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Bakewell tart-cake & Cornwall Clandestine Cake Club

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This week has been somewhat eventful in Hungry Hinny land – a bit of a car crash on Wednesday has left me vehicle-less, a leg injury has stopped me being able to do any exercise which makes both grumpy and fat, and the pony has been working away all week so I’ve had to struggle through all on my own – cue a tiny violin, playing a sad song just for me…

Before it all started to go wrong however, there was cake – and lots of it!

On Tuesday, I headed to the Lanhydrock Estate, near Bodmin in Cornwall, for what was the most well-attended meeting of the Cornwall Clandestine Cake Club to date.

It was an especially fun meeting, as we were treated to a talk on the not so gentle art of afternoon tea by historian Sue Bamford (who, by the way, has the most ladylike hands which made me thoroughly ashamed of my own chubby sausage fingers).

Even as a non-tea drinker it was fascinating to hear about the history of both the beverage and the tradition of sitting down to a good old cuppa at around 4pm. We were told about the grisly fate of tea-smuggling informants, why adding milk before or after tea comes down to class (and how being ‘miffed’ orginated from Milk In First) and how it’s perfectly acceptable to entertain men who aren’t your husband in your underwear, as long as it’s for afternoon tea.

There were of course lots of delicious traditional cakes on offer, and I tried as many as I could on the day. Unfortunately I was so busy nattering with Choclette towards the end of the event that most of the cakes had disappeared and I only got to take a couple of slices home, but with the pony away and me not exercising I guess that’s probably for the best!

You can see more of the fab cakes and a write up from organiser Ellie Michell here, below are a few of my snaps…

My contribution was a Bakewell tart-cake, inspired by the classic with a light almond sponge, raspberry jam and almond cream filling, white glace icing and cherries to complete the look.

It seemed to go down pretty well – it was all gone by the end so I’m hoping that means people liked it! I only had a little tiny slice, but it came out how I hoped – I was especially pleased with how the cakes rose with flat tops that didn’t need trimming, thanks to my new ‘lower for longer’ strategy which I will be using for all layer cakes from now on.

Bakewell tart-cake (loosely adapted from a Nigella recipe for coffee and walnut cake, which I blogged here)

  • 50g ground almonds
  • 50g light brown suggar
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 225g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 tsp almond essence
  • 225g plain flour
  • 2.5 tsp baking powder

For filling and icing

  • 50g raspberries
  • 100g raspberry jam
  • 100ml whipping cream
  • 1 tsp almond essence
  • 175g icing sugar
  • glace cherries to decorate

Using a food processor, mix the almonds and both sugars, then add the rest of the ingredients in order, blitzing and scraping down the sides with each addition. Divide the mixture between two 7″ round cake tins and bake at 165 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cakes are cooling, heat the raspberries and jam in a saucepan until the raspberries have broken down and the mixture is bubbling and thick. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool. In another bowl, whip the cream and almond essence into stiff peaks, and in a third bowl add water to the icing sugar a spoonful at a time until its thick and smooth.

To assemble, spread the raspberry jam onto the bottom layer, then spread the whipped cream on top of that. Sandwich with the second layer and then spread the glace icing on top – take it right to the edge so it just starts to dribble down the sides. Slice the cherries into halves and use to decorate.

Lunch at the Riverford Field Kitchen

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Last week, I had the pleasure of enjoying an ‘intimate bloggers lunch’ at Riverford Field Kitchen near Buckfastleigh in Devon.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Riverford is a cooperative of organic farms, mostly in Devon, which delivers veg boxes to homes across the country. The place where it all started, Wash Farm, is owned by Guy Watson, and along with my fellow food bloggers I was treated to a tour of the farm before we sat down to lunch.

I won’t lie, it would have been a little more enjoyable if it had hadn’t been in the minus degrees and my hands and feet hadn’t turned into icicles, but it was very interesting to take the tour, see some of what’s being grown and find out more from Guy about the history of the farm, the problems they’ve faced with the horrific weather, and how the whole operation is managed.

We also saw where the veg is stored and packed, and had a little snoop at the boxes waiting to go out. Guy admitted that there was more important produce than he would have liked, but February is not the best time for British fruit and veg and I imagine customers still expect a bit of variety, even though the emphasis with the veg boxes is very much on locality and seasonality.

On to lunch, at the Riverford Field Kitchen – a rustic, casual dining room lined with long wooden tables serving a menu designed for sharing – using produce fresh from the fields, naturally.

The company for the lunch couldn’t have been better – along with Guy and Holly (Riverford’s digital marketing manager and organiser of the lunch) were Choclette and her CT, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting before at a couple of Clandestine Cake Club events; the Frugal Queen and her Dearly Beloved; Grazing Kate and Marcus from Country Woodsmoke. I really enjoyed having the chance to meet more fellow South West food bloggers and very much hope it won’t be the last time we meet in person.

To start with we were served a Cropwell Bishop blue cheese, celery and apple salad with hazelnuts and radish sprouts with some fantastic homemade bread, which on any normal day would have been enough on its own to satisfy me at lunchtime but I did my best to restrain myself so I could enjoy the rest of the meal.

Quite often, I’m put off from eating out by the fact that I know the vegetarian options will be limited and I could do a better job at home, but that is definitely not the case at Riverford.

The veg is the star of the show with one meat dish and four veggie sides, but I was still given a vegetarian alternative to the duck main of griddled aubergine and ricotta on butternut squash, lentils and spinach.

Served with it were carrots and beetroot, purple sprouting broccoli and cauliflower with mustard, spring greens and kale with wild garlic and my personal favourite, a celeriac, potato and mushroom gratin – I could have eaten the whole dish, it was so good!

Luckily for my waistline I didn’t, but you’ll see from the picture at the top of this post that my normal portion control went out the window with so many delicious dishes on offer…

For dessert diners are invited to the serving pass to choose from a selection of around 6 cakes and puddings. Decision making is not my strongpoint, and I feel I may have made a mistake choosing the lemon cheesecake instead of the pear and chocolate pavlova – I do love cheesecake but it’s something I often make for myself so I am very critical, and although the texture was spot on it could have done with a little more lemony zing for my liking.

A 2-course lunch at Riverford is normally £22.50 per person, which although a bit pricey is really excellent value when you look at the amount and the quality you get, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back again and pay that price.

Riverford has very kindly offered to send me a veg box to review as well, which will be coming later in the month when I return from a mini-holiday, so check back in a few weeks to see what I think of that!

Salted chocolate and hazelnut truffles

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Salted chocolate and hazelnut truffles

Oh yes, another post involving Nutella, I’m on a roll!

Really three Nutella bakes in a row is a good thing, if I have a jar hanging around for too long I just end up eating it by the spoonful…

Luckily for my waistline, these truffles were made to be packaged up as Christmas gifts and were all given away to family – my stepdad promptly opened the bag and ate 10 in one go, so I think they must be pretty good!

The truffle mix is made from milk chocolate, Nutella and glucose syrup, which sets fairly hard, and is then rolled in chopped hazelnuts to finish. I added a pinch of Cornish sea salt to the mix which stops it being too over-the -top sickly sweet, and instead of plain hazelnuts for the coating I used some homemade cinnamon roasted hazelnuts which worked really well.

If you’re looking for last minute gift ideas, these are super quick and easy and definitely worth trying!

tea time treats

I’m entering these truffles for the December Tea Time Treats challenge, hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked, who chose chocolate as this month’s theme.

I think these would be perfect when you’re sat down with a cup of tea or coffee,absolutely stuffed from Christmas dinner and think you couldn’t possibly eat another thing, but when a plate of truffles appear you just can’t say no…

Salted chocolate and hazelnut truffles (adapted from MyRecipes.com)

  • 140g milk chocolate
  • 45g Nutella
  • 1 tbsp glucose syrup
  • pinch sea salt flakes
  • approximately 50g chopped hazelnuts to coat

Heat the chocolate, Nutella, glucose and salt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, until the chocolate has melted. Give it a stir, then leave to cool to room temperature before chilling in the fridge for half an hour.

When the mixture is set enough to handle, roll into small balls a bit less than an inch in diameter, then roll in the chopped hazelnuts to coat. The truffles will keep fine at room temperature for several days, if you don’t eat them all first…

Random Recipes does Through the Keyhole

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Did anyone else use to love through the keyhole?! I’m pretty sure I never knew who any of the ‘famous’ people were, but snooping around someone’s house is just so much fun!

For this month’s Random Recipes challenge, Dom has decided to do something a bit different and has asked to see where everyone keeps their cookbooks – so here are mine…

I live in a TINY 1-room studio flat, with very limited storage space, so the fact that I have a whole shelf for books is actually pretty amazing. When added to the baking ingredients shelf and baking drawer, there’s not really a lot of room left for practical things like saucepans or plates…

Wedged in with the books at the minute is a Celebrations tin – sadly empty, but a handy cupcake transporter. A few phone chargers are also thrown on top, due to lack of anywhere else for them to live!

On the far left are magazine cuttings and ‘proper meal’ books, then on the right are the baking ones. My latest additions are the Two Greedy Italians book, which has already turned up two top recipes, and the Home Made Sweet Shop, which I haven’t made anything from yet but may come in handy with another blogging challenge later this month…

So that’s my recipe book collection, look forward to having a nose at everyone else’s pictures in the round up!

Chocolate and pecan crusted goat’s cheese

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This post is a bit of an anomaly for the Hungry Hinny – an actual meal as opposed to a baked good!

But as the challenge set by Choclette for this month’s We Should Cocoa was to create something savoury and vegetarian using chocolate,  I was happy to branch out.

The only savoury cooking I’ve done with chocolate in the past is using it in chilli, but I thought that was too obvious and set out to find something a bit different.

I stumbled across this recipe for warm encrusted goat’s cheese which used cacao nibs, which I figured would at least be interesting, if not actually nice, so I set about recreating it.

After a bit of reconnassaince on Twitter, I found a local shop which sold cacao nibs, but when I visited they only had 200g bags costing over £8, which I couldn’t really justify spending on an experiement, so the final version of this is definitely more ‘inspired by’ than an actual replication of the original…

I served the goat’s cheese on seeded panini breads with caramelised onions, a rocket salad and balsamic dressing, and I have to say I actually really liked it!

The pony wasn’t so keen on the crust, but then he doesn’t like pecans anyway so I wasn’t too surprised – it’s definitely worth giving it a go for something slightly different to do with chocolate!

Chocolate and pecan crusted goat’s cheese (adapted from All Chocolate):

(Serves 2 as a lunch)

  • 2 x 65g packs of Gevrik Goat’s Cheese (other goat’s cheeses will work fine, but if you’re a strict veggie double check as some French ones aren’t suitable)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 50g pecan nuts
  • 1tsp cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

Use a food processor to quite finely chop the nuts, then add in the cocoa powder and black pepper. Cut each mini-log of cheese in half width-ways, so you have four rounds, then dip each in the beaten egg before coating with the nut mixture, then place on a baking tray. Bake at 180 degrees for 5-10 minutes, or until the coating is crisp and the cheese is just starting to ooze out.

To serve:

  • 2 medium onions
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1tsp brown sugar
  • 2 seeded paninis, or other breads
  • 1 pack of rocket or other leafy salad

Heat a little oil in a frying pan then add the sliced onions. Cook slowly for about 15 minutes or until starting to turn golden, then add in 1tbsp balsamic vinegar and the brown sugar. Cook for another 10 minutes or so, until caramelised.

Heat the breads for about 5 minutes in the oven, then slice in half and top with the onions and goat’s cheese. Arrange on top of the salad and drizzle with the remaining balsamic vinegar.

Top 10 posts of 2011

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So I’ve seen quite a few bloggers listing their top 10 most popular posts of the previous year, and I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and do the same.

I only started this blog in April, so it isn’t a full year’s worth of baking, but I’ve been literally amazed by the number of people who have visited and viewed my posts – seeing it go up month on month has been pretty exciting!

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit, read, and comment – hope you’ve all had a great 2011 as well!

Top 10 posts of 2011

10: Chilli Chocolate Orange Torte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9: Coconut and Raspberry Loaf Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8: Camp Coffee Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7: Nutella Swirl Cupcakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6: White Chocolate Raspberry Rose Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5: Malteser Birthday Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4: 1,000 Calorie Chocolate Caramel Lion Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3: Apricot and White Chocolate Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2: Super Chocolate Gateau

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1: Frangipane Mince Pies

Food Bloggers Unplugged

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I’m a bit slow on the uptake with this, but earlier in the week Suelle at Mainly Baking tagged me to take part in ‘Food Bloggers Unplugged’ – a way of bloggers letting their readers know a bit more about themselves.

As Suelle described me as “the entity that is hingryhinny”, I think it’s fair to say I don’t give too much away about myself – so here is a rare glimpse into the world of the hungry hinny!

What, or who, inspired you to start a blog?

I’ve had several short-lived blogs in the past, but decided to start one to document my adventures in baking, mainly to keep a record of everything I make. I also wanted to have an opportunity to write, as I trained as a journalist but don’t work as one!

Who is your foodie inspiration?

I’m not sure I could pick any one person, I’ve always liked baking and cooking in general, but I guess as most of what I make is eaten by my other half, the friendly pony, he’s probably the biggest influence in what I bake – and the reason it so frequently includes chocolate!

Your greasiest, batter – splattered food/drink book is?

Chocolate, by Joanne Farrow. I’ve had it for years, when I was younger it was pretty much the only book I baked from, and I think pretty much every recipe I’ve tried from it has turned out brilliantly!

Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

Although I’ve eaten loads of great meals abroad, the stand-out one would have to be from visiting Rome earlier this year. On my birthday we went to a restaurant called Il Chianti, near the Trevi fountain, where I discovered for the first time the amazingness of ‘Cacio e Pepe’ (spaghetti with cheese and black pepper) followed by the best tiramisu I have ever eaten. I wish I go could go back and have it again right now…

Another food bloggers table you’d like to eat at is?

That’s such a hard question, every day I see amazing looking food on loads of different blogs – I refuse to choose!

What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

My kitchen is woefully under-equipped, so there are quite a few things I would like… I know Santa (aka my dad) is getting me a set of knives, and ex-Mrs Claus (aka my mum) is getting me a new frying pan – aside from that I’d quite like a super large baking tray for biscuits and cookies and maybe some new cake tins in different sizes and shapes and an oven thermometer…

Who taught you how to cook?

My mum and dad have both taught me bits and pieces – my dad actually works as a cook but thinks I’m too slow in the kitchen so loses patience easily – but most neither of them are massively into cakes and sweet baking so a lot of that comes from books and tv chefs.

I’m coming to you for dinner what’s your signature dish?

I don’t really have a signature as such, but I have had one of my recipes published in a charity cookbook so I suppose I would go for that – vegetarian enchiladas. For dessert, definitely a cheesecake, by far the most requested dessert by my family and the one that gets the best feedback!

What is your guilty food pleasure?

Nutella straight from the jar, it’s just so addictive…

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

Bit embarrassing, but despite spending as much time in the kitchen as I do, there are 3 fairly basic things I can’t do – boil, fry or poach an egg…

So now I’ve revealed all about myself, it’s time for me to tag 5 more people to take part in Food Bloggers unplugged. I know a lot of the blogs I read have already done it, but hopefully these people haven’t – although by no means does this mean you are obliged to take part!

A baking disaster

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The main reason for me starting this blog was to keep a record of everything I bake, not to try and show the world what an amazing baker I am.

Which is why I am going to overcome my embarrassment to share the following pictures, of a certified baking disaster.

This should have been my entry for the November We Should Cocoa challenge – Toffee Apple Millionaires Shortbread. Sounds nice, right?

Well it probably would have been, but somewhere along the line something went wrong, and this is what happened when I tried to cut the bars:

Yep, that’s one huge, sloppy embarrassing mess. I don’t know if the caramel was just to thin to start with, or if the chocolate was too hot and made it split, but it is most definitely a disaster, and will not be my We Should Cocoa entry!

If anyone has tried this recipe and succeeded, please let me know what I might have done wrong!

Raspberry Rose Jam

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I’ve wanted to make my own jam for a while, but have always been a bit put off by the fact it’s WAY cheaper to buy.

I finally decided it to do it this week, in preparation for my entry to the August We Should Cocoa challenge, the theme of which is rose.

I found this recipe for raspberry and rose water jam, which appealed because it didn’t require any specialist equipment or my own body weight in fruit and sugar.

The recipe is really simple, but calls for heating the sugar in the oven before using. I was a bit doubtful about this, and was proved right as the sugar started to caramelise and was unusable. As I’d already started boiling the raspberries I just threw in some more sugar straight from the packet, and to be honest I can’t really see any negative effect this has had.

This jam has so far been used on scones and as the filling for a very special victoria sponge, which will be blogged about soon. It will also be used in my We Should Cocoa entry which I’ll be baking later this week!

Raspberry Rose Jam (adapted from Waitrose’s recipe):

  • 500g raspberries (I used frozen, defrosted)
  • 500g jam sugar
  • 2 tsp rose essence
Place the clean jars you are going to use in the oven on a low temperature (I filled one large and one small jar). Gently heat the raspberries in a large saucepan and slowly bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and add in the sugar and rose essence. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then bring back to the boil for another 10 minutes. Test if the jam is ready by pouring a little on to a cold plate, leave it a couple of second then tip the plate. If the jam doesn’t run then it’s ready! Pout into the pre-heated jars and leave to cool.

Apricot and white chocolate cookies – We Should Cocoa

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This is a special month in my baking world, as it will be my first attempt at a We Should Cocoa challenge.

We Should Cocoa is alternately hosted by Chele at Chocolate Teapot and Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog, and each month an ingredient is picked to be paired with chocolate.

The July challenge hosted by Chele was apricots, which was a funny coincidence as my first post of the month was an apricot upside down cake (no chocolate included though).

I had planned to use fresh apricots, but when I discovered that 4 apricots cost £2.60, I had to think again and went for dried!

It took me a while to decide what to bake, and several ideas came up including the Moro chocolate apricot tart or some sort of muffins, but I settled on these white chocolate and apricot shortbread cookies.

I was intrigued by the idea of a cookie dough made with cream cheese, and as I had some left over from the Nutella cheesecake squares it seemed perfect.

At first the dough was a bit too sticky to properly roll into balls, and the resulting cookies were a bit mis-shapen and brown around the edges.

For the second batch though the dough had been in the fridge for 20 minutes and I used a bit of flour to roll them, and being actual ball shapes definitely seemed to make a difference to how they cooked.

The cookies were soft, a bit chewy and the white chocolate and apricot worked really well together. I personally liked the first batch which had a bit more crunch, but the friendly pony thought the soft ones were perfect, and is keen for them to be made again.

Thanks to We Should Cocoa for inspiring me to make these!

Apricot and white chocolate cookies (adapted from La Fuji Mama’s recipe)

(Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies)

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 4oz cream cheese
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup chopped white chocolate
  • 1/2 cup of chopped dried apricots
Cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the cream cheese. Stir in the flour, apricots and chocolate until combined. Chill in the fridge if necessary, then roll into balls on a floured surface. Place well spaced out on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 160 degrees. Leave to cool until firm enough to move to a wire rack, then enjoy!