Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Kitchen Organisation Tips



If you follow us on Facebook, you will have seen our "Tip of the Day". We thought it may be quite good to put it together a bit more here for easy reference. No more juggling in the kitchen, let's start with the difference between "Use By" and "Best Before". Use by is for things like milk and eggs that go off and should be thrown away after that date. Best Before is much more open ended. It really depends on how it is stored and how long it's been open, for instance cereals and pasta. So here's to reducing food waste by storing things in the most appropriate place. 
Fridge

The biggest guide is where shops store the item themselves. If you pick it up from a fridge, put it into your fridge. If it's on a shelf, pop it in the cupboard. However, you will find a few things need to be put in the fridge once opened, such as mayonnaise or jam. 
The next step is where to put everything in your fridge:
Top - Ready to Eat, butter, cheese, yogurts, cooked meats, etc
Middle - Raw foods, meat, fish, etc
Bottom - Leafy Vegetables and fruit like cherries and pineapples, down in the salad draw
Don't put bread in the fridge it doesn't like it and there really is no point in putting eggs in either. Just think when you next want to bake a cake, room temperature eggs are best!

Freezer 
Freeze meats and fish when you get back from the shops, then just take out what you need the night before. This way you will always have fresh food and no waste when you realise something has gone past it's best in the fridge.
Overcooked? No problem, it doesn't mean you have to overeat or throw it out. Simply cool and pop it in the freezer. Don't forget to write what it is on top and when you put it in. This is generally a lot better than putting it in the fridge thinking you will eat it tomorrow as most don't and then it ends up in the bin anyway.

In the dark 
Root vegetables including onions, carrots, potatoes and garlic like it dark, it helps prevent sprouting. Keep them dry and cool but they don't need to go in the fridge.

Fruit Bowls
Stoned fruit like peaches, plums and nectarines will all keep ripening just like melons, mangoes and tomatoes. As do pears and apple. If you get through them quickly put them in a fruit bowl, we tend to put half of them out and the rest in the fridge. Watch out for apples though as they give off gases that can cause over foods to deteriorate, so if you can store them separately or just eat them quickly.

Cupboards
This is basically all your tins, pulses, cereals etc. Keep it neat is our only tip with this then you won't find that you actually have 20 cans of chopped tomatoes lurking at the back. This really is your store food, but that doesn't mean you don't eat it. An overstocked cupboard isn't efficient at all as the chances are you are buying things on impulse still not need - ooooo pureed chestnuts, they look good... (our own admission!)

Monday, 25 March 2013

The day Meg came



We wanted to write a very quick post about the lovely lady that came and took photos for our website recently, Meg. It really was a delight working with her over the few days that she spent with us. We had a great time chatting about places like New Zealand over a few slices of cake.

If you want to know what we look like baking check out "All in a day's work" on Facebook. We promise we always smile like that as we bake your cakes

We really hope you like what she has done. We think you will agree she is a great photographer. Thank you for helping us show how much our business means to us and our family, this is what it is all for.


Monday, 11 March 2013

Totally Scrumptious Cake Competition

We’ve got two spare tickets for The Cake & Bake show in Manchester and we thought we’d give them away to two of our lovely customers! But then we thought - no, let’s not just give them away, let’s have a competition! Much more fun, and we do enjoy a bit of fun with our cake, here at The Cake Nest.

So here we are -  totally scrumptious Cake Nest competition!


You probably know about our ‘Say it with cake’, where we put fifteen pieces of cake into a box - a box that will fit through your letterbox of course. 

However, each gorgeous handmade piece of cake doesn’t just have character - it can be a character, in the form of a letter, so you can spell out that special message for the one that you love.

We thought it would be fun if you, our customers, thought of a ‘Say it with cake’ message you’d like to send to someone in the news! It might be something funny, or poignant, or heartfelt, or even angry, as long as it is angry in a funny kind of way. It is up to you, the only rule is, your message must be fifteen characters or less. The best one will win the tickets!

And what’s more, we’ll do our best to send the winning entry to the person you intended it for!

Here’s a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing - as if our cakes weren’t enough, tsk tsk:
“sorry so sorry” to Nick Clegg.
“Congrats on d- “ to Kate
“Bitter sweet” to Vicky Pryce (We might have to hide a file in that last one!)

So, that is your mission, should you choose to accept it.  All you need to do is email us with your entry or if you are on twitter, tweet us using #SayItWithCake. We can’t wait to see what you can cook up!

And there’s more - sneak previewComing soon, ‘Say it with cake - And there’s more” where there will be even more characters, so you can send a longer message - and even more pieces of cake, of course. Now that’s what we call ‘win win’.

Winner will be chosen on Sunday 24th March 2013. Good luck!

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Learn to Bake

Delia Smith is an amazing woman. I really think that her approach to cooking is fantastic. It's not rocket science, it just needs a little practice. I thoroughly encourage you watch the clip and to have a go. Yes, I realise I bake for a living but what we do is offer a surprise to someone far away that you cannot surprise yourself. Why not surprise Mum this year with a homemade cake on Sunday. It will taste better than anything you can buy from Tesco, why? Simple, because it has that added ingredient, Love. 

 

Episode 1: Classic Sponge Cake from Delia Online Cookery School on Vimeo.

Friday, 1 March 2013

Give a little bit



Tissues at the ready? Then watch what CCTV can really show. It seems that every day we are shown some other evil in the world. I thought today I would post something that truly reminds me how it's the little things that mean the most. So no cake today but a little bit of love. Thanks to @coffeecurls for sharing this with me. Have a great weekend everyone

Friday, 22 February 2013

Ginger Cake with Lemon Icing

Please excuse me I appear to have eaten this week's Surprise Cake! Well, can you blame me? It's a gorgeous moist cake with pieces of preserved ginger inside, then topped with lemon icing, yum! OK, OK I'll get back in the kitchen and bake you another batch. Click "surprise me" on any of our slices and we'll get a slice sent out to you.


Tuesday, 12 February 2013

Easy Peasy Banana Ice-Creamy

I know that today is freezing and we are still very much in winter. However, we decided that we didn't want to be any more and thought you might like our recipe for Easy Peasy Banana Ice-Cream. Surely we are all allowed a taste of summer and it gives you something to do with brown bananas!

Recipe

1/2 Pint of Milk
4 frozen Peeled Bananas
1tsp Honey

Blitz in the bananas a food processor straight from freezer with the milk and honey.
Serve!

Easy Peasy, a quick pudding anytime of the year!