Wimbledon Weekend

             

Pimms and tennis in the sunshine. The ultimate way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Particularly when the tennis is being played at Wimbledon, and you're actually there to watch it rather than watching it on a tiny screen in the corner of your living room like usual. Ben and I were lucky enough to get tickets for the final Saturday (as it turned out, Ben was lucky enough to go earlier in the week too. Not jealous or anything), so I took an afternoon off work on Friday and we sped down to have a lovely weekend in London.

I almost tried to detail it all in one post, then I realised that was ridiculous, because we ate an awful lot, and the post was starting to rival War and Peace in length. So instead, today I'm just sharing my Wimbledon pictures. 

We sat on Henman Hill to watch the ladies final, and then watched a surpsingly good girls doubles on Court One. We finished off the day watching the invitational doubles with some of the pros from back in the day. You might be able to tell from the photo that they weren't exactly playing by the rules, and it was great fun to watch. For the third set they stopped messing around and actually went for it, and it was seriously impressive. I got even more jealous of Ben being able to see more of the matches earlier in the week. 

We finished off the afternoon with some strawberries and cream. We were at Wimbledon. We couldn't not. Although it was so warm, I sort of wished I'd just got the strawberries. Soaking up the atmosphere put me so much in the mood for tennis, I'm so sad Wimbledon is over for another year! At least there's the American Open to look forward to at the end of the summer. Are you a tennis fan, or do you get confused by thousands of people following the track of a yellow ball like dogs?

 

Artisan Cheesecakes

 

Tucked away in Bruntsfield in Edinburgh is a wonderous place called Artisan Cheesecakes. A teeny tiny cafe absolutely devoted to cheesecake. I don't want to be dramatic or anything, but visiting might chage your life. There's so many cheesecake options you just won't know what to do with yourself. Luckily when Ben and I visited on Sunday the man behind the counter was absolutely lovely, chatting away as we uhmd and ahhd over what to take away with us. 

The cheesecakes are in quite industrial fridges, which is a shame because the rest of the shop is so cute, but I suppose needs must, and those cheesecakes definitely deserve appropriate sheltering from the heat that's currently engulfing the city. 

Eventually we went for one classic and one that was, well, a little bit out there. Creamy vanilla cheesecake with rice krispy cake on top of a chocolate biscuit base, studded with homemade marshamllow and drizzled in chocolate ganache. It was unlike any cheesecake I've ever seen, but it was also absolutely delicious. You can sit in, if you can squeeze in somewhere, but I think taking it away and sitting to relax in the Meadows which surround the shop is a much better option. You can get the cheesecake in little plastic boxes, which is very handy for this!

  

 

  

Our second, classic choice was raspberry and white chocolate, and if I'm honest I think for me the classic had the edge. We bought a minature whole cheesecake, rather than a slice of this one because it was just too cute not to, and it too came in its own little box which saw it safely transported home because we couldn't squeeze the two in whilst we sat on the grass.

I will undoubtedly be returing to Artisan Cheesecakes, as I hear rumour they have over 170 different flavours on a rotating basis. So it would be rude not to give a couple more of them a go.

If a cheesecake craving hits you, you can find the shop at 104 Bruntsfield Place, or their original shop out in Bathgate, 87 South Bridge St.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Brownies

Shhh... don't make too much noise, you might scare the blogpost away! So it's been a little while since I last blogged. And since I read any blogs. And basically since I've been anywhere near a computer except for work or writing my dissertation. Tonight though, the when I got the urge to bake, I decided to not only bake, but actually blog about it too!

If you've ever been on this blog before, you'll know how much I love brownies. You can find classic, orange, blood orange and beetroot... there's a lot of brownie love! You'll also know I've never really had to think much about food intolerances in the past - I don't think I've ever featured a free from recipe before (despite the fact that Ben is allergic to pretty much everything under the sun). But a lovely person in my office is gluten and lactose intolerant, which has made me think a little bit more about baking for special dietry requirements - I feel awful when I take a tin of goodies in and I know they can't tuck in too.

I found the recipe for these gluten and dairy free brownies here at Scientifically Sweet - it uses ground almonds, lots of egg white and icing sugar to get that dense chewy texture and cocoa powder for the rich flavour that makes everyone love brownies. Whilst it is in no way healthy (check out how much icing sugar there is!) it is fat free, and the ground almonds are an excellent source of protein. I highly recommmend you give them a go (as in really very highly - I don't normally post about recipes from other places, but I am making an exception). And don't be scared by the free from-ness of them. They really are pretty spectacularly close to traditional brownies.

Sunday in Northumberland

  

Sundays are special. They're for big cups of tea and rooting around in bookshops. For walking up hills or along beaches. Redecorating the living room, or even just reorganising your sock draw. They're for whatever you want them to be.

Today is Sunday, and although my morning was fairly self indulgent, the afternoon has been spent working on my Masters thesis. I'm still in the early stages where you feel like you're swimming through treacle, and I can only look at it for so long. So I thought I'd take a little break and share some of the photographs from a couple of Sundays ago, when I had a wonderful day down near Newcastle with Ben, pootling around National Trust properties and eating the most delicious Sunday roast.

We visited Cherryburn - the birthplace of Thomas Bewick, a name I didn't know until we went in, but then realised I was actually quite familiar with his work. A wood engraver and a naturalist, Bewick revolutionised print art in the middle of the 18th century, illustrating numerous books about natural history, amongst other things. Not only was the printing method he developed much cheaper than other methods, his meticulous attention to detail, and the fact that he based his illustrations off actual specimens meant his books were surprisingly accurate for their time. I think it's amazing that he was so determined to tell such an accurate story all those years ago. The property is tiny, especially compared to other National Trust properties, but as I'm sure you can tell by the lengthy paragraph I've ended up dedicating to it, I really loved it and learnt a lot. I'd highly recommend it if you're in the area!

We stopped into a pub I'd heard good things about, The Feathers Inn for Sunday lunch, and although it was crammed to bursting they managed to find us a seat in a little outside area, which we were more than happy to take in such beautiful sunshine.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a stickler for knowing where my food has come from, especially meat, so I was incredibly impressed to see this map on the back of the menus, detailing exactly where all of the produce the pub uses in food comes from. Funnily, they get some of their vegetables from the same crop share Ben's family uses - Go Local.

The local ingredients really shone in the food that we ate - fish fritters, classic Sunday roast with beef and rabbit pie. I only have one gripe, and that's that we were so full we couldn't sample the dessert menu! Next time we're going to mains and pudding rather than starters and mains.

Chunky Chocolate Chip Muffins

Well it has been quiet around here hasn't it? Turns out starting a new full time job is pretty time consuming! Luckily I think I'm starting to get into the swing of things. Certainly I've started to take baked goods in to share with everyone - it's great because I finally have a captive audience to take cake to whenever I fancy!

These muffins weren't the first thing I took in - we had an excess of bananas (hundreds and hundreds of the things) so I took some banana bread in, but I've already shared the recipe for that here (although I didn't treat the office to the fancy toppings, I'm not sure it would have travelled well!)

However, the muffins did go down very well, so now I'm going to share the recipe with you.

320g Plain Flour
2tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
110g Butter (melted)
200g Caster Sugar
2 Free Range Eggs
250ml Milk
2tsp Vanilla
175g Chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 220oC.
2. Melt the butter and leave to cool.
3. Put all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together.
4. Add the melted butter to the caster sugar, milk and vanilla and mix well.
5. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Evenly spoon into 12 muffin cases.
7. Bake for 5 minutes at 220 and then reduce the heat in the oven to 180 for the remaining 15 minutes.

Coral Anniversary Cake

Last week my parents celebrated their 35th Wedding Anniversary. 35 years! Isn't that incredible?

The traditional gift for 35 years is coral. Now, not only do you not want to go around giving actual coral (I won't get my science hat on but read here for more) but it's also fairly difficult to incorporate a coral theme into cake. All I could think of was Finding Nemo, which would have been a bit lost on my parents I think, so instead I decided to go for coral coloured flowers, nice and simple (theoretically).

The whole thing turned into a bit of a farce. I made the cakes in Edinburgh and then took them all the way home to near Liverpool. I made the icing for the layers and crumb coat the evening I got home but then had to hide the icing and the cakes in my room because my parents got home from work too early I recommend you don't try sleeping with a tub of icing in the room. The temptation is so great.

I then spent the next morning manically layering and crumb coating, whipping up the main icing, icing with a "rustic" style because if I'm honest there was no time for anything else, and then painstakingly making tiny little fondant flowers for to decorate. All done hidden in the conservatory in case someone came home early. I finished by the skin of my teeth, and I was quite happy with it. I'd intended on a super smooth icing which would have suited the fondant flowers more - the rustic look would have been better with real flowers. But time got the better of me so no super smooth icing. Stupidly, I could have saved myself a lot of time by just going to buy buy some fresh flowers. Oh hindsight.

So lesson of the blogpost - be prepared!

I used the following recipes:

• Double the sponge recipe from this Raspberri Cupcakes cake
• The strawberry (although I used raspberry) cream cheese icing from Glorious Treats
• 375g Icing Sugar, 225g Butter, dash of milk for the layering/crumb coat butter cream

I've included a few behind the scenes snaps of assembling the cake. I was on snapchat the whole time annoying my friends with lots of pictures of layers. Have you ever had to make a special occasion cake for someone? Were you more organised than I was? (I hope for your sake you were!)

 

Lemon and Raspberry Easter Pudding

A couple of weeks ago I decided to make some lemon macarons for my Mum, for Mother's Day. No big deal - I've pretty much got macarons down now, although I do still feel an overwhelming sense of pride every time I get perfect shells with properly formed feet. 

However, despite my relative confidence, macarons are tricky treats, and they don't always work. This time I'm not sure what went wrong - I think it was a combination of not getting the sugar hot enough and then, once I'd whipped the egg whites and hot sugar together until cool, I left it to sit for a while because my friend popped round for a cup of tea. I knew as I piped them that something wasn't right, the mix was far too runny. Nevertheless I persevered, just in case, and let them sit before putting them in the oven. Sadly they came out terribly cracked, and I was left with a pile of sad macaron shells and some lemon curd I'd made earlier to fill them with. 

 
I couldn't resist a little nibble of the cracked macarons, and they still tasted delicious, so I decided to try and make use of them anyway. I took them all the way home with met, along with the lemon curd and made some nice little puddings for after lunch Mother's Day. If you don't have any cracked macarons, you could just use some plain meringues, either bought from the shops or some you've made yourself, but I'd definitely recommend colouring homemade ones yellow, it's so bright and cheerful, and definitely seasonal. Macarons are also a little chewier than shop bought meringue, and have almonds in them, so the taste wouldn't be quite the same, although I think they'd still be delicious.

Lemon and Raspberry Easter Pudding

Makes 6 Individual Puddings

1 batch of macaron shells/ 1 batch of meringue, crushed (I use a recipe from this book for macarons, but there's plenty out there online if you don't have a favourite)
1 punnet of raspberries
300ml Double Cream, whipped 
Lemon Curd (recipe below)

Lemon Curd

3 Unwaxed Lemons (zest and juice!)
4 Egg Yolks
90g Caster Sugar
40g Butter

1. Put all of the ingredients in a blender and pulse until the zest has all but disappeared.
2. Then put heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water and put the mix from the blender into the bowl.
2. Stir until everything has melted and then keep stirring until the yellow mixture coats the back of the spoon. It has to thickly coat the back of the spoon, so if you run your finger through it the line you make stays clear. This can take up to 15 minutes.
3. Sieve the curd into a bowl, or if you're keeping it for something else put it in a sterilised jar. Don't use it until it's completely cool.

Assembling the Puddings

1. Put a layer of macaron crumbs on the bottom of your ramekin.
2. Drizzle some lemon curd over the macaron crumbs.
3. Add some fresh raspberries. Pack them in nice and tight so you get a nice clear pink layer on the outside of your ramekin.
4. Fill the ramekin to the top with whipped cream.
5. Sprinkle some more macaron shell around the edge of the ramekin and swirl some lemon curd into the top of the cream.