A New Staff Member :)

It's been so long since I last posted but I do have a very valid excuse! We have now recruited a new (albeit very tiny!) staff member. Her name is Claudia and she's my beautiful baby daughter who was born at the end of December! The Cakery is still open for business but we are working to reduced hours to accommodate our new arrival. I'm sure it won't be long though before Claudia's very own mixing bowl and spoon will be baking up some lovely treats for everyone :) 

Christmas Treats

It's December and nearly Christmas and we can't wait for the big day, here at the Spotty Dog Cakery. We're getting organised with the usual puddings and cakes, as well as our very special cakes of the week, too. Rudolph's Reward, Christmas Pudding Cake with Brandy Buttercream, as well as Mincemeat Crumble Cake are just a few that are helping our lovely customers get into the Christmas spirit (as well as us bakers here at Spotty Dog HQ!). Make sure you treat yourself to at least one slice with a cup of tea and a sit down before the big day! 

Honey Bees and Lots of Honey

For a little while now, my Mum has been keeping bees. It's been quite a learning curve but I think she's really mastered it all now. Proof of which has been our first harvest of honey last week (a huge comb of gorgeous honey-produced right in our vegetable garden!). We are all  very impressed with it -especially as it tastes amazing, as well-well done Mum! I'm hoping that we'll have enough honey from our harvest in the Autumn to use some in a few select cake recipes.

Summer Jam

We've had such great weather recently that it's made me think it must be time to make some berry jam! I love all types of jam but my favourite has got to be strawberry-it just goes with everything! We make a lot of our own jam here at the Cakery and I have included a recipe below for our favourite strawberry jam. I always source our fruit from our local fruit and veg market as you can buy in bulk which makes it so much more economical (and it's a lot more fun than shopping at the supermarket!).

Strawberry Jam

Ingredients
(makes about 5 kg)

3.5 kg strawberries (hulled and washed)
juice of 2 lemons
3 kg jam sugar

Method

1) Sterilise your jars

2)pour the fruit and the lemon juice into a preserving pan and heat gently and stir constantly until the volume is reduced by about one-third

3)Add the sugar and stir until dissolved

4) Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached

5) Remove any scum from the top of the jam and allow to cool slightly

6) Stir the jam and pour into the warmed jars

7) Cover and label

8) Wait as long as you can bear, then try out your amazing creation on some bread, a scone or in a cake!

Spring is the Air

It's feeling a lot more Spring like here which is great! We love Spring here at the Cakery as it means Easter baking which we just can't get enough of-Simnel cakes, Hot Cross Buns and loads of very chocolately recipes Plus, we've got some gorgeous new Cakes of the Week on their way-lots of lemony recipes which are so lovely in the warmer weather. Keep a look out for them in a cake shop near you!

Happy Valentines Day!

It's nearly the middle of February so it must be nearly time to start planning what to buy for your Valentine! I think biscuits are far more interesting than flowers (I know, I know-I would!) and our jars and packs of Canoodle Doodle Biscuits really do make the perfect present! Wrapped in red tissue paper and with a message attached on an old fashioned luggage label-all you need to do is order and your present will be sent to your lucky recipient. 

The pictures below show the biscuits being used as favours at my own wedding last year!

You can order your gorgeous biscuits here on Not on the High Street

Cakes for Christmas

All of our Christmas preparations are in full swing at the Cakery now! We are loving preparing all of our gorgeous Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas Puddings and Classic Spotty Dog Christmas Cakes-nothing puts you in a more Christmassy mood than the smell of these two yummy treats baking away! 

We are still taking orders for our lovely cakes and puddings so please contact us to place an order x

Christmas Treats

Check out our gorgeous new mugs which will make an absolutely fantastic Christmas present for all the tea and cake lovers out there! A lovely hand painted hearts mug filled with two slices of handmade cake-yum yum! Available now through www.notonthehighstreet.com 

The Foodie Bugle

There is a lovely article in today's Foodie Bugle about the fantastic Love Food Market (including a fab little picture of our award wining Proud to be Ginger Nuts!)

http://thefoodiebugle.com/article/purveyors/lovefoodmarket.com



This online magazine is a really god read for all you food lovers out there-and the photography is really gorgeous too.

First Prize Brownies

I entered our local show this year which is something I haven't done since I was little. I'd forgotten how much fun it is preparing your entries the day before, taking them up to the show tent early the next day and then being able to go and see if you've won anything! Well, this year, I entered the chocolate brownie class twice and won first and second prize-I felt like I was 10 year old again when I saw the red 'First Prize' card! The only disappointment was when we entered our little Dora in the Jack Russell terrier class and came fourth (out of four!!). 

Super Quick, Super Delicious Flapjack

This is my Mum's really great recipe for a classic flapjack. It's so easy to bake a batch of these and chances are you will have all of the ingredients in your store cupboard. Perfect with a cup of tea when the rain is pouring like it is today!

Ingredients:

200g soft brown sugar
200g butter
400g oats
2 tbsp golden syrup

Recipe: 

Melt together all of the ingredients aside from the oats. Add the oats and spoon into a greased Swiss Roll tin, pressing the mix down firmly. Bake in an oven set to 190c for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into fingers. 

This is really great crumbled over vanilla ice cream with some poached rhubarb. Or, if you have any extra dried fruit and seeds in, you could add these and turn your flapjack into a breakfast bar (see picture below).

Christmas Planning

I know it may seem a little early but Christmas planning has begun in earnest at the Cakery! As always, I'll be making my award winning Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas Puddings and Magically Magnificent Christmas Puddings as well as some very seasonal 'Cakes of the Week' like Mincemeat Crumble Cake and Chocolate and Chesnut Cake. I'm also going to be baking some classic Christmas cakes which will be presented in retro red and white spotty cake tins and tied with lots of ribbon -so they'll make a fantastic present! I'm getting quite excited about it all already!

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes

I often get asked what my favourite baking book is and this is actually a pretty difficult question to answer as I have so many. I seem to have a bit of an addiction to buying all the new ones when they come out and I also have all my Mum's and Gran's old ones too! There's nothing like a cup of tea and a flick through your favourite cook book to make you feel better (and I can claim it's for 'work'!). 

So, I would say that one of my favourite all time is the classic Be-Ro book. I have used this book when I first learnt to bake when I was tiny and it's still the book I turn to when I'm making a Victoria sandwich cake or some shortbread. If you don't have it in your collection, I seriously recommend it-retro and great! In terms of more modern books, I think anything by the fantastic Rachel Allen is superb. In particular, her 'Bake' and (just out last month) her 'Cake' books are inspirational and the recipes always work. Happy Baking!

Cake of the Week: Raspberry Bakewell Cake

I love the flavours of a classic Bakewell tart, but I sometimes find the combination of pastry  and cake a bit too much. So, I have devised this cake recipe which has the gorgeous combination of almonds and raspberry, but without the stodge of a pastry case. If you've got some home made jam stashed away, that will really give your cake the edge. I've used 4 eggs for this recipe, as our hens think it is summer again because of the warm weather and have started laying again like mad!









Ingredients

Cake:
200g soft butter
200g caster sugar
150g SR flour
4 eggs, beaten
50g ground almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract
a handful of flaked almonds

Icing:
100g soft butter
200g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Raspberry jam

Method

Cream butter and sugar till light and soft. 

Add the beaten egg slowly, mixing well between each addition. Once all the egg mix is incorporated, give everything a really good mix together. Add the almond extract and stir again to combine.

Next fold in the sifted flour and ground almonds.

Dollop the mix into two 8cm diameter cake tins which you have base lined with baking parchment and greased the sides (I like to use the butter wrapper to smear around the edges). Level the mixture and sprinkle  the flaked almonds over one  tin (this will be the top of your cake).

Bake at 180c until the sponges are risen and spring back when you touch them lightly with your finger.

When the cakes are cool, remove them from their tins (run a blunt knife around the edge of the tins to loosen first). 

To make the icing, beat the butter until smooth and very soft. Add the icing sugar and almond extract together with a tablespoon of water from a recently boiled kettle. Beat together vigorously until the icing is soft and whipped. You can add a little more water if the icing feels like it won't spread easily and beat again. 

Spread one half of the cake with the icing, followed by a layer of jam and then sandwich it together with the other half (making sure you leave the half of the cake with the almonds on top as you're 'top'). Dust with icing sugar and get the kettle on!

Cake of the Week: Snickers Cake

I love love love Snicker bars! I searched high and low for a cake recipe that would mimic the amazing chocolate, peanut and caramel combination of this gorgeous chocolate bar, but I couldn't find anything suitable-so I decided to make my own one up!

Ingredients

Cake:
200g soft butter
200g caster sugar
150g SR flour
4 eggs, beaten
50g cocoa
75g salted peanuts, whizzed in a food processor till they are small nibs

Icing:
100g soft brown sugar
25g butter
3 tbsp milk
200g icing sugar
1 snickers bar, chopped into small slices
25g milk chocolate, melted

Method

Cream butter and sugar till light and soft. 

Add the beaten egg slowly, mixing well between each addition. Once all the egg mix is incorporated, give everything a really good mix together. 

Next fold in the sifted flour and cocoa, followed by the peanuts. 

Dollop the mix into two 8cm diameter cake tins which you have base lined with baking parchment and greased the sides (I like to use the butter wrapper to smear around the edges). 

Bake at 180c until the sponges are risen and spring back when you touch them lightly with your finger.

When the cakes are cool, remove them from their tins (run a blunt knife around the edge of the tins to loosen first). 

To make the icing, put all the ingredients (aside from the icing sugar, vanilla extract and snicker bar) into a pan and heat over a low heat (do not stir the mixture). When the mixture starts to bubble, take it off the heat and add the vanilla extract. 

Leave the mixture until it is cool and then beat in the sifted icing sugar till you get a soft, fudgy consistency (if you need to loosen the mixture, you can add a little extra milk). 

Spread the middle and top of the cake with the icing and sandwich it together. 

Top with the chopped snicker pieces and then drizzle over the melted chocolate in a crazy pattern using a fork. Allow the icing to set then dig in!

Cake of the Week: Lemon Curd and Pistachio

OK, so this week's cake that I'm trialling is a recipe I've devised to make use of a VERY large quantity of lemons that I've got left over from my Wedding! I've made lemon curd and lemonade already, so I thought it was time to make a new cake recipe too.  This cake is gorgeously dense and fudgy...

Ingredients

Cake:
250g butter
250g SR flour
4 large lemons, zested and juiced
250g caster sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
2 tbsp milk
4 tbsp lemon curd

Topping:
a handful of roughly chopped pistachios
4 tbsp caster sugar

Method

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs a little bit at a time, beating the mix well between each addition to prevent curdling. Once all the egg has been added, give everything a really good mix. 

Next, fold in the lemon zest and flour till combined. Add the lemon curd and milk to loosen the mixture. Scrape the whole mix into a 20x30 cm tin, lined with baking parchment and bake at 180c until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the cake is springy to touch. 

Whilst waiting for the cake to bake, make the drizzle topping by combining the lemon juice and sugar and giving it a good stir. When the cake comes out of the oven sprinkle it with the pistachios and drizzle over the sweet and gunky lemon mix.

Love Food Market

As from today, we are now selling through the lovely new virtual food market 'Love Food Market'. We're very excited about working with this new retailer as Em and Sue are totally passionate about good food! You can check out their beautiful website at www.lovefoodmarket.com and find us under the Bakery tab.

Honey Bees at the Cakery

Well, I've been saying for a while that we'll soon be able to use our own Spotty Dog honey in all our cakes and biscuits and we are now one step closer! We now have two lovely bee hives-our little bees will not be arriving until next month but we are already very very excited. We're just getting them all prepared and will be painting them soon so they look the part!

Cake of the Week at the Brilliant Belsay Shop

The brilliant Belsay Shop in Belsay, Northumberland has now launched it's 'Cake of the Week' for their Summer customers! Each week I'm making a different bespoke cake which you can enjoy with a proper cup of tea and a sit down outside the lovely shop. 


I've been leafing through my massive pile of cook books and dreaming up new recipes-bliss! We've got Courgette and Cinnamon  coming up this week so if you're around and about, go and buy a slice!

The Spotty Dog Wheels

Well, it's been a busy few months so I thought I better update you! We are now the proud owners of our very own Spotty Dog delivery van. She's decked out with red and white polka dot bunting and our very cute logo and I think she looks so sweet! More to the point, there's loads of room in the back for all of our cake deliveries which is making life so much easier. 

Also, we're about to get our first hive of bees which we are so excited about-it means we can start using our own honey in our recipes (provided we have some very efficient little bees...!)