Time to make the doughnuts - Part 2

Deep fried deliciousness

Last year I forayed into the wild wander of the baked doughnut.  It was good, real good.  And I was even able to tuck the "guilt" under my crumb and sugar filled napkin because well, after all - we all know "baked" foods are healthy, right?

This week finds me home in the US for the holidays, tucked into 54 Lakeside Ave and trying to unwind into relaxation with some baking, eating, drinking and (of course) shopping.  So where to start?...catching up on the much missed pumpkin season (they don't really do the pumpkin spice excitement in the UK).  First up out of the kitchen... some pumpkin-spiced doughnuts. These are finger-lickin' good but the recommendation is to get a whole lotta fingers to eat them.  Even cutting the recipe in half I managed to make 16 doughnuts.  With just Mama Cupcakes and I in the house over the past couple days - that's been a whole lotta doughnut for 2 people.  On the positive side of things we've done well stretching our bellies in preparation for Christmukah festivities coming up tomorrow.  Stay tuned...there's a caramel pecan and chocolate tart cooling on my kitchen counter and if I have one more notch on my belt available for loosening...then I plan on some gingerbread and white chocolate blondies too...

p.s. recipe was great as is, but I made a few adjustments...skipped the doughnut holes and just made more of the regular ones.  also, replaced milk for cream, and used some toasted pecans on top of some of the glaze.

Seasonal musings

DirtyWorms

Timing hasn't always been my strong suit.

At the moment I've just finished cleaning my flat.  The taxi to the airport is ordered (don't be jealous, but YES I am so lucky to be able to travel for work on a Sunday).  So I'm left with a quandary, use these few hours to try and catch up on a back-log of blogs I've been meaning to write or try and get some Christmukah shopping in.  Knowing how little time I have before I head stateside I was leaning towards attempting the insanity of Oxford Street.  Then, remembering I've been complaining this week about being run-down because I'm always, well... running around - I opted for my mental and physical well being instead.

But the reason I'm finding things quite funny at the moment is that while I'm sat here listening to Christmas music and eating my leftover makeshift Thanksgiving dinner (pathetically made around 10 pm Thursday night), I present you with my Halloween themed cupcakes.  So much for separation of candy corn, candied yams, and candy canes.

I present to you:

Dirty Worms Cupcakes (devil's food cake* with peanut butter frosting**)

* I replaced the recipe's sour cream with reduced fat creme fraiche
**Cream and cream cheese make this frosting one of the best "eat by the spoonful" varieties I've had in a long time

To give it the Halloween effect I just ground up chocolate wafer cookies and used some juicy little gummy worms in and around them.  Mmmm, delicious.

Monthful / Mouthful of Birthdays

Chocolate & Buttermilk Birthday Cupcakes

Half Dressed Churros con Chocolate Cupcakes

Double chocolate mouse cake

This weekend was the fourth in a row where the plans revolved around a birthday.  As a lover of repeatedly turning 29, the first two were celebrating mine, followed by Miss IS and Mr. TS both turning 30 (for REAL) over the past few weeks.

Needless to say there has been a steady stream of confection coming out of my kitchen and into my mouth.  On the actual birthday weekend I was able to celebrate at an appropriately themed (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) GP Koko party complete with 1800 lovely wig wearing attendees singing me and GP (or Sean as you would have it) happy birthday.  It was the best Z-lister experience a girl could ever wish for! 

Clearly my cupcakes were centred on the birthday theme, and sticking with some ol’ fashioned traditions I went with the vanilla buttermilk cupcakes that I've written about before (thank you Madame Stewart) with rich and delicious chocolate sour cream frosting.  Add some colourful sprinkles, candles and cute little marzipan cakes (yep, made those too) and voila! – the perfect way to kick off the birthday celebrations!

I followed up the next afternoon (the actual BIRTHday) with a lovely day being spoiled at a London Fashion Weekend event (vintage makeover – HELLO!) and champagne afternoon tea at the Churchill Lounge at the Hyatt Regency.  Tip: head here for cocktails or champagne only, the cakes left a lot to be desired. I ended up going home and eating one of the leftovers from the night before.  Naughty, I know, but we all know the universal rule that calories do not count on your birthday. 

Keeping the festivities going a little bit longer I hosted a party at my flat the following weekend, which centred on a ‘C’ theme…

C-hampagne

C-anapes

C-ocktails

C-ake

In addition to the assortment of dips, crudités, antipasti, & breads I bought, I made:

Pork dumplings

Vegetarian spring rolls

Courgette and feta fritters

Asian mini fish cakes with pickled ginger (the recipe calls for crab, I used hake)

SPOILER ALERT: I don’t always make EVERYTHING from scratch. Sometimes in order to save a bit of sanity you need to apply some common sense and in my case it came in the form of the pork dumplings and spring rolls.  I can claim I MADE them because they were completely uncooked when I started.  Purchased in a Chinatown supermarket the previous weekend these frozen little gems were both cheap and easy to make.  The spring rolls were fried and the dumplings were pan seared and then steamed to perfection.  Both I did the night before and then just reheated in the oven with my other canapés.  

Now, on to the evening’s desserts…ahem, none of these were outsourced thank you very much.

1. Double chocolate mousse cake with raspberries
2. Churros con chocolate cupcakes
3. Carrot cake sandwich cookies with cream cheese filling
4. Chocolate peanut butter bites

Shall I break it all down for you?

1. Double chocolate mousse cake - updated off of http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Tangerine-Mousse-Cake-1094 (I used my fool-proof chocolate brownie recipe as the base)

Easy as pie to make, it's a hostess's dream as it's simple, can (and should) be made the night before and any leftovers (it's quite rich so a little sliver will do) freeze well.

2. Churros con chocolate cupcakes

These guys were my favourite desert of the night.  I mean what's not to love about cinnamony deliciousness and chocolate?  While there weren't any actual churros in the recipe (I still have a fry baby on my Santa wish-list), it's inspiration could be found in the brown sugar and cinnamon cupcakes (a light and fluffy recipe I've used before), the mexican chocolate pudding surprise when you bit into the middle (hollow out a 1-1.5 inch section from the middle of the cupcake and fill with pudding), and some sprinkled demura sugar on the top of cinnamon and chocolate whipped cream frosting (whip 2 cups cream with 1/3 cup powdered sugar until stiff peaks form and gently fold in some cinnamon and cocoa powder to taste).  Pipe on top before adding the demura.  So much yumminess, so many textures, so little time.

3. Carrot cake sandwich cookies with cream cheese filling  A variation on the classic cake, appropriately sized for individual consumption.

4. Chocolate peanut butter bites

The chocolate and peanut butter bites were a last minute addition (because really, I just wasn't sure I had enough).  Crunchy peanut butter was mixed into melted white chocolate and spread into a rectangular pan.  I chilled it for a little bit and then after melting dark chocolate and a bit of cream (ganache anyone?) I spread that on top of the white chocolate mixture.  Next, I added little mini peanut butter cups on top (this would work just as well with any other sort of topping - M&Ms, marshmallows, peanuts...you get the picture).  After refridgerating it for another 45 minutes or so I cut them up into little bite sized pieces.

It wasn't until I served the desserts that in a blink of an eye I saw that there was only one more of these peanut butter chocolate nuggets left (I was repeatedly told that for a few it was their favourite dessert of the night).  Having not even tried them yet I quickly and greedily snatched the last one up and hid it in my microwave (I was already so full there just wasn't any more room in my belly).  It was my pre-breakfast snack the next morning.  So easy to make and such a winner, I see many reasons I'll be making these much more often.  In fact...might do so right now!

End of summer blues (and rasps and currants)

Berry Blondie Batter

Sliced and Diced

How does mother mature know that when the calendar turns September 1^st we automatically need to start thinking  – wool jumpers, tights, and boots?*  Forever in denial of this fact (I won’t be swapping over my spring/summer wardrobe for fall/winter at least until October**) I concocted some late summer berry blondie bars to capture the essence of the lingering summer days.

I started with a blondie recipe from one of my favourite all-time butter packed cookbook’s, Foster’s Market. However, wanting to summer-fy it up, to the batter I added a trio of berries (blueberries, raspberries, currants) as well as an extra cup of white chocolate (in addition to the semisweet chocolate the recipe already called for).  It was a bit random, I mean - I hardly ever bake with currants (they were on sale, hence the inclusion) but in the end, really very scrummy.  Little bites of buttery sweetness mixed with the tart and colourful fruit made for a mini mouth fiesta.

With my upcoming birthday I'll likely do a fair bit of baking (hosting a wee get-together, an apropos Guilty Pleasure theme of "Birthday Party" on the actual day, and treats for work), and am pretty sure I might keep the summer going just a little bit longer with another batch or two.

*In London this does not apply, as indicated by women everywhere wearing tights and boots on 75 degree days in July.  It’s something I will never fully understand. Yes, GT – I’m speaking to you.

**Current closet space in London is more or less 2 square feet so half of my wardrobe has to live under my bed and in suitcases behind my couch until it’s time to come out with the change of seasons.

Summer Lovin'

Skordalia, Tzatziki, Salad - All consumed lickity split

Sunset drinks (4 Euro per bottle Greek wine)

Swiss Sausage, salad, and pretzel - overlooking the Swiss alps

As summer draws to a close (evident in the three layers I was wearing when I headed out this morning) it’s about time I look back on my summer travels (slightly shortened due to starting the new job back in June) and share some of the food highlights.

The beginning of August brought me to the sunny / sandy shores of Mykonos for a few luscious days and nights of Greek island life.  I was on holiday with one of the Mykonos locals, my good friend Flamingo, who quit her ‘corporate’ job in London the summer of 2010 to spend three months working on the island.  She headed back to London in the fall, but sensing the need to return back as a proper tourist, we booked our flights way back in January - there was a lot of build up, anticipation and excitement over the past seven months whilst waiting for this trip.

Every day without fail we started out with a frothy iced Greek coffee.  Most I’m sure were just instant coffee, ice and milk – but somehow when consumed under an umbrella and in a bikini you’re convinced it’s the most delicious drink ever created.

Evenings were spent water-side drinking fresh fruit cocktails and the food in-between invariably consisting of tzatziki and/or skordalia with pita.  Two dishes I could happily eat each and every day (although friends and family might object to the skordalia).  For those of you less familiar with this Greek dip – it’s a potato-based dip that in essence is 50% roasted garlic.  It’s pungently delicious. 

While August was ushered in with balmy temps and sandy beaches, it was ushered out with the snow-capped peaks and colder temps of St. Moritz, Switzerland.

There for 2 days for the exquisite Studdkler wedding, we feasted on divine swiss hospitality and the 5-star Suvretta House catering.  The wedding cake was even the beloved Sachertorte, baked in the shape of a heart and ready to be consumed by the 155+ guests.  

However, the culinary piece de la resistance of the weekend was for me, the simple Swiss fair at the Trutz mountain restaurant.  After a 5 am finish the night before I thought it would be a good idea to walk off my ‘headache’ with the wedding party’s scheduled “alpine walk”.  Little did I realise that dressing in skinny jeans, my gym shoes, a cashmere sweater and carrying a massive Prada handbag MAYBE wasn’t the smartest thing in the world.   Especially when I met up with everyone and people were mostly in shorts or loose trousers and hiking boots. There were definitely no skinny jeans and handbags. I’m blaming these tactical errors on visiting the only nightclub in St. Moritz that was open (it's the off season) at the slightly shocking hours of 3-5 am. 

Anyway, after a lot of huffing and puffing up the mountainside I was greeted with the most spectacular view of the Upper Engadine lakes and the most glorious local food.  Cucumber salad with dill, pickled beets and carrots, fennel, linzertorte, sausages and homemade breads.  It was a most welcome site and even better once in my belly.

Aloha, Hawaii

Photo courtesy of Miss Flamingo's iPhone (hipstamatic)

A few weeks back I was tasked with the challenge of coming up with some Hawaiian themed cupcakes.  So I sat down and had a little think. Volcanoes, surfing and pig roasts didn’t do much for flavour choices and my go to staple of some sort of lime / lemon / coconut combo seemed a bit same-old, same-old. 

So, as I sat with my coffee that Saturday morning I thought… what else could I offer up? Tropical flowers? Possibly with my new fandangled sugar paste skills…but not as a flavour option.  Tropical cocktails however? Now this was something I could sink my teeth into!

In the end I decided on the straightforward pina colada cupcake.   Good old pineapple, rum, and coconut milk – I could work with that.  Plus, what’s more Hawaiian than the pineapple?  The State even hosts the Dole Plantation, which claims to be  “Hawaii’s Complete Pineapple Experience”.  And yep, you can plan your private parties there too.  I've yet to visit Hawaii, but you betcha it's on my list of places to visit when I do.

So off I went, doing a little bit of research on the pina colada cupcake (there are surprisingly a large number of  recipes out there). In the end I decided on my own combination of pineapple juice, crushed pineapple, coconut milk, toasted coconut, and a healthy dose of white coconut rum to get that Hawaiian tropics feeling.

Taking the theme a step further (and in my opinion, one step too many) I piddled about making a shocking blue (colour of the ocean?) cream cheese frosting and 2-3 hours making some sugar paste tropical flowers.   However, there is something about frosting, even when ridiculously tasty and made with lovely organic butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla beans that when turned the colour of a Smurf is really off-putting.  

Apparently however, I'm the exception to the rule with this opinion - they were greedily snatched up by all of my lovely friends.  Who continued on throughout the afternoon with tongues in a matching shade of blue.

A Sad State of Affairs

I've shed many a tear over this photo...

Not surprisingly, a lot of my sweet and savoury treats end up being rationed and taking short holidays in my freezer. Not too keen on a crap dinner after a late night at work, I often have some of my staple favourites (home-made soups, lasagne, etc.) on hand in individually packaged portions, ready for easy defrost and consumption.

Of course my freezer also hosts get-togethers with any number of cakes, muffins, and tarts. Seriously, considering how often I address the need to get my bake on - I need to freeze about 2/3s of it just to keep from not scarfing it all down my greedy gob.  Plus, when I have friends over I can keep them well fed with an assortment of treats.  So good, right?

So, low and behold when I got back from LB's wedding a week or so ago, and my freezer was making this incessant beeping noise (that would only stop if I turned the entire power switch off) I was slightly concerned for all my little tasty freezer friends. The next day, after a fair bit of manoeuvring I did manage to get the beeping noise to stop, but in it's place was a low guttural buzzing noise.  Perhaps an improvement, but still -  not good.  Fast-forward 10 days and I've had to throw out some chicken soup that Mama made me when she was over for my surgery, 8 individually wrapped portions of meatloaf, home made pizza dough, chicken and vegetable stock, lemon bars, strawberry and rhubarb muffins, and some chocolate pecan tart. I had a few pieces of my olive oil cake left - I made sure to eat those before they went bad.  It was a sad state of affairs - having to bin so many treats. I'd contemplated having an "it's the end of the freezer as we know it" party and divvying all the food out to friends - but since it had been on a steady downhill defrost for a few days I figured that I didn't want to also risk giving mes amis a batch of food poisoning as well.  Again, so good of me right?


So here I am, naked (well - not me, my freezer) waiting for some incompetent man (I'm not being sexist, it really is a man) to come fix it for the second time this week.  The first time he arrived during his "I'll be there at some point between 8 am and 1 pm" slot, and only stayed for 5 minutes. On his way out he said, "I don't have the correct parts - you need to make another appointment for next week."  


I know in previous posts I've lamented the lack of customer service in the UK (or if I haven't I know I think about it almost daily) but what an UTTERLY USELESS WASTE OF TIME.


However, trying to stay positive, I'm hopeful that with the next visit it'll be up and running in no time.  From there I'll be wiling away my days stock-piling once again - getting ready for whatever comes my way (a cold - chicken soup),  (a late night - lasagne), (night before Armageddon - chocolate toffee tarts and coconut lemon cheesecake bars).  You get the picture.

Heaven: Lat: 42.9982 / Lon: 11.0000

Heaven comes with views of rolling vineyards and a welcome glass of Prosecco

Tuscan antipasti - followed by home-made gnocchi with truffled duck 

Breakfast of champions.  Only thing missing from the photo? The homemade mozzarella they served us as well

3 litres of some kick-ass olive oil

Olive oil, yogurt, lime and eggs

Simple, super tasty, and (shock!) - HEALTHY!

This cake is sticking the bird up to butter

I truly believe everyone has a spot (or maybe even two) where they feel completely and utterly at peace...their own personal little 'heaven on earth.' Mine, very scientifically, can be found at Latitude: 42.9982, Longitude: 11.00000 (very useful information when you've no clue where you are going in your rented Citroen).

Also, known as the Conti di San Bonifacio Wine Resort, in a leap of utter spontaneity I booked a flight (air miles) to Pisa and 2 nights at the resort at 10:30 p.m a few Monday nights ago. Flight departure? 9:05 am the next day.  That gave me approximately 7 hours to pack/ prep/ sleep.  That pre-holiday grooming we all get up to? Yeah, that didn't happen until I got to Italy.

Landing in Pisa, AK and I picked up our car and drove south along the coast, heading in the direction of Rome to a wee place called Ribolla (side note: at one of our many points of being lost we were able to recall where we were located by remembering that our 'town' rhymed with Ebola - nice, right)?

While on a superficial level there didn't appear to be anything particularly extraordinary about the southern tuscany region of Maremma (rolling hills, vineyards, etc.), all I knew was how it made me feel - absolutely wonderful. Tranquil surroundings, stunning scenery, perfect weather, and an amazing place to stay, swim, drink and eat.

During the day, when we weren't by the sea, napping in the sun, or swimming in the pool overlooking the vineyards, we did some winery exploration.  In addition to the bottles of wine I smuggled back in my suitcase, AK and I also managed to find the most delicious olive oil (made and sold at one of the vineyards).  Only available in 3 or 10 litres, I knew this bad boy needed to come home with me - I was seriously tempted to ask the woman working there to turn her back so I could neck the sample bottle she'd taken out for us to try.  So full of flavour and with both a spicy and fruity edge, I was already brainstorming how I might be able to incorporate the olive oil into some baking.

What resulted from a bit of a think and a chat with Mama Cupcakes was the Lime, Olive Oil, Yogurt cake in the above photos.  Is it the most amazing cake I've ever made? nah, but it's not really meant to be.  Like my visit, the cake is simple and straightforward, the flavours are interesting and compliment each other extrememly well....and like I've mentioned, in terms of desserts / cakes etc...except for my addition of a wee bit of toasted coconut on top, it's pretty dang healthy too.  Which perhaps allows me to justify eating nearly half of it in nearly 24 hours?  Hmmm...

1. Mix together: 1/3 cup good olive oil, 3/4 cup greek yogurt (I used 2% fat), juice and peel of two limes, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs
2. Sift 1 and 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt and add to 'wet' ingredients
3. Bake at 180 C for about 35 minutes or until lightly browned on top (I used a spring form pan, greased with a little olive oil) but imagine a loaf / muffin tin could work as well...just check on the timing
4. Once out of the oven I mixed a little confectionary sugar with a bit more lime juice and brushed the glaze on top
5. (Optional) I toasted some coconut and covered the top of the cake - a nice little addition

"Club Tropicana, cakes are free. Fun and sunshine, there's enough for everyone!"

So in my last blog entry I mentioned giving some tangy lemon bars a go. Using one of my favourite cookbook's out there: The Foster's Market Cookbook: Favorite Recipes for Morning, Noon, and Night I pulled out Sara Foster's lemon bar recipe and proceeded to NOT read the recipe through in it's entirety. Read on.

The first thing that struck me when perusing the recipe was the butter quantity.  Calling for 4.5 sticks (approx. 500 grams) of butter, I knew immediately I was going to reduce this.  I mean seriously, how could there possibly be so much just in the crust? I had visions of eating one and having butter coming out of my pores.  Definitely not a good look! So, even though one of the reasons that I love this cookbook is because everything is done with butter and cream abandon, I had to draw the line. Remember, I'm still reeling from my cupcake a day fix. 

Now, what I had missed when skimming the recipe is that unlike 'normal' recipes that you'd throw into an 11x9 inch pan - this recipe called for a 17x12 inch one - which I don't even own (Note: Search Amazon Kitchen/Housewares for one later).  So, ever the improvisor - I filled my 11x9 inch pan and then created about 20 of these 'lemon bar cupcakes'.  I baked the crust and the lemon filling in exactly the same way as the bars (only for slightly less time) and then whipped up a quick mascarpone whipped cream for the top.  Falling into perfect order, I had planned on making some lemony or limey cupcakes for May's Guilty Pleasures, which was themed 'Club Tropicana'.  So while not a conventional 'cupcake', they still worked a treat - especially with some paper umbrellas added for good measure.

Adapted from Sara Foster's recipe for lemon bars with blueberries.

I'm back...Relaxed, Blond, and Breathing

It's been a while. A long long while.  Legitimate excuses in no particular order:

1. Surprise surgery. Thinking that I was destined to have the permanent nickname of 'snotty' (we should all have such wonderful friends, thanks KC) - at the end of March I realised that my permanent sinus infection / cold / allergies were actually the result of some not so nice 'stuff' in my sinuses and nose.  We'll leave it there...presumably you are reading this blog because you enjoy eating...not the drama of my nose growths.

2. My sense of smell, or lack thereof (see item 1 above).  Now typically I have a nose of a bloodhound - I can smell someone eating chocolate in the front of a plane when I'm sat in the back next to the stinky toilet.

I had no concept of how bad my non existent sense of smell was until three days after my surgery.  In the shower I had a "HOLY SH!T" moment. My unscented shampoo I'd been using for nearly 2 months - smelled like a tropical coconut explosion.  Who knew? Clearly this lack of smell made my cooking desire wane a bit as well.

3. Resignation. Right before I found out I had to have surgery I resigned (after nearly 7 years) with Accenture.  I had a month of happy days, however filled with wrapping up work, planning surgery, and entertaining visitors.

4. A travelling food coma.  Yes, that's right people - I've been in a coma - unable to write for the past month because I've literally been eating and eating my way across the northeastern US and southern california.  Who eats a cupcake every day as a 'snack'? Yes, that's right - I did. I kid you not, I think I ate close to 15 cupcakes in a 2 week period.  Add to that a number of delights such as the Fenway Frank (and corresponding Bud Lights) amongst numerous other 'treats'. I am only now starting to emerge.

During my month-long coma I managed to grow a massive food baby.  She goes everywhere with me at the moment.  I'm hoping some nice London R&R and gym time sorts her out.  I'm looking for someone to adopt.  Nothing personal - but she's not the cutest - and is really annoying my jeans at the moment.

So folks - With the new nose, sense of smell, and new job - I'll be back cooking and baking ASAP.  Today has me liaising with some puckery lemon bars and chicken with a rhubarb and cherry sauce.  Will be back in the next few days to let you know how they turn out. Hopefully I'll manage to lose the food baby.  Any takers?

Too busy baking to blog

Pre-proofed / pre-kneaded dough

Ah my baby's a beauty, isn't she?

You're thinking it so I'm going to say it,  yes - they are phallic looking.

Gooey lovely messy finished product 

I’ve fallen off of the blog bandwagon over the past few weeks.  Normally this is when I give some lame excuse about being “headless chicken busy” and travelling / working like a crazy woman.  While there’s been no travel, and only a moderately busy work schedule – there’s still been a fair bit of excitement...(stay tuned for updates).  


Ironically enough, a lot of the limited amount of free time I've had has been spent baking – but in a highly irregular way - creating loaves of bread, practicing eclair making, and baking copious scones.

One week alone I managed to make 5 loaves of bread – two lovely egg-y challahs (one coated in caraway, poppy and black onion seeds and the other with a wee bit of cinnamon and sugar). The other three loaves were an all-white “bloomer” bread, which was for my "confidential" audition (sorry folks, even signed the official waver). 


Regardless of the outcome of the audition, I learned that bread making is very much a science, much more than cake or pastry making.  Both challahas came out looking, smelling and tasting luverly.  However, the first 'bloomer' bread was cut into much too quickly.  It hadn't cooled properly so I thought it wasn't cooked all the way, so back into the oven it went only to then end up being overcooked.   Eh, they do say practice makes perfect though, the second and the third tries produced excellent results.


The third 'bloomer' was the one officially judged at my audition. It was weighed (apparently you can weigh the fat content of bread...god help if I ever get on one of those machines), was sniffed, poked, tasted and examined like a horse at auction. Official celebrity feedback? "Tasty, and great proofing."  Not too shabby for a novice.


My foray into choux pastry making was a slightly different experience.  I wasn't prepping for the audition, more just wanting to try something new and eclairs were a first for me. 


The thing is, I've always been a bit curious about eclairs - thinking they were quite difficult to make and not really worth the effort.  The eclair's dirty little secret? She's actually straightforward, simple, and a constant crowd pleaser.  Choux pastry can be made in the bat of an eye, pastry cream can be made 2-3 days ahead, and that chocolate glaze on top? Mine took about one minute in the microwave and about 1 minute out.  Not exactly rocket science eh?  Only now that the cat is out of the bag - I might be in serious trouble...instead of just grabbing for an apple I might just whip some up mid-week eclairs, just because I can.


The photos of the eclairs above aren't particularly pretty.  I started out by properly piping the pastry but since it was a random Tuesday night after work, and well...I didn't really give a fig what they looked like (nor did I imagine my eagerly awaiting co-workers would either) I went ahead and slapped the pastry cream in the middle and used a brush to slather on the chocolate ganache.  


I'd like to report that I ate 5 (yes FIVE) in two days.  Hence my comment above about not wanting to be anywhere near a machine that can weigh fat content.  Now onto profiteroles...

Bad Taste (never tasted so good)



Way better photo than I normally take, courtesy of GP resident photographer: Stephen Howse

UPDATED DIRECTIONS BELOW

Guilty Pleasure's party on Saturday night had the fabulously horrific theme "Bad Taste". I won't go into the details of our costumes, but in addition to a one-piece sparkly silver Abba-esque jumpsuit for our Waterloo performance (ah-mazing!), JW and I managed to take on the personas of ‘Tina’ and ‘Gloria’ for the first half of the night. For those of you who’ve seen this year’s Oscar nominated 'The Fighter’ – remember Micky and Dicky's seven sisters? We were equally foul-mouthed as that lot, but dressed in an even more inappropriate trailer-park ensemble. Deliciously bad taste for sure!

I used the opportunity to do a wee bit of practice on my piping and writing skills with a swiss meringue buttercream – hence the ornately, if not delicately designed cupcakes in the photo above. I wasn’t a fan of the frosting but the yellow buttermilk cakes were outstanding.  I've made them before and even wrote about them last year, commenting on their tastiness albeit being a bit too dense.  This time around - much fluffier - did a few recipe alterations, that might have made a difference.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/yellow-buttermilk-cupcakes

- 4 cups all-purpose flour instead of the 3 cups cake flour (which they stubbornly refuse to sell in my local Waitrose) and 1.5 cups all-purpose flour

UPDATE: I've been told the point above is confusing. To be fair, mama knows best - I agree.  What I meant was...recipe calls for BOTH 3 cups cake flour and 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (so 4.5 cups in total).  What I did INSTEAD was just use 4 cups of all-purpose flour.  Kapish?

- Reduced the butter and sugar just a smidgen (about ¼ of sugar and 1 Tbsp butter) – less by design and more because a standard UK butter pack is 250 grams, just nearly a Tb less and figured if I was doing that, then a wee bit of sugar could go as well

Up to you how you play it – but the option is there for the reductions if you so choose – all other measurements were kept the same.

S-W-O-O-N

I don't often swoon (the sort of head over heels heart palpitating joy that's known to turn my face two shades redder with excitement).


Last time I swooned was at a gorgeous pair of hot pink, sparkly, made in Italy Kate Spade heels. Never mind that when I wear them I need to take pain killers they hurt my toes so much.  I'm happy just looking at them.  It was love at first site. 


This time around, it was love at first bite.  Not quite as sexy as my shoes, this afternoon I fell, hard - for some beef brisket. But not just any beef brisket - beef brisket croquets with Asian slaw at Nopi.


Let me explain.


As many people know, one of my favourite restaurants in all of London is Ottolenghi in Islington.  By a stroke of good fortune, FM happened upon a new restaurant in Soho yesterday.  He went to investigate and found out it was the soft opening for Ottolenghi's new restaurant, Nopi. 


Nopi is similar to Ottolenghi in that the menu is quasi tapas style, but very different in it's elegant cream and bronze setting...and no take away items in site.  There's even a proper cocktails menu which has always eluded Ottolenghi.


FM filled me in on his find just as I was walking out the door to meet GT for lunch.  Most certainly serendipity.


Not only did we feast on:

• Beef brisket croquets, Asian slaw 

but also...

• Twice-cooked baby chicken, lemon myrtle salt
• Seared scallops, pickled daikon, green apple
• Prawn toasts, ginger and cucumber dipping sauce 
• Braised winter greens, tahini-yogurt
• Chocolate, peanut brittle, mace, crème fraiche
• Churros, fennel seed sugar, hot chocolate (my least favourite of the bunch)

Next best bit (after the brisket) ... because the restaurant isn't officially open until next Thursday ... our entire bill was 50% off.  Swoooooon. 

Dinner of Champions

An orgy of spiced pecans

Mexican chocolate tart filling

In the fridge, setting

Last Saturday night I was invited over to a friend's flat for 'Latin Tea'. When pressed for a definition for this event I was told, "basically just afternoon tea (tea, cake and drinks). We'll eat, hang out - and see where the night takes us. 5 pm start."

I'd interpreted "see where the night takes us" to incorporating some late night savoury food stuff, and possibly (likely) more drinkies. Instead, after an evening of excessive cake eating, very little tea drinking, and a moderate amount of champagne drinking, we closed out the evening with a midnight snack of muscat and rhubarb tart.  It's amazing I didn't walk out Diabetic.

My friend is a real lover of great food.  But more importantly, he has friends who can support this habit of his by being great cooks and bakers.  I was invited to this get-together with something along the lines of "no pressure to bake anything, but I've a friend who's amazing and he's bringing something.   Really though, no pressure. ;-)"

Right, just because you end your comment with a ';-)' doesn't mean I wasn't going to bring it.  Game face was on - didn't matter that I didn't have much time.  I needed to REP-RE-SENT.  Can you hear the theme song to Rocky?  I did.

Funny, you know generally speaking I don't classify myself as a competitive person.  I think maybe I'm a bit in LaLa land with that one though...considering every time I mention to friends that I'm not competitive a lot of them sort of roll their eyes at me.  Hmmm...

Anyway, I digress. All in all it was a lovely evening with both home-made and bakery bought delicacies.  G's friend made a tarte tartin which was fantastic, and I made a Mexican chocolate tart with 'to-die-for' caramelised spicy pecans on top.  Definitely a winner.

I followed a recipe on epicurious for the filling and pecans, but switched up the crust.  Instead of chocolate cookie crumbs I used shortbread (and then less butter than the recipe called for).  I could say that there was some strategic planning in this shortbread decision, but the truth was - since I was to busy (lazy) to go out and buy the chocolate cookies I took stock of my cupboards and found some lovely shortbread that someone had given me for a Christmas present and used that instead.  Worked a treat!

Haste Makes Waste

I interrupt what you are all doing on this lovely Sunday evening to fill you in on a small 'oopsie' from this weekend.  

In my insanity to try and balance a full-time job (‘full-time’ being 85+ hours including Sat and Sun last weekend), my dancing, blogging, cooking, baking, cake decorating course, scarf knitting, novel reading, bracelet making...I managed a rookie failure of hysterical proportions yesterday.

Last night was January’s GP event and as per usual I was baking up some tasty treats for the girls, the bears, miss greenwood, and all sorts of other cunning characters.  It wasn't like most months when I’d a) planned ahead what I’d be baking b) hadn’t worked insane hours the previous week with little sleep and c) wasn’t feeling like a headless chicken trying to do everything. Saturday was a case of trying to get some chocolate chip cupcakes made whilst in the middle of sorting out costumes and our dance for the night, amongst other long-overdue activities (e.g. buying extension cords and dental floss).

The result?  A lovely assortment of ‘tongue’ cupcakes!

'tongues' - a close relation (the bad ass cousin) to the chocolate chip cupcake 

You see my dear friends, in my attempt to get all of the cupcakes in the oven in one go (I had 2 trays and one 5 inch round spring-form pan), I jammed the spring-form pan in on the same shelf as my my silicone tray. I assumed it fit because with just a little shove everything got right in.  It was tight, but the oven door closed easy-peasy. 

Righty-o, now what I (clearly) didn't realise is that the last row of my silicone tray had been pressed and folded over into the back of the oven - resulting in these disastrously comical 'tongues'.  Seeing as I still had the small cake and 20 perfectly baked cupcakes there were no tears or stress at the kitchen calamity.  

In fact, after a few childish photos pretending to stick out our 'tongues' we just went ahead and ate them.  After all, they were basically chocolate chip cookies.

Happy New Year - and all that palaver.

Roulade with white chocolate and coconut mousse

All tucked up and ready for a snooze in the fridge before getting a slathering of Chocolate Ganache. (I removed the kitchen towel first).

All gussied up and ready for the big Christmas party.

I figure that once you're more than halfway through January, the obligatory "happy new year" that you sprinkle around on a daily basis, gets a bit - well stale.  Seeing is I'm coming through just under the wire, I figure I could do a wee post on my 'Christmas'* food shenanigans.

The centrepiece of 'Christmas' dinner was a questionably crazy, but ultimately successful attempt at a Buche de Noel. Alongside this we had:

1. Braised beef short ribs (family's favourite recipe that apparently I now must make every year)
2. Mashed sweet potatoes with goats cheese, truffle oil and crispy shallots
3. Roasted garlicky brussel sprouts with crispy bacon and maple syrup
4. Home-made bread
5. Oh yes, and 'christmas' cocktails (cranberry simple syrup and Prosecco) and plenty of Oregonian Pinot Noir with the meal

We were all too busy eating that it wasn't until afterwards that I had an "Oh sh$t" moment - with all the excitement I hadn't remembered to take any photos of the actual food to share with you. Take my word for it though, in my opinion (and in the opinion of ACB, Janette, Davida, Debbie and Donna) it was the ultimate.

The buche de noel with chocolate meringue mushrooms and peppermint bark was loosely based off of a Martha recipe found here:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/birch-de-noel

One must always take the marvellous Martha with a pinch of salt though (e.g. when she says to buy a coconut, break it with a hammer, shave it with a peeler, curl it, bake it, grate it...you can also do as me and just stick some store bought coconut in a tin and place in the oven to slightly toast for 5 minutes).  I also didn't like the idea of a '7-minute frosting' as she has in her recipe - so after a bit of deliberation went with the gut - a chocolate ganache because really, worse case scenario you've got a bucketload of basically chocolate fudge.  This can only be a good thing, right?

*'Christmas' (in quotes) Also known as Christmukah- the American holiday that Jews celebrate.  The one with lots of food, presents, decorations, christmas carols, etc.  Just without the Jesus bit.