Just words..

Good morning and welcome to Saturday! I'm in London this morning, where it's grey, overcast...but thankfully dry and even warm by recent standards (about 10c) which makes such a difference...the birds sing and everything is a little less....Winter! That's the only word!

I have no pictures for today's post. Because I left for the weekend yesterday afternoon, I made my Coffee Tree delivery for today then...and wouldn't you know it, the battery went on my camera. SO annoying because I think pictures are a necessity. BUT I didn't want to not tell you what I baked, so here I am and hope you will forgive me...we are taking lots of interesting photos today to make up for it!

Firstly, I had a special request to make more of the Mini Victoria Sponges from earlier in the week. They sold so well and everyone who tried one loved it...so I made another 10 of those (and you all know what they looked like anyway!)

Then, I made a tray of Double Mango Cake. This is a beautiful, sunny coloured dessert...it also contained ginger, cinnamon and a little allspice. I called it 'double mango' because it was made with fresh and dried fruit. Earlier this week, a very thoughtful friend gave me a present from his recent trip to Thailand of some wonderful, soft & fragrant dried mango. While we could eat our way through the whole box quite easily, I thought it would be interesting to add some to this cake and see how it turned out. It looked and smelled good...very good....so I'll await the feedback on Monday!

Lastly, I made a big, tall, Caramel Cake. Two layers of sponge (I used organic dark muscovado sugar to give a butterscotch-y flavour and extra softness to it...) filled and topped with vanilla buttercream frosting. I also made some burnt caramel sauce which I cooled and spread on the bottom layer before the frosting, and then drizzled over the top of the cake to finish with a Jackson Pollock-esque flourish!

I so wish you could see it - but I hope that you can close your eyes and imagine. I'd like to cut you a slice right now. Maybe one day?!

Have a wonderful Saturday....xo

Giveaway Congratulations & Almond Heaven...

This was the scene this morning as I placed all the names in competition for the Giveaway into my favourite coffee mug...I felt a little nervous, strangely...I so appreciate all your comments and the visitors to my blog, and I wanted everyone to win! But there could only be one, in the end - and it's one of my new 'commenters'...I'll let the picture speak for itself & just say WELL DONE to...

Nellie! I think you're in the US...but if you send me your address to: theblueangelbakery (at) hotmail (dot) co (dot) uk (of course, you need to put the @ & . symbols in there - I haven't to avoid spam mail!) then I will package up your goodies and send them to you, with my love...

I added this cute & colourful measuring spoon set to the gifts, as an added treat - I so hope you like everything & look forward to your receiving it and letting me know what you think!

So, to today's delivery...

Strawberry & Lemon Bakewell Tart. I love Bakewell Tart - because I adore anything almondy. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a traditional British pudding. The usual recipe is for shortcrust pastry, spread with raspberry jam and topped with an almond frangipane sponge and flaked almonds. It's often served after a meal, hot with custard - or cold in fingers for tea. My version has a richer shortbread base, and this one had strawberry preserves and lemon curd under the almond layer. It just makes it a bit....MORE! And you've probably gleaned from my posts by now that if there's one thing I love it's abundance! Too much of a good thing is great in my opinion!

It was quite soft & gooey in the centre with a lovely short, crisp, buttery base and plenty of tart lemon curd oozing gently together with sweet strawberry pieces. GORGEOUS!

I can hardly believe that the weekend's here already! I look forward to hearing from Nellie soon...but thanks to everyone for reading, commenting and enjoying my blog.

Have a wonderful rest of the day xo

Carrot Cake & rejigging recipes...

Firstly, I'm sorry for the lack of post yesterday...January can be a tough month sometimes! Bills come in from Christmas, people decide to cut down, go on diets, be frugal. It's part of the warp & weft of life...and means that the coffee shop didn't need anything yesterday. C'est la vie.

Back to normal today...and here is the Carrot, Sunflower & Orange Cake that I just delivered. It was made with wholewheat flour, sunflower seeds, fresh orange zest, organic carrots...

the frosting is cream cheese, sprinkled with cinnamon. I love this cake. It's in my book...I've been making variations on it for years, and it never ever fails.
So far so good! The other part of the delivery was a little more complicated..

Cafe Latte Whoopie Pies. The whoopie pie is a fairly new phenomenon in the UK. Some people say that they will overtake the cupcake in popularity - I think not! The British are a cautious people...is it a biscuit, is it a cake? Something that mixes the two is not quite trusted...is it a cookie that went wrong? Should it be soft like that? These are some of the questions I'm asked whenever I make them - so you see the problem. But, following on from my last post, they make a nice individual cake. They look and taste good and are relatively easy & quick to bake. So I keep trying!
I usually take recipes for Whoopies from an American book I have, figuring that as they were invented in the US, this is the best place to find instruction on baking them. However, this morning I decided to try a recipe from a newcomer on the British baking scene. After 7 years of just making cakes & desserts, I can look at a recipe and tell immediately whether it's right or not. This one was not. There wasn't nearly enough flour for the amount of liquid ingredients listed, some of the equipment called for was superfluous and unnecessarily complicated. It made me cross!
I firmly believe that baking- and cooking in general - is not rocket science. Anyone can do it, with a little patience, instruction and a good recipe. I have the luxury of knowing a lot about the subject, so I could rescue these cakes and they turned out fine...but I couldn't help thinking of those without much confidence, who pick what they think will be an easy recipe and it doesn't turn out well. They will blame themselves and be loathe to try again, wasting time and ingredients. A good recipe should explain clearly, and the quantities & method should be tested, tested and tested again. It must work, perfectly, every time!

Ok, rant over! These turned out well in the end...smelt & tasted good...I think they look lovely too.

Friday tomorrow....and those Giveaway results. If you didn't post a comment on Saturday but would still like to be entered in the draw, then I'll take any new names today and add those to the entrants too. There is a little extra food related surprise to add to the package I'll be sending out - all will be revealed with the name of the lucky winner tomorrow!

Have a wonderful day, thanks for reading...I'll see you in the morning! xo

Everyone's an individual...

and I find that individual - or mini - cakes are what sell best at the coffee shop. Scones, muffins, slices, brownies, squares...something that doesn't have to be cut in front of you, but feels like it was made just for your plate, to accompany your cup of tea...

So today, I made the ultimate in single serving sized cakes...

mini Victoria Sponges...ooh, I was so proud of these! Don't they look cute?

here's a close up. I made the vanilla butter sponge cake as a sheet and cut out the rounds with a biscuit cutter...then sandwiched them with home made raspberry jam and cream cheese vanilla frosting before dusting them with a little icing sugar.
The beautiful paper cups they rest in are from a lovely, bright & pretty store in Marylebone, Central London, called Totally Swedish. They have a wonderful, though expensive, range of beautiful baking cups that I can't resist even though they're actually too big for the tins I have! These are printed with violets.....

and these with an array of coloured flowers on a black ground...gorgeous and they make good holders for these cakes, I think!

So, there you have it...a little Victoria Sponge, made just for YOU!!

I'm having a different kind of day tomorrow - so looking forward to it and I'll let you know all about it soon. There will be a baking post though, of course....

Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you're enjoying the Year of Blue Angel Baking so far....

xo

One of those nights...

Last night, I went to bed at a reasonable hour. My body was tired, but my brain was still buzzing....I'm writing a lot at the moment and I find it so hard to switch off the flow of ideas and words. As the church clock struck midnight, I gave up & came downstairs for a hot cup of Earl Grey tea. Still no luck. So I decided to be productive and bake The Coffee Tree's morning order while I waited!

It was time well spent, as it meant that I could do something a little more involved than the recipe I'd originally planned, as there was plenty of time for it to cool and settle down (I find that everything except muffins, scones & other breakfast breads needs a 'settling' period!)

Even at 2.30am, this White Coconut Cake with Fresh Lime Coconut Cream Frosting smelt very good....it's a close textured and very (hated word) moist cake that keeps well as long as it's well wrapped or stored in an airtight tin.

I kept a small slice back (they only request 9 portions of everything - I gave them 11, so I figured it was ok!) and have just eaten it after a long, cold, blustery walk across the hills with Alice...it was, though I say so myself, totally delicious!
But tonight, I think I'll sleep instead and save the baking for the morning! I was thankful to my sweet Twitter friend, Rosinda, for keeping me company last night while I waited for the cake to cook...it can feel very lonely & dark in the wee small hours, but I had her cheerful words for company & knowing she was out there really helped!

Wishing you a wonderful Monday....and a very good and restful night's sleep! xo

The Amazing Artichoke

Old Amersham has always held a special place in my heart. It's an historic and beautiful small market town....I was born and brought up very nearby and it was always a special treat to visit the interesting High Street as a child. I'd spend my pocket money in places now long gone...Scoops, The Daisy Shop...and we'd love to imagine the way it would have looked in it's heyday (not difficult - I'm sure that not much has changed, architecturally speaking!)

It is also the place that I started my professional cooking career. As a 17 year old schoolgirl, I became a Sunday 'washer-up' at the long gone but much missed (and not just by me, I'm sure) Willow Tree Restaurant. A few years later, after much more part-time work there and as a relieved 'drop-out' from university (something I've never regretted) I became Head Chef . In a lot of ways, those years were among the happiest of my working life - certainly until I owned my own business. I learned so much in those hectic, happy, affluent days of the late 1980's....and I'm forever grateful to Carol & Mark, my bosses, who placed a lot of faith in me at a young age and gave me such amazing training.

So, I still love visiting the town. And Paul & I have a good reason to do so, as it has for a few years contained one of our very favourite 'formal' restaurants, and certainly the best one outside London that we know.

The Artichoke is the place we choose if we feel like brightening up the day, as we did yesterday when we headed there for lunch. It's run by a husband and wife team, Laurie & Jackie Gear - he is the chef and she heads the front of house team.

The restaurant is small (in my day, it was a newsagents!) but beautifully designed to be light and luxurious and so never feels cramped. Service is impeccable without being intrusive, and there are touches of humour too which make customers feel welcome and at home. If you've been before, they will remember you...and any special requests or dietary requirements you may have, which is very rare outside big cities, I find. It all adds to a wonderfully pampering and relaxed experience. But it's the food that really sets it apart...

Light, fresh, seasonal, vibrant....my starter of jerusalem artichoke a la grecque, leeks, green beans,truffle mayonnaise,artichoke crisps, toasted hazelnuts and hazelnut vinaigrette will stay in my foodie memory for a long time to come. I could eat it every day.

Above is Paul's main course - breast of wild duck with spiced pastilla of confit duck leg (the little parcels on the right), butternut squash fondant, candied kumquats & pine nuts and coxes orange pippin apple sauce. He had the biggest smile on his face while eating it..and was quite quiet for once too! My main course was a picture perfect plate of white onion mousse with lots of beautiful, intricate vegetables (unfortunately I deleted the photograph!) and made such a change to the ubiquitous nondescript cheese-filled dishes that I'm usually offered. And the desserts...

the picture doesn't do justice to my plate of orange compote, vanilla ice cream, warm madelines & orange salad...which sounds fairly simple, but was a complex dish of preserved, candied and fresh oranges, with a hidden & wonderful surprise in the ice cream pyramid!

Paul hardly ever has a pudding, but succumbed to this pear & caramelised white chocolate galette with poire william sorbet - he wouldn't give me a taste, which shows how good it must have been...

The courses are not huge, but we always find that they are just enough. I hate to leave a meal feeling too full, it's something that really puts me off...and I also dislike wasting food and leaving lots on the plate. Never a problem here.

With my 3-course set lunch at £25, it also offers terrific value for this level of service and well considered, perfectly executed cooking.

The Artichoke - I have a feeling it will always be on our Top 5 list. Highly recommended. 10/10

The weekend...and a Saturday Giveaway!

Welcome to Saturday! I'm a little late posting today, as Paul & I have just come back from a fantastic lunch...of which more tomorrow. As the only day I don't deliver is Sunday, I've designated that to be my review day - or sometimes a rest one!

But this morning, which was dull and grey...although it cleared and now is beautiful with the tiniest of silver 'fingernail' moons just showing...I baked for The Coffee Tree as usual. Saturdays are a little different in that usually they are my only order of the day....so I drop the goodies off, grab a coffee, and head home - all done by 9am, and the weekend is mine!

First I made a tray of Pistachio Sour Cherry Bars.The middle of toasted pistachios,dried sour cherries & milk chocolate chips with caramel sauce is sandwiched between two crunchy oaty & quite plain layers....

I think you can just see the contrast in colour and texture in these pictures...it's quite hard to capture! I made them last night as they need a few hours to settle and set properly.
Then came a batch of Double Cheese & Fresh Chive Scones...

I made these as late as possible so that they were still warm when I delivered...the smell when the lid came off the box was amazing! I must confess that with the little bit of mixture that was left, I made a few miniatures to have at home....I don't have a really sweet tooth any more, but cheese is a different matter...!

especially with the slight onion flavour imparted by the snipped chives...mmm.

So that's a week of deliveries! And now to my first foodie giveaway...
It was quite hard to choose something that would appeal to those who maybe don't cook so much, but still enjoy reading about it. In the end I came up with the following - I hope I got it right!

This lovely memoir with recipes tells of Colette Rossant's life as a Frenchwoman in 1955, newly married to an American and just arrived in Manhattan to start their life together. Bemused by US customs, language and food...it's a sweet, funny and interesting book. I especially loved her discovery of the authentic ethnic delis and foodmarkets that were still so independent and individual then...it's fascinating. So there's that...
and also:

these two dear little blue & white 'yin & yang' dishes....with fish decorations. I've long used them on the dinner table when we're entertaining as they're great for putting seasalt flakes in one half & cracked pepper in the other....but maybe oil & balsamic vinegar? Or salted pistachios & peanuts? Anyway, the choice will lie with the winner!

This little bundle will wing it's way to someone who leaves me a comment after this post between now & next Friday,14th. I'll draw the winning name when I return from my Coffee Tree delivery on Friday morning and announce the winner in that day's post!

Good luck , thanks so much for reading - and I hope you have a wonderful weekend xx