Decorating Cupcakes at The Scarlet Bakery

A couple of weeks ago I attended a cupcake decorating class at The Scarlet Bakery. The Scarlet Bakery is our first cupcake shop in Dundee and it is proving very popular.

The Scarlet Bakery is owned and run by Paul & Kelly Fairweather. Kelly took some time out to answer a few questions about the bakery. You can read the interview at the end of the post.

A small group of us arrived at the bakery and were greeted by Paul, one of the owners, who was taking the class. After washing our hands, we got stuck into working with fondant, using moulds. Here are a few of the tips I picked up while I was there:

• Drape fondant butterflies over something, say the lip of a bowl, bending them slightly in the middle to get that 3D effect. Leave them to dry and harden before removing them
• If you are having difficulty removing your fondant shapes from the moulds, pop the moulds in the fridge or freezer for a wee while and the fondant shapes will come out easier.
• If you are using different colours in the moulds, make sure you use the white fondant first, so it isn't tainted with other colours
• Layer up different sizes of flowers to make a more interesting shaped 3D flowers.

Next, Paul took us in small groups and gave us a lesson in icing cupcakes using buttercream. This was the part I was looking forward to. I really wanted to learn how to make a rose shape with my icing. Just look at the expert in action!

Here are a couple of the tips I picked up:

• If you are having trouble holding the piping bag firmly, then use a plastic bag clip to secure the piping bag, you will see from the photo, that I gave this a go. It does help.
• To ice a rose pattern on the top of your cupcake, squeeze some icing onto the middle of your cupcake, so the stream of icing is attached to the cupcake, then raise your piping bag higher and swirl from the inside to the edge of the cake, letting the icing fall and drape across the cake into petals.

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The Scarlet Bakery
292 Perth Road
Dundee
DD2 1AN

Phone: 01382 250066
Website: http://www.thescarletbakery.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thescarletbakery

Scarlet Bakery - The Interview

Where did your love of baking come from?

Paul spent hours baking with his Nanny who he absolutely adores and she adores him. They apparently would bake for hours and then he would run away and leave her to tidy up!

I started baking when we got married, I was 18 when we got married and 19 when our first daughter was born. Money was tight so I realised that baking was a great way to do something with Sophie and then have cakes, bread, cookies etc at the end. It was a win win.

I started trading cakes etc with other people in the village where we had moved to and it worked in terms of a Mums Economy! I then joined the Women's Rural in 2000 aged 23 haha, and the ladies there taught me all that I ever needed to know about baking ,cooking etc. I made a wee job for myself doing kids cooking lessons and cooking in school, and from there the seeds were set .

Why did you decide to open a cupcake bakery?

We started the bakery out of need! I worked as a business anaylst (still do) and Paul had just finished a course in architectural technology, at the same time the economy and building trade collapsed . We had no way of paying the bills and I had just had our youngest son. I looked around and there was nowhere making cupcakes and no where delivering them fresh daily. Paul was like, this will never work who will buy cakes? So I decided to try two things firstly can you run a shoe string company (we had £47 in our account to start  and secondly can you run a company purely by social media . So Paul went off to Tesco and I started setting up a facebook page, that was Tuesday, Environmental Health came on Thursday and the first orders went out Friday! Then it just kept growing .

Can you give us a rough idea of what an average day in the bakery is like?

I start around 6am. We are passionate that the cakes must be made same day . Then I bake and bake, Paul and Leigh come in around 9am and they set up the shop , clean down and decorate. Paul will spend the morning on the days big cakes and  Leigh and I will sort the wee ones.

I leave the shop around 2 to go home for the kids (we have seven) and Paul comes home around 4. We then share the reminder between us. We take turns about on quieter days staying at home. Then in the evening we answer emails, sort out recipes, do the books etc. On wednesdays we are meeting suppliers, brides, corporate contacts etc .

What are your top sellers?

Our top sellers are macarons and brownies!

Has making so many cupcakes, put you off eating them, or do you still enjoy them?

Erm, I will still eat a red velvet or caramel apple cupcake. Paul prefers big cakes so he still has them, but on the whole we have to taste so many that we take it for granted lol!

Thanks for taking the time to tell us all about the bakery Kelly. It all sounds exhausting, but what a way to get exhausted!

Disclosure: I was not sponsored to write this post and I paid for the course myself. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Sangria at La Tasca

I always thought I had a rough idea how to make Sangria. I have never tried to make it until now and it turns out I really didn't know how to make it after all.

Now I have the recipe for a traditional Sangria after a visit to La Tasca in Glasgow.

La Tasca in Glasgow was having a relaunch and they invited myself and a few other Scottish bloggers along for a visit.

Bookmarked Recipes - February 2012

Little bit of a confession. I completely forgot about this month's Bookmarked Recipes. Whoops!
Oh well, as they say "better late than never".

Bookmarked Recipes

Bookmarked Recipes: a monthly event to encourage food bloggers to revisit the recipes they have bookmarked from magazines, newspapers, cookbooks. websites, blogs, to try them out and post about them.

Read on to see all the entries.

Winner of February NCR & a Copy of River Cottage Herbs Handbook

We had a really great round-up of soups and salads for February's No Croutons Required. The topic was fresh herbs and this coincided with the publication of a new handbook from River Cottage called Herbs (published 1 March 2012). So I teamed up with them and was able to offer a copy to my winner.

Rather than open the vote to everyone, I decided to ask River Cottage HQ if they could choose a winner.

Stuffed Peppers with New Potatoes, Feta & Pesto

I thought the name of this recipe might grab your attention, it certainly called out to me. What a great combination of flavours.

This recipe comes from River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I have had this book for a few months and used it a few times, but this is the first time I have written about it. I don't know what took me so long.

I am a great fan of River Cottage and Hugh. I used to avoid all things River Cottage, thinking it to meaty to contemplate, but I have learned the error of my ways. Hugh and his team certainly have a way with vegetables, baking and desserts.

You can read my review of The River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook along with a recipe for Lentils with Onions & Watercress, My review of The Herbs Handbook, which is out next month and a recipe for Greedy Pudding Pear Cake which may not be exact, as I scribbled down notes for it while I was watching Hugh make it on tv, but is still rather special.

No Croutons Required - Herbs & River Cottage - Herbs

This month's edition of No Croutons Required features fresh herbs.

There is a mouth-watering selection of vegetarian soups and salads from around the world for you to drool over and this month I have a special prize for the winner too. The winner will be sent a copy of Herbs (River Cottage Handbook) by Nikki Duffy, which is published next month.

I don't know if you have any of the River Cottage handbooks, but they are great resources. They really go in depth into their chosen subject and include some great recipes too. They are a great wee size as well (A5), just perfect for carrying around in your bag for a quick look at when you are travelling or just in a quiet moment.

Scotch or Scottish Pancakes

With Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday coming up this week, my mind has been on pancakes. I also have a new copper pan, that I wanted to try out. I can report it kept it's heat well and the pancakes lifted easily from it.

The pancakes I make are Scottish pancakes or drop scones (they were called this because of the dropping of the mixture onto the girdle). Sometimes they are known as Scotch pancakes. They are quite similar to American pancakes, they have the same rise, but they are smaller. However, lets not get into an argument about where they originated.