Please note:  This is a sponsored post, however all opinions are honest and my own.

RENSHAW'S COLOURED MARZIPAN RANGE

We all know and love Renshaw's sugarpaste, traditional marzipan and modelling paste ranges. It was therefore exciting to hear that Renshaws had, earlier this year, launched a range of coloured marzipan with cake decorators in mind. I was delighted to receive a box containing the entire range for me to try out and review.

I had the perfect cake, a really colourful Ariel the Mermaid cake, to try the range out on just a couple of weeks later. Confession time! I have to be honest and admit that writing up the review afterwards went completely out of my head, but I am rectifying that now, because I think you'll want to know how I got on with it.











Some clients, and my own family, have told me that they don't like to eat decorations made from sugarpaste, so using Renshaws coloured marzipan range seemed like a possible alternative.  Marzipan has long been associated with covering fruit cakes, especially at Christmas time.  Well I've got news for you.....MARZIPAN IS NOT JUST FOR CHRISTMAS!

When I started work on the Ariel cake, I attempted to use the marzipan in exactly the same way as I would sugarpaste.  This didn't quite work.  Sometimes I found it quite hard to work with as it is naturally more sticky than sugarpaste.  Once I realised that I would need to use icing sugar for rolling it out, dusting my hands and lining my silicone moulds with, it worked fantastically well.  I had no difficulty with it then.

 

I was able to use the plunger cutters as normal to make the little flowers.  In this respect it worked exactly the same way as sugarpaste.

Although there are many colours in the range, I wanted a few extra colours.  I was able to mix two colours of marzipan easily to make a different colour or shade.  I also tried adding gel colours to achieve completely different colours, this worked well, but again made the product a bit stickier.  Nothing a bit of icing sugar can't solve.  

I wanted a golden sheen on the shells, and I used gold lustre dust as usual, again with no problem at all.








All in all, I was very pleased with it.  I would thoroughly recommend it.  It offers a very good alternative to sugarpaste, and it is an option I have been giving to my customers.   And the verdict from those that ate the decorations was ...."yummy". 

If you would like to try it please visit Renshaw's website.

The poor unloved black banana!

Do you have poor unloved black bananas in your fruit bowl?  My children refuse to eat them.  They won't even eat the nice yellow ones with "ugly black marks" on.  My poor husband ends up with them in his lunchbox, until they get too soft to survive the morning in there!

Banana Loaf Cake to the rescue!  Turn those poor unloved bananas into cake, and the kids can't get enough of them!  Slices of banana cake are then happily consumed at breakfast, as part of their packed lunches, or as an after school snack.  And best of all, it's very easy and cheap to make.

When cooking for the family I have to be conscious of my budget, and I'm a great believer in using the 'value brand' products whenever possible.  There are many value brand ingredients which are perfectly acceptable to use in cooking, and I would defy most people to tell the difference between dishes made with them as opposed to the more expensive version. This is especially true if they are used within a cooked, home made product.  This banana loaf is one of those recipes - I use value brand flour, butter, eggs and cinnamon.  This allows me to make a bigger quantity.  This cake freezes very well if wrapped up well.  

This doesn't apply to all baking though.  Sponge cakes need to be light and fluffy with a good rise, and for this I use better quality ingredients.  Proper premium cake flour will yield better results, Lurpak butter makes a better buttercream, free range eggs will make a better meringue, etc. and I use these for the cakes I make for my customers.  And vanilla is something I won't scrimp on, a good vanilla extract is worth the extra cost.  But for family baking, these things are not so important, the kids don't concern themselves if the loaf cake has risen slightly wonky! 

It's a question of knowing which value products work well in your cooking, and which don't. So, I have taken out the guesswork for you....this recipe works just fine with value products! 

Here is the recipe for you to try.  Please don't condemn your black squishy bananas to the bin anymore!

 

BANANA LOAF CAKE

(using a 2lb loaf tin/cooking time 35 minutes)

125g butter
150g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg beaten
2 ripe bananas
190g self-raising flour
60 ml milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
0.5 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
Cinnamon powder (optional)

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 150C

2. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.  I use the loaf tin liners.  I buy these in Home Bargains, a pack of 25 liners is about 80 pence! 

3. In a medium size saucepan gently melt the butter, sugar and vanilla.  Mix well.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

4.  While you are melting the butter, mash the banana with a fork.

5.  Add the beaten egg, milk and mashed banana to the butter/sugar mixture when it has cooled slightly.

6.  Stir in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda with a wooden spoon.  Making sure all the ingredients are mixed well.

7.  Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.  Sprinkle some cinnamon on top (optional). 

8.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Check with a skewer (if the skewer comes out clean the cake is cooked).  If not cook for a further five minutes.

9. Leave to cool.  Remove from the tin and serve in slices. 

I'm a Blogger!

Well it's offical.... I am a blogger! That sounds cool doesn't it?! Unfortunately to my teenage daughter this is just another way that I embarrass her apparently! This will not deter me though! To make her happy I will stay clear of giving make-up and hair tips (what would a fossil like me know about stuff like that anyway), and concentrate on the world of cake and celebrations. This shouldn't be too hard because I am, quite frankly, obsessed with cake. My bedtime reading is solely cake and sugarcraft books and magazines, and I get stupidly excited when the Lakeland catalogue lands on the doormat. I lose hours researching cake. I could methaphorically wonder around Pinterest for days, given half a chance.

I will be writing about all things cake - recipes, techniques, trends and about the actual cakes I am making. There is plenty to discuss regarding the actual celebrations that involve cake too.

I must say however, that none of this would be possible without the technical support I received from my lovely friend Ellie. She is a seasoned blogger who writes about family life at The Mummy Diary and Family Style. She has provided invaluable help to me in setting up this website and blog. I am truly grateful.

I look forward to sharing all things cake with you.  My next blog post will tell you all about this week's cake project, my own version of Tracey Emin's Bed, which links rather nicely back to my daughter who celebrates her 14th Birthday this week!

Sonja