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My name is Lucy and I have never blogged before. Well that's a lie. I have, but it was this one, and I neglected it for a little while... I live in a commuter town outside London having moved here about a year and a half ago after making some pretty big changes in my life. I share a beautiful little cottage on the Grand Union Canal with 1 crazy beautiful little girl and an equally crazy cat called Bandit (appropriately named as he now lives in all the houses on the street and steals...). Lawyer/working mum and it would appear, terminally single (I've reserved my spinster plaque already) I was fortunate to escape the evil commute about a year ago but seem to have less time than ever.... If I entertain you, make you laugh or fume (or make you have an emotion of ANY description) then my job is done. Enjoy x

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Citrus Night, Holy Fizz

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!


I love Christmas.  It really is my favourite time of the year.  I love the Christmas tree (I strung popcorn this year, it looks pretty cool), I love the giving and everyone's friendly to one another (unless you're reaching for the last "Princess Charm School" Barbie in Toys R Us that I happen to also be reaching for at exactly the same time then I'm sorry, its handbags at dawn, shoulders down, get out of my way, you are not my friend b***h.  Hell, I promised!).  Most importantly, Le Pose is now 3 and is at the age where she is able to enjoy the innocence and magic of Christmas.  Tonight, for example, is Christmas Eve so we happily sprinkled magic reindeer dust on the patio (I've no idea what that is or how it ended up in my house), put the "Welcome Santa" sign out in the garden and then wrote Santa a welcome note and put the special Christmas Cookies (I have been baking 3 days straight....), milk and carrot out for Santa and his reindeer*.  She is so excited she wouldn't sleep and finally fell asleep somewhere around 10pm.  I remember that excitement and I love seeing her begin to experience it.
Of course as soon as she was in bed we began our own Christmas cheer.
Of course I mean booze.
One of the cookie recipe's (this one) required the zest of 2 lemons and an orange and so I had 3 naked citrus fruits being offensive in the kitchen.  Something had to be done....
So I made a cocktail.
The recipe - Citrus Night, Holy Fizz (by ME!)
Juice of 2 medium sized lemons
Juice of 1 medium sized orange
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp mixed spice (I use my own mix which you can find the recipe for here)
Sparkling wine (prosecco or cava is fine)
1. Put everything (not the fizz) into a sauce pan and place over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves (keep stirring).  Keep the mixture bubbling (simmering) for between 5-10 minutes.  Pour into a heatproof dish to cool.
2. Once cool, put about a teaspoon of the syrup (which should have thickened nicely by now) into the bottom of a wine glass/champagne flute (I didn't want to use my crystal champagne flutes - I randomly don't have any others! - so used a wine glass) and top up with fizz.  Give it a bit of a stir and drink!
Nicely aromatic and fizzy, its a great little change to our usual Christmas Mimosa and yes, this one's all out of my own little head.

xx Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night! xx

*She has also learned all about the nativity at nursery and we have also been talking about the important baby born at Christmas.

Saturday 15 December 2012

A birthday cake fit for a Princess!

So yes...it's been a while...

A thousand apologies and I really have no better excuse than simply life got in the way. When I started this blog I was embarking on my client secondment to work with a great bunch of people. This year has simply flown by - I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Work got really busy, home life seemed to all be piling on top of us and I kept downloading damn viruses on my laptop so couldn't write the posts (I am attempting to write this post on the Blogger app on my iPad....). Plus on top of that, my secondment has finished and I am back into the thick of it with work and 2am finishes are all too frequent. I guess I should be relieved that they aren't all nighters! So again, I apologise...

I NEVER APOLOGISE.

Ask my husband.

So moving very swiftly on. My little one turned 3 on Tuesday!! It's all going so fast - how can she be 3 already?! She really wanted a party so we thought we'd oblige, plus she also recently started nursery 2 mornings a week and has a couple of little friends now. We asked her what kind of a party she wanted and despite our attempts to steer it in certain directions, she was adamant she wanted a princess party (we are currently Disney princess obsessed). So...challenge for me then was a princess themed cake. I eventually settled on a castle cake. Cos that's easy right?!

Having discussed it in depth with my Ma and having looked on the Internet for ideas I knew what I wanted to do and what it would entail....and so instantly started panicking. On top of that, I was then told that I had to go to Prague on business the 3 days immediately before her party. Great. Nothing was going to plan. Eventually I ended up baking 3 square 8x8in cakes the weekend before and stored them in my parents freezer....

Fast forward to Friday and T-1 to party day I arrived back from Prague and, once travel presents were doled out, cuddles were given and Pose's were in bed I set about constructing the cake. Unfortunately I was so pushed for time I didn't take any photos of the actual process however it involved:

>> covering the base cake in white rolled icing (I'm sorry to admit I cheated and bought ready rolled sheets of white icing, I just couldn't afford mistakes and so far I have a meh track record with rolled icing) and inserting lollipop sticks into the centre to provide support for the next layer;

>> cutting the next cake to 4x4in square and covering that with more icing (my corners were sooooo clean!! Well chuffed!!) then butchering a plastic cutting board to sit the little cake on to then put on top of the base cake;

>> taking a small tin can that contained coconut cream, dumping that out, washing and thoroughly drying it and cutting the rim off with a can opener, then using that to cut 4 cakes out of the last big square cake and covering those in rolled icing and attaching them to the base cake;

>> with the assistance of the husband, trimming down 4 wafer ice cream cones, covering one with rolled icing then spraying them with edible blue glittery spray paint (I don't know if paint is the right word but...) and once dried attached to the top of the "turrets";

>> brushing edible gold glitter all over the cake;

>> putting mini-marshmallows all around for ramparts;

>> adding mini-bunting (my mum's contribution) to the top and some other flags, gold balls....

I was really proud of it, especially given how little time I had to get it all done. Pose seemed to really like it and the actual cake tasted pretty good - light and moist (yes, moist, I hate that word).



Monday 16 July 2012

The wait is over!! Cupcake-Vicki-Jackies

Not sure what's happened the past couple of weeks. My blog-tivation has nosedived. I blame the weather (and the diet, who wants to bake when they can't stuff their face with the results??). Utter utter shite. We weren't going to take a sun holiday this year but I've got to the point where I can't bear the rain and the cold and the distinct lack of sun anymore! I mean, its July and I'm wearing a scarf, going to bed in winter PJs and contemplating putting the heating back on. My mother had the fire on on Sunday FFS!!! Needless to say I have announced we WILL be having a holiday and no one can sway me on that.

Grr.

Anyway, so yes, rant over. So all those weeks ago I blogged about the uber cute Mini-Vicki-Union-Jackies and left y'all on tenterhooks* about what I did with the cupcake sized version....

We were going to my neighbours** for BBQ, Booze and Baked Goods (ok, that wasn't an actual theme but well I always bring baked goods whenever possible!). It was still the Jubilee weekend and it still seemed appropriate to be all patriotic so I decided to bring the Cupcake-Vicki-Jackies. Equally cute but a LOT less time consuming than their miniature counterparts, without further ado, I present to you, Cupcake-Vicki-Jackies:

6. So taking the larger cupcake sized sponges and starting at (and replacing) step 6 of the Mini-Vicki-Union-Jackies, spoon the whipped cream into a piping bag (or plastic sandwich bag with the corner cut) and squeeze blobs of cream all over the top (or swirls or spread it, your call).


7. Take a whole strawberry, cut lengthwise into quarters then finely slice each quarter. Decorate the cakes with four strawberry slices (fat end in the centre at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions), a blob of cream in the centre and finish with a blueberry.


                                          DONE! Seriously, that's it! Super simple and pretty tasty.


*FYI, having read the blog my father then sent me an email to explain what "tenterhooks" are....W.O.W. thanks Dad.....
**Read "very bad influence on me"

Sunday 17 June 2012

Happy Father's Day!

With my job I eat out all the time.  I've eaten in expensive places and cheap places and been both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at both extremes.  I guess I could review all these places and who knows, maybe I will but only when it is worth mentioning.  This father's day weekend, 2 restaurants deserve a mention.

Father's Day Meal #1
Since hubby's football coaching takes over our lives every Sunday, hubby wasn't around today (although that makes it much easier for me as I can take my daddy out and just look after him).  So on Saturday, after he played his present of a round of golf at Luton Hoo, we grabbed our coats and headed out to the Chinese restaurant in town, Chef Peking.  What a brilliant idea.  The food was good, but its not the food I'd go back for, its the staff.  Having an extremely inquisitive toddler I usually find restaurant experiences daunting, overwhelming and a fast-track pass to indigestion.  Pose is usually quite good (and I admit I use my iPad/iPhone as necessary....) but when she's naughty I feel like public enemy no. 1.  You know the look, it screams "why can't you control your child".  Such fun!

Le Pose lived up to my expectations (although she really was not that bad) but the staff were fantastic.  They were all super friendly to us but most importantly, my girl.  Even though it was a busy Saturday night, there was endless patience, smiles and attempts to make her giggle.  Our night was completed with a lollipop for each hand.  Its also worth mentioning the fish tank that helped hold her attention between courses.  There are 2 tables right next to the tank and the next time we go (and there will be a next time with service like this) we intend to call ahead to try to get one of the fish tank tables.

Pose passed out on the way home, a happy little monkey.

Father's Day Meal #2
So on to today and since my mother was away (who can make choosing a restaurant slightly...ahem...tricky) we decided to take father dearest somewhere different.  We all like a good curry in our family so having done a little research into restaurants near(ish) by I booked Chez Mumtaj, an upmarket French/Asian restaurant.  This is also a great restaurant.  The food is super yummy and again, we had great service.  Our waiter made helpful suggestions for Pose and they were fine with our endless trips to see the bubble tank that changes colour.  At one point, in an attempt to let me eat, the same waiter came back having set up a chair for her to sit on next to the bubbles and took her off to enjoy the bubble colours.  She came back after a little while announcing he was her best friend.  When it was time to leave she sobbed. 

They also have a great private dining room which I am eager to try for the next party we do (in fact Rosetta has requested we do that....).

So a Pose seal of approval to each of Chef Peking and Chez Mumtaj.  We'll be back! 

Thursday 14 June 2012

Mini-Vicki-Union-Jackies

I wouldn't say I'm usually a massive monarchist but the Diamond Jubilee unearthed my patriotic side.  I think its got something to do with Pose - I want her to understand and be proud of her heritage so I was trying to explain to her about her country and our Queen.  I think she understood and by the end of the Jubilee weekend she was chanting God Save the Queen and asking me to sing the national anthem on repeat.  It was super cute.

Anyway, on the Friday before the big Jubilee weekend my team and I decided to have a little Jubilee afternoon tea and of course I wanted to make cakes of some description.  Now what cake to make?  What cake indeed?!  It would have to be a traditional Victoria sponge, and who better to look to for a recipe fit for a queen?  The queen of cakes of course, Mary Berry!  I have to say I was dubious about how good she is until I tried this cake and W-O-W.  That woman seriously knows her stuff.  Of course I had to put my own stamp on it...

The recipe - Mini-Vicki-Union-Jackies (adapted from the great Mary Berry's recipe)

For the sponge:
225 g (8 oz) softened butter
225 g (8 oz) caster sugar
4 large eggs
225 g (8 oz) self-raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder


For the filling:
300ml whipping cream
200g fresh strawberries

For the decoration:
Ready-to-roll white icing
Red food colouring
Blue food colouring
Strawberry jam for "glue" 
Icing sugar for dusting

Makes 9 Mini-Vicki-Sponges and 12 Cupcake-Vicki-Sponges (see next post)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/gas 4. Grease the tins.  


A baking shop has opened near my office (a baking shop? huzzah! yet more ways to spend when I should be saving....), I bought this little muffin pan especially for this recipe.  Its a silicon tray.  My first.  That's right, I just popped my silicon cherry for the queen.

Anyway, I love it and its perfect for little bite-size cakes!







2. Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat until thoroughly blended. Fill the mini-muffin tray about 2/3 full and then divide the remaining mixture evenly between the 12 hole cupcake tin and level out.




3. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes or until well risen and the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes then turn out and finish cooling on a wire rack.





4.  While the cakes are cooling (they're little so this is pretty quick) make the filling.  Take the strawberries and roughly cut them up, then mash them with a fork.  You are not aiming for mush though, you are aiming for a crush!  Whip the cream till thick and holds its shape.


When the cakes are completely cold, you can start decorating.

5. Cut the cakes in half horizontally; dollop some crushed strawberries onto the bottom layer; dollop whipped cream on top of the crushed strawberries; carefully place the top layer onto the cream and press carefully down.


6. Dust the work surface with icing sugar and roll out some of the ready-to-roll icing and taking a cookie cutter or anything you can find - I used a fluted cookie cutter donated by mother - and cut out a circle for each cake.





7. Spread a thin layer of jam onto the top of the cake and carefully place an icing circle on top.  Smooth over with flat fingers to ensure it is stuck down.



8. Put a couple of drops of red food colouring into a dish and add a little icing sugar to it (to thicken it).  Using a CLEAN thin paintbrush, paint a cross and four diagonal lines onto the icing.  Taking a separate dish, put a couple of drops of blue food colouring in and add a little icing sugar to it.  Paint blue triangles in the spaces between the red diagonal lines (make sense??? Look at the pics....)





TA DAAAAAAA!


I really loved these little cakes.  I was SO SO SOOOOO proud of them.  The cake was super tasty (Mary Berry really knows her stuff), the icing wasn't overwhelming, the filling yummy and they looked freaking awesome!  A perfect little cake for our little Jubilee afternoon tea.
I'll leave you on tenterhooks to see what I did with the Cupcake-Vicki-Sponges....in the meantime you can consider what on earth a "tenterhook" is!?

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Apple-Cinnamon Fruit Bars (or how I broke my stick blender)

apple + cinnamon = love

FACT

I'm super serial. 

I really do love apple and cinnamon in pretty much any form.  Plus I can convince myself that I'm eating healthy if I opt for apple pie over chocolate cake.  Its fruit right!?

We are on a bit of a family health kick right now and I am currently a huge fan of the Eating Well website.  Its a great resource and gives easy-to-follow recipes for healthy eating, like 500 calorie dinners that are actually tasty.  So, I did a little searching on the website and found a recipe for Apple-Cinnamon Fruit Bars (at a fabulous 193 calories a bar!).

The recipe - Apple-Cinnamon Fruit Bars adapted from the Eating Well website

For the Crust:
cup chopped walnuts
⅓ cup chopped pecans
⅓ cup rolled oats
1½ cup plain flour

½ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

4 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp almond extract


For the Apple Filling: 
6 cups diced peeled apples, divided (possibly extra if little fingers keep stealing it)

½ cup apple juice

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup cornflour

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract


1. To prepare crust: Mix together the nuts and oats.  Combine ¾ cup of the nuts/oats mixture with the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor; pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add butter; pulse until well incorporated.

Or at least this is how it should have gone had my stick blender not made a popping noise, stopped and then emanated an unpleasant burning smell.  Not to worry!  We have a Cuisinart US stick blender....which hubby plugged in and blew the step-down.  So now no stick blender and Berta's out of action until I replace the step-down.  I was not (and am still not) a happy bunny.

I therefore took my rolling pin and did my best to beat the mixture and then mush the butter into it with a fork.  For the rest of the recipe then I had to improvise:


2. Whisk egg, oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla and almond extract in a small bowl. Add the egg mixture to the nuts/oats mixture and mash and the the mixture begins to come together.  Measure out 1/2 cup of the mixture and combine in a bowl with the remaining 1/4 cup chopped nuts (or oats). Set aside for the topping.



3. Preheat oven to 400°F (about 200°C). Generously coat a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

4. To prepare fruit filling & assemble bars: Combine 4 cups apples, apple juice, sugar and cornflour in a large saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is very thick, 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining 2 cups apples, cinnamon and 1 teaspoon vanilla.




5. Transfer the dough to the prepared baking dish. Spread evenly and press firmly into the bottom to form a crust. Spread the fruit filling over the crust.. Sprinkle the reserved topping over the filling.




6. Bake the bars for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (about 175°C) and bake until the crust and topping are lightly brown, 25 to 30 minutes more. Let cool completely before cutting into bars, at least 1 1/2 hours.




These were pretty yummy and totally more-ish.  On the one hand you have a "healthy" sweet snack (starts well) and then on the other hand you kinda can't stop eating it (ends badly).  So as with most things it starts with good intentions and then...well you find you've eaten the entire tray...


Ooops

Tuesday 22 May 2012

The Inappropriate Muffins

"Mummy lets make butterfly cookies" the Pose asked one Sunday while we were eating lunch.
"Ok Pose, if you are a good girl and eat all your sandwich we can make cookies" I lovingly replied.
"Ok mummy"

That's a verbal contract in my book.  

She didn't eat her sandwich.

Not the end of the world I grant you but with the current battle-of-wills-Mexican-style-stand-offs we have begun enduring as our little person demonstrates she has indeed inherited both her father's AND mother's stubborn-must-always-get-my-own-way-nature, I was determined to stick to my guns (ah the sweet sweet irony).

Within an hour I was feeling bad about it.  I had been away on the Thursday night for a biz trip and was departing for another 4 days on the Monday and wanted to have a nice Sunday with Posie.  I had also decided that it would be nice to leave something baked for them to eat while I was gone.  Plus muffins aren't cookies right, so I technically still won this battle (at least I'll keep telling myself that).

We all love blueberry muffins so it seemed logical that I'd make those to leave as a token of my love for my little family (ahhhhhhh).  Now here's where I admit that I've never made blueberry muffins from scratch.  Don't get me wrong, I've made them before but with a little help from Betty Crocker!  We have a little shop at the end of our road and they always have blueberries so we popped down to pick up a punnet.  Except they didn't have any today.  Le Pose spotted strawberries and bright little thing she is, suggested strawberry muffins.

After a little peruse on the t'interweb I found this recipe which seemed like good brekkie fodder...

The recipe - Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins courtesy of the Yummly website

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tsps baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 beaten egg
½ cup milk
¼ cup olive oil (light)
½ cup sugar
(I used caster)
½ pt strawberries (chopped fresh)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups (I just put muffin/cupcake cases into muffin tins, I didn't bother with the oil)


2. In a large bowl, mix flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, milk, olive oil and sugar. Mix in strawberries. Stir strawberry mixture into oat mixture just until evenly moist. Spoon into prepared muffin cups.

3. I then thinly sliced some strawberries to use for decoration and carefully pressed a slice into the top of each muffin.

4. Bake 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Ummmm...
They tasted great and at only 174 calories were great for a low cal breakfast (I found dumping low fat yoghurt on top made it even yummier).  The Pose and the hubster both enjoyed them so it made me very happy.  Until hubster made a comment on the appearance.  I was horrified.  These were made with the little one's "assistance" so I felt awful that without thinking I had made "inappropriate" muffins with my toddler....ooops.*


* If you can't see it I'm not explaining!  How embarrassing....(*hands her head in shame*)

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Intermission

This week has been a poor week for blogging.

  1. My mother-in-law has been visiting so I do not want to be antisocial and sit blogging all night and ignoring her (its fine when its just hubster and I.  Usually we happily ignore one another on our respective laptops - him breaking down film or planning football (American not UK) plays (the word "spread" has 2 very different meanings in our house) or that week's practice; me prattling away on the blog or baking).
  2. Work has been super busy, so I've been particularly distracted and mega-S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D.
  3. I was ever-so-slightly suffering on Saturday from a boozy late night with my neighbour (all for a good cause mind!  She offered (read *bribed*) me with wine to help make posters for the local school fete).
  4. Because of #1 I was determined to demonstrate my baking skills...
    • I went to make Pizza again on Saturday night and despite it being a breeze the last time, it was a complete disaster this time.  First batch (yes, that's first) I got all the ingredients out, followed the recipe and then couldn't understand why the dough wasn't coming together.  I then looked at the bag of flour.  It was rice flour.  I was trying to make Pizza dough with rice flour.  What was more stupid is that when I had been doing the yeast part of the recipe (at the VERY BEGINNING) I had been reading the back of the bag and finding it bizarre that the "bread" flour had recipes using rice flour.  Why I hadn't looked then when it was blindingly obvious....I don't know.  
    • The second batch the yeast wouldn't activate so the dough wouldn't rise.  On the plus side I said I wanted thin crust and I certainly got that.  We cooked both up and they tasted ok, just ok though, and certainly nowhere near as good as last time.
    • I then went to make a cake for US Mothers Day.  It was all going very well until I put the cakes in the oven.  When the timer buzzed I went to take the cakes out and I clearly have a problem with my oven.  The top of each was half dark half still raw.  Grrrrreat!!  So I had to put them back in and each cake cracked (and when we cut into them it was clear they could have both gone a bit longer).
    • When I went to make the icing that all ballsed up too (it looked all curdled because it had lemon juice in and wouldn't thicken).  At that point I considered my baking confidence well and truly knocked.
Heard this before? Pride? Falls?  Its total foobah.   Basically nothing went right and so here I am ranting about it.

Oh, and I've eaten my bodyweight in unhealthy food so I'm now squeezing myself into my clothes.  Joy.

Think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts....think happy thoughts.....think....

Sunday 6 May 2012

Bubble and Squeak (no mice were harmed in the making of this breakfast)

Anyone would think my family subsists on mashed potato* - well not quite - although we are rather partial to it.  Invariably we always have leftover mash so I am always working out ways to use the leftovers the following day as part of my OCD-can't-throw-food-away personality.  We're also partial to good breakfast/brunch grub.  In fact one of the big things we miss about living in the US is a good diner breakfast.  Home fries, nice runny egg (sunny-side up of course!) and crispy bacon...or eggs benedict.  Yum.  I'm hungry just thinking about it.  All in all it means that if we have time breakfast can become a big deal in our house.

Saturday I was in cleaning mode and had my eyes on the fridge that really needed a deep-clean (q-tips at the ready people!).  In order to get the job done I was trying to empty the fridge as much as possible.  I was looking at leftover mash, white cabbage, bacon and eggs.  No thinking required, Bubble and Squeak seemed obvious.

I'm not quite sure of the origins of Bubble and Squeak but as far as I can tell its a pretty traditional British dish that involves mashing/mixing all your leftovers together and frying them up.  Most people go for the mash/cabbage mix (certainly my folks do) so it seemed like a logical choice.

The recipe - Bubble and Squeak

1 cup mashed potato
1 cup cooked cabbage, finely shredded (I used white but equally you could use spring greens etc)
2 rashers of bacon, cooked and finely chopped
1 tsp onion powder (alternatively use 1 small onion, I had none though - extremely unlike me!)
4 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped (I grew a ton so I've been trying to use it a lot - I feel so smug)
salt and pepper, a good grind of each (tee hee, grind)
1 egg
butter for cooking

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.

2. If you do not already have cooked cabbage start by cooking the cabbage.  In a saucepan heat a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of water until the butter is melted (I recently learnt this trick - it apparently emulsifies and coats the cabbage to give it tons of flavour - it does and I could happily eat just a bowl of cabbage cooked this way).  Put the shredded cabbage in the pan and cook until wilted.

3. In a large bowl, put the mashed potato, cabbage, bacon, onion powder, basil, salt and pepper and mash it all together with a fork until the ingredients are well combined.


4. Butter a small oven-proof frying pan and warm over a medium heat.  Mash the mix into the frying pan and press firmly down.  Then cook over the medium heat until the edges start to brown (about 5mins).  Dot butter all over the top and put the pan in the oven for 10mins.


5. In the interim, in a separate frying pan fry the egg sunny-side up until the white is cooked.  Unless you really don't like a runny egg please please please put a runny egg on top!

6. You may want to put the Bubble and Squeak under the grill to get the top nice and brown if it hasn't browned enough.  Ease the Bubble and Squeak out of the pan and serve with the egg on top!

Tuck in!
The recipe above serves 1/2 people depending on whom you're cooking for or if you do anything else with it.  Hubster wanted it all for himself so this served 1...equally we could have served half each with some sausages or beans (Heinz of course!).  Whatever you fancy.


*For example, the uber yummy sausage cakes.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Pasteis de Nata (or for those of us who don't speak Portuguese, Custard Tarts)


So it was my Mama's birthday and she had decided to have a very very little party with a buffet dinner.  I of course didn't offer to bake, I simply (a) assumed that I'd be helping anyway; and (b) took it as red that I would be baking something so cut-to-the-chase and asked "what" she wanted me to bake and not "if".  She started off pretty vague so I thought "ok I've not done a chocolate cake, so I'll do a chocolate cake" and then she told me that her friend who makes an amazing chocolate cake was coming too.  I figured that even if she wasn't bringing cake, I just couldn't put a first attempt in front of her (not yet anyway).  Back to the drawing board.

My mum (as I have said before) is a pretty picky eater and I've so far nailed 2 desserts I know she loved - the Lemon Meringue Pie and the Creme Caramel - but felt kinda inspirationless.  Not good.  I said she started off vague when I first asked so I asked again but at a better creative-juices-type-moment (we were in Paris for a couple of days - me, hubster, Pose and my folks - and I was hoping Paris might give her some inspiration).  This time she completely threw me.  I was expecting maybe some type of cake, or little mousse-type-cakey-thing or even some sort of patisserie.  But no.  She turned around and said "Portuguese Custard Tarts".  RANDOM?! 

But.  Her birthday.  Her choice.  I agreed.

Now I'm not a massive fan of regular custard tarts so I've never made them.  I certainly had no idea what the difference is between regular English custard tarts and their Portuguese cousins.  So I had to do some investigating. 

I googled "Portuguese custard tarts" and promptly came up with a recipe on The Telegraph's website and figured "its the Telegraph its got to have done its homework right?".  Well.  Judging by the comments on the recipe from one particular lady, no.  The suggested recipe was apparently practically blasphemous - the custard all sorts of wrong and the puff pastry a big fat NONO!  I decided to leave it.  I then ran through a couple of other recipes that had come up in the search and all of them used puff pastry.  Bad start.

The search had however given me the actual Portuguese name for the tarts so I did another google search for "Pasteis de Nata".  This time we had better success.  I toyed with searching for Portuguese language recipes and then translating them using google translate but they just didn't translate well (and my Portuguese is right up there with my Spanish.  Crap).  And then suddenly a ray of sunshine hit my computer and highlighted this little gem...

The recipe - Pasteis de Nata courtesy of David Leite's website Leite's Culinaria (plus, of course, my commentary!)

For the dough:
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup plus two tablespoons water
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, stirred until smooth

For the custard:
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups milk, divided
1 cups granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick
⅔ cup water
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract (homemade!)
6 large egg yolks, whisked
Powdered sugar and Cinnamon for dusting

1. Start by making the dough. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour, salt, and water until a soft, pillowy dough forms that cleans the side of the bowl, about 30 seconds.


2. Generously flour a work surface and pat the dough into a 6-inch square using a pastry scraper (I personally don't have a pastry scraper and coped fairly well) as a guide. Flour the dough, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 15 minutes. 


3. Roll the dough into an 18-inch square (I struggled with this - I simply don't have the counterspace! - worked out ok though, nothing dramatic happened). As you work, use the scraper to lift the dough to make sure the underside isn’t sticking.

Yes I mastered shapes in school, and YES I KNOW that's not a square...

4. Brush excess flour off the top, trim any uneven edges, and using a small offset spatula dot and then spread the left two-thirds of the dough with a little less than one-third of the butter to within 1 inch of the edge (I started using a spatula but found it really difficult to spread the butter, so abandoned the spatula and just used a knife...worked much better).


5. Neatly fold over the unbuttered right third of the dough (using the pastry scraper to loosen it if it sticks), brush off any excess flour, then fold over the left third. Starting from the top, pat down the packet with your hand to release air bubbles, then pinch the edges closed. Brush off any excess flour.


6. Turn the dough packet 90 degrees to the left so the fold is facing you. Lift the packet and flour the work surface. Once again roll out to an 18-inch square, then dot and spread the left two-thirds of the dough with one-third of the butter, and fold the dough as in steps 4 and 5.


7. For the last rolling, turn the packet 90 degrees to the left and roll out the dough to an 18-by-21-inch rectangle (again a struggle on my kitchen counter but we survived), with the shorter side facing you. Spread the remaining butter over the entire surface.


8. Using the spatula as an aid, lift the edge closest to you and roll the dough away from you into a tight log, brushing the excess flour from the underside as you go. Trim the ends and cut the log in half. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or preferably overnight.


9. Then onto the custard. At this point I would also put the oven on, turning it up as hot as it can go. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour and 1/4 cup of the milk until smooth. Set aside.

10. Bring the sugar, cinnamon, and water to a boil in a small saucepan and cook until an instant-read thermometer registers 220°F (100°C). Do not stir (I actually don't agree with this. I made a couple of batches of the custard to use up all the dough and with the second batch I went more the caramel route used in the Creme Caramel recipe steps 2 and 3. This worked much better).

11. Meanwhile, in another small saucepan, scald the remaining 1 cup milk. Whisk the hot milk into the flour mixture.

12. Remove the cinnamon stick then pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream into the hot milk-and-flour mixture, whisking briskly. Add the vanilla and stir for a minute until very warm but not hot. Whisk in the yolks (careful the mixture isn't too hot when you do this or the eggs will scramble. Thankfully we were fine), strain the mixture into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside.

13. Now you can start assembling the pastries! Heat the oven to 550°F (290°C) (as I said up by step 9 I would actually put the oven on earlier than this mainly because most conventional ovens are unlikely to go this high, so whack it up to the max heat early on and try to get the oven super hot). Remove a pastry log from the refrigerator and roll it back and forth on a lightly floured surface until it’s about an inch in diameter and 16 inches long. Cut it into scant 3/4-inch pieces. Place a piece cut-side down in each well of a nonstick 12-cup mini-muffin pan (2-by-5/8-inch size). Allow the dough pieces to soften several minutes until pliable. 


14. Have a small cup of water nearby. Dip your thumbs into the water, then straight down into the middle of the dough spiral. Flatten it against the bottom of the cup to a thickness of about 1/8 inch, then smooth the dough up the sides and create a raised lip about 1/8 inch above the pan. The pastry sides should be thinner than the bottom (I did this for the first batch and the pastry was a little too thin I think, then for the second batch I used my pestle to start the process off - this made the process slightly easier and the pastries came out much better).

On our LEFT, batch no.1 and on our RIGHT, batch no.2 (much better right?)

15. Fill each cup 3/4 full with the slightly warm custard. Bake the pasteis until the edges of the dough are frilled and brown, about 8 to 9 minutes (don't expect the custard to brown much unless you have a super hot oven, apparently this is the secret to the browning).

16. Remove from the oven and allow the pasteis to cool a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to a rack and cool until just warm. Sprinkle the pasteis generously with powdered sugar, then cinnamon and serve. Repeat with the remaining pastry and custard. If you prefer, the components can be refrigerated up to three days. The pastry can be frozen up to three months.

They tasted good to me but I have no point of reference since I've never eaten Pasteis de Nata. I have eaten English custard tarts though and these were much better (well anything's better, like I said, I don't like English custard tarts - too eggy). As for the party these went down phenomenally well. I was told that they brought back memories of Lisbon! I'd say that's a pretty damn good endorsement! 

My favourite endorsement though was from my little sister's boyfriend. I suddenly heard from the corner of the living room "Oh my god, this is delicious!" and looked over to see this 6ft guy perched on a toddler-sized-chair with a look of joy on his face. It was hilarious.

Saturday 28 April 2012

Hummingbird Cake (without the feathers)

Yep, I made this.
I've got no idea why Hummingbird Cake is called Hummingbird Cake.  I can only speculate that its because of how sweet it is.  In fact, before a few weeks ago I'd never even heard of it.  

When I started the blog I often debated whether or not to tell colleagues (especially colleagues on my secondment.  I mean I wanted them to like me and thought that to let them see my silly little mind might not be the best idea).  When I kept bringing in baked goodies to work I got questioned on why I was always baking and having got to know 1 of my colleagues well I finally let on to my dirty little baking secret and she seemed quite enthusiastic about it (well people are...to your face).  I told her that I was very happy to take requests so she sent me a link to Sweetapolita's sky-high version of the Hummingbird Cake.  I was less happy about my enthusiasm about letting people put in requests.

Now I put off making this on the basis that it really looks far too fancy for just normal baking so I decided to wait until the right opportunity, a birthday preferably.  April rolled around and brought 4 birthdays in my team in the space of a week.  There are only 9 people in my team.  Time to attempt the Hummingbird Cake I thought....

I had a look on the web and found a recipe on Joy Of Baking's website and when I looked at the Sweetapolita recipe I noticed that she had also used the Joy of Baking recipe as a starting point.  They both looked good so I kinda worked back and forth between the two, using the Joy of Baking recipe but the Sweetapolita method on constructing the cake.  As usual, the actual recipe is in italics and my additional commentary is in normal font.

The recipe from the Joy of Baking and Sweetapolita

For the Cake:
1 cup (110 grams) pecans, toasted and finely chopped
3 cups (390 grams) all-purpose flour
2 cups (400 grams) granulated white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup (180 ml) sunflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 x 8 ounce (227 grams) can crushed pineapple, do not drain
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium sized bananas)


For the Frosting:
1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1 lb (454 grams) (about 3 2/3 cups) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 tsp (4 grams) vanilla extract

Garnish:
pecan halves



1.  Firstly to the cake....Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) with the rack in middle of oven.  Prepare three (I used only two pans!) 8" round cake pans with butter/oil spray and a parchment circle on bottom of pan. Set aside. 
I even bought new pans! Exciting times...no seriously
2. Chop the pecans.  I used one of my favourite kitchen tools - my Pampered Chef Food Chopper.  Its great, you just put whatever you want to chop underneath and bash the top, ideally focusing on someone you really dislike or something that is pissing you off then bang, bang, BANG!  All done.


3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.



4. I could only find pineapple rings so I simply blitzed the pineapple chunks using a stick blender.  I then mashed the banana.


5. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the lightly beaten eggs, vanilla, chopped pecans, oil, bananas, and pineapple.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.  


Looks a little vomity, right?  Tasty.
6. Divide the batter evenly into 3 (remember, I only used 2) prepared 8" round pans. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake (about 30 minutes - I don't know if my oven is playing up but I definitely had to keep the cakes in for a good 50mins). Don't open oven for first 20 minutes, then rotate pans, checking after 10 more minutes. Try not to over bake! Let cool on wire racks for 20 minutes (in the tins), then invert onto racks, remove the parchment paper and let cool until cool to the touch.  Wrap the cakes in foil and put in the fridge overnight (this makes them easier to slice).


7. Remove the cakes from the fridge and unwrap from the foil.  Taking a bread knife carefully and evenly cut each cake into 3 thin layers.


8. Then onto the icing...Using electric mixer (how generic, of course I turned to dear Berta), combine the butter and icing sugar until just combined.  Now I had some problems here, possibly due to the fact that I realised I only had fondant icing sugar.  The butter and icing sugar just refused to combine so I had to take some drastic measures.  I needed to warm the butter enough to be able to combine it with the icing sugar.  I thought that actually heating it would be a mistake so instead I took a bowl of lukewarm water and put the mixing bowl into the water - enough to warm the sides of the bowl (its metal).  This definitely helped and put the icing back on track.




9. Add the cold cream cheese, all at once, and beat on medium speed for about 4 minutes. Turn up to high speed for another 1 minute. It should be fluffy (mine wasn't but again I believe this is all down to the fondant icing sugar). Don't over beat, or the icing will start to lose thickness.


10. Onto assembling the cake!  Taking one of the bottom layers spoon a big blob of icing into the centre and carefully spread the icing to evenly cover the cake.  Always cut side down, place the next layer on top and repeat the process.  Repeat with the remaining layers.

No, there is no Tabasco in the cake.

11. Spoon the rest of the icing onto the top of the cake and, using a palate knife, smooth it all across the top of the cake easing it to the edge and down the sides (this was how I had to do it because of the consistency of the icing.  I think it would be more spreadable and less drippy with regular icing sugar).  Make sure the cake is evenly covered and decorate with a couple of pecan halves.


12. Carefully transfer to your serving dish! (I transferred it to my brand new spotty tins to take into work.  I love my new spotty tins)

This cake is quite sweet but fantastic and serves plenty.  It went down very well at work and every last crumb was eaten.  If you want a cake to impress - this is the one.  Personally I found it was best served off ducky paper plates that were left over from one of Posie's parties but obviously you do not have to recreate this ;)

I'm all up for gratuitous self-promotion!