Nigella Kitchen… Another Helping

Coffee and Walnut Cake

First off, apologies, I didn’t manage to do the Cake Slice baker recipe this month, but I’ll be back again next month for the last recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes.

Kitchen Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson published 2010 by Chatto and Windus. I’m still cooking from this the most recent Nigella Lawson cookbook – and here is my next instalment.

Coffee and Walnut Cake

Moist sponge and creamy icing. Rich, but good.

Spring Chicken

This chicken dish was very light, not a favourite. I did use the leftovers in the pasta sauce suggestion in the book, and it was nicer with the touch of cream we thought. Won’t do this one again though.

Turkey Meatballs

We liked this one – all of us. Maybe not Nigella's most spectacular meatballs, but still a good midweek supper.

Mixed Meat Pilaf

I’ve made this one a number of times, it’s really good. You do need some pine nuts and pomegranate seeds, but it lifts leftover lamb into a wonderful dish worth dreaming about in its own right.

Devil’s Food Cake

A very moist and delicious sponge and a really dark icing. Instead of 300g dark chocolate in the icing I used 200g dark and 100g milk chocolate, but it was still too dark for us. I think sometime in the future I’ll try this sponge and the icing from the chocolate cake in Nigella Bites. Have very high hopes for that =) At its best two days after making we thought.

Chorizo and Chickpea Stew

This is a store cupboard recipe, and quite quick to boot, but it’s good, chorizo sausage, chickpeas, apricots and tomatoes. The couscous with a bit of pasta in it and scented with cinnamon is quite unusual, but also good.

Not Quite Sl@t’s Spaghetti!

Not least because the one in my picture is not of spaghetti!! I bought this square pasta from M&S, cute don’t you think? Also not quite the recipe in the book because I reduce the anchovies to 1 for a half quantity. I like it though, light, quick and full flavoured.

Korean Prawns

The recipe in the book is for calamari, but I’m allergic to it so I used prawns. Spicy and good. Actually it’s on the very edge of my chilli tolerance, but still I like it. Beautiful colour too.

Grasshopper Pie

I’ve saved the best for last here, oh my goodness this is fabulous! It’s not cheap to make the first time as you need two liqueurs, but we really, really loved this! It’s cool, minty, creamy and so light too. Of course now I have the liqueurs - crème de cacao blanc and crème de menthe I can make it anytime. Whether that is a good this or not I don’t know!

Next Review: JME Oil and Vinegar

Next Book Review Up: The Great British Bake Off How to Bake

Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

This book came out last year, and a lovely one it is too. Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas published by Kyle Cathie Limited in 2010. I had this one pre-ordered, and have looked through it often, but it was only at the beginning of this summer that I started cooking from it. I’ve never been to the actual Primrose Bakery itself in London…well yet anyhow, one day I hope. Until then I am happy – more than happy to have their cookbook on my shelves and to be able to cook from it in my kitchen.

The book itself is a nice pale primrose yellow in colour, a nice touch I thought. Its chapters are ~Basic Cupcakes~ Basic Icings~ Festive and Seasonal~ Special Occasions~ Weddings~ Beyond Cupcakes~ Decorations~ and finally Techniques and Equipment~. There is also a handy stockists page at the back for UK shops and websites. The book is full of mainly cupcakes, but with a few cakes at the back too. Beautiful pictures that just make you want to pick them up off the page and eat. It is undoubtedly a good thing that I can’t eat a bit of each of them in one go! Cute little line drawings throughout as well.

Here are some of the cakes I have marked to try: Orange Cupcakes with Orange Blossom Icing, Ginger Cupcakes with Ginger Fudge Icing, Caramel Cupcakes, Vanilla Cupcakes with Lime and Coconut Buttercream and the one I’m going to try next, Chocolate Orange Cupcakes.

I tried three out and they were all great, but if I had to play favourites it would be the Raspberry and White Chocolate cupcakes they were very good indeed!

Strawberry and Cream Cupcakes

Strawberry flavoured sponge, strawberry jam filling and vanilla icing. I added some strawberry extract to the icing and made it pink, but I am a tinkerer. Lovely, very Summery.

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Icing

A good lemon hit and cute too. I made these as mini cupcakes.

Raspberry Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Delicious. Raspberry filled and white chocolate icing, just perfect. The world is a better place with a batch of these under your cake dome, or in your tins!

Raspberry Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Adapted Slightly from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas published 2010.

110g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

180g Caster Sugar

2 large Eggs

125g Self-raising Flour, sifted

120g Plain Flour, sifted

125ml milk at room temperature (semi skimmed)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons raspberry jam (I like Dalfour)

(1)Preheat the oven to 160 F fan / 180 F / 350 C / Gas mark 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with big cases.

(2) Cream the butter and sugar (I use my mixer with the paddle attachment) until light, pale and smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, mixing for a few minutes after each goes in. Meanwhile sift the flours into a bowl and in a jug mix the milk and vanilla.

(3)Add one third of the flour to the butter mixture, then one third of the milk mixing just to incorporate each. Do this twice more with each until all the flour and milk is used. Fold in the raspberry jam (stirring the jam first to loosen if you need to) to give a good rippled effect. Spoon or scoop the mixture into the 12 waiting cases. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked.

(4) Leave in the tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

30g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

15ml Milk, also at room temperature (semi skimmed)

Drop or two of Vanilla Extract

125g Icing Sugar, sifted

100g good white chocolate (I use Lindt)

3 tablespoons Double Cream

Filling for cakes, 1 teaspoon raspberry jam per cake

Final Topping: Fresh Raspberries 12 to 24

(1)In a food mixer with the whisk attachment (for ease) whisk the butter, vanilla, milk and half the sugar for a few minutes until smooth. Gradually add the remaining icing sugar, beating well between each addition.

(2) Melt the white chocolate, either in short (20 second) bursts in the microwave or on top of a pan of barely simmering water on the cooker top – take care that the water does not touch the bowl. Leave to cool a bit.

(3) Once cooled add the chocolate and cream to the vanilla icing that you have made to turn it into white chocolate icing.

(4) Make a hole in the middle of each cupcake big enough to take the teaspoon of raspberry jam, then top with the white chocolate icing. Finally place a raspberry or two on top.

Note: if you make this icing ahead it will need to be kept in the fridge due to the cream, beat well before using if you do this.

Next Up: Another helping from Kitchen by Nigella Lawson

Next Review Up: The Great British Bake Off How To Bake

Taste Le Tour - Review

This is a lovely little cookbook. Taste Le Tour Regional French Cuisine by Gabriel Gate published by Hardie Grant in 2011. It’s pretty – look at the cover, it looks like a pretty box

from an exquisite French patisserie shop. The cover is a little puffy too and this emphasises the luxury effect. It’s called Taste le Tour, as it is a book that travels through the different regions in France that the actual Tour de France bicycle race travels to. The difference being that you don’t need to be able to tackle the big race itself, you get to travel via your own cooker!

I think it’s a charming book, not only because I like pink things (!), but also because of its layout and charming illustrations by Francophile artist Antonia Pesanti. There are no photographs of the finished dishes, but there are some drawings of sweet dishes at the back. Antonia’s drawings give a delightful backdrop to the book.

Gabriel Gate is a Frenchman who trained as a chef in France before moving to Australia. He is now a cooking teacher, author and TV presenter. The food is presented in a classic format with chapters being: *Soups, Entrees and Vegetables* Fish and Seafood* Poultry and Rabbit* Beef, Lamb and Pork* and *Cakes and Desserts.

Now is the perfect time to cook from this book as July is the month of the Tour de France race. Though it would be a shame only to use it for one month of the year! The food is classically French and Gabriel’s recipes are easy to follow, I made three dishes (see below) and we liked them all. He tells you on each recipe which area it comes from. Some of the other dishes I have marked to try are: Silverbeet Gratin, Provencal Vegetable Bake, Chicken Casserole cooked in Reisling, Lamb Casserole with Green Olives, Summer Fruit Mousse and Raspberry Tartlettes. Here are the three I tried:

Raspberry Trifles

I made this as one big trifle. It comprises a cooked custard (crème patisserie), trifle sponges, raspberries and a little orange and Cointreau. The custard and cream are folded together for an easy trifle topping - and a delicious one too.

Prawns the Parisian Way

This should have been scallops the Parisian way, but when I went shopping there were no scallops… so prawns it was. A veloute sauce enriched with cream, egg yolk and cheese. It did indeed taste very chic and Parisiene. It was fast too. I’m going to make it again soon.

Apricot Compote

I love apricots, but they taste a whole lot better if they have been cooked. The sweet poaching liquid was flavoured with lemon, orange and vanilla. I took out some for little one, and then more or less followed the recipe by adding in a little Amaretto (instead of Armagnac). They were really delicious with or without the alcohol.

Next Review up: Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

Zebra Cake - Cake Slice Bakers July 2011

This months cake is still from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman published by The Taunton Press 2009. It’s something I’ve been meaning to try for ages, so was pleased to give it a whirl.

Short and sweet from me this month! It’s vanilla cake and chocolate cake mixtures dropped into the pan in spoonfulls, to give a bulls eye effect, which looks stripey when the cake is cut into. Mine wasn’t perfect by any means, but there was a definite stripe in it, wavy like a zebra’s coat. It was fun to give it a whirl, and now that I’ve at long last tried the technique, I must get round to giving a stripey cheesecake recipe I have been meaning to try a go too.

Do have a look at the Cake Slice Bakers blogroll, some of the zebra cakes are really awesome!

Next review up: Taste le Tour

Custard Cream Button Biscuits

Custard Cream Buttons

I’ve been following Ed’s blog for a while now. He won the British Bake Off competition on TV in 2010. He also has a cookbook due out later this year. A few weeks ago he posted about custard creams that he had made, and they looked fabulous. Now, I have made custard creams before but they included cheap white fat, and I really didn’t like the mouth feel that this gave at the end of the biscuit. Ed used all butter in his, and I thought why not? – I’ve been meaning to play around with the white fat issue for ages now, because I do like a custard cream. In fact just typing this I fancy making them again – right this minute!

In Ed’s pictures the biscuits look like little button discs, one of the commenters on his post said so, and I thought so too. So I took this one small step further and marked them to look like actual buttons with a round cutter and a cocktail stick (pick) for the ‘holes’. The following recipe is the one Ed has on his blog, with the exception of some milk that I added to the filling. To see Ed’s neater piped filling, and quite honestly better pictures than mine do have a look at his post here. We really enjoyed these.

Custard Creams

225g plain flour

50g custard powder

30g icing sugar

175g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Filling

50g unsalted butter, room temperature

200g icing sugar

2 tablespoons custard powder

25ml milk

(1) To make the biscuits place the flour, custard powder, icing sugar into the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add in the butter and vanilla bean paste and pulse until the mixture begins to come together. Tip the mixture out onto the work surface and bring together into a uniform mass with your hands. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

(2) Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and roll to a thickness of 3-4mm. Cut out small rounds about 3cm in diameter, place on a Place on a baking parchment lined baking tray. Next mark half of them with the tines of a fork two or three times, not going all the way through. Now, to make the ‘buttons’ take a smaller circular cutter and press into the unmarked rounds, again not going all the way through. Finally take a cocktail stick and make 4 button holes in the center of the ‘buttons’. Refrigerate the trays for 15 minutes or until firm. Whilst chilling preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F. Bake the biscuits for 10 minutes or until just starting to colour around the edges. Cool on a wire rack.

(3) For the filling place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy about 5 minutes then slowly incorporate the icing sugar and custard powder and beat in high until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the 25ml of milk, if you think it needs it. To make it smooth and spreadable

(4) Spread the butter cream with a knife onto half of the biscuits, the plain half! Sandwiching them together with the top ‘button’ biscuits. Or Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a small plain and pipe the filling instead.

Next Review up: Taste Le Tour

The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days - Review

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

After the success of their first cookbook, last year, here is the second offering on the cookbook front from the famous bakery. The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days by Tarek Malouf and the Hummingbird Bakers published by Collins in 2011.

A very nice book it is bigger than the first one. Plenty of pictures of the finished baked goods too. It has a good layout, with different colours used in pretty ways. Cupcakes, cakes, loaf cakes, savoury muffins and more. This book takes you through a year at the bakery, and this is clearly reflected in the flavours of the baked goods in the various chapters. The chapters are: Valentine’s Day* Spring Weekend Bakes* Mother’s and Father’s Day* Easter* Summer afternoon Tea* Birthdays and Celebrations* Rainy Day Treats* Halloween and Bonfire Night* and Christmas.

I couldn’t wait to get baking from this one! They say the cupcake is waning in its popularity; well not in my heart, head and kitchen it’s not!! Sticky Toffee Cupcakes were my first bake, and they were closely followed by the next two here that I’ve tried. My friend Kate made and gives the thumbs up to the apple and walnut cupcakes too.

Some of the other recipes I have marked to try are: Apple Blosson Cupcakes, Caramel Cupcakes, Rose Cupcakes, Lemonade Cupcakes, Pea, Ham and Feta Cheese Muffins, Gingerbread Cupcakes and Apple Crumble Cupcakes – to name but a few..

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

Goodness these are so good they are dangerous! Hubby has declared this as his favourite cupcake ever, ever, EVER! Mind you it’s with good reason, moist sponge with the gorgeous mejool dates I used providing contrast and a dulce de leche buttercream frosting. I topped them with a few more chopped mejools. There was a lot of icing left over, and I’d halve it next time. There will be a next time, I think these might become hubs ‘birthday cake’ this year. I didn’t work out how many calories these have, and I definitely don’t want to know, it would spoil the joy! What I will say though is that I would have bought the book for this recipe alone.

Malteser Cupcakes

As if to contrast the success of the first one, this one didn’t do it at all for us, the cake was neither chocolate-y or malt-y enough and the frosting was just not sweet enough. Can’t win them all.

Banoffee Whoopies

This one however was another hit. I’ve been working myself up to making whoopie pies for some time now, and they are fabulous. They are really filling so small to medium in size would be better than large – well that’s what I think anyhow. Cakey, creamy, moist – delicious!

Next Up: Custard Creams

Next Review: Taste Le Tour

Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips - CSB June 2011

It’s the twentieth of the month – Cake Slice Baker time!

This cake, again, comes from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman published by The Taunton Press 2009. For the first time when the Cake Slice members voted on which cake for us all to bake there was a draw. Two choices to bake: Lime Chiffon Cake or Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips.

I chose to make the latter and it’s a very seasonal one for this time of year, when our strawberries are at their brightly coloured, juicy, delicious best. I bought four lots of strawberries before I managed to make the cake, we just couldn’t help ourselves eating the rest just as they were =)

Anyhow, the strawberry cake comes from the snacking cake chapter. It has some sour cream in the cake batter to give a little tang and it made for a moist fruity cake that felt quite decadent by the addition of the white chocolate chips. I use chopped up white chocolate, because that is my preference here.

We liked this cake, it’s not a wow-after-dinner-cake, but it is a very nice cake to have with a cup of tea or coffee in the afternoon. The author tosses the sliced berries in some flour to stop them dying the whole cake pink, and this worked well. Do visit the Cake Slice Bakers blogroll, and see how everyone else has done their cakes, and maybe the lime one too.

Fresh Strawberry Cake with White Chocolate Chips

From Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman 2009. I’ve re-done it slightly to make it easier for UK bakers. I’ve put the US measurements in italics where I’ve changed them.

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

150ml pot sour cream ½ cup

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ cups plain flour – divided 1 ¼ cups and ¼ cup

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda baking soda

Good pinch salt

3 oz unsalted butter, softened 6 tablespoons / ¾ of a stick

1 cup sugar

8 oz strawberries, weighed after hulling and slicing

150g white chocolate chips (or chopped white chocolate) 1 cup

(1) Preheat the oven to 180 ^oC. Line an 8 inch square baking tin with baking parchment paper.

(2) Combine the egg, egg yolk, sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla in bowl and mix together.

(3) Mix together the dry ingredients, the 1 ¼ cups flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

(4) Mix the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 3 minutes, until fluffy. Scrape down the sides as necessary. Add in the sour cream mixture, slowly. Add the flour mixture in three lots, with the mixer on low speed. Mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.

(5) Combine the sliced strawberries with the ¼ flour you have left and toss lightly to coat. By hand with a spatula gently fold in the berries in flour plus the white chocolate chips. Mix well, but lightly. Scrape into the prepared tin. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

(6) Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, peel off the paper and let cool completely on a baking rack. Cut into 9 or 12 squares.

Next Up: Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days