MORE CAKE - Lemon & Elderflower Swiss Roll

So I'm still revelling in having the time to bake, and also loving all the fruit, vegetables and flowers that come with Summer. This recipe is inspired by that - specifically, the tiny, fragile elderflowers whose fragrance hits you every time you walk past a bush at the moment. They're only in season for a short time each year, so make the most of them while you can!

Ingredients:
For the Sponge                                                       For the Filling and Decoration
- 3 medium eggs                                                     - 2tbsp lemon curd
- 75g caster sugar                                                   - 100ml double cream
- zest of 1 unwaxed lemon                                     - 1tbsp elderflower cordial
- 75g plain flour                                                       - 1tbsp icing sugar
                                                                               - ½tsp lemon juice

You'll also need a 20x30cm baking tin, greased and lined.

1. Start by pre-heating the oven to 220°C. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and thick (this will take at least 5 minutes with an electric whisk).
2. Tip in the lemon zest, and gently sieve in the flour, a little at a time, using a large metal spoon to fold them in.
3. Evenly pour the mixture into the tin, and bake for 9-10 minutes, until golden brown and springy to touch.
4. Grab a sheet of greaseproof paper a little bigger than the cake tin and sprinkle with caster sugar. As soon as the sponge is out the oven, transfer it to the paper and peel off the lining paper from the tin. Make a small cut 2cm in from one of the short sides, then gently roll up the cake from the end with the cut. Allow to cool completely.
5. When the sponge is cool, unroll it and spread on the lemon curd. Whip the cream with the elderflower cordial and spoon it on top, then re-roll the cake as carefully as you can.

6. Mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice, then use a teaspoon to drizzle it over the cake. For an extra bit of pretty, you can grate over some extra lemon zest and use the icing to stick on fresh elderflowers.

Lemon Yoghurt Cupcakes. For days when the weather is horrendous.

Thursday's hail

The weather has been absolutely horrendous lately.

Since that St. Jude's Storm back at the end of October, it feels like there's been no let up with all the wind, the rain, the hail (pictured above) and the flooding. Here in Egham, the flooding has been pretty bad - I've never been more grateful for Egham Hill, but our thoughts are definitely with those affected.

On a much much lighter note, I made lemon yoghurt cake yesterday. I was definitely in need of a pick me up, and as last night's storm began to kick off, cake was made. 

This is a Mary Berry recipe, which I've made before as Bryony's birthday cake, and it's seriously good cake. The first time I made it my flatmate Victor chewed the cake tin liners like chewing gum because apparently he reaaallly liked the cake. This time I made cupcakes, because my favourite thing about this cake was the crunchy, sugary, slightly caramelised surface that forms as it bakes, and cupcakes have more surface area.

I used Dove's Farm gluten free self raising flour, because that stuff makes life worth living for anyone who can't eat gluten. It's wonderful. Also I'm a big fan of baking with yoghurt, mainly because of these EPIC Blueberry Muffins. They're awesome.

Here's what you need:

300g caster sugar

50g softened butter (I use salted, because it adds a very slight savoury undertone to the sweetness)

3 large eggs, separated

225g Greek yoghurt

Grated rind of one lemon

175g self raising flour

For the icing: 

100g sifted icing sugar
About 1½ tbsp of lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. I now have a gas oven (IT HAS FIRE AT THE BACK, what is that even about?!) so for me, that's gas mark four.

2. Beat the sugar, butter, and egg yolks together in a bowl. Add in the lemon and the yoghurt, and beat until smooth. 

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites together to a soft peak, then tip into the mixture. Fold it in carefully and slowly, aiming to keep as much air in the mix as possible.

4. Tip into a deep cake tin (with the base lined with greaseproof paper or baking parchment), or if you're baking cupcakes, distribute the mix evenly between cupcake cases. I ended up making about twenty cupcakes from this mix (two of which I dropped as soon as they came out of the oven. Whoops. I ate them anyway - this cake is really good). 

5. Place in the oven. The cake will take between an hour to an hour and a fifteen minutes. The cupcakes will take around twenty minutes. The cake is done when top goes an even biscuity brown colour, and if you poke a skewer in it should come out clean. 

6. For the icing, mix the sifted icing sugar and the lemon juice together, and when the cake(s) are cooled, pour over the top(s). I then topped my cupcakes with popping candy and some curls of lemon zest. Definitely ate these for breakfast today...

Bryony (dressed as Tilly from Tots TV) and I (dressed as Little Red Riding Hood) eat the cake in Bryony's kitchen. We're looking surprised at how good it tastes. It's SERIOUSLY good cake.

Little Lemon Drizzle Cakes

It's largely been a slow summer for me. I've spent months looking for a job to no avail and, as I can't drive (and there's very little in terms of public transport in Cumbria), I'm stuck at home a lot. It's very depressing. The solution as I see it is to eat my way out of it, which means BAKING.

   I made these initially for Mum's work to sell (all proceeds to Macmillan Nurses) as part of the Eden Food and Farming Festival a few weeks ago, and they went down a storm. Sadly this meant we at home were limited to half a cake each (not even joking, Shannon was NOT impressed). So I made more.

Ingredients (makes 20):

For the cake

- 200g unsalted butter

- 250g caster sugar

- 3 medium eggs

- zest of 2 unwaxed lemons

- 250g self-raising flour

- ½tsp baking powder

- juice of 1 lemon, made up to 100ml with milk

 For the drizzle topping

- 100g caster sugar

- juice 2 lemons

- zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and grab yourself 20 muffin cases. It obviously works best if you can put them in a muffin tin for support, but they do fine free-standing on a normal baking tray so don't worry.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, then beat it some more. My Grandma used to say this was the most important part of making a cake, so pass the bowl around the house until everyone's arms are tired. This will also make you feel less guilty about eating the cake afterwards because it's basically a work-out, right?

3. Add the eggs and lemon zest and mix together, then sift in the flour and baking powder. Fold it all together slowly (mostly so you don't get flour everywhere), and when that's incorporated add the lemon juice and milk mixture and stir again.

4. Fill the muffin cases with the mixture so they're about two thirds full. Make it all as level as possible, then bake for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven. 

5. While the cakes are in the oven, make the drizzle topping: you literally just mix everything together in a bowl so it makes a runny sort of glaze.

6. As soon as the cakes are out of the oven poke a load of holes in them with a cocktail stick, then add a generous teaspoon of drizzle to each one (you may have to do it half a tsp at a time to give them time to absorb it a bit), and voilà. Let cool, sprinkle with a bit more sugar for prettiness and enjoy your lemony flavoured clouds. They definitely banish the black ones.

Afternoon Tea and Cupcakes

This refers back to December when we had afternoon tea of baked goats cheese with a festive salad to accompany, and lots of tea and cake. These are the cakes.

 

They're lemon and blueberry cupcakes, and are basically massive cheer-up cakes because they make you happy when you eat them. All of us had been struggling with work overload, so there was a need for something to make life that bit sweeter. It worked.

Ingredients:

- 6oz caster sugar

- 6oz butter

- 3 eggs

- 8oz gluten-free, self-raising flour

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 6oz blueberries

- zest 2 lemons

- juice one lemon

For the syrup:

- juice ½ lemon

- 2 tsp sugar

To decorate:

- more blueberries

- zest 1 lemon

- juice ½ lemon

- small mint leaves

- icing sugar

1. Beat together the butter and sugar until soft and creamy. My mum always says do it until you think it's ready, then do it some more, and this attitude is yet to fail me.

2. Add the eggs and incorporate into the mixture. Then sieve in the flour and baking powder, and fold it in carefully - using a metal spoon if possible.

3. Add the blueberries and lemon juice and zest, and stir carefully so everything gets properly mixed up. Stir this as little as possible, as you don't want to knock out the air you've worked into the cake.

4. Bake at 180°C in a preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, until they're golden and a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

5. While they're still warm, grab a small pan and mix together the ingredients for the syrup over a low heat. Using a cocktail stick, poke holes into the cakes and then drizzle the syrup over the top. Now let it all cool down and go drink a cup of tea.

6. Once it's all cooled, mix up some icing sugar with the lemon juice in a bowl. Dip the blueberries in, then use the icing to stick them onto the cakes. Stick a mint leaf in between them (looks awesome and gives a really refreshing taste), then grate over some lemon zest and finally dust over a sprinkle of icing sugar. Voila. Who needs to go somewhere fancy to eat fancy food?

The Best Treacle Tart Ever.

This year on New Year's Eve life was a bit different. My birthday's on January 1st so usually NYE is birthday party time, but I did NOT want to be 20 and so kept it on the ultra-low this time. Instead Fraser came over on my birthday, and for New Year's Eve Mum's boyfriend came for dinner and Mum and I did uber cooking. 

And I made this:

It has been the work of years, and started off as a recipe by Linda Collister in The Great British Book of Baking. And I'm pretty darn proud of it if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:
Pastry                                                                           Filling
- 220g plain flour                                                           - 9 rounded tbsp golden syrup
- pinch of salt                                                               - 3 rounded tbsp treacle
- 1tsp caster sugar                                                        - 150g white breadcrumbs
- 160g unsalted butter, chilled and diced                     - zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
- 2-3tbsp ice-cold water                                               - juice of half of each the lemon and orange
                                                                                     - 1tsp ground ginger
                                                                                     - 1tsp grated nutmeg

You'll need yourself a 26cm-deep pie dish (or thereabouts), and some cold hands to work with the pastry - though that last one's probably not going to be hard to ensure at the moment (brrrrr)!

What to do:
Pastry
1. Sieve the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl, then rub in the butter using the tips of your fingers.
2. Using a round-bladed knife, stir in enough of the water to bind the mixture into a dough.
3. Wrap the dough in clingfilm, and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes while you make the filling/pour yourself a glass of wine or suchlike.
4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a circle 3cm larger than your dish. If you don't have a rolling pin, use a wine bottle, Genius or what?!
5. Use your rolling pin (/wine bottle) to transfer the pastry to the dish, then press the pastry into the base. Trim off any excess pastry using a sharp knife and put aside. Put the dish  into the fridge to chill.

 
6. You can either clingfilm the excess pastry and fridge it to make jam tarts later, or you can get fancy and use it to make a lattice top. If the former, skip to the filling bit below, but if the latter, keep reading folks.
7. Roll out the excess pastry so it's slightly larger than the pie dish, then cut it into strips of about 2cm each. You should end up with 12-14.
8. Cut a sheet of greaseproof paper larger than the dish, and place one of the strips onto the middle of it. Take another and lay it perpendicular to the first, so it lies across the top. Place another in the same direction as the first strip (leaving a gap the same size as the strip itself), between it and the first, and tucking it underneath the second strip. Continue like this until you have a full lattice and each of the strips are used.

Filling
1. This is super simple. Gently heat the golden syrup and treacle in a pan until runny, then remove from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs, zest, juice and spices.
2. Leave to stand for 10 minutes. If the mixture seems loose then stir in more crumbs, or if it's too stiff then add more syrup until you're happy with the consistency.
3. Spoon the filling into the pastry case, taking care not to compact the mixture.
4. If you've made a lattice top, slide your hand underneath the greaseproof paper and lift it. Bring it close to the tart, and then flip it in one swift motion. Remove the paper and trim the edges of the lattice, then brush with a beaten egg.

 
5. Bake for about 30 minutes at 190°C, until the pastry is golden. And then enjoy thoroughly - with cream/custard/ice-cream if convenient. If inconvenient, do it anyway.

It's turned out oranges and lemons again

Sometimes the world is trying to tell you something. 

Yesterday it told me I needed to make Lemon and Orange Vodka Slush. 

FOR THESE REASONS.

1. Lady Grey Tea. Made with orange and lemon peel. And awesomeness. 

2. The Student Union fruit and veg market. FLIPPING NORA how huge are these lemons?

I have never seen a lemon dwarf an orange to such an extent before. Just wow.

There was no way I couldn't buy a couple.

3. The Vodka bit. Because Bryony needed motivation to get her butt back here to uni and I know she likes cocktails.

SO I made Lemon and Orange Vodka Slush.

What You NEED: (Also quantities can be a bit vague, depending on how much you want and whether you like it sweet or sharp. This made a big tub to keep in the freezer for the rest of this term.)

350 ml of Vodka.

200 ml of Pineapple Juice.

100 ml of Limoncello (optional, I put it in because I had it but you don't really need it).

3 MASSIVE Lemons or 5 normal sized ones.

3 (disappointingly normal) Oranges.

Simple Syrup (I made two cups worth using this recipe).

A splash or two of Concentrated Lemon Juice.

WHAT to  do:

1. Pour the Vodka into a freezer safe container. Add the Pineapple Juice and the Limoncello.

2. Juice your Oranges and Lemons. I just squeezed them into a jug then poured it into the main container through a sieve. (Mine got a little bit mutilated in the process...)

3. Make up your Simple Syrup. Add as much or as little as you want. I added around 250 ml. 

4. Splash in some concentrated Lemon Juice.

NOW. What you're left with will look like a massive, uninspiring container of juice. With Vodka in it...

BUT the next step is the clever part...

5. Stick it in the freezer overnight. The Vodka stops the whole mixture from freezing so when you stir it it has the consistency of a slush puppy. But for grown ups/students/not children...

6. Go and live your life for a while. Mine involved baking, The Hundred Years War and dressing a certain Miss Hilsdon up as a cake. True story. (Come back tomorrow for more on two of those topics...)

7. Revisit your freezer excitedly at 9am. Take a teaspoonful and realise that this is far too early for vodka even when disguised in slush. 

8. Come back later and serve.

How to serve it?

We came up with two methods:

On the left, Bryony is enjoying the Ice Cream Method. Where one eats it out of the tub with a spoon.

On the right, I added Grenadine Syrup and a straw. Mix before serving. 

(Also you can use a glass, I just found a jar first...)

Lovely.

(Inspiration via Pinterest.)