Konditor and Cook magic cakes

The bear and I have always been huge fans of Konditor and Cook and their yummy magic cakes. A big fan of Peggy Porschen too who used to work for Konditor and Cook and has some great recipes for making your very own magic cakes in her book Pretty Party Cakes.

But is it me, or are they a little smaller than they used to be? Still as yummy as ever though. We were just left wishing there was a little more of them.

Flapjacks from Montpeliers

Flapjacks from a small cafe in Blackheath called Montpeliers.

Really, really, really good. The bear is a big fan of the flapjack and he was very much in awe of these. Sticky, oaty and with a slight sugary crunch. No messing about with different flavours or yoghurty type toppings, just an oat flapjack pure and simple, just as it should be.

Easter

From our local cafe, Rhubarb and Custard. Superb vanilla sponge, lovely buttercream icing – fluffy and light with enough sweet to satisfy the bear, and of course statutory mini eggs.

The little jellies on this cake didn’t quite work for me, but it was freebie and the icing was just so good that I have no real complaints.

Modern biscuit

The boy, bear, little one and I all headed off to the Tate Modern recently for some fun and art. There are many pleasures to be had sweet treat wise at the Tate but I shall focus on the biscuit variety in this post. On a whim and quite an expensive one at that, the boy (probably jeered on by the bear) decided to buy this rather amazing looking biscuit with iced Tate on the front.

At somewhere between £4-£6, I can’t quite remember how much, we expected it to be incredible and to taste better than a bourbon biscuit. But it really wasn’t very good at all. Such a huge disappointment and I’d have much rather have eaten a bourbon biscuit despite the fact that I generally overlook them in the selection tin.

The icing was crisp and lacking in flavour (I do believe that you can have flavour in hard icing), and the biscuit was crumbly, dry and well, flavourless again. Almost a little stale.

The Biscuiteers are renowned for making gorgeous looking biscuits. Just a pity they don’t taste as good as they look.

Even the bear turned his nose up and let’s face it, he’s not particularly fussy when it comes to biscuits.

Raspberry and almond cake

When ground almonds are being used as a substitute for flour you know you’re on to a good thing. We have been going through a somewhat almondy faze in the house recently. Last night’s dinner was a moroccan spaghetti with toasted almond flakes and there have been many mornings of late, what with the boy having a week off work, that the words “almond croissant and coffee for breakfast” have been uttered.

I do love them though. Such nuttyness and this cake is one of my favourites, if not my favourite, from our local cafe.

Moist, springy sponge with a nutty flavour with buttercream and raspberry filling and buttercream on top it really is extremely tasty and I ate the whole slice to myself. I didn’t share with the bear and he got cross.

A new sampling spot

We have a new cafe opening in our area. This is a good thing for so many reasons and especially the promise of some new and interesting cake for the bear and I to sample.

It’s been so busy and popular since its opening this morning that we haven’t been able to get through the door yet, but I am sure we’ll fight our way through soon enough.

When bad things happen to good recipes

In reference to my last post and the coveting of one rather lovely Kitchen Aid food mixer, the problems that can happen when you don’t have the energy (or the will to clean up icing sugar from every surface downstairs) are evident below.

Flat vanilla icing. It should be whipped and fluffy and rather wonderful as it is in the picture that accompanies the recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook.

Such a shame. I popped all the ingredients in the food processor for convenience and time which is fine if you are making regular glaze icing using just icing sugar and water. Not so fine if you are making buttercream icing. A hand whisk would have worked much better but the bear and the little one were tugging at my sleeve and so I rushed.

Still, the sponge was great and although my icing was flat it tasted yummy. These little cakes were made to accompany the boy in a trip to Paris. More about that later…