Anyone who live away from their home country, will know there are certain things which will always remind us of home.  I received a package from my sister and my soon to be brother in law, at the beginning of August with Nestle Peppermint Crisp chocolates in.  It really was the an amazing gift - well it doesn't take much to please me! Peppermint Crisp can be found at times in the UK at times, but at an extortionate price (£4 for a 49g bar), after being imported from South Africa.   

These had become the new gold dust in our household. I firstly had to hide them, then bring some of them out slowly, then made excuses that the rest were for my birthday (mid August) etc so they didn’t all get consumed on the first day!! 

Nevertheless, five weeks on and I am still holding on to one large bar for another baking day - those two small bars in the picture have long disappeared!  In the meantime these Peppermint Cheesecake Brownies were a real hit. I like baked cheesecake, I like brownies and I like mint so putting both these recipes together was a perfect mix.  

Recipe:

Brownies - 

115g Butter

200g dark chocolate

250g granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

95g plain flour

Cheesecake:

200g full fat cream cheese (at room temperature)

50g granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

Peppermint Extract to taste

Green food colouring

2 x 49g bars of Peppermint Crisp Chocolate (Crushed)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease and Line an 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan.

Make the Brownies - Melt the butter and chocolate together and allow to cool.  Stir in the other brownie ingredients until the mixture is smooth and set aside.

Make the Cheesecake - Mix the cream cheese, sugar and peppermint extract together, then have a taste.  Add more peppermint if you want your cheesecake minty (I did).  Stir in the egg yolk,  the crushed peppermint crisp chocolate and the food colouring.  Again the amount of green is personal preference - but I did use a fair bit because I wanted the cheesecake to be a mint green colour.  

Pour half of the brownie mixture into the pan and spread over the base.  Spoon over the cheesecake mixture, then cover with the remaining brownie mixture.  Use a knife to swirl the cheesecake into the brownie mix.

Bake for 35 mins - it will be cooked around the edges and slightly wobbly in the middle.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.  Chill for around 2 - 4 hours or overnight, before cutting into squares.    

 

 Wow its 2020.  It has been 5 whole years since I last blogged! I have to actually learn my way around my own blog!   My sister asked me this morning - "When are you going to update your blog?" so here I am.  It has most certainly been a surreal five years.  During this time,  I have studied for and gained, a degree with first class honours in Early Years Education and Integrated Working with Children and Families.  It was sheer hard work doing this course part time, while holding down a full time day job and also being a wife and mother too,  Needless to say, I think I saved myself with cake.  It is my way of de-stressing. Hard to believe - but its true.  

2020, Covid has made us slow down and stay at home.  So like many people, I also jumped on the sourdough bandwagon - Changing recipes, changing methods to get the loaf with the most holes in it - its all about the holes!  It has been a satisfying challenge over the lock-down period and one which we enjoyed as a family and we are still perfecting.  A jar of sourdough starter has left the building with our middle son and he too has been busy perfecting the sourdough loaf - it soon catches on!!  

Back to the Blogging - I have promised my sister I will keep my blog updated, so watch this space for more baked goodies and recipes as I continue this journey...

Good Loaf - But it needs more Holes!

Its Autumn and this is only my second post for this year.  I have been baking, just not taking many pictures.  (I always think of it when it's too late).  I have also been at uni part time doing a foundation degree course for the past year, I have still been working in school and mostly I have been still dealing with the raw emotions of grief. No matter how many times you tell yourself, time will heal...the battle has been ever present.

In the past months we have been to London a few times and as I am lucky to live with cake/pastry lovers, we made our way round some of top notch and much publicised cake shops - Humming Bird Bakery, Choccywoccydoodah and Peggy Porshen's Cafe.  Each one offered their own unique style, their own signature bakes, and each one has made me extend my ever growing collection of baking books (not forgetting the extra inches on waist and hips).

Some of my bakes from this year - I can honestly say I have baked more than cupcakes this year (lack of photographic evidence) but again the waist and hips is becoming proof of this!

Happy New Year.  2014 has been banished.  It was by far the worst year for sad news that I can possibly remember and I hope that this year will be a whole lot better!  In times of desperation, the only thing that can save me is to bake....so here I am saved by cake!

I haven't blogged in months as the last months have passed in an emotional blur after loosing my beloved mum at just 59 years!  From October last year, my mum had become quite ill. After many trips in out of hospital she was sent from St Helena to Captetown in South Africa for medical treatment on December 23rd.  Five days of ship journey she arrived on 29th December 2013.  What happened from there onwards happened so quickly none of us could prepare ourselves for what was to happen.  After seeing her for the first time in eight and a bit years, our reunion was emotional but we were so happy to be reunited.  I was sad to see how fragile mum had become and how time had meant I hadn't noticed.  Sadly after spending 5 days with mum, we lost her on 24th January 2014, two days after she had had heart surgery.  Each day has never been the same since.  It has been a uphill struggle, a constant battle.  I have a wonderful family and yet I find I to have to draw on every ounce of strength I have to get out of bed and carry on each day and that ache in my stomach just never seems to go away, even when there are times/events that I really enjoy.  I miss mum so much, we had expected her to outlive her 59 years......she herself had so much more to give.  

(Mum, Dorothy, Myself, Cedric  18th Jan 2014)

Hot chocolate, ginger-nuts, cake.....the cold nights are now upon us and I am fighting a nightly temptation of filling up on hot chocolate and ginger-nut biscuits which are my favourite or going into the kitchen to make warm puddings to tuck into late at night!

I have a supply of Libbys Pumpkin and several jars of mincemeat....so I know pumpkin things and mince pies will be coming out of the kitchen shortly.  

I made this cake last week for a first birthday.  It was three layers of chocolate cake filled with vanilla cooked flour butter cream and chocolate ganache, then covered in fondant.  It looked so cute once I had finished, although rolling all those "bubbles" were rather tedious.  

It's been a while.  The lovely in laws that travelled for nine days to see us over the summer months,  made the return journey home in mid September and are now back on the island.   I had made a planned not to bake much over the summer as I wanted to make sure that time was spent with them and the family so baking wasn't on the top of the agenda.  I did however make a few things....my giant birthday cake, some cheese straws, a chocolate cake for friends and a carrot cake.

I have picked up the baking over the past weeks and determined to cook different relatively healthy things for our evening meals, to stop the rot of "whats for dinner today?" ...hence this week some home-made bread to go with our smoked bacon and vegetable home-made soup.  Now I am not the best bread maker.....firstly even though it smells excellent when it is cooking, I am not patient enough to wait around for the whole, rise, bake etc process and also the fear of it not rising is another story!

However, I enjoyed making this bread, the dough was left to rise as I whizzed of to the local shops....so I didn't have to wait around.....it was shaped an allowed to rise while I prepared the ingredients for the soup, and then it went into the oven, while the soup was cooking.  It turned out to be so tasty and it went down a treat in our house on a cold and wet evening this week.  I am on a bread baking mission...so watch this space!

Onion and Cumin Pull Apart Bread.  

(oops bad pictures....I took them on my mobile)

Recipe:

Bread:

500g strong white bread flour

2 tsp fast action yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

300ml warm milk

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 gloves garlic crushed

1/2 tsp chopped red chilli or dried chillies

1 teaspoon salt

For the filling:

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

3 medium onions chopped

100g grated strong cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon olive or sunflower oil

1 table spoon melted butter (keep to use later)

Mix the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil or butter, garlic and chilli together in a large bowl.  Rub the ingredients together to resemble breadcrumbs. Pour in the milk to form a dough, which will be sticky, but will become smooth once kneaded.  Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth.

Cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave the dough in a warm place to rise and double in size (around an hour).

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onions until they are a light caramel colour.  Add the cumin seeds and stir for a minute to bring out the flavour.  Set aside to cool.

Grease and flour a 9 x 5 inch loaf tin.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and place on a lightly floured surface.  Roll it out into a 12 x 12 square or near enough to this size.  This maybe a bit difficult to do, so use your hands to help stretch the dough.  

Brush the dough with melted butter, then sprinkle over the onion and cumin mix and the cheese.  Cut the dough into six equal strips.  Stack the strips on top of each other with the filling facing upwards.  Now cut the stack into four equal pieces.  

Place the stacks vertically in the loaf tin (so when the bread is baked, you wont need to slice it, you will be able to pull the slices apart).  Don't overcrowd the pan.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius during the next rise of the dough.

Cover the dough and allow to rise for another hour.  After an hour, brush with milk and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until golden.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Another birthday, another decade.  Having thought about making myself a cake earlier in the month, and then deciding on doing one of my death by chocolate type of cakes, my sister in-law threw a spanner in the works by asking me "what sort of cake I was making for my birthday," followed by sending me lots of ideas. Not one to shy away from a challenge I then decided to pull out all the stops and make a massive cake....in my favourite colours, things etc.

The bottom cake was a 10 inch , three layer chocolate cake, sandwiched together with chocolate ganache and the top cake, a six inch, three layer lemon cake, soaked with lemon syrup and sandwiched together with lemon curd and lemon cooked flour butter-cream.  The shoe I made using red fondant and a shoe mould.  

The black royal icing piping was based on henna designs, and piped on using a fine piping nozzle.   

Its been a while since I blogged.  So much has happened in the past weeks, that they have literally flown by. My in-laws made the long journey from St Helena to the U.K to spend time with us and the rest of the family.  It is no walk in the park to get here from the island....5 days by ship to Capetown, a two day stop over and then a 14 hour flight.  Having not seen them for 8 years it has been wonderful catching up, so every vacant moment has been spent with them which has been truly wonderful.  I did however bake a few things which I will blog about in a later post!

I haven't blogged, in a while.  The weather has been so lovely that and I have been making the most of it after work each day.  The weekends have been busy with various engagements for our older son who plays in a brass band as well as catching up with the gardening etc.

We have been  munching our way through the Border Biscuits......and they now catch my eye on the shelves on the shops too. They seem to be appearing in our local town too, so I have been telling everyone I know, how good they are.

The Divinely Chocolatey Cookies looked so yummy and chocolatey in the box so I decided to use them as a base for a Rhubarb and Ginger Cheesecake.  

The cookies smelt chocolatey and the the little lumps of dark chocolate (my favourite) complimented them perfectly.  The combination of chocolate, ginger and rhubarb was absolutely divine and I would use these again in a rhubarb cheesecake.  

The cheesecake is best if left overnight, unfortunately we cut ours after about four hours of chilling so it still had a bit of wobble in the middle, but the left overs tasted divine the next day. 

 

Recipe.

1 box Border divinely chocolatey cookies (150g) crushed
60g butter, melted.
1 piece of stem ginger finely chopped

For the filling

50g caster sugar
400g rhubarb cut into 1/2  inch pieces
3 pieces of stem ginger finely chopped
1 tablespoon of stem ginger syrup from the jar
600g cream cheese
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
4 free range eggs
2 tablespoons cornflour
300ml soured cream

9 inch springform tin with the base lined with baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 170C/350F/Gas 4

For the Base - mix together the crushed biscuits, quarter of the stem ginger and the butter.  Press into the base of the tin, then bake in the oven for 10 mins.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool while making the filling.

Put the caster sugar, stem ginger syrup and a tablespoon of water in a saucepan.  Gently simmer then add the rhubarb and simmer until it is just cooked (about 6 mins).  Remove from the heat and drain of the juice.

Place the cream cheese, soured cream, eggs, and icing sugar, and cornflour into a mixing bowl.  Beat until thick and smooth.

Cover the base of the cheesecake, evenly with the Rhubarb and then scatter over some of the stem ginger. Fold the remaining stem ginger into the cheesecake filling, then pour over the rhubarb.

Give the cheesecake a few taps on a hard surface to remove the air bubbles, then cook on the middle shelf of the oven for 15 mins, before reducing the oven tempeature to 150C/300F/gas 2 and cook for a further 30 mins.  The outside of the cheesecake should be firm and the centre should still be wobbly.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool, then chill for as long as possible, preferably over night.  

What do you do when someone gifts you a bag of Rhubarb.......you make a cake!!  Last night I made a Rhubarb and orange crumble cake which had a hint of Ginger Curd.  I found the Ginger Curd in Hereford yesterday in TKMaxx and thought that a couple of tablespoons would go nicely with the cake.

I love the orange flavoured cake and it goes really well with the tangy-ness of the rhubarb.

Recipe:

4 large Stalks of Rhubarb. (Washed and dried)
200g butter
400g caster sugar
4 eggs
400g self raising flour
1 orange (zest and juice)

Ginger curd

Crumble:

100g butter
200g plain flour
50g caster sugar.

Grease an baseline a 9inch round spring release cake tin, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy.  Mix in 2 eggs and then 100g of the flour.  Mix in the remaining two eggs and the rest of the flour.  Grate the zest of the orange and mix into the cake mixture.  Stir in the orange juice.

Spoon the cake mix into the prepared tin and level. Dollop over up to two tablespoons of the ginger curd over the cake mix.   Chop the rhubarb and spread over the cake mix (no need to stir in).

Make the crumble by rubbing the butter into the flour and then stirring in the sugar.  Sprinkle over the rhubarb and bake for about and hour until a cake tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Bananas that go in lunch boxes and come back looking like they have been in a massive street brawl have only one use afterwards......in a cake!  I baked this banana loaf which not only has bananas, but coconut and orange zest and juice added to it too.  Its a really blinged up banana loaf and really tasty.  

The recipe for this banana loaf was given to me by my best friend in 1998 when we lived on Ascension Island.  I was showing my children on the weekend that it was on the same piece of paper that she faxed as it was dated 1998....and we only lived next door to each other....it must have been a wet day!!  My youngest son was completely baffled and asked what a fax was!!! At eight years old, he only knows email and text message etc.

Recipe:

Oven temperature 175 degrees Celsius.  Grease and base lined large loaf tin, or used a grease proof loaf tin liner.

2 cups plain flour (sifted)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter softened

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

grated zest of one orange

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup orange juice

4 medium bananas mashed (really ripe bananas work best)

1 cup dessicated coconut

3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, orange juice, and orange zest until well combined (2 to 3 minutes).  Mix in the bananas.  Stir in the coconut and nuts if using.  This will make a thick batter.  Spread the batter into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 to 60 minutes or until a cake tester, inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to cool completely. 

It has really been all about bread this week!  My friend celebrated her birthday and her hubby wanted to give her a cake shaped liked loaf of bread as when they were in his words "poor students," the only thing he managed to get her on her birthday was a fresh loaf of bread with some butter.  The cake wasn't meant to go on a bread board, but when I was doing it I had this idea that as a loaf of bread it shouldn't be on anything else but a bread board.  A new bread board in a small town can set you back at least twelve quid so a visit to the charity shop and 50p later, I had a bread board.  After soaking it in boiling  water and then scrubbing every inch of it, it made the perfect board for the cake.  The butter, loaf and slice is all cake, so little waste in that loaf!!!!  

Last week I have been mostly baking.....with the awful weather, it's back to hibernation, so we have had all-sorts of treats.  The Barn Farm Shop in the town has had lots of citrus fruits in over the past month, so we have had lemon meringues, lime meringues and this week the oranges were 8 for a quid which is so cheap and  so Orange Meringue Pies, were baked on Sunday.  

Some of the meringue was a little darker than I wanted.....admittedly I got carried away watching the FA Cup final, so the time in the oven went to about five and half mins, (I forgot to set my timer oops) but they still tasted good and disappeared rather quickly.  I based the  recipe on the lemon meringue ones which I posted a little while ago, but I made a sweet shortcrust pastry for the cases instead of shortbread bases.

Sweet Shortcrust

8 oz plain flour, 4 oz butter, 2 tablespoons icing sugar, 1 beaten egg.  

To get deep cases to fit the muffin tin, I opened out a muffin paper case, and cut around it.....pastry cases as deep as the tin....with a little fitting and trimming!

April is over and we are rushing through May!.  April has been a month of birthdays, and our middle son was 18 last weekend.  I decided to bake him a huge chocolate cake and what could be more fitting than doing a music themed cake as he is a brilliant musician who plays trumpet and piano.  He was really impressed by the music score which turned out well, considering I was piping it on at two in the morning!  We didn't get to cut the cake though...he took it to college and shared it with his fellow students in the music department.

We went of to a friends wedding on Saturday.  We met up with so many people who we haven't seen in ten years or more, due to us moving and travelling.  It was so good to catch up, and share stories and of course to toast the beautiful bride and groom....the bride was working in the hospital on Ascension Island when our middle son was born (18 years ago) so it was yet another occasion worth toasting.  

Time flies when you're having fun.  The weekend just zoomed by as we spent it with friends, chatting, eating, drinking wine and singing on Saturday evening, then finished of with an afternoon at the raceway yesterday.  

On Saturday afternoon I cooked a trio of curries.   I made a traditional St Helenian chicken curry and then a beef madras and a lamb rogan josh.  It is satisfying to make a curry at home and cheaper than a take away.  It just takes time and effort to prepare, but they can left to cook or a low heat afterwards.  It isn't hard to do and the spices are readily available from local supermarkets and Asian food shops.  

Beef Madras, Lamb Rogan Josh, St Helenian Chicken Curry.  

Each of these recipes serve four.

Beef Madras (aromatic, pungent and spicy)

2 lb stewing beef (beef shin is great), 3 tbsp sunflower oil, 1 large onion finely chopped, 4 cloves, 4 green cardamom pods,  1 inch piece of root ginger, peeled and chopped, 2 garlic cloves crushed, 2 green chillies finely chopped, 2 dried red chillies (leave whole), 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 teaspoons ground cumin, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp salt, 250 ml beef stock.

Remove any visible fat from the meat and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, cloves, and cardamom pods for 5 minutes.  Add the chillies, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, and fry for a further 2 minutes.  Add the beef and fry for 5 - 8 minutes until the meat is lightly browned.  Add the coriander, salt, ground cumin and stock.  Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally until the meat is tender.  Add more salt if necessary, remove the whole red chillies and serve with rice.

Rogan Josh (Marinate the lamb in the yoghurt overnight or for a minimum of four hours)

2 lb lamb fillet, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 250 ml natural yoghurt, 1 tsp salt, 2 garlic cloves, crushed, 1 inch piece of root ginger, peeled and chopped, 3 tbsp sunflower oil, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 2 bay leaves, 4 green cardamom pods, 1 onion finely chopped, 2 tsp ground coriander, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp chilli powder, 14 oz can chopped tomatoes, 2 tsp tomato puree, 150 ml water.

Remove any visible fat from the meat and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.  Place meat in a no metallic bowl and mix in the yoghurt, lemon juice, salt, 1 crushed garlic clove and the ginger.  Cover and leave to marinate overnight in the refrigerator.  

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes or until they splutter.  Add the cardamom pods,  onion, and garlic and fry for  5 minutes.  Add the chilli powder, ground coriander, and ground cumin and fry for a further 2 minutes.  Add the marinated lamb and fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and water.  Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, then cover and simmer gently for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until the meat is tender.  Add more salt if necessary and serve hot with boiled rice.   

Back to school and warmer weather......typical! Still hopefully we will get an injection of summer...so bring on the sun so we can light the BBQ and sit around drinking daiquiris (time to bring out the smoothie machine), and rather a lot of bacardi!

This week I have been taking stock of all the cook books I have.  Some sit in the kitchen on a specially made shelf, a lot sit in a large box, not seeing the light of day, for the past six years we have been in the UK and more years from living in other countries too!  I have been trying to break a habit of being drawn to the glossy baking books that catch my eye in just about every shop (apart from Aldo shoe shop), these days.  I have favourite books, and books which I think look great, but I haven't yet made a thing from, so I have decided to give myself the task of baking/cooking something from each of my books over the days/weeks/months.......should make for some interesting blog posts.

In the meantime, I baked a chocolate cake for the son of my friend, last week.  It had to be angry birds....he was really chuffed, I believe.  All of it was edible....so I bet there was some small boys bouncing of the walls after eating the fondant birds!