Many meals...

I've been meaning to write this post all week! So much to do...so many brownies to bake. I was musing on the fact that I still get quite excited by making tray after tray of them after 8 years...I decided that it was a good sign to keep doing what I'm doing!
The ones above were baked especially for my parents Golden Wedding celebrations last weekend...toasted pecan with lots of gold glitter!
On Good Friday, I traditionally bake something for our neighbours as an Easter gift. Last year it was hot cross buns. This time, I made loaves of the Colomba Pasqualina mixture that I described in my last post. I left them to rise slowly overnight and baked them first thing on Friday morning...then wrapped and delivered them to 6 houses while still warm...

It was a surprise...and everyone was very pleased & delighted! I have had some beautiful 'thank-you' cards this week. We have two sets of next door neighbours...the wonderful gentleman to our right is in his '90's, dapper & sprightly. He answered the door in his floor length, satin edged dressing gown & elegant velvet slippers....perfect!

Mum & Dad's party went so well, too, on Easter Saturday. 18 of their closest friends & family gathered for lunch cooked by moi. Of course, I was too busy to take pictures....& I confess that I actually forgot until it was too late - except for dessert!

I planned a middle-eastern inspired feast...as it is our family's favourite region for food. Nigella Lawson's Sephardi Roast Lamb, Sticky Garlic Potatoes & Involtini (all taken from her fabulous book 'Feast') & Ottolenghi's French Bean & Mange Touts with Hazelnuts & Orange plus (slightly adapted) Fennel & Pomegranate Salad with Sumac...I made an extra side dish of the jewelled rice stuffing from the lamb, so that everyone could have more. It looked and tasted absolutely gorgeous!

Puddings...

Fresh raspberry almond tart with creme fraiche...

those brownies....

and, of course,

a special cake! I am the first to admit that the decorations here are not the most sophisticated I have produced...but my almost-4-year-old nephew was very eager to help...& I know that it meant all the more to my parents for that haphazard sprinkling of the glitter by their youngest grandson!

The flavour was lemon - a special request from my Mum - filled with home-made lemon curd. Light & delicious and the perfect end to a memorable celebration!

Last night we had a couple of close friends over for dinner - my favourite kind of evening. Easy & relaxed & fun - and I wanted the food to reflect that. So I cooked some 'real Mexican' from Thomasina Miers' lovely book 'Mexican Food made simple'. Lamb Barbecoa (a slow-cooked dish with the complex flavours of smoky ancho chilis, very dark chocolate & red wine amongst others) Green Rice (a revelation...a paste of onion, garlic, fresh coriander & flat leaf parsley is used to add a beautiful jade colour and fresh taste to simple rice - I will be using this a lot) & a pickled 'slaw' accompaniment made from white cabbage, radishes & red onion sliced paper-thin and dressed with olive oil, sherry vinegar, more coriander & my own addition of pomegranate molasses...which cut through the rich, strong flavours of the lamb beautifully.

Afterwards, Ottolenghi's Chocolate Fudge Cake which is a deep, dark yet mousse-y flourless confection that sparked many compliments (from the first book, Ottolenghi The Cookbook) Highly recommended & very simple to make. I added some pecans crumbled on top before the final baking, for a little crunch (I can never resist tweaking recipes, as you'll have noticed!)

So, I collected my new supply of brownie chocolate on Friday...100kg, in large, white sacks of 25kg each. They will last me about 4 weeks at this busy time of year...so I'd better get on with it!

Wishing you a wonderful week xo

A day's work...or two!

On Tuesday, I had my stall on the monthly Farmer's Market here in town...and for a change it was a wonderful day! We worked out that the last 6 have all been wet...which makes a huge difference both to trade and to a stallholder's morale!
I am incredibly busy at the moment all around...Charlie the Coffeeman's wonderful 'real' coffee trailer is now being seen at all the top horse eventing trials...Gatcombe last weekend, Somerley Park at the beginning of this week...and where Charlie & his coffee go, my brownies & other delights go along too! Trays & trays of them...

Although I make so many, I still enjoy the process...perhaps because I make them entirely by hand, so I feel very connected to them - does that make sense?
I make several different kinds...the ones above are my Walnut Fudge...

Double Chocolate - my bestseller. They should really be called Triple Chocolate, as they contain dark, milk & white...but they've been known as 'Double Chocs' for so long that I think it would confuse everyone!

Caramel Chocolate are fairly new...they have a rich caramel sauce swirled through them...

And for the Farmer's Market, I always have a 'Brownie of the Month' to tempt regular customers...

March's offering was...

Easter Egg! I know it's a little early (& the wrong month) but this was the nearest market to the holiday. There was a thick, shiny layer of chocolate ganache on top of these and they contained milk chocolate 'mini eggs' as well as the one on top!

I wanted to carry the Easter theme through the market offerings, so I tried a new recipe (to me) for Colomba Pasquale. For those not familiar with it, it's a rich,sweet & citrussy yeasted cake that's traditional in Italy...formed in the shape of a dove (la colomba!) Very like Panettone, but with no raisins/sultanas and with a crisp, almondy sugary crusted glaze. Delicious!

It took all day to make. Not because it's particularly difficult...but there are 3 stages to the dough...and lots of rising time needed (10 hours in total!) It was worth it though...

Lovely smooth buttery dough...

The finished article - it was baked in a traditional italian 'colomba' paper mould. I have to say that the 'dove' shape has become a little simplified through the ages...but that's the idea anyway!

The middle (I made several including one to test!) was soft, beautifully textured and studded with candied peel...

The outside was crusty & with a lovely crunch from the almonds & nibbed sugar...

The recipe is too long to reproduce...but if you are interested, I found it on the blog of the wonderful company that produces the paper moulds (and many other wonderful hard to find baking products) Bakery Bits

Also for the market, I baked some Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cakes (always a big seller)

and some trays of fresh Plum & Almond Shortbread

So, when I had set up and arranged the stall on Tuesday morning, it all looked beautiful I think...

I 'dressed up' the Colombas in cellophane & ribbons in case they were bought as a gift...

and the selling began. The day went very well...by 2 o'clock, the tables looked quite sad & almost bare...

Still brownies left...but I always make plenty and these platters had been replenished about 5 times!

Let's hope the great weather continues (but some night rain would be good...we are going into drought conditions, with a hosepipe ban coming into force on April 5th)

I wanted to show you  the little Mother's Day cake I made for my darling Mum too...it was a zingy lemon & lime with homemade lemon curd in the middle. Not a huge spectacular one, because we are a small family and no one likes rich, creamy cakes...

but it was perfect for Mum - and that's what counts after all!

I hope your week is busy and filled with sunshine too...now, I'd better get back to the kitchen!

xoxo

A cake mountain....!

 It's been too long since my last post...a combination of being really busy & having my sister and her children visiting from Australia....but I've been taking photos along the way, so it's time for a bit of a catch up! These Blackberry & Apple Crumble Slices were on the menu at The Coffee Tree in mid-September...while the weather was autumnal (it's been in the 80's for the past week....although cooler today)

and then I devised some Caramel Walnut Shortbread Bars...

I halved the sugar in the shortbread part, to offset the gooey sweetness of the caramel...yum!

Another old favourite was on the cake stand last weekend - my most requested cake, Mango & Coconut...

it's the one that everyone remembers....I think maybe because the cake is white & soft & very coconutty...and it contrasts so beautifully with the vivid orange of the mango puree. Whatever it is, it's always greeted with 'oohs' & 'aahs'....which is the sound you grow to love when delivering cakes!

At the end of September, our local council holds a Breast Cancer Awareness day in the town....and for the past two years, I've supplied 100+ pink-iced cupcakes which are given away in the street during the morning. Luckily, my beloved sister Esther was around this year and took over the decorating duties - anything goes, as long as it's pink!

Thanks Est!

Some of the muffins I've made recently were the Plum & Almond delights that I've posted many times before, taken from Ottolenghi's first cookbook (always gorgeous, especially at this time when the plums are at their peak) I also baked these...

Peach & Raspberry Muffins, to use up the last of the late summer fruits. Ripe peaches bake beautifully, I think...

and so I also use them in this Blueberry Peach Bakewell Pudding, which I make as a dessert for a local pub, The Crown

it's gluten-free,too, which I find is becoming an essential option on menus and the market stall these days...so many people have a gluten or wheat allergy or intolerance. This dessert is delicate & delicious...so no one will feel they've missed out!

I was sorely tempted by this Hazelnut Chocolate Shortbread...made with ground hazelnuts and topped with a dark chocolate ganache. (Almost) irresistible - it's lucky that it was for an order. A hole in the middle of the tray is a big giveaway...!

While my sister was busy decorating the pink cupcakes, I was fully occupied too...wrapping 200 Double Chocolate Brownies in cellophane and tying with silver & pale blue ribbons. These were a special order for a wedding...our friends, Olly & Claire were married on September 25th...and these were to be take home gifts for their guests...

they glittered with silver & pastel blue too (it doesn't photograph well, for some reason) Paul & I delivered them in London, in two enormous boxes...200 brownies are incredibly heavy! But the wedding went beautifully, I'm very happy to say...and Claire told me that the brownies helped to make it a wonderful day!

Banana Cake is always a favourite. My niece & nephews adore bananas, which are currently incredibly expensive in Australia (they are grown there in the Northern Territory & the crop has been badly affected by weather this year) So while they were here, they ate as many as they could! I was left with some overripe ones in the fruitbowl...and this was the result...

frosted with cream cheese. Lovely.

Chocolate & orange is such a classic combination (although one of the customers on my market stall was eager to tell me that 'they don't go together, love'!!) and I put them together again for this gorgeous cake...

that didn't last long at The Coffee Tree!

Last Tuesday was Farmer's Market day...I had two fabulous helpers in the shape of my niece, Scout & my oldest nephew, Kip...they did brilliantly, taking the money & sending everyone off with a cheery 'enjoy your cake!' My brownie of the month for September was...

Toasted Pecan & Caramel. It was VERY popular! I even tried a little myself (almost unprecedented!)

I adore pecans (actually all nuts) but one of my other very favourite cake flavours is lemon....

and this was a lemon & poppyseed layer cake, filled with fresh lemon curd...

and finished with a lemon glace frosting. Oh. My. Goodness.!

Almost the end now!! This was a fabulous creation (though I say so myself....ahem)

Coffee Caramel Cake. Coffee sponge, with espresso buttercream and a homemade caramel spread that dripped artistically...

and looked, I think, very enticing!

So that's it - a potted history of the past month. Of course, I baked lots more...but mostly trays & trays of brownies, flapjacks & carmelita bars...not very interesting to post. Let's call these the highlights!

I'll finish with a tribute to my beautiful 9 year old niece, Scout. She was so helpful during the time she was here...usually awake first and always eager to lend a hand with deliveries. She also illustrated some of the labels to go with the Coffee Tree cakes for me...

I created Australia Slice for her, and for her brothers. Delightful children. I miss them so very much now that they are, once again, 12,000 miles and 24 hours away.

But life goes on...and so does the baking!

Happy week to everyone...it's great to be back xx