Cappuccino Pavlova

My love for Nigella Lawson has been well documented on this blog. Here I waxed lyrical about her book "How to be a Domestic Goddess" while baking her Rocky Road Crunch Bars from a whole other book, here I made her Sesame Peanut Noodles for lunch, here I made her Glitzy Chocolate Puddings for a Nigella themed blogging event. I've made her chocolate banana bread, Boston Cream Pie, Strawberry and Almond Crumble, Spinach and Coconut Milk Soup , I even named my first stand mixer after her!
So yeah, I'm pretty indifferent about Nigella's cooking. Yeah right!
When I heard she was taking over an issue of Stylist Magazine last year - December I think it was - I was very very excited! If you read Stylist, you're sure to remember the issue - the one with her covered in caramel?

This has been on my 'to bake list' - or one of them at least - but I finally got the time to bake it during the last bank holiday. I was impressed by how easy pavlova is to make and the instructions are so good that at the end I had the perfect meringue, crispy on the outside and chewy and marshmallow-y on the inside!

I already can't wait to try lots of variations on this recipe. Perhaps the same again but with whipped mascarpone cheese instead of cream, or omit the coffee from the meringue and top the cream with fresh berries? The possibilities are endless! But first, I have to make this again. Exactly the same. To teach my housemates as they were totally and utterly in love with it. Ah well, you know what they say, give your housemates cake and they will eat for a day or two, teach them how to bake and you can benefit from the fruits of their labour. Or something like that anyway ;)

Have a great week!

Ingredients

250g caster sugar
4 tsps instant espresso powder, not instant coffee
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
2 tsps cornflour
1 tsp white wine vinegar
300ml double cream
1 tsp cocoa powder

1 - Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4. Line a flat oven sheet with baking parchment and, using a 23cm cake tin, draw a circle on it.
2 - Mix the sugar with the instant espresso powder in a small bowl and set aside.
3 In a clean, grease-free metal bowl whisk the egg whites and salt until they are holding soft peaks. Keep whisking while you add the sugar-coffee mixture a tablespoon at a time.
4 - When you have a firm, ecru-coloured meringue, fold in the cornflour and vinegar using a grease-free metal spoon.
5 - Dollop the meringue mixture inside the drawn circle. Smooth and shape it with a spatula so that it looks rather like the crown of a boater (nope, I don't know what a boater is either): it must be flat on top.

6 - Put it in the oven and immediately turn down to 150C/gas mark 3 and cook for an hour. Switch off the oven and leave inside until cool.

7 - Once the base is cool, lift it carefully in its paper and place it top-side down on a flat plate and peel off the paper.

8 - Whip the double cream until thick but soft and spread delicately over the top of the meringue. With a teaspoon, push the cocoa through a fine sieve or tea strainer to decorate the top, cappuccino-style.

Review of The Luxury Biscuit Club

Soho House, Shoreditch House, Groucho Club ... they can all keep their private memberships. Baker's Pantry Luxury Biscuit Club is MY kinda club. A selection of at least 7 different packets of "luxury, oven-fresh biscuits from Britain's very finest traditional bakers and bakeries" delivered monthly?!
Errr yes please, sign me up!

Baker's Pantry source the best, most luxurious, most exclusive biscuits in the UK and have them available with mouth-watering descriptions - such as "with a subtle taste of ginger running throughout the biscuit, and lovely chewy chunks of stem ginger balanced off by a gentle hint of lemon..." -  and information about the baker ready for you to buy on their website; after an undoubtedly agonising decision process as to which packets of biscuits you absolutely have to buy this time.
Now, I am notoriously bad at making decisions, I can often be heard saying "I'm not fussed" and I am that person in restaurants who takes forever deliberating over the menu. I go one step further and ask the waiter(ess) what they would recommend only to completely ignore their advice and then spend the entire meal in the throws of food envy! The long and short of it, I'm terrible at making decisions. So if you ask me, you're asking for trouble perusing the Baker's Pantry website without some guidance, which is why The Luxury Biscuit Club is such a great idea!

Here's what they have to say about it:

"As soon as people learn about my love of delicious British biscuits I always get asked the same question, but there isn't a simple answer to the question "what are the best biscuits?".

So a couple of years ago I started recommending a selection of my favourite biscuits, because I was sure they'd love most of them, and probably find a new favourite of their own.

But as I found more and more great biscuits my list of recommendations got longer and longer - and it was getting more and more difficult to get hold of these delicious biscuits.

The solution was simple. I'd set-up a biscuit club and each month I'd order a selection of the finest biscuits from the best bakers.

Now everyone who really wants to enjoy great biscuits can try a new selection each month and choose their own favourites.

So How Does the Biscuit Club work?

It couldn't be simpler really ... All you need to do is join the club and I'll do the rest!

• I'll choose some of the greatest biscuits in Britain
• I'll work with the bakers to write tasting notes which will tell you exactly what to look for in each biscuit
• And then I'll send the biscuits to you so you can tuck in!"

Now try and tell me there is any part of that which doesn't sound VERY appealing! I received the introductory selection and I can tell you I wasn't expecting the very large box which was delivered to me containing all of the goodies below and some you can't see in the picture. And it included a large air tight jar which I assume lesser biscuit addicts than myself would use for saving open packets of biscuits AND a box of Clipper tea.
I was very pleased so thank you Luxury Biscuit Club and thank you from the lucky people I work with who were the beneficiaries of the half-eaten boxes of biscuits I'd started on ;)

My favourites were:

Brambles Honey and Raisin Biscuits - While I quite like raisins, I tend to see them as a nuisance in food and would prefer to eat them on their own so I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed them in these biscuits, which had the perfect texture in my opinion. I only tasted the honey as an after-taste but that didn't matter. I really really enjoyed these biscuits.

Original Cornish Fairings by Furniss - These were described as spice biscuits and I was a bit apprehensive as to what to expect. I can't even remember what I expected anymore because what I got were perfectly buttery biscuits that tasted of ginger but not overpoweringly so; it was almost an after-taste. I could also taste lemon which was a great complement to the ginger. Finally they were crunchy but not crispy which is great as I like a lot of things crispy but not my biscuits!

Chocolate Orange Mini-Bites by Franks - There was no doubt that a chocolate biscuit would make its way into my favourites as I am a total chocoholic. But this means I'm also very particular about the taste of chocolate biscuits. The chocolate-orange combo is one of my favourites and these captured everything that is so wonderful about that flavour combination. The chocolate chips and oaty texture made having just one of these mini bites an impossibility. So I had two three four oh, who's counting!

My only qualm is that I kept on wanting to refer to these as cookies because the word "biscuit" - which refers to the stuff you buy in supermarkets - just doesn't do these justice!

To find out more about The Luxury Club and join, click here.

Triple Layer Oreo Brownie Peanut Butter Choc Bars

Riddle me this: If a person is said to be on a sugar high or in a sugar coma from drinking a can of full fat coke*, how would you describe a person who spends 24 subsisting on raw cake batter and frosting? I'm ... err ... asking for a friend.
A friend of mine who clearly has appalling nutrition habits!
In my my friend's defence, she pretty much spent those 24 hours baking and as such cake batter and frosting were the most readily available source of food. That's my her story and I'm she's sticking to it!

I just watched "Fracture" with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. Why is Anthony Hopkins so good at playing creepy, genius but devious killers? Is it because we've all seen him in "Silence of the Lambs" so we subconsciously think back to that character when he does anything similar? Or was he cast in "Silence of the Lambs" because he's so good at playing those roles. Hmmm - that's a regular chicken or the egg question right there.

Oh and have I told you guys how much I love Ryan Gosling?! I LOVE Ryan Gosling! Partly because he was Noah in "The Notebook" which was my favourite film of all time and partly just because he's amazing!

Umm yeah, so on to these bars. While I reduced the sugar in the brownies, they are still pretty sweet but also full of flavour and texture - the fudgy brownie layer, the crunchy cookies, the peanut butter infused chocolate covering mmmmmm. Definitely one for the chocolate lovers amongst you. They're also pretty simple to make so why don't you give them a try this bank holiday weekend for a sweet end to your BBQ (weather permitting).

* Why is regular coke often referred to as full fat coke when it is the amount of sugar that has increased from the diet coke versions rather than the fat?

This recipe has been adapted (only slightly) from the wonderful How Sweet It Is - another regular superwoman who seems to bake, cook AND blog something new every day! Don't know how she does it!

Ingredients

113g butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
20 Oreo cookies

 - Preheat oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4

 - Butter and flour an 8" x 8" cake tin or brownie pan

 - Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla

 - Add in cocoa powder and mix until combined. Add flour and salt, mixing well until batter is smooth and comes together. Fold in 1/2 cup chocolate chips

 - Spread mixture into the pan. Sink 9 Oreo cookies into the batter and press gently. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes

 - While baking, crush the remaining Oreos in a zip lock bag. 

When brownies are finished baking, remove from the oven and sprinkle with 1/2 cup chocolate chips and crushed Oreos. Place back in the oven for about 2 - 3 minutes

 - In this time, melt remaining chocolate chips and peanut butter together in the microwave checking and stirring every 20 seconds. Remove brownies from the oven and pour melted chocolate mixture on top, spreading with a spatula.Make sure chocolate gets down into the Oreo crevices, as it is the "glue" that holds the top to the bottom

 - Refrigerate for 2 hours. Let brownies sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before cutting. Don't worry if some of the cookies spill out from the middle or the top cracks - they are still delicious

Note: I made 1 1/2 times the recipe which is why I've got more Oreos in my baking tray :)

Carrot Cake with Mascarpone, Cream Cheese and Cinnamon Icing (and some 'Hunger Games' matters)

Let's talk about carrot cake first. Then I'll move on to talking about books. This cake is W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L! So moist! So full of flavour - from the citrus undertones to the somethin' somethin' the toasted pecans and desiccated coconut bring - and covered in a truly wonderful frosting. It is light, and fluffy and not too sweet! The original recipe calls for only one tablespoon of caster sugar and I've upped this to four but it's still the least amount of sugar I have ever put in frosting before! And it works so well! It's luscious even though it's not too sweet and the cinnamon offsets the flavours in the cake wonderfully. I'm not the biggest carrot cake fan - and by that I mean that I do actually like carrot cake but if given menu with all the other wonderful cake flavours in the world, I wouldn't ever pick carrot - but this is delish! It is easily my favourite carrot cake I've eaten.

So books ... I've been wanting to rant about the Hunger Games for a while and then I realised, I have a blog which for some reason people seem to read, so why not take liberties here and post about literature instead of cake. Or with cake. That's cool with you guys right?

So who has read the Hunger Games trilogy? Watching the film doesn't count. I saw a trailer for the first film mid-2011, absolutely loved the concept and decided I wanted to read the books. It took me a whole year to get to them but I finally read them this year. My general criticism of all the books is that it  glosses over the most powerful themes; the violence, and loss and despondence. I realise that it is probably due to the fact that it is written for teenagers but I feel that the powerful statement they are attempting to make is never quite achieved due to the fact that Collins steps back every time she talks about the violence which is so central to the books.

My other criticism is that at crucial moments of the books, Collins begins to write in a weird dream-like voice which gives an unclear picture of what is happening and throws the reader off a bit. This happened at the end of the second book Catching Fire (I don't understand any of the last major event in this book) and towards the end Mockingjay when a character close to Katniss dies. It bugged me big time!

Saying that though, I really really enjoyed the first book and resented work on more than one occasion for taking me away from such a great story. And while it wasn't as good, I also really enjoyed Catching Fire. Mockingjay on the other hand was pretty poor though in my opinion, it isn't exciting and it's unnecessarily sad and most of all, most of all, I don't agree with who Katniss ends up with. I'm not going to give anything away but I think Collins matched her up with the wrong person!

Okay, that's my opinion of The Hunger Games series done. Let me know what you all think. And make this cake. You'll thank me. Oh and this is funny innit?

Recipe adapted from Delia Smith

Ingredients

For the cake
200g wholemeal self-raising flour
3 level teaspoons mixed spice
1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
175g dark brown soft sugar
2 large eggs
150ml sunflower oil
Grated zest 1 orange
200g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
110g sultanas
50g desiccated coconut
50g pecan nuts

For the syrup glaze
Juice 1 small orange
1 tablespoon lemon juice
75g dark brown soft sugar

For the topping
1 x 250g tub mascarpone cheese
200g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 rounded tablespoons caster sugar
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon

To serve
50g pecan nuts

You will need 2 x 8 inch or 3 x 6 inch sandwich tins (I used 3 x 6 inch tins)

1. Preheat Oven to Gas Mark 6/200C/400F then turn it down to Gas Mark 3 /170C/325F when you have toasted the pecan nuts.
2. First, place all the pecan nuts on a baking sheet and, using a timer, toast them in the oven for 8 minutes. Now chop one half roughly for the cake and the other more finely, for the topping later. Then don't forget to turn the oven down for the cake.
3. To make the cake, whisk the sugar, eggs and oil together in a bowl with an electric mixer for 2 -3  minutes, then check that there is no sugar left undissolved. 
4. Now combine the flour, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl. Then stir all this into the sugar, eggs and oil mixture gently, followed by the remaining cake ingredients. 
5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared tins and bake the cakes on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. They should be nicely risen, feel firm and springy to the touch when lightly pressed in the centre, and show signs of shrinking away from the sides of the tin. If not, give them another 2 - 3 minutes and test again.
6. Meanwhile, make the topping by whisking all the ingredients together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Then cover with clingfilm and chill for 1 - 2 hours, until you are ready to ice the cakes. 
7. To make the syrup glaze, whisk together the fruit juices and sugar in a small pan and place onto medium heat until it starts to boil and all sugar is dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to cool.
8. When the cakes come out of the oven, stab them all over with a skewer or toothpick and quickly spoon the syrup evenly over the hot cakes. Now leave them to one side to cool in their tins, during which time the syrup will be absorbed.
9. When the cakes are completely cold, remove them from their tins. Spread one-third of the filling over one of the cakes, place the other on top, (repeat again one more time if making a 6" 3 layer cake) then cover the top and sides with the remaining icing.
10. Scatter the remaining toasted pecan nuts over the top.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cookies

My friend Susan sent me this WhatsApp message today: "That blog of yours ... been a bit lazy recently?" Sure, she might have had a point but in my defence, she was trying to get back at me for forcing her to go running (as she had promised she would).
Oh wait, hang on, that wasn't in my defence at all. Okay, I'll try again. In my defence, since I last blogged, I have moved my entire room into a whole other entire room (I'm hoping my repetitive use of the word 'entire' helps to exaggerate the magnitude of the task appropriately), got a new job and finally, visited Birmingham which is a land far far away.

Plus as, Einstein may or may not have said, "it is not the frequency of the blogging that counts, rather the quality of the posts" and boy, this post is a great one! Or rather the recipe is. The rambling that accompanies the recipe is mediocre at best.

These cookies are soft but firm, chocolatey but not overwhelmingly so, and they're choc full of Reese's peanut butter cups which always makes for a winning recipe! My friends from my previous job and I have been pretty good at holding tea parties about twice a year and I made these for the last one. I dare say they were a hit :)

These are from the wonderful Annie's Eats; who has graduated from just being my foodie crush to being my superwoman inspiration!

Yield: 16 large cookies

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp plain flour
6 tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp coarse salt
85g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
2 cups coarsely chopped Reese's peanut butter cups

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 / 350F. Line baking sheets with grease proof paper.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. 
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. 
4. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Beat until smooth. 
5. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Add in 1 1/2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups and fold in gently with a spatula.
6. Roll a heaped tablespoon of dough into a ball, one at a time, and space 2 - 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Gently press a few pieces of the remaining Reese's peanut butter cups into the top of each of the dough balls. 
7. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. (The cookies may seem too soft immediately after coming out of the oven but they will set as they cool. You don't want to overbake them).
8. Let cool on the baking sheets about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Cheats Home-Made Garlic Baguette

You're probably wondering how you can fake home-made garlic bread, aren't 'cha? Well, I'm here to show you but first I'll answer the WHY. WHY would anyone fake home-made garlic bread?

Well, in my opinion, home made, hand cooked, from scratch ... whatever you want to call it ... food is always about 700 bazillion times better than anything that comes in a packet or needs to be cooked in a microwave, or re-heated in an oven. 

On the other hand, let's be honest, garlic bread is never going to be the star of the show. The show, of course, being the meal. It's always a bit player a.k.a the side dish a.k.a. the thing that you'd quite like to be there but if it isn't, well, life goes on. So, I do the math and it doesn't seem logical to make home-made garlic bread from scratch to go on the side of a pasta dish which you absolutely have to make from scratch. But like I said earlier, home-made stuff is much better than non home-made stuff - yes, I'm aware that I'm going in circles but I'mma reach my point right about ... now - so how about mixing and matching the two. Part baked baguettes with home made garlic butter and voila, kinda sorta 'home-made' garlic baguette. 

For the how, check out my easy peasy recipe below.

Ingredients

2 part-baked baguettes (See below for a picture of the ones I used - from Sainsburys - but any will do)
60g unsalted butter, softened
3 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped finely
1/2 tsp salt
1 heaped tbsp finely chopped parsley

 1 - Pre-heat your oven according to the instructions on your part-bake baguette packet

2 - Put your butter into a bowl along with the garlic, salt and parsley. Mix well until the ingredients are well combined. Taste a teeny eensy bit to make sure there's enough salt

 3 - Cover and put aside for at least half an hour to allow the flavours to infuse the butter

 4 - About 20 minutes before you are ready to serve your garlic bread, slice approximately 6 diagonal cuts in each baguette - being careful not to slice all the way through - and spread the garlic butter generously on the baguette either side of the cut

 5 - Wet your hand under a running tap and rub a wet palm lightly all over your baguettes (if you like your bread crusty on the outside, skip this step)

 6 - Wrap baguette loosely in foil and bake in your pre-heated oven for the time stated on your baguette packet

 7 - When baked and still warm, rip into slices and serve

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

You all know how I love brownies! Well, I don't know if I've ever expressed on here how much I love cookie dough for fear that you'll judge me but here goes ...
I love the cookies I bake but I can tell you that without a doubt, no matter the kind of cookie, the unbaked cookie dough is oh, about 1,367,192 times better!

Until a few months ago, Waitrose used to sell a block of chocolate chip cookie dough which you were supposed to bake into about nine cookies. Before I became an avid baker, I'm ashamed to say I bought a block of this cookie dough to make cookies with. The cookies were average at best. The other 99 times I bought that cookie dough, it wouldn't even make it the ten minutes home on the bus before I cracked it open and started eating away at bits of cookie dough. Dessert for a few days would be a quarter of the block of dough straight from the fridge and eaten in tiny bits.

And before you start to think I'm a total weirdo (I totally am but would hate for you all to know it ;p), once I was waiting at the bus stop outside Waitrose when three teenage girls came out each with a pack of the very same cookie dough that I was addicted to. Two of them broke it open and started to pick at it just like I do! I may or may not have gone back in to buy myself a pack.

These brownies are my amazing brownie recipe on the bottom (I'm allowed to say it's amazing because it really is!) and then eggless raw cookie dough on top. Brownie + cookie dough. Brownie and cookie dough. Brownie ... cookie dough ... however you spin it, these are amazing!
I've adapted the brownie recipe a bit by reducing the sugar, using all brown sugar and omitting the chocolate chunks to make it slightly less sweet as the cookie dough is quite sweet too. These are currently my favourite spin on my brownie recipe; yup, they're even better than the Oreo brownies.

The cookie dough recipe is slightly adapted from another one of my favourite bakers; Brown Eyed Baker.

Ingredients

For the brownie
300g dark chocolate (At least 70% cocoa solids)
250g unsalted butter
175g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsps vanilla essence
275g dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules

For the cookie dough
170g unsalted butter
150g light brown sugar
170g caster sugar
3 tablespoons whole milk
1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
190g plain flour

1. Brownie: Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Grease and flour a 30x20x3.5cm tin
3. Break dark chocolate into pieces and melt with the butter in a bain marie
4. Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl and put aside
5. When chocolate and butter is melted, remove from bain marie and stir in the brown sugar and instant coffee granules (because brown sugar can be lumpy, make sure you break up any lumps and mix sugar in properly)
6. Stir in the eggs and vanilla essence
7. Fold in the flour and pour mixture into the prepared tin.
8. Bake in the oven for 25 - 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out pretty much clean
9. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely
10. Cookie dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to combine the butter and both the sugars
11. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until combined
12. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour until just combined. using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips
13. Spread the cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about an hour. Use a sharp knife to cut the brownies.
14. Store the brownies in an airtight container at cool room temperature or in the refrigerator. Remember to let brownies come to room temperature before you eat them if storing in the fridge. Cold brownies aren't great.