All sold out at Picnic in the Park

I think the gods must have been smiling down on us yesterday because it was a glorious day in Queens Park for our second Brighton Bakery cake stall.  The sun shone all day as the harmonies of the Brighton Beach Boys sang out from the central stage and the families flocked in with their picnic blankets to fill the park in their hundreds.

While this story has a happy ending, it didn't start out so well.  Our last minute treasure hunt for a gazebo on Friday was utterly essential on the day but that morning it seemed to take forever to build.  Maybe investing the the more expensive concertina one would have been a better bet on reflection...

And while the park was packed to the brim with people, nobody seemed to be buying anything.   What was also a bit frustrating was that out of the 50 stalls there, 10 of them were selling cakes.  By 2pm I was getting really worried as we'd hardly sold anything and from chatting to the other stallholders around us we weren't the only ones.  Looking around the park people had brought tuppawares of food from home and didn't need to buy from us.  Melissa and I prepared ourselves that we were going to have to bring a lot of cake home.

But we just needed to have a little faith.  Cake o'clock hit at around 3pm and trade really picked up - over the next 3 hours we sold out of practially everything we had brought with us.  Result!

We gave away quite a few sample tasters and discounted the prices at the end of the day, which when I was totting up the totals today made quite a difference in the amount of money we could have made - it would have been so good if we had made it past the £100 mark.  But I think samples are important and we managed to double the amount of profit we made at the Kemptown Carnival with a third less stock - a real achievement.  We also gave out plenty of business cards and got some great feedback from the people that tried our cakes so there's not really much more we could have asked for.

The one thing I would have changed is going for a few pints to celebrate without eating dinner - I've really been paying for it with my hangover today... ;o)

So all that's left for me to say is a massive thank you to everyone that came and supported us and tried our cakes yesterday - hope you enjoyed them!

xx

Bakeathon for Picnic In The Park tomorrow

Yes the time is nigh and I've got my apron on and sleeves rolled up for a full marathon day of baking in preparation for tomorrow's market stall.  Already ticked off the list are the Sticky Jamaican Ginger Cake, Cinnamon and Courgette Cake and Nigella's delicious Italian Almond and Carrot Cake, and as I write there is a Luscious Lemon Trickle Cake rising nicely in the oven.
As you may have come to expect from me, this is no ordinary Lemon Cake I'm baking.  The surprise ingredient in this one is.... mashed potato.  I admit, this may sound like a cake catastrophe in the making, but I trialled the recipe as a thank you gift for our lovely friends Sheena and Nathan at the weekend and it was a real success.  The potato keeps the cake beautifully moist and it also happens to be naturally gluten free which is a bonus for the stall tomorrow. 

Even though this cake's a winner on the plate, getting it there is another matter.  This recipe is like a naughty toddler that doesn't want to do what it's told.  Perhaps it was the fact I was trying to make the cake with a hangover the morning before we were off on a 4 night camping trip and still hadn't packed that was the problem.  The mixture kept splitting when I added the eggs and I had to employ my secret trick of using the hairdryer to warm the outside of the bowl of the mixer to help it emulsify (this was advocated by my tutor at pastry school so I'm not completely barking!).  Then the mixture took about half an hour longer to cook than the recipe said it would and so it helped make us nearly an hour late to meet our friends for lunch.  I gave it some stern words that it had better behave as I strapped it in to the back seat of the car and prayed that it would be good on the 4 hour drive to Wales. 

Luckily it was and Sheena and Nathan seemed to love it.  Potato is such a mild flavour that you really can't detect it at all and it gives it a wonderful texture.  But if you're still a sceptic why not come by tomorrow afternoon to Queen's Park and try a slice?!

It's nearly ready to come out the oven so I must sign off and get back to the kitchen - 48 muffins, 32 brownies, 16 flapjacks and a Wholemeal Honey Cake still to go :o)

Exciting news & marmalade flapjacks recipe trials

I must start this post by sharing some very exciting news.  A few weeks ago, Melissa and I entered the First Pitch competition for new businesses run by the National Market Traders' Federation.  We are thrilled that we have just qualified for the first round and have been given five days' free test trading at Worthing Outdoor Market - every Wednesday from 29 June.  During this time the NMTF will assess us to see if we are good enough to be one of the 50 shortlisted businesses to go through to the next round, which will give us a whole year's trading at reduced rates with invaluable on-site mentoring from the NMTF.  At the end of the year the overall winner will receive £2000 so I now have even more pressure on finding the right recipes for this and our upcoming stall at the Picnic in Queen's Park a week on Sunday.

So today's recipe trial is for Lemon Marmalade Flapjacks.  Now these were delicious and went down a storm at the Kemptown Carnival a couple of weeks ago, so why mess with a good thing?  Well I was hoping that I might be able to substitute the butter in the recipe for sunflower oil so that they would be suitable for vegans.  But would they still taste as good?

After some fruitless scouring on the internet about how to substitute oil for butter in a recipe (and using vegan margarine just didn't seem right) I just decided to go with my gut instinct.  So here's my adapted version of Dan Lepard's original marmalade flapjack recipe:

Sunshine Marmalade Flapjacks (makes 16)

200g dried apricots
200ml sunflower oil
125g dark soft brown sugar
150g lemon marmalade (try my recipe for Sunshine Marmalade)
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
2 scant tbsp black treacle
400g rolled oats

1. Chop the apricots into chunks about the size of raisins and cover boiling water.  Set aside for 10 minutes then drain off the excess liquid.
2. Heat your oven to 180C (160 fan-assisted) and line a baking tray with foil - 25cm square is ideal.
3. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the brown sugar, lemon marmalade, lemon zest and treacle, and bring just to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the oats and drained apricots until well mixed. 
4. Spoon the mixture into the tin and squish it down evenly, making sure it fills all the corners (incidentally when I did my trial I made 1/2 the quantity and just filled up to halfway across the tin and the mixture was completely well behaved and remained in fat flapjack yumminess).
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes, until lightly coloured at the edges. Dan says that the timing is slightly tricky to get right - if you bake it too long, the flapjacks turn rock hard when cold; bake it too little and they crumble - I did mine for 27 minutes and they were perfect.
6. Remove from the oven and cut into squares in the tin once they are cooled a little but still warm.

And the verdict?  Well, adopting my favourite Larry David accent, I have to say these were pretty pretty good.  The lemony treacliness gives these flapjacks such a lovely flavour that you don't miss the butter.  All in all I don't see any reason why these can't be made with sunflower oil going forwards - it has the added bonus of being vegan, lower in saturated fat and easier on your wallet!

Recipe trials - Venetian Carrot Cake

Although I was really pleased with our debut stall success at the Kemptown Carnival last week, a couple of the cakes and treats I made were virgin outings and hadn't turned out quite as I had hoped.  With this in mind and with our upcoming market stall at the Picnic in Queens Park on Sunday 26 June Melissa and I made a pact that we would test every recipe first before selling to the public.  We also want to add a few more recipes suitable for people with food intolerences and special diets so we can offer something for everyone.  So baggy trousers at the ready, Melissa's on tasting duty and I'm back in the kitchen on a market stall mission.

Despite being the author of our worst selling recipe at the last market, I've decided to give Nigella another chance, and first up in the recipe trials is her Venetian Carrot Cake, which also happens to be naturally gluten free and dairy free.  I hate the idea of using artificial or substitute ingredients to make it suitable for those with intolerances so I'm pleased to have found this recipe which doesn't require any.  Now if you're imagining a tall and proud triple layered cake slathered with rich cream cheese frosting then you might be in for a suprise.  This is a carrot cake of a completely different breed.  It's handsome and elegant, unassuming and not at all show-offish, but boy is it delicious.  Rich, moist and almondy, studded with booze-soaked sultanas and rounded off with lemon zest and the comforting spice of nutmeg, Melissa and I both agree it's a real winner.

But it's not just about the taste.  They say the first bite is with your eyes and I'm not sure that people would be instantly invited to buy or licking their lips to try a slice.  We're just going to have to try a little harder to and offer free samples to show Brighton just how good it is. 

I also have a dilemma with the name - Venetian Carrot Cake just sounds pretentious and misleading.  For selling at a market stall... this just ain't a carrot cake. People expecting the flavour of a traditional carrot cake might be disappointed.  But it's so good I think it should be included, just with a little rebranding.  Therefore I open this up to the lovely readers of this blog - if anyone would like to offer a better name please leave me a comment!