Milseog's Blog

So I joined a farmers market last week, it runs every Saturday from 9.30 to 2.00 in Cashel shopping centre.  I make a variety of cakes and cookies.  Since its my first time doing this I haven’t finalised what I’ll be selling every week.  Its been trial and error since I started, I’ve gotten loads of tips from other stall holders such as where to get posters etc.  I really enjoy selling my baking and hope in a couple of weeks to have decided what things I will make every week.  I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress.

Hi all, this is my vegetable garden which I’ve been working on for the past couple of months.  We cleared what used to be an orchard of dead or dying trees.  It is now ready to go with planting.  Already I have loads of rhuburb ready, chives which I planted last year have grown back really strong so I’m really pleased with them.  I also have potatoes which are planted in drills, see photo on the left.  However the best thing so far is my lovely polytunnel which I purchased from http://www.polytunnelsireland.com/.  They have really good reasonably priced tunnels and are really well made.  My dad helped me put this up today it took about 5 hours but it looks really well and is lovely and warm already looking after my seeds which I planted today.  In the right side of the garden picture you can see a little house which will be a hen house in a couple of months, which will provide me with loads of eggs for my baking.  My dad also made this from scratch (very talented)!!! Also the blue barrels are strawberry plants which I hope will give me loads of fruit during the summer.  I hope to keep you updated on the progress of the garden, hope to have loads more photos in a couple of weeks.

I recently made this cake for a dinner for my friend Liz who is off to Paris to study at the famous Le Cordon Bleu ( hope I spelt that right), anyone interested can check out her blog listed on the right.

This is a chocolate cake made by whisking egg yolks and egg whites separately then folding the whites into the yolks.  I then covered the cake with a chocolate ganache.  To decorate I melted chocolate, then spread it on greaseproof paper until it hardened.  I then cut the chocolate into strips the same length and arranged them around the cake as a border.  I then covered the top with rolls of white chocolate (done by taking a sharp knife and a packet of white chocolate and scraping the knife across the chocolate towards yourself).

For Valentines day I decided to make some themed desserts.  I made a big valentines brownie cake and some red whoppie pies.  Whoppie pies are apparently the new cupcake!! They are like little light cakes sandwiched together with vanilla buttercream.  Red velvet cakes have a slight chocolate flavour and are a nice alternative to making a full cake.

This is a great cake to make, really easy to make and tastes fantastic.  Its a simple chocolate sponge cake filled with vanilla buttercream icing.  Its covered with chocolate buttercream and decorated with grated white chocolate.  I got this recipe from Donal Skehan of  “the good mood food blog”.

175g self raising flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
150g caster sugar
2 eggs beaten
150 ml (1/4 pint) sunflower oil
150 ml (1/4 pint) semi skimmed milk
2 Tbsp golden syrup

Pre heat to 180 oC, mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients.  Add wet to dry and mix well with electric whisk. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  This is a really nice light cake, perfect for birthdays and celebrations.

For christmas my lovely boyfriend surprised me with a matt grey kitchen aid.  I have wanted one of these for a very long time, and my year was made when I saw it!  Its so sturdy and makes baking so much easier such as this strawberry pavlova on the left.  Its safe to say my baking time has increased dramatically since this has arrived!!!

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a friend of my aunts, so I made a chocolate cake with buttercream filling, covered it with icing then placed these figures on top.  They represent the different interests of the birthday girl – guitar, camera and her pet cats!!  To cover the sides of the cake and to pretty the cake up a bit more, I got some cellophane with a pretty pattern, folded it in half then placed pink crepe paper inside, then secured the cellophane with a white ribbon.

It’s been quite a long time since I posted anything here, so I am starting back with christmas cakes.  I had to cover two cakes, so I decided to make a christmas tree with quite a large star on top with a dusting of yellow edible glitter.  The second cake I covered, I made a polar bear and two penquins.  Hope you like them!

I hate to see anything go to waste, so if something can simply contribute to the compost bin rather then being thrown out, at least it means one less thing is wasted.  Another way to prevent waste is preservation.  As you saw from my vegetable patch I have loads of rhuburb so I decided to make jam, which although is unusual turned out lovely, I left out the ususal ingredient of ginger as Im not a fan and the jam set perfectly without it.   I also recently had loads of red chillies which were starting to go off, so I made sweet chilli sauce which was gorgeous, so much better then any shop chilli sauce I’ve tried.  If anyone would like a recipe, just drop a comment and I’d be happy to post any recipe.

My future ambition is to grow loads of fruit and veg, but this is my first attempt at growing things myself.  I have spuds which are coming along really well, shallots, lettuce, rhuburb and rocket.   Can’t wait till I can use all the produce!!