Thursday 7 April 2011

A happy accident...

Today is such a gorgeous, warm sunny day...hardly like early April at all. If it weren't for the lack of leaves on some of the trees, I'd be convinced it was late May. To celebrate I made this Sunshine Orange Drizzle Cake for the Coffee Tree this morning. Flavoured with orange zest, soaked in orange syrup while still warm and then finsihed with an orange sugar glaze. When I took the lid off the delivery box we all 'aahhed' as we breathed in the smell!

Sometimes, a mistake can turn into something unexpectedly good. So it was when I created these Pecan Caramel Custard Bars...
I was going to make something completely different, and began to make my favourite caramel sauce. I boiled the sugar and water, and when I had a beautiful burnished brown colour & that unmistakeable toffee smell, I added double cream. But in my enthusiasm, I added far too much! I was left with a thick, creamy caramel custard that would never have done for what I'd intended...but of course, i couldn't waste it! I'd already made a shortbread base, so I toasted some pecan nuts I had....added some egg yolks to the custard ...added the nuts and poured it over the cooked shortbread before baking it for around half an hour at a low temperature. It turned out perfectly...smooth and rich and the caramel went perfectly with the pecans.

The recipe is now going in my book! You'll know the story behind it ...it proves that sometimes it can be good to make mistakes!

Have a great day xoxo

8 comments:

  1. What a neat post! Looking forward for more post from you. Thank you for sharing!

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  2. I truly enjoyed reading your post today! I love how you turned a "mistake" into something totally wonderful! So happy the recipe is going in your book and we will all know the story behind it. Your Sunshine Orange Drizzle Cake is stunning! What a perfect name for it too! What size of cake pan do you usually make your cakes in? They always look so tall and beautiful! Enjoy the rest of your gorgeous day! xo

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  3. Some of the most wonderful inventions came from mistakes so this, my dear, is just like that---something brand new! Never tasted before!! It looks sinful---I wish I could ZOOM in on it!! I'm so so happy you have warm sunshine!! That is lovely---go outside and have yourself a bit of it!! (well, I hope you did!) xx

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  4. Hi Rosinda! I make my cakes in a 10" pan...they have to serve 12 generously for the coffee shop, so I make them biiig!! xx Joann...I did indeed get to be outside thsi afternoon - and it's set to be as beautiful all weekend, yay! x

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  5. Your cakes look very springy...
    Have you got a date yet for the book and can we pre-order? all in the intrests of final testing you know.
    Enjoy the sunshine xxx

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  6. It looks delicious. I can never make proper cakes, I only create what I call "catastrophy cakes".

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  7. Beautiful as always. Those lucky accident bars look like candy. I am hungry. Wish I had that orange cake and then it could pretend to be breakfast. And an over the top beyond mistake goodness bar for dessert. Clearly hunger has made me goofy (ier than usual).

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  8. Thank you for your comments over at Like it or Lump it. Will give you a call next time I'm down, would be good to meet up. xx

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