Friday 17 July 2015

Experimental Cherry cake

We've had a bit of a glut of cherries (again)


and to be frank...there's only so much cherry conserve and jam one family can eat, so its time for something different.  I can't claim any originality for this recipe,

Ingredients
For the cake:
350g jar morello cherries
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 drops lemon juice – I always have a jif lemon on standby in the fridge for such things!
3 eggs
200g self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
For the glaze:
2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 tablespoon water
I found it here:

http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/morello-cherry-sponge-cake.html

When I googled, recipe's with morello cherries.  There are LOADS of excellent cakes on this blog..I might have to go back there again.  But for now I'm experimenting with swapping a jar of morello cherries for a bowl straight from the tree...


So here are the official instructions: 

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/ fan oven 160°C/350°F/ Gas mark 4.
Line a 20cm springform round tin with baking paper.
Drain the cherries and leave them to air dry while you make the cake.

Beat together the butter and sugar until it is light, pale and whippy. Don’t skimp on this stage.
Beat in the vanilla and lemon.
Beat in the eggs one at a time; if the mix looks like it might start to curdle add some of the flower.
Briefly beat in the flour and milk. Don’t overbeat it – just go until the batter looks smooth and the ingredients are well combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.
Gently place the cherries on top of the batter. Don’t press them down as you don’t want to encourage them to sink!
Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out cleanly.
While the cake is baking, pass the jam through a sieve and stir in the water.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, heat the jam and water to boiling point then brush over the hot cake.
Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack. Leave it in its tin until you can safely remove it.
The cake will store in an airtight container for several days.
Serve in generous slices with thick cream.
Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.
Eat.

Which  I adapted slightly.  So instead of draining the cherries and leaving them to air dry I stirred some sugar into mine after destoning them, just to draw out some of that super sour juice...


I did what I was told with the butter and sugar, beating it together till it was pale , light and whippy....


I spooned the batter into the cake tin (silicon in my case) and spooned the cherries in,without pressing them down (see I can follow instructions)

 

Topping it up with the remaining batter...and popping it into the oven...



Can you guess stage two of the experimental deviation from instructions?


Who needs apricot jam when you've got a stash of cherry ?

I made the glaze as per the instructions, just with cherry jam, and then painted it on the cake...

 

It smelled divine!
And you're gonna have to trust me that it tasted divine too as it disappeared so quickly that we didn't get to photograph it!!

Thank fully we've got sooooo many cherries that I've frozen a load so I shall have the opportunity to make it again..hopefully VERY soon!


Saturday 11 July 2015

Bee bunting

I do seem to have a knack of accepting challenges at the moment.

This one was to promote the apiary open day more than we have done previously.  It always surprises me that people don't realise there is an apiary in the village, and even those that know there is one there somewhere sometimes struggle to find it.

So it seems to me we need some signs to point the way.  What could be better than some strings of bunting?

Particularly when I found some superb bee fabric to make them from....


It couldn't be simpler.....Simply slice into triangles...

 

Sew the triangles together right sides together , turn them right side out and press....


Try not to freak out that the pile is half as high as the iron....


Keep on pressing....

 

Trim the top edge....



Then sew them to the bunting tape......


Keep on sewing ....keep on sewing......keep on sewing....... keep on sewing....


Keep on sewing....till the pile on the floor by your feet....keep on sewing....keep on sewing...


is finally smaller.....keep on sewing ....keep on sewing.... keep on sewing.... keep on sewing...


than the pile stretching away in front of the sewing machine.....keep on sewing....keep on sewing...


Now all I need is a tall person to help me put them up!
Luckily I did!
Don't they look pretty?


All the way up the path...


Right into the apiary...



Sunday 5 July 2015

I flippin' hate wasps 1

There's a paving stone, partway down the garden, where my bees crawl to to die...


It does seem a bit grim, I'll grant you that.  But the bees are doing the colony a favour, dead bodies don't pile up in the hive and foragers are not distracted from important foraging work by needing to keep clearing out the dead bees before they start to rot and spread disease through the colony.

I've been watching birds come and clear up the corpses - I guess they are a crunchy candy snack for passing Magpies and Robins.  But some other critters are learning about the snack bar, and some of them are especially not welcome...

Its like a macro level Serengeti down there. Wasps are patrolling the edges of the dandelion leaves...


Wrestling the dying bees to the ground...grabbing them from behind so the bee can not sting them...


Chewing through the bee's body to separate the abdomen from the thorax...


I'm guessing they are after the abdomen as it is mainly softer tissues, including the stomach, where there may be traces of honey...


Finally flying off with the abdomen...


Nature in action - brutal even at the macro level.  :(

Bee - light candles

How about this for a nice relaxing way to spend a rainy July Sunday afternoon?
Making beeswax tea light sized candles...

Gather all the tools for the job...beeswax, tea lights, a length of wick, scissors, and wick retainers...


Cut lots of small wicks  - one per candle...


Thread them through the wicks retainers and squish shut to hold the wick with pliers....

 

Voila - forest of wicks ...


dip each one in some melted wax to prime it (i.e. soak the wax into the wick to ensure it burns evenly)


voila forest of dipped wicks ( ooh err missus!)


Then dip the retainer and stick it to the base of the tea light holder


This stops the wick from drifting off centre when you pour in the remaining hot wax.
Voila forest of prepared tea light holders... 


And slowly, but surely, a forest of finished and cooling candles develops....


So simple and such fun!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...