bellavita!

[lucysmam]

What did you end up ordering from Squires Kitchen?

oh hello - I work on a Tue evening, so did not see this!

Nothing as yet. DH knows someone via a forum who makes cakes for a living. He showed some of them to me last week. Unbeknown to me he emailed her to ask for info on products and stuff.

She mailed me yesterday and said that the "squires pastes" tended to go a little dry (I think she meant in the pot whilst not in use) but they had just changed their recipe so they might be better now. On this basis, I don't know whether to order the full kit or not?

She is also a member of the British Sugar Craft Guild and copied and pasted a list of basic equipment from their website to get me going - blimey - would need to take out another mortgage to get all the stuff .

On the squires website though, in the basket at the moment I have that kit, smoothers, rolling pin and a 6" cake tin and it comes to about £63 already! Oh and she says a turntable is a must!

Think I am going to have to talk to DH about what to order and the cost! He is away next weekend, so ideally I would like all the stuff before then so I can have a go whilst he is not here.

£63

I have been looking at turntables, there's a fairly reasonable one on a different website I could link to for you if you want, comes to about £11something including postage, but they calculate the postage on weight

Would you email me the list she sent you? I would be interested in seeing what's on it

Going to work in a few mins but yes, if you let me have your e-mail address, I will send you the list.

Yes please to the link for the turntable.

DH is convinced he will be able to find me a shop in York so I can go and look at stuff, but I have been through the yellow pages and google and have come up with nothing. Found a shop in Scarborough, but that is about 40 miles away.

I would have thought there would be somewhere in York, it's ages since I've been though so wouldn't know where to look.

If the one in Scarborough is that far away, have a day out there with your dh when the weather gets a bit nicer. Fish n chips, ice cream & cake shop. Oh, and a stroll on the beach. My idea of heaven (without the lo )

my email is sparklepop at myway dot com

Will post link in a sec

the one at the bottom is the one I've been looking at getting for the moment. Probably not the best one out there but, for the price, since I'm a beginner I figured it would do the job & if I needed something else I could always either save for it or get it when things are better money-wise

Will have a look at that site in more detail in the morning, but the turntable looks good.

You should have mail...

I have just joined this site - there is a message board and they also have things for sale (I have not posted anything on there yet though, just lurking).

You don't have to pay for membership to go on the message boards.

Have just found a shop in York - yay!

Morning bella
Where do you work? I'd die if I wasn't fast asleep by midnight! My brain doesn't work properly at that hour anymore

I ordered some stuff from that site the other week, thought it was quite reasonably priced compared to some I've been browsing & my order came within 2 days.

Not got around to checking mail yet, but will do in a sec, thank-you.

Will save the link to favourites & have a proper look after the lo is in bed tonight . . . . easier to MN while she's up .

Where's the shop in York? We take the lo to the train museum a couple of times a year, if it's easy to find then I wouldn't mind popping in next time we're there.

The shop is in Lendal. I don't usually venture to that end of town but am I right in thinking it isn't far from the train station? It is Imaginative Icing.

I work in a village pub about 5 mins drive from the village where I live. I work 7 till midnight 3 nights and Thursday lunch 11.30 till 3.30.

FWIW - I need my sleep too! Now the boys are growing up, I would like to go to work during the day and be here at night for them, but DS2 is only in Yr4 and would need after school club and kids club in the hols and tbh, it probably would take a drain on my wages then. Whereas now, in the hols, I don't work on the Thursdays and it is only a few hours pay I am missing.

Right, better get something to eat before I go.

Have already been baking this morning (and have loads more to do when I get home) for DH's work tomorrow. They do a coffee and cake team building thing on a Friday and request my cakes (I do get paid for it).

What treats do they have in store for tomorrow? I'm going to make some biccy's of some sort in a mo, can't decide what to make though (my cupboard's looking a bit bare until we get tax credit money next week)

I'll see if I can get my oh to find the shop on yell.com map thingy. He lost Anfield footy ground on there the other night mind you, quite how you lose something so big I don't know

I used to work in a pub too, loved it& miss it. But no-one around here will give me the hours that I want with having the lo & can't really afford outside childcare so am staying as a sahm until we move from here

If you get chance, will you re-send the email to my oh's hotmail, I can't open mine because of this weird "desktop smiley" thing that keeps jumping in as soon as I put my username in. It's gnner at hotmail dot co dot uk. Cheers bella

doesn't matter about re-sending the email, my oh has installed something else on the laptop & it's working perfectly now. You're right, it's quite a list isn't it!? Might be a s-l-o-w process for me getting all that stuff together bit by bit

I am doing

Sticky Marmalade Teabread
Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake
Cherry Shortcake
Chocolate Cornflakes

I made the teabread this morning and I try and incorporate something like the cornflake thingys, rocky roads or double chocolate cookies that don't need much/any cooking which helps me a little.

Just need my tesco delivery to turn up now - this has the eggs, chocolate and cornflakes on that I need!

Chocolate & vanilla marble cake sounds divine! We've ended up with some coffee kisses, shortbread & some coconutty biccy's that both my oh & lo love overdone so they're crunchy & brittle rather than soft.

I need to do some shopping before I can do anything else, nothing left in the cupboard to bake with.

We're off to the train museum the week after next so I'll have a look for the cake decorating shop then (see my cunning plan . Just don't tell my oh that's the real reason I suggested it )

Your secret is safe with me!

All baking done now, cherry shortbread iced, just waiting for the marble cake to cool down so I can dribble chocolate over it.

DH just made me a cup of tea - been on my feet from 11.30 till 3.30 then haven't stopped since apart from a cup of coffee (and four chocolates) when I came in.

I would like the kisses but without the coffee! I love drinking coffee, but anything with coffee in it tastes yuk!

I don't usually like stuff with coffee in it either, but am very partial to buttercream icing so don't mind these! You can send the cake my way if you like, yum

Bet you're knackered being on your feet that long!

map of where the cake decorating shop is If my link works!

It's not far from the station at all, up the street & across the road from the looks of the map on yell.com

It's not quite as close up on there as I had it, if you use the bar at the right hand side of the page to zoom in a little bit more, it shows where the street where the cake shop is, in relation to the station

Thanks for that. I know where it is now

I could go into town tomorrow morning, but I am out for lunch with some mummy friends and I know DH needs a new dress shirt for his dinner suit (he is going away next weekend and it is a black tie dinner - has been saying for months that he must try his shirt on and see if the collar still fits) well guess what, he tried it on a couple of days ago and he needs a bigger collar size - men! so he his planning on going to York on Sat afternoon. If I went in on my own, I would be umming and rrring about the cost, whereas if I go in with DH he will say if you need it get it. He knows I am itching to get started and also if he lets me have my own way it will give him a quieter life - a win win situation all round !

lol @ quieter life! Have fun looking round & let me know if it's easy to find, my oh thinks he has an idea where it is so will be popping in there myself when we take the lo to the train museum

Have been!

Tis a tiny shop opposite the Post Office and Banks Music shop - which I been in many a time with the ds's. Also just around the corner from Betty's (which I have had a moussey cream cake thing from today ).

The lady was very helpful. I have come away with a 6" round cake tin (I am going to practice the fisherman cake for my Dad's birthday), the necessary pastes to do the cake and a smoother. Came to about £20. I asked about a rolling pin and there were several with a starting price of about £11.50 up to about £30 . She also had some leaflets about Sugarcraft Classes and there is a course in April, but one of the nights is a Tuesday which is no good for me as I work, but the next course is July - 4 weeks (all on a Monday which is good) and it is £39 for the course. "learn how to marzipan and fondant ice a 6" cake with board. Make sugarflowers ie. roses, filler flowers and rose leaves. Finish the cake with ribbon and piping. Top the cake with a swag of draped "fabric" icing, topped with your floral arrangement and enhanced with bear grass or wired ribbon"

There is also a xmas cake course in October which I may look at doing.

So... off we trots to Lakeland and I find just what I am looking for priced around £3 - a rolling pin. They also had two turntables - one tilting and one non-tilting. The tilting one was about £27 and the non was around £12.50. I did not get it simply because DH said to see if I like the cake decorating thing first (although I know I will).

So, next time I go into York, I now know where the shop is and I can go in and browse at my leisure. With four of us there was not a lot of room for manouvre especially with the other customers!

hmmm, not big enough for a stroller type buggy then?

Sounds easy enough to find, although it's a while since I went shopping in York. I take it the prices are fairly reasonable since you managed to get all you needed for practising your dads cake?

I wouldn't mind doing some classes, was going back to college until we decided we're moving. & until we decide where to, there's no point me starting something and then having to stop because we move

We don't have a Lakeland anywhere near us, is it in the city centre or out of town? I've been putting off getting a rolling pin simply because they're so expensive & it doesn't seem fair to spend so much on something for my hobby

I think maybe you might have to leave dp outside with the buggy.

Well there was no way I was going to pay £11.50 for a rolling pin. The lady asked if I had a rolling pin and I said yes, a wooden one, which I use for everyday baking. She said it would be fine for now. But DS2 happened to see one in Lakeland - although it is a smaller, thinner rolling pin than in the other shop, but it will do the job and I can just keep it for that and nothing else.

The prices looked reasonable enough - it is Sugar Flair paste and have just checked the price on the bottles and they are £2.04 each.

Lakeland is in the town centre - about a 5 min walk from the shop - very easy to find.

Moving? Is this to do with BIL/SIL/MIL?

yup, all the hassle seems to have given oh a kick up the ass!

He announced the other night he wants to move because he's sick of the hassle. So, I asked where & he said Spain! Fine by me, the further the better & since none of them will actually pay to come see us, we get to set the rules & tell them what we're doing & when.

It'll not be for a while but I can't bloody wait to get gone, & get some peace