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Welcome to Blackberry Cottage ramblings, please do leave comments.

Supporting local businesses

Kate Saunders | 16th October 2020

We love supporting local businesses, and one business I whole heartedly support is Walters Turkeys. Both my family and the Walters family are farmers in neighbouring villages on the edge of the Berkshire Downs, I can remember as a kid horse riding though their farm and all their free range turkeys making such a noise … Continue reading Supporting local businesses

Blow away those January blues

Kate Saunders | 20th January 2020

with  beautiful and vibrant blood oranges hues. In season now, it’s time to seek out your blood oranges, they are only around for a short time. Grown in the Mediterranean, being slightly tarter than regular oranges, they have amazing ruby red pigment inside and a wonderful blush skin on the outside. It is this pigment … Continue reading Blow away those January blues

Courgettes, courgettes and more courgettes.

Kate Saunders | 6th August 2019

If you’ve ever planted a courgette plant you know how many courgettes you get in return. I’m going to give you a fabulous tip for keeping courgettes But, we don’t just plant one courgette plant do we!! It tends to be at least 4 to 6 plants, and if looked after well, they produce an … Continue reading Courgettes, courgettes and more courgettes.

Aubergines

The Gleaming Aubergine

Kate Saunders | 2nd July 2019

Beautiful, glossy, plump, deep purples, creams and reds They are now at their best – this is their time to shine – the gleaming aubergine. Did you know that the aubergine is in fact classed as berries, therefore a fruit, not actually a vegetable. Who hasn’t walked past them in a shop and thought they … Continue reading The Gleaming Aubergine

Book – Cakes with Secret Ingredients – from aubergine to zucchini

Our book is here!!!!!!

The long awaited arrival of our book, it has been talked about a lot over the last three years, in that time I had been creating and tweaking recipes.

At the start of this year (2018) it was time to create the book. Firstly over a three month period we baked every cake around seven times, so we know that everyone works and is delicious. We had a team of fantastic taste testers who gave us valuable feedback.

 

After we knew that each cake worked we then commissioned our wonderful food photographer and food stylist, no kidding they took over our house for six weeks, when I say took over, they actually knew where everything was in our house better than I did.

And then started baking the cakes all again, taking a total of 12580 photos over the 6 weeks. Now that is a lot of photos.

 

When I thought about starting a book, I really didn’t think it was going to be such a huge task, how wrong could I be.

At least I had the support and help from some wonderful people who helped to create all my ramblings and notes, that were inevitably covered in cake mixture into some sort of recipe.

And, I am proud to say that I have employed all local people to help, it is amazing what talent is local to you when you start to look around, everyone is in about a 10 mile radius of where we live #supportlocal

So there it is, 800 cakes baked, 12580 photos, hours of reading and checking equals one cookbook with over 100 recipes, using 27 different vegetables.

Which resulted in one big tea party at the end.

 

We are very proud of this and hope you will all love it as much as we do.

Books are available on our website, they will be dispatched end of September £24.99 including p&p.

Link to order:

https://www.blackberrycottagefayre.co.uk/product/cakes-with-secret-ingredients-from-aubergine-to-zucchini-book/

Happy baking

Kate x

Interview with Kate (part 2)

Kate Saunders | 8th March 2016

              This week’s blogs give us some top tips and insight into the wonderful world of cake baking at Blackberry Cottage.     Q: Kate, what is your favourite cake to make Kate: I really love making the Almond, Apricot and Carrot, it is a very complex cake, with … Continue reading Interview with Kate (part 2)

jug and logo

An interview with Kate

Kate Saunders | 22nd February 2016

                            The genius behind Blackberry Cottage.   This week’s blog taps into the inspiration behind the cakes with secret ingredients made by founder and baker extraordinaire Kate Saunders at Blackberry Cottage     Q:  So Kate, can you remember when you first started getting an interest in baking … Continue reading An interview with Kate

February….. The month of Love and Pancakes

Kate Saunders | 30th January 2016

How about making lovely red pancakes? We have used beetroot and buckwheat in our pancakes. Why buckwheat? it’s really healthy,  related to the rhubarb family, it’s a great source for good carbs and high is essential nutrients, confusingly named Buckwheat it is actually gluten-free. Why beetroot? well why not, another really great healthy vegetable full of essential nutrients and … Continue reading February….. The month of Love and Pancakes

vegetable and flower cake

Flowers and Vegetable Cakes

Kate Saunders | 21st January 2016

I love product development but never seem to have enough time to dedicate to it, however this month I have been in the kitchen developing a little cake range to celebrate Spring/Mother’s Day/Easter. What better way to celebrate than having a wonderful flower and vegetable range, delicate pinks, the wonderful hue of purples to the … Continue reading Flowers and Vegetable Cakes

Shelf life, storage and delivery

Kate Saunders | 27th June 2015

We have many people ask us about shelf life, storage and delivery of our vegetable cakes. These are great questions that I wanted to write about, why because there are many factors with vegetable cakes. I always say to people when I speak to them, is, when you make a traditional cake with butter and … Continue reading Shelf life, storage and delivery

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Stockists

  To find out if you have a local stockist of Blackberry Cottage's products please contact us 07799 667217
Emma-Louise Maddocks
"Just want to say, your Christmas pudding was amazing and you have a customer for life. Everyone comments on how nice it was!"
Zac Purchase - Olympic gold & silver medallist
"Enjoying a late night wedge of Parsnip Fruit Loaf courtesy of @Blackberry_Cott from the @thamefoodfest today #yum"
Lynne, Nottingham
"Arrived very quickly and beautifully wrapped. Amazingly tasty, couldn't believe they were gluten free and made with vegetables. I'll be back for more yummy treats."
Sam, London
"We had some of your amazing cakes at the Goring Food Festival yesterday, they were delicious!"
Wendy, Wallingford
"We all thoroughly enjoyed the day with you, we learnt so much and were amazed at how easy it is to use vegetables, different flours, less sugar and fats."
Ellis, Basingstoke
"Guess what I did last night…. Made chocolate cupcakes, with butternut squash & spinach! They are delicious. Made with rice flour too, & no butter. Thank you for your inspiration."