Christmas Cakes

The run up to Christmas is one of my absolute favourite times of year, theres something simply magical about it. The sparkle, the smells, the markets, mulled wine, mistletoe and of course LOTS of baking! This year I made tradtional Christmas cakes as gifts for family and friends. I used Delia Smiths ever relaible recipe, tenderly plumping up my fruits with plenty of brandy several weeks before creating the cakes. I painted each with apricot jam before covering with a layer of marzipan, followed by fondant icing and decorating. 

In my excitement I forgot to take a photo of the heart shaped cake before packing it off so here's one of it cooling in the tin! This one was for my Dad and Stepmum and as I knew they would prefer a cake without icing I arranged almonds and cherries on top so it still looked festive. Perfect with a cuppa and a bit of Nat and Dean :)

Vanilla Truffles

I made these for the blogger gift swap event to raise awareness of Fairtrade and the real difference that Fairtrade status has made to vanilla farm workers in Uganda. 

I wanted to make something that was really going to showcase the heady, spicy vanilla I had been sent to sample so I decided on vanilla truffles. There is something I find rather beautiful about chocolate truffles, luxurious, satisfying and very, very yummy.

As the event was co-hosted by the Fairtrade Foundation I used certified Fairtrade products in the recipe where possible.

Vanilla truffles

Ganache

225g white chocolate

80ml double cream

1/2 - 1 tsp Ndali vanilla powder (to taste)

20g unsalted butter

Coating

300g tempered white chocolate

1/4 - 1/2 tsp Ndali vanilla powder (to taste)

 or 300g tempered vanilla white chocolate

1. In a medium sized pan, heat the cream until it begins to simmer, then remove from the heat and stir in the white chocolate. Leave to stand for five minutes. Add the butter and vanilla and stir until smooth. Transfer to a dish and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Look at all those gorgeous vanilla flecks

2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. using a melon baller, scoop out small amounts of ganache and form into a ball. 

Patiently waiting for their chocolate jackets

3. Carefully temper your white chocolate and add the vanilla powder, if using. 

4. When ready, place individual truffles on the end of a fork. Using a teaspoon coat your truffle with the chocolate. Carefully return to the baking tray and allow to set. Do not refrigerate tempered chocolate or your will lose that lovely shine. 

I hope they were enjoyed by their recipient!

Fairtrade Ndali Vanilla Blogger Gift Swap

Hands up who likes vanilla? Odds are your hands are in the air right now. It's deep, spicy notes are a firm favourite worldwide, turning up in anything from ice cream and chocolate to the more unusual pollo al vanilla or even a butternut squash risotto.

Ok. So hands up if you know anything about how vanilla is produced? Fewer hands this time I bet. Did you know it was a cash crop or that its the second most expensive spice in the world? This being a flavour we perhaps take for granted or overlook in favour of the newest jazzy flavour on the block?

But seriously, how does it grow? On trees? No, although it does require a support tree to carry its weight. In the ground? Guess again. Roughly 90% of the vanilla we encounter is synthetically produced but proper, delicious, natural vanilla grows on vines and it's far more complicated than sewing a few seeds and watching them spring into life. Take pollination for example. Most crops rely on birds or insects for reproduction but to let nature take its course with vanilla would be a painfully slow process - and demand already far exceeds supply. 

The BBC Radio 4 Food Programme recently ran a brilliant series on spices (check out the podcasts here) and for the vanilla episode they travelled to the Ndali farm in Uganda. Here the large yellow flowers of the vanilla plant are pollinated by hand, a painstaking process carried out by farmers with pure love and respect for their crops. And it all has to be done within the 24 hour life span of the flower. 

Food writer and journalist Vanessa Kimbell visited the farm for the programme and discussed how the farms Fairtrade status had impacted on their staff. Now I have always been environmentally aware: I recycle, where possible I buy British, I'm a vegetarian for ethical reasons, I avoid McDonalds, less for the appalling food more for their part in the destruction of the rainforest. To be completely honest, I've often wondered about the whole Fairtrade thing - does it really make a difference? Turns out it does and that difference is huge. Getting a fair price for their product has meant farmers can come together to form co-operatives which give them far more protection from thieves looking to steal their crops (sadly this happens far more often than you might think). Farmers interviewed for the show also talked of being able to send their children to school - such a fundamental part of life that is grabbed at with both hands in Uganda yet in the West we see education as a given, the debate being which school to send our children to, not "can we afford to send them to school" or even "which child do we choose?"

Vanessa was so touched by the people she met in Uganda and felt so strongly about Fairtrade that she felt compelled to spread the word. In partnership with the Fairtrade Foundation she invited a group of food bloggers to an event hosted by Fortnum and Mason in the heart of London's Picadilly, the idea essentially being to get the foodie community talking about Fairtrade. What better way to do this than to get them cooking!


Ding ding! Let the swapping commence!
 Vanessa came up with a gift swap idea. We were all sent samples of Ndali vanilla with which to cook up a storm, entering our produce into at least one of four categories:

1. Cakes
2. Biscuit

3. Sweets
4. Jams and preserves

Not only would we be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes from Kenwood and Fortnums but on entering our goods we would also be entered into a raffle and take home someone else's bake at the end of the day - everyone was a winner! There were some fantastic treats on display: 

For my part I entered two categories: cakes and sweets and boy did my kitchen smell good on bake day! I heart the wonderful aroma of vanilla and have candles all over the house but nothing beats the smell of it in the oven!

Vanilla and White Chocolate Truffles (top) Figgy Vanilla Cupcakes

I'll write up the recipes in a future post but as a taster the truffles were a creamy vanilla ganache coated in a thin layer of white chocolate. The cupcakes were a basic vanilla sponge to which I added chopped dried figs. I added fresh figs to the vanilla buttercream and chopped with a little figgy wedge. Where possible I used Fairtrade, farming standards assured or organic ingredients.

Credit to the judges they tried a bit of everything (mostly looking as if they were enjoying it, occasionally looking as if they were about to emit a small 'not more cake/biscuits/sweets/jam?!' sigh). 

Case in point, one 'more jam?' sigh-y face...

... and one 'rather enjoying this but must maintain poker face' face

Post judging cake carnage :)

Jam spoon hedgehog

The event was lovely. Not only did Fortnum's put on a delicious spread of afternoon tea but it was a great opportunity to meet some lovely like-minded foodies.I took away some gorgeous pear and vanilla jam and a yummy rum and ginger cake, an extremely generous goody bag from the Fairtrade Foundation and some great feedback for my truffles from Judge Chantal Coady, founder of Rococo Chocolates. Vanessa spoke so passionately and completely from the heart that you couldn't fail to have been moved. I know I am not alone in being inspired to switch to using fairtrade ingredients wherever possible. 

Find out more:
Ndali vanilla www.ndali.net   @ndalivanilla
Fairtrade Foundation www.fairtrade.org.uk   @fairtradeuk

Olympic Muffin

Olympic Muffin takes in the stadium

OK so its rather tenuous cakey link but a week or so ago I was lucky enough to attend a day of track and field events at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. London has been a completely different city of late. I've lived here for near on ten years and it truly is one of the greatest cities in the world but over the last six weeks we've been living in the bubble that was London 2012. Everyone has been in a good, no, great mood! Trains and Tubes have been packed at 6am, full of chatty, excited Games go-ers instead of grumpy, don't-make-eye-contact-at-any-cost commuters. A sea of colour as tourists proudly proclaimed their allegiances. We've cheered, cried and been gobsmacked together, its all anyone could talk about and my oh my did we love it!

Along with the rest of the world I was glued to the Olympics but could I get a ticket? Could I 'eck! At one point I had the precious cargo in my virtual shopping basket, but just as I went to pay the travesty that was the ticketing website crashed! Not to panic, there were still tickets a plenty for the Paralympic Games and I couldn't wait to see some of the action first hand. It was an early start but as we approached the Park I was buzzing. 

We sped through security and were greeted by beaming, singing Games Makers then happened upon the eyesore that is the Orbit. Contemporary art, quite frankly its horrid and it wouldn't be a bad thing if they tore it down.

The stadium on the other hand, was magnificant. A beast of a building it was bigger and more impressive than I had imagined after having seen it on TV.

We arrived pretty early so took some time to soak up the atmosphere and take pictures before grabbing a cuppa and taking our seats. Which were OK I guess...

That, oh that's just the FINISH LINE!!

One of the things I find quite sad about the Paralympics is that people don't really travel for it the same way they do for the Olympics (although, following the success of London 2012 this may well change for Rio) We saw a few Stars and Stripes, a few Aussie flags but the overwhelming majority of the crowd were draped in the Union flag - great for the home crowd and which made for an electric atmosphere. The crowd really got behind all the athletes, from the noise you would have thought it was the Olympics, not the Games many had dismissed as the B event in the lead up (and how wrong were they!) Music was pumping through the stadium throughout the day, pausing only for the starting guns of the track events. World records tumbled race by race and we were lucky enough to witness GB Gold when Richard Whitehead crossed the line in first place in the men's T42 200m. The stadium erupted, the noise was immense! I even shed a tear during the victory ceremony.

GOLD!

In addition to Whiteheads stunning victory we saw three GB bronze medals in the shape of the fabulously entertaining Robin Womack who boogied along to the music between throws in the Men's F55 Shot Put, Gemma Prescott in the Women's F32 Club Throw and Claire Williams in the Women's F12 Discus. A number of the events we watched, including Williams' event, were for visually impaired athletes and I was genuinely intrigued as to how these would work. How would visually impaired runners know when to take the corner in the 200m? Do they have to stay in lane? Wouldn't the discus be a bit dangerous? Naive questions maybe, but for many of us the Paralympics were massively educational as well as being tremendously enjoyable. The runners know when to take the corners because they run with a guide (who for the first time in Paralympic history also received medals at the London Games) and they have two lanes to run in. The discus throwers have developed a number of tactics so as to know where to throw, my favourite being a coach or other team member (I couldn' t quite tell who it was) would stand in the field and clap so as the athlete knew where to aim. Simple but extremely effective. 

 As the events drew to a close we had a few more victory ceremonies - although one had to be rescheduled owing to the winner not turning up! Fancy that!

As the crowds filtered out of the stadium we wandered around the rest of the park to take in the atmosphere and see a few of the other venues. I was also particularly keen to see the wildflower gardens. Protecting biodiversity was a key consideration in clearing the 246 hectare site for what had been billed as the 'Green Games'. As part of the environmental legacy, horticulturalists have sown over ten football fields worth of wildflowers, planted 4,000 trees and created new habitats for creatures ranging from otters to frogs, grass snakes to moths, kingfishers to eels. Impressively 4,000 newts, a protected species, were moved to new habitats away from the site.

The flowers in the various gardens had been chosen specifically because they would be in bloom during the two week period of the Olympics. By the Paralympics, sadly many of these had started to look a bit sorry for themselves, and some of the gardens we couldn't actually get to. We did, however see the wildflower meadow which was packed with beautiful cornflowers, cosmos, marigolds and California poppies.

As an added bonus the Queen's row barge, Gloriana, commissioned for the Diamond Jubilee and used to carry the Olympic torch, was moored up in the park. I'm not entirely sure it was meant to be there - it did seem a little tucked away and right next to an area of construction!

And then off course there was the obligatory trip to the gift shop...

It was such a great day I wanted to go back!  Incredible atmosphere, incredible achievements. These athletes are a true insiration proving that even if you have a disability you can still be an extraordinary human being.

Double Tier Spotty Choco Cake

I made this for a colleague's Mum's 50th birthday. Two tiers of yummy chocolate sponge covered in chocolate flavour rolled fondant and white chocolate circles. The party venue was to be dressed in gold and brown decorations so I wanted the cake to match. I spent what felt like eons trying to find gold food colouring for the buttercream, you can pretty much get any colour under the sun so I don't know why I had such difficulty. In the end I used Sugarflairs 'Old Gold' which has more of a bronzey hue when you first look at it, after mixing with the buttercream it reminded me more of a golden autumnal leaf. I piped around the joins and added some gold glitter for a bit of bling. It was my first attempt at a tiered cake and I got so carried away I forgot to take a pic before I boxed it up!

I also made 50 mini cupcakes -half chocolate and half vanilla. Again I used gold buttercream and decorated with gold sprinkles and gold glitter.

Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

I like gin. In fact a Gin and Slim is my tipple of choice (thanks for asking). A fairly simple drink, its actually good for you (in a red wine kind of way, not a congrats on your hour in the gym kinda way) in that the quinine in the tonic water has anti inflammatory and painkilling properties. The G&T was actually devised by the British Army as a way to combat malaria in 19th Century India. A century earlier it was discovered that quinine could be effectively used in treatment of the disease but  unfortunately it had a very bitter taste. Luckily some bright spark had the idea to add gin, thereby making the medicine more palatable and in doing so created one of the worlds most popular alcoholic drinks. Snaps to that guy!

For a while now I have been wondering if a G&T would translate well into cake form - if so I could delight in having found the Holy Grail! The catalyst for creating these cupcakes was, of all things, a tweet. The lovely ladies at gin tasting, afternoon tea taking extraordinaires G and Teatime, had asked:
 

"We're thinking about gin and cake (surprise surprise!). What combination is best? G&T with viccy sponge? Scones & cocktails?"

To which I cheekily replied: 

"G&T IN cake. Can always have a glass on the side ;) "

I had laid the bet now I had to put my money where my mouth is. Of course I didn't really but thoughts of lounging in the garden whilst enjoying my gin cake in the sunshine had already flooded my mind. I have previously made cupcakes based on margaritas and mojitos (yum) but would the botanical notes of my beloved G&T succeed in having their voices heard over all that sugar and froth of a cupcake? I'm happy to report that they can.

Gin and Tonic Cupcakes

Makes 12

For the sponge:

110g unsalted butter

110g caster sugar

110g self raising flour

2 large eggs

1 tsp baking powder

2tsp tonic water

2tsp lemon juice

For the filling:

50g unsalted butter

juice of 2 limes

2 large eggs

2 egg yolks

1tbsp gin

1tbsp tonic water

grated zest of one lime

For the frosting:

250g unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp gin (to taste)

1 tbsp tonic water

splash of lime juice 

green food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180^oC and line your cupcake tray.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and sift in the flour and baking powder. Once combined add the tonic water and the lemon juice. 

3. Fill the cupcake cases approx 2/3 full then bake for 15-20 minutes, until springy to the touch. Allow to cool then cut a small hole in the centre of each, approx 2/3 the depth of the sponge.

4. whilst he cupcakes are cooling, make the filling which is a kind of ginny curd. Heat the butter and lime juice until the butter melts. In another bowl beat together the eggs and egg yolks. Slowly add the melted butter to the eggs, whisking all the time. Once incorporated return to the pan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and cook for a further five minutes or until the filling has thickened, then remove and allow to cool.

5. Once the filling has cooled, add the gin, tonic and lime zest then fill the little recesses in your cupcakes. 

6. To make the frosting, beat together the butter and icing sugar, for a full five minutes until really fluffy. Add the gin, tonic and lime to taste and beat again. Add the food colouring, if using. I used a very small amount of green colouring, to give a very pale colour to the frosting. Decorate using slices or grated lime zest. 

Optional extra, drink version of G&T

I have decided to enter these cupcakes into this months Alphabakes challenge, because, hey why not give it a go! Alphabakes challenges bakers to create a scrummy cake/dessert/pud/loaf etc based on a randomly selected letter and this month its 'T'. Alphabakes is hosted by Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes.