Morning!
I’m back. It’s been quite a while since I posted a recipe on here. What can I say? There’s so much to tell you but I’m feeling less than confessional at the moment. Instead I want to tell you about a day I spent at a farm with the Fruit Shoot gang. READ MORE
So we’re back from an Italian mini break and we went and exhausted ourselves again. We never learn. We have three kids, both work hard, don’t have a cleaner or a lady who ‘does’; what I’m getting at is that we’re pretty stretched most of the time. Getting away together for two days is a big deal. It’s time to not look at the ironing pile, time to ignore the washing machine bleeping, time to not change a nappy or find a PE kit. READ MORE
There are some things that look better when left to the experts. Haircuts for a start, unless you’re very talented, are best left to people who are well trained in handling a pair of scissors.
Decorating, in my experience, is also best left to the professionals. I still shudder when I recall my attempt at late 90s dappling using a bathroom sponge and a tester paint pot. That Changing Rooms programme has a lot to answer for.
I once had the pleasure of being made up by a professional (cheap client with no budget for extras = Holly plays housewife at a dinner party in the background of an advert) and though sceptical at first, the make up artist in question took years off me, and all without the use of chemicals/injections. The lady was a goddess.
It seems food styling should be left to the professionals too. Look at the picture the food stylist took of my Apostle scone loaf, then if you can bear it, watch the video of the one I made. That’s all I’m saying.
Anyway, the point is that the scone loaf tastes lovely. It really is the taste and smell of Easter. Best eaten fresh with a little butter, maybe some clotted cream or even some marmalade. (Though pretty good toasted for breakfast the next day too.)
Ingredients:
Preheat the oven to Gas 7/220C and check the rack is in the centre of the oven. Lightly grease a baking tray with a little butter or margarine. Mix the flour, baking powder, mixed spice and zests in a large bowl. Rub in the margarine or butter with your finger tips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir the almonds, cranberries, ginger, apricots and raisins in well so they’re all coated in the flour mixture.
Pour the milk over the mixture and pull together with a blunt table knife. Once combined use your hand to pull the scone together. The less handling the better when making scones so don’t mix or knead vigorously.
Place the scone dough on your tray and shape with your hands into a loaf shape about 1 inch thick. Score the top with a sharp knife, about a quarter of the way down, in a zig-zag fashion to make 11 triangles (one for each Apostle, to break off easily.) Bake immediately for between 20 – 25 minutes until golden all over. Dust with icing sugar if you wish.
On the whole miniature versions of things don’t do it for me. Half pints. Funsize chocolate. Express massages. Minibreaks. Happy Meals. However, when it comes to cupcake versions of large cakes I make an exception. They tickle me.
It’s your choice whether to adorn with marzipan balls, tiny chocolate eggs or both if you can’t decide. Makes 12.
For the cake:
– 20mls ginger wine
– 25g Natural Selection crimson raisins
– 20g Natural Selection crystallised ginger, finely chopped
– 25g Natural Selection dates, cut into quarters
– 25g Natural Selection apricots
– 100g self-raising flour
– 60g ground almonds
– 100g caster sugar
– 50g dark muscavado sugar
– 150g soft butter/margarine
– 3 large eggs at room temperature
– ½ tsp baking powder
– 2 tbsp whole/semi skimmed milk
To decorate:
– 150g marzipan
– 3 tbsp apricot jam, sieved
– Either an extra 150g marzipan/a packet of tiny chocolate eggs
– A little icing sugar for rolling/shaping marzipan
Preheat the oven to Gas 5/190C. Place 12 cupcake cases into a tray. Heat the ginger wine in a small pan together with all the dried fruit until the liquid has been absorbed. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Place the remaining cake ingredients into a bowl and mix together with an electric handheld mixer until smooth and creamy. Stir in the soaked fruit and then divide between the cupcake cases. Level with your fingers and bake on the middle rack of the oven for about 20 minutes until slightly brown, well risen and a toothpick comes out of the centre of the middle cupcakes with clean. Cool out of the tin, on a wire rack.
Once cool, brush a little jam onto each cake and then roll and cut out circles of marzipan (using icing sugar to aid rolling and a round cutter) to place on top. Then either add 11 small balls of marzipan to the top of each cake or 11 tiny chocolate eggs. Fix in place with a dab of jam.
If you fancied watching me chatterbox away about these cupcakes then there’s a little film below to watch. It’s 6 minutes long though. Gosh, I can talk. And no, it’s not my kitchen.
I’ll never make a hand model. Apart from my gargantuan knuckles (which in the wrong light make my hands look distinctly transvestite-esque), they are also covered in scars. Mostly kitchen war wounds, selflessly gathered on my many missions to feed the masses. Some are less heroic. I have a particularly Scar Face style one gained whilst washing up wine glasses in a drunken fashion. I often get an urge to tidy after a few drinks. It’s odd, I know.
One of my many scars was acquired making Christmas fudge. The boiling fudge spat at me and Oh My Goodness, it hurt. This fudge is for those who like fudge but also reserve the right to consider a hand modelling career at some point in the future. Quick to make, oh so moreish, and all without a sugar thermometer in sight… makes a great Easter gift too.
Ingredients:
Place the marshmallows, butter, dark chocolate, ground cinnamon and orange zest into a saucepan. Heat on a low hob until completely dissolved, stirring regularly. Don’t be tempted to hurry it by turning up the heat – the chocolate will burn!
Remove from the heat and add the raisins and ginger, stir well and pour into a tin (approx. 24cm x 24cm) lined with greaseproof paper. (Don’t wait about as it starts to set sharpish.) Push small sugar eggs into the top if you wish (try and leave some clear lines to aid cutting) then refrigerate for 2 hours. Cut into squares and serve. I warn you, this stuff is addictive.
We are all poorly. Coughing and spluttering and retching. The lurgy has struck. So this will be short.
So Christmas day is nearly here (well according to The Early Learning Centre there are 11 more sleeps.) I’m serving cherry and pecan pudding rather than Christmas pudding but for the traditionalists feel the need to offer something brandied to accompany it. Not being a fan of brandy butter (is that just me?) I thought a nice brandied ice-cream might go down a treat. The nutmeg in this recipe is very subtle – this isn’t a highly spiced or boozy ice cream, more a hint of the festive season in a frozen cream format. Is also very good for lurgy induced sore throats. And you don’t even need an ice cream maker!
Ingredients:
Right, first thing’s first, take the raisins and put into a saucepan with the brandy. Heat over a medium flame for about 5 mins, stirring until all the brandy is absorbed or thereabouts. You can then set this saucepan aside – you can even do this the day before and leave overnight.
Next, put the sugar in another saucepan with 1 tbsp cold water and heat until you have a caramel coloured syrup – be careful not to let it burn but you do need to be relatively fearless. Once it looks suitably autumnal in colour – a kind of deep red, add 3 tbsp boiling water and then cover the pan and leave on a medium heat for about 15 mins.
Take off the heat and pour, a dribble at a time, into the egg yolks. Whisk as you go. Then, keep on whisking until it’s all light and frothy and pop into the freezer for 30 mins. Leave the whisk in the bowl and give it a good stir every 10 or so minutes. It may have separated in the cold so this helps with that little issue.
In the meantime whisk the double cream until it forms peaks. Top tip for not getting cream all over your kitchen is to use an electric hand held mixer and do it in a tall mixing jug. After the half hour of freezing the caramel and egg yolks is up, fold in the whipped cream, add the raisins and also grate in a little nutmeg. Mix with a metal spoon carefully and pop into a lidded container and re-freeze.
Every hour or so for about 5 hours take a fork to the mixture and stir, breaking up the ice particles. You can do this more often if you remember. Sounds like a faff but when you taste it all that forking will be forgotten. Mr B even said ‘remind me why we have ever bought ice-cream?’ upon tasting this little creation. If only I’d known ice cream was this easy to make earlier.
Holly Bell 