Peach Melba Eton Mess Cake – Gluten Free

Let me tell you about my friend Holly.

Holly is amazing, she’s the happiest, most smiley person I know and no matter how many years separate our meetings I know we’ll just slot back into place and it’ll feel like no time at all.

Holly ran the London Marathon the other week, after months of dedicated training. Her time was 4 hrs 12 – INCREDIBLE. Put into perspective, she thrashed both Gordon Ramsey and Will Young, could not be prouder of her.

It was Holly’s birthday last week – The BIG 3-0. One of the last ones from my Exeter College days to finally join the club. Holly asked me to make “Purple Salad” for her party and also something baked from the blog, I’m not fond of recreating too much, much preferring to attempt something new. To narrow down my options I questioned her on things to avoid – “I avoid cream…(and wheat…but as it is my birthday I’ll let myself off) “ Well, avoiding wheat sounded like a challenge to me and I love a challenge, especially a baking challenge.

As always I looked to BBC Good Food for ideas and found two traybakes – Eton Mess Cake & Peach Melba Squares and decided to mash them together and make them Gluten & Wheat Free and replace the double cream for yoghurt.

Having never intentionally made a completely wheat free cake before I asked twitter if it was as simple as using Gluten Free flour, apparently not – who knew that you needed Gluten Free Baking Powder too, who knew such a thing existed – the thought of it had never crossed my mind. Thank you Twitter.

The final cake was moist and delicious, a big hit at the party – I’m quite proud at how it turned out, considering it was first attempt at Gluten Free and a bit of an experiment.

Peach Melba Eton Mess Cake
makes 20 squares

210g / 7.3 oz  unsalted butter, melted
6 tbsp 0% natural yogurt
seeds of 1 vanilla pod
270g / 9.4 oz Gluten & Wheat Free Flour (I used Doves)
120g / 4.2 oz ground almonds
1¼ tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder (Again I used Doves)
½ tsp salt
240g / 8.5 oz  golden caster sugar
6 large eggs
300g / 10 oz raspberries
2 peaches –  stoned and roughly chopped
3 meringue nests – crushed

Preheat the oven to 160°c / 320°f  / gas mark 3 and butter and line a 24 x 34 cm baking tray.

Melt the butter and leave it to cool for about 5 minutes – stir in the yoghurt and vanilla.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, almonds, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs, until light, fluffy & thickened – this takes about 5 minutes in a standmixer.

Pour in the butter and yoghurt mixture, and whisk briefly.

Add the flour and again whisk briefly, until combined.

Gently fold in half of the raspberries and peaches and then pour into the prepared tin.

Randomly scatter the rest of the raspberries and peaches and top with the crushed meringue nests.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

Serve with Pimms & friends and maybe don’t tell them it’s a Gluten Free cake and see if they notice (They won’t)

For those interested – each cake is worth 7 weight watcher pro points.

Tags: 0% Yoghurt, 20, 30th, 7 pp, bbc good food, birthday, cake, Doves Baking Powder, Doves Gluten & Wheat Free Flour, Eton Mess, Eton Mess Cake, gluten-free, ground almonds, meringue, Peach, Peach Melba, Peach Melba Eton Mess Cake, Peach Melba Squares, Pimms, Raspberries, Raspberry, Roswensian, Sarah Cook, Summer, Traybake, vanilla, weight watchers, Wheat Free, Yoghurt

Zebra Bundt Cake

My Top 5 reasons to love Pinterest.

1. It’s inspiring

2. It’s inspiring

3. It’s inspiring

4. It’s inspiring

5. It’s inspiring

Did I mention I find Pinterest inspiring?

I realise that for many people it is a confusing place, What exactly is it’s purpose? Why do we need another form of social media? Why do we need another places to look at pictures?

Well Pinterest is a confusing place and for many I think it’s probably completely unnecessary but for me it’s been a god send. Not only do I now get lots of traffic to the blog from there but it’s also amazing when I’m trying to decide what to bake.

Take last week – My boyfriend had missed 3 weeks of 5 a side football and during that time someone had a birthday, I knew that I needed to provide them with cake, I asked the birthday boy what his favourite cake was and he answered “I like all kinds of cake but have a bit of fondness for chocolate”

This year the only type of cake I have sent to the footballers has been Chocolate in one form or another. Chocolate Beetroot Brownies, Mint Chocolate Brownies and Rocky Road Easter Nests. I needed inspiration and in rode the wonderful Pinterest.

I didn’t even need to search for Chocolate Cake, as soon as I logged in it was waiting for me – already pinned by someone I follow. Zebra Bundt Cake

I’ve never marbled a cake before but after clicking on the picture and going through to the recipe (on a blog I may never have found without Pinterest) I’ve realised that marbling is as easy as alternating different coloured cake batters in the exact same spot. EASY!

This cake has got me thinking of other flavour combinations I could try – currently top of the ‘To Do List’ is Peanut Butter & Jam. *wiggles eyebrows*

So anyway back to this cake – as stated before I love a Bundt, they are so forgiving and when a simple bit of alternating the batters (ON THE SAME SPOT) can produce something that looks THIS pretty and impressive, what is not to love? To love and to shout about. This is me shouting about it by the way.

It’s also really really really really delicious – moist and not too rich.

Zebra Bundt Cake
adapted from Bakers Royale 

330g / 11 1/4 oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
450g / 1lb granulated sugar
55g / 2oz cocoa powder
6 tbsp water
340g / 11 1/2 oz butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
5 large eggs
120ml whole milk

Topping

175g / 6oz dark chocolate
180ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 180°c / 350°f / gas mark 4 and grease the inside of a bundt tin and dust with flour.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In a separate bowl mix together 50g of the sugar, the cocoa powder and water and also set this aside.

In another separate bowl beat the butter and remaining sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla bean paste and then an egg at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Beat the mixture until it thickens slightly.

Now stir in a third of the flour, followed by half of the milk, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk and finally the last of the flour. Combine thoroughly.

This is when I deviated from the original recipe, purely by accident I made more chocolate batter than vanilla – looking at their pictures the vanilla lines are bigger than the chocolate and I’ve done it the other way round – making it MORE chocolatey.

Separate the mixture in half and then add the chocolate mixture to one – mix until fully combined.

Get yourself 2 spoons and alternate spoonfuls of each batter into the bundt tin. I started with the chocolate mixture and spooned 3 spoonfuls into the bundt tin, then followed this with 2 spoonfuls of the vanilla mixture directly on top of the chocolate and repeated, with a few variations on number of spoonfuls each time.

As you add more mixture on top it will start to move around the bundt tin – once you have alternated all the two mixtures you may need to give the mixture a gentle wiggle to tease it all the way around the centre.

Bake on the middle shelf for 45-55 minutes – until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then gentle invert on to a wire rack to fully cool.

Once cooled make the ganache topping. Gentle heat the cream over a low heat until just before boiling – have the chocolate ready in a small bowl, chips work best but if using a bar break it into the smallest pieces you can. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until it’s all melted. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes and then dollop over your bundt.

This is a beast of a cake, so really needs to be served with friends but the leftovers should be eaten while watching a Jennifer Aniston movie.

Tags: Aoril, Bakers Royale, bundt, cake, chocolate, Marble, Pinterest, Roswensian, vanilla, Zebra, Zebra Bundt Cake

Kitchen Sink Carrot Cake

When tasked with making my brothers 40th birthday cake, I was asked by his wife to make him a Mr Men cake. I knew instantly that I was going to have to do something pretty special flavour-wise to distract from how lacking my sugarcraft skills were.

For months I thought about Lemon Drizzle tier cakes, Extravagant Chocolate Cakes, Salted Caramel, Toffee Apple Layer Cakes… but none of them seemed right.

AND THEN…

This wonderous book dropped onto my doormat (Not literally, I have no doormat or a letterbox but the image of me opening my post box isn’t as familiar)

I’ve been following Joy’s blog for a good while now and I’ve bigged it up here and on twitter quite a lot but for the uninitiated of you – Joy the Baker is wonderful, what she doesn’t know about baking probably doesn’t need to be known. Her food styling & photography is inspiring, the dishes she creates (not always naughty) sound delicious but mostly it’s her warm and friendly voice that comes shining through – she’s a helpful old friend with no airs and graces. She doesn’t judge her readers, far from it she embraces us all.

Anyway sorry (Fan Girl alert!) My point is I love Joy and her book didn’t disappoint and this is where the recipe for (Everything but the) Kitchen Sink Carrot Cake came from. As the name suggests a lot goes into this cake and the results are impressive. I’ve adapted it slightly as it seems pretty difficult to get some of the ingredients in the UK – Crushed Pineapple anyone? Sweetened Shredded Coconut?

Please excuse the photo, in all the excitement of the party (and going to my very first Rugby game) I completely forgot to use my proper camera and lighting to get a decent shot. But you get the idea, it’s a cake – with stuff on and LOTS of stuff in it and it’s delicious and impressive and suitable for a party and distracts from (not completely) dodgy sugarcraft.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Carrot Cake
makes one bundt cake or one 2 layer 9 inch cake

370g / 13 oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 egg yolk
200g / 7oz golden granulated sugar
200g / 7oz + 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
415ml vegetable oil
820g tin of Pineapple rings
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
140g grated carrots
40g desiccated coconut
30g dried cranberries – chopped
30g pistachios – chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

225g / 8oz cream cheese, softened
110g / 4oz butter, also softened
pinch of salt
250g / 9oz icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Topping

20g cranberries
20g pistachios
20g desiccated coconut

To turn the Pineapple rings into crushed pineapple – drained the pineapple and squeeze all the juice out of each ring with your mean fists. It’s surprising how much juice is left in them. This will take a while and be pretty messy BUT was incredibly relaxing. After all the squeezing the pineapple weighed 181g. Set to one side.

Preheat the oven to 180°c  / 350°f / gas mark 4 and grease and flour the Bundt pan (or two 9 inch cake tins)

In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon and place to one side.

In a different bowl whisk together the eggs, yolk and sugars – beat until slightly thickened and well combined.

Add the oil to the egg & sugar mixture and carefully incorporate (If using a stand mixer keep it at a slow speed, unless you really want to decorate your whole kitchen and face!)

Now add the pineapple and vanilla and stir until incorporated.

Add the pineapple mixture to the flour mixture (all at once) and fold together – when just about incorporated fold in the carrots, coconut, cranberries and pistachios. Fold evenly until blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin(s) and bake on the middle shelf.

A Bundt cake will take between 45-55 minutes and cake layers will take between 30-45 minutes. The cake will be cooked when a skewer comes out clean.  Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.

To make the cream cheese frosting – Beat the cream cheese for about 1 minute, ensuring it is soft a pliable (such a wonderful word – say it with me… pliable, pli…able) Add the butter and beat together until combined. Finally add the salt, icing sugar and vanilla and beat until the icing sugar grains dissolve… to test this, the best way, is sadly… to eat some!

Dollop over the top of your cooled cake (or in between the layers AND top if making a layer cake) Bundt’s are beautiful things that don’t ever require you to be perfect, so don’t even try to be.

Finish with a sprinkling of Cranberries, Pistachios and Coconut (and the Mr Men characters of your choice!)

Serve with the finest tunes from the 70s, your brother wearing lime green fluro psychedelic bell-bottoms and a bottomless wine glass.

Tags: 40, 70s, AJK, American, April, Birthday Cake, bundt, cake, carrot, carrot cake, coconut, cranberries, Cream Cheese Frosting, crushed pineapple, disco, everything but the kitchen sink, Joy the Baker, Kitchen Sink Carrot Cake, Mr Men, party, pineapple, pistachios, Roswensian

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

I’m not sure I trust someone who doesn’t like Pie, especially a Pie that is filled with Sugar and Nuts and Chocolate and Booze.

Pecan Pie is a well-loved and well-known dessert, when I decided to make my first one I had 3 cookbooks (Baked, The Boy who Bakes, Jamie’s America) in front of me, each recipe was very different. The one that really stood out for me was one from the Brooklyn bakery – Baked. I suspect what drew me to it was the layer of chocolate and the bourbon – I jumbled the three recipes together to make this resplendent pie.

I hope it will bring joy into your lives, especially if you are in my homeland and having to put up with this constant barrage of weather!

Shortcrust Pastry

250g / 9oz unsalted butter, chilled & diced
400g / 14oz plain flour
1 tsp salt
6 – 10 tbsp iced water

Pecan Filling

200g / 7oz pecan halves
3 large eggs
340g / 12oz golden syrup
3 tbsp golden caster sugar
4 tbsp dark brown sugar
50g /1½ oz butter – melted
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 tbsp bourbon (I used Canadian Club whisky – very Don Draper of me)
90g / 3oz milk chocolate chunks
90g / 3oz dark chocolate chunks

Put the butter, flour and salt in a bowl and with your fingertips rub together till it resembles irregular breadcrumbs. Add a tablespoon of water at a time and with your hands work the mixture until it comes together.

Knead the dough gently and then wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least half an hour.

Once chilled, roll it out between two pieces of clingfilm or greaseproof paper, until it is about the thickness of a pound coin.

Line a 23cm / 9 inch pie dish with the pastry, trim off the excess – leaving about an inch overhang. Tuck the overhanging pastry under itself and using your fingers and thumb crimp the edges.

Be careful not to pull the pastry too much, as this may form cracks once baked, which will then allow the filling to leak and your pastry will get stuck to the dish. I speak from experience, please note the gap at the very top of my pie. I did try to patch this up after the blind bake but it was stubborn and yes, my pie got very stuck. Not that the eaters of my pie criticised me for this, but as a Virgo I am still kicking myself to this very day!

Once lined, chill the pastry case for up to 30 minutes and turn the oven to 170°c / 325°f / gas mark 3

Line the pastry case with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans (or rice)

Bake for 15 minutes, remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 10 minutes. Then place to one side while you make the filling.

You want 75g / 2½ oz of broken pecans to go into your mixture and 125g / 4¼ oz of unbroken pecans to lay beautifully on top. Break the broken bits by hand into smaller pieces and set both aside.

Put the oven back on at  170°c  / 325°f / gas mark 3

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and then add the golden syrup, both sets of sugars, butter, salt, vanilla and the bourbon. Whisk again until fully combined and stir in the broken pecans.

Sprinkle the two lots of chocolate chunks over the bottom of the baked pastry shell and pour the filling over the chocolate chunks.

Arrange the remaining (near perfect) pecans over the top – you could be super neat if you like and arrange them in even circles but I arranged them haphazardly and personally think it looked pretty good that way.

Bake for up to an hour, turning halfway through and covering the edges with foil if they are starting to look a bit too well done!

It will be ready when a knife poked in the centre comes out clean – if lumps of the filling come out give it 5 more minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and serve at room temperature.

Be warned that if you are serving it to many people they will ask you to list the ingredients as they try to pick out exactly what’s in it.

Serve with a whisky on the rocks and a Mad Men boxset.

Tags: indulgent, Roswensian, chocolate, jamie oliver, dessert, American, BAKED, Edd Kimber, The Boy Who Bakes, Pecan Pie, Bourbon, Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie, Mad Men, Canadian Club, Whisky, Classic American Dessert, Rainy Days, Jamie's America

Wild Blueberry Baked Doughnut Muffins

Everyone loves doughnuts, right? But everyone knows that doughnuts are bad for you, yes? But what if they could be not so bad for you? How would you feel? I reckon you’d feel pretty happy. Am I right?

I first spotted these beautiful not so sinful doughnuts in the January 2012 Good Food magazine, in a section where Sarah Cook reinvented and improved some of our best-loved dishes. I have been meaning to make them ever since but never found the right occasion.

The right occasion presented itself last week, when I needed to take a dessert to a friend’s house but already had lots of other baking to be done that day. These are super simple and quick to make, with minimal mess and the result was delicious. Judging by your comments on Twitter & Instagram you’re all pretty excited by them too.

Wild Blueberry Baked Doughnut Muffins
makes 12 muffins

140g /5oz butter (plus extra for greasing)
140g / 5oz golden caster sugar
200g / 7oz plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml / 3½floz natural yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
12 heaped tsp Bonne Mamam Wild Blueberry Conserve
100g / 3oz icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 190°c / 375°f / gas mark 5 and lightly grease a 12 holed muffin tray.

Melt the butter and leave to one side to cool. In a bowl combine the sugar, flour and bicarb and set to one side. In a jug beat together the yogurt, eggs and vanilla.

Pour the contents of the jug and the butter into the flour mixture and with a metal spoon combine.

Place just over a tablespoon of the mixture into each muffin hole, add a heaped teaspoon of jam on top of each pile and then divide the remaining mixture between each one – ensuring that the jam is fully covered.

Bake for 16-18 minutes until risen and springy to touch.

Leave the muffins to cool for 5 minutes and then carefully remove them from the tin – leave to cool a little longer and then roll them in the icing sugar (or more golden caster sugar – it’s up to you)

Use whatever jam you fancy or if you have the time, make your own. The flavour combinations you could use are endless. Next time I’m tempted to add some custard – what could be the harm in that? THERE IS NEVER HARM IN ADDING CUSTARD!

Best served warm but still good once cooled.

Tags: 12, April, Baked Doughnut Muffins, Baked Doughnuts, baking, bbc good food, blueberry, Bonne Mamam, cake, Conserve, donuts, doughnuts, healthier, instagram, Jam, less bad, Name Check, Roswensian, Sarah Cook, twitter, wild blueberry

How do you solve a problem like brown bananas?

I’ve done it again.

And it really wasn’t on purpose.

Honest.

I’ve let my bananas go brown. VERY brown.

But what do you do when you’ve already baked Banana Bread recently?

Well, firstly I tried Low-Fat Banana & Blueberry muffins from BBC Good Food. I wasn’t very impressed with these at all, they tasted bland and lifeless – even though I added some spice, vanilla & honey to them, still bland. Without eggs yolks or butter they were a sorry excuse for a cake. I’ve tried baking other low-fat cakes before, which all resulted in deliciousness but this really lacked something and not worth the 6 vital weight watchers points each one would use up.

So of course I could’ve then tried to make a full fat muffin but that’s been done before around these parts… so I thought perhaps Cookies.

What could go wrong with a Cookie? Nothing, even though I have managed to create a half cake, half biscuit hybrid. I realise that I’ve already used Banana, Peanut Butter and Chocolate together before and quite recently too but you can’t beat it. The flavours work so well together that it would be rude to ignore them.

Banana, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies
makes between 10 & 20 (depending on size)

90g / 3oz crunchy peanut butter
180g / 6oz golden caster sugar
1 large egg
4 small (very) ripe bananas
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
220g / 8oz plain flour
pinch of salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
100g / 3oz dark chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 180°c / 350°f  / gas mark 4

Mash the bananas and stir in the bicarbonate of soda, leave to one side. The soda and bananas react together and act as a raising agent.

Beat together the peanut butter and sugar – this looks rather like a crumble mix but do not fear. Add the egg and it all starts to make sense, then the banana mixture.

Sift in the flour, salt and spices and mix throughly, finally fold in the chocolate chunks.

Using an ice cream scoop dollop blobs of the mixture onto a lined baking tray and bake for 12 minutes.

Simples.

And if you are interested this is what the bland muffins looked like…

Shame really as they were quite pretty.

Tags: baking fail, banana, Biscuits, chocolate, cookies, dark chocolate, dark chocolate chunks, Peanut Butter, peanut butter & dark choc cookie, Roswensian

Chocolate Fruit & Nut Hot Cross Buns

Why do Hot Cross Buns insist on being seasonal?

I would happily stuff them in my face ALL year round.

The window for them has admittedly opened up a lot in recent years, it’s easy to get hold of them at Christmas as well as Easter but that doesn’t stop my Mother from judging me for eating one in February. I have felt guilt ever since then and not let another Hot Cross Bun pass my lips… until now, when it is finally acceptable to eat them.

This was my first attempt at baking them and I’m quite proud of the result – I used the Edd Kimber recipe that was in the March 2012 edition of Waitrose Kitchen. I adapted it by using less raisins and substituting them with dark chocolate chips and toasted hazelnuts for a more decadent bun.

Chocolate Fruit & Nut Hot Cross Buns
makes 10

450g /1lb strong white bread flour
½ tsp salt
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinnamon
50g / 2oz caster sugar
7g / ¼oz quick yeast
250ml milk
30g / 1oz unsalted butter
zests of 1 orange & 1 lemon
30g / 1oz hazelnuts – roughly chopped & lighted toasted
40g /1½oz raisins
65g / 2¼oz dark chocolate chips
1 large egg
olive oil for greasing
50g / 2oz plain flour
2 tbsp golden syrup

In a large bowl mix together the bread flour, salt, spices, sugar, yeast and chocolate chips.

Toast the chopped hazelnuts in a dry frying pan.

In a small saucepan gently heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Add the raisins and toasted hazelnuts to the milk and set aside to cool for about 5 minutes. Once slightly cooled beat in the egg.

This is when it will get a bit messy –  personally I like turning the dough a little bit chocolatey but if you wish to avoid this add the chocolate during the kneading once it’s cooled down a bit more.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the milk mixture – stirring to form a dough.

Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth – about 5 minutes. Mine got stuck to the work surface a lot, so I needed to add quite a bit of flour. Once it’s formed into a ball place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to raise – at least an hour or until it is doubled in size.

Once risen tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knock the air back – divide into 10 equal pieces (roughly 100g) and roll them into balls. Place 2cm apart on a lined baking tray and cover with a piece of oiled clingfilm. Leave them to rise for a further 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°c / 400°f / gas mark 6 and remove the clingfilm. Mix together the plain flour with 5 tbsp of water and spoon into a piping bag with a small nozzle. Pipe crosses onto the buns (or like me kisses – it was an accident) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Gentle heat the golden syrup and brush over your baked buns.

Allow them to cool a little before toasting them, covering them in salty butter and shoving them in your pie hole!

Tags: bread, buns, chocolate, crosses, dark chocolate, Easter, Edd Kimber, good friday, hazelnuts, hot cross buns, jesus, knead, raisins, Roswensian, The Boy Who Bakes, waitrose, yeast

Rocky Road Easter Nests

Easter isn’t Easter without Chocolate Nests topped with Mini Eggs.

It’s the way it’s always been and always will be until the Easter bunny is proved a fake.

Not wanting to repeat everyone else in the blogging world I’ve given them a slight Rocky Road(ish) twist.

As simple as these might be, it didn’t stop me from wasting 800g of Dairy Milk chocolate. First off I suffered from impatience, impatience and chocolate DO NOT MIX. Bored with waiting I increased the temperature and if that wasn’t enough my bowl didn’t fit my saucepan so steam was escaping – water & chocolate DO NOT MIX.

My next attempt I tried to be clever and added the butter & golden syrup after the chocolate had melted. Both of these tricks left me with instantly solid grainy blah chocolate – not nice.

My third attempt was performed at 11pm with a Gin & Tonic. I decided that I didn’t need to add the butter & golden syrup (I’d referenced a BBC recipe) So just melted the chocolate by itself on a very low heat and it worked.

Lovely nostalgic nests that are a little bit nutty, a little bit chewy and a little bit fruity.

Rocky Road Easter Nests
makes about 19 muffin sized nests

300g / 10z crunchy nut clusters
450g / 1lb milk chocolate
60g / 2oz mini marshmallows
60g / 2oz glace cherries
57 Cadbury’s mini eggs

Line 2 12 hole muffin trays with 19 muffin cases.

Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a saucepan of water. Make sure the water isn’t touching the base of the bowl, melt the chocolate on a very low heat.

With your hands break the crunchy nut clusters into a bowl, don’t crush them fully – you just want to separate the clusters. Add the marshmallows and cherries and mix together.

Once the chocolate has melted, let it cool (a tiny bit) and then pour over the crunchy nut/marshmallow/cherry mixture and stir until all covered. Spoon into the prepared muffin cases, top with 3 Cadbury’s mini eggs and place in the fridge for at least an hour.

Serve on sunny spring days, rainy spring days or snowy spring days.

Tags: Cadburys, Cadburys Mini Eggs, cherries, crunchy nut clusters, Easter, Easter Nests, fridge cakes, glace cherries, marshmallows, Mini Eggs, Nests, No baking, Rocky Road, Roswensian

Rhubarb & Custard Creams

In my opinion there is nothing greater than a home-baked biscuit. It’s one of the nicest gifts to bring to someone, a box of little biscuits – one won’t push them over the edge like a cupcake could, there’s no pressure to finish them now so they can save some for later. One of my favourite biscuits has to be the Custard Cream but up until last summer I had never even thought about baking them myself. But last June Edd Kimber; winner of the first Great British Bake Off posted a Custard Cream recipe on his blog The Boy Who Bakes and I knew I had to try them out.

I first made them to take to Glastonbury and they went down a treat. So popular they have been regularly requested again by friends – I wanted to give them a twist before I shared them on my blog and I couldn’t resist turning them into Rhubarb & Custard Creams. They pretty much silenced a room when I tested them out on friends, so I reckon they are safe to share with you.

 Rhubarb Compote

500g / 1lb rhubarb – cut into small pieces
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 tsp honey
splash of water to stop the rhubarb from sticking

Custard Creams
makes 20-30 biscuits

225g / 8oz plain flour
50g / 1¾ oz custard powder
30g / 1oz icing sugar
175g / 6oz unsalted butter, chilled & diced
¼ tsp vanilla paste

60g / 2oz unsalted softened butter
300g / 10oz icing sugar
3 tbsp custard powder
4 tbsp rhubarb compote

This recipe for rhubarb compote makes more than what you’ll actually need, but I make this much so that I can eat it with porridge or greek yogurt or even on it’s own! It’s very easy to make, just pop all the ingredients in a saucepan and stew on a gentle heat until all the rhubarb has broken down and it has reduced slightly – this can take up to an hour.

In a bowl mix together the flour, custard powder & icing sugar. Add the butter & the vanilla paste and with your fingertips rub together until a dough forms. You don’t want to overwork the mixture BUT you don’t want it to be too crumbly – once the mixture comes together you may find it easier to break it in two and lightly knead each piece until it stops crumbling.

Wrap both pieces in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out your dough between two pieces of clingfilm (or a well floured surface) to about 3-4mm in thickness. Cut out rounds about 3cm in diameter and dock them with a fork. I used a wibbly edged cutter and skewer to make holes around a central one.

Place on a lined baking tray and chill them in the fridge until you are ready to bake them, at least 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°c / 350°f / gas mark 4 and bake the biscuits for 10 minutes or until they have started to turn golden.

Cool on a wire rack.

To make the filling, beat the butter until light and fluffy – then add the icing sugar, custard powder and the rhubarb compote. Beat together until smooth but not runny.

Fill a piping bag with the rhubarb buttercream and pipe on to the inside of one of the biscuits and sandwich together with another. You will more than likely have some buttercream leftover, buttercream freezes really well.

Serve to friends on a beautiful sunny day in the park.

 

Tags: Biscuits, butter, Compote, custard, Custard Creams, Edd Kimber, Friends, Glasto, Glastonbury, Little, rhubarb, Rhubarb & Custard, Rhubarb & Custard Creams, Rhubarb Compote, Roswensian, Spring Bakes, The Boy Who Bakes

Roasted Vegetable Wholemeal Tart

Not exactly sure why I’ve never made a savoury tart before, I have a sneaky suspicion that I wasn’t keen on them as a child – possibly a bad one past my lips and I’ve been a bit prejudice ever since. As it turns out I’m rather fond of a tart (said the actress to the bishop) What isn’t there to be fond of? Pastry – tick. Stuff you like – tick. Suspended in Egg – tick. Topped with cheese – tick.

This particular tart experiment was made to serve for my Vegetarian Mother for a *ahem* light lunch – I fiddled with a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe that I found on Gourmet Chicks blog. I added a tablespoon of Tahini but to be honest I couldn’t taste it, so next time I’ll probably try adding another spoonful at least or leave it out all together. The original recipe added thyme to the egg mixture and sprinkled more on top – I had intended to do this but even though I reminded myself 3 times I still completely forgot until it was in the oven. Perhaps it would’ve been even more awesome with the thyme but I suspect I didn’t really miss it.

I was really impressed with the result, as were my parents – there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll be making this again.

Roasted Vegetable Wholemeal Tart
makes 10 decent sized slices

300g / 10z wholemeal flour
150g / 5oz  chilled unsalted butter, cubed
pinch of salt
4 – 5 tbsp chilled water

 mixed sweet mini peppers – about 7 or 2 regular sized peppers
1 small aubergine – diced
1 small sweet potato – peeled & diced
1 courgette – diced
1 large while onion – finely sliced
2 bay leaves
olive oil
120g / 4 oz ricotta cheese
120g / 40z feta – diced
8 cherry tomatoes – halved
2 eggs
200ml / 7 floz double cream
1 tbsp tahini
salt & pepper to taste

To make the pastry, place the flour, butter & salt into a bowl and with your fingertips rub together – much like you would for a crumble but unlike a crumble a dough will start to form. Add a tablespoon of water at a time until you have formed a smooth dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 230°c / 450°f / gas mark 8  - remove the stalks & seeds of the peppers, drizzle with olive oil in a tray & roast until the skins start to turn brown about 20-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with tinfoil. Once cooled peel of the skin and cut into strips.

Mix the aubergine & sweet potato with a little olive oil and roast in the oven for between 30-45 minutes, until the sweet potato softens – remember it will continue to be cooked in the tart so you don’t want it to breakdown too much. For the last 15 minutes add the courgette.

Once the pastry is chilled, place between two pieces of clingfilm and roll out until 0.3cm thick. Line a 23cm tart dish with the pastry, trim the overhang to leave you with about 2.5cm & roll the edges under – resting on the tart dish edge. Then crimp with your thumb & fingers.

Prick the base several times with a fork and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes – turn the oven down to 160°c / 320°f / gas mark 3

Fry the onion with the bay leaves in a little oil on a gentle heat until softened – roughly about 25 minutes. Careful they do not catch, you want them soft and sweet – not burnt & crisp.

Once chilled, line with baking parchment and fill with baking beans – bake for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment & beans and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Remove the tart from the oven, spread the onions over the bottom, evenly distribute the peppers, sweet potato, aubergine and courgette followed by dollops of the ricotta & cubes of feta and finally the halves of tomato.

Whisk together the eggs, cream, tahini & seasoning. Carefully pour into the tart – the cheese & tomato should remain exposed.

Bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes, until the filling is firm and golden.

This can be served after 10 minutes cooling time, I however served it the next day with lots of lovely salad. It keeps wrapped in the fridge for nearly a week. A very welcomed addition to my baking repertoire.

Tags: baking, Eggs, feta, flan, Gourmet Chick, lunch, Mother, ottolenghi, pastry, quiche, recipe, ricotta, Roasted Vegetable Wholemeal tart, roasted vegetables, Roswensian, Savoury bakes, tahihi, tart, vegetarian, wholemeal, wholemeal pastry, Yotam Ottolenghi