La Creme Patisserie Blog

Cooking with Passion by Sian Hindle

Cooking with Passion is the name chosen for Sian's "first" cookery book. The book consists of all Sian's cookery recipes that have appeared in the South Wales Evening Post this year.

Sian was only asked to become a recipe writer in July but since then she has contributed regular articles and established herself as a culinary voice for Neath and South Wales. Sian can't walk through Tesco's now, without people chasing her down the aisles asking how to cook some obscure vegetable.

If you would like to have a copy of Sian's recipes then you can download them from the link below or alternatively you can call into the patisserie and purchase a copy.

Download Cooking with Passion

"Sian cooks with a passion and the recipes are designed to be eaten by real people. The recipes are not pretentious. They were not written or chosen to showcase Sian's undoubted talent. Instead they were selected because they were recipes that could be easily followed and in lots of cases they can be prepared in advance to fit in with people's busy lives".

I hope you like the recipes and if you do then please post a comment using the link below.

Front page with Catherine Jenkins

December 22nd 2008, the South Wales Evening Post printed Sian's article on cooking Christmas dinner.

As a preview to the full page article, Sian was pictured on the front page of the paper next to a photo of Neath's Catherine Jenkins.

   

 

Merry Christmas Everyone

Building work starts at Centre of Excellence

The builders have started work on the infrastructure for the new La Creme Centre of Excellence. The majority of the fit out will be handled by CGL Services. The firm comes highly recommended and they will be a neighbour of ours because they have bought the unit two down from us. Recently they completed the fitted out of the Crown Security business also on our site and the workmanship is first class.

 

   

We are having a mezzaine floor constructed and the RSJ's should be on site this week, with the flooring completed by early January.

More news when I have it.

La Creme Latte Art

We are fortunate at La Creme to have some very talented people working for us. People who can make even a simple latte look amazing. The secret is that everything we make is made with love.

This is a picture of Melania's Mocha Latte Art.

 

We have had some fabulous comments recently about how helpful and friendly all the staff are at our patisserie. One person said this week that we were like the Tina Turner song  "Simply the Best". 

A review in the Evening Post last week called us a "mecca for pudding lovers".

Thanks to all the staff for all their hard work and the passion that they show in promoting the La Creme brand.

Christmas Dinner cooking tips

The South Wales Evening Post have been to our cafe this week to video Sian making Christmas dinner so that they can post it on their blog.

In a series of videos, Sian first shows how to cook the vegetables and gravy.

Next, you can watch Sian cooking the stuffing and the pigs in blankets

Then Sian shows how to cook the turkey

And finally Tonya (making her debut on film ) talks about a vegetarian option

To download the recipe instructions for Sian Christmas Cooking tips, please follow the attached link Download Christmas Cooking Tips by Sian Hindle

If you have any questions on the videos which you would like to ask then please send us an email or a leave a comment.

We hope you have a lovely Christmas dinner. 

40th Birthday Party

Saturday 13th December we were asked to cater a 40th Birthday Party to be held at the St.Athans Commnuity Centre, near Cardiff. Sian devised the most amazing menu for the event, based on the brief that the client wanted as much gluten free alternatives as possible.

To download a copy of the menu in pdf format please follow the attached link Download Birthday Banquet 13 Dec 08

The menu included soups shots, Asian Beef salad shots and prawn cocktail shots.

Goats cheese tartlets, lamb koftas, and main courses of Roasted stuffed peppers and chicken breasts marinated with lemon and fresh herbs, roasted on a bed of caramelised onions and lemon.

Served with wild rice salad,with ginger garlic and pomegranate seeds, potato salad, green salad and fresh bread rolls.

For dessert Sian made a tower of mini desserts including banoffee cheesecake, sherry trifle, tiramisu, raspberry meringues and lemon mousse.

The Birthday cake was a two tier chocolate cake with a painted white chocolate collar and a chocolate Happy Birthday plaque.

It was a fabulous evening and everybody commented on how lovely the food tasted.

If you would like more information about La Creme catering your party then please send us an email [email protected] with your requirements. We supply catering for all events, corporate, business, civic or private functions, including catering for breakfast meetings, directors lunches, private parties or wedding banquets.

Simon is Ace of Cakes

Simon Williams has joined our team at La Creme Patisserie and this is a cake that Simon baked and decorated last week for a customers Birthday. When Sian gave him the brief of a weight lifting theme Simon went away and made up some scale drawings of how he wanted the cake to look. Just like Sian he couldn't leave the cake alone once he got started and eventually he was ordered to "step away from the cake" because in his pursuit of perfection he had put hours and hours into his craft.

This is the first of many - for the new Ace of Cakes.

New Years Eve Takeaway

Why not let La Creme take the stress out of cooking on New Years Eve.

Sian has developed a spectacular menu, which can be simply put together at home to wow your guests.

The food can be collected from the shop on New Years Eve morning and would just require putting in the oven at home and then serving.

This concept was hughly popular last year and we are anticipating a high demand so place book early if you are interested.

The menu is as follows :

La Creme New Years Eve Takeaway

Duck and Pork Terrine

served with fresh bread and La Creme Chutney

*

Fillet of Beef with gratin of mushrooms

Potato & Celeriac Dauphinoise

Green Beans

*

Vodka soaked Raisin and Poppy seed Cheesecake

*

Price per guest £25 (inc VAT)

Please follow the attached link to download a copy of this menu.Download New Years Takeaway 08

If you would like to order the takeaway or speak to Sian about a vegetarian alternative then please telephone the shop on 01639 638574 or email [email protected]

 

 

La Creme Centre of Excellence

Breaking News :

Friday 5th December we finally signed to purchase our new manufacturing unit on the Baglan Moors - The La Creme Centre of Excellence.

 

We are hoping to be operational mid March 2009 and you can follow the progress on our blog pages over the coming months.

The plans are for a magnificent Wedding Cake studio and we intend to run cookery courses and hold cookery demostrations from the centre. It will also be a working kitchen from where we will supply the most exquisite desserts for the finest venues in the area and eventually supply a chain of our own patisserie's across South Wales.

Our patisserie shop in Neath will remain open to serve the general public and we will use the unit to supply desserts to restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, banqueting and conferencing venues.