Molly farm shop)
50g sugar (Cafeology)
30g butter (Our Cow Molly farm shop)
220g gooseberries – washed and chopped into smaller pieces
(gooseberries Sheffield grown and picked in Woodhouse)
a little butter for cooking
Sheffield Honey to serve

Instructions
1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Beat the eggs with the milk, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter, and gently stir all the gooseberries.
2. Heat a small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop two large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 9cm across. Make two or three pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter. Serve with Sheffield Honey.

This batter has that perfect consistency (not too liquid not to thick) that can be hard to find in pancake recipes. Try it and let me know what you think too? try the recipe with different fruit like strawberries, blueberries or rasberries. Yum!

Fresh gooseberry pancakes served with Sheffield Honey

Lunch:
PJ Taste Ultimate Cheese Toastie with caramalised local onions and Henderson’s Relish with glass of Citrus Hits.

PJ Taste Ultimate Cheese Toastie with caramalised local onions and Henderson’s Relish

Dinner:
Homemade ‘Missie Cindz’ burgers using Sheffield’s Moss Valley sausages with herby potato wedges. Classic and delicious. Oh yeah!

Homemade burgers using Moss Valley sausagemeat, or meat squeezed from 8 large Cumberland sausages

Well, who doesn't love burgers!?

Serves 4 persons
3 large baking potatoes, cut into wedges
8 Moss Valley Cumberland pork sausages
1 onion, grated
50g spring onions (from Cindz mum’s allotment), chopped
a small handful parsley and chives, chopped
1 tsp clear Sheffield Honey
1 egg yolk, beaten
sunflower oil

To serve:
4 grilled rashers streaky smoked Moss Valley bacon,
4 large bread rolls from Cat Lane Bakery, halved and lightly toasted
Taste carrot chutney made with Sheffield carrots, splashes of Henderson’s Relish and a healthy portion of homecooked potato wedges (using potatoes bought at Sheff’s Castle Market)

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 230C/210C fan/gas 8. Toss the potatoes with 1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp herbs on a large baking tray. Roast for 25 mins, turning once, until the chips are golden.
2. Meanwhile, snip the tops off the sausages and squeeze the meat out into a bowl. Stir through the grated onion, spring onions, chives and parsley, then shape into 4 burgers. Can now be frozen. Heat a frying pan, add 1 tsp oil, then cook for 15 mins, turning halfway.
3. Grill bacon until crispy and brown (8 mins)
4. Season the wedges. Place a burger in each bread bun, slice of bacon and cheese then top with some chutney, fresh salad and cheese (you’ll be lucky if this doesn’t start toppling over by now :)

Moss Valley Fine Meats provide local pork, bacon, sausages, ham – basically, anything from a pig! You can collect direct from their farm (see address details below) or at local farmers’ markets – they’re a regular at the Sheffield’s FM in the city centre.

Moss Valley Fine Meats
Povey Farm
Lightwood Lane
Norton
Sheffield
S8 8BG

Stephen/Karen Thompson
Tel: 0114 2396904
Email: info@mossvalleyfinemeats.co.uk
Web: www.mossvalleyfinemeats.co.uk

The burger buns were monsterous too (and that’s a compliment. I love bread! :) – my breads this evening were provided by Sheffield’s Cat Lane Bakery. Who have been producing quality artisan breads from organic stoneground flours from Mount Pleasant Windmill in Kirton in Lindsey and Shipton Mill. They aim to make great bread available across Sheffield and the surrounding region and you can also buy Cat Lane bread more closer to home in their very own outlet Beanies Whole Foods, and in other outlets such as: Crumbs, Down to Earth, Zeds on the Edge, PJ Taste and Café Juniper at Bank Street Arts. I was really lucky to get the chance to pop up to bakery on Cat Lane and to meet Christopher Baldwin, one of the head-bakers there – I’ve always had a fascination with bread and bakeries so it was one of my dreams to see how a commercial bakery functioned – but all these rambles and pictures I took of the morning’s adventures will be in a blog post on its own (so keep a look out for the delicious read!)

If you’re interested in more infor regarding Cat Lane breads, you can contact them directly via email: catlanebakery@yahoo.co.uk or give them a ‘like’ us on facebook (afterall who doesn’t love bread!?)

Dessert: provided by Victoria Made Cakes
I felt one of the luckiest girls ever when Victoria wanted to participate in my Sheffield Food Week Challenge. I’d seen her beautiful cakes at the first ever Devonshire Market in Sheffield city centre back in April. Based in Sheffield, Victoria Made designs and creates wedding, corporate and occasion cakes for clients throughout Yorkshire – and her cakes are so artistically beautiful, I was gawping at the cupcakes for ages before ramming one down. You can really tell each and every cake Victoria creates prides themselves with personal touches, extra care and attention – my pictures don’t do them justice, you really must see them for yourself!

White chocolate & vanilla cupcakes with homemade strawberry compote.

Rich Valrhona chocolate mud cake and chilli cherries with cupcakes

A 3/4 eaten strawberry and vanilla cupcake. Magic!!

All her baked goodies are made from top quality ingredients and she uses as much Sheffield produce as she can – for instance in the cakes (pictured above) I was informed by Victoria most of the ingredients were from Sharrow Marrow on Sharrow Vale road and Whirlow Farm eggs. Yorkshire milk and butter! (is Victoria doing my Sheffield Food Challenge too? these places sound familiar). Her product list include larger cakes and favours for weddings and other occasions, and smaller cakes and other products such as cookies for other events.

If not all, of these producers will be in full force at the Sheffield Food Festival’s Producers Market on Fargate from 8^th July to 10^th July. Plus, there’ll also be the much talked about and utterly delicious Sheffield Food Showcase where you will be able to find Moss Valley Fine Meats, Sheffield Honey, Our Cow Molly, Catherine’s Choice, PJ Taste, Cat Lane Bakery, Tea Box and Fancie.

Homemade Missie Cindz chocolate Whoopsie Stars...forget the pies!

Life's like a Cupcake - looks tasty and sweet on the outside but you never know what surprise is inside :)

Sheffield's Rutland Arms 'mighty' burger - such great value!

Sheffield's Rutland Arms 'mighty' burger. Nothing beats a good pub lunch!

The weekend was yet another food-filled one. Lunch in the local pub, catch up with friends, my best-friends becoming proud parents (congratulations Silver and Gen :) and ending with a homemade Sunday Roast…perfect!

Lately, I have had whoopie pies on the brain… Since getting a brilliant book on these sweet things and scoffing some red velvet ones for Valentine’s Day, I decided to bake my own this weekend. Now I know, whoopie pies were last year’s trend. But I love them… I love the idea of them… I love the countless possibilities of flavour and decorative combinations. I have always been the person to catch onto trends a year two after everyone else ;D so why should that be in different with my baking :) and instead of having these fella as a round disc, I wanted to add some Cindzyness to them and did them ‘Star’ shaped filled with light and fluffy vanilla flavoured marshmallow filling (NO buttercream – it’s too sweet and dense!). I’ll be posting the full recipe for these this week so keep a look out for the post (also look out for my first post for @thecakeshelf, coming soon, at www.thecakeshelf.com). The weekends are definitely made for baking in Missie’s purpled ‘hungry’ eyes :)

If you also got up to some bakifilled events this weekend, let me know what you baked, I’m always up for a nosy (and pictures please?). My sweet friend made me some homemade cupcakes too – look at them, they looked too good to NOM but you know me, I don’t like to see ‘FAB’ homemade foods going to waste so they made the perfect companion with a cuppa tea.

Hello Monday …Oh my you’re looking bright and sunny please stay this way. Thanks!! (Enjoy your new week everyone – will tweet and blog soon! :)