The blog turned one this week! I've been playing around with the idea of making a rose cake for a while so I decided that now was a good time to try it. It also seemed appropriate as my grandmother's birthday would have been this week too and she is the one I first started playing around with rose petals with. I couldn't decide how best to have the flavour come across and how to have the flavour match the texture, so I considered (and tried) both a Genoese sponge and a butter cake. In the end the butter cake worked better. I also wasn't sure how best to have the flavour come through from the petals. In one cake I tried adding dried, crushed petals to the batter, and for the other I infused the milk with the rose petals. We had it with rosé syllabub, which surprisingly came out tasting quite rosy. Here is the recipe that worked best, although I might try it over with a couple of tweaks at some point (not just now though as I don't think we need another cake in one day). Ingredients: For the cake: 1 3/4 c sugar 2/3 c butter 2 eggs 2 3/4 c flour 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/4 c milk 1/3 c dried rose petals For the syllabub: 3/4 c cream 3 tbsp rosé wine 1/2 tbsp sugar 1) Pour milk into a saucepan and add rose petals. Heat slowly until warm but not boiling and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes. Strain. 2) Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. 3) Mix flour and baking powder together, and add alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour. Mix well and pour into a prepared pan or cupcake tins and bake 30 -35 minutes at 177°C. Remove and cool on a wire rack. 4) Place cream, rosé and sugar in a bowl and beat until thickened. Dollop on top of cakes. I was really pleased with this cake. It didn't come out tasting very rosy, possibly because unfortunately I had only dried petals to play with, and no fresh petals. Despite not having a strong rose flavour, there was more complexity to the flavour than a usual butter cake. The Genoese sponge version was good, but drier and had even less of a rose flavour. The butter cake was therefore decided to be the better one, although I might play around with ways of intensifying the rose flavour. The rosé syllabub balanced the cake out perfectly. Not too sweet, and with a little acidic bite, and its rosy flavour. I had planned on trying a rose frosting too for comparison, but didn't get around to it, and in retrospect, I'm content with that. The cupcakes rose a lot in the oven but didn't dome, and I wonder if that is because I made the batter in the afternoon and only baked them quite late. Did sitting out half the day in the heat change anything? Trying to compare different versions of a recipe, I definitely wish I had access to a test kitchen! Book Pairing: I am currently listening to George Eliot's Romola. This is the third book of hers I have read, and I am very much enjoying it, aside from the fact that the central character from the first half of the book is rather a cad. Eliot came recommended to me by a very well-read family friend as being, in his opinion, the finest novelist in the English language. I am very glad that I took his recommendation and gave her a shot! EDIT: I worked out another two versions of this using fresh petals. Check them out here!

As mentioned in Day 74 of The Challenge Have I mentioned that it's pumpkin season? Once or twice maybe... Here is a another new twist on pumpkin soup. This time it was smooth rather than chunky, but sweet and gingery. Tasty and warming, it made for an excellent lunch. Ingredients: 1 small pumpkin, chopped 2 parsnips, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 onions, chopped A 6 cm chunk of ginger (approx), peeled and diced 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 c vinegar 1/2 c red cooking wine 1 tsp urfa biber (Turkish black chilli) 1 tsp fenugreek seeds Salt and Pepper to taste 1) Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot and sauté onions with the fenugreek seeds until the onions are translucent. Add ginger and cook for a few minutes until fragrant (you should be smelling the fenugreek by now too!) 2) Add the vegetables to the pot and cook for a couple of minutes before adding enough water to just cover the vegetables. Simmer until the vegetables are tender (I put my pot in my Wonderbag slow cooker once it had come to a simmer and went out for a walk in the meantime.) 3) Blitz the soup until smooth. Serve with crusty bread. So tasty and a beautiful variant to the traditional pumpkin spice soup. The carrots and parsnips add some sweetness and the ginger brings a nice heat, while the fenugreek (yes, more adventures in fenugreek exploration!) brings a warm fragrance to the soup. I do like the traditional one, but this one will be sticking around too.

As mentioned in Day 77 of The Challenge These were experimental, and came out very well. I wanted bread to go with our lunch. But we were out of bread, so I was going to make baking powder biscuits. But I was out of butter, so I decided to make corn muffins, but then realised that I had used the last of the eggs and milk already. So I made corn muffins with what I had - Apple sauce and apple juice instead of the eggs and milk. They were a bit sweeter than normal, and a little moister, but they worked! Ingredients: 1 c flour 1 c cornmeal 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 c sugar 2 eggs 1/4 c sunflower oil 3/4 c apple juice 3/4 c apple sauce 1) Mix together the dry ingredients. Gradually add the wet ingredients, mixing well to prevent lumps. 2) Spoon into muffin cups or into a prepared cake tin. 3) Bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes. These worked very well? They are certainly more sweet than savoury, and worked best with just butter, no jam or chutney really did justice or had its own justice done on these muffins, but they were tasty never-the-less. In future, I might use a little less apple sauce, and probably cut the sugar a little. Definitely worth a try for a bit of variety though!

Ginger Snaps are always a favourite at this time of year, and baking a variety of Christmas cookies is a joy of the season (as perhaps suggested by my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies last year). As part of it, I posted a Ginger Snap recipe (on the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me one ginger snap). They, of course, had to be on the roster for this year, but I wanted to tweak them a little, mainly with the addition of pieces of candied ginger and orange peel, and by increasing the powdered ginger. I didn't have quite enough molasses, so the 1/4 c of molasses was completed with some honey). Ingredients: 2 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp ginger 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp cloves 3/4 c butter 1 c sugar + 1/4 c to roll the cookies in after 1 egg 1/4 c molasses and honey (about 2 tbsp honey, the rest molasses) 2 tsp grated tangerine peel 2 tsp dried orange peel bits, briefly candied with the ginger 3/4 c candied ginger pieces 1) Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses (with honey) and mix until smooth. Add tangerine zest, orange peel and candied ginger. 2) Gradually add the dry ingredients, and stir to form cookie dough. Chill for 30 minutes at least. 3) Roll the dough into marble-sized balls and then roll in the remaining 1/4c of sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet with at least double the size of the marbles between the balls of dough - these spread! Bake at 180°C for 10 minutes. I love these! The smell of ginger snaps baking is so reminiscent of Christmas time for me, and of baking as a family growing up, with friends, and now with my own little family. I really enjoyed this year's tweaks and hope you do too!

I was talking to family in Hawaii recently, and it was evening for them, morning for me. They were having corn muffins with dinner, so I decided to have corn muffins for breakfast. Somehow though, on the way to go make them, I ended up deciding that they were going to be oatmeal muffins, and then I was going to add pear. Gradually, what with one thing and another, they morphed into something wholly new, adding a bit of this and a bit of that. As they came out really tasty, I thought I'd share. They are almost not sweet at all, and are very good with an added smear of richness from some butter. Ingredients: 1c flour 1/2c oats 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 c vegetable oil 3/4c brown sugar 1 egg 1/4 c milk 1/2 tsp almond extract 1/4 c unsweetened bakers cacao 1/4 c ground almonds Zest of 1 orange 1 large pear, coarsely grated 1) Mix together dry ingredients. Gradually add wet ingredients, mixing well after each addition. 2) Spoon into muffin cups, about 2/3 full. Bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes. These were very tasty and made a good breakfast, but... Next time I would increase the oats, maybe decreasing the flour at the same time. I would also up the cinnamon a bit and maybe use Aloha Spiced Cacao to make the flavours pop a little more. I liked that these were minimally sweet, but I might add a small amount more sweetness next time, maybe a tablespoonful or so of honey. Hubby said they were spot on though and didn't need anything.

The meat can also be swapped out entirely for a vegetarian version of this dish, or swapped for something Tweak the ingredients and it can be vegan, vegetarian or carnivorous.

From somewhere came the idea of trying a Salted Caramel Ice Cream recipe, and then on Binging with Babish I saw a trick for making Dulce De Leche. You boil a full tin of condensed milk in a pot of water for between 1 and 3 hours, and then when you open it, it is caramelised. I tried this recipe twice. The first time I used the same basic ice cream recipe as in the Rose Petal Ice Cream, but I accidentally used unsweetened condensed milk. I tried adding sugar and further caramelising it once I took it out of the tin, and it worked, but the flavour was not strong enough to hold its own once I mixed it with the cream and put it all in the churn. The result is nice, but a bit bland, more of a fiore di latte than a caramel ice cream. In my second attempt, I made sure to pick up sweetened condensed milk, and the caramelising trick worked great. On opening the tin we found a thick, rich Dulce de Leche with a beautiful colour (although I must say that I feel rather like Amelia Bedelia boiling a tin). I then tried out Michel Roux's basic ice cream recipe (sort of) based on a frozen Crème Anglaise, but unfortunately got this going when I had a number of other bits going on the stove at the same time, and Little Bit started resisting bed time. The result was that the eggs lumped a bit in the mix. I wondered whether to chuck it and whip cream for my ice cream instead, but instead decided to run with it. I mixed in my caramel and stirred more or less continuously until it all thickened up enough to go in the churn. The result has a wonderful flavour. The eggy custard base adds a beautiful depth and richness to the flavour. The small eggy lumps mar the effect a little, and are more perceptible as the ice cream melts, but initially they are barely noticeable unless you look for them. I will include both recipes - using whipped cream, which I recommend if you don't have a churn, and the custard based one - as the flaws were neither of them in the conception or recipe but rather in the execution. The first produces a lighter flavour with a firmer, harder texture when frozen, the other a softer texture and a richer flavour. Both were tasty (but I can only imagine version 1 with properly caramelised ice cream). For V1 (with or without an ice cream maker): Ingredients: 1 c sweetened condensed milk (ish, I just use the whole tin) 2 c cream 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 c caramel bits 1) Place the unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Place over heat and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and boil for 2 ish hours (less time will result in a lighter caramel, more in a darker caramel. In order for the flavour to hold its own I wouldn't boil for any less than 2 hours). Top up water as necessary. 2) Whip cream. Fold in caramel, salt and caramel bits. 3) EITHER place in Ice cream churn until thick and nearly frozen, then place in container in the freezer OR place directly in a container in the freezer, relying on the lightness of the whipped cream for the ice cream's lightness. For Version 2 (using an ice cream churn): Ingredients: 1 c condensed milk (ish, I just use the whole tin) 6 egg yolks 2 c milk 1 c sugar 1/3 c caramel bits 1/2 tsp salt 1) Place the unopened tin of sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover. Place over heat and bring to a boil. Cover the saucepan and boil for 2 ish hours (less time will result in a lighter caramel, more in a darker caramel. In order for the flavour to hold its own I wouldn't boil for any less than 2 hours). Top up water as necessary. 2) Place milk and 2/3 of the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with remaining 1/3 of the sugar until it forms a ribbonny consistency. 3) Pour milk over the egg and sugar mixture, whisking continuously. Pour back into the saucepan, turn the heat to low and stir constantly (this is where I failed) until the custard thickens. Stir in the caramel and salt about mid-way through. 4) Remove from the heat and allow to cool thoroughly. Pour into the ice cream churn and allow to go until nearly frozen. When the mixture is very cool but not yet anywhere near set, add the caramel bits (I added mine a little early and they were less discernibly bits in the final ice cream, and more just concentrated caramel pockets of ice cream. Place in a container and freeze. To my great good fortune, when my sister stayed over last night (invited in the very solemn role of Ketchup Guinea Pig), she warned me that she would have to make brownies to bring to work while staying over. For dessert today therefore, we had Version 2 of the Salted Caramel Ice Cream with fresh brownies. There are certainly worse fates one could have to face. The consensus was that this was well worth making again, and was not ruined by my failure to stir the custard constantly yesterday. It would be nice served with some flakes of sea salt or curls of dark chocolate, something with no add sweetness which would contrast nicely with the caramel's sweetness. I am certainly glad I tried a different method for ice cream making, and that I picked up the right condensed milk this time!

I was invited this week to take part in a collaboration on Instagram for International Tea day on the 21st of May and to put together an Afternoon Tea. In planning this, scones seemed almost a prerequisite. Continuing my earlier quest for scones that rise well without self-raising flour, at some altitude and without the taste of baking powder, I decided to try the use of some baking powder and some baking soda. Soda needs an acid to activate it, and without whey on hand this time, I decided to try using honey, which somewhat surprisingly is acidic. I didn't use any sugar and instead used about a tablespoon of honey, and my scones came out quite well. They didn't rise as much as I would have liked, so I will try again, increasing the quantities of soda and honey accordingly, but as a first attempt at this, they came out nicely and had a lovely flavour. Given the absence locally of clotted cream, I used Double Crème de Gruyère instead which worked delightfully. Ingredients: 1 1/2 c flour 1/2 c butter, cubed 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1 tbsp honey 1/3 c milk 1/3 c raisins 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1) Place dry ingredients in a bowl. Add butter and rub together with the dry ingredients until they form a crumb-like consistency. 2) Add the honey and milk and stir with a fork, forming a thick dough. Mix in raisins and press dough together without kneading. 3) Roll out on a floured surface to about 1 1/2 cm thick and cut out rounds of the desired diameter. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 180°C for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with butter or clotted cream and jam or honey for best results. These were very tasty and had a very nice crumb. I would have liked them to rise by about another 1/2 or 1 cm, but I was quite pleased with them doubling in size. They had a taste almost of cinnamon raisin bagels and were particularly nice with homemade Plum and Apple Jam. Book Pairing: I made these while listening to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. it is one of the few of hers that I had not previously read. My sister started reading it aloud to me a year ago on skype but we didn't get very far, so I decided to listen to it on my own instead and wrap it up. I found it thoroughly delightful, if a little frustrating in parts, and Austen's biting satire is as entertaining as ever. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Late last year, my sister, a friend and I agreed to start on a new project with the new year, making different recipes in 3 different ways, each putting our own spin on it. (For more on our Variations on a Theme project, check out the main page)With the new year now underway, there has been some discussion back and forth for a few weeks now as to what we should make for our first recipe, and last week we lit on brownies. No firm plans were made yet, but we each agreed to start thinking about what we wanted to do and to set a date soon to lay down the ground rules and to cook. And then this weekend I was on night shifts on a very busy surgical ward (we barely sat down all night). Around about 4 in the morning I had a craving for brownies, which obviously couldn't be satisfied then and there, but I sent out a message asking that we have a call and make our brownies Sunday evening or Monday. The other two agreed, and I am extremely grateful, as last night I was able to satisfy the previous night's craving! So here is our first Variation on a Theme! Traditional Brownies with a Twist by my Sister Experimental Peanutbutter Brownies by me Vegan Pomegranate Fudge Brownies By Hibiscus Kook All in all, this was a very fun project! Looking forward to trying Hibiscus Kook's brownies, and I really enjoyed seeing where each of us went with these. And for the next one, pancakes coming up! SO watch this space...

Or is it Lemony Cream Pasta? Working with what we had in the fridge, this is what came out. We have a teething baby (why already at 10 weeks old? I thought we had another couple of months!) and a toddler who refused to nap today and was overtired, so it had to be quick and easy. We've all been sick so the more places I can include vitamin C, the better. This was the result this evening, and it seemed good enough to share, so here it is. Ingredients: 500g tagliatelle 1 1/2 - 2 c slab bacon, cubed 2 onions, chopped 1 c mascarpone 1 c cream 1 lemon, peel strips and juice 1 tsp sumac 6(ish) c spinach, or 6 large frozen cubes 1 tbsp vinegar - I used homemade lemon vinegar, white wine vinegar would work too. Salt and pepper Optional: Cured egg yolk grated over the top 1) Boil the pasta until al dente, as per packet instructions. Drain setting aside 2c of pasta water. Stir in mascarpone, cream, vinegar and lemon juice. Add sumac, salt and pepper. Add necessary pasta water to achieve enough sauce to coat the pasta but not have it swimming. 2) Meanwhile, brown the bacon bits in a pan over medium heat. Add onions and fry for a few minutes until translucent. Add spinach and strips of lemon peel, cooking until spinach is wilted or defrosted, depending on what you're using. 3) Stir the bacon and spinach mix into the pasta. Grate cured egg yolk over the top if using. Taste test and serve warm (optionally with a nice rosé.) We really enjoyed this. It came together quickly (the longest part was defrosting the spinach), it felt light but was flavourful. Little Bit objected to anything touching his pasta until he realised he was missing out on bacon. Definitely going to hold onto this one. Despite the cream, bacon and mascarpone, it was not overly rich or heavy. It would also have worked without the bacon (surprisingly, as I usually seem to think most things could be improved with bacon!), although it was certainly tasty with it!