A lot of you would have been in a bar at some stage when you have seen a group of people sitting drinking a cocktail out of a large fish bowl. Well now there is a new craze and that is cocktails in TEAPOTS.

Many bars and clubs are buying teapots in all shapes, sizes and colours to serve cocktails. This trendy new approach to serving drink is spreading fast.

The cocktail is usually made and then served in the teapot with an accompanying glass or alternatively served with the lid removed and the teapot filled with straws.

View our range of teapots and plan your teapot revolution.

Well known as a clean and hygienic surface to work with stainless steel work surfaces are common place in a commercial kitchen, but how do you keep it glistening and looking its fabulous best?

Cleaning stainless steel tables, sinks and cooking equipment can be a headache for many chefs. Soapy products can leave a streaky residue and water can leave water marks.

One of the best options from removing grime and fingerprints is stainless steel cleaner; specially designed cleaner can also contain anti-bacterial agents.

Another solution for in the home and domestic stainless steel is to use clear baby lotion and to rub it in with a microfiber cloth.

Have the perfect Easter treat!

A recipe to enjoy your Easter with.

Chocolate Crispy Cakes

You will need:

• - 55g of Butter
• - 120g of Milk Chocolate
• - 5 Tablespoons of Golden Syrup
• - 80g of Cornflakes

Firstly place the butter, milk chocolate and syrup into a saucepan.

Melt and mix until smooth consistency (remember to ensure that the mixture in constantly moved as you want to avoid it sticking to the bottom of your pans).

Once smooth, simply take of the heat and stir in the cornflakes.

After they are all coated, place on a greased baking sheet and leave in the fridge to set

If you wanted to add a little Easter to the cakes you could place mini eggs on them so they are a crispy cake nest!

Keeping your oven clean has to be the worst job, or so you would think

If you'e left it a while, using a ovenproof bowl filled with some water place in the oven oven on a high tempreture for 30 minutes; as the steam softens the dirt making it easier to clean. Then use oven cleaner, but don't use it on self clean linings.

Wearing rubber gloves is important to avoid contact with anything nasty, ventilate the room and place newspaper on the floor near the oven. After it's clean, smear a thin coating of bicarbonate soda and water on the enamel linings to help absorb grease and to help reduce the amount of cleaning required next time.

Ingredients

• 300ml Milk
• 125g Plain Flour
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Egg White (additional to eggs)
• Oil (to drizzle in tray)

Method

• Drizzle over the baking tray ensuring to glaze the surface and put in the oven at 180 degrees  
• Beat the flour, eggs and additional egg white until smooth
• Gradually mix in milk until silky smooth
• Season with salt and pepper
• Let rest for 10 mins
• Lift out the tray and evenly distribute the batter between the slots in the baking tray
• Put back in the oven and leave to cook for 20 mins

Tips

• It is crucial that the oven door must not be opened during the cooking of the yorkshire puddings as will collapse
• Don't use to much oil in the tray just sufficient to form a layer of oil in the slot of the tray
• Also the hotter the oil the better when distributing the batter so try not to let it cool down before distributing the batter  

This is a nice simple recipe for baking cookies easily done in less than half an hour.

Ingredients

• 350g Plain Flour
• 1 Teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda
• 1 Teaspoon of Salt
• 235g Butter
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 180g Brown Sugar (crumbled,soft)
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• 2 Eggs
• 375g Chocolate
• Optional - 2 Teaspoons of Golden Syrup

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190c
• Place chocolate in a plastic bag and place on a tea towel on top of something sturdy. Fold over the tea towel to avoid mess and beat chocolate until no large chunks remain (no bigger than a 2 cm cube)
• In a Mixing Bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt
• In another bowl, add the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract. Then mix until creamy
• Beat the eggs in to the bowl with sugar in, and gradually mix in the flour mixture from the other bowl. Add the chocolate (and golden syrup) mixing throughly
• When mixed throughly, get a baking tray and grease it or use greaseproof paper, thensimply take a heaped tablespoon of the dough and place on the baking tray (don't flatten the mix), ensuring the dough is widely spread apart from each other
• Bake for 10 - 12 minutes
• And enjoy

If anybody was watching Horizon on the telly a few nights ago you may have seen a brief but interesting scene involving the preparation of ice cream with a little liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is poured into an artisan mixer with what seems to be a bog standard ice cream mixture and in seconds a yummy looking ice cream is produced.

Instead of using the ice cream making attachment to cool the ingredients slowly and the mixer to introduce air, liquid nitrogen at -196°C is added and almost instantly cools the mixture and fills it with air, the mixer just keeps the ingredients moving so that it all cools evenly and not into a load of solid lumps.

I can remember the teacher showing us how it made flowers and rubbers brittle years ago at school but we never got any ice cream...

I don’t recommend trying this at home, its cold stuff and will give you a nasty freezer burn if not handled correctly or perhaps worse (http://bit.ly/2KgWT).

Screen Grabs documents some of the more interesting appearances of well known catering and kitchen equipment on screen.

 Yes its that time again when all of us taking up the challenge of cooking for our friends and family over Christmas need to make sure we have enough Cutlery!

I am not sure about you but every year I seem to be racing back to the sink to wash up the ones just used!

Here you can buy plenty that cost less than buying plastic ones in the long run and lets face it far nicer to use if you have gone to the effort to entertain!

Order now to ensure you have them in time for Christmas!

Plain and simple - 60 piece £15.95 Knife, Fork, Dessert, Soup, Teaspoon 12 of each

Kings                  - 60 piece £28.50 (as above)

Bead                  - 60 piece £28.50 (as above)

Harley                - 60 piece £28.50 (as above)

At Buycatering we have been doing a little baking of late to get into the swing of things before Christmas and one of the things we have been making is meringues. For all those meringue fans who think there is nothing better than meringues accompanying their favourite dessert or simply by its self with a drip of cream you will know the problems faced when trying to keep your food fresh for longer.

We used the Vacufresh Storage Container to extend the life of our life of our meringues and it did just the trick. The Vacufresh works by sucking the air out of the container and keeping the food inside safe and fresh..

On the 4th January 2011 the VAT rate in the UK will increase to 20% from the current rate of 17.5%. So what are you waiting for, get any orders in to us before the 4th of January to avoid the increase even if your order is to be delivered later.

We are always trying to keep our prices as low as possible and even if you miss this deadline there's always a great deal to be had here at Buycatering.