Meringue Girls

I got this fantastic cook book, Meringue Girls Cookbook - Incredible Meringues everybody can make, from my sister's boyfriend for my birthday.  I had never heard of the Meringue Girls, but now I'm pretty much obsessed!

I love the fact that the book is dedicated to 'everyone who dreams of leaving their 9 to 5', and not only are the recipes super tasty looking, the girls are pretty cool themselves!

Over the last few months my aim has been to get back to the roots of cooking and find some classic recipes that I can master and this book has given me the nudge to try my hand at a mastering a good meringue.

I tried this weekend to master the simple chocolate meringue kiss, and was definitely pleased with the result.

I was so pleased that I made another batch on Sunday to take to the bake sale at work on Monday.

Recipe: Lemon Layer Cake

I haven't baked for ages and although I've made jams and chutneys recently and made some very tasty meals, I don't remember the last time that I spent the afternoon baking.

I feel like I've managed to master my pastry but I haven't ever quite mastered the sponge.  Cupcakes never really work out so I thought maybe I would try a layer cake.  I went for something plain and simple so as not to get carried away with frills and whistles, rather than concentrating on the texture and flavour of the cake.

I keep seeing fantastic layer cakes, and although I attempted one a year back, it never really lived up to Emily's or these tasty looking treats on Pinterest.

When searching through for recipes it's tricky to find fab ones that are in English measurements, but after a quick bit of looking good old Delia came up a treat!

This lemon layer cake was the perfect choice!  I doubled the recipe to make it a super tall 4 layer cake and added some lemon juice and icing sugar to the icing to make it a bit less creamy.  Admittedly also I used shop bought lemon curd as that was a bit much to do as well!

I cannot believe how super quick and easy this cake was and the result was flipping amazing! 

What layer cakes have you tried?

Recipe: Orange Marmalade

One the items on my 2014 to do list was to make a preserve I had never made before. For Christmas Bean bought me The Preserving Book.

This weekend was the first weekend that G and I have spent doing nothing since the beginning of December. G has spent the weekend on the couch full of the cold so I decided to keep myself busy and looked through the preserving book.

There were loads of things I wanted to try and I went for orange marmalade.  It is quite long winded as you have to boil up the orange skins and then chop them all up into tiny bits - bit i guess if you had a snazzy grating machine this might do it for you!

I doubled the recipe in the book and got 8 jars! I'm loving the marmalade.

Recipe: Indulgent Mac n Cheese

When you have excess food in the fridge what better is there than putting everything together into an indulgent dinner.

We got this lovely pie tin for Christmas from our friends A&H and I thought today would be a good day to take it for a test run. No pie in sight though. I decided to use it to make a deliciously luxurious mac and cheese adding in loads of our left overs.

I added in chorizo, olives, red onion and sweetcorn with a tasty cheddar sauce and chunks of buffalo mozzarella.

Recipe: Pastry Savoury Treats

I love the holidays when you just get to bake all the time...and then eat it!  Admittedly I probably put on about 8 pounds over the holidays, but surely that's what January is for...losing it all!

I love pastry based baking and when we headed back to my parents for the holidays I could resist baking some tasty treats for the family.

I made sausage and cheese rolls and cheese straws, both using my basic shortcrust pastry recipe that I used for my mince pies.

For the Cheese straws, just before adding the liquid, add:

1tsp english mustard powder

1/2tsp cayenne pepper

Ground pepper

150g cheddar cheese

Stir together and add the liquid, bringing everything together as a dough.

Recipe: Yeast Free Rosemary Bread

I have really missed baking bread since not having an oven.  I had really got into my bread making, both with and without yeast, and it is definitely something that I want to get back into now we have finally got a new oven!

I had a whole day of baking (christmas cake, apple cake and bread) and so I wanted something that was nice and quick to start with so selected something without yeast.

I wanted something that was good and savoury so I added in Rosemary and ground pepper to really give it some kick so that you can just eat with a lump of butter.

The recipe I used was adapted from this one on All Recipes.

Ingredients

500 g plain white flour1 tsp bicarbonate of soda½ tsp salt300 ml (10 fl oz) milk

• Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF, gas mark 6). Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.
• Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk. With a wooden spoon, gradually stir the flour into the milk to form a soft dough. 
• Bring the dough together with your hands, then turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead lightly and briefly until it forms a smooth ball.
• Place the dough on a greased baking sheet and flatten it slightly to make a domed round loaf about 19 cm (7 1/2 in) in diameter. Using a sharp knife, cut a deep cross in the top of the loaf, cutting about halfway down into the dough. Sprinkle a little extra flour over the top.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until well risen and browned, and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the base. (If it sounds moist and heavy, bake for a further 3–5 minutes and then test it again.)
• Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Serve the loaf on the day it is baked, as it becomes stale quickly, or toast it the following day.

2013 Favourites

2013 has seen its fair share of ups and downs but some of my highlights of this year have been:

• Appreciating the love from the women in my life at my HenDo
• Marrying my gorgeous Fiance G on May 4th
• Honeymooning in Florida
• Gaining some fantastic friends, Harriet and Ellis
• Learning how to make jam
• Improving my pie making ability
• Discovering nail transfers
• Learning how to make paper pompoms
• Discovering 'The Simple Things' Magazine
• Learning to love red wine
• Visiting Scotland for the first time
• New borns and being asked to be God Parents

Stunning Wedding photography by Sara Reeve

Honeymooning on the Disney Boardwalk, Florida

Sunset nails for they fantastic sunny days this Summer

Tootsy - the new addition to Mum and Dads -
inherited from my fantastic uncle who we lost this year

Homemade Guacamole - How tasty you are!

Late Summer days hanging with Bean at the parents farm

Appreciating the taste of Scottish whiskey in Edinburgh in August

Favourite dress from Jojo Maman Bebe

Borough Market - Treating Bean to a weekend in London to Celebrate her 30th

Long days out with new friends

The new cafe that has opened around the corner from home - Marmalade

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stages 2 and 3

Stage 2 - Feeding the cake:

This stage of my Christmas cake making was pretty simple - feed your cake.  I made an alcohol free cake, not for any reason apart from the fact that I didn't have any brandy in the house and also loooove the flavour of earl grey.  

I dribbled a tablespoon of earl grey over the cake once a week for the 3 weeks prior to Christmas. 

Stage 2 done.

Stage 3 - Decorating the cake (the fun bit!):

I cheated with decorating the cake and have to admit that I made neither the Marzipan nor the Royal Icing.  I bought both from ASDA and am hoping (having never made a Christmas cake before)that these are as tasty as if I had made them. 

To get the marzipan to stick to the cake, and add an extra bit of Christmas flavour, heat a bit of marmalade mixed with water and brush this all over the cake.

I love the marzipan layer on an Xmas cake and have heard a good way to add a bit more is to cover the cake in a thin layer, but then add another disc of marzipan just to the top of the cake.

Once the marzipan is on it's time for the icing and making things look pretty.  I'm not a fan of royal icing so I rolled mine as thin as possible. 

A tip for the marzipan and Icing - once you have rolled it out, fold it over your rolling pin to lift it over the cake as this will prevent it from stretching too much as you lift it.

You can make your decorations as simple or extravagant as you want.  I went simple this year for my first year, with just thin icing snowflakes, glued into place with marmalade.

Christmas cake - Done!

Recipe: Christmas Cake - Stage 1

I followed this tasty looking recipe for my gorgeously tasty Christmas cake- the first I've ever made.

There are several stages to making the perfect Christmas Cake the cake, the feeding and the decorating.

I have never attempted a Christmas cake before but I thought if G and I were spending Christmas day at home together then, as my first year as a wife, I should make the effort this year.

Stage 1 - How I baked the cake:

Ingredients:

• 
  
• • 150 grams currants
  • 350 grams raisins
  • 50 grams glace cherries
  • 200ml cold earl grey tea
  • 75 grams chopped pecans
  • 150 grams butter
  • 90 grams soft brown sugar
  • 1 orange grated
  • 150 grams plain flour
  • 75 grams ground almonds
  • 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4tsp ground ginger
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon black treacle
  
  
  18cm round tin
  Temp 150C
  yield approx 12 slices
  
  
  
  

Method:

1. Place all of the dried fruit in the earl grey tea, stir and place  in the fridge over night.

2.Preheat oven to 150C and prepare tin.

3. Cream butter and sugar together then add orange zest.

4.Add eggs one at a time (adding tbsp if mixture starts to curdle) Beat in treacle.

5.Sift in dry ingredients, then mix this alternatively with the soaked fruit, into the creamed mixture. Fold in pecans.

6.Pour into prepared tin and bake in the oven, until a screwer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

7.Brush with more earl grey and wait until completely cold before turning out.

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