Spooky Sweets at the Hummingbird Patisserie

Have you dropped by the Hummingbird Miniatures patisserie for some fancy French and classic American treats this spooky season yet?!

Get your orders in by today or tomorrow and you just might be able to receive them in time for Halloween. Not 100% guaranteed of course, but if you live in America you just might get lucky! I'm sorry non-US friends... it doesn't look likely for you..!

I'm running an offer at my other blog for 15% off this Halloween and you can also get 15% off my Halloween 2011 Range here at Hummingbird by entering the coupon code: REDRIDING.

This offer is valid today and tomorrow. 15% will be deducted from the total of your order but not shipping. It is valid only for the Halloween Range and not for anything else.

Crayfish Stargazy Pie... final Tudor item (for now!)

My Crayfish Stargazy Pie...
Completing my Tudor Range for the time being (more to come at the beginning of next year), this is possibly my favourite piece. I'm relatively sure no-one else has made a stargazy pie in miniature before... but I could be wrong!

A Cornish dish from the 16th century, the classic and eye-catching pie is called 'stargazy' because it usually has fish (or shellfish) poking out of the pastry and looking up at the sky / stars. My pie features tiny crayfish (crawfish to Americans) which took me soooo long! Each crayfish is extremely tiny and you can see each leg, tentacle and tiny eye. I made about 11 before I was happy with the two I included on top of the pie!

It's great for celebrations, Christmas etc. Seeing as it's been around since Tudor times it works for your miniature Tudor scene yet is still eaten in the UK today - so you really could use it in your miniature scene of any era really.

Find it at my online shop here. I'm not repeating this design so when it's gone, it's gone!









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Ploughman's Lunch... how festive!

Quite the British classic - the 'Ploughman's'. It's made up of bread, cheese, chutney and fruit. You can have other things in it as well such as pork pies / ham / crackers. This one's quite festive as it includes all kinds of English cheeses (and Welsh goats cheese), English chutney, pork pies, a bottle of red wine tied with silk bow, crackers, royal gala apples, a pear, green grapes, red grapes and bread.

Part of my Best of British Range. I photographed it in my Tudor setting because it's all fairly Tudor fare (apart from that bottle of Pinot Noir and modern chutney) - so it suits old and new scenes fairly well. Quite festive. Available at my online shop soon.







The chutney (along with everything else) is glued down, but I took this photo first because I wanted you to see how absolutely teeny it is! See below.





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A Round English Cheese Plate - for the Tudor home

Here's my second English Cheese Plate made as part of my Tudor Range, but works fine in a modern setting too. (See my other cheese plate here).

I adore cheese, so it was fun to make. More detailed than the other one as this one includes green and red grapes as well as bread, the mixed Welsh and English cheeses, Royal Gala apples and a little cheese knife. I'll start listing on my online shop soon....! (Hopefully today).









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English Cheese Plate - for the Tudor home...

Continuing my new Tudor Range, here's one of two English Cheese Plates with cheeses from England and Wales. I'll blog about the other cheese plate later today or tomorrow. See more of the Tudor Range here.

Click the images to see the list of cheeses included... Stinking Bishop, Cheddar, Stilton... etc!
Will be available at my online shop tomorrow.







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Golden Pears... for the Tudor home

These Golden Pears are one of my favourite things I've made and it took me ages! I tried to make each pear as realistic as possible. They were made as part of my new Tudor Range (see more of my Tudor Range here) but can easily suit a modern setting (good for Christmas too I think!)

In mediaeval times the banquet tables of noble households were quite the spectacle. Servants spent ages creating centre pieces and presenting the food in artistic ways (such as roast swans / peacocks served covered in pastry with the feathers added back on.) Sometimes food was gilded with gold leaf for appearances, and that's why I made this bowl of pears with one golden pear among them. There's also a little gold silk bow and some green grapes. The hand-turned dish is soapstone and made by another artisan.

Available at my online shop tomorrow morning PST / evening GMT.









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A Tudor Feast...

Being an avid historian, I was bound to launch a Tudor line of miniature foods! Just been taking my time as I've had so many other things on the go.

The Tudor period was between 1485-1603 and was a fairly exciting time (although it ended the House of Plantagenet which was much more interesting, I think). Tudor food didn't exactly make any gigantic culinary advances, although we started importing things like oranges and lettuce (which we didn't have before) and of course we had the arrival of the potato from South America.
Anyway... stopping before I bore people to death... the point is miniaturists seem particularly fond of Tudor food and so that's why I'm making food from this era. But you could just as easily use much of this range for miniature scenes of earlier (or later) periods in history.

My Tudor Range forms part of my new Best of British Collection... much more to come! Available at my online shop in 2 days.

Crayfish Stargazy Pie ~ a Cornish dish from the 16th century - still served in the UK today. (Note to Americans - we say crayfish, not crawfish in the UK! :) )



English Cheese Plate ~ featuring Royal Gala apples, bread, Welsh goat's cheese, Cheddar, Stinking Bishop, Stilton and a cheese knife.



Golden Pears ~ pears have been popular in Britain since they were brought to us with the Roman invasion. They were a favourite of Henry III. This miniature is one of my best - a soapstone dish of realistic pears with a one gilded pear among them. (A popular dinner party touch in mediaeval households).



Ploughman's Lunch ~ very traditionally English! A 'ploughman's' includes cheese, chutney, bread and fruit. This fancy one features little pork pies, Royal Gala apples, a pear, bread, English chutney, crackers, Welsh goat's cheese, Cheddar, Stinking Bishop, Stilton, red grapes, green grapes and a bottles of red wine.



Round English Cheese Plate ~ featuring Royal Gala apples, bread, Welsh goat's cheese, Cheddar, Stinking Bishop, Stilton, red grapes, green grapes and a cheese knife.

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