Annabel Karmel’s Amazing Veggie Burgers

I am a huge fan of Annabel Karmel’s recipes. I had no idea whatsoever what to do when it came to weaning Monkey so we got her book and it made it all seem so much easier. There are many of her recipes that we have now converted into family meals because she is really good at getting those veggies in and still having the food taste amazing.

I actually saw these burgers on her website when Monkey was at one of his fussiest times and decided to give them a go. They have become a regular in our house since then as they are seriously delicious and they get all of us to eat a lot of lovely vegetables. Initially Monkey loved to eat them in a Pitta Bread, then during the worst fussy stage he refused to eat them, but now he loves them and tends to open the Pitta bread and just pick out the burger – with all the vegetables and goodness in there that is fine by me! 🙂

The original recipe was for a smaller batch (halve all of the ingredients below if you’d prefer to make less) but we make a whole load of burgers, which we then freeze and reheat as and when as they are a bit of a faff to make – but so worth it!! It doesn’t feel as much of a faff now as I’ve got a bit more efficient at it!

We also made these for one of my best friends who is a notoriously fussy vegetarian (she doesn’t like many vegetables!?!) and both her and her veggie boyfriend loved them too so that is definitely a good endorsement for you.

Ingredients
100g Roasted Unsalted Cashew Nuts finely chopped
(we whizz them in the food processor)
100g White Breadcrumbs ( or toast a few slices of white bread then whizz in the food processor)
4tsp Thyme (Fresh or Dried – I use dried)
100g Grated Cheddar Cheese
300g Sweet Potato (approx. 2 medium sweet potatoes) peeled and cubed.
2 Red Onions, finely chopped
2 Carrots, Peeled and Grated
2 Small Leeks, finely chopped (see below *)
200g Chestnut Mushrooms, finely chopped (we aren’t fans of mushrooms so we whizz them in the food processor, they go a bit mushy but it works well in the burgers!)
2 Cloves Garlic, Crushed
2 tsp Runny Honey
Flour
Oil for frying

The cashew nuts, whizzed

The mushrooms, whizzed

*This may not be helpful at all, but we don’t like big bits of leek, so I have found that if you slice along the length of 3/4 of the leek so it is in halves, then turn and slice again so it is in quarters (and again so it’s smaller if you can) while still attached at one end, it makes it easy to chop it into very small bits. (If that makes sense at all??? If not just ignore and chop how you like!)

Method

Put the breadcrumbs, cheese, thyme and nuts into a bowl

Boil some water in a pan, add the Sweet Potato and cook until soft. Drain and put to one side.

Heat a little oil in a large frying pan. Fry the Leek, Onion, Carrot and Mushrooms for 10 minutes or until soft.

Add the garlic and fry for 1 more minute

Tip the vegetables into a large bowl. Add the breadcrumb mixture, the Sweet Potato and the honey.

Mash together and season to taste, I don’t find it needs much seasoning, if any.

Put some flour into a small bowl, shape the mixture into approximately 16 burgers and coat each burger in flour.

(No my arms haven’t suddenly got hairy, hubby helped with this bit :))

It can help to rest the burgers on a pre-floured surface before cooking so they don’t stick!

Heat some more oil in the frying pan (we tend to use Rapeseed Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil but it’s up to you which you use) and fry on a medium-high heat for 2-3 mins on one side, until browned, then flip (they are still quite soft so it helps to use a spoon in one hand and spatula in the other, you have to be a bit gentle though!) and cook for a further 2-3 mins on the other side. Hubby likes them quite well cooked so ours end up quite a dark brown!

Leave to cool on some kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

Serve! We often serve in toasted Wholemeal Pitta Bread, and I love them with a dash of chilli and tomato chutney, but Hubby and Monkey love them just as they are.

You can serve in bread rolls of course but because they are quite a soft texture we find the pitta breads work really well, and they help hold it together, we made bigger burgers for my friends and they were delicious but they all squished out of the sides of the roll when you bit into them!

To Freeze, I layer in parchment paper (to prevent them sticking together) and freeze in freezer bags. Then I just reheat them in the microwave. I’m not sure what the recommendations are but I just take them straight from the freezer and microwave for a minute or 2 (to make sure they are piping hot) leave them to cool a little bit for Monkey then serve.

Spicy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I made this for the first time last week and was amazed how well it turned out – I have never made soup before so if I can do it anyone can! Monkey has been a fussy eater for months now but after a few tries he loves soup! Wahoo! So I need to learn to make some, great way of getting some more veg into him!

Hubby is 1/4 Malaysian (I know, he doesn’t look it) so we like quite a lot of spice in our house. I added a bit more spice than was in the original recipe I found and Hubby, Monkey and I all love it, which is great.

If you are unsure about how spicy you would like it, I recommend adding half the spices mentioned below, then have a quick taste after it’s blended and add the remaining if you feel you need to. It’s easier to add the spice than take it away!

I found it took about 40 -45 minutes including prep time.

The ingredients below is enough to make about 6 servings, though it is worth mentioning that I was making a double batch when I was taking the photos so they are to give you an idea but there is a lot more of everything than you will need to make the amount described!

Ingredients
25g Butter
1 Onion – Finely chopped
1 clove of Garlic, crushed
1 Butternut Squash, cubed to 2-3cm
1 Sweet Potato, cubed 2-3cm
1 tsp Paprika
2 tsp Mild Chilli Powder
2 tsp Ground Coriander
2 tsp Ground Cumin
Salt & Pepper
100ml Double Cream (I used Elmlea Double Light)
1 Litre Vegetable stock. (The first time I did it I used a couple of knorr stock pots and it tasted amazing, but I forgot to buy them the second time and only had a low salt vegetable stock – it tasted ok but nowhere near as much flavour being low salt.)

Method

In a large saucepan melt the butter on a low heat

Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally. Add the crushed garlic to the pan.

Once the onion is soft, add all of the spices and a shake of salt and pepper and fry for a few minutes.

Add the Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato and stir to coat in the spice mix.

Pour in the stock and make sure everything is covered. Give it a good stir, making sure you get to the bottom of the pan.

Bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Blend to the desired texture (I use a hand blender in the pan because I either use a big Le Crueset pan or our saucepans which are hard anodised – I wouldn’t recommend doing this if your pans are non-stick, you could pour into a food processor instead).

Stir in the cream and serve.

Easy Peasy and so yummy – is delicious with some crusty bread.

Enjoy!

Baking with a toddler – messy but brilliant! – 19 months

Posted by Caroline Elliott

For quite a while now I have been thinking about doing some baking or cooking with Monkey but honestly have been too scared by the thought of him being in the kitchen around sharp knives, hot ovens, you get the idea. I may have mentioned once or twice that Monkey is a Fussy Eater, and in my extensive reading about ways to help with that I have read that getting them involved in the kitchen is a good way to go. For example, Supernanny’s Little Chef Technique, but, at risk of repeating myself, knives, hot ovens… aaaagh.

Then one day I was getting dinner ready and he was so unhappy at me being in the kitchen that I let him come in with me. He played on the floor to start with with some cake tins and spoons, then he got interested in the sweet potato I was peeling, so I sat him on the step stool so he could see the worktop and he helped me put the chopped sweet potato into the steamer and the peelings in the bin. Simple things of course but it gave me confidence to try baking or something.

One afternoon after a short nap, I decided to go for it, put his lovely pinny on, and we made a very simple Victoria sponge cake. Unfortunately I am a bit of a control freak and didn’t want him to ruin the cake – no matter how much I told myself it didn’t matter how it turned out, I just couldn’t do it! So he helped me grease the tins etc. then I set him up with a mini bowl and all the ingredients (apart from the raw eggs) and he absolutely loved it.

I let him stir the ingredients for the cake too and he loved licking the spoon and bowl once the cake was in the oven.

He had so much fun and then helped me with the washing up.

He’s been dying to do it again and keeps pulling the step stool up to the worktop. It went so well the first time that I thought we should do it again, this time with some yummy biscuits. I’d made them once before and you can see the recipe here.

Again I’m afraid I got a bit freaked when he was grabbing the ingredients as I measured them in so again he got a little bowl of his own, which he loved so I don’t feel too guilty about it! He helped me stir it all up though and again he loved eating the mixture off the spoon.

The greatest thing about this baking experience was how much he enjoyed it!

He carried on playing way after the cookies were in the oven. I love these pics as he looks like a proper little chef!

He was still playing at the worktop once the cookies were baked and I had washed everything up and even cleaned up around him!He had a brief play at the sink then wanted to get back to ‘his’ square of worktop where he was then happy playing with bowls and spoons… and then had a hilarious moment where he realised he could see his reflection in the food processor. So cute as he was pulling lots of funny faces! haha

It was so much fun and I think the first time ever that we have spent an hour and half on an activity! So I have now overcome my fear of having him in the kitchen (not completely of course, a healthy dose of fear for his safety is permanent I think) and am looking forward to making lots more things with him in the future. Whether it helps his fussy eating, only time will tell.

Oh and the baking resulted in this yummy cake

And these yummy biscuits

Do you like baking with your toddler? What do you like to bake with them?

Mary Berry’s Angel Food Cake with Lemon Curd and Passionfruit drizzle

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I love Baking and like to try something new. Sometimes I bake to beat boredom, other times there seems to be so much going on that I have to find time to bake! This was one of those times.

I saw this recipe on Bake Off last year and have wanted to make one ever since but I haven’t have the right tin. For Christmas, my lovely mother in law bought me the tin! Wahoo! So I have been dying to make it ever since. Here is how it went!

Recipe
Cake Ingredients
125g Plain Flour
300g Caster Sugar
10 Large Egg Whites, at room temperature
Finely grated zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 tsp salt

Method
1 – Heat the oven to 170C/Gas 3 and put the oven shelf in the bottom third of the oven

2 – Sift the flour and 100g of the caster sugar into a bowl and set aside. 4

3- Separate the eggs, put the whites into a very large bowl (keep the yolks in a smaller bowl for later) and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed for 1 minute until frothy.

4- Add the lemon zest (careful not to zest your thumb too like I did, ouch!) and juice, cream of tarter and salt and continue whisking for 2-3 minutes until soft peaks will form when the whisk is lifted. I think this is how they should look:

5 – Whisking on high speed, add the remaining 200g caster sugar a tbsp at a time and whisk until the whites form firm but not stiff peaks.

6 – Sprinkle a 1/3 of the flour mixture over the whites and gently fold in with a large metal or plastic spoon until combined (I can’t remember why but you shouldn’t use a wooden spoon to fold egg whites, I think it takes the air out). Repeat with the remaining flour mixture, in 2-3 batches, folding gently to keep as much air in as possible.

7 – Transfer the mixture to an un-greased 25cm Angel Food cake Pan with Legs, then gently run a knife through the centre of the mix to dislodge any large pockets of air.

8 – Bake in the oven for 45 -50 mins, I baked mine for 45 minutes and it was definitely done, maybe even a couple of minutes over. It is done when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

9 – Remove the pan from the oven and immediately turn upside down (hence the legs), Leave to cool for at least 1 hour.

10- Run a palette knife around the inner and outer edges of the pan to loosen it from the pan, then invert the pan onto a plate and use the palette knife to loosen the cake from the base of the tin. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Lemon Curd Ingredients

10 large egg yolks
400g Caster Sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 large unwaxed lemons
Juice of 4 large lemons – about 200ml (I don’t have a posh juicer and the juice I squeezed out of my 4 lemons was about 150ml, so I used a bit of Jif lemon to top it up)
175g unsalted butter, cubed

Method
1 – Mix together the egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a large pan.

2 – Cook gently over a low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon (make sure to stir the sides and base thoroughly) for 5-7 minutes until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon.

3 – Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until melted and smooth.

4 – Strain the lemon curd through a sieve into a large jug (it suddenly starts to resemble lemon curd at this point!)

5- Mary Berry’s recipe says that you should fill two 350g sterilised Jars with curd and seal with a lid. Then use the rest of the curd for the topping. I only seemed to have enough for one 300g jar and there was nearly 200g left which I used for the topping. I’m not sure if we heated it for too long or if I didn’t have enough lemon juice, but there was nowhere near enough for two 350g jars plus some for the topping!

6 – So fill jars with as much lemon curd as you have and then leave some (the recipe is very vague but I kept about 200g and it seemed to work well and taste yummy) in the jug for the topping. Cover this with clingfilm and leave to cool.

Topping Ingredients
300ml whipping cream, well chilled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 passionfruits

Method

1 – Whip the cream with vanilla extract until it will form soft peaks.

2 – Spoon the cream over the cold cake and smooth down with a palette knife.

3 – Cut the passionfruits in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Stir into the reserved cooled lemon curd and drizzle over the angel food cake before serving.

It’s not exactly the simplest bake in the world and I certainly didn’t do it perfectly (when I was tipping the mixture into the tin I kept finding pockets of flour and sugar – not quite as well folded as I thought!) but it turned out pretty well actually! It tastes yummy and very light though it’s an interesting texture because of the egg whites.

The sauce is a lovely combination of sharp and sweet and it goes very nicely with the delicate flavour of the cake but I actually think the cake would be nice without such a strong topping too.

I am particularly surprised with how well the lemon curd turned out – it has now set and is exactly how I think of Lemon Curd! Feels really nice to have made it – makes me want to make jams and all sorts now haha – maybe one day!

Happy Baking!

Christmas Baking has begun! Nigella’s White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Baking is a big part of Christmas don’t you think? It’s a good opportunity to indulge in some of your favourite sweet treats, and a good excuse to make them for others. That’s one of the things I love most about baking, watching others enjoy something I made. Not sure what that says about me! I know some people have whole baking days and I would love to, but with Monkey around there’s no way to do that at the moment, and he’s not quite at an age to help me bake, so this year baking is confined to his nap times.

We are baking a couple of our faves this Christmas, the Red Velvet, and the Chocolate Roulade, some chocolate brownie (recipe to follow), and we are also trying a new recipe! I know there is a lot about Nigella in the media at the moment and I am not going to weigh in on that minefield! Whatever went on in her home and marriage, there is no denying she is one heck of a cook and has some great recipes. This is no exception.

Ingredients
150g Plain Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
75g Rolled Oats
125g Soft Butter
75g Dark Brown Sugar
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
75g Dried Cranberries
50g Pecans (The recipe says roughly chopped but we whizzed in a processor to get them as small as possible! :))
150g White Chocolate Chips

Method

Preheat oven to 180C and line two big baking sheets with baking parchment (makes approx. 30 cookies)

Measure the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Oats into a bowl

In another bowl, beat together the Butter and both types of Sugar until creamy, then beat in the Egg and Vanilla Extract

Beat in the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt and Oats mixture, then fold in the Cranberries, Pecans and Chocolate Chips.

Roll tablespoons of dough into balls with your hands and place them on the prepared trays. Squish the dough balls down with a fork.

Cook for 13-15 minutes. When ready the cookies will be tinged a pale gold. They will still be soft so leave to cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes. Then move to a wire rack to cool fully.

Note We had a debate over how big a table spoon sized ball should be and hubby went for a very literal size, and they came out a little smaller than we imagined, and didn’t quite look how they looked in the piccy in Nigella’s book. We only cooked them for 13 minutes, rather than the suggested 15 minutes and they turned out lovely. I was initially worried they were a little overdone, but they taste absolutely fine! We ended up with 36 I think, so could have made them slightly bigger!

The other good thing with Nigella’s recipes is that she gives tips about freezing them! She says these can be frozen for about 3 months, which is very handy as we are planning to take these to my brother in law’s house on boxing day. So they have been baked and are now in the freezer ready to get out the night before… fingers crossed we remember!

I just made the yummy roulade too, and tomorrow will be making the Red Velvet, amongst a whole load of other Christmas Preparations! I am finally getting into the spirit of it all, can’t believe it is Christmas Eve Eve already! How are your Christmas preparations coming along?

Beating Boredom with Baking Blog 3 – Paul Hollywood’s Chocolate and Peppermint Roulade

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I haven’t written a baking blog for a while as I have been on a bit of a diet. I have done pretty well with the diet, but I have really missed the baking. I just find it really therapeutic. Even on days when I am shattered and can’t be bothers, following the recipe is so soothing and then taking it out of the oven, decorating, ah the feeling of satisfaction is amazing.

A few weeks ago I caught an episode of Paul Hollywood’s Pies and Puds during Monkey’s nap and just thought that this Roulade sounded delish, so here is the recipe:

Ingredients

125g/4½oz dark chocolate ( I Used Bourneville – 39% Cocoa Solids :))
4 free-range eggs, separated
125g/4½oz caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted (I use Green and Blacks)

For the filling

325g/11½oz icing sugar, sifted ( I didn’t sift and it seemed fine :))
100g/3½oz butter, softened
2 tbsp milk
3-4 drops peppermint flavour oil (I used about 4 drops of just peppermint flavouring as I couldn’t get oil, and it was very yummy)
2 tbsp dark chocolate chips

Preparation method

Line a 24x35cm/9½x14in Swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl. Add the cocoa powder, stir to combine until the mixture has thickened, is pale and increased in volume.
Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff.
Pour the melted chocolate into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Stir until the chocolate is fully incorporated.
Gently fold in the egg whites.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Tilt the tin so that the mixture spreads into the corners.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until firm and springy to touch.
Once cooked, turn the roulade out onto a piece of greaseproof paper dusted with caster sugar.
Gently remove the lining paper and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to cool completely.
For the filling, gradually add the icing sugar to the softened butter. Beat until all the icing sugar is incorporated. Add the edible peppermint oil to the milk, and then stir into the buttercream.
Spread the filling onto the cooled roulade, leaving a 1.5cm/¾in gap at each edge. Sprinkle over the chocolate chips.
Using the greaseproof paper to help you, roll up the roulade from one of the short ends. Don’t worry if it cracks a little. Transfer onto a serving plate Tip – From watching Paul on the telly, at the top end, fold the edge down completely about 2 cm in, so that it breaks. This makes rolling the rest much easier apparently!

I have never whisked egg whites before, never made meringues or anything so was a bit wary of how this would go, but actually it went pretty well! I’d watched enough of the Great British Bake Off this year and had seen them whisking eggs, and gently folding it into cake mixtures to know roughly what to do and what not to do. I.e. Be gentle with the folding so you don’t lose any of the air you have just whisked in!

We don’t have a Swiss Roll tin either but I measured one our big baking trays and it was nearly the right depth for a swiss roll tin (2cm) so decided to try it and see if it worked, and it seemed just the right depth actually, which is good as it means we don’t have to buy a new tin.

I had one big fail, which was that I stupidly bought chocolate drops instead of chocolate chips. Chocolate drops are basically chocolate buttons so are far too big and intense hits of chocolate.

But on the whole it went really well! Hubby and Monkey love it, and my lovely Mother In Law, who is a brilliant baker said that it was possibly the nicest thing she had ever tasted – really high praise! My good friend and neighbour also said it was yummy and looked like a bought one :). When I first saw it on TV I thought it would make a lovely Yule Log and after the success of this one I will definitely make it for Christmas! Though next time I will try it with chocolate chips or small shards of chocolate, though honestly I think it tastes lovely even without the addition of the dark chocolate in the cream!

Beating Boredom with Baking Blog 2 – Buddy Valastro’s Red Velvet Cake

Posted by Caroline Elliott

If anyone has ever watched Cake Boss, or The Next Great Baker, then you will know who Buddy Valstro is, and what Red Velvet cake is. He is an amazing and hugely successful baker from New Jersey who runs a family baking business. One of his most popular cakes is his red velvet cake. Here in the UK it is not a well known cake at all. Most people have never even heard of a Red Velvet cake, let alone tried one so whenever they have mentioned it on the show I have been a little intrigued to say the least.

A couple of months ago at a restaurant hubby and I tried our first ever slice of red velvet cake, and Oh My God it tasted amazing! Right then and there we vowed that we would try and make it at home. But you know how it is, life gets busy. I had looked up a few recipes online and it seemed a little complicated so it got put on the back burner. I hadn’t watched any of his programmes for ages, but caught an episode recently and thought ooooh, red velvet, hmmmm and decided to give it a try.

I found quite a few different versions of the recipe online but thought my best bet was probably to go with the recipe of Buddy Valastro himself, which I found here.

One slight problem is that his measurements are all in American measures, cups, which leaves me a little blank. So with a little help from hubby and this handy conversion site, I converted the ingredients into more familiar measurements, which are as follows:

Ingredients

315g Plain Flour
25g Cocoa Powder (I use Green & Blacks)
½ tsp Salt
115g Unsalted Butter
300g Normal Sugar
2 Large Eggs
Strong red food colouring (more on this later)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
240ml buttermilk
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Bicarbonate Soda

It is worth mentioning a couple of things at this point.

1 – The food colouring, the first time I used a tube of Dr Oetker red gel food colouring, as it was what we had and I had seen it recommended on a few websites, but honestly the cake was more of a chocolate brown than red. The second time I used 1/2 a pot of gel food colouring which I got at my local Hobbycraft shop. The brand is Wilton and it is called icing colouring. Much better result though like I say I did use half a pot of it and it is strong stuff! I don’t think that normal liquid food colouring that we have in the UK is strong enough to make the cake red after baking it.

2 – The recipe calls for distilled white vinegar, but I couldn’t find that so bought white wine vinegar which works fine

3 – Buddy’s recipe uses baking soda, which is an American term, I used Baking Powder the first time, without really thinking, and the cake turned out way too dense! So I used Bicarbonate soda the second time and it was light and fluffy, so definitely use Bicarbonate soda.

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°. Grease 2 sandwich tins, ours are 8″ I think and they worked fine. Line the bottom of the tins with greaseproof paper.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt into a bowl.
In a larger bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter at a low temperature until creamy.
Add Sugar and blend on a medium speed until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
Add the food colouring and vanilla .

On a low speed, beat in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mix. So 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour. Mixing well in between each.

In a small bowl, stir together the vinegar and bicarbonate soda. Stir into batter.
Divide the batter between the tins and spread evenly.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. The recipe says 25-30 mins, it took nearer to 40 mins in my oven, though I would check it at around 25 mins.

Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn onto racks. Remove the paper and flip cakes.

Here are the pictures of my cakes, the first one, with the baking powder, just didn’t rise and was really dense. It was also much browner. The second time with the bicarb and better food colouring, it rose much better and was a much better colour.

Now for the yummy Cream Cheese Frosting

450g Full Fat Cream Cheese
115g Unsalted Butter
400g Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Pinch of salt

Beat the cream cheese and butter at a medium speed until smooth.
Add Sugar, vanilla and Salt. Stir the icing sugar in a bit before beating, to avoid sugar clouds, then beat on a low speed to start, and then a medium0high speed until the mixture is fluffy.

Once the cakes have completely cooled, cut each layer in half using a serrated knife. (Buddy’s recipe mentioned freezing them but I didn’t have room in our freezer so didn’t do that). Use the frosting between each layer. Roughly frost cake all over once, then put it in the fridge for 20 minutes, before continuing frosting with another layer. I’m not that good with the frosting but this definitely helped! Use some of the crumbs from the tins as decoration et oila!

The first cake I made still tasted fine but the second one was muuuch better. Hubby says it’s his favourite cake in the whole world, and Monkey loves it too. It is really sweet though so you don’t need big slices of it.

Yummy Red Velvet Cake

Maybe if you did Freeze it as Buddy’s recipe suggests, you may get less crumbs in the frosting layers? I have no idea though may be worth a try. Happy baking!

Beating Boredom with Baking Blog 1 – Mary Berry’s Chocolate Fudge Cake

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Boredom isn’t quite the right word for it, and Monkey and I keep ourselves very busy, but with the constant routine of mealtimes, playtimes, baby groups, naps, housework, sometimes I feel as if my brain is stagnating with the mundaneness. Sounds all a bit harsh and I am loving being at home with my little man, but I do need pursuits for myself to keep my brain going. Hence the baking!

We are watching Great British Bake-Off so maybe that has something to do with my sudden re-interest in baking, but I had a craving for a nice chocolate cake before that although I’m not sure why. Thanks to my husband’s tutelage I have now mastered the basic baking skills required for making a nice sponge cake, I also make cookies and flapjacks and things, but one thing I had never tried before was a good chocolate cake.

There are many many recipes out there and I was looking for a nice simple one that would give the tastiest chocolate cake possible. We have a few cookbooks in the house but I settled on a Mary Berry one. After a few failed attempts at some of her other recipes in the past (the pinwheel biscuits tasted really dull and we definitely prefer our flapjack recipe to hers) hubby was definitely a bit wary of this recipe book but her Chocolate Fudge Cake sounded too delicious not to try so off I went.

The cake recipe is as follows:

50g cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
6 tbsp boiling water
3 large eggs
50 ml milk
175g self-raising flour
1 heaped tsp baking powder
100g soft butter
275g caster sugar
For Icing and Filling:
150g Plain Chocolate (Approx. 39% cocoa solids DO NOT USE A 70% COCOA SOLIDS CHOCOLATE, see below)
150ml double cream

Method:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Grease two eight inch sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment.

2. Measure the cocoa into a bowl, add the boiling water and mix until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.
3. Divide the cake mixture between the prepared tins and level the surface
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25-30 mins until well risen and the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed.

For the Icing and Filling:

1.Measure the chocolate and cream together in a bowl. Stand the bowl in a pan of simmering water and stir until just melted – do not get too hot.

2. Remove the bowl from the heat ad allow to cool until it has nearly set.

3. Spread onto cake as a filling and then the remaining for the icing.

I have to say right off that miraculously the cake baked perfectly first time round! I couldn’t quite believe it! The icing/filling however… not quite so.

Now it does say in the recipe that the chocolate should be 39% cocoa solids. I read this, but in my local shop they had 2 types of plain chocolate, one which didn’t say anything, and one which was 74% cocoa solids. I thought this was probably fine so bought that one. When I got home however I had another look at Mary Berry’s book and in the early pages (which I never normally read) she does explain why it is important not to use a chocolate with too high a percentage of cocoa solids. Something about the fat separating. This concerned for all of ooh, 2 seconds and then I thought, ahh it’lll be fine so went on with my baking.

What I was mindful of though was how bitter it would be using a plain chocolate that dark, so was prepared to add some sugar. when I had melted the chocolate and cream together I tasted it and sure enough it was a little bitter, so I added some sugar and extra cream to sweeten it. It tasted lovely, so all good I thought. Until I left it to cool. Then it started to go a bit gloopy and sure enouuh it separated. Soon there was a deep layer of oil on the surface of the bowl. Boooo! I tried to dab some off with kitchen roll (fail) then drained some of it down the sink. It did still taste nice which, according to hubby, was the most important thing.

I slapped it on the cake and actually it wasn’t too bad, tasted really good actually, I just knew that it wasn’t right.

So a few days later, armed with some chocolate which was 43% cocoa solids (the lowest I could find) I tried again and it was definitely nicer. It was less greasy and it definitely set better as it cooled. Hubby says he liked both but my mum did admit she thought it tasted nicer the second time round.

So the moral of the story is – use the right type of chocolate! It is a seriously lovely cake though and such an easy recipe, so way to go Mary Berry! 🙂

Oh, one more note, the full recipe also mentions spreading apricot jam onto the cake before putting the icing/filling on, but I know Hubby would not like the apricot jam so I left it out, and it doesn’t feel like we are missing anything! 🙂

Making Rhubarb Crumble

Posted by Caroline Elliott

My aunt came to stay with us last weekend and bought us a big pile of Rhubarb from her allotment, so what else would you do with Rhubarb but make a Rhubarb crumble! 🙂 I’ve never attempted to make a crumble of any kind before so took to trusty google to find a recipe. I found this one from Waitrose which seemed simple enough and had a go! I had no idea (and still don’t) whether you can use the green bits of the rhubarb or if you should only use the red bits, but read somewhere that red bits give the best flavour so I decided to just use those bits.

Had to make a few changes to the recipe, as I had somehow managed to run out of plain flour I used wholemeal flour instead, and took a tip from one of the comments below the recipe to add some oats to the crumble mix. So I halved it and did 100g wholemeal flour and 100g porridge oats instead. I was having a bit of a mad day and decided that it would be a good idea to mow the lawns in the front and back garden whilst the crumble was cooking and was shattered by the end of it! (All during Monkey’s afternoon nap) Anyway I have to say that considering it was my first attempt, it was blimming lovely! I could have eaten the whole thing myself! Hubby isn’t much of a fruit fan, at all really, but surprisingly with the addition of a good dollop of custard he loved it (I was a bit gutted by this hehe).

It is now one of my new faves as it is easy to make, very tasty and my boys like it too. Thanks Auntie Maggie for the Rhubarb! 🙂 Yesterday we were out for a meal for my mum’s birthday and for pudding I had my first ever try of Red Velvet cake and it was seriously delicious! I am going to try a recipe for that soon although it is a bit, or rather, much more complicated so we will see how I go with that one!

Monkey is 1! Birthday celebrations and domestic arrangements :)

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Yep, I can’t believe it but my little man is 1! A whole year has passed and boy what a year it has been. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so tired in my life as I have over this past year. It’s certainly had it’s ups and downs and more than it’s fair share of challenges, but of course I wouldn’t change it for the world. Our cheeky little monkey is my world, he keeps me very busy but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So we had a lovely party with family on Saturday and hubby and I spent Friday evening baking a cake for it. I always remember my mum making us the most amazing birthday cakes, huge forts and princesses wearing skirts. Now as we know, I am no great baker, but I am determined to try my hardest so that monkey has the same type of memories. I had in ym head that I wanted to make a cake in the shape of a 1. Hubby loves to do these things too so we did it together. After deciding which baking tin to use we made a template to cut the cake up into the shape of a 1 when cooked. This took a few goes but was well worth it. We used a really simple sponge recipe and our favourite buttercream icing recipes so it was really just the shape that was unusual for us.

Having said that though icing the cake provided a few challenges as at first couldn’t find the right sized nozzle I wanted and so it went a bit flat. But, well it all turned out pretty well in the end thankfully 🙂

The family party was very lovely and monkey coped really well. Although it was only family, with both of our families combined that works out to be quite a lot of people all of a sudden! After a few mins where he was clearly wondering what was going on he soon warmed up to everyone, enjoyed opening his presents and loving all of the attention he was getting! Even playing cheeky games with his great grandpa who he is normally a bit shy of. He was going to give great grandpa a toy, then pulling it back and giggling, I think it made great grandpa’s day!

His favourite thing at the moment is clapping and he was clapping all the time at the party and loving the responses he was getting from everyone. Of course he loved all of his new toys too. His very clever granny (my lovely mother in law) made him an amazing cuddly monkey – a monkey for a monkey, and he loves him!

So a lovely party and lovely weekend all in all! Then on Monday was my birthday treat! My mum, for my birthday, arranged a spa day at a local spa so that we could have a relaxed day. Probably the most time off that I’ve had in the last year since Monkey was born and it was really blissful, I really enjoyed the peace and quiet. And the swimming, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi, and the most amazing hot stone massage to soothe my aching muscles! 🙂

Speaking of aching muscles, much as life with Monkey is very fun at the moment it is basically exhausting too! Hubby and I have had lots of chats lately and we have talked about me having a bit more me time, a) so daddy and Leo can have some more time together and b) so I can feel a bit more like myself, rather than just feeling like a mummy 24/7. I know lots of my mummy friends are in the same boat as me as we all put our children first all of the time, which is of course how it should be, but after a while you have to try and look after yourself too.

Hubby and I have also been looking at ways of sharing out the chores more, even though I am at home all of the time I am hardly ever sitting down as there’s always so much needs doing. Being a stay at home mum doesn’t mean you have all the time in the world for housework! But I am at home all the time it does feel like it should be part of my ‘job’ at home. Hubby works really hard but thankfully is happy to help out as much as he can and doesn’t see it as just my job to keep the house clean.

So we’ve come up with the idea of a whiteboard listing the jobs. We thought about allocating jobs but I don’t think anyone wants to be responsible for cleaning the bathrooms every time! But the idea is that with a list of jobs there we can easily see what was done when, and thereby what needs doing, and choose/prioritise jobs when we have time. That way rather than him asking me what needs doing and or what I want him to do, the responsibility for every job is more evenly spread and I don’t feel like it is all down to me.

So we’ll see how it goes and whether it works or we need to rethink our methods. Will keep you posted!

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

Food

Annabel Karmel’s Amazing Veggie Burgers

Spicy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

Baking with a toddler – messy but brilliant! – 19 months

Mary Berry’s Angel Food Cake with Lemon Curd and Passionfruit drizzle

Christmas Baking has begun! Nigella’s White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

Beating Boredom with Baking Blog 3 – Paul Hollywood’s Chocolate and Peppermint Roulade

Beating Boredom with Baking Blog 2 – Buddy Valastro’s Red Velvet Cake

Beating Boredom with Baking Blog 1 – Mary Berry’s Chocolate Fudge Cake

Method:

1.Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Grease two eight inch sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment.

For the Icing and Filling:

1.Measure the chocolate and cream together in a bowl. Stand the bowl in a pan of simmering water and stir until just melted – do not get too hot.

2. Remove the bowl from the heat ad allow to cool until it has nearly set.

3. Spread onto cake as a filling and then the remaining for the icing.

Making Rhubarb Crumble

Monkey is 1! Birthday celebrations and domestic arrangements :)