Fresh approach

Hello everyone! Hope i haven't been away too long!

Its been a while since i actually made anything in the kitchen that was worth sharing with you guys, but last night i found myself home, alone, on a Saturday night... you can imagine the pathetic scene..... I came back from the gym to find my house mate gone to see his family. The TV isn't working properly because of the reception mess up caused by the typical British rainfall. I have seen all the dvds we own. And i'm too broke to go out. ( i can imagine you are all shedding a little tear for me now haha.)

HOWEVER, this was a great opportunity to use up some of the random crap that my kitchen accumulates.

After having dinner, triple quarter pounder burger with all the trimmings (YUM!), i set to work dragging out what i had. Previously i had some vanilla pod steeped in sugar at the back of the cupboard which i had forgotten about, in addition to a pot of culinary lavender which i bought ages ago to try with sautéed Anya potatoes... needless to say that combination was horrendous.

So, all is good until i remember i do not have any eggs, and i am too broke to go get some seeing as they are "non essentials"... We have Butter, Vanilla sugar, Clementine Zest



Flour and Culinary Lavender..... It could only mean one thing.....



Lavender and Clementine Zest Shortbread cookies!:

Ingredients
125g Butter
55g Sugar (caster preferably)
180g Plain Flour
Zest of 3 Small/Medium Clementines
1 Table spoon of Lavender
Pinch of salt (to taste)

Method
1. Preheat Oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Combine the Butter and Flour in a large bowl by hand.
3. Once fully incorporated add the sugar and salt to the dough mixture and fully combine.
4. Add the Zest and fully combine
5. Add the Lavender and fully combine.
6. Roll by hand on a flat surface in a cylindrical shape (like a tube) and cut cookies vertically down with a sharp knife to a thickness of about 3/4 of an inch.
7. Position on baking paper in a baking tray with about an inch of space between each one, as they will expand while cooking, and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool.
8. Remove from Fridge and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies turn a golden light brown.
9. Once finished remove from oven, place on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.

Complete!



By time they were sitting out cooling my house mate had returned with some of his visiting family members.. and i couldn't tell them "NO! I need those to take poncy pictures of!!!" haha.



But at least i managed to get one!

Hope you guys enjoy these as much as i did. I used Clementine because i think the taste is a bit more floral and perfumey than orange zest which can be a bit harsh. The Clementine mellowness and the floral lavender are a good combination, but im sure you guys can think of some equally great ones. All the best!

Until next time
\(^_^)/

Skipped my mind

Hello all.

I don't know what i have never posted about this before but in 2008 i went to the culinary Olympics in Erfurt (germany)... Being a cooking blog u would think that it would of been the first thing i spoke about... But you would be wrong lol.

Here are some of the pictures.. its was truly amazing. As always i spent my time hovering around all the sugary things!


Obligatory Chocolate Dragon (as you do haha)


Platted selection of chocolate, berry and hazlenut sweets (i think)


My favourite piece! No idea what went into it though lol... except a truckload of thought and precision.

All the pictures can be seen in my facebook pictures here!

Don't forget to like the page in the top right hand corner if you are on facebook guys, i appreciate the support a lot!

- As an extra bonus, Check out what i found on the web.... so simple and yet so effective! -



Until next time \(^_^)/

Mumbo Jumbo cakes!

I'm still on track with my new years resolutions and to date have managed not only to update my blog regularly, but also get myself to the gym, and focus more on what i moved out for!

In this post i'm going to pay my respects to (in my and many others opinions) one of the most talented and influential pastry chefs of the century, Pierre Hermé



Pierres elegant take on the archetypical French "Macaron" is what i believe shot him to notoriety! For those of you who do not know what a Macaron is just Google it and wait for the visual feast of colors.

Like all geniuses Pierre began at a young age. At 14 he began his career as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre, a prolific baker who sadly die a few years back. From here onwards Hermé went from strength to strength, eventually opening his first shop in Tokyo in 1998. Since then he has opened several other venues and written numerous recipe books and biographies. His work in the pastry kitchens is absolutely phenomenal.



The flavor combinations are themselves incredible, but what really is appealing with his creations are their appearances.. Hermé manages to bring the most simple of recipes to life with a variety of twists and tweaks.



Simply fantastic.... Ok Enough gushing haha!

This week i tried my hand at some classic flavor combinations with my own tweaks. its been a while since i did a recipe, but here goes!


Double chocolate cashew butter frosted cupcakes (kinda)



Ingredients:

~Cake base~
225G Butter (either salted of unsalted, depends on your taste)
225G Sugar
4 Medium Eggs
250G Milk Chocolate
225G Self Raising Flour
3Tbspn Milk
1Tspn Vanilla essence
3Tbsn Coco Powder
Salt to taste

~Frosting~
300G Smooth Peanut butter
180G Butter softened
1Tspn Vanilla essence
200G Chopped Cashew nuts
400G Icing Sugar



Method:

BEFORE ANYTHING PREHEAT THE OVEN TO Gas Mark 4 (180c degrees)

1. Combine all of the frosting ingredients in a bowl and make sure they are fully incorporated into the mix. Then set aside in the fridge or a cool place.

- Grease whatever tray you plan on baking the cakes in. i have one designed to make 12 brownies, 3x3 inches, this recipe makes about 15 of these sized cakes. -

2. In a large bowl combine the cake butter with the castor sugar and cream them together.

3. To this mixture add, 1 at a time, the eggs. make sure to fully incorporate the eggs before adding the next one.

4. Once the eggs are mixed in add the vanilla essence and the milk and mix in.

5. Mix in the Coco powder and the flour until fully incorporated.

6. Finally add the chopped chocolate and fully combine all the ingredients.

7. Place in the preheated oven for roughly 20 minutes, checking after 20 minutes to check with a skewer whether or not they are fully cooked through. If the skewer comes out wet then place them back in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.

8. Once fully cooked through remove from oven and leave to cool, and then decorate with icing and garnish when cooled.

And thats it!

Complete! They arent Pierre standard but these were actually really good, i brought them into work and they were gone within a few minutes.

Enjoy.
See you next time \(^_^)/

Challenge!

Ok ive been set the task of coming up with an egg less, nut less, chocolate less cake by Friday....

One of my best friends is annoyingly allergic to all these things (and he just doesn't like chocolate.... such an awkward guy!)

Immediately i thought "Fruits"

So im gonna go with an Egg less Mango infused sponge (dunno if thats the right wording lol)



With Mango Lassi style cream cheese frosting....

Lassi is that Indian sweet yogurt drink, very light and refreshing. I was thinking of spicing the cake with Cardamom and a bit of saffron for the golden color of mango to really come through.



Anyone have any ideas on whether or not that is a good or bad idea... even if you have tried something similar and have any advice that could be valuable to me. I know that using mango in sponge will be risky because of the very watery nature of the fruit so ill have to find a way of compensating for that without it being too rigid because of the lack of egg.

Also is the Saffron gonna be wasted on this because.... you know.... saffron isn't the CHEAPEST of spices lol... If the mango will make the sponge golden yellow on its own then i could just omit the saffron... We shall see!!



Anyways, Here goes nothing!!! Gonna start practicing now.

Ill keep you all updated \(^_^)/

Veggie Cake!

Hello people, its been a long time.

GOT A PROMOTION!!! WOO!!!

Money money money lol...

OK on a different note, I'm sorry i haven't been around for ages, i have just had so much stuff to do.... I'm currently apartment hunting and that is just the longest process ever... on top of that I've started hitting the gym twice as hard. Been going every morning for the past 6 weeks i think (with weekends off as a break).... I totally recommend it, once you get into it you will love it.

Ok enough about my boring life.... on with the food!


You may be wondering "What is this ridiculously cute looking anime about?". Well quite frankly this has been filling the spaces of time when i'm not active and still awake.... Its called Yumeiro Patissiere and its an interesting anime show which is quite popular in japan at the moment..... Admittedly its probably mostly little girls watching it for the cute characters.... but i watch it for the inventive recipes they come up with (also its pretty funny at times).


The show revolves around Ichigo Amano who wants to be a pastry chef and joins a school where the young elite go to train... she is terrible at making sweets and as the show progresses she is helped by the "sweets princes" who are all experts in their own rights (Hanabusa is an expert in decoration, Kashino is an expert in chocolate stuff, and Andou is an expert at Japanese style desserts), as well as the strange but almost necessary additions of little fairy creatures who encourage Amano to not give up... Its pretty watchable and some of the recipes they come up with are pretty Ingenious (spelling...)

For example.... my next post will hopefully be a remake of one of their cakes either a Rose water infused Peach Pound cake, or a Spinach and cream cheese frosting carrot and apricot chiffon. Also looking at their presentation is inspiring (I know i know its a cartoon lol)

Definitely worth checking out though if you are ever bored! But now on to what i have made recently...

Spiced Carrot Cake with White chocolate cream cheese frosting:



I was set the challenge recently of trying to make something nice for the office out of semi healthy ingredients.... I instantly thought of fruits and vegetables... I was considering doing some kind of apple or pear something but those are boring... Then i realized i have never actually made a carrot cake... one of the most inspired combination of flavors.... (this is why i want to try that spinach cake at some point cause i like the idea of veg in sweet stuff, its interesting.

This cake was for a colleagues birthday and without blowing my own trumpet it was delicious.... so much so that the mother of the colleague who has been baking for years, actually called her daughter to ask me for the recipe. I was very proud of myself considering i just felt my way through the cake and added what i thought would be necessary to get that moist texture that any good carrot cake should have.

So without further adieu and so i can stop bigging myself up (lol) here is the recipe and method!

Ingredients:

300g Soft Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
250ml Sunflower Oil
30g Margarine
300g Plain Flour
1tsp Bi carbonate of soda
1tsp Baking powder
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp vanilla extract
350g Grated Carrot
200g Raisins
(A few Walnuts to decorate if you want)

Gonna need 2 or 3 cake tins for this also... I used 2, you can do it three tier if you like!



Method:

Preheat the over to 170 degrees Centigrade (350 Fahrenheit or Gas mark 3)

Put the sugar, eggs, oil and margarine in a bowl and mix them all together with a wooden spoon. (if you have an electric mixer then use the paddle attachment).

Then slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla extract and continue mixing.

Grate the carrots and press as much water out of them as possible. Add the carrots and the raisins to the mix and keep mixing until all are incorporated fully.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins (coated in margarine or butter) and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched.

Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire rack to let them cool completely.

Voila... the cake is done.

Now, whilst the cake is cooling you can make the frosting.

Frosting ingredients:

800g White Chocolate (i used Milky bar)
500g Soft cream cheese
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g Butter
250g icing sugar

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a small pan and be sure not to burn it.

Once the chocolate is melted pour into a large bowl and slowly add the butter and cheese whilst mixing all the time until fully incorporated. The heat from the chocolate should melt the other two easily.

Add the vanilla extract and icing sugar and keep mixing until full incorporated.

When fully mixed leave aside in a cool area to reduce in temperature before using a pallet knife to place frosting between the cake layers and then completely cover the cake...

That's it you should now be done! I hope it comes out just as nicely as mine did, decorate it how you see fit :D!!



Until next time...

Enjoy!! \(^_^)/

Just a quick one

Hey there everyone, Long time no see!

Sorry its taken a while for me to post anything but my new job is keeping me busier than i thought it would. In addition to that i haven't had much time to cook anyone worth talking about.

However, A birthday has just gone by and inevitably i was conscripted (is that the right word?) to make something.

Now.. the fun thing about being able to cook is that i will never be short of a present or a surprise for anyone. Whenever i use to mess up with my ex-girlfriends i would usually be able to smooth it over by making something nice... and usually with chocolate or liqueur in it... or maybe even both depending on how badly i screwed up Lol!



So its come to April the 4th and i'm happily lying in bed when my youngest sister walks by my door carrying a present.... I'm like "oh whats that for".... She replies... "Um.... its Amanda's birthday Matthew....... OMG YOU FORGOT!! I'M TELLING!!!"

Lol turns out ive forgotten my Other sisters birthday....

So naturally i panic slightly, then i remember i had some flour and stuff in the pantry, enough to make a cake perhaps, but certainly enough to get me out of trouble with cookies or something at a push lol.

So here it goes!

Black Forest Forgetmenot Cake!



Ingredients

(It was a pretty big cake so feel free to half these values if ur making a smaller one)

200g Softened butter
200g Self raising flour
3 Eggs
180G Castor sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla essence
100g cocoa powder
40g hot chocolate powder
1 Tin black cherries (i think thats 325ml in a normal tin)

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together and then when full incorporated add the eggs one at a time slowly and beat them in.

2. Add the vanilla essence to this mixture and set aside

3. Sift the remaining dry ingredients into a separate bowl (i was lazy and sifted them right into the first bowl with the wet stuff)

4. Mix all the ingredients together and then when fully mixed remove most of the jelly surrounding the cherries and stir in the cherries. (you can save the jelly for other things if u want, but it wont be used int his recipe)

5. Grease up a cake tin, set the over to 180 (do this first lol) and then whack it in! give it about 25 minutes before checking on it, and poke it in the middle wtih a skewer to make sure the cake is done.

6. When it is done set it to the side and leave to cool. It will be difficult to decorate if it is still hot/warm

Chocolate frosting

For the chocolate frosting i improvised and (without my ego exploding too much) the texture and taste came out perfectly.

50g butter
100g cream cheese
180g chocolate (i used milk chocolate)
80g icing sugar

This is a really simple method. Just melt the chocolate in a banmarie or in a glass bowl over some water on a stove... or if ur in a rush, for 1 minute int he microwave then take it out and stir.

Once the chocolate is melted, stir it into a combination of butter and cream cheese and icing sugar. Mix until fully incorporated, it should go quite stiff and then just put it into your piping bag and GO GO GO!

Now what i did on the sides of the cake is to use the remaining frosting that i didn't use on the top to cover the sides. And then using the remaining pistachio nuts i had in the previous post, i chopped them up and (with a lil bit of difficulty) stuck them to the frosting that is on the sides.

Good luck guys, and remember.... Chocolate is ALWAYS a good present lol.

Enjoy!

The big day

Well i finally had to do it..the event has come around and it turns out that its some kind of womans empowerment day... lol i guess it was only fitting that they had a guy make thier food for them on such a day.

Things went well, and while there were no macarons in sight i did make redvelvet mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Bitter chocolate biscuits and just some ordinary cupcakes with chocolate in them.

In addition i made a few chocolate truffles just because i had spare time. I think they all came out pretty well, and the feedback was good so im happy.


I decided to decorate the frosting with pistchio nuts just for acontrast in flavour... the taste of them didnt really have much to do with thier inclusion.

Lol its always nice to see all the random crap that u buy before makign something suddenly become somethign nice and appertizing lookng. Red velvet is certainly an odd looking cake i must say, i was trying to go for purple because of the theme of the event, but i ran out of blue dye fairly early on and got a weird kind of maroon colour lol... i didnt tell anyone obviously haha.


The chocolate Chunks in the bigger cupcakes i thoguht at first were a bit too much but then i thought.. "Who doesnt like chocolate!"

At the front of each of the chocolate chunks is just a small decoration of dessicated coconut.

And heres how i did it!

Lol.. sadly these are not my own recipes this time, but i took inspiration froma fellow blogger. All credit for this goes to them, and im just gonna paste a link to thier recipe here.

http://www.pickycook.com/dessert/redvelvetcupcakeswithcreamcheesefrosting.aspx

Finally its over!

Now to do the dishes.... nah... that can wait til tommorow when the women folk come back!

HAHA only kidding... now where did i put that sponge...

Enjoy! (^_^)

Clafoutis! Because i got the job!

Well I just finnished my old role at the department of health..... and i didnt know exactly where i would be going after that so as you can imagine it was a bit of a nail biting time. But this morning i got the job i was going for at the department of transport.... So thats a huge weight off my shoulders!

And as an extra bonus i dont start my new job until monday.... which means..... 1 WEEK OFF... SWEET!!!!!!

And sweet news deserves a sweet treat. So i decided to celebrate with a quick and easy assortment of Clafoutis.



Clafoutis is bassically a baked take made of flan like batter, traditionally made with black cherries i think. But as usuall i am not concerned with the traditional lol... One day ill make something recognisable to normal people haha.

For this recipe i decided to once again use use my ramakins (still in love with them) as opposed to a tart or pie dish.



Ok so lets begin.

Ingredients:

120g Plain Flour
Lots of assorted fruit haha (I used Apples, Pears, Blackberries, Blueberries and Raspberries)
60g Butter (I used Flora pro active because it has reduced cholestoral)
300ml Milk
90g Sugar
Icing Sugar (for dusting)
Mint leaves for garnish (i used these but do whatever you tink looks nice)


Method:

1: Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
2: In a small bowl break and then beat the eggs
3: When the eggs are beaten put aside and melt the butter in a small frying pan. When melted take off the fire and keep in a warm place to keep it liquid but not any hotter than it should be at the point.
4: Sift the flour into a large bowl
5: Add the eggs slowly to the flour and mix all the while. The mixture should become a thick batter.
6: Now add the sugar, milk and butter to the mix and whisk until the mixture becomes a loose batter (if too watery add a little bit of flour, but it should be a milkshake consistency.... lol hope thats helpful)
7: Now set the mixture aside and take a bit of butter and grease the dish (or dishes depending on how u are making them) with butter.
8: To the dish thats now buttered and arrange the fruit in it (fill the dish between half to 2/3 full with the fruit)



9: Pour the batter over the fruit and place in the oven.



10: allow to cook for around 40 miutes (dont worry if it raises alot when its taken out of the over it will sink again, i was a lil worried when i first did it lol)



11: When its done take it out of the over and dust with icing sugar and decorate however u like. Deffinatly serve it warm!




And there we have it...

Congratulations Clafoutis!

Enjoy :D!!

Ok.... Im obsessed.....

Ok asides from my love of cooking i have a dirty little secret which i usually keep under wraps... but sometimes i let it slip... And that is the fact that i am a huge anime nerd....

There... IVE SAID IT!!! And im not even ashamed... Ive always loved Anime, and the first one i ever saw was a film called "Tenko no shiro Rapyuta" which translates (I think) to "Laputa: Castle in the sky"... Drawn and Directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki the film is set in a mythical land where a boy who works in a mine is one day the saviour of a ysterious girl who floats down from the sky with the aid of her pendant. Add some pirates and a few robots in there and it truly is one of the most beautiful films ive ever seen. IF your not too busy deffinatly check it out, even if your not into anime.



Ok... you may be wondering where im going with this, but FEAR NOT FOODIES... i do have a point lol.

One of my favourite pass times is combining my favourite pass times! So a combination of anime and food is ideal, luckily there is awhole genre devoted to anime fans who love food.

There are so many good shows out there which are not only fun to watch but also pretty inspirational. Today i wont be cooking any, but whilst looking for some anime inspired recipes i came accros a japanese website with the most beautiful cakes and treats and i felt it was my DUTY to share with you guys.... dont ask me what each thing is, as i sadly cannot answer you lol.. i wish i knew myself, but they do all look deliscious!



I dont even know what these are but just look at how beautiful they are... pretty flawless stuff.



Im almost certain that this one isnt even real!!! it looks perfect.



Chocolate elegance...



Amazing.... Just amazing, i want whoever made these to put thier hand against the screen of thier computer so that they can recieve my virtual highfive!

I can only hope that one day i can make stuff as amazing as this! I really dont want to pretend that these pics are in any way my own but i cant really figure out who the artist is who made them... I THINK the name of the patissier is Hidemo Sugino.... but that could be the name of the pattiserie. Either way, hats off to these guys. so so inspiring. Hope you guys are just as inspired!

Till next time! Enjoy!

Toooo long!

Hey Guys! im sorry it took so long for me to come back you lot with antyhign that even looked and tasted remotely good... btu my daytime job has actually gotten pretty hectic as of late.

And whilst i havent actually made this dish myself for a while,it is still a personal favourite! So the following pictures are not creditted to me but they do show you how to present the meal in a variety of delicate and artistic ways!....... OK! PANNA COTTA!





I first fell in love with this dessert when i was about 13 and i was watching blue peter (for you americans its like a DIY show for kids, cooking, animals, arts and crafts etc.. :D). They had a local chef come on and after a long talk about how she had began cookign and how much she loved it and blah blah blah.... they then had her prepare her favourite dish which was the Panna Cotta.... I WAS IN LOVE! To me it looked like jelly + ice cream.... and what kid doesnt liek that combination! so i tried it and tried it and tried it over the years and after a while i could make it pretty perfectly. So now that i could make it well, i began experimenting with flavours! Mango.... Apple.... rosemary..... But out of all of them my favourite was the stangest combination.

Thyme

and Honey

(Just noticed that i use honey an awful lot.... maybe i should look into it in a bit more detail for my next blog :P)


The basics of a Panna cotta recipe are incredibly simple. you will probably reasd this and think "why havent i made this before?!". The only thing that i doubt you will have just lying around the pantry will be gelatin, or gelatin powder.

Ingredients:

(This is a generic recipe which you can use as the base of any panna cotta... just tweak it to your liking by adding flavours and garnishes)


For the Panna Cotta

3 gelatine leaves
250ml/9fl oz milk
250ml/9fl oz double cream
6 spriggs of thyme
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways, seeds scraped out
25g/1oz sugar

For the sauce

1.5 tsp lemon juice
75g/6oz honey
175ml/6fl oz water
50 ml Drambuie (honey and spice based whiskey)

Method:

1. For the panna cotta, soak the gelatine leaves in a little cold water until soft.
2. Place the milk, cream, thyme spriggs, vanilla pod and seeds and sugar into a pan and bring to a simmer. Remove the vanilla/thyme spriggs and discard.
3. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves, then add to the pan and take off the heat. Stir until the gelatine has dissolved.
4. Divide the mixture among four ramekins and leave to cool. Place into the fridge for at least an hour, until set.
5. For the sauce, place the honey, lemon juice, water and Drambuie into a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture is smooth and clear.

Complete!


Now because im obsessed with my new ramikins and shot glass set that i found at a bargain price (of £4 for 16 ramakins, and £2 for 10 nice glass shot glasses! so awesome!) I usually put my pannacotta into one of these moulds and put in the fridge until needed. Then place them on a square or oblonged dish for serving and decorate in whatever way you think is best.



Enjoy! and i promise ill update things more often... \(^_^)/