Giveaway #25: Mich Turner goodies (CLOSED) …and making Christmas Pudding Cake Pops

We all love Christmas pudding in our house and I’m busy getting in all the ingredients to make my pud.

Stir Up Sunday is on November 20th and I’m doing something really fun to celebrate but you’ll have to read on to find out what.

Meanwhile I can’t possibly wait until December 25th for my Christmas pud and neither can you.

So I give you impatient people….

Christmas Pudding Cake Pops!

Made with fruit cake and dipped in Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate, they’re a bite size treat you can share with your friends throughout December.

How to make Christmas pudding cake pops

First take one bargain pre-made supermarket fruit cake.

I really don’t go in for making cakes that you’re soon going to….

…mush up and mix with buttercream. This time of year is busy enough as it is!

Boozy brandy in the buttercream is positively encouraged if you are making these for grown ups.

Roll the cake and buttercream mix into balls and pop into the freezer for 20 minutes. No longer – unless you snigger want rock hard balls.

Meanwhile melt a bar of dark chocolate in the microwave in a mug. Today I used Green & Black’s Maya Gold which has a perfect spiciness to go with Christmas pudding flavours.

That white stuff is a tablespoon of Trex or Cookeen (vegetable fat) that makes your dipping chocolate dip nice and smoothly.

Grab some sticks. I like fat wooden ones like you used to get ice lollies on rather than airy fairy coffee stirrers pilfered from coffee shops.

And go dip!

Sadly I have only one pair of hands so I couldn’t take pictures of the actual dipping process today.

Push the pops into a block of florist’s oasis wrapped in film (or polystyrene) whilst the chocolate dries.

Silverspoon Designed by Mich Turner white icing

Meanwhile you can get going on the decoration.

Take some white sugar paste. Today I’m using this new Silver Spoon Designed by Mich Turner white icing which is flavoured with Madagascan vanilla adding to the Christmassy feel.

(I have some of this range to give away below so keep your eyes peeled!)

Renshaw ready to roll icings

And for the for the holly leaves and berries I am using Renshaw green and red icings which are super for modelling without the faff of having to add your own food colour to plain sugarpaste.

Take a curvy flowery blossom cutter around 2 inches across; roll out a golf ball sized ball at once. These dinky non stick rollers and a non stick mat help stop your sugarpaste sticking to the table without needing to add extra icing sugar.

Flatten the shapes with your fingers and position on top of the cake pops.

I dabbed some royal icing on the other side. You could use squeezy tube writing icing if you didn’t want to make this although I find home made icing much easier to pipe out.

Then we make holly leaves. This holly leaf cutter was a bit big for what I needed so I turned the cutter round the other way to make smaller holly leaves.

Use a spear modelling tool to engrave a spine down the centre; or you could gently score a line with a small knife so long as you take care not to tear the leaf.

Dab more royal icing (preferably same colour) to the underside of the one end of the leaves.

Dot them on the top of the cake pops then pipe more blobs of green icing to affix the red berries on top.

So they start looking like this.

Edible red glitter

Edible red glitter to roll your berries in isn’t compulsory but it does make your pops sparkle!

The most glittery one I’ve found is by Rainbow Dust. It’s like being at school again.

Ta-dah!

Now I’ve already said they smell great and I wish I could tell you what they taste like, really I do.

But tauntingly I’ve not been able to try one. (Well ok I did try a bit of the cake mix!)

And that’s because they’re not for me, not for anyone in my family, I’m not really sure who they’re for yet because I’ve made them to take to Let’s Make Christmas at Fortnums organised by Vanessa Kimbell taking place this Friday.

Vanessa, writer of Prepped, has cajoled and arm twisted (well probably it didn’t take that much persuading) about fifty squillion food bloggers to come the length and breadth of the country to get together at the Wombles’ favourite department store; Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly.

And we have to arrive bearing gifts. It’s a kind of food blogger secret santa only probably without the secret bit if people have already blogged what they’re taking.

None other than baking supremo Dan Lepard himself will be judging who has made the best gift.

I can’t wait. I hope there’ll be sparkly stuff to drink.

Stir Up Sunday baking hotline

But stop! Remember I said I was doing something exciting on Stir Up Sunday?

That’s right. I’m going to be one of the folks manning the Sainsbury’s Stir Up Sunday Baking Hotline on Sunday 20th November.

For the second year in a row, Sainsbury’s is marking this day helping anyone in the midst of a cake baking dilemma. A team of dedicated baking experts (plus me) will man Sainsbury’s baking hotline for one day only to support festive cake makers everywhere with tips, advice and shortcuts.

A host of baking agony aunts are just a phone call away;

Sainsbury’s Stir-up Sunday hotline number is 0207 695 0005 and will be manned from 11am – 4pm on Sunday 20th November, alternatively bakers can also log on to www.facebook.com/sainsburys to ask for help.

The experts include Sarah Randell, Food Director at Sainsbury’s Magazine, specialist members of the Sainsbury’s Try Team and Dan Lepard.

That’s right! I get to meet him twice in one weekend.

So they’re the people you call for sensible advice; I’m the one you get if you say you want to mush up a bargain fruit cake and make it look pretty. There’s a place in this world for both.

Finally today’s giveaway:

Win one of THREE sets of Silver Spoon Designed by Mich Turner products.

Three readers will win:

• Madagascan Vanilla Ready to Roll White Icing
• Finest Quality Marzipan Ready to Roll Marzipan
• Pearl Lustre
• Bronze Lustre
• Gold Lustre

When I say these lustre liquids are like nail varnish for cake you know how wonderful they are….

RULES:
Competition will close on Wednesday 30th November 2011
1. Open to UK participants over the age of 18.
2. Prize is for a set of Silver Spoon Designed by Mich Turner products as described above.
3. Instructions form part of the terms and conditions.
4. Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will be disqualified.
5. I am running this competition on behalf of Baking Mad. Their decision is final and binding on the entrants and no correspondence will be entered into.
6.There is no cash or other alternative to the prize stated and the prize is not transferable and no part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
7. The winner will be picked at random (by Rafflecopter using random.org) and contacted by email; if they do not respond within 14 days another winner may be chosen. The prize (or tickets/or booking) will be delivered to the winner within 28 days of confirmation of delivery address.

For a chance of winning simply fill in the form below. If there is no form then hit refresh and it should soon appear. If you do not fill in the form your entries will not go into the draw; one of the mandatory means of entry is to leave a blog comment so you need to do this as well as completing the form.

Watch this short video to see how the form works

Come back every day for extra bonus entries for even more opportunities to win!

Click here to visit more great Maison Cupcake giveaways!

Good luck!

Prize sponsored by Baking Mad

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