My second home...

The Coffee Tree delivery today was Sultana Scones...tasted lovely but I've shown you my scones before & I thought they didn't look special enough to warrant a whole post! So instead, I thought that I'd introduce you to my work kitchen. This is the view I look out on when I'm washing up! I think I said before that the industrial park that it's built on is a former WW2 airfield. It's surrounded by farm land and we're lucky that the unit is at the far end of the site...so it backs right onto rural green! Rabbits regularly put on a display for me on this patch of grass...so cute!

Inside is big and spacious and full of stainless steel! I actually took lots more photos than this, but not having the hang of my new phone completely yet....for some reason they didn't all download correctly! Duh..still, here's a feeling. You can see 2 big bowls of the ingredients for Apricot & Ginger Flapjacks. I have the Farmer's Market tomorrow and another big order for the end of the week. In the past 2 days I've made 72 trays (approx 9 servings to each tray) which will probably be enough. But it all depends on how tomorrow goes!

I finished by making 120 cheddar scones. I have so many regular customers at the stall who just come for these...so I have to bake plenty!

Busy days...but I love to be occupied. I'm happy in my little unit, radio on, gas humming, bowls and ovens full of good smells & mixtures. How lucky I am that I get to do what I love every day and get paid for it! I try to never take it for granted.

Hoping you've had a wonderful day too xoxo

Upside Down Cakes!

11 days since my last Brownie's for Mozart post...it's been so annoying, wanting to blog and not having the equipment. Modern technology is SO fantastic...the only problem is that we come to rely on it for so much. When it fails...it's like a cloud of fog descending. Nothing feels right. I'm just so lucky that I got a new 'smartphone' recently, so I've been able to keep up a little with the online world. And compared to the tragedies in first New Zealand and then Japan...not to mention man-made horrors unfolding in Libya as I write...I guess that puts it all in perspective a little.

Just to continue the theme of computer blues....

ok, this is weird...good, but weird! The photos that I took of just a few of my creations this past week-&-a-bit all came out upside down! Hence the title to this post. I just thought that I'd write it anyway to get started again. And hey presto...when I downloaded to the blog, they're the right way up! Who knows how these things work? Not me, obviously....I'll just hold my breath & thank goodness that something worked at last!

Above is a Whipped Cream Strawberry Cake. It's from Rose Levy Berenbaum...an amazing recipe as it contains no butter! Just whipped cream. It made a beautiful, moist, white cake...I filled it with mascarpone cream, home made strawberry preserves and fresh strawberries too...a breath of early Summer in March - felt wonderful!

This was my own recipe...Toasted Pecan cake. Ground pecan vanilla sponge inside, sandwiched with vanilla buttercream and covered in more toasted pecans. I ADORE pecans, and even though I didn't get to eat any of this cake, I just love to think about it! It sold out fast...

Last Monday I made Cinnamon Rolls. I've never made them before but I'll be doing so again...and often! They are flavoured with cardamom and filled with brown sugar, unsalted butter & lots of cinnamon. Heaven. I did make an extra few...took them to my parents where my Mum, youngest sister & 3 year old nephew devoured them over coffee while catching up on news. We did leave a little for my Dad - but it was difficult! I shared the recipe with my lovely friend Joann from The Girl Gets Real and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out for her!

So that's a little catch up. But I'm back on line for good now (famous last words...) so I'll see you tomorrow!

Thanks for coming back - I hope you've had a great weekend xo

Rachel's Little Helpers...

A slightly different post today. I thought you might like to see some of the thingsI find essential in my home kitchen...things I'd be lost without! The first is my gas hob...for years I struggled with electricity...so slow to react, so inconsistent. Finally, when we built our new kitchen (9 years ago - wow!) I got my dream. Gas hob and electric oven...perfection!

Cranberry isn't essential! Any colour will do...but I now wonder what I ever did without my Kitchenaid mixer! So versatile, so strong and SO beautiful!

Cups. These were a wonderful present, and are collapsible which makes them so easy to wash & store. I have other sets too. Indispensable for all those amazing American & Australian baking recipes...

My fantastic and enormously heavy granite pestle & mortar. I use it for so many things....from crushing large quantities of garlic & ginger for curries to pounding spices to breaking up hazelnuts or almonds.Looks beautiful enough to leave on display but is SO functional too.

Pyrex. The name makes me think of my grandma...and I'm sure she found it as useful as I still do. Bowls, of course. But my measuring jug is one of the things I use most often. For measuring milk when making muffins & scones and for melting chocolate or butter in the microwave...a great product.

Measuring spoons. Again, I have many sets. How did I ever do without these? Just so important for accurate measuring of raising agents and flavourings..and I love the tactile feel of them too.

Finally, my offset spatula. I have lots of these and they're something I use all the time in my work kitchen too. So useful in so many ways...loosening biscuits & cookies from baking sheets, smoothing the top of cake & brownie mixture, running around the edges of cakes before turning out...and indispensable for decorating cakes, swirling frosting, spreading jam. If you're serious about baking, you NEED at least one of these!

So that's my list - did I leave any of your favourites out? I'd love to know!

Happy Wednesday xoxo

A Taste of Paradise

That isn't as arrogant as it sounds! Today's offering to the Coffee Tree was actually called...

Paradise Slice! It's an old fashioned recipe...rich almond shortbread on the bottom, a thick layer of raspberry jam and then a moist coconut sponge on top. It's delicious and very popular...

and I never change or fiddle with this recipe as it's such a favourite and perfect just the way it is!

I've been so busy this week and it will get busier. My biggest customer has a mobile coffee trailer (a very upmarket one, with a proper Italian machine) that travels to all the major horse eventing trials in the season which is from early March to early November. He takes my brownies, flapjacks and other things with him (I'm happy to say!) but it means I don't often stop during the day.

This is one corner of the first order of the season, completed yesterday. The first event starts on Friday so it'll be full steam ahead now until the end of October. Yesterday I went to pick up 100kg chocolate (yes, 100kg!) That will last about 3 weeks but I don't have space at the kitchen to store more...

I love being so busy and feeling that sense of satisfaction that comes from a completed order delivered on time!

I hope your week has started well too xoxo

A few delights...

My weeks seem to be getting busier and busier...can you believe it's almost March already? Unbelievable to me. It's time to change the tone of my baking a little...not too Spring-like yet, but moving away from the very comforting, heavier cakes...slowly, slowly.
Yesterday, I made a tray of Cardamom Orange Cake with a cream cheese frosting...

Cardamom is a beautiful, warm and underused spice which goes perfectly with fresh orange. This smelt gorgeous.

Next, an Espresso Walnut Cake with Vanilla frosting...I replaced quite a proportion of the flour with ground walnuts to lighten and moisten the mixture and to make sure that there was a really good walnut flavour. Coffee is a natural partner...I used espresso, to make it slightly darker and more sophisticated than my usual Coffee & Walnut Cake. No filling in this one either...just the vanilla buttercream on top, with a sprinkle of espresso and broken walnuts to finish...
Today, as it's half-term here, I wanted a child pleaser for the Coffee Tree. I came up with this creation...

Caramel Peanut Shortbread. Another one that I had to make and deliver VERY quickly before I devoured it! Crisp, buttery polenta shortbread....caramel & peanut butter filling, topped with roasted salty peanuts and, finally, dark chocolate ganache....

oh I'm so glad that it's not still here!

Hoping your Thursday is as lovely as mine...and that you make time for a treat somewhere, somehow xo

.

The week starts here...

and on this grey, cold and rainy Monday morning, I delivered these Little Pear & Hazelnut Cakes to the warm and welcoming fug of the Coffee Tree!

They are layers of toasted hazelnut sponge with tiny dice of fresh pear stirred through the cake mixture....sandwiched with a vanilla cream cheese frosting and no-sugar pear conserve and finished with a little more frosting and a toasted whole hazelnut!

I adore hazelnuts....but, bizarrely, they're not everyone's cup of tea baking-wise. So I thought that 'pear-ing' (sorry!!) them with this gently flavoured fruit might help them in the popularity stakes today! I think they look beautiful...and the sponge offcuts tasted so good that I had to make sure that I gave them to the birds very quickly before I wolfed down the lot! So a good start.
This is something that doesn't happen very often, but as it's my 50th Baking Brownies for Mozart post...
Paul insisted on taking a picture of me with my creations. And I'm posting it to keep him happy!

I'd love you to come into my kitchen and share a large cup of hot tea with me...but this may be the nearest we get for a while!
Happy Monday...xoxo

A Plum Cake...

Sorry I haven't posted much this week but Paul took the camera with him to Cumbria...and if you take a look at my other blog you'll hopefully be glad that he did!

Anyway, he got back last night...happy to be home and just in time for me to photograph today's Coffee Tree delivery...

It's an upside down Golden Plum & Blueberry Cake.

There's caramel there too...it's a little like a cake version of a Tarte Tatin.

The juices from the plums & purple berries sink into the vanilla sponge and make it very moist & delicious. I've played around and made this with all sorts of fruits...it's especially good with peaches or apricots in summer...and you can also vary the flavour of the cake itself - so maybe a lemon sponge with fresh raspberries or an orange one with rhubarb...I think it would also be lovely served warm with cream as a dessert.
Whichever way I make it, it's a favourite at the coffee shop!

Enjoy your weekend....and eat well! We're off to London to revisit brand new restaurant Nopi in Soho. I was lucky enough to be invited to one of the opening nights on Monday evening...and I want Paul to try it too, so we'll be there for lunch tomorrow. I can't wait!! xo