Pudding pots

For the other half's birthday, we thought we'd do something a bit different, and went to Battle Proms at Burghley Park. This required a delicious picnic including pudding pots. Steve's favourite pudding is probably cheesecake, but that doesn't translate well to picnics - a bit too unstable and potentially messy. But not when it's in a jam jar!

I layered a mix of crushed digestive and amaretti biscuits (not on purpose - I ran out of just digestives), with creme fraiche and double cream (I didn't have any cream cheese - this was a spontaneous picnic, with little time to do any shopping!), plus raspberries and blueberries. I swirled a little lemon curd in the cream, with a little lemon zest on top. They worked really well - Steve was suitably surprised.

Battle Proms was brilliant. We had a Spitfire display, the Blades acrobatic planes trying to crash into each other, Rockabellas, the orchestra, dancing horses, Napoleonic dress-ups, and lots of characters picnicking around us to people watch. Of particular interest were the warring couple in front, one half of whom walked off after an hour and never reappeared....

Raspberry, blueberry, and lime cake

For May's gathering of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, the theme was 'Treat yourself tea party'. Part of me just wanted to make a nice Victoria Sponge, but I made one for cake club in January, and I try not to make the same recipe twice. I thought, treat myself....I love raspberries and blueberries, so settled on a raspberry and blueberry cake with lime drizzle.

Ingredients:
225g margarine 
225g golden caster sugar
4 eggs 
2 limes, grated zest and juice
250g self-raising flour, sifted with a pinch of salt
25g ground almonds
100g blueberries 
100g raspberries

For the syrup
6 tbsp lime juice
1 lime, grated zest
100g golden caster sugar

Pre-heat oven to 180C (160C fan).
Prepare two 20cm circular cake tins.
Cream the butter and sugar until really fluffy. 
Beat the eggs, and add to the mixture, adding a pinch of flour if it starts to separate.
Sift in the flour and salt.
Add a tablespoon of lime juice at a time, until the mixture is smooth.
Spoon into the two cake tins and level.
Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown and a skewer poked in comes out clean.
While the cakes are baking, make the syrup - put the ingredients in a pan over a low heat until warm and the sugar has dissolved a bit.
Pour the warm syrup over the cakes (still in the tins) as soon as they come out of the oven. 
Allow the cakes to cool in the tin before removing.

Once cool, make lime buttercream:
40g butter
125g icing sugar
About 3-4 tablespoons of lime juice

Beat the butter, then sift in the icing sugar and mix. Gradually add the lime juice. Beat in the mixer for at least 5 minutes to make the buttercream really soft and fluffy.
Spread the buttercream over one layer of the cake, then sandwich the other layer on top.
To finish, dust icing sugar over the top.

This cake was lovely - light and fluffy, moist, and moreish. I was worried there would be too much going on, too many flavours, but they all went well together. It was well received at cake club - when everyone was filling their cake troughs before going home, I turned round and saw just one slice left - I had to barge in and grab it before it was all gone!

For more info about Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.

Stamford Clandestine Cake Club - Treat yourself tea party

Following a balmy Bank Holiday Monday, the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club met on Tuesday, May 7th, at the Garden House Hotel in Stamford for a delectable tea party. The hotel is one of the best-kept secrets in the Georgian town of Stamford, and dates back in part to the 17th century. We met in a charming room with a beautiful mural on the wall. The hotel has a beautiful hidden walled garden (which would make an excellent meeting place for a summer CCC get together!). I’m already planning to go back for dinner in the restaurant soon – the conservatory room looked really romantic. For more about the hotel click here.

15 bakers with 3 added guests met with cakes baked to the theme of ‘Treat yourself tea party’. Surprisingly we had no Victoria Sponges and no Battenburgs – but never mind, as those 15 cakes were all absolutely delicious.

The list comprised:
Raspberry and blueberry lime drizzle
Cappuccino cake
Raspberry and lemon sponge
Chocolate Crunchie cake
Sultana cake
Carrot cake
Raspberry and lemon polenta cake
Cream tea cake
Chocolate fudge cake
Deliah’s dark Jamaican gingerbread cake
Ginger and lemon curd cake
Pineapple and sultana cake
Rhubarb and custard cake
Chocolate and coffee meringue cake
Lemon drizzle

A couple of members were worried about certain disaster – Vic’s Cream Tea Cake was her third attempt that day, but was divine, with macerated strawberries and clotted cream. Kelly was panicked her sultana cake, baked a few days prior due to a weekend working in Keswick, was lovely. And Vicky’s chocolate fudge cake was yummy, even though it didn’t rise much.

It was great to see a couple of new members who seemed to enjoy our chatter and banter about all things cake.All the bakers put so much effort into their cakes yet again, thank you all for your hard work – everyone enjoyed them so much that there wasn’t much left to take home in our cake troughs this time. I turned my back for a moment, and when I returned to the table there was only one lonely slice of my cake left – I quickly grabbed it!

Thanks to the venue for entertaining us for the evening and kindly allowing us to play host. The evening was also a Blue Cross tea party and we raised some much-needed funds for this worthy animal charity – thanks to all the members for their kind voluntary donations. The next event is on June 2nd, with the theme 'Perfect for a picnic'. For more info about Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.

All change

Project 'Don't bake anything else made with chocolate' is going well - mainly because I haven't really baked anything at all due to The Big House Move and the subsequent quandary of How The Heck Does My Oven Work.

We underestimated how many little things would be wrong with the house when we bought it - I think it would have been easier to buy a 'project' property that needed ripping apart and starting again. Instead, we're just trying to fix a million and one tiny broken things left behind by the previous owners/tenants. One of which is an oven with no discernable markings. I don't know what make it is, it has no temperature numbers on the knob, it has no oven setting figures on the other knob, so if I actually manage to guess when I've turned on the oven rather than the grill, heaven only knows what temperature it's at.

I managed to bodge together a raspberry frangipane tart, after a lot of swearing, but that's the only thing I've baked since we moved in.

This morning, I made pancakes. They made everything OK again. I know they're not baked, but they tasted goooooooood.


I know I normally only share baking things with my bloggy friends, but to deviate, I must mention my uncle Jim. He's suffered with Alzheimer's for several years. On Friday he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He's gone downhill very quickly. He's comfortable in hospital now. But I don't think for long. Here's Uncle Jim and me in 1986.

Little me and Uncle Jim

Raspberry Bakewell tart and a soggy bottom

Project 'Don't bake anything else made with chocolate' is going well. Admittedly, I've only baked once since I made the pledge, but it wasn't with chocolate, so I consider that a success.

In the midst of moving house, surrounded by cardboard boxes, baking was a little piece of heaven in a cake tin this weekend. I intended to bake a cake using apples, but I found I had already packed all of my recipe books that contained such a gem. So the apple cake must wait for another time - although, I won't need a book, as the lovely Camilla at Fab Food 4 All has entrusted me with her favourite apple cake recipe by her mum, which sounds delish.

Instead, inspired by Steve's mum's home-grown raspberries, I went for a sort-of Bakewell tart. I even made the pastry case myself - although I have to admit to the biggest failing seen on the Great British Bake Off #GGBO - a soggy bottom *weep*. However, I blame the recipe. I intended to blind bake the pastry, before adding the jam and frangipane, but the recipe advised to bake it all at once. I should have followed by instincts - rookie mistake.

I would write out the recipe here, but I have packed it already. It included shortcrust pastry, raspberry jam, a simple frangipane mix, topped off with fresh raspberries. I wanted to drizzle icing on top once it was baked, but Steve said no. Boo.

Rasp Berries and Cake of Cheese

This weekend's Make was raspberry cheesecake.... Yum.

It's made with cream cheese, sour cream, bit of flour, eggs, and lots of raspberries. I also did a coulis to go with.

But, I've got to do some research about how to prevent the top of the cheesecake cracking. It doesn't affect the taste (it's lovely) but it doesn't look great.

It doesn't necessarily look the way it's supposed to:

But who cares! The recipe can be found on the Good Food website.