I think that this is my all time favourite cake to eat. It’s heavy and dense and squidgy, but slightly tart from the sourcream and with really great quality chocolate ganache poured on top it is perfect. It’s straight from the lovely Delicious Magazine and here is the link to their recipe – the only thing I’ve changed is to have slightly more heavy cream in the ganache as I like it slightly runnier for this icing and to add some white chocolate detail on the top. yum!
Tag: recipe
Magical castle cake
This cake was for a friend’s birthday party and was a lot of fun (and a 3am finish thank you thank you thank you to my talented artist husband who can make my stacks of cakes look like a castle) Its a lemon drizzle cake top with a chocolate fudge cake bottom and its covered in royal icing (which I bought – cheat) its got a chocolate finger drawbridge, rose macaron stacks and the towers are icecream cones dipped in chocolate and chopped pistachios. I hadn’t considered its weight and boy was it hard to carry through Bath city centre!
Macarons – yes, they are that difficult.
Blueberry macarons: 
I’m having a macaron crisis. I’ve made literally THOUSANDS of the beasts in the past and I’ve recently lost my touch. The same thing happened when we worked a season in the french alps, sixty hour weeks, joyful cooking and snowboarding with my then boyfriend (now husband) then one day I just forgot how to do it and had to slide down the slope on my bum. It took me two weeks to stop trying to remember and just start snowboarding again, so this is my plan for macarons too. I’ll stop trying so hard and hopefully I’ll minimise my crying in the snow time. So, although I feel a little fraudulent I’m going to share my previously ‘never fail’ recipe below, see how you get on!
3 x egg whites
pinch of salt
3 tbsp caster sugar
100g ground almonds
200g icing sugar
touch of food dye – powders or pastes only, no liquid please!
Whisk the egg whites until frothy and slowly add the caster sugar, beat until stiff peaks but no further. Sieve the almonds and icing sugar together and slowly fold into the egg whites with the food dye – this stage is called the macronage and is the tricky bit. If you under mix here the macs are too dry and stiff, if you over mix they will pool into liquid and have no form. The ideal consistency is thick lava – you wouldn’t believe the amount of youtube videos I’ve watched on molten rock. Carefully put into a piping bag and pipe well spaced circles the size of 10p pieces onto your baking sheets (use baking paper here and a bit of the mixture to stick the paper to the trays, if you don’t do this and the fan in your oven blows your paper and ruins your macs you will scream and maybe lose your mind, it happens) then place these sheets somewhere dry for about an hour – until you can touch the top of the mac and its not tacky. Preheat your oven to 135c and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking trays then carefully peel off and fill with whatever flavour you enjoy! The fillings are a whole new exciting area, fruit buttercream or chocolate ganache and allow for lots of stress free experimentation! Just remember not to make the filling too wet – macs are hygroscopic which means they are just dying to suck up any available moisture and go soggy – so keep them in an airtight container.
Tahini cookies, meringue sponges, stress addiction and writing like I’m in SATC
I’ve always thought of myself as not being very sociable, my favourite ways to spend an evening being reading or watching Buffy with a glass of wine. However, over the last two weeks of maternity leave I’ve realised that this is because I’ve always worked in a customer facing job (even when cheffing the kitchens have been open or there’s been lots of customer interaction) so by the end of another 50 hour week I’ve just wanted to curl up on my own and recharge. Now however I’m not seeing all those people. I’m not constantly busy and stressed and it’s…..weird. Maybe I’m addicted to cortisol – is that a thing? I’m no scientist, but is adrenaline a drug like everything else? Hmmm. That can’t be healthy, surely? Well, neither are these cakes (nice link Marilyn, hey thanks) but they *are delicious*
The cake in the background is an orange and almond cake, topped with meringue – very easy, gluten free & eye catching:
preheat oven to 170c and line a 23 cm tin
mix all in one: zest 2 oranges (save the juice), 250g butter, 250g sugar, 4 eggs, 300g almonds.Pour batter into tin and bake in the oven for approx 40 mins. After about 30 minutes whisk 2 x egg whites until soft peaks then add 120g icing sugar and whisk until the mixture stands up in peaks. Remove the cake from the oven, pour the juice over, turn the oven up to 200c, top with the meringue mix and pop back in until browned – about 8 minutes.
The tahini cookies are from the AMAZING Honey and Co cookbook, which because I love so much I have lent to a friend who was in need of some good reading! I will copy it here as soon as I get it back.
Easy breakfasts for guests
Herby fritatta with literally anything you have in the fridge:
This is the perfect breakfast/brunch for when your house is choc full of people after a Saturday night. Its naturally gluten free and veggie, and you can easily cook bacon/sausages on the side for any meat freaks. It looks like you’ve gone to more effort than you have as well, which I enjoy! You’ll need 12 x eggs and about a 24 cm tin (this could be round or square or rectangular) The above fritatta was made with some asparagus and spinach, some sauteed onions and potatoes I had left over from the night before, some coriander and a handful of tomatoes. It’s topped with cheddar. The only thing to remember is that the eggs will cook but nothing else will really, so don’t use anything raw that needs to be cooked – like potatoes or asparagus, make sure they’re cooked first. Ideally you’re using whatever is hanging around in the fridge for this and not cooking anything specially – you can pretty much use whatever potato dish you might’ve made the night before as a base. If you do need to cook something separately just defrost some peas with boiling water and throw those in as a base
Line the tin with baking paper & set oven to 180c
Base ideas: left over mash/dauphinoise/boiled pots/ sweet pots/ squash/ peas/ cooked beetroot
Add any vegetable you have – I had some tomatoes, kale and asparagus
Top with cheese – I am yet to find a cheese that doesn’t work well here! From cream cheese to parmesan to blue, melted cheese is the best
Lightly whisk 12 x eggs with a splash of milk, mix in any herbs or greenery you like and pour over base. Cook until golden and anywhere from runny in the middle to set depending on your taste and your eggs! I’m a bit weird about eggs at the mo so I give mine about 30-40 mins to cook thoroughly, by which time everyone will smell the cheese and emerge into the kitchen and you’ll get that lovely ‘yes I am just like Nigella’ moment as you take something delicious out the oven (to be fair I’ve asked around and its only ever me thinking this, but hey, thats good enough)
Classic lemon tart & issues saying ‘no’
I have a problem saying ‘no’ – it’s something I need to overcome as my career takes me further into outside catering for parties and weddings (yep, I’m not sure how I’ll combine that with having a baby either, but we’ll figure it out as we go I’m sure! Kids can start prepping veg pretty young…right?) it coincides with really lovely customers saying things like ‘we have a really small budget, but I’ve always dreamed of my wedding cake being presented by a unicorn crying tears of champagne’ am I some kind of monster? No, so I spend sleepless nights desperately trying to find ways of making their dream work whilst only remembering last minute that this job thing needs to make enough to pay the bills too…hence the silly hours worked. Anyhoo, that’s my problem not yours and I’m slowly slowly (slowly) solving it. The more parties I cater for the more I am able to charge a price which means I at least get minimum wage per hour profit (after ingredient and rent and staff costs etc). Lemon tarts are one of those desserts which I love to eat so much I always forget what an absolute faff they are to make properly so always excitedly agree to when people want them for parties, only to remember half way through that they are, in fact, a right pain and I should’ve said ‘how about a creme brulee?’. Until – this recipe came along and blew my socks off! Its different to the usual lemon tarts in that you make a lovely lemony curdy custard and pour it into the case then let it set in the fridge overnight. it is perfect and decadent and zingy and light and now I happily agree to lemon tarts left right and center – thank you thank you Felicity Cloake whose recipe this is: BEST EVER LEMON TART
Chickpea salad & trying to be healthy
I LOVE chickpeas, and any savoury dish that is this full of fruit is good with me (I have a sweet/salty tooth) this is a lovely blend of chickpeas, roast sweet potatoes and shed loads of my fave herb coriander. Its dressed really simply with good olive oil, dukkah and lemon juice and here there’s enough to feed 6 people. I mainly spend my days making delicious dishes like this for customers and guests, and then I get home….and crave a bagel, or a pie, or fish and chips, or beans on toast. So. This was never really a problem until we decided to have a baby and now I’m not just eating for me, I’m eating for us, and I wouldn’t feed a baby fish and chips, so I’m keeping my chef hat on at home (funnily enough I’ve never had a problem doing this with cakes or bakes, curries or stews, just salads) tonight we are having roast vegetables and fish cakes, probably with some brown rice or lentil pasta whilst I think about the curly fries in the freezer….
Wonderful sugar
This is a s h o r t post all about that beautiful, unfashionable ingredient – SUGAR! there’s enough stuff out there about how its the worst thing in the world etc and obviously I’m biased but I’m all about everything in moderation. Spun sugar looks gorgeous, no two ways about it. It’s also super easy. All the bits on the bake off and masterchef when there’s a close up of the sugar crystallising? It’s because they’ve added water to the sugar and stirred it. You can add water, absolutely, just don’t touch it whilst it melts. If, however, you are a control freak and faffer like me then melt it dry and you can stir it up to your hearts content! Purely for decorations I wouldn’t bother with a sugar thermometer either (though they are cheap and I always use one for cinder toffee) just half fill a sink with cold water – the sugar gets molten heat and keeps heating itself even after its removed from the heat source so once its perfect you’ll want to cool it down straight away) pour some white sugar in a heavy bottomed pan and heat gently. once the sugar has all dissolved and is all liquid it should be a nice amber colour. Take it off the heat and cool it in the sink, then carefully (it’ll still be hot) spoon onto greaseproof paper in desired shapes and allow to set. It doesn’t last very long and it will melt in the fridge so keep it out and airtight for maximum lasting time (about 20 hrs) If it tastes burnt its heated too much and if its still squidgy it hasn’t heated enough.
Baby kicks and celebration gluten free carrot cake
I love it when the baby kicks, I feel like its the only time I’m ever fully relaxed – like they’re saying ‘I’m okay in here, just so you know’. If they haven’t kicked in a while I drink some iced water and dance around a bit until they do – I wish there was a window that I could look through to check on them. I hope that I’m going to be one of those amazing laid back ‘oh yeah, we just slung the baby on our backs and went off to hike the amazon’ mothers but in my heart of hearts I know the truth. It’ll be enough if we manage to get down to Cornwall for a week (I’m planning two, so we get one – previously I’ve planned for a week and I’ve got a weekend and that was pre-baby so I’m trying to affect a built-in disorganised clause). My mom is not one of those laid back types either – when I was born she used to wake me up to make sure I was still breathing and if a stranger got too close to the pram she’d whisk me off to be washed down, so it’s probably in the genes. Anyway, truth be told I would take Cornwall over the amazon anyday, I love to camp, I love steak pasties and I especially love cream teas (and I don’t care which goes on first, as long as there’s a shit load of both)
Travelling anywhere (Cornwall or the amazon) with celebration cakes is nerve wracking, and the best way to do it is to decorate them when you arrive at your destination. I always take plenty of dried fruit/ chocolate pencils/ spun sugar with me too – that way if (okay, when) something goes awry I can cover it up with decorations…ta dah!
Favourite celebration carrot cake:
200g grated carrot
100g cashews
150g butter – melted
150g white caster sugar
3 eggs
200g s/f flour (works really well with a gluten free s/r flour too)
1 tsp bicarb
whatever spices you like – tsp cinnamon/mixed spice/ ginger
zest of one orange and one lemon (save the juice for a drizzle)
for the drizzle:
mix the citrus juices with 3 tbs sugar until dissolved
for the icing:
200g full fat cream cheese (philadelphia or imokilly seem to be best and don’t go runny)
50g icing sugar
preheat the oven to 180c and line two 20cm sandwich tins
mix the butter, eggs, sugar and spices together with the grated carrot. Add the flour and bicarb and mix to combine, pour into the tins and bake for approx 20 mins or until golden and firm to the touch, whilst they are still hot pour the drizzle over and allow to cool.
They are now ready to transport! whenever needed ice with cream cheese icing and decorate with whatever takes your fancy – I used dried apple rings and dried mango, prunes and cashews with some callebaut chocolate pencils. This cake also freezes really well.
Gluten free brownies with pears
These pears have been poached in white wine and sugar for another dish, and I’m just using them up here. They’ve been simmered for a couple of hours in a mix of white wine, cinnamon, star anise and sugar then left to cool.
For the brownies – they work perfectly on their own, but add cooked pears/apples or bananas/nuts/dried fruit/stem ginger if you happen to have some around and like that sort of thing
6 x eggs
500g caster sugar
380g dark chocolate
380g butter
225g gluten free plain flour (doves is great) + pinch of salt
optional: double espresso or 2 tbsp coffee powder
Pre-heat the oven to 180c and line a large tin – about 24 cm but they’re pretty robust about the tin they’re in as they are cooked when they crack but have a wobble
Beat together the eggs and the sugar until pale and thick
Melt the butter and the chocolate and allow to cool for a minute
Add the chocolate mix to the eggs and sugar (throw in the coffee now if using)
Stir in the flour until blended but don’t over mix
Pour into prepared tray and add any fruit or nuts
Bake for approximately 25 – 40 minutes, depending on the size of your tray. When the brownies are cracked but have a wobble take them out of the oven and let them cool in the tin – preferably overnight so that they set for slicing (or scooped out warm for pud, it wont be pretty but it will be delicious)
Chef and mom-to-be 