Chocolate fun with the Children's Air Ambulance

On the 26th of October me and my family went to a chocolate event hosted by Paul A Young, it was very fun. It was at Venue One, Marylebone, London. This event was a Gala launch of a new chocolate recipe book called Sensational Chocolate which is fundraising for the Children's Air Ambulance.  The recipe book is a collection of recipes from lots of celebrities including Emma Thompson, Brian Blessed, Nigella Lawson, Fay Ripley, John Whaite and Kimberley Wilson.

The first recipe is in the book is a recipe that me and my Mum submitted using my award winning marmalade.  I love making marmalade and have won the Children's category of the World Marmalade Awards and have also received Golds for two of my entries.  The recipe called Marmalade and Prune Chocolate Cake was a winner with a Children's Air Ambulance recipe competition.

At the launch we saw lots of celebrities including Linda Robson, Dame Kelly Holmes and Lesley Joseph.  We also watched Rosemary Shrager, John Whaite and Paul A Young in a competition to decorate the best chocolate cake.  It was interesting to see the different ways they decorated their cakes. The cakes were auctioned off at the end and made lots of money for charity.

We also were entertained by the wonderful Anna Pancaldi and particularly enjoyed hearing her new songs. 

At the event we were able to try Paul A Young's salted caramel truffles which were so delicious and melted in the mouth.

At the event I talked to Kimberley Wilson about marmalade and the Tiptree World Bread Awards.  We had met there last year for the first time, when I won the Young Baker category.  

I also chatted to Roger Pizey who mentored Paul A Young.  He was very pleased to hear about all that I had done, and encouraged me to keep going.  




I talked to Jay Rayner who said to keep on doing what makes me happy. It was amazing to meet Dame Kelly Holmes who signed my book and said "Follow your dreams" which is a real encouragement for the future.

It was an amazing night and I loved meeting lots of interesting people.

 Since attending this event, I have been trying lots of chocolate recipes from the book. Emma Thompson's salted caramel brownie was the most amazing pudding I have ever tasted.  Nigella's chocolate biscuit recipe was delicious. Having made Nigella's recipe once I decided to add even more chocolate and some Camp Coffee to make some mocha biscuits that everyone loved. Paul A Young's hot chocolate recipe was perfect to warm ourselves up after fireworks.  I am looking forward to working my way through the book.  I am hoping to make Eric Lanlard's recipe next.  If you follow me on @JammyBakers you can keep up to date with the recipes I have tried

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves chocolate. There are so many recipes to try, and lots of these are quick and easy to make.  You can buy it from the Children's Air Ambulance website.  The charity is trying to fundraise for a second Children's Air Ambulance to cover the whole country






If you would like to try some recipes while you are waiting for the book to arrive try these Sensational Chocolate recipes including our Marmalade and Prune Chocolate cake and Emma Thompson's Salted Caramel Brownie

I have also been making some chocolate fun of my own. Two years ago I went on the One Show with my firework themed cake which featured chocolate fireworks.  I decided to make these this year with my church youth group this week and led an activity to do this.  Here is what they looked like.  

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Winning at The World Bread Awards

Last night I went to the World Bread Awards as a finalist in the 'Young Baker Under 12' category. I had made a Luscious Lemon Curd and Cream Cheese Plait. I used a recipe from King Arthur Flour.  If you would like to make it, follow this link. The recipe makes two plaits. The bread is a brioche type dough with pearl sugar sprinkled over the top. I made the lemon curd to go inside. Yummy!

I met Martha Collinson (Great British Bake Off Quarter-Finalist) who judged my bread, and she also signed my her book, Twist, I got for my birthday just a few days ago. She said how much she enjoyed my bread and that it was great that I made my own lemon curd. I also chatted to some other judges who had tasted my bread.

After we'd had some fancy canapes and tasty treats, we sat down for the awards ceremony. When I heard my name being called, I was very surprised; I was told there was some brilliant entries on the judging table! I had won an amazing KitchenAid Stand Mixer of my very own, and, as you will probably know, my brother has one too!


Soon after, it was time to go. They gave us goody bags. Being the winner, I got a very special surprise. I received a chocolate heart made by Sciolti (that I ate on the way home), a special Tiptree jam with the words Finalist printed onto the label  And as well as this, I also had a chocolate plaque, I haven't eaten it yet!


 

When my stand mixer arrives, I will look forward to trying out a few recipes from Martha's book!

All happiness included,

Charlotte

Tasty Cakes at Wellingborough Bake Off

On 17^th September I entered the Wellingborough Bake Off.   I baked a chocolate chai cake that was decorated with the history of Wellingborough. I used chai tea called Chaimaccino which was blended in Bella Barista in Wellingborough. As you can see it shows some of the historical elements of Wellingborough. These include Dulley’s baths (shown by the diving man), the farming of wheat and milling at Whitworths, and shoe and boot making.

I decided to present the sugar craft creations I had made on some chocolate as I thought that would look and taste nice and would also mean that that the coloured sugarcraft figures would not leak colour into the icing.  I used some Beech's  Anglesey Sea Salt Chocolate thins which were perfect for this.  Beech’s had sent me a box of their delicious chocolates to try in my bakes, and this was the first I used and was very pleased with them.  The chocolate thins melted in the mouth and were really creamy.

It was nice to see an increase in the number of children entering the bake off: the huge amount of amazing entries were not just from the adults but from the children. After a few hours I had found out that I had won the 12-16 category which I was thrilled about. As a prize I was given an amazing 2016 Bake Off book along with an engraved rolling pin and a £20 gift voucher for Wellingborough’s cooking shop Rowlatts. I spent a long time deciding what to spend my money on, because of their massive range of products! I decided in the end I would buy a dough cutter which is handy for my bread making, a new fondant rolling pin and a sugar craft tool.  

My sister entered the under 12 category with her strawberry milkshake unicorn cake and she got runner up. 

 We took a small amount of cake home to share with our family and left the remainder to be sold off along with the other cakes for Macmillan Cancer charity

The Wellingborough Bake Off takes place every year and is run by Discover Wellingborough which put on fantastic events in Wellingborough to encourage people to enjoy the town.  Look out for it next year and get Ready Steady BAKE!

Food Fun at Northampton

Living Heritage brought their Food Festival to Northampton this weekend.  I was delighted to be given tickets to visit as there were lots of chances to watch some great food demonstrations.

First I started my day with a demonstration by Holly Bell, former Bake Off contestant.


Holly made some delicious vegetarian sausage rolls.  She demonstrated how to make rough puff pastry and how to get lots of layers in the pastry.  This was very interesting to watch since I had recently made some pain au chocolat using the same method just recently.  Holly then made a delicious Lemon and coconut tart. 

Rolling pastry - roll in one direction

Mixing a lemon and icing sugar icing

The amazing caramel skills of Jean Christophe Novelli were shown throughout his entertaining demonstration.  He made a wonderful caramelised apple tart with a combination of Cox and Granny Smith apples.  He showed us how to reduce the saturated fat from the bake by pouring off the fat at the bottom of the tart before baking.  He said how important it was to buy local food, and food that is in season. His kindness to the public shone out all the way through the demonstration.

Waiting for the sugar to caramelise

Making a sugar basket for strawberries

Jean Christophe, Holly and I

The most well attended session was Levi Roots demonstration.  Levi Roots began playing Bob Marley's "Dont Worry" on his guitar.  This gave a happy Caribbean atmosphere to the tent.   He told us about when he went on the Dragon's Den, and how he did not know what it was before he applied - he thought it was like "I'm a Celebrity".  We heard about the success of Reggae Reggae sauce. 

We were then entertained as Levi made his wonderful  Martinique Chicken Curry  This was packed with a variety of Caribbean spices and the aroma was amazing.  He also demonstrated how to make some simple Caribbean dumplings with flour and water.

Levi dashing through the audience with his Martinique Chicken Curry

 

At the end of the demonstration, I was invited to come and try the Levi's curry which was the most amazing curry I have ever tasted packed with the fruit, vegetables and spices of the Caribbean.  I also joined in with Levi on stage to sing the "Reggae Reggae" song, which made everyone laugh.

Having a laugh with Levi

Thumbs up for Levi's curry

We went along to a demonstration by Carmela Hayes, from Northampton.  She made herb pasta and spinach pesto.  I have been to several of Carmela's previously and enjoy the recipes which are tasty and easy to make.

Carmela with her pasta demonstration

For the final event, I went along to the Crabstock demonstration.  We were shown how to take meat from a crab, and I tasted scallops for the first time which were delicious.

Andy Hunting from Crabstock kindly invited me on stage and I had lots of fun helping him make a crab linguine.  I would love to make this dish at home.  Andy told the audience about my success in jam and marmalade.  I have done talks about my jam and bread making in the past and one day I hope that I will be able to talk at a food festival like this.

Adding Parsley to the Crab Linguine with Andy Hunting

Crab Linguine made by Andy and I

Before we went home, we made a point of tracking down some local produce and were glad to see Nature's Fayre had a stall.  They had lots of jams and honey samples for us to try.  We took home two bags of their delicious honey fudge and a pot of their honey with ginger.

Thank you to all the organisers of the event, I thoroughly enjoyed the demonstrations and hope you come back another year.

Finally, this is what Levi Roots had to say after I went on stage with him
"Yeah big respect, loved da blog, man you were great on stage, up up, way up! More love LR"

My LEON win

We took part in an exciting children’s cookery competition run by LEON Restaurants called ‘Cook 5’. You have to cook a savoury dish and explain how to make it. This is put on the LEON website, and people vote on their favourite dish.  The child with the most votes each month wins a prize. Christopher and I were winners of the month last year.

It is called ‘Cook 5’ because LEON would like you to cook five savoury dishes. This year LEON put all the children’s names who cooked five dishes in a hat and my name was drawn out and I won £2500! I then got invited to LEON’s restaurant in Bankside, London for lunch with Rachel and Orla, who helped organize the 'Cook5' competition. From the new menu, I had a Fish Finger Wrap, Christopher had The Chicken Burger and Matthew had the Brazillian Black Bean Salad. We also had lots of lovely treats. It was delicious.

Photo by Leon Restaurants

Photo by Leon Restaurants

After that we took a trip to the head office, where the boss John Vincent taught my family how to make his special pork, apricot and onion meatballs from one of the LEON cookbooks. I cooked my ‘Cheesy Bacon Parcels’, Christopher cooked his 'Super Swirly Pizza Whirls', and Matthew did his 'Jewelled Salad' (which was an adaption to LEON's original recipe), and they were all gobbled up by us and the LEON staff! I then got presented with my cheque (In a Golden Envelope!!) and my brothers and me got a goodie bag. We had an amazing day with LEON. We finished our day by going to Kings Cross LEON, just to meet one of our favourite LEON people, Claire, who was delighted to hear my news.

You can take part on http://leonrestaurants.co.uk/cook5

Charlotte

Photo by Leon Restaurants

Photo by Leon Restaurants

Marmalade Magic entry for Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Awards

Marmalade Magic

As I had made so much marmalade this year, I decided it would make a good photo.  I was pleased with the photo and sent it to the the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year Awards.  I am so pleased that it has been shortlisted for a people's choice vote.

When I took my photo, I started stacking all my marmalades in a stack and decided because it was a sunny day, it would make a great picture with my perfect marmalade.  In the photo you will see a lovely orange glow as the sun comes through the jars.

If you would like to vote for me for the Food Photographer of the Year awards:

1.  go to www.pinkladyfoodphotographeroftheyear.com
2.  click on the pink button vote now
3.  click on Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year
4.  go to nearly the bottom of the page to the Young 11-14 category
5.  click on my photo "Marmalade Magic"

I would be very grateful of your vote.


This photo shows my favourite type of marmalade made with the best Ave Maria Seville Oranges.  These are very special as they are organic and make the best marmalade.  They are full of pectin and the marmalade sets in minutes.  Everyone loves the taste of the marmalade.  I bought them from Waitrose this year, when they had just arrived and even helped an elderly lady selecting hers.  She was very excited when I told her I had won the Children's Category of the World's Original Marmalade Awards a few years ago and I told her all about it. The jars and lids are from Love Jars, I especially like these patterned lids on my marmalade.

We went to the World's Original Marmalade Awards this year and I was proud that I entered 3 marmalade categories with my Blood Orange, Suffolk Lemon and Ave Maria Seville marmalades.  I was pleased to get three Silver Awards.  We had a great time visting Dalemain Mansion, going on the Ullswater Steamer and watching Peter Sidwell and Smokey Jo with their cookery demonstrations at Rheged.

 My Tour of London Bakeries

David Hall and me at London Bread and Cake Company

I have just spent two great days in London finding out about the bakery industry.  It was organised by David Hall, who invited me to London as I won the Young Baker Category (12-17years) at the World Bread Awards. The first day was spent at the London Bread and Cake Company with David Hall.  At the beginning we chatted about my aspirations for the future.  He gave me some ideas of where I could do training to be a baker.  He gave me some books and leaflets to look at and ideas of organisations to join.  I have recently joined the Craft Bakers Association but am now going to join the Real Bread Campaign.

David showed me around his amazing bakery and showed me all the different machines that make his tasty bread.  Some of the products we saw included brioche, bloomers, bread rolls, bagels, Sicilian lemon cake, Russian cake, Eccles cakes and croissants.  David explained the difference between puff pastry and Danish pastry.  David explained how recipes were adapted to suit the needs of various customers.  I had a go at slashing a bloomer and I learnt why these cuts are important.

We saw convection ovens with steam especially for crispy bloomers and saw convection ovens for cakes.  I helped roll some chia bread and slashed the bloomers. I helped with some Sicilian lemon cake that would be served as to first class passengers on an aeroplane.

  

We enjoyed a freshly baked croissant with some of my Ave Maria Sensational Seville Marmalade. This got the thumbs up from David! I had a fantastic day and was looking forward to the next day

 

 

For my second day in London I was pleased to be invited to Dunn's bakery in Crouch End.  This bakery was on the programme Victorian Bakers which was a programme I watched recently and really liked.  

When you walk in the shop you are amazed at the range of delicious cake and bread that is available for sale.   We were shown around by Lewis Freeman who was is a sixth generation baker. We saw buns, seeded loaves, frangipane tarts, cakes, chocolate Easter bunnies, eclairs and mincemeat being made. 
 
We were able to see the equipment used on Victorian bakers including a really old food mixer that is still used today.  Lewis said this takes longer than modern machines but is more gentle, mimicking the action of the hands. 

 
We also saw the oven they used in the programme.  To create steam in this oven, they spray the oven with water to create steam like I do at home. 

 


This oven will be replaced soon by a brand new oven.  We saw a Hobart mixer and another machine which presses dough flat then rolls it up - we had also seen this same type of machine at the London Bread and Cake Company.  As well as these machines we also saw new mixers. Despite the technology it was great to see a lot of processes done by hand. 

It was a very friendly place and we chatted to several of the staff as we went around.
When we had finished, we bought cakes and bread to share with our family who loved them.  

 

 

We called into Budgens when we had finished in the bakery and it was good to see that they were supporting Dunn's bakery by stocking lots of their bread.

I really enjoyed my two days in London.  It has given me knowledge of all the different processes that go on in a bakery and all the different equipment involved.  It was good to be able to compare the things I do with my baking at home with what happens in a bakery business.  I have had lots of ideas of things I would like to do in the future.  Everyone I met was very kind.  I am especially grateful to David Hall for arranging this and to Lewis Freeman who looked after me at Dunn's.

Christopher Freeman, me and Lewis Freeman receiving some of my marmalade for his bread!