Good Food show

I have had a busy couple of days, on Friday I was busy making a load of different mini puddings for an order. I made New York Cheesecakes, Key Lime Mousse cakes, brownies and a few cake pops and if I may say so they looked good! Stu was very happy as there was a few left overs and cheesecake is one of his favourite things.

Then on Saturday I met up with my mum and headed to the NEC for the BBC Good Food Show. Mum and I have gone to this several times over the past few years and have always had a good time.
The first stall we stopped at when we got in was a cupcake stall (unsurprisingly) and I noticed a woman that I knew from somewhere and was about to say hello when I realised that it was Mary Ann from the Great British Bake Off and I am not embarrassed to say I got a bit excited! we then saw the GBBO stand and it reminded me that I still need to finish completing my application for the next series and get it sent off.

Mum and I had a lovely day walking round, eating all the free samples and spending far too much money. I saw a few fudge stalls and made mental notes of the different flavours that I want to try out.

But the best part of the day was when my mum gave me a bag that she had been given by a friend when they heard about what I was doing. It had 4 AMAZING sweets and chocolate making books - all printed back in the 1980's and full of so many different recipes for some amazing looking sweets that I am going to have to have a go at making.

Am going to have to start cooking ready for my next Christmas fayre and my Christmas presents soon or it will be Christmas before I know it.  

American candy!

While walking through Bristol today doing a spot of Christmas shopping I spotted a new shop that I hope stays around for a long time.

It was a sweet shop that sold old fashioned sweets AND American candy! Having paid a lot of money for the 2 things in the picture below. I will try not to eat them both tonight but I can't promise anything!

Seeing all the American candy makes me want to go back to the states and when Stu suggested we just book a holiday to Florida for next summer I was very tempted to say yes!!

Stir up Sunday

Well after a difficult week with illness and a bit of teething thrown in (Nathan, not me) I have finally found some time to make my Christmas cake. It's got about 10 minutes left to go and the whole house smells Christmasy!

Have not had any time to make any more sweets but have booked a days holiday from work this Tuesday so am hoping I'll get a chance to make something as well as update my website (www.littlesprinkles.co.uk) then meet a friend for coffee and do a bit more christmas shopping, think there should be enough hours in the day!

Am wanting to make some little sweety christmas presents for some of the family so need to start thinking about doing that as well.

I had an enquiry for a big cupcake order last week, am waiting to hear if they are happy with my quote and if they are then that will give me a bit of money to use next year to get Little Sprinkles out and about at different fairs and events so hopefully I can start making a proper go of this business rather than just playing at it as I am doing at the moment.

Oh there goes the oven timer got to go sort my cake out.....

Fridge full of goodies!

My fridge is currently full of sweet goodness all ready for the Christmas fayre tomorrow. Have worked hard all day, my second attempt at coconut ice looks a lot better than my first attempt.

I've got four types of fudge, vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter and Baylies. I've got my festive red and green coconut ice, bags of Christmas biscuits and for the children a bag of flumps (not home made) lets hope that tomorrow is a sucess!

Coconut ice disaster

I'm busy making sweets and treats ready for the Christmas fayre at Bernard Lovell School on Sunday. So far I have made 3 lots of fudge and tried to make coconut ice. Am not sure what has gone wrong but it is very runny and I don't think it will set.

I am going to blaime the recipes as it seemed to be to be asking for a lot of liquid and not enough dry ingredients I have put it in the fridge so we will see what happens. I have found another recipe in my new sweety book!
I treated myself to a birthday present this week and bought The Home Made Sweet Shop book which arrived today! It has got me all excited about sweets again and want to try the recipes in the book so think I will be nice and busy again.

I am also looking to update my website so feel that I need more hours in the day or need to use one of the serveral holiday days I have from work when Nathan is a nursery so I have time to sit and do this. I am wanting to start offering fudge by post via my website so watch this space for updates!

Well no rest for the wicked, that fudge isn't going to make itself!

Holy Baileys fudge Batman!

Well I finally made more sweets this weekend, not from my book as I had a request for birthday fudge so I thought I would do something other than vanilla fudge.

Baileys fudge was a lot easier to make than I thought it would but with a quarter of a cup of Baileys it is very alcoholic tasting, which isn't a bad thing I just don't think you can eat too much of it in one go.

I took a little field trip yesterday to the NEC for Cake International 2011. I have never been there before and am not sure if I will go back, there were some amazing looking cakes that were entered into the competition which I am not sure if I could ever emulate.
I did not buy an airbrush kit as much as I wanted one but I did buy a lot of other things that I will enjoy playing with.

I've got a stall at a Christmas faur at Bernard Lovell school in Oldham Common next Sunday so I've got a lot of sweets to make this week, am mainly making fudge but am also going to do some coconut ice and some large gingerbread people. Very busy week ahead!