A Taste of Childhood

For Christmas, my mum bought me The Great British Book of Baking. It is the official book that  accompanied the BBC series The Great British Bake Off which she and I both enjoyed.

Mum bought me the book after I admired the copy she had purchased for herself - one of many recipe books that she treated herself to last year. The funny thing is that despite having an enviable collection of recipe books, she hardly ever cooks anything from them. She has her tried and tested recipes that she knows by heart and rarely deviates from them. More often these days, she lets my dad loose in the kitchen while she gets on with her latest knitting project or goes on her computer. Dad and recipes really don't mix.

So despite a wealth of ideas and inspiration at her fingertips, my mum's cooking repertoire remains small. She is very competent with what she does but feels no desire to get experimental.

The other odd thing about my mum's cooking, is her obssessive compulsion to have everything perfect. Biscuits must be regularly sized and shaped. Any that fail to meet her rigorous standards will be thrown in the bin (or given to dad to eat!). Choc chip cookies must each contain the same number and distribution of choc chips (she places them meticulously by hand to achieve this). I laugh about it with her but it really is very alien to me.

I love to cook. I especially love to try new things or tweak old recipes to give them a new twist. I do take a pride in the presentation but if it all goes wrong and looks like roadkill (which it often does), I am fine with it as long as everything is vaguely edible.

Recently I was reminded of a couple of old favourites of my mum when I came across a two hand written recipes. I remember her cooking these particular family favourites in the  kitchen of the house I grew up in. I had a go at making them myself.

Although the recipes couldn't possibly have belonged to my mum as they were metric - grams is a swear word to my strictly pounds and ounces mother - the taste and cooking smells were very nostalgic.

Of course, if my mum had made them, the jam wouldn't have been so blobby and uneven and the sultanas may just have been a little more evenly distributed!

From Cabbages to Roses

I've been baking again.

I am really enjoying receiving my Cake Decorating Partwork through the post. I do not regret my decision to subscribe.

As it was my sister's birthday at the beginning of the week and my birthday at the beginning of next week, I decided that it was as good an excuse as any to make some celebration cakes. My parents were visiting so I made my dad's favourite - coffee and walnut cake (from issue 5).

Issue 4 came with a modelling tool to make sugar roses. I have had a go at making roses in the past but they have always looked like cabbages. Using specialist flower paste and the new tool to roll the petals very thin, my roses were much more delicate and flower-like. I was quite pleased with the result. I used one of my own tried and tested recipes to make a chocolate cake with fudge icing as the vehicle for my little flowery creations.

Making the roses was one of those laborious repetitive tasks that requires a certain amount of concentration but frees your mind to wander. I found myself thinking a lot about my mum as a mother to me and my two sisters - about how terrifying it was for her giving birth for the first time knowing so very little about what to expect all those years ago - about a young woman suffering from post-natal depression with no medical support or understanding of the feelings she was experiencing - about a mum doing her best to care for her children. I made three roses, one to represent each of her three daughters. The number of leaves represents how many leaves it was possible to make out of the trimmings of sugar paste!

I was really pleased with the ivory colour that I achieved using gel food colouring - hugely disappointed with the limp shade of green that I managed using liquid food colouring. If I attempt this again, I shall definitely buy a better quality green colouring.

Easter Sunday Farmyard Cake Fun

This is what happens when you let your six children plus one boyfriend and your husband loose with buttercream, sweets, fairy cakes and inspiration from your Cake Decorating Partwork.

Chicks, sheep, cows and pigs

It's been a lovely Easter Sunday:  teamwork in the kitchen to get the dinner prepared, Easter Eggs well and truly hidden by Liberty and Taylor's evil boyfriends, hours spent rediscovering retro board games from the depths of the games cupboard and of course the farmyard cakes.

Unlike last year, my husband even remembered to get me an Easter Egg!

It's 9.30pm now. The little ones are asleep in bed, and the big girls have retired to their room to multitask with TV and computers.

I still have a little sparkling Chardonnay to finish and the rest of the evening to relax and enjoy.

Life is good.

Cake Decorating

Earlier this year I blogged about my love hate relationship with Part Works.

There is a new Part Work out now entitled Cake Decorating. I saw the advert for it on the telly and wanted it badly. The next day, I handed my 99p to the lady behind the counter at WH Smiths and became the proud owner of Part 1, complete with butterfly cutters, pink sparkle glitter (non toxic but not recommended for consumption!) and a cardboard, two tiered cupcake stand.

I have pored over the pages of the magazine so many times already that it is starting to look a little tatty. Recipes, clear instructions, advice, tips - it makes everything look so do-able ... stunning cakes within my grasp.

The lavishly illustrated pages are practically pornographic in their explicitness (that really is how carried away I get about cakes).

I love baking cakes and have always dabbled in cake decorating. Although I have made some memorable attempts, my skill never quite matches my enthusiasm or vision. I was starting to convince myself that subscribing to the new Part Work might be the equivalent of taking a course in cake decorating. I could hone my skills to a professional level and be in great demand whenever there was an occasion that warranted a centre piece of a sweet and edible nature. I imagined all the Birthdays, Anniversaries, Graduations, Weddings, Births, Christenings and more that would be in my near future and saw myself providing spectacular creations that would be greeted with the oohs and aahs of appreciation. I really shouldn't let my imagination wander off like that!

I was very close to subscribing there and then.

However, I have an invisible companion that sits on my shoulder. I am undecided whether it is more aligned with demon or angel but it does NOT like me to spend money on myself. I am getting much better at silencing it but it still whispers in my ear. Part Works add up to a ridiculous amount of money over the weeks and months. Could I really justify that expense? Would I even gain any benefit? Were my dreams of becoming a cake maker in demand simply fantasies that had no foundation in reality?

There was one way to put all of these doubts to rest and that was to have a go at making some of the treats featured.

I had a really good time making iced butterfly butter cookies and white choc chip cupcakes decorated with buttercream and carefully crafted, sparkly, flower paste butterflies. It didn't feel like cooking, it felt like making art. I was quite proud of the results for a first attempt and I did learn a lot from my mistakes - mostly in terms of the importance of getting the correct icing consistency for different applications and having the right food colourings. The kids were very happy with my efforts and enjoyed the taste testing.

My little ones wanted to get involved  so I did let them have a go too which was lovely.

My older girls are very supportive of me subscribing - I am guessing that the idea of a different baking project every week would influence them quite strongly! Even my mum gave me the words of encouragement "Go for it!"

I shall sleep on it but don't be surprised if the QWERTY Mum blog starts to feature a lot more in the way of decorated fancies.

Christmas Muffins

In my quest for the perfect mince pie I have discovered something that will definitely become a part of our family's festive food traditions - the Christmas Muffin.

I used a recipe adapted from Catherine Atkinson's Muffins Galore - a gorgeous book full of inspiring muffin recipes and photographs that make you put on weight simply by looking at them.

Christmas Muffins

Dry Ingredients:

• 300g SR flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp ground mixed spice
• 100g soft brown sugar

Wet Ingredients:

• 175g Mincemeat
• 1 egg, beaten
• 100g melted cooking marg
• Approx 100mls natural yoghurt made up to 175ml with milk
• 8 Glace Cherries, chopped

1. Mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.

2. Add the wet mix to the dry mix and stir until just combined.

3. Dollop into muffin tin lined with muffin cases (makes 12).

4. Sprinkle the tops with demerara sugar to give a decorative, crunchy, sweet topping.

5. Cook for 200˚C (gas mark 6) for approx 20minutes (or until springy)

This recipe does seem to make up to a large amount of mix. I wondered how I was going to fit it all into my 12 muffin cases but I managed.

They are really simple to make and smell gorgeous when they are cooking. The mincemeat gives them a lovely Christmassy flavour and they keep quite well for a couple of days (I don't know if they keep any longer than that because we ate them all!)

It is just possible that this Christmas Eve, Santa might find a festive muffin put out for him with his glass of port at our house.

Raspberry Trifle

My sister has accused me on Twitter of sabotaging her weight loss efforts with the fresh raspberry trifle I made to celebrate my little boy's birthday with her and my parents. I would like to pass the blame to my lovely Mother in Law whose raspberry trifle always has me going back for seconds. Last time we visited her she gave me a hand written recipe revealing her secrets.

When trying to replicate the trifle at home I admit I did cut a couple of corners and made some minor adjustments. My MIL buys raspberry conserve to spread on her trifle sponges and painstakingly de-pips it - I bought seedless raspberry jam on special offer in Morrisons. My MIL makes up her jelly with the juice of cooked raspberries - I saved some excess juice from when I made a  rhubarb, strawberry and raspberry crumble, froze it and used that. My MIL offers her trifle with the cream separate to be added at the time of serving - I slopped mine on top and then added further raspberries for decoration (we really do have something of a raspberry glut at the moment!).

Some of my MIL's instructions weren't terribly explicit so I may have unwittingly made some further deviations.

The result was delicious in a way that jelly, sponge, custard, fresh cream and raspberries was always going to be but it was absolutely nothing like the masterpiece that my MIL creates. I can only assume that she has a secret ingredient she is not telling me about - or maybe it is just a little bit of Mother in Law magic.

Fresh Raspberry Trifle

Raspberry Picking

I absolutely love being able to go out into my garden to pick fruit or vegetables.

My vegetable plot is fairly unproductive at the moment because we are in the middle of redesigning it with paths to divide up the different plots and make it all more manageable. We have already done the soft fruit area and it has made maintenance and harvesting so much easier.

The strawberries haven't been too good this year but the raspberries are fantastic. I particularly like picking the raspberries because it reminds me of happy days as a child going blackberrying. I would try so hard to impress my dad by finding the biggest, juiciest fruits (which where always the ones just out of reach). I later found out that while I was trying to impress my dad with my gathering  skills, he was busy trying to impress my mum under the railway arches with a bit of elicit loving. It does explain why they were both so eager to go on our Sunday afternoon foraging trips when nobody particularly liked blackberries!

Now as I pick my raspberries it makes me smile to think of the young couple that they were back then, stealing moments together to spice up their marriage. It could be part of the reason why they still insist they are as in love as they ever were after more than 50 years as man and wife. I like to think so.

I used the fruit from my harvest to make a big rhubarb, strawberry and raspberry crumble to celebrate Summer Solstice last Tuesday. It may not have been great for the diet but it was definitely good for the soul.

Raspberry Ripple Muffins

We are enjoying a fantastic crop of raspberries at the moment.

The children all love to eat them just as they are fresh from the garden but there are still enough for me to freeze some and use a few in cooking.

The following recipe is one I modified to make use of my frozen raspberries. The combination of vanilla and fresh raspberry is lovely and for me, synonymous with summer. Frozen raspberries are quite fragile and crumble easily with a small amount of pressure between your fingers. I much prefer the small pieces of raspberry distributed throughout the muffin rather than having whole fruits. Doing it this way also leaves gorgeous red streaks in the pre-cooked mixture which is why I call them Raspberry Ripple Muffins.

Raspberry Ripple Muffins

Dry ingredients: 10oz SR flour (sifted), 1tsp baking powder, 5oz caster sugar

Wet ingredients: 4floz yoghurt, 4floz milk, 4oz butter (melted), 1 egg, 1tsp vanilla essence

Plus: frozen raspberries to taste

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200ºC 
2. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another.
3. Crumble the raspberries on top of the dry ingredients.
4. Add wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Spoon into 12 muffin cases.
6. Cook for approx 20mins until golden.
7. Enjoy warm or cold.

Step 3. Crumble the raspberries.....

... on top of the dry ingredients.

Step 4.  Stir until just combined.

Step 5. Spoon into 12 muffin cases.

Cook until golden and enjoy!

                     

Baked Camembert

Some time ago, I went out for a romantic meal with my husband. For our starter, we chose a shared Baked Camembert with Red Onion Marmalade and freshly baked bread. This is something that we have tried making at home since I had it as a main course (rather rebelliously when I was pregnant) at a restaurant that my in-laws sometimes take us to in Sussex.

The presentation of the starter when it was brought out to us on our table for two was something that elevated it way beyond the home effort that we had thus far accomplished. I made mental notes and at the first opportunity, tried to recreate it in my own kitchen. I didn't quite have the rustic wooden board that the restaurant had used to serve the starter but I did the best with what I had.

It was so easy and felt so special that it is definitely up there on my top 10 favourite treats.

This was how I did it.

1. Take one Camembert, some Red Onion Chutney, Part Baked Baguettes and chives (from the garden)

2. Score crisscrosses into the skin of the camembert with a sharp knife and place it back into the wooden lid.

 3. Place the cheese on a stoneware baking sheet and bake for 10mins in a preheated oven (220 ºC). Put the part baked bread on the baking sheet and cook for a further 7 - 10 minutes.

4. Slice the hot bread, garnish cheese with chopped chives and serve with chutney.

5. Enjoy. (Obviously, this cries out for a glass of wine to accompany it!)