tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17486322655791328872011-11-11T00:34:38.418-08:00Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.comBlogger1561100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-63611964587351488342010-10-25T03:34:00.000-07:002010-10-25T03:34:12.375-07:00

Maison Cupcake is now located at Wordpress on the familiar domain http://blog.maisoncupcake.com All material from this Blogger site has been imported there and this original site will remain here on http://maisoncupcake.blogspot.com No new posts will be published here so make sure your RSS feed is updated to visit the new site.

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-74063163471514915502010-09-01T01:13:00.000-07:002010-09-01T01:13:03.120-07:00

Holidays are over and so is my August blog break. Although I've returned to Twitter sooner, I must admit to sitting on my hands to not post things in the past few weeks as my attention has been focused on entertaining Ted during the pre-school holidays, potty training and finishing the new Wordpress site. Before I tell you about that, here are a couple of pics of our summer (minus shots of potty

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-59387447841000426442010-07-29T15:25:00.000-07:002010-07-29T15:25:10.462-07:00

Aha! You thought I'd gone away for the summer but I have one last trick up my sleeve before taking my self imposed August blog break.  I realised I still hadn't entered English Mum's Big Bake Off and that this nutty apple loaf was just the ticket. This is the cake that I made for the foodbloggers' Masterchef event at the Miele showroom earlier this month. I brazenly lied to Mr Egg and Mr Toad

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-45405546623028365932010-07-28T23:50:00.000-07:002010-07-28T23:50:02.440-07:00

The ten winners of the Flahavan's goodie bags given away in this post were: Sunita Bhuyan, IpswichJax Blunt, FelixstoweSu-yin Koay, LondonNuala O'Niell, BelfastJulie Johnson, BirminghamDenise Walker, BirminghamBeverley Kerry, DerbyshireSimone Price, LeedsPippa Wright, Milton KeynesSian Reynolds, Milton Keynes With thanks to Flahavan's

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-34647166160687379812010-07-28T00:01:00.000-07:002010-07-28T00:01:23.462-07:00

Hot on the heels of my sponsorship by Irish porridge oat brand Flahavan's to attend Cybermummy, I received an exciting invitation with an Irish flavour. It was to attend a food photography and styling workshop hosted by Bord Bia, the Irish food board, led by professional food photographer and stylist Alastair Hendy and taking place at the Irish embassy. I seem to be doing rather well at getting

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-57349927898611051382010-07-26T16:03:00.000-07:002010-07-26T16:03:56.852-07:00

One more post after today then Maison Cupcake officially breaks up for summer.  There are a couple of reasons for this, a) Ted is off pre-school so I have less free time on the computer, b) I want to finish my new Wordpress site without the pressure to post new material at the same time. I dare say I'll end up posting brief things during August and I will still be my usual chatty self on

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-16124884246581005352010-07-24T00:00:00.000-07:002010-07-24T00:00:00.145-07:00

"Postcard from" is my occasional series of weekend non-recipe posts. This postcard comes from my recent experience travelling on the overnight ferry to France. For peak holiday times, you have to book very early to get a cabin on the overnight crossing from Portsmouth to St Malo. It's not cheap but when you consider how pricey a Dover Calais crossing can be during school holidays (£90 each way

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-37567473902593133672010-07-22T15:20:00.000-07:002010-07-22T15:20:15.569-07:00

Today sees the final part of my trilogy of suggestions for chutneys and beetroot picked up from the Baxter's afternoon tea.  Out of the dozen recipes they gave me, I ended up making six of the savoury ones at home to reproduce what I'd seen that afternoon. I didn't walk away intending to make so many or base three blog posts on these products but the ideas were so easy to replicate at home that

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-81037396294467907372010-07-20T23:55:00.000-07:002010-07-20T23:55:43.733-07:00

With thanks to Waitrose for inviting me to their Christmas launch last week. And the popcorn. Any disappointment I might have had last week about not being asked to attend the opening of Bompass and Parr's The Complete History of Food evaporated when I received an invite to the Waitrose 2010 Christmas press launch. It might not have the same theatre of said event but I found hanging out in a

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-6874450213685001292010-07-19T15:06:00.000-07:002010-07-19T15:06:45.643-07:00

A few weeks ago I published a mackerel salad using beetroot as seen at the Baxter's Afternoon Tea Party. Today, as promised, here are two further dishes with beetroot.  The salsa is less aggressive than most,  fruity with apple rather than chillied. Scooped up with tortilla chips it's a more-ish appetiser you could serve before a main meal. The salsa can be made with any kind of beetroot

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-63924514020910967422010-07-17T14:26:00.000-07:002010-07-17T14:26:24.065-07:00

"Postcard from" is my occasional series of weekend non-recipe posts. Sian of Mummy Tips opens the conference I am a bit slow off the mark getting this post up about the Cybermummy day itself. I was going to include this material in my flapjack post but it was already very long hence it being posted today. Lots of other Cybermummy delegates will have seen similar posts to death but it will be

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-71142816094766133282010-07-15T08:06:00.000-07:002010-07-15T08:06:54.899-07:00

Some weeks ago,  a friend requested a moist fruit birthday cake covered in slabs of marzipan for a Siamese cat loving relative. I hadn't made fruit cake for years but remembered it being easy enough. However when choosing a recipe I found many that required days of steeping fruit in alcohol. Fortunately Nigella Lawson's Marzipan Fruit Cake only required overnight soaking and the inclusion of

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-57441325868828792132010-07-13T08:37:00.000-07:002010-07-13T08:37:00.586-07:00

You'll have to excuse me. The past few weeks have been rather frenetic due to this and this and it has taken me longer than promised to share this Cybermummy flapjack recipe in FIVE flavours and host a giveaway for my Cybermummy sponsor, Flahavan's. I've also been doing my first ever edited movie, a 3 minute film in which I mostly sound like Joyce Grenfell whilst Ted helps make flapjacks. This

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-78080394257582306582010-07-06T16:19:00.000-07:002010-07-06T16:19:45.936-07:00

It comes with much hilarity to me that I might be perceived as any kind of baking "expert" yet in my first year of food blogging I've had approaches related to three television shows to "come in and cook something."  When the team behind Miele kitchen appliances asked me to come into their London show room for a friendly cooking session with four other food bloggers in the presence of

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-19632428917962442042010-07-05T03:22:00.000-07:002010-07-05T13:56:51.416-07:00

A holding post before you all think I've disappeared.  This weekend, I went to the incredible Cybermummy conference in London, a massive get together for around 180 mummy bloggers. I will give a more detailed rundown on my thoughts about the day and how mummy bloggers compare to food bloggers in the next few days but here are a couple of shots to give you a flavour what it was like and ahem, a

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-24761384926685530762010-07-01T16:16:00.000-07:002010-07-01T16:16:40.915-07:00

Today is the first of two posts sharing further recipes for cakes I made for Martyn Cox's open garden day featured in my previous post.  Several of you have been pleading for the marzipan cake recipe but I'm going to taunt you a little while longer for that and today it is Maltesers Cupcakes. Lily and Ella were very excited about all the cakes and jellies. There are two reasons for me doing this

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-46700197220852850842010-06-29T04:26:00.000-07:002010-06-29T11:21:28.175-07:00

As a slack Daring Baker of late, I'm surprised I've not been kicked out. I keep having other cakes due on the 27th when we post our challenges and have not been organised enough to get DB finished and written up first. The March and April challenges didn't inspire me and I was away for May's spectacular croquembouche.  This month I had motivation to not just complete the June challenge, but

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-72680709076865430322010-06-27T13:03:00.000-07:002010-06-27T13:03:20.072-07:00

Sarka of Cooking Your Dream and Guilia of Jul's Kitchen at the FBC Prop Swap Ilva at Lucullian Delights is hosting the successful Food Props on Sunday series. Over 8 weekends she has published tips on crockery, linens, backgrounds with guest posts from "Prop Queens" including Meeta at What's for Lunch Honey? A round up, "Show us your props," will be published at Lucullian Delights on 4 July.  

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-50732349301869413842010-06-25T17:04:00.000-07:002010-06-25T17:05:25.446-07:00

Dinner with Crayons is my regular weekend kid friendly restaurant review.  This week though is a rarity. We escaped during our recent holiday on Île de Ré. Today there are no sippy cups, no budgie's cage mess on the floor and nooooo crayons! This week's submission to Sticky Fingers' Gallery on the theme of "Creatures" Oysters are alive aren't they? They count as creatures don't they?  Just to

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-81654867452045361992010-06-23T02:04:00.000-07:002010-06-23T02:04:47.130-07:00

Before my recent holiday, I attended an afternoon tea hosted by Scottish brand Baxters to enjoy some recipes developed by Michelin Star Chef Tom Kitchin using their products. Baxters is synonymous in my mind with a decent tin of soup so I did joke I was taking my tin opener.  Happily this was not necessary and the team served up a range of snacks, baking and sweet dishes on pretty vintage

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-61408318910611319702010-06-21T15:58:00.000-07:002010-06-21T15:58:33.427-07:00

My submission to The Gallery for the Cybermummy Photo CompetitionTheme: "Motherhood" Organising birthday parties was probably my main incentive to have a child. Daydreaming over Nigella Lawson books about having a little helper to stir the batter and plead whether they can lick the bowl out yet. Studying complicated animals made out of food in Australian Women's Weeklies. Imagining a table laid

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-58720501567812692792010-06-19T18:46:00.000-07:002010-06-20T04:13:39.172-07:00

"Postcard from" is my series of weekend non-recipe posts. Usually these are from places or events but today is unusual, it is from myself to a lot of people I'm about to meet in two weeks' time. Stones are killing birds left right and centre in this late night weekend post.  If I've been quiet on the Twitter machine today and not published a recipe for more than 48 hours then it's because I've

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-50401516601643914792010-06-16T15:30:00.000-07:002010-06-16T15:33:31.965-07:00

Winding back to the Rhubarb Breakfast Muffins, I said I was working my way through several Rachel Allen's Home Cooking recipes.  I made this granola on that same productive muffin morning.  Describing cereal as life changing sounds lunacy to me but home made granola was an unexpected revelation. Gathering the ingredients, the scale of how much I was making made me think, "I'm going to have this

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-9384342772620395432010-06-14T16:05:00.000-07:002010-06-14T16:06:45.819-07:00

Tea, sacred revitaliser of the nation. Putting the kettle on for a cuppa forms no part of my own relaxation, the snap of a diet coke tin or popping of a prosecco cork being more likely. Throw chocolate into the mix however and you've got my attention. I realised lately that it was not necessarily tea I didn't like, but it's opaqueness (or should that be opacity? Answers below please).  

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-12206956612924834592010-06-12T12:22:00.000-07:002010-06-12T12:22:29.741-07:00

"Dinner with Crayons" is my occasional series of weekend kid friendly restaurant and cafe posts.  My 3 year old accompanies me to the main UK chains, some independent places and who knows, somewhere more glamorous if we don't get kicked out. Second time around taking Ted to Mexican chain Wahaca at Canary Wharf. Previously we had enticed him from his latest craze, Zing Zillas' Fruit Squashing

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-29097318112891540352010-06-10T00:42:00.000-07:002010-06-15T04:03:00.080-07:00

Today's post features as many of the folks at Food Blogger Connect that I have managed to get decent pictures of - namely that their faces are just about showing and they not in the middle of eating some of that yummy food you saw in my previous post. There are also some shots interspersed to give you a feel of what our wonderful venue, The Hempel was like.  As you may know I am a great lover

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-91924966039306088112010-06-08T16:52:00.000-07:002010-06-09T00:19:56.369-07:00

My iPhoto folders are bulging. My computer is groaning and making tired noises. My camera had so many images on it I swear it felt heavier. Not only did I have all my pictures from 3 days of Food Blogger Connect, there were a week's worth from my holiday in France too. I must confess feeling a bit image swamped right now so if anyone has tips how to manage massive amounts of photos PLEASE share

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-24763554108053405242010-06-06T15:06:00.000-07:002010-06-06T15:06:35.593-07:00

Ten days' holiday, three days at Food Blogger Connect and it feels like a life time away from the blog.  I will do a more detailed post (or three!) in the next couple of days but in the meantime here are a few pictures to give you a flavour of FBC10 which took place in London this weekend. Fabulous venue at The Hempel... all ready to kick off on Friday night Inspiring bloggers giving

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-15105825845604403432010-05-25T06:15:00.000-07:002010-05-25T06:15:04.929-07:00

Just to let everyone know I'm taking a bit of a breather between now and Food Blogger Connect on 5/6 June.  If you are going, don't forget to say hi!

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-8397578621766841082010-05-22T14:01:00.000-07:002010-05-22T14:07:37.704-07:00

Today's Dinner with Crayons kid friendly restaurant/cafe review continues my mini-series of cafes within reach of the 2012 London Olympics site. We are visiting The Counter Cafe in Hackney Wick, run by the same team behind The Container Cafe. The Counter Cafe is, as you can see above, quite literally in the shadow of the main Olympic stadium.   Although the view here is not so good as from it's

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-17315529915550140382010-05-20T09:06:00.000-07:002010-05-20T09:06:03.819-07:00

Not a guest post as such but today, Maison Cupcake is being profiled on Kristain's Londonelicious restaurant blog. Kristain is featuring profiles on a number of other bloggers this month whilst she takes a break so you might want to also check out some of her other recent and forthcoming posts about other food bloggers. I met Kristain recently at the bacon sandwich breakfast.  We had both

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-31009897309370394612010-05-18T03:23:00.000-07:002010-05-18T03:23:59.084-07:00

A little snack to keep you all going.  The past week has been very frustrating whilst my blog was refusing to pitch up at it's new host but we got there eventually. I am busy behind the scenes designing my new Wordpress theme.  The colour scheme is chosen, my graphic designer husband is having the whip cracked behind him to get my new banner finished, I have been getting to grips with CSS code

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-29075080248929986802010-05-15T08:46:00.001-07:002010-05-15T08:46:27.186-07:00

Getting really sick of this now. Wave if you receive this by some miracle.

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-77357872449703628092010-05-15T07:02:00.000-07:002010-05-15T07:02:51.983-07:00

Bright sparks amongst you might be thinking, hang on, wasn't the last post called "Intermission"? What ever happened to Intermissions 2 and 3? Well, you didn't get them.  My RSS feed was screwed up most of this week.  Don't worry though you didn't miss much, just my general ranting that my domain and RSS feed were misbehaving. So why the mess? Well, Maison Cupcake is in the midst of

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-4345164973531733592010-05-14T06:42:00.000-07:002010-05-14T06:42:20.857-07:00

Day whatever. I'm trying to move my subdomain to my new web host where my new Wordpress blog is being built and neither side wants to play ball. So we're back on maisoncupcake.blogspot.com only not everyone will find out about that because Feedburner is refusing to let me amend the source of the RSS feed that 75% people arrive from. The feed comes from the blog.maisoncupcake.com address and

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-91252319681622652852010-05-11T12:04:00.000-07:002010-05-11T12:04:49.824-07:00

The goodness is we're back online at blog.maisoncupcake.com but diverted to maisoncupcake.blogspot.com for the time being. The bad news is that the link in my feed is not working now but this is only temporary!  So I'm not sure if you're even getting this appear in your feed readers.   Normal service will be resumed soon! (I hope!)

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-34829971876379806462010-05-11T04:17:00.000-07:002010-05-11T04:17:10.380-07:00

You may have noticed that the Maison Cupcake Blog is off line at the moment, I am in the process of moving to a different host so there may be a few hiccups over the next couple of days. Please bear with me in the meantime!

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-49207351935536066062010-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:002010-05-09T12:35:23.106-07:00

"Postcard from" is my occasional series of non-recipe weekend posts. Today's postcard comes from the View Tube, a social enterprise and community project overlooking the London 2012 Olympic site. A slightly delayed weekend postcard... I am juggling making a birthday cake, redesigning this blog and building up some posts to publish during my imminent holiday. As the crow flies, we live less than

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-67639111453839498292010-05-06T07:59:00.000-07:002010-05-07T12:50:16.964-07:00

The far reaches of the Kings Road in deepest darkest Chelsea is not somewhere I've been many times since buying my first (and only) Vivienne Westwood t-shirt on one of my earliest trips to London.  Westwood's shop, famous for its 70s punk pilgrimages is a stone's throw away from The Cadogan Arms. No doubt this pub had its fair share of safety pin adorned punters back then although these days,

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com10Kensington, Greater London, UK51.4870484 -0.169849251.4837079 -0.17714470000000002 51.4903889 -0.1625537tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-15401072253942154282010-04-29T15:22:00.000-07:002010-04-30T01:51:14.301-07:00

1997. Were you still up for Portillo?  I was. Recently moved in with my boyfriend, now husband, in Shepherd's Bush, West London, I was still registered to vote in Enfield and Southgate, the constituency which came to represent the fall of the last Conservative Government.  Determined too that my local MP, Michael Portillo, would not get a vote from me for no better reason than I had always

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-91537484864709399182010-04-27T14:58:00.000-07:002010-04-27T14:58:04.272-07:00

Today I have been walking round with my kicked puppy face feeling a bit bleugh after having a molar removed unexpectedly yesterday.  It seems appropriate therefore to show you my most blah recipe from my Ottolenghi cooking burst over the past few weeks. Maybe I over did my lentils or maybe this is one of those dishes that tastes good but isn't pretty. Needless to say, there is not a photo of

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-43426950502097114212010-04-25T13:37:00.000-07:002010-04-25T13:37:19.752-07:00

How often do you bake? For me it varies. You may find it hard to believe from the frequency I've blogged lately but I sometimes go nearly a fortnight without baking anything. Then I'll have a mad burst and bake 3 or 4 things over the space of 1 or 2 days. These muffins were the first thing produced on one of these busy days. My in-laws were visiting which generally means my husband and Ted

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-24848585761664648032010-04-24T00:00:00.000-07:002010-04-24T03:50:43.044-07:00

"Postcard from" is my occasional series of weekend non-recipe posts. Martha Stewart has nearly 2,000,000 Twitter followers but only follows around 8,000 users herself. Today she started following me. If she reads this blog post, she'll probably go the way of Bob Bob Ricard and Lahloo tea and dump me pretty sharpish. Food does feature in this post but trust me when I say it's nothing to get

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-76160322576108708042010-04-22T07:43:00.000-07:002010-04-22T07:43:46.579-07:00

More very lazy cookies following on from my recent post about Pecan and Cinnamon Slice and Bake Cookies. I baked these in two halves - one batch for friends and toddlers coming round to play, one batch of dough left in the freezer for an emergency. Boy did I have an emergency last week.  Self inflicted of course, I allowed myself to be coaxed at the eleventh hour into auditioning for the BBC's

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-33146736149376516432010-04-20T14:37:00.000-07:002010-04-20T14:37:09.717-07:00

It wasn't strictly a master class but I witnessed a whole new way of mixing hummus when visiting Bethany of Dirty Kitchen Secrets a few days ago. Apparently the trick is, when the processor is doing it's thing, you grab it and rock it back and forth violently on the kitchen work top.I was impressed with the results, Beth's hummus was a lot smoother than ones I have made in the past. I will

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-53358899977688040282010-04-18T14:27:00.000-07:002010-04-19T02:50:15.072-07:00

First bash at cake pops part two. Like most things you see up here, these were pulled together in a bit of a hurry using ingredients in the cupboard and my convenient local branch of Spar. I chose lemon to match the left over buttercream in my fridge although actually the quantity used here was tiny. With hindsight, I think a lemon drizzle cake is sweet enough to mix with cream cheese for cake

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-71627193326454033852010-04-16T17:16:00.000-07:002010-04-16T17:16:41.771-07:00

Today's post is the first of a new occasional series, Dinner with Crayons, in which I will review kid friendly lunches out. Venues will range from the more obvious family chains to independent cafes and, if we don't get thrown out, more exciting places. The financial pages are not my usual reading material but I take my gauge about the success of a business by the desperation of their discounts.

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-9167372993946791912010-04-14T16:06:00.000-07:002010-04-14T16:07:30.222-07:00

Today’s post is a bit of a rant about bacon. Bringing it home, spending and eating it. Something to chew on until my next batch of biscuits. Wife Swap amuses my husband no end. He chirps at me, "You'd get sent somewhere where you couldn't control everything." I pipe back, "They’d send you someone who would ban cleaning and stop you sweeping bits off the floor every five minutes.” Normally I

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-48776929291551539402010-04-11T16:13:00.000-07:002010-04-11T16:13:26.932-07:00

Giggly schoolgirls. They saunter towards me cackling in crushed together cliques, not drunk (well I presume not) but barely able to walk in a straight line. They annoy the hell out of me but at the same time I look back in fond memory that I once was one. At school I was one of a threesome, myself, Beccy, Janice. More often than not, we had ribs that ached, bodies bent double at desks trembling

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-40528646042166516772010-04-09T16:52:00.000-07:002010-04-09T16:52:42.599-07:00

By the way, all the pictures in this post are with my new Canon G11. No flash has been used even in the indoorsy dark pictures. A few years before Selfridges in Birmingham, looking like a cross between the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum and a roll of giant bubble wrap usurped The Rotunda from it's iconic status on the skyline, it was the Mailbox development that initially brought style to the second

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-58998589634203152822010-04-07T15:32:00.000-07:002010-04-07T15:32:56.316-07:00

These are lazy cookies.  True, they were quite easy to make but I am doing a lazy post as there are a couple of bumper posts in the pipeline and I need to save my energy!  I'm really excited about the posts I have coming up and hope that you enjoy reading them as much I enjoyed doing the stuff and taking the pictures. It may astound you to hear that between February half term and two weeks ago

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-16678304975859186162010-04-05T15:42:00.000-07:002010-04-05T15:42:52.069-07:00

Easter has come and gone, tomorrow my husband will be back at work and I'm on sandwich making duty again. If only I still had a few of these cauliflower fritters knocking about and I'd have another easy lunch ready made for him. My parents in law visited today and we ate a Middle Eastern style meal from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook.  I am continuing to work my way through all the recipes that appeal

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-88376671394272485072010-04-03T16:13:00.000-07:002010-04-03T16:13:40.857-07:00

Three months in and I've bombed out of my first Daring Bakers' Challenge. This month we'd been due to make Orange Tian which had core components of paté sablée biscuits, whipped cream mixed with gelatin or something, carefully cut pieces of orange segment, caramel sauce and as if that wasn't enough, marmalade.   It all sounded very nice but I knew from the start that unless I got the challenge

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-17635133400851732232010-04-01T10:00:00.000-07:002010-04-01T00:31:11.274-07:00

Mac Attack 6 is underway at MacTweets, hosted by Deeba and Jamie, this month’s theme is April holidays. Although we had a range of possibilities; April Fool’s Day, Passover, St George’s Day and more, I have opted for the obvious, Easter and made this month’s macarons in homage to that eternal favourite, the hot cross bun.  I had intended to pipe crosses on top of all of them but my “ivory” gel

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-52462728048382013412010-03-30T15:43:00.000-07:002010-03-30T23:58:05.027-07:00

Brace yourselves! After weeks of squeaking in the comments of other peoples blogs "I've just bought the Ottolenghi book but so far only made the macarons," I can honestly say I have made up for this by cooking no less than SIX recipes from this wonderful book in one week. I won't post them all in succession but do expect to see them all over the next few weeks. I even recruited a new member to

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-52678077506771721172010-03-29T04:34:00.000-07:002010-03-29T04:34:12.901-07:00

Virtuousness has been a rarity for me recently, although here I've discovered a recipe to coax my inner good girl back out.  This comes after making cupcakes for a family party celebrating my grandfather's 30th wedding anniversary. My step grandmother, Anne, is diabetic so I looked for a low sugar alternative to the cupcakes. These carrot cake muffins topped with cream cheese frosting feature in

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-37357190270489678222010-03-23T16:02:00.000-07:002010-03-23T16:06:48.453-07:00

Welcome to my celebrations for the 100th Maison Cupcake Blog Post!  To kick off I am going to do a round up of the Cake A Difference cupcake sales that I organised last month to raise money for Bliss, the premature baby charity. Baby shower cupcakes Over three days during Cake A Difference week, 8-14 February, I ran a series of cupcake sales at various Walthamstow toddler groups and following

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-34668257205686839822010-03-17T16:43:00.000-07:002010-03-17T16:49:36.553-07:00

Time has been running away with me these last couple of weeks so you may have noticed activity has stepped down a notch on here. Ted developed an obsession with the computer, in particular, the marvelous CBeebies website, meaning I've been keeping it switched off when he's awake. Outside of the house I've been running back and forth following a busy schedule of appointments for him which has

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-91157093346212128902010-03-14T16:36:00.000-07:002010-03-15T04:51:39.682-07:00

The theme of this month's Mactweets Macaron Challenge was "spring flowers". I have deviated from this a little and taken my inspiration from what spring means to me, it's Mother's Day and my mother's birthday always follows shortly afterwards.  My mother's name is Rosemarie so I decided to make this month's macarons using rosemary paired with lemon. I have been very fortunate to have my mother

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-4788531832342518552010-03-10T16:02:00.000-08:002010-03-10T16:02:44.430-08:00

A quick and easy pudding today. I have been lolling on the sofa watching Julie & Julia on dvd after a cupcake decorating marathon for the final Cake A Difference cupcakes.  After all my hard work I am on target to have raised over £200 for Bliss and will do a dedicated post about this soon. This is my third Donna Hay custard variation (see previous versions, classic baked egg custard and

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-19860686422449830172010-03-08T07:38:00.000-08:002010-03-08T08:42:58.645-08:00

Spar was the local supermarket on the Midland's council estate where I spent my teenage years. With humming fridges and strip lighting, it sold things like Vesta curries and crusty rolls in a giant plastic tube with a hole at the bottom from which you pulled your bread before decanting it into a polythene bag. A frequent source of entertainment was spreading the rumour "Spar's on fire" (because

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-24314315910740230002010-03-06T01:11:00.000-08:002010-03-06T01:11:15.088-08:00

"Postcard from" is my regular series of weekend non-recipe mini posts. Spring has sprung in London this week, I had the unfamiliar experience of saying, "Look Ted! The sky is blue." My thoughts are turning to the summer holidays and how I am going to entertain the little person for six or seven weeks whilst preschool is shut. Nowadays, the days of sitting reading a book overlooking a

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-29329394777783389212010-03-04T15:06:00.000-08:002010-03-04T15:06:13.827-08:00

After the last bumper picture packed post I hope you will forgive me for doing a little recycling today.  I had so much of the zabaglione, pastry cream, whipped cream and mascarpone mixture left over from assembling the tiramisu that I piped it into glass dishes as a separate dessert. I deliberately made some of my savoiardi biscuits a round shape rather than the traditional fingers that had

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-37116203487622803762010-03-01T15:22:00.000-08:002010-03-01T15:30:18.920-08:00

My second month cooking with the Daring Bakers and I almost didn't make it. I had a little girl's birthday cake to finish by the same date and naturally that had to take priority! This post has been a bit of a marathon - it's a bit long with close to 50 images but I hope you enjoy it. The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-65304780860579824962010-02-27T08:16:00.000-08:002010-02-27T08:17:43.815-08:00

"Postcard from" is my regular series of non recipe Saturday mini blog posts. "Really?" people tend to say when I tell them my mother lives on a narrow boat, "What? All the time? Isn't it cold?" Yes, I reply. All the time for over ten years. And no it isn't cold because she has central heating and since it's a small space it heats up quite easily. She also has broadband, electricity, a tumble

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-19191781396999597222010-02-24T15:52:00.000-08:002010-02-25T11:30:55.517-08:00

Rice and "curry": a Ted-shaped milestone Two things have been different for me since New Year; blogging more regularly and Ted going to preschool twice a week - see how the two are connected? Last week, the week where I was exhausted after the three charity cupcake sales, was half term and although Ted is not yet at school, his preschool and most of the things I take him too shut down. Having

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-35742631882227155672010-02-21T08:01:00.000-08:002010-02-21T08:02:18.413-08:00

Although Chinese New Year has not thus far been mentioned on Maison Cupcake, today at the tail end of the celebrations, I am giving away this copy of Ching's Chinese Food in Minutes by Ching-he Huang published by Harper Collins. With over 220 pages, Ching's book features all manner of Chinese dishes with the emphasis being on those which are speedy to prepare.  Chapters are straightforward

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-53325730075266087322010-02-20T00:00:00.000-08:002010-02-20T00:00:00.225-08:00

Today's post is one of my regular series of Saturday non-recipe mini posts, "Postcard from..." Last week I shared pictures of the parade in Vannes, Brittany.  Today I am in the mood for something a little "zen" so here are a couple of shots from the hotel garden where we stayed on the same holiday. Villa Kerasy is an Asian themed 14 roomed 4 star spa hotel taking it's influence from Brittany

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-48090421419910481782010-02-18T15:05:00.000-08:002010-02-18T15:07:22.803-08:00

Today I had been intending to post pictures of chocolate brioche for the Monthly Mingle organised by Meeta, What's For Lunch Honey? and hosted this month by my friend Jamie at Life's A Feast. The ingredients for said chocolate brioche have been taunting me in the kitchen all last week whilst I was busy making my cupcakes for three Cake A Difference charity cupcake sales. This week, all

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-37257264854475190792010-02-16T01:51:00.000-08:002010-02-16T01:51:37.446-08:00

"Oh how we laughed... on the way to the burns unit," was a favourite witticism of a former colleague whenever someone did something stupid that nearly went horribly wrong. I almost set fire to my hair making these Crepes Suzette.  It wasn't my day, having already dropped the digital SLR camera on the floor, which is why the final shots of the finished dish are not up to the usual standard - I

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-42558659841325368592010-02-14T09:36:00.000-08:002010-02-14T09:48:03.146-08:00

Spotting romantic gestures from my husband requires the expert eye that comes after almost 14 years of being together. I knew to expect this from our first Valentine's night out together. Trudging around Shepherd's Bush, totally unprepared, from restaurant to restaurant hunting for a table, we ended up in the usual curry house. Apart from one equally unromantic tryst, which believe me, does so

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-5718787853939266742010-02-13T00:00:00.000-08:002010-02-13T01:53:54.469-08:00

Today's post is one of my regular series of non-recipe mini posts, "Postcard from..." Since it will be Shrove Tuesday this week I thought it appropriate to show somewhere that I associate with crepes for this week's "Postcard from".  I cannot bring you Mardi Gras in Nice but I can bring you a carnival in a town that serves a lot of crepes. Restaurants in Brittany are very often creperies

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-1333288535165811662010-02-10T15:19:00.000-08:002010-02-10T15:19:41.026-08:00

Ever wanted to be a girl who jumps out of a cake? Me neither, in usual circumstances - but this week was not usual. After 12 failed batches over a period of five months, I finally managed to get the all important FEET on my French macarons. Since my recent revelation about the all important difference between "superfine", "confectioners" and "powdered" sugars described in the various American

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-26481644896373657862010-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:002010-02-07T13:19:42.397-08:00

Whilst flying around this week making charity cupcakes for Cake A Difference and panicking that I've not yet done my Mactweets Macarons or any Valentine's desserts either, I can at least relax in the knowledge that I have two more pancake recipes ready to share. This Scotch pancake and ice cream stack was another one of my entries to the Morrison's Seasonal Pancake challenge along with those

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-56353411224704099932010-02-06T05:08:00.000-08:002010-02-06T05:10:23.026-08:00

Today's post is from my regular series of weekend non-recipe mini blog posts, "Postcard from..." Mont Ventoux is the highest point in Provence and quite possibly the highest place, bar a skiing trip to Meribel, that I have been. Situated 20km north east of Carpentras in the Vaucluse département, it was a little way off from our usual stamping grounds of St-Remy-de-Provence and The Camargue and

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-59324171964352901862010-02-04T15:15:00.000-08:002010-02-05T01:07:58.853-08:00

An advance apology. Blogger double spacing between paragraphs is still driving me crazy. Solutions welcome. Second advance apology. This post involves cruelty to animals. But I know better now. Kissing frogs has been in the news this week.  Apparently, children, inspired by the new Disney movie The Princess and The Frog have been giving our amphibious friends big smackers in the hope they turn

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-55877126913767899952010-02-03T00:39:00.000-08:002010-02-23T03:43:31.999-08:00

Apparently some of you enjoy it when I share my failures here.  Normally these are culinary disasters involving macarons and lurid pink icing for caterpillar cakes but today I thought I'd give you a laugh at my first tragic attempt to send a valentines card back in 1989. More dog's breakfast than valentines breakfast. We were preparing for GCSE French exam in the 5th year. There was an extra

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-46850801823246417192010-02-01T08:28:00.000-08:002010-02-02T02:29:32.384-08:00

A pinch a punch, first day of the month, white rabbits and all that.  February is here and I am secretly cursing that Valentines is not after Shrove Tuesday this year because we are brimming over with Mardi Gras madness here at Maison Cupcake but have not yet done an iota of preparation towards Valentines which takes place on the preceding Sunday.  But why is this so inconvenient you cry? The

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-67514928429003842562010-01-30T05:07:00.000-08:002010-02-06T05:08:16.600-08:00

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted that I omitted my Saturday Postcard last weekend. Since I was up until 3am working on the Arsenal birthday cake and baby shower cupcakes, I am posting this retrospectively at the same time as the Saturday Postcard for February 6th. The above shot was taken in Orford Road, Walthamstow Village, a street which is almost unrecognisable since I moved here

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-89795714480462391862010-01-29T07:31:00.000-08:002010-01-29T07:39:12.684-08:00

Regular Maison Cupcake readers will have heard that I am going to take part in this year's Kiss for Bliss campaign, "Cake A Difference" which will be raising money for premature and special care babies between 8-14 February. After chatting to organisers of Ted's toddler groups I have arranged to sell some cupcakes to attendees of the following toddler groups with all proceeds being donated to

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-14987436168318306322010-01-27T00:00:00.000-08:002010-01-27T08:17:14.733-08:00

The end of January marks my first outing with the Daring Bakers. I am proud to have added the Daring Kitchen badge to my side bar today and hope it this month's challenge will be the first of very many. The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-30551491269117619232010-01-24T05:24:00.000-08:002010-01-24T06:43:56.000-08:00

In the novel "Blackberry Wine", Joanne Harris' follow up to Chocolat, the protagonist inherits some bottles of fruit in alcohol that have been steeping for around forty years. Each time he drinks one of them, he has hallucinations and then needs to drink another bottle to see what happens next. Or at least that's Joanne Harris' excuse for basing a novel around a drunkard who hangs out in a

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-31929684409888491062010-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:002010-01-23T00:00:05.615-08:00

Postcard from... is my series of Saturday mini-posts. Today's postcard is from a bird hide in Tottenham Marshes, part of the Lee Valley Park which borders the 2012 London Olympics site. Selfridges food hall, the Designer's Guild Warehouse Sale, St Tropez; there are many places I'd rather be than sat in a bird hide and more still that I'd rather be than Tottenham, North East London.  So the two

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-75883678930635537252010-01-20T15:59:00.000-08:002010-01-20T15:59:56.732-08:00

What to do, what to do with a heap of egg yolks from my various macaron making disasters?  (See here and here if you haven't experienced these yet). Having recently done the mince pie ice cream I opted this month for some flavoured custards.  First up is chocolate custard pudding.  I have based this on the Donna Hay classic baked custard recipe which I used last year but added the compulsory

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-77059754001892222792010-01-19T06:12:00.000-08:002010-01-19T11:56:28.576-08:00

Writing about restaurants is not something I really do, mainly because with a two year old, I rarely venture anywhere more imaginative than various branches of Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Pizza Express with their child friendly packs of crayons and high chairs.  The envelope was being pushed last Sunday with a trip to the plush Royal China Club when I took Ted and my husband to meet several

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-64590151604392641282010-01-17T15:12:00.000-08:002010-01-17T15:15:34.381-08:00

Gel food colouring has infinitely improved my confidence making icing.  After the problems I'd had getting the right colours when making the Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake, I decided to invest in some gel food colouring.  Mine are little pots of Wilton gel food colouring which come in a box of eight colours.  They cost around £8 which sounded a lot to me, hence my not buying them sooner, but when

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-74506720604878156662010-01-16T00:00:00.000-08:002010-01-16T00:00:04.799-08:00

This weekend's Saturday Postcard comes from Ghent in Belgium, one of the larger towns in the Flemish part of the country. On a weekend trip on the Eurostar we were visiting one of my former college friends who at the time was living in Waterloo, some 30 minutes south of Brussels.   My first trip to Belgium had been a work trip to the European Parliament, fascinating by day but deathly dull

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-31385664522313697712010-01-14T00:22:00.000-08:002010-01-14T00:28:09.261-08:00

This has been a few weeks coming but I hope you'll agree it's worth the wait. I had so many pictures I needed to collage them and it's taken me this long to fathom out how to do them in Picasa by which time I had a backlog of other stuff I wanted you to see first.  Excuses excuses.... This Very Hungry Caterpillar cake was my first creation for a stranger. The neighbour of a friend wanted a

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-37165381560941994462010-01-12T04:56:00.000-08:002010-01-12T05:00:07.966-08:00

In my last post I was in grumpy mode bemoaning the state of my macarons and The France Show.  I promised I had two pieces of good news for you today and good news you shall have.  But first let's have a slice of quiche. Crazy as it sounds, I found myself twiddling my thumbs in the kitchen on Christmas Day.  Yes really. It was about 12.30 and I knew the turkey needed at least another hour, my

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-84563198474130004042010-01-10T15:34:00.000-08:002010-01-10T15:40:04.688-08:00

Before you read this post, be warned that Blogger is double spacing my paragraphs and it's driving me nuts. Something about this month's Mactweets macarons was to be new. "Maybe drying out fruit to create a new flavour/colour powder, try Italian meringue, try new flavour combos, try getting feet if you've never done that before... or use your macs to create a new dessert. Out with the old,

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-15586045955174923352010-01-09T16:01:00.000-08:002010-01-10T01:17:19.458-08:00

This blog post marks the first in my new series of Saturday mini-posts which will be called "Postcards from..." I will use it to share anecdotes and pictures coming from holidays, friends and family around and about.   Today's postcard is from my uncle in France. Galette des Rois Villeurbanne, Lyon, Jan 6 Dear Sarah We have just made this morning a traditional galette for tonight at

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-17561746493471591182010-01-07T15:21:00.000-08:002010-01-07T15:22:34.422-08:00

Final installment of my trio of recipes using up seasonal ingredients. Having dealt with the mincemeat and chestnuts we're moving on to something more obscure. For some reason I always buy a pack of Boursin with Black Pepper at Christmas to be the soft cheese in my cheese selection. Seduced by the memory of that advert showing French people at a dinner table with the slogan "Du pain, du vin, du

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-14532995920073306392010-01-05T02:59:00.000-08:002010-01-05T02:59:24.206-08:00

"Instant" conjures up images of Smash potato and that horrid powdered soup in sachets. I wanted to convey how quick this soup was hence my calling it "immediate" soup instead.  Healthy food that can be produced virtually immediately is a jolly useful thing when you're trying to eat healthily in the New Year. The key is to have your butternut squash already cooked. I cooked 2 entire butternut

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-41386609695067188292010-01-03T04:59:00.000-08:002010-01-03T05:00:49.082-08:00

There will be quinoa, there will be tofu and there will be beansprouts. But not today. It's very early January and you've probably got a fridge full of holiday ingredients knocking about.  A nice big ham cooked in Coca Cola in the Crockpot, half a pack of vacuum packed chestnuts, the remains of the cheeseboard. Well I'm here to give you some ideas what to do with them. And not a turkey curry in

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-1982523447845088942009-12-31T11:55:00.000-08:002009-12-31T11:55:52.603-08:00

...the decade when I became a wife, a home owner and a mother. I hadn't planned on posting until next week but have been busy reading everyone else's round ups. Although I started this blog in July, it wasn't until around September that it started to take shape and look like a proper food blog (if it does now). Truth be told I've not been in the mood for retrospection, I am thinking more of

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-29220778421602185822009-12-22T16:48:00.000-08:002009-12-24T06:29:23.247-08:00

Provence is a place very dear to my heart, I first visited in 1997 and have been back almost every year since. I have been to Arles for Easter, where I saw Provencal ladies dressed in these beautiful costumes but family commitments have thus far prevented me visiting at Christmas. Were I to do so, I would love to attend midnight mass at Les Baux de Provence which lies a few miles from my

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-56434409328671733642009-12-18T01:34:00.000-08:002009-12-18T05:04:56.697-08:00

"That's NOT Father Christmas! It's GRANDAD!" ...said my diminutive self in around 1979. Probably the last time my grandparents persisted with dressing my grandfather up as Santa. The familiar red and white costume hanging around the house, amongst those my grandmother supplied to the local amateur dramatics society during the year, had exposed the myth. That my grandad might be the real Father

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-42078023750365744582009-12-15T15:54:00.000-08:002009-12-16T15:12:05.001-08:00

"Gravy in cupcakes?" my husband cried.  Well. Crazier things have happened... Saturday was, shall we say, a tad busy. It was "Caterpillar Day", when I did my first ever baked-for-a-stranger cake. I keep taunting you but there will be a full post on the Very Hungry Caterpillar after Christmas.  Lots of you have been asking for pictures but I want to show how I made him and cannot do it justice

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-57575678492229165972009-12-14T00:14:00.000-08:002009-12-14T02:04:49.429-08:00

Amongst the dregs of my recent yard sale you will find a reindeer that poops jelly beans, a broken kettle and a heap of Trinny and Susannah books. These are still bound for the charity store or dump but I am seeing other items with new eyes. These terracotta dishes, once sold filled with desserts from Marks and Spencer are perfect for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food. Last week, my son

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1748632265579132887.post-4303185772053973112009-12-09T16:07:00.000-08:002009-12-18T07:51:25.230-08:00

Getting worse at something the more times you do it is not a habit of mine. Yet it seems to be the case with macarons. I have been baking macarons for this month's Mac Tweets challenge hosted by my chums from Food Blogger Connect, Jamie at Life's a Feast and Deeba from Passionate about Baking.  It hasn't been going very well. You, my loyal Maison Cupcake Readers will testify that I had

Sarah, Maison Cupcakenoreply@blogger.com28