Cake, biscuits and maybe casseroles too... | Im trying out new recipes and writing about them

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Cake, biscuits and maybe casseroles too Blog About Lemon curd cupcakes April 22, 2014 at 6:43 pm | Posted in baking | Leave a comment
Tags: cupcakes, Hummingbird Bakery, lemon

I am delighted to receive baking related presents: I rarely have to buy cupcake cases and I have a glorious selection that means there is something appropriate for any occasion. On a more mundane level my kitchen is kitted out with equipment that friends and family have bought, from the Kenwood Chef that marked my 30th birthday to an array of Sophie Conran serving items. So it is a real joy when these gifts all get put to good use to share some love with others.

Sunday afternoon tea is a total treat and the pleasure is magnified if someone else is hosting the party.  I was overjoyed to be invited to tea by Lynda, especially as she asked for volunteers to share the baking burden. A  tea party is a great excuse to make cupcakes creating the opportunity to use the piping bag stand that Ailsa had found in Lakeland for my birthday present and in transporting them to the venue I used the utterly essential cupcake carrier (also a gift!)

Iced and ready to go

As the day was verging on the beginning of spring, I wanted to make something that was light and hinted at the promise of sunshine to come, which made me think of lemon cupcakes. I had experimented before with lemon curd buttercream and thought it delicious, but had not written down the recipe. So I thought I would try again, and would record the recipe for posterity if it was any good!

Making it

The cupcakes were the Hummingbird Bakery standard recipe using the zest of a lemon to make it lemony. Using the chosen cupcake cases (these were a gift too) I got 18 out of the batter made with 2 eggs.

The buttercream was basically improvised using some hints from a couple of different recipes on-line, but I wrote it down as I went along. so here it is:

400g icing sugar

200g butter

4 tablespoons lemon curd (a standard jar from the supermarket is around 8 tablespoons)

juice of lemon (the one used for the zest in the cake)

This was all beaten in the Kenwood chef for about 10 minutes so that it became incredibly light and fluffy.

I used the piping bag stand to make it much easier to fill the piping bag and iced big (imperfect and uneven) swirls onto the cakes. I decorated them with some sweet little flags that matched the cupcake cases (they had come in a set)

Eating it

I love lemon curd. I love buttercream. The combination of the two is utterly amazing. I will admit that the icing is seriously sweet, which is why I put lemon juice in the icing to provide a slightly sharp note to cut through the extreme sweetness.

Next time

Hopefully I will resist eating leftover icing and not be so full of icing that I have no space for all other delicious cakes my friends had baked.

A simple pasta supper (or why I wish I was more like NigelSlater) April 4, 2014 at 8:09 pm | Posted in savoury | 3 Comments
Tags: Nigel Slater, pasta

I love Nigella, rely on Delia, occasionally seek out Jamie but I admire (and perhaps aspire to be more like) Nigel Slater. I love reading his books, watching his programmes but they present a world of food that is different to mine. His world always seems to have time to linger over food, to search out the obscure, grow ones own ingredients and experiment. My reality is more mundane a quick trip to a supermarket and making the same thing time after time because its quick and reliable.  I dont have time to think midweek  so I am more likely to incrementally tweak an existing recipe than try a bold experiment in the middle of a week.

So Nigel Slaters recipes provide a rich vein of inspiration for the midweek supper. He has a great column in the Guardian to give options for something more interesting midweek.  His suggestion for pasta with baked aubergine and tomatoes caught my eye its totally simple and reliant on ordinary ingredients. So I thought I would try it for supper with Sarah: she regularly comes for supper and has been the recipient many times of all the usual options.

Making it: As simple as it appears. Chop and roast. I was slightly disconcerted by the large quantity of olive oil I had to tip over it before the veg went in the oven. Plenty of time to start on a glass of wine and catching up on the news while the oven did the work!

Eating it: Simple, subtle. Perhaps a bit too much olive oil and perhaps not quite robust enough for a not very warm April evening.

Next time: I think it would be better on a warm summer evening, perhaps with some olives in there as well to add more robustness and texture.

Why? The answer isgingerbread. March 25, 2014 at 6:11 pm | Posted in baking, musings | Leave a comment
Tags: gingerbread, Peyton and Byrne

So Its been a while since Ive been here and now Ive decided to try again: I thought a good place to start would be why do I cook, and especially bake.

The first big reason is that it makes me happy. I derive enormous satisfaction from taking ingredients and turning them into something. It is a great way to fulfil the fundamental impulse to create, but in a way that doesnt require much spark of originality as all I have to do is carefully follow instructions. Much of my life is hectic, and I am often trying to juggle lots of different things, but when I am cooking, it is a time to focus and be calm.

The second big reason is that it makes others happy. I delight in showing care for others through giving them some good to eat. Whether it is dinner, or a cake cooking for someone else is demonstrative of love and affection in a practical way. If I am spending the day with a friend I might take a cake instead of flowers as a way of saying thank you. A home-made cake is a treat at work we often tuck into a MS tub of mini-bites and while I am very fond of their little flapjacks it is much more personal to provide something home-made. I work in a busy office, where it is easy for conversations to merely be transactional and to effective treat each other as work machines. By bringing in something home-made it can break that cycle, help people to stop and remember that we are all human after all, which makes a tough day a little more bearable.

But why then should I blog?

Mainly I blog because it is a way to continue the creative act to think more about my food and what I am cooking which encourages me to try new things. But I also do it to share my little discoveries in the world of cooking for my own benefit, so that in the future I can remember what I thought of a recipe, how I thought it could be improved, and to document tweaks to recipes before I forget. It astounds me that some people find this blog through searching for recipes and come check out what I have to say. I hope that for some of those people who stumble on my blog feel encouraged to try new things (and maybe learn from my mistakes along the way).

This recipe for gingerbread men is a demonstration of what I have been trying to say in the rest of this post.

I bake them because they are satisfying to make. There is pleasure in the all the stages and fun to be had in decoration.They make other people happy as they are delicious. The icing can increase the fun for everyone happy and sad faces make people laugh (especially in a stressed out office of people working on important things).And I think the recipe is worth recording and sharing. Its based on the gingerbread men from Oliver Peytons book British Baking (which is fabulous beautifully presented and great recipes) but I have adapted slightly. The dough is incredibly well-behaved, and using chilled butter means they dont spread much in the oven (other recipes have given me Mr Blobby gingerbread men)

The original recipe uses just ground ginger for the kick and light soft brown sugar and golden syrup. But I think that is a little bland in terms of a gingerbread man, so I now include  ground cloves for more heat, and a mix of dark and light soft brown sugar and treacle alongside the golden syrup for increased depth. So with huge thanks to Oliver Peyton, here is my recipe for gingerbread men:

Ingredients

350g plain flour1 tablespoon ground ginger1/2 teaspoon ground cloves1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda100g cold unsalted butter75g light soft brown sugar75g dark soft brown sugar1 egg2 tablespoons golden syrup2 tablespoons treacle

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C

Using a stand mixer whizz together the flour, spice and bicarb with the butter until it is a bit like sand. Then add the sugar and mix a bit more. Then add the beaten egg and finally the golden syrup and treacle. Mix until it forms a big dough ball.Roll the dough out (I have a big pastry rolling mat bought from Lakeland many years ago but looks like they still make them). Its good to get them relatively thin perhaps around 5mm. Then using my gingerbread man cutter who is about 8cm tall I can make loads (I think it is probably somewhere between 30 and 40 but I always forget to count)They bake in the oven in about 10 minutes. Leave them for a couple of minutes before carefully transferring to wire trays to cool.The icing is simple water icing about 100g icing sugar and enough water to make a firm paste and then piped as well as you can manage to make faces (their facial features are only limited by your mood and skills with a piping bag)Then pack-up carefully and take somewhere to share some baking happiness. Next Page Recent Posts Lemon curd cupcakes A simple pasta supper (or why I wish I was more like NigelSlater) Why? The answer isgingerbread. Possibly, maybe, watch thisspace Dining out Mandritsara-style Archives April 2014 March 2014 July 2012 June 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 Categories baking Casseroles madagascar musings puddings savoury starters Uncategorized Cooking Nigellas websiteRunning and baking Meaningful My pastors blogThe Pensive (Hoveactually) Email Subscription

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