Nothing Fancy

Sometimes it is the simplest things in life that give us the greatest pleasure. A smile from someone you love, spotting the first daffodil flowering in March, a leisurely stroll through a leafy park, the smell of freshly baked bread, your favourite song playing on the radio. It needs no bells and whistles and really doesn't need to cost a fortune to make your day perfect.

This is also true when it comes to food. Dishes containing a hundred and one ingredients and recipes with a seemingly endless list of steps are amazing in their own right, and definitely have their place in the culinary world. But sometimes all you want is something simple and homely to satiate your mid week craving for a little sweet treat. This is when you turn to your most dog-eared cookbook, let it fall open by itself to the right page and bake your favourite carrot cake.

Flour, sugar, eggs, oil, cinnamon, a couple of spoons of honey and of course lots of bright orange carrots, there is certainly nothing fancy about this cake. But cover it lovingly with a soft cloud of cream cheese frosting, dot a few wrinkly walnuts around the top and cut yourself a big slice... I guarantee you that there is nothing else that will beat it in taste right at that moment.

Even the Best Plans...

The past week or so has been absolutely amazing weather wise. With gloriously sunny days, we were all basking in the warmth of early Spring and shrugging out of our Winter jackets ready to say farewell to the cold, dark days. I have been dishing up lovely, light salads for lunch and dinner, happy to no longer feel the need to fill our tummies with heavy, stodgy food. I can therefore be forgiven for getting carried away by planning a lovely picnic in the park to celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary this past weekend.

I had visions of us finding a sunny spot in our favourite park, spreading out one of my mum's colourful quilts, sitting down, sipping glasses of chilled champagne and snacking away on loads of crisp salads, deeply filled sandwiches and all sorts of other delectable treats. I had even made us a gorgeous dessert of milk chocolate mousse, topped with Irish cream "cheese cake". Unfortunately, all of my plans were squashed when we awoke yesterday morning to a grey drizzle, freezing winds and even the odd snowflake drifting by. That's England for you...

We still managed to make the most of our day together, someone else made lunch for us (and washed the dishes too!) and we did get to enjoy our champagne and dessert. After all, when you still want to spend the day in each other's company when you have been married for seven years, it really doesn't matter where you go or what you do:)

Show some Love

It may be a terrible faux pas to wish people a Happy New Year when it's nearly February, but I'm doing it anyway. I hope everyone had a lovely, safe and delicious Festive break and that 2012 is treating you well so far.

I love the feeling you get at the beginning of a new year, thinking ahead of what the year will bring, looking forward to coming visits, holidays and special occasions and making optimistic or even unrealistic resolutions to try and keep. It's that feeling that anything is possible and that This year you will loose those extra few pounds, learn that foreign language or get that dream job. All too soon though you find yourself looking at the wrong end of January, no closer to doing anything you set out to do, still struggling to get that zipper all the way up... but you know me, as long as I'm baking and cooking I'm happy no matter what. Lucky then that it was my husband's birthday this weekend and that I had a great excuse to bake (and eat) some cake.

As you may remember, I usually bake P's favourite cheesecake for the celebrations, and I had already bought the cream cheese to get going when I luckily caught myself just in time to realise that this year I will make at least one change. I'll bake something else! Now, I know it's not exactly what you would call a life-altering change, but surely it's better than nothing. Not wanting to let the cream cheese go to waste, I baked a buttermilk cake to cover in glossy, glorious cream cheese frosting.

Now, don't laugh, but I was feeling slightly silly and wanted to show the hubby some love and got totally carried away with my heart shaped cookie cutters and sprinkles. The end result was these little individual heart-cakes that, although they looked a bit naff tasted great and made P feel a little bit special for a while :)

So, go on, why don't you show someone some love and give this yummy cake a go!

Buttermilk Cake:

• 280g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 130g golden castor sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 240 cultured buttermilk
• 60ml water
• 90ml vegetable oil

Lightly butter a 20 inch square cake pan and preheat the oven to 200°C
Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar and make a well in the middle. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, buttermilk, water and finally the oil, stirring well to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients and stir quickly with a big metal spoon. Make sure you only mix until all the flour is worked in as you do not want to over-mix the batter. Immediately pour this into your cake pan and bake in the centre of the oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Leave in the pan for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Once the cake is completely cold, you can either keep the cake whole and cover it in the frosting as is or you can go crazy and cut out shapes to make little cakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 100g cream cheese, taken out of the fridge at least an hour before using
• 250g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon butter, very soft

Beat all of the ingredients together in either a standing mixer or using hand-held beaters for about 5 - 10 minutes, until it's glossy and smooth

Not Long Now...

Can you believe it!!! There's only four more sleeps until Christmas :)
I can hardly believe how quickly this year has gone by. It feels like just a few weeks ago that we brought our little boy home from hospital, scared silly with the prospect of having to take care of this tiny little baby. In reality it has been nearly seven months already and he's really not that little any more. Having T around has made Christmas feel like a really big event this year and I am planning on making everything that extra bit more special. But before I start making things for us, I have to make things for others, after all, that is what Christmas is all about.

I love the idea of baking and making sweet things for friends instead of buying something and have done just that again this year. Once a week I meet with a lovely group of mums for lunch and a chat while our little ones entertain each other. Today was our last meeting for the year and I wanted to give them something small to say thank you for keeping me sane with some adult conversation and letting me know I'm not the only one struggling with sleepless nights. Little star shaped cookies, studded with bright red cranberries and spiced with cinnamon seemed to me like just the treat. Add to this little milk chocolate lollipops sprinkled with chopped nuts and a few more cranberries and you have Christmas ready to be wrapped up in a bow. Last minute shopping and family visits meant that a few mums missed out on their gifts, but luckily nothing was wasted :)

For the next few days I will rarely be leaving my kitchen, making more edible gifts, preparing a traditional Polish Wigilia dinner and of course roasting the bird, making the trimmings and lastly getting those Yorkshire puds into the oven.

I wish you all a wonderful and happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year!

Winter Wonderland

Winter is well and truly here. All the trees are bare, arctic winds are blowing around every corner and colds and flues are making the rounds in one and all. Warming stews and soups are our dinner time staples and Vitamin C rich fruits and veggies are being eaten in massive amounts. I'm constantly looking for the sunniest spot in our flat for me and little T to sit and I have even dusted off my crochet needles to make us each a cosy blanket to snuggle up under.

I have also been keeping the oven running with lots of pre-Christmas baking. Spiced apple cake, sticky toffee pudding, cranberry and coconut cookies and a dark chocolate and orange loaf have all come out of the kitchen this month and have all disappeared into our greedy tummies. But nothing says Christmas baking like a batch of Ginger Harrys and that's exactly what I made yesterday afternoon. With the tree decorated and all lit up, mesmerising little T for a while, I got my tin of cookie cutters out, whipped up the royal icing and soon had a small army of men and even some trees ready for munching as the evening closed in. 

If you are feeling the Christmas spirit and want to get the oven on to keep the winter out, go and make your own little gingerbread men, trees or even stars!

• 100g butter
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 350g self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten

Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a saucepan on a gentle heat and set aside to slightly cool. Mix together the flour, ginger and sugar in a large mixing bowl, making a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter and syrup. Lightly mix and then add in the egg, then get stuck in with your (clean) hands. Knead the mix until it comes together and is smooth. Wrap in some cling-film and put into the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up.

Preheat your oven to 180°C and lightly grease a couple of cookie sheets. Take your dough out of the fridge and give it another good knead until it feels slightly more elastic. Roll it out on a clean, flat surface to about 6mm thick. You can either use cookie cutters or your own templates and a sharp knife to cut out your cookies. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 8-10 minutes, until they are lightly golden. Leave on the sheet for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating with royal icing.

Have Fun!!!!!!

For Goodness Sake!

Even though I watch a lot of cooking shows, there are very few "celebrity chefs" that I find truly inspiring and mostly watch their shows for its entertainment value. There is one exception to the rule for me though and that is High Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage. His enthusiasm for food absolutely bubbles over and always leaves me feeling like I should run into my kitchen to make something right this minute! Unfortunately he has been getting a lot of stick for his new show focusing on vegetables and has angered many a vegetarian by how he has tackled the subject. However, for me as a lover of meat, it has been a joy to watch and has made me really think about the amount of meat I eat every week.

I'll be first to admit that when I plan a meal, I almost always think of a meat ingredient first and view the vegetables as companion dishes. I very rarely put the veg in the starring role and this I have now come to realise is a real shame.Determined to put this right, I decided about a month ago that from now on I will prepare a minimum of two meals a week that are completely meat free. Not only is this good for our health and the planet, but it really pushes me to think so much more imaginatively when cooking. So far, I'm loving it.

From the usual suspects like Leak and Potato Soup to the more adventurous Chick-Pea and Tomato Curry, we have had some lovely veggie meals and last night was another meat free dinner. As the first real chills of winter were creeping into our flat last night, I was more than up for a steaming bowl of something loaded with carbs. What better than roasted butternut squash and sweet potato risotto! Sticky, creamy and chewy rice, turned bright orange with chunks of oven-roasted squash and sweet potato, elevated to dizzying heights with plenty of lemon zest and juice, this is a meal that would keep even the most hardened of carnivores happy.

Luckily, I made more than enough and have some left-overs for lunch today and while tucking into my bowlful, I am already contemplating our next vegetable starring dinner.

Waste Not, Want Not

Bananas, you either hate them or love them. Luckily everyone in my home loves them, even Little T has had a taste or two and enjoyed it thoroughly. I buy them almost religiously and you will always find a few yellow bananas in my fruit bowl. Sometimes though, we're just not quick enough to eat them all before they start to go black and then I just can't bring myself to eat them any more. Don't fear though, I will under no circumstances ever throw an over ripe banana away!!!! If there's anything that I love more than eating a fresh, just ripe banana, then it's sinking my teeth into a freshly baked, still slightly warm banana muffin.

Happily, this morning I came to find that this weeks bananas had gone to the wrong side of sweet and I was very pleased with the prospect of baking some muffins! But these aren't just your ordinary, run of the mill muffins, these are choc-chip & banana muffins. Sweet and crunchy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside speckled with tiny drops of milk chocolate and with the flavour of banana giving you a great big hug, these are just the thing to put a smile on your face.

I'm afraid that I have already eaten most of mine, so don't have any going spare, but that's all the more reason to go and bake your own!

Choc-chip & Banana Muffins:

• 280g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 55g soft light brown sugar
• 55g granulated white sugar
• 3 large, very ripe bananas
• 1 egg, beaten with a fork
• 75ml milk
• 85g butter, melted
• 70g milk choc-chips

Preheat your oven to 200°C and prepare your muffin tin with paper cases.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir in the choc-chips. 

In another bowl, mash the bananas thoroughly with a fork, you don't want any large chunks. Stir in the sugar, egg, milk and cooled butter. 

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour all of the wet ingredients into this. Using a large metal spoon, quickly mix everything together. Don't over-mix it, but just make sure that there are no lumps of dry ingredients left in the batter.

Spoon the mix into your muffin tin, making sure to not over-fill them. 

Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the tops are browned and spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.