Berry Pink Passion Cake

I live with a truly wonderful couple, Kees and Dineke. Last week was Dineke's birthday and instead of a gift, I said that I would make her any birthday cake she wanted.

"Pink" Dineke exclaimed.

To which I said, "But pink isn't a flavour".

She laughed and I got to work, dreaming up flavours to accompany the desired shade...

Since my lavender cupcakes a month or so ago, I have let the floral-loving eye of mine (look in my wardrobe and you'll get what I mean) recommend its tendencies to my palette. Flowers look good, smell good and thus are bound to taste good, right? This is probably not true of all flowers - so don't let prettiness dictate what you eat or you might upset your stomach - but it is true of roses.

Having purchased some rose water the other day in my local Asian shop, I was itching to using it and the suggested colour scheme further urged me to put it to use. And then came the trip to the market in Leiden, the beautiful town I lived in up until just recently. It's impossible just to browse and so I came back with arms full of strawberries, raspberries, pineapples & passion fruits. Summer loving ...

I confess I didn't use the pineapple in the cake (I BBQ-ed it, which was simply delish), but the other fruits I did. And here is what I concocted:

Isn't it pretty! I officially christened it "Berry Pink Passion Cake", which is short for raspberry, rose & pistachio layer cake, with passionfruit curd and berry tasty mascarpone frosting. Now the top layer of cake is your average sponge with fresh raspberries lovingly tossed into the batter, and the bottom layer is rose flavoured sponge, with flecks of glorious green pistachios sneaked in, complete with a tiny dash of colouring for the lovely pink look.

Jam seemed too boring a glue to encourage the unity between my two delightful sponge's, so I settled for no less than passionfruit curd, with a smattering of creme fraiche to avoid a sweetness overload. See Nigella's recipe here.

The frosting was my one slight disappointment. I love sugar I really do, but sometimes, if the frosting is too sweet, it can spoil rather than compliment an already sweet cake. I began therefore with a tub of mascarpone, which I blended fresh strawberries and a bit of sugar through. It tasted great, but it just wasn't stiff enough and I needed the cake to be completely covered and completely pink, not some drippy mess. So I mixed the lovely creamy berry mix, with some royal icing to get it to the right consistency, so it would stick to the walls of the cake. This it did, gloriously, although perhaps a little to the detriment of the overall taste. I am still seeking a stiff, yet not-too-sweet frosting recipe. So hollar at me, if you have one.

On the whole though a berry tasty, berry pink and berry pretty cake.

Treasure-trove of treats

So I have made so much recently that I have a backlog of treasures to share. I thought I should do this sooner, rather than letting the delectable pile of photos become unmanageable, thus forever remaining unshared with food-loving friends. I've been rather busy lately and below are some of the treats that I have concocted. I'm afraid I've been rather rubbish at compiling recipes as I go, but if you see anything of particular fancy, let me know and I will try and remember for you. Even if you can't recreate these though do enjoy the pretty pictures, a treat for your eyes if nothing less!

So directly below we have some personalised cupcakes that I made for my housemates as a leaving gift. I made four different flavours according to their preferences. Fresh ginger and lemon curd, chai and white chocolate, chocolate earl grey and vanilla and white chocolate. I also couldn't resist making little boxes for them. Not only do the whole cake off, but I have become fed up with transportation issues and edible beauties becoming less-edible looking!

Directly below is a sweet potato, lemon balm, chilli and cod cake, then we have banana and coconut loaf (this was delicious I have to add!), then my homemade lemon curd and lavender scones - really a tremendous and summery combination.

My failed French macarons ... it saddened me that after 7 hours in the kitchen (and that is not a hyperbole, I only managed to produce, these less than perfect looking excuses. They tasted good according to their eaters, but I found them far short of macaron perfection. I will try again when the trauma subsides and I will succeed. Then there's my all time favourite to date - chai cupcake with chocolate chili ganache. If you've read my posts before then you'll know how much I love this combo. And to prove to you that I do eat savoury foods, we have some brie and chutney, and carrot and cream cheese muffins. Delicious sandwich alternative.

After discovering the delight of blending tea leaves into cake mixture, I had the joy of adding Mr Jones Lychee tea into a cake to create the lovely fella below. One word aptly describes this experiment: GORGEOUS. Then there's the chocolate earl grey cupcake with lemon & honey frosting, the white chocolate and coconut slab cake (one of Nigella's) and at the bottom a creation that was waiting to happen with the remainder of my clotted cream ...

I've been a busy girl! And I fear that my waste line has enjoyed herself a little too much. Right now I've unlocked the treasure-trove for you, I shall try and be more organised from here on and aim to include recipes with all of my posts, so you can have as much fun eating as reading.

Cheery Cherry & Chocolate

I was planning to bake some cupcakes for the last meeting of my church small group and I asked a friend what his favourite cupcake was. He said chocolate. Of course! A classic choice I do not deny; but on walking into the supermarket and seeing red cherries on offer, I couldn't resist picking up a punnet to add to class a bit of summer. Think black forest, yummy. I topped mine with some lemon curd frosting that I had left over (dyed peach for prettiness) but I think these would suit a marscapone or more creamy topping.

Ingredients:

100g plain flower,

140g caster sugar,

1.5 tsp baking powder,

Tsp vanilla sugar,

Pinch of salt,

40g unsalted butter at room temperature,

120ml whole milk,

15 fresh cherries chopped and pitted (plus 12 cherries to decorate)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180◦C.

With an electric mixer cream the butter with the sugar until smooth.

Combine flour, cocoa, vanilla sugar and salt, and sieve into the butter/sugar mix.

Stir gently until the mixture is well-combined and sandy in consistency.

Whisk together milk and egg in a jug and pour gradually into the dry mixture, combining gently. Do not over mix.

Add the chopped cherries and stir just enough to evenly combine them.

Pour the batter into 12 cupcake cases.

Bake in the oven for 20 mins.

Allow to cool and then add frosting of your choice.

Chocolate Chilli Chums

Asian food is my friend. Coming from Leicester, a city that celebrates the Indian curry (or should I say the Anglicized take on Indian curry) with tribute paid to the cuisine in the form of curry-house-trophies dotted up Belgrave Road, from an early age I have enjoyed the fiery charm of the noble chilli. This passion for Asian food intensified with my first sojourn to the continent in 2003. A family adventure to Sri Lanka, pact full of exotic thrills (including bottle feeding a baby elephant) and yet the memories most heavily imprinted on my mind these 8 years later were the mealtimes: curry for breakfast, curry for lunch and curry dinner.

Since then I have traversed over to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and wonders (literally) afresh have been revealed to my palette. As a food-fanatic, it would be hard to pin-down my favourite cuisine, but if I was to be hypothetically hard-pushed (because let's face it, why should I have to answer this question definitively and exclude a realm of other delectable dishes - I'm never going to be on a desert island with only one meal available to me), I am pretty sure 'Asian' would be pressured up to the near top of the pile. And the main reason for this romance is the spicy flutter induced by the kick of a chilli.

I also have a weakness for chocolate ...

So last week, after having prepared a Vietnamese dipping sauce (courtesy of Nigella Lawson) for a friend's dinner party, I had two chillis left over. Wanting to prevent the travesty of these bright and bold babies becoming shriveled and care-ridden, I started to daydream about how I might maintain their vitality and enjoy the spirited punch that they were extending to my palette. My mind wondered chocolatewards and after some internet browsing, I came across a Jamie Oliver recipe for chocolate chilli cake.

Not possessing a large enough cake tin and having my mind set on using up a bag of marshmallows that I had been handed by a friend - I decided to give the recipe a whirl, but with the variants of batter popped into cupcake cases and topping the cupcakes with a marshmallow-chocolate frosting. The marshmallow frosting proved to be a sweetness in harmonious contraposition to the chilli, but I also decided to finish off half of the batch with some white chocolate coconut frosting (which I happened to have left over). Personally, I found this combination even more heavenly, with the mild creaminess of the coconut intermediating the feistiness of the chilli - a fusion reminiscent of many an edible Thai chef-d'oeuvre.

For the Chocolate Marshmallow Topping:

250g of marshmallows

5 tbsp milk

Tsp of cocoa powder

Put the marshmallows in a pan, with the milk and cocoa (sieved). Melt them gently, whilst stirring and then put aside to cool. Once cool and thick enough to spread, spread the topping over the cupcakes.

(I put my mixture into the fridge to quicken the process and help it thicken, but be aware if you do this for too long, it will become so sticky and thick, that it will be impossible to spread. I had to melt mine down again, which then meant it lost all it's volume and I had to pad it out with icing sugar.)

For the White Chocolate Coconut Frosting:

75g white chocolate

15g unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

100g desiccated coconut (depends on preference)

Milk - judge the amount according to the consistency

Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl above a pan of boiling water. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. In the meantime, cream together the butter and icing sugar. Once completely combined, pour in the white chocolate and stir through. Add the desiccated coconut (more for a thicker frosting and texture finish). If the frosting becomes thick and too hard to stir, add some milk. Frost the cakes!

I love icing, but the cakes are actually moist enough not to need any topping at all.

These spicy, but sweet cakes are exactly what you need on a miserable rainy day, or on a hazy summer's afternoon for that matter. In fact these chocolate chilli chums are perfect for any occasion in which you want you to vitalise the moment.

Love Lavender

Towards the end of last September I tried the most delightful blend of tea. I had not been in Holland that long, but was beginning to learn about the Dutch method of serving tea ... If you order a cup of tea here in Holland, the waiter will bring you a cup of hot water and then a lovely box with divisions in it - which looks like it could house childhood trinkets - but actually contains a whole variety of tea, ranging from fruity, to black, green and sometimes even white varieties. At first I had snuffed their fancy assortments, craving the simple home comfort of English Breakfast tea with milk (which they don't serve unless you make a special point of asking). But on this particular September afternoon a wave of spontaneity, or perhaps it was the spirit of interculturation, came over me, as I spied a little pouch containing earl grey tea leaves and lavender buds and I popped it into my hot water...

Well you have to know how this ends, by the post title! I now love love love lavender. Sure the smell had always enchanted me, speaking of sweet dreams and soothing warm tummies (I have a microwavable lavender bag) but wow, the taste. Somehow it's delicate perfumey taste is just so perfect in a cup of tea, but that's not the only kind of cup that lavender finds a niche in.

I have had lavender subconsciously releasing its aroma in mind for months. The scent lessened for a while and I started baking copious amounts of cupcakes for my friends. I began experimenting with various ingredients, the results of which I shall share with you at some point, but then it occurred to me, that Lavender Cupcakes were a concoction waiting to happen. I did a bit of internet surfing and saw that both Nigella Lawson and the Hummingbird Bakery have their own variety. I followed (almost) the Hummingbird recipe and the results are as good, if not better, as that first experimental cup of tea back in September.

I split the lavender cream cheese frosting in two and through half of the mixture, blended in some blueberry jam. My intention was for the purple colour, as I didn't have any food colouring, but the flavour actually works really well.

Quick, go and make your lavender cupcakes... Perfect sweet treat for the summer. You can find a recipe using trusty google and typing in 'lavender cupcakes'.