Steamer Trading Christmas Gift Guide Unboxing

11/16

Merry Christmas!

Ok, well we may be a few weeks away from the big day (or half past November as Tim calls it!) but it has certainly felt like Christmas in the She Who Bakes kitchen today!

I’ve received a Steamer Trading Christmas Gift Guide Bundle to film a lovely unboxing for you all! I was really excited to see the great products they have available. Steamer Trading are a family owned Cookshop that first opened in a small village called Alfriston, East Sussex in 1985. Since then, they have grown to 41 stores across the UK all filled with wonderful kitchen essentials delivered by our extremely knowledgeable staff.

If you’ve seen on my social media, I have unfortunately broken my hand so I had help from my wonderful partner Tim Box getting the gifts out to have a look!

So, let’s have a look what was in the box!

I am now fully stocked for Christmas 2016! It all looks amazing! Check out below to take a closer look at all the fab products and the links where you can get your hands on them! See the bottom of the blog post for some exclusive discount codes too! Thank you again to Steamer Trading Cookshop!

Happy baking and Merry Christmas!

Britt xo

Kilner 5L Barrel Dispenser

The Kilner Barrel Drinks Dispenser is a lovely party-piece, perfect to serve large groups of people due to its sizeable 5L capacity. The Dispenser can be used to serve any beverage of your choice, from infused waters to mulled wine. The barrel shaped dispenser has a push-top wooden lid with tight silicone seal to keep contents as fresh and as secured as possible. The wooden lid provides an authentic beer barrel appearance alongside the embossed Kilner logo for a distinct finish.

RRP £19.99

 

 

 

A Red Mason Cash Mixing Bowl

With this 29cm mason Cash mixing bowl you can be sure that it will be big enough to help you cater for the Christmas Crowds!

RRP £24.50

 

 

Peugeot Paris USelect 18cm Stainless Steel Pepper Mill

Paris stands out from the crowd as the flagship model of the Peugeot collection. It offers four finishes in total – natural, chocolate, black lacquered and red lacquered; and many sizes, ranging from 10 cm, up to 110 cm, according to the colour. It is equipped with the u’ Select grind selection system.

RRP £49.95

 

 

 

 

 

Leonardo Tavola Long Drink Tumbler

The Leonardo Tavola Long Drink Tumbler is a perfect example of beautiful glassware. The tumbler is made from a very strong material, Teqton, which makes the glass extremely shock-proof and durable. Ideal for those larger occasions, or when used by children.

RRP £9.99

 

 

Zoku Set of 8 Naughty & Nice Ice Moulds

Play Santa this Christmas and decide whether your guests have been naughty or nice with this fun silicone ice mould! Each flexible mould makes 4 ‘naughty’ and 4 ‘nice’ ice cubes. Just the right size for an old fashioned short tumbler.

RRP £9.99

 

As a side note, I decided to fill these with white and milk chocolate and I LOVED how they turned out! Perfect stocking fillers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sabatier Professional 2 Piece Carving Knife Set

Perfect for Christmas day and carving that roast!

RRP £44.95

 

 

 

 

 

Gingerbread Man and Christmas Tree Cookie Cutters

If you are in the baking mood this season then look no further than these festive Cookie Cutters. The sharp cookie cutters can make light work of creating a simple gingerbread or even a star shaped cookies. Perfect to keep children occupied, have a go at making some delicious, seasonal shapes!

RRP £1.75 each

 

 

Circulon Roasting Tin & Rack Set

The Circulon Roasting Tin & Rack Set is the ultimate roaster for your Sunday lunch! With a generous 40 x 30cm capacity, the tin can roast large meat or poultry items and features a non-stick rack that makes for easy lifting of food from the roaster. Because the meat is raised from the surface of the pan, it won’t stew in the juices at bottom which can be used for gorgeous gravy.

RRP: £39.98 Now: £19.95

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N.B Products featured provided for free by Steamer Trading Cookshop, but my views are my own, impartial and honest.

She Who Breaks

11/16

It’s a bakers worst nightmare. It’s the lead up to Christmas and I can’t bake!! Now, while this is a good opportunity to get some rest and think up some lovely ideas for when I’m back in the kitchen, I can’t help but be incredibly frustrated by the timing of it all!

On Monday I had a bit of an accident and I’ve broken a bone in my hand. My fifth metacarpal bone to be precise, also known as a ‘Boxer’s fracture’ – but I promise I didn’t punch anyone.

For those of you who follow my Instagram, you will know I like to do lots of different activities and on Monday I actually fell out of a handstand and onto my head and my neck. First hearing a ridiculously loud crunching sound as I hit the floor. The girls around me looked rather concerned as apparently I had gone white. I didn’t know if I was going to be sick, needed a drink or was going to pass out. It was only as I was sitting there for a brief moment coming around when I realised my hand was hurting quite badly and was pretty swollen. I put an ice pack on it but the pain wasn’t easing up. I left the class and found my partner Tim and told him I just wanted to go home as I was very tired. However, he wanted to take me to the hospital to get checked out, just to make sure I didn’t have concussion or anything more serious.

When we got to the hospital I was put in a scary neck brace and sent for X-rays. I was worried I done some serious damage to my back but luckily all of my back X-rays came back clear with just a bit of bruising as evidence of what happened that night. However when I asked about my hand, the doctor has said “Oh, your hand? That’s broken!” I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never broken a bone before! I was sent for a cast and we got home just before 1 a.m.

I had to wait a few days for the swelling to go down before my follow up appointment at the fracture clinic. I went there yesterday where I was told I would have to be in a cast for at least the next 4 weeks and possibly in a brace or a splint for another few weeks following that. No making Christmas dinner for me then! When I got to the plaster room the lovely technician asked if I wanted pink, blue or red for my new cast and staying on the She Who Bakes brand I opted for the red! He then smiled and asked if I wanted glitter to which I responded “Well, it is Christmas!” Haha.

So now I have a lovely addition to my wardrobe, am on quite a few painkillers and sadly am out of baking (and handstand) action for a while. I’m going to wait for the pain to subside a bit as it hurts just to hold a cup of tea at the moment! Hopefully I will be back in the kitchen making tasty treats this side of Christmas as it will take more than a broken bone to keep me down.

Until then please check out all of my lovely recipes that can be found on my website here. Thank you so much for all of your well wishes, kind messages and lovely pictures to make me smile. It really means a lot to me. In the meantime I will be doing more Facebook live videos so if you do have any baking questions or want to have a chat with me to check out my Facebook page and subscribe to my live broadcasts.

Happy baking!

Britt xo

A Pipe Dream To A Piping Reality

11/16

A few years ago, I did something I probably wasn’t supposed to do. But that one action changed my thinking and ultimately was a key factor in who I am today.

I started blogging back in 2013. Armed with a packet cake mix and a laptop with no clue of how to bake, I started writing. (To find out more of how I got to that stage, with no desire to ever bake, check out my blog here). My writing about cakes and pictures of cakes I had made, most famously my square Pudsey cake, soon turned into baking product reviews through the eyes of a complete beginner, show reports (basically me going to food events and writing about them to my three followers!) and it started to become a fully fledged blog as opposed to my random ramblings.

I was fortunate enough to be recognised as a blogger from late 2013, being invited to foodie events, supermarket previews and being sent products to review. However it was mid-2014 when I really started to feel like I was earning my blogging stripes.

The Cake & Bake Show, a show I had visited a number of times and loved, asked if I would be interested in blogging about the show, in return I would get a press pass and access to celebrity bakers to interview on the day. I jumped at the chance! I wanted to say yes before they changed their mind! They offered me two passes to their Manchester show and I was so excited. I took my friend Colin (the now internet sensation and very cool Colin’s Time To Bake!) and we had a wonderful day.

When we arrived, however, we were slightly early as I was told we could access the show before the general public, which was all very exciting for us both! We walked around feeling very important and loving life. As we got to the back of the show hall, I spotted the big stage; The Cake Kitchen. Never one to miss a photo opportunity, we walked casually around the side of the stage and I ran onto it. I posed for a photo and Colin took it from a few rows back.

I stood there, on that stage and looked around. It felt amazing being up there. There was no one in the audience and only a few people in the hall but the sense of achievement was one I had never felt. I realised, in that moment, that being on that stage was exactly what I wanted to do. I was off in a dream, I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in real time when suddenly I heard; “Excuse me, can you get down from there please.” I looked over to see a rather burly security guard coming towards me. “Oh I’m sorry!’ I said, “I just wanted to check out the view!” and showed him my press pass so he wouldn’t kick me out! He didn’t look very impressed! Colin and I scarpered and tried to avoid him for the rest of the day.

When I got back to Kent the following day I sat and thought about how that felt on that stage and how I wanted it so badly. I knew I had to work hard. I was an unknown baking blogger with no formal training who had fallen into this purely by accident when dealing with my mental health after losing my mum. How on earth was I going to get up on that stage?

I knew it would be hard work. I knew I would be up against a lot of competition. But I also knew this is exactly what I wanted to do in my life and I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way.

I wrote, I baked, I wrote some more, I baked even more than that. I became She Who Bakes. I put myself out there and I refused to listen to anyones negativity, anyone that told me I couldn’t. What’s more, I enjoyed every second of it.

This week, I was back in Manchester for the Cake & Bake Show. This week, I was back on that stage. This week, I was invited. This week, my demonstration sold out to a crowd of wonderful people who all paid to see me. This week, my dream came true.

You can do anything.

Happy baking,

Britt xo

Me before my demonstration in the Baking & Decorating Classroom at The Cake & Bake Show, Manchester 2016.

cake-bake-show-manc-2016

Halfway through my demonstration!

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Cutting the ribbon to open the show with some familiar faces!

 

Gingerbread

11/16

Gingerbread makes me so happy. I don’t care if it’s a gingerbread man, woman, star, stocking or tree. The smell is so festive and the taste takes me back to being a kid! I didn’t have homemade gingerbread growing up, my mum wasn’t a baker at all and my nan stuck to Italian breads (which were phenomenal by the way), so shop bought gingerbread tantalised my tastes from an early age.

When I first got into baking back in 2010, it was in November so it wasn’t long before I enjoyed my first, homemade gingerbread shapes! I wrote the recipe down in my notebook and it’s the one I have used for the past six years every Christmas (and sometimes just because I fancied some!).

I realised I hadn’t written this recipe up on my website, so I made some this week and set about documenting for my blog as I usually do. However, with a little research I have realised the recipe I have transferred from notebook to notebook each year, the one I swear by and use all the time isn’t mine!

Back in the early days of my baking adventure I used a lot of recipes I found online, not getting the confidence to make my own until a few years later. It turns out ‘my’ trusted gingerbread recipe belongs to the BBC Good Food website! On further inspection too, it turns out that so many gingerbread recipes available on the internet are exactly the same as this one, and some are identical with only a few grams difference either side on a couple of ingredients.

This says to me this is a known, trusted and great recipe, and who am I to mess with greatness? What you’ll find below are my top tips to create festive gingerbread shapes at home. You can find the recipe here.

Make the dough as instructed. Firstly mixing together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger, then adding the butter and making a mix that resembles breadcrumbs. Then, mix together the egg and golden syrup and add this to the mix, finally adding in the sugar (not pictured).

My tips for getting a good dough are to have the butter the right temperature. Too cold and the dough will struggle to form, too soft and it will be hard to get the dough into a ball. Take it out of the fridge about 10-15 minutes before using. We don’t want it room temperature, but we don’t want it fridge temperature either! Then, wrap the dough in cling film and I like to chill mine for 20 minutes or so before rolling out.

Then, when it comes to rolling out the dough, dust a side with a little plain flour and knead the gingerbread a few times before rolling, this will make it easier to roll and shouldn’t crack as much. I like to use these marzipan spacers to make sure I have evenly rolled dough. Then, pop your shapes on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake at 180°C for 12-15 minutes.

Once baked, leave them on a wire rack to cool.

When it comes to decorating gingerbread shapes, the only limit as they say, is your imagination. You can use anything you like to decorate them, sugarpaste, chocolate or most commonly royal icing. Now, I make no secret about the fact I don’t like royal icing that much. It was never something I wanted to learn or get better at as I have shaky hands and not a lot of patience. I would much rather model something than pipe something and over the past 6 years have only really used it as a glue, sticking down my cakes to their boards and sticking on decorations. That said, I have an enormous amount of respect and admiration for those who are brilliant with royal icing and I can watch videos on it all day long! (A special mention to SweetAmbs who blows my mind with her talent! Go check out her cookie work).

You can of course make your own royal icing, there are lots of recipes readily available online or you can buy it ready made, which is what I usually use. But today I’m using Whitworths Royal Icing Sugar. I’m also using a disposable piping bag and a 2.5 nozzle.

Then the rest is up to you! Dots, lines, outlines, squiggles, smarties, sprinkles – however you want to decorate your ginger shapes! It doesn’t have to be perfect, just have fun with it!

Once the royal icing has set, store in a cake tin and enjoy within a week!

If you want to turn your baking hobby into a career, check out my book Cakes, Bakes & Business for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

Give it a try and let me know how you get on either on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

Happy baking!

Britt xo

Toblerone Travesty!

11/16

November 8th. This date will go down in history.

Years from now there will be the questions; ‘Where were you on this historic day?’

The day we discovered what has happened to our beloved Toblerone.

Toblerone, for those who don’t know, is a Swiss chocolate bar with nougat, almonds and honey. It has a distinctive triangle shape to resemble the Swiss Alps and a hidden bear in the logo. It’s a much loved bar often seen at airports and Christmas. It comes in many different flavours, with my personal favourite being the white one. This is the look we know and love –

toblerone-hero

I even made a recipe with it earlier this year, the Toblerone Traybake.

Toblerone Traybake by She Who Bakes

However, everything we currently know is about to change. The company that owns Toblerone, Mondelez has said the change was due to a rise in the cost of ingredients.

As reported by the BBC this morning –

In a statement on the Toblerone Facebook page, the company said it had to make a decision between changing the look of the bars or raising the price.

The move has resulted in the weight of the 400g bars being reduced to 360g and the 170g bars to 150g, while the size of the packaging has remained the same.

It said: “We chose to change the shape to keep the product affordable for our customers.”

So, essentially, same price, less chocolate, silly design. It looks less like the Swiss Apps now and more like  a chocolate toast rack. Surely the better option would have been to make a smaller bar? The gaps in the triangles are iconic and not something that I believe should be messed with.

I mean, how on earth are we going to make another Toblorange this Christmas??

Toblorange

Where does the madness end? Single finger KitKats? One and a half Bounty bars? Three smarties in a tube?! Is this the future of Toblerone??

screen-shot-2016-11-08-at-11-24-45

In these times of uncertainty, where there is bad news all around us, please don’t mess with our chocolate.

What do you think? Let me know on either on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

Britt xo

50% Off ALL Online Courses!

11/16

For a limited time only all of the She Who Bakes Online Cake Decorating Courses are half price!
In the popular Professional Finish Course & Tiered Wedding Cake Course, I teach you how to use different types of icing, make edible decorations and how to split, fill and cover your cake to a professional standard.
In the Pretty & Pink Cupcake Course, I show you how to use professional silicone moulds to create beautiful decorations, make cute flowers and a 3D bow. Finally you will learn how to pipe the perfect cupcake swirl using two different designs.
If you fancy learning something a little different, my Shirt & Tie Course is full of fun decorating techniques.

Once purchased, you can log in and watch these videos as many times as you like! You will learn a wide range of decorating and modelling skills in each one. These courses are perfect for beginners and for those with a little knowledge who are looking to learn some new creative ideas and techniques.

Professional Finish Course was £19.95 now £9.95
Tiered Wedding Cake Course was £19.95 now £9.95
Pretty & Pink Cupcake Course was £11.95 now £4.95
Shirt & Tie Course was £14.95 now £7.95

If you want to turn your baking hobby into a career, check out my book Cakes, Bakes & Business for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

Happy baking!

Britt xo

wedding-cake-vid Professional FinishOnline Course-2

Pretty & Pink Cupcakes Thumbnail Shirt & Tie Online Cake Decorating Course

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