Free Range

           

I am currently on holiday in North Devon with my family and taking the opportunity to post due to the miserable weather outside today. Where I am staying is idyllic, Upcott Farm plays host to two ducks and a brood of chicken that roam around the gardens freely. The ducks are seeming to enjoy the wet weather today, however, the chickens are nestled away in their spacious house. The other day whilst pottering in the garden I thought I would check on the chickens ... in their roomy quarters I found a couple of eggs; still warm!! 

I thought I would put these eggs to good use & bake a cake. Lemon drizzle was the choice & I cannot express how colourful the yolks of the eggs were. Consequently, the colour in the cake batter was far more vibrant than usual. I always use free range eggs in my cakes but these were something else! 

The conclusion I drew from this bake was that of the following ... 

If you have a garden big enough ... get some chickens & ducks! 

Brandy Snaps

What a phenomenal day at the Olympics yesterday ...  six golds in a day, three in one hour! Just incredible scenes from London. I think there is something incredibly humbling about watching an athlete who has worked extraordinarily hard at their discipline stand there on the podium with tears of joy in their eyes. It is not just that athlete who has been on a very long journey but the coaches, support staff and the families of the athletes who have supported the athletes through thick and thin.

Whether it was watching Chad Le Clos' father bursting with pride in the interview after his son won a gold or seeing Mo Farah's daughter and wife running, and for the latter walking (I thought she may give birth right there and then on the track) to meet their Olympic Champion is something quite remarkable.

So in the spirit of the Olympics I thought I'd adapt my presentation of my brandy snaps into 'Olympic torches'! Seems only fitting, they aren't quite as impressive as the Olympic Flame that burns in the Olympic Stadium but I can guarantee they taste superb & if you are having friends over for dinner to celebrate the Olympics, I'm sure they will award you a gold medal for your pudding!

Makes 15
Pre-heat oven to 180
Bake to perfection for 10-12 minutes

You will need the following:

50g Butter
50g Caster Sugar
2Tbsp Golden Syrup
50g Plain Flour
½Tsp Ground Ginger
1Tbsp Brandy
½Tsp Lemon Juice

A few strawberries & ice cream to decorate

Method:

 Measure out the butter, sugar & golden syrup in a bowl together

Melt in the microwave for 1 minute or gently over a bain marie for a few minutes

Add the lemon juice & stir in

Next add the flour

Then the brandy

Line several trays with baking paper and using a teaspoon dollop four lots of mix onto a tray

Bake to perfection for 10 minutes until golden

Once your time is up you must move quickly... I simply folded either side of the brandy snap over to form a cone shape; placing them folded side down on a board to harden.

If you would prefer to make traditional brandy snaps you simply roll the brandy snap around the handle of a wooden spoon.
Alternatively to make a basket use a ladle & drape your brandy snap over the ladle.


They will be crunchy & light in colour. If you don't move quick enough and some of your brandy snaps have hardened without you shaping them, put them back in the oven for 1-2 minutes & they will soften back up

Add a scoop of ice cream to your brandy snap

 Finally place your strawberries into the ice cream to represent the flames

Enjoy ...

Go Team GB

Summer Berry filled Orange Zest Cupcakes

With the medals starting to flow in & the gold medals being won in spectacular style I thought it appropriate to celebrate these medals by sharing a suitable perfect bake. There is something quite remarkable about the Olympic; never do you see such camaraderie between competitors and spectators alike. It also brings sports such as shooting, judo, canoeing, gymnastics as swimming and into the spotlight for just over a fortnight and have us absolutely gripped to the edge of our seats.


Whilst driving back from a friend's house late last night, I was listening to an interview with John Grisham on Radio Two; Grisham's insight on the legacy that the Olympic Games will have on the British public this year: 

"more tracksuits will get sold and more fat people will be running, more so this year than ever before; which means there will be more heart attacks and more pressure on the NHS" ... probably pretty true! 

So without further-a-do here is a great little recipe (worth the faff) in light of the Olympics ... I actually made these several weeks ago for a fab friend's 21st birthday. Miss Emily Blandford hosted a black tie affair with a hint of summer sparkle; these were my offering but are rather fitting in the circumstances. 

Makes 15

Pre-heat the oven to 180

Bake to perfection for 12-15 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 

Filling

200g Redcurrants

50g Raspberries

50g Strawberries

2Tbsp Water

3Tbsp Icing Sugar

Icing

75g Butter

375g Icing Sugar

2Tbsp Yoghurt

A drop of Vanilla Extract

 

Method:

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 into cupcake cases and bake to perfection for 12 minutes, if they aren't baked enough then bake for another 3 minutes

Whilst they are baking make the coulis filling
Wash your redcurrants


Add a tablespoon of water to the redcurrants, allow to simmer for 2 minutes


Then add the raspberries, strawberries & the icing sugar.
Continue to simmer for 5 minutes until all the fruit is soft

Pour the fruit into a bowl and using a hand blender, blend your mix

Until it looks like this ...

Once your cupcakes are baked, allow to cool and using a small sharp knife and a teaspoon make a hole in the middle of the cake

Fill the hole with a teaspoon of the summer berry filling

With the cake that you have removed slice off the tip so you are left with a thin cap to place over the filling


like so...

Make your icing sugar
Combine the butter and icing sugar together

Add in the yoghurt and the vanilla extract


Drop roughly 1 heaped teaspoon of icing onto the cupcake, using the back of the teaspoon spread out your icing sugar over the cupcake

Place a raspberry on each cupcake

Carefully fill with a bit of the left over fruit coulis

Using a small food paintbrush or unused makeup brush, dust on the gold edible cake dusting.
Apply to the raspberries and icing

Et voila ...

Lots of golden cupcakes, suitable to give to gold medal winners, birthday girls, friends or you may just want to keep them to yourself ...

If you're going to give them as a present, pop them in a cake box with some tissue paper ... like so

Pretty great with a cup of tea ...

Enjoy ...
Go Team GB

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