Cute cakes from Cake International

Some people are very talented in regards to what they can do with sugar paste. My skills are improving but just need more time and sugar paste (I dropped a large chunk on the floor tonight and had to bin it). I watched a few workshops at the show in Birmingham a few weeks ago and learned a few tricks too. Maybe over Christmas my nephews and I will experiment. Stay tuned!

Apple pie, cinnamon and hot chocolate 

...with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, eaten in front of a wood fire under a big, woolly blanket is just what the doctor orders for a chilly and windy day like today. Now for that fireplace, we have one but don't think it is fire-safe - boo.

The Candy Haul

Our little pumpkin went out for trick-or treating a few short weeks ago. Is it already November 25th?! Look at all the loot he collected. They counted his big brother's candy and there was about 350 pieces of candy! Almost one for every day next year; oh how the dentist must love Halloween. I think a large quantity has already been squirreled away for a children's charity or a big birthday party.

Below: some creatively carved pumpkins along the route. I do love freshly roasted pumpkin seeds with a little bit of salt. Not a fan of the pumpkin pie though, it always just sits at our table and people take a tiny piece of it then it gets left in the fridge for a while hoping to be eaten, Italians don't really do pumpkin unless it is in ravioli, and even then I think that is a recipe from the north.

It is Thanksgiving this weekend in the Excited States of America so am sure there will be a lot of pumpkin pie consumed. Enjoy the holidays to our friends south of the border. Renee, I want a pic of your bird! xo

 Happy Burfday!

Happy Burfday Big Sister Dolce! Although it is frowned upon to lick your spoon at cooking school, she got away with it as she was a guest for the evening. Big Sister Dolce's birthday gift was a night of cooking: chocolate roulade with a ginger and cream filling and sea bass with gremolata and cannelini beans with a white vinegar and caramelised onion sauce (my favourite part of the meal). We even de-scaled and filleted the fish, now we are ready for a fishing trip!

It was a great evening and she even got to wash the dishes too - that's what happens when you are a guest of honour! Thanks to Leith's Cooking school for being so wonderful.

Camden calling

Cute seats in Camden Market for you to eat your food purchased from one of the food stalls; sweet little Vespa butts. We had great dinner at Gilgamesh a while ago for Burger's birthday and Sat. night had some great Indian at Masala Zone for big Sister Dolce's last night in Londontown. All was great at Masala Zone, they have the friendliest staff in all of London - we had the nicest and smiley-ist waiters ever!!

It was a great evening followed by La Clique (get tickets!!!) and some dancing in Soho with Quinn Snr who was also in town. The only thing was there was a disgusting display of Booze Britain when the two jerks at the restaurant were sleeping and falling off their chairs at the table behind us, they were a such a horrible display of drunkenness - they couldn't speak or keep their eyes open. Why go to a restaurant? Go to a bar and sleep in the corner there dumb-asses!

I haven't been to Masala Zone in ages but will surely return shortly as their Thalis are scrumptious and those lovely smiley waiters were such a treat!

No bribes! Cupcake feedback

I wish everyone would be as nice as this and take their time to email me feedback! And I didn't even have to pay him! Thanks Anthony, will slip you that tenner via Paypal ;)

From: Anthony Hawgood
"Kate gave me one of your cakes to try yesterday with my mid-morning cup of tea and I can honestly say it was heaven! I thought of the ad where the whole world stops because the person is eating a piece of cake...that’s how I felt! The cake itself was substantial without being heavy (there’s nothing worse than “too doughy”!) and the icing was real melt-in-the mouth (made with real butter?)

The other great thing about these cupcakes is that they’re not too sweet!

Thank you for the best cupcake experience I’ve ever had.

Today's Le Dolci News

We spent a lovely morning (nice and early!) at the Covent Garden Flower Market buying supplies and on our way picked up a copy of the Wood & Vale newspaper and LeDolci's Lisa was the pg. 3 girl! Our story was on page 3 with a snap of me and some cakes and cupcakes. The journalist and photographer were super lovely!

x

Check out Springwise.com!

Le Dolci had a piece on the new biz on the world famous newsletter, which I read religiously. Along with George the Greek (in Toronto!), who spotted it on there before I did. It is a great weekly read and everyone should sign up! Thanks Springwise! Check out the piece here!

Kate & Armand's Cupcakes (that they didn't get to try!)

Kate was in a meeting and her team devoured them, she only found out later while on the train when one of her colleagues said, 'yummy cupcakes' and Armand from Brands2Life was sick so I sent his batch to Jake at Response Photographic to be photographed professionally. Even Kevin there was tempted to eat them before Jake photographs them tomorrow morning!

Kate's Cupcakes (that she didn't get to try!)

Launching today - Le Dolci.co.uk !

Le Dolci, London's newest cupcakery and its only weekly Cake Club!  After a few months of doing cupcake towers for friends' weddings, I decided to start my own business making cakes and cupcakes! 

Le Dolci offers London's only weekly cake drop service (large and small boxes filled with cakes, scones, brownies, biscotti and more) and I do cupcake treats! I do specially tailored cupcakes for corporate clients/journalists/musicians - e.g. A PR agency  recently sent a box of our cupcakes tot the Guardian and they gave us a 9/10!

I make homemade sugar decorations of guitars, stilettos, handbags, beer bottles, hearts, baby booties and more! So cakes/cupcakes can be tailored to any occasion.

There is a gallery with some images on the brand new site www.ledolci.co.uk and more to follow in the next few weeks. Enjoy and please pass the word on to other cake addicts or give our cakes a try!

SIGEP in January

Looking forward to this trade show in Rimini, Italy and seeing family that live there. My favourite baking cousin and lovely wife from Toronto are also joining in the fun. I think all those Saturday's hanging around in my uncle's bakery (Tempo Bakery) watching the cake decorating, eating gelato, testing pastries and being a pest to my Aunt had had a deeper effect than I thought. The did let me use the cash register if I was extra well behaved, oh what a treat that was!

SIGEP is the International Exhibition - Artisan Production of Gelato, Pastry,
Confectionery and Bakery - I hope I can taste test!

Exeter Street Bakery's Chocolate Bread

Did I already blog about how delicious the chocolate bread is from Exeter Street Bakery? It is a simple pleasure!  And their slogan is parfait - TRADITIONAL BAKING, PERFECTLY DONE. What more could you ask for? I have brought a few customers to the place and they are all regulars now.

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!