Spooky Hallowe'en cakes!

These were created by myself (graveyard cake) and Mr George (Frankenstein's Monster cake) for a fundraising cake day at my work to raise money for the wonderful British Heart Foundation. The two cakes were auctioned off, we got £10 for Frankie and £12.50 for the graveyard and a grand total of £205 was raised! The Monster is a madeira cake covered in coloured fondant (with a butter icing underlayer) and piped icing, while the graveyard is a chocolate cake iced with buttercream plus meringue ghosts and bourbon biscuit gravestones. Mmmm, cake...

Baking madness

I seem to have spent the last 2 weeks baking non-stop. Last weekend I made the rather extraordinary raspberry and chocolate cheesecake brownies featured in the Sunday Times the previous week. I don't think I have ever squeezed so many calories into one slice of brownie... the receipe worked pretty well although unfortunately I had to cook it for an hour rather than the 35-40 minutes suggested in the recipe! Still tasted lush though (even if I do say so myself).

Duck Prosciutto continued... Part 2

Ok, so I have taken the duck out of the fridge and dried it with a bit of paper towel (which just wanted to stick to the duck!). It still didn't look very exciting so it's now drying in muslin and hanging for 2-3 weeks.

I'll make sure I post a photo then.

In the meantime I bought a whole-ish pigs head today. It was missing one ear, hopefully from where the butcher had sold it. I've cut the cheeks and remaining ear off to try a bath chap recipe and maybe fried ear this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Duck Prosciutto

Started on my first attempt at Duck Prosciutto (Ham) today and should be ready for hanging on Wed/Thurs. I'll pop a photo up at that stage as it looks like duck breast in a ziplock bag at the moment!

Good Evening...

The East Anglian Dept here, signing in. Expect short, sharp posts from me. I'm easily distracted. Ooh look, Scizzas!

Our first post!

Welcome to our brand new food blog! (It's our first attempt, so be kind).

Here at the Cardiff branch of the Collective we've had a very foodie weekend indeed - mainly so we would have something to write about on here! Yesterday we were in the lovely town of Cheltenham where we popped into Moran's Eating House on Bath Road. It was the first time we have visited - but it won't be the last given the amazing selection of cakes on offer... we tried the black cherry Bakewell pudding and apple and almond cake, both of which were gorgeous. As some of their other cakes included a chocolate cornflake extravaganza (it was the size of an enormous gateau and cut into proper cake slices - I cannot describe how appetising it looked!) and a carrot and banana cake with cream cheese frosting, it would be rude NOT to go back in my opinion.

On the way home we visited Taurus Crafts near Chepstow. Now, I have always been wary of this place as it looks like it might be full of ageing hippies, so imagine my delight when we arrived to see a wild food weekend being hosted and the promise of a sausage-making day in November! There was plenty of good food on offer, both local and organic, with various workshops running throughout the weekend (although naturally we arrived at completely the wrong time for any of them). The highlight was trying a wild boar cured sausage and venison prosciutto *wipes dribble away from mouth*

Finally, today I have been playing at being a domestic goddess - baking bread, making soup and generally pottering around. I've also dug up my very last potatoes from this year, meaning the garden is officially barren until spring. But hopefully they will taste lovely alongside the beef casserole George is cooking for tonight...

OK well I think that's more than enough waffling for now. I will try and make my next post a bit more focused, promise! And who knows, I may even put a recipe up if I'm feeling particularly brave. Sarah x