Jubilee Afternoon Tea

After being out of the country for the royal wedding last year I decided to throw myself into the Jubilee celebrations with abandon. So liberal amounts of red, white and blue later a Jubilee afternoon tea was ready for my friends.

For the savoury elements I decided to keep it relatively simple. My take on coronation chicken, revamped into a fresh salad, which would have jewelled with pomegranate seeds (had I not left them in the kitchen) plus salmon, cream cheese and pickled cucumber sandwiches, cheese and chutney sandwiches, chicken and lemon mayonnaise sandwiches and ham sandwiches This was all washed down with some bubbly with a non alcoholic version for my pregnant friend and the drivers.







For the sweet elements I had such a long list to chose from, but I manage to narrow it down by prioritising the ones which were most in keeping with the red, white and blue theme (plus the lime cupcakes as you can see from previous posts I love lemon drizzle cake and I'd been meaning to try experimenting with a lime version for ages)
- raspberry cupcakes
- lime drizzle cupcakes
- blueberry and lemon cupcakes
- mini Victoria sponge
- individual eton mess












Recipes

Jewelled Coronation Chicken Salad

Serves 4-6 (easily doubled or trebled)

1 roast chicken, cold
Mixed leaves
1/2 a cucumber
Pomegranate
300ml natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons of korma curry paste
1 teaspoon of honey
2-3 springs of mint, chopped
Seasoning
A squeeze of lemon juice

Start by making the dressing. Mix the curry paste, honey, mint, lemon juice and seasoning into a thick dressing.

Scatter the lettuce leaves all over a platter and then add cubes of cucumber and chunks of roast chicken.

When you are ready to serve drizzle liberally with the dressing and scatter with pomegranate seed. Serve the rest of the dressing alongside.

Smokes salmon, cream cheese and pickled cucumber sandwiches

Smoked salmon (I used Waitrose essentials trimmings as it doesn't need to be in large pieces for this)
Cream cheese
Cucumber
White wine vinegar
Sugar
Seasoning
Sliced bread

At least and hour before use a potato peeling the slice the cucumber into ribbons. Put them into a bowl and toss in a generous glug of white wine vinegar, a large pinch of sugar and seasoning.

Spread the bread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Add the smoked salad and a few ribbons of cucumber. Top with another slice of bread and cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Cheese and chutney sandwiches

Grated mature cheddar cheese
Your favourite chutney
Sliced bread
Butter

Thinly butter the bread and add a generous helping of grated cheese. Spread the other side of the bread with the chutney and add to the top of the sandwich.

Cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Chicken and lemon mayo sandwiches

Roast chicken, chopped
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Dijon mustard
Seasoning
Lettuce
Sliced bread

Out the chicken into a bowl and add the mayonnaise. I would normally make this using Jamie Oliver's recipe but my friend is pregnant and therefore can't eat raw eggs so I tarted up bought mayonnaise with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and seasoning.

Sandwich the chicken mixture, with a few lettuce leaves, between two slices of bread.

Cut into triangles of fingers, with or without crusts as desired.

Red, White and Blue Cupcakes
Makes 12

For the cakes:
4oz self raising flour
4oz margarine
4oz sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the flavourings and icings:
Zest and juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons of granulated sugar
Zest of 1/4 lemon and about a tablespoon of juice
About 10 raspberries
Freeze dried raspberry powder
12 Blueberries
8oz butter
8-10oz icing sugar
A tablespoon of milk

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C in a fan oven). I started by making all of the cake plain for ease. Beat together all of the ingredients for the cake and share the mixture between 12 muffin cases.

In 4 sprinkle the lemon zest and another 4 with lime zest and give them a gentle stir with the end of a teaspoon so the zest doesn't sit on the top. Leave the other 4 plain.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins.

While they are cooking mix a tablespoon of granulated sugar with the lime juice. As soon as the cakes come out take the 4 lime ones and make very small holes in them with a skewer and drizzle over the lime juice mixture.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the icing. I always beat the butter for 5 mins or more until it is very pale and then gradually add the icing sugar and finish with the milk. This makes the icing very light and fluffy and also makes it much paler which is good when you're aiming for white!

In a small saucepan take the raspberries and the other tablespoon of sugar and heat up until it has thickened slightly. To get smooth icing sieve the raspberry mixture to remove the pips. Put to one side to cool.

Split the icing into two bowls. In the one add the lemon juice. In the other add the raspberry juice.

Pipe the icing onto the cakes. I used a round nozzle for the lemon icing and a Wilton 2D for the raspberry. I topped the lemon ones with blueberries and the raspberry ones with a sprinkle of raspberry powder.

I also had a few little union jack flags which I popped in the top.

Mini Victoria sponges
Makes 2

Using the same recipe as for the cakes above split the mixture between two 4 inch cake pans.

Once cool split each cake and sandwich with whipped cream and strawberries.

Eton Mess

Greek yoghurt
Whipped cream
Vanilla extract
Icing sugar
Strawberries
Raspberries
Meringues

Mix roughly equal amounts of cream and yoghurt with a little vanilla extract and icing sugar. Layer up in glasses with the fruit and meringues.

Cupcakes, cookies and hens

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be bridesmaid for one of my best friends. Last weekend was her hen do and I arranged one of the activities. Given I love baking and we were likely to be a little hungover I decided that cupcake and cookie decorating could be a good idea. I bought a wedding dress and heart cookies cutter, baked away, packed up all of my sugar craft equipment, nozzles, colours etc added in sprinkles, hearts and glitter and the activity was ready!
Most of the hens were a little apprehensive having never done this kind of thing before. However after a short while they were all decorating away like pros. It always amazes me how well people do, even if they claim not to be creative.
Here are some of the efforts
The cupcakes...




The cookies...




The brides dress?




The winning cupcake...




The winning cookie, with the wife and husband to be's initials...




Lion's face...




A few others...








Best of luck to the happy couple!

Second Christmas

As mentioned in my homemade secret santa post I mentioned that every year between Christmas and New Year we get together with the extended family to celebrate Christmas. It's always noisy, chaotic and full of food and drink, just as Christmas should be!

This year we were responsible for the vegetarian main and a dessert for the cooked lunch and a salad and baked treats for the buffet supper.

For the main I decided to make Homity Pie, this is is, a totally classic, Cranks recipe, from the Cranks Recipe Book. For anyone who doesn't know Cranks they have been championing wholesome vegetarian food for years, I believe they started in the 60s in Carnaby Street, but I could be wrong. Also as far as I know they were sold some years ago and now are far more commerical and therefore just not the same, but the good old recipes are still amazing. Homity Pie is basically a wholemeal pastry case with a potato, onion and cheese middle. It is very filling and warming so perfect for a winters day or a subsitute for a roast dinner for someone who doesn't eat meat. I was feeding the five thousand so made 3.5 times the amount in the recipe below. I also made a mini pie for my cousin's little one who is coeliac and therefore can't eat gluten. This was exactly the same but I subsituted the pastry for a gluten free version made with 1oz of Doves Farm Gluten Free flour and 1/2 oz of butter and a dash of water. This pastry is far more crumbly than normal pastry so you may well need to piece it together and fill in any cracks.

One of the large homity pies




The mini gluten free homity pie



For the dessert my mum made creme caramel's. She is the queen of this simple, but difficult to perfect, recipe and her creme caramels always turn out perfectly. Plus when my cousin's little boy was about two and quite a fussy eater he wolfed one down in about 3 seconds flat and looked up for more, so we thought we had no choice but to make them again for him!

Lots of creme caramels in a useful cardboard box


And one turned out



For the salad I made a barley middle eastern salad which is adapted from a recipe on www.simplyrecipes.com. The barley is studded with jewels of preserved lemons, pistacios, pomegranates and dried apricots. I absolutely love preserved lemons and the pomegrante seeds give this a lovely burst of flavour. Barley is such a low cost filling and healthy grain which is fab chucked into soups and stews to turn them into a meal in themselves. I also think it feels very comforting, which is great at this time of year.

The finished salad in a less than beautiful 'serving bowl'




My sister made a variety of cakes and cookies for the supper. She made the cupcakes in this post plus some chocolate ones with chocolate icing which are basically made with just the chocolate sponge in this recipe plus the same icing but with the addition of some salted caramel sauce on the side for people to drizzle over. These were both piped with a Wilton 2D nozzle and the vanilla ones topped with a little glitter. She also made the same cupcakes with Dove's Farm Gluten Free Self Raising flour for my cousin child.

The lemon loaves are these, but in mini paper loaf cases which I found in a little gift shop.

Finally she made some cookies, which were based on the same recipe as these but as well as chunks of white chocolate she added chunks of biscuit, fudge and mini marshmallows to turn them into rocky road cookies and then made some vanilla ones with chocolate chunks. Which are the same recipe but with the cocoa subsitutued with extra flour.

Here are the cupcakes and cookies displayed on the 'up-cycled' cake stand my cousin made for my secret santa.




And these are the mini lemon drizzle loaves





This was the whole spread for lunch


A slice of Jamie Oliver's Christmas Chocolate Bomb. Which I think was made using this recipe




The spread for dinner



Some bread made by my cousin-in-law



The cheese plate of mainly local cheeses



Recipes

Homity Pie

8oz wholemeal flour
4oz butter or margarine
Water
3/4 lb Potatoes
1lb Onions
1 tbsp olive oil
A good bunch of parsley, chopped
4oz grated cheese
2 crushed garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

Makes six 4'' pies or one 8'' tart

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs. Add enough water to bring it together. Handle it with a gentle touch and don't work too much. Allow to rest for 30 mins.

While the pastry is resting. Chop the potatoes into small cubes and boil until tender. Chop the onion into similar sized pieces and saute with the garlic in the oil until very soft. Add the potatoes, half of the cheese, parsley and salt and pepper and stir gently to avoid the potatoes breaking up too much.

Roll out the pastry and line the cases. The recipe doesn't say to blind bake the pastry but I normally do. Fill the case with the filling and spinkle with the remaining cheese and bake in a pre-heated oven for 220C (425F/Gas Mark 7) for 20-30 mins until golden.

Slightly adapted from The Cranks Recipe Book

Moroccan Chickpea Barley Salad

1 1/2 cups barley
1 1/2 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp salt
Oilve oil
1 tin of chick peas
1 cup shelled pistacio nuts
1 cup diced dried apricots
1-2 preserved lemons with the flesh removed and the skin diced
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
1 onion
A bunch each of parsley and mint, chopped
Zest and juice of a lemon
1 tbsp ras el hanout mix (below)
Salt to taste

Ras el hanout mix
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cardamon seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric

Saute the barley in a little oil for 3-4 minutes, add the stock, water and a tsp of salt. Simmer until the barley is tender, anywhere from 30 mins to one hour, depending on the age of the barley.

Strain the barley and rinse with cold water to cool it quickly. Drain as much water out as you can and the lay out the barley on a tray. Drizzle with oil and mix to coat.

In a large mixing bowl add the remaining ingredients. Add the barley and mix well.

Adapted from a recipe on www.simplyrecipes.com

Creme caramel

Grease 8 ramekin dishes. Put 4oz granulated sugar and 4oz of water in a small saucepan. Heat without stirring until it forms a syrup which is deep brown and whirls of smoke have started to rise. Quickly and carefully pour the syrup into the ramekin dishes, swirling each around to coat the bottom. Put 1 pint of gold top milk into a pan with a knob of butter and a tablespoon of sugar, When heated to lukewarm pour it over 3 beaten eggs and whisk. Place the ramekin dishes in a roasting tin, strain the custard into each and then fill the roasting tin with water until it is about 3/4 of the way up the sides of the dishes. Place into an oven preheated to 130C and bake until set, approximately 1 hour and 15 mins. Cool and refridgerate over night. By the next day the caramel will have returned to a runny liquid. To server run a knife around each ramekin dish and turn out onto a plate allowing the caramel to pool around the custard. Put some pouring cream on the table for people so people can add some if they wish.

From a very old newspaper cutting

Free Cakes For Kids - Ealing Young Carers Project Christmas Party

There is a fabulous network called Free Cakes For Kids. As with a lot of great things the idea is very simple. It's a network of people who love baking who offer to make birthday cakes for children who otherwise wouldn't get a cake. It's so sad to think some children might not have the simple joy of getting a birthday cake and so simple to fix! Details can be found on the Free Cakes for Kids website
http://www.freecakesforkids.org.uk/

There wasn't already a group in existence in West London so my sister and I have been busy setting one up over the last few months. Today some children who are young carers from the Ealing Young Carers Project will be enjoying our cakes as part of their Christmas party.

My sister made the cakes. The recipe is a basic chocolate cake with chocolate chips topped with dark chocolate icing piped with a Wilton 2D nozzle with a few topped with holly leaves made from fondant icing, red and green food colouring and a holly leaf shaped cutter.

Here they are boxes up and ready to go



This fits in quite well with both #letsmakechristmas and Random Bakes of Kindness #RBOKindness.

Recipe
100g margarine or butter (I use Stork)
100g caster sugar
75g self raising flour (I use supreme sponge flour)
25g cocoa powder
1/2tsp baking powder
2 eggs

Beat all the ingredients together. Once fully incorporated carefully spoon the mixture to half fill muffin cases placed into muffin tins. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on the top of each.

For the icing just add some slightly cooled melted dark chocolate. I use about 100g to regular buttercream. Have a look at my previous posts or let me know if you want the detailed recipe for buttercream.

Random Bakes of Kindness 4: Thank You to the Doctors and Nurses

Since reading about Random Bakes of Kindness on @vanessakimbell blog I have tried to do one every month and this month's effort is for probably the most deserving cause yet. My wonderful nan recently passed away, the post can be found here, and the doctors and nurses who cared for her during her short stay in hospital were nothing short of amazing, both to her and to my family whilst we stayed with her. Enough to restore your faith in the NHS!

To say a small thank you I wanted to take them some baked goodies and made some cupcakes, a tiramisu cake and a lemon drizzle cake. Now this probably sounds like a very large Random Bake of Kindness, however I was helping my sister make a three tier celebration cake and 100 cupcakes for her work's 10th anniversary party so it wasn't very difficult to make enough extra batter and play with the flavours where necessary.

For the tiramisu cake I used a 10oz mixture of vanilla sponge cake. See the full recipe here http://sarahskitchendiary1.blogspot.com/2011/10/tiramisu-cake.html?m=1. Unlike my last blog post I decorated the edge with chocolate coated biscuits and the top with a few chocolate covered coffee beans.




For the cupcakes I used about 4ozs of vanilla sponge and decorated them in a similar way to these
http://sarahskitchendiary1.blogspot.com/2011/10/bridesmaids-cupcakes.html?m=1 However due to the season I substituted the surprise strawberry for a spoonful of homemade raspberry jam and topped with white chocolate icing. Made in the same way as the previous post but adding 100g of slightly cooled melted white chocolate at the end.









I had to make a lemon drizzle cake as it was my nan's favourite. I've never posted the recipe before but it's very simple. I used about 4ozs of sponge batter before the vanilla went in and added the zest of one lemon instead. Once cooked but while it was hot and still in the tin I made holes all over the cake with a skewer and poured over a mixture of the juice of one lemon with granulated sugar mixed in.

If a cake isn't going to have icing in the middle I always use these fab liners from Lakeland. They save lining the tin, transport well and look professional if it's for a gift. Win win!

My Nan

This is a very difficult post to write. I've been a bit quiet over the past two weeks as my lovely nan unfortunately passed away. She was 90 years old and had enjoyed a very good life but it was still a shock and from a selfish point of view We would've all liked to have her around for a bit longer.

Here is a photo of her when she was younger.





Her funeral was yesterday so mum and I got cooking and baking so we could put on a little afternoon tea for everyone to come back to. We tried to pick some of nan's favourite things.

Unfortunately in all the hurry I forgot to take a photo of everything laid out on the table but we made the following:

Savoury Morsels
- tuna mayonnaise and cucumber finger sandwiches
- open mini ham and tomato sandwiches
- open mini chicken pesto sandwiches (dice some roasted chicken and mix with a little mayonnaise, pesto, diced red pepper, lemon juice and salt and pepper and place a spoonful on a small disc of baguette)
- Mini cheese and tomato quiches (see recipe below)
- Olives
- Vegetable crisps
- Cheese board, crackers and grapes

Sweet Treats
- Victoria Sponge (see this post for the recipe I use for vanilla sponge and then sandwich with a good raspberry jam and vanilla butter cream and finish with a dusting of icing sugar)
- Marble cake cupcakes with white chocolate icing (made by my fabulous friend @hollyking84 using this recipe but topped with white chocolate butter cream coloured with a little food colouring instead of dark chocolate buttercream)
- Mini lemon meringue pies (see recipe below)

Photos




The finished cheese and tomato quiches






The Victoria sponge sliced ready for eating










@hollyking84's beautiful cupcakes





Mini lemon meringue pies

Recipes

Cheese and Tomato Mini Quiches

One packet of puff pastry
18 Cherry Tomatoes
300g grated cheese (I use half mature cheddar cheese and half Lancashire cheese)
3 eggs
4 tbsps Crème Fraiche
½ tsp each of salt, pepper and dried oregano
A few sprigs of basil

Makes 12 quiches
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7

1. Set aside 6 cherry tomatoes and 12 small basil leaves.
2. Place the remaining cherry tomatoes in a bowl or jug, prick each one with a knife and cover in boiling water. This will loosen the skins. After a few mins pour away the water and peel all of the skins off the tomatoes. Cut them all into quarters.
3. Chop the remaining basil into fine slithers and the remaining tomatoes in half.
4. Beat the eggs, stir in the grated cheese, crème fraiche, salt, pepper, oregano and remaining basil.
5. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until it is quite thin. Cut 12 circles out and place each into a greased muffin tin, pressing it into the sides (I always use a pint glass to cut out the circles).
6. Place 4 quarters of tomatoes into each pastry case and then pour the mixture on top onto each one.
7. Place half a tomato onto each and a basil leaf.
8. Place in the oven and bake for 5 mins. Then reduce the temperature to 200C and bake for a further 10-15 mins until golden.
9. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then remove each of them from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Lemon Meringue Pies

For the pastry:
260g plain flour
40g icing sugar
185g cold unsalted butter
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons of cold water

For the meringue:
3 egg whites
165g caster sugar

For the lemon curd:
3 egg yolks
110g caster sugar
Zest and juice of one lemon
90g cold unsalted butter

1. Start by making the lemon curd by whisking the egg yolks with the caster sugar in a heatproof bowl until light and fluffy. Whisk in the lemon zest and juice.
2. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and continue stirring until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon (approx 12 mins).
3. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cold butter.
4. Whilst the lemon curd cools make the pastry. I used the crumb method, but you can also do it by pulsing the butter, flour and icing sugar in a food processor until crumbly and then whilst the motor is still running add the egg yolk and enough water to make the pastry come together. Chill the pastry in the fridge for about 30 mins. Preheat the oven to 200C
5. Roll out the pastry and cut out 12 rounds into a greased muffin tin. Blind bake for about 12 minutes.
6. Remove the pastry cases from the tin and leave to cool for 5 mins.
7. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, add the caster sugar one teaspoon ensuring it is fully incorporated in between each addition.
8. Increase the oven temperature to 220C
9. Divide the lemon curd between the cases and pipe with a swirl of meringue. Bake for 2 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

In memory of my wonderful nan who had given me so many times to remember. Ada Buxton 16.12.1920 - 25.10.2011

Bridesmaids cupcakes

One of my best friends in getting married next May and organised a get together this weekend for her bridesmaids (plus one of the flower girls) to go with her to the wedding fair at Earls Court and various other wedding planning things.

On Saturday evening she planned a girly night and I took some cupcakes over. In keeping with the girly theme I decided to go all floral and pink with a touch of glitter! I used some lovely floral cases and displayed them on a floral card base. The cupcake is a vanilla sponge but I followed the advice in Oliver Peyton's British Baking book and weighed the eggs (with the shells on) and used the same volume of flour, butter and sugar. I used two medium eggs so this was 39g eggs, butter, self raising flour and sugar and I added 1/4 tsp baking powder and vanilla paste. It wasn't a bother weighing the eggs and I do think it resulted in a slightly better texture. I would like to try it when I'm next making a Victoria sponge.

Once baked and cooled I cut a small hole from each and filled with a hulled strawberry and topped with a mixture of pink and white vanilla buttercream and a touch of glitter. For pictures of the strawberry in the centre please see my previous blog post 'cupcake heaven'.

Eric Lanlard Cupcake Masterclass

Yesterday was my birthday and as a treat I had the day off work and booked on an Eric Lanlard Cupcake Masterclass with my friend and mum. We didn’t really know what to expect, but turned up early at Cake Boys so we could have some lunch before hand. The food was tasty and good value and as it was a lovely sunny day we sat outside to make the most of the last few days of warmth.

The course is actually run by Eric. He started by doing a quick demonstration of how to make decorations for the tops of our cupcakes using silicone mould and petal paste using moulds similar to the photo below and then how to paint and decorate them with edible food colouring and edible glitter.





There were lots of moulds to choose from. Once we had made 12 each and they were fairly dry we painted and decorated.

Eric then produced huge bowls of frosting and boxes of cupcakes for us all to decorate and take home. The frosting was a vanilla cream cheese frosting and we had a choice of colours, white, pale pink and pale green. He then showed us three methods to pipe the frosting onto the cakes and topped with the decorations made at the start.

We also did some of the cakes with half pink and half green icing in the bag to get a two tone effect.

Here are the cakes that Eric made:





Here is my slightly less professional attempts!









We got to take home our Cake Boy aprons and Eric kindly signed a copy of his recipe book that I had been given for my birthday.

All in all we had the most fabulous day and I would recommend to anyone who is interested in baking and cupcakes.

Guest baker - Cupcake Heaven!

For my 10th ever post I thought I would write about a guest baker to Sarah's kitchen. My sister Helen took over the kitchen to make some cupcakes and I might be a little bias but I think they are pretty amazing.

The first cupcakes she made were for a friends birthday. They vanilla cupcakes but decorated in the style of ombré using plenty of red food dye, the theme of the party (for anyone who doesn't know ombré hair is very fashionable at the moment and basically means a graduation of colour so perhaps dark roots fading to blonde ends). The icing was piped using a Wilton 2D nozzle from the centre outward. For anyone who wants icing tips You Tube has loads of how to videos.

The recipe was just a simple sponge and butter icing but if anyone wants it let me know.







She then moved on to make two sets of cupcakes for an afternoon tea and to take to work with her.

The first was again a vanilla cupcake but this time she removed some of the centre of the sponge and hid a whole strawberry under the icing and decorated it with edible glitter and edible lustre.






















Finally she made a dense chocolate sponge using hound almonds for extra moisture and decorated them with chocolate ganache.















Again both of these were piped using the Wilton 2D nozzle.

All in all pretty successful I would say :)