Hello 😊
As promised, here are some pictures of my new kitchen. I’m no photographer, and they’ve only been taken on my phone, but I love love love it!
This is what I call the ‘kitchen’ end of the room. As you can see, the upstands and splashback still need adding (note makeshift cardboard ‘splashback’)
And this is my ‘office’, where all the cake preparation and decorating will be going on! The worktop in front of the window has deliberately been put in as a separate piece, so that it can be retrofitted as a ‘rise and fall’ area in the future if needs be. At the moment, the stool I got from OH is height adjustable, which is fine for now 😊
And now (drum roll please) My first cake from the new kitchen. I’ve incorporated a few techniques (watched far too much YouTube tutorials in the past month!) so I did watercolour buttercream effect, then tried a Russian piping tips, which I was reasonably pleased with for a first try. The last ones are a bit flat, as it was hot yesterday and the buttercream went a bit ‘floppy’ towards the end. Then I tried the ‘brushstroke’ technique….hmmm, did I mention it was hot yesterday? I literally had to take one out of the fridge, apply it, then grab another! More practice needed obviously, but here it is. It’s a lemon sponge with raspberry buttercream 😜❤🍰
For this I kept things simple and went for a basic Victoria sponge which I flavoured with a naturally concentrated lemon paste. The ratio for the buttercream was 225g butter and 500g icing sugar, with 2 tablespoons of double cream and a tsp of meringue powder for stability. I always use Lakeland brand natural raspberry flavouring. I haven’t found anything that tastes remotely as nice! The chocolate shards I made by melting white chocolate, colouring some of it pink (Wilton gel colour) then spreading it with my spatula on to baking paper, but like I said, more practice needed!
That’s all for now
Stay safe and healthy
Debbie ❤
Baking for Therapy 