Don’t buy from de Cuisine!

I wanted an Adjust-A-Cup like Alton Brown uses, but not many places sell it in the UK. So when I found it on www.decuisine.co.uk I didn’t hesitate to order it as the website looked very professional and trustworthy. However, it turned out that it’s exactly the opposite!

They took the money from my credit card as soon as I’d placed the order, but I didn’t receive my goods. They didn’t respond to numerous emails or the complaints I wrote using their Customer Contact form on their website. I tried calling them but no one picked up the phone.

A quick search on Google and I found a website www.plebble.com which had loads of reviews from customers that had the same experience as me from shopping with de Cuisine!

I contacted my credit card company and luckily they managed to get my money back for me. It was only £11.74 that de Cuisine had taken from me, but the point is I will be more careful from now on and check websites like Plebble before making a purchase!

Marks & Spencers Cupcakes – worth all the fuss?

This week I’ve been helping Steve’s sister do 3 garden photoshoots and one of the styles was for kids. There was a lovely wire cake stand that we needed to fill with cupcakes, so we got the ones from M&S that they apparently can’t make fast enough due to the huge demand. We tried the Strawberry & Vanilla and the Raspberry & White Chocolate ones.

 

They definitely look impressive with all the icing and the sparkly glitter, but do they taste any good? Well we all thought the sponge was nice, but I think Steve’s Mum makes a nicer sponge cake! The icing was far too thick, but that’s how they make them look so good. The jam in the middle of the cakes is a nice twist, but when eaten with all that icing it’s just too much and quite sickly. The photographer who tried a Raspberry & White Chocolate one also didn’t actually get any white chocolate in his one!

 

They’re £2.99 for a box of 4, which we think is far too expensive for what they are! I think I’m going to buy some edible glitter and have a go at making my own!

 

MUNCH RATING: 1/5

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I bought a couple of Non Stick 12 Cup Mini Muffin Pans from Amazon as they were only £4.89 each and I just couldn’t resist how cute the cupcakes would look!

The pans are really well made and although the non stick coating is good, I prefer to use paper cases rather than cooking directly in the tin. I bought 700 mini cases off Ebay for only £2.45 plus £1.99 postage, which is incredible value! The cases looked a little small when I put them in the tin, as the tin has a base diameter of 3.5cm and the cases have a base diameter of 2.5cm. But once I’d filled them with cake mixture they came out fine.

I made these for my brother’s birthday recently and he liked them! I love the mini cakes as you can just pop a whole one in your mouth! They took 10 minutes to cook at Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C.

The recipe for the cake is the Dark Chocolate Cupcakes one that uses sour cream. So I thought I’d try a different frosting that also uses sour cream, which makes a very smooth frosting with a slight tang to offset the sweetness of the cakes.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 142ml (small pot) sour cream
• 2-3 Tablespoons light muscovado sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Directions:

1. Gently melt the chocolate, sour cream and sugar in a small saucepan, stirring until the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth icing.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Chill in the fridge until firm until to swirl or pipe onto your cakes.

As the weather was so hot, I kept the cakes in the fridge after I’d iced them, but the cakes do taste better at room temperature so I recommend taking them out of the fridge about an hour before devouring!