Blueberry Streusel Scones

Tweet Blueberry streusel scones are a wonderful combination of flavours and textures. These scones aren't the easiest to make because the fruit has to be very carefully folded into the scone dough. The blueberries have to be fresh and not frozen, otherwise you end up with purple scones. I'm very gently letting everyone know this scone dough is very messy to handle.

I made my scones with plain flour and added a couple of teaspoons of baking powder but if you would like to see a scone with height, and who doesn't, then I think self-raising flour with maybe an extra teaspoon of baking powder will make a difference or simply keep plenty of height to the uncooked dough by making sure it isn't rolled out too thinly. The original recipe comes from the fabulous baking website Joy of Baking and uses milk or cream but my preferred method is to use half milk and half plain yogurt to give a fluffy scone. My photograph doesn't show the fluffiest scone, I think this was because I took the photograph outside on a freezing cold day and the scone almost instantly became frozen!

Reheated in the microwave the scones will become perfectly fluffy, and the cinnamon infused streusel topping remains beautifully crunchy. They freeze well and I think with a little tweaking, a good quality butter to spread on them and maybe a little blueberry jam, you have a very delicious scone.

This is the first time I have entered the Tea Time Treats monthly tea party challenge which is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage, and Kate from What Kate Bakes. This months challenge is Scones sweet and savoury, and the host is Karen from Lavender and Lovage.

Jamie Oliver Competition

Tweet Hayes Garden World, Ambleside in Cumbria are running a fantastic Jamie Oliver competition which is free to enter and you don't even have to answer a question!

There are 24 prizes in total, the 1st prize is a Jamie Oliver Cast Aluminium Garden Set with Fire Pit and there are 23 other fabulous Jamie Oliver prizes up for grabs too.

Whilst you are looking at all the amazing prizes check out the selection of fabulous garden benches and sun loungers.

To enter the competition this is all you have to do:

Step 1: Subscribe to the Newsletter here

Step 2: Like their Facebook page & share the competition post on your own wall and select public (=1 entry)

Step 3: Retweet! (=1 entry)

There are a maximum of 2 entries per person.

A winner will be randomly selected on the 31st August 2012 by Hayes Garden World and the winner announced in September through their Facebook and Twitter pages, Newsletter and Website.

Plum, Apple and Blackberry One Crust Pie

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I really like these one crust pies, they always look so comforting and inviting. This recipe is by the Hairy Bikers' from their book Perfect Pies - some may say it isn't a pie because it hasn't got a lid but Delia Smith has a similar recipe in The Summer Collection, she also refers to this as a very easy one-crust pie, and so pie it is.

The pastry is brushed with egg and dusted heavily with golden caster sugar to give a sweet crunch when you bite into the buttery pastry. The mix of fruit is a perfect balance, but the recipe only gives 3 tablespoons of caster sugar to sweeten the fruit and I was a little concerned this was going to give a tart fruit mix. I used about 5 tablespoons of sugar and the sweetness was perfect.

The Hairy Bikers' omitted to say the size to roll out the pastry and so it was left for me to guess. Ha ha but I didn't, this is where Delia came in, in her book she says to roll the pastry out to a round of approximately 35cm and if you pile the fruit onto a 25cm circle and then turn the edges of the pastry up everything will be fine. The pastry needed a few more minutes to cook than the time specified in the book, but the buttery pastry was fabulous and the filling was perfect. A perfect pie for Mr W and myself, and so I'll give it 5/5.

The Hairy Bikers' have a huge smile on their faces on the front cover of the book and this book makes me smile too:) I don't normally give books a score but this one definitely deserves 5/5.

Book Recommendation: Tarts with Tops On, the title always makes me laugh, is written by Tamasin Day-Lewis, it is a brilliant book, well worth seeking out and I would recommend this book for more really good pie recipes.

Crafty Cupcakes by Ann Pickard

Tweet I know you shouldn't describe the contents of a book as cute but I am going to say it anyway, the decorated sugarpaste cupcakes are very cute. There are 30 cupcake projects including a smiley snake, bunny rabbit, cute dog, new baby and wedding cupcakes.

The author shares with us her knowledge to make fabulous sugarpaste novelty models in ten easy steps, with photographs to accompany each stage. There are also recipes for making cupcakes, buttercream and royal icing. For each cupcake project there is a materials list and reference to techniques, templates, equipment, ingredients and stockists.

This is an inspirational book for beginners and those of us who would like to achieve professional looking cupcakes with the wow factor.

Crafty Cupcakes is written by the very talented Ann Pickard who qualified as a baker and cake decorator in 1983, and opened her own shop The Icing Centre, in 1986. Ann runs a successful cake decorating business in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and has written two other books for GMC publications, Cake Characters and Cakes for Occasions.

ISBN 9781861088536
Price: £9.99
Publisher: GMC
Publication Date: March 2012
Available from Amazon

Thank you GMC for the review copy.

Creamy Haddock Gratins

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I made four of these lovely little gratins and they were one of the best dinners we had this week. They were a bit of a faff to make and I seemed to use every basin and saucepan in the kitchen, I managed to run out of work surface and made a mess everywhere too. There wasn't a space in the kitchen to take the photograph of the gratins and so I had to run outside and photograph them, it was so cold outside they cooled down straight away, looked a little sorry for themselves and had to be rescued with a few grilled cherry tomatoes placed on top to cheer them up.

The lack of preparation was because I had planned to cook salmon but somehow the salmon managed to get lost. I know I bought it, I found my receipt - I looked in the fridge, the freezer, in the car....I can only think it must have got fed up and swam back to the river. Or, it's still in Sainsbury's, but I felt too embarrassed to ring up and ask if they had found some salmon hanging around. Mr W said forget about the fish, but how am I supposed to forget about the fish that somehow managed to get lost between the supermarket and home?

It's been a week of losses, Mr W lost the remotes to the DVD and the hifi, he also fell asleep in the cinema and he nearly lost me when he started snoring! I have also lost some Tupperware containers which I use to put small amounts of sauces into for the freezer. It's also been a week of frustrations, we have invested in new technical wizardry and I am now on techie overload.

Mr W thinks we may have entered a new chapter in our lives ...........

This recipe is by the Hairy Bikers from the television series Mums Know Best and is on the BBC Food Website.

Mermaid Baking Tray and Round Pie Dish Review

Tweet Mermaid Bakeware have sent kindly sent me a 31cm Baking Tray and a 21cm Round Pie Dish for review. I think they must have found out about my cake tin and baking tray addiction - you can never have too many. The great thing about these products is you can use your metal utensils without worrying you are going to spoil them because they are scratch resistant.

The pastry lined pie dish was baked blind and the pastry cooked to perfection. I made an egg custard and you definitely need a reliable baking tray that isn't going to warp, otherwise the uncooked egg custard will wibble, wobble all over the place.

Both of these tins are made from hard anodised aluminium and can be used for sweet and savoury baking. This amazing bakeware can withstand temperatures of 240°C/475°F/Gas Mark 9 and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Mermaid Bakeware is a reliable, trusted brand which I have used for many years and is strong and hardwearing, it can also be used either on the hob or in the oven.

They are made here in the West Midlands and are now part of one of the largest manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of bakeware in the UK making everything from roasting tins to cake tins. In 1953 the first Mermaid products were introduced for use by professional chefs. In 1995 Delia Smith recommended the brand in her cookery book the Winter Collection.

Thank you Mermaid Cookware for the review products.

Hotel Chocolat - Chocolate Gifts for Mother's Day

Tweet Hotel Chocolat have created a fabulous selection of chocolates to give to our Mums on Mother's Day.

The All About Mum H-Box Selection has twelve beautifully decorated chocolates. Mainly the chocolates are truffles including Champagne Truffle, Buck's Fizz and Bison Grass Vodka each of these has a generous dash of booze. Vanilla Truffle, Strawberry and Black Pepper Truffle, Raspberry Rapture and Cherry Bombe are for Mum's who prefer no alcohol in their chocolates. There are also soft caramels and a smooth hazelnut praline in the gift box.

More Mother's Day chocolate gifts can be found on the Hotel Chocolat website.

Review chocolates kindly sent by Hotel Chocolat.

Cartmel Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble

Tweet I've been asked if I would like to be part of a team of Cartmel Village People pudding reviewers. As a team member on the panel I have to taste and review a different pudding every month. As a proper pudding lover, it isn't going to be difficult, especially as Cartmel make handmade puddings with 100% natural ingredients, sourced wherever possible from local suppliers.

I was sent a lovely parcel from Cartmel Village Shop containing their very famous Sticky Toffee Pudding, a jar of Sticky Toffee Sauce and the pudding of the month for February, Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble.

The pudding weighs 500g and serves 4/5 people. It comes in a foil container and is cooked to perfection after 20 minutes, with the sauce bubbling up the sides of the container. The smell in my kitchen was wonderful whilst the crumble was cooking. The delicious and perfectly cooked chunky apples, with just the right amount of bite, are mixed into a generous sweet and sticky toffee sauce then topped with the best crumble ever. I served mine with custard because I can't think of a better way to eat crumble.

Sticky Toffee Apple Crumble waiting patiently for the custard sauce.

No prizes for guessing who ate this.

Next month it is the turn of Lemon Drizzle Pudding - a perfect pudding for spring and one I am looking forward to trying.

Cartmel Village Shop is a family owned business who have a passion for puddings and have been declared a 'Food Hero' by Rick Stein.

The puddings are available from the Cartmel Village Shop in Cartmel, Crumbia and online at www.cartmelvillageshop.co.uk as well as branches of Waitrose, Booths, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, Fortnum & Mason, and independent fine foods shops.

You can find them on Facebook and Twitter.

OXO Good Grips Hand Held Mixer

Tweet This new Hand Held Mixer by OXO is part of the retro baking revival. The handle features OXO's soft non-slip grip and the beaters are made from stainless steel. It is a well made product, lightweight, very easy to use and fairly quiet too. I didn't have to chase it round the mixing bowl, and it doesn't make a screeching sound as the whisk heads turn, also it can be used by either a left handed or right handed person. It's great for mixing batters, cream and eggs, just to name a few of the uses you will find for this fab kitchen gadget.

Simply press the two side buttons to detach the base and pop in the dishwasher. The beaters can be removed separately for cleaning too.

Just for fun, I made a nostalgic dessert of jelly, custard and cream, I slightly over-whipped the cream because I think I was enjoying whizzing the handle.

A 'bit of nostalgia' - I remember as a child, I used to watch both my Nan and my Mum whizzing the handle of the whisk and just how much noise it could make.

I also remember using the hand whisk and having to chase it around the bowl, they always had a mind of their own. I would go one way and the whisk the other, you haven't lived unless you managed to get milk, eggs and flour all round the kitchen or have heard the screeching sound of whisk heads hitting the sides of the mixing bowl. The whisk was not only heavy to use, but if my memory serves me well, they were quite difficult to clean too, especially if you let batter set onto them.

The hand held mixer is priced at £20 and is available from Lakeland or visit www.oxouk.com

Thank you Emma for the OXO Hand Held Mixer.

Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Icing

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Recently I have been making 'proper cake' and decided to have a cupcake break. I made a fabulous iced lemon curd cake the other day, but it wasn't blog worthy, which was a shame. The cake was moist with a tender crumb, the lemon curd was perfect, but I didn't make enough icing for the topping. Not to be beaten I decided to make some more icing and add this to the icing already on the cake, it was too thin and dripped off the cake too much, in the meantime the lemon curd took on a life of it's own and decided to ooze out of the cake. Shame really because when I sliced the cake and put it onto plates it looked fabulous and tasted sensational, looks definitely aren't everything.

What has the above got to do with Nigella's cake? Well, I wouldn't describe this cake as a looker, but taste wise, it's got everything going for it, providing you aren't mean with the fresh ginger and you don't over cook the cake and dry it out.

I think the lemon icing is optional, even though lemon and gingerbread are a match made in heaven, the cake still tastes wonderful if you miss this out. The downside to icing the cake is the gingerbread discolours the icing after a day, and if you want to keep this cake for a few days to give it a chance to get even stickier, the icing will need to be cut off before serving. I've given twice the amount of icing specified in the original recipe because it was a bit on the mean side and the top of the cake shows through.

Slightly adapted recipe:

You will need: large roasting tin 30 x 20 x 5cm greased and lined with parchment paper.

For the cake:

150g unsalted butter, 125 dark muscovado sugar, 200g golden syrup, 200g black treacle, 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 250ml milk, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons warm water, 300g plain flour.

For the icing:

2 tablespoon lemon juice, 350g sieved icing sugar, 2 tablespoons warm water.

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas 3.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the sugar, golden syrup, treacle, ginger and cinnamon. Remove the pan from the heat and add the milk, beaten eggs and bicarbonate of soda in its water.
3. Add the flour to a bowl and pour in the liquid ingredients, beating until well mixed. Pour into the tin and bake for ¾ hour to 1 hour (I baked mine for ¾ hour) by which time the cake should be risen and firm to the touch.
4. For the icing: Sift the icing sugar, add the lemon juice, then gradually add the warm water. The icing needs to be thick. Spread over the cooled gingerbread and leave to set before cutting into slices.
5. Store the cake in an airtight tin - if you opt for not icing the cake, the cake will get stickier with storing for a few days.