Pinterest adventure 1

So, is anyone else making from pinterest in response to my challenge?

I thought I'd better get on with it, so I started with a bit of baking and made magic cakes from this pin

There was lots of mess,

and the resulting batter looked more like an enriched milkshake than something that would make a cake. Uncooked, it tasted like a weirdly flavourless, floury milkshake too

The recipe specified an 8" by 8" pan, but there was so much mixture that I filled one of my silicon cake tins too (and yes, I know that is an oxymoron....)

The cakes really puffed up and in hindsight I don't know if swapping their position in the oven 2/3 of the way through was the right thing to do, but after they came out of the oven they deflated but still looked good

I was a bit impatient and didn't wait the 3 hours recommended before taking a slice.  Excuse the dark pic - it was raining heavily at this point

It tasted good and had a really interesting combination of fluffy and flabby textures (I'm really selling this to you, I can tell).  I had another slice a couple of hours later and it was delicious so I'd recommend following the instructions to wait.  As the evening wore on, the flavours and textures blossomed.  The downside of course was that the cake got smaller and smaller. This was the last piece

Luckily I had the second cake in the fridge.

Because
a) the whole thing reminded my husband of an egg custard without the pastry
b) it was in a silicon 'tin' that gives a weirdly smooth surface to anything in it
I decided to unmould the second cake and serve it upside down

What a hit - it disappeared in minutes

I will definitely make this again, but next time I'll find a larger and deeper tin to bake it in as I didn't really get much of the middle sloppy custard layer, but did get the slightly cakey top and the gorgeous thick custard base

Wonder what I'll make next?

Heavenly Easy Lemon Meringue Ice Cream

Many years ago I worked in the Sainsburys in the Arndale Centre in Doncaster.  Very occasionally, the canteen would make this ice cream and it always went down a storm.  I eventually prised the recipe out of the canteen manager and I was shocked at how simple and easy it was

So, ready for a huge list of ingredients?

1 large pot of double cream (600ml)
1 454g jar of lemon curd
1 pack of meringue nests (there were 8 in mine)

That's it

Honestly

I suppose you could make your own lemon curd and meringue nests if you're that way inclined

So, whip your cream until it's stiff

Add the lemon curd - all the jar

Roughly crush the meringue nests and fold everything together

You can decide how combined you want the cream and lemon curd - if you want it uniform you could fold those two ingredients together to your liking and then add the meringue, but I like the little blobs and swirls of lemon curd

Either spoon into individual moulds (clean empty yogurt pots are fine) or into a container and freeze overnight

There's no need to stir or whip

You can eat the unfrozen mixture as a fool type dessert, but it might be a bit strong/sweet as the proportions are intended to counter the flavour dulling effect of freezing

Once frozen, this is how it looks

And it scoops out beautifully

Now, confession time - I picked up the smaller pot of cream by mistake so my ice cream is more lemony than you may get - still tastes lovely though

Comfort food

Comfort food is different to comfort eating.  It's not about putting a wrong right, rather it's about feeling cosy.  Recently we had a dark, miserable rainy day so, being in the mood for gentle indulgence, we sat down to the most delicious corned beef and potato pie with beans and fruity sauce.

We've been watching The Great British Bake Off and my pie might not have won their accolades, but boy it tasted great and the pastry was short, crumbly and a total delight.  My family had always told me that they didn't like pies, but this converted them to the point where they were flinging pie ideas at me left right and centre. 

Since then I've also made a minced beef and onion pie and I've even bought new pie dishes to bake them in.  Next on the list is chicken pie and then of course there are all the fruit pies......  If anyone has ideas for fillings for savoury or sweet, I'd love to hear them.   Looks like this autumn/winter could be pietastic!

Joy of Slow Cooking

I don't use my slow cooker as much as I should.  This morning I picked up some aberdeen angus beef cubes for a good price and solved my dinner problem (I was meant to think what we were having when I did the list / shopping last Thursday and failed miserably).

I browned the meat, put it in the pot (already on and heating up), sliced two carrots and fried / steamed them to soften.  Added them then cooked off some onion and garlic.  They went into the pot along with stock and herbs - including two bay leaves as we always play a game of who gets the lucky leaf in their dinner.  I grated a spud into there too as I hate chunks of spud in stews (a reason why I hate pasties too) but I love the way grated spud dissolves and makes the gravy thick and almost sticky.  When it gets nearer to dinnertime I'll make dumplings - I have to double the recipe and make lots of small ones as they are so popular in my household.

I should be pulling plaster off the bathroom wall.  I've stripped the wallpaper and found a section where the topcoat has blown off so it will have to come off and be redone.  I'm a bit scaredy cat about it to be truthful, but I suppose I will have to pull up my big girl pants and get on with it.

Microwave jam and sulky knitting

I was rummaging in the freezer yesterday and happily found a bag full of strawberries from last summer's picking frenzy.  I'd noticed the homemade jam stocks were running a bit low so it was a great opportunity to indulge.

I let the strawberries defrost, drained off the liquid (added to gin - made an OK drink but not as nice as the mojito I had later on) and combined the same weight of sugar with the berries (300g each).  I meant to leave that for an hour so the sugar would dissolve, but the combination of cocktail, Dodgeball and sulky knitting (DH's jumper is tight around the armholes so is in time out therefore I've cast on a February Baby Cardigan) led to it macerating overnight.  This morning I warmed the mixture on full in the microwave for 10 mins then reduced the power and checked a couple of times for setting point.  It got there after 10 minutes and made one amazingly fruit filled pot of jam.

I make jam both in a huge catering pot on the stove when I've loads of fruit - crab apples and plums, I'm looking at you here - and in the microwave when I want to play, want to preserve particularly fresh tastes or I've not so much fruit.  I've tried strawberry both ways and the microwave is definitely tastier.  I'm quite proud of my jams.  The only one I haven't liked was physalis jam - if I remade it I'd do it again as a jelly as all the tiny pips were horrendous.  Otherr than that I've tried strawberry, plum, crab apple jelly, elderberry jelly, marrow and lemon and mulled wine jelly - the last a try to recreate a red wine jelly I once bought from France and have never found since.