Day 2 – Gingerbread Reindeer Barns

Posted on December 2, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

How much fun are these? When Lindt sent me a chocolate delivery (yes I know, that’s a great delivery to get) I knew I had to come up with something Christmassy – there was no way I was melting those Reindeer down for truffles!

These are great project to get you feeling festive and a fab activity to do with the children – not to mention they look blooming fabulous too! Every barn ends up a little bit different and you can be as creative as you like with the decoration. The kids love having free reign with a piping bag and a good selection of sprinkles.

I like to get the girls round whenever I get a chance, all gathered round the table and making something a little bit different so getting them round to build reindeer barns had to be done, it’s lovely to share a bit of Christmas fun together before everything gets completely manic! We had a ball, lots of laughs, collapsing houses, eating icing and gingerbread crumbs and everyone took home their own reindeer barn or two. Christmas Magic!

Continue reading →

Posted in Biscuit, Biscuits, Children, Christmas, Cinnamon, Ginger, Kids, Treats, Twelve Days of Christmas | 4 Comments

Day 1 – Ideas for Decorating your Christmas Cake

Posted on December 1, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

The Pink Whisk 12 Days of Christmas 2014

So here it is, with the dawn of the 1^st December along with the children cracking open the advent calendars and the annual rummage in the loft for the Christmas decorations comes the start of The Pink Whisk 12 Days of Baking Christmas – one Christmassy kitchen adventure each day until the 12^th December. I have plenty of treats for you in store but today we’re kicking off with a couple of ideas for decorating your Christmas cake.

A lovely easy peasy Festive Lights Cake

and a stunning Ice White Snowflakes Cake

Click on the links to take you to the tutorial for each. You’ll need to begin with your cake marzipanned and iced and I won’t leave you floundering there’s a tutorial for that in the archives which you can find just here.

And before I nip off back to the kitchen, if those designs don’t take your fancy then perhaps some of these will help….

Purple and Snowflakes Continue reading →

Posted in Cake, Christmas, Decorating, Sugarpaste, Twelve Days of Christmas | 4 Comments

Ice White Snowflakes Cake

Posted on December 1, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

This is a stunningly simple cake and can be adapted to suit your own selection of cutters and kitchen implements! The snowflakes are made from modelling paste instead of a regular sugarpaste as it dries harder much more quickly and can be rolled extremely thinly.

You will need:

1 x 8” cake, marzipanned and covered with white sugarpaste

White modelling paste or Sugar Florists Paste

Both Sainsburys and Tesco sell their own brand modelling paste which can be picked up easily and fairly cheaply. If you have a specialist stockists near to you then Squires Kitchen Sugar Florists Paste is a great option.

A selection of cutters to use as snowflakes

Look through your cookie and cake decorating cutters for anything relatively snowflake like – often flowers, calyx and star cutters will work a treat as well as any snowflake cutters you may have.

A selection of cutters to create the small holes in the snowflakes

You can get really ingenious here – the obvious choices are small circle, heart and rose petal cutters but you can also use the different sized round openings of piping nozzles – both ends! (no.s 2,3,4, small cupcake piping nozzles etc.) Continue reading →

Posted in Cake, Christmas, Decorating, Sugarpaste, Twelve Days of Christmas | 6 Comments

Festive Lights Cake

Posted on December 1, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

You will need:

1 x 8” Christmas cake, marzipanned and covered in white sugarpaste

A black edible ink pen (available from Lakeland, Amazon here or your local Hobbycraft)

Sugarpaste in festive colours (red, blue, yellow and green)

A little royal icing

A piping tip or a small round cutter.

Festive lights template – click here Festive Lights The Pink Whisk Template

So you’ve marzipanned and covered your Continue reading →

Posted in Cake, Christmas, Decorating, Sugarpaste, Twelve Days of Christmas | 2 Comments

The Pink Whisk curated sale at Joss&Main Today!

Posted on November 13, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

I love hunting down beautiful baking equipment and kitchen accessories and I’m always on the look out for something a little bit different. I couldn’t resist the opportunity when Joss & Main approached me to work with them on a festive baking sale! Christmas, baking and shopping my 3 favourite things all rolled into one.

The sale starts at 11.00am this morning (Thursday 13th November) and lasts for 3 days only so you’ll have to get your skates on!

You can take a look and sign up for membership via my personal invitation here

HTTP://WWW.JOSSANDMAIN.CO.UK/INVITE/THEPINKWHISK

Come and have a look at my top festive baking picks and see what will be making an appearance in The Pink Whisk Kitchen shortly.

(and don’t worry you can set your subscription preferences so that you don’t receive update emails if you don’t want them)

If you haven’t heard of Joss and Main before it’s huge in the US and has now made it’s way to the UK. It’s a members-only site that holds limited-time-only sales on homeware. Come and see my top picks perfect for your festive baking right here.

Oh and if you do indulge yourself in a treat or two be sure to come back and let me know what you bought!

Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, In The Pink Whisk Kitchen, Ruth's Chat, Twelve Days of Christmas | Leave a comment

Why do cupcake cases peel?

Posted on November 11, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

Oh the scourge of every baker – peeling cupcake paper cases!

They’re fine one minute, beautifully risen golden cupcakes on the cooling rack, turn your back for a minute and they’ve made a bid for freedom with the cases sagging and splitting right the way away from your cakes.

Or worse still, they’re decorated and waiting lovingly for their recipient, a sneak peek back in the box (just to check they’re as lovely as you thought they were – yes own up we all do that) and 2 of the blighters have peeled themselves off out of the batch.

Well I’m here to tell you why it happens in the hope that you can give yourself the very best chance of avoiding the dearth of the peeling cupcake case! Continue reading →

Posted in Cupcakes, Ruth's Chat, Top Tips | 14 Comments

Don’t Miss my Joss & Main Sale!

Posted on November 10, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

Just a quick pop in and out to let you know of another exciting project I’ve been working on behind the scenes just recently! I am pleased to say that I am the guest curator of a festive baking sale at Joss & Main this Thursday 13th November at 11.00am.

There’ll be some brilliant festive baking products specially selected by me so make sure you check back here on Thursday morning for all the details!

Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, In The Pink Whisk Kitchen, Ruth's Chat, Twelve Days of Christmas | 1 Comment

Review: Lidl SilverCrest Food Processor (Stand Mixer)

Posted on November 7, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

I get asked to work with all sorts of companies to review all sorts of gadgets and kitchenalia, mostly I don’t take up the offer but I thought this review was one you would be interested in.

Lidl have a stand mixer coming up for sale on 13th November in store and priced at a very reasonable £79.99 it would appear to be a good buy if it does what it claims to!

Full spec and more details on the Lidl website here

With the cost of a KitchenAid or a fancy K-Mix Kenwood stand mixer running into hundreds of pounds then bagging a mixer for less than £80 seems like a bargain, but what did I make of it?

The mixer is a SilverCrest Professional Food Processor SKMP 1200 A2. With a 1200w motor and a 3 year warranty.

First impressions are okay, obviously it’s not as glamourous and seductively good looking as a KitchenAid or the Kenwood version but it’s not a bad looking piece of kit.

It’s lightweight, the body being plastic instead of metal, much easier to move around than my stand mixer but it’s bigger too so takes up more room on the worktop or in a cupboard.

It has a wider base than a regular stand mixer which appears a little odd but once I put it into use it’s actually hugely stabilising, it can knead bread at a fair old whack without walking across the worktop. Continue reading →

Posted in In The Pink Whisk Kitchen, Review, Ruth's Chat | 42 Comments

Recipes from a Normal Mum – Holly Bell

Posted on November 5, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

No it’s not a mistake, you’re here at The Pink Whisk but I’m here to share Holly Bell’s fab new book!

Recipes from a Normal Mum by Holly Bell

I’m so thrilled to have a book of Holly’s on my cookbook shelf. I’m sure many of you are regular visitors to her blog and watched her avidly on The Great British Bake Off in 2011. Holly has worked exceptionally hard since Bake Off to forge a successful career in baking.

The book is packed full of enticing recipes with pictures of every bake and make. The ingredients are simple and straightforward to get hold of and the recipes are easy to follow and understand. There are 8 different chapters each covering a variety of different recipes, cooking and baking, and occasions to bake for so you know you’ll find something for everyone, even my youngest has been baking from it.

Over the rainbow meringues

Each of the recipes come with a little snippet of Holly’s life, stories and recipe origins. I knew we must be alike to be cast in the same ‘slot’ in the bake off but this was reaffirmed when I learnt of her love of gin (and a lack of household ironing!) I love getting to know people better through their books and Holly really shines out through hers. Continue reading →

Posted in Giveaway, Ruth's Chat, The Great British Bake Off, Treats | 146 Comments

Tasty Chicken Garlic & Tomato Pie

Posted on October 17, 2014 by The Pink Whisk

Pies have to pack a punch! You need a big whack of loveliness to go inside that pastry case. This pie does just that and it’s a favourite Clemens’ family teatime pie!

But why pie this week? It seems fitting as the Autumn gets underway and teatimes in our house take on a much more comfort food feel. Higgidy, the makers of pie loveliness, sent me some pie goodies and are holding a Recipe Hunt – they want your pie recipes to find the next Special Guest Pie in their range, and I know you’ll have some great recipes up your sleeves. Have a look here www.higgidy.co.uk/recipehunt and share your favourite recipes with them if you get chance.