BABY FRUIT CAKES

This is my entry for the Waiter, there's something in my.......picnic basket! Our host for this event is Johanna over at The Passionate Cook.
It isn't exactly picnic in the park weather in my part of the country, here in the UK. More like picnic in the car weather! Even if you wrapped up and was brave enough to set out for a picnic, you would still end up eating it in the car - the weather has either rained all day or has teased us throughout, with black clouds looming above us.

When I saw these fruit cakes I didn't really associate them with picnics - but this year, perhaps we need something more substantial to take out with us for the day.

The recipe comes from Jill Dupleix who is a food writer, she often makes television appearances here in the UK, on programmes such as Market Kitchen and Saturday Cooks. Jill's recipes can be found in food magazines and she has also written several cookbooks. In 2002 Jill received the British Cookery Journalist of the Year Award from the British Guild of Food Writers.

My food blogging friends might be interested to know that Jill did all the photography for three of her books, Simple Food, Very Simple Food and Totally Simple Food.

SMOKED SALMON WITH SCRAMBLED EGGS AND BRIOCHE TOAST

The Passionate Cook is hosting this months Waiter! there's something in my....... challenge and Johanna's theme for April is "breakfast favourites".

As a rule breakfast in my house isn't a big deal, but just something to sustain you until lunch-time comes around. That is, unless my three year old grandson comes to stay, then breakfast takes on a whole new meaning and lasts about an hour!

I decided to make an indulgent breakfast of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and toasted brioche. For this breakfast, the salmon more often than not, is added to the scrambled eggs and then spooned onto the brioche, but I prefer these ingredients to be served separately. The eggs should be made with a small amount of double cream added to them, for extra indulgence.

This is my perfect breakfast, not too filling but extremely satisfying.

PEAR AND ALMOND TART WITH CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Jeanne over at Cook Sister is hosting
Waiter, There's Something in My...Topless Tart! I've entered the 'Waiter' challenge several times click here to see my previous entries.
Pears, almonds and chocolate are a divine combination of flavours and on many occasions I have looked at this recipe longingly and waited for the right time to come along to make it. This was now the perfect excuse to indulge!
The book I've taken this recipe from is by food writer Louise Pickford who is a contributor to food magazines such as Delicious. I'm a huge fan of food writers and if you enjoy baking, this book will earn its place on the bookshelf.

FRESH BAKED - Louise Pickford

ISBN 0600613569 - Page 93

Serves: 8

The original recipe suggests making a sweet shortcrust pastry to line the tin but I opted for a basic shortcrust pastry.
Delia's method for baking a pastry case blind is the method I always use and needless to say it's foolproof.

FOR THE PASTRY CASE
225g plain flour, 50g butter, 50g lard, approximately 3 tablespoons cold water.
Make in the usual way and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out and line a 25cm
flan tin. Prick the base with a fork and chill for a further 30 minutes. Bake blind in a preheated oven, 190°C(375°F) Gas Mark 5.
Leave the cooked pastry case to cool completely.

FOR THE FILLING
125g butter (softened), 125g caster sugar, 125g ground almonds, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3 ripe pears (peeled, cored and thickly sliced), 25g flaked almonds.

1. Beat the butter, sugar and ground almonds together until smooth and then beat in the eggs and lemon juice.
2. Arrange the pear slices over the pastry case and carefully spread over the almond cream. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for 30 minutes or until the topping is golden and firm to the touch.
3. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
4. Dust the tart with icing sugar and serve in wedges with the chocolate sauce and some vanilla ice cream.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE SAUCE
100g dark chocolate chopped, 50g unsalted butter (diced), 1 tablespoon golden syrup.

Put the chocolate, butter and syrup in a small bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water and stir until melted. Leave to cool slightly.

ICED LEMON CURD LAYER CAKE

Andrew over at SpittoonExtra is hosting
'Waiter There's Something...In My Layered Cake'. All of the 'Waiter' roundups have made wonderful reading, not forgetting the drooling over the photographs.
One of my all time favourite cakes is the Iced Lemon Curd Layer Cake by the trusted Delia Smith - she certainly knows how to bake a good cake and I've enjoyed cooking and eating many of her cakes in the past.


I've got her original Book of Cakes, a paperback, and its literally falling to pieces. Now, that's the sign of a good book!
Perhaps you might think this cake is more suited to Easter time? Well sorry, this is a cake to lift the spirits at any time of the year, perhaps not Christmas though!
To quote Delia 'You couldn't get a more lemony recipe than this; layers of lemon-flavoured sponge, filled with home-made lemon curd and then a lemon icing for the finishing touch. Its wonderful'.
I couldn't have described this cake any better.
If you pop over to her website you will be able to see the recipe.
The only thing I altered was that I made double the quantity of icing for the top of the cake. The quantity given on the original recipe is a little sparse for me.

FETA, TOMATO AND ROSEMARY FLOWERPOT BREADS

There is something wonderful about making your own bread and that 'thing' is talked about with passion in books dedicated to the art of breadmaking. Whatever that 'thing' is, it is individual to you, be it the kneading, watching the bread prove, the aroma from the bread cooking or a magnificent loaf of bread when it comes out of the oven.
Bread never fails to please, especially if it has been made by your goodself.

Andrew at SpittoonExtra is hosting the challenge Waiter there's something in my ............bread and this recipe is taken from the April 2007 Delicious Magazine.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/Gas 7.

1. Take a 240g tub SunBlush tomatoes, drain, reserving 1 tbs oil and 8 tomatoes. Chop the rest.
2. Make the dough by sifting 500g strong white bread flour and 1 tsp salt into a large bowl. Stir in a 7g sachet of fast action yeast. Make a well in the centre and gradually mix in 250ml warm water, the reserved 1 tbsp oil, 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary and the chopped tomatoes. Knead, then knead in 150g crumbled feta.
3. Shape into 8 balls and place into 7cm terracotta pots that have been oiled and floured, or cut out 9 inch squares of parchment and line the flowerpots. Prove for 30 minutes. Top with more feta and a reserved tomato, and push in a small, wet rosemary sprig. Bake for 25 minutes.

The advantage of using the parchment is twofold, firstly it makes removal of the bread from the pots easy and also the tomato doesn't slide off the dough onto the baking tray because the parchment stops this!!

These were very easy to make and tasted wonderful.

For further reading on bread I would recommend - Baking with Passion by Baker & Spice.

VANILLA SCENTEDHOT CROSS BUN PUDDING

Johanna over at thepassionatecook is running the challenge Waiter, there's something in my ... Easter Basket!

Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns!
One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns.
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons.
One a penny two a penny - Hot cross buns.

I am sure we all learnt the above as school children, but I don't think Hot cross buns were ever made into a pudding or at least I don't have any knowledge of this.

Making sure the custard is not cooked too much is important here, I like my custard to have a wobble! The custard layer was very deep, and for all egg custard lovers this pudding will be a delight.

This is quite a substantial pudding, one for the boys maybe? On looks this would be far more attractive if it had been made with mini Hot cross buns and then a smaller portion or second helpings could be enjoyed by all.

A couple more Hot cross bun recipes I have seen recently are - James Martin's new cookery book Desserts and also in the April issue of Delicious Magazine.

Note: The original recipe came from Bart's Spices Website and unfortunately they have removed the recipe from their site. I didn't make a copy of the recipe but I believe it is a rich custard mixed with vanilla and cooked in the usual way.

BILBERRY 'MUCKY MOUTH' PIEWaiter, there's something in my ... pie!

This is my submission for the food blogging event.
Waiter, there's something in my ... pie! hosted by Cook Sister

I made this recipe with some blueberries I had frozen last summer when they were in season. The recipe has been made by the catering team at the National Trust's Penrhyn Castle Tea Rooms in North Wales where it has been one of the most popular items on their menu. It comes from the National Trust's own collection of Victorian recipes. It takes its name from the children's habit of collecting bilberries and shoving handfuls of them into their mouths - with predictable results.

THE BOOK OF OLD TARTS - BY ELIZABETH HODDER

ISBN 0747221057 - Page 86

Serves: 6-8 people but can easily be scaled down.

Skill Level: Moderate.

Taste Test: The pastry melted in the mouth and the blueberry and apple combination tasted fresh.

Firstly, I had to make a rich sweet shortcrust pastry which called for quite a lot of sugar, I omitted most of this and only used 14g as I could see from the filling ingredients list that lots more sugar was to be used. The pastry case had to be baked blind - and on eating the pie I was pleased about this because the filling would have made the base soggy. Instead the base had a wonderful crunch to it.

I used a 20cm, and not the 23cm loose-based pie tin recommended and scaled down the filling ingredients. In the original recipe 675g of blueberries were stated, but I only had 500g and so I used these. If you use the original recipe to the letter I would scale down the amount of caster sugar, in both the pastry and filling, otherwise the pie will be far too sweet.

The surprise ingredient in this pie is using fresh mint. I have to admit I left this out, purely because I wanted to make sure I was going to enjoy the pie – after all, I did use up my stock of blueberries.

I served the pie with homemade yoghurt - the acidity from the yoghurt complimented the sweetness of the pie perfectly.

Kitchen Equipment used: Magimix Food Processor.


For a 23cm (9 inch) pie you will need 350g (12 oz) of rich sweet shortcrust pastry.

Rich Sweet Shortcrust Pastry: 225g (8 oz) plain flour, 1 large pinch of salt, 115g (4 oz) butter, 55g (2 oz) caster sugar, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons very cold water.

Whiz the flour, salt and butter to breadcrumbs in the food processor, add the egg yolk and water, whiz again until the mixture just comes together. Wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll the pastry out between two sheets of clingfilm, and use to line the loose-based pie tin. Prick the base all over with a fork and brush the pastry base with beaten egg. Place on a pre-heated baking tray in a preheated oven (180°C/350°F/Gas 4) and cook the pie base for 25 minutes.

Turn the heat up to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.

Filling ingredients:
2 large granny smith apples (or dessert apples), peeled, cored and thinly sliced.
225g (8 oz) caster sugar (I would reduce this to 170g/6 oz).
Juice of half a lemon
1 heaped tablespoon of finely chopped fresh mint(optional)
675g (1½lb) blueberries
115g (4 oz) icing sugar

Place the apple slices in a bowl and sprinkle with half the sugar and the lemon juice. Toss to mix and leave for 20 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, place the apple slices in the pre-baked pastry case. Mix the mint (if using), with the blueberries and then put them on top of the apple slices. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar and juices from the apples. Place a pie raiser or an upturned eggcup in the centre of the tart.

Roll out the remaining pastry for the lid and place over the filling, sealing the edges. Make a slit in the centre of the pastry lid. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the apple slices are soft. Remove from the oven and allow the tart to rest and cool.
Do not remove the pie from the tin until cool otherwise it will crumble.

Placed the icing sugar in a bowl and slowly add a few teaspoons of very hot water, mixing until you have the right consistency, drizzle over the pastry crust in no particular pattern.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy!!