Having a Truffle-Good Time

Good Afternoon all you lovely people and thank you for stopping by for today's post. 

As you may have guessed by the picture, we have a little something we are working on, partly from our love of cooking and partly because, well, who doesn't love truffles.

Today we made some truffles and I am sharing the recipe with you lovely people, along with seeing what sort of interest there is for these if we were to sell them. O and what do you think of the name? Catchy huh?

Ingredients:

300ml double cream
30g unsalted butter
300g chocolate (your choice of flavour)

Method:

Heat together the cream and butter over a pan of simmering water, being careful to not let the water dry or touch the bottom of the pan.
Once the cream and butter are combined add in the chocolate either chunked or grated.
Add in any flavouring e.g. vanilla, coffee, toffee, orange, mint, etc.
Pour over cream and stir gently until chocolate is melted - to melt anything unmelted, simply keep the bowl above the heat until fully combined.
1-3 hours later in a cool fridge and the truffles can be scooped to roll and then dusted with many toppings or dipped in chocolate.

Feel free to share your creations and do let me know what you think of our snack shop idea.

Love and light to you all :)

For anyone interested in trying out some of our recipe ideas I have a cookbook on Amazon, go check it out and let us know what you made, recipes include cookies, cheesecakes, fudge and truffles plus many more:

USA link - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7GZL54

UK link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D7GZL54

To communicate/donate/buy artwork or figurines from Kev:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/kevbarker88
Twitter (Kev): https://twitter.come/fakefakenewskev
Twitter (Dan): https://twitter.com/dktidbury
Paypal: https://paypal.me/MrDJTidbury
Fiverr:  https://www.fiverr.com/daydreambelief

Christmas Is Coming!

Good Evening one and all and thank you for joining me and sticking by me.

Too soon? Perhaps but then Christmas has been in the shops for months already.

I had a rather productive afternoon, with the help of the other one barking orders at me (he will love me telling you that ha)

I decided to try my hand at baking only this time with an actual design, something neither of us have done before. So we made a little wintry, Christmassy wonderland scene with holly, berries, trees and presents made using fondant topping the cake, a cupcake with holly and berries which also has green sponge and a yule log on the side.

For this we just used our basic cake mix which also happens to be vegetarian/vegan friendly if you use appropriate substitutes.

This recipe also happens to be in my cookbook, along with many other sweet recipe ideas. I will include the link down below.

All the sponges were made using the same recipe and then flavoured accordingly:

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of butter (or you can use a vegetarian/vegan alternative)
2 teaspoons of oil (we used sunflower oil)
2 teaspoons of flour
A dash of milk or suitable alternative
Vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking powder

Method:
You can use 2 eggs but they aren't required as the cake comes out moist and cooked through.

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the flour and baking powder and combine, I use the back of a spoon and press down to bring it together.
Add the oil and milk and mix together to form a cake batter.
If you are using flavouring this can be added, for the main cake we used vanilla and for the yule log we followed the same steps and added cocoa powder for the chocolate sponge.
Place in the oven at 180C and bake for around 18 minutes.

Once the sponge is cooled you can add any decorations or frosting you wish. Our main cake we used jam and vanilla frosting to layer the sponge. For the yule log we added a chocolate frosting on top and through the sponge.

Using a green fondant we covered the cake and cupcake first before adding the design. The cherries and presents we used a white fondant which we coloured with food colouring. Once we finished the design and had it all assembled we then sprinkled over icing sugar to create a real Christmassy scene.

This was how it looked before we added the yule log and dusting.

And the finished product.

I must admit, we are rather pleased with ourselves considering this was our first attempt.

Let me know what you think and feel free to show off your own creations, would love to see how you get on.

For anyone interested in trying out some of our ideas I have a cookbook on Amazon, go check it out and let us know what you made, recipes include cookies, cheesecakes, fudge and truffles plus many more:

USA link - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7GZL54

UK link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D7GZL54

To communicate/donate/buy artwork or figurines from Kev:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/kevbarker88
Twitter (Kev): https://twitter.come/fakefakenewskev
Twitter (Dan): https://twitter.com/dktidbury
Paypal: https://paypal.me/MrDJTidbury

Can't Cook Won't Cook

Good Afternoon everyone,

Apologies for the absence, things have been rather busy here. I have now undertaken a new venture for the purpose of this blog, with the help of the other one and Mave involving my favourite thing, FOOD.

They will each create and cook an item of food, and I shall be judging said food, what could be better. Of course they also wanted to judge each other's, and there may have been a hint of bribery involved, all in good fun of course.

This week was all about the biscuits, chocolate covered to be precise.

First up we have Mave's:

I gave these a score of 4 out of 5. They were perfectly crisp, melt in the mouth and buttery with the right balance of chocolate. But they were messy and not very well presented, need neatening up a bit. The decorative sweets also were too hard and weren't really needed.

The other one also gave a score of 4 out of 5 and said they were a tad messy but tasted buttery. He also did not like the sweets on top.

Next up we have The Other One's:

For this one, as much as I hate to admit it, I gave a score of 5 out of 5. They were perfectly soft and crumbly with a delicate buttery taste and good balance of chocolate. Although me being a chocoholic would happily have had them smothered in it. They could, however, be much better presented and far neater.

Mave said that for the texture she would give 4 out of 5, with 5 out of 5 for taste and 4 out of 5 for the topping, commenting that they were nice and crumbly.

For anyone interested in trying out some of our ideas I have a cookbook on Amazon, go check it out and let us know what you made:

USA link - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D7GZL54

UK link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D7GZL54

To communicate/donate/buy artwork or figurines from Kev:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/kevbarker88
Twitter (Kev): https://twitter.come/fakefakenewskev
Twitter (Dan): https://twitter.com/dktidbury
Paypal: https://paypal.me/MrDJTidbury

Truffles Galore

Good Evening everyone and welcome to today's blog. We hope you are enjoying it so far and as always thank you for sticking with us. Unconditional love and light to you all.

So, for today's blog we have another recipe in the form of truffles. For this you will need:

A small carton of cream (We used double cream)
200g of chocolate (of your choosing)
Any additional flavourings you wish to dip/coat the truffles with

Firstly you need to warm the cream.
Once warmed add the chocolate (break this into small pieces) and stir until the mixture is smooth.
Pour the mixture into a suitable dish and place in the fridge to set.
Once the mixture is set you can then dip/coat the truffles if you wish. For this we did the following:

Use a teaspoon to roll the truffle into a small ball (As shown above for our first batch we rolled these into ground almonds.

For the next batch we melted a 200g bar of plain chocolate. To this we added broken mint matchmakers for added flavour (let the mixture cool slightly before adding the matchmakers).
With the rolled truffle use a fork and dip into the melted chocolate
Add a piece of matchmaker onto the top.

Melt 200g of white chocolate.
Add a sprinkling of freeze dried strawberries to the mixture
Use a fork and dip/coat the truffle balls
Sprinkle over more of the freeze dried strawberries

Melt 200g of plain chocolate
Use a fork and dip/coat the truffle balls
Break and sprinkle over a flake chocolate bar

We hope you enjoy today's blog. Let us know in the comments or on our social media how you got on and what toppings you used. We would love to see your creations.

Daily Affirmations: 'I am grateful, I am thankful, I am nourished, let my food be my medicine.'

To communicate/donate/buy artwork or figurines from Kev:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/kevbarker88
Twitter (Kev): https://twitter.come/fakefakenewskev
Twitter (Dan): https://twitter.com/dktidbury
Paypal: https://paypal.me/MrDJTidbury
Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/psykev88
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DKTidburyshomemade?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Go On, Fudge Yourself

Good Afternoon everyone, we hope you are well on this rather cold Thursday. Thank you again for following our journey, love and light to you all.

So, we said we had lots of different and fun things to be included within our blog. Today we have two very quick, simple and easy recipes for you and your sweet tooth. The older one is a trained chef, whereas I have rarely cooked before and even I found this so simple and delicious. In fact on a scale of 1-5 for easiness and taste (5 being super easy and super tasty) I rate this a 5 on both counts, absolutely divine ☺

Chocolate Fudge

1 can of condensed milk (We used a 397g can for this)
Plain Chocolate (We used 3 bars, what can I say, I'm a chocoholic)
Tin Foil
Cling Film
A dish/tray
A microwaveable bowl/jug

Open and pour the condensed milk into the bowl/jug
Break the plain chocolate (though it can be literally any flavour or kind of chocolate you prefer, for the free from choc ie vegan chocolate you may have to check on the melting temperatures and methods) into small pieces and add to the condensed milk
Mix them together

Place into the microwave and set on full power for 30 seconds.
Stir the mixture together
You will need to repeat this step until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has combined and thickened (We did this for a further 3 30 second blasts)
Line your dish with tin foil and then cover with cling film
Pour your mixture into the dish and smooth it over before placing in the fridge to set.

Butter Fudge

1 can of condensed milk (again we used 1 can of 397g)
2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of brown Sugar
(white chocolate/toffee chocolate, we used one bag of Caramac buttons)
Vanilla
Tin Foil
Cling Film
A dish/tray
A microwaveable bowl/jug

Pour the condensed milk into a microwaveable bowl/jug
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl
Add a few drops of vanilla (we used vanilla flavouring, though again you can choose your flavouring) and mix together
Add the mixture to the condensed milk

Mix the mixture together to combine and then place in the microwave and heat on full power for 45 seconds

Stir and repeat the previous step until the mixture has fully melted, add in the broken pieces from the bag of chocolate buttons, stir until thickened.

Line your dish with tin foil and then cover with cling film
Pour your mixture into the dish and smooth it over before placing in the fridge to set

You can use various flavours for these recipes and can add ingredients depending on the fudge you would like. We actually made a separate batch for the older ones mum. To the chocolate fudge we broke up and added small chunks of Caramac buttons. And for the butter fudge we melted some chocolate which we then drizzled on the bottom of the dish, added Caramac buttons to the melted mixture and heated for a further 20 seconds before pouring over the melted chocolate.

I must admit I am rather pleased with myself and both fudges went down a treat and were thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Please do let us know your thoughts and how they turned out for you.

Daily Affirmations: 'I am nourished, I am inspired, I am wise and I am grateful'

To communicate/donate/buy artwork from Kev:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/kevbarker88
Twitter (Kev): https://twitter.come/fakefakenewskev
Twitter (Dan): https://twitter.com/dktidbury
Paypal: https://paypal.me/MrDJTidbury
Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/psykev88
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/DKTidburyshomemade?ref=seller-platform-mcnav