Raspberry Clouds

Well, if you have been reading my blog then you know about my lemonade cake challenge. My offering is a raspberry&cloudy lemonade cupcake. I've named it Raspberry Cloud not just because of the fact that it has raspberries and cloudy lemonade in it, its because the batter is so light and fluffy its like having a lump of cloud in your mouth. Sooo yum! I'm so pleased with how they turned out and they are just the ultimate girly looking cupcake, so much so that I just had to stick a My Little Pony in the pictures; just had to...

makes approximately 26 cupcakes:

for the sponge:

• 2 cups of cloudy lemonade
• 3 cups of plain flour
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/3 tsp salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• 100g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup of fresh raspberries
• 1 1/4 cups of caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 3/4 cup of butter milk

for the frosting

• 500g of cream cheese
• 3 tbsp of butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• zest of 1 lemon

optional extras

• lemon rings
• raspberries to decorate

1. first off, get you oven warming to 190'c and then line your cupcake tray with cupcake cases
2. next you need to start reducing your cloudy lemonade. put 2 cups of lemonade in a small pan and heat it till its bubbling. you want to keep it bubbling away slowly for around 20 minutes until it has more or less reduced by half and looks the tiniest bit thicker, it seams to ever so slightly coat the back of a spoon. when the syrups reduced, grate in the zest of 1 lemon and pop it to a side to cool off
3. while your lemonade is reducing you can be making your batter. take your butter and sugar and cream them together
4. sift together (twice please!) the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt
5. in a separate bowl or jug whisk together your eggs and milk and then your cooled lemonade syrup
6. in thirds, combine your egg mix and your dry flour mix into the butter. doing it in little stages helps to stop the milk and butter and eggs splitting
7. now take your cup of raspberries and pass them through a sieve into your batter. the easiest way of doing this i think, is to press them into the sieve with a spatular and this catches all the seeds in the sieve 
8. give the batter another mix to combine the raspberry puree and divide it between your cupcake cases. bake them for between 18-22 minutes depending on your oven. when they are finished baking, remove them from the oven and leave in the pan to cool for 10 minutes, after this remove them to a wire rack to cool fully
9. to make the frosting, cream your butter till it is as soft as you can get it and then mix this into your cream cheese and lemonade
10. sift in your icing sugar (at low level to reduce a mass cloud of icing dust) and then zest in your lemon. give it all a good stir together and you have your frosting
11. when the cupcakes are completely cool, serve them up with a dollop of frosting and a decorative little raspberry to top it off

xoxox

espresso cupcakes

With my tea and milk cakes going swimmingly I thought I would tackle something were all a bit more familiar with. I like coffee cake as much as the next person but if I'm honest I can't eat a great big cakey wodge of it. So a cupcake is the perfect portion for me, plus I got to use my amazing tea cup and saucer moulds again. If I'm going to do a coffee cake, I want full on punchy flavour, hence my use of espresso. I used my batter from the Tea&Milk cupcakes and adapted it a little. Since it had produced such a wonderful batter I thought it gave me a little licence to play with it and see what else I could get for my moneys worth. 

For the cupcakes:

• 200ml whole milk
• 20g instant espresso powder
• 80g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 3 tbsp creme fraiche
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large, free range or organic eggs
• 2 tsp good quality almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

for the frosting:

• 50ml whole milk
• 15g instant espresso powder
• 500g of icing sugar
• 160g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 chocolate covered espresso beans per cupcake

1. warm the oven to 190'c and line the muffin tin with cases and set them aside
2. warm the milk, I do this gently in a microwave at half power. it takes around 2 1/2 minutes in mine but check every 30 seconds or so. you want it hot, but not boiling. when the milks warm, dissolve the espresso powder into it. put this to one side to allow to cool
3. cream together your butter and sugar to a nice and fluffy consistency
4. in another bowl, combine all your dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder and salt by sifting them twice and then set them aside
5. into your now cooled milk, whisk your eggs, vanilla and almond extracts
6. in stages combine your milk mixture and your dry flour mixture into the butter. do each a third at a time, it gives you the best combined mixture and avoids and splitting butter/eggs situation
7. when your batter is fully combined, add the creme fraiche and give it another stir
8. fill your cases around 2/3 rds of the way up and stick it in the oven for 18-22 minutes depending on your oven and remove when cooked. leave them in the pan for 5 minutes to cool slightly before moving to a wire rack to cool thoroughly
9. to make the frosting, as you did before, warm the milk and add the espresso powder and vanilla extract to it. make sure that the milk is cold before you add it to the butter or you will just end up with a sloppy mess- no frosting = sadface...
10. cream the butter until very light and very fluffy then add the icing sugar and milky espresso a little at a time to create a smooth and creamy frosting
11. when the cakes are fully cooled, ice them and decorate the tops with a few chocolate covered espresso beans 

xoxox

tea and milk cakes

I've been on a bit of a splurge cooking accessories wise...I completely needed to, they were investment purchases yadda...yadda..yadda- reads as "I saw pretty things and had to buy immediately". My first purchase were some amazing silicone cupcake moulds in the shape of teacups. It occurred to me that for a tea cup mould I needed a tea based recipe. Everyone has heard of a coffee cake but a teacake is its quieter sibling. I don't mean a teacake as in the spiced and fruited version that we have over easter but instead flavoured with tea leaves. After some debate with myself down the teabag aisle of the supermarket i opted for a blueberry,blackcurrant and raspberry tea; i thought it would be a little more exciting and colourful then a regular earl grey because as you know, I love a bit of colour. I do have to apologise for the picture quality though. There a bit dark as I baked them quite late at night and the lighting is all artificial but you get the idea...

makes 12-14 cupcakes

for the cakes:

• 4 tea bags (whatever flavour you choose, mine were the blackcurrent, blueberry and raspberry)
• 3 tbsp hot water -just boiled
• 80g butter at room temperature
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4tsp salt
• 200ml milk
• 2 large eggs

For the frosting:

• 50ml full fat milk
• 500g icing sugar
• 160g butter
• 2 lemons

1. preheat your oven to 190'C and line your cupcake tray with cases
2. pop the teabags in a small bowl and pour over your 3 tbsp of hot water. It may not sound a lot but your creating a concentrated syrup. Leave these to stew for half an hour or so and get on with making the batter
3. cream together your butter and sugar to a light and fluffy consistency and set aside
4. in a jug, mix together your eggs and milk and the pop these to a side too. then wring out the teabags into the milk, squeezing out every last bit of tea you can
5. sift together (twice please!!) your flour, baking powder and salt
6. in stages mix your flour mixture and your milk mixture into the butter. doing it a third at a time helps to combine everything really well and also stop your batter from splitting
7. drop the mixture into the cases so that each is around 2/3rds full and then put them in the oven for around 18-20 minutes. mine were ready at 18 but you may just need a few more minutes. when they are fully cooked, remove them from the oven and leave in the tray for 5 minutes. after 5 minutes remove them to a wire rack to cool fully
8. to make the lemon butter frosting, cream your butter so that it is very, very soft. then in stages mix in the milk and icing sugar. it makes the frosting a little easier to work with this way instead of just throwing everything into a bowl
9. grate in the zest of one large lemon and give the frosting a good stir so that the lemon zest is fully incorporated
10. ice the now cooled cupcakes and give them a final flourish of lemon zest for decoration 

xoxox

cooking kawaii

Here is treat one from my kawaii cooking series. I think they could genuinely be the best  cupcakes i have ever made... Sometimes when I make a cake, you can forgive a maybe not quite right frosting or a mildly bland crumb because it looks so good but these tiny monsters have both. They have the good looks and amazing taste to back it up! When I decided i wanted to take on the rainbow cakes, i was thinking about design and what would really compliment them and for some reason coconut came along and would not budge...I just had this vision of the tops looking like heavenly little clouds and then cutting into the cake to reveal this amazing rainbow interior. I am beyond proud of them so please, sit back and enjoy...dum,da,da,dum (that was ment to be a drumroll, kinda thing...But you got that yes??!!) 

Dreamy Rainbow Cupcakes.....

 makes 16

• for the cupcakes:
• 340g of unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 cups of vanilla sugar
• 6 medium eggs at room temperature
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups of plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp sea salt, crushed fine. (if you only have free flowing table salt then 1/4 tsp please!)
• 1 cup of milk
• 150g of desiccated coconut
• red, pink, yellow, green, blue and violet gel food colourings. (please invest in the gel ones the runny watery ones are bad and the gel ones will last you ten times longer too!) 

• for the frosting:
• 110g of cream cheese
• 85g of butter at room temperature
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 170g of icing sugar

• to decorate:
• 200g bag of desiccated coconut
• pearl lustre dust and candy stars (these are both optional)

1. pre heat your oven to 160 centigrade 
2. line your cupcake tray with the paper liners and put to one side
3. cream your butter and vanilla sugar together until they are fluffy and pale
4. into a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. pretty please, sift twice,  it really helps to remove any lumps and gives you dreamy light flour
5. mix together your eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a jug
6. in 3 stages, add the egg and milk mixture and the the dry flour mix into your butter. adding them in these little stages stops the mixture from splitting and makes your batter more manageable. after each addition, give the bowl a good scraping down to really combine any lurking clumps of flour at the bottom
7. congratulate yourself on a job well done!
8. now fold in the desiccated coconut
9. now comes the slightly fiddly bit but stick with it its easy enough just only a little repetitive
10. split the mixture between six bowls, with the first bowl having the most batter then slowly getting slightly and slightly less in each bowl you fill
11. with the handle of a teaspoon (this being my weapon of choice) take a small amount of your red gel and mix it into the largest bowl of batter. Mix in your colour well until you have achieved a shade of red your happy with. Remember you can always add more gel colour but you can't take it away so be subtle with your additions
12. repeat stage 11 with each further colour till you have six different pots of coloured mix from red to violet
13. take your red batter and with a spoon, put a blob of the mix into the centre of you liner. it should come maybe a quarter of a way up the case. next move onto you pink. take just slightly less mix and drop this into the centre of the red. you need to be able to see a ring of red around the pink (its not an exact art and you don't get perfect circles but it all comes together when baked) continue with each colour using less and less batter with each addition 
14. bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. test they are cooked by sinking a cocktail stick into the middle. if it comes out clean, there done. if it's still wet, pop them back in for a few minutes. when the cakes are finished, take them out of the oven and leave them in the pan for 15 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely
15. while the cakes are baking you can get on with the icing
16. the butter needs to be at room temperature and you need to cream it until it is very smooth, as light as you can get it
17. add the vanilla and cream cheese to the butter and combine. I think the best way to do this is to push the cheese and butter through a mesh sieve. it gets rid of any lumps of butter and really amalgamates the mixture. it only takes a few minutes and is so worth doing. you should be left with a runny "icing"
18. sieve in the icing sugar and fold everything together
19. by now your cupcakes should be thoroughly cooled and resemble glorious rainbow hills
20. take your coconut and lustre dust and mix them together on a large plate so that the strands of coconut are gleaming with powder - a teaspoon of dust should be enough to cover this much coconut
21. dip the exposed part of your cupcake into the icing, as you bring it out, hold it above the bowl for a few seconds to allow most of the excess to drip off
22. roll the icing covered peak into the coconut, stick as much of the coconut to it as you can and set aside. pop a star in the top and voila! 

your done! now all you need to do is finish off the rest of your cupcakes. I know its a long recipe and there is a bit of fiddling involved but come on!! look at them!! so worth it!! also hope you like the gratuitous cupcake eating pics- especially the one of Baby Winnie being a sink dwelling batter thief! The cheek!!

xoxox

I'm having a period of a post honeymoon hankering. In Hawaii, I developed an almost un natural addiction to Miso soup pots, noodles and asian food in general. We've been home a few weeks now and I need my hit, so today I made my version of a Chicken and Sweetcorn soup (and I can't stop eating it! HELP!!) I don't know how authentic it is but it tastes mighty good and keeps me in fine honeymoon mood! 

• 2 whole corn on the cobs
• 3 large spring onions
• 2 organic chicken breasts, pre steamed
• 1 large red chilli
• large handful of rice vermicelli 
• 2 litres of good quality chicken stock
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• small bunch of coriander 

1. Bring your chicken stock up to simmering point in a large pot and let it bubble away but don't let it boil
2. Meanwhile strip the cobs from their outer husks and slice off the corn kernels, then finely slice the spring onions and the red chilli into small rings. Drop into the simmering stock
3. Add your fish and soy sauces
4. Pull apart your pre steamed chicken breasts. I think the easiest way to do this is with 2 forks going against the grain of the meat. You could slice them but i like the more rustic look. Add these to the broth now
5. Let the broth simmer again, only for a couple of minutes then drop in the rice noodles. Rice Vermicelli are so fine they take maybe 3 minutes to cook if that.
6. When the noodles are cooked, decant a portion into a bowl and sprinkle over a flourish of chopped coriander

Like i said, I don't know how authentic this is but i DO know that it is addictive also virtuous and saintly in the calories department. This is the reason I can convince myself that its okay to eat three bowls in a row. Also ...HOW CUTE IS MY SOUP BOWL!! Its a little china man in a paddy hat. Beyond excellent! Any excuse to use that is a bonus!!

xoxox

Chocolate...and BEETROOT?! It can't be done.....

Think that?? Then where have you been? Chocolate and Beetroot are the new "it" thing when it comes to desserts. Goodbye Carrot Cake and Hello Beetroot cake. I've heard Beetroot cake is the new LBD, THE new black, the..new Gaga?! It is equally as crazy peppered with originality and a little something amazing that you just can't put your finger on... My discovery of the blessed Beetroot cake comes with a story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. My Honeymoon has sadly taken its toll on my waistline with me racking up an impressive 7lbs in just over two weeks; America I salute you and every deep fat fryer in your blessed country, you know how to do some good food. Good food it is but healthy food it isn't. Im back home and paying the price for my indulgences now but one problem still sticks: I am a complete fat girl that loves food and refuses to neglect even a chocolate brownie. My solution to said problem? Do it the skinny girl way. My skinny girl way lends favour from one of my most used cookbooks, Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache. The recipes are sitting just on the right side of sinful with a great dollop of healthy reassurance. The best things about their recipes are that they are so customisable, so with a few tiny tweaks I have created my dream Brownie.

• 400g of peeled raw beetroot cut into small cubes
• 130g whole hazelnuts 
• 3 large free range eggs
• 220g light muscovado sugar
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 150g of dark chocolate, the best quality you can afford but at least 70% cocoa solids please!
• 2tbsp white rice flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 4 tbsp fresh espresso coffee
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Warm your oven up to 160°C. 
2. I use a 30cmX20cmX5cm brownie tin which is non stick but still rub it with a tiny bit of flavourless oil, like groundnut to prevent any sticking at all. 
3. Pop your cubed beetroot into a microwavable bowl and heat for 10 minutes with a tiny splash of water 
4. While the beetroot is cooking, blitz up 100g of the hazelnuts to the finest powder you can. You really need a food processor for this to create the finest crumbs possible, it wants to look like dust. 
5. Whisk up the eggs, sugar and salt for a good 5 minutes with an electric whisk. It can be done by hand but will take a little while longer and a lot more arm strength. You want the mixture to have tripled in volume and to look light and bubble filled
6. Smash up your chocolate with careless abandon, i tend to leave it in the packet and attack it with a rolling pin- very satisfying feeling...
7. By now the beetroot should be cooked. Sieve it to remove any excess water and fling in your dark chocolate shards. Cover the bowl with some clingfilm and if the room is cool, a tea towel also. Leave it to stand for a few minutes and the beetroots residual heat should melt the chocolate. After a few minutes remove the cling film and with a hand held blender, puree the chocolate and beetroot together to form a deep sludgy mass.
8. Mix the now powdered hazelnuts, rice flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso and vanilla extract into your fluffy egg mixture
9. Add the chocolate/beetroot pulp now and mix until combined but don't spend too much time on it. The secret to a perfectly squidgy brownie is to not mess with the batter to much. A little austerity never did a brownie any harm. 
10. Pour your mixture into the tin and sprinkle on the remaining 30g of hazelnuts. I like to have bashed the hazelnuts slightly with rolling pin so they are splintered and bruised. A rolling pin and a bit more attacking usually works a treat. 
11. Cook in the middle of the oven for between 30-35 minutes. Begin checking at 30 by sticking a cocktail stick into the middle to the tray. Brownies are ment to be ever so slightly damp so a little chocolate colour on the cocktail stick is fine, if its still a little too loose, leave in the oven for the last 5 minutes. 
12. Remove from the oven and cool the brownies in the tin for 20 minutes before cutting into individual portions and releasing them into the wild. They won't last long i promise!

Low fat Blueberry Pancakes

I AM SCARED! Today, the man friend left to go on his stag do. Needless to say I am consumed by visions of him returning on Sunday with no eyebrows and no hair. I think he's like Samson and all his power lives in his curly jewish locks and I would be devastated if he returned home looking like Telly Savalas. So to butter up his friends in the hope that they wont scalp him I decided to get them round a bit earlier and do them all a brunch. Also it will hopefully soak up some of the alcohol they will imbibe. Needless to say there were sausage and bacon sandwiches a plenty but I cant serve up a meal without at least something homemade. So I popped out a batch of these pancakes and I was shocked at how well they went down. Chunky, moreish and delicious, just like the boys- they'll love me for saying that! 

makes between 10-15 pancakes depending on generosity 

• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 large egg
• 300ml skimmed milk
• 150g pack of blueberries
• nob of butter and a drizzle of oil for frying

to decorate

• 1 lemon
• 300ml creme fraiche
• 1tbs of icing sugar
• honey or golden syrup, whichever you prefer 

1. pop your flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.
2. in a jug, measure out your milk and then crack in the egg and give them a quick whisk together.
3. make a well in the middle of your flour and drop in the milky/eggy mixture and whisk really well till theres no lumps left. nothing worse then lumps of flour left in your batter- bork! 
4. when your batter is lump free, toss in roughly half of your blueberries and give a few of them a bit of a pressing with a fork so you have some smushed and some whole berries in  your mix.
5. in a clean bowl mix together your creme fraiche, icing sugar the rind of your lemon. remember you only want the yellow non of that bitter white pith. stick it in the fridge till you need it covered with a bit of cling film.
6. in a frying pan warm a nob of butter and a drizzle of oil. the butter is for colour and taste and the oil stops the butter from burning.
7. when your butter is foaming and warmed drop in small dollops of mixture, I use two tablespoons per pancake and let it fry away till the first side is a lovely light golden brown, then gently flip each pancake till it is the same golden brown and cooked through.
8. if your making the whole batch cover them in tin foil as you go to keep them warm.
9. I like mine in a stack of three with a wodge of creme fraiche between each, a handful of the fresh blueberries and an artful drizzle of honey. 

xoxoxo

Blonde Ambition

I think if I wasn't a red head I would definitely want to be a blonde. I just love this idea that a hair colour can embellish your life and make it more fun! Also Ms Monroe chose to be a blonde so there must be some sense behind it. I tried to dye my locks once in my youth but due to my incessant aubern-ness it just went the most vile shade of almost eggy yellow; needless to say I was a red head again almost immediately. So in homage to the great blondes out there, I have made my great blonde cake. It had to embody that blonde persona, light and bubbly but with a bit of somethin' somethin'. Originally I wanted to to do a cheesecake but it is January which is my month of frugality due to Decembers over indulgence so I needed something more feather-light? I thought what is more feather light then marshmallows. Easier on the calories then cream cheese but giving the same, possibly even more pleasing texture. 

Ingredients:

For the base:

300g butter biscuits 

60g softened unsalted butter 

For the filling:

100g good quality white chocolate

150g white mini marshmallows

125ml skimmed milk

300ml double cream

12 tsp of ginger syrup

2 tsp lemon juice 

50g pine nuts, toasted

a 10 inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom

• put your biscuits in a food processor and blitz till you get a rubble of sandy crumbs
• add the butter to your processor and pulse together till the mix starts to come together and forms a buttery clump
• take your biscuity clump and push it into the tart tin making a smooth base and sides with the back of your hand or a spatula, pop it in the fridge to chill
• in a pan, warm the milk and the marshmallows together, never letting the mixture boil. it will rise slightly and form a foamy white lather. splodge this pleasing mixture into a heatproof bowl and stand aside to cool 
• whilst your milky/mallowy mixture is cooling, melt your chocolate. whip up your double cream and ginger syrup in a separate bowl till it forms nice soft peaks. 
• add your cooled marshmallows and your melted chocolate to your cream mixture and fold together. the mixture should be deliciously oozing and bulging
• spread your mix onto your chilled biscuit base filling the pie evenly
• stick the whole thing back in the fridge and chill for at least 5 hours, I left mine overnight
• when your ready to eat the cake, top with your toasted pine nuts and serve yourself a nice wedge. glorious! This cake tastes like a grown ups milky bar! "The ambition cakes are on Bea!!" (see what I did there.... brilliant wasn't it!) 

(for the ginger syrup, I just buy a jar of stem ginger in syrup and take it out of there, makes life a bit easier ) 

xoxo

Recipe to come...

Just had a little look through my posts and it seems that I haven't posted a recipe in an age! This is how good I am to you, I haven't just gone through my recipe cards and found an oldie but goodie, what I have done is created a brand new recipe for you'se guys! I know, stop! No you stop!! It occurred to me that my main postings are obviously cakes, cats and hairdye. Clearly Im not going to make cat pie, I do have an excellent cat jelly mould though that's about as far as I'm stretching cat wise... But I thought about trying to combine hairdye and baking and what I have come up with as so far, is the "Blonde Ambition Pie". Basically I intend to do a series of blonde, ginger, brown and black cakes... I don't want to be predictable and give you a ginger carrot cake so it's going to take me a little while to get the old noodle round it, so firstly I shall present to you "Blonde Ambition". It's just chilling in the fridge at the moment, I think its going to need an overnight set, so no pics as yet but I will get them to you tomorrow I promise. Hopefully also as the recipe is blissfully simple I may also be able to add this to the party saviours series

xoxox

soup, soup, a tasty soup, soup, a spicy carrot and coriander....

With the man friend working away alot of the time, sometimes its difficult to summon up the gusto to really cook anything. Don't worry I'm not saying when he is away that I am alone in a rocking chair weeping with a cat on my knee and a vodka in my hand, nothing like that, it's just that I'm not going to roll out a banquet for one. So when I do make things they tend to be in bulk, sauces that I can add to meats and fish or lasagne's that I can do in industrial quantities and freeze up to be used as needed. Another thing that I've found is that I eat a lot of soup, it's easily frozen, easily defrosted and I don't ever think that you can feel bad when you have a warming bowl of soup in your belly. A classic favourite is Carrot and Coriander. This is my method and I think it's pretty foolproof. 

Carrot and Coriander Soup- Serves 4 greedily

• 1 large white onion
• 450g of carrots (organic if possible or homegrown would be the best! its the star of your recipe so splash out a little)
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 a frugal tsp of cumin seeds, crushed
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 pints of chicken or vegetable stock depending on your preference 
• bunch of fresh coriander
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• juice of 1 1/2 clementines 
• fresh grated nutmeg, about 2 tsp dependent on your taste
• salt and pepper to taste
• single cream to serve

1. chop the onion, garlic and carrot and soften in a little oil. add a pinch of salt as this helps to stop the onions and garlic from browning. you don't want any crispness to the onion at all, think soft, golden and yielding
2. add the ground coriander and the cumin seeds to the onions and coat the mixture then pour in your vegetable/chicken stock
3. stick a lid on your pan and let it simmer away for 20 minutes
4. while your soups bubbling away, chop about half of your bunch of fresh coriander and set aside
5. now your soups had 20 minutes remove the lid and add the fresh coriander, fresh thyme, the clementine juice and nutmeg 
6. then with a blender, either a freestanding one or I use a stick, pulverise your soup till it forms a think earthy orange brew
7. taste the soup and add salt and pepper to your preference
8. to serve generously spoon portions into warmed bowls and decorate with a swirl of single cream, a flourish of remaining corriander, a a pinch of pepper

   xoxoxox

Rested Lemon Cheesecake

"On the second day of christmas party favourites, Becka gave to me, a cheesecake that's super yummy!" 

I'm unsure of why I'm not a rapper, anywhooo. I first made this cheesecake for some of the Man-Friends rugby friends. To say that these boys eat alot is an understatement, once one of them genuinely ate the bones from spare ribs...I despair for them!  To see these rugby playing boys covered in mud and eating this floaty light cheesecake was a treat and I just wish I had had doilies to serve it on- opportunity missed!!! Its lightness comes from the fact, I believe, the strange resting method. You leave it to cool in the oven for two hours for with the door closed and then cool for a further hour with the door open. A strange method I know but it produces lightness that I cant even describe.

For the base

• 250 g ginger biscuits. you can use digestive biscuits if you like but I put in the ginger ones here for flavour
• 150 g butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar

For the filling

• 225 g caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 750 g full fat soft cream cheese (like Philadelphia)
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 150 ml double cream
• 150 ml sour cream
•  zest of a lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 egg whites

To serve

• icing sugar
• raspberries or blackberries or any other tarty fruit you can think of

1. pre heat your oven to 170°C
2. smush and crush your digestive biscuits till they are fine crumbs 
3. add in the melted butter and the sugar and press into a 24cm springform cake tin and leave to set in the fridge for an hour or so...
4. mix together the cornflour and the sugar and beat this into the sludge of cream cheese, egg yolks and vanilla extract
5. steadily add the double cream and the sour cream beating constantly and then drop in the lemon zest.
6. in a seperate bowl, beat together the egg whites and salt into stiff peaks and then carefully mix this into the cheesy mixture
7. splodge the mixture onto your chilled biscuit base and bake in the oven for 1- 1 1/2 hours. I know this is a broad time spectrum but its to do with your oven and if it has hotspots. bake it until the top is golden and the centre is firm to the touch
8. once the cake is golden brown on top, turn off the oven and leave the cake in there with the door closed for 2 hours. 
9. after the two hours has passed, open the door and let it stand in the oven for a further hour
10. then move the cake to the fridge until you need it
11. when its ready to serve, remove from the springform tin and dust the top with a flurry of icing sugar and serve with the tarty berries

Sadly I don't have a picture of the cake as I made it long before making this blog even occurred to me but i'm sure i'll whip another one up at some point and i'll stick some pictures on quick sharp then

                                                                          xoxoxox