Royal Wedding Fever...

As it’s the Royal Wedding tomorrow, and you most certainly cannot avoid the celebrations, I thought I’d get into the patriotic swing of things in the kitchen with some ‘Royal Wedding’ Cupcakes.

I found some tremendously tacky and marvelously majestic rice paper decorations online and they arrived yesterday- just in time! So today I set about making a batch of vanilla cupcakes topped with a swirl of butter icing, a perfect base for the fabulous decorations adorned with the faces of Wills and Kate.

I also crafted some sweet little crowns out of royal (aptly named!) fondant icing. I’d found this shimmery edible gold powder for decorating cakes in my local kitchen shop and thought it fit for just such a job. So after some blitzing, whipping, piping and prettifying I have 24 perfectly patriotic and really, rather royal cakes ready for tomorrow.

Vanilla cupcakes:

200g self-raising flour

200g sugar

200g butter

4 duck eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

Butter Icing:

430g icing sugar (sifted)

200g butter

Crown Decorations:

Block of Royal Fondant Icing

Edible Gold shimmer powder

- Preheat the oven to 180C

-      -  You can make these very quickly and easily in the food processor or just as well by hand.

-       - First mix the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy, it really is worth taking time to do this as it results in a light and fluffy cake.

-      - Next crack in the 4 eggs one at a time, I use duck eggs for cakes as they make a delicious, golden sponge. Whilst combining the eggs, add 1-2 tablespoons of the flour to prevent curdling.

-       - Next sift in the flour and combine everything together.

-       - Spoon the mixture equally into 24 paper cupcake cases and put into the oven for 20minutes, or until golden brown.

-       - For the butter icing, it is definitely easier to use either a hand whisk or again, the food processor as otherwise the kitchen gets engulfed by a fog of icing sugar.

-       - Mix the icing sugar and butter together until smooth.

-       - I like to pipe my icing onto the cakes but you can just as successfully spread it on with a knife.

-       - Wait until the cakes are cool before icing.

-       - For the golden crowns, roll out a block of royal fondant icing and cut into small crown shapes (you can also buy crown-shaped biscuit cutters), press the crowns into the icing on top of each cake and sprinkle over edible gold powder (available from cooking shops and Waitrose).

If you’re feeling even more adventurous and in the regal spirit why not support William and Kate’s big day with this Union Jack Battenberg cake from the BBC Food website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/union_jack_battenburg_15063 So this Royal Wedding Bank Holiday, put the bunting up and get baking.

Something a little bit different...

Today, whilst wandering around the supermarket,  I came across these delights: Pineberries!

They are strange and rather sweet little berries that look like confused strawberries. I certainly couldn't resist the charm of this fruity foreigner and bought a punnet or two of the back-to-front strawbs. They are a lot smaller than their strawberry relations and are white in colour, studded with red seeds. Pineberries were first put into supermarkets in 2010 when shoppers thought they were they were being confronted by an April Fool joke, not an exotic new fruit.

Upon doing some research, I learnt that they are supposedly akin to a pineapple in the taste department but I have to say that they do taste more like strawberries than pineapples with, I suppose, a slightly more tropical flavour. Either way, I think they are a welcome newcomer and why not make a pineberry pavlova to celebrate.

Pavlova Recipe: 
8 egg whites
500g caster sugar
2tsp white wine vinegar
1tsp vanilla extract
600ml double cream
4 passion fruit
A sprinkling of Pineberries to decorate!

- Heat the oven to 180 C
- After separating the whites and yolks, whisk the egg whites to the soft peak stage
- Whisk in the sugar gradually
- Fold in the vanilla and vinegar gently with a slotted metal spoon
- Line a baking tray with parchment and draw a circle-shape on it, roughly 25cm wide (I like to use a plate to draw around)
- Spoon the mixture onto the drawn out circle, making it dipped in the centre and risen around the edge
- Put in the oven and turn the heat down to 120 C straight away and cook for an hour
- Turn the oven off and leave the meringue in the oven until it is totally cool
- To serve peel the parchment off the bottom of the meringue and place the meringue on a serving dish
- Whip up the double cream until it just starts to thicken (take care not to overwhip), and mix in the flesh of the 4 passionfruit
- Spoon this over the meringue and decorate with the pineberries
(NB. before decorated with cream and fruit, the meringue base will keep in an airtight container or tin for a few days or in the freezer for 3-4 weeks).

Ice Cream Sundays

The sun is out, which in culinary terms, certainly means it is time for lovely things such as BBQs, Pimms, strawberries and cream and ice cream. And as with most things cooked from scratch, there certainly is nothing scrummier than home-made ice cream. You can make ice-cream in virtually any flavour you fancy; from strawberry to brown bread. Although many recipes call for the use of an ice cream maker to churn the cream, you can very happily and successfully make ice-cream without any kitchen gadgets and simply with the use of the freezer and a tupperware box! By making your own you can also ensure no nasties in your cone.

I whipped up a batch of berry ice cream using frozen blackberries and raspberries. It is deliciously simple and even better, there's no need to take it out every couple of hours to mix. It makes for a quick and easy pudding too, great served with a scattering of fresh berries and chocolate sauce.

400g of frozen raspberries and blackberries
150g of golden caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
285ml of double cream

- Whip the double cream until thick, be careful not to over-whip and stop when it has just got thick
- Meanwhile, blitz the berries in the blender and mix with the sugar and lemon juice
- Stir the berry mixture into the whipped cream until fully blended, alternatively just swirl in gently for a rippled effect

- Pour the mixture into a suitable tupperware container and pop in the freezer for atleast 3hours before eating. It'll make the bank-holiday sunshine even more enjoyable!

Hot Cross Buns

 After two-weeks in London, where I ate out a lot and the only meal I actually cooked was a bowl of pasta, I woke up this morning feeling that it was definitely time to regain my kitchen mojo. A quick glance through some books, magazines and online and I decided that with Easter fast approaching, what better time than to whip up a batch of hot-cross buns. This is a first for me, and I rather ashamedly have always been more than content with the shop-bought variety. Always one to want to attempt such a recipe from scratch I embarked on the mission in a fog of flour and scattering of currants. I find that the prospect of hand baking any bread-like recipes often tend to fill people with dread, a long with thoughts that it'll either be the most time-consuming of activities or it will simply, all too easily and rather disappointingly fail.

After some mixing and kneading, and some rather rustic cross-piping, out of the oven came 6 golden buns as well as a rather delicious spicy, citrus aroma. Nothing better than served with lashings of butter, straight from the oven- delicious.

Why not make a batch this Easter bank holiday:

310g strong white flour           zest of 1 lemon                    For the cross and glaze:

½ tsp salt                                 1 egg, beaten                              1 tbsp golden syrup

2tsp ground mixed spice         140ml warm milk                       2tbsp plain flour

20g melted butter                    1tsp fast-action dried yeast         1tsp sugar

50g sugar                                60g currants                               6tbsp water                       

- Sift the flour into a bowl with the salt, mixed spice, sugar, lemon and orange zest and yeast

- Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter, milk and egg and mix together

- When the mixture is coming together to form a dough get your hands in and transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead for ten minutes.

- Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover and leave in a warm place for an hour

- After an hour the dough should have risen and you will have to knock it back and leave it in the bowl for a further 30 mins

- Split the dough into 6equal sections and roll into bun shapes and place on a greased baking tray

- For the cross mix together the flour, sugar and water to form a paste (you may need to add more water), put into a piping bag and pipe on crosses over the buns

- Bake in a 240C oven for about 15mins or until a light golden brown

- Heat the golden syrup until it is runny and as soon as the buns are out of the oven brush them with the golden syrup to give a lusciously lacquered glaze

Deli Delights...

There's nothing better than a good deli, brandishing the best of British produce. I like nothing more than trotting into a well-stocked delicatessen and gazing over the extensive range of meats, cheeses, scrumptious dressings, marinades and preserves. All the better if there happens to be a range of freshly picked fruit and vegetables- not long plucked from the ground and still bearing the earthy residue, something a supermarket cannot quite compete with.

There happens to be just such an offering nestled down the road from where I live. Although nothing beats a social trip here for a coffee and a delicious slice of homemade (and probably over-priced) cake, of a morning, it is such a treat to hand pick local produce in just such a venue when your own garden won't quite yield such delights!

Recently I wandered down to said destination with ideas for supper that night at the forefront of my mind. And what utter inspiration a well stocked deli can offer compared to the supermarket where, if I haven't been efficient enough to make a list, I seem to wander aimlessly from aisle to aisle plucking all sorts of miscellaneous items off shelves before realizing, upon my return home, that these mismatched items will not be conducive to a complete meal recipe of any kind!

The moment I walked in I saw a mouth-watering variety of quiches and tarts ahead of me, so with my initial idea of some sort of salad completely dashed and now comparatively inferior, I set my mind to a homemade quiche for supper and started out on a hunt for some delicious quiche-fillers. The cheese counter did not disappoint and after choosing a delightful goats cheese I also found a fat red onion, some oak-smoked streaky bacon (freshly sliced in front of me no less!), a box of free-range eggs from somewhere that sounded like a 5* hotel for hens, an enormous lettuce and a ripe avocado (something that pleased me an embarrassing amount, as in the supermarket I'm always left trying to find a ripe avocado but end up groping one bullet-like fruit after another!). Home I went with my laden brown paper bag.

After an hours pottering in the kitchen out of the oven came a golden quiche deeply filled with balsamic red onions, crispy bacon and crumbled goat’s cheese, that if I say so myself was a deliciously indulgent supper a long with a crisp green salad.

NB. For a scrummy quiche I believe the pastry should be blind baked for crispness, I also find that a loose bottomed metal quiche tin results in an infinitely superior quiche as opposed to one baked in a ceramic dish. The metal one conducts the heat better allowing the pastry to crisp up, whereas whenever I've used a ceramic I end up with a rather disappointingly soggy supper.

Seasonal sensations..

Last night, I suppered at my lovely friend Hen's. She is a great cook and we whipped up a delicious spring-time risotto. It was packed with goodies, such as ribbons of courgette, pesto chicken, asparagus and lots of parmesan. This was my first British asparagus of the season and it did not disappoint, it was delicious and cooked just right, still with some bite. I cannot wait for my next taste of British asparagus, a true, patriotic treat. So good that it is just as delicious on its own with a sprinkling of sea salt and some melted butter. I think I will next have it with a the good Nigella Hollandaise recipe that I've just about mastered, a great starter! So here's to the British asparagus, a truly seasonal delight.