Apple,Blackberry and coconut Squares for Vagina Monologues Bake Club!!

Vagina Monologues National Tour began this week - we're on the road till December 4th coming to a theatre near you!! vaginamonologues.co.uk
Got a great bunch of girls in Louisa Lytton, Zaraah Abrahams and Emma Kelly and I know it's going to be fun - Girls on Tour!!
I've decided that there are enough of us for a Bake Club, so whenever I am home or get the chance I will be baking the company cakes or biscuits or whatever they request!!
Started the ball rolling today with Apple, Blackberry and Coconut Squares - picked the last of the blackberries on our common and made a traybake - it was a bit of an experiment but they turned out really - not too sweet and great texture with the fruit and the crumble topping.

250 g Self Raising Flour
100 g Oats
280 g Soft brown sugar
200 g Cold Butter - cut into pieces
75 g Dessicated Coconut
3 medium Eggs - beaten
250 g Bramley Apples  - chopped
150 g Blackberries - fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 180 o C and grease and line a baking tray approx 20cm square

Place flour,sugar and oats in a food processor.
Add the butter and process until you have a breadcrumb consistency ( this can be done by hand if you prefer)
Mix in the coconut. 
Take out a cupful of the mix and reserve.
Add the beaten eggs to the rest and then place the mix into the tray - pressing right down and into the corners.
Spread out apple on top and then blackberries.
Sprikle the remainin crumble mix on top.
Bake in the oven for 55 - 60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool and then turn out and cut into squares.

A Tart for Sunday Lunch!!

Had friends round for Lunch yesterday and just had to make something from my new recipe book that arrived from Amazon this week - The Boy Who Bakes . Edd Kimber was the winner of last year's Great British Bakeoff and this is his first book  - I love it - Traditional recipes but also some that are a little different and very exciting. For lunch I decided on a traditional custard tart. Although the recipe suggested cherries as a filling, I opted for blueberries ( with apologies to Edd) as I had some that needed using up. It was so delicious - creamy but very light.

There wasn't even a crumb left !!!!
To have with our coffee, I made something from Edd's book that was new to me - Nanaimo Bars - a chocolate fridge cake with a custard icing centre. It hails from Canada and was just beautiful - very rich though and a small piece was enough - till our 2nd cup of coffee!!

Having made the custard tart I had six egg whites to use up, so I decided to make some individual meringues - well, it would have been rude not to!!
So, as they were made, we had to have peach melba pavlovas for pudding tonight!!

  
 
   

And the Winner is ......!!

Well we finally found a winner on This Morning's Supersweet competition. I was thrilled when Zoe Williams' Rhubarb Crumble Cheesecake was chosen by Phillip and Holly last Thursday. Hopefully it won't be long before it's on the shelves at Tesco - it's gorgeous and an exciting time ahead for Zoe - Well Done !! I've had a fantastic time working on the project and I'm hoping there'll be more chances to cook or bake on TV.

Camomile, Lemon and Honey Cupcakes!!

I had to wait in this morning for a delivery of 5000 roof tiles ( when will the builders be gone!!) and had the choice of baking or learning lines for forthcoming tour of Vagina Monologues - Baking won!!!
Looked in cupboard and found some camomile,honey and lemon teabags. Could they combined into a cake mix? Well I gave it a go!! They tasted delicious!!

Here's what I did -

Camomile, Lemon and Honey Cupcakes

250 g Soft Butter
250 g Caster Sugar
4 medium eggs
contents of 3 camomile, honey and lemon teabags
4 tsps lemon oil
1 tblsp honey
250 g Self Raising flour

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add eggs and beat well.
Add teabag contents, lemon oil and honey.
Fold in flour.
Spoon into cake cases.
Bake in 180 oC oven for 15 mins

Ice with icing sugar mixed with lemon juice and decorate with jelly lemons!!! ( Take me back to my childhood!!!)

See what you think............  

Lettuce,Walnut and Raisin Cake for tea!!

Fancied making a cake for tea, so chose my lettuce, walnut and raisin cake as it tates delicious and keeps really well in an airtight tin for days - not that it lasts that long!!

I know it sounds weird.... but I think it tastes great, not too sweet, and it's very moist. It's hard to guess the main ingredient, unless you're aware of it, but you certainly get a whiff of it when you open the tin!

Raspberries and Lunch Catchups!!

I'm trying to catch up with loads of friends before I go away on tour again!!

It's been a week of raspberries - Thursday at Susie Blake's house where we actually picked our raspberries for lunch from her allotment - they tasted amazing!!!
Then Friday was lunch at Tina's house where we were treated to a wonderful chocolate and raspberry roulade.

Six down to Three on Supersweet!!

Well, better late than never, we have decided on our final 3 puddings for Supersweet competition on This Morning. I'd be happy for any of the 3 to win but I do have a favourite - can't tell you yet!!
It was a long day in West London at Leith's school of food and wine - an amazing place - feeling the urge to go and do a course there!
All six semi finalists baked their cakes and puddings for us - there were a few scary moments along the way -but in the end we were presented with wonderful puddings from all. The decision was very tough and Gizzi and I debated for ages over a certain pud.
Hope you are all happy with our decision......