Blogging Worries & My Return

Hi everyone!

You may have noticed that I have been absent from my blog for the last two months or so and that is because I thought I had given up on blogging. So many reasons led to me making that decision and I feel like it was the right thing to do at the time, and now I'm back and have so many plans and beautiful things to bake for you all. I can't wait!

But before I return to the world of baking and blogging I wanted to share with you the thoughts that led me to giving up (and how I'm going to change my attitude towards them) because I really think that a lot of other bloggers probably (hopefully!!) share similar doubts and worries.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

This post is aaaalll about the buttercream. I could talk for hours about how good this buttercream is...

But I wont.

It is the creamiest, most luxurious buttercream I have ever made. It is just sweet enough without being too sweet and it has the most perfect peanut butter taste. There is nothing worse than making a buttercream that you struggle to pipe (baker probs...) because it doesn't hold it's shape or it's too stiff. But this is just perfect. 

Triple Caramel Rolo Cupcakes

Caramel, caramel and.... more caramel? Chocolate sponge with a caramel centre, topped with salted caramel buttercream and caramel sauce. And a rolo of course. 

Just look at that caramel. Look at that glistening, gooey sauce oozing from the rolo. Are you tempted? You're in the right place, my friends. This is caramel heaven! 

Meet your new favourite cupcakes! Fluffy and beautiful chocolatey sponge with a hidden caramel surprise inside and plenty of salted caramel buttercream swirls topped with no other than a runny drizzle of caramel sauce and a rolo. These could not be easier to make (once you get the easy peasy caramel sauce out of the way) but be warned: you will be nagged to make these all the time after they taste them!!

All you need for these cupcakes are some delicious chocolate cupcakes  (use your own tried and tested recipe or use my trusty recipe that I will provide at the end), some of my favourite salted caramel sauce, some basic buttercream and a whole load of rolos!

Rainbow Sugar Cookies

I had an overwhelming urge to bake sugar cookies this week. I have been ill and a bit miserable and I just knew a baking session would cheer me up, and of course I was right! Any kind of cookies cheer me up...

Whereas I usually roll out my sugar cookie dough and use cookie cutters to make cute shaped cookies that I decorate with royal icing, I decided to try something a bit different, more in line with how I make chocolate chip cookies. I rolled the dough into balls and rolled them in sprinkles before baking so they spread into puffy, fat cookies. I think I still personally prefer them rolled, cut and iced these were definitely an experiment worth making. And how cute are they?!

They are soft and cakey filled with sprinkle-rainbow goodness. They are also soooooo easy and quick to make, they take zero effort so they are just a dream to make on a lazy sunday like today!

Oreo Blondies

Soft and cakey blondies with a delicious, secret layer of whole Oreo cookies. Filled with a load of chocolate chips - this is a chocoholics dream!!

Every time I make blondies I am reminded of how much I love them. They always go down an absolute storm whoever I make them for! These one were especially popular because, lets be honest, who doesn't love Oreos? Martin cannot get enough of these!

I feel like the world has gone Oreo mad. The ridiculously huge range of Oreo flavours available, not to mention Oreo flavoured everything just shows our addiction. I personally don't like Oreos on their own, not one but. But I LOVE baking with them: they just make everything better.

As I've mentioned before, I love this blondie recipe because you can do absolutely anything with it. Check out my last blondie recipe here. I had a particular Oreo-bake craving last night and this seemed like the perfect, easy, whip-up-in-no-time option. Blondies don''t need any fancy equipment, ingredients or techniques, can be prepared in 10 minutes and baked in 30. Perfect to satisfy any sweet tooth that just won't wait!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Fluffy and moist cupcakes flavoured with pumpkin puree and autumn spices topped with decadent, creamy cinnamon frosting. A must-bake for halloween!

Pumpkin spice just SCREAMS "winter is coming".
And I love it.

Pumpkin is absolutely dominating food blogs everywhere. Pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice everything. I wanted to make my contribution! Complete with adorable, hand made tiny pumpkins to decorate, of course :)

I love baking with spice - ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice,,, They transform a recipe beautifully and give a lovely warm, autumnal flavour. But I had never baked with pumpkin before so wasn't quite sure how it would turn out.  I was very very pleasantly surprised with this combination of flavours!

Gingerbread Cake

The perfect autumn cake - rich, moist and spicy. Drizzled with an orange icing for a beautifully sticky, indulgent treat.

This is one of my favourite recipes for a cake ever. Although I feel that it is a very autumnal cake, perfect for snuggling up with a cup of tea under a big, warm blanket I make this often throughout the year. The combination of golden syrup and brown sugar makes for a perfectly warm, rich flavour - just the right amount of sweetness to have a decent sized biiiigg piece and not feel guilty and sick. Slightly misleading though as it is by no means a healthy cake. Woops.

The beautiful spicy flavour comes from a combination of ginger and mixed spice. These compliment the other flavours and makes for a gorgeous treat to warm you up on a miserable day! The sticky top makes it feel oh-so naughty and adds a fruity, sweet edge. It is just ridiculously simple: icing sugar and orange juice, freshly squeezed or from concentrate, whatever you have to hand!

I made one for my family and friends at home which was gone in no time at all. I also took one into work which was received equally as well - everyone loved it! I don't think I have met a person who hasn't enjoyed this cake. A universally loved cake is a good cake, indeed :)

It's not the kind of cake you can whip up in 5 minutes like a vanilla sponge, it does take just a little bit more effort to cook the golden syrup and the butter then wait to cool etc. and it has quite a long ish bake time so it does need a bit of TLC but it is so so worth it!

Ingredients:

250g self raising flour, sifted

4 heaped tsp ground ginger

1 heaped tsp mixed spice

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

225g golden syrup

125g light brown sugar

2 eggs

250ml milk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160c and line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

2. Pour the golden syrup and butter into a small. heavy bottomed saucepan and warm gently before adding the sugar. Let it bubble away for a minute or so until it looks like this then remove from the heat.

3. While the syrup mixture is cooling, mix the flour, ginger, spice, baking powder and soda together in a large bowl. Once is it cooled, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the syrup. Mix until fully combined.

4. Gently beat the eggs and milk together and add to the mixture stirring until a runny, pour-able concistency is reached. Pour into the cake tin.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave it to set and cool slightly in the tin before turning it out and adding a topping.

6. This cake would be delicious with sooo many toppings: a syrupy butter, cream cheese frosting even vanilla buttercream! I personally enjoy simple orange icing drizzled generously over the top. Add a splash of orange juice to a few teaspoons of icing sugar and mix together thoroughly and pour over the top while still slightly warm. 

Teri x

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Cute Dinosaur Cake!

Happy 21st Birthday, Lindsey!

How cute is this little guy?? I have been looking forward to posting this cake all week. She has been starring at me from the kitchen counter, her little face sitting on top of her now half-body. Believe it or not, I baked this cake for my wonderful housemate Lindsey's 21st birthday this week. Although it may seem more suited to a slightly younger birthday, Lindsey loves dinosaurs and yellow so this cake was born! 

I was excited to actually have an excuse to decorate a cake again and just have fun. I adore decorating cakes, it's by far my favourite part of baking. But since I started this blog it has somewhat taken a back seat to leave time for developing new recipes and flavours for you. So I fully embraced this opportunity and hoped to produce a perfect cake for my lovely friend! 

She absolutely loved the cake so I think it was a job well done! Everyone else who has seen it has it has also been majorly impressed - clearly not realising it is much easier than it looks! I honestly believe even a complete baking/decorating novice could produce this cake with just a little patience and practice. So here is a guide for how to make this adorable little dinosaur. This is a long post with a lot of instructions but read them through once before you start!

Salted Caramel Stuffed Cookies

Soft, chewy cookies filled with a layer of gooey, rich salted caramel. Cookie, chocolate, caramel... Yum.

If you read my last blog post about salted caramel sauce you will have read my high praise for my latest cookies and no doubt been waiting eagerly for their reveal... Well wait no longer, here they are!
My favourite cookie recipe of all time adapted to include another one of my mega-favourites: salted caramel!! One big ball of chilled caramel wrapped in a bigger ball of cookie dough! When the cookie spreads in the oven so does the caramel layer. Can you even imagine?! Especially if you enjoy these warm out of the oven, the caramel layer oozes out and is super gooey. Of course the cookie itself cannot be overlooked, it is still delicious, soft and chewy and big and fat! The only way a cookie should be.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Easy-peasy, salty-sweet, super delicious salted caramel sauce. Heaven!

After another week of mediocre and failed bakes it's safe to say I have been disheartened and just fed up. I just couldn't see how I could keep this blog going and keep up with developing and posting recipes when my oven is so damned crap. It just seems to destroy anything that goes into it! I have seen 3 batches of cookies go into the bin along with 2 batches of choux pastry and NEARLY a whole Victoria sponge.

But persistence is key, my friend! I have just had to sit and watch my cakes like a hawk turning them round every 5 minutes or so so they don't burn on one side and have had to ditch the baking tray for cookies - resulting in some very odd shapes indeed! And this weekend I had a successful batch of cookies (successful is an understatement - they were heaven), chocolate cupcakes and vanilla cake. Hooray! 

Lemon Drizzle and Sprinkle Cake

Everyone's favourite classic cake. Sticky and super sweet with luscious lemon in every bite. Drizzled with syrup and sprinkled with coconut - a perfect teatime treat!

I have sooo many autumn recipes planned for this month (think apples, caramel, pumpkin and cinnamon... oh my) but this cake is my final "goodbye" to summer before welcoming these autumn months with open arms. If I had to explain summer in a flavour; sharp, sweet, colourful citrus fruits and all their beautiful goodness would be the only choice. A far cry from the aromatic spices and rich flavours of autumn. So what better way to wrap up summer and my first season of blogging (yay!) with the most citrus-y cake around with some coconut sprinkled in for good measure? I truly love the idea of just simply pouring a big vat of syrup over a cake to fill it with even more flavour and moisture to produce a wonderfully flavoursome but light cake that can easily be eaten in one sitting (no judgement from me... it is good). The coconut flakes also add some texture to this recipe, a little bit of bite to this super soft and sticky treat!

Very Vanilla Cupcakes

The moistest, fluffiest vanilla cupcakes you will ever eat. If you don't have a go-to vanilla cupcake recipe, look no further...

I have had a disastrous baking week this week. I made some delicious blondies that just aren't quite blog ready yet and some absolutely horrendous cookies. Honestly, they were just something else. Don't even know where to start in fixing the recipe just yet!! So these vanilla cupcakes were just an absolute relief when they came out so perfectly and were soooo delicious. 

I like to think my current vanilla recipe is lovely enough, I have never had any complaints and it is super easy to make and alter to make endless different recipes. Nothing is ever perfect so why not tweak it to make it even better? I kept all the quantities the exact same but rather than whisking in the entire eggs, I separated the eggs and whisked in the yolks first. I then whisked the egg yolks until thick and frothy, as you would with meringue and folded them into the batter before baking. It made the cupcakes sooo much lighter. Definitely worth the extra effort (unless you had to hand whisk your egg whites like me... not so sure then). I was also unsure about whether flour and baking powder was better than self raising flour, I mostly use self raising but I have been experimenting with plain flour and baking powder and now realise that it is faaar superior. The cupcakes seem to rise so much higher. So from now on, I will specify PLAIN flour and baking powder in my recipes.

Strawberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Sweet and fruity strawberry swirled cupcakes topped with luxurious, creamy white chocolate buttercream. Perfect comfort food for the autumn nights!

What a good week this has been! I have successfully finished my first week at my new job (well, it's a year long unpaid placement...), Martin has finally handed in his dissertation so has completed his MSc and tomorrow my best friend is moving back to our flat in Cardiff aaaall the way from London and I am so excited because I haven't seen her in FOUR WHOLE MONTHS!! Meaning of course I had to make some celebratory cupcakes for her to come home to...

Loaded Blondies

These are super blondies: packed with marshmallows, sprinkles and mini smarties, sweet and soft, chewy and decadent. Is this not everything you could want in a baked good?!

I have to apologise again for being slightly AWOL and inconsistent this week. It's not for lack of trying or time, that's for sure. I have been so bored this last week with nothing to do, I've been planning so many great ideas and doing some research into how to make my next few bakes perfect for you. But I realised I was seriously lacking in baking tools!! Not to mention my oven is completely crap and doesn't bake evenly at all as I discovered while baking my not-so-little-anymore sister a big batch of mini cupcakes to take with her when she moved into her university accommodation to start her first year of her nursing degree (because cupcakes so easily buy friends). I don't think I've ever burnt a cupcake, I was devastated!!

But anyway, back to these blondies. How much do you just want to stick your face into that bowl? Let's take a closer look...

Yuuuummyyy

Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate as much as the next person but sweets are my weakness. I love how colourful and sweet and sugary they are, you just can't beat it! So what better way to make use of all my favourite things than jamming them into a beautiful blondie? The recipe is a pretty standard one-bowl recipe (my favourite kind - less cleaning!!) and is perfect for adding anything you're craving into it - think chocolate chips, nuts, oreos, cinnamon-sugar?! It is soft and chewy but not particularly gooey which is just how I like them, nice and sweet and basically just the kind of recipe that leads you and your housemate to eating the whole plate before dinner... 

"Malibu" & Lime Cupcakes

Summery and fresh: A tangy, sweet lime cake topped with a super creamy, sweet coconut buttercream and a lime wedge. My favourite summer cocktail in a cupcake! (NB: no alcohol is actually used in this cupcake!)

Summer is pretty much over now (cry cry) and I am getting back to reality like a slap in the face! I am almost guaranteed to not get another opportunity to sit on a gorgeous beach sipping my favourite summer drink: malibu, lemonade and lime. I was lucky enough to go all inclusive when I went away to Mexico a few weeks ago and that only means two things - getting fat off all the free food and drinking cocktails aaaall day long. Although I did try the other cocktails on offer I always went back to my favourite Malibu. Nothing screams summer like the flavour combination of coconut and lime. Not only it is the perfect amount of sweetness slightly countered by the contrasting sharpness of the lime it is so refreshing. I think the taste will always take me back to summer.

In an attempt to cling onto summer before it leaves us for good and I get to start drinking hot chocolates in bed all the time again, I wanted to share this glorious taste of my summer with you. And what better way to do so than in a cupcake?! Despite it being called "Malibu" and lime cupcakes I did not use any actual Malibu in the recipe (£15 a bottle?! No thanks!) and I did not want to isolate anyone that chooses not to drink alcohol. That is not to say that you couldn't add a drop or two yourself if you wanted to try it?! 

The core flavour of Malibu, for anyone that doesn't know, is coconut and is seriously delicious. So instead of Malibu for the buttercream I used coconut milk in place of some of the butter and some desiccated coconut for a real, authentic coconut taste. The initial sweetness of the buttercream when you first take a bite eventually gives way to a slight tang from the cupcakes: I really feel like it is a flavour combination made in heaven!! The cupcakes themselves were also one of the lightest, fluffiest ones I have ever made, I think because of the extra liquid from the fresh lime juice so I cannot recommend enough that you give these cupcakes a try asap!!

Salted Caramel Vanilla Layer Cake

I am back! Sorry it's taken so long for me to post since getting back from Mexico, it has just been manic these last few days! Aside from the crippling jet lag I have suffered (most annoying thing ever!), I have also moved into a new flat which has taken up a lot of time as it has needed quite a bit of TLC. It's all looking good now though, especially as I have moved up all my cake making/decorating tools - just need to find a special place for them now... I FINALLY have time to dedicate to baking and posting and I honestly cannot wait! 

I'm not going to lie, this is a quick, simple but sweet (very sweet actually, yummy!) cake but it was still delicious and looked so pretty :). My nan's birthday took place while I was away and was gutted I wasn't able to make her a cake because she is my biggest supporter when it comes to baking and she just loves anything I bake. So I made making her a cake my first priority once I got back into the kitchen. As I said, this cake is simple but sometimes simplicity is best! Not to mention this cake can be knocked up in next to no time. What a bonus! My nan was pretty unhappy that she didn't get given any of my Twix cupcakes (woopsies) and she loved the idea of salted caramel buttercream so I decided to make a plain Victoria sponge with a lot of extra vanilla to the mixture and fill it with the buttercream so she could taste how beeeautiful it is! I also gave the cake a crumb coat of the caramel buttercream before I covered it in the sweet, fluffy whipped cream icing. I decided to not use the buttercream for all over coverage or decorating with flowers as it is a very rich, sweet buttercream; perfect for topping a cupcake but perhaps too much for a full cake, but I'll let you be the judge of that! The vanilla cream complimented both the flavour and texture of the cake and buttercream perfectly and it covers a cake beautifully and evenly giving a smooth, polished finish. 

Twix Cupcakes

Rich, chocolatey, piled high with luscious caramel buttercream with a subtle crunch from the biscuit base. Everything good about a Twix in a cupcake!

I love chocolate bars and I love cupcakes so the prospect of emulating the flavours of a much loved chocolate bar in a fluffy, moist cupcake is really about as exciting as it gets!

Especially a chocolate bar like a Twix with all it's different flavours and textures - smooth chocolate, gooey caramel and the crisp biscuit base. I've wanted to make salted caramel buttercream for a while now and the idea of Twix cupcakes came to me when trying to decide how to use this buttercream. I cannot even think of enough adjectives to describe how beautiful this buttercream is, I was eating heaped tablespoons of it while decorating - and this is coming from someone who doesn't like a lot of buttercream on cakes (believe it or not). It is very sweet but the saltiness takes the sickly edge off and the creamy flavour has the perfect sharpness to it to compliment the richness of the very chocolatey cakes. I don't know about you but there is something sooo satisfying about making things like caramel from scratch; it's easy and impressive and delicious. The crunch of the biscuit base also cuts through the softness of the absolute mound of buttercream and gives a real Twix-like feel to the cupcakes.

If you really want to know how good these are: my mother took some into work to share and I have now been asked by her colleague to bake a batch every week for the office. Are you desperate to make these yet?! Don't wait any longer! Here is the recipe...

Fundamental Baking Basics

I am often surprised by how many people don't know to make a basic buttercream or victoria sandwich. This is not me being judgemental at all, I just can't imagine not knowing how to make these easy, gorgeous things around which my life pretty much revolves! They are such tremendously easy things to make and are so versatile, they can be adapted to make sooo many recipes! A victoria sponge can be filled with fresh fruit and cream for a delicious simple, summery cake OR covered with beautiful icing and stacked up high for a stunning, striking wedding cake. Buttercream similarly can be flavored with nearly anything and used as a simple filling or can be used for my all-time-favourite... Piping on cupcakes! Honestly, I could go on all day - the possibilities for the two, and the combination of the two are truly endless. So while I am away in Mexico and am unable to bake, I will enlighten those of you who do not know by sharing my favourite victoria sandwich/vanilla sponge recipe and a basic buttercream that all aspiring bakers should have in their repertoire! Better still - neither of these require a mixer. I have no doubt a mixer would help, but I do not own one and don't use one for any of my recipes that I make at home. Feel free to use a mixer if you have one but they are definitely not required!

Victoria Sandwich
Ingredients:

200g self raising flour, sifted

200g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter

4 medium eggs

1 heaped tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tablespoon of liquid extract)

1 tsp baking power

1 tbsp whole milk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and prepare 2 x 8 inch cake tins with butter and flour.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy - a wooden spoon is best for this. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time then add the vanilla. Both the eggs and the butter should be room temperature before cooking.

3. Add the baking powder and flour bit by bit and fold in gently. If you beat the mixture vigorously at this point it will not be as light and fluffy once cooked.  Once the batter is smooth, stir in the milk.

4. Divide evenly between the 2 cake tins and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool before decorating.

And that is literally it! Nothing fancy, nothing hard - just a simple, moist and fluffy cake!

Basic Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:

100g butter, soften

200g icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk, optional

As a general rule -  you should have twice as much icing sugar as butter (e.g 250g butter to 500g icing sugar).

Method:

1. Beat the butter until pale and soft before adding the icing sugar. This step is especially important if your butter is not room temperature.

2. Gradually add in the icing sugar and mix until fully combined. You can adjust the amount of icing sugar for the consistency of buttercream you want: add more for stiffer buttercream for piping intricate details like frills, or less for slightly softer buttercream for crumbcoating or filling a cake.

3. Add milk if it gets too stiff. I like to add milk to mine as I feel it allows easier piping. Add the vanilla and any food colouring at this point, too.

Again, the easiest recipe ever! So easy to adapt by adding in jam for a fruity flavour, a blob of peanut butter or nutella for a fancier icing or substituting some of the icing sugar for cocoa powder for a simple chocolate buttercream.

I hope you find these recipes helpful and get as much use out of them as I do! Happy baking :)

Teri x

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Holiday Time!

I am in a very good mood writing this post becaaauuuseee.... I am going on holiday today! I am going to Mexico with my family for 2 weeks before I go back to university, I am sooo excited! I went a few years ago and absolutely loved it: the weather, the people, the scenery, the food!!! I don't imagine I'll be eating many cupcakes while I'm away, and I certainly won't be baking (boohoo) but I am aiming to get some flavour inspiration while I am there. I just love all mexican food; I love their flavour combinations, the spices they use and the beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables. When I last went I was a vegetarian so I feel that I wasn't fully able to appreciate all that was on offer but now, after 9 years I am eating chicken again (for health reasons, I'm still struggling with the ethics behind it all...) so I will get a whole new experience! And I am definitely going to come back a few pounds heavier... Oh no!

So in my absence, unfortunately I will be unable to bake and share my recipes for you. However I have prepared 2 posts to go out while I am away (only 1 a week unfortunately, getting ready for holiday meant I was unable to do much more than that). So sorry for the inconsistencies in posting as I do try to be as consistent as possible but I hope you enjoy what I have prepared and enjoy the next two weeks! Check back on wednesdays for new posts (one brand new cupcake idea that I think you will all love... *hint hint - twix cupcakes*).

I will surely do a little holiday post when I get back to let you know I am back and to share my adventures and a few photos. Goodbye for now!

Teri x

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Rainbow Sprinkle Cake!

Warning: This is a slightly long post/tutorial but completely worth it as the end product is amazing! Please read on!!
 
I feel like I've been slacking on my baking recently,I've been so busy I haven't had the time to bake nearly as much as I would have like and certainly not anything worth sharing at the moment! A few recipes are works in progress... So rather than post something less than perfect I thought I would share my favourite cake I have ever made! It is the cake that gets by far the most compliments and the cake that people ask me about the most, even now 4 months later (surprisingly simple... I almost don't want to ruin the illusion) and it is a special cake as it is the cake that I made for Martin's birthday back in May! It's just such a wow-cake I couldn't not share it with you!!
I will warn you, however, that this was a pre-blog cake from  before I cared about what my cake pictures looked like (look at my first post and you'll see what I mean!) so they are not spectacular photographically but hopefully you will still love it, despite the wonky pictures!

 
It is a rainbow-sprinkle-smartie-sweetie cake (basically everything I love in life on a cake) with four layers made from a double-batter of classic vanilla Victoria sponge filled with a thin layer of buttercream and strawberry Jam. As this cake had so much going on already with the sprinkles and the smarties, I didn't opt for thick, piped buttercream between each cake layer - even though it would have resulted in a taller cake; which I love - I thought the texture and the flavour of the cake as a whole would benefit from a thinner layer but this ultimately is down to your own personal preference! Each layer of cake was coloured a different bright colour with Wilton gels (if you don't have these - go get them now, they are amazing!) which I think perfectly complimented the rainbow exterior with all the sprinkles! A shallow-ish hole was carved out of the top: NOT DOWN INTO THE CAKE, and filled with smarties and your favourite cakes on thick-gauge flower wires! I hope these instructions are good enough to compensate for the severe lack of photos!!

Total time: Approximately 3 hours (45 minutes to prepare/bake the cakes), 2 hours decorating time not including cooling/refrigerating times.
Difficulty: Medium
You will need: 2 x cake box/double cake batter, 4 x food colouring, approx 300-400g buttercream, a few heaped tablespoons of jam, A LOT of sprinkles (I used 3 whole tubes), approx 150g smarties, 15-20 smallish sweets (e.g. dolly mixtures/liquorice allsorts), relatively thick gauge flower wires, large serrated knife, offset spatula, large spoon.