Personalised Gifts for Bakers & Cooks: it's GBBO time!

Where were you at 8pm last night? I know where I was: sitting in front of the telly watching the Great British Bake Off, that's where (bye bye, Terry & Karen). Biscuit? Chandelier? What on earth...!

With all these gorgeous bakes passing before my eyes (did you see all that chocolate last week: heaven!), I've been getting in the baking mood. It's a bit tricky as we're trying really hard to be low carb and sugar free here at PhotoFairytales towers at the moment, so living vicariously through GBBO is about as close as we get to a slab of cake! We can be strong, we will (hopefully) resist!

I've put together a special page on the PhotoFairytales site full of great gift ideas for all those keen cooks and bakers - so if you have a star baker in your midst, or just a very keen 'fling it in the oven and see if it works' type cook, there are some brilliant gift ideas here that they'll love.

Here's a little round up - but visit the new page on the PhotoFairytales site to see everything on offer:

Personalised Cook's Conversion Chart | temperature, weight, liquid conversions

Personalised Ceramic Mixing bowl | available in two different designs

Personalised Kitchen wall sign plaque | available in a range of colours

Personalised Wooden Plaque Hanging Sign | personalise with any wording of your choice

Head on over to the specially curated gift guide now, full of fabulous gifts for any keen cook, baker or cake maker!

Sarah x

World Baking Day - personalised gift ideas for cooks and bakers

It's World Baking Day today - so if there's ever an excuse to hit the kitchen and whip up a tasty cake or two, today's the day! Whether your signature dish is a complicated mille-feuille, or you're more inclined towards those 'just add an egg' packaged ready mixes, there's no doubt about it - the smell of a cake baking in the kitchen is a thing of joy!

I've got a quick round up of some (calorie free!) gift ideas for anyone who loves dabbling in the kitchen - practical and pretty, unique and unusual - if they love baking, they'll love these...

Personalised Ceramic Mixing Bowl - £27.95, 2 designs available

Personalised Cook's Conversion Chart - from £15.95, available in any colour

Bespoke Word Theme Print - £22.95, range of designs available in any colour

'Kitchen' Design Wall Plaque - £17.95, other designs & colours available

Personalised Blue Heritage Plaque - £17.95, personalised with any wording

'Great British Dishes' bespoke canvas - £32.95, available in any colour

All the prices quoted include free UK delivery. Visit the PhotoFairytales website today to find more great gift ideas, all proudly designed and made by hand in Britain.

Sarah :)

The joy of bread...

Trust me, if I could find a way of turning this into a Scratch 'n Sniff Blog I would - because if you were here right now with me you'd be breathing in one of the MOST delicious smells on the planet... the smell of bread baking. Ahhhhhhhhh.... heaven!

Let me give you a little glimpse into life at PhotoFairytales HQ: every Friday morning I bake bread. I do it during the week too, but on varying days. Whereas Friday morning has become a pattern because the whole bread eating thing becomes more frequent when everyone's home all day.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not elbow deep in flour, kneading and proving, and being all uber-houswifeish! Nope, I cheat, I've got a bread maker - in 5 minutes flat I have all the ingredients chucked in the pan and the machine is doing it all for me. It's on just shy of a 3 hour programme, which means that about this time on a Friday morning I'm getting both barrels of that gorgeous bread smell. It's almost ready!!

I started baking bread not long ago, so I'm just starting out. My mum kindly let me borrow her bread machine for a few months to see how I got on before making the commitment and buying my own machine. Within a month I was online and scouring the many different brands available having quickly made my mind up that there was no going back!

So what have I learnt in the 3 or 4 months since I started baking my own bread? Well, I know that mixing white and wholemeal flour works when I want to do my own version of that 50/50 type bread. I know that adding as much sugar as it states in the recipe is too much - I've cut down from 2tbsp to 1tbsp. I found 2tbsp made the bread far too sweet, but bread seems to need some sugar to help the yeast do its thing. I use just less than half of the recommended salt too - and I've used Low Salt and normal salt, and both work just as well. I've experimented with yeast amounts too - and found that cutting that back a tiny bit actually makes for a nicer loaf.

But my biggest tip of all? How to get a soft crust...

Don't get me wrong, we all like a nice crunchy loaf - but when you're using the bread for sandwiches, etc too you don't always necessarily want the loaf to be crunchy all the time. So, to get a nice soft crust that still has a bit of good 'chew factor' to it, and to stop the bread being a bit on the crumbly side, I've basically upped the fat content. The recipe told me to use water - but I now use roughly 2/3 milk to 1/3 water. And instead of using 2tbsp of butter I now use 2tbsp of oil. And it works every time :) When I get the bread out of the machine I wrap it in a clean tea towel which also seems to help it keep its softness as it cools.

Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a cooking and baking type blog this week, hasn't it? Ooh, the bread machine's just beeped - got to go!

Sarah x

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Missing The British Bake Off?!

20 million people watched a woman baking a cake the other day... 20 MILLION! 

It seems that "The Great British Bake Off" triggers something in so many of us - even my OH sits there casting his opinion on whether they're doing it right (he's never baked a cake in his life).

So if you've got someone in your life who's a keen sifter of flour and whisker of eggs, treat them to something practical and personalised in the hope they bake you something lovely in return (lemon drizzle please):

• Personalised ceramic Mixing Bowl (2 designs available), £24.95
• Personalised Blue Heritage Plaque, £17.95
• Personalised Cooking Conversion chart print, from £14.50

- all with free UK delivery included

Sarah x

Superfood Radishes: my latest craze!

It was back to work with a bang this Monday after taking a few lovely days off work - no 6am starts, deciding what we were going to do with our day over breakfast, picnics and days out. Smashing.

And every day little food treats - ice cream with a flake? Don't mind if I do! Glass of wine even though it's only 4 o'clock in the afternoon? Actually, I am quite thirsty now I think of it... Fish and chips for tea? Well, we are at the seaside!

So this week I'm making the shift to get back to eating a bit more conscientiously - and to be honest, I was ready to. Funny how your body starts telling you it's time to start giving it some proper fuel... Which means I'm back to my new secret habit: radishes. I flippin' love 'em!

There's no such thing as a lunchbreak here at PhotoFairytales HQ - lunch is something I grab at my desk, usually typing emails at the same time. And although I'm pretty good at dishing up something healthy for dinner, lunches are more of a challenge. Very often its just a quick sandwich (minimal effort, minimal thought) and quite often I'd reach for a bag of crisps too. Hhmmm... not a great choice - then a few weeks ago I had a brainwave: replace those crisps with radishes! And now I'm a little bit hooked on them - they're the perfect alternative for me: they give me something to crunch (like crisps), they're perfect hand-to-mouth food (like crisps), and they've got a stonking hit of flavour (like crisps). They're juicy, crisp and give you a fantastic pop of heat. Some are hotter than others too, so with every mouthful it's a little bit like radish roulette!!

Not only that, but I've since discovered that they have great health benefits too - in fact, they're one of those brilliant superfoods. Obviously I'm no expert, but this is what I've found after doing a bit of research online:

• Radishes are packed with potassium which helps to lower blood pressure
• One serving of radishes gives you a third of your daily Vitamin C hit
• They're also a source of Vitamin B6, magnesium, calcium and zinc
• They help you to digest fat more efficiently
• They have great cancer-fighting properties
• They're great for your kidneys
• Radishes are low in calories, cholesterol and fat - and they are high in roughage and water which is good if you have digestive problems
• They helps to relieve congestion when you have a cold or cough
• They're great for the gallbladder and liver, protecting from infections
• Radishes are a natural diuretic and great for bladder infections

Phew! These hot, peppery little ruby red balls of juicy crunchiness are most definitely staying as a feature in my lunches for the foreseeable - yum. And what's more, they last well in the fridge - they'll sit in there watching your lettuce turn slimey, and be ready for a quick wash and top-and-tail when you need them.

Sarah :)

Quick and easy recipe: Tomato Soup

I've been making home made soup for many years now - they are (usually!) quick, easy and cheap. Plus my soups are often so hearty and filling that they can fill you up for a main course. I batch cook mine, making double quantities and freezing them - that way I've always got a standby dinner to hand that's almost instant after a quick defrost in the microwave!

This is one of my favourites which I make all the time and would love to share with you:

Easy Home Made Tomato Soup 

(for approximately 4-8 people, depending on the size of your bowls, the size of your people and the size of their appetite!)

Ingredients:
1kg tomatoes
1 or 2 Sweet Potatoes (normal white potatoes are fine too, although I think sweet potatoes add an extra sweetness and colour)
Vegetable Stock (I usually just use a stock cube, nothing fancy!)
Seasoning
Sugar
Approximately 50g butter

Peel and dice the potato, then melt the butter in a large saucepan. Throw the potatoes into the pan and stir about over a medium heat. Meanwhile, simply quarter the tomatoes (no need to peel or finely chop). Keep giving the potatoes a stir, then sling in the tomatoes. Give everything a stir and cover with vegetable stock - just enough to cover the vegetables, not too much. I like to add in a few grinds of pepper too. Bring everything to the simmer and let it bubble gently away for about 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are soft. You now need to process the soup - you can either use a food processor/blender, or a handheld blender. Give the soup a whizz until its is smooth, then pass it through a sieve to get rid of the tomato seeds. The soup will probably be quite thick so you'll need to smooth it through the sieve with a spoon - keep going until you've got about a desert-spoon of mulch left in the sieve. Warm the soup back up, and add 1 teaspoon of sugar. This sounds weird I know, but it takes away any bitterness and make the soup taste lovely and smooth. I don't usually add salt or anything else but you can if you like. If the soup is too thick add a little water until its the consistency you like.

You can fancy-schmancy the soup up with a few chopped herbs, or a swirl of cream would look pretty - but mostly we have ours simple and just served with some part-baked rolls from the oven. Yum!

What's your favourite soup recipe?

Sarah :)