Inspiration

Today I spent the afternoon with a friend of mine, Alison Oakervee, who works for WFI. She has a noble cookery book collection which I went to browse through and discuss. I came away with some great ideas, and a list of books to shop for online. Most appealing though was an author I hadn't heard of before (or watched on Saturday cookery tellie) - Rachel Allen. She's from Northern Ireland, and does have a few books and DVDs out. Her book, Bake, is the one I'm going to try first. I was also tempted by Delia's Christmas selection. Hmmm... All very nice indeed.

I baked a lovely cake this last week - the Apple and Cinnamon Cake in Mary Berry. It was so good that I didn't get a chance to photograph it. While Keith was munching the last slice it dawned on me that I hadn't pulled the camera out. It is a particularly moist and scrumptious cake and perfect for this time of year with its nuts and cinnamon. Delicious and Oh-So-More-ish. I'll be baking it again tomorrow.

chocolate and lemon...

I can't remember when I produced these two creations, but both were scrumptious. The chocolate biscuits were mixed by me, but rolled and pressed by Keith & Zack. I'm afraid they didn't last very long at all, and probably explain why I'm not losing weight !

The lemon cake was a hit. Made with real lemon zest (my zesting skills are dire, or can I blame my equipment - the blunt grater). And hardly a crumb made it back from the event for "starving husbands". Oh dear me.
Apologies for the light quality in these pics... nothing like natural sunlight to make the best of your baking. Kitchen lights just don't cut it.

ps. I'm gutted to see that my garlic press has broken after 8 years. It's one of those hardcore OXO numbers which I never thought would break. What's with that ?

bread & cupcakes

Andy came to visit, and we did a bit of baking in the 9 days he had in London. This bread recipe is a bit of an exercise in substitution, as I didn't have a key ingredient, but more about that in a moment. The recipe is an old family favourite - one that my mum never made often enough for us two - but that we devoured when it came out of the oven, fought over the crust (both ends) and just couldn't get enough of. Sadly the recipe calls for a parochial ingredient, native to those southern shores : Nutty Wheat. What on earth is that? and how do I create it in the UK? I ended up substituting strong wholewheat bread flour, which produced this rather dark looking loaf. If you didn't know any better, you'd guess it was a rye, but it isn't. Hmm... will have to see what I can do.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake & Icing

I am dead keen to make a fabulous chocolate cake or choccie cup-cakes. I've been perusing Martha's recipes, and the ones on the Waitrose site, as well as my modest collection of cookery books, and decided to try Nigella's Sour Cream Chocolate Cake because it sounded smooth and very chocolatey. Oh dear me... it's turned out to be a far-too-sweet chocolate affair. It has good chocolatey colour and a lovely fine crumb (smooth texture), but overall it's not chocolatey enough for me. Or rather, it's not as 'dark chocolate' as I'd hoped for. The recipe for the icing produced something that's lovely and smooth and light, but far too sweet. I just feel like it needs to be dark and bitter, rather than light, chocolate, whippy.
Another thing is that my decorating technique is horribly OLD FASHIONED. I don't think it works at all. So, overall, there's heaps of room for improvement.

I think I'm going to pension this cake off (to the grateful & hungry souls at Keith's office), and make the box of brownies Heath sent me for my birthday. It's one of those – just add oil, an egg and hot water – jobs. It looks painless, and might be more satisfying in the chocolate arena. Let's wait and see.

Victoria Sponge

Annie & Clare came for supper on Tuesday night, and I felt inspired. I chose the Victoria Sponge recipe from Nigella's Domestic Goddess book, and went ahead and made it. The actual cake came out really nicely - well risen, golden colour and good texture. I suppose a part of me had expected it to be lighter, but there you go. I covered the cake in raspberry jam (home made by a B&B we stayed in near Tonbridge Wells). Annie sliced up the strawberries so that the assembly was a work-of-art, and we dolloped cream on top of that before adding the second layer. It was superb.

Scones

I felt like scones at lunchtime today, so whipped out Mary Berry's recipe book and put some together. The results were lovely and light, but also quite flat. The problem is that I take the instruction - roll 1 cm thin - far too literally. I think it'll be MUCH better if I keep them quite a bit thicker and double up on quantities next time. That way, they'll puff up more. Still - quite delicious with raspberry jam and cream.

Confession Time

I belong to a pretty good line of kitchen-persons, my great-grandmother arrived in Cape Town and worked as a cook in the late 1800's, before becoming a policeman's wife and bearing 3 children. I would say that her reputation in the kitchen has LONG survived her, and many people have told me how talented she was. My grand-mother turned her hand to many things, including a magnificent trifle and near-legendary boiled lamb & caper sauce. My mother's cooking won my husband's heart and his allegiance for life....

And as they say, that's where it all began.

cheesecake