Pimms Cream Cake

Pimm's cake

Wimbledon is on, the new royal baby Princess Charlotte is being christened, the sun is shining, the barbecue is fired up and even the Formula 1 Grand Prix is taking place in the UK this weekend - it's a true celebration of all things British.

And where would we be at a British celebration without a glass (or three) of Pimm's and lemonade?

I've just discovered from Wikipedia (where else) that Pimm's has been around since 1823 and is named after the son of a farmer from Kent who owned an oyster bar in London. He served a gin-based drink made with a secret mixture of herbs and liqueurs as an aid to digestion, serving it in a small cup known as "no.1" - and that's why the full name of the drink we all love today is Pimm's No. 1 Cup.

We were recently sent a fruit basket at work containing among other things a large punnet of strawberries. I had some cream at home (long story - I was asked to make my malteser cake by a colleague so bought the ingredients though I warned him in this weather the chocolate would melt; he then agreed and cancelled the order but I had already bought the cream and chocolate!). Most people would think of strawberries and cream, but I don't particularly like strawberries and neither does my boyfriend (I know, we're weird). I then remembered that I had some cucumber in the fridge from another recipe - and I don't like cucumber much either. But my mind had started whirring as I thought of the mint on my windowsill and that all I was missing was an orange for a nice Pimm's!

I knew that the fruit wouldn't really keep until we next had people over and there wasn't much point making a pitcher of Pimm's with all the fruit just for me so the logical conclusion was a cake! I can't believe I haven't made a Pimm's cake before :-)

Pimms Cream Cake - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

175g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
8 tbsp. Pimm's
8 tbsp. lemonade
About 450ml double cream
To decorate - strawberries, orange, cucumber, mint leaves

This quantity makes two thin layers - with the rich cream in the middle this was plenty but you might want to scale up the quantities to make three thin layers, or double the ingredients and make two thick layers.

Preheat oven to 175C.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat in the eggs and flour.

Add the Pimm's and lemonade and mix until you have a pourable batter.

Grease two 8-inch cake tins and pour half the batter into each tin. Bake in the oven for around 25 minutes until cooked. Test the middle with a skewer if you are not sure.

When the cake has cooled, whip the cream until stiff and use half to fill the cake and half to spread on top. Decorate the top with chopped cucumber, orange, strawberries and fresh mint leaves.

The cake has a hint of Pimm's and was really light; the cream was a better choice than buttercream. I was tempted to add a dash of Pimm's to the cream but wasn't sure how much this would have altered the consistency so if you do try that, let me know how it turns out!

 

I'm using this for Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I started to celebrate each location for the F1 Grand Prix, as this weekend is the UK.

I'm also sending it to the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen.

This is the perfect cake to enjoy at a barbecue so I am sending it to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Jane at the Hedgecombers and Karen at Lavender and Lovage.

The theme for Love Cake, hosted by Ness at JibberJabber UK, is cakes from around the world, and this is very much a British cake.

The theme for Vegetable Palette is glorious reds and Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen said she will accept fruits as well so since this cake uses strawberries I'm sending it in.

There's also a new challenge called Cake Club hosted by Kerry Cooks so this is my first entry.

Watermelon and Feta Cheese Salad

Today we had a food tasting session at Slimming World, where everyone brings a different dish and we all get to try it and swap recipes. I normally like to bake a low-syn cake for food tastings but it was too hot to cook last night, so I decided to make a salad. I also had a large slice of watermelon I'd bought on a whim a few days before, so when I saw a recipe for watermelon and feta salad in the latest edition of Slimming World magazine I knew it would be a good thing to make.

You can adapt this as you like and add different things, but the idea is that it is a Greek-style salad. All you do is chop the ingredients and the dressing is just lemon juice. So here's what I used:

half a large slice of watermelon
2 large tomatoes
half a cucumber
1 green pepper
1 red onion
150g feta cheese
basil leaves
lemon juice

Chop the fruit and vegetables and toss in a bowl. Chop the feta into cubes and add to the salad. Sprinkle some basil leaves on top and squeeze a lemon and pour the juice over the top. This makes a lot of salad and would serve at least 4 people, or if you took this to a barbecue and everyone just had a few spoonfuls on their plate, it would serve a big crowd.

This is a lovely change from lettuce-based salads and a good reminder that you can use fruit in salads! It was also very cheap to make - I got a large slice of watermelon from Morrison's for £1 and used half of it in this recipe (costing 50p), the cucumber was 50p from Lidl and I used half (25p), the onion was from a large bag I already had at home and the basil was from the plant on my windowsill. The pepper was one of a pack of three from Lidl costing £1 (so 33p), I can't remember how much the tomatoes were but they couldn't have been more than 50p, and I forgot to buy a lemon so used bottled lemon juice that I already had at home. The feta was the most expensive part, costing £1.99. But I think overall for a cost of around £3.50 this is a big, bright, unusual salad, and would be a great dish to take to a picnic or barbecue (or a Slimming World food tasting!).

This month the ingredient to use for the One Ingredient Challenge is the cucumber, so I am sending this to Laura at How To Cook Good Food who is hosting the challenge this month. The challenge is hosted in alternative months by Nazima at Franglais Kitchen.

I'm also sending this to Four Seasons Food, hosted by Louisa at Chez Foti and Anneli at Delicieux, as their theme this month is barbecues and barbecue side dishes.

This is a relatively cheap salad to make and goes a long way so I am also sharing it with Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Fish Fingers for Tea, on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All.

I'm also sending this to the Cheese Please blog challenge, hosted by Fromage Homage, as the theme this month is feta.