Sugarcraft Workshop (and update)

I realise I haven't posted in a while but with Christmas, an exam and an essay to write I was slightly preoccupied. Apparently not occupied enough to not bake but oh well, it just means you've got lots of recipes to look forward to! Including millionaire's shortbread, ginger biscuits, Christmas cupcakes and more!

This post isn't really going to be a recipe, however, more...showing off? Well not really, it's just going to be about this workshop I did in York just before Christmas. If anybody is interested here's her website:

Cakes Unlimited

I went for four hours and it was a Christmas themed class decorating cupcakes and cake balls. I also made a little snow man which was really good fun. We went through how to make Italian meirange butter cream (which was VERY yummy), some basic piping and then sugar craft. The sugar craft was pretty much brand new to me but I really enjoyed all the intricate work that went in to it and now that I know the basics I'm sure you'll see an awful lot me of it!

Anyway, here's some pictures of the final products. (Will post some recipes soon, promise!)

- Emma xxx

Tips for a White Sauce

I learnt how to make a white sauce in middle school and never looked back. There's something so wonderful about a nice thick white sauce. It's so useful to know how to make one too. You can make a cheese sauce for pasta, the white sauce on top of a lasange or a parsley sauce to go with your roast ham on a sunday. It's by far my favourite sauce but there are some easy to make mistakes with this seemingly simple sauce!

You need: Butter, Flour and Milk for the basic sauce but you can add to it at the end - cheese, parsley, chilli, bacon, the list goes on!

1. Melt a good knob of butter in the saucepan.

2. Slowly add a little flour at a time using a wooden spoon. Try to get the mixture to a warm bluetack consistency.

3. Once you have your rue start adding the milk. If you want a really thick sauce it would be better to add tiny amounts of milk to the mixture and stirring in till combined. It's a long process but it does pay off, I find this is better than just pouring all the milk in at once.

4. Once the mixture is starting to look runny add in the remainder of the milk and whisk.

5. Once you've whisked the sauce go back to your wooden spoon, turn the heat up a little bit and keep stirring until your sauce has thickened. Don't add Flour (unless you really need to) just have faith. Once the sauce is thick enough add any extras, but still add the salt and pepper to taste even if you're not adding more.

6. Use on lasange, pasta, potatos, roast dinner...anything!

Hope this guide helps, it's so much better than buying a sauce ready made and so much cheaper!!!

Gluten Free Cooking Tips

One of my housemates is a celiac which means when I came to university I needed to adapt my cooking slightly when cooking for him. I couldn't constantly make cakes with conventional flour for fear of him always missing out. So obviously I've picked up some tips along the way to help you guys out.

1. Invest in gluten free baking products. Doves is pretty good and I would definitely get some gluten-free baking powder!

2. Without gluten cakes don't rise as well. Therefore you need to get LOTS of air in to the mixture to compensate. I often beat the mixture that little bit harder and I also separate my eggs. So I add the yolks but I whisk the eggs (till you get soft peaks) and then add to the mixture. This will create the air you need for your cakes to rise.

3. Adapt, Try, Fail, Try a little differently... I often use normal cake recipes and swap in the gluten free ingredients. If this doesn't seem to work, maybe add an extra egg or some milk. I find this often will help your cake with that added push it needs.

4. Don't be disheartened. Often it won't ever reach the heights of normal flour but you just have to accept it and look on the brighter side - it's slightly healthier for you!

5. Flavoured cakes and buiscuits are your friends. Strong flavours like chocolate can often help hide the slightly bitter(?) taste of gluten free flour. It's also much harder to pick up on in a buscuit.

Gluten free cooking just involves that little bit extra work but it really will pay off! I hope that you will find this helpful and I'll try and post some exculsive gluten free recipes on here too!

- Emma xxx