How to feel like a Borrower...

We recently gained ownership of a giant cupcake cake tin (by Eddington's) and decided to give it a test run by baking a belated birthday cake for Krystle's mum. We decided to make carrot cake (one of your five a day... technically two of your five a day as we used two large carrots).

To make a giant cupcake we highly recommend using a 6 egg cake batter recipe and also to bake the base of the cupcake first. Halfway through baking the base pour in the mix for the top of the cupcake.

6 eggs
400g self-raising flour
250g caster sugar
400g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
As much cinnamon as you can handle
2 grated carrots
A few handfuls of sultanas
3 tablespoons of milk

Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 3 (175 fan assisted). Mix all of the ingredients together. Then pour just over half of the batter into the base section of the giant cupcake tin. Save the rest for the top half.

We estimate that it takes around 1 hour and 30 mins to bake, but it would be best to make sure that it is not done beforehand. We used a knife to check the consistency of the middle. If the knife comes out clean then the cake is done.

Food: Zombie Cookies

The other day we both got addicted to the game, Plants vs Zombies, which involves fighting off the un-dead with an army of home-grown produce. Then last night we indulged in a zombie TV show marathon by watching Dead Set (a UK horror/zombie series that centres around the Big Brother show) and took a break to whip up some baked treats. We would have liked to make a tea loaf but we didn't have the appropriate ingredients so we experimented and created zombie cookies at approximately 3am whilst watching My Name is Earl re-runs and drinking cups of tea. Our zombie cookies were basically huge chocolate chip cookies minus 'sensible/recommended' ingredients such as baking soda and brown sugar for bigger chocolate chunks and green food colouring. In our opinion they turned out awesome.

Note: No cookie brains were harmed in the making or devouring of these cookies.



What you need...

250g plain flour (we ran out so we used a little bit of wholemeal flour... keeps you regular anyway)
170 melted unsalted butter (being rebels we used salted margarine)
200g of sugar (the original recipe required 200g brown and 100g of white but we didn't have enough insulin for that)
350g of chocolate chips (but we shoved in two half eaten 500g bars of white and dark chocolate)
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Green food colouring

Pre-heated the oven to Gas Mark 3/180 Fan Assisted and then prepare cookie tray with greaseproof paper. On the hob (or in a microwave) heat up and melt all of the butter (or margarine in our case) and add in the sugar once it has melted and been taken off the stove. Then stir in the eggs and vanilla essence.

In a separate bowl weigh the flour and add in the above 'wet' ingredients. Mix everything together adding the chocolate chips/chunks in. Then add in some green food colouring a little at a time until it is the desired shade of zombie.



Plop heaped tablespoons of the mixture onto the cookie tray keeping the 'blobs/cookies' a few centimetres apart (if they bake into each other it's ok... you can just lop them apart as you would a zombie's limbs in an apocalypse). Bake for 15-17 minutes (until the edges are a golden toast-y colour) and leave them to cool before enjoying with a glass of brain juice aka milk.

We are proud parents...

This is Lucky. She is a lovely little cat that has adopted us. She likes dancing about to the Backstreet Boys (Backstreet's Back), tea bags, snuggles, and watching us chase away the evil tomcat (her nemesis) who stalks her.

Food: Raspberry Leaf Tea Sugar Cookies

A while ago Krystle and I tasted some gorgeous Earl Grey Tea infused biscuits from Marks and Spencer and ever since then I've wanted to re-create them for us. Seeing as in the near future we plan on whipping up an Earl Grey Tea cake I decided to make us some sugar cookies using a different tea... Clipper's Raspberry Leaf Tea. I'd purchased a box back in January when we went to London to see Ani DiFranco perform and I'd not really brewed it up to drink even though the smell is intoxicating. I thought that it would be good in simple sugar cookies as it has a fruity yet perfume-y taste and smell.

What do you need?

1 cup of plain flour (plus spare to roll with)
1/2 cup of caster sugar
4-5 teabags of Clipper's Raspberry Leaf Tea (or any other flavour)
1/2 cup of unsalted softened butter
A pinch of salt
Vanilla essence (though I skipped this ingredient myself)
1 teaspoon of lukewarm water
Cookie cutter(s)
Rolling pin
Greaseproof paper
Flat baking tray



Pre-heat your oven to 375F or 170 for fan assisted ovens. Mix all of the dry ingredients together and then add the wet ingredients. Mix together until a dough forms and then wrap up in some greaseproof paper or place in a freezer bag. Chill the mixture in the fridge for 30 mins.







Take the now chilled mixture and roll out onto a floured surface. Roll to about 1/4 of an inch think and then cut out cookie shapes with your cutter or cutters. Pop onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper and then bake for around 12 mins (or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown). Cool for around 5 mins and they're ready to enjoy!

Food: Lemon and Honey Curd

Honey isn't really a much healthier substitute to sugar in baked items. I thought that perhaps it would and so I did some websearching about using honey as an alternative in a Diabetic diet. I read that honey is sweeter and is processed by the body much the same as sugar. Ah well. It does, however, give sweets a lovely hint of flavour as well as sweetness so when I stumbled across a recipe for Lemon and Honey Curd I thought I'd give it a try for Krystle and I to use at some point this summer.



What you need...
zest of 1 lemon
4-5 lemons (juiced)
85g unsalted butter
1 egg (medium to large)
5 egg yolks
4-6 tablespoons of honey
1 clean jam jar



Mix all of the ingredients together (general recipes say to leave the butter until last, but I added the butter in initially and the mix somewhat resembles a yellow cottage cheese... yum).

Bring a saucepan of water to boil then set at a lower heat. Lower the bowl of ingredients into the pan of water (make sure that there isn't too much water in the pan as you don't want it mixing with the curd mix). As the butter melts and the curd 'cooks' whisk and stir the mix until it thickens. The consistency should be like hair conditioner.

Finally pour the curd into a pour or mixing jug (or perhaps just use a funnel) to pour into a clean jam jar. Leave in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to 'set'. Then enjoy smothered on scones, toast or make some lemon curd tarts!

Food: Lemon, Honey & Poppy Seed Scones

Years ago I found a recipe for Lemon & Poppy Seed scones that I wanted to try out, but Krystle and I live in the kind of place where you'd get a curious look if you asked for poppy seeds in the local super market. Since then I'd idly check the shelves for poppy seeds, but never went all out to find them. It took our trip to Wales and a visit to *takes a deep breath* Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (the village with the longest name in the Europe) for them to find their way into our hands and eventually into the baking cupboard. Finally!

What you need...
250g of self raising flour
50g unsalted diced butter
3 tablespoons of honey
100ml of milk mixed with one beaten egg
The zest of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons of poppy seeds
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 rolling pin
Extra flour to use when rolling out the dough
1 large scone cutter

Pre-heat an oven to around 180 degrees (fan assisted) or Gas Mark 5. Prepare a large baking tray with greaseproof paper and keep ready.

Sift together the flour and baking powder then mix in the lemon zest and poppy seeds. Then add the butter and mix together with your fingers to create a breadcrumb-like mixture. Mix and drop the flour mix from a hight to 'aerate' and lighten the mix.

Add in the honey and 2/3 or the milk and egg liquid and mix together using a butter knife. Make sure the mixture isn't too dry or too sloppy. Flour a clean surface generously and tip the dough onto it.





Knead the dough very slightly and roll out to 2 1/2 centimetres thick. Using the scone cutter press and cut out the scones and lay onto a tray with greaseproof paper. Using the left over milk and egg mix glaze the tops of the scones and then pop into the oven for around 20-25 mins or until a knife comes out of the scones clean.




Finally, take the scones out of the oven (don't leave them in for too long or they will become hard and dry) and leave to cool on the side. When they are cooler serve them up with a dollop of lemon curd and cream.

Felicity

Food: Courgette (aka Zucchini) flowers stuffed with Blue Cheese & Mushrooms

On Tuesday I cooked up something a little bit different for Krystle and I. In our previous post we quickly mentioned how we had found out that the bright golden yellow flowers on courgette plants were edible. After scouring the internet for a whopping 10 minutes we found that the general idea behind the cooking of them was to stuff them with cheeses and then fry them. Thus we ended up with creamy blue cheese and chopped up button mushrooms packed inside the bright petals.

What will you need?
Courgette/Zucchini flowers about 4 inches diameter (cut them off at the stem)
Medium soft cheese such as Brie, Camembert, Stilton, Feta or Blue Cheese
Vegetables (optional) such as chopped up peppers, tomato or mushroom
1 beaten egg
Olive oil







The first step is to remove the stamen inside and to wash the flowers. Afterwards, pat them lightly and leave them to dry out a little bit on a sheet of kitchen roll paper.



Next comes the fun part. Chop up small pieces of cheese and vegetables and pack them gently into the flower. Make sure that you can still close the flower up at the sides at least.



Then dip them into some beaten egg to seal them as you heat up some olive oil in a pan. When the oil sizzles slightly carefully lay each stuffed flower in the pan and shallow fry them until the egg is cooked.



Yay! All done! Now you can sit down and enjoy them with some rice, pasta or cous-cous. Don't eat the stem or leaves though.

Our Summer Project: The Windowsill Vegetable Patch

Here is a quick succession of photographs to show how our little vegetable (and strawberry) windowsill garden is coming along. The bright marigold colour flowers have come out on the courgette plants, the little swirling whips on the peas are curling around the dowling sticks and the rubescent shine is glowing on the strawberries. It's exciting. We'll be eating all of these things soon. We'd better start compiling a stack of recipes!

Here is how our little windowsill patch looked previously... May 15th, and May 20th. (We were super busy with essays, exams, and trips to Amsterdam & Wales so a chunk of 'growth photographs' were missed out.)

I think one of the first recipes to try out would be one that involves courgette (aka zucchini) flowers. Maybe stuffing them with goat cheese or feta and roast peppers, then pan frying them and drizzling them in honey.

The greenery of North Wales

Trefriw, Conwy County, Wales





Betws-y-Coed, Conwy Valley, Wales







Snowdonia National Park, North Wales





The Great Orme, Llandudno, Conwy County, Wales