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Paris, The City of Love (and cake)

It’s hard to get away when you’re running your own business, especially if it’s food related. Somewhere between production, planning, stock management, juggling orders, dealing with suppliers and the constant feeling that there’s always more to do, it’s hard enough to find time to sleep, never mind jet off on holiday and leave it all behind.

Sometimes, though, it’s great to just stop and take stock of where you are at. Even better is if you can add a little “research” to the mix, combining work and pleasure so you feel a little less bad about leaving your business baby on the back burner for a few days.

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UK World Chocolate Masters 2015

Chocolate is one of the greatest and most versatile ingredients in a pastry kitchen, and certainly one of the most popular. It’s one we also use an awful lot of, so when we received an invitation to watch the UK heats of the 2015 World Chocolate Masters competition, we were quick to book a train down to London and head off for a couple of days of chocolate extravagance.

minion egg
One of the chocolate eggs on display at Westminster Kingsway College, I’m pretty sure it’s an octopus, but we couldn’t shake the feeling that it looked like a minion….(banana?)

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Marshmallow ghost army?

West Kirby Farmers’ Market took a spooky turn this past Saturday! As you can see from the snaps below, we went a little mad with the Hallowe’en theme……
West Kirby 25/10/14

 

Our bat mascot was very much admired by the market goers, so much so he had to take refuge in an apron!

 

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Here…There…Somewhere

"Valencia" patisserieDouble duty this past weekend – Saturday at West Kirby Farmers’ Market, and Sunday at the first Wilmslow & Alderley Edge Food and Drink Festival.

 

We also introduced our new “Valencia” patisserie, available for the first time at West Kirby Farmers’ Market – Dark chocolate mousse, orange jam, toasted almond creme brûlée on a Breton shortbread. From the comments on the day and afterwards, they were certainly a hit and will have to return again very soon!

Continue reading Here…There…Somewhere

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Macaron? Macaroon?

Another fun weekend at Altrincham Market, and our first Saturday trading at the market.

Tart Trio

 

We arrived armed with new flavours of mallows and three very different tarts (see below) – Chocolate & Salted caramel, Raspberry & Pistachio Breton, and Lemon meringue. I think the lemon meringue was our most popular.

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West Kirby Weekend

It was lovely to be back at West Kirby Farmers’ Market this weekend with all of our new flavours of confections and patisserie.

Mocha Mallows being made

The mallows proved to be a hit, with Praline & Chocolate being the most popular – we’ll have to bring even more with us next time!
You can see us making the Mocha flavour in the photograph to the right, with the dark chocolate being swirled through the rich coffee mallow. Continue reading West Kirby Weekend

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Castlefield Artisan Market

We are looking forward to our second outing at Castlefield Artisan Market this coming Sunday (03/08/14). July’s market ran on the same day as the Wimbledon final, so if you were kept in by the tennis and missed us last time around now’s your chance to come and check out our ever changing line up of patisserie and confectionery.

This month… there will be choux!

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The Taming of the Choux

Eclairs are something we have obsessed over since visiting Paris, where the counters of the world’s finest patisseries are lined with row after row of perfectly shaped choux pastries. Making eclairs is actually pretty easy if you don’t mind them looking a bit “homely”, but producing the perfect shape consistently is a different matter all together. Continue reading The Taming of the Choux