lavender biscuits

These heavenly scented and delicious biscuits are really easy to make and have that proper buttery crumble cookie taste that melts in the mouth, or the mug, if you're more of a tea dunking biscuit lover.

As there are several varieties of lavender each can give a slightly different intensity of lavender loveliness.

I used the leaves and flowers from my Edelweiss lavender plant which has white flowers and an altogether lighter fragrance so these were only ever so slightly lavender, but as lavender can be very heavily scented, this worked a treat.

Perfectly lovely with a big mug of builders tea as an afternoon pick-me-up.

As Autumn leaves fall fast and the lavender starts to die off, use the basic biscuit recipe minus the lavender and instead add any variations of the following;

grated zest from 1 lemon,

50g of chopped dried blueberries/cranberries/raisins,

 25g finely chopped crystallized ginger,

A tsp of mixed spice {or ginger/cinnamon etc}

or whatever you fancy really...

Dip half the biscuit into melted chocolate for extra luxury!

This recipe was taken from The Edible Garden.

Ingredients:

150g {5oz} butter

90g {3½oz} caster sugar

225g {8oz} plain flour

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp fresh lavender leaves, chopped

1 tsp {approx.} lavender flowers removed from the spike

Makes 10 -12 biscuits.

Preheat oven to 160°C {320°F} and grease 2 baking trays.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Add the flour {sifted}, egg yolk and lavender leaves {or substitute} and mix well.

Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Gently roll the ball into a cylinder shape about 8-10 cm {3-4 in} in diameter. With a sharp knife, slice the cylinder into 10-12 slices and spread out onto the baking trays. Press a few lavender flowers into the top of each biscuit.

Bake in the oven for 15 - 18 minutes until the biscuits are firm and ever so slightly golden on top.

Allow to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes then carefully move to a cooling rack.

Any surplus uncooked dough can be wrapped in clingfilm and kept in the fridge for a few days.

what to do with fresh beetroot...& a lovely couscous

...roast it!

Although there are many lovely Borscht style recipes for fresh beetroot, with my sporadic and small harvest of baby beets and with a slight fear of pink stained fingers, home, and worse still, toddler...It has to be quick, easy and relatively mess-free for me.

Roasting beetroot is simple as;

Wash beetroot,

Chop off the leaves and tail,

{small baby leaves can be eaten raw in salads and larger leaves can be steamed or stir fried}

Place beets on a piece of tin foil,

Season with salt and pepper,

Wrap tin foil around beets,

Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven at 200°C for 1 - 1½ hours or until tender,

I sometimes pinch the skins off when baked but this isn't necessary.

A lovely couscous

Ingredients:

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into discs,

4 baby beets, roasted as above then quartered,

1 tbsp runny honey

1 orange, grated zest and juice,

A handful of fresh dill, roughly chopped,

175g couscous,

175ml vegetable or chicken stock.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Place the chopped carrots into a small roasting dish with a glug of olive oil and the honey and roast,  for  20 mins or until tender.

Put the couscous into a large mixing bowl and pour over the hot stock. Cover the bowl with cling film and put aside for 5 mins or until the liquid has all been absorbed.

Fluff up the couscous with a fork and stir in the honeyed carrots and beetroot and finally add the orange juice and zest and chopped dill. Mix together, season and serve while still warm.

blueberry banana bread

It's always quite disappointing to discover the bunch of sunshiney yellow bananas that have been quietly brightening up one corner of the fruit bowl (corner?) have now, seemingly in the matter of a blink, turned an over ripe brown and are a little too mushy for eating.

Thank goodness for all of those recipes which call out for mushy over ripe bananas; milkshake, pancakes, muffins and of course the daddy of the mushy banana usage- banana bread! Hurrah! All is not lost!

This recipe is a mish mash (banana mash...) of recipes I've come across. I added dried blueberries instead of raisins because this was all I had but it worked a dream. The blueberries swell up when in the oven and are beautifully juicy and syrupy in the bread.

This banana bread is delicious toasted and makes a lovely alternative to toast in the morning or for afternoon tea on a wet grey day, yum!

Blueberry Banana Bread


200g self-raising flour
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
75g butter, softened
50g soft brown sugar
175g dried blueberries
4 small very ripe bananas, mashed
2 heaped tablespoons clear runny honey
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Butter and line a large loaf tin.
Preheat oven too 180ºC (350ºF) Gas mark 4.

Dry Bowl:

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mix until resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and dried blueberries and stir in to combine.

Wet Bowl:

Whisk together the bananas, honey and eggs in another bowl. Then add the wet bowl mixture to the dry bowl.

Pour into the loaf tin and smooth and level the the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the oven for about 1¼ to 1½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from oven and leave in the tin for about 5 minutes to cool slightly then tip out onto a cooling rack, removing the greaseproof paper. Allow to cool slightly then serve sliced and buttered while still a little warm...yum!

The best chocolate cake?

Ok, every year, just before Christmas I go mad for cookery magazines. I buy them all and sit with a cup of tea flicking through the glossy mouth-watering pages wondering which delectable goodies I'm going to make for the festive season.

Apres bebe, it's more about what I'm going to have time to make. Which hasn't been much. Infact this year, not even a mince pie......sigh.

Anyway I still get the mags and then, because they take up a lot of room and alas do seem to contain an awful lot of advertisements, I rip them up! Carefully, I should add. I go through each magazine carefully tearing out each page which has a recipe I love and then I stick them all into a file with plastic slip covers.

I have four of the files now! Voila! Instant new cookery books! They're not all Christmas recipes as throughout the year I do tend to pick up the odd copy of the Waitrose or Sainsbury's magazine while out shopping.

I also stick in anything I print out from the internet. My only problem now is finding certain recipes without trawling through all four files......Add cataloguing to my new year to do list....!

So I saw this recipe in one of my bumper files for this chocolate cake and gave it a go. I'm not the biggest chocolate fan I have to say, I know...What's wrong with me??! If I'm out for dinner I'll very rarely (if at all) pick the chocolate dessert on the menu, I'd always rather go for something lemony or a brulee of some kind.

However, I do think proper homemade chocolate cake is to die for. Especially something big and stodgy - perfect with a cup of tea!

I'm not sure where this recipe cutting came from, I have a feeling it may have been the Sainsbury's mag, but I'm not sure, I really should write it down. Anyway wherever it came from, it's good!

So good that I made it for a certain little lady's first birthday. She didn't have any, but I did. And it was good! I'll be sure to tell her when she's older! He he!

Chocolate Cake

250g unsalted butter

300g light muscovado sugar

100g plain flour, sifted

100g self-raising flour, sifted

5 eggs

300g dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

Chocolate Icing

200g dark chocolate

200ml double cream

Butter and line a 20cm cake tin

Preheat oven to 160º C/ fan 140ºC / Gas mark 3

Using an electric whisk, beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding one or two tbsp of the flour as you go if the mixture starts to split.

Pour the melted chocolate into the mix, beating as you do so and then fold in the rest of the flour.

Spoon into the tin and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until the cake has risen and has a crust on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool, then remove from the tin. Split the cake with a knife horizontally.

To make the icing, melt together the chocolate and cream over a low heat then cool until thickened.

Fill the cake with the icing, then spread the rest over the outside.

red velvet cupcakes

The world seems to be going mad for red velvet cupcakes. I was dying to have a go at making them so with my new Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and a birthday party coming up it seemed the perfect time. They came out pretty perfect, if I say so myself and were not as difficult as they look to make. Have a go. They look pretty impressive and taste divine!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar

1 egg

10g cocoa powder

20ml red food colouring

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1½ teaspoons of white wine vinegar

1 quantity of cream cheese frosting (see here )

12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases

Makes 12

Preheat oven to 170ºC (325ºF) Gas mark 3.

Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the  cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out into a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

When completely cool add the frosting on top.

I sprinkled some dessicated coconut on top.

Yum!

frostings

It was a whirlwind of cupcake baking last weekend. A birthday party isn't a birthday party without cupcakes. A first birthday party requires extra special cupcakes. Am I right or am I right??

So I made some different ones like red velvet ones and chocolate ones and as time was, as always, precious and ever decreasing, I also made a batch of Nigella's fairy cakes and just added some different flavoured frostings, and they worked well!

So I made up a batch of the fairy cake mix (omitting the vanilla extract) and divided it into two bowls. In one bowl I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and in the other bowl a teaspoon of lemon extract. Then baked as normal -scratching a little cross on the cake tin to mark the lemon side!

When baked and as the cakes were cooling I made up the frosting. I made up a batch of vanilla frosting (again, omitting the vanilla extract) then as with the cake mixture I divided it into two bowls and for the vanilla cupcakes I made a strawberry frosting and for the lemon cupcakes, well, you guessed it, I made a lemon frosting.

Vanilla Frosting (from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook) 12 Cupcakes

250g icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml of whole milk

a couple of drops of vanilla extract (or a teaspoon if you love vanilla like I do or none if you are making other flavoured frosting!)

Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.

Turn the mixer down to slow speed. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time.

Once all the milk has been incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

Strawberry Frosting 6 Cupcakes

Make up the vanilla frosting as above. Omitting the vanilla extract if also making other flavoured frosting. If using all of the mixture ( to cover 12 cakes) simply double the quantities below.

4-5 large ripe strawberries, washed and hulled,

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

sugar flower decorations, sprinkles, silver balls or scrolls of white chocolate to decorate

Simply chop the strawberries into small pieces and mush slightly with a fork. Mix into the vanilla frosting with the vanilla extract.

If the frosting now seems to be too runny add a tablespoon of sifted icing sugar and beat well. Add small quantities of icing sugar to get back to the desired consistancy of frosting. Top the cakes with a palette knife or plastic spatula. Decorate as you wish!

Lemon Frosting 6 Cupcakes

Make up the vanilla frosting as above. Omitting the vanilla extract. If using all of the mixture ( to cover 12 cakes) simply double the quantities below.

grated zest of ½ lemon

½ tsp of lemon extract (optional)

½ tsp yellow food colouring (optional)

sugar flower decorations, sprinkles, silver balls or scrolls of white chocolate to decorate. Or simply use some lemon zest strands as I did.

Add the lemon zest and extract to the vanilla frosting. Beat well together. Add the yellow colouring if using by adding very small quantities at a time. A good way to do this is with a cocktail stick to avoid that bright yellow egg yolk look. You want to try to get a lovely pale lemon colour.

Top the cakes and decorate as you wish.

Cream Cheese Frosting ( From the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

This is used to top the red velvet cupcakes but can also be used as an alternative to buttery frosting. It is less sweet and has a creamy texture. It is quite yum I have to say! Cream cheese frosting can be coloured with food colouring if desired but looks so beautiful left white I think!

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese, cold

To frost 12 cupcakes (double quantities for a 20cm cake)

Beat the icing sugar together and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or a handheld electric whisk) until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Do not overbeat as it can quickly become runny.

baked cheesecake with blueberries

I have watched Rachel Allen on cooking channels for quite a while now. I love her style. Everything looks cosy comfy in her kitchen, from her drool-over kitchen equipment to her Cath Kidston aprons and soft Irish tones! What's not to love.

I watch her cookery school on tv and like to imagine that I'm there. She has such a good teaching way. Kind of makes you feel like you've just popped round to a friends house and she is showing you how to make a passed-down old family recipe, over a cup of tea and a friendly chit chat, oh and of course a nibble on whatever it is you have learnt to bake that afternoon!

Imagine my delight to receive, as a birthday gift from Mr H, her yummy book, Bake.

This baked blueberry cheesecake caught my eye straight away. I'm a huge cheesecake fan. The chilled and the baked version. I love them all.

As Miss Ella had shown a profound love of blueberries recently, and as because of this the fridge was stocked to bursting with ripe purple/blue berries, well, it felt wrong not to make this cheesecake.

It was a huge hit at Ella's first birthday party on sunday ( the second party I might add!) and was quite easy to make and looked so pretty! Yum!

Baked Cheesecake with Blueberries


175g (6oz) digestive biscuits
75g (3oz) butter, melted
175g (6oz) blueberries, plus extra for decorating
450g (1lb) cream cheese
150g (5oz) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Icing sugar, to dust

24cm (9½") diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed tin

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF), Gas mark 4.
Butter the sides and base of the cake tin.

Place the biscuits in a food processor and whiz until quite fine. Alternatively place them in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. Mixed the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and press down into the base of the tin so that it is nice and even. Spread the blueberries over the base and allow to chill in the fridge while you make the topping.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract and the eggs together in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. pour over the top of the blueberries and then bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until it is pale golden and should only wobble very slightly when you gently shake the tin.

Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge to loosen it and carefully remove the cheesecake from the tin. Transfer to a serving plate. Sprinkle over a few blueberries, if you wish, then dust with icing sugar.

Cut into slices to serve. The cheesecake is best served at room temperature.