The Great Irish Bake for Temple Street Children's Hospital

I'm very proud of my daughter Kelly who organised a 'Great Irish Bake' cake sale in the store this weekend in aid of Temple Street Children's Hospital. Many of the staff in the store and friends and family contributed baked goods such as cookies, cupcakes, fruit cakes and slices and she raised just shy of €500 for the hospital. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the cake sale and supported us by buying the produce. The table was cleared by 4pm!

If you want to organise your own 'Great Irish Bake' fundraiser for Temple Street Children's Hospital check here for details.

Summer Barbecue Time

We've had a taste of the summer and we loved it! Barbecues were dusted off all over the country and the smell of smoke filled the balmy evening air. The weather is still holding up and we are delighted to have these barbecook charcoal barbecues on special offer. I know there is a lot to be said for the convenience and speed of a gas barbecue but you cannot deny the difference in taste when you use a proper charcoal barbecue. Barbecook barbecues promise to be safer and easier to light thanks to their patented Quickstart and Quickstop systems. Both these barbecues are suitable for cooking for up to 10 people so invite all your family and friends for a Summer get-together!

'Ice Cream' cupcakes

My daughter loves to bake cupcakes, and when she was invited to her friend's 21st birthday party recently she had the urge to bake something nice for the girls at the pre-party get-together. She had seen a picture of these 'ice cream' cupcakes and decided to give them a go.

She baked cupcakes in flat based wafer ice cream cups. When they were cool she piped pink tinted buttercream over the tops and added jumbo sprinkles and half a flake so they looked just like ice cream cones! Needless to say...they didn't last very long!


Ingredients:
Wafer Ice Cream Cups
Basic cupcake recipe
200g Icing Sugar
100g Butter - room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pink food colouring
Jumbo sprinkles
Chocolate Flakes

Place the ice cream cups into a muffin tin and 3/4 fill each with cake batter. Bake at 140deg for approx 35 mins until risen and firm to touch. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Cream together the butter and icing sugar in a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and pink colouring and beat well. Place the buttercream icing into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and swirl the icing like an ice cream cone to cover the sponge on the top of the ice cream cup. Place jumbo sprinkles into the icing and insert 1/2 a chocolate flake.

Joseph Joseph

We are delighted to have instore (and online) a new range of funky kitchenware from Joseph Joseph. These bright and original kitchen items are designed by twin brothers Anthony and Richard Joseph. The cleverness of their designs may been seen in their easy-store kitchenware and they have very clever fold-flat colanders and graters, and stacking bowls and measuring cup sets.

The Index chopping board set is their best selling item and it is easy to see why. It looks so stylish in a kitchen and yet it is compact and functional. The chop2pot is a design classic and along with the originality of the Smasher and the Twisk, we can see these being very popular with our customers. View our Joseph Joseph range here

Le Creuset Tagine

If you are a fan of morrocan cuisine you will love the Le Creuset Tagine. This has been recently redesigned giving a deeper base increasing the capacity to 2 litres and a shorter funnel to make it easier to store and fit into an oven.

The base of this cooking dish is made from cast iron with a flat bottom. It can be used on any heat source, or on it's own as a baking dish in the oven. The "coolie" style lid is made from earthenware so it still offers the same cooking features as the original. Steam is re-condensed into water droplets on it's cool walls and falls back into the ingredients keeping it moist. Suitable for slow cooking of meat and vegetables with small amounts of liquid, this tagine is also freezer and dishwasher safe. Suitable for all hobs: Ceramic, halogen, induction, gas, oil/wood

We are pleased to offer this tagine at a special price of only €119.95 (the normal rrp is €146) Available in cerise only we expect this tagine will sell out quickly.

New Cake Decorating and Baking Supplies

There is great excitement in the shop this week with the arrival of the latest order from Wilton. New shaped cake pans, sugarcraft accessories, icing colours and all manner of baking and decorating equipment has been appearing from the stores. Of particular interest to most are the gorgeous paper baking cases - even the plainest bun looks special in these.

Starting at only €2.95 they wont break the bank and they might brighten someone's day!

Half Price Anolon Offer

In these recessionary times we are encouraged to do more home cooking and baking. Therefore we are delighted to have this amazing offer of HALF PRICE Meyer Anolon Cookware, Bakeware, Tools, Gadgets and Knives! Offer runs from Thursday 26th March to Sunday 5th April (or as long as the stock lasts!) so hurry and put in your order today.