Lemon Honey curd

 I was really happy when Granny gave me this magazine...

As it had this recipe in it....

Even better I had all the ingredients...

so I launched straight into it....

Weighing 300g of honey and 125g of butter into a heatproof bowl, sitting the bowl on a pan of simmering water...

 

It all started to melt together quite nicely, so I added the zest and juice of 1 lemon...

 

 

Then came the wierd bit...gradually adding 3 lightly beaten eggs.  Each addition really did go quite gloopy and alien like as it joined the main mixture, but frequently stirring, as the instructions said, it gradually came together into a smooth thick paste...

 

 

It is ready when you can "draw your finger across the back of the spoon and it leaves a light line"

Then its time to strain the curd into warmed jars.  I was about dubious about the need to strain it as it looked pretty good to me, it did seem rather a bit too much fuss...

But as it dripped through into the jars...the "eggy strands" that were left behind looked distinctly unappetising ...

 

 

About the only  downside to this recipe is that you don't get much curd (recipe says it makes approx 450g) ...

and you do use rather a lot of honey...  but it us a good sign of a good afternoon's baking!

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!

Zingy lemony yum

There's a saying, "When life gives you lemons....make lemonade"

But I had Quirky quilters to make dessert for and lemonade just wasn't going to cut it (if you know what I mean) despite our claims that we weren't going to over indulge the calories every time we meet in 2013.

Thank heavens for inspiration from recipe books, Eton mess from "Cook Yourself Thin" looked like it would hit the spot perfectly...

I love the magic of making meringues...just look how the egg whites transform before your very eyes...

 

 

And go super shiny glossy as soon as I add the sugar...

 

Now...time for the zingy lemon curd.  Lets start with the zest...

Even I was rather amazed by the amount of juice that I can wring from 4 lemons...

But reduced down with a little lemon juice...

 

And with some yummy free range egg yolks stirred in...

 

It very quickly becomes a zingy lemon curd.

Then pack it all up very carefully so it can be carried along with a mass of quilting stuff for a day out.

Time to assemble...

Step 1 : Break up all those home made meringues...

 

Step 2 :  Add a big blob of that zingy lemony curd

Step 3: Whip cream and add a blob of that ...as big a blob as you fancy...

Stir the whole lot together and try to eat a bit of each element together - pulling the best zesty singy lemon face that you can...'cos boy is that curd ZiNGYYYYYYY!

Baking, bees and bonfires....

I love a Saturday with a plan and today started with a plan and a half.  We have a couple of family Birthdays this week -Granddad is three score years and twenty and we are off to his party tonight but littlest nephew is rather younger next week and as we won't actually see him on his birthday we need to make the most of Sunday lunch tomorrow - so perfect excuse for some cousinly baking!

Little hands are perfect for preparing baking tins, but need a little help for creaming butter and sugar together...

 

They are also good at cracking open eggs, stirring in chocolate and folding in flour...

 

But little fingers absolutely come into their own as the perfect tool for cleaning the bowl...

Whilst the cake was cooling I thought I'd take advantage of a few hours of sunshine to take a look in the hives.  The temperature was just about 10'c today, bees don't really like flying under 11'c unless its really bright and sunny and it was a little overcast so there wasnt very much activity at the front of the hive.  

I quickly lifted the lid on Becky's hive and was greeted by a lovely sight...

 

Lots and lots of bees coming up through the crown board to chew on some of the fondant icing I put there a few weeks back.

Sadly however it wasn't such good news in Amelia's hive.  You may remember a few weeks back when it snowed I noticed how Amelia's colony wasn't generating enough heat to melt the snow.  Well I was right to worry. 

There's no nice way to put this, all her bees are dead.

They had exactly the same fondant as Becky's bees but haven't touched it.  Maybe I panicked and put it in there too soon - there was plenty of stores around them, only a couple of cells away from where they were huddling...

 

The fondant had started to melt and drip through the hive in the warmth of the last few days and was beginning to attract the attention of some of Becky's scouts.  I don't want them taking any viruses or bacteria back to their hive so decided it was time to destroy all these dead bees and wax...

Time for a bonfire.

It took a little while for the flames to catch...

 

 

A whole floor of dead bees needed to be cremated...

 

 




And gradually, very gradually it all started to go up in flames.

One thing is for certain, judging by the lake of wax and honey that melted from the pyre they didn't starve to death...

 

 

I'm not sure I'll ever work out what killed them but it was a very sad end to an otherwise great weekend.
I'm hoping the bee keeping weekends improve rapidly from here, lets face it they cant get much worse...  :(