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Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
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Sidebar book cover thumbnail pictures are affiliate links to Amazon, and the storefront links to Blackwell's and The Book Depository are also affiliated; should you purchase a book directly through those links, I will receive a small commission. Older posts may also contain affiliate links to one of those bookshops. I am not paid to produce content and all opinions are my own.

« Suffused with a rosy glow | Main | Cooking on the phone »

Injection of fun

Icing syringe by Lakeland.

Cakes by Cornflower Junior.

21 April 2010 in Baking | Permalink

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Those are pretty! I like the little rosettes - must try that!

Posted by: Verity | 21 April 2010 at 12:52 PM

Am drinking coffee right now, and I believe one of those would go perfectly with it! Sigh.

Oh, and yesterday I hosted a program on Scotland at the library. Made my heart ache with missing it! Can you recommend any great books set there - fiction or non - with lots of Scottish flavor? I checked 'Kenilworth' out of my library, and it'll help a bit. Also ordered a Scottish history (Scotland: The Autobiography) from Amazon already... Anything off the top of your head spring to mind? Would appreciate a recommendation if you have one.

Posted by: Lisa Guidarini | 21 April 2010 at 04:43 PM

Great, Lisa! Let's see: there's a lovely memoir by Christian Miller called A Childhood in Scotland (she grew up in a castle in the Highlands); a historical novel with present day sections which I really enjoyed is Susanna Kearsley's Sophia's Secret; George Mackay Brown's books are favourites; Ian Rankin, of course, for crime, and Alexander McCall Smith's lovely Isabel Dalhousie books as well as his 44, Scotland Street series; I have Corrag by Susan Fletcher waiting on the pile - Glencoe massacre, Jacobites, etc.
Any more?

Posted by: Cornflower | 21 April 2010 at 05:00 PM

Oh she's very good.

Posted by: Rebecca | 21 April 2010 at 06:39 PM

I found a 25 cent copy of Christian Miller's book via Amazon, and hit the "Buy it Now"! I also found a book via interlibrary loan called 'Travels in Galloway' by Donald Macintosh. And a book from the 1800s, also via library loan, written by an actress who toured around the North of England and into Scotland. That has the potential to be very interesting or very boring, depending on the actress's style. And of course the history of Scotland will lead me to bios of all the major players, which are many. I should find a good picture book, too, especially of the castles, ruined abbeys and islands... That's next on my list!

Posted by: Lisa Guidarini | 21 April 2010 at 07:39 PM

Also found 'Heart of Scotland: A Memoir' by Charles Richard Cammell via library loan.

Thanks for your help! And now I'm on the trail, using all my best librarian knowledge... :-)

Posted by: Lisa Guidarini | 21 April 2010 at 07:47 PM

John Buchan!

Am in heaven. Sorry about the comment overload!

Posted by: Lisa Guidarini | 21 April 2010 at 07:55 PM

Lisa, if you can get a copy of Martin Martin it's worth a look... Also recommend George Mackay Brown

Posted by: Desperate reader | 21 April 2010 at 09:12 PM

Yum yum!
Would it be a pain to give a recipe for the icing?
We are still enjoying the Easter break in France and my daughter could be happily occupied decorating cakes like those.
We usually ice small cakes, using lemon juice etc instead of water, or make butterfly cakes with jam and buttercream.
I have an icing syringe somewhere......

Posted by: carole | 22 April 2010 at 11:32 AM

No apologies necessary, Lisa, and yes, John Buchan should be there!

Posted by: Cornflower | 22 April 2010 at 11:50 AM

Coming up, Carole!

Posted by: Cornflower | 22 April 2010 at 11:51 AM

Carole, this was the basic buttercream recipe in Fiona Cairns' Bake & Decorate (for icing 12 cupcakes): 160g softened butter, 200g sifted icing sugar. For last week's salted caramel cakes, you add 3-4 tblsps dulce de leche, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp vanilla extract. The cakes in this post were the basic mixture with just some maple syrup added (not sure how much H. put in in the end but we thought they could have done with a bit more!).

Posted by: Cornflower | 22 April 2010 at 01:34 PM

Wow, thanks for the speedy reply!
So in fact it is our beloved buttercream, I didn't imagine it was going to be so simple, it looks different when piped.
The tricky part will be finding the syringe, but we hope to try it tomorrow. Sophie is too busy with her friend playing Rabid Rabbits, on the wii right now. Sigh

Posted by: carole | 22 April 2010 at 04:31 PM

I found it, I found it! We moved in November and some things are proving difficult to locate, especially as we still have boxes lying around...
I am reliably informed that they were playing Rabbids yesterday, I sound like an old lady getting the title wrong!
However, let the baking commence.

Posted by: carole | 23 April 2010 at 12:38 PM

having hijacked the comments(!)- just to say we used my usual recipe of half butter to sugar in weight, with added maple syrup to flavour and slacken the mix.
They looked and tasted great! Thank you!

Posted by: carole | 26 April 2010 at 10:42 AM

Good! You're welcome, Carole!

Posted by: Cornflower | 27 April 2010 at 04:45 PM

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Please note

Sidebar book cover thumbnail pictures are affiliate links to Amazon, and the storefront links to Blackwell's and The Book Depository are also affiliated; should you purchase a book directly through those links, I will receive a small commission. Older posts may also contain affiliate links to one of those bookshops. I am not paid to produce content and all opinions are my own.