Meringues

Part two of my rambles about graduation...

So whilst at this fabulous graduation ball I ran into an old friend who I hadn't seen in a while, his name is Mr Churchill; keen surfer, purchaser of ridiculous objects whilst at university (anyone else know anyone who has purchased a table tennis table and a hot tub?!) 

Prior to heading down to Exeter I had being batting off my aunt who was taking the micky on our annual family holiday; she was being stereotypical about what type of boys I  might encounter in halls. Her description was as follows: surfers & well educated boys. I vividly remember the day I moved into halls, getting out of the car and there is this blonde wavy-haired guy in board shorts moving his stuff into halls with his family in tow; two surf boards, a hamper & luggage being marched inside! (My aunt would have been laughing at me if she could have seen the sight) It turns out Henry's family are involved in a certain Shore Surf Shop ... Obviously. Its a good job the cheeky sod managed to get a double occupation bedroom sized room to himself to store all of his boards, and the table tennis table that was to follow after deciding he had too much space in his room! To come back round to the graduation ball, when I bumped into this surfer & we were catching up on old times, my blog was one of the topics of conversation that cropped up & I promised a mention to this old friend. So Henry, this is for you, if you haven't twigged by now!

The next thought was how the bloody hell could I link a surfing boy from uni to the latest perfect bake. My tenuous link lies in the form of a meringue recipe (slightly wavy looking ...)

Makes 12-15

Pre-heat the oven to 150°C

Bake to perfection for 40 minutes 

Cool in the oven for 1 hour

You will need the following:

3 Egg Whites

175g Golden Caster Sugar

An electric whisk

Method:

Separate your eggs & place the whites in a bowl ... whisk!

Start on a low setting for the first 2 minutes then whack up to the highest speed setting for a good 3 or 4 more minutes

You want to whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, stick with it, be brave, it will take a while. When it looks like this spoon in the sugar, one spoon at a time, whilst continuing to whisk the meringue mix

Continue on for another couple of minutes until all of the sugar has been mixed in and the mix forms stiff peaks. 

You should be able to tip your beaters & the mixture stay still on the beaters

Spoon the mix onto butter greased baking parchment on a tray. 

Use two desert spoons to plop the mixture into artful blobs! 

They will need to be quite spaced out. On a normal sized baking tray you want to have 5 meringues 

Artfully create whispy wavey meringues using a wooden skewer to peak to tops of the meringues

Before putting your meringues into the oven turn it down to 140°C

Bake to perfection in the oven for 40 minutes. 

When you reach this time turn your oven off and leave your meringues inside to cool down 

Serve with either strawberries, raspberries, cream, ice cream or whatever you fancy ... 

Enjoy 

Strawberry & Rhubarb Ice Cream

With the weather in England currently matching that of the Mediterranean I am rather enjoying lazing in the garden, reading a top selling novel (popular with most of the female population in England) recovering & looking back at what a fantastic week I have just had. 

Last week meant Graduation for many ... I think it is safe to say that Exeter does it in style. To start, we have Floella Benjamin as our Chancellor which means a hug, a kiss, (some face stroking for those lucky few!) & some vital words of inspiration at your graduation ... far more than your average handshake. I was impressed to learn that Floella was 62 years old. I was even more impressed when reading her accomplishments; firstly by the variety, secondly by her commitment to charity, the fact that she has run 10 London Marathons is no mean feat and thirdly by the fact that she appeared in 'Run Fat Boy Run', who'd of thought it. It appears that she really has acted on her own advice to graduates to "change the world." 'Changing' was one of the many words beginning with 'C' this week ... 

From Floella's inspirational four C's to live your life by:

Considerate, Content, Confident & Courageous. 

To the ones that Exeter provided this week on a daily basis: 

Ceremonies, Champagne, Canapés & Cupcakes

I don't know if any other universities have a week for their graduation but personally I don't think there is any other way to do it. A week to graduate, see your friends graduate, go out every night and explore what you haven't for three years in the day time. To sum it up, it was a week well spent with some of the greatest people I have met in my life. Oh, did I mention the incredible Graduation Ball at the end of the week ... it was for me a phenomenal night to finish of a extraordinary week and an even more extraordinary three years. 

So to strawberry & rhubarb ice cream, perfect for the summer weather, perfect to comfort the loss of university years & perfect to share with friends ...

Oh & I don't actually have an artsy farty photo of this bake as my family managed to demolish the lot before I had a chance to snap a shot. So thought the photo above was fairly topical of my rambles above ...

Makes roughly 1.5L

(will fill two carte d'or tubs roughly 3/4 full)

Freeze overnight

You will need the following:

Ice Cream Base

3 Eggs, separated

90g Caster Sugar

250ml Cream

1 drop of Vanilla Extract

Flavouring

200g Strawberries

4 inches of rhubarb finely sliced

2Tbsp Caster Sugar

Method:

In a pan boil the strawberries, sugar & add the rhubarb until reduced ... roughly 10 minutes

Until it looks a little like this. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in a bowl in the fridge

Whisk the egg whites until stiff

Continue to whisk with half of the sugar. Your mix should be able to hold in place off the beaters when tipped

 Add the other half of the sugar and eggs in a bowl

 Whisk until pale and fluffy

 Pour in your flavour to the egg & sugar mix. Leave to one side

 Using an electric whisk whip your cream

 Until it has a firm ribbon consistency ... do not over whip otherwise the cream will split

  Pour the yolk mix into the whipped cream

Stir in the flavoured yolk mixture to the whipped cream

 Gently fold in the egg white mixture to the flavoured yolk mixture

 Pour the ice cream into suitable freezer containers & freeze for one hour. After one hour fork through the ice cream mashing out all of the ice crystals

 Put the ice cream back in the freezer overnight & serve up on its own
or as an accompaniment to a summer pud ...

Enjoy ... 

Beetroot & Dark Chocolate Brownies

The time has come to graduate on Monday. Three years of slogging out a law degree done. Time to hug Floella Benjamin, get my piece of paper, throw my hat in the air, go to the ball...exciting times! The robes have been ordered, lunch with the parents booked, demure 'I'm a grown up now' dress bought, all I have left to get is a pair of suitable shoes that mean I will not fall flat on my face walking up the stairs or across the stage...oh to be a man and have several fine fitting suites and an array of shirts & ties. 

For men I feel it is rather easy; invites to events 'Black Tie', men that means don your tux, ladies that means faff about over the copious amount of choice of dresses out there! Such a struggle but such an excuse for a shopping trip. So last weekend when my fabulous friend threw her 21st party & the dress code was 'festival' it was such a relief ... little flowery dress bought on the gap year; check. Wellies; check. Outfit; done. It is only appropriate for a birthday that there should be cake or something of the sort. So beetroot brownies it was ...

Makes 24-30 Squares

(depending on how big you like your brownies)

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 16 minutes

You will need the following:

Brownie

250g Beetroot

250g Dark Chocolate

200g Butter

200g Caster Sugar

3 Eggs

100g Ground Almonds

75g Self Raising Flour

1Tsp Baking Powder

Chocolate Topping

150g Dark Chocolate

2Tbsp Honey 

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a bain marie

Melt the butter & add in the melted chocolate; stir

Till combined as a molten liquid

Add a drop of vanilla essence

Then the eggs one at a time

Next add in the sugar

Then the ground almonds

Grease two square tins, roughly 20cm x 20cm, with butter & coat by dusting with cocoa powder

Boil your beetroot in a pan until soft, this will take roughly 30-40 minutes

Once cooked take the skins off

Tip: Chop off the stalk last. This will hold in the colour that the beetroot releases & give you something to hold whilst cutting

Chop the beetroot & put in a bowl

Using a hand blender or food processor, purify the beetroot to a smooth paste

 Add the beetroot to the chocolate mixture

Sift in the flour & cocoa powder 

Combine

Measure the baking powder

Sprinkle over & combine

Pour the mixture into the two prepared tins & bake to perfection for 16 minutes

Once the brownies are cooked start to prepare the chocolate topping ...

Add the honey to the chocolate & melt in the microwave or over a bain marie

Once the brownies are cooked, allow to cool & drizzle over the molten liquid

Pop the trays into a fridge & leave for the chocolate topping to set.

Cut up & they're good to go

Enjoy ...

 Happy Birthday Gins 

Orange Zest & Honey Cake with Honey Roasted Rhubarb

So the first of the produce recipes. I thought I'd start off lightly with the rhubarb ... there are many more to come! This cake was deliciously more-ish and went in an instant. I have to give credit to The Exploding Bakery for the new style of ingredients piccy, just thought I'd try something different (& I'd used up the last of lots of the ingredients that were in my cupboard & forgot to take a photo of them all beforehand) so without further a do ... Orange Zest & Honey Cake with Honey Roasted Rhubarb & Rhubarb filling

Serves 8-10

Pre-heat oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 18 minutes 

You will need the following:

Cake

175g Butter

175g Golden Caster Sugar

175g Self-Raising Flour

3 Eggs

1Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tbsp Runny Honey 

(I used Acacia Honey for this recipe)

1 Orange, zest & juice

1Tsp Vanilla Extract 

Roasted Rhubarb for Decoration

4 inches of Rhubarb

A good drizzle of honey

Rhubarb Filling

4 sticks of Rhubarb

1+2Tbsp Golden Caster Sugar

1Tbsp Water

Icing

100g Icing Sugar

1Tsp stewed rhubarb (from quantity made for filling)

1Tbsp Natural Yoghurt

Method:

Chop the 4 inches of Rhubarb on a diagonal and lay on a roasting tray, drizzle with honey & roast for 

15-20minutes

Cream together the butter & sugar

Till pale & fluffy

Beat in the eggs one at a time

Add in the honey & vanilla extract

Once combined, add the grated zest & juice

Sift in the flour

Before stirring in the flour, add the baking powder. Then combine

Pour the mixture into two round baking tins...I baked this cake at home & the tins I have at home are slightly smaller, roughly 8inches in diameter

Bake to perfection for 18 minutes

Check cake is cooked with a skewer or knife & allow to cool on a wire rack

Whilst the cakes cool make the rhubarb filling...

Cook the Rhubarb with the water

& 1 Tbsp sugar, for roughly 10 minutes until it loses it's shape

Blend with a hand blender. Reduce down further with another 2 Tbsp of sugar

Spread enough of the cooled rhubarb filling over the cake to cover the base layer, then place the second layer on top

Combine the icing ingredients together & pour over the cake...

Place your roasted rhubarb around the cake

Try not to eat it all at once...

Enjoy ...