www.LeDolci.co.uk Cupcake photos! Our new website coming soon (hopefully tomorrow!) but call for any cake addictions that need to be satisfied! 077 3292 3331

Thanks to Shoot Experience for the Shout out today!

 

New Website coming soon!

More www.LeDolci.co.uk products for your cake addictions-website should be up today!

 

Banana and chocolate gift - unwrap and eat! 

 

A double dipped (Dairy Queen style!) chocolate cake!  Or, the giant turd (as Bunny calls it!)

 

Banana loaf - this is like a meal - 6 bananas per loaf.

Everyone needs to donate their ripe bananas to me now.

Two of Le Dolci's latest cakes

 

Chocolate coconut

                                                      Double chocolate brownie

East Side

Another trip to Quinny's favourite place - the East Side! She loves hanging with the scensters there in her gold trainers, indie t-shirts and funky haircut. I love her vintage wardrobe too, although sometimes it smells a little ;)

This time it was dinner at Red and Green Mexican - excellent Margaritas! I usually don't like Mexican drinks as in my experience you get one at the start of dinner and there is usually so much alcohol in it that on an empty stomach I can get quite tipsy even before the tortilla chips and salsa arrive. But this one was made to perfection. Mr. B is the Mexican expert, having lived in Mexico, well Southern California but close enough and he said the food was great; I agreed and I am not a Mex-pert.  One thing to highlight was that it was served by the friendliest waitress ever.

Seriously she must have just arrived in London or won the lottery that day as she was so attentive, kind, sweet and very lovely. We had loads of little tapas: mexican fish cakes, chili chicken wings, calamar fritto (fried calamari) refried beans (!) and freshly made tortilla chips with spicy salsa and guacamole. It had to be topped off with Dulces (dessert);  we ordered the Ancho chili and Valhorona chocolate pot dessert! Divine and such a nice combination. A must visit if you are hanging with Ali at some obscure pub off of Brick Lane.

Jack of all trades

When starting a business you have to be a jack of all trades and try and do all of the things needed to get it off the ground. With Le Dolci I am reading a few books to help but one thing that I have had to brush up on is my photography skills for website photos. Luckily I have learned a few tricks along the way from people who are great photographers -Erin, Faraz -thank you! So here is my chocolate cake photographed in 2 ways. There have been lots of photo shoots and lots of cakes made in my humble home all for the sake of building imagery for the website.

In turn, there have been a lot of leftovers for visitors to enjoy. I wish I could drop them off at the local school but am sure if I dropped off cakes at the school I may be put on some 'special list' for crazy child thieves or something. I guess my friends and I will just have to get fat; all in the name of helping the website look good!

Hope you all had a great Halloween, my nephew counted and he got 210 candies in his little trick or treat round last night. That is almost one candy for every day next year!!!!!!

Enjoy thea pic of my favourite Czech Republic resident in her Halloween gear. She is the ghost of a semi-decapitated 18th C. chamber maid. No Jack-o-lanterns this year only some pumpkins on tables at the wonderful venue for our grand Halloween party which was held at The Troxy, a 1930’s art deco Grade II listed building. An amazing space!

You won't be hungry after this - introducing the Yankee Doodle Noodle Casserole!

The Creative has been here enjoying the sights and sounds of LondonTown this weekend. She gave me this horrifically trailer park trashy recipe from her days working for Old Dutch potato chips. Needless to say, this recipe came down from their website when the Creative got her hands on the account.

A classic to keep for that special romantic din din when you need to impress.

Ingredients:

• Cooked macaroni
• Can of sweet corn nibblets
• Beef Jerky cut into bite sized pieces
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Cheese puffs/ Cheesies
• Coat all of the above in a whole lotta Ranch dressing, pour into a casserole dish and crumble a whole bag of Old Dutch Potato chips on top -no need to bake! Serve at room temperature. MMmmmmmmm........TPT dinner.
  

Ok, back from being sick in the toilet!!

The Christmas collection

A snowy cupcake with a little snowman! Only 9 weeks til Christmas. I think we should worry about Halloween first. Mr. B is making a Halloween themed dinner on Sunday, I think there was talk of 'Bloody' Marys and a Witches Beef Stew...yum!

Today's lunch

MENU DU JOUR

SMOKED SALMON AVEC CARAMELISED ONIONS, BROCCOLI

WITH CHILI AND GARLIC OIL
LE CREATIVE AND I ENJOYED IT WITH HOMEMADE  CHICKEN LIVER PATE AUJOURDHUI

ALL FRESHLY MADE IN THE KITCHEN LAST NIGHT

The Perfect Smoked Salmon and Dill Twice Baked Souffle

It is delicious and I could've eaten 10 of these but I only made two. Next time I will make more and eat them all myself. These ones were filled with smoked salmon and dill and cooked in a bain marie (a roasting ray of water in the oven). They were the perfect accompaniment to the duck I made, yes I made duck and it was delicious. I am now officially a duck fan. Here is the recipe for anyone who wishes to try them at home, more on the duck later...

Twice Baked Souffles:

• 55 g Butter
• 45g Flour
• 290ml Milk
• 3 eggs -separated
• 110g -Smoked Salmon - chopped
• 2 tbsps freshly chopped dill
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
  

For the cream sauce

• 55ml of dry white wine
• 50ml double cream
• 1 tbsp freshly chopped dill
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180degrees
2. Melt the butter and brush the timbale moulds/ramekins (I think you could also use a cupcake tray), allow the butter to set and then brush again
3. Add the flour to the butter left in the saucepan, cook for 1min. Remove from the heat and gradually add the milk, sirring all the time. Retrun to the heat and bring to a boil, sirring continuously, simmer for 1 minute on lower heat. Tip it in a large bowl and let it cool slightly.
4. Add the egg yolks, salmon and dill to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. 
5. Whisk the egg whies in a separate bowl until peaks form on your beater and then fold into your first mixture. Fold gently so it remains light and fluffy! 
6. Divide the mix to the individual timbales/ramekins (or maybe the cupcake tin - I will ask if this is doable?!) and bake in a bain marie (roasting tin half filled with hot water -which cooks the eggs slowly) for 25min - or until they have puffed up and are brown on top - kinda golden brown like when you are making a cake. 
7. After you remove them from the oven, let them sink down and cool down. Run a knife around the edges and turn hem upside down onto a ovenproof dish (do this while they are still warm-ish)
8. Cover and put them aside until you are ready to serve them. Then when you are you bake them a second time for 15 min to cook them through/warm them up again. 

For the sauce

1. Put the wine into a pan and reduce it by boiling it (you must always boil alcohol when you are cooking with it). Once it has boiled, remove from the heat and add the double cream, dill and salt and pepper. Pour over your souffles or even your duck - it is yummy!
   

Fantastic Formosa

My favourite part of the evening, apart from the food, at Formosa Dining Rooms  is when my Cupcake Pimp (he has got me 3 orders so far!) was moving around the lentils on his plate scrunching his face, squinting and asking, 'what are these things, are they vegetables?'

I was laughing a bit as I think he said that in his culture vegetables are for the poor - a sign of wealth and prosperity is a meal with lots of meat! Fair enough, but I guess he may need more pulses in his life. Well thanks to the CP I am now supplying a few places in NW London so am excited about that. Perhaps I can make him a meat-inspired or lentil cupcake as a special thanks ;)

The Formosa Dining room is connected to one of my favourite pubs, the Prince Alfred -which we call the Alice in Wonderland pub as it has so many little rooms with doors that you have to bend down to get into and out of.  It is another classic London pub, in a gorgeous listed building and the food at the Formosa was divine. I had the sea bass with a savoury cabbage and cream sauce with carrots, CP had the lamb steak with lentils and we were both completely satisfied. We ended the meal with the best Sticky Toffee pudding in London. It was a very filling meal and again service was great, maybe the winds are changing in LondonTown?!

My photographs above are terrible but if you are in Little Venice and want a nice meal in a great restaurant and then want to pop into a great pub for a few drinks afterwards then you shall head in this direction. Only one stop from Paddington peeps and they have a fabulous photo of the canal stretching along the whole back of the restaurant!

From their website: Built in 1863 with a beautiful exterior, the Prince Alfred is a classic example of the traditional plate glass & wood favoured by the Victorians. The inside of the pub is no less striking with the bar area being divided into 5 separate atmospheric "snugs" by original listed wooden panels.