Vegetables cakes

Today at work Millertime came to an end. What better way to mark the occasion than with an assortment of cakes?

Given that she proclaimed significant adulation at the recent carrot and courgette layer cake (and as a nod to her commitment of never having eaten meat) an array of vegetable-based cakes was the order of the day.

The first conundrum was just what vegetables to use (for once seasonality would have to be by-passed as this would have just been too restrictive)? Carrots were ruled out straight away due to the ubiquity of carrot cakes. After some research I was left with beetroot, parsnip and courgettes as my vegetables. The remaining question was just how to "cakify" them? I ended up going with: 

• Beetroot brownies;
• Parsnip cupcakes with maple syrup butter cream; and
• Courgette muffins with lime cream cheese frosting

These all went down remarkably well. (Mind you I was reasonably confident as the naked muffins and cupcakes had gone down very well in a little taste-test-preview with the Aussie yesterday)

The muffins were stupidly moist even two days after baking. They had a loose crumb structure making them very light. The lime flavour was very strong to begin with but faded to a subtle sweetness. Fortunately they weren't too sweet and the icing gave a good contrast (although arguably slightly dominant). It was a shame that the pistachio wasn't more prominent. This might have been down to chopping them too finely, bigger pieces may have worked better.

The parsnip cakes were like nothing else I have ever baked. The texture was fantastic: quite crumbly, so moist as to be almost on the verge of falling apart, but with a pleasingly slightly crisp top. The flavour was dominated by coconut. The maple syrup added a nice hit of sweetness. Overall it was a very pleasing little cake but with a surprising lack a unique taste given the remarkable blend of ingredients.

The brownies were excellent and possibly the best of the three. They were gooey but at the same time light (possibly due to my new found trick of whipping the eggs and sugar to ribbons stage). The flavour was fully developed and was deep, rich and long (I think due to the use of both cocoa and chocolate) with an ever so slight earthy undertone from the beetroot. All in all a crackin’ brownie.

On to the recipes.

Parsnip cupcakes with maple syrup icing (adapted from this Henry Dimbleby recipe from The Guardian)

Makes ~20

Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
150g rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
100g desiccated coconut
200g cashew nuts, finely chopped
250g parsnips, finely grated
About 4 tbsp milk
For the maple syrup icing:
4oz butter, softened
6oz icing sugar
4tbsp maple syrup
To decorate:
50g dessicated coconut

Method:
1. Cream together the butter and caster sugar in a mixing bowl, then add the eggs to the mixture one by one, beating well after each addition.
2. In a second bowl, sift the rice flour with the baking powder and mix well. Add the coconut, cashews and grated parsnip.
3. Combine the two bowls of ingredients, adding the milk slowly, until the cake mixture reaches “dropping” consistency.
4. Line a tart or muffin tray with 12 muffin cases.
5. Divide the mixture between the 12 cases (roughly fill each to approximately 3/4 full) and bake at 150°C for 35 minutes (check after 30mins), or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
6. To make the icing, beat the butter until smooth and gradually sift and beat in the icing sugar.
7. Beat in the maple syrup (add more to your taste) and add water as required to get a smooth consistency. Ice each cake with ~1dsp of icing
8. To decorate, dry fry the dessicated coconut until golden and sprinkle on top.

Beetroot brownie (adapted from this Small Steps recipe)

Makes ~18

Ingredients:
250g dark chocolate chopped
200g unsalted butter, cut in cubes
250g beetroot, cooked
3 eggs
1/2tsp vanilla extract
200g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
50g flour
1tsp baking powder

Method:
1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bain marie.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until they reach the ribbon stage: light and fluffy and a trail of mix can be seen if the whisk is wafted over the top.
3. Whizz the cooked beetroot in a food processor, adding the egg and sugar mix and the vanilla. Mix until smooth.
4. In a separate bowl, sift the cocoa powder, flour and baking soda together.
5. Stir the beetroot mixture into the melted chocolate and fold in the dry ingredients.
6. Use parchment paper to line a rectangular tin, pour in mixture and bake at 180°C for 30-35mins, until firm to touch.
7. Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into portions.

Courgette muffins (adapted from this GoodtoKnow recipe)

Makes ~12.

Ingredients:
250g courgettes (about 2-3 medium-sized)
2 large eggs
125ml vegetable oil
150g golden caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
50g pistachio, chopped
Juice and zest of 1 lime
For the lime cream cheese icing:
200g cream cheese
50g butter, softened
100g icing sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lime

Method:
1. Grate the courgettes and leave them to drain in a sieve hung over a bowl.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs, vegetable oil and sugar and beat until well mixed and slightly fluffy
3. Sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and beat together.
4. Finally, add the drained courgette, pistachios and the lime juice and zest and divide the mixture between the 12 muffin cases.
5. Bake at 180°C for 20-25 mins or until the muffins are nicely brown and firm to the touch. Allow to cool completely before icing.
6. To make the icing, beat the butter with the icing sugar until smooth. Beat in the cream cheese and the lime juice and spread generously over the top of each muffin.
7. Decorate each muffin with a sprinkle of lime zest.

Things you buy, not make.

What do these items on the right have in common?

Well, they are things you buy rather than make. Apparently.

This came up during a pre-Christmas Sunday pub lunch, where the topic of conversation turned to crumpets. I'm not sure why (maybe because I'd made some that morning). This lead to a conversation about things that you buy not make and consequently a culinary challenge.

Tonight saw me prove that you really can make everything. Putting a menu together really was quite difficult. Just how do you feature the teatime treat of crumpets into a dinner menu? My only option was a multi-course tasting menu, so (as you may have guessed from the picture) we ended up having:

Vegetable crisps and red pepper houmous

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Crumpets

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Baked beans on toast

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Fish fingers

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Scotch Eggs

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Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

Vegetable crisps and red pepper houmous

I've wanted to make vegetable crisps for ages and was very pleased that these turned out really well. I made a variety of root vegetables and seasonings: carrot and cinnamon (depth of flavour), parsnip and cumin (spicy and sweet), sweet potato and smoked paprika (smoky and sweet). Using both a mandolin and a peeler to make different crisps gave an interesting mix of textures. Unfortunately the strength of the red pepper houmous was too much for the crisps (especially the more delicate "peeler" crisps; it over-powered rather than supported.

Baked beans on toast

I got the recipe for these beans from Tom Kerridge and his recent "Proper Pub Food" programme/book. They are quite acidic which tends to over-power the other flavours. I think if I made them again I would reduce the amount of red wine vinegar. I also made the bread (obviously!), which, given it was the first loaf I'd made for quite some time, turned out very well.

Fish fingers

I dissected a cod loin to make the fish fingers. I was going to carefully craft "proper" finger shapes but we came to an agreed position that that would actually be a waste of fish, so we had fish "snowmen". Obviously I made the tartare sauce as well.

Scotch eggs

The main event. I had a practice run a few days before and was quietly confident that these would be a success. They were. The lightly spiced pork, enveloped in a crispy breadcrumb layer with a still runny yolk hiding beneath it all. It was a deeply savoury treat but at the same time delicate. Having it hot really does make a difference in turning it into something of a gastronomic treat far beyond a cold snack. Paul's Plum Sauce (a Christmas present) was a very well-balanced fruity and tangy accompaniment.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

I'd originally been set a challenge of making Revels, but time was against me and I didn't really know how to make revels into a proper dessert. Given the A and K's delight in peanut butter, I went for a super-sized Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. It was a chocolate pastry case with a peanut butter cream filling topped with ganache. The level of conversation declined quite considerably when I put this on the table, so I think it went down well. 

My version was more "grown-up" than the American confection. It wasn't quite so sweet, with the the bitter topping a good foil to the silky rich filling (opposed to the chalky Reese's interior). There combination of textures was also rather moreish.

The whole evening, although slightly stressful, went very well with all the food well received (despite "bean suspicions"). Although we did realise that it was a very "orange" feast, as most processed foods seem to be. Anyway, another challenge successfully taken on. Definitely the hardest yet. On to the recipes:

Vegetable crisps and red pepper houmous

No recipe here. Just make houmous as usual (chickpeas, tahini, lemon, olive oil, garlic, seasoning) adding as few or as many pepperdew peppers to suit your taste.

Crumpets

I used my tried and tested Gary Rhodes recipe.

Baked beans on toast (taken from Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food) - serves 4

Ingredients:
1 tin haricot or flageolet beans, drained and rinsed

100g smoked streaky bacon, diced
100g onions, finely chopped
Garlic clove, minced
1 can chopped tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree
75g soft dark brown sugar
100ml red wine vinegar
250ml water

Method:
1. Heat some oil in a large casserole and fry the bacon until crisp.
2. Add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft.
3. Add the vinegar and de-glaze the pan.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients (apart from the beans) and bring to the boil.
5. Add the beans and simmer over a low heat for 1.5-2h until the sauce is thick and the beans soft.
6. Serve on slices of buttered toast.


Fish fingers and tartare sauce

I'm not sure there's much of a recipe for the fish fingers. Simply cut some fish into suitable pieces, dust in seasoned flour, douse in beaten egg and then cover liberally with breadcrumbs. Fry gently until the coating is crisp.

There's slightly more to tartar sauce though.

Ingredients:

Egg yolk

1tsp Dijon mustard

Flavourless oil

Gherkins, chopped finely (I used cornichons)

Capers

Parsley

Lemon juice

Method:

1. Mix the egg yolk and mustard together in a bowl.

2. Gradually whisk oil into the egg mix until the desired quantity and consistency is reached.

3. Add the capers, gherkins and parsley to taste.

4. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Scotch Eggs (taken from Heston's recipe)

Ingredients:
10 medium egg
450g good-quality sausages, skins removed
½ tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cornflour
45g Dijon mustard
Plain flour, seasoned
125g breadcrumbs

Method:
1. Put 8 eggs into a pan in which they fit in a single layer. Add enough cold water to cover the eggs by 3cm and cover with a lid then place the pan over a high heat.
2. Once the water comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and allow to stand for 3 minutes. In the meantime, fill a bowl with ice and cold water and after the 3 minutes, transfer the eggs to the iced water.
3. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes.
4. Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, carefully peel off the shells using a teaspoon.
5. Place the sausagemeat in a food processor with the smoked paprika, cornflour, mustard, and a splash of cold water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and blitz together. Divide into eight balls, approximately 55g per portion.
6. Flatten each portion of sausagemeat between two sheets of clingfilm into a circle, then remove the top layer of clingfilm. Place an egg in the centre of each sausage meat circle. Wrap the sausage meat around the egg, by bringing all of the edges together and twist the top of the clingfilm. Press the edges to seal but don’t press too hard. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
7. Roll each coated egg in the seasoned flour, then dip it the remaining beaten eggs. Finally, roll it in the breadcrumbs, making sure that all sides are coated. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15 minutes.
8. Fry the Scotch eggs until golden brown in a deep fat fryer at 190º.
9. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a baking tray.
10. When all the eggs have been fried, place in the oven for 10 minutes at 190ºC

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (This came from A Cozy Kitchen, sorry about the American cups...)

Ingredients:
For the crust:
4oz butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
For the filling:
3oz butter, room temperature
3/4 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp double cream
For the topping:
75ml double cream
75g dark chocolate, broken in to pieces

0.5oz butter

Topping:
Maldon sea salt

Method:
1. To make the pastry cream the butter and sugar until combined. Add egg yolk and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Sift in flour and cocoa powder, and beat on low speed until just combined. Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and form it into a disk; wrap well in plastic wrap. Chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
2. Preheat oven to 160°C. Between two sheets of lightly floured parchment paper, roll the tart dough into a 14-inch circle. Gently transfer dough to a 9 1/2-inch tart pan. Press the dough into the tart pan, trimming away any excess dough. Chill the tart shell in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
3. Line the tart shell with a piece of parchment paper, and fill with pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and its contents, and bake until the pastry looks dry and set, 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool.
4. To make the filling, beat together the ingredients until smooth.
5. Fill the cooled tart crust with the peanut butter mixture and smooth top. Chill for 30 minutes to set.
6. Meanwhile, make the ganache. Place the chocolate, cream and butter in a bain marie and heat until the chocolate melts. Pour some the glaze over the tart while still (just) warm.

Top with a few sprinkles of sea salt and serve.

Battenberg (and baked potatoes)

Tonight was the culmination of yet another culinary challenge from K&A. The theme was Battenberg and baked potatoes in recognition of Rhod Gilbert's latest comic DVD offering. I'll give you one guess as to who was providing the Battenberg...

First order of the day was research. Now a cake always has to taste good, but in this case appearance was just as important. A Mr Kipling Battenberg was duly procured. I'm not a fan of using food-colouring but there'd be no option this time. The determining factor for my square cross-sections would be the rise of the cake. Only once the cake was baked would I be able to determine the appropriate proportional length.

Interestingly the packaged described the multi-coloured cake as

chequered sponge with apricot filling wrapped in almond flavoured paste

Hardly mouth-watering, eh?

Once I worked out how to bake "squares" (I divided an 8" square loose-bottomed tin with a greaseproof paper-covered foil divider), I was just left worrying about making marzipan. My Dad always makes the marzipan for our Christmas cake so I knew it was possible and a damn sight tastier than the packaged stuff. I was amazed at just how easy it is making marzipan. Far simpler than I had expected. (Mind you, had the marzipan gone wrong I was prepared to resort to packet-stuff. Only as a last resort back-up.)

It turns out my cake was a behemoth when compared to the mass-produced ones. I'd provided the large Mr Kipling but there were also mini versions available. (It's as if there was no faith in my Battenberg-producing skills...)

In terms of overall appearance I think I did pretty well. It could have been a little pinker and maybe I should have trimmed the brown edges sides of the cakes. I also hadn't enhanced the yellow part of my cake, relying on the natural colour of the sponge.

Taste-wise I think I trumped Mr Kipling. My cake was less sweet and had a far less "false" chemical flavour. I was right about the marzipan being far more palatable too. I now understand why people say they don't like it. I wonder how many of those have actually tried home-made marzipan? It was so good even the leftovers were made light work of.

Anyway, on to the recipe

Recipe for Battenberg cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs

6oz plain flour

1tsp baking powder

6oz caster sugar

6oz butter

1/4tsp almond essence

Red food colouring

Apricot jam

For the marzipan:

75g icing sugar

1 egg

1tbsp lemon juice

175 ground almonds

1 egg yolk

Method:

1. To make the cake make a three egg Victoria sponge batter in the normal fashion (cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs and then fold in the sifted baking powder and flour).

2. Divide the batter into two equal portions. To one half add red food colouring until a desired level of pink is achieved.

3. To the other half add the almond essence.

4. To prepare the tin, first of all grease liberally. Then make an 8" foil divider and wedge in the middle of the tin. Then line the tin, and divider with greaseproof paper leaving the ends overlapping (so that it is easier to remove the cake).
5. Put the two cake mixes either side of the divider and bake at 180°C for 20min or until done.
6. Once cool, stack the two cakes on top of one another and trim so that they are the same size. Then split in half longitudinally.

7. Gently warm some apricot jam and slacken with a dash of water until a smooth easily spreadable consistency is achieved.
8. Sandwich the four rectangles of cake together with the jam, making sure to alternate the cakes to achieve the chequerboard effect.

9. For the marzipan, whisk the egg, egg yolk and sugar in a bain marie for about 10mins until pale and thick

10. Take the "sabayon" off the heat and beat in the lemon juice and almonds until smooth.

11. Chill for 30 mins.

12. Roll-out the marzipan, dusting the surface with icing sugar. Ensure the marzipan is large enough to completely enrobe the cake.
13. Brush one edge of the cake with jam and place on an edge of the marzipan. Brush the remaining exposed sides with jam (not the ends!) then swaddle the cake in marzipan. Try to keep the seam at the bottom. Trim any excess marzipan.
14. Tidy up the end by chopping them off (chef's perk!) to reveal a marzipan encased cake.

Avocado and Peanut butter

Tonight I hosted a celebratory meal for a very new primary school deputy-head. In order to celebrate suitably a meal featuring avocado and peanut butter was requested.

Now I love the challenge of sculpting a meal to a certain set of conditions but I wasn't too sure what to do with avocado. It's never really used as the main thrust of a dish more as a featuring accompaniment. Thus I turned to Niki Segnit's The Flavour Thesaurus for inspiration and found it in spades. The peanut butter element was far too easy as I love peanut butter and it makes for a great dessert. The problem was more trying to reign myself in. Anyhoo, we ended up having:

Avocado and Cucumber "soup"

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Avocado Tasting Plate

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Spring Vegetable Tagliatelle

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Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich and Grape Sorbet

Avocado and Cucumber "soup"

On a warm June's evening this was a delightful fresh start. The flavours of the avocado and cucumber complemented each other perfectly, accented by lemon juice. A little dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper gave a rounded and more complete mouthful.

Avocado Tasting Plate

Because I wasn't quite sure what to do with the avocado I put together an avocado tasting plate pairing avocado in three different ways: avocado with bacon and blue cheese; grilled avocado, grapefruit and prawn; and finally avocado and mango. I had a hunch that these should be eaten in the same order going from a very savoury salt end through the flavour spectrum to almost sweet with mango.

Rather pleasingly it all worked out rather well. Each of the combinations worked really well. So much so that all the trimmings were very quickly hoovered up and a various different combinations were tried and tested, not all quite so successful as my original!

Spring Vegetable Tagliatelle

Having put so much effort into the avocado and peanut butter elements, I was little lost for inspiration in terms of the main course. I went for a simple spring/summer vegetable pasta: mangetout, peas and asparagus seasoned with lemon and mint. Fresh, seasonal and very tasty.

Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwich and Grape Sorbet

For dessert I put together a peanut butter and jam sandwich. Two peanut butter cookies sandwiched together by fresh peanut butter ice-cream and blackcurrant jam, served with a  grape sorbet.

The ice-cream was delicious but was over-whelmed by too much biscuit. Peeling off one of the cookies gave a much better balance. The grape sorbet gave a lovely contrast to the rich creamy ice-cream and also prevented the peanut-butter flavour from being too dominant. It went down well but not the resounding finish I was hoping for.

To try and improve I gave it another go the following day, essentially making and ice-cream "cheesecake". I crumbled one of the peanut butter cookies up as the base, covered that with jam and then put the ice-cream on top. It was served with the sorbet on top and a shard of salted peanut brittle. This had a much better balance although it was just too big! (Not something I ever thought I'd say!)

All in all a very good night. Here are the recipes:

Avocado and cucumber "soup"

Ingredients:

Half cucumber, de-seeded and roughly chopped

Medium-sized avocado, roughly chopped

Juice of half a lemon

Sour cream

Cayenne pepper

Method:

1. Put the avocado, cucumber and lemon juice in a blender. Blend until smooth adding a little water at a time to achieve a silky consistency.

2. Season with salt and pepper (and lemon juice) to taste and chill.

3. Serve in espresso cups topped with a teaspoon of sour cream and a restrained sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

Avocado Tasting Plate

Ingredients:
Two ripe avocados
3 slices of white bread, crusts removed, cut into three
2 slices of dry-cured bacon
Gorgonzola
Half red chilli, finely diced
Lime juice
Red grapefruit, segmented
Prawns
Mango, sliced
Mint, chopped
Melted butter

Method:
For the avocado, bacon and blue cheese:
1. Fry the bacon until crisp, leave to cool and then cut into pieces.
2. In the same pan, fry one side of three of the bread slices in the bacon fat until crispy.
3. Brush the other side of the bread with melted butter and fry until toasted.
4. Mash half an avocado with lime juice, salt and pepper and chilli to taste.
5. To serve, liberally spread the avocado on the toast. Sprinkle over the bacon bits and add little pinches of blue cheese. Finish with a light drizzle of olive oil.
For the avocado, grapefruit and prawn:
1. Slice and avocado thickly. Liberally brush three slices with melted butter and season. Grill.
2. Brush three slices of bread with melted butter on both sides and fry until toasted.
3. Fry the prawn in a dash of butter until just cooked and then season with lime juice, salt and pepper.
4. To serve, place an avocado slice on each piece of bread, top with a grapefruit segment and a prawn
For the avocado and mango:
1. Marinate slices of avocado and mango in lime juice and mint.
2. Brush three slices of bread with melted butter on both sides and fry until toasted.
3. To serve, top the bread with a slice of avocado and a slice of mango.
[Note: This might actually work better as a mango and avocado salsa, rather than slices of each]

Spring Vegetable Tagliatelle (serves 3, inspired by Simon Rimmer's Pasta primavera)

Ingredients: 
1/2 onion, finely chopped
300g tagliatelle, cooked and cooking water reserved
2oz butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
200g asparagus, blanched, cut into bite-sized pieces
200g frozen peas, podded
200g mangetout
150g baby spinach
1 lemon, juice and zest
Parmesan shavings
Half bunch mint, chopped
Half bunch parsley, chopped

Method:
1. Heat the butter in a pan, sweat the onion until translucent then add the garlic and fry for one minute.
2. Add the asparagus, peas, mangetout and spinach and stir fry for 1-2 minutes, until the spinach has wilted slightly.
3. Add the pasta and a little of the cooking water to the pan and stir to combine.
4  Stir in the lemon juice and zest and the herbs and season, to taste.
5. To serve, divide the pasta and sprinkle over Parmesan shavings and drizzle with olive oil.

For the dessert I'll just give you the recipes for the peanut-butter ice-cream and grape sorbet.

Peanut butter ice-cream (taken from Allrecipes)
Makes 500ml

Ingredients:
2tbsp caster sugar
2 eggs
125ml milk
100g peanut butter
80ml sweetened condensed milk
60ml double cream
1tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until thick, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
2. Bring the milk to a simmer over low heat.
3. Take off the heat and gradually add the milk to the eggs while whisking vigorously. Then pour the whole mixture into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
4. Remove from heat and whisk in peanut butter. Allow to cool slightly, then whisk in the sweetened condensed milk, single cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
5. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Or put in a container and freezer, taking out of the freezer and whisking every hour for the first three hours. Then leave to freeze.

Grape sorbet (from Niki Segnit's The Flavour Thesaurus)

Ingredients:
250ml red grape juice
100ml water
100g caster sugar.

Method:
1. Warm the water and sugar together in a pan until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Take off the heat and combine with the grape juice. Leave to cool.
3. Once cool, pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Or put in a container and freezer, taking out of the freezer and whisking every hour for the first three hours. Then leave to freeze.

Paternity cake: A challenge

Assume your best Mel (or Sue) voice and read on.

"Get ready bakers … "
"It’s time for the Show Stopper Challenge …"
"And today’s theme is  … "
"Paternity cake."

"It should not look like this …. "

"You’ve got between now and next week to wow us [without including dried fruit]"

"Do your worst."




And thus the gauntlet was thrown down. Seven days to produce a paternity cake that both tasted good and looked the part.

This cake was always going to be about a funky decoration (as well as taste; it's always about taste). I had an idea for the design that meant I needed an oblong cake. The size of the cake would be constrained by the size of my baking tin and the boxes I have to transport the cake to Banners.

Now, I'm not the best with fondant icing (or piping for that matter), so I had to find a way of getting the planned design on to the cake. Fortunately The Cake Shop in Banners has a machine that prints onto icing. Happy days!

All that was left was to make the cake. The father in question had already hinted that a lemon cake would go down well so that's what I went for. I made a typical 4888 sponge flavoured with lemon and baked three cakes in my 8.5"x10.5" tin. Turns out that's not quite enough cake batter. There were a couple of crispy edges and missing corners, but with some judicious rotation during the layering, I just about got away with it (well, nobody complained anyway).

The sponges were sandwiched with some home-made lemon curd and a mascapone-cream mix. I topped the lot off with lemon butter icing. Then managed to use white fondant to give a reasonable finish. Turns out kneading the fondant is the key; it makes it much more pliable and easier to roll out. Who knew?

I picked up the print this morning and it better than I could ever have hoped for. Every detail had come out. Amazing.

 

The cake went down exceedingly well. Notable comments included "Oh, I thought you bought it" and "why aren't you married?". I do wonder, sometimes, if my cakes are preferred to the efforts I put into my actual day-job...

The original design:

Three cakes in eight days, that's not too shabby.

Macaroni cheese-cake

As I may have mentioned, I have become slightly obsessed with the Readers Recipe Swap in the Cook supplement of the Saturday Guardian.

This week was macaroni. I was determined to come up with a sweet recipe. I was desperate to make a pun-tastic macaroni cheese-cake, but just couldn't devise a suitable recipe. Macaroni is just too big to deep-fry or caramelise (unlike vermicelli).

 

Consequently I've ended up with a cheesecake-trifle hybrid. I think it's a cold comfort pud. I've flavoured this with seasonal forced rhubarb. An alternative would be to make a chocolate custard, use bananas as the fruit and garnish with caramel.

Also, I must apologise for using Bird's custard powder. I didn't have the time (or eggs) to make real custard. Sorry.

Makes 4 individual portions

Ingredients:

For the custard base:

100g macaroni

400ml milk

1tsp vanilla

2dsp caster sugar

1tbsp custard powder

For the cheese topping:

200g mascarpone

200ml double cream

1tsp vanilla extract

For the roast rhubarb topping:

400g rhubarb, cut into 2" batons

Juice of an orange

4tbsp demerara sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

For the crunchy garnish:

Breadcrumbs from a single slice of white bread

½oz butter

Ground ginger

Method:

1. First of all make the macaroni custard base. Put the macaroni, milk, 1dsp sugar and vanilla in a pan and gently bring to the boil. Put a lid on and reduce the heat to the lowest setting so that the surface of the milk is barely moving. Cook until the pasta is soft. (This took about 20min on my hob)

2. Meanwhile prepare the moulds. Line the outside of four 8cm chef’s rings with cling film.

3. Mix the remaining 1dsp of sugar and the custard powder in a bowl with a splash of milk to a smooth consistency.

5. Once the pasta is soft, sieve the milk into the custard mix. Whisk to combine and return to the pan. Put on a low heat until the custard starts to thicken (this should be pretty quick).

6. Once the custard has thickened add in the cooked macaroni and mix. Divide equally between the prepared moulds. Leave to set in the ‘fridge.

7. For the rhubarb, mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Transfer to a baking tray and bake at 180°C for about 10mins, or until just tender. Leave to cool.

8. For the topping, beat the mascarpone in a bowl until soft. In another bowl whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla to soft peaks. Combine the cheese and cream and gently mix with the juice from the rhubarb until combined.

9. For the garnish, melt the butter and then fry the breadcrumbs until they are golden. Drain on some kitchen paper and shake over as much ginger as you like.

10. Once the custard has set, remove the cling film and then plate. Fill the moulds with the cheese mix.

11. Remove the moulds (I use a quick waft of a blow torch). Lay the roasted rhubarb on top. Then sprinkle liberally with the toasted breadcrumbs.

Serve at room temperature.

What a way to start the weekend?

My weekend normally starts off in much the same way: a trip to the gym, followed by coffee and brunch in front of Saturday Kitchen. Just recently this has changed with the launch of the Guardian's new Cook supplement.

One regular feature is the Readers' recipe swap. Each week a particular theme or ingredient is chosen and readers are asked to submit their best recipe. Felicity Cloake (of the "How to cook the perfect..." series) then cooks the most promising and selects a shortlist and winner which are published two week later.

Today my recipe for Sausage Crumble got published! HUZZAH! 

The only thing is that this is only the beginning, The ultimate goal of the series is to find the Guardian's home cook of the year, which means I'm gonna have to submit a recipe every week now having started so well!

That's a pretty good way to start the weekend, don't you think?

Read the article on the Guardian website

£ood Waste Challenge - Winner!

Look what I got in the post today:

I didn't do too badly after all!

And I have got my London Food Waste volunteer training soon.

The Food Blog Diary

The Food Blog Diary sounds like just what I need. 

The Food Blog Diary is the place to find up-to-date foodie challenges, giveaways and competitions.

I've been thinking about the fact that I haven't done any challenges or events for quite some time. Perhaps this site will help me get my act together

£ood Waste Challenge - Day 14

The final day of the £ood Waste Challenge was a bit of an anti-climax as I ate absolutely nothing at home yesterday (not even breakfast).

Making my Grand Food Waste Total:

ZERO

So, I managed to do it. An entire week with no food waste. I'm quite pleased with myself. Not that I wish to brag, but it didn't really take much effort to do really, simply because it fits in with  my way of thinking about food anyway - I hate wasting anything!

I definitely know that I'd be lost without my freezer now. I hadn't really ever thought about how much I use it; practically every day. Everyone should freeze a lot more!

There are also a few other things which are easy changes to make that I'll try and adopt, like crisps made from peelings.

All in all a good couple of weeks, I hope I've contributed to helping a few people make a change (or two) and it's very much got me back into blogging far more frequently. It's a success all round really.

I'm looking forward to doing more as a London volunteer Food Waste Champion...

£ood Waste Challenge - Day 13

Just a quickie tonight because today has been mega-busy, really not sure where it went. Fortunately there was enough time to eat and not generate any food waste.

Breakfast

No food waste. You get one guess how. Really? No, I did actually have breakfast and it was a weighed-out portion of muesli and a banana. Who'd a thunk it?

Lunch

No food waste. A bowl of celeriac and celery soup and a slice of toast both taken straight from the freezer. Well, the bread to make the toast came from the freezer. Then an apple.

Dinner

No food waste. Simple re-heated the portion of posh macaroni cheese from last night. I was too busy tonight to spend much time on food.

Grand Food Waste Total:

ZERO

 

Since I'm probably only going to eat breakfast at home tomorrow, it looks like I'm going to make it a zero food waste week. Woop! At least I might achieve one of my aims...

£ood Waste Challenge - Day 12

A day of working at home today, which typically means grazing through the day with a "proper" dinner rather than three set meals. Thus plenty of opportunity to use up leftovers.

Daytime pre-dinner munching

No food waste all day. I had:

• a couple of slices of toast made with bread straight from the freezer;
• the "crisps" from last night;
• a yoghurt;
• a nutty bar; and
• the fried-up left over from last night with a fried egg.

 

Maybe not the prettiest plate of food but tasty nonetheless.

Dinner

No food waste, as this was a planned meal: "posh" macaroni cheese. Essentially this is regular macaroni cheese with a few extras. I added a couple of rashers of bacon taken from the freezer which needed using, a brace of tomatoes and two weighted-out portions of frozen mixed veg. In the sauce I used up the Philadelphia from last week and some of the cream from Sunday. On top I put breadcrumbs made from two slices of bread (including the crusts!) and some Parmesan. I deliberately used enough pasta for two portions with the plan to eat half and save the rest for another day. Turns out that adding so many extras means it actually made three portions so I ate one, put one in the freezer and one in the fridge.

For afters, I had the remaining Yorkshire puddings from yesterday.

It would seem the combination of hot crispy and yet doughy batter and cream and Golden Syrup makes for a cracking treat. I'm tempted to try and refine them further. The ones I made with apple and muscavado were noticeably denser and slightly less flavoursome than I was hoping. I didn't have problem with the texture, more the lack of toffee-appleness that I was shooting for. Just means I'll have to try again, what a shame!

Grand Food Waste Total:

ZERO

All in all a good day, no food waste, plenty of leftovers used up and reasonably healthy (although slightly devoid of fruit, still its int eh fridge so it should keep for longer). Only two days left to go to avoid food waste...

£ood Waste Challenge - Day 11

Right, I have a much more interesting day for you today and thankfully I'm still on track for zero waste - but I had to actually take some pro-active action today! Let's get the dull bits out of the way first.

Breakfast

No food waste. Can you guess why? Well done, I did indeed have a weighed out portion of muesli and a banana. Oh, and I might have had a cheeky nutty bar for elevenses before I headed out. I know, I know, I live on the edge!

Lunch

No food waste. Out at meetings today so it was a working lunch on the go.

And this is where things get a tad more interesting...dun, dun, dah...

Dinner

No food waste, but it took some effort. I had planned to have sausages and mash this week and the dull grey London skies and incessant drizzle suggested this was a comfort food day.

Firstly, I portioned up my pack of sausages. Having taken two for dinner, I packed the remainder, paired off (there's really some kind of Noah reference there but it's too late for my brain to work it out), into an old takeaway box ready for the freezer. The greaseproof paper layer means I only have to extract a brace of porky cylinders from their cold sleep at a time. Perfect for a cheeky sausage sanger at the weekend.

 

I also added the sausages on to my freezer list. I have a built in fridge-freezer so I am devoid of magnet action in my kitchen. Instead I have to make do with a little noticeboard. You can also see my shopping list (with my list of meals planned), plus a freezer life chart, some info on seasonal food and the recommended portions for 5-a-day from the NHS.

I'd be quite interested in a freezer life guide i.e. how long you can keep things in the freezer for from Love Food Hate Waste. I'm not sure where I got my list from but I do remember it was pretty hard to find/put together.

With my sausages I had mash using the potato and sweet potato leftover from Sunday. Now, clearly you can't have mash using the skins of potatoes. Thus the idea of generating food waste was a real possibility here. "What did you do?", I hear you cry. Well, thanks for asking. What I did was to gently fry the peelings in the fat from the sausages. As they were cooling I doused them liberally with salt and paprika. They, my friends, will be a tasty savoury snack tomorrow.

I quite fancied toad-in-the-hole, but after a long day, some culinary "playing around" with some batter rather than simply going down the traditional route seemed appropriate. I divide a portion of batter in to three. The first portion had grated apple (peel on, so no waste), parsley, sage and seasoning added (that's on the left). The next batch received the remaining grated apple and a dessert spoon of muscavado sugar (on the right). The remained was left unadulterated (they're in the middle and yes, I'm clearly not very good at dividing batter into three equal parts!). 

This gave me some interesting savoury options for dinner and an opportunity to try out sweet Yorkshire puddings, which I've heard about but never tried.

To finish off dinner, I'd defrosted a portion of braised red cabbage over night, so bunged that in the oven to heat through as the Yorkies were cooking.

In terms of portions, I'd normally just bung everything I'd cooked on to a plate and eat the lot. Resulting in no food waste, but a very fully tummy. Not exactly a bad state of affairs but maybe not the optimum state either!

Thus I just dished out what seemed enough red cabbage and mash (which was a serving spoonful), safe in the knowledge there was more if I was hungry. Turns out that was more than enough food for me. The leftover cabbage and mash have been refrigerated and are prime candidates for lunch tomorrow. 

Just a quick note on the flavoured Yorkshire pudding - very good but needs a lot more cooking because of the apple (I think). Will give you the recipe and verdict on the sweet ones tomorrow.

Having consulted the Perfect Portion Tool, 3 heaped tbsp (approx. 80g) and 2 heaped tbsp are the recommended portions of cabbage and mash respectively. So it seems that I eat way more than this usually and only be thinking about food waste have I prevented my self from over-eating: an unexpected bonus.

It would also be really helpful (as I think I've mentioned before) to know the un-cooked i,e, raw weight of a portion to help mew prevent cooking too much in the first place. 

Anyway that's more than enough for today, on to the most important thing:

Grand Food Waste Total:

ZERO