A piece of cake?

This week it's been my son's birthday, and he wanted a Mario cake, and firmly told me "a made cake, not a bought cake".  Now I'm good at many things, but I have my failings (for example reverse parking, geometry, and I'm "not very good with cabling" according to my husband)  but I am very, very bad at drawing and not artistic in the slightest.  So the prospect of somehow getting Mario onto a cake filled me with trepidation. It was time for some creative thinking..

I made the cake on Saturday, a traditional Victoria Sandwich with raspberry jam and buttercream in the middle, and covered with a layer of buttercream and sugarpaste icing.  The background colour was cream, it couldn't be white as Mario has white gloves, and the flesh colour of his face had to show up too.  I piped a row of swirls in chocolate icing where the cake met the board, and left the difficult part to the next day. 

Google images provided me with a copy of the picture he wanted, a nice simple one which happened to be the same as the picture on my son's pyjama top - as below:

 

 

I copied and pasted it into Word, then used print preview and 100% to get it to actual size on the screen, holding up the base of the cake tin to the monitor to get it to the correct size to fit on the top of the cake. Next I printed it out, and traced the individual components (cap, face, arms, hands, overalls and feet) onto baking paper.  I cut them out, and by placing the paper on rolled out coloured icing and cutting round them with a sharp knife, it all worked beautifully.  I got the effect of the fingers and ears using a cocktail stick to make indentations on the icing.  The eyes were really fiddly but came together in the end.  Here is the result, with a number 7 piped on to the overalls:

 

 

I was supposed to pipe "Happy Birthday" at the bottom, but I was terrified of spacing the letters wrong and ruining it after all the hard work of getting Mario right, so I sat my son down and explained to him and he didn't mind at all.  We just had seven blue candles in a semi circle at the top.

 

I've had other birthday cake challenges.  When he was six he wanted an under the sea cake in the shape of a number six, and when he was five he wanted a farm cake with three fields separated by chocolate fencing (fun with piping!) including a duck pond.  He has also had a snake with shiny green snakeskin effect (green edible glitter) and a construction site... 

 

 

This might be something to do with a book on celebration cakes I have, which he often spends time looking through. Luckily my daughter doesn't have such specific requirements, and usually wants something easy like a tower of red velvet cupcakes.  When my sister was alive, she made amazing cakes that made those above seem extremely amateur, and the daughter got quite a few of those when she was younger.  When my sister was ill, I made a seventh birthday cake for my niece as she wasn't up to it, it was the first cake I ever made out of the aforementioned book.  It was a cake shaped and decorated to look like.... a piece of cake!

 

 

 

It just seems a shame to eat them.

 

I'm all inspired at the moment with lots of ideas of topics for posts, so more soon!

 

Thanks for reading, and feel free to share with anyone who might be interested.

 

Caroline :-)

 







Rhubarb, rhubarb!

I love rhubarb, which is just as well, because my Dad is quite literally growing it by the dustbinful!  Last year he harvested over 400 sticks, and this year looks like being just as successful. 

Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) grows well in cold wet winters and is a native of Siberia, so this years English winter suited it down to the ground.  "Forced" rhubarb is grown in the dark, and Dad uses several upturned dustbins to both keep out the light and encourage warmer temperatures, thereby increasing growth. At one time 90% of the world's winter forced rhubarb was grown in sheds in a small area of West Yorkshire known as the "rhubarb  triangle" and in February 2010 Yorkshire forced rhubarb was awarded PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status by the European Commission. But luckily for me it grows well in Northamptonshire too, and it's one of my favourite ingredients.  It's actually a vegetable, rather than a fruit, as the edible part doesn't contain seeds, but in 1947 the USA decided that it was classed as a fruit for the purposes of regulations and duties (something to do with reducing import tariffs).

Dad's pride and joy - well, some of it.

Today, I've made rhubarb sorbet and rhubarb crumble muffins.  Looking back, I've made a lot more rhubarb recipes than I thought I had...

The simplest thing to do with rhubarb is to stew it gently with some sugar and have it on some muesli or granola with yogurt.  Sometimes you get a bit too much juice with this method, so I strain it and use the juice as a sort of cordial mixed with sparkling water to make a refreshing drink.  It can also be roasted in the oven, and makes a lovely crumble, either on its own or mixed with other fruit.

Rhubarb goes especially well with ginger.  One of the first rhubarb recipes I ever made as a child was stewed rhubarb layered in a wine glass with raspberry yogurt and crushed ginger biscuits.  Adding ground ginger or grated root ginger is a nice way to enhance the flavour, or you can use stem ginger in syrup, such as in a Jamie Oliver recipe I once made out of a booklet sold in aid of Comic Relief in 2011 - sticky rhubarb and ginger cake:

The cake is made with ground and stem ginger, and the rhubarb is poached with stem ginger syrup and arranged on top of the cake before cooking.  More rhubarb syrup is spooned over the top of the cake when it comes out of the oven.

Rhubarb & custard cupcakes (see above) are one of my all time favourite cupcake recipes, they're a bit fiddly to make but worth it! There is finely chopped rhubarb in the cake mixture, the cakes are hollowed out after cooking and custard spooned into the centre, then topped with pink and white swirled buttercream flavoured with rhubarb syrup and decorated with an oven baked rhubarb stick. 

The sorbet was a recipe I found in the Meat Free Monday cookbook, and couldn't have been simpler, just cook the diced rhubarb with water, sugar and lemon juice, freeze and whisk to break up several times during the freezing process.  It didn't say to puree it, but as an experiment I pureed some and didn't puree the rest. It's still freezing at the time of writing, but it looks as if they will both be nice, the non-pureed one will just have more texture to it.

The crumble muffins were a BBC Good Food recipe, they looked a bit rustic, but straight out of the oven in a bowl with a bit of cream while still warm they were delicious, they're still cooling but I think will firm up as they do.

Other recipes with rhubarb that I've made over the last few years include a puff pastry tart, with a layer of sweetened cream cheese underneath the rhubarb; rubarb, macadamia & white chocolate cake; and rhubarb toasted marshmallow puddings. The latter involve a base of cooked egg and breadcrumbs with lemon zest, then a layer of baked rhubarb and finished with meringue.  I've used rhubarb puree set with gelatine as a topping on a vanilla cheesecake too.  Recipes often suggest adding grenadine liqueur to it to make it pinker, but Dad's is pink enough without it.

Dad and I were talking to the man at the garden centre about rhubarb, recipes and my blog on Friday, he later found us at the till and asked me for the blog address so he could tell his customers about it. :-) 

In other news, some friends are running the London Marathon as I write this -  and I've promised to make macaroons for them to enjoy afterwards, they've asked for coffee shells with a chocolate filling so I've designated them "marathon mocharoons".

My son has a birthday in the next few days, so I have been requested to create a super Mario cake, next job is to deisgn that...

Thank you for reading, more soon, here is a picture of my alter ego.... a different kind of Roobarb! 

I have this picture on my kitchen wall :-) 

Caroline x

The price of convenience (or "Blame the packet!")

I have to admit that sometimes, love cooking as I do, it's nice to have a day off, and either get the hubby to cook (see previous post) or have something leaning towards the convenience meal...  and one of those semi-convenience meals that we do sometimes have is pre-cooked mussels in a sauce that you just have to heat up and serve with bread and a salad.  Or chips.  I have done a grand tour of the different packets of mussels in sauce and found one in particular to be the best, garlic butter sauce is better than white wine, though I've mixed two packs of garlic to one of white wine successfully. Anyway this week we tried mussels in a Thai sauce.  I was really looking forward to them but they were a bit boring if I'm honest.  Not terrible but any means but a little bit of a let down. 

And that is the problem, I can't even have a day off without subjecting my family to second rate dinners. However, my lovely teenage daughter, sometimes wise beyond her years, just said "Hey Mum, it was a packet dinner.  It's not you.  Blame the packet!!"  And I felt better.

On a happier note, since the last blog there have been lots of successful new recipes, including new potato, blue cheese and rosemary (tomato-less) pizza; sausage, macaroni and bean stew with greens; jerusalem artichoke risotto; and today's pudding, sparkling rose syllabub.

There's a story behind the syllabub.  One of my two blue recipe wallets (see cookery book heaven post for more details) was very bulging and got to the point where it would hardly shut due mainly to the amount of cuttings in the pudding section.  So I decided to get a new expanding wallet in a delightful shade of pink and sub categorise my puddings, as it was getting difficult to find specific recipes.  On Tuesday evening I sat happily at the kitchen table with the radio on and a cup of tea and went through them all, dividing them up into tarts, flans, hot puddings, mousses, fruit, chocolate, cheesecakes, roulades, merigues etc.  I only managed to discard four out of over 130.  One recipe in particular caught my eye and I kept the recipe out to make this weekend.  It was very simple but turned out really well. Start with 100ml of sparkling rose wine, I used  a Spanish Cava Rosado, zest and juice of a small orange and 75g caster sugar.  Mix together and leave for fifteen minutes.  Then add 300ml chilled double cream and whisk to soft peaks.  Divide among glasses and top with sliced strawberries and orange zest and serve with the rest of the bottle of wine. I did add just a sprinkling of edible glitter on the top too, to make it sparkling in more ways than one...

I got these glasses ages ago, they are just the right size for a pudding.

 

 

The second annual Laxton Pudding Challenge will soon be upon us, and I am starting to compile a shortlist, I might do two again, we will see...

 

Until next time, thank you for reading,

 

Caroline x

Sunday Dinners

There is nothing I like better on a Sunday than spending the morning pottering about the kitchen in my dressing gown creating a Sunday lunch for my family, and often parts of my extended family too.

We do love a traditional roast dinner.  If it's chicken, it has to be free range. Partly because it tastes better, partly because I prefer knowing the chicken has had a reasonably happy life and got to see the outdoors rather than sitting in it's own urine all day. Other meat is usually high welfare too.  I buy half a lamb now and again from a local farmer, and I bought half a pig from a friend of a friend.  If I'm cooking beef, (which is hardly ever) then I go to the butcher rather than the supermarket.  More expensive, but worth it for a treat. 

To be honest, I'm a little bit scared of cooking beef, because it does cost a lot I have to do the cow justice and I'm always worried I'll overcook it. I did once cook a massive rib of beef that only just fitted into the oven and cost £55(eek!) and it was successful.  Also I am not great at Yorkshire pudding, it's a bit variable, but if you cook it round the meat at least it tastes nice, even if it doesn't rise so well.  Individual Yorkshire puddings are just a bit boring.

Speaking of boring, there are ways and means of turning a plain roast into something a bit more interesting.  If it's a chicken, instead of the usual veg and roasties, we sometimes have chips and a Greek salad as an accompaniment.  Or I marinade it in a coating of spices, cream and yoghurt, and have it Indian style with naan bread and raiita.  Or make a creamy sauce with butternut squash, creme fraiche and tarragon.

Chicken legs are a good alternative to a whole bird, nice roasted with garam masala and black onion seeds with chunks of parsnip.  One of our favourites is a Jamie Oliver recipe for chicken leg portions roasted with cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil and chilli.  We had this yesterday, but I took the meat off the bones after cooking and mixed it with all the juices, tomatoes etc into cooked spaghetti.  Poaching a chicken is another alternative to roasting, and healthier as you don't eat the skin.  I mentioned in a previous blog post how I poached one in Asian stock and had it with salad and homemade chilli jam.  Roast duck is good too, I like to make a warm duck noodle salad with pak choi and sugar snap peas. Or duck legs with crispy potatoes and a fennel salad.


Pork can be jazzed up too, with five spice or crushed fennel seeds rubbed into the crackling with salt, the secret to good crackling is to remove it from the joint once roasted and put it back into the oven while the meat is resting.  Belly of pork can be slow roasted, I love another Jamie Oliver recipe for pork belly with brasied fennel but it's a bit extravagant as it uses an entire bottle of white wine in the sauce, worth it though! I've also made "pulled" pork, so called because it just pulls apart when slow cooked for a long time, we had it in bread rolls with hubby's delicious homemade coleslaw.

Five spice pork with crackling.

Gravy is a bit tricky sometimes, I can't use the traditional method of putting the roasting tin on the hob as I've got a ceramic hob which would be scratched by a tin; and I usually use my stoneware baking dish rather than a tin anyway. I deglaze the baker or tin and pour the juices into a pan, with stock, wine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce or whatever flavourings I want, and thicken if required, and I do add gravy granules sometimes (shhh).

Recently though, we have gone off roast dinners somewhat.  Maybe it's because the wintry weather has been going on for so long it feels like we will never be eating a summery meal again! In the sumer we often have a lighter Sunday dinner at the garden table, or a barbecue... but those days seem to be gone forever. I've almost forgotten what it's like to sit outside in a sleeveless top with ice tinkling in a chilled glass of something.  Roll on some warmer weather and a Sunday lunch al fresco...

Today I'm cooking at my parent's house.  I often do that to give my Mum a break from cooking.  They can't come to our house so easily because they live with my great aunt who is 99 and needs someone to be there all the time, so if they go out they need to arrange cover.  Hence it's easier for me to go there.  Today they are going out for lunch to a special event in their village so I'm taking the children and cooking for us and GA.  We're having chicken with creamy sherry and chorizo sauce, followed by baked bananas with ginger liqueur, maple syrup and pecan nuts.  Sundays are a time when we usually have a pudding, as there's time to create one, and I can indulge myself with something out of a new recipe magazine.

More soon, thank you for reading,

Caroline :-) x

Give us a tuile!

This weekend I decided to try making tuile biscuits, to accompany green tea panna cotta.  I had seen the recipe on the Hairy Bikers "Everyday Gourmet" programme and liked the idea of both components of the dish, so I gave it a go. I had seen the biscuits made quite a few times on Masterchef too, and always wanted to try making them, but not got around to it until now.

"Tuile" means "tile" in French, as they resemble roof tiles, though if I were describing the shape to someone I would say they were "pringle-shaped".  Traditionally the batter contains flour, butter, sugar and ground almonds, but in my recipe the almonds were replaced by lightly whisked egg whites.  The biscuits are very thin and crisp, and have to be shaped as soon as they come out of the oven, going hard and brittle is a very short time.

I had made the panna cotta the night before and it was chilling in the fridge, I had tasted it and it was ok, but I think next time (and there WILL be a next time) I'll leave out the English Breakfast teabag and just use the seven green teabags, together with cinnamon stick and cardamom seeds. It was nice, but just a bit too tea-y!  In the end I quite enjoyed it, and my six year old son liked it.  He likes tea more than my teenage daughter, his Grandma makes him half a cup sometimes, mainly so he can dunk biscuits in .  The husband wasn't keen on the panna cotta and the daughter didn't even try it; but everybody liked the tuile biscuits.

So, how do you make them?  Here's what I did:  Firstly, get a plastic lid of some sort that you have finished with (I used the lid of a large takeaway box - yes I do have a chinese now and again) and draw circles on it, 2 inches across and 1 inch apart from each other. I ended up drawing round the bottom of a bottle of Japanese mirin, which was just the right size. Then cut the circles out to leave four holes in the plastic.  I joyfully stabbed the middle of one circle with the point of a pair of scissors and.... oh dear.  The whole thing split right across and was totally ruined.  Hmmm.  I tried again with another lid - I only had the two of them - and went a bit more carefully this time.  All was well.  I washed the pen off and picked the bits of green washing up pad that had become attached to the slightly rough edges of the plastic and my home made tuile template was ready.

The first template, before it all went wrong...

 

The second template, with holes cut out.

 

I had made the mixture earlier, softened butter and icing sugar mixed together in the mixer until pale and fluffy, flour, egg whites and vanilla extract folded in, and left to rest in the fridge for an hour.  I used a palette knife to spread a thin amount into the holes on the template, which I had placed on baking paper, lifted off the template to leave thin circles of mixture on the paper.  I moved the template to sread between six and nine on a baking sheet.  Some of them had cardamom seeds sprinkled on, others didn't as they aren't to everyone's taste.  And in the oven they went, for about seven minutes.

 



Circles of mixture.

 

As soon as they were out of the oven, they had to be shaped, the recipe suggested a rolling pin, so I tried that to start with, but my rolling pin is quite thick and they weren't really curly enough so I experimented with spice jars, the top of a wine bottle, a wooden fork, the handle of the palette knife, and the vanilla extract bottle.  They all worked fairly well, but I also discovered just holding between your fingers to curl them works - if you don't mind the heat!

 



Shaping the tuiles - you can see how the rolling pin was a bit too big.

 

The process was repeated until there was no mixture left, and a large plateful of biscuits appeared, which went down quite quickly as they had to keep on being "tested"!  I was quite pleased with the end result, and they tasted great.  The template will be kept to use next time...

 





The end result.

I bought a book of cookie recipes from a charity bookshop recently too so perhaps I'll be having some more adventures in biscuit-making soon...

In other news I entered another bake off at work, this time in the individual chocolate cakes category - and came last out of four!  I didn't see the competition though, I expect the standard was very high. It's the taking part that counts... and I'm planning a firmly non-competetive Easter trifle for next weekend.

Thank you for reading, more soon, and please feel free to share this blog if you so wish.

Caroline x

Dining out.

We went out for dinner as a family last Saturday.  Which was nice.  However, it got me thinking about the problems of eating out when you're used to quite adventurous cooking at home.  A bog standard pub meal sometimes just doesn't quite cut it, and you end up feeling resentful that you've paid a fortune for something you could make at home more cheaply (and sometimes to a higher standard) yourself, all for the privilege of not having to cook it or wash up afterwards.  In order to get something you couldn't cook yourself, you have to spend even more money... and it takes a bit of trial an error to find out where is good value for your pennies, and where is just going to end up being an expensive disappointment.

Next problem, what genre of cuisine? One good reason for going to an Indian restaurant, as we did, is when, as in our case, one partner likes things much spicier than the other.  If I make a curry at home, I end up stirring yogurt in, and he adds a big splodge of chilli sauce or extra cayenne pepper. So when we go out, he can have a vindaloo and I can have something with coconut in (he's not fond of coconut). The younger children love the breads and rice in an Indian restaurant, and can have some of my less spicy main course.  Mostly my kids will eat anything, though my son who is six is getting a bit more fussy.  My daughter, now a teenager, eats like a horse and will finish her brother's leftovers together with anything else she can get her hands on.

One thing I do tend to go for is deep fried things, especially real chips.  If you're eating out it's quite often a special occasion or a treat anyway, so why not go the whole hog and have something decadent?  I very rarely deep fry anything at home, for a variety of reasons, not wanting to set fire to the kitchen, not liking the smell, and fried food being generally bad for you being the main ones.  I had a go at making crispy fried squid, and while it was quite nice, it doesn't have that certain something that the stuff from the Chinese does.

Mine didn't look this good...

Generally, if I'm going out, I want something special, that I couldn't or wouldn't make at home and/or that hubby doesn't like.  I'd rather spend a bit more and go out less often in order to have a better dining experience.

I was going to discuss leftovers at restaurants, but we never seem to have any.  I'm all in favour of doggy bags, or indeed person bags, if there are remains. I wonder how much does get thrown away in restaurants? 

In other news, I had a go at making fondant fancies this week, I had seen them being made on the Great British Bake Off and thought "Can they really be that difficult?"  Oh yes they can.  The sponge rose far too well and then sank in the middle, so they weren't all the same size and a bit larger than planned.  Spreading the butter icing on five sides of each cube of apricot jam glazed cake wasn't all that easy either.  And as for dipping in the fondant icing... they would have fallen apart so I had to spread it on with a butter knife, making a huge mess all over the supporting hand.  The fondant icing was the perfect texture though, and they tasted nice, but had to be eaten in two instalments.  Everyone who braved a whole one in one go felt a bit like they had overdone it afterwards.

I also made a new twist on chicken for a lighter, more springlike Sunday dinner; this was from the latest delicious magazine.  Poached in water with root ginger, spring onions and garlic, served on a herb salad with a homemade chilli sauce (nam jim, but I kept accidentally calling it nim jam) and lemongrass scented rice.  I'll definitely be making it again.

More soon, thank you for reading,

Caroline x

Meat Free Monday.

Apologies for being a bit quiet recently, but I've been busy with my other hobby (singing in a local production of the opera 'Aida').  I've been meaning to write a post about Meat Free Monday for ages, so here it finally is:

The Meat Free Monday campaign was launched in 2009 by Paul, Stella and Mary McCartney as a simple and straightforward way to show everyone the value of eating less meat. Doing so has a range of environmental and personal benefits, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock production, making us healthier by increasing the amount of fruit and veg we eat, and saving money into the bargain.

I was introduced to Meat Free Monday by a friend on Facebook, who got me to join the Meat Free Monday (Shetland) group, an online support group to encourage people to experiment with a meat free diet.  Members post photos, recipes and ideas for vegetarian and vegan dishes.  And the rest is history. I've received (and I hope given) lots of ideas and made new friends along the way.  I've always found vegetarian food to be on the whole more interesting than a lot of meat dishes, and I do love veg, especially greens, so I was onto a winner from the start. 

Persuading the husband, however, I thought might be a little bit more difficult.  And there has been some moaning and groaning along the way - but I'm pleased to report that he has pretty much embraced the concept, even as far as announcing that he prefers chargrilled aubergine & courgette lasagne and pinto bean chilli to their meaty alternatives.  He did get a bit "butternut squashed out" last autumn though.  They kept putting them in the vegbox!

Roast vegetable tart (with butternut squash)

I have a list in my trusty notebook to which I refer when menu planning, of "MFM Favourites" - including the aforementioned lasagne and chilli, also various baked squash recipes, carrot & leek cobbler, cauliflower cheese (sometimes with broccoli and/or brussels sprouts) and nut roasts.  In the summer barley salad with whatever veg happens to be available is a favourite.  It's usually quite easy to make a veg alternative to a meat dish too, so veg soups, pizzas, tarts, quiches and fajitas also regularly appear on a Monday. I recently made my first tomato-less pizza, with kale, onions and mushrooms.  The kale goes all crispy, a bit like the crispy "seaweed" you get from the Chinese restaurant. And Hugh Feranley-Whittingstalls's magic bread dough used for the pizza bases was a resounding success. We have also wholeheartedly embraced lentils. Lentil flan is a firm favourite.  

Cauliflower, broccoli and sprout cheese.

 Barley salad with goat's cheese toasts.

Lentil flan

 The tomato-less pizza.

So, where to get new ideas, besides the Facebook group? The vegbox recipes give me lots of inspiration, lentils with cabbage, chilli and coriander was one of theirs, as was one of my all time favourites, bulgur wheat with spring greens and halloumi. The River Cottage Veg Book is highly recommended, and also the original Meat Free Monday Cookbook.  For more glamourous Meat Free Moments I love a book called The Greens Cookbook (subtitled - extraordinary vegetarian cuisine) which has special recipes with loads of ingredients for when you're feeling a bit more creative, for example tagliatelle, asparagus & peas with saffron cream.  The husband isn't all that keen on risotto but I love it - so if he happens to be away for a MFM we might have a veg risotto like the amazingly pretty beetroot one pictured below, or my favourite risotto ever which is caramelised carrot risotto with watercress and hazelnut pesto.

Next Monday I'm continuing on a learning curve - polenta... I had it once when I went out for a meal at a pub, and I loved it, like mash only nicer.  When I tried to cook it in a similar way it was a bit grainy and a bit too thick, and I wasn't convinced; this time I'm using it to thicken a stew of cannellini beans and kale.

One potential difficulty with MFM is the use of Sunday roast leftovers.  I usually either wait a day and use them on Tuesday; OR do use them and have a Meat Free Tuesday.  Sometimes I do cheat and have meat leftovers for lunch on a Monday, as I think having a meat free main course for the main meal of the day is pretty much embracing the spirit of the campaign, and I wouldn't like to waste anything... also I DO sometimes have more than one meat free day a week.

Another thing is that it is quite easy to overdo it on the cheese aspect of some dishes, which is not so good on the health front.  Depending upon the type of cheese, you can probably get as many calories and fat from the cheese as from a portion of meat, and you can get your protein from better sources.  The thing to do in my opinion is have a smaller amount of good quality, flavoursome cheese which will give you more taste for less quantity.

On the whole I think that Meat Free Monday has been a great experience, good for the bank balance, good for the health, the soul and the discovery of new and delicious vegetarian dishes.

As a slight aside, I'm fairly chuffed that my blog has been read in twenty one different countries, including Brazil, Venezuela, Ukraine, Palestinian Territories and Malaysia!

Thank you for reading,

Caroline x