September 10, 2015 - 5:14pm
Introducing my floofytail to y'all!
Hiya!
I'm writing to you from the west coast of Canada. Well, once you get to the west coast you have to hop a ferry then drive some more, but you get the general idea, lol.
I have been doing craft markets for several years, with last year seeing the introduction of a bake table. It was all christmas cookies and candy. This year, I've got baking tables in 3 craft sales and I'm adding assorted cookies, loaves, mini loaves, tarts etc.
Still need to figure out logistics for baking them, packaging, pricing etc so I'm hoping to learn alot from y'all at this site.
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From Cambridgeshire, UK...
I bake the same kinds of things for charity functions and fundraisers (mostly for Cats Protection). Most of what I do I tend to either prepare or bake in advance so I'm not running around like crazy on the day. I also bake bread for myself, my mum and some dear friends.
Cats rock!
I've baked and frozen my Christmas cookies ahead (no more than a couple weeks in advance), but I'm hesitant to do that with my quick breads. Not sure if they'll change texture once thawed. I have a few mini loaves in the freezer right now to test. I'll leave them in there another week or so then thaw them.
I'm making banana bread, cranberry/orange loaf, lemon pound cake and carrot/zucchini loaves (and mini loaf versions as well). Have perfected the recipes, except the carrot one that needs more flour or something as its a little too soft and tender.
Thanks for the welcome!
I have two feline
assistantssupervisors; Poppy, a tortie and Lexi, a blue & white tuxedo.I bake a lot of Lebkuchen as it's pretty versatile. The beauty is that it needs to be made several weeks in advance to maximise the flavour and texture and keeps brilliantly in airtight tubs.
maybe if your carrot cake is too moist, instead of adding extra flour, you could try putting your grated carrot in a tea towel and giving it a good squeeze to remove any excess liquid before adding it to the cake mix...
Ours rule the roost! Two brothers; one all black long hair and one a brown tabby long hair. We have to use my father's kitchen for all our baking because of them lol.
Had to look up Lebkuchen. They look very interesting! Are most of your baking items traditional items like that? What else do you typically make?
As for the carrot/zucchini, we already do that. We squeeze out as much liquid as we can right away, then spread them on a few layers of paper towels, then roll them up in the towels, squeezing again. That takes out a huge amount of moisture. I'm adapting this from a cake recipe that is super moist. I don't really want to reduce the amount of veggies in the loaf, so I figured my only option would be to bump up the flour a tiny bit. It tastes delicious as it is, but the baked loaf needs to be a little firmer so it's easier to move around and cut into slices etc.
I think I'm really going to like it here.
Most of my bakes are traditional, from things like Victoria sponges, scones, Chelsea buns and shortbread to Lebkuchen, Speculoos, Gaufres de Liege, to yeasted fruit cakes, baked cheesecakes and filled yeast crescents. I've Northern and Eastern European heritage as well as being born and bred in the UK, so what I bake reflects that.
I'm also known on the cat show circuit for my cheese cats - basically cat-shaped cheese straws...
The girls have me firmly under their paws, but you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way. They're both rescues - Lexi came from a cat hoarder and Poppy was an unwanted kitten...
Ok, that's fair enough if you squeeze your veg before putting them in the cake mix... Maybe you could try adding a tablespoon or so of porridge oats to sop up the extra liquid instead of flour. Oats is a great soaker-upper of extra liquid, and so is dried fruit if there isn't already any in your carrot cake mix.
Of course I'm going to have to Google half of those thing you mentioned lol! But they look great.
I never thought about oats, but you're right, they would be great as moisture control. Thank you for the tip!
If you ever want any of the recipes... :-)
And you're welcome re the suggestion for oats. Hope it helps.