You may have already read my post about my trip to Manchester last week for the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, which this year had decided to co-locate with the Cake and Bake Show. This post is all about the Cake and Bake Show element of the day, as my first visit to one of these I really enjoyed it, although it was a little smaller than I expected.
Here are my highlights.
The Great British Bake Off Live
We were lucky enough to see Flora Shedden from this years GBBO cook her Sugar Free Pistachio and Apple Cake. She gave a brilliant demonstration and answered questions. There were some TV's so you could see what was going on on the stage.
Last week my mum babysat while myself and hubby took ourselves off to Manchester for the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, which this year had decided to co-locate with the Cake and Bake Show. With hundreds of cooking at Christmas ideas to explore of course I had to go.
There was so much to see and do, 4 different stages of talks and demonstrations that fitting it all in was going to be tight, so I had to be selective. Here's my favourite things that grabbed my attention from the Ideal Home Show at Christmas (I'll add another post for some top pics from the Cake and Bake Show).
Spacerframe
If like me you get bored of looking at the same pictures on your wall Spacerframe have the solution - an innovative picture framing system which uses clear acrylic pockets. The frames are fitted with a specially formulated re-positional self-adhesive tape, giving you the flexibility of being able to move and reposition your display. They also have a spacing tool which means you can consistently space your frames with your choice of either a 10mm or 30mm gap and enables you to ensure that your frames are always level by using the spirit level incorporated in the tool.
Spacerframe's come in a variety of sizes too.
I wasn't allowed to buy any but have definitely added them to my Christmas wish list.
Check them out here: http://www.spacerframe.co.uk/
Twitter: @Spacerframe1
Riverco Trading
I love furniture and this kids bench was soo cute (excuse the blurry picture). At £199 it was a little out of our budget (and may have been interesting taking home on the train).
You can find them here: http://www.riverco.co.uk
Twitter: @RiverCoUk
sorry for the blurry picture, silly auto-focus/ broken screen camera
Bus Bar
The husband spotted this and told he to pick him up when I'd finished..... no chance .... who's carry my bags.
The Bus Bar Company own and operate two 1960’s Routemaster buses which have been converted to fully functional mobile bars. They have a fully licensed mass serving bar on the lower deck and on the upper deck there is an open top hospitality seating area. A great idea to book for a party as they are fully licensed, insured, come with all their own equipment and have hard working reliable staff on hand to take care of your event.
Their website is: http://www.busbarcompany.com/
Twitter: @RoutemasterBar
StudyBed
The StudyBed is amazing. I saw this in June and tried to explain it to the hubby, but this time he could see it with his own eyes.
The StudyBed combines a full-size bed with a very large desk and converts quickly and easily in just a few seconds without the need to remove any items off the desk nor any of the bedding.
The boys are in bunk beds at the moment but what a great idea for when they are older.
Laurence was back for the Christmas show to tell us how to decorate our trees and tables in a coordinating but nontraditional way using wallpaper as a starting point.
I was sceptical but the results really worked and I came away with loads of ideas to try from snow in baubles to home-made crackers and napkin rings.
A great day out and have promised my mum she can come along with me next year.
Disclaimer: I was offered a pair of tickets to the Ideal Home Show, Manchester in return for writing a couple of posts, All opinions are my own, the companies mentioned are my own selection and have not been consulted about this post.
Last weekend we decided it was time for baking,.. but what. Then inspiration hit, how about a hugeee Jaffa Cake. So I set about seeing how other people did it.
But then I remembered I don't 'do' baking (because my oven hates cakes). So I set about thinking ... I am positive this can be done in the microwave.
Noahs birthday started off much like any other soon to be 3 year old ..... with a request for a Hulk cake. Sure I could buy some icing picture off ebay (or somewhere) and a sponge cake .... or I could make it myself .... that was where the trouble started!!
With the boys we did a trial run a couple of weeks ago using red food colouring (to make a spiderman cake) - it didn't give quite the colour intensity I was hoping for....
So armed with green gel colour (which my friend advised would work much better) I set about the cake making mission. The flavour of the Spiderman cake was lovely so we used the same recipe.
I also bought multicoloured ready rolled icing and dug out the Lego silicone moulds. Hulk himself was going to prove a challenge ... there was nothing online I felt confident copying so I went with a simple (well ..) marble cake with green icing, Lego man and bricks.
Melt butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat. I blitzed the bitter in the microwave then added it to the sugar and vanilla in the mixing bowl
Remove from heat and add the mashed bananas, mix well.
Add the egg, mix well.
Stir in the flour
Add the milk.
Pour into the prepared tin, sprinkle with a tablespoon of demerara sugar to give a crunch topping if liked. Be careful how much demerara sugar you sprinkle on tho because mine burnt really quickly. Personally the muffins I made with some of the mixture that I didn't put the sugar on tasted just as nice.
Bake at 150 C fan oven (or 170 C regular, Gas mark 3) for 35 mins, until a skewer comes out clean.
