A typical parents evening.

Bell rings, move to new table, sit down. Shake hands, elbow teen to make eye contact with the teacher, brief run down of the GCSE course, where your child should be, just about to discuss their individual progress, bell rings, off we go to another appointment.  This happens eight or nine times, walk down the corridor, you get in the car, try to discuss any issues raised,  teen sulks all the way home.

So in order to make me feel like I wasn’t missing out on Valentines day completely, at the weekend I baked M and I a Valentines day cake. A cake with a hidden surprise inside was something I’ve been wanting to try for ages and now was my chance.

The recipe and method are surprisingly simple. I took my cue and method from a post by Jules at Butcher, Baker but used my own recipes, as I have go to cake recipe that works really well.

Pink batter mix

2 eggs weighed

same weight as eggs in SR flour

same weight as eggs in butter or Stork

same weight as eggs in caster sugar

1 1/2 tbsp milk

1 tube pink Dr Oetker gel colouring

• Pre heat your oven to 190 c
• Line a 6″ square cake tin with baking parchment.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Fold in the flour gently.
• Stir in the pink gel colouring and milk to slacken the mixture.
• 
• Spoon into the tin.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
• Leave to cool completely.
• When cool take a heart shaped cutter and cut out hearts. They need to have the tops and bottoms trimmed. You need enough hearts to lay end to end in a loaf tin. Think Gala pie!

Chocolate cake to surround the heart.

2 eggs weighed

same weight as eggs in SR flour less 50 g

same weight as eggs in butter or Stork

same weight as eggs in caster sugar

1 1/2 tbsp milk

50 g cocoa powder

• Preheat the oven to 190c.
• Line a loaf tin with baking parchment.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Beat in the eggs one at a time.
• Sieve together the flour and cocoa, fold into the mixture gently.
• Stir in the milk to slacken the mixture.
• Place half the chocolate batter into the base of the loaf tin.
• Put the hearts into the batter, point down and lined up to make a heart shaped log.
• Top with the rest of the batter, be careful not to move the hearts too much.
• Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until well risen and a skewer comes out clean.
• Cool in the tin.

Slice and share with your Valentine. Hopefully this will be someone you love and not as in my case eight or so assorted high school teachers at a girls school in Surrey!

Of course I must link this to the February Calendar cakes challenge hosted by Dolly Bakes and Laura loves cake.

A long time ago, in the early 90s when I was young and foolish, I went to Sydney for a weekend break, well 3 days actually but not a long trip. During that time I packed a lot in. The opera house, the Rocks, Bondi and a visit to Doyles. I had more than my fair share of VB and came home with an addiction to Violet Crumbles and Tim Tams. Similar in style to a Penguin biscuit, but bigger and with a slightly malty flavour.

Australia Day on Saturday brought back all the memories of Sydney. The fact we had snow and hail here had me craving for some sun. I can do many things but changing the weather isn’t one of them.  But I can travel via food. A good friend was making damper, why couldn’t I make Tim Tams?

I have made bourbon biscuits in the past so I had a recipe that perhaps I could adapt. Off to the kitchen to give it a go.

As you can see from the picture at the top of this post they worked really well, malty and moreish. I have yet to try a Tim Tam Slam with one of them as my mouth is currently numb from a visit to the dentist but this evening I will be!

Tim Tams  (adapted from a Bourbon biscuit recipe from Larger family life.

Cut the dough into fingers, I use a ruler and sharp knife for this.  I know, I know but it was actually rather therapeutic and it pays off when you sandwich the biscuits together. My finished biscuits are about 6cm long and 4 cm wide. Place onto parchment on a baking tray. Bake for approximately 17 minutes. Remove from oven . Leave in tray until almost cool, then transfer onto wire rack.

Beat together the ingredients for the filling, then use to sandwich biscuits together.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over barely simmering water. Remove the bowl from the pan. Dip the biscuit sandwiches into the chocolate until completely covered. Shake off excess chocolate. Place on a rack to cool and harden.

Once hardened, place in a tin, hide somewhere only you know about and scoff the lot. Alternatively provide nearest and dearest with a hot beverage and a  tim tam.

Time for a Tim Tam Slam!

I use a BBC good food recipe, you can find it here. A word of warning the jelly is very concentrated and I needed to keep the bowl over a pan of hot water to get the jelly to  fully dissolve, but that may be because I was making these in Narnia! I am not getting into the” are these cakes or are they biscuits” thing, all I know is they taste great, and home made ones taste even better.

Home made Jaffa Cakes – adapted from Simon Rimmer’s recipe.

Ingredients

For the cakes

• 2 free-range eggs
• 50g/2oz caster sugar
• 50g/2oz plain flour, sieved

For the filling

• 1 x 135g/4¾oz packet orange jelly, chopped
• 1 tbsp orange marmalade
• 125ml/4½fl oz boiling water
• 200g/7oz good quality chocolate, 100g milk, 100g dark

Repeat after me, as they used to say in the advert, “Full moon, half moon, total eclipe!”

I already have a plan for the snacks and some of the smaller sweets. Compost cookies are brilliant and use up any last half bags of both sweet and salty snacks that have snuck back into the cupboard to go stale. Compost cookies are good and frugal too. Don’t bother adding any cheesey Wotsits or Skips. They are best flushed in my opinion! Here is the recipe for Compost cookies taken from one of my earlier Olympic foods posts.

As a teacher I am obliged to buy a bar of Toblerone annually. The box is a teaching aid when it comes to explaining the net of a Triangular prism. However the contents are more tricky, I have a whole 400g bar of Toblerone and I really can’t face eating it. Not after a jar of Quality Street, two tins of Heroes, a virtual Fort Knox of chocolate coins and the heads from several Lindt teddies.

You can’t give it away without the box but I can’t throw chocolate away. I needed to bake with it. If I could use up other chocolate leftovers all the better too. This isn’t a hard and fast recipe. If you don’t have 400g of chocolate then you can halve or even quarter the quantities below. Leave out the rice crispies and add more biscuit. It really depends what you still have knocking about and want to use up.

Toblerone Refrigerator cake.

400g Toblerone or other leftover solid chocolate bar

200g digestive biscuits – crushed

150g rice crispies

100g assorted chocolates and marshmallows cut up into chunks. (here you could use nut and raisin mixes, snipped up Newberry fruits, glace fruits, dates, the list is endless)

50g butter

2 tbsp golden syrup

How to …

• Butter a large rectangular baking dish, mine is
• Melt the Solid chocolate bar, butter and syrup in a bowl over hot water.
• Snip up the small chocolates, jellies, dried fruit, coins, smarties etc into small pieces.
• Stir the crushed biscuits and rice crispies into the melted chocolate.
• Fold in the chopped up treats.
• Tip into the buttered dish and press down with the back of a spoon.
• Refrigerate until set.
• Cut into bite sized squares.
• Share with all and sundry.
• Do not buy any chocolate for at least 6 months!

I have decided to enter this into a new Blog link up Credit Crunch Munch run by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab food 4 all. I love the feeling that using up leftovers gives me. Almost as if I’m getting something for nothing. As nothing is all I have just after Christmas I need as many of these meals and ideas as possible.

Finally, after a couple of days wrapped in a duvet I suddenly wanted to cook. An idea for a Christmas recipe had popped into my head and was refusing to leave until I’d tried it out. My mojo was back!

So, what had caused me to rise like Lazarus from my death bed? Mulled wine marshmallows, that’s what. Two of my most favourite things. I love a glass of mulled wine at this time of year and love snipping marshmallows into a cup of hot chocolate too. How could I combine the two? The thought of dropping marshmallows into mulled wine made me heave but what if I put the mulled wine into the marshmallow?

Mulled Wine Marshmallows.

Here is how I did it.

4 tbsp cornflour

4 tbsp icing sugar

I love the raspberry colour of my mixer but to see so many other options had me mentally redecorating my kitchen several times over in the evening just so I could have something from every colour-way!

Not only did we have the opportunity to look at and lust over these beautiful pieces of kitchen gadgetry we were able to try out the kMix stand mixer. As we were at the cookery school it made sense to use the facilities to learn a new skill. The trouble was, they were asking us to make my nemesis, macaron. I watch GBBO, I am an experienced baker. how hard can it be? The answer in my case was very hard. When I made macaron at home they were too runny, had no feet and really resembled flat almond pancakes rather than pert little buttons. Hmmm, now I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea coming.  Luckily I put aside my concerns and the results were stunning. By using an Italian meringue as a base the results were wonderful. We all managed to produce macaron that would keep Mary and Paul coming back for more. Not a soggy bottom in sight. If we had a problem at all it was that we all needed to be braver with the food colouring, instead of brightly coloured disks to  match the vibrancy of the new kMix range we all created very delicately hued pastel morsels. Not to worry, it is really the taste that matters the most. I can vouch for the fact that they tasted just wonderful.

The evening was great fun, but as I journeyed home on the tube carrying my box of macarons a very strange thing happened to me. It has only occurred  at one other time in my life and that was during the Olympics and Paralympics. My fellow travellers engaged me in conversation. They weren’t drunk or even after a free macaron. They were genuinely interested in what I had made, how I had made them and if I was now going to enter the Great British Bake off! I did explain that the box contained the efforts of many but should you wish to chat to people on the tube carry a box of baked goods and someone is bound to want to have a natter.

Thank you to Kenwood UK for hosting the evening and inviting me. Mary the mixer and I will be cooking up a storm in the kitchen as we run up to Christmas. Hopefully if Santa (my husband) reads my Christmas list correctly and I’ve been good enough she and I will be joined by others. Namely the stick blender and the kettle! (hint, hint.)

My two daughters will tell you that putting their hair in plaits was the limit of my hairdressing skills. Some mothers could do a French plait, others did very tidy buns for dancing and one even did a zig zag parting  and symmetrical bunches. I mostly provided them with a Croydon facelift straight into a pony tail.

What then possessed me to try and do an 8 strand plait for the latest Fresh from the oven challenge hosted Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and coordinated by Claire at Purely Food and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy?  Only my competitive nature and the fact that a certain Mr Hollywood had made it look scary. I like a challenge. I’m not one to be defeated and if all else failed I’d still have a loaf of bread albeit one that looks like a bag of spanners.

I will admit that I love making all sorts of different yeasted bakes so the actual bread making part of this challenge wasn’t the problem. If I can make a crumpet or a chocolate Chelsea bun i can certainly make a simple loaf. It was the plaiting that was going to be the problem. Well, not exactly the plaiting, more like my inability to be beaten by anything or anyone. Perhaps a 4 or 5 strand plait might have been a more sensible place to begin but no I had to go broke.

Actually, it wasn’t bad at all. Along with my competitive nature is my need to know all the facts before I start. So I watched a video on YouTube before I made the bread and then used that and a set of written instructions I took from the video to make the plait. A little obsessive, yes, but as I said no lump of dough was going to beat me.

It seems my homework paid off. The dough behaved itself and allowed me to plait it without any problems. The resulting loaf was tasty and pretty, and Mary would have been pleased, no soggy bottom either!

Perhaps I should have done the same homework for the French plaits as i did for this loaf but I doubt the girls would have sat still long enough for me to have done them anyway!

Now I can do the plait want to make a real Chollah loaf. Perhaps that could be a future Fresh from the oven challenge?

BUTTERNUT SQUASH & VANILLA JAM

900g butternut squash flesh

1 vanilla bean

4 3/4 cups sugar

juice of 2 lemons

large preserving pan

jam thermometer

• Place the butternut squash in a pan with just enough water to stop it from catching, and cook over a moderate heat for 10-15 minutes until it is cooked through but still retains its shape.  Drain off any excess juices, and when the squash is cool enough to handle, chop it into finer pieces.
• Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the blade of a knife.  Place the squash, sugar, and lemon juice in a bowl, tuck the vanilla bean pieces in among the pumpkin, and add the seeds.  Cover with a piece of cling film pushed down onto the surface and leave overnight.
• The next day, pour the contents of the bowl into a preserving pan and stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat and boil rapidly to reach jam setting point.
• Pour hot jam into hot sterilized jars.

The vanilla ice cream cupcakes are a version of the Mr Whippy cupcakes I made earlier in the life of Mintcustard. I replaced the flakes this time with the scraped vanill pod husks. The aroma when the cake box opened was so good!

I’m back from the gift swap. In fact, I’ve been back almost a week, but as this week contains a teenagers 18th birthday, a party for said birthday and three days of work this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and think straight.

Firstly I really must say a huge ” THANK YOU” to those who made the day happen.  To Vanessa Kimbell, who runs a cookery school in Northampton,  for her drive and enthusiasm that led her to organise the event. To the Fairtrade Foundation for their hard work to make sure all farmers get the best price for the product they grow. To Fortnum and Mason for providing the most sumptuous rooms in which the event took place. To Kenwood for providing prizes for the winning gifts. To the judges, Lucas Hollweg, Chantal Coady and the buyers from Fortnums, who put themselves at risk of a diabetic coma as they tasted mouthful after mouthful of confectionery. Most of all I want to say thank you to the farmers at Ndali vanilla for producing the most magnificent vanilla I have ever used. Thank you!

Well then, what did I make and take?

I took three things, vanilla cupcakes, butternut squash and vanilla marmalade and a jar of vanilla tablet. My kitchen smelt wonderful after my baking and making frenzy. Here are the recipes, not good at remembering to take photos sorry!

I’m starting with the Tablet as I’m very proud to boast that it was a runner up in the sweets category. Chantal was very complimentary about the flavour and texture of the tablet and I’m still both astonished and very chuffed!

Vanilla tablet

150 ml whole milk

175g unsalted butter

800g fairtrade golden caster sugar (Sainsburys)

225g condensed milk

1 tsp ndali organic vanilla powder

(a jam thermometer is really useful)

A baking tin lined with parchment (17cm by 27 cm ish)

• The key to making a really crumbly, melt in the mouth tablet is time, patience and a strong arm to beat the living daylights out of the fudge as it sets! Enlist suitable help if you can’t manage it yourself.
• Put the sugar, milk, condensed milk and butter into a deep, heavy saucepan. Melt together over a low heat. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon all the time as you don’t want the mixture to catch and burn.
• Still stirring, slowly bring to the boil; the mix will by now be turning the colour of damp sand. Keep heating until you reach the soft ball stage. (116c)
• Remove the pan from the heat, place onto a heatproof surface and stir in a tsp of the vanilla powder. Now the hard work begins. Beat the fudge for between 5 and 10 minutes until the mixture becomes thicker, slightly grainy and lightens in colour. I put the timer on in 5 minute intervals so I don’t cheat!
• Pour the fudge into the prepared tin and allow to set. After about half an hour mark it into squares. Divide up later when cool and fully set.
• You can dip this in chocolate, add nuts or make a chocolate swirled version. I like to serve this as an alternative to petit fours with very strong espresso.

I would urge everyone to think as they shop. As your hand hovers to pick up an item just look left and right. If there is a  product bearing the Fairtrade logo then please pick it up. The difference you will make to a farmer and their family will be immense. 

I came back with the most wonderful swaps. My family are now demanding that I recreate them all asap. Looks like I will have to pop out and get some more vanilla. Now that is something I am very, very happy to do!

It appears I am not alone. Delicious Magazine in their September issue are running an article on the 70′s, Decade of guilty pleasures. I got the chance to contribute too. Now that made me feel very grown up! Looking on the Good Food website there is also an article on why this trend is happening. I have my theories. I think it is a combination of needing to be far more frugal. Many of us achieve this by using a small amount of good quality meat, possibly a cheaper cut and learning how to make something delicious from it. Brisket, slow roasted lamb shoulder, melting pork belly and of course the ubiquitous lamb shank. Equally we are being tempted by programmes such as the Great British Bake Off. They encourage us to revive our food memories. They haven’t yet invented Smellivision but I closed my eyes yesterday and I swear I coul smell both the eight plaited leaf baking in those ovens, as well as catching a faint whiff of fear as the knives were wielded by Paul and Mary. Short of importing Paul Hollywood into my kitchen…….. pause to imagine that! ……the only way to really experience the tastes we see on screen are to make the dishes for ourselves. This means for many of us going back to basics. Getting out our tried and trusted recipes and then free forming our own dishes when we become more familiar with the building blocks of good home cooking.

Very spookily Radio Oxford called me this morning to discuss exactly what I have written about here.

So my question to you is, what retro dishes have you had a hankering for recently. Have you added to an Arctic roll? Have you boiled a Baba? Would you consider tackling a tart? Me I have a list as long as my arm, now where is my Kenwood and the Tupperware bowl?

I’ll post a link to my radio interview later when it is up on iPlayer.

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