monin syrups

For me Monin syrups are the secret to tasty baking. These syrups are available in nearly every flavor you can think of, from classics like vanilla, raspberry, and cinnamon to the wild and wonderful basil, elderflower and jasmine. 

I love how the look all stacked together, and the vintage inspired french labels are beautiful in their own right. 

But these are so much more than pretty bottles to put in your kitchen and never think of again. They pack a fantastic flavor punch and can be used in so many different ways, add a splash of chestnut or gingerbread flavor to your hot chocolate for a festive treat, no longer do you need to be a slave to Starbucks red cups! Pour lychee over vanilla ice cream for a quick treat, or better still use it when making your own ice cream. Add cherry to coke, use the mijito or blue Curacao flavor in cocktails, add chocolate and hazelnut to milk for a quick milkshake or lemon to iced tea. Flavor your macron centers with pistachio and my favorite use adding pretty much any flavor to sponge mixes. 

This is really useful when you want a flavor like passion fruit or mango where the wetness of fresh fruit can cause a less than perfect sponge. Its also great for making flavored frosting! I'm dreaming up lavender cupcakes with honey frosting as I type this.

Another great use is in jellies or jams

Apple and apricot jelly

Ingredients 

2 litres apple juice 300 ml Monin Apricot  16 sachets gelatin  Fresh apricot wedges  1 cinnamon stick  (4 to 5 per portion) Method

Brings apple juice and Monin Apricot with cinnamon stick to the boil.   Cool slightly.  Dissolve in the Gelatine and strain through muslin cloth.  Fill molds with the jelly, 1/3 of the way.   Slightly set the jelly, add another layer of jelly and apricot wedges.Repeat so that the final layer is jelly.  You can use any mixture of flavors to make as many different jellies as your heart desires this way .

Another recipe I love is Raspberry Vinaigrette

Simply Combine -

1/4 cup of oil 

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar 

1 tablespoon Monin Raspberry Syrup 

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

Salt & Pepper to taste

There are plenty more uses for monin syrups beyond simple drinks here. Once you start using them you really will wonder how your culinary en-devours ever survived without these jack of all trades syrups.   

The possibilities really are endless and although you may not find a million uses for a liquorice syrup, there are plenty that will serve you well.

Cream Supplies will have everything you could ever dream of in a syrup and are worth a look.

If you'd just like to dip your toe then there are also mini gift sets available with cocktail flavors and Coffee flavors to have an experiment with several flavors without breaking the bank or committing to large bottle. 

Easter Island cupcakes

So i found this fantastic Easter Island Moai head ice cube tray and thought it would be really fun to make use it to make chocolates to decorate cupcakes and I am so glad I did. You can get your own on Amazon.  I thought these were perfect at Easter time as a slightly quirky take on the holiday and bringing back a little excitement of tropical island, summer holiday memories since the weather is starting to pick up.... was starting to pick up...we've gone from 24degrees to -3degrees in the space of a week in the UK

I made a really simple bog standard sponge cake and a simple green butter cream for this recipe.  I did make a slight mistake with the Maoi heads in that I didn't fully shake and tap down the hot chocolate so some air bubbles formed (see pics below). Its not perfect but I kind of liked the effect, as it made the chocolates look more like the weather beaten mysterious heads of Easter Island.
The heads are very heavy (like the real things) so although mine held up just with a thick butter cream, you may want to consider pushing a cocktail sick into them for extra support.
The little pink flowers are just a small bit of fondant I had left over and I used a tiny little cutter to get some pretty blooms. I think they look like Sakura flowers and a nice little nod to another great spring which I adore - the cherry blossom festival in Japan. 

 I'm thinking of trying a mojito cupcake using a Routin-1883  syrup I have in mojito flavor or passion fruit  (again with a flavored syrup) and Malibu flavor cupcake decorated this way to really get the summer vibes going!

My icing skills still need improving but over all I'm very happy with them! They are a great quirky alternative to all that messy chocolate/shreadies bird nest ideas you find at Easter and no need to waste precious mini eggs!

A little note on Easter Island.

Easter Island is a fantastic little speck of  volcanic rock flung miles and miles away from the coast of Chile. Its historical inhabitants built thousands of the Maoi heads all over the island and seemed to deforest the whole island in order to do so, which lead to wide spread famine and the near eradication of life on the rock.  
Easter Island is certainly on my top 5 places I would love to visit! 

Doggie biscuits

I love baking, and I love dogs, so when I found a whole site of doggie bakes from Chihuahua breeder Blue Boy Chihuahuas I knew I was on to a winner. I always worry with shop bought dog food when I start reading the ingridents and don't know what half the things I'm giving to my dog are, and with increasing concern that cheaper pet food might actually be making our four legged friends ill, home preparing seems like a good idea.  I don't want to feed my dog anything that she wouldn't naturally eat or would be considered unfit for human consumption.

The only thing I would say is a lot of recipes called for garlic powder, which I would avoid like the plague as garlic (certainly in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels) can scour kidneys and cause a lot of upset. So personally I would leave garlic or onion out of any recipe for dogs.

But I found this recipe which I decided to give a go, having bought my bone shaped cookie cutter from Amazon and patiently waited for it to drop on my door mat all week I cracked on with the milk bone recipe

Milk bones  

        You will need 

• 3/4 cup hot water
• 5oz  margarine
• 4 oz powdered milk
• 1 pinch salt (Although this may be left out)
• 1 egg - beaten
• 15 oz whole wheat flour (plus extra for dusting)
  
  
  Method. 
• In large bowl pour hot water over the margarine. 
• Stir in powdered milk, salt, and egg. 
• Add flour, 2 oz at a time. 
• Knead for a few minutes to form stiff dough. 
• Pat or roll to 1/2 inch thickness. 
• Cut into bone shapes. Bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes.

Allow to cool before giving to your pooch. Store in an air tight container for up to a week. 


They will dry out in to lovely crunchy treats for your beloved hound. This recipe makes a lot of treats, about 40. Unless you have a whole pack of St Bernard's you will probably be pleased to hear the mixture freezes, so you if you pre-cut the shapes you can have tasty treats in less than an hour for your little fur baby.
I used granary flour mix in mine instead of whole wheat for added crunch, another nice variation would be to add a little cooked diced meat or low fat cheese to the mix. Of course then the treats would need to be kept refrigerated.     

This recipe is a lot nicer than other dog treat recipes I've seen. Many of which call for having to handle liver and other associated offal. This recipe made the kitchen smell of warm milk and fresh bread which was much more pleasing to the human inhabitants of the house.
In fact we even tried them in our tomato soup and quite enjoyed them.  Please do remember though that these are treats and should only be used to supplement a round and healthy diet for you and your dog.
  

 My little rascal Medi was more than happy to model a couple of these tasty morsels for this blog, and thinks I should do more doggie features in future! 

I scream, you scream we all scream for.....

I made these a while ago for my sisters birthday and thought I'd pull them out for my new blog. The recipe is orginally from Bake and Decorate by Fiona Cairns . Its a lovely big book full of pictures and instructions on how to make even the dullest cake a stunning work of art. 


These are sweet little cupcakes in disguise as ice creams!  



They are so simple to make and yet so effective, sure to get the wow factor at any occasion that requires cupcakes (read any occasion at all then). These were loved by everyone from my 90 year old grandma to the 3 year old little boy who lives next door 

To make this recipe you will need the following ingredients:


For the sponge 
120 g / 4 oz self raising flour

120 g / 4 oz butter - softened

120 g / 4 oz caster sugar

2 medium eggs

For the butter cream

• 140g/5oz butter softened
• 280g/10oz icing sugar 
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• few drops food colouring and or flavoring
  
  Presentation 
  
  
  Flat bottomed ice cream cones available in most supermarkets
  Sprinkles 
  Flake chocolate bars
  
  (makes around 15 cones)

Method. 

Sift the flour and baking powder together, twice preferably

Beat in the soft butter, eggs and sugar

Mix for a couple of minutes until smooth and slightly pale
Carefully add the mixture to the ice cream cones, (i found it best to use a piping bag to prevent any sponge mix burning on the sides) roughly fill them half way up.

Bake in the oven for around 20 mins at 180c or until a skewer comes out clean. (yes you bake them in the cones. I know it seems weird but trust me it works) 

Take them out the oven and allow to cool! 

mix together the butter and icing sugar with a little dash of milk to soften. separate the mixture into different bowls and add your choice of flavour and coloring. then simply pipe your icing onto the cooled cupcakes to look like ice cream and decorate accordingly. 

You really can go to town with these cakes, any cake and frosting combo would work. I chose a classic vanilla, mint choc chip and a cherry swirl (although the swirl bit didn't quite work). Id love to try an tangy lemon and rich chocolate fudge next time though.  

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