Eat, Drink, And Be Scary!

 

Eat, Drink, And Be Scary!

October is upon us, and Halloween is right around the corner, so be sure to welcome your ghostly guests with the finest goodies imaginable.

The Clearly Departed

Zombies don’t like cupcakes, but they love pumpkin bread. This fresh bread pairs well with squash soup and cheese. Be sure to care for your Zombie with TLC and provide them with fresh, warm pumpkin bread.

Gingerdead Men

We’re not content to let Christmas have all the fun with these tasty gingerbread cookies. These spooky gingerbread figures are anything but boo-ring.

Ghosts <3 Marzipan

Ghosts are highly discriminated against when it comes to food, but just because they have no soul doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings! Ghosts have supernatural taste buds. To feed their sensitivity, they require a large amount of marzipan, particularly in the form of marzipan Halloween Figures. It’s tough being a ghost, but marzipan helps make the afterlife easier.

Best Witches

There’s a lot of prejudice surrounding witches; it’s been going on for centuries. Most of the time witches just want to party, but not just any ordinary party. Witches want dancing, chanting, and cauldron cake. Scary Halloween Cauldron Cake disguises layers of light, moist sponge and vanilla buttercream with Tiptree jam. Witches are under its spell, and you will be, too.

Bugs n’ Hisses

Who knew the dead could be so complicated and have such diverse taste buds? Well, whoever your ghosts of honour are, be sure to respect their tastes. From picky zombies to party prowling witches, needs must be met. Trust Dunn’s Bakery to put you in the Halloween spirit and give your taste buds a ghoul time.

Festive catering from Dunn's Bakery

It might only be September but before you know it, the holiday season is right around the corner. Nobody wants to be rushing around the day before!  So tis the season to hire a party professional to make sure your festivities go off without a hitch!

Forget the stress and holiday catering mess

Preparation doesn’t mean starting to cook now and tending to the Yule log, why not use a catering company for your Christmas party at the office or for your large seasonal gathering at home?  Dunn’s Bakery in Crouch End is ready to lighten your holiday stress with an assortment of catering options for the perfect holiday collection of simple meals to Christmas puddings. Nobody wants coal for Christmas, so be sure to treat your guests with only the finest local ingredients found around London.

Tis the season for a party reason

Dunn’s Bakery’s year-round catering service has traditional, gourmet, savoury, and vegetarian options including:

Traditional:

• Delicious sandwich flavours
• Egg mayo
• Ham
• Tuna
• Cheese

Gourmet:

• Scrumptious flavours including
• Prawn
• Smoked Salmon
• Turkey
• Beef
• Chicken
• Stilton

Savoury snacks:

• Sausage rolls
• Quiche
• Filled vol au vents
• Cheese straws

No holiday party would be complete without the presence of some sort of sweet and Dunn’s Bakery is no short of holiday delights. Choose from a wide variety of options including, but not restricted to:

• Velvet iced Christmas cake 
• Malt whisky Dundee cake
• Cherry Dundee cake
• Stollen
• Yule log
• Christmas pudding

Don’t be a Scrooge, spread the Holiday Cheer

Christmas shopping can be one of the most delightful holiday experiences but also one of the most dreadful. Take the dread out of buying gifts with a fabulous Christmas hampers from Dunn’s Bakery. It features a wide variety of holiday treats and delicacies.

Take care of Christmas early, and then let the holiday return the favour.

Cakes for the Christmas Season

Christmas is a time for family, celebration and of course food. After spending the morning preparing your roast, perhaps baking a turkey or chicken to perfection and wrapping sausages up in bacon, you’ll want to relax.

The great thing about Christmas cakes is they can be bought in advance and made by an expert, so you can sit back and enjoy a special sweet treat without spending more time in the kitchen than you have to.

In fact, it has never been easier as there are a variety of Christmas cakes to buy online.

The benefits of purchasing Christmas cakes

·         High-quality products with an “awe-like” quality

·         Less stress over the Christmas break to prepare everything

·         A wide-range available that are inventive and impressive

·         No mess to clear up after baking!

·         Something everyone can enjoy once a year

Traditional or novelty?

Really, this is the only question you need ask yourself about Christmas cakes, and there is no wrong answer as it is down to personal preference.

Dunn’s London bakery offers a selection of both, which are equally appealing.

Traditional

·         A taste from childhood that will bring back youthful memories

·         An addition to the rituals of Christmas; the traditional tree, mistletoe and Christmas crackers

·         After so many years, traditional cake recipes have been honed and perfected to create a guaranteed delicious experience

This ‘Christmas Pudding’ is made using a family recipe that has been handed down the generations within Dunn’s Bakery. Containing Californian raisins, currants, free range egg and French Brandy, it is enough to make the mouth water.

It also comes complete in a China Bowl, beautifully wrapped in Muslin.

Novelty

·         Something different that stands out

·         A “once in the year” experience, perhaps a new one altogether

·         Sweet, tasty treats worthy of photographs and good presentation

These ‘Santas Chimney’ cakes are perfect for children, or for adults recapturing the magic of Christmas and the promise it brings of gifts and joy.

Producing the icing decoration of Santa’s legs going down the chimney is difficult, and professional bakers offer the best results.

The best thing about these cakes is that they will make people smile and laugh.

Merry Christmas!

However you spend your Christmas Eve, and whatever you eat on Christmas Day, have a great time over the break and enjoy all your Christmas treats!

From minced meat to Christmas mincemeat

Traditions, traditions... Festive seasons, like Easter or Christmas are meant to revive traditions. And if clothing is no longer an item that clings to tradition, food certainly is. The sense of smelling is said to be the most powerful one, in strict connection to one’s memories. The scent of freshly cooked meals and freshly baked cakes, cinnamon, nutmeg, chestnuts and apples... These stick to tradition.

The mince pie belongs to the category of traditional British Christmas cakes. Foreign tourists going shopping in the UK might find this a bit confusing, as the first thing they associate it with is the minced meat. But the reality is that this is how it all started.

Minced meat, indeed

The very early mince pie was known as mutton pie, shrid pie and Christmas pie. Typically its ingredients were a mixture of minced meat, a range of fruits, and spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

A few hundreds of years ago, the combination of meat, fruit and spices was simply the norm. The mincemeat that we nowadays enjoy contains just fruit and spices, brandy, rum or other liqueur and usually vegetable suet.

A serious research regarding the history and roots of the mince pie might reveal very interesting stories and details, such as its religious symbolism – 13 ingredients corresponding to Jesus and the 13 apostles, or the very old Roman roots; Roman fathers in the Vatican were presented with sweetmeats.

But no matter the history, mincemeat and mince pies are traditional British Christmas desserts.

A mince pie is made of delicious pastry filled with mincemeat. The pastry can vary from puff pastry, to shortcrust pastry, deep shortcrust pastry and wholemeal pastry suitable for vegetarians.

Another special Christmas dessert

Christmas Pudding is another dessert that belongs to the traditional British Christmas cakes. In the USA and many other European countries, pudding mainly denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards. There are rice puddings, chocolate puddings and the list can go on. But the Christmas pudding is something special indeed.

The association of the pudding with Christmas goes back to medieval England and with the Roman Catholic Church's decree that the pudding should be made on the 25^th of December and include 13 ingredients to represent Christ and the 12 apostles. Also, every member of the family was requested to stir the pudding and do it from East to West to honour the three Wise Men.

In 1714, King George I (sometimes known as the Pudding King) requested that plum pudding, actually raisin pudding, be served as part of his royal feast in his first Christmas in England.

And nowadays we are able to enjoy a wonderful Christmas dessert, rich in raisins, currants, spices and other ingredients made to warm up the Christmas evening.

Blamed in the past for not being very inspiring, the British cuisine can boast with some of the most original Christmas cakes and desserts that are truly British. Dunn’s Bakery, craft bakers since 1820, have preserved some traditional recipes and use them to create some of the finest Christmas cakes and desserts.

 

Resources: Wikipedia.org

Halloween Cakes – The Perfect Treat

Halloween has grown in popularity in the UK to become a true calendar event to look forward to. As with all big events, Halloween has an emphasis on seasonal foods that are a treat to eat. 

Halloween activities

Halloween or “All Hallows’ Eve” has mysterious origins, but today everyone is familiar with what it means.

It is a fun evening to

• Pull pranks on friends
• Go trick-or-treating
• Greet trick-or-treaters at your door
• Watch horror films
• Host a fancy dress party

All of these various activities have one thing in common – all are perfect reasons to enjoy delicious Halloween cakes and biscuits.

Children

• Children love getting small treats from the houses they visit, so it might be a good idea to stock up on cupcakes with edible Halloween images on top. You can easily buy these from professional bakers and best of all, they leave no mess as they come in their own wrappers.

•  If you have children joining their parents at your house, or your own children have decided to stay in, buttercream cupcakes are even more indulgent and won’t get spoiled by being dropped into trick-or-treat bags.

 Adults

• Popcorn is boring at Halloween. Spooky gingerbread figures are a much better way to get that crunch and satisfy your appetite whilst waiting for the next adrenaline rush from your horror film. They are also excellent sharers – who wouldn’t want to bite into a vampire or munch on a skeleton?

• If you have decided to host a party, it would be a great touch to supply a scary cake as the center piece, perhaps shaped like a traditional pumpkin or cauldron. If you like giving a speech or two, cutting into a moist sponge masterpiece is a good excuse!

Professional bakers

Of course, this is a busy time of year so leave the treats to a professional bakery that has put in all the hard work of crafting your snacks.

Dunn’sBakery in London have an online cake shop offering a large range of Halloween treats to make perfect whatever plans you have for the evening.

Why Birthday Photo Cakes Are a Great Cake Idea

Birthday photo cakes are indeed a great idea for all ages and tastes. They are original and simply can’t be a wrong choice. Contrary to some expectations, photo cakes do not strictly refer to photography in the sense of a photo showing the birthday girl or boy, but to any cakes that have images on them. It can be a personal photo indeed, a funny one if the birthday cake is meant as a surprise, or any other image that the celebrated one will like.

The images on the cakes are made with edible ink, which is one of the greatest things about these cakes.

It is said that an image is worth a thousand words, and so it is. If someone is a big Elmo fan, an Elmo birthday cake is simply perfect.  

The only thing needed to create a truly unique birthday cake is an image that can be taken from the internet and the skills and dedication of a specialist bakery. The result will be a fresh sponge cake, made with free range eggs, butter, milk and jam. The cake can be either square or round.

Photo cakes are a great choice for almost any occasion. Usually recommended as birthday cakes, they can become a nice surprise for any celebration. A special occasion cake is always welcome especially if there’s a suggestive image on top of it.

Children will love to see their favourite characters, Nemo or the Little Mermaid, while adults will smile to see their most peculiar habits or tastes transformed into an image on their cake.

How easy is it to make such a photo cake?

It should be the other way round – how difficult is it to make a photo cake? While at first sight photo cakes seem like easy to do, there is a lot of work behind what seems such a neat image. The equipment used has to be one of the best as the printed image has to be as accurate as the one printed on paper. No smudges allowed.  

The quality of the image that will appear on the photo cake depends on the quality of the image used. So rather use a different image, than stick to a certain one that will not turn out so great in the end.

Of course, it is only a professional bakery, like Dunn's Bakery  that can help you with your photo cake. Doing something like this at home is practically impossible. There are special inks and special icing used to make sure that the image is one of the best.

Use personal images

Why not have your image as the hero fisherman on a delicious cake? Have you thought of a funny face photo? This way you can be creative and have a truly bespoke photo cake.

There is no more need to explain why photo cakes are a great choice. And it’s always easy to buy cakes online.