15/11/2012 · 7:28 pm

My two wheeled cake delivery expedition…

For a couple of months now, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Outspoken Delivery, a local bike courier company. Every Friday, regular as clockwork, they knock on my door to collect my cakes, load them into one of their cool bicycles and pedal them over to Cambridge Folk Museum so they’re ready and waiting for when the tearoom opens on Saturday morning at 10.30am.  

The first time they came to collect the weekly cake order I was extremely nervous about handing them over. Now, I don’t want to sound distrusting but as I usually do all of my own deliveries on foot, it was a real test to hand them over to someone else, a little like waving your child off on their first day at school (perhaps not quite the same ;). To guarantee safe delivery, I decided that bribery was the best option, so I struck Outspoken a deal…if they could deliver 21 cakes unscathed, I would make one especially for them! 

Last week they hit the big 21 with nothing untoward having occurred in the meantime so, as a lady of my word, I made them a cake, a chocolate Guinness cake nonetheless…

and thought it fitting that I should deliver it to them by bike, albeit in the panniers of my beaten up old Raleigh…

I am happy to report that, despite an emergency stop and what felt like 20 million speed bumps, I managed to get it to Outspoken HQ in one piece. Here it is modelled wonderfully by Mr Mark Nash, who is also sporting a fantastic Movember effort on his upper lip (Check out their team page here)…

It was great to meet the whole team, who downed tools to have a brew and some cake…

This week Outspoken launched their campaign to raise money and awareness for the ‘You Can Bike Too’ project, based at Milton Country Park. The group’s aim is to ‘ensure that all members of society can enjoy the benefits afforded by cycling’ by providing specialist bikes, which can be borrowed by anyone and everyone in the community.

Outspoken are asking for donations to this great cause and have pledged to match any donations made by their customers and friends so that they can raise the estimated £1600 to buy this fantastic Circe Cycles Morpheus bike and ensure it (and others) get used by as many people as possible. 

Not only would you get that squishy warm feeling at having contributed to such a great cause, if you make a donation by 28th November, your name will also go into a prize draw to win the ‘Outspoken Advent Calender’! The winner will get a special (Outspoken) delivery of chocolate every single day of Advent, culminating on Christmas Eve with a delivery of 3 cakes baked by me!

For more details of how to donate or about the project take a look at their website here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

13/11/2012 · 10:51 am

My venture into Mexican baking for Nanna Mexico…

A couple of weeks ago I received a very exciting email asking if I’d be interested in becoming the ‘cake lady’ for a small but well renowned Mexican restaurant in Cambridge…Nanna Mexico.

Since it opened in 2005, Nanna Mexico has built a name for itself amongst Cambridge food lovers and students alike (not that students aren’t food lovers ;). Owner, Luis, has brought the fresh and vibrant flavours of Mexico to the streets of Cambridge and is passionate about providing ‘a healthy, affordable and delicious alternative to traditional fast foods.’ Their Big Ass Burrito is particularly revered! If you’re mouth is watering at the thought, you should check their menu out here.

So, not having yet ventured into the realms of Mexican baking, I set about some serious research and cake trials. I spent a very happy Monday testing a Tres Leches cake…a sponge cake that has a mixture of condensed milk, evaporated milk and double cream drizzled over it as soon as it’s taken out of the oven, so wrong it’s right!…

a densely gooey mango and cardamom cake…

and a traditional Pan de Elote or sweetcorn cake to you and me :)…

I know it sounds a bit strange but believe me, the combo of pureed sweetcorn and condensed milk is a real winner and creates a deliciously sweet, moist cake.

I packed up a sample box of my cakes and took them to Luis for a taste test…

I was really interested to hear his feedback and to find out whether I’d passed the Mexican cake test. I watched nervously as he tried all three cakes and was extremely relieved to see his face break into a smile. I was even happier to hear that the flavours took him right back to his youth and the cakes his Grandma used to make!

The Pan de Elote was his favourite and it’s the first cake that I’ll be supplying to Nanna Mexico, this very afternoon!

It may not be your usual Viccy sponge but why not be adventurous and try a slice of traditional Mexican cake to satisfy that sweet craving after your burrito or quesadilla?

Each week I’ll be making a new cake, some will be traditional Mexican numbers and some will be British classics with a Mexican twist…that’s all I’m going to say for now…it’s good to keep you guessing!

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

Gallery

Plate Lickers #4

We held our 4th Plate Lickers Supper Club on Friday night. Due to the popularity of the last event and the fact that we had so much fun with the menu we decided to go with the ‘Childhood Memories’ theme again.

Thanks to all of our lovely guests who really got into the spirit of the supper club, made new friends and even humoured us enough to queue for their dinner, school dinner style :). Thanks also got to John Quysner (Centre at St Paul’s) and Jack (Jack’s Gelato) for his wonderful elderflower sorbet!

You can read Miss Igs write up here and if you’d like to hear about our next events, just sign up here and we’ll keep you posted!

Me and Miss Igs are joining forces at this year’s Mill Road Winter Fair with an Afternoon Tease, Miss Igs and Plate Lickers triple whammy, come and say hi on Saturday 1st December.

1 Comment

12/11/2012 · 11:11 am
30/10/2012 · 8:17 pm

Halloween baking: mini spiced pumpkin & chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing…

Now, if I’m honest I’m not a big fan of Halloween. Being a complete scaredy cat isn’t particularly conducive to any sort of Halloween activity. However, I love an excuse for some good old themed baking and made it my mission to use the pumpkins that arrived recently in my veg box to do just that!…

I find that pumpkins are a lot less tasty than their butternut squash brethren and need a lot of spice/ cream/ sugar adding to make them taste of anything at all, which set me another challenge, to find a recipe that does justice to the humble pumpkin.

After a bit of online trawling, I found a couple of tasty sounding recipes which called for pumpkin puree. So, I set about making my pumpkins into puree…

To do this you need to halve your pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and stringy bits and throw them away. Place the empty pumpkin halves face down on a baking tray…

Bake it at 180 degrees for 45 mins to 1 hour until soft (you can test whether they’re ready by inserting a knife into the skin, it should slide in with no resistance)…

Let them cool a bit before scooping the flesh into a bowl…

You need just 1 cup’s worth for this recipe but I recommend measuring the remaining pumpkin puree into cup portions and popping it in bags or containers in the freezer for next time you fancy a bit of baking.

Now the first time I made this recipe I followed advice on the ‘how to cook good food’ blog and used dark brown sugar and added a tablespoon of rum along with chocolate chips and the results were divine…a deliciously moist loaf cake with a subtle rum kick…what’s not to like!

In my mission to theme it up even more I decided to make the recipe into cupcakes.

To make 1 loaf cake or 12-14 cupcakes you’ll need…

1 cup (240ml) pumpkin puree

120ml sunflower oil

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

200g dark brown sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g dark chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin or line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cases in preparation.

Mix the cooled pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, water and spices together. I used an electric mixer but it would definitely be easy enough to do by hand.

Sift in the flour, salt, sugar and bicarbonate of soda and mix until it’s all combined but be careful not to over mix. Finally add the chocolate chips (and 1 tbsp rum if you’re feeling frivolous :).

Pour the cake mixture into the loaf tin or fill each cupcake cake until two thirds full and pop in the oven.

The loaf will take 50 minutes to 1 hour and the cupcakes will only take about 30 minutes. You can check whether they’re ready by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean it’s ready. If not, pop it back in for a few minutes before checking again.

When your cake(s) are ready leave them to cool on a wire rack…

I used orange cupcake cases and decided I was going to turn my cupcakes into mini pumpkins by topping them with an orange coloured cream cheese icing…

To make the cream cheese icing you need…

450g icing sugar, sifted

75g butter, softened

200g cream cheese

Food colouring

Beat all of the icing ingredients together well and add as much or as little colour as you wish to get your desired effect. Then transfer the icing into an icing bag (I use disposable wonders, which are available in all good supermarkets) and using a large star shaped icing nozzle, swirl the icing onto the top of your cupcake. I finished my pumpkins off with a stalk made out of a chunk of dark chocolate.

And there you have them, the cutest little spiced pumpkin and chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing…

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

27/10/2012 · 5:06 pm

Afternoon Tease does retro…

Last night I summoned my inner ‘retro’ and set up an Afternoon Tease stall of retro baked delights at Cambridge Retro Disco, a fundraising event for Cambridge Folk Museum, organised by the lovely Caroline (@Cambridgelass)…

I’d had a lot of fun coming up with retro sweet treats and desserts for the disco go-ers to enjoy.

My menu comprised of party rings, lots and lots of party rings (recipe here)…

and I decided that this was the ONLY way to serve them…

Cherry bakewell puddings with cream and a cherry on the top :)…

(Bakewell pudding recipe here)

Black Forest eclairs filled with homemade chocolate custard and black cherries, based on a recipe from Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet…

and finally lemon meringue cupcakes, lemon sponge with a lemon curd centre, topped with meringue…

Before the dancing and cake eating commenced I had a chance to sit down and enjoy a pie and mash dinner from Pavitt’s Pies of Cambridge…

I’d opted for the beef and ale pie, made using ale from local brewer Moonshine Brewery. It was totally delicious and served up in true retro dinner lady style by Carri Pavitt herself…

My outfit paled in comparison but I had dug out my silver trousers and hoop earrings :)…

The dancing kicked of pretty early with the help of some awesome tunes from Shake ‘n’ Soul and other DJ’s…

It was a great night and even better because it was all for such a good cause! Thanks to all who came and contributed!

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

22/10/2012 · 1:24 pm

Chocolate beetroot cake…1 of your 5 a day…

I’ve recently made it my mission to seek out and trial some new chocolate cake recipes…it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it 🙂

One recipe recce led me to this little chocolate and beetroot number on the Delicious Magazine website. To date I haven’t baked a cake using beetroot but if the success of using carrot in a cake is anything to go by I thought it was worth a try and either way, I’d definitely be getting one of my five a day :). 

I’m happy to report that the recipe was a good’un and produced the most amazingly moist chocolate cake. The only hint that it contained beetroot was when I came across little pockets of sweetness whilst tucking in.

Just check out that crumb…

If you fancy giving it a go yourself you need…

250g plain chocolate (I used 70%)

3 eggs

200g light brown sugar

100ml sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g ground almonds

250g raw beetroot

For the icing you need…

150g plain chocolate

100g icing sugar

100g soured cream

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees (180 if it’s not a fan) and grease and line the base of a 20cm or 22cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper. I used a 20cm tin, so if you’re using the larger size just bear in mind that it won’t need quite as long in the oven.

Break the chocolate into a bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water to melt. When it’s smooth remove the pan from the heat and set the bowl aside to cool.

Put the eggs, sugar and oil into a large bowl and beat using a hand held or stand mixer until smooth and creamy (approx 3 mins).

Stir in the vanilla extract and sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and gently fold in, along with the ground almonds. 

I highly recommend donning a pair of rubber gloves for the next stage as beetroot has the nasty habit of staining your hands bright pink!

First you need to peel them (aren’t they pretty!?)…

and then grate them…

before squeezing the excess liquid out. 

Now, fold the beetroot into your cake mixture along with the cooled melted chocolate until thoroughly incorporated…

All that’t left to do it pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin…

The recipe says to bake it for 50 minutes to 1 hour, however I recommend checking it after about 45 minutes and testing it by inserting a skewer into the centre, if it comes out clean it’s ready, if not then just pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes and then test it again. Repeat this process until you are happy that your cake is cooked to perfection! If you notice that your cake is browning a little too quickly just cover it loosely with some tin foil.

Leave it to cool in the tin on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing it from the tin and letting it cool completely.

To make the icing, break 150g plain chocolate into a bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water to melt, as before. Once smooth, set it aside to cool before beating in the sifted icing sugar and soured cream until you have a thick and creamy but spreadable icing. Don’t over-beat it! The first time I made it I think I overdid it and was left with icing that just wanted to set quite quickly and was hard to spread. When you’re happy with it’s consistency (it should look like the pic below) spread it over the top and sides of your cake…

I took my cake into work to test on my colleagues and I have to say…it went down a treat!

My Riverford veg box arrived,whilst I was writing this post and I was very excited to dicover that it contained a good few beetroots…I know what I’m going to be making again this week!

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

13/10/2012 · 9:21 am

Orange cake with zingy orange buttercream filling & an orange glaze…

Sometimes the simple cakes are the best…here’s one I made recently using my classic Victoria sponge recipe but putting a little orangey spin on it with inspiration from The Primrose Bakery Book. Behold my orange sponge with zingy orange buttercream filling and an orange glaze…

To make the cake you need…

350g unsalted butter, softened

350g caster sugar

6 eggs

350g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

Zest of 2 oranges

Splash of milk

For the zingy buttercream filling you need…

125g unsalted butter, softened

150g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

zest of half an orange

and finally for the orange glaze to top your cake off you need…

200g icing sugar, sifted

2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (180 if not a fan) and grease and line the bases of 2 x 8 inch cake tins.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs along with a little of the sifted flour and baking powder, so that that mixture doesn’t curdle. Add the remaining flour and baking powder and mix well.

Stir in the orange zest. At this point you need to use your judgement and if you feel that the cake mixture’s looking a bit thick, add a splash of milk until it’s smooth and of thick dropping consistency.

Divide the mixture between the 2 cake tins as evenly as possibly, level the tops and pop them in the oven.

Check on your cakes after 30 minutes by inserting a skewer into the centre of them, if it comes out clean it’s ready, if not, pop them back in and check them after another 5 minutes.

As a slight aside, I recently invested in an oven thermometer and it’s changed my life! That sounds rather melodramatic but to be honest it’s definitely been worth the £5 (ish) investment. It turns out that my oven is 10 degrees hotter than the dial would have me believe and as well acquainted as I am with it, I know that the back left hand corner is hotter than the rest. I think this is a good time to say…my name’s Jo and I’m a baking addict 🙂

Right, back to the orange cake…when you’re happy that it’s cooked, remove it from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. 

To make the orange buttercream icing sift the icing sugar into a big bowl and add the softened butter, orange juice and zest, prepare yourself for the inevitable icing sugar snow storm and beat well until smooth and fluffy.

To make the orange glaze simply add the orange juice to the icing sugar and stir well until lump free.

Now, it’s time to get assembling…sandwich the cakes together with the buttercream and top with the glaze, it’s as easy as that!…

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

07/10/2012 · 8:29 pm

Plate Lickers Supper Club #3…childhood memories

Last night saw the third installment of our Plate Lickers Supper Club, this time with the theme ‘childhood memories’. Ivana (Miss Igs) and I had a lot of fun in the run up to this one…finding the perfect venue, trialing dishes for the menu and of course copious amounts of taste testing!

On one of our recent venue trawls around town we paid a visit to Salisbury Conservative Club and decided it was perfect!…

The old skool hall was reminiscent of the disco’s of our youth and much to our delight was equipped with a fully functioning mirror ball, which we (obviously) put to good use! :)…

Here’s our menu for the evening…

We greeted our guests with White Russians served in mini milk bottles, which raised some questions as to the nature of our ‘childhood memories! :)…

along with platters of canapes…

spinach and tomato pinwheel lollipops…

Grown up cheese and pineapple (I’ll be blogging my pineapple chutney recipe very soon)…

and our piece de resistance, homemade pork pies…

Once everyone was seated we set to work on assembling our fishfinger sandwiches…

We coated the fish in a mixture of panko breadcrumbs and grated Grana Padano cheese before oven baking them. We used sourdough from the Earth’s Crust bread stall on Cambridge Market as well as lashings and lashings of homemade tartare sauce…

The main course took us a long time to prepare but was gone in the blink of an eye so I’m afraid my photos are somewhat lacking. We slow roasted a couple of lamb shoulders from our lovely local butcher Andrew Northrop’s, for 6 hours before stripping the meat from the bone and making it  into a rich stew, which we served with gratin dauphinoise potatoes and winter slaw.

We decided to really pay homage to the theme and to serve the main course school dinner style, asking our guests to form an orderly queue to collect their food. I think Ivana and I did a great job of summoning our inner dinner lady :)…

Our ‘secret special surprise’ came in the form of Jack aka @Jackmade_gelato Cambridge’s very own gelato wizard! Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know that I’ve developed a slight addiction for Jack’s wares and so was really excited when he agreed to be part of Plate Lickers for the night. We’d told him the theme but until he served his secret course even Ivana and I had no idea what it would be!

We looked on eagerly as assembling began…

and it wasn’t long before I twigged that our guests were going to be treated to mini cornetto’s complete with the all important chocolate at the bottom of the cone…

and topped with quince sorbet, which held memories from Jack’s own childhood…

I’d like to say a huge thankyou to Jack, who pulled out all the stops for us and our guests…I believe the regular gelato peddling is on hold for the cold winter months but you should keep your eyes peeled for him at Mill Road Winter Fair!

The wine was flowing and waistbands were being loosened as we served up the dessert course…jaffa lamington cakes, our twist on the jaffa cake made by sandwiching my homemade Seville orange marmalade (blogged here) between 2 layers of sponge, dipping it in chocolate sauce and finally coating it in coconut…

and last but not least came our fluffy pink homemade marshmallows, recipe courtesy of Eat Like a Girl…

The buzz of chat was a joy to hear and our evening ended drinking red wine from tea cups (as you do) and chatting to our lovely guests with huge smiles on our faces!

We’ve got another couple of dates in the pipeline so sign up here if you’d like to be amongst the first to here all about them!

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

04/10/2012 · 8:50 am

A whirlwind trip to Biarritz…

Last weekend I managed to escape the grey onset of winter for warmer climes, boarding a plane to Biarritz! I’ve been to Northern Spain quite a few times in the last couple of years, which as the crow flies isn’t far from Biarritz, however I felt the difference in atmosphere, architecture and food was noticeable. As usual when I go on holiday, I was drawn to all things food related and took loads of photos so thought I’d share them with you. 

I stumbled upon many a foodie treasure trove, annoying the proprietors by ooh-ing and aah-ing and snapping away :)…

On our first night we struggled to find the restaurant epicentre of Biarritz but eventually stumbled on a street of tapas style bars and chose to dine at Bleue de Toi. It was an unassuming little place but it soon became obvious that we’d made the right choice, the food was exceptional…

and our waiter, who we later found out was in a soul band called Aylé, was amazingly very attentive and ended the evening by plying us with Pacharan,  a delicious local liquor made with sloe berries…

This trip gave me the chance to try Airbnb for the first time. It’s a website, well more of a community, where people can list either a room or whole property, more often than not their own home. All you have to do is join up, write a short profile and get searching…I discovered a lovely looking 2 bedroom flat for my friends and I to share. It was huge and really central and more importantly was owned by the loveliest landlady, who after discovering my love of cake, presented me with a list of cafe recommendations, free bus tickets to the local food market and had even stocked the fridge with a bottle of champagne to help celebrate my birthday! 

I decided that visiting a food market was the perfect way to spend my birthday so we hot footed it down to Les Halles to stock up on yummy food and pay a visit to Milwaukee Cafe…

The kooky little cafe run by an American Mother and Daughter combo (I assume from Milwaukee) felt slightly incongruous nestle amongst the cheese, cured meat and fish stalls at Les Halles…

but after trying their coffee I wasn’t complaining!

I have to admit that I didn’t manage to try any of their cake after having overdone the Pacharan the night before, but it all looked divine…

When the reviving effect of the coffee had kicked in we set about exploring and gathering a delicious picnic together (note: we didn’t buy the fish but they looked impressive enough to be papped)…

On wandering the streets of Biarritz, I discovered a little gem of an ice cream shop called Jerome…

where I sampled a flavour I’d never heard of called byzance…milk chocolate, nut and fleur de sel…

Earlier in the day my friends had seen me staring lustily at a patisserie called Miremont and unbeknownst to me had popped in and bought me this amazingly extravagant but slightly alien looking concoction as a birthday treat…

I don’t know what it was but I inhaled it in a matter of seconds  🙂

The week before my holiday I’d asked Twitter for restaurant and cafe recommendations and was told to visit Chez Albert in the port for seafood, so I did…

We enjoyed a lavish looking platter of fruit de mer, delicious but with perhaps a few too many sea snails for my liking (I’m a bit of a mollusc wuss)…

and followed Rick Furzer, self confessed ‘booze pimp’s’ wine recommendation with a bottle of Pacherenc

Me and my sweet tooth couldn’t resist the house dessert…

By happy accident, we saved the best ‘til last, my favourite meal of the whole holiday was on our last day at a tiny back street bar/restaurant called Bar Jean…

The service was quintessentially French and surly and the food was simple and exquisite, the photos speak for themselves…

I would highly recommend Biarritz as a weekend destination. I was extremely well fed and watered and even managed to get in a bit of surfing…good times!

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

24/09/2012 · 8:59 am

Plum, almond & ricotta cake…

It’s British plum season, which in my book, is very good news! I grew up with a Victoria plum tree in my garden and spent many an early Autumn roped into picking its ripe fruit. They run rings around the tasteless supermarket, year round varieties! If you can get your hands on some gorgeous British plums, then I highly recommend that you give this plum, almond & ricotta cake a go…

It’s amazingly moist due to the inclusion of ground almonds in the cake batter and has a seam of plum jam running through the middle. I unfortunately had to resort to shop bought plum jam, luckily Bon Maman does a good one, but if you’re super organised you could make your own jam too.

I bought these beauties from Polly at Urban Larder and then returned within a few hours with the finished cake for her counter :)…

To make it you’ll need…

250g pot of ricotta

140g butter, melted

4 eggs

225g caster sugar plus 1tbsp for the top of the cake

250g SR Flour

200g ground almonds

4 tbsp plum or apricot jam

5 plums, quartered

Handful of flaked almonds, toasted

Icing sugar to dust

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and grease and line the bottom of an 8 inch/ 20cm cake tin.

Beat together the ricotta, melted butter, eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Fold in the flour and ground almonds and that’s your cake batter made…easy!

Spoon half of the cake mix into the prepared tin. Blob the jam out as evenly as possible over the surface…

and then cover with the remaining batter. Carefully smooth the top and arrange your plum halves on the top, before sprinkling with sugar…

Bake for 1 and a half hours until the cake is golden and the plums have started to caramelise…

Leave it to cool for a few minutes before removing it from the tin and letting it cool completely. For the finishing touches, scatter the toasted almonds over the top of the cake, dust with icing sugar and there you have it, a delicious autumnal cake…

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , ,