Baltic Market

We were really excited to be part of the farmers market at the Baltic Market yesterday.

We registered our interest as soon as we heard that a market was going to be running there – just by the old Cains Brewery.

For years we have thought that Liverpool was crying out for a local market run by local people full of local producers – and at last a decent one has arrived.

The people behind this market, David and Olly have spent a number of years working with small local independent businesses and understand the need for unity and collaboration.

The atmosphere at the market was fabulous, our neighbouring stall holders were delightful, helpful and friendly, the produce was locally made and of top notch quality – we loved being part of this and are looking forward to the first Sunday of every month where we can take our chocolates along.

Of course, there were teething problems – we ran out of stock, the market was packed and people had to queue to get in … but Hey! Give the guys a break!! These are really the right kind of teething troubles to have and in due course will be ironed out.

We are also really looking forward to the Flea market and the makers markets planned on the other Sundays.

Thank you Baltic Market for including us in this fabulous community.

Looking ahead to 2017

So we are finally out of the chasm of Christmas and New Year – I believe it really is “back to school” for us all now! 2016 was a magical and crazy year for us – we made many new friends both personal and business.
Here are some of the highlights:

• We took on the lovely Ella as part of the team.
• We ran our first family workshops at Claremont Farm and also started our workshops at REX Liverpool.
• We were delighted to be asked to run the Albert Dock Easter Sessions.
• We ran lots of Hen Parties at the lovely Siren Cafe.
• We were filmed by the lovely Rachel Rhodes for The Guide Liverpool.
• We took part in the Queen’s 90th Celebrations in Wallasey Village.
• We schemed and plotted with Squidges to bring you Creepy Creations at Claremont and were aided and abetted in this by Readnowwritenow and AlrightPetal.
• We enjoyed the Summer Arts Market with Open Culture and were blown away by the amazing Winter Arts Market at the Anglican Cathedral!
• We were named as one of the Small Business 100 and were so very honoured to be amongst the other amazing businesses that were chosen.
• We went to Downing Street and made it on time!!

Phew! What a fab year that was for us and we were so truly thankful for all the support from all of our friends and family along the way.
We have had a break now and had some lovely family and friends time and Christmas and New Year Celebrations do indeed seem a dim and distant memory.
So here we are on the brink of 2017 and hoping that it will be as blessed. We are already hatching plans for Valentines Day and Easter (Not quite making anything for those yet!!)
We have been taking school workshop bookings as well as hen parties and are now in the process of sorting out further workshops for the gifted Workshop Vouchers out there.
Do watch this space for more news – hope this year is good to you too

We're extremely excited about the advent of Farm Feast 2015 at Claremont Farm - this has replaced the old "Wirral Food and Drink Festival".

It always has a fantastic atmosphere, lovely producers, organisers and volunteers.

We will be looking forward to being in the courtyard and promise to bring you some delightful little treats as well as the delicious macarons. The macarons do normally run out fairly early so make sure you are the early bird!

We'll also be running a little competition over the weekend so do pop by our stall to see how you could the winner of some amazing gifts.

See you there?! (Please bring some sunshine!)

Thank you

Tuesday, September 30th, 2014

Had to make this one a thank you post … we are very slowly working on updating our website and had an issue with our blog. Huge thank you to Sarah at DSA Media for sorting it out.

Also thank you to both Alyx and Tania who left us in September to continue on to pastures new – we wish them both the very best in their new paths. They will be missed.

And finally … thank you to all of you – we have had a mad month in September and enjoyed it immensely – it has been great seeing you all at the events we’ve been to and being part of so many fabulous projects and events.

Details of future events coming up in our next blog …. we have a few magical ones lined up for Christmas!! (It’s the end of September … think I’m allowed to talk about Christmas now!!) 

In the meantime - we're taking bookings for our Christmas Chocolate Making workshop which will allow you to make your own fabulous chocolates for friends and family - places are limited so book soon - Click here for full details.

Wishing everyone a very happy October :)

Rhubarb

Being a chocolatier, I feel like I ought to write about Mothers Day or about Easter, but this week I am inspired to write about Rhubarb.... yes – Rhubarb!

I just love it. How did I not know this sooner?! I used to enjoy the odd rhubarb crumble but never really thought beyond that. Then a couple of summers ago I discovered pink lemonade – yum yum! Did you know pink lemonade is made with rhubarb?

Anyway, a lovely customer of ours mentioned rhubarb and brought some to us at the last Liverpool Food and Drink Festival (Thanks Johanna!).  The idea was to candy it, but unfortunately my candying skills didn’t really work so we left it on the back burner (not literally).

I forgot about it for a while and then saw a tweet from Claremont Farm saying fresh Rhubarb in stock. So when I went in to deliver some chocs last week I picked up some Rhubarb.

It looks quite innocent, but I think the leaves are poisonous?

I candied it successfully this time – Hurrah!!  - then proceeded to use it in our chocolate.

If you would like to have a go at candying Rhubarb (and I really would urge you to – it’s so brilliant) – here’s how:

Ingredients:

6 stalks of Rhubarb

225g Caster Sugar (Plus 25g extra for later)

3 tablespoons of water

Method:

1.       Preheat oven to about 120 degrees C / Gas mark 1

2.       Chop the rhubarb into thin strips of about 6 inches or so (I got bored with doing them the same size and played around a bit, but it is better to have them all about the same size – they will then dry out evenly)

3.       Place the sugar and water in a pan and heat .

4.       Gently stir until all of the sugar has dissolved

5.       Take the pan off the heat and throw in the rhubarb – give it a mix so that all of the rhubarb is coated in the sugar syrup.

6.       Leave for half hour. (In this time you could be preparing your parchment paper on the baking trays ... or having a cup of tea)

7.       Take the rhubarb out and place onto baking trays lined with parchment paper. Make sure none of the pieces are touching each other.

8.       You will be left with liquid that is a mixture of sugar syrup and rhubarb. It tastes delicious. Not sure what to do with the rhubarb syrup yet – seems a shame to bin it – so let me know if you come up with an idea!

9.       Place trays in oven for an hour and then check – if the rhubarb isn’t as dry as you want it leave for another 10 mins – remove rhubarb and place in the caster sugar that you had saved

10.    Once cooled, place in an airtight container.

Hope this works for you – let me know how you get on!

PS – we have got easter eggs and mothers day treats for sale at our pop up shop in 12 Princes Parade on Friday 28^th March as well as our online shop!

Wedding Show

A few months ago … just after Christmas I was sat round the table at a Ministry of Desserts meeting and Maria, our minister of flowers said she would really like us to organise a wedding fair together.

Wow! We all agreed with her to some degree, but were a little bit reluctant to commit to this as we all had our own individual businesses to run as well.  It was an exciting prospect too!

So in the midst of Valentines Day, Mothers Day and Easter, we have been working together to plan this Wedding Show.

The whole point of this show is to create something unique and different. We have planned with military precision the decor of the hall, the setting and the exhibitors. The exhibitors are hand-picked local independent businesses who truly want to provide an extra special and unique service to make any occasion stand out.  There will be no hard sell on the day – the idea is to make it a joy to plan the day, not a chore!

It has been great fun working with everyone and now the day is almost upon us!

I have been told by the other ministers “loose lips sink ships” so this is all I will say for now about the show, but I truly hope you will join us for this event and come and see for yourself!

The show is on 4th May … 3 to 5pm and will be held at  Wallasey Village URC, CH45 3LP