Cardamom Layer Cake with Raspberry and Rose Mascarpone

I recently received a copy of a recipe book called Cooking With Flowers, which shows you how you can use all sorts of flowers from the garden in your baking. It's a lovely looking book with some very unusual recipes and I decided I wanted to make something from the book for my mum as her birthday cake. I have to admit to being a rubbish gardener though; I don't know the names of 99% of the flowers in my garden (even the ones I planted myself!) and was a bit dubious about which ones were apparently edible. Roses are one of the few flowers I know (I did say I was rubbish!) and I was particularly taken by this recipe for a cardamom cake with raspberry and rose mascarpone; the picture looked pretty as well so I decided to make it.

I've adapted the quanties slightly (eg for the icing sugar as I found I needed more), but the quantity of egg whites is correct! You need: 

1 and 2/3 cup milk

8 egg whites

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 and 1/4 cups plain flour

2 and 1/2 cups caster sugar

6 tsp baking powder

1 and 3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp ground cardamom

1 and 1/2 cups butter

petals from 2 roses

1 cup double cream

2 cups mascarpone cheese

8 tbsp icing sugar

1 tbsp rosewater

2 cups fresh raspberries

for the candied rose petals:

1 egg white

a few tbsp of caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Pour 2/3 of a cup of milk into a measuring jug and add the egg whites and vanilla.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

I couldn't find ground cardamom, only pods. I had to crush them with a pestle and mortar first:

then remove the shells and you have seeds. I did my best to crush these in a pestle and mortar but I didn't get a particularly fine powder, though it worked fine in the end. Add the cardamom to the flour mixture.

Add the remaining 1 cup of milk and mix well with an electric mixer; then add the butter and mix again.

Whisk in the egg white mixture a third at a time.

Divide the mixture into three greased and lined 8-inch cake tins and bake for about 25 mins.

 I didn't see the part of the recipe that said to cool the cakes in their pans for 15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely; if you try to remove the cake from the tin too soon, this happens!

I learnt my lesson and the other parts of the cake were fine. It was a really moist, almost wet cake; the recipe book says you shouldn't fill it until shortly before serving. I made the cake the night before so waited until the next morning to make the filling.

I do have roses in my garden but unfortunately they are not in bloom yet and I couldn't wait as this cake was for my mum's birthday, so I bought myself a bunch of roses.

I wanted to make candied rose petals to decorate the cake with and needed to do this in advance. It's quite simple really - there are instructions at the back of the same recipe book. Separate the rose petals, whisk an egg white and brush the petals with egg white. Sprinkle them with sugar then leave to dry. I left these for two nights and found they hardened a bit but remained quite sticky. They looked good on the cake though in the end I didn't actually try eating one which was more an oversight than anything else!

To make the filling for the cake, place the remaining rose petals in a small bowl or glass with the double cream and leave to infuse overnight. When you are ready to use the cream, strain in a sieve and discard the rose petals.

Beat the cream, mascarpone, rosewater and icing sugar until thick.

Fold in the raspberries - keep a few aside for decoration

Mix again with the electric mixer to break the fruit up and turn the cream a lovely pink colour.

Spread a third of the cream on the bottom layer of the cake

Repeat with all three layers

Spread the remaining cream on top; I tried to pile it up in peaks (you could also pipe it on for a nicer effect).

Decorate the top with raspberries and the candied rose petals

Here's the finished cake - I thought it looked quite pretty and it tasted fantastic. The cake was so light and moist - I've never made a cake with 8 egg whites before - and the raspberry and rose mascarpone filling was creamy and delicious. You could make a variation on this with strawberries or perhaps replace the cardamom with another flavour like lavender - let me know if you decide to experiment!

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the baking blog challenge I host with The More Than Occasional Baker. Ros is hosting this month and the letter she has randomly chosen is R - so R is for rose and raspberry.

The theme for this month's Tea Time Treats is layer cakes so this cake also fits the bill. Tea Time Treats is hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked.

By luck this month's ingredient for the One Ingredient Challenge, hosted by Nazima of Franglais Kitchen and Laura of How To Cook Good Food is raspberries, so this cake is perfect for this challenge as well.

Raspberries are in season so I am also sending this to Simple and In Season, hosted by Ren at Fabulicious Food.

Update: I am also sending this to Love Cake, hosted by Jibber Jabber UK, as the theme this month is flowers.

Chicken Stuffed with Boursin in a Red Wine Sauce

 

 

This is a recipe I've been making for over ten years and its origins are lost in the mists of time.. I think I adapted it from a little Italian recipe book that I bought in Woolworths! It's something I can make almost with my eyes shut and it looks and tastes like a lot more effort has gone into it - my ex used to say this was better than similar dishes he'd had in restaurants and it was one of my favourite things to cook before I became more adventurous in the kitchen.

Take either a small packet of Boursin or other soft cheese flavoured with garlic and herbs, or make your own - here I've mixed garlic puree and parsley into some soft cheese. You could also use Quark for a healthier spin on the recipe.

Cut a pocket in two chicken breasts and stuff the cheese inside.

Wrap a piece of ham - either parma ham or I actually find wafer-thin sandwich ham works quite well - around the chicken breast and secure with cocktail sticks. Make sure the cocktail sticks go through the pocket you have cut in the chicken, fastening it together to keep the cheese in.

In a large saucepan, heat about 100ml red wine with 100ml chicken stock and 100ml water. You may need to top up the stock or water if it dries out while the chicken is cooking.

Carefully place the chicken breasts in the pan and cook gently, turning once or twice, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced.

The ham takes on the flavour of the sauce, which is lovely then poured over the top, and when you cut into the chicken the soft cheese oozes out. It's a delicious recipe and one many people probably have their own take on but if not, I urge you to make this!

Restaurant Review - Ed's Easy Diner, Piccadilly

Restaurant name: Ed's Easy Diner
Location: Piccadilly, London
Description: 1950s style American diner with a jukebox, high stools at the bar and booth tables.
Reason for visit: We wanted to get dinner somewhere in this area that wouldn't take too long as we were seeing a show. We'd eaten here before and really liked it so decided to go back.
I ate: A "slick dog" hot dog with BBQ sauce, bacon and cheese sauce, with fries.
My companion ate: Chicken dippers - chicken goujons in breadcrumbs - with fries.

The food was: It was a good hotdog and the cheese sauce was an interesting addition and nice but I think there was a little too much cheese. In fact the whole thing was too salty - the bacon on top was probably the main reason but even when I took some of the bacon off, it was still really salty. Which is a shame as the burgers, which I've eaten here before, are delicious. The thick milkshakes are awesome but very filling - almost a meal in themselves! They do free refills on soda too.
The atmosphere/service was: friendly, good service and quick. I also like the fact that if you sit on the high stools at the bar, there are hooks under the bar to hang your bag from so you don't have to put it on the floor.
Price range/value for money: The burgers in particular are good value compared to other upmarket burger chains.
Would I recommend it: Yes, it's a good place to eat if you're in the Piccadilly area especially if you need a relatively quick meal before seeing a show.

Masterchef Chocolate Crunch Dessert

A little while ago I won a cookery book in a Rafflecopter competition - the Masterchef Kitchen Bible. This is the first recipe I've made from it - it's actually called Rice Krispie Cake with Chocolate Mousse, Cherry Sorbet and Cherries in Kirsch - but I left out the cherries because I don't like them and didn't make the sorbet either as I wanted this to be a fairly quick and easy dessert. So I'm calling it Chocolate Crunch Dessert!

Serves 2
You need:
For the base:
50g dark chocolate
30g Rice Krispies
1 tbsp golden syrup
100g condensed milk
For the mousse:
75g dark chocolate
2 eggs
100ml double cream

Melt the chocolate and stir in the Rice Krispies. This takes me back a bit!

Stir in the syrup and condensed milk.

Spoon into the base of individual serving dishes and leave aside to set - but don't put in the fridge or they will set too hard.

So far it's just like a Rice Krispie cake...

Separate the eggs. Melt the chocolate for the mousse, and stir in the egg yolks.

Whip the cream - doesn't this look tempting?

Then beat the egg whites until stiff (in a separate bowl with a clean beater)

Gently fold the cream then the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to make a lovely mousse

Spoon the mousse into the serving glasses on top of the Rice Krispie mixture.

This was a lovely dessert; you could jazz it up with the cherry sorbet and kirsch or even add a shot of liqueur (I would recommend Chambord Black Raspberry liqueur) to the mousse for a more 'adult' dessert. But my boyfriend and I enjoyed this just as it is!

I'm sending this to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked, as the challenge this month is to make a chilled dessert.

Restaurant Review - The Grange, Wallington

Tuna on the hot rock grill

Restaurant name: The Grange

Location: Beddington Park, Wallington, Surrey (near Hackbridge station in London's zone 4)

Description: On the edge of Beddington Park, the restaurant has lovely views and is a popular wedding reception venue. It specialises in Indian cuisine and always offered a British pub-style menu as well, which I had never seen anyone order from (whereas the Indian food is very popular). However on a recent visit I found the non-Indian menu had changed significantly and looked a lot more enticing.

Reason for visit: My parents were visiting and we went out with my boyfriend and his mum as this restaurant is local to all of us, and we've been here before and liked it.

Chicken korma

I ate: As I mentioned, I've only ever had the Indian food here as the other menu didn't look very appealing. But it has changed and looked much more interesting; they've introduced a 'black rock grill', offering a choice of meats and fish cooked on a volcanic rock. The rock is heated to a very high temperature and the idea is that you can place the meat on the rock for as long as you want, so it's cooked to your liking. I ordered the tuna and was told it came with two side orders, so I ordered a side of potato wedges and a side of mixed vegetables. For dessert I had the cheesecake of the day, and I can't quite remember the flavour but I think it may have been toffee with raspberry sauce.

My companion(s) ate: chicken korma and pilau rice, followed by chocolate cake with chocolate sauce; my dad had a steak on the hot rock and my mum and my boyfriend's mum shared a selection of curry dishes.

The restaurant

The food was: The Indian food was of a high standard though a purist might dispute whether a korma is really supposed to be that colour yellow. But in the UK it generally is, and it tasted lovely. My tuna steak was excellent, and the side orders very generous, but my only quibble would be that the tuna steak was brought to the table on the volcanic rock. When I've had this in other restaurants, the meat or fish is served on the side for you to place on the rock as you wish.  This meant that the tuna was already cooked more than I would have liked (I love tuna when it's quite rare) before it was even put in front of me. I immediately took the tuna off the rock and sat it on top of my potato wedges but it was too late. This wouldn't matter at all with steak, or indeed any of the other options served on the hot rock, and in fact my dad got a bit fed up waiting for the middle of his steak to cook while everyone else was tucking in. So if I ordered this again I'd ask the waiter if they could bring the tuna separately, not on the rock; I would rather have had one side order and the space on the other side of the dish empty for my tuna when it had finished cooking. Other than that it was excellent.

The desserts were OK but not outstanding and my boyfriend's mum, who has worked in the catering industry, said she spotted some packaging from Brakes which made her think the desserts were brought in and not made on-site. I don't know if that's the case or not but they did have a slightly mass-produced feel to them. What I did like however was that a dessert trolley was brought to our table when we wanted to order, so we could see the selection- a new touch that wasn't offered the last time I ate here.

Chocolate cake

The atmosphere/service was: I had a feeling the restaurant had been redecorated too. We had a table by the window with a lovely view and the service was good. I've been here in the past when the restaurant was very busy, with a wedding reception upstairs and a huge birthday party in the restaurant, and I've had nothing to complain about other than noise levels. One time I came here there was a magician doing close-up magic at each table; not everyone would appreciate that sort of thing when they go out to dinner but to me it was quite entertaining.

Price range/value for money: Pretty good, in particular the Indian dishes though the cost can mount up a little when you order rice, naan bread etc. The hot rock dishes are £13-£18 which is also not bad for that sort of thing (£18 being for an 8oz ribeye steak) and the side dishes are included in the price.

Would I recommend it? Definitely, even if you're not local it's worth coming here. I think the new British/continental menu is a definite improvement and the Indian food is great. This is a really nice restaurant and a favourite of my parents when they come to visit.

Mystery cheesecake

Second visit: I returned to the Grange last week when my boyfriend had family visiting. I tried the steak on the hot rock, thinking that this time the meat wouldn't be overcooked by the time it got to the table, as steak takes a lot longer to cook than the tuna I had last time. It was a good steak, and the sides of jacket potato and seasonal vegetables were very tasty; I also ordered a blue cheese sauce which was a generous amount served in a jug on the side. However, I still find it difficult that there is nowhere on the hot stone to put your meat when it has finished cooking, and it's too difficult to cut steak when it's resting on top of the vegetables in the side dish. So I had to put the steak back on the hot stone every time I wanted to cut it, and it ended up very overcooked. It's a real shame as I like the concept, but I think I might go back to Indian food next time I eat here.

We also asked about the dessert trolley, and were told that they didn't have it any more, and they only had a few desserts which were specifically listed on the menu- though the dessert trolley itself was still listed on the menu, which our waitress said needed to be changed. She said the trolley hadn't done so well so they didn't have it any more!

Rump steak on hot stone

Meal Planning 2013- Week 23

Saturday was the first time in three weeks I've been able to go to Slimming World so I was quite worried - especially as I've been away a lot and so busy during the week that I haven't had time to think about what I'm eating. So I was very relieved to find my weight had stayed exactly the same! Now must make sure it doesn't start sliding the wrong way again...

Monday
Breakfast cereal
Lunch Baked potato
Dinner choir rehearsal. I've realised I'm never hungry until I get home and then if I get a snack it's never enough and I end up raiding the cupboards, so instead I'm going to aim to cook a meal in advance and have it ready for when I get home - probably a pasta bake as I'm too busy to be very imaginative at the moment!

Tuesday
Breakfast cereal
Lunch Leftover tuna pasta bake
Dinner Stir-fry (which I will cook at my boyfriend's house)

Wednesday
Breakfast cereal
Lunch Leftover stir fry
Dinner I'm debating going to a potluck dinner and book signing but don't know if I really have time; if I'm at home I will find something in the freezer for dinner.

Thursday
Breakfast cereal
Lunch couscous with chicken
Dinner With my boyfriend, probably at his house again as he hasn't been well

Friday
Breakfast cereal
Lunch couscous with chicken
Dinner monkfish wrapped in bacon with new potatoes

Saturday
Breakfast yogurt
Lunch On a cake pops course so will take a packed lunch
Dinner With my boyfriend (hopefully at my house if he's well enough) - pulled pork and potato wedges

Sunday
Brunch Findus-style crispy pancakes I've been promising my boyfriend for ages, but every time I've made them he hasn't been here
Dinner Need to check what I've got in the freezer to use up

Dancing Foxes Birthday Card

My boyfriend's mum loves foxes and has two that regularly appear in her garden. When I saw a decoupage kit of dancing foxes I thought it would make a nice birthday card for her. With decoupage, all you have to do is cut out the pictures - sometimes they are already cut and you just press them out of the sheet- and layer them with foam adhesive pads (to give height between the layers). Each picture is smaller than the last, so the first piece is the full picture - in this case the fox - and the second piece is everything minus the legs, the third is just the head, arm and tail, the fourth is just the head and the tail. That gives a 3D effect and picks out the most important details. Sometimes it can be a bit fiddly but I do personally like decoupage cards.

For this card I cut a piece of green backing paper that I thought had a pattern similar to grass and leaves, and stuck it along the bottom of the card, then mounted the dancing foxes and another fox looking on holding a bunch of flowers. Maybe he's about to cut in!

I also added some 3D clear plastic stickers with flowers in the middle as a final touch.

Burger Making Lesson at L'Atelier Des Chefs

For my boyfriend's birthday I booked us both into a burger-making lesson at the Atelier des Chefs near St Paul's in London. He loves burgers and I'd much rather he ate homemade ones than supermarket versions, and - I hope he won't mind me saying this - he doesn't know how to cook, so it would be helpful if there was something he could make if push came to shove! Also, I thought this would be a fun activity for us to do together.

I've been to the Atelier des Chefs before (their Oxford Circus branch) a few years ago on a corporate cookery evening, which I really enjoyed - the idea is that you learn to cook a meal then sit down and eat it afterwards. They offer all sorts of lessons of different lengths and at different prices, ranging from a £15 "cook, eat and run" where you can make a burger and eat it on your lunch break, to a French cooking masterclass for £144.

We got really lucky, as I had booked the class for what was probably the first sunny Friday of the year, so the other people who had reserved a place (you don't pay in advance) didn't turn up - they were probably having a drink in the pub like the rest of the Square Mile seemed to be doing! So whereas the week before, we were told there had been 15 people in the class, on this occasion there was... just us! I've no idea how much we would have had to pay for a private cookery class but the £36 each for the burger making lesson (which also included making potato wedges and onion rings with a glass of wine thrown in) was definitely excellent value!

Some of our ingredients

After washing our hands we met our chef, who explained what we would be doing and that we would receive the recipes afterwards by email (which never happened but I found them on the website). Then we got right down to it, being shown the right way to chop an onion, then crushing garlic and herbs and cutting up the potatoes into wedges. We seasoned the potatoes with a cajun spice mix and salt, and drizzled them with oil, and they went straight in the oven.

To make the burger we had to remove the fat from a huge steak, which was very hard - when it came to trying to remove a very thin film of fat running along the side of the meat with a very sharp knife, I managed to cut myself, and had to leave the rest of the work to my boyfriend and the chef while I bled into the sink!

As well as the steak we cut up chunks of pork fat which was going to be minced together.

I was quite pleased to see the mincer we were using was a KitchenAid attachment; I want one for my KitchenAid now! I didn't really see it in use as I was busy turning over the potato wedges, which were looking very tasty at this stage, but I caught a glimpse of my boyfriend merrily mincing steak for our burgers and took a couple of quick snaps.

We also made a barbecue sauce, which was amazingly simple. Fry onion and garlic then add all the other ingredients to the pan and simmer: bay leaf, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, cayenne pepper, cider vinegar, water, salt, dijon mustard and sunflower oil. You barely need to do anything and it tastes delicious.

The minced beef and pork fat was mixed in a bowl with herbs and large flakes of sea salt. We got our hands in and mixed it then shaped it into a giant ball.

Then we shaped it into five patties, to feed ourselves and the kitchen staff.

Next we moved onto the onion rings. We'd already sliced some onions into thick rings, then oil was heated in a deep fat fryer. We mixed a beer batter, dipped the onion rings, and carefully slid them into the fryer; they took less than a minute to cook then were lifted out and allowed to drain.

Here are the cooked onion rings

The burgers only took a few minutes to fry on each side. My mouth was really starting to water now!

Finally the potato wedges came out of the oven and we were ready to serve. The buns had been lightly toasted in the oven in the last few minutes while the potato wedges were cooking, which is something I haven't done at home before but it was really nice. We filled our buns with a burger, rocket, onion and tomato for those who wanted it.

And here it is, in all it's glory - a completely homemade burger, spicy potato wedges, beer-battered onion rings and barbecue sauce. I think my boyfriend, who has never even chopped an onion before, could barely believe he had made all this!

Here I am enjoying the fruits of my labours.... the food was delicious, probably one of the best burgers I've ever eaten, and I made it myself! The potato wedges were much better than the ones I make at home, so I will have to bookmark the recipe, and the barbecue sauce was tangy and worked perfectly with the rest of the meal. The onion rings were also probably the best I've ever had. The class was really good fun - the chef was highly skilled but also a good people-person and we had a great time learning from him and asking questions and chatting as we went. I highly recommend the Atelier des Chefs and I'd really like to try out some more of their classes!