Chocolate, Churros, Chilli and Cider at Foodies Festival

That got your attention, didn't it? More about the chocolate and churros later, but this post is about the Edinburgh Foodies Festival which I went to with my blogging friends Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes and Claire of A Kiss of Cookies.
The Foodie Festival was held in Inverleith Park near the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh.  It was very busy with several rows of tented stalls, live music and the smell of barbequed meat hanging in the air.

The smokies were split, deboned and wrapped in paper ready for sale.


We had a great time and the sun shone which was a bonus, but there were so many ways that the festival would have been better for me: 

Getting there
 There was very little signage so actually finding Inverleith Park was a challenge. There were no directions on the website, no information about buses or parking opportunities, so if you didn't know the area, you had to do a lot of extra research to find your way.  The only sign we saw was on the gate to the park and by that time we were already there.  I know the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe were on, but a few signs round about Stockbridge and perhaps on Ferry Road would have made all the difference.

 Who and Where
There was no programme or plan of who was exhibiting and where they were located in the fenced off festival area.  Okay, I can understand they might not have been able to publish it on the website if there were late entries, but a list with numbers and aisles would have been very welcome, even if I'd had to buy it!  I've visited the Pot Fest in the Park near Penrith which is a pottery fair and they manage to provide this.  I had been tweeting The Elephant Juice Soup Company earlier in the day, but I never did find their stall. Planning who you want to see and looking back afterwards is, for me, part of the pleasure of an event like this.

The Chef's Theatre
I was really looking forward to seeing  a demonstration, but the people who took the tickets did not  give any indication about booking and the booth was placed just inside the entry almost behind the tent where people were buying tickets.  Now maybe if you bought a ticket on the day you would be told to book, but we didn't get that information, so everything was booked up.  Again, it would have been good to pre-book online, but if not then some information at the gate would have been equally useful.

Range of Exhibitors
Maybe I missed some exhibitors because of the lack of a programme (can you tell that I'm a bit narked by that?) but it seemed that there were a lot of  stalls for chocolate, spicy rubs/oils/flavourings/dips and booze!  It was very meat heavy too, not that I minded, but other than the noodle stall 'The Scottish Vegetarian' was rather challenged to find lunch, there may have been more, but we didn't know where they were.

Did I have a good time - YES!  Would I go back - probably not unless the organisation is better.

I was not sponsored by anyone to write this post, these views are my own and cannot be attributed to the friends who visited the festival with me.  

Labels: A Kiss of Cookies, Arbroath Smokie, Edinburgh Foodie Festival, Potfest in the Park, The Elephant Juice Soup Company, Tinned Tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 21:53 13 Comments

Cupcake Decorating Masterclass!

I've had a really fun day today, decorating cupcakes!  When Jac from Tinned Tomatoes spied this class at 3D Cakes in Edinburgh, being offered on Groupon, she contacted me to see if I wanted to go too.  We finally found a date which suited us and Claire of A Kiss of Cookies joined us too.

It's a good two hours drive to Edinburgh for me,  I had planned on getting the train which is only an hour but with the Bank Holiday, the trains were disrupted by work on the line.  Luckily my SIL lives just outside Edinburgh, so Brian drove up and took his Mum over to see her after dropping me off at Roseburn Terrace.

Our Cupcake decorating tutor was called Sue and she started by telling us about 3D cakes and some of the unusual cakes they have made, like a lion and lioness for a wedding anniversary cake.

Sue started us off with flowerpaste which we learned to roll very thinly and use cutters to cut out butterflies and daisies.


The dusting and decorating came later, but I was surprised how easy it was to make an effective flower with the cutters.  We then moved on to the trickier rose, again helped by a special cutter for the petals.



Mine is slightly dodgy but it looks rose-like enough for a first try.  The leaf is cut from green flower paste,  the veining is part of the cutter.


We left our flowerpaste efforts to dry and moved on to working with fondant.  I love the little parcels with fondant bows and can see that I will be using these quite a lot.




Again I could probably do this better with more practice, but learning the technique by 'show and tell' followed by making them yourself and getting personal attention from Sue, really made the difference.


We also made some chunky hearts, I didn't use mine on my cakes as I had enough other things to use, they also look a bit rude ;-)


Here are few of the decorations before they were dusted and glittered.  I think I like the parcels better without the glitter.




We then learned how to make ladybirds.  They are rather large but that was how we were shown.  I'd like to try making them smaller, now I  know how.




I also cut out some little hearts with some cutters that were at our work stations.


We then made fondant roses, they took a bit of getting the hang of, but I think I may be making more of them. 




Now it was time to dust and glitter, dry brush for dust, so all that had to be done first, then damp edges and dip in glitter.

Here is Claire, working hard making something, look how fast her hands are moving!!!

And here is Jac, relaxing with her finished decorations.

The next step was to pipe the butter cream onto the 12 cupcakes provided for us to decorate and then place our fondant and flowerpaste on top of the swirls.
I haven't actually eaten any of the cupcakes yet, but  they do look pretty and I am definitely going to have a go at making more. 

Many thanks to Jac for organising the day out and to Sue for creating such a relaxed atmosphere.

Labels: 3D cakes, A Kiss of Cookies, cupcake class, cupcakes, Edinburgh, flowerpaste, fondant icing, Groupon, Tinned Tomatoes

posted by Janice @ 20:55 18 Comments