27 August 2008

a book and a bun

After lunch, we headed into Abingdon for afternoon tea with Jane Brocket. The event was organized by the bookshop where Ali works, Mostly Books.

Jane spoke about her new book Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer:

She also read passages from her favorite children's books and showed us how to decorate buns with her trademark technicolor icing and jelly beans.

I transported my bun home in my new Cup-a-Cake carrier:

The Cup-a-Cake worked brilliantly, and the bun was delicious. I'll definitely be using orange or lemon juice (rather than water) to thin my icing sugar from now on: the tart citrus tempers the sweetness of the sugar perfectly.

And for everyone at the tea who was taken with Jane's gorgeous paste colors, I just unpacked a new shipment of little pots in the shop today--only £2.99 each!

6 comments:

  1. the cupacake carrier looks so cute! and as for those gorgeous colours! I need some of those!!!!

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  2. My bun didn't even make it out of the venue - I admire you greatly for getting yours all the way home!!! I agree about the lemon or orange juice to make the icing - it's amazing the difference it made. If my local cake shop doesn't stock the colour paste, I'll be in touch!!!

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  3. I have to confess to buying the food-colour set that Jane recommends in the Gentle Art - the colours are amazing!

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  4. Oh the carrier is too cute! I am a big fan of paste colours, but just colecting one or two at a time. Pink, of course, but we also have baby blue, yellow, and a very alarming ivory that looks disgustingly khaki if you overdo it ...

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  5. Hi K..I have had much to catch up on your blog but all of it very colourful and delicious!
    You have been so very kind to remind me of this wonderful book.. I read about it in the Saturday Telegraph a few weeks ago and I tore the page out to file away.... for ever! I couldn't find it and have been trying to remember the name of this book since..
    Thank you for the missing jigsaw piece!

    Michele x

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  6. I'm so envious that you got to see Jane Brocket--I love her blog and books!

    I think you might be leading my parallel dream-life...

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