plátanos chocolate estilo ecuatoriano

(Chocolate Bananas Ecuadorian Style) 


On my gap year (now four years ago... how time flies) I spent about 5 months living in and teaching English as a foreign language in Ecuador. As well as Blanchi's (the matriarch of the home stay family I lived with) lemonade which I couldn't get enough of, plátanos chocolate (chocolate bananas) stick in my mind. Effectively, these were chocolate ice lollies made out of bananas, which in my book automatically makes the healthy. Win.

Well, this week, out of no where, the Great British Summer which was no where to be seen last week has arrived. So after only 20 minutes in the sun (with sunscreen of course) this morning I found myself back inside looking for something icy cold to cool me down. Alas, my freezer seemed to be lacking ice lollies...

I saw bananas on the side and that was that, placed them in the freezer in preparation and away we go! A healthy, icy summer snack - perfect.

I've used dark chocolate as I'm lactose intolerant but milk or white chocolate (or flavoured chocolates or chocolate with nuts in, literally whatever you prefer!) would work just as well - use your imagination.

Click here for my Chocolate Banana Ice Lollies recipe 

Do You Like Jam?

Just incase you'd not heard, here in the UK, it's week is National Jam Week. Other countries have National Health Week or Red Cross Awareness Week... the Brits have Jam Week.

Unfortunately, I hate jam. I was an extremely fussy eater as a kid and although I have since tried cow heart, guinea pig and mushrooms, there are still some things that I simply cannot abide. Mushrooms, tomatoes and jam are top of the list. The fact I liked jam as a toddler is neither here nor there.

However, George is a jam fiend so on hearing that this is the week to celebrate the jiggly, slimey goo, I decided to try my hand at actually making some.

I moved back home from Nottingham this week (sob) and so once again live down the road from a Pick Your Own field. Disliking all berries but strawberries (and I only tried these for the first time last year) I have never been to said PYO. Having moved back home last weekend, the eve of Jam Week of all things, this seemed the perfect time to pop my PYO cherry (as it were).

Alas, the Great British Summer had other ideas and it has completely pissed it down all week. So I bought my fruit from Budgens instead. My cherry will have to wait until another day.

I have it on good authority - my mum (who doesn't actually particuarly like strawberry jam) and her boyfriend (who loves strawberry jam) - that my jam tastes pretty good. George will get his jar tomorrow, but I'm hoping he'll approve as well.

It was surprisingly easy and really quick I'm pleased to say and begs the question why any jam lovers don't make their own all the time! But personally, I still don't like jam.

I had planned to make blueberry jam today as well... but after wrecking my mum's pan today (turns out it wasn't a non-stick saucepan... oops) I feel I'll wait until tomorrow once we can actually scrape the stuff off the bottom of it!

Click here for how to make your own jam. 

April Delights (in June)

This has been a very good week. Today I found out I got a 2.1 in my degree and I am now a fully qualified American Studies and English person... whatever that means... Future's bright!

To celebrate (albeit slightly prematurely!) a few months back, I blogged that I had spotted a cupcake decorating class on Groupon* and had decided to treat myself for after exams. Well, it's after exams and yesterday was the big day: I can safely say it was one of the best presents I've ever bought myself.
Adele has been making cakes for approx twenty years (if I remember correctly) and her creations are dotted all around the workshop - they're incredible. The class is allotted 4 hours, though it only takes about 3 and you can buy the tools you use at April Delights after the class if you want to.

We made 6 cupcakes: 3 with sugar paste and 3 with buttercream. I'm not gunna lie, I was thrilled to bits with my cupcakes and feel they look pretty damn good:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I think my favourites are the shoe and rose buds. What was so surprising to me was how easy it was (once your fingers got used to the fiddlyness!).

Click here for video 'how to' on working with sugar paste.

I would highly recommend the class. I severely lack any skill in drawing, painting or art of any kind - I struggle with stick men! - but hopefully the photos show that you don't need to consider yourself the next Michelangelo to be good at this, or indeed enjoy it!

April Delights are running other classes as well from Summer 2011 in everything from cupcakes and mini cakes decorating classes to wedding cake toppers and tiered cakes (maybe I should have done that before attempting a tiered cake!?). But if designing the cakes isn't your thing, you could simply order one for a birthday - they truely are incredible amazing!

*Groupon: offers a different deal a day local to your area and region.
www.groupon.com

www.aprildelights.com

April Delights Facebook

Another Birthday, Another Cake

Last week saw another 21st birthday though after my two-day in the making magnum opus only days before, I decided to take things back to a simpler level.

Lucie's birthday had the theme, 'dress as your favourite album cover' and she was going as Britney Spears from the Slave 4 U album - yellow snake, blond wig, the works. So, originally, I had planned to make a normal sized cake (chocolate, naturally, every girl's favourite!) with silvery blue fondant icing and a whole in the middle like a CD. But as we have already learned, plans are made to go awry.

I decided to disband the CD idea and keep things ultra simple with a normal, chocolate sponge covered in fondant icing with a marzipan yellow snake wrapping itself around the cake (in keeping with Lu's Britney costume). I was pretty chuffed with the outcome it has to be said:

Blue icing: fondant   /   Snake: marzipan   /   Writing: simple, store bought icing pens

I've worked with marzipan before, cutting hearts for the top of cupcakes, but fondant icing was a new challenge. It was surprisingly easy and I think it made the cake look a lot more finished off and professional. Lucie seemed happy anyway and I suppose that's the main thing!

Happy 21st Lu!

Click here to see how to work with fondant icing and marzipan.

Mad Hatter's Cake Indeed...

Last week was one of my housemate's 21st birthdays. To celebrate, we had a tea party and BBQ and I thought it would be a good idea to make a surprise tiered cake, similar to that of the cake at the Mad Hatter's in Alice in Wonderland (Hannah actually dressed up as the Mad Hatter back in October for a fancy dress event, so it all tied in rather nicely!)

This is by far the most challenging cake creation I've attempted - it was a trailing two days to say the least...


Thursday Morning: 29 Hours to Tea Party: Baking Commences 

We had planned for a Victoria Sponge base with blue fondant icing, a Caramel Mud Cake Middle with white chocolate icing and a cup cake top tier (Hannah really likes cup cakes) with pink icing.
Aside from having to make extra Victoria Sponge mixture than expected and making twice as much Mud Cake mixture than needed it was all going pretty well.

Thursday Afternoon: 24 Hours to Tea Party: The Cake Begins to Take Shape


In hindsight, three sponges for the bottom tier was probably enough, but we went all out with four, making sure to leave a small indent in the top tier to balance tier number two within it. There were two cakes for the middle tier, which we cut to size using a plastic bowl as a measurer.

All was still going surprisingly well at this point. We used buttercream to stick all the layers together (besides the two jam layers, completing the Victoria Sponge, obviously).
A note to lactose intolerants: I find that sadly soy butter or other substitutes simply don't make as good buttercream, it's just too runny without proper butter. 

See the full gallery on Posterous

By the end of day one, the cake was pretty much assembled. At this point we stopped for dinner and a night out celebrating the end of exams... this is when things begin to unravel...

Friday Morning: 6 Hours to Tea Party: Baker Down!


As Friday morning went on, my hang over got worse and worse and worse (to be polite). Eventually, I was forced to return to my bed under the jurisdiction of my boyfriend George who decided I was being no use to anyone and certainly was in no fit state to finish off a giant cake. He stepped into the void and Helen took the reins - or whisk in this case! - as the clock ticked on towards 4pm when the Tea Party would begin.

Friday Afternoon: 1 hour to Tea Party: the Finishing Touches 


I awoke (feeling much more human) to find a cake lathered in white chocolate icing, the cup cake in the oven ready to be placed on top. Helen and I set to work with finishing touches. Coloured and fondant icing had been abandoned for the sake of Helen and George's sanity and for the sake of simply getting the cake done in time. A Mad Hatter's Cake it truely was:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I cannot say thank you enough to George and Helen, without whom, there would have been no cake as - to quote George - I was a shambles of a human on Friday. Thank you both so much.

Truth be told, I can't quite bring myself to give the in's and out's on a tiered cake 'how to' just yet or even a Caramel Mud Cake recipe. I will get round to it... just not yet. So for now, content yourselves with the photos and click here for some tuition on tiered cakes instead.