Getting a bit stick-y

"How do you keep them on the stick?!" Is something I get asked ALL, THE, TIME.

The answer is utterly annoying and the sort of thing that would make me head straight to that little x in the top right hand corner - but it is true.. practice, practice, practice.

Having been making cake pops for yonks I assure you it does take time. They are fiddly, they are frustrating, they have a mind of their own and sometimes they will give you cake rage. But when you get it right then it is soooooo worth it. They are unlike anything else, cakey, truffley, sweet but not to sweet and more-ish.

So, go order yourselves some sticks - I'll be uploading a tutorial in the next few weeks and we'll go through it together. 

cake kisses, Jade oxoxo

Post-a-pop.

What I flipping love about opening 'Treats, Darling?' is that no matter how much I plan - each day can throw a thrilling (woops just lodged chocolate in to the keyboard) surprise my way.
This week we have entered the world of cake pops by post! 

Having spent the past 18 hours frantically pressing the refresh key on the Royal Mail tracking tool (maybe that explains the chocolate key board debacle) I have just been notified of their safe arrival. 

It's the small things that are so exciting - what a world of possibilities we now have. Watch this space - pops by post could be coming through a letter box near you before you know it!!!

Happy New Year my Darlings!

Happy New Year Darlings!

I hope you all had a cake filled Christmas. The 'Treats, Darling?' Kitchen was quite simply barmy!! With Christmas Fayres and orders come out of our ears, I finally put down the cake pop sticks lunchtime Christmas Eve and poured myself a festive tipple and had a homemade sausage roll. Feels like a million years ago already doesn't it?

And now on to 2017! Where will we go this year? It was amazing to end the year on such a high, thrilled at being so welcomed in to the Cake Eating and Baking world of South West Scotland and now tonnes to be getting on with to build on that.

Keep an eye on the bloggy this year I plan to share some of my cake pop hints and tips - at so many fayres people came up to me saying "I tried making Cake pops - I gave up", yes they are fiddly little buggers but so worth it!

For now, I wish you all my best wishes and here's to making 2017 fantastic :) xoxo

Cake pop panic.

So what's been keeping my fingers so busy that I have neglected my little bloggy?

Well, baking of course. Never Ending Baking.

After the most amazing weekend at the Kirkcudbright Food Festival I feel like I have been flying ever since. The organisers must have waved a magic wand over the event it was truly amazing and such a privilege to be a part of.

Waking up on the first day I head off to the market with best pal and sisterling in tow (they were paid in cake for their services, rest assured) who were to man the stall while I set off to run two children's cake pop making workshops. 

Trialing tonnes of new flavours - white chocolate and lemon, malteaser, the jammy dodger pop to name but a view I was petrified that no one would buy my cakes and left my helpers with "I want to be sold out and in an almighty panic by lunchtime!" knowing full well that would never happen.

The workshops were a blast. Give children icing and it will only be an adventure. With sponge in my hair, buttercream on my skirt and laughter tears on my cheeks - my sister ran in after the workshop hollering "Jade, get back in the kitchen, we've sold out!". Oh, ha-bloody-ha sister. This is not something to joke about, I am far too sensitive and figured this meant they had not sold a bean. 

"Don't joke Sister" I huffed. 

"No Jade, seriously, get back in the kitchen, the cake pops have nearly all gone".

Holy. Moly.

I spent the rest of the day in a frenzy sending batch after batch back out of the kitchen down to the food festival.

People like my pops. They liked my pops!!!! The rest of the weekend past in an exhausting and exhilarating blur. Culminating in the omelette challenge (the less said about that the better. Do you know how hard it is to break eggs under pressure?!) 

No rest for the wicked and I now head in to what looks like two crazy busy months with tonnes of Christmas cake pop ideas up my sleeve. Treats, Darling? will be coming to a Christmas Fayre near you  soon.

Chocolate fumes and cosmos.

Apologies Darlings for being a little bit quiet - I can assure you the quietness was strictly restricted to the cyber world. The Treats, Darling? kitchen has been craaaaazy busy!

Last week saw the order of 100 cake pops, 30 packaged portions of Rocky Road, 10 tray bakes and three pastry platters. All in one order! What a mixture of emotions for little old me. To be trusted with such a big order was amazing being a new business, it was both daunting and thrilling. Thrilling, mostly once they were safely delivered. I think at one point I was a little high on the chocolate fumes.

To anyone ever crazy enough to make that many cakes in one go - write yourself a plan. I had checklists, timings and instructions coming out of my ears. Without them I would have quite possible had a small breakdown under the kitchen counter.

Oh and have someone on stand by to do all of the fiddly jobs which take much longer than you would expect. Cue casual labour in the form of my 15 year old sister - who after 130 attempts is now a cake packaging whizz,

To top the week off, I made my first visit back to Essex - to throw another of my sisters a baby shower. Perfect excuse for little baby blue cake pops don't you think? I surprised myself how quickly I have got used to some of the aspects of life in Kirkcudbright. Sitting in traffic near the god forsaken QE2 Bridge I realised the last time I had even a modicum of road rage was being trapped behind a tractor, short lived and forgotten quickly, unlike the boiling wrath I feel now, days later just thinking about the absolute ridiculous pressure that goes with everything associated with living in the South East.

Having not quite got used to the not having cocktails and Primark readily available however, I sunk the cosmos and stock piled the tights until my next trip. I miss my pals and family and the more spontaneous social life I had. But I wouldn't swap making cakes every day for that. Essex, London you'll just have to give me what I need every few months..

The little things add up

After a chocolatey day in the kitchen, two hefty trays of Salted Caramel Millionaire's Shortbread and Rocky Road have been delivered to one of the local cafes who was kind enough to give me a shot and try my cakes.
What a feeling! For a local business to have a moment of faith in you and your baking. Keeping my chocolatey fingers and toes (my toes aren't chocolatey for the record) crossed that they love them, the customers fall over themselves for second helpings, they sell out by tomorrow and it becomes a regular thing.

A red velvet cake delivered to a lady who wanted it for her family this weekend but ended up tucking in by lunchtime.

A batch of cake pops given as a raffle prize and some bonus facebook advertising.

One of the local business mentors asking to book her in for some cake pops in November.

A return customer asking for a lemon drizzle next Friday.

Chipping away at it a bit at a time and keeping the dream going that the little things add up to big things.

Have a lovely sunny weekend Darlings. xxx

Full (cake-baking) steam ahead!

What a week it has been! After being given the go ahead from Environmental Health it has truly been full steam ahead in trying to get the business off the ground. 

Jumping from task to task - it was all too exciting and my head is just bubbling over with ideas that I just couldn't stick to one thing for more than an hour - I'm left with lots of things shaping up nicely and plenty of tasks that I am avoiding.

'Treats, Darling?' is now booked on to Farmers Markets across the county of Dumfries and Galloway - Yes, Dumfriesians there's a cake pop winging its way to you. 
Alas, it wasn't that simple and one thing I learned this week is that I am not on London time anymore. I am not, I repeat, I am NOT in a hurry. Apparently. 

Here, you can take your good sweet time and then some. So despite the efforts in technology and the embedded belief that when you send a trusty email you will receive an instantaneous response (I was brought up on MSN Messenger for Crissakes!) - that simply is not the case. Cue sitting on hands to prevent me sending a bunny boileresque impatient "Did you get my email?" email. 
It's just the way it is. I pop to Tesco and give myself an hour knowing full well I will end up speaking to the checkout girl about the weather for a good half an hour ("CAN YOU NOT SEE THE PEOPLE WAITING IN LINE, LADY?!) Dropping the car in for an MOT and talking about Croydon for twenty minutes (don't even ask me how that is a possibility) and buying stamps and discussing my flip flops for god know's how long (OK, that one I will let slide. They are really pretty).

But simply - people have time. They aren't running at a million miles an hour to catch the DLR, they aren't working 12 hour days, they aren't stressed to the max. It's a revelation. 
Yet, getting a business running, coming from a high speed job and city life is conflicting to say the least. Then again maybe this is how I have achieved so much in just a week - I haven't figured out how to slow down yet.

The website will shortly be launched - if I can just work out how the hell you transfer a domain name. Lots of angry and confused email's have been sent I assure you. New recipes have been trialed and stock, tools and very pretty pink business cards are on their way.

Now time to rest, put my feet up for the evening and play with my new puppy. Yes I even squeezed that in. May I introduce you all to Prince Clive the Chihuahua. It's true love.