Mince Pies

I don't like mince pies very much ... but obviously when it comes to Christmas I will have the odd one or two ... then last year a friend's girlfriend made some lovely pies with a frangipan topping.  Wow! These were amazing and have (almost!) converted me to mince pies!  I was also intrigued by Paul Hollywood's deep mince pies which have chopped apple and satsumas in ... anything to water down the richness of the mince meat is good in my book! So this week I found myself spending an evening in the kitchen making a rather huge batch of pies! 

The frangipan topping is also nice and simple: Cream 200g butter, 200g caster sugar and 200g almonds Add 50g flour, 2 eggs and 2 tbs brandy/rum This made a huge amount of topping so I would suggest for 12 mince pies - half the quantity would be needed. Just dollop a teaspoon on top of your mince pie rather than a pastry lid! Well ... here we are, Christmas Eve! What a lot of festive blogging I have done! Let's hope I can keep it up in the new year! Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Cake

I once again used Ruth Clemens' recipe for Boozy Fruit Christmas Cake and left it rather late to marzipan and decorate them! So with the Christmas countdown getting nearer and nearer and with my plan to cut one of my cakes into 8 portions to give as gifts I needed to get a wriggle on!

I'm rather pleased with the results.  I have kept it simple this year.  We have a house full of colds and coughs and I wasn't feeling particularly inspired!

 

Mary Berry's Yule Log

Hands up all who watched the Great British Bake Off Christmas masterclass on Wednesday night?

Here is my Yule log which was so easy to make! Perfect for eating on the shortest day of the year!!

A Family Christmas Gathering & Christmas Mini Muffins

My parents came to visit this weekend and we headed to the Albert Hall for the famous sing-a-long carol concert! It was great fun! After a slight stress with my brother organising and then managing to double book himself (and turning up to the concert slightly squiffy!) we had a lovely time singing all the fabulous Christmas carols and other popular songs! One of the most memorable moments was singing the descant to Hark The Herald ... and my brother singing along in a scary falsetto voice!! Ha ha! Also, doing the mexican wave to Slade's famous Christmas hit was brilliant!

Miss Plum enjoyed herself and lasted until about 30 minutes before the end ... such a good girl!

So, after feeling completely unfestive for most of the month ... a couple of days of baking, card making and writing and Christmas cake decorating - I AM FEELING CHRISTMASSY! (I also had my first snowball of the festive season with my mum last night!)

Last Christmas a friend at work spotted a recipe for Christmas mini-muffins on the BBC website.  I wanted to make them but didn't have a mini muffin tin - but picked one up during the year and made some last week.  I would have taken a photo ... but they have all been scoffed, so you will have to make do with the BBC picture!!  Here's a link to the recipe ... so easy, so tasty! 

 I will be making some more this week!!!

Lebkuchen

On 1st December, Ruth over at The Pink Whisk began her Twelve Days of Christmas recipes ...

On the first day of Christmas the Pink Whisk sent to me ....

Lebkuchen

The plan was to make these biscuits and give them to friends as pressies....but I have only just managed to get them done (with a bit of sparkly glitter!) so I will take them home to my parents next week ... if there are any left!

Blackberry Brandy

I have made Sloe gin for the last couple of years and thought I would try something different this year ...

I put equal measures of blackberries and caster sugar into a jar ...

And topped it up with the cheapest brandy I could find (Sainsburys Basics was under £8)

As with my Sloe gin, I will shake the jar regularly and leave to steep for about 6 months ... I hope that it will be worth the wait!

Peach Crumble Cake

Having managed to put on another half a stone since delivering Baby Plum in August (don't ask how* - I thought that breastfeeding was supposed to help you lose the 'mum tum'?!) I finally realised that enough was enough and that it was time to go back to Weight Watchers .....

On Monday WW released a new version of their programme "ProPoints" where all the components of food are taken into account, not just the calories and saturated fat. It seems to make sense ... and I am sticking to my 51 points (sounds horrifically high when you are used to being on 18 or 20 points a day!). I'm doing it online at the moment as it is easier for me .... I lost 4 lbs in my first week - am hoping that I manage to lose something this week!

I've got my NCT friends coming round tomorrow for tea and cake so have knocked up a Weight Watchers cake - Peach Crumble Cake. I have never made it before, it looks ... ermm ... interesting! I have recalculated the ProPoints and it is 5 points a slice. Not bad eh?

I thought it looked suitably stodgy for a blustery November day ... I'll post the recipe once I have tried it!

[* living off chocolate digestives for 6 weeks probably didn't help ... and then there is all the cake, cake, cake, cakey, CAKE!!!]

An update from Plum Cottage!

Where does the time go?!

I'm a little behind with my posts as have been busy with Baby Plum and enjoying a lovely 10 days in the country with my parents. Feeling rejuvenated by 10 days worth of fresh country air and my mum's scrummy food ... it's time to stop sitting on the sofa feeling brain dead and start to get on with things!!

First things first ... Christmas Cake!!!

You may remember me making my boozy fruit back in September ... I have been stirring this lovely concoction of fruit and sloe gin since then and finally got around to making the cake! You can find the recipe for the cake on The Pink Whisk blog. This is the first time since I started baking Christmas cakes (back in 2002, I think) that I have not used Delia's recipe ... and sadly, the first time that my house has not been filled with the beautiful smell of Christmas as the cake bakes. Not to worry, I'm sure it will taste divine - and there will be plenty more opportunities for Christmas smells, I'm sure!!

I have also been avidly watching Jamie's 30 Minute Meals (the joys of being at home at 5.30!) and decided to whizz up some frozen yoghurt. Yum Yum and so easy to make.

Get some yoghurt

Get some frozen fruit

A bit of honey

Chuck it into the mixer and whizz up

Delicious!

My eighth marvellous make has been some sundried tomatoes .... not my homegrown ones obviously (yes, still a little bitter about those!)

Last year I had a fabulous family holiday in Venice

While meandering around the tiny streets, over bridges and down dark alleys, I picked up a packet of sundried tomatoes.

They have been languishing in my cupboard ever since!!

That is ... until the day Mr Plum decided to knock up some pizzas!

Unfortunately I didn't realise that we couldn't just bung a couple of the tomatoes onto the pizza! They needed preparing first....which is what I have now done!

In 15 days time we will hopefully have a jar full of lovely tomatoey-garlicy-basilly goodness!

Scones ... not the Paul Hollywood way!

My name is Victoria Plum ... and I am a baking addict.

I KNOW ... Baby Plum is asleep ... so I should be SLEEPING! Everyone tells me this

"are you sleeping when your baby is asleep?"

NO!

I'm a morning person. I always have been. Once I am up, showered and dressed - I want to get on with stuff! Once Baby Plum is washed, dressed and fed ... she is quite happy sitting in her rocking chair which I move into the kitchen if I am pottering around. She is now having a well earned snooze in her chair!

This evening I have got a friend popping round after work. This is a treat! I don't often get people popping in ... one of the downsides (one of the many!!) of living in London, I suppose. All my friends are spread out all over the place so to meet up with them takes weeks of organisation, cancellations, reorganisations ... you get the picture!

So, I thought we could have "high tea" ... so have baked two batches of scones (fruit and cheese) and thought we could have these with bagels, sandwiches and fruit cake. And tea of course.

After making the Sugar Crusted Fruit Scones from The Pink Whisk - I have to say that I didn't really like the sugar crust....so I thought I would have a look at Paul Hollywood's Scone Recipe ... I have never seen such a lengthy and detailed scone recipe! Scones are supposed to be a simple tea time treat ... you shouldn't have to read an essay of a recipe to make them!! So, I went back to my trusted scone recipe. Yum Yum!

The recipe for my cheese scones can be found here

Talking of tea ... did you hear today's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" it was very interesting and I recommend catching it on the iplayer while it is on there. The history of that quintessentially English past time of drinking tea ... with tea from China and India, sugar from the West Indies ... the only "English" element was the milk!

Have a listen now!

52 MMMC Week Five: My Best Ever Cup Of Tea Cake!

Here it is ... perfectly risen - no sunken middle or peak this time! Made for friends who had trekked all the way down from Hull with their (gorgeous) 2 year old to visit us and Baby Plum.

You can find the recipe here

52 MMMC Week 3: Sugar Crusted Fruit Scones

Having watched The Great British Bake Off I was intrigued by the "Sugar Crusted Scones" ... I LOVE scones, but don't think in all of my many afternoon teas that I have ever had a sugar crusted one ... and my fail safe recipe does not include this crust either ...

So, off I went to The Pink Whisk and tried out Ruth's recipe ... my first mistake was to assume that the recipe made 9 scones (the recipe I always use does ...) so the scones turned out a little small (the recipe should make 6). And, to be honest, I'm just not sure about the sugar crust ....

With crust, or without crust - what kind of scone do you prefer?

52 MMMC Week 2: Scrummy Coffee Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

Baby Plum and I have started to get a "sort of" morning routine going ... when she takes her early morning nap, I have an hour to get into the kitchen and do a bit of baking!

So, here it is ... week two of my Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge ...

another cake ... Coffee Cake with Chocolate Buttercream.

Mmmmm Mmmmm

You can find the recipe here

I made this cake to take to the first postnatal meet up of the friends I made at the NCT class. It went down very well! I think I will make another carrot cake for the next one!

The 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge Week One: Carrot Cake

Having had my first week at home on my own with Baby Plum I have decided to join in with The Thrifty Mrs's 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge! Yes, maybe a little crazy ... do I not have enough to do looking after a 4 week old baby?

We have had a good week ... Monday was a bit stressful and I cried when Mr Plum went off to work. The week has improved, apart from a minor meltdown on Thursday when Mr Plum made a mad dash home at lunchtime to check that I was okay! (I was, just had had a morning of Tesco Delivery, NPower Boiler Service and Crying Baby ... a bit much for me!)

But ... I did manage to knock up a carrot cake on Thursday morning while Baby Plum was having her early nap (before "The Meltdown") ... so, I thought that I would incorporate it into the 52MMMC! You can read about the challenge in more detail on the Thrifty Mrs Blog ... but the general gist is that you make something (anything!) every week for a year ... there you have it, the 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge!

I LOVE carrot cake ... but have never, ever made one myself! I had visions of having to peel loads of carrots and it being a bit of a faff ... actually, it wasn't too bad at all! I used this recipe.

Feeling fat and fed up at 40+5 weeks pregnant ...

Hello!

Yep ... still pregnant (and yes, I know that the first baby is often overdue ...) and just feeling huge at the moment! I just want to have this baby NOW!!

I found out at my midwife appointment on Wednesday that naughty Baby Plum has decided to disengage herself ... silly girl! I have now got to go and see a consultant next Wednesday ... not sure what he will do - and there is a chance that I will have had the baby by then anyway (I do hope so!). Only one of the girls from antenatal has given birth now ... another one who was due on 1st August was booked in for an induction tomorrow - but has just sent me a text to say that she has started having contractions! Hurray!

So ... what have I been up to since Tuesday?

I have watched an awful lot of "The Tudors" which I really enjoyed (once I got over the historical inaccuracies and put my John Guy "Tudor England" aside!) ... I have also made good progress with the teddy bear I am knitting for Baby Plum ... today I met up with another friend from antenatal (who is due tomorrow!) for a coffee in the local Starbucks and then came home and did some baking! I do enjoy my "Baking Fridays"!

On this week's menu we have Victoria Sponge and Mary Poppins' "Strike Me Pink Raspberry Cakes" the recipe for which can be found in the wonderful book by Jane Brocket "Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer" YUM!

I also took delivery of my Terramundi money box this morning which I picked up for the bargain price of £6 on ebay (the rrp is a rip offingly £20 or so!) ... and have put in my first £2 coin!

A Baking Day!

My fourth week of maternity leave comes to a close and I am wondering whether Baby Plum will make an appearance as scheduled on Sunday? I hope so ... I ache and feel HUGE and I was supposed to be going to see Sound of Music in Birmingham with my Mum on Saturday ... but am having to miss it as I don't think that I could sit through the performance without needing the loo every 5 minutes ... and it would be a bit of a trek to get back down to the ghetto and go to my maternity ward!! The first girl from my antenatal class had her baby girl on time yesterday morning which was very exciting ... who will be next? (I hope it's me!!)

Today I met a friend from work and her cute 4 year old son for a coffee to catch up on a month's worth of gossip ... well, all I can say is thank goodness I am on leave and not at work!

After saying goodbye to my friend I gave Mr Plum a call and met him for lunch in Marks & Spencers (very glam!) then headed home for a spot of baking!

We have a couple of friends coming round tomorrow afternoon so I thought I would bake a cake (cup of tea, naturally! My favourite cake of the moment!) and some cookies ... and once I got started ... I couldn't stop!!

As Mr Plum loved my Breakfast Muffins so much, I have made another batch of those ... and then remembered that I had some cranberries in the freezer - so have adapted (or, made up as I went along!) the recipe and made a batch of Cranberry, Orange, Apricot and Dark Choc Muffins as well!

After so much sweetness ... I also knocked up a batch of zero point weight watcher (!!) vegetable curry ... in readiness for Sunday - ha ha

Breakfast Muffins

I woke up this morning with the urge to make Breakfast Muffins ... I'm not a huge sweet muffin fan (unless they form part of the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at The Hotel Metro in New York!!) - but I am partial to a bran muffin, or the lovely savoury muffins in Starbucks! YUM!

So, having to get up early (well, earlier than normal - recent days have seen my staying in bed until the end of Woman's Hour!) for my 38 week midwife appointment - I had a quick look on the Internet for a breakfast muffin recipe .... I found one that looks rather nice here and picked up the few extra ingredients that I didn't have in the cupboard. I'm hoping that this recipe will live up to expectations as it has already found it's way into my own recipe book!

My 38 week appointment went very well .... all checks and tests were fine and Baby Plum is 3/5 engaged! My next appointment is booked in for 11 August ... two days after my due date to book me in for an induction, if it is needed. Mr Plum was instructed to let the midwife know if the appointment is no longer needed.

Mr Plum is convinced that Baby Plum will arrive on Friday when he is oop North with work. I don't think she will be making an appearance this side of my due date, although I was concerned that the full moon may have had an impact on her! One of the girls from the antenatal classes was told by her midwife that as she was due on the 1st August, she should be aware of this week's full moon which could mean that she would go into labour two days either side! Apparently many hospitals have extra midwives on during a full moon as there is usually an increased number of babies being born! Well ... I am meeting her for coffee on Friday - so no baby has appeared yet!

Anyway, I do believe that it is time for a cup of tea and a Yorkshire Tea biscuit before I head out into the garden to give my tomatoes some TLC.

I hope that you are all having great Wednesdays!!

Cup of tea cake and my final pre-baby afternoon tea!

Hello!

Here is a picture of my (now demolished!) Cup Of Tea cake ... yum! It was delicious! I will have to make another one this week!

Val from The Victorians Didn't Even Like Pink! left a comment on my original cake post saying that as an American she had not come across a cake which uses tea in the recipe ... I don't know the history of tea loaf - but it is something I have grown up with! Maybe it is an English thing? Val, have a go at the tea loaf recipe here (you can use Breakfast tea, or Earl Grey with a squeeze of lemon juice is also very nice). I would be more than happy to post you some lovely Yorkshire Tea bags for you to use, if you would like? Let me know what you think!

After admiring my cake on Friday afternoon, I headed into town to meet my pregnant friend from university (who is having a baby in September!) for ... you guessed it ...

Afternoon Tea at The Berkley!!!

Lovely!!!

Yes, I know that four (is it four? I think that I am beginning to lose count!) afternoon teas in as many weeks (ish!) is a bit excessive ... but it has been fun to catch up with my best girlfriends, over a scone and a sandwich and copious amounts of tea. I know that once Baby Plum arrives my champagne lifestyle (on a ginger beer wage!!) will have to stop ... ha ha. Maybe until Mr Plum treats me to the Christmas afternoon tea at Claridges which we had to postpone from last year!

Cup-of-tea cake

Back in May I spent a week at home with my parents. My Mum had made a lovely "cup-of-tea cake" from a recipe published in The Times as part of their "Eat with the ancestors" column. I would add a link to the recipe on The Times website ... but since Mr Murdoch decided to make us pay for the privilege of browsing Times Online, I thought I would put it on my blog for you. This cake is delicious - go and make one straight away!!

The Story Behind The Cake

Lucy Kihlstom wrote that:

"My grandmother, Peggy Pepler passed down her cup-of-tea cake recipe to my mother ... It's a wartime cake, so their are no eggs in the ingredients. I never liked sponge cakes as a child, so my mother made this every week when I was growing up in Sussex in the Seventies. I'd see her melting the margarine and sultanas in the tea, and get excited because I knew she was making it. I remember eating great chunks of it after school.

She wrote the recipe down for me, and I make it now for my children. It improves if kept for a day or so".

The Recipe

2 cups of cold tea

8oz caster sugar

8oz margarine

8oz sultanas

1lb self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp mixed spice

demerara sugar for sprinkling

The Method

Put tea, margarine and sultanas in a pan. Simmer for 3 minutes or more until melted. Cool the mixture. Mix all dry ingredients, then add to the cooled mixture. Pour mixture into a greased and lined deep 8in cake tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar on the top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours in a moderate oven at 350F (150C, gas mark 3)

I'm just waiting for the mixture to cool!

Salon de the macaroons

My love of macaroons began in Paris in 2003 when me and Mr Plum got engaged. I love the colour and decadence of nibbling away at a macaroon! Every time we have been back to France I make sure I get a couple! It had never even crossed my mind to make some of my own ....

Then, a couple of years ago I spotted a recipe for 'Salon de the macaroons' in the Mail on Sunday...so I had to give them a try!

My first efforts were a tad frustrating ... the mixture was too runny and spread all over the baking tray, or the macaroons stuck to the greaseproof ... so I left it for a couple of years (!) and then had another go .... here is the recipe:

Macaroons - makes about 20 filled macaroons

120g icing sugar

120g ground almonds (I put in a bit more to thicken up the mixture)

1tbs green tea (I used Earl Grey)

2 medium egg whites at room temperature

pinch salt

30g caster sugar

food colouring (green for the green tea macaroons, purple of the Earl Grey...)

Filling

140g unsalted butter

80g icing sugar sifted

finely grated zest of 1/2 a lime (for the green tea ... I used lemon for mine)

1. Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the almonds and stir to blend.

2. Grind the tea in a coffee grinder, sift this onto the mixture and stir it in.

3. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl with the salt until they appear foamy and then sprinkle on the caster sugar whisking each addition until they form medium soft peaks.

4. Stir the almond mixture onto the egg whites in two goes, then colour the mixture with a drop of food colouring.

5. Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper and drop level teaspoons of the mixture onto the sheets in little mounds. Leave for 2 hours uncovered - the macaroons form a skin.

6. Pre heat the oven to gas mark 2.

7. Dust the macaroons with icing sugar and bake for 20 minutes.

8. Leave the macaroons to cool and then remove from the baking tray using a spatula.

9. To make the filling, beat the butter until light and fluffy then add the icing sugar and a drop of food colour if you want. Pipe or spread onto the macaroons and sandwich together.

Or, you could just head here for a little treat ....

Can I tempt you to some ice-cream? (Weight Watchers should look away now ...)

Last Autumn I swapped some sloe berries for some blackcurrants which my friend had picked from her father-in-laws garden ... they have been sitting in my freezer since then! There wasn't enough to make a decent amount of jam - so I thought I would make some lovely ice cream instead!!

I cooked the blackcurrants for about 15 mins on a low heat with about 4 tablespoons of caster sugar until they went all runny and lovely ... and left them draining for most of the day!

I then whipped up some cream and icing sugar (click here for my Mum's "no fuss, no ice cream maker, just bung it in the freezer" ice cream recipe) and added the the drained blackcurrant juice. I wish you could smell the currants! They were wonderful!!

I really didn't want to waste the berry pulp ... so made a layer of currants at the bottom of the tub ...

and then poured on the blackcurrant and cream mixture.... oh my word, what a fabulous colour!!

My friend and her husband are coming round for dinner on Friday and I think that this will be the perfect dessert! If there is any left!!