Lemon Curd

A little while ago, Barbara asked me for a recipe for lemon curd. I like Delia for things like this and passed her recipe on to Barbara. This made me think - when was the last time I made lemon curd? Ages ago! So I got some nice lemons and made some...and with all this lemon curd in the fridge - Mike does not really like it... - I thought, now what?

Well - I had a recipe from Mike's sister, Annie, she makes this cake and had sent me the recipes a long time ago - so finally got to try it and it is just devine!!! SO good! Mine did not look all that great - used the wrong sized tin - but it tasted just wonderful. Warm and gooey and satisfying, could be eaten as pudding when warm (served with Créme Fraîche) or with afternoon tea....VERY good cold the next day! Definatltey one to make again:

Raspberry & Lemon Curd Cake

Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease and line a 20cm cake tin that is at least 5cm deep.

170g sugar

170g soft butter

1tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs (at room temperature)

170g self-raising flour

1tbsp milk , if needed

lemon curd

fresh raspberries

♥ Beat together sugar, butter and vanilla until pale.

♥ Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

♥ Fold in the flour - it is important to do this by hand to avoid ending up wiht with a tough cake.... ♥ Add the milk if the mixture is very stiff.

♥ Dollop with whole teaspoons of lemon curd (about 225g) and a good handfull of fresh raspberries.

♥ Bake for 40 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool in the tin.

♥

The other thing I made were these 'Lemon Melting Moments'...and they were just what the name promised...melt-in-the-mouth, lemony little delights. SO delicious! Since I made them I am thinking of buying a cookie press - dose anyone have any experience?

175g unsalted butter, softened

40g icing sugar, sifted

2 lemons, zest grated

150g plain flour, sifted

40g cornflour, sifted

2 rounded tbsp Mascarpone

2 rounded tbsp lemon curd

Heat your oven to 180°C (fan 160°) and line a solid baking sheet with baking parchment.

♥ Cream butter and icing sugar until smooth and pale.

♥ Add the grated zest of 1½ lemons, flour and cornflour and mix well - the mixture will become quite soft.

♥ Divide into 24 even-sized balls, space well apart on the baking sheet and flatten each biscuit a little with your fingertips. Dip a fork into cold water and press it gently onto each biscuit (You could pipe the biscuit instead - or use a cookie press :)...)

♥ Bake for 12-114 minutes until pale gold and cool on the baking sheet.

♥ Mix the remaining lemon zest with the mascarpone and the lemon curd.

♥ Sandwich the Melting Moments together with the lemony mascarpone....don't keep them for longer than a couple of hours or they'll go soggy! (The biscuits without the filling keep well in a tin for several days)

♥

Wishing you a wonderful autumnal week!!!

Love

Nicola x

Kitchen....

....is the title of Nigella Lawson's latest book.

I do like a bit of Nigella - I don't think she is the most brilliant cook, but I like her ideas and twists on things, they are often fun and make me want to copy them. And I do like the fact that she brings a bit of glamour to the kitchen...

A couple of Sundays ago, YOU Magazine ran an article on Nigella and her new book, including a few recipes. 3 days later, I had an Amazon delivery.......some time back I must have pressed the pre-order button and had COMPLETELY forgotten about it (I actually do this a lot!) .... so now, I have got her new book in my kitchen. It is FAT, it is full of lovely photographs and I have spotted the odd thing I might want to try. So watch this space....:)

Happy weekend everyone (I am still baking....! Soon.....)

Love

Nicola x

Cakes for Gardeners

Every summer, The Suffolk Gardener's Guild holds their annual tea party....and as I love to bake, I always offer to bake something for their cake buffet...and I like it to be somehow flowery...

This year I made these little rose cakes in my new bundt cake tin (oh don't you just LOVE Nordic Ware?) - and they were very popular! I am not actually THAT keen on fresh bundt cakes, I find them a little to dense, but the next day, or the next - they are yummy!!

This is the recipe which came with the tin (Rose Raspberry Cakes):

Heat your Oven to 160°C/325°F.

Combine 1 ½ cups of sugar and 1 cup of butter and mix well. Add 5 eggs, mixing well after each addition. Add 3 cups of flour, 1 ½ tsp of baking powder , 1 ¼ cup of milk and 2 tsp Vanilla, mix well. Spoon into 24 greased individual tins until ⅔ full. Spoon dollops of raspberry jam onto each cake - you'll need approximately 1/3 cup of jam in total - and with a small knife, gently swirl the jam around. Bake for 20-25 min and do the toothpick test. Cool in the tins for 10 min and then turn out onto a cooling rack, dust with icing sugar before serving.

I did this in 2 batches - as my tin had only 12 holes - I could have used an unlined muffin tin or other little tins, but wanted them all to look the same . They kept beautifully in a tin for several days!

I will soon begin to post 'proper' recipes here....still not really in the cooking mood... it has to be quick and easy in the summer for me. But with autumn fast approaching this year, I have started looking through my books again..... I LOVE the autumn kitchen!!!!

Have a lovely weekend!!

Love

Nicolax

p.s

A couple of years ago I made these Begonia Cupcakes and was pleased with the result (sorry, very old camera) - I found the 'How To Do It' on You Tube....take a look!

It's delicious......or is it?

Well, four legged friends will think it is....!!!

Last Sunday we went to the Suffolk Dog Show - what fun! - hundreds of happy dogs, lots of doggy activities to take part in.... And for the owner's there were stalls - everything from 'have your dog's photo taken' to dog accessories, dog insurance, dog grooming and DOG TREATS....this was one of the busiest stalls - what a brilliant idea! The lady behind this ventures is a trained chef and dog lover - how clever! Totally overprized of course, but then again - how clever! People were buying and buying!

I have made dog biscuits for friend's dogs for a while now - her is what I do - apparently, they (teh dogs) really like them:

Pre-heat your oven to 140°c (350 F)

Mix

2 cups of flour

1 cup of polenta

½ cup wheat germ

2 tsp beef bouillon powder

¼ tsp Marmite

Add & mix again

1 large egg

1 tbsp oil

1 cup hot water

Form this into a ball and then roll out. I use bone shaped cookie cutters or heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the biscuits.

Bake on a baking sheet for about 45 minutes until the biscuits are hard. Let them air overnight.

Happy Baking!

Love

Nicolax

It is HUGE!

I like it when things are slightly unusual - this sieve is enormous and I had to have it..... can you imagine it full of apples in the autumn..... what a center piece for the garden table!!!

And I, I have got some (blackberry) jam to make....

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Love

Nicolax

Did someone remember the balsamic?

Do you love cards? I do, and whenever I see a 'good' one I buy it and it goes into my card box - they all get used, sooner or later...

Recently, I found these and as they are - more or less - food related, I though I'd show them here.....

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Love

Nicolax

A jolly good tidy up

I am feeling ever so pleased with myself...I have done something which has been on my 'to do' list for a long time..... This weekend I have sorted out and tied up all my cookie & cake making bits and pieces! I have far too much stuff and it always gets into a terrible, terrible mess. Now I have tin boxes, and categories, and lables. Wonderful!

My categories are:

Cookie Cutters - Spring & Hearts (incl. Easter)

Cookie Cutters - X-mas

Cookie Cutters - all sorts

Cake Decorations (incl. food colours, sprinkles & dusts)

Cupcake & Muffin cases

I need further tins for (these bits are currently sitting in littel piles waiting for homes - very disturbing!) :

- Piping Equpiment

- Icing Flower Equipment

- Tiny cake tins & moulds

- Cake & Cookie packaging

For some reason I find sorting things out VERY relaxing... Now I can be looking forward to using all my lovely things again (because now I know exactly where they are....let's see how long for...!)

Right! Next project: cake tins - got a whlole bench full of them. But I might just keep them till tomorow...... something to look forward to!!!!

Have you got 'systems' in your kitchens?

Wishing you all a lovely week!

Love

Nicolax

p.s Above you can just see a bit of the bench.....my cake tin storage..... not really big enough....