A

That would be my choice. Love lemon curd the sharper the better. If you can't have home made Waitrose zesty lemon curd is lovely.

Oh dear I'm on my skinny day today (second time this week) 5:2 diet. Hide the wine bottle!

AOoh cats mum, can you tell me how to do the 5:2 diet? I'm on slimming world at the moment but I want to try something new!

Haha - I'm on the 5:2 too and today is a fast day.  It's not exactly fasting - I can have a whole 500 calories - yayy!  I have lost 6lbs since I got back from Prague/birthday.  My husband on the other hand is very good at this - he has lost two stone.  I am a bad dieter and am only 12lbs less than when I started last year.  I pretty much do not eat anything until lunchtime and then I work out the calories in my salad and fruit and then tonight I shall have something involving Quorn!  I don't think it matters how you spend your 500 calories but if you are on SW then you will be used to eating loads - so bulk it out with low calorie veg and fruit.  It's hard - won't lie to you.  I pretty much eat as I please in between but I think the reason my husband is so successful is that he watches his diet on non-fast days too - therefore, I deserve what I get!

You were talking about Turkish delight cupcakes or something earlier in the thread I think and so I started a bit of googling and saw that there are quite a few recipes out there - I am putting that flavour on my list as I think it's so unusual.  My husband loves Turkish delight so am definitely going to put them in my folder.

Kathy

Edited to say that my husband hasn't lost two stone in two weeks!  Lol - that would be very odd (and annoying) - he has lost two stone since we started. :)

ALove Prague, where did you stay Kathy?

Hi Barbara - we stayed in the K&K Central.  Was a lovely place - just at the top of our road was the Powder Gate and we could walk to anywhere from here.  I have never seen so many beautiful old buildings concentrated into such a small area - simply beautiful.  We could not believe how cheap things were either.  Our first night we spent £28 on a three course meal with beer and G&Ts ..... for four people!!!  I kid you not.  We decided to up the budget as we had got £400 currency to spend and it wasn't going down at all!  In the end, we still tried to spend it all in the airport and still came home with £30 worth of notes.

My husband was fixated on getting a pork knee - it was everywhere on the menus - I couldn't do that.  When it turned up it was bigger than my Sunday joint!  However, he loved it - not my idea of a good meal unfortunately.

I loved it that the second language was English - a couple of times we got frosty receptions (and that was only a couple honestly) and so I tried to speak German to them.  They didn't like that too much and immediately spoke in English.  If you ever go again, do look at the K&K Central - I did a TA review.

Kathy

AMorning all :-)

Lovely cake M4rvel :-)

Newstreet, I've star doing raspberry in my lemon cakes, either buttercream or white choc ganache. I love lemon cake but for some reason when I use lemon to buttercream I find it so sweet - like the sour of the lemon brings out the sugar. If I do use lemon I do it at a curd with vanilla bc.

Our how about making it a St Clements type affair and doing an orange filling ?

I'm having to bite the bullet and do my champagne cake today even though I have no natural light in the kitchen. At least the dust is under control for a minute (because we've had no sodding builders for almost two weeks!) so I can use my kitchen rather than having to up-sticks and go to mums!

A

No don't whip it. By whipping it you introduce air to it and therefore bacteria. It will significantly reduce the shelf life.

Personally I would make a standard buttercream (butter and icing sugar) and the mix in a huge dollop of lemon curd. I would also perhaps just spread a little I top of that too. Oh crap..., there goes the diet *runs off to make lemon cake* :D

AMorning all.... Marvel, your cakes look sooo yummy and I love ganache!!!! :) I also use Wilton 1M tip to pipe the cupcakes.

Newstreet, I also use lemon curd mixed with butter cream. And I buy sainsbury's taste the difference lemon curd. You can save the time making it. If you are going to have three layers of cake, then use one, just lemon curd filling and the next filling mix with butter cream. I also use lemon sugar syrup and brush it over on your cake layers before putting the filling. It is ok to ganache it tonight. :-):)

ANewstreet, just saw your second post. I make Italian Meringue Butter Cream all the time. So easy to make. I use pure albumen to make it. Don't give up. It's so nice....

AArgh, why do I always use a bowl slightly too small for what I need? I *know* what size I need, but nooo, my brain says 'oh go on, it might fit this time'. Cocoa everywhere. Bums.

AMmmmm lemon curd.......! Love both the Sains and Waitrose ones! For my lemon cakes it's always lemon buttercream (flavoured with zest, never extract!) and lemon curd layered together.

I'm on choc today though for T&J cakes, which actually in this heat is a good thing as it's the last thing I want to eat at the moment. A lemon cake wouldn't stand a chance :grin:

I've never made SMBC or IMBC, heard lots about it, I really should give it a go sometime LOL! I just worry it's too sweet?

Lovely cakes Marvel, bet you'll be very popular with work!!

LOL Lizzy I feel your pain, been there done that too....!

AHi everyone! Today is a good day!

Went to the local co-op for a pint of milk and came out with two orders for next month!

One for an XBOX 360 and one for a minecraft cake. Should be interesting! Haha

Well done kuuushi.

Marvel forgot to say your cakes will have really cheered your colleagues up...even with my none sweet tooth I wanted some of that chocolate cake.

Morning all!

Look what Mr Tiddy just walked in with! He said he knows i have new fangled electric ones but thought these would look good in my cake room  

Chuffed!

Thanks everybody for the support. It's not looking good, my friend had a LOT of bleeding which they've drained. If she comes out of the induced coma, they cannot say whether there will be no brain damage, or whether she'll have minimal or major brain damage. She is being kept under sedation until they figure out what to do. It wasn't until I spoke to my friend's husband last night that it really hit me, so been crying loads.

I'm going to see her at 2pm. I'm dreading what I'll see - lots of tubes apparently. Until then I am finishing my friend's daughter's cake. Her name is Bethany Rose, so I am putting little rolled roses all over the cake, which someone else did a while back- sorry can't remember who! 

Will catch up properly another time, but I've had a look at the photos. Lovely lilies Tiddy! Marvel, those ganache cakes look yum. I do like old fashioned scales, not that I have one. 

Thanks once again for all the cyber hugs! Having a wobble again so I'm off to roll roses xxx

:( so sorry to hear this...positive thoughts! Miracles do happen x

AChin up petitecat! :) positive thoughts! :)

Tiddy love the scales! Very vintage!

I'm gonna be up all night baking I think! Sooo much to do today!

AThink positive Petitecat. A few years ago my dad was diagnosed with cancer in his lungs, heart, brain, spine and blood. We were told weeks at best. He had chemo and unbelievably it had worked. The docs told us they'd not seen anyone that riddled with cancer pull through. It does happen sometimes xx

Mel, Swiss and Italian buttercreams are a lot less sweet than American, and they're silky smooth, no grittiness that you can get with icing sugar/butter. I've used Swiss exclusively for years now, unless I can be bothered to do a sugar syrup for Italian. Give them a go, they're easy peasy :-)

ALizzy do you have a recipe please? :)

ASo sorry to hear this Jean, thinking of you and sending more virtual hugs your way xx

I'll have to give it a go Lizzy, in terms of storage etc how well does it keep? Do you have to refrigerate? I get worried with anything involving egg whites lol!

Amazing story about your Dad, that must have been so tough for you all, but certainly proves nothing is impossible! x

AJean my heart goes out to you, keep strong!!

Bashini I always do the same as you lemon curd layer, then lemon curd buttercream, I always add lemon juice to my lemon curd to given extra zest.

Oh Jean - very sorry for you.  Sadly, I am experiencing something similar myself with my mum right now.  This little forum is a great tonic - I pop in from time to time just to "escape" even though I haven't got a cake until end of June - helps me to think about something else.  Sending you lots of positive thoughts - life's tough sometimes.

xx

Thoughts and prayers are with you Jean as well as your friend and her family. xx

Petitecat thinking of you and your friend sending hugs and positive thoughts your way, keep strong were here if you need us 

Tiidy love the scales, isn't my Tiddy lovely  

AThoughts are with you Jean, there's lots of shoulders to lean on here :)

AGrays of our Lives – episode 4(?)... you thought it was all over!

It seems our intrepid baker tempted the cruel finger of Fate with his premature celebrations.... the La-La-Land bride has retured after ‘much thought and discussion’...

So this lovely lady has expressed the desire to spend no more than £200 and I have politely replied to her “what lovely designs for my price range, but what about this?” (see image of £750 cake) with “this is a lovely cake and would cost £750, all the wonderful hard work in the sugar flowers and hand piping is so admirable don’t you agree? ...Here are some ideas to your strict budget with elements of those luxurious designs you like.....” .......”and here is a link to the M&S website where I think you will get better value for money than from me”..... .......we have thought long and hard” she replies “we would like you to decorate 4 tiers from M&S...” (which costs £110 with no markup leaving me £90 for materials and labour!!!!!) “....and we want this please: (image of 4 cake-laced tiers with at least 50 sugar flowers on fully laiden dummy spacer tiers)”

I am considering replying “so sorry I just failed my Env health inspection and have been closed down......” what do you think?!

First I will see how she replies to an itemised quote with a hidden 40% ‘pain in the butt fee’ and a nice clear 20% ‘you’re such a lovely poor bride’ discount at the end :D

This is all because I conned some dodgy irish fella into paying too much for my old car isn’t it..... it’s celtic revenge magic......

AHi Mel, it keeps very well at room temp for several days, but I do tend to refrigerate anyway. It also freezes brilliantly, and I often make a big batch to freeze. If you refrigerate or freeze, it can curdle when it comes back to room temp, but all you need to do to rectify it is take out about 1/4 - 1/3, melt it completely, then whisk it back into the curdled mess and it will right itself.

Hey Kuushi, I use 50g sugar, 1tsp vanilla and 70-100g butter (depends how much I need that day) to one white. As I use a stand mixer I make a minimum of 3 whites.

All you do is put the sugar and whites in a double boiler and whisk until the cater sugar has dissolved. You don't need to whisk madly, it's just to keep it moving and avoid scrambled eggs.

When dissolved, take it off the heat and start whisking in the mixer until it's cool. Sometimes I stick the bowl in a sink of ice water for a couple of minutes to help it along as it can take a good 10 mins to cool.

When it's cool add softened (not soft) butter in bits. I normally do a lemon size splodge at a time. It will lose volume and look a bit soupy to begin, but keep adding the butter, giving a good minute or two whisking after each addition, and it will come together in a lovely silky mix. Add vanilla (or other flavouring) and you're done. If you need it really smooth, beating with a paddle on low speed for 5 mins or so will really help knock out air bubbles.

Oh, sometimes it can look like it's completely curdled and ruined. Just keep whisking and adding butter and it will come back, promise!

It's much easier to make than it looks there, honestly :-)

AHang on Gray, YOU have to pay for the m&s cake??? Are you sure you're not on candid camera?

AOMG Gray LOL! She's really not getting the message is she, bless her!?! Maybe break down the price to 'per flower' and she might work out why 50 odd flowers, dummy seperators and other decor is NOT going to be cheap........regardless of the M&S cake?!

Oh that has made me chuckle! :)

In other news my cigarillos have arrived, yay! I may have 'quality checked' a broken one.....yum! Thanks for the recommendation Maisie, hubby is going to love these!