Rose and white chocolate cupcakes

I made these for some lovely friends we stayed with in London last night. Bit more sophis than vanilla but still nice and easy! Rosewater is one of my new obsessions. LOVE it. Feel free to omit or substitute with other stuff though - orange blossom water or maybe even raspberry or strawberry liqueur might be gert lush.

Here are some nice tasty cakes. Yum.

Made from the Hummingbird formula with a couple of twists...

Ingredients: (makes 8ish)

• 140g caster sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 40g softened butter
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 large happy free range egg
• 110ml milk
• 10 ml rosewater
• handful of chopped white chocolate or choccy chips

Method:

1. put the sugar, flour, baking powder and butter into a freestanding mixer.
2. let it go until nice and sandy
3. add in the egg, milk and rosewater
4. mix 'til mixed...
5. plop into muffin cases and bake at 170 degrees C for about 18 mins or so.

Frosting:

• 80g soft butter
• 250g icing sugar
• about 1-2 tbsp rosewater

1. put icing sugar and butter into mixer
2. put dishcloth over top to seal in as much powder as poss and mix mix mix for a good while til nice and combined - it will create a sticky mushroom cloud if you leave it without a cloth or lid!
3. add enough rosewater for it to just come together then beat for a good minute or two at high speed so it's pale and frosty and deeeee-lish.
4. Pipe on top.
5. Done!!

Simnel-ish cake

In the interests of Mothering Sunday / Mother's day, I decided I'd make a Simnel Cake today. Add into this the fact that I love marzipan a lot and that I didn't have the ingredients for my Mum's 'best fruitcake in the world ever' recipe (it really is. I'm just not sure I can make it public yet as it's too precious!!) I decided to go off-piste and try something different.

It did work...

It's comically heavy on the marzipan. But that's how I like it!!!!

It's a light fruitcake with almonds, spices and orange (as that's all I had in the cupboard). But yummy, so I'll record the recipe here to make again another time :)

Let's call it 'Almond and orange simnel cake'. Sounds reasonable?!

Ingredients for a little (6") cake

• 120g plain flour
• 120g caster sugar (although brown would work really nicely)
• 50g ground almonds
• zest of an orange
• Juice of said orange
• approx 250g sultanas / raisins / cherries / whatever dried stuff you have hanging about
• 120g soft butter / marg / panic-microwaved butter
• 2 eggs
• Spices - I used a good grating of fresh nutmeg (please use fresh, it's amazingly billions of times better than ready grated and takes no time at all), a teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp allspice but again, please adapt and modify to your taste

Method: Criminally simple. Preheat oven to 140C, grease and line a 6" tin. Cream butter and sugar, mix in eggs. Separately, mix flour, almonds, spices, zest. Separately again, microwave juice and fruit for a minute til plump and juicy. Mix that all together and plop it into the tin, scooping a mini hollow out on top to allow it to rise and make a fairly flat cake.

Bake for an hour or so until a skewer comes out clean (the metal implement, not the bird. That would be weird, messy, and potentially a health hazard to all concerned.). Decorate with marzipan, disciples (11, not 12, naughty Judas) and devour. LUSH!!!

5:2 fasting day recipes

So, for my fasting days, I have one piece of fruit and a couple of cups of tea during the day, and then save my calories for dinner. Here is a selection of the stuff I find works for me (and my hungry hubby has a slightly bugger portion) and makes fasting not too sad! I base everything on fruit and veg so nutritionally you're winning even though the calories stay low.

Bean chilli: Sweat some veggies -  2carrots, 4 celery sticks and a large onion work perfectly - in a little water (no oil) until softened. Add a big spoon of coriander powder, cumin powder, and a teaspoon of paprika, cocoa powder and chilli powder, and toast the spices for a minute or two. Add a tablespoon of tomato puree, a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes, salt to taste and simmer for a good 20-30 mins. Add 2 tins of beans (haricot, red kidney, black eye beans, butter beans work well) and warm though. Top with fresh coriander. Yummy! By my calculations there are approximately 800 calories per batch - double up the quantities and keep some in the fridge or free it.

Soups: Any veg is good. Parsnips, carrots, swede etc all love a little spice or horseradish. Tomato, courgette, celery and a little pasta make a delicious minestrone. White onions and haricot beans are delish. Basic soup method never changes for me:

1. Sweat veg (no oil) in a little water in a pan until softened.
2. Add stock, simmer until veg is tender.
3. Add anything else - pasta, beans, chopped tomatoes etc
4. Season, blend if you like or not, then munch away!!

Stir fry: Again, vary things. Be careful with sauces - sweet chilli is low fat but VERY sugary. I prefer to make miso and soy into a sauce and use it. Keep calories in mind but you need flavour - carrots bring a lovely crunch and sweetness, bean sprouts bulk things out and broccoli is always delicious. Or you can go spicy with chills, baby corn, asparagus, mange tout an a little soy is lovely with a bit of lean beef. You can have a massive plate of food for not many calories at all.

Curry: A warming plate of veggie curry is a sure fire way to beat those chilly evenings! Just set out your veg you have, look on myfitnesspal to work out the calories, then follow the same method as per the chilli but use your own spice blend or premixed curry powder instead of the chilli spices. Tomatoes make a good base but also you can use lentils etc if you like.

Pasta: If you're starving, a bit of pasta can help fill you up, even on a fast day! 50g wholewheat pasta is 160 cals, bulk it ut with broccoli, peas, broad beans and a smudge of low fat pesto and there you go. Alternatively, roast some peppers and tomatoes and toss them though. Just watch the calories but you'll be surprised what you can get away with once you start basing everything on vegetables!

Salads: Again, VARIETY is key! Warm roasted veg in a tiny bit of olive oil tossed with lentils and a slice of goats cheese is delicious. Try nicoise salad - tuna, egg and green beans with tomatoes on a bed of lettuce is nice - add olives if you have the calories spare. Warm broccoli, green beans, apparatus and tomatoes is yummy - add a spritz of lemon juice or balsamic vinegar as a dressing. Think outside the box: salad doesn't have to be cold, boring or lettuce based unless you want it to be!

Standbys: Weight watchers soups are a useful standby, eggs are invaluable (80 calls per large egg) and tins of ready cooked pulses add bulk to dishes to make them filling without too many extra calls. I personally stay away from artificial sweetener if possible - there is an increasing amount of evidence they can actually encourage food cravings. Also, I avoid too much protein on a fast day as a general rule, but hey, sometimes life just does;t go that way.

Overall, I have shifted half a stone since January doing this twice a week, and feel better for it too. It's not for everyone but it suits me :)

So get in the kitchen, love your food and enjoy!!

JB x

Cheese and wine evening :)

This was the spread for a group of my favourite peeps yesterday - treacle and mustard glazed ham, bread, poppy seed and fennel crackers, cheese, cheese and some... um... cheese. Ruddy lovely. The blue mat in the middle was later filled with a baked camembert but at this point Mrs W arrived with baby Ethan so I was distracted by the most gorgeous little man in the ENTIRE world (IMHO!).

Few tips:
Crackers - easy as pie. No, easier. 250g plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp spice seeds of your choice, 1/2 tsp small seeds (linseed, poppy etc), mix together. Add 100ml water and 40ml olive oil, mix to a dough, chill for 30 mins in cling film then roll out super thin and bake at 180 for about 10 mins or until browned and crispy. Deeeee-lish.

Ham - Boil your ham joint (off the bone) for 30mins per 500g in water. Then, dredge your ham out, remove any plastic papery stuff or netting. If your ham has a lot of fat, slice most off and score the little bit left. If it's already lean, no problems! Pop it on a baking tray with foil on it to dry off for a few mins while the oven preheats (200C). Mic a teaspoon of english hot spicy nostril stinging mustard and a good tablespoon or two of treacle and rub it all over the ham. Bake for about 20 mins until browned and sticky. Yummers!!!

Apple tart

I loooooooovvveeeeeeeee Bramley apples and pretty much everything they're connected with... Crumble, pie, compote, chutney (as previously mentioned), tart, flan, pastry... Yum yum yum. Pretty sure I'd be happy with just a bowl of stewed apples with raisins in so long as the bowl was big enough. Add to that the bonus that it's basically a health food (maybe not quite this recipe!) and everybody is, indeed, a winner.

So, on to the recipe - apologies for the lack of inter-recipe photo's (not sure that's even a word but hey) but I was in a frenzy of kitchen-ing and forgot. Bad blogger!

I made this this weekend for a cheese and wine event pudding. I didn't want anything too heavy but still a nice, comforting pud which was still a bit naughty :)

French style apple and vanilla tart


Ingredients: 
Pastry
 - 250g plain flour
 - 125 g chilled unsalted butter
 - 125g caster sugar (or vanilla sugar, see below)
 - 4 large egg yolks
 - a smidgen of cold water

Filling
 - 500g (peeled and chopped weight) Bramleys, roughly cut into chunks
 - 6 tbsp greengage jam - you can use apricot if you like
 - juice of a lemon
 - sugar to taste
 - seeds from a vanilla pod

Topping
 - 4 or 5 Braeburn eating apples (you could use Granny Smiths or another fairly sharp variety)
 - dusting of cinnamon
 - another 2 tbsp jam
 - couple of little knobs of butter
 - sprinkle of brown sugar

Method:

1. Filling: First, plonk the pommes and a tbsp or two of water into a big microwave proof bowl, pop it on a plate and a plate on top (best way to avoid explosions but if one happens it will catch the overspill!). I microwave mine for about 4 mins, stir it, then about another 4 or 5 on full power. I end this is the easiest way to stew apples, but please feel free to use a traditional saucepan effort thingy if you like ;)
2. Then, add the jam, lemon juice, vanilla and sugar to taste. Then plop the whole lot into a pan and boil for 10-15 mins, stirring all the time, so it goes thick and jammy. If you don't stir it will splutter all over you and give you and your hob a sticky, ouch-hot apple covering, you have been warned!
3. Let it cool. You can make this a day or two in advance as long as you can resist eating it in the fridge...
4. Pastry: This is my method for pastry making, works for me but if you have another you like (or a food processor, which I don't have as I don't have a cupboard big enough and have a tidiness obsession which means I couldn't leave one out on the worktop. Anyway, again, irrelevant ramble...!).  I put the flour in a bowl, grate the butter in with a cheese grater and then either rub it in with your fingers or stick it in a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment til it's sandy. Then, stir in the sugar*, add the egg yolks and a little water to bond, give it a couple of squeezes so it's in a ball, then set aside.        *sugar - stick old vanilla pods which you've used the seeds from in a tupperware or jar with caster sugar = vanilla sugar = ruddy lovely!
5. Grease a flan dish or tin (mine's about 10" diameter) and roll the pastry out and line the dish. It does't matter if the pastry falls apart, just squidge it back together.
6. Stick it in the fridge for half an hour, and put your oven on to 190C.
7. Blind bake it with greaseproof and baking beans for 15 mins, then take the beans and paper out and give it another 5 mins.
8. And finally... Let the pastry cool a bit, add enough filling to come 3/4 up the pastry, and then peel, core and slice the Braeburns. Lay them in nice neat layers on top, dot some butter over the tart, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon and bake for 35 mins. Microwave the last bit of jam for 30s or so and brush over the tart to glaze it.

This can be served warm or cold, with creme anglaise, custard, ice cream or something like a salted caramel sauce would be A-Mazing. Enjoy!

On the subject of greengage jam I love it. My Granny used to make it and it's a beautiful, traditional english-french fruit with delicious sweet flesh and slightly tart skins. In my opinion, you can't beat it, but it can be hard to get hold of (Tesco finest do it, which I'm extremely pleased about!) but it is one of my life's ambitions to get a horde of fresh greengages and make my own... See also damson jam, the second best jam in the world!