Today I am giving you not only a recipe for mixed berry parfait, but also a recipe that allows you to sing its very name to a Prince song. READ MORE
Pink, pink, pink. What do we think of pink? I remember loving my one posh pink dress as a child. It had a fairytale hill scene appliqued on the front in pink gingham. But the pink dress was for best. Pink was special.
And in my early adulthood, when I was flying the feminist flag highest, pink was a colour I hated. I raged at the army of pink aimed at little girls; pink domestic drudgery toys, pink dress up uniforms for lower paid jobs than the boys, pink clothed Barbie’s with pneumatic breasts and corset tortured waspish waists. If you’d have asked me, I’d have said pink stinks. READ MORE
A trifle just for the summer. I know it’s a little early but a girl can dream…
All comments gratefully received. Here are some Eastery recipes you might like too:
Last week: Cadbury creme egg mess and White chocolate and cranberry hot cross buns
One year ago: Mini Simnel cupcakes and Chocolate orange easter spiced fudge and Eastery two tone cupcakes and Easter apostles scone loaf
Two years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Hot cross biscotti
Raspberry and elderflower trifle
Ingredients:
Make the elderflower jelly by heating the cordial to boiling point in a saucepan and adding the gelatine leaves (squeezed of water) then stirring until dissolved. Add 150mls cold water then leave to cool a little.
Place the cake sponge in the bottom of a trifle bowl and pour over the 4 tbsp liqueur/cordial. Then cover with the raspberries leaving a few out for decorating. Pour the jelly over the top and then pop in the fridge to set. Once set pour the cold custard over the top, allow to level and pop back in the fridge. Whip the double cream and liqueur to medium peaks using the wire whisk attachment in your Kitchen Aid (or with a whisk) and then spoon over the top of the custard and add raspberries.
This is an unashamedly girly cake. Pink buttercream, soft and moussey, used to sandwich an innocent vanilla sponge and crowned with tart raspberries. Perfect for a birthday, an afternoon tea or a summer party. Just add pink fizz and the Barbie horror is complete!
All comments gratefully received. Here are some Eastery recipes you might like too:
Last week: Cadbury creme egg mess and White chocolate and cranberry hot cross buns
One year ago: Mini Simnel cupcakes and Chocolate orange easter spiced fudge and Eastery two tone cupcakes and Easter apostles scone loaf
Two years ago: Mini chocolate birds nests and Hot cross biscotti
Vanilla, rose and raspberry cake
Ingredients – cake
For Kitchen Aid: Mix all the ingredients together using the flat beater until light and creamy – takes about 4 minutes. Pour into two greased and lined round tins and bake in a preheated oven at 180C/Gas 4 for 20 – 25 minutes until well risen and golden brown. A toothpick should come out of the centre clean. Cool on a wire rack and remove from the tins once you’re able to stand the heat. (Non KA users use the all in one method and combine with your mixer/wooden spoon until light and creamy.)
Ingredients – buttercream
Instructions for Kitchen Aid: Use the flat beater to cream the butter until soft and light – about 4 minutes. Then add the icing sugar spoon by spoon, mixing on a low speed until all incorporated, add the rose extract. Then beat on high for 7 minutes until the buttercream looks like mousse – flecked with air bubbles. Add food colouring if you wish then use to sandwich the cakes together. Place more buttercream on the top and use 300g raspberries to decorate. NB – I decided against raspberries as I rather liked the rose swirls. These are easy to pipe with a Wilton 1M nozzle by doing a reverse Mr Whippy. Start in the middle and work out, taking the pressure off as you come to the end. (Non KA users be prepared for using a lot of elbow grease! Use a wooden spoon or other mixer and beat until you have a mousse like buttercream.)
Things haven’t been great recently. That’s an understatement. I want to be one of those women who’s brave and pulls stoic faces when asked if she’s okay. Instead I cry and rub mascara over my puffy red rimmed eyes. After possibly the Worst Weekend ever, yesterday I managed to lock myself in the back garden. Yep. Quite a feat. I was trying to be upbeat and happy at the rays of sunshine beating down and so with washing basket in hand began putting all the wet clothes out. Because when clothes smell of fresh air everything feels better.
Five minutes later I’m trying to force the back door. As I’d shut it somehow the key I’d left in it (stupid, stupid, stupid thing to do) had turned and then fallen to the floor – inside the house. Locked out, in the back garden, with no phone and the only exit a locked 6ft gate framed by thorny trees.
Well I surprised myself. For a girl picked last for every netball and hockey match of my youth I did a pretty good job of climbing and jumping and running to a neighbour’s house. I was wasted on netball. I did cry though. Stoic I am not.
Comments, as always, welcomed. And yes, this is the meringue layer cake I made on QVC. I think it would be perfect for Mother’s Day.
One year ago: Cranberry biscuits and Mother’s Day carrot cake in a cup
Two years ago: Walnut bread and Puff pastry
Lemon & coconut meringue layer stack
Whisk your egg whites until beginning to hold their peaks. Then whisk in 1 teaspoon of the castor sugar at a time. I know this is laborious but if you rush it and throw the lot in you’re less likely to make sure it all dissolves into the egg and you might end up with weeping meringue. Might.
Once the sugar’s all in, the mixture should look really white and glossy, then add in the cornflour and white wine vinegar. Whisk again. The combination of these ingredients makes for a mallowy chewy middle to your meringue so whilst they’re desirable they’re not a reason to run to the local shops if you don’t have them.
Pop some foil or baking parchment on 3 baking trays, fixing down with a little sticky meringue. Then spoon a third of the meringue onto each tray and use the back of a spoon to rub into a flat circle shape. Try to get the circles about the same size.
Bake in a preheated oven at 140C, as soon as they go into the oven turn it down to about 100C, or 90C for a fan. Then after 45 minutes turn the oven off entirely but don’t open it.
About 35 minutes into baking I tend to open the oven door and have a little prod to make sure the oven has worked it’s magic and the outsides of the meringue are hard. If not they need a little longer than the aforementioned 45 minutes. Then I DO NOT OPEN the oven for the last ten minutes of baking. I turn the oven off and then leave the little snowy meringues to slowly come to room temperature for a few hours. Easier to just make these last thing at night and leave them until the morning in your oven.
Once completely cold use a little lemon curd to fix the largest meringue to your serving plate, then spread with more curd. Whip the double cream and add a third of it then sprinkle with a little coconut. Pop another meringue layer on the top and add lemon curd, cream and coconut and then repeat with the last meringue. Add a few raspberries and serve at once. This dessert does not like to be left about – beware collapse! Happy Mother’s Day all you Mums. x
Holly Bell 