Spectacular, Spectacular!

There is a certain baking etiquette for most situations. Birthdays require cake, book groups or sleepovers call for brownies or slices, afternoon tea (because obviously I have that so often) needs biscuits, presents should always involve cookies.

Okay, yes I did make up half of that. Feel free to use it as your staple baking etiquette guide from now on. I live to serve.

You may remember my unfortunate tendency to come up with bizarre ideas. I'm insanely lucky that in my friend group, when I send an email round saying 'WE SHOULD BUILD A TREE FORT!!' I get a load of replies emailed back - not saying, 'er, what have you been smoking?' or even, 'haha, that would be mildly amusing', but saying 'sure, let's do it on ____ at ____'s house!!' XD.

The point is, my amazingly definitive baking ettiquette guide doesn't cover tree-fort building.

Addendum #1: If in doubt, make cupcakes.

When I think of cupcakes, I always turn to this book, and the first thing that caught my eye was lemon coconut snowballs. Everything was merry and bright (I sometimes like to throw in phrases like this when people aren't expecting this; I'm just adding a bit of Julie Andrews to my corner of the blogging world) until I realised that when I added the frosting we were talking about at least nine egg whites here. Bollocks to that, I thought (sorry Julie). Nine egg whites is nine egg whites. What the buggery am I going to do with nine egg yolks? (that is a hypothetical question, by the way, before you all start shouting 'ICE CREAM' at me XD)

Anyway, I flicked through the book a bit more and came across another white cupcake recipe that was almost exactly the same but with just three egg whites in the cake. I also couldn't be doing with the 'let's-make-lemon-filling-even-though-you-could-just-use-lemon-curd-but-shush' malarky that the filling is all about, so (unsuprisingly) I just used lemon curd. To summarize; I've bastardised this recipe to the nth degree (and that's not even including my dodgy conversion). But God, it tastes good.

I seem to be effing and blinding all over the place now (if by 'effing and blinding' you mean 'using three very mild swearwords', which I do). Over-compensating for the Julie Andrews moment, I think. I'm very insecure.

These are pure white cupcakes with a chilled lemon filling, covered in the mystery that is seven-minute-frosting (the first time I've had it - it's not buttercream, it's not whipped cream, it's not meringue... what is it?! Crazy, that's what it is. Crazy good) and sprinkled with tons of coconut flakes. One of my friends described it as 'more or less the best thing in the world', which I think says it all and then some. ('And then some' being that I have the greatest friends XD)

Snowball Cupcakes

adapted to save egg whites from Cupcakes by Elinor Klivans

Makes 12 regular cupcakes (I had enough left over to make a couple of mini ones too, but that was cause I didn't fill my case enough D=)

White cupcake recipe:

175g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

180ml milk (it says whole milk, but obviously if you're making these cupcakes you're crazy-healthy and only have semi-skimmed in the house. Right? Yeah, me too)

1 tsp vanilla extract

85g butter

180g caster sugar

3 large egg whites

Filling:

Jar of lemon curd

Seven Minute Frosting:

150g icing sugar

80ml water

3 large egg whites

1/4 cream of tartar (I lived without)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Looads of dessicated coconut to sprinkle ^__^

1. Oven to 180C. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper liners. 'Sift' (ha! I do not sift) the flours, baking powder & salt into a bowl and set aside. In a separate small bowl, stir the milk & vanilla together.

2. In a large bowl (get your kitchen mixer out) beat the butter and sugar until smooth and light, until it's sugary and in large clumps. Sounds attractive, hnn. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, alternating between the two - so you start and end with the flour. Mix just until the flour is incorporated and the batter is smooth. Set aside.

3. In another large bowl, beat the egg whites nice and fast with clean beaters until they look shiny and smooth, and the beaters form lines in the egg whites. If you stop mixing and lift up the beaters, the whites should cling to them. Stir about 1/3 of the beaten whites into the reserved batter, and use a rubber spatula to fold in the remaining white until just blended.

4. Fill each paper liner with however much mixture it takes to fill all twelve. We go in for accuracy, round here. Hint, you shouldn't have enough to make mini ones as well X__X. Bake for about 20 minutes until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and leave to cool.

5. To make the seven minute frosting, put the sugar, water, egg whites and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl and beat with a handheld electric mixer (I don't have one, so used one of the handheld mixers that you beat by hand. I fail at terminology. It was bloody hard, is the point) until opaque, white and foamy (about 1 minute).

6. Put the bowl over (but not so the bottom's touching) a pan of barely simmering water. Beat on high speed until the frosting forms a soft peak that stands straight up if you stop the beaters and lift them; about 7 minutes, hence the name. Remove the bowl of frosting from the water, add the vanilla extract, and continue beating for 2 mins more to further thicken the frosting.

7. To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped piece (about 1 inch across & 1 inch deep) out of the middle of the top of each cake, and keep them aside. Put a spoonful of lemon curd into each hole and replace the cake pieces. Immediately frost the cupcakes (you might need another quick beat of your frosting if you've left it while you filled, here. This is where another person would be good).

8. Put a plate underneath to catch falling coconut before you start frosting. Holding a cupcake in the palm of your hand, dollop a thick layer of frosting over the top and sides of each cupcake. Sprinkle coconut generously over the frosting, letting any extra fall onto the plate to be recycled for another cupcake XD.

The cupcakes can be refridgerated for up to 2 days. If you're spending one of these days tying pirate flags to trees in the freezing cold, they should pretty much survive.

I'm entering these in Cupcakes Spectacular , just because I can. ^__^

An Apple A Day

I should think you're thinking something along the lines of, 'er. What is this?'. I completely understand why. This is, to use its full name, 'A Piece Of Apple Streusal That Refused Point Blank To Photograph Attractively Until Indy Gave Up And Covered It With Ice Cream And Then Ate It, In A Very Bad Mood'.

My theory was that if you can't see it for ice cream, you can imagine that underneath it's dazzlingly well presented. Actually, it didn't look that bad in real life. It just didn't want to photo.


Oh yeah, and the pastry? That didn't want to cook without shrinking (not the pastry's fault; I just have a shrinking-jinx). The apples didn't want to core in a straight line, resulting in pips shooting all over the kitchen. The kitchen-aid mixer was on strike, full stop (the handle actually broke. Wassgoingon). In fairness, I was trying to make the tea at the same time, while my sister and my dad had a blazing argument in the background and I internally reminded myself that I'm leaving in October. Just October. It's not so long. And breathe out.

The ironic thing was, the reason I was making this Stubborn Apple Whatsit (its shortened name) was in honour of An Apple A Day, in which the challenge was to make something using food that reduced the risk of a stroke. Considering I was on the verge of a heart attack the entire time I was baking, this was probably just as well.

Here, have a photo without ice-cream, just because I love you.

And the thing was, my nervous breakdown was completely worth it (and, I have to make clear, not anything to do with this recipe, which was pretty simple - I think the heavens were just against me. I must have offended someone, cause karma was more or less laughing in my face). Because this is gorgeous. I mean, gorgeous with a capital GUH (the noise I made when I first tried it). I have a complete soft spot for cooked apple, and this is like apple crumble and apple pie rolled into one... I'm trying to stop myself saying 'glorious apple extravaganza', but I think you get the message.

And, you know, HEALTHY. Apples. Repel doctors, and help prevent strokes, and all sorts. If you're a doctor you may not be too fond of them, but they seem pretty popular with everyone else (in my mind, apples are to doctors what garlic is to vampires, but this isn't necessarily factually accurate).


The above picture is the point where I gave up on food photography and just decided to take pictures of melting icecream. Hooray.

Apple Streusal
Recipe by Janice Hewerdine and featured in Good Food magazine, October 07

Serves 8
Prep 30 mins + chilling
Cook 45 mins
462 kcals per serving
Can be frozen.

For the pastry:
200g (8oz) plain flour
140g (5oz) butter, cut into cubes
50g (2oz) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten

For the apples:
6 medium dessert apples, peeled, cored & cut into thick slices
zest & juice of 1 lemon
25g (1oz) sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

For the streusal topping:
85g (3oz) softened butter
85g (3oz) plain flour
85g (3oz) soft brown sugar
zest 1 lemon

1. Rub the flour & butter in a bowl together until the mix looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, then add most of the egg to bring the pastry together. It's helpful if your mixer works, but you know, whatever. If it seems too dry, add more of the egg. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30mins (or you could stick it in the freezer for a few minutes, which I am a firm believer in).

2. Toss the apples with the lemon juice & set aside.

3. For the topping, cut the butter into pieces and rub lightly into the flour, sugar & lemon zest to make a lumpy-looking crumble.

4. Heat oven to 200C. Dust the work surface with flour & roll pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin. Line a 20x30cm tin with pastry and trim the sides, crimping the edges if you don't want to be my friend anymore. Tip in the apples, then sprinkle with lemon zest, sugar, cinnamon & nutmeg. Scatter the streusal topping over the fruit.

5. Bake for 20 mins, then reduce oven to 180C and bake for about 25 mins more until the topping and pastry are golden. Serve warm with ice-cream (in case you didn't guess) or creme fraiche.

I've also been tagged for a meme by Maria, but it looks like I'm not going to have time until my next post - it'll feature then, I promise!

Extreme Sushi

Perhaps, if you live in London or the middle of the city and wear black pumps and do yoga and read Vogue magazine, sushi isn't a big deal for you. Probably you go to sushi bars for lunch; maybe you order sushi without rice and watch your carbohydrate intake.

I do none of these things (well I do wear black pumps sometimes, but they're in about five pieces and should probably be replaced), and for me, sushi is a big deal. I live in a village consisting solely of about twenty pubs and thirteen old people's homes (no restaurants, or, you know, houses. Just alcohol and senior citizens. A deadly combination) and neither the pubs nor the old people are big sushi fans. So the first time I tried it was when I went to Japan last summer.

The idea of sushi existing in my village is quite radical, so in a rebellious, 'YES I'M EATING SEAWEED, MOO HAR HAR' kind of way I'm pretty proud of these. They're not fantastic in a London-sushi-bar way, and I didn't want to get ambitious with fillings or anything - firstly because their intended audience was largely vegetarian, and secondly because; old people, okay? They'd have had heart attacks and died, and that would be three quarters of the town's population down in one blow. Also thirdly because I would have FAILED. DISMALLY. and I couldn't bear the potential humiliation.

Hosomaki (Slender sushi roll)
Using guidance from Japanese Cooking at Home by Hideo Dekura

For the sushi rice:
150g medium or short grain/sushi rice
120ml rice vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
pinch of salt

1. Cook rice in a pan or rice cooker, then transfer it to a wooden salad/sushi bowl.

2. To make sushi vinegar, combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a bowl; you might need to nuke it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to help the sugar dissolve.

3. Gradually pour the sushi vinegar across the rice, and mix it evenly around the bowl using a wooden spatula or rice paddle in a slicing action. While mixing, cool the rice with a hand fan (I happened to have one!) or you could use a piece of stiff card or something. This helps the rice absorb the vinegar mixture and creates a glossy surface on rice.

4. When rice becomes lukewarm, cover with a damp teatowel.


To make the sushi:
Your rice, obviously
1 nori sheet, halved crossways (mine were half-sized, so I used two, obviously)
Wasabi paste (this is Japanese horseradish and not something we keep in our cupboards; I use regular English horseradish paste/sauce thingy.)
1/2 cucumber, cut lengthways with the soft bit cut off.

Use vinegar water to handle the rice (240ml water and 1 tsp rice vingear).

As a first time sushi roller, I'll point you to these two posts for rolling-guidance:
Soy & Pepper
Sushi Day

My first roll was not exactly sucessfull as I rolled it too loosely, and my knife wasn't sharp enough, meaning I couldn't cut through the nori very easily and everything got squashed X__X:

Oh dear. Please don't look at that too long.
Second attempt:

I was on a bit of a roll (*groannn*) and had been pleasantly surprised how low-stress the hosomaki was, so I also make smoked salmon nigiri-zushi ; basically rice with a topping. This recipe was in Good Food magazine, so I'm not vouching for it being, you know, genuine.



However, it's very simple: you basically prepare 300g of sushi rice as above (using 4tbsp rice wine vinegar and 1 tbsp caster sugar in this case, according to the article) and spread it into a 20x20cm baking tin lined with a double layer of clingfilm. You then cover the rice entirely with smoked salmon slices (200g, but I had a 100g pack cause it was reduced at Tescos, and I made it enough). Fold the clingfilm over the salmon to cover, pressing down well with your hands to mould everything together. To serve, just use a sharp knife to cut it into 16 (I went for 24) rectangles. ^__^

Crazy stuff.

E Is For Excellent!

You know the days when things are just so the opposite of excellent that you want to rip your Psychology coursework into twenty billion pieces and eat the bits? OK, just me. But yesterday was one of those days. So you can imagine my reaction when I logged into Statcounter yesterday night and found I had about five times more hits than usual (in case you can't imagine: basically, 'EH??' accompanied with lots of arm-waving).

An embarrassing amount of bewilderment later I found that the lovely Pixie of You Say Tomahto, I Say Tomayto had awarded me the above! (Cue a bit more flailing. I flail quite a lot, actually). What can I say; everything suddenly seemed so much... excellent-er. Both Tomahto/Tomayto and Pixie's sweet blog, A SweeTart are fantastic, so it really means a lot to be given something like this. I still consider myself a bit of a baby to food-blogging, and I don't have a huge readership, so - guh, basically ^__^.

Am I gushing? I gush nearly as much as I flail. I'll start with the 'I'd like to thank's soon, if you're not careful.

Ah, go on. Massive thanks to Pixie for the ego-boost and cheering-up, and thanks to everyone who came over and commented and basically said all sorts of lovely things ♥.


The idea is to pass this award on to five other deserving bloggers, but I don't know a huge amount, haha. Despite this, I'm passing this on to some gorgeous blogs - some bloggers I know quite well, others less so, but I don't want my internet-reticence to get in the way X__X

Firstly one of my very favourite blogs is Kitchen Wench. I know Ellie doesn't go in for memes, and I don't know if this counts, but I her site is so excellent and I visit it so often that I'd feel wrong not offering this award to her. After all, I'd never have found this cheesecake without her...

What I love about Ovenhaven's blog, Epicurean Escapism, is that everything so obviously cooked with so much love and thought (macaroni and cheese from a cheese-phobic? That's dedication). Some fabulous baking goes on round here!

Want to know why I think A Whisk And A Spoon is so excellent? Take a look at Steph's almost-fudge gateau at the top of the page. Enough said ^__^.

Su Good Sweets is another blog I've made a cheesecake from, oddly enough (I'm seeing a trend here), but I think Jessica needs recognition for her gorgeous desserts. I'm a sucker for sweets, I admit it, and she does them brilliantly...


R Khooks is a site that I came across only very recently, but it's so delicious looking and the photos are so fantastic that I think it really deserves the title of an Excellent blog.

Thanks again for the award and for everyone who came over to say hi - I hope to keep seeing you all around! Here's a preview of my next post, but it'll have to wait I'm afraid - Torchwood calls ^__^

A Truly Great Pairing

You may have noticed that I casually overlooked Valentine's Day here on Happy Love Strawberry. Any February 14th post? Nooo. We don't have a 14th of February on this blog. No heart-shaped chocolate souffle sprinkle sundae gooey brownie cakes for two to share round here.
Actually that sounds pretty good. But no.

If I was going to bake something to represent my romantic endeavours, it would need to be something as bitter as I am, and so I'm sparing you from that. Instead, I'm going to celebrate a truly great pairing that I do appreciate. The old 'chocolate + orange = ♥' formula (yeah, that 'formula' may help you to understand why I'm so bad at maths. It apparently doesn't go down too well in exams).


I took this to our picnic the other day to help me and my friends celebrate our platonic love, and everyone seemed to agree that chocolate and orange go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong. Who's going to argue with that?

I don't make a lot of chocolate cake (I think I've mentioned that I prefer either chocolate OR cake) but this is a really good recipe as it's particularly moist though oddly, it doesn't look it in the sliced photo; I had to take that a couple of days after it was made as it was a leftover piece. Also this cake did NOT want to photo so you get a good chocolate hit.

Just what you need to sweeten yourself up when you're feeling bitter and resentful. I mean, hypothetically.

Chocolate Orange Layer Cake
Recipe from You magazine, 13th January 08
Makes 1 x 20cm cake

Cake:
225g butter
225g demerara sugar
175g self-raising flour
50g sifted cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 eggs
100ml milk

Orange buttercream:
220g butter
220g icing sugar
zest of 2 oranges
2 tbsp Cointreau or orange juice
1 egg yolk
orange or yellow food colouring

1. Preheat oven to 190C/170C fan/375F/gas 5 and butter a 20cm x 9cm cake tin.

2. Cream all cake ingredients together (helpful if you have a kitchen aid or mixer or boyfriend to stir for you whatever here) until all smooth and mixed in, then transfer it to the cake tin, smooth the surface, and bake for about 45 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. To be honest I only needed about 30-35 mins but I'm a bit paranoid about undercooking cakes - it's happened before - and I think it would have been moister if I'd taken it out earlier. Run a knife around the outside to loosen, and leave to cool.

3. For the buttercream, blend the butter, icing sugar and orange zest together in a big bowl and whack it around a bit until really pale and fluffy. Add the cointreau/juice and whisk for a minute longer, then the egg yolk and colouring and mix it all in until even. Naturally I chose cointreau, to drown my sorrows in alcohol.

4. Use a bread knife to slit the cake into three layers. Divide the filling into three then spread the bottom and middle layers with filling and whack the rest over the top. I spread it round the sides as well, cause I prefer it that way, though there wasn't really enough buttercream for that. You could decorate it with chocolate orange segments if you had a chocolate orange, but I didn't have anyone to buy me chocolate, so I just crumbled a flake bar over the top. Et voila!

Who am I kidding with the misery act? I'll take cake over romance any day.

Houmous Is Hummous Is Hummus

Sometimes I say things like, 'you know what we should do? Go to a safari park!'. I then get attacked by wild animals and think better of it (photo on the right is the rhino that charged at our car on a day out with my friends yesterday -- 'SHIT, SHIT, THE RHINOS ARE CHARGING! DRIVE, DRIVE!!'). When we decided that everyone should bring picnic food for the afore-mentioned day at the safari park, I said something like, 'you know what the best food ever is? Houmous!'

Since buying houmous is apparently for lesser mortals, I bought a tin of chickpeas and decided to make it. I only had a vague recipe from Good Food magazine, but houmous is houmous is houmous.

Unless it's hummus. Humous. Hoomus? Well, anyway.

The recipe turned out to be not-so-great. I kept sticking spoons in my would-be houmous (hummus?) to try it, and concluding, 'not houmous'. I think where it had gone wrong was leaving out tahini (sesame paste), which other recipes seem to consider a bit of a staple of houmous-making; it did include a tablespoon of greek yoghurt and whatsit, perhaps thinking tahini was a bit of an ambitious ingredient.

I would have agreed, except I opened the fridge and found we actually had a giant tub of tahini there. Ah. Outwitted.
A bit of experimentation later, have a houmous recipe. It's wild and crazy fun, and takes about five minutes if you actually have a recipe and aren't just throwing random things from your fridge and cupboard in a food processor ('anchovies... can't hurt!').

Houmous
Pretty much my own o__O. Though houmous is houmous is houmous (unless it's humus?), so I'm not about to copyright it or anything.

400g can chickpeas, drained
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves
juice of half a lemon (we actually only had half a lemon, so that explains that)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp tahini paste
Ignore the yoghurt, cause what was going on with that? Bah.

1. Whack everything in a food processor and whizz it to a paste. Mine was a bit thick, so I'd add a tbsp or two of water if I did it again, but I don't want to stick that in the ingredients list in case you don't need it. And you can drizzle another couple of tsp of oil over the top, if you like.

...Thassit.

What else can I say about houmous now? Make yourself a tub of carrot sticks. Take it to a picnic. Use it as bait to distract charging rhinos from your fragile bones. Here, I'll even show you how to dip it.
You can have some good times with houmous, you mark my words.

Bloggers who made this:

20.03.08 Pixie at You Say Tomahto, I Saw Tomayto

No Place Like London

I may not make cheesecake as often as I used to, but I have a definite weakness for it, and if I can get away with making one I will ^__^. This recipe is one I've had my eye on for aaages, but haven't been able to come up with an excuse to make; if it's someone's birthday, I make cake, if it's a picnic or something, we need cookies or bars, and if I'm just at home there aren't enough people around to eat it.

I find myself inventing occasions just so I can have people round to feed them. Does anyone else do this? Please tell me yes.

I had a big group of friends round on Friday night for a Disney sleepover (we get together and have a marathon of classic Disney films; Friday was our fourth XD) so I finally had a chance to give this a go.


I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this recipe because a) I'm very proud of the pictures, b) Ellie raves about this better than I do and c) I'm extremely tired and lazy and basically can't be arsed.

I'm therefore going to do this the quick way. This description is going to be to a blog post what a haiku is to a love poem.

Please make this cheesecake;
It tastes delicious, hooray
So my friends all say.

Was it just an excuse to make a cheesecake? Yes.

Was that just an excuse to write a haiku? Perhaps.

London Cheesecake

Recipe from Feast by Nigella Lawson

For American measurements, click here.

For the base:

150g digestive biscuits

75g unsalted butter, melted or very soft

600g cream cheese

150g caster sugar

3 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

1 and a half tablespoons vanilla extract

1 and a half tablespoons lemon juice

20 cm Springform tin

extra-strength tin foil

For the topping;

145ml tub sour cream

1 tablespoon caster sugar

half teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Process the biscuits until they are like crumbs, then add the butter and pulse again. Line the bottom of the Springform tin, pressing the biscuits in with your hands or the back of a spoon. Put the tin in the fridge to set, and preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

2.Beat the cream cheese gently until it's smooth, then add the sugar. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks, then finally the vanilla and lemon juice. Put the kettle on. Line the outside of the chilled tin with strong foil so that it covers the bottom and sides in one large piece, and then do the same again and put it into a roasting dish. This will protect the cheesecake from the water as it is cooked in its water bath.

3.Pour the cream-cheese filling into the chilled biscuit base, and then pour hot water from the recently boiled kettle into the roasting tin around the cheesecake. It should come about halfway up; don't overfill as it will be difficult to lift up the tin. Put it into the oven and cook for 50 minutes. It should feel set, but not rigidly so: you just need to feel confident that when you pour the sour cream over, it will sit on the surface and not sink in.

4. Whisk together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla for the topping and pour over the cheesecake. Put it back in the oven for a further 10 minutes.Take the roasting tin out of the oven, then gingerly remove the Springform, unwrap it and stand it on a rack to cool.

5. When it's cooled down completely, put it in the fridge, removing it 20 minutes before eating to take the chill off. Unmould and when you cut into it, plunge a knife in hot water first.Serves 8

Rather than the sauce Ellie made for her cheescake I halved a recipe for black cherry sauce from Vegetarian Supercook by Rose Eliot:

500g cherries, pitted (I used frozen ones that didn't need pitting)
75ml water + 1-2 tbsp
1-2 tsp cornflour
2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Put the cherries into a saucepan with the water and bring to the boil. Cover & simmer gently for about 5 minutes or until the cherries are tender.

2. Mix the cornflour with the 1-2 tbsp cold water, then add to the cherries, bring to the boil and stir for a minute or two until the sauce is slightly thickened. Stir in the caster sugar and remove for the heat. Set aside to cool and serve with the cheesecake.

Ellie made this cheesecake with the base coming up the sides and I think I'll do that next time cause otherwise the base is quite thick.

Tastes good though ^__^