Loafing Around

I have a lot of recipe books because I love to cook. Even so, I am always looking out for new recipes. I came across this cake recipe at the website of a magazine from Britain called 'The Simple Things'.

For those who might not know, icing sugar is also known as powdered sugar. I used less sugar for the icing than was called for but with probably too much orange juice. This may be why the icing ran off so much. I just kept scooping it up and pouring it back onto the loaf. Next time I'll make sure the icing is thicker.
And yes, there will be a next time. Yum!

http://www.thesimplethings.com/janis-cake-in-the-house-pistachio-raspberry-loaf/

Vegging Out

When not painting or at the beach I can be found gardening. This is what our little veggie patch has been producing lately.

Looking forward to eating these roasted.

The High Life

Ever since we put in our garden two years ago I have wanted to add a herb garden. Unfortunately the space was taken up by wood which we have gradually been using up by having bonfires at the beach. After finally clearing enough room for it we then had to work out how to do it.

We knew it had to be a high-rise herb garden because the space available was limited. Herbs need full sun as much as possible and we couldn't block the vegetable garden to the left (out of sight).

As an IKEA fan I looked at their catalogue and found these steel shelves ($14.99 each) which were and are perfect for the task. Most of the pots (and herbs) come from two local nurseries. The grey and white pots on the bottom shelves are old paint buckets which have been cut down and with holes drilled in the bottom. We decided not to use trays underneath the pots as they will overflow anyway when it rains.

The configuration we used allows maximum sun exposure and hides the rubbish bin.

I chose the particular herbs I like to use, plus strawberries which are so much better from your own garden.

Left-hand shelves: top shelf: Basil; second shelf: Curly Parsley, empty pot awaiting French Tarragon; third shelf: French, English, and Creeping Thyme;

bottom shelf: Strawberries.

Right-hand shelves: top shelf: Rosemary (l) and Spearmint (r); second shelf: Basil seeds; third shelf: Mint (l) and Chocolate Mint (r); bottom shelf: Strawberries.

I'm looking forward to using my own freshly grown herbs again.

Good Times

I love this sign that I saw in Laguna Beach last week.

What constitutes 'the good life' is very different for each of us. For me it is going to the beach, painting, drawing, spending time with my husband and friends, reading, cooking, gardening, and going to new places.

I feel very blessed that I am able to do these things but it didn't all come at once and there were many sacrifices along the way. I still sacrifice things of lesser importance for the things I value most, keeping my eye on the long term. I value the small steps forward I am making towards my goals and I never take any of it for granted

That Takes the Cake

Every year I make an English Christmas cake. This is a fruit cake covered by a layer of marzipan followed by a layer of royal icing. 

I start the cake the night before cooking by mixing the dried fruit with a few tablespoons of orange juice. The next day the rest of the ingredients are added and the cake is baked for four hours. Only this year I decided to forget about it and it baked for an additional 90 minutes. But it looks alright.

I leave the cake packed in a container to rest for a while before starting the next layer.

When I visit England I always buy several packs of marzipan. You can buy it in the States where it is called almond paste but the packages are too small. In England it is sold in a package large enough to cover an eight inch cake (with just enough left over for a little treat.

This isn't my neatest job but it will be covered up so it doesn't really matter.

Next I leave the cake out for three days so the marzipan will dry out otherwise the oils in the marzipan can seep into and colour the icing.

The final layer is the royal icing. This is made from icing sugar (powdered sugar) and egg whites. The sugar is slowly added to the egg whites until it becomes very thick and then the mixture is whipped with an electric mixer. Finally it is spread over the cake and left out for the icing to harden.

There are various ways to decorate a cake. I go for the easy option of roughing it up on top to stimulate snow. I then use different decorations to create a little winter scene. Thanks to my friend Nicola for sending me these ornaments.

Once the icing has hardened, all that's left is to put the cake away some where cold and dry until the evening of Christmas Day when it is traditional to cut the cake. I love Christmas cake so I can't wait.

Cake and icing recipe and instructions courtesy of Delia Smith's Christmas Cook Book.

Takes the Cake

I love to cook and being English I love dessert. I've been asked for the recipe of a cheesecake that I made recently and thought it might make a good post. However, many of the best English desserts are very high in calories and so are not for the faint-hearted (literally). So if you are on a low calorie diet please look away now.


Raspberry and Ginger Cheesecake

This is a British recipe so I cannot give equivalents in cups since I haven’t tried to fit these amounts into American cup measurements.

225g/8oz Ginger Biscuits, crushed

100g/4oz unsalted butter, melted then cooled

150ml/1/4 pint double cream*

225g/8oz mascarpone cheese

2 tbsp. clear honey

Juice of 1 lime

350g/12oz raspberries (or strawberries or bananas)

Make the base by combining the melted butter and the crushed biscuits and pressing them into a greased 8-inch dish (ideally with a removable bottom). Chill for 30 minutes.

For the filling, whip the cream in a bowl until firm but not stiff. Then add the mascarpone, beating it into the cream to a smooth texture.

Fold in the honey and lime juice and most of the fruit, reserving a few for decoration.

Spoon the mixture onto the base and spread with a knife.

Chill for at least three hours. Decorate with remaining fruit before serving.

Recipe from a BBC Cooking magazine in the 1990’s

*A word about double cream. This is a thick cream that is not the same as heavy whipping cream found in American supermarket. In the past I have tried to substitute whipping cream for double cream in other cheesecake recipes and it has not worked for me. It may be that whipping cream does not have the fat content to hold itself in this kind of situation. But you are welcome to try and hopefully you will have better luck than I did.

I buy my double cream from a British shop in southern California. When I lived in Arizona I found it at a gourmet supermarket called AJ Fine Foods. It costs around $6. Although it needs to be kept refrigerated, unopened it does have around a six month sell by date. The glass jar I buy is 170g/60z and is enough for this recipe.