I have two lovely things for you. One is this excellent recipe for halva jelly by Sumayya Usmani from Mountain Berries and Desert Spice (published by Frances Lincoln, an imprint of The Quarto Group). The other thing I have is a copy of this delightful book to giveaway. For details on how to get your mitts on the book scroll to the bottom of the post. READ MORE
Oh how we love The Hungry Caterpillar in this house. It’s surely the perfect children’s book. Delicious treats? Tick. Gluttony? Tick. Magical transformation? Tick. Delightful words. Tick. Pokability? Tick. And those illustrations? Triple tick. We just love it.
So to hear that Eric Carle was publishing a book about surrealism, called, quite obviously The Nonsense Show, well, we had to try it out. (Yes, my sons are born of one art graduate and one would-be art graduate). READ MORE
I may love Easter more than Christmas as Christian school holidays go. I know this might be controversial. Hear me out. (Most reasons are chocolate and present buying related for those wondering if this is a rather unusual Christian themed blog post):
I made this trifle using the Kenwood Chef Sense which is available here. The full video of the recipe is below and can also be viewed here, plus some top tips from me on separating eggs here plus an easy way to make trifle sponges without lining tins here.
Lots of great recipes like this in my book, Recipes from a Normal Mum, out now… on Amazon, The Works, at Waterstones, WHSmith, The Book Depository and many smaller outlets.
One year ago: Florentine quiche and Flourless chocolate cake and Cadbury Creme Mini Egg chocolate flapjack and School fair rocky road
Two year ago: White chocolate & cranberry hot cross buns and Cadbury creme egg mess and Banoffee pecan mini pavs
Three years ago: Easter Apostles scone loaf and Carrot cake in a cup for Mother’s Day and Cranberry oaty biscuits
Four years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Puff pastry and Walnut bread
Zingy lemon & raspberry trifle
Ingredients:
For the jelly:
For the cakes and fruit:
For the curd:
For the custard:
For the cream and decoration:
To make the raspberry lemonade jelly:
Juice the lemons using the Kenwood attachment and pour into a jug. Make the liquid up to 570mls using cold water then remove 100mls to soak the gelatine in. Once soaked for 10 minutes heat the gelatine and water in a small pan on a low heat until the gelatine has dissolved. Then add to the rest of the liquid along with the dried raspberries. Stir and leave for 30 minutes then strain through a sieve to remove the raspberries. Leave to set in the fridge.
To make the cakes:
Preheat the oven to 170C/gas mark 3. Beat together the flour, castor sugar, butter, egg, baking powder, zest of the lemon and milk in the Kenwood using the K beater for about 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Divide between 4 cupcake cases and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until well risen, golden and a toothpick comes out of the centre clean.
Poke holes in the cupcakes. Heat the lemon juice and icing sugar in a small pan until dissolved and then pour over the cupcakes. Leave to cool.
To make the curd:
Place a pan of simmering water over a medium heat and place a heat proof bowl over the top, being careful that the water doesn’t touch the bowl. Place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice into the bowl and whisk. Stir until completely dissolved then add the eggs and whisk intermittently for 10 minutes until the curd has thickened. Chill in the fridge.
To make the custard:
Heat the cream and milk in a large pan until the edges are just beginning to bubble. In the meantime whisk together the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Once the liquid is ready whisk into the thick egg mixture stirring all the time then transfer back to the pan and heat on the hob, stirring with a wooden spoon until the custard has thickened enough to coat the back of the spoon. Chill with the top covered in clingfilm (touching the custard) to stop a skin developing.
To assemble:
Slice the cakes and layer in a 2.2 litre trifle dish. Pour the Limoncello over the top and then cover with the lemon curd. Add a layer of fresh raspberries then add the almost set jelly. Leave to set in the fridge. Then add the cold custard. Lastly whip the cream to soft peaks with lemon zest using the whisk attachment of the Kenwood and spoon over the custard. Sprinkle freeze dried raspberries to decorate.
I’m drawn to really posh people. Like some kind of social anthropologist, I study them and make mental notes of their nuances and foibles. I’ve even been out with some posh boys in my time. To really experience the posh thing first hand. It always ended in disaster. A Holly and a Piers does not a match in heaven maketh.
I once worked with a really posh girl. She was so posh she played tennis at The Hurlingham Club and ate cottage cheese laced with pineapple for lunch without a trace of irony. She also had the best stomach of any woman I have ever seen. I know this as she often showed people. This part isn’t fundamental to the story, I just wanted to paint as full a picture as possible.
Once she even came into work once with a story of staying up until 2am at a dinner party playing a game where the winner was the one who balanced the most CDs on their nipples. I loved this story. If I suggested something like this at a dinner party I’d be asked to leave, if my posh ex-colleague suggested it everyone would think her fun. Such it the lottery of birth.
This was the thing I most admired about Posh Girl. Her appetite for fun. One Friday she was even more exhausted than usual from her super-busy social life and told me she was about to decline an invitation to a party when her Mother (for she lived at home) instructed her she simply must go. She went on to paint a picture of the most alien variety of Mother I had ever heard of. Her Mother was of the belief that one should always say yes in life.
I am now a Mum and every day I try to channel a little of Posh Girl’s Mother. This pudding is what I think she might make at one of her supper parties.
Serves 8ish or 4 pigs
Inspired by this recipe
Ingredients:
– 120g Two Chicks egg whites
– 200g caster sugar
– 150mls double cream
– half a pack of strawberry jelly made up to packet instructions and left to set, then scrambled up with a fork
– 10 strawberries, washed and chopped into 1cm-ish pieces
– a little icing sugar
Right, this is easy. Honest it is. It just looks hard.
Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C and then line a swiss roll tin (23cm x 30cm) with non stick greaseproof paper. I use Sainsbury’s white stuff and stick to the sides of the tin with a little butter to make sure it doesn’t sag into the meringue whilst it’s baking. Then whip the egg whites up with a whisk/hand held mixer/stand mixer with whisk attachment until stiff looking. Then add the sugar in 1 tbsp at a time, whisking well after each addition until the mixture looks thick, stiff and glossy. Spoon into the tin, smooth over until level and bake for 15 minutes until you get a crisp shell on the top. Then leave to cool.
Once cool take another piece of greaseproof paper the same size at the one you lined the tin with. Dust the top of your meringue with some icing sugar, place the other piece of greaseproof paper on the top, place a chopping board on top of that and holding the edges firm with both hands, flip the tin upside down and place on a worktop so that the new piece of paper is underneath the meringue that’s still in the tin. Then give the tray a little wiggle until the meringue drops out onto the new paper, complete with old baked on greaseproof paper stuck to it still.
Gingerly peel the baked on paper off the meringue. My meringue tore a little but no matter, cream hides a multitude of sins. If you are concerned the meringue is undercooked, (this could happen if you have used a smaller tin and so the meringue thickness was greater than it should be) you can place the meringue back in the oven at this point, undercooked side up, on top of the greaseproof paper. Just for 5 minutes mind. To bake the top.
Whip the double cream with a whisk/handheld mixer until thick but not completely solid, then spread over the meringue evenly, leaving a half centimetre gap at the sides. Then sprinkle the jelly and strawberries evenly over the roulade, though not sprinkling them at the very edges of the meringue. Then you are ready to roll.
Take one of the short sides of the meringue and roll the edge over tightly… then continue to roll firmly until you reach the end. Some people prefer to use fingers, some use the greaseproof paper. You’ll work out what kind of roller you are. Pop on a serving plate and dust with a little more icing sugar. Serve with ice-cream if you can bear it.
Holly Bell 