Pour Me a Cup of Tea Please~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ As many of you know, I love to bake. I also love to tweak recipes to put my own stamp on them.  Of course, playing with recipes often yields unexpected results, sometimes quite disastrous, sometimes serendipitous.  Here is a little tale of the unexpected goody that has come from a nearly disastrous bake last year.

Stollen is one of my most favourite Christmas treats.  For some reason, probably all the other gazillion and one things to do for Christmas, I have never baked my own, but with each passing year the cost seems to be going up way out of relation to inflation, and with some supermarkets charging as much as £8.00 for a Stollen, or around £3.00 for a small box of tiny Stollen bites, I decided to give it a go.  {After all, what could possibly go wrong with making an enriched dough stuffed full of dried fruits and marzipan?}

If you don't already know the history of Stollen, here is a link with a brief history.

Now, let it be known that I am a Disciple of Delia, so around lunchtime on Christmas Eve, still with loads of jobs to do, I assembled all the ingredients, as listed in my trusted Delia Smith's Christmas  {this link is to the revised version, Delia's Happy Christmas, mine is the original}, plugged in Emily and changed the beater for the dough hook, rolled up my sleeves, and set about baking Stollen for the very first time.  I mean, how hard could this be? It wasn't as if I didn't have enough things still to do, but with the help of Emily to knead the dough there was plenty of time to finish all the other jobs for Christmas Day ~~~ wasn't there? 

Of course, being a Disciple of Delia, I have all her cookery books, and naturally I have both the original and revised Christmas books ~~~

You can find Delia's Recipe here, and if you want to watch the process, you can watch Delia's Christmas Stollen video.  The site is, in general, worth more than a quick peek, so make sure you have a pot of tea on hand as you may be gone some time ~~~

Are you back yet? 

I measured out the ingredients, followed the recipe, and with the help of Emily it wasn't long before there was a lovely rich, yellow, fruit~laden dough rising in the airing cupboard ~~~ the cottage was already taking on the fragrance of Christmas baking ~~~ 

It was then that disaster struck for the first time ~~~ the dough started to take on a life of it's own and in a very short time it had risen well beyond what was expected of it, in fact it was, in my estimation, about double what it should be, so in I ploughed and knocked it back, shaped it and carefully rolled it around the marzipan roll, slipped it on to the waiting baking tray and put it to rise again {which it did, reaching rather gargantuan proportions again} before I tucked it in to the oven to bake ~~~ which it did rather beautifully, despite it's size ~~~ until I {Oh! so very stupidly} got over excited and disaster struck for the second time with vengeance, for as I lifted it off the baking tray too early, much to my dismay, out fell the beautiful, meltingly hot marzipan roll on to the floor ~~~ pass the tissues now!  How painful it was to see that plumptious confection in what I can only describe as an Almond Paste Splat all over my kitchen floor. If you have never seen an almond paste splat, I hope you don't, especially if you love the delightful confection as much as I do ~~~ oh, and hot marzipan cools down quite rapidly {except when eaten hot and it adheres to the roof of the mouth ~ not that I have ever done this, you understand} and has a nasty tendency to stick to the floor in such a way that a bucket and mop job is the only way to clean up, so adding more work to the already bulging list of Christmas jobs ~ which wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a looming deadline!

Of course, the whole bread was spoiled as a Stollen, but did not waste.  We ate it, warm and buttered; toasted and buttered; warmed with custard; and the very last scraps were put into a heavenly Bread and Butter Pudding served with a warm brandied custard sauce ~~~ heavenly ~~~

Long have I thought and pondered and wondered over what went wrong, and can only think that maybe I forgot to add the salt to the dough {salt is a necessary evil in bread making as it inhibits the yeast from rising too much, so this makes sense given the uninhibited rising of the dough} or maybe I accidentally reached for the wrong flour, over kneaded the dough, maybe the marzipan was just too heavy for the dough, any one of a number of things.  I stopped losing sleep and agreed to move on ~~~

Two things have come out of this ~~~

• do not wait until the eleventh hour to try a new recipe, especially Christmas Eve ~ and ~
• try making buns and chop the marzipan through the dough {don't ask me where this thought came from, but come it did} so ~~~

Fast forward to yesterday ~~~ I gathered all the ingredients and made another batch of dough, only this time, the marzipan was cut up into small cubes, just over 1/4 of an inch in size, and added it in with the fruit. I am always changing my mind, so instead of making buns, I pressed the dough into a circle and scored it through to make wedge shapes. I left it in the circle on the baking sheet, and baked it at Gas Mark 5 for about 35 ~ 40 minutes until it looked baked ~~~ 

I then made Delia's icing, but as the lemon was a bit small and the icing a bit thick I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract {something I seem to add in to most of my sweet recipes, even when it is not in the ingredients ~ I think I have a bit of a love affair with vanilla}

So, here is the result of my Christmas kitchen disaster turned good ~~~ yesterday's Stollen wedges ~~~

I did leave the nuts out as there is a nut allergy sufferer in the house, and that is the beauty of home baking ~ you can adjust the recipe to suit any dietary or other needs.  Next time I make this, and be assured there will be a next time, I will put toasted flaked almonds on half the icing as I think they will add to the overall final presentation.

It was delicious with coffee for breakfast, and I must confess, I planned to present the wedges on a pretty plate and take a better photograph, but I notice that one wedge is already missing from the above circle, and as I type there are just three wedges left ~~~ 

The Garden Raspberry Cake ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ today I have been playing with my food ~ well tweaking a recipe I found in a charming, out of print book that I recently secured from a second hand book shop ~~~

While the bees buzzed busily about their business gathering pollen from the foxgloves in the garden ~~~ 

I went about my own business in the kitchen ~~~ and after the heat of the last few days there was welcome respite with a much cooler day today so I didn't mind turning on the oven ~~~

I am sure you want to know all about the book, so here it is ~~~ oh! and I came across it by way of the blog of Rachel, owner of Sugar Moon Brownies who wrote two lovely blogs recently about her baking history and her incredible cook books ~ in one of these entries she mentioned this book ~ "Through The Kitchen Window" by Susan Hill ~ it is one of the most delightful books I have come across in recent times ~~~ 

It offers us a glimpse into the world of the kitchen through the year, and is full of evocative, seasonal tidbits and recipes and remedies, beautifully written by Susan Hill and sweetly illustrated by Angela Barrett ~~~ I think if you love Susan Branch you will enjoy this little gem too ~~~

As I turned the pages, each one full of its own special magic, my eye came to rest on something very near to my heart ~ a Lemon Cake!  I make Lemon Cake in some shape or form quite often, a top favourite is my Crunchy Top Lemon Cake from my favourite cook, Mary Berry's "Baking Bible" so I was intrigued to see this recipe which differs substantially from the one I usually use.  Here is the page with the recipe and a sweet illustration of a cake baking while the cook looks on in eager anticipation ~~~

I have never made a cake where the butter is melted, nor have I made one where the sugar is split.  The recipe I use most often has a separate list for the topping, so I was duty bound to try this out!

I gathered my ingredients and equipment and greased and lined my cake pan ~~~ and I had to guess at a 'moderate oven' so I turned the gas on to Gas Mark 4 ~~~

I still work in Imperial, and have a very old fashioned balance scales that I've owned for over thirty years.  The Hornsea Pottery "Saffron" pattern sugar jar belongs to my mother and we have several pieces ~ she has Saffron and I have Fleur {which you will see later}  The glass lemon juicer is a reproduction of a vintage one and I like it so much better than the cheap plastic ones you can buy today.

So, I weight out my ingredients and followed the recipe carefully, making some notes to myself for later ~~~

I melted the butter and added it to the sugar in my glass mixing bowl and carefully blended the two together ~~~

allowing the mixture to cool slightly before adding the beaten egg {to avoid cooking the egg and making the mixture into scrambled egg} ~~~ 

Next, I added the flour, which I sifted in and added a scant teaspoon of baking powder to aid in the raising of the cake ~~~

and I folded it in.  It looked very messy and lumpy and I got a tiny bit worried ~~~

but the lumps soon disappeared and I was left with a very unfamiliar sight when making cakes ~ a very loose batter almost like a thick pancake batter {so that gave me an idea} ~~~

Now, the best laid plans, as they say, of mice and men ~~~ and with just a few minutes of baking time left my lovely cousin arrived on the doorstep and I managed to let the oven door slip ~ it shut too quickly and my cake sank in the middle ~~~ but, never fear ~ as the photograph shows, it sank rather evenly so I planned to turn it into a flan filled with fresh fruit and whipped cream ~~~ except my cousin took a fancy to it and I sent her home with half the cake for her tea!  The cake never received the crunchy topping!

Here is my half of the cake sitting on my Hornsea Pottery "Fleur" pattern plate ~~~

The texture is quite good, despite the mishap, and it tastes just fine with only two ounces of sugar, so it will not waste ~~~

So, as soon as my cousin left, clutching her freshly baked treat, I made another version.  This time, having seen how the batter turned out, I omitted the lemon rind {see recipe} and instead of using two ounces of sugar in the batter and reserving two ounces for the crunchy topping I put three ounces into the cake batter instead.  Then, when I poured it into the prepared cake pan, I sprinkled a generous handful of fresh raspberries over the top and popped it in the oven like that {for around 25 minutes} ~~~ and out it came like this ~~~ in case you were wondering, the texture of the batter made me think of Clafoutis, which is one of my favourite desserts ~~~

It has sunk a tad but I'm not too worried about that ~~~

To turn it out, I tipped it onto a plate and flipped it over, then I turned the plate over with the cooling rack underneath ~~~

and voila! ~~~ one turned out raspberry topped cake! ~~~ I have to say I'm quite chuffed over this little adaptation of mine ~~~

While it was still warm I cut a wedge and had it quite plain so I could judge it properly without the distraction of cream, custard, or ice cream ~ all of which would be very yummy with this invention ~~~

It was very tasty indeed and I will make it again ~~~ the extra sugar made the top and edges sort of chewy ~ I knew I'd done something a little different from the original one and I really liked it!  I'm looking forward to a piece for my morning break with a mug of coffee tomorrow now!

So, Gentle Reader, there you have my little experiment!  Next time I think I might put the berries in the bottom of the pan and pour the batter over them instead ~~~ but I am so happy that I now have another way to use up the harvest of raspberries from the garden ~~~

~~~A Gardener's Work Is Never Done~~~

Serendipity

Gentle Reader, I must share with you that I had a "serendipity moment" this very morning.   You may have read here, just yesterday afternoon, my delight at discovering that certain plants waiting to be moved into their permanent position in my borders unexpectedly offer natural weed suppression.  The few weeds that have managed to force a way up grow very weakly indeed and are incredibly easy to both identify and remove.  For me, this is a huge bonus because these are plants I love, plants I want to have in my garden, and plants that seem to do well in my garden whatever the weather happens to be.  To discover that, when planted all together, they get along with each other and really slow down the progression of weeds is a truly welcome bonus.

This morning, while out making my daily early inspection, camera in hand, I took this photograph.  It is strange how, when looking at the planting in the garden successful arrangements are sometimes overlooked, but when I uploaded it onto my laptop, I instantly realised that this arrangement, although originally haphazardly done, is quite appealing to the eye and works very well for me, so much so that I have decided to use it for one of the borders that edge the lawn.  That border already contains two Aconitum (monkshood; wolf's bane) in deep blue, and I believe these will all work harmoniously with the deep blue flower spikes.  I can hardly contain my excitement!  I will need to slightly widen the borders, which I had already considered, clean them thoroughly to remove as many weeds as possible, then carefully move these plants over to their planned positions.   I am so excited, but I think I told you this already.  Here is a photograph of the current holding border, and I hope you will see the cause of my excitement~

The planting is (top to bottom) osteospermum, oregano, cultivated poppy, foxgloves, self~heal, Alchemilla mollis, Papaver Orientalis, and interspersed with Aquilegia of various colours.  Thiere is a sage plant behind (not part of this holding area) and it is not out of the question that I might take cuttings to put a sage plant or two into this arrangement.

The Papaver Orientalis are opening too, more cause for great excitement, and here is a macro image of the centre of one~

How uplifting to suddenly find a planting scheme that suits my garden and my plans, especially as it was so unexpected!