And The Winner Is...

A month ago we set a competition to celebrate the relaunch of our blog, the prize being one of our deliciously decadent Tuckshop Treats selection boxes. As usual we were overwhelmed by the amount of entries, and firstly we'd like to thank everyone who took the time to enter. Secondly, we would like to announce the winner. So....
* DRUMROLL *
The winner is Lisa Dainty-McQuade! Congratulations Lisa, we'll be in touch to ask you which brownies and/or blondies you would like us to make for you.

Keep coming back here for more Crumb's the Word competitions, info and offers, and hopefully you'll be the one getting our cakes through your door next time. And if you can't wait that long, visit our shop and treat yourself to something special.

#organic #cake #love #TerrysChocolateOrange #hersheys #cakes #browniesbypost #cadburys #cakeblog #cakeporn #jammydodger #rdg #blondies #maltesers #chocolate #London #brownies #hobbybaker #foodblog #shopindepenent #lovecake #smallbusiness #crumbsthewordbakery #crumbstheword #rdguk #cakesbypost #terrys #sirmixalot #babygotbrownies

We Proudly Present: Spiced Hinton Cake

Happy LONDON WINE WEEK! As we are pretty close to London here in sunny Reading I thought it was the perfect time to promote and celebrate the incredible wines we produce here in the UK, and the wonderful people at Stanlake Park Wine Estate in Berkshire have kindly given me two bottles of their magnificent Hinton Grove wine to use in a brand new recipe creation of mine: Spiced Hinton Cake, which is a delicious combination of fruity pears, organic vanilla, warming spices and, of course, the star of the show, the wonderful Hinton Grove wine.
You can find out all about the fantastic range of British wines at Stanlake Park here: https://www.stanlakepark.com and you can make Spiced Hinton Cake for yourself here:


SPICED HINTON CAKE RECIPE - created for Stanlake Park Wine Estate by Lissy at Crumb's the Word
(feel free to use non-organic ingredients, I have used the ingredients we use in our online shop but the one item that would be best kept as it is would be the Hinton Grove wine, otherwise you will miss the wonderful flavours this cake offers!)

INGREDIENTS
Half a bottle of Hinton Grove Wine from Stanlake Park Wine Estate
110g Fair Trade Caster Sugar
3 Tsp Organic Vanilla Bean Paste
1 Cinnamon Stick
180g Organic Self Raising Flour
50g Organic Ground Almonds
215g Fair Trade Caster Sugar
15g Organic Blackstrap Molasses (Or Black treacle)
4 Medium Free Range Eggs
3 Organic Pears (almost ripe but still a bit hard)
230g Organic Butter
½ tsp Organic Mixed Spice
½ tsp Organic Ground Cinnamon


INSTRUCTIONS: 
Peel two pears and leave stalks on. Place 2 of the pears in a stainless steel pan with the half a bottle of wine, leaving 15ml of the wine aside for later. Add 110g of the Fair Trade Caster Sugar, 1 tsp of the Organic Vanilla Bean Paste and the Cinnamon Stick to the pan and gently simmer the pears for 20 minutes, turning them over half way through.  When they are done a toothpick should be able to slide easily through them and remove them from the pan in to a bowl. Simmer the remaining juice for 5 minutes then remove from the heat to cool down.
Peel, core and remove stalk from remaining pear and finely chop in to small pieces about 5mm big, or as near as possible.
Grease and line a bundt tin (as best as you can) and take the pears and remove the stalks and the inside seeds by cutting them away leaving as much of the pear flesh behind as possible. Slice the pears thinly and place them as strips on the bottom of the lined bundt tin.
Mix the butter, Molasses (treacle) and 215g Fair Trade Caster Sugar together in a bowl until combined. Add the spices, ground almonds, and flour to the mix and beat well until just combined.
Add a small amount of the eggs to the mix to loosen the mixture, then add half of the remaining eggs, mix well. Add the last bit of the eggs and mix until just combined.
Pour the mix over the sliced pears in the bundt tin then sprinkle the chopped pears on top. Get a knife, or small spoon, and gently mix the chopped pears in to the top of the mix so they are at the surface but covered.

Place in to the over at 180°C (160°C fan oven) for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Pour the remaining 15 ml of wine in to the left over syrup then cover and leave to one side.

Leave the cake to cool for 20 minutes in the tin then turn it over and gently remove the bundt tin and liners (if used).  With a spoon, gently drizzle the top of the Spiced Hinton Cake with the syrup mix and leave the cake to cool for slicing when cold later, or place a warmed portion in a bowl, cover with cream or custard and enjoy! 

#stanlakepark #winemaker #britishwines #stanlakeparkwineestate #Berkshire #winelover #Twyford #Berkshirewine #winemaking #vineyard #visitstanlakepark #londonwineweek #organic #cake #organicfood #cakes #fortnums #weddingcake #cakeblog #cakeporn #rdg #shopindepenent #birthdaycake #London #lovecake #fruitcake #crumbsthewordbakery #crumbstheword #rdguk

Baby Got Brownies

I like big brownies and I cannot lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with a happy face
And a brownie in a tray
You get sprung, want to pull up tough
'Cause you notice that the tray was stuffed
With Cadbury brownie pairing
I'm hooked and I can't stop staring
Oh baby, I want to get wit'cha
And take your picture
My homeboys tried to warn me
But with that tray makes (me so hungry)

(Huge apologies to Sir Mix-a-Lot)
Yes, we are now doing TUCK SHOP TREATS IN TRAYBAKE TRAYS! You want a whole Jammie Dodger Blondie for the family? Sorted. You need more than 6 slices of Terry Chocolate Brownie? Well now you can have a whole big traybake of heaven in our online store, sent FREE first class postage to anywhere in the UK. If you want to send it as a gift we'll even hand write a card for you too, because we're happy to ensure that Baby got Brownies 😉

#organic #cake #love #TerrysChocolateOrange #hersheys #cakes #browniesbypost #cadburys #cakeblog #cakeporn #jammydodger #rdg #blondies #maltesers #chocolate #London #brownies #hobbybaker #foodblog #shopindepenent #lovecake #smallbusiness #crumbsthewordbakery #crumbstheword #rdguk #cakesbypost #terrys #sirmixalot #babygotbrownies

Here Comes Summer! (Almost)

YES! Believe it or not, the great British summertime is almost upon us again. With this in mind, we've been busy developing some new products in time for the sunshine, and we're proud to announce the first of our Summer cakes: {FANFARE} The Strawberry Shortcake Traybake!

Imagine it: the sun is in the sky (it's that hot, yellow ball thing), you've dusted off your garden furniture, covered yourself in Factor 50, and you're determined to make use of every last minute of warm weather. What better way than to relax with a cup of tea (or something stronger, probably with bubbles, fruit and a straw) and a slice of our Strawberry Shortcake Traybake.




All the while keeping a vigilant eye out for rain - this IS Britain, after all.




We know that it'll be a hit, but be quick, as it's limited edition, so it'll only be around for the next few months.




Keep coming back for more news of our glorious summer range of traybakes, brownies and blondies.

It's Alive! Aliiiiive!

Baking delicious cakes and sweet treats is all very well, I hear you say, but what about your blog game? Not very strong, is it?

Well, OK, we've been so busy creating great stuff to eat, snapping photos of our wares to put up on Insta, tending to our Facebook page, and Tweeting about it, that blogging has been relegated to not much more than a question mark (that question being: 'What shall we do about the blog?' closely followed by the answer 'Dunno'). So we had a business meeting (we do that now and again) and we have decided to fix jump leads to the electrodes on this blog, and bring it back to life!

And, oh my gosh, to celebrate this, we've come up with something special. It's a chance to win one of our Tuckshop Treats selection boxes (sounds a bit Christmassy for late April, but just run with it).

If you win, you will be able to choose three of our new Tuckshop Treat range to be baked and delivered straight to your door. Our Tuckshop Treats are a selection of our famous brownies and blondies, with traditional chocolate and biscuit treats baked into the mix. Straight out of the oven, we add yet more of the treats, meaning our bakes are fully loaded.

All you need to do is comment on this post, and subscribe to Crumb's the Word here (if you have already subscribed you only need to comment on this blog). Subscribing will mean you stay up to date with our range, special offers and competitions. Closing date for entries is 12am Friday 10^th May. Sorry if you live outside of the UK, but this competition is open to residents of the UK only.

We're On The Naughty List

Ok, maybe not quite on Father Christmas' Naughty List but we definitely shouldn't be eating the stock. It's just, well, you can't send out a cake without quality control can you?  So we had to check the Christmas cakes had enough brandy, to keep them perfect for shipping out in December. And thanks to our tireless endeavours we can say, without hesitation, that whoever buys our Christmas cakes will get a lovely, festive bake. See? We go that extra mile, just for you! 😉

We've also been expanding the range of cakes we do, but more on that teaser later in the week. If you want a bit of insider information, make sure you check back on Tuesday, we'll have announced it all over social media by then! 

Actually, from now on it's going to get exciting round here (and possibly rather busy) with all the different things to celebrate as the nights grow longer. We have Halloween 👻, Bonfire Night 🎆 and, of course, our favourite 🎅🎄 Christmas! For each of those events we will be releasing limited edition cakes, to help keep the cold autumn and winter chills at bay. so sign up to us on our website or on our social media pages (icon links are in the footer of this page) and you'll never miss a launch.

Right, now, maybe we should test one more cake, to make absolutely sure...

Lis

The C Word!

Hello and welcome to our new blog.

Firsty, I'm going to say the 'C'-word, because after the long baking (no pun intended) Summer we had this year, this somewhat cooler snap has got us looking towards... CHRISTMAS!

Yes yes, we know it's only the tail end of August, but right now is when the fun starts to happen. In the next few weeks we'll be trying new recipes, talking about what will work, and what might not, and sourcing the best organic, fair trade ingredients to make all of these lovely new ideas come to life. All of this together with fulfilling orders from our amazing customers, and our kitchen is going to be a VERY busy place. We might even have to get in touch with the big fella in Lapland, to see if he can spare us a couple of elves to help out.

Where possible we'll be whetting your appetite by keeping you up to date about which cakes are looking like they have made the grade (if we can see the screen through the clouds of cinnamon!), so keep coming back as we reveal our delicious Christmas 2018 offerings, together with the dates we will start to sell them in our shop at Crumb's the Word.

Meanwhile, we're running a Christmas-related poll over on our Facebook page. What are your thoughts on Candy Cane Brownies? Do they sound a great idea, or are you not sure? Let us know: YAY OR NAY?

Simon