Prosecco and Strawberry Cake for a Special Birthday

The night before my daughter was due to visit us for her birthday she asked me if I was going to make her a birthday cake!  I had loads to do before the family arrived but just before bedtime I started thinking about making a birthday cake!

Then I remembered that I had been send a Prosecco & Strawberry Cake home baking kit from the subscription baking club called Bakedin.  You join the baking club and get sent a box to make the monthly cake.

You get all of the dry ingredients you will need and each step has the ingredients weighed out and in a plastic bag numbered to correspond with the recipe card.

The card lists what you will need to provide such as for this cake I needed unsalted butter, large eggs, a small amount of milk and strawberries.  Even the Prosecco was included in a small bottle.

Everything else ou will need is included including four foil cake tins, grease-proof liners, instructions and even a wooden skewer to test if your cakes are done.

Let your four layers cool for a few minutes.  Brush each one with the prosecco syrup you made whilst they were baking.  Use the rest of the prosecco syrup for the icing.

Once assembled the cake looked amazing.

The cake made a lovely birthday cake - we sang, candles were blown out then coffee and cake time!

I think the cake looked just as lovely on the inside as it did on the outside.  I personally like more frosting however the lack of frosting gives the new 'naked' cake look!

The cake was really moist and tasted lovely.

I was sent a subscription box to review.  I was not required to write a positive review.  As usual all opinions and photography are my own.  No photographs may be reproduced in any form without my written permission.

What I am drinking this Christmas

Christmas time is for kicking back, enjoying the time with family and friends (after the frantic food and present shopping is done) eating and of course drinking products that are after all that little bit more special.

My drinks this holiday will include the following as well as many other interesting bottles I have acquired over the past twelve months.  My children and grandchildren will be joining us this year for a big Christmas Day meal and I will want to have loads of white wine, red wine and beer for the adults and of course a variety of soft drinks for the little people.

I recently met the winemakers  Zonin from Italy who have been making award winning wines since 1821 and have a very impressive wine list now available in the UK and was thrilled when they sent me a mixed case to sample over the holidays. I am hoping to visit the vineyards next year and bring you the stories of the people behind the wines including their families and their lives.

My Christmas Day sparkling wine will be Prosecco from Famiglia Zonin, crisp with lovely small bubbles, not too sweet and certainly refreshing and the perfect drink to get the holidays started. (Don't tell anyone I may have to start a bottle on Christmas Eve to get the last food prep done!!).

I mostly drink white wine but Mr R is more a red wine drinker however there are a few red wines I really, really love and a good Chianti is one of them.  I had the opportunity to taste this Chianti at an Italian dinner event and was really impressed.  There were no sharp notes or corners to this wine just a smoothness and taste that really got my attention.  Castello de Albola Chianti Classico 2013 is a real winner as far as I am concerned.  I am thinking of saving this one for a creamy turkey pasta or maybe a tomato based pasta during the week between Christmas and New Year.

 Mr R will certainly be opening the Zonin Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore 2014 at the Christmas table though, a rich red wine lovely to drink on its own or with a rich food like turkey - perfect for the occasion!

The visiting men will have a treat for them in the shape of craft beer from Beer52.  There seems to be a plethora of subscription services popping up so that now you can have a regular monthly delivery from everything from socks to cheese (not cheesey socks) and a new player is Beer52 where you are able to tailor your boxes to your own taste..

The Christmas box that arrived contained some really interesting looking bottles with labels that made Mr R make delighted squealing noises (really!!)

And with each case you get a copy of their magazine Ferment packed with loads of info on the month's selection along with recipes to get the most out of  your selection!

Each box will contain 8 different craft beers changing each month.  You can pay monthly, every three months, 6 months or every 12 months with prices starting from £24.00 per box.  You can also send a box to a beer loving friend as a one off gift.

You have a chance to get the freshest beer around and it's like having 50,000 drinking buddies!
If you want to see what Beer52 is all about click here and if you sign up for their service you will get £10.00 of your first box if you enter the code HEIDI10 at the website prompt.

Another wine that will be offered to our visiting diners this holiday is the Australian wine I discovered recently from the Bird in Hand winery.

They say a Bird in Hand is worth Two in the Bush - this wine certainly says it is the truth!  Bird in Hand is a multi award winning Australian winery and is now available in the UK from Frontier Wines.

The white is a Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2015 from the Adelaide Hills.  It's elegant and crisp with tropical flavours and quite citrussy.  Easy drinking chilled however pairs perfectly with cheeses and cured hams and salami. I tasted this wine at the official UK launch in London recently.

The red wine is a Shiraz 2014 with a slight oakiness with aromas of blackberry and pepper with a hint of chocolate. It's full bodied, it's complex and elegant pairing perfectly well with winter stews of beef or venison.

After dinner I will be treating adult visitors to a little Grappa served in tiny little chocolate cups a treat from Carluccio's.

And of course there will be some lovely little things to nibble with some of the drinks above such as a selection of cured meats from Woodall's - The home of British charcuterie! They sent me a selection from their extensive range of salamis, sausages, hams and bacon.

Also from Carluccio's I will offer Baci de Dama (ladies' kisses), mouthwatering one bite hazelnut biscuits with a chocolate hazelnut filling - each one easy to pop into your mouth and made with butter and so slowly melts in your mouth.  Follow up with a strong Italian coffee or glass of Italian Prosecco (see above) for a taste of Christmas paradise!

With an impressive list like this one I guess I will be pretty chilled out by New Year's Day!  What are you drinking this holiday season - leave a comment below and share.

I was sent the drinks and other featured products for review but was not required to write a positive review.  All opinions and photos are my own.

Time to Sparkle - With Sainsbury's Champagne!

Champagne and sparkling wines are usually kept for weddings, birthday celebrations, christenings or lovely sunny summer BBQs but I have to ask my self why?

Champagne and sparkling wines are in most supermarkets and prices range from affordable right up to downright expensive but tonight I learned some of the reasons for those price differentials.

I learned a lot more things too at a blogger event run by Sainsbury's at their very impressive head office in Holborn in London.

Upon arrival we were offered a glass of Prosecco with a raspberry liqueur and a couple of raspberries. This is a really civilised way of welcoming someone to your event!!

We were introduced to Sainsbury's Winemaker Emma Holland who although is relatively new to the company has a wide bank of knowledge on wines and sparkling wines.  Emma talked us through tasting seven sparkling wines and champagnes and answered questions as we went along.

We took our places ready set out with seven glasses which excited us as we were going to sample seven drinks!

 

At the end of the tasting we had a complete row of glasses of different types and strengths of sparkling wines and champagnes. 

 

We tasted some of Sainsbury's best drinks such as Taste the Difference Prosecco, a great sparkling apertif, Taste the Difference Fairtrade Moscato Rose - a sweet fruity rose made to drink young and an alcohol value of only 5.5% which makes it ideal to drink in hot weather to keep yourself cool.  This wine had a new style cap called a Zork which helps to keep the drink in the fridge for 2-3 days if you don't fancy drinking it all at once.

Zork - new style cap for sparkling wines - alows you to keep it in the fridge 2-3 days

We tried Sainsbury's Brut Rose Champagne made with a combination of Chardonnay grapes and Pinot Noir. This was a dry and sophisticated drink with a lovely clean slightly rose colour.

 

Next we tried Taste the Difference Vintage Cava.  This would make a lovely aperitif with a slightly herby aroma and dense bubbles and at a price of £6.99 (75cl) until 1st January 2013 this is certainly one for the celebrations.

 

My favourite was the Sainsbury's Blanc de Blanc and at the special price of £14.99 (75cl) until 1st January 2013 I will be stocking up on this.  This wine is made from 100% Chardonnay grape and is fresh and citrusy and would work very very well as an apertif or with seafood or my favourite way of drinking it would be the same as a cold glass of Chardonnay - with a slice of lemon.

 

With great expectation we then tried Sainsbury's Blanc de Noirs which is made with a combination of red and white grapes with slightly more body.  My first impression was that it smelled like a cloud which is weird cause I have never smelled a cloud!  This selection comes in the 75cl but also available as a magnum (1.5 ltr) which would suit a celebration perfectly.

 

And the final tasting of the evening was the Taste the Difference Vintage Champagne.  This is a lovely mix of Chardonnay and Pinor Noir grapes made from grapes harvested in September 2005 and kept on the lees for 6 years in cellars where the temperature is kept between 10-110C.  To me it smelled woody and tasted of cammenbert cheese which Emma said was a very good description.  Perfect for weddings and other celebrations and of course Christmas 2012!

I learned a lot at this Masterclass of Champagnes such as what makes it a Vintage year, how much sugar is allowed and how tastes have changed over time. That glassware is important and mus be scrupulously clean to get maximum bubble effect. That cost is determined by the amount of time and effort is needed to keep it in the fermentation stage and that there is no point keeping non-vintage champagne a long time.  With this in mind I think I  had better drink my collection of champagne and replace them at a future date!