The Creme Egg Scotch Egg

You know when you see something online and go "I have GOT to make that"? Well, NoLita Cantina (one of my fave restaurants in Liverpool) tweeted a few days ago about attempting to make a Creme Egg scotch egg and I had that exact reaction. Sod the fact I can't eat Creme Eggs. I have many willing chocoholics at work to feed my creations to.

Take:

A Creme Egg
Some chocolate cake
Buttercream (if you're lazy like me, buy a chocolate sponge from the shop. No need to make a cake and buttercream that way!)
Chocolate
Hobnobs

It's easy but it's messy. Have lots of kitchen roll nearby and be prepared to wash your hands a lot.


Prep stages:

Mash up the cake and buttercream - I split the shop-bought choc sponge in half, discarded the top layer and mashed together the buttercream and bottom layer of the half. Should look a bit like this:

Melt a couple of squares of chocolate
Crush some hobnobs. Three should do.

Then, unwrap the Creme Egg.
Squish the cake/buttercream mixture into a coating around the egg.

Melt the chocolate and spoon over it.

Roll it in the hobnobs until you've got a roughly even top coating.

Pop in the fridge to harden.

Voila!

My willing tester made sex noises whilst eating it. I take that to mean that it was a success.

Eating Frugally In January

I haven't made any resolutions this year. I generally can't be bothered with them: changes don't need to happen in January to be worthwhile. There does seem to be a bit of extra energy in the air at the moment though. Maybe it was having those extra couple of days off work with nothing particular to do? I'm inclined to think that part of it is related to taking down the Christmas decorations. The house looks so clean and empty by comparison that you really want to keep it that way! Whatever the cause, things that have been put off for a long time are gradually being tackled and it feels really good.

The main thing I'm attempting this month is Project Mother Hubbard, aka superduper strict menu planning and shopping. The freezer (which badly needs defrosting) was positively groaning with food by the end of December and the cupboards were equally full. Other than fresh fruit & veg, bread and cat food, I was fairly sure I didn't need to buy anything this month.

I sat down in front of the freezer with my handy menu planner/shopping list thingy and got drafting. I'm not going to pretend it's an entirely glamorous way of doing things and I won't be winning Masterchef any time soon with my meal choices (well that freezer needs emptying and the fishfingers won't eat themselves!) but it's making life a lot easier and a hell of a lot cheaper. The rules are strict: no buying anything that isn't on the shopping list, and things are only going on the shopping list if they're definitely required as part of the weekly menu. Buy it when I definitely need it, not on the offchance I may need it.

It's working: the last weekly food shop cost a whopping £23 and most of that was expensive Whiskas for the fussy cat.




Might have run out of ideas for Friday...

Using things up is enormously satisfying. The sight of an empty freezer shelf is causing me almost as much glee as succesfully ticking a completed meal off the menu. My cooking creativity is on the up too. Half a packet of frozen puff pastry took 15 minutes to turn it into sugar, choc chip and ginger swirls (messy looking cos I'm a fool and made them a bit wrong, but damn tasty!) and teeny tiny palmiers (entirely more successful):

In a spirit of random energy, I even had a go at making granola for the first time. If you haven't come across A Girl Called Jack yet, her website is amazing for delicious, low-cost recipes. I took her peanut butter and honey granola recipe, used chocolate peanut butter for an extra cocoa-y hit and sprinkled in some sultanas. It's incredibly easy to make and tastes gorgeous!



I imagine that once the freezer is emptied then the bills may start to go back up slightly but if I can keep up the menu planning side of things throughout the year, I'll be more than happy. It's fun!

Homemade Pop Tarts

Actual Pop Tart on the left, Alex Tart on the right.

I set myself a little baking challenge this week. I came across a recipe for homemade Pop Tarts on the Oh Comely website and I just couldn't resist. Pop Tarts are some sort of mythical beastie from my childhood. I remember them coming over from the US. I definitely remember those "OMG THEY WILL BURN YOUR FACE OFF!!" news reports. I never actually got to taste one though. Pesky allergies.

My friend Lisa donated a box of genuine American strawberry Pop Tarts for the purposes of this challenge (thanks, Lisa!) and I took one for the team and sampled a bit. Bleughhhh. I wasn't missing out all those years, was I?! Cardboardy, tasteless pastry and barely any filling. What was there didn't taste of strawberry or jam, it was just artificial and odd. Maybe icing and sprinkles (which I believe are the usual topping) would have improved the taste by sugarbombing it to death but I was not impressed.

Time to attempt my own.

Any sort of baking is hard in my ridiculously small kitchen. There's enough room for a fridge freezer, cooker, sink and some countertops but very little else. I would kill for a dishwasher. Simple recipes are the best kind though and I'm pleased to report that this one didn't require much in the way of ingredients or space. You just whiz up some pastry, cut some shapes, bung the filling in and chuck them in the oven.

I won't list the recipe here as the original is on Smitten Kitchen and the translated version with UK measurements is on Oh Comely. I will say a couple of things though:

- Be careful of the fat quantity when making the pastry - either it wasn't converted entirely correctly or my usual butter substitute acts very differently in this recipe because I had to add a crapload more flour in order to turn it into a workable dough.

- Don't do what I did about two weeks ago. In an effort to be tidy I turned out the baking cupboard and threw away loads of stuff. Cornflour? When was the last time I needed that? PAH! Then, you guessed it, this recipe says to mix a bit of cornflour with the jam and heat gently on the hob so that the filling has the right consistency. It wasn't the end of the world in this case as I used blackcurrant jam which was quite chunky but it would definitely have been better less runny!

- Don't burn your chin on molten cinnamon brown sugar goo. That's not big or clever.

It tastes lush though! Even better with a lavish dollop of icing.

Here's a nice comparison of the filling. Why have a thin scraping of artificial nastiness when you could have a delicious freshly baked concoction of cinnamon and brown sugar or warm blackcurrant jam? They're super quick and easy to make so I'll definitely be giving them another go. Love some of the filling suggestions on the original Smitten Kitchen recipe!

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Further Adventures in Baking (Or, A Really Delicious Rhubarb Cake Recipe)

When the garden is full of deliciousness like this, there's nothing nicer than raiding it for ingredients. I don't have green fingers but even I can grow easy stuff like herbs and rhubarb.



You may have seen my recipe for the best apple cake in the world. If not, go and read it, then bake it.

When it comes to summer baking I like to adapt the recipe and make it rhubarbtastic instead. I won't retype the recipe here as it's the same ingredients and same quantities as the apple cake. Just swap the apple for rhubarb, the almond essence for vanilla extract and leave out the sultanas and flaked almonds.



Wash, trim and chop your rhubarb, then pop it in a saucepan with a splash of water and a sprinkling of sugar to simmer for a little while. When it's softened, lay it on top of half the cake mixture like so.


It could probably take double the amount of rhubarb but I didn't want to decimate the crop in the garden.

Put the other half of the mixture on top, bake as per the recipe and then scoff.



Here's a super handy tip for you. Before you do the washing up, go back to the pan that you used to cook down the rhubarb. There should be a nice amount of pink syrup in the bottom. Put it in a wine glass, add Prosecco and enjoy.




But wait, didn't I promise you some cake decorating updates as well? The rhubarb cake isn't the only thing I've made recently. Using my trusty Victoria sponge recipe rather than a sickly sweet cupcake recipe (bah, I loathe the c word), I whizzed these up and then gave into my childhood fondness for colourful decorations. Baby steps and all but behold!






Baking Mad kindly supplied some of the ingredients for this baking session.

A Baking Challenge

Long ago, back in the days before her allergies prevented such things, my mum was amazing at making and decorating cakes. Look, treasure chest cake! (also cute, blonde me! Awww. Despite the MASSIVE fringe.)



Vampire cake!

BBQ cake!



I had such a nostalgia-fest looking back through the photo album where I found all these. This is my 1st birthday cake.



And my second birthday cake.

Then we're missing a few, although I do remember an excellent hot air balloon cake for my 3rd birthday. She triumphed with these two though:



Teddy Bear's Picnic!! Mmmm, green dessicated coconut for grass. It was a crime to cut into this beauty.

I was 7 and all I wanted for my birthday was an alarm clock. What an odd child I was. Being the super duper mother that she is, she got me an alarm clock and then made me a cake to match it.

It is a thing of great sadness that I have not inherited any of her talents in this department. I love to bake and I'm fairly confident that my baking tastes good, which is the main thing really, isn't it? Yet I have no patience for twiddles and no skill at decorating, so I go for the approach of making big slabs of yummy cake and not worrying about making them look pretty. A sift of icing sugar usually covers up most crimes.

But no more! I'm on a summer mission to a) bake a bit more and b) put more effort into it. I might not have any decorating skills now but I'm sure I can teach myself something.

I've started at the beginning, by tidying up the baking cupboard. I won't be able to work out what to do if I don't know what equipment I have. Plus this task also brings massive benefits. No longer will I be showered by icing sugar and random packets of cupcake decorations every time I open the cupboard door! There will be no repeat incidents of the tray of food colourings and flavourings taking a nosedive on the kitchen floor and turning it into a vanilla, cinnamon and red mess! (yes, that happened. It took an AGE to clean up. Smelled delicious though.)  It's all lovely and tidy now. Sugar in one place, flour in another, cake decorating supplies in a tidily organised box.

Now I've got that sorted, my first task is chocolate cake decorations. I figure that I might as well start with something fairly easy and if it all goes horribly wrong, well, people love chocolate. They can enjoy the deliciousness and that will distract them from my crapness at decorating. I'll move onto white icing and piping and suchlike when I've got some practice with the basics.

Any volunteers to be my taste tester?


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The Best Apple Cake in the World

I'm about to share one of my favourite ever cake recipes with you. It's been hugely popular in the Odd Socks household for as long as I can remember and believe me when I say it is amazing. It smells fantastic when you're making and baking it and it tastes even better when you're eating it. Plus it's got apples and sultanas in so it's practically healthy!

You will need:

5oz/125g margarine
2 large eggs
8oz/225g sugar (the recipe does say caster but using half caster, half demerara will make it more interesting)
8oz/225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond essence
Sultanas (if you like them. The original recipe didn't have them so they're not absolutely vital)
12oz/350g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1oz/25g flaked almonds
Demerara sugar

Grease and line an 8inch loose-bottomed cake tin. I used a square one instead of a round one because the cake was intended for a picnic and it's easier to take big chunks of cake than it is dainty triangles, but you can go mad and use whichever shape you want.

Melt the margarine.

Mix together the margarine, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and almond essence in a bowl, until the mixture is smooth. It'll look different to a sponge mixture - much thicker - and will smell DIVINE.

If you like sultanas, chuck in a liberal handful and stir a bit more. I love them.

Plonk half the mixture in the tin and level it off.

Layer the apple on top of the mixture. You can err on the generous side here because it never looks as much once it's cooked. I also sprinkle in a few extra sultanas and flaked almonds.

Spoon the rest of the mixture into the tin and top with the flaked almonds and a generous sprinkling of demerara sugar.

Cook at Gas Mark 3/325 F/160 C for about 1 ½ hours, until the top is golden brown and the middle is cooked through.

Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin.  This version is gluten-free (and dairy free. Hurrah for Vitalite!) so doesn't rise quite as much as a normal one would but that makes no real difference. It's still gorgeous.  I do thoroughly recommend it as a g/f recipe though because the consistency holds up really well.

Chop into big chunks and enjoy. It's amazing warm, either by itself or with ice cream. Mmmm, crunchy sugar topping...

Banana Gingerbread Loaf

I am always searching for new things to do with bananas. Oi, no sniggering at the back! I meant baking-wise. It’s a side effect of my extreme fussiness when it comes to bananas. I will only eat them if I’m in the mood and they have not a speck of brown on them. As soon as they start to ripen properly they make me want to vom. So we have a lot of brown bananas knocking around the kitchen! I still want to vom when I'm mashing them into various cakes/muffins but I can put up with it for the greater good. Cake = good.

I swear by a banana muffin recipe from a Weightwatchers recipe book but I wanted to try something a little different this time and came across this recipe for Banana Gingerbread Slices in a massive baking book I own.

4oz/115g soft light brown sugar
10oz/275g plain flour
4 tsps ground ginger
2 tsps mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tbsps sunflower oil
2 tbsps black treacle
2 tbsps malt extract
2 eggs
4 tbsps orange juice
3 bananas
4 oz/115g raisins

The beauty of this recipe is that it takes substitutions really well and that’s a damn good thing because my baking cupboard does not contain malt extract (I left it out). Or mixed spice (I used cinnamon instead). Or indeed orange juice (we only had grapefruit juice which would not have worked in the same way!  I bunged in a bit of milk instead to get it to the normal cake consistency). I also reckon this would be lovely made with part wholemeal flour too – it doesn’t rise much in the oven.

To make it:

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, spices and bicarb.

Make a well in the centre. Add the oil, treacle, malt extract, eggs and OJ and mix together thoroughly. Mash the bananas into the mixture and stir in the raisins.

Mix well and put in your tin of choice.

The recipe calls for a baking tray but I chose to make it as a loaf cake so used my silicone loaf tin.

Bake at Gas Mark 4/180 C/350 F for about 35-40 min. It comes out looking quite gingerbready so don't worry about it looking dark.

If you use a loaf tin, give it an extra 20-30 mins so it all cooks through properly. You'll probably need to pop some foil over it partway through to avoid burning the top.

Leave it in the tin to cool for 5 mins and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Chop into chunky slices (it’s low fat, you might as well have more of it), make yourself a brew and it’ll disappear sharpish.

As with most of my favourite cake recipes, it doesn't look anything spectacular but it tastes bloody good.

Pondering Pancakes & a Giveaway!

This shelf in Marks & Spencer worries me greatly.  I'm all for a bit of convenience food every now and then but other than the lemons, you tell me what on this shelf of "Pancake Day Essentials" is actually essential?  Who needs pre-made batter?  Who needs pre-made pancakes?! For flips sake, who doesn't know how to make pancakes in the first place?!

It's not hard. Four ingredients: milk, eggs, flour and a pinch of salt.

Whisk:

Get a ladle and some sort of flipping implement (no tossing for me):

Put in a pan and cook:

Whack on some sugar and lemon juice:

Admire, then scoff:

You may wish to try some more interesting fillings than sugar and lemon but what can I say. I like mine classic! Although I did try a plain one with some chopped up marshmallows in and it was gooeytastic and rather good. Baking Mad has got tons of delicious looking Pancake Day recipes if you're more adventurous than I am and want to try something a little different.

They've also very kindly offered up a copy of The Big Book of Bread as a giveaway prize and it looks amazing! Chockfull of recipes for all sorts of delicious breads, cakes and muffins.

If you'd like to be in with a chance to win it, just let me know your favourite pancake filling in a comment below. I'll draw the winner at 9am on Mon 18th February.