Disney Cakes & Sweets

I was really happy when I was offered the chance to review the new Disney Cakes & Sweets Partwork that goes on sale September 4th. I love baking and my kids love Disney. Perfect!

I did imagine that with it being Disney, the Part work would be aimed at children. It isn't at all. It is a lavishly illustrated publication with a wealth of recipes to inspire adult bakers. The step by step instructions make even the more challenging projects seem achievable.

Each part comes with an exclusively designed Disney branded item. Part 1 includes a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter which I was keen to try out.

The cookie cutter was easy to use and I was delighted with my tray of smiling Mickeys. The children were enchanted with them just as they were so I didn't get round to icing them this time but I didn't feel daunted by the prospect. The ability to create professional looking results seemed totally within my grasp.

Unfortunately, my little boy was so excited by it all, that he managed to break my cookie cutter. I will definitely be keeping my eye open for a replacement Part 1 at the bargain introductory price of just 99p.

Dora's Little Cooks Party Special

Some time ago I wrote a post about Dora the Explorer's Little Cooks Partwork and the banana muffins my daughter and I made together from a recipe contained within the colourful pages. Recently, I was sent a complementary copy of the Party Special from the same series.

If I'm honest, the price (£9.99) would have put me off a bit but the silicone moulds provided to create Dora Party Pops seem to be of a good quality and could be kept and used over and over again. They could also be used to make shaped ice cubes (if filled to the level just below the hole for the Party Pop sticks!)

Having just come back form a week's holiday and about to go off again for a further few days, we have not had the time to spend cooking but my four year old has thoroughly enjoyed looking at the stories and doing the activities in the magazine. She has had a good look at the instructions for how to make the Party Pops so we will be ready to go with that as soon as we get the chance. I will let you know how we get on!

From Cabbages to Roses

I've been baking again.

I am really enjoying receiving my Cake Decorating Partwork through the post. I do not regret my decision to subscribe.

As it was my sister's birthday at the beginning of the week and my birthday at the beginning of next week, I decided that it was as good an excuse as any to make some celebration cakes. My parents were visiting so I made my dad's favourite - coffee and walnut cake (from issue 5).

Issue 4 came with a modelling tool to make sugar roses. I have had a go at making roses in the past but they have always looked like cabbages. Using specialist flower paste and the new tool to roll the petals very thin, my roses were much more delicate and flower-like. I was quite pleased with the result. I used one of my own tried and tested recipes to make a chocolate cake with fudge icing as the vehicle for my little flowery creations.

Making the roses was one of those laborious repetitive tasks that requires a certain amount of concentration but frees your mind to wander. I found myself thinking a lot about my mum as a mother to me and my two sisters - about how terrifying it was for her giving birth for the first time knowing so very little about what to expect all those years ago - about a young woman suffering from post-natal depression with no medical support or understanding of the feelings she was experiencing - about a mum doing her best to care for her children. I made three roses, one to represent each of her three daughters. The number of leaves represents how many leaves it was possible to make out of the trimmings of sugar paste!

I was really pleased with the ivory colour that I achieved using gel food colouring - hugely disappointed with the limp shade of green that I managed using liquid food colouring. If I attempt this again, I shall definitely buy a better quality green colouring.

Easter Sunday Farmyard Cake Fun

This is what happens when you let your six children plus one boyfriend and your husband loose with buttercream, sweets, fairy cakes and inspiration from your Cake Decorating Partwork.

Chicks, sheep, cows and pigs

It's been a lovely Easter Sunday:  teamwork in the kitchen to get the dinner prepared, Easter Eggs well and truly hidden by Liberty and Taylor's evil boyfriends, hours spent rediscovering retro board games from the depths of the games cupboard and of course the farmyard cakes.

Unlike last year, my husband even remembered to get me an Easter Egg!

It's 9.30pm now. The little ones are asleep in bed, and the big girls have retired to their room to multitask with TV and computers.

I still have a little sparkling Chardonnay to finish and the rest of the evening to relax and enjoy.

Life is good.

Carrot Cake Catastrophe

It was probably a little ambitious to attempt making a cake when my little ones were both recovering from illness and I myself was feeling run down and exhausted. However, my new Cake Decorating Partwork issue 2 had arrived in the post and I was really keen to try one of the amazing looking recipes.

I chose a carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting, decorated with little carrots modelled out of marzipan.

Alarm bells should have rung when the recipe stated that it was 'very hard to go wrong'.

Mine went wrong!

I followed each step carefully but rather than producing a moist, light carrot cake, mine was stodgy and undercooked on the inside, overcooked on the outside.

I carried on regardless.

I didn't like the frosting at all. I only used half the amount recommended and still found it overpoweringly sickly. (Not sure what to do with the remaining half, which is now taking up space in my fridge, other than to throw it away)

The carrot decorations, though... they were fantastic! We used ready roll icing rather than marzipan which was a bit harder to use but still gave a reasonable result. I thoroughly enjoyed making my carrots and my little girl made her own versions too. (Hers, unfortunately, didn't make it onto the cake after she rolled the icing down her woolly jumper to get it into a sausage shape!)

The icing did go a little soft and sticky after all the shaping to get it to look carroty but they firmed up again nicely in the fridge. They looked great (if a little oversized!) on the disaster of a cake but after a while, the orange food colouring started leaching into the frosting. It was not pretty!

My kind guests tucked into portions of my Carrot Cake Catastrophe. Nobody asked for seconds!

Cake Decorating

Earlier this year I blogged about my love hate relationship with Part Works.

There is a new Part Work out now entitled Cake Decorating. I saw the advert for it on the telly and wanted it badly. The next day, I handed my 99p to the lady behind the counter at WH Smiths and became the proud owner of Part 1, complete with butterfly cutters, pink sparkle glitter (non toxic but not recommended for consumption!) and a cardboard, two tiered cupcake stand.

I have pored over the pages of the magazine so many times already that it is starting to look a little tatty. Recipes, clear instructions, advice, tips - it makes everything look so do-able ... stunning cakes within my grasp.

The lavishly illustrated pages are practically pornographic in their explicitness (that really is how carried away I get about cakes).

I love baking cakes and have always dabbled in cake decorating. Although I have made some memorable attempts, my skill never quite matches my enthusiasm or vision. I was starting to convince myself that subscribing to the new Part Work might be the equivalent of taking a course in cake decorating. I could hone my skills to a professional level and be in great demand whenever there was an occasion that warranted a centre piece of a sweet and edible nature. I imagined all the Birthdays, Anniversaries, Graduations, Weddings, Births, Christenings and more that would be in my near future and saw myself providing spectacular creations that would be greeted with the oohs and aahs of appreciation. I really shouldn't let my imagination wander off like that!

I was very close to subscribing there and then.

However, I have an invisible companion that sits on my shoulder. I am undecided whether it is more aligned with demon or angel but it does NOT like me to spend money on myself. I am getting much better at silencing it but it still whispers in my ear. Part Works add up to a ridiculous amount of money over the weeks and months. Could I really justify that expense? Would I even gain any benefit? Were my dreams of becoming a cake maker in demand simply fantasies that had no foundation in reality?

There was one way to put all of these doubts to rest and that was to have a go at making some of the treats featured.

I had a really good time making iced butterfly butter cookies and white choc chip cupcakes decorated with buttercream and carefully crafted, sparkly, flower paste butterflies. It didn't feel like cooking, it felt like making art. I was quite proud of the results for a first attempt and I did learn a lot from my mistakes - mostly in terms of the importance of getting the correct icing consistency for different applications and having the right food colourings. The kids were very happy with my efforts and enjoyed the taste testing.

My little ones wanted to get involved  so I did let them have a go too which was lovely.

My older girls are very supportive of me subscribing - I am guessing that the idea of a different baking project every week would influence them quite strongly! Even my mum gave me the words of encouragement "Go for it!"

I shall sleep on it but don't be surprised if the QWERTY Mum blog starts to feature a lot more in the way of decorated fancies.

Partworks

One of the things that I like about this time of year is the flood of Partworks that land on the magazine aisles of my local newsagent. It never ceases to amaze me how many random topics are covered by this particular style of publishing - 'The Art of Quilting' being one that I noticed recently.

I have been seduced by the Partwork appeal in the past, collecting You and Your Camera, Changing Rooms, Build Your Own Dolls House, How My Body Works and Horrible Science over the years. If you stop to add up how much these collections cost in total it is quite horrifying and as invariably happens, the publication overtakes ones ability to keep pace with it. The issues remain unread and an embarrassment to my usual frugality.

Nowadays, I enjoy the Partworks in a simpler, more immediate, considerably less expensive fashion by only ever purchasing the first issue at the introductory price. My little Addy has thoroughly enjoyed part one of Dora the Explorer's Little Cooks Collection complete with silicon cake moulds and plate for the bargain price of 99p. The banana muffins she made were delicious.