I have Colette Peter's book 'Cakes to dream on' and I'm having problems following the recipe as the ingredients aren't named what they are in the UK. If any of you are English/American I'd love some help 'translating.'

What's:

all-purpose flour? (we only have 'self raising' or 'plain.')
How many ounzes in a 'cup'
cake flour?
'packed' brown sugar?
heavy cream (single? double? clotted? whipping?)

Also she uses 'gumpaste' for her decorations - what would be closest to that in the UK?

All purpose = plain, not self-raising.

8 ounces in a cup but remember that American measurements are in volume, not weight. So eight ounces of volume is a cup of volume. 8 ounces (volume) of flour weighs between around 4 and 5 ounces weight. Use the lower number if you're supposed to sift then measure, use the higher number if you're supposed to measure unsifted.

Cake flour is like pastry flour, not as much protein as all purpose flour.

Don't know what you call brown sugar. It's the kind of sugar that contains molasses and looks and feels like wet sand. Here it comes in light and dark. To measure it by volume you need to mash it together, to pack it down.

Heavy cream = whipping cream probably. The liquid, not "clotted," whichever type has around 35-40% fat.

Gumpaste is sugarpaste.

Also, I found in my local library the majority of the cake decorating books WERE british - Merehurst Publishers I believe - so you should be able to find a WEALTH of books that have the measurements and things you need in UK 'language'...also, you can buy a bunch of these used at Amazon.com. They also teach you decorating touches that I think must be traditionally english, as they show up most often in UK books (garrett frills and very detailed stringwork for example). Of course, that doesn't help too much if you're a Colette 'devotee', does it? BTW, don't be disappointed if you don't like the results of the recipes, there are several posts on here about how folks have thought they did something wrong when they made her recipes. I took her white cake recipe and modified it and have posted it here under "Basic White Cake (with variations)" so that's one to try also if you get frustrated with her recipes.

Good luck!!

Thank you guys - you've put me off using Colette Peter's recipes actually, maybe I'll stick to Nigella Lawson (yummy) and Colette Peters for the looks! Thanks for the recipe tips. Seems odd to measure things by volume rather than weight though - seems to leave a lot of room for error although I can see it would be easier to do.

'Cake flour is like pastry flour' - what's that then? We only have self raising or plain. I guess it would be self raising?

No, cake flour is not the same as self-rising. It's a special soft, powdery flour. Here is the US in comes in boxes; one popular brand is called "Softasilk." If you can't get it in the UK, I've heard that you can make your own version by sifting plain bleached flour together with cornstarch. There's a link somewhere on CC that gives the measurements for that.

Aaah, thanks Lehall. What's the advantage of cake flour over sifted self raising then? Has anyone used both? I love this site, everyone's so nice and helpful - thank you

Self-raising flour has baking powder already added, so can't use it in place of regular (all-purpose flour), since it changes the balance of ingredients.
Cake flour is similar to all-purpose (plain) flour, except it has a lower gluten content, and hence makes a more tender baked good. If you don't have access to cake flour, you can substitute it by using slightly less plain flour. 1 cup cake flour = (1 cup - 2tbs) all-purpose flour.
Brown sugar is also called Golden Yellow Sugar (I think you have that in the UK). Packed simply means to squish in as much as can in to the measuring cup (literally pack it in).
I hope this helps! You are right, actually weighing the ingredients is a more accurate way to measure ingredients, although in North America, usually only professional chefs weigh ingredients.