There's a corgi on my cake!

A short post from me this week as I just wanted to share this creation with you, my Jubilee Victoria Sponge!  I'm still having problems getting my Victoria Sponge to rise properly, they never seem to work as well as other cakes I make...not sure why?  Anyway, this one was one of my better efforts, topped off with some fab decorations from Not On The High Street.  I've since seen the same kit in Waitrose, so it would be great if you're stuck for something to take to a Jubilee party this weekend.

There's a cut out of Buckingham Palace, some bunting, the Queens carriage, union jack flags, Her Majesty & Prince Philip, two Guards & a couple of corgi's!

So whether you're celebrating the Diamond Jubilee or just looking forward to the extra long weekend, I hope you enjoy it. I for one, will use it as an excuse to eat cake!  Till next time, Rebecca x

Very very chocolately cookies from Cox Cookies & Cake

Over the last few years as my baking habit has grown, so it seems has my collection of cook books, most of which I have very gratefully recieved as gifts. I love looking through them for inspiration & to drool over the pictures, but if I think about it, it's not that often I actually choose a new recipe from a book & try it out. I have my staple recipes that I pretty much know off by heart, then the rest is a series of experiments, some more successful than others!

So I've decided to branch out, broaden my repertoire & try out at least one new recipe from each of my books. The first is from Cox Cookies & Cake, a collaboration beween baker Eric Lanlard & the designer Patrick Cox.  The book is a technicolour spectacular divided into themed chapters, my particular favourite is the Styling Cupcakes section.  Although where one is meant to find a beach bum mould & skin-coloured edible paste I have no idea, (Cheeky Cupcakes on page 100 if you get a chance to look at the book!)

Easing myself gently into this somewhat eccentric cook book, I decided to make double chocolate & marshmallow cookies, the Man Cakes (page 108) will have to wait for another day.

They really should be called Choc as much choc as you can into a cookie cookie.  They have melted chocolate, cocoa powder & chocolate chips in them, topped off with a good drizzle of melted marshmallow.  The texture was quite cakey rather than crunchy cookie, but oh my god they tasted good!  Next on the hit list for this book is the Orange Marmalade Cupcakes, it's worth a look if you want some more unusual ideas & if anyone knows where I can find a torso mould let me know :-)  Till next time, Rebecca x 

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun

So what are rules? One of the dictionary definitions is 'the customary or normal circumstances, occurrences, manner, practise, quality etc' Essentially we go through life following these types of rules, work hard at school, work hard at university, find a good job, be loyal & work hard at work, working hard is a somewhat recurring theme.

But what happens when you don't want to follow these rules anymore?

This is not a tale of epic proportions or of great significance, it is a simple story about going against the grain & following your gut. I have a nice job, I work with a lovely team of people, I like the products we make, but ultimately I have been doing the same thing for years & I've grown bored...so bored I've actually had visions of throwing my laptop across the office & flouncing out in dramatic style. I appreciate you may be thinking, stop whinging, do you not know we're in a recession, you're lucky to have a job! But as most of us spend more time at work than with our families, should we have to accept being unhappy at work?

So what did I do?

I quit my job.

I have no new job.

Ooops!

Or as the response of most people I've told has been, wow you're brave, r.e. crazy woman, do you not know we're in recession yada yada yada...

It wasn't a rash decision, (unlike someone I know who shall remain nameless who posted a resignation letter through their boss' door at 10pm then never went back!) I have thought of nothing else for weeks. However the relief I feel having now made my choice is unreal, even my work colleagues have noticed a difference, which makes me wonder just HOW uptight & unbearable I'd been at work?

My gut was telling me it was time to go & bugger me it's probably right...again! This isn't the first tricky (slightly reckless) decision I've ever made, when I was 20 I left a good job to go back to uni & complete my degree, when I was 27 I left my first marketing job with no where to go. At the time there were people around me who said I was making bad decisions that I would live to regret. One particularly supportive boss suggested as a result of my decision I would be, & I quote 'unemployable'. Both worked out fine & led me to where I am now, so at 33 making another significant change, I just have to trust that there's no reason why it won't be ok this time too.

So to the title of this post, it's a quote from Katharine Hepburn, 'If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun'. That kind of sums it up for me, I haven't followed the rules, this isn't what people expected me to do, but I'm excited for the future, it's fun not knowing what is coming next. I feel like a cloud has lifted & after a stress induced baking hiatus, Ive even made some cookies!

The moral of my story, follow your gut & don't feel you have to do what people expect of you. For me, it's onwards with the job search! (I'm an experienced Group Brand Manager with strong commercial experience in case anyone is wondering!?) That said with 5 years working for a coffee brand, there's always Cafe Nero or maybe I'll finally get round to opening a cafe of my own? The world is my lobster! Till next time, Rebecca x

Make your own Sushi in the Shire

Oops...so somehow it's been nearly 8 weeks since I last posted, I swear it was only a week ago, sorry.  I'm back to share with you the latest foodie experiment from the Shire!

One of our favourite cuisines at the moment is Japanese.  I love all the fresh flavours & simple dishes that don't leave you feeling full of stodge.  There's a great place in Windsor & it was during one of our recent visits that the fated words how hard can it really be to make sushi? were uttered!  So in blissful ignorance, with a shopping list compiled with help from our friend Google, we set out to buy our ingredients.  Three supermarkets later we eventually found what we needed in Waitrose.

We decided on 3 different fillings for our sushi, sweet chilli chicken, sesame salmon & grilled tuna with mango.  Granted I'm not entirely sure how authentic these fillings are?  To start with you have to cook the sushi rice & leave it to cool, then stir in a couple of spoonfuls of mirin & rice vinegar, which we already had in the cupboard.  So far so good!  We cooked the strips of sweet chilli chicken, thinly sliced a fresh salmon fillet then marinated it in a little sesame oil, pan fried a tuna steak until just cooked then sliced it & finally chopped a mango into small pieces trying to avoid ending up with a bowl of puree.

With all our ingredients ready, it was time to start construction...

First up you place a sheet of Nori, dried seaweed onto the rolling mat.  For the observant among you, yes our mat was the wrong way round on the board...you can see where this is heading!

  

 Next spread the rice over the nori, getting it as close to the edges as you can.

Spread the filling over the rice...by this point we realised the mat was the wrong way round for rolling!  Then you use the bamboo mat to roll it all together into a rather unattractive looking green sausage which it ready to be sliced into rolls.

Now through this photo montage you'd think it was quite straight forward, but far from it!  You have to try to keep everything in the roll, make it even & tight enough so it doesn't just fall apart when you slice it...oh & wrapping your own finger in it probably doesn't help!  So the end result, drum roll please....

Not too bad eh?  It's not going to win any beauty awards but it tasted good, we served it with the traditional pickled ginger, wasabi & soy.  Chopsticks proved problematic, the sushi pretty much collapsed in a heap when picked up.  Sushi scooped up with a spoon is probably not how the Japanese intended!  It was fun to make, if not a little frustrating & definitely not easy.  It's going to take a lot of practise before I'm ready to let it loose on anyone else.  For now I think we'll resort back to Misugo in Windsor for our sushi.  Has anyone else had a go at making their own? I'd be interested to hear how you got on & if you have any tips for me?   Till next time, Rebecca x

Hunk a chunk of choccy love!

I'm not one to get swept away in the commercialism of Valentines Day (that might sound strange coming from a marketeer!) I find it a bit overwhelming the variety of items that are Valentinised all in a bid to 'get us in the mood'. How slapping a few hearts & flowers onto a standard supermarket product is meant to do that I just don't know? That's not to say that I ignore the day, but I'd rather make something myself that feels more personal & special. As is the case for most occasions, I usually bake!

Last year I took part in a Forever Nigella challenge & tried out her recipe for Love Buns (still makes me giggle!) Click here to take a look back at that post.

So keeping with the competition theme, this year I was invited by Baking Mad to go head to head with 14 other bloggers. The challenge was to create my ultimate Valentines treat, using a minimum of 3 ingredients from a mystery box of goodies I was sent.

Where to start? What to bake? Cake? Biscuit? Brownie? Cupcake? Arrghh...too many options! Then inspiration struck me! Now bear with me on this explanation, I'm not even quite sure how exactly my brain worked it's way round to this...

I was listening to my ipod on shuffle, the Elvis track Burning Love came on. If you're not familiar with it, at the end of the song there is a section that goes, 'hunk a hunk of burning love'. My head was singing 'hunk a chunk of burning love', which made me think of chocolate, which lead me onto Rocky Road...et voila, this weeks recipe! In honour of it's inspiration I have named it,

Hunk a Chunk of Choccy Love

The ingredients I selected from my ready steady cook style package were:

A large bar of chocolate
Chocolate heart sprinkles
Giant white chocolate snowies
Pink shimmer balls
Dark chocolate melt & squeeze topping
White chocolate letters

To these I also added:

150g unsalted butter
200g shortbread biscuits (bashed up a bit into chunks)
50g sultanas
50g glace cherries
1tbsp golden syrup

1. Melt the butter, chocolate & syrup together. Stir in the bashed up biccies & fruit & stir well until all combined.

2. Line a dish with baking parchment, pour in the mixture & press down firmly. Leave in the fridge to set for 20 mins.

3. Melt the topping & spread evenly over your base, decorate at will! Pop back into the fridge to set fully.

I didn't leave mine to set for long enough before adding the topping, so some of the butter from the mixture rose up through the topping, making a bit of a mottled effect on the top. Hasn't effected the taste at all, but you might be able to see from the picture it meant the top looked a little uneven.


When it was set solid, I took the slab out of the dish & paper, wrapped it in fresh baking parchment & tied it up with a ribbon!


What I really like about this (other than it's delicious chocolatey biscuity loveliness) is you can cut a chunk as big or as small as you fancy & it lasts for ages in the fridge. It's not like cake that I feel compelled to eat as soon as possible to avoid it going stale!


Hope you like it? I'd love to hear if you have your own homemade Valentines day treats. Thanks to Baking Mad for the ingredients for my recipe. Happy Valentines Day! Rebecca x

Aspirations of living the Good Life

One of the best things about our new house is that after nearly 4 years living in an apartment, we finally have a garden of our own. With this come aspirations of transforming myself into the Barbara of Eton Wick & living the Good Life! Now our garden isn't exactly spacious so realistically it would barely generate enough produce to sustain a family of Borrowers so I don't think self sufficiency is in our reach just yet. That said we want to try & grow some of our own veg so we did start looking this week at what to plant when.

Our little patch of land...it's a work in progress!

It was this search that brought me to the Eat Seasonably campaign site & a really interesting little gizmo that I thought I'd share. The Eat Seasonably calendar is an interactive tool that shows what's in season when. So for this month it's all about leeks & savoy cabbage. I must admit it's quite enlightening & makes you think about the amount of food miles we must be clocking up to get all produce all year round. Looking at the calendar I realised there's no need, there's an abundance of stuff available right here on our little island. Guess you just need what to look for? Sorry if this sounds a bit obvious, but it was really a bit of an epiphany for me & I'll definitely be paying more attention to the origins of my fruit & veg.



Finally in other news....you may remember over Christmas I ran a Hotel Chocolat competition. Well I'm happy to announce that my lucky winner was the lovely Lisa @cookwitch who has received her chocolate & after showing immense self control by simply admiring the packaging for a while, finally got stuck into it, congratulations! Till next time, Rebecca x

Afternoon tea with Macaroons from heaven!

I have to travel quite regularly for my work, 99% of the time it's either to Belgium or Holland. I think I've tried pretty much every sweet treat they have to offer, waffles, chocolate, stroopwaffles...mmm I love stroopwaffles. Anyway it made a nice change that I had to travel to Paris a few weeks back. Sadly I didn't get to see much of the city as the office is based in what I can only describe as the French equivalent of the Slough trading estate! So there I was kicking my heals around Charles de Gaulle airport feeling rather unfulfilled with my Parisian experience when I landed on a branch of Laduree!

I had read about Laduree & oggled over pictures of their beautiful multi-coloured macaroons, but had yet to make it to one of their London stores. With an hour to kill before my flight, I stepped in side & set about the challenge of choosing just 8 flavours. I settled on...

Coffee
Salted Caramel
Blackcurrant Violet
Pistachio
Rose
Black Forest
Colombian Chocolate
Raspberry

I carefully (and proudly) transported my macaroons home & stored them safely in the bottom of the fridge as advised.

Now it didn't feel quite right just to crack open the box & scoff one down with a mug of tea, so I held my first afternoon tea in their honour!

Tea from a proper pot, sandwiches with the crusts cut off, little cheesy tarts & some homemade scones (which were actually a bit of a disaster & went out for the birds, nuff said!) The macaroons took pride of place on the top of my cake stand.
In the spirit of sharing, each macaroon was cut up & shared so we could all taste all of the flavours. (must of looked quite ridiculous to an outsider, me carefully dissecting a macaroon no bigger than a 50p!) Clear favourite was salted caramel, pistachio not so much. They are not an everyday purchase at 15.90 euros for a box of 8, but they are a real treat & true indulgence. The insert in the box explains that the Laduree pastry chefs combine almonds, eggs & sugar before adding the final ingredient, a pinch of 'know how' Wouldn't we all love to get our hands on a tub of that? Till next time, Rebecca x

Getting out of a lunch rut with DIY veg pots!

Sorry that it's a bit late, but Happy New Year everyone! We moved into our first house just before Christmas, to say that it's all consuming is a bit of an understatement. I haven't had much time to cook properly & as for baking, well lets just say that me & my new oven are still getting to know one another! It's quite scary that you only view a house a couple of times then put in an offer to spend the most amount of money you're ever likely to spend. Once you get in you realise that maybe you were originally looking through slightly rose tinted glasses. Don't get me wrong I love our new house, but once it's stripped of all contents only then do you see it warts & all. It's these unexpected (slightly costly!) warts that have led me to the creation for this weeks post.

I find winter lunches a bit of a nightmare, salads just don't cut it in the cold, sandwiches are ok but not everyday & since Christmas I think I've eaten enough soup to fill a paddling pool! I really like the look of all the new types of veg & stew pots available in the supermarket, but at £3-£4 a pop they hardly make for a frugal lunch?

So with a mountain of tuperware at my disposal I thought I'd create my own 'Hodge Pots'! I made 2 different types, but the great thing is they both start with pretty much the same base ingredients. We have...

Rich Ratatouille with Cous Cous

Chilli Bean & Quorn Sausage Stew with Rice. I'm not a veggie, but I like these quorn sausages as they're low in fat, high in protein & not as rich as meaty ones.


For the ratatouille you need:

1 onion
1 pepper
1 aubergine
1 courgette
Handful of chopped mushrooms
Squeeze of garlic puree
Can of chopped tomatoes
Veggie stock cube & a dash of water
Squeeze of tomato puree
Handful of chopped basil
Plain cous cous made up with veggie stock

Roughly chop all the veggies & fry with a little olive oil & garlic until soft. Add the tomatoes & puree, stock cube, water & basil. Mix well & allow to simmer for around 30 minutes until the veggies are lovely & soft & the sauce has thickened up. I layered the ratatouille in a pot with the seasoned cous cous.

For the Chilli bean stew you need:

1 onion
1 pepper
1 courgette
Handful of chopped mushrooms
Squeeze of garlic puree
6 quorn sausages, chopped into chunks
Can of mixed beans in mild chilli sauce (I use Sainsbury)
Can of chopped tomatoes
Veggie stock cube
Squeeze of tomato puree
Mild chilli powder to taste

Again, start by roughly chopping all the veggies, then fry with a little olive oil & garlic until soft. Add the tomatoes & puree, stock cube, beans with sauce. Mix well then taste the sauce, I added an extra 2tsps of mild chilli powder to give it a little more kick. Cover & leave to simmer for around 20 minutes. This one I layered in a pot with cooked rice.

Both are delicious, warming & filling for winter days & by my reckoning work out at around £1 per pot - bargain! Let me know if you have a recipe idea for a lunch pot? Till next time, Rebecca x

P.S. As well as a new house, we also have a new addition to the family....completely gratuitous video of our new cat, but I hope it'll raise a chuckle on a dull January day :-)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas - with a Hotel Chocolat giveaway!

Hello all, it's 1st December today, so I can officially start to think about Christmas! Not that I've had time to think about much else over the last month, not wanting to do things by half I've moved both house & office. But now everything is pretty much sorted it's time to focus on the festivities.

I was very excited to have the chance to be part of Hotel Chocolat Christmas campaign. I'm already a big fan of their chocolate, in particular tiddly pots & cherry deluxe....mmm! So when I was asked if I would like to sample one of the products from their 2011 Christmas range, I didn't need to be asked twice.
I chose a selection of Winter Dessert chocolates which included Apple Strudel, Chocolate Souffle, Christmas Mess & Caramel Pecan Pie. They are definitely chocolates to be savoured & utterly delicious. I preferred the souffle & pecan pie choc's, but that's just because I like darker chocolate. My mum, who I shared them with (it was more than my life was worth not to share!) loved them all, but she has a real sweet tooth. They would certainly make a lovely after dinner treat to enjoy with coffee & if you have guests, I'm sure you could entertain yourselves trying to guess the flavours. You may be surprised how like the dessert they actually taste!

Other things that have caught my eye from the range (family & friends take note :-) are tiddly caramel penguins & mulled wine cherries but really there's just too much to choose from.
I did think it a little bit mean just to write a post about me getting to try some delicious chocolate, so I have an early Christmas treat for you! I have another box of the Winter Dessert chocolates to giveaway to one lucky reader. All you have to do is take a look at the full Hotel Chocolat Christmas range & leave a comment telling me which treat you would like to find under the tree this Christmas.

You can also email your entry to rebeccabakescakes@hotmail.co.uk

Entries need to be in by 23:59 on Wednesday 7th December 2011. Winner will be chosen at random with the help of a random number generator!

Good Luck! Rebecca x

If you want to find out more about Hotel Chocolat you can follow them on Facebook & Twitter

All pictures courtesy of Hotel Chocolat

Bangers and some rather gruesome looking mash!

Evening all, I've stopped laughing just about long enough to bring you this post! My dinner tonight was quite possibly the most ridiculous looking thing you've ever seen so here it is in all it's glory! It's all down to my latest discovery, Purple Majesty Potatoes grown by UK spud farmer, Albert Bartlett & bought from Sainsburys. Their natural purple colour is down to these particular spuds being high in anthocyanins, the same thing that gives blueberries & red cabbage their colour. This makes them rich in antioxidants & lets face it we all know they're good for us (even if no one I know really understands why??)

It was really tasty although I have to be honest, eating purple mash might take a bit of getting used to. They'd definitely make a great Halloween tea! Or, given they turned the water a bright shade of turquoise, might prove quite useful if tie-dying were ever to make a come back! Have a good evening, Rebecca x

Chocolate week, baking week, is there any week that isn't a week, cookies!

Hello. You may remember a few weeks back was National Cupcake Week, in honour of which I created some peanut butter & jam cupcakes. Well I posted a piccie of said cupcakes on the Baking Mad Facebook page & ended up winning a pack of orange flavour buttons which I probably got a bit too excited about. If you're not a fan already I'd recommend joining, they often run giveaways & competitions. The Baking Mad website is also worth a look for all things related to baking & cupcake making!

So they are the inspiration for this weeks recipe, which I created to celebrate both Chocolate Week (last week) & Baking Week (this week) It never ceases to amaze me the number of 'weeks' we actually have, although I feel there's a critical one missing. I think we absolutely have to have a 'National Eat Crisps Week' where every meal has to be accompanied by a potato based snack! Who's with me??

The orange buttons are made from cocoa butter & made a great cookie topping, I also added some natural orange essence to the cookie dough mixture to create the perfect chocolate orange cookie.

100g unsalted butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg
140g SR flour
25g cocoa powder
2tsps natural orange essence
Pack of Silver Spoon orange flavour buttons

1. Cream the butter & sugar until light & fluffy, then beat in the egg gradually until you have a lovely smooth batter.

2. Sift in the flour & cocoa powder & fold together, finally add the orange essence.

3. Place small dollops of cookie dough onto a baking sheet, add some buttons to the top. Don't worry it they look a bit squished, they'll spread out when the cook.

4. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM4 for around 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool completely & crisp up.

Looking at the finished article they would probably be quite good for a Halloween party if you were that way inclined? As my friend pointed out, there were a few of them that ended up looking like something out of the Mighty Boosh, google it, you'll see! Enjoy, Rebecca x

Fruit tarts - made with a little help!

Ok, so lets get the obvious out of the way...what is up with the weather!? It's usually around this time of year I'm dusting off my boots, adding an extra layer & wondering whether I really can get another season out of my coat? Instead, yesterday I was in shorts, barbecuing! I for one was very confused by it all. Anyway it was this impromptu BBQ that led me to making this dessert which I wanted to share with you.

Summery desserts in October - what's going on?

I was plodding around the aisles of Sainsburys looking for dessert inspiration when I came across their new range of chilled dessert ingredients. Ready made pastry, compotes, ganache, creme patisserie & the like. Now I make no secret of the fact that I can't make pastry, I always blamed it on the fact I have hot hands, but recently I was told that it could in fact be related to my hormones! Apparently the level of oestrogen you have in your body effects your ability to make pastry...I'm not sure that's ever been medically proven, or if it's simply an elaborate old wives tale, but I'll take it as an excuse!

So, grateful for a helping (non hot, low oestrogen) hand, I picked a pack of ready rolled dessert shortcrust pastry & a pouch of creme patisserie. I was given a set of individual loose bottom tart tins for Christmas, so this was the perfect opportunity to try them out & make yummy fruit tarts.

I lined the tins with pastry & in the absence of baking beans prodded the bottom with a fork to stop it puffing up, then baked them for around 12 minutes. When they'd cooled completely I squished in the creme patisserie then topped them with sliced pineapple, grapes & strawberries.

As much as I consider myself a scratch cook, there are some things that I look at & think why bother when the convenient version is so good. The fruit tarts were absolutely delicious & at 45p per tart (excluding fruit which I was buying anyway), they were excellent value for money. Have a good week & enjoy the sunshine while it lasts! Rebecca x