Give A Little Bit

Hey

It was mother's day this past weekend, and this year I made a home made gift. I think mums always appreciate gifts that are home made. This provided me the perfect opportunity to try a recipe for spiced prunes in a syrup from my French kitchen cookbook.

Its such a simple gift - put all the ingredients in a saucepan, simmer over a low/medium heat for 30 minutes, allow to cool and store in pretty jar.

Personally I believe food always makes a great gift.

xxx

My Favourite Things

Hey

My bargain nail polish from TKMaxx

My go to lazy lasagne

Experimenting with meringues 

xxx

Lemon Tree

Hey

As the weather seems to be resembling spring at the moment, I decided to bake a refreshing lemon cake as a treat. I used the recipe from Primrose bakery cupcake book. I've made the lemon buttercream before to top lemon cupcakes and it is delicious (especially using any that is left over to top digestive biscuits). 

As this buttercream is so moreish I though I would show it with you.

Ingredients:

• 110g butter (room temp)
• 500g icing sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp of lemon juice

Cream the butter with half of the icing sugar, the zest and juice of the lemon. Then add the rest of the icing sugar and continue to cream together.

When I made mind I didn't weigh out the icing sugar - it just makes too much mess when it puffs so I just added it directly into the bowl, a little at a time until I got to the consistency that I wanted. 

xxx

Good Ale

Hey

I'm slowly working my way through my cook books from Christmas (tending to use one more often at the moment). Through this process I'm also using more local producers - I enjoy going to the local farmer's market at the weekends if I'm not at work. I've also started using one of the butchers in town. At least I can provide him with a giggle every now and then as I go in with very specific requests.

This week I slowed cooked ham hocks that had been soaked in a pale ale brine with lemon zest. I only just had a bowl bigger enough to hold both of them. It's a great recipe and we still had a whole ham hock untouched which meant lots of tasty ham to having for lunches during the week.

I went local again for the ale I used. Adnams is brewed not that far from where I lived so I picked their Explorer beer to use for the brine. The kitchen definitely smelt of it as the recipe requires 1.5 litres.

xxx

Sweet Lorraine

Hey

I'm slowly making my way through my Little Paris Kitchen Cookbook. This week was quiche Lorraine. it's the first quiche I have made and it was with home made pastry. The only pastry I really make is quick flaky pastry at Christmas for sausages rolls as I seem to have hot hands when I cook which isn't very good when working with pastry. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make this pastry and it turned out very well. I will have to make more pastry from scratch - I plan to try some variations of meringue pies which will require me to make my own pastry.

When cooking my filling for my quiche I did fry off more lardons than it said because I do like my lardons and I was a bit lazy and didn't want to weigh out the correct amount from the packet as it was only slightly over the required weight. I was also pleased that all my slices came out perfectly as I used my le creuset flan dish to make it in rather than a loose bottom tin.  

xxx

Madeleine

Hey

My calendar this year is The Great British Bake Off. The great thing about it, is that every month there is a new recipe to try. This month is Honey Madeleines.

It's a very simple recipe.

First whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and honey until it has doubled in volume.

Then, fold in the ground almonds and flour.

Gradually fold in the cooled melted butter until it has completely disappeared.

Spoon the mixture into a Madeleine tin or silicone mould. I had to do mine in batches as my mould only makes 9 at a time (I had 3 batches in total). Only fill the moulds about 3/4 full as they will rise. Scatter a full flaked almonds over each.

Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

These are delicious but due to the size you can't help but have a couple at a time.

xxx

My Favourite Things

Hey

Parisian themed thank you

Trying new recipes from Bake Off calendar

Newly framed Christmas present thanks to sister and annawithlove

xxx