Choices and Cake Pops

Welcome to this weeks blog. The theme being "Choices and Cake Pops", odd combination I hear you say, maybe not so odd as you may initially think.So Cake Pops firstly, you must have seen these, at least at Starbucks? I decided I needed to make some, they look quite easy, balls of cakey mixture on stick, how hard can that be?? Let me tell you, harder than it may look, to get perfect cake pops has required more cursing even than the macaroon saga. The mistake I initially made was to try and make these using had made ingredients, a big mistake...i handmade the cake, handmake the frosting, what did it make? A big gloopy mess, not a happy culinary moment.Take 2, onto YouTube and the Queen of Cake Pop Barbarella, apparently you need to crumble the cake then mix with pre made "frosting" (Buttercream style) and mould as PlayDoh. Ok, so off we go again, made the sponge, crumbled by hand this time not MagiMix then mixed with the evil looking frosting as opposed to "real" butter cream made with real butter. Stuck lolly stick in with Candy Melt and refrigerate..So far so good! Wouldn't be eating them in a hurry but looking like they should. Now for the Candy Melted. Managed to source real American ones but seem a little trickier than you would think. There seems to be a very small window between melted and too hot so goes solid again (surely against the rules of physics??). After a long and frustrating phase of melting by various methods the bain marie seeems best and passable pops are dipped.

Cake Crumbs plus Betty Crocker = Cake Pops

So we now have the cake balls, time for dipping. This is where the Candy Melts started to misbehave. Very temperomental, also, as a footnote dont try and add colour unless its gel or the whole lot sets solid even at temperatures similar to the sun.




Evil Candy Melts :(



Adding the sticks

then decorate with many sparkley things :)

More Bling The Better

So finally the cake pops are constructed,  bring back Michelin Star recipes thats all I can say. And the choices? Well, im still making them, think that will be next weeks subject matter.

Food I remain suspicious of

A very dubious idea....

This week takes me to Holland, namely Amsterdam, somwhere I spend a great deal of time so should therefore be more at home in than most locations. Something that continually facinates me is the food here, it is, shall we say "unique" in a strange non descript way. This normally means that having asked for a vegetarian option you normally end up with a cheese sandwich or cheese salad made from very non descript forlorn ingredients and after a couple of days you just get so fed up you stop eating anything apart from chocolate from the vending machine. This is not to say all food is terrible, indeed only last night I had a lovely meal of pan fried cod with celeriac and lentils but sadly this was an exception to the rule.

I hesitate to be too judgemental though as I know I get quite offended when people say all food in the UK is terrible having based their opinion solely on a fast food vendor somewhere near Leicester Square or similar. There is one thing that really does trouble me though, and I just cant come to terms with it. The hot food vending machine....For anyone not familiar with the phenomenon imagine a type of see through lukewarm cabinet full or suspicious looking fried food products which can be obtained automatically by putting coins in the door and magically the cupboard opens to allow you access to your "food". There are a number of issues I can see with the system which I have yet to be proved wrong about. Firstly, why would you want to use one? Secondly, is it ever a good idea to store parricuarly meat based products at just the right temperature for bacteria to grow? Thirdly, how do you know how long its been there? These are just the reasons that come to mind straight away, I just dont understand. Maybe I am missing the point and have yet to be enlightened but Im not convinced. This brings me to another food item I find a total mystery, the Fray Bentos Pie. I was walking round my local Tesco at the weekend when it was pointed out that these pies had been in existence as long as anyone could remember. This does indeed seem true, but I have never known anyone to buy one, little own eat one? I got to thinking about how then the compnay stays in business, is there a vast number of the population shopping  under the cover of darkness for food products to stockpile which might help them survive a nuclear winter or natural disaster maybe? Or, judging by the length of the use by date did Fray Bentos actually go out of business several decades ago and the shelves just still have the original stock as no one did ever buy them and the brand is just an overworked urban myth? But why would you ever think of putting pie in a can? Who ever thought that sounded like a good idea?Its a mystery I am determined to get to the bottom of one day.

Is this retro packaging or just because the can has been in the shop for the last 30 years?

No Bears in Boston

So here I am, back from Boston, four lattes down and still a little jet lagged. First piece of news, there were no Bears :( Maybe there are some somewhere, but as no one had heard of the Blue Hills and the only person who even thought there might be hills of any kind said not to bother going there. Thankfully though there are a great many things to keep you occupied in Boston even if they don't have big teeth,claws and like honey.
So looking for the none Bear like amusements I saw a sign for a Gingerbread House Baking Competition. I am well known for being over competitive on the baking front so was dissapointed only found out when I arrived or would have had to enter. This was again not your average size Gingerbread house as might be seen in Continental Europe, these were monsters, electric lighting, glazed windows, fully decorated interiors..

Anywhere else you would charge rent on a Gingerbread house of this magnitude

The only animal I saw with claws

The Boston "Beast"

If you go to America you have to do it properly, so the first priority was to get a suitable vehicle. You cant be too careful with how the weather has been lately so we thought it best to make sure we were prepared for all eventualities...A quick look through the flip chart of models available left us none the wiser due to none of them having the same names as in the UK (apart from a Yaris and that was just never going to happen) This led to being walked around the car "lot" to look for something we liked the look of as very few cars were out on hire and it seemed to amuse the staff greatly to have us choose, so much so it wasn't even going to cost anymore. Too much choice is also a bad thing so eventually we just asked what the coolest car was to be seen in to the retort that the car rental guy would look cool whatever he drove...but say he couldnt pull that off what would be cool then?? This line of questioning led to a huge black Ford of some sort with blacked out windows and alot of what can only be described as "bling". To Me it looked like it should be  being driven around with a very loud stereo somewhere like Southend on Sea dealing drugs but apparently this was "it" so the decision was made and we headed off with "The Beast".

Disappointingly looked like a swamp, not v Mystic

Off we went fully equipped with sat nav, and therein lies an issue....so you think in America everyone speaks English? Have you ever heard a Garmin in the UK talk about "Plows" and "Ramps" and did you know there was a difference between Interstates and Highways? Maybe the rest of the "English" speaking world does but sadly I didn't. Up until now my US transportation has consisted of chauffeured cars/taxis and a train so this came as to be honest a bit of a shock. It did however lead to probably the most amusing driving experience ever and aside from a maybe one of two pick ups it was the biggest car on the "highway". The next most amusing thing was the names, its not everyday you get to drive over the "Mystic River" for example.

Rockport, clearly named v appropriately

An unnatural altitude dinner

After the very underwhelming responses for the Bear tracking it was time to explore a bit more so we headed along the coast to Rockport. This turned out to be a picture book New England village with a beautiful seaview and more random things such as Great Danes being driven around in convertibles and a quite disturbing young shopkeeper clearly trying to "really" look like Shaggy from Scooby Doo with the episodes playing back on a loop.....time to go..Back in relative safety of Boston I remembered just how true it is that everything in America really is well, just "BIG". Even some squirrels in the park were huge monster size squirrels compared to any others I have seen. The next exciting episode was dinner at "Top of the Hub", 52 floors up in the Prudential Building. Its not for me a natural altitude to eat dinner particularly when you body thinks its about 3am but these things have to be done. It just makes me uneasy sitting by the window with the other would be skyscrapers looking like normal size houses and the planes going into Logan airport flying below you. Maybe I just need to get out more.

Huge Squirrel - Obviously have evolved this big due to lack of Border Terriers

39,000 feet and Bored

So here I am at 30,000 something feet, about an hour and half into a transatlantic flight and bored already. I think I must have developed a very short attention span, I have already read half of one of the books I brought with me, played games on the iPhone, flicked though the movies and eaten too many sweets. I’m just not very good at sitting still for this long. The most exciting thing to happen so far is that apparently this particular Airbus A340 is very famous, she is called “African Queen” and  had a cameo appearance in the UK TV show “Absolutely Fabulous”. Will have to track down the episode when I land, I have a sneaking suspicion that they weren’t  in economy and probably had Champagne at some point which is so far looking unlikely today. It’s also one of only 4 of this type in the Virgin fleet; does that mean it’s really good or really bad?

"African Queen"

I’ve been watching the map willing the plane along, not sure this makes the time go any quicker. It’s also quite inaccurate, there’s a guy surfing somewhere of the coast heading towards Reykjavik wearing shorts and shades then periodically there are whales and dolphins the size of London jumping out of the sea then Elvis is busy playing live somewhere in Greenland...

"Elvis Lives"

So, back on topic, I am off to Boston for a weekend away. A little indulgent maybe but sometimes these things need to be done. The original plan was for a Thelma and Louise – esque couple of days with a rental car, obviously only the good parts of the film so without the shootings and driving to our deaths into the Grand Canyon etc. I wanted to see the Black Bears who are supposed to live in the “Blue Hills”, partly as I have never seen a wild Bear, and partly because the Blue Hills just sounds a really cool place to go based on name alone. Thinking about it though, maybe they have already started hibernating if it’s been cold, perhaps I should have researched the topic a little better beforehand. Since then however, as is the general pattern of most of my travel where typically there is some form of abnormal weather, natural disaster or Civil Unrest there have been monumentally bad snow storms which have left large areas of Massachusetts and the surrounding States without power, some have even declared a state of emergency. Anyway, I’m sure it will be fun, I like to think these things are what you make of them in the end and it’s a non refundable ticket. I have however bought new Uggs just to be on the safe side.

There often seems to be bad weather when I go to the US. Last time I was there I was in North Carolina staying on a small island off the coast and there was a tornado alert. All the time the TV was on a warning scrolled along the bottom of the screen. I asked the people I was staying with if we should be worried, they assured me it “should” be fine, they often had them. “Should” is not a word I like in that context so I asked if, hypothetically, the Tornado hit what the best course of action would be? There were a number of not very helpful suggestions culminating in the decision by the majority of the group that the best thing to do would be go into the basement. This would have been fine had there been a basement but the house I was staying in was on stilts which presented a problem. I pointed this out and they then suggested sitting in an empty bath with a mattress over the top. I wasn’t sure that was entirely helpful either and probably not how I had pictured ending my days. I had nightmares that night mainly involving characters from the wizard of Oz and houses being sucked into the sky.

Brief intermission in typing for lunch. 38,000 feet, its -56F outside, hope it’s not one of the Airbus’ with the problem with the pitot readers that get frozen, something else to worry about. The surfer guy is definetly outside the realms of possibility now even if he had a dry suit on, he’s just off the coast of Greenland. They must have the same marketing team as the German airline from last week, my dinner was served labeled “Tasty” on the lid. It made me a bit nervous, I always think hotels with the word “Quality” or “Premier” in the name are anything but and I could see this going the same way but it was actually quite nice.

See - it says "Tasty" so it must be?

Looks like about half way now, although based on the other map detail I don’t know if I trust it. On the subject of travel, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Last week I was working in Germany filming a “motivational” video, have to say wasn’t very motivational for me by all accounts but I am sure the viewing public will love it and it does look pretty good in the initial edits. To get to the part of Germany I was going to always seems to be more trouble than you would think, this being the case I ended up flying a new German low cost airline, I say “low cost” but to be honest at just under £300 it doesn’t seem all that low cost in my books. It was an interesting travel experience, I had been given the option of choosing my seat, I didn’t realize at the time that was at a cost of around £18 each way plus all the other usual extras such as bags etc. On boarding I was however amused to see that I had indeed been given one of the “Best Seats”. I know this because it was helpfully written on my seat. The only slight dissapointment was that about 2/3 of the plane were taken up with them which somehow took the edge of the exclusivity, you still had to pay for food and drinks as well.  Still, it got from A to B which is always a distinct bonus.

They helpfully labelled my seat

I think the more I fly the more worried I get about all the things that can go wrong, a while ago I even went to the trouble of looking for the safest place to sit, there seemed to be conflicting reports, some people being adamant that the back was safer, some over the wings as that’s the strongest part. I’ve had a long phase of one row back from the over wing exit but then it takes forever to get off so I’m now favoring the front rows in the hope the pilots have a pretty strong sense of self preservation so sitting near them will help. I have a friend whose father in law is a pilot. He says the safest place to sit is at the back, his reasoning being “you never hear of planes reversing into mountains do you?” Hmm. His other saying is “if you ditch you die”. I think I’ll just sit near the front, at least you will get the drinks trolley before it goes down.....

Marley & Lola's Border Terrier Life: Jurassic Park

Marley & Lola's Border Terrier Life: Jurassic Park

A Very Odd Few Days

Ive been having a particularly bad week even with my normal overly optimistic outlook and rose tinted glasses perspective, so for a little escapism I have decided to recall a very odd place I recently stayed.

Having achieved the highest accolade of the ICH Hotels loyalty program gaining points has somehow seemed to take a back seat and become far less exciting than they used to be, so to counteract this rather disappointing victory I decided to strike off on my own.

A trawl of the internet found an interesting website which basically sublets peoples accommodation on a trust basis.The website in question acting as the financial intermediary. This site opened the door to thousands of far more exciting prospects that the dull old Crowne Plaza, these included, aeroplanes, boats, caves even right across the world and at bargain prices.Amazing you may say, indeed, but remember these transactions are based purely on the good word of the person renting you their home/boat/cave etc and them not turning out to be a)a con merchant (best scenario) b) crazed serial killer. So with a certain amount of trepidation I booked a "houseboat" in Amsterdam, ready to test my theory as to whether I would actually survive there outside the comforts of a 5 star hotel and taxi for more than a few hours.

All went well, a very nice lady e mailed me all the details, I had to pass her selection process by giving a brief resume (again based purely on trust) which I duly did and I was all set. The day came and as I arrived at the bustling hub of Norwich International it dawned on me that a serial killer could easily have sent a nice e mail and picture of a normal non serial killer type lady with bicycle and be right now laying in wait at the said house boat along with all my travel plans which I had neglected to inform anyone else about. This led to a  string of rather panic stricken e mails asking friends to please come and look for me at the following address if I had disappeared as I had probably been murdered, dismembered and by them dumped into a Dutch canal.

By the time I landed at Schipol I was convinced this was an elaborate scheme of a criminal mastermind who would at best murder me on sight. This was not helped when I arrived at the nearest bus stop to the "house boat" and found I needed to step over a homeless alcoholic cross a decididly dubious railway bridge and then make it past a string of graffitied lock ups. But still I carried on....on arrival things were looking up, there was no obvious serial killer, just a friendly couple that were looking after the keys for their friend,(but arent they all mean to look normal and thats the real danger??) I had made it this far..

From them on things took on a slightly surreal turn however. The houseboat was in reality far more a "floating portacabin", I think houseboat was rather the estate agent ease for it. But still, all fine, was floating, there was a canal, a windmill even in the distance. On entry however there was an overpowering smell of cannabis, why this surprised me I don't know given the circumstances, but in my happy little world anywhere I stay even in Amsterdam doesn't smell of cannabis, still fine...then I opened the fridge, partly full, more disturbingly partly full with "McSweens" Vegetarian Haggis, OK,little bit odd.

At this point many people would have hailed a cab and checked back into a nice comfy establishment of the 5* variety as quickly as possible, I won't deny this course of action was looking decidedly attractive but pride would not let me so off I went in search of cleaning products and air freshener, I would be FINE...

One thing that's a bit odd about Amsterdam well, one of many to be fair, is that even for a big city there aren't alot of shops open on a Sunday and for some time the only establishment I could find open was a cafe, of the brown variety, so not something that was going to help me on the house cleaning front or any other other unless I decided to take up smoking dope and it just didn't seem the right time.

Eventually I did find a branch of Albert Heine, the Dutch equivalent of Tescos which thankfully did think Sunday opening was a good idea, then to run the gautlet of the 2 very determined beggars who seemed to have immediately summed me up as a likely target and the elderly man slumped across the doorway with a large open carton of red wine. In my book none of these are neccesarily signs you are staying a "good neighbourhood", anyway, I had come this far and most certainly wasn't turning back now. The next challenge was what to buy, the Dutch seem to find it highly amusing to label things as incoherently as possible for those who don't speak Dutch so finding a multi purpose scented type of cleaning product was not a simple as you might initially suppose, but in the end I plumped for something that looked a bit like a bottle of Flash and vaguely looked in the right department and a scented candle.

Esconced back on the "boat" and having had a bit of a spring clean things looked alot better, that is until the sun went down and the flats opposite revealed the fact they were very much of the social housing variety and people had some quite varied jobs that neccesitated them working from home and wearing dressing gowns on the balcony, this coupled with the railway bridge that now ominously rattled every few minutes with the passing traffic wasnt making the whole thing look quite so appealing. Anyway, to cut a long story short after barricading the door with a chair and not setting foot outside after dark morning dawned on much more pleasant canalside scene more reminicent of a travel brochure.

I had made it thorough the night and not be murdered in my bed which at the time seemed quite momentous and certainly a pleasant surprise. Now time for a bit more of a look around my temporary home. Something odd about this subletting business via a website is that you just don't know if its a holiday home or someones house they have just vacated for a few days to get some cash, this definitely fell into the later category. The wardrobes, food cupboards, even washing machine were full of the mystery persons belongings. The whole thing had the feel of a cross between the Marie Celeste and Through the Keyhole. There was a horrible temptation to open cupboards and psychologically profile my mystery host, something I managed pretty successfully not to do. I am not sure this was actually for the best however as there were a number of very odd items on view with which to make up the oddest profile from and I don't just mean the Haggis.
A record player complete with records that wouldn't play, several cameras, photographs of various people around Amsterdam, a half smoked pipe with what didn't quite smell tobacco in, and a photograph of a half eaten dessert.You can see now it may actually have been better to raid the cupboards than dwell on these items. But still , I had got this far and wasnt wimping out now. I spent a pleasant day looking around the botanical gardens, going back to the supermarket (still the same clientele outside) and sitting on my balcony waving to the rather fetching policemen on the police boats.

The rest of my stay passed  fairly uneventfully and it was with a slightly heavy heart I checked back into the real world and back into my corporate paid safe, and a I have to say a little boring hotel.

A Fun Day Out

Today was a day of many firsts, being in charge or any children, particularly more than one, and in an environment with many potential risks is not something I am used to. So it was with some trepidation I took on a "responsible adult" role, again, not something I have to do on a regular basis. To paint a picture of the type of day out imagine an eccentric millionaire, robots singing ABBA songs, antique slot machines some of which having highly dubious material for children (What the Butler Saw??) and a strangely impressive patriotic dancing fountain show with sing along sheets for the National Anthem and automated Union Jacks. Coupled with far too much sugar and artificial colouring thanks you may think this was a recipe for disaster. However, thankfully for all concerned the day passed off successfully with only a few children soaked from the fountains or covered in ice cream and none lost permanently which seemed to me, although no expert in such matters, a reasonable success.

So now its time to get back to real life for me...this means a busy day tomorrow of organising a film shoot in all major European languages, planning training, booking flights then finally topping it off with a 7 hour drive back coast to coast of the UK.

The Beginning of a New Chapter in more ways then one

So i've finally got around to doing this. Like millions of other people in the World I have decided for no particular reason to share some of my life with total strangers, or more likely than not no one at all. The Internet is littered by such things and I see no reason not to add to the electronic detritis.

This has all come about after a slightly random conversation a few weeks ago about numerous blogs I have started and never posted on more than once on many subjects as far reaching as Women in Science, Cooking and Running with Dogs. That conversation made me think just maybe, even if this is never read by more than a handful of people it still might be worth doing, so here we go, and as I'm at the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next in a metaphorical and physical way, this is it.