I'm Feasting in the rain...

Hello beautiful Bunting's supporters! Here we are, fresh from yet another successful market day at the West Norwood Feast. It might have rained, it might have poured, but our spirits were not dampened and our victory rolls remained steadfastly intact. Along with the Feast, it was also the day of The Big Lunch, an Eden Project initiative aimed at bringing communities and neighbourhoods together through a communal scoffing of food. Here's a cupcake purchased by a Big Luncher for that very purpose...

Clare Bunting and I have got preparation down to an art, so we spent the week prior to the Feast mixing the mince and vegetarian fillings, grating butter into flour for our signature flaky pastry, and generally chilling out in the kitchen, listening to The Hits. Once again, we made some delicious fresh lemonade to accompany our sausage rolls. It takes 30 lemons and 24 hours to prepare. Here I am, giving the zesty mixture a good stir.

With the rolls fully prepped and ready for the oven, Clare and I spent Saturday lounging in the garden and slowly baking each batch to perfection. By 11pm, we'd finished and were ready to embark.

With a start time of 10am, Clare and I arrived at 8.30am to set up the stall. This included sticking every flighty piece of stall equipment to the table with gaffa tape, as evidenced below...

You can also see the fabulous new banner we have had made. Lucy's design looks even better magnified and it really added a professional something to our stall. This time round, we were next to the Salad Club, so we had the tantilising aroma of chorizo wafting over to us throughout the morning. We can safely vouch for the Salad Girls' chorizo wraps; we simply had to try one after smelling them all day!

We were lucky enough to have some of Lucy Bunting's badges and cards to once more liven up our stall, as well as newcomer Susan Lowe, who provided some dainty yet ever so fetching buttons with designs of tea pots and cupcakes moulded onto them.

Despite the rain, we had a lovely day and even had a possible offer to supply our vegetarian rolls to a local shop! Exciting times at Bunting's HQ. It is obvious from this picture that I was just happy to be there...

...while Clare maintained, as ever, a sense of poise and decorum, looking radiant in her classy blue frock.

Finally, I would like to give a personal shout out to the MC of the Food Hub, Oli Evans. He took on the role of Hub leader with panache and enthusiasm, even though he was up at 6am setting up stalls. Thanks Oli, we declare you an honorary Bunting!

That's all for now, folks. We'll keep you updated on all things Bunting, including trials of wholemeal flaky pastry and a new veggie filling. Watch this space...

Helen and Clare Bunting x x

So many sausage rolls so little time!

Hello all,

So much to report, as we have been a bit behind in our blogging, having been swept away on the wave of success!  I probably speak too soon, cross all your fingers and toes that we sell out at this weekend's market.

So after the success of the first market in April the Bunting's Girls took it upon themselves to expand the empire.
For the May market, at which Helen was a lone trader, all went swimmingly and we managed to sell out a stall full of tasty Sausage Rolls, Chutney, Jam tarts and Homemade Lemonade.  Clare decided to hot foot it to Barcelona - for research purposes of course and she can report back that there are no sausage rolls in that fair city.  Our May market stall was dedicated to some friends of ours who got married in April, not Will and Kate, but Christian and Vanessa.  Congratulations to them and good work to everyone who attended and danced till the band stopped.

So this weekend we are baking in the June heat and getting ready for another busy West Norwood Feast.
Expect the the usual flavours of Marmite and Sage, Traditional, Cheddar and Mustard and The Greek.  With the the option of two veggie flavours, Sweet Potato and Garam Marsala and Potato, Spinach and Feta.
As well as hob-nobbing around Barcelona Clare has been to Scotland (Oban and an island called Clachan Seil) and tasted some marmite chocolate. Yum.

A point has been raised this week that perhaps there is room for some new flavours on the Bunting's stall.
Any suggestions welcome!
Lamb sausage roll?

We will get some photos up here of the undersized Bunting's kitchen.

Happy Feasting!
Clare and Helen Bunting xx

Feast Day! West Norwood Feast 3rd April 2011

West Norwood Feast April 2011

Well fellow feasters we have had a busy and exhausting weekend. 
The baking offically commenced on Thursday evening which saw the Bunting's girls making a trip to a large supermarket on Old Kent Road, for the finest supplies.  Never fear,  this was just for the basics.  We are still keeping the Brixton economy alive by frequenting a local butcher (Atlantic Meat Market) and the deli (Continental Deli).  This was a tough trip as we were both starving hungry and verging on delirious.  We got a little bit lost on the way due to general unpreparedness on my part (Clare) but we made it and even sampled some pastry based products from said shop on the way home.

On Friday night we went our separate ways, and on Saturday, we baked.

I arrived at Helen's (health and safety checked and approved) kitchen at 2.30pm,  with a cool bag full of 6kg of minced belly and shoulder pork in a wheelie suitcase.  This baking is hard labour.
We then made a very large amount of flaky pastry, using all our elbow grease to grate 6 pats of frozen butter!  Tea break needed after that one.
Then we made sweet sausage rolls.  Apple, muscovado sugar, cinnamon and mixed spice encased in lovely flaky pastry sans mustard powder.
We knocked up some vegtarian filling and rolled and constructed them.  All our hard labour was made easier by the additional trays and cooling racks that now fill the Bunting's kitchen.
Next came MEAT.
We weighed out 4 equal portions and mixed in the separate flavours.  From the excellent comments we had from our tasting we went with The Greek,  Cheddar and Mustard, Marmite and Sage and Traditional.
Seven hours and several cups of tea later we had 5 very large tupperware boxes of cooked and cooled sausage rolls.
Personally the highlight of the baking for me was perhaps the temperature checking with our brand new cooking thermometer!  And a bit of Dermot O'Leary on the radio - very soothing.

Sunday - market day.
We were up bright and early on Sunday morning rolling our hair into victory rolls and donning red lipstick. We set off in the ever so glamorous VW Golf laiden down with equipment, sausage rolls and some cards and badges made by Lucy Ward (Helen's artist sister who made our business cards).
We also took along Kellie (Clare's housemate) and some Bunting!
Arriving in a sun filled West Norwood we set up the stall,  had a cup of tea and awaited the crowds.
West Norwood was teaming with people by 11am and I overheard several people saying they had never seen anything like it.  We got down to the business of selling and I have to tell you they went like hot cakes (or hot sausage rolls...). By about 11.30 we were wishing we and made about 3 times as much as we had done and by 1pm we were totally sold out.
Everyone had an equally busy day with Marcus from Ain't No Picnic Burgers selling out of his famous sliders by about 2pm and Antonia from our neighbours Beamish and McGlue running out of everything from delicious tarts to their own brand of sausage rolls.
Sunday was a brilliant success and we will definitely be taking part in the next West Norwood Feast. Roll on May!

Love Clare and Helen x

p.s. We've started a Flickr account charting all our exploits photographically. You can check out our pictures here.

We Mean Business

Hello again,
As a quick aside, we thought you might be interested in seeing our lovely new business cards, designed exclusively for us by Helen's sister Lucy Ward. You can see more of Lucy's drawings HERE and HERE.

 Isn't she a Betty? Thank you Lucy, our honorary Bunting.


Love Clare and Helen x x

 

Big News!

With only a couple of weeks to go before Clare and I don our respective aprons and hairspray our coiffes into rolls of victory, it was a nice boost to find ourselves in the local paper. Lambeth Life have written a rather snazzy article about the upcoming West Norwood Feast where we Ladies who Bunt are having our very first outing as stallholders extraordinaires. And lo and behold, there we are, with a photo to boot! Look!

How exciting.

On the day (that's 3rd April 2011, 10am-4pm, rain or shine), we Buntings will be joined by some delicious foodie compadres - Manish from Good Taste Food and Drink will be there with his cheese and charcuterie, Rococo Chocolates will be pootering up in their Piaggio ape selling hot chocolate and artisan chocolate bars, and Marcus from Ain't No Picnic Burgers will be there selling what can only be described as 'lush' looking pieces of cow in his very own hand-crafted buns. Classy.

So really, there's no excuse not to pop over to West Norwood and feast on the delights of the Feast. We'll be there to welcome you, sausage rolls at the ready.

Tally ho!

Love Helen and Clare x x

What a taster!

Well we have exhausted ourselves this weekend in the Bunting's Kitchen.

48 sausage rolls made and 2 victory rolls perfected.
Here we are looking pretty pleased with ourselves.

The weekend was spent in preparation for our big Sunday afternoon tasting.  A big thank you to all our tasters and the comments they left in our nifty visitor's book.

Top of the sausage roll charts had to be The Greek.  (mmmm feta, olives, sun-blushed tomatoes and tarragon).
Comments included:
"Very much liked no loved the Greek"
"Amazing"
Close second was the Cheddar and Wholegrain mustard which was pretty good if I do say so myself.
I was in charge of that one.

So Saturday evening saw Helen and I prepping sausage meat and veggie fillings.  Very Sausage rock and roll.  This was helped with a dose of Radio 2 power ballads and some tea drinking.
This week has also seen the Bunting's girls passing their Food Safety certificate - Level 2 no less.
Food safety and hygiene was certainly top of our list of priorities whilst prepping - mostly the temperature 'danger zone' which just happens to be between 5 and 63 degrees, so not much margin for error there!

Sunday morning we rolled out our pastry and got stuffing and batch cooking.  Having a small oven with only one proper shelf slows the process rather a lot. But we had a good method going and think that for the first big bake off, we will be able to go full steam ahead.  The oven situation certainly didn't upset Helen Bunting!

After grating 2 1/4 blocks of butter for our delightful flaky pastry, we might have to re-think that one.  It certainly is hard cold work, although perhaps did not deserve the mini-tantrum that Helen threw while doing it.  Tough times in the Bunting's kitchen.

All in all, I think we have prepared ourselves for the hard work of making a thousand and one rolls for the first West Norwood Feast on 3rd April.

Well that is all for now folks.  We have planning and apron making to keep us entertained for the next couple of weeks as well as a trip to Ikea (for kitchen supplies) and printing our very own business cards.

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Vegetarians...

Hello everyone,

What a week! Clare has started working at The Blackbird Bakery where I (Helen) also work. So we've had 6.30 am starts and milk foam in our hair from all the frothy coffees. We've also made some progress towards having a stall at the West Norwood FEAST market by working on the nuts and bolts of food preparation and health and safety regulations. Fun times...

BUT, we've been making some vegetarian 'sausage' rolls. And they are lush!
Today we made two types: one with potato, spinach, cream and feta cheese and one with sweet potato, lemon zest, oregano and hard goat's cheese. And look! We have photos! Yum.

We're now working towards a tasting day where we will have to work out quantities, ingredient prices and whether we can actually make 50 sausage rolls in one sitting. Phew.

So wish us luck! We'll let you know how it all goes and we'll also have some lovely photos provided by one of our lucky tasters...

Pip pip,

love Helen and Clare x

Sausage Rock 'n' Rolls

Hello and welcome to the Bunting's Girls blog, a place for us to tell you all about our sausage roll adventures. So far we have been trying out a plethora of delicious flavours and fillings for our sausage roll repetoire. Some of these have met with success, while others have been relegated to the C-list.

Bunting's Girls started out as a dream to open a 1940s style cafe in Brixton Village. However, we soon realised that it would be more sensible to start small, but think big. And thus, the idea for a stall at a farmers' market was born. We are now aiming to attend the first West Norwood Feast farmers' market on 3rd April 2011. Check it out at http://westnorwood.spacemakers.org.uk/.

Before our glamorous debut, we still have a lot to organise, including a day of tastings (with friends/ guinea pigs), business cards and perfecting the art of the victory roll.

This blog will keep you updated on the trials and tribulations of two girls trying to make it big in the heady world of sausage rolls. We hope you'll come along for the ride...

Love Clare and Helen x