My first (potential) pop up

I’ve been invited to host a pop up at The Roker Hotel in Sunderland, a beautiful beach front location in Roker, Sunderland, a stone’s throw from my house.

The proposed date is Saturday August 3rd and there will be two sittings to be confirmed.

I’m planning on 5 courses and the price is to be determined.

Early stages at the minute but I hope to have this confirmed and be able to start selling tickets within a week.

For anyone interested here’s the menu I’m proposing. I’m not the kind of chef who'll make a veloute out of asparagus so if you're looking for foams and all that carry on I’m not your girl.

Any comments welcome at the bottom. It would be helpful to know what people would pay per head? the price will be determined once the manager has priced up the event.

thanks

Pre Starter:

parfait. toasts. jam
Chicken liver parfait served in mini kilner jars, topped with red onion jam. with a thin toasted sourdough

Starter:

panacalty
But not as you remember it. home corned beef, potato and onion gratin, black pudding crumble, rich beef stock

Fish:

scallop. celeriac, truffle, apple
Pan fried local king scallops with celeriac and truffle puree, apple salad, apple caramel

Main (the dish I cooked on MasterChef:

venison. potato. beetroot. blackberries. chocolate
tea smoked venison, creamy buttered mash. Beetroot and blackberry puree, rich game gravy finished with a hint of bitter chocolate to enhance the flavours of the dish

Dessert:

chocolate. pistachio. cherry
Chocolate delice with a brownie base, cherry coulis, pistachio ice cream, biscuit, chocolate mousse
 

Stacie Bakes!

Hi everyone my first cookbook Stacie Bakes is now available to pre order on amazon.

Heres the link http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Stacie%20Stewart&search-alias=books-uk

Best wishes for now.

EAT Festival Newcastle

This weekend is the return of the EAT Festival Newcastle.

IM doing various bits across the weekend including manning a chilli stall, where i'll be selling my homemade chuck steak chilli with nachos, salad and sour cream.

Next i'll have a stall just on the bottom of Northumberland St selling goods from the Beehive Bakery, expect cupcakes and brownies in all flavours.  Last year i sold out in 2 hours so im going well prepared.

Finally i'll be doing a demonstration in the chefs theatre, 2pm, im cooking an easy supper dish made from leftovers you might find in your fridge.  Come along and ask questions, put me on the spot and watch me burn myself as usual in soectacular fashion.

Either way you'll catch me sometime over the weekend im sure!

Im also planning on making little tajines of rosewater jellies for my customers to eat while perusing! YUM.

Theres more info about the EAT Festival here.

http://www.eatnewcastlegateshead.com/

What I bought today

Good evening.

What a week its been, what a month its been actually, Ive never stopped, literally been workin 18 hour days at the bakery but im not complaining. Ive worked so hard this last year and its starting to pay off.  Ive got a long road ahead of me but im looking forward to it.

Who would have thought entering a cooking competition would completely overhaul my life so quickly.

So as we all know you work hard and you play harder. And on the latter subject ive been making a few cheeky purchases.

The first is this original knitted Fred Perry, winter white and a brown laurel.  Its very similar to my John Smedleys i LIVE in, the style is so classic and smart.  Yes its a ladies even though the manequin looks like its is smuggling a banana in the bottom picture.

I plan on wearing it two ways.  Casually with turn ups and my bass weejun congac loafers.

Heres me in it, its just arrived:

The secons is a bit more dressy, chocolate two tone pencil skirt, fishnets and black fringe 60s penny loafers.  I love blending black and brown shades.

Im also debating whether to get a chocolate suede a line skirt with pres stud fasten down the front made.  Somewthing like the below but shorter, i love the shape.

This below one is also amazing and is in a deep plum, its from Topshop of all places.  I dont mind the high street but the thought of going out and seeing anyone dressed in something the same as me scares the crap out of me.

Ive also just bought these amazing Churches shoes.  Church are one of the most amazing shoe brands, they are famous for their brogues but these pretty 60s weaves are exactly what ive been after for years.  A bargain at £25 aswel.

Ive been after a new Breton stripe for ages. The one ive got is a little worn, I love them with simple navy chino trousers.  Ive found these and they are a snip at £15 each so ive bought 2 ha!!

My final purchase was a Britac shirt.  Britac are a Spanish firm who make the most amazing shirts, they are a true mod/skin/suede brand and although they dont do womens their xs mens fit me a treat, i got this shirt today and plan on wearing it with either trousers in chocolate brown or a navy tonic short skirt.  A snip at £45 and the detailing is outstanding.

In the bakery today I made a cake for Olympic medalist Tony Jefferies.  Hes amazing im such a boxing fan so its nice to know a Sunderland lad is doing so well.  I made it red velvet and vanilla sponge in alternating layers so when you cut into it its red and white stripes like the football club. 

You can see the cake here top row on the right.

The Beehive and CandyHandfuls Boutique bakeries

Ive been looking for a bakery in the North East to collaborate with for ages now, I want to be able to offer clients a wider range of products and services than i just sell.  I also think its nice to extend an olive branch to someone who should technically be my competition to just say, hey look we both make cakes, we are both very good, why dont sometimes we work together and play to our strengths to offer a wider service and expand both our businesses.  Its nice to be nice i reckon.

Thats exactly what i said to the lovely Helen a couple of weeks ago and thrillingly she agreed.

Helen owns and runs Candy Handfuls Boutique Bakery and is really really good at what she does, infact I might go as far to say shes the best, AND shes cool as. Rocking the decade before my prefered 60's, shes a glam 50's vintage cake queen!

We are going to be collaborating on a few cakes over the next couple of months to see how things go.

Out first collaboration was this 18th birthday cake.
The top a large cupcake was half chocolate and half vanilla with a vanilla buttercream, Helen worked her wonders and accesorised the cake perfectly as per the brief (pink girly and glittey)

I worked on the cupcakes, again half vanilla half chocolate, the sprinkles were all edible and included tiny little pink hearts which actually looked like tin foil.

What does everyone think?

The second cake we worked on was a Christening cake today (for tomorrow)  its a half red velvet and half vanilla elephant, in the style of the Christening invitations, Helen has excelled herself on the carving and decoration and i think its a pretty excellent version of the invite!

Lots to come from us in the future!  x

food glorious food my tea menu

OK so at the risk of sounding food OCD i plan what im eating for my tea about a month in advance, thats not saying im guilty of a cheeky pizza express on the way home every now and again but planning my food out helps me organise my nights around my baking and it also minimises waste as i only but fresh what i need.

Saying that very now and again im so busy and i get caught short.

The last 2 nights have been such examples.

Monday night i was home late and opened the fridge to some left over mashed potatoes, half a chorizo and some goatscheese.  Thinking caps on and literally 20 minutes later I was tucking into gnocchi with chorizo, goatscheese, toasted pine nuts (from my dry stores) and cherry tomatoes from the windowsill.

Oh dear ive gone off on a tangent, my original blog was about my tea menu!

So here it is, what i'll be eating (and trying to blog about) for the next couple of weeks...

Thursday                                  pear blue cheese and walnut salad

Friday                                      pasta with chorizo tomatoes and rocket

Saturday 12^th                            thai red chicken curry with rice

Sunday                                     braised lamb with cabbage gratin (recipe from this morning)

Monday                                   shepherds pie (use leftover lamb)

Tuesday                                   macaroni cheese with tomatoes

Wednesday                              pasta with cabbage mozzarella and bacon

Thursday                                  chicken hot pot (recipe from this morning)

Friday                                      fish pie (smoked haddock) make loads of mash for tomorrow

Saturday 19^th                          sausage and mash with red onion gravy

Sunday                                     roast chicken dinner (make stock)

Monday                                   chicken broth with herb dumplings

Tuesday                                   bolognaise

Wednesday                              bolognaise

Thursday                                  Moroccan lamb kebabs with tabouleh and raita / flatbreads

Friday                                      rack of lamb, ratatouille, pomme anna,

Saturday 26th                           eating out @BOUCHON HEXHAM (Juan Martin gig)

Sunday                                    belly pork with leek suet pudding, cider gravy

Anything that takes your fancy on there that you really want me to blog about then let me know.

And heres a picture of my lovely dog just because i love him.

The announcement

Well well, not quite sure how to start this so in my usual style im just going to blurt it out.  Iits with enormous pride that I have been offered my very own Dragons Den style offer from two local business men.

I have been offered substantial investment to expand the brand and to hopefully make The Beehive Bakery a national brand and beacon of quality.

First things first as of March 1st I will be operating out of a brand new commercial unit at the Sunderland Business Innovation Centre.  Equipment, packaging, advertising and marketing will benefit from the investment and im working closely with the investors to relaunch the Bakery.

Im really excited about the coming months and believe me when i say ive worked my arse off to get this opportunity.

For those of you who might not know, since finishing MasterChef ive been holding down my full time job aswel as doing the bakery from home to support myself financially. 

Its been the most mental 12 months, i originally started the bakery as a hobby but its grown into something i can be proud of, something i can be proud to say ive done from the ground up.  Ive had no help, financially or business wise and its been a struggle.

There have been times when ive been close to giving up as the pressure and stress of my family life and working two jobs has on more than one occasion taken its toll (however i wasnt complaining about loosing 7lbs in 5 days at the time due to overworking)

Anyway, enough of the sob story its not Jereme Kyle; ive got a fulll time assistant bakery manager and an apprentice working for me so its time for me to (wo)man up and continue to make my dreams a reality.

Its poingant that the new series of MasterChef starts this month and I hope i have inspired at least one person to believe that if you have a dream you can make it happen.

Thank you to Claire, Vicky and Suk from Shine for believing in me from day 1 and giving me the opportunity.  Thanks to Greg and John for recognising i had potential and most importantly thanks to everyone who has supported me and the bakery.

Heres to 2011 and beyond.