Buns and Shortbread

A couple of weeks ago I had a week away in the Cotswolds (with the boyfriend), we hired a cottage in a village called Sherston and planned walking etc. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas, it rained pretty much every day and there were two days when it rained all day, don't you just love the British summer? So we had to find other entertainments to keep us amused. One of these involved a trip into Bath (I had an appointmnt for a book spa, more on that later) and according to a guide book we picked up Sally Lunn's was the place to go for buns. Well, it seemed rude not to. Sally Lunn's is famous for it's buns, they are based on a brioche recipe brought over from Frabce by Sally Lunn in the 17th century. The menu is extensive, you can have your bun with virtually anything (well, anything edible anyway) and after much umming and ahhing I went for lemon curd and the BF had a walnut and coffee paste (I had major food envy). They were really good, huge so you only get half the bun, a whole one would be too much. We then bought one to take away and had it later (back at the ranch) with bacon and melted cheese, yum.
I mentioned a book spa earlier and I'm sure you're wondering what the heck I'm going on about. Well, there is a bookshop in Bath called Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights and they offer book spa treatments. I was given one by friends for my birthday and booked it for the week we were away. So what does this entail? You are paired up with one of their booksellers and you sit and talk about the books you like and dislike etc and then they go off and come back with lots of recommendations (while you eat the lovely chocolate and cranberry cake they supplied). Then you spend some more time deciding if you like any of them and then you can buy as many as you want (part of the cost includes £40 of books). It was a dream afternoon for me and I came away with six books that I would never have found on my own. I'm reading one at the moment (Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto) and it is living up to the hype. I can't recommend it enough, the shop is great and the people are lovely and so knowledgalbe about their subject.
On our return from holidays we had the afternoon at home and I decided as an end to the week we should open a bottle of wine I had bought when we were in Milan over Easter. This was a sweet wine, slightly fizzy, that we had with a shortbread biscuit when we were there so I wanted to re-create this. I found a recipe for shortbread in my new Cakes and Slices book. And a combo of butter, sugar, flour and eggs later I had a tray of shortbread. And with the wine a fitting end to the week. I made too much, of course, so work were treated to the leftovers.

Lamington Lovelies?

Has everyone in Cakes and Cardies land heard of the Lamington? I'm sure all my well-travelled readers will know it as an Australian confection, right? Just in case you were absent on the day the Lamington was explained they are usually squares of sponge, dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut. Imagine my joy when a certain Australian friend of mine was having a birthday and NEEDED cake?! Lamingtons I said to myself (not out loud, of course, I'm not mad). As I was making them on a school night I didn't want the phaff of dipping squares of sponge in chocolate, I know some friend I am? Australian Woman's Weekly to the rescue, Lamington cupcakes. I figured as the recipe was from an authentic Australian source I was in safe territory, so when there was no mention of fat in the recipe, I trusted them, foolish maybe but I'm a trusting soul.
Beat 4 eggs until pale and fluffy and (a la meringues) slowly add 110g of caster sugar and fold in 2 tablespoons corn flour, 50g plain flour and 35g self-raising flour (gently, mind, to keep all the air in the mixture) Divide between your muffin cases and cook for 25 minutes in a pre-heated 180 degree oven. I did as I was told and when I took them out of the oven they looked fab, all golden and risen. I left them to cool a bit turned around to switch the oven off and when I turned back they had collapsed! Why does that happen? So many times I take a cake out of the oven and it looks perfect only for it to deflate. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong, I guess I need to do some research and experimentation, I will keep you posted.
So I had my cakes (with their craters), they then needed to be iced with the chocolate ganache (dark chocolate melted with cream) and the final addition of the dessicated coconut meant the Lamingtons were complete.
And the next day they were presented to the birthday girl and we had a taste. You know, they were fine but you definitely could tell that there wasn't any fat in them. They were a bit dry and spongy (not in the good sense of the word) but perfectly nice. I think the next time a recipe is fat less I will move on to the next website/cookbook and find one that has lots of the stuff!

Courgette Cake

I made a promise to work people that I would make a cake for a lunch we were having and I thought I would make brownies or some such. Then I met my friend for dinner and a crossword (we do love the Saturday Times crossword) and she offered me some home grown courgettes. So what better idea than a courgette cake (or Zucchini Bread according to Rachel)? I decided that I would add a lime icing to give it a little lift. Really this is a banana bread but rather than the bananas you add grated courgette. The home grown courgettes were lovely, so green and fresh, lovely to use something that has been grown from scratch. Rachel's recipe makes two loaves which was serendipitous as there would be about 15 people for lunch. I made the icing with lime juice from two limes, some zest and icing sugar. The citrusy lime cutting the sweetness of the sugar. So after being soaked through on the way to the lunch (one of those freak summer storms) they made it in one piece and were greeted with lots of compliments. So thanks to my friend and her fresh produce and I look forward to more home grown goods (and especially vegetables, there were some beetroots I have my eye on for a chocolate and beetroot cake) to make more yummy cakes.

The Most Beautiful Boring Cake!

Not a very auspicious start to a blog about cakes is it? That was the reaction to my Italian Hazelnut cake, but let me explain. Friends of mine have recently bought a new house (well new to them, not new in the just built way of being new, eighteenth century more like it) and we went to see it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. My, what a lovely house it it too, a bit of work to do but it will be beautiful. So I needed to bring cake, well it would have been rude not to wouldn't it? I have had my eyes on an Italian Hazelnut cake from Rachel Allen's Bake. It's flour less so I thought it would come in handy for friends who don't do flour.
You take 200g of hazelnuts and grind them with cinnamon. Meanwhile whisk 5 egg yolks with 175g of caster sugar until "moussey" and add the hazelnuts and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Then whisk the eggs whites and a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks and gently fold into the hazelnut mixture. I did this in three stages making sure that they were well mixed before adding the next load but you also have to be very gentle so as not to deflate the whites. A tricky business. Then pour into a prepared (greased and lined) springform tin and bake in the oven (170 degrees) for 55-70 minutes. Once ready let it cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then ease out and let it cool. I also sprinkled some icing sugar on top, just 'cos I like how it looks (Rachel doesn't call for it).
So all ready, stored in the cake tin safely for the journey and off we went. After some yum scrum Mexican food we cracked open the cake. Many "mmms" and "oohs" and then one of my friends piped up with the phrase above, "Don't take this the wrong way but that is the most beautiful boring cake I've tasted"!! Once she said it I knew exactly what she meant (although I made her explain!), it isn't all bells and whistles, gooey, chocolaty, creamy, stodgy. It's a really clean satisfying hazelnut taste (when it came out of the oven it smelled like hazelnut gelato, THE best gelato flavour). So we tucked into our second slice just to make sure she had got it right!

How to Block Out Your Knitting

As I have mentioned before I love starting a knitting project and finishing it, the bit in between can sometimes be a "when will this finish so I can get on to the next thing?" So I recently finished the 40s jumper (mentioned in an earlier blog) and thought this would be a good time to walk you through finishing and by that I mean blocking out the garment so that you achieve the best finish after all the hard work you've put in to the project.
The first thing to do is weave in those ends, not my favourite bit, but it makes for a neater end product. Then it's to a flat surface, I use my table in the kitchen, with enough room to fit the biggest piece of the garment. You will need:
An iron
A wet tea towel (or other such piece of material)
Pins
Measuring tape
I usually start with the front piece. The first thing you need to do is pin one side (at the armhole decreasing) then stretch the piece to the size you want it to be (see the final measurements in your pattern) and then pin the other side at the armhole decreasing. This will mean that the chest size is now correct. You then work down from your first pin straigthening out the seam and pinning at frequent intervals until you have pinned down both sides seams to the beginning of the rib. NB you never iron the rib. I'm not sure why but I'm guessing it's because you don't want to lose the elasticity (but that's just a guess, I should probably find out why shouldn't I?). You will also need to measure the length of the piece and make adjustments with your stretching and pinning as needed.
Once it is all pinned and measured take your wet tea towel and cover the piece (avoiding the rib) and iron. I usually iron until the tea towel is almost dry, this gives the sticthed more time to flatten and set in place. Be extra vigilant on the seams because the flatter these are the easier it will be to sew up.
When you are happy with your work remove all the pins and repeat with all the others pieces.
This is the method I use but you can also do this by hand (pulling up, down and diagonally until the piece reaches the size you want) and also by soaking the whole garment in water and re-shaping while wet. I find the above method easy and effective. You would probably use the soaking method for pieces that really need heavy duty re-shaping but hopefully your knitting is so good you won't ever need it!

Cake Jewellry

Just wanted to share this with you. A friend at work gave it to me this week. She saw it and I popped into her mind as the perfect recipient! As my birthday isn't for a few months and as she was so excited about it she gave it to me now. Isn't it the best? I love it, it makes me smile everytime I realise that I'm wearing a muffin tray and measuring spoons around my neck! Someone suggested I make some cakes in the muffin tray, watch this space!

Sticky Onion Jam

Darina Allen is proving to be my cookbook of choice at the moment, not sure that you have noticed! When I was leafing through it at the beginning I got to the preserves chapter and, as I love a savoury jam, I thought I would make some onion jam as a new home present for some friends I'm visiting today. I guess the worst thing about onion jam is the peeling and slicing of many onions (in this case 700g). Luckily these weren't the streaming eyes type of onions so it wasn't too painful. Once they are sliced (thinly, mind) you cook them in butter and sugar for about 30min. Then you add red wine, Creme de Cassis (this is optional but as it was sitting on my drinks trolley (!) I went for it) and Sherry vinegar. This is then cooked down for about 40mins. Darina said not to let it cook down too much and being a good girl I did what I was told. It turned out a bit runny and I had taken it off the cooker and started jarring it up (technical term) before I realised this and by then it was too late. But I tasted it and it is very good, sweet and savoury with a lovely deep flavour. I got two jars out of this quantity and a half jar for me (with some good cheese). This jam lasts 7-8 months so easy to leave it in the fridge and take it out whenever you have some good cheeses and impress your dinner party guests.