Cupcakes and Fairycakes at St. George's Market

Niall and I are regulars at St. George’s Market and love going to find some tasty ingredients for a dinner party or some tasty snacks – it’s always a great day out, what with the live music and the many, many food stalls. We’ve even entertained thoughts of getting our own stall – so, when Bernadette and Martine from Cupcakes and Fairycakes suggested I join them on their busy Sunday market stall, I jumped at the chance to get involved and see how it all comes together. This is how my day went..

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4

An 8am start!! OK, it’s hardly the crack of dawn (Bernadette and Martine had been baking since 6am!!), but after a few glasses of wine the night before it certainly felt like it!

As soon as I arrived at St George’s Market I helped set up the stall: putting up the banner, arranging the stands and laying out the samples. The delicious, sugar-y aroma of all of those freshly baked cupcakes made my stomach rumble.  A cupcake for breakfast?? Could I?!! Of course I could!!  After a restorative cup of tea and a flour-less chocolate cupcake with white chocolate topping (yummy) I felt half-human again and began to learn the ropes.

The first thing to get to grips with was the menu – Strawberry Shake, Dime Bar, Oreo Choc Cream, Vanilla Pod, Kiddies’ Suprise and a flour-less dark chocolate with white chocolate topped with a glittery strawberry.  All of the cupcakes were beautifully iced and decorated, like little works of art and almost too good to eat.. I ate my way through all the flavours (purely for research purposes) and I can confirm that each and every one of them are superbly moist and fluffy.

With this intimate knowledge of the Cupcakes and Fairycakes range I quickly got up to speed on the prices and how the cupcakes and fairycakes were made. As the doors opened and the music started I could feel my hangover slowly begin to fade away as the whole buzz of the market took over.  I got off to a great start, chatting to a few people and selling box after box of those delicious buns.  I think the best thing about working at the market are the colourful characters you meet and believe me, I met quite a few that day.  I think my most memorable was the man who asked me could I sprinkle some arsenic on top for ‘the wife’… I don’t think he was serious though!! 

There really was a great atmosphere about the market that day and I got chatting to the lovely girls that were working on the bakery stall beside us. They were so friendly and the day really flew by. I even brokered a food-swap with them during a tea-break – a cupcake for Katie’s amazing, melt-in-the-mouth carrot cake!!

As the day came to a close and we counted up the profits from the days’ trading, my feet ached and I longed for a cup of tea and a foot massage. Mind you, I wouldn’t have missed the chance to see what life on the other side of the stall is like – I met some great people, ate my way through far too many cupcakes, listened to some great stories, and generally had great fun.

If you are looking for something to do on a Sunday you could do a lot worse than to head down to St George’s market for some live music, good atmosphere and delicious food!  Don’t forget to pop by the Cupcakes and Fairycakes stall to say ‘Hi’ to Bernadette and Martine and to sample their delicious cupcakes.. they’re honestly worth the journey alone. 

Make sure you visit the site again for my interview with Bernadette and Martine where they show me how to bake the ‘perfect’ cupcake.

Other information

St. George’s Market is now open on Sundays, from 10am to 4pm. You can click here to find out more information about the market.

If you would like to try some of Bernadette and Martine’s delicious cupcakes you can get in touch by:
Cupcakes and Fairycakes
T: 07879400177 or 07968225732
E: info@cupcakesandfairycakes.com
W: www.cupcakesandfairycakes.com

Direct Wine Shipments

This November Susan from Direct Wine Shipments will be running the New York Marathon in aid of Action Cancer. To help raise money there’s a wine-tasting evening on Thursday 24th June 2010, 7.30 for 8pm.

Susan will be hosting the wine-tasting evening with Denis Broderick, one of Northern Ireland’s leading wine educators, the featured speaker. A buffet supper will be provided by Crumbs catering.

Action Cancer is a Northern Ireland cancer charity. At Action Cancer the mission is to save lives and support people and they maintain a pioneering role in the development of cancer services, including, early detection services for the Northern Ireland community, counselling and support services for cancer patients and their families, cancer prevention & health promotion.

The details

• When: Thursday 24th June 2010, 7.30 for 8pm
• Cost: £25
• How to book: contact 028 9050 8000 or email susan@directwine.co.uk
• More information: www.directwine.co.uk

It’s not very often that you can savour a delicious wine knowing that you’re helping a very good cause.. And that someone else will have to run a marathon – so make sure that you get in touch!

Best of luck, Susan!

Belfast Taste & Music Fest 2010

The Belfast Taste & Music Fest returns to the Great Lawn in Botanic Gardens from Wednesday, 4th August to Sunday, 8th August 2010 (noon to 10:00 p.m. daily).

The Taste-Fest is Northern Ireland’s premiere food and entertainment event, and is expected to attract over 30,000 visitors over the 5 days.

Event Details

• Date: 4th – 8th August 2010
• Location: Botanic Gardens, Belfast
• Opening times: Noon to 10pm daily
• Price range: £5 from Noon to 5pm, and £10 thereafter. There are various ticket packages available – for full details visit www.belfasttasteandmusicfest.com/times-tickets/

The Food

Featuring a whole host of local chef restauranteurs, this years’ foodie boulevard includes:

• Simon Dougan – Yellow Door Deli, Portadown
• Alan Higginson – 27 Talbot Street, Belfast
• Tony O’Neill – The Merchant Hotel, Belfast
• Paul Catterson – Mango, Maghera
• Dean Coppard – Uluru, Armagh
• Andy Rea – Mourne Seafood Bar, Belfast
• Patrick Leonard – Fitzwilliam Hotel, Belfast
• Danny Millar – Balloo House, Killinchey
• Niall McKenna – James Street South, Belfast

This year will also see a selection of our major food suppliers: O’Kane Poultry, Kettyle Irish Foods, Get Fresh, Ulster Pork and Bacon Forum and Cookstown.

The Entertainment

There’s a great menu for the entertainment too – everything from Flash Harry, to Mary Coughlan, to Les McKeown’s Bay City Rollers. Something for everyone there!

A word to the wise

Entry to the event doesn’t mean that you get to taste the food! You’ll need to buy Taste Fest food tokens which are priced at 50p each – in blocks of 20 for £10, and “top-ups” of 10 tokens for £5 after that. These tokens can and will disappear at an alarming rate – so bring some spare cash to buy those precious top-ups.

Kelly and I will venture down again this year, although we are going to get there earlier in the day than we did last year.

You can read about what we thought of the Belfast Taste and Music Fest 2009 here.

Other information

You can visit the Belfast Taste and Music Fest website for more information.

Direct Wine Shipments

Direct Wine Shipments are holding another one of their “walkabout” wine-tastings on 18 June, 2010.

These events are always fun – a great way to sample a wide range of DWS-recommended wines and to have a chat with their friendly team – all in an informal and relaxed atmosphere.

Megan Daily from Sainte Eugénie, a producer in the Corbières AOC of Languedoc-Roussillon, will also be attending.

The details

The details of the walkabout wine-tasting event are:

• Date: Friday 18th June 2010
• Time: 4.30pm – 7.30pm
• Cost: £15 per person
• Tickets: You can buy the tickets online at www.directwineshipments.com

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Platform restaurant, SE1

Kelly and I were delighted to be asked to go to the launch of Platform, a new restaurant in London – especially when we heard of the wholesome philosophy behind the venture.

Started by friends Tony McKinlay and Barnaby Butterfield, the restaurant cuts out the middle-man in a “Gate to Plate” system: Barnaby raises rare breeds of cattle and pigs in the all-natural, traditional way, and Tony (helped by head chef Jake Tutill) dishes this flavoursome produce up to the lucky customers.

You can imagine how disappointed we were when we realised that we couldn’t go (more about that later).. Fortunately, friends and fellow Chilli-and-Chocolatiers Dominique and Charlotte were able to step into the breach, put on their glad-rags, and dodge the paparazzi to investigate for us.

Over to Dominique..

The launch party

Living in London, I always thought it was a shame that Chilli and Chocolate’s Kelly and Niall live so far from me, all the way over there in Belfast. Mind you, after being asked to stand in for them at the launch of ‘Platform’ I can now see a plus side.

It was all glittering disco ball, free champagne, paps (and therefore somewhat inevitably Sophie Anderton) at last week’s opening. But behind the usual London ‘razzle dazzle ‘em’ attitude, there’s a really nice feel to the restaurant situated under the arches of London Bridge station’s platform 1.

Surprisingly, behind the glamour, the ethos of the place is recycle, recycle, recycle with all the furnishings from reclaimed sites. The mantra even extends to the kitchen where they plan to create dishes from what has, until recently, been ‘unfashionable’ cuts of meat such as cheek.

Behind the enterprise is a dream shared by a restauranteur and a farmer. Farmer Barney explained how he only rears the best quality of meat and will supply the whole carcass to Platform; the chef is so talented he can create wonderful flavours from these ‘cast off’ parts of the animal. Gone are the days of boring fillets of steak, says Barnie, it’s wasteful and lazy cooking.

Later in the evening they brought round meaty nibbles to taste. Kelly and Niall let you down here by picking me to report back – I’m a dreaded veggie. I can’t tell you what the meat tastes like, but if it’s half as tasty as farmer Barnie is passionate about the project, then Platform might be worth a visit next time you’re over.

And if you’re lucky, you might just catch the lovely Sophie.

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5

Thanks

Thanks to Tony and Barnaby at Platform, and Kathryn from HandMade for the invite.

Thanks too to Dominique and Charlotte.

Photos 2-4 taken by Charlotte Fielding.

Find Platform

Platform
56-58 Tooley Street,
London
SE1 2SZ
T: 020 7403 6388
E: info@platformse1.co.uk
W: www.platformse1.co.uk
You can also find Platform on Google Maps.

Matthew Fort

Award-winning food writer and critic, Matthew Fort, will be speaking at the Ulster Museum on Monday 29th March, 7.30pm as part of the Northern Bank Ulster Museum Lecture Series. His talk is entitled “Food isn’t a matter of life and death – it’s more important than that.”

Matthew Fort has written about food for the Guardian since 1989. He has been Glenfiddich Food Writer of the Year, Restaurant Writer of the Year and Cookery Writer of the Year – although he might be more familiar to most people for his role as judge on television programmes such as “The Great British Menu” and “The Greatest Dishes in the World”.

Always insightful and entertaining, Matthew Fort’s lecture is bound to be one not-to-be-missed – and it’ll give us a reason to have a look around the new Ulster Museum (as if one were needed!).

The details

The Matthew Fort lecture will be held on Monday 29 March at 7.30pm in the Ulster Museum Lecture Theatre and will be followed with a Q&A session.

Tickets cost £7.50 (£4.50 for students and groups of 6 people or more) and can be booked by calling the Ulster Museum ticket line or in person at the Ulster Museum Welcome desk. Alternatively a cheque or postal order can be sent to the Ulster Museum made out to National Museums Northern Ireland.

T: 028 9044 0051 (Tues–Sun 10am–5pm)
E: info@nmni.com

You can find more information here.

Belfast - delicious

The Great Belfast Food Week begins next Wednesday, a four-day food festival to celebrate the best of Northern Ireland food produce.

The festival will be headlined by some of the best-known TV chefs including: James Martin; Gino D’Acampo; Paul Rankin; local chef Nick Price; and The Good Food Programme’s host Sheila Dillon.

There’s lots going on..

Event details:

• Date: 24 – 27 March
• Tickets: Tickets are available through www.gotobelfast.com or phone 028 9024 6609 (unless otherwise stated).

Belfast Kitchen with James Martin, Nick Price, Paul Rankin and Jason More

Celebrating our local produce with Nick Price. Belfast dishes prepared by Paul Rankin and Jason More with James Martin.

• Date: Wednesday 24 March 2010
• Venue: Ulster Museum, 9.30am – 12 noon
• Tickets:£20

Gino Cooks the Great Belfast Menu

See Gino D’Acampo’s twist on the Great Belfast Menu at Connswater Shopping Centre and Victoria Square. Paul Rankin and other local chefs will also be there.

• Date: Thursday 25 March 2010
• Location: Connswater Shopping Centre at 12.30pm – 1.30pm and various city centre venues from 3pm
• Tickets: No ticket required

Gino D’Acampo – signing of his latest cookbook

• Date: Thursday 25 March 2010
• Venue: Waterstones, Fountain Street, Belfast, 5pm – 6pm

Good Food means Good Business Breakfast Seminar

Free business breakfast seminar featuring guest speaker Martin Hamilton from Mash Direct. He will be giving an insight into his award winning company’s strategy for success. To book your place (free to small businesses) please contact Rhonda Lynn on 028 9027 0229 or email lynnr@belfastcity.gov.uk.

• Date: Thursday 25 March 2010
• Venue: Holiday Inn, Ormeau Avenue, 8am – 10am

Gino hosts lunch

Sample a delicious four course lunch cooked by Gino D’Acampo using fresh ingredients sourced directly from St George’s Market at the St George’s Bar and Grill.

• Date: Friday 26 March
• Venue: St George’s Bar and Grill, 11.30am – 1pm
• Tickets: £35 – available at St George’s Bar and Grill (telephone: 028 9024 0014)

Sheila Dillon with Nick Price – a presentation on The Slow Food Movement

• Date: Friday 26 March
• Venue: Baby Grand, Grand Opera House, 2.30pm – 5pm
• Tickets: £10

Belfast Bred: A dramatic tour of the city’s cuisine from past to present

Sample the delights of Belfast food and discover the city’s fascinating culinary history in the company of Barney, a chef from RMS Titanic – and Radio 4’s Sheila Dillon. Leaves from Sawer’s Delicatessen, Fountain Street at 10am and finishes at St George’s Market at 12 noon.

• Date: Saturday 27 March
• Venue: Local Belfast restaurants, 10am – 12 noon
• Tickets: £15 – available from the Belfast Welcome Centre

St George’s Chocolate Festival with Sheila Dillon

Do you love chocolate? Celebrate and indulge at our Chocolate Festival at St George’s Market. Enjoy special events, demonstrations and delicious free samples!

• Date: Saturday 27 March
• Venue: St George’s Market, 10am – 3pm (with Sheila Dillon from 12pm)
• More information: www.belfastcity.gov.uk

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Congratulations and be prosperous

Congratulations and be prosperous in the Year of the Tiger!

Goodwill might be thin on the ground in St. George’s Market this weekend, however, with chefs from Chinese restaurants across Belfast competing in a special masterchef event organised by Belfast City Council. The challenge will take place this Sunday (February 14th 2010) as part of the annual Chinese New Year celebrations.

As well as providing some entertainment on Valentine’s Day, the event is another stage in a successful campaign by the council’s food safety team to encourage Chinese takeaways to include healthier options on their menus.

High Sherriff of Belfast Councillor Christopher Stalford, who will be on the judges’ tasting panel, said: “More than 50 chefs from Chinese restaurants across Belfast took part in our healthy cooking workshops last year, with celebrity chef Nancy Lam; and to build on that success, we thought this would be another way of getting the ‘healthy’ message out there.

“Research shows that Chinese food is the takeaway of choice across the UK but very often the nutritional value is reduced because the recipes have been adapted to suit our ‘westernised’ palette.

“The aim of this project is to encourage takeaways to include healthier options on their menus and for chefs to go back to their traditional, healthy roots.”

This Sunday’s competition will see chefs prepare one meal which will be judged on its taste, nutritional value, and how hygienically it has been prepared.

Joining the High Sherriff on the judging panel is Jeremy Chan, owner and chef of Sinley restaurant in Cookstown, and William Lam from the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

The winning chef will be announced at the event and they’ll enjoy a two night stay at Galgorm Manor in Ballymena, sponsored by Firmus Energy. The winner will also be invited to the annual Chinese New Year gala dinner at Belfast’s Europa Hotel.

Details

• The masterchef event runs from 12pm to 2:30pm.
• There’ll be a spectacular Lion Dance from 1pm to 3pm.
• Entertainment includes acrobats, jugglers, martial arts demonstrations and Chinese arts and craft workshops.
• If you’re hungry there will also be lots of food stalls selling local and global cuisine.

More information

For more information visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/events.

Wine-tasting at Direct Wine Shipments

In our last post we mentioned the exciting work that we’re doing with Direct Wine Shipments and that there was another announcement to come..

Chilli and Chocolate are holding a wine-tasting evening at Direct Wine Shipments on Friday the 12th of March 2010!!

Not only will you get to taste an array of selected wines but there will also be some of our favourite producers and stores there too – with samples for you to enjoy.

The companies attending are:

	Susan Rees from Direct Wine Shipments
	Deirdre McCanny from Co Couture, the gourmet chocolatiers
	Antoinette Morrow from Clydesdale and Morrow, purveyors of fine cheese
	Ronan McElherron from Biostore, specialising in imported olive oil and balsamic vinegar
	Bernadette McIlhatton from Cupcakes and Fairycakes

As well as getting to taste all of the delicious treats on display there’ll be some short introductions to the owners (who are more than willing to chat away to you), a bit of a discussion about how to properly taste wine, how to select the perfect cheeseboard, and more.

It’s an informal evening and a chance for all our members to meet over a good glass of wine. It certainly is an alternative to your usual Friday night out in Belfast.. We’re really looking forward to it!

DWS have also been good enough to give you an extra incentive to become a member of Chilli and Chocolate – any wine purchased that night comes with a 15% discount!

The details:

• All attendees must be members of Chilli and Chocolate;
• Tickets cost £10.00 per person – just a little more if you’re paying by PayPal. You can buy your tickets online through the member’s page. You do not need to have a PayPal account to pay using this method;
• The evening will start at 7pm at the Direct Wine Shipments premises: Direct Wine Shipments, 5-7 Corporation Square, Belfast BT1 3AJ;
• There won’t be any ticket sales on the night – you have to have bought your tickets before the evening itself – and ticket sales will stop on Wednesday 10th of March; and
• We’ll send everyone that is attending an email on Thursday 11th of March with details of the event.

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Kelly and Niall

Other information

You can find the DWS store at:

Direct Wine Shipments
5-7 Corporation Square,
Belfast
BT1 3AJ
T: 028 9050 8000
E: shop@directwine.co.uk
W: www.directwine.co.uk
You can also find DWS on Google Maps.

Belfast City Council events

When I wrote the post about the Belfast Christmas Continental Market 2009 I did say that I had two misgivings about the event: the cost of everything at the market and, more importantly, the increasing prominence of the beer tents in the event. Now that the Christmas Market has closed for another year, perhaps it’s time to review..

We went to the market once this year, and once was more than enough. The huge queues for the Laverys beer tent which blocked other stalls, the drunken revellers falling about the City Hall grounds and the streets beyond, and the smell of stale beer and puddles vomit meant that it was also a flying visit.

I’ve never quite understood how Laverys beer tent – and the term “tent” hardly does the sprawling, canvas covered bar area credit – came to be part of the “Continental” market. Are Frogs’ Legs or Pretzels sold as bar snacks? Perhaps the sale of French beer is all that is required? Or maybe it just comes down to how much money is being paid for the premier location that the vast marquee seems to be provided with. Whatever the reason – and it really doesn’t matter what the rationale is – the beer tent doesn’t contribute to the enjoyment, to the festive atmosphere, to the (much publicised) family-safe character, nor the “continental” content of the Belfast Christmas Continental Market.

Given the sheer size of the Laverys tent in what is a very limited space it felt that there was very little which was “continental” about the market. I’m no marketing copy-writer, so I’ll leave it to someone else to come-up with a snappier strapline than what would be a more accurate description of what the Christmas Market has turned into: The Belfast City Hall Booze-Up-with-Crepes-which-happens-to-be-at-Christmas.

It’s partly our fault too. Every time that there’s a bar at these events it’s absolutely stuffed with thirsty customers and the whole thing seems to become all about the drink – just look at the Belfast Taste and Music Festival 2009. I know that having a drink is part of our culture, but does it have to dominate an event to the detriment of everything else? Both Kelly and I love St. George’s Market and really enjoy the cosmopolitan and friendly the atmosphere – and we’ve wondered whether Belfast could carry-off the sort of frenetic, energetic celebration of food that la Boqueria in Barcelona seems to manage so effortlessly, where you can buy still-twitching fish from one stall and stop for a refreshing glass of prosecco or beer and a bite to eat at another. Sadly, probably not – the addition of alcohol would probably spoil what we already have.

The Christmas Continental Market could be a truly enjoyable, welcoming event, one that does become part of everyone’s festive calendar – but it needs someone to be brave and to have some vision for the City Centre and what the majority of people really want from their city at Christmas-time. So, come on BCC – next year, give us a real Christmas treat – a Christmas Market that is about the people, not about how much money can be generated from selling pitches to local bars. Maybe then you’ll have some real Christmas cheer in the city centre.