The IDEAS Blog
Recipes, interiors and news
As a 5* Master Partner Paul was kindly invited by NEFF to visit their factory in Germany last week for an exciting few days of product education, food and a few drinks!
Paul was shown around their state of the art factory in Bretten where products are tried, tested and all manufactured. Paul spent an interesting few days finding out more about the current products stocked by NEFF we love so much and learning about the latest advances in technology we will all be seeing soon.
We predict the rise of darker kitchen and bathrooms in 2018, creating a luxurious and surprisingly spacious feel to any interior space. The contrast of black against white ceramic feels clean and fresh with the odd pop of gold for an extra chic feel.
Many of our suppliers such as Frontline and Cassellie have bought out many on trend ranges this year from black baths to matte black kitchen taps we love this monochrome trend and can’t wait to design some interesting spaces for you all this year. Why not pop into the showroom to see us and talk about how you can bring this beautifully modern trend to your home.
Looking for the perfect crowd pleasing cake? Try Helen's adapted version of this Nigel Slater recipe. It never lasts long in our showroom. Bake it yourself to find out why!
You will need:
Cake baking enthusiasm!
375g Plain Flour
3 teaspoons of baking powder
190g softened butter
350g muscovado sugar (this is very important for the taste!)
600g ripe bananas (the riper the better!)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
150g dark chocolate
Non-stick loaf tin approx 24cm x 12cm x 7cm deep
Method:
Set the oven to 180c/Gas 4 and line the tin with baking paper
Sift the flour and baking powder together
Cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy (Helen prefers to do this by hand but you can do it with an electric mixer if you prefer)
Put the bananas in a bowl and mash with a fork – they should be lumpy rather than a puree. Next stir in the vanilla extract and then fold into the butter & sugar mix.
In a separate bowl beat the eggs lightly with a fork then pour them into the butter, sugar & banana mixture and stir well – if you see any signs of curdling add in a spoon of flour.
Chop the chocolate into small chunks and fold them into the bananas, sugar, butter and egg mix.
Next gently fold in the flour and baking powder into the mix until fully mixed and no flour remains.
Pour mixture into a lined tin.
Pop into your Neff slide & hide oven for 60 minutes (check after this time as it may need a little longer)
Take out – allow to cool and enjoy!
We have lots of super exciting things happening in 2018, the first being a brand new website. Hope has been working hard over the past few months to produce our stunning new site, we are so pleased with it and we hope you all enjoy scrolling through it as much as we do!
As well as the new look website we are also launching our Youtube channel 'Tasty IDEAS' in which Helen will cook all your favourite cake, pastry and dinner ideas with follow up recipes right here on our blog - keep an eye out for our first video which will be coming soon!
We have also been upping our social media game on Instagram and Facebook with all the latest IDEAS news, current trends and supplier information.
Pop into see us at our showroom for a piece of homemade cake and a cup of tea - we can't wait to see you soon.
All the team at IDEAS Nottingham x
