Strawberry Shortcake

The strawberries are gorgeous this year.  We didn't have to move very far along the row to pick two full baskets.  R had a bit of an intermission while the farm dog, a chocolate lab named Topper, persisted in smothering him with kisses. 

Back at home I got out my mixing bowls and whipped up a pound cake so we could have a yummy dessert.  Piling the whipped cream on top of the berries and cake I thought about taking a picture but that would have meant a case of dessertus interruptus. 

Back to the Bakery

Oh what this girl won't do to recreate a little bit of London back at home in Burlington.  Yesterday afternoon I whipped up a batch of carrot cake cupcakes using the recipe from the Primrose Bakery.  Mine don't have a little marzipan carrot on top and I may not be sitting on the bench outside the shop in Covent Garden...but they're delicious!

Tea Bread and Treasure

The Honey, Sultana and Pecan Tea Bread from Tea at Fortnum & Mason filled the kitchen with the aroma of Christmas yesterday.  My shorts, tank top and the sound of lawnmowers buzzing in the background set the record straight that it was most definitely not December!  There were some slight modifications, I had to investigate what "mixed spice" was (it's an English term) and had to do a bit of mixing of my own from jars of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.  And I didn't have Earl Grey on hand so regular black tea it was with a splash of brandy for interest.  It tastes absolutely delicious!

I've been pulling my copy of Taste  from my bedside table in the morning before Deacon decides it's time to haul everyone out of bed.  This morning I read about wartime rationing and recipes for mock this and that leaving me quite thankful for a full pantry.

"Icing was illegal, wedding cakes were more often cardboard than edible, and, as Christmas Day dawned, 'Austerity Pudding' was likely to be made with potato, grated carrot and apple, as much dried fruit as you could get your hands on, dried egg, flour, breadcrumbs, cooking fat and a scraping of precious golden syrup or marmalade."

On a related kitchen matter, my good friend and colleague, Roberta, picked up this cup and saucer from one of her treasure hunting jaunts because she thought I would like it.  R loves to tease that over the years of her gifting treasures she hasn't lightened her purse by more than $7 to date.  We ignore him.  The exact reason for two handles, other than looking quite pretty, had us wondering.  With a bit of searching the internet we now know it's actually a cream soup bowl and stand.  My everyday china doesn't come with anything so pretty or so dedicated, it's all about simply making do.  I read that two handles also make tea drinking easier for the infirm.  Knock on wood, I won't need it for that reason for quite some time.

Bouchons au Thon

The date has been set for one of several friendly competitions between friends this summer. 

AppetizerFest will be an afternoon of consuming delicious tidbits and assigning marks based on various criteria.  It's really just another excuse to have a laugh with friends and partake in some culinary jousting.  One of our friends thought this would be the perfect time to introduce a woman he had recently began seeing romantically.  Can you imagine what ran through her mind with fifteen other people pulling out score sheets and mulling over every detail of an appetizer?  It's one thing to know you're amongst friends who are completely full of it but poor Ms M must have been wondering what she had got herself into.  While everyone was chewing and mulling, pens poised to assign a mark, I leaned over and said quietly "We are so full of it it's not even funny" which made her laugh.  The very lovely Ms M is still around and will be in on the fun for this year's competition.

Mrs Miniver's Daughter recently wrote about discovering a copy of A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg and a craving for Bouchon au Thon was heartily underway.  I made a batch on Wednesday in regular muffin tins as called for but I'm thinking that baked in those miniature tins they would make a lovely bite-sized appetizer.  Would they be boring without some sort of dipping sauce?  These are basically tuna, egg and Gruyere cheese so if you have any suggestions for something zingy to accompany them please feel free to share!

Queen's Cake, Part Two

Scrounging through my collection of mismatched teacups and mugs for something to bake my Queen's cakes in I found the ones matching my teapot were best.  Printed on the underside it claimed they could go from oven to table...perfect!  Although, how many people place their mugs in the oven?

Popping the batter-filled mugs into a preheated oven at 350 degrees, I held my breath hoping they wouldn't crack.  The worst never happened and soon the kitchen was filled with the heavenly aroma of cake.  I debated leaving the cakes in the mugs but worried they would get a bit soggy so I turned them out. 

The Royal icing was quite runny, is it supposed to be?  The lemon zest made it deliciously zingy though so not a total loss. 

Taking a mouse-sized slice out of one I thought they looked like just the sort of cake well-suited to a party in one of Beatrix Potter's books.  For me, the delight was in trying a recipe and baking method which is hundreds of years old.  I'm just so glad that I didn't have to stoke a fire for hours in the process!   

Queen's Cake

One of the many things I love about reading English novels is the frequent appearance of tea and cake.  It's there as a snack, when friends pop 'round, the village fete, a train ride, it rained...the list goes on. 

Drawing inspiration from Cornflower, I jotted down the names of a few cakes from South Riding to try.  There is Queen's cake, tea cake and currant loaf so far.  Since there is a Royal wedding just a flip of the calendar away I wondered what Queen's cake was all about.

Lo and behold, when I did some research the information came from a website featuring none other than Mrs Rundell and her book, A New System of Domestic Cookery.   This re-issue by Persephone just happens to be on my shelf!  During the Regency era these cakes would have been turned out of their cup and as you can imagine were the beginning of what we now call a cupcake.

The best bit is that they're described as being 'not really a substantial cake' which sounds like an invitation to enjoy more than one.  So unless something else tempts me along the way as I'm just three-quarters the way through South Riding, I will be giving this recipe a try.  Let's hope I can make Mrs Rundell proud.  If I screw things up horribly there is always the hot buttered toast that also gets a mention.

Deacon's Virago Adventure

When Carolyn put out a call to show off your Viragos, I had an idea.  It sounded like a good one at the time.  Sweaty damp patches and a border collie now wary of aprons later...here is a shot of one of my favourite Viragos!  Ta da!

The Virago Book of Food: The Joy of Eating, is full of sumptuous quotes from literary works through the ages by some of the best.  Please do look for it at your bookshop...in the meantime, I need a rest.

A Zingy Harvest

Way back in June, I was intrigued by the idea of growing a citrus plant.  So I brought home an Improved Meyer Lemon from the nursery.  You can click here to see it when the fruit was small and green.

Watching these small orbs begin to ripen was thrilling!  Despite being tempted to leave the fruit to cheer up the room I couldn't resist putting at least some of them to use.  For something quite small they certainly pack a lot of juice and made the kitchen smell like summer.

My Lemon Drizzle cake turned out moist and oh so zingy.  I couldn't have been more proud.  My thoughts are already branching out...perhaps Key Lime pie next January?

Festive This-n-That

For those of you interested in our musical Christmas crackers, here they are.  Along with the obligatory paper hat, joke and prize there is a horn with a number on its base.  Two pages of song sheets with a sequence of numbers will allow you and eleven of your friends to form your own musical group.  Or perhaps decrypt Enigma code.  Since six of the crackers are still intact we either have to pop the rest or wait until next year.  The Heiress has her eye on the heart-shaped pocket mirror as yet undiscovered so something tells me that tonight there will be some tooting going on...so to speak.

R was quite excited to find a copy of Blitz Spirit compiled by Jacqueline Mitchell for me.  Love the cover art but am wondering about Winston's 'whiskers'.  The Heiress gave me a copy of Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor which I am in the process of devouring.  A gift to myself, The Queen's Doll's House by Lucinda Lambton arrived in our mailbox today, I can't wait to sit down with a cup of tea and pour over every little thing...literally!  The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph were also courtesy of R, although he wrote on the gift tag that they were from Norris from The Kabin on Coronation Street.  It's a funny game we like to play at Christmas, tying in our gifts to characters from just about everything.  Too bad I couldn't jet over to England to collect my free Waitrose luxury biscuits though!

And this massive bowl of trifle is what R and I got up to this afternoon.  Making it, not eating it!  Quite ridiculous for the three of us, we may have to recruit friends to share it with.  We laughed after realizing that R had been feeding some of the leftover cake to Deacon that had been drizzled with sherry.  Not to worry, no harm done.  And really, a sleepy Border Collie wouldn't be all bad.

R and I have also had the pleasure of taking in two movies over the past few days.  The King's Speech was absolutely charming, the ultimate cosy film.  Colin Firth, Helena Bonham-Carter and Geoffrey Rush were a delightful acting trinity.  The Black Swan was both unsettling and outstanding.  You either sink back in fear or edge forward with anticipation during this one.  An Oscar nod will undoubtedly go to Portman, she was stunning.

In the last few hours of 2010, have a wonderful time celebrating in your favourite way.  We're going to indulge in a few thousand more calories before coming to our senses tomorrow.  Aren't the holidays fun!

Rock buns

The other day Simon posted about doing a bit of Bank holiday baking, specifically Rock buns.

Rising to the challenge of making this delicious companion to a cup of tea, I whipped out my mixing bowl.  Deciding to use Tana Ramsay's recipe proved foolhardy as I had to zest an orange...I always take a nick out of the knuckle on my thumb using the grater.  Note to self: buy a proper zester!

These were super easy to make as demonstrated in Tana's photo which displays her making them with her children.  Well, at least I think they're hers.  My only pitfall was that in the recipe, Tana says not to overcook them as they continue to cook after being removed from the oven.  Finding them a bit anemic looking, I put them back in for another two minutes.  They still look anemic.  Popping back over to Simon's post he says that they should be brown on the top as they're better overdone than undercooked.  I should have followed Simon's advice from the start.  Despite their paleness, these were so delicious I gobbled up two with a cup of tea while they were still warm and I will definitely be baking another batch soon. 

Thanks for issuing the challenge to get baking, Simon!

Fresh Bread

Several people, including me, were recently inspired by Cornflower's post about making bread the easy way. Finding a pouch of yeast in the cupboard that was actually within its 'use by' date, I dug out a bowl and the other ingredients on Friday. The appealing feature with this recipe is that you should leave the dough to sit under cling film for 12 to 18 hours to do its thing. This recipe is also quite forgiving as we've had a bit of a cold spell and the house got quite chilly that night. Saturday morning found me staring at a gooey blob that didn't look all that different from the night before. 'The yeast has died' I said to R. Not wanting to declare defeat just yet, I searched the house for a warm spot that was safe from Deacon's curiousity. The perfect spot was on top of the chest-of-drawers in my bedroom all sunny and warm. Perfect! My revised plan was to bake the loaf after dinner but we decided to go to the theatre to see An Education (fabulous film!). I could always bake it when we got home....right? When we got home I was too tired so the bowl of dough, which had actually come alive, was left overnight. Bright and early this morning, I carried my mixing bowl of bubbly dough downstairs and fired up the oven. The house was soon filled with the wonderful aroma of fresh bread and R asked if it would be piggish to have a third slice. That's the best sort of recommendation for this recipe. It could have used a bit more salt so I'll be mixing up another batch tonight...solely for research and quality control purposes. And this time I hope to have it in the oven before Tuesday!

French-Style Yogurt Cake with Lemon

Here is the delicious lemon cake from A Homemade Life that I was telling you about. There's lemon zest in the batter, then you pour a lemon syrup over the cake while it's still warm. Once it has cooled, you pour a sugary lemon glaze over the top. Are your cheeks zinging yet? Time to step into the confessional. This is my second attempt at this cake. The first one was baked to the exact directions of 30 minutes. When I took it out it had a perfect dome on top, think St Paul's. Turning away for a brief second, my gaze returned to a sunken crater...think meteorite in Utah! 'How bad could it be?' I asked myself as I began drizzling syrup over the golden sponge which then pooled like a lemony swimming pool in the crater. It quickly became apparent that things were bad...real bad. My cake was now oozing through the bottom, extruding through the holes of my cooling rack and pooling on my stove top. In nuclear terms, it was a core meltdown. Now bless R for his 'if one is good then two are better' rule when it comes to buying things. With the second pot of yogurt that he brought home with the other ingredients, I whipped up another cake. This time adding on another 10 minutes to the baking time. When seven toothpicks came out clean I was confident that it was well and truly done. The first cake wasn't a total loss as I cut out the soft centre and cut up the ring around the outside into fingers. Popping them into a Ziploc bag I sent them back with The Heiress, who was home this weekend, for snacking on. There's that saying 'when life presents you with lemons, make lemonade' but in my case it was cake. Thanks again, Molly Wizenberg!

Adventures in Baking

Inspired by Verity's baking posts, I decided to try my hand at baking flapjacks. Now for those of us on this side of the pond, they don't resemble anything close to our flapjacks, also known as pancakes. Flapjacks are made of oats, brown sugar, butter with a bit of cinnamon. Some recipes call for golden syrup so there are several versions out there I'm sure. Whilst reaching for the brown sugar, I spied some chocolate chips and thought 'why not?'. I apologize in advance if I've made some of you cringe! The taste reminds me a bit of an oatmeal macaroon that I used to make. When R and I were first married, I made a batch which he took to work for sharing. He came home that day asking nonchalantly where I kept my recipe. 'Why?' was my response. In a sheepish manner, R told me how one co-worker said that he enjoyed the cookies so much that he would happily pay for a dozen. In the truest sense of miscommunication, it went through work that R was a part-time baker and was taking cookie orders! Not wanting to disappoint, R promised to return to work the next day with something like twelve dozen cookies. We worked together to make enough cookies and R was instructed to let everyone know that these cookies were on the house as the baking business was no longer in service. It wasn't so funny at the time but it makes me laugh to remember it now.

Almond Gingerbread

Now that the indulgence of Christmas and all things yummy is well behind us, I was ready to get the mixing bowls out again. Leafing through the delicious recipes in Marguerite Patten's, 100 Top Teatime Treats, I chose to make Almond Gingerbread. Now my modus operandi is to make a recipe exactly as stated the first time and then make any adjustments required for next time. So in one bowl I had the flour, baking soda, ground ginger and ground almonds. On the stove to melt was some brown sugar, butter and golden syrup. The recipe said that when these ingredients were melted they were to be poured over the flour mixture and to stir briskly. Nothing was said about letting it cool, so in it went. How can you stir briskly when you're now faced with a bowl of hot glue?! This called for drastic measures to be taken. Getting out my speed mixer, I got stuck in...literally. The mixture wrapped around the beaters and worked its way up the stems pulling one of the beaters right out from its connection...mon dieu! There was smirking coming from R who stood close by watching what was fast become an episode of I Love Lucy. Not expecting much, I pushed and prodded the mixture off the the beaters and spread it in the pan as best I could and in the oven it went. In amazement, I watched this lovely cake start to appear! It puffed up and filled the house with a lovely ginger aroma...all was not lost. It looks a bit funny, I suspect due to its dramatic beginning, but tastes wonderfully old-fashioned, perfect with a cup of tea. This recipe, and Marguerite Patten, deserve some justice and I should have know better so I will definitely be making this gingerbread again soon.

Pumpkin Treats

We're getting ready to head out to our friend's house for the pumpkin carving party but I wanted to share my tray of goodies with you.

I'm not sure how the kids will like a pumpkin cupcake as their tastes usually run to all things chocolate. But then again, kids will surprise you. Time I wasn't here...bye!

Cookies on a Cloudy Day

Today is a perfect baking day, it's grey, drizzly and blowing like mad. These cookies are a favourite in our house, full of pecans, cranberries, chocolate chips and oatmeal. Well, R really doesn't get too excited about the oatmeal part, who am I kidding? This morning I had to go to a service kiosk at the mall to get my licence plate renewal sticker. It costs $74 each year and is to be renewed by your birthday, mine is on Friday. Does anyone else feel that it's a bit of a letdown to give the government money because it's your birthday? To put it all behind me, I drove down the road to Chapters for a browse around and then realized I have all the books I need. Notice I didn't say want. I did spy a copy of The Time Traveler's Wife which I'm curious to read now, there's a whopping 76 holds for that title at the library and over 900 reviews on Amazon, apparently I've been missing out. Last night, I placed an order for Susan Hill's, Howard's End is on the Landing. I'm very curious to read about her experience of reading from her shelves and the who's who of authors mentioned in the book. And if I'm honest...I covet one of the most gorgeous pieces of cover art I've ever seen. For fun, I'm going to see how long it takes me before I crack and buy a book in 2010. Hill's book will be inspirational reading. Deacon and a black squirrel are having a staring contest through the glass doors, time to throw out more peanuts. It's cheap entertainment for Deacon and I'll get some laundry done...time to go!

Apple Crisp in Autumn

Autumn and apples make a perfect pairing. The temperature here has dipped to single digits in the morning and evening so a warming dish of apple crisp was on the menu last night.

Well, that and the fact that Verity has never heard of apple crisp and I wanted to be able to show her what it's like. The recipe calls for tart apples, brown sugar, oats, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour. I sprinkled some pecans on top this time and loved the added nutty flavour. Served up warm with a scoop of ice cream it makes the perfect dessert on a chilly evening.

Victoria Sponge and Friends

This is my first Victoria Sponge! Last night I had the company of the delightful ladies R and M for tea and cake. Ever since Verity from The B Files made her sponge I've been thinking that this is a recipe I'd love to try. Now as pretty as it was I don't think I would have won any prizes at the village fete as it was a tad on the dense side. The recipe calls for cake flour and not having any in the cupboard I reduced the flour a bit and added some corn starch. If you happen to be a practiced baker of sponge cakes perhaps you could pass on some of your wisdom as I'm going to be baking another one to tweak things a bit. The really important thing is that we ladies had such a nice time getting together and the time flew by all too quickly. After taking Deacon for his last walk of the day I came back to discover some tea left in the pot. I opened the fridge door and reached for the milk, casting a glance at the cake. Feeling a bit like Nigella, I was leaning against the counter at 10:30 pm eating Victoria Sponge and drinking a cup of tea by the dim light of the stove. It was lovely having the ladies over, we'll have to do it again - soon!

Snack Food

One of my favourite snacks is toasted spiced almonds. I used to eat them plain but once I tried them this way there's been no going back. Spread 2 cups of unblanched almonds on an ungreased baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and toss to coat. Bake at 350 F - 5 min. Sprinkle with a mixture of 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cayenne and 1/4 tsp salt. Toss and toast another 5 min. They're so delicious and healthy for you too! Enjoy.

Ginger Snaps

I came home from work yesterday to this! R had made me some Ginger Snap cookies to go with my tea. He went out with his friends to play darts at the pub and took some to share. I so enjoyed the image of a car load of grown men off for a night out munching on biscuits.