Hummus - a homemade dip

Every so often I need an almost instant dip, but I resent  paying a fortune  for a tiny tub full of additives at the supermarket.


So instead I make a very  quick hummus.

The ingredients are so simple:

1 tin chick peas
2 tbsp tahini
finally pureed garlic
A drop of olive oil
1/2 salt
Good squeeze of lemon

I make my hummus in a blender, as I don't have a food processor, and I find that it works very well.

I rinse the chickpeas in a sieve then put them into the blender.

I give them a good whizz in the machine, sometimes I do need to stop and stir them.

I add a little water and olive oil , followed by  the tahini and garlic.

I  taste the hummus at this stage, and  then add salt and lemon juice so it is just as I like it.

This hummus is a perfect standby, for the time you have unexpected visitors and want to amaze them with your culinary skills, just don't let them watch you make it in the kitchen!

It is delicious with crudites, toasted pitta bread, or of course,  a fantastic homemade flat bread.

So much tastier then shop bought hummus

Simple ingredients

Rinse the chick peas

Whizz in the blender

add oil and tahini

chop the garlic and add
then a little salt and lemon juice

Perfect
Lovely with pre-dinner drinks
and for a party, just make more! 

Peter Rabbit Cake For the International Edible Book Festival

I entrered the International Edible Book Festival event run by Zoe at Playing By the Book.

As both a mother and primary school teacher, I have spent much of my adult life choosing, reading and sharing children's books.  Indeed I studied for an MA in Children's Literature, which I believe,  was far more interesting and satisfying then the Master's degree in Education I could have opted for.  I've always loved the way that food is intrinsic in  much of  children's literature  and when I discovered Zoe's lovely blog and amazing event I just had to enter.

My little girl had a couple of friends coming for tea, and I had left my cake baking to the last possible moment.  As the children are 4, 5 and 6, I thought that they would all be familiar with  Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter.

I decided to suggest the story, rather then try and produce a facsimile of the cover in icing (if you look at my Octonaut cake you'll see why!)

I was making a rabbit themed cake so  I needed to bake a carrot cake, and I used this recipe from Sainsbury's, here.

Rather then make cupcakes I used a square brownie tin and baked one cake. I iced it with the traditional cream cheese/butter icing which is so perfect with carrot cake.

I covered  the cake with green sprinkles and green edible glitter, and using some walnuts I made a 'crazy pave' path.  I 'planted' flowers on one side of the path and carrots on the other.

I then made Peter's blue jacket with some white sugar paste, to which I added blue colouring. Before it set, I put the coat on a cocktail stick, and once it was ready I popped it into the 'garden'.  Peter was simply an unwrapped Lindt mini chocolate rabbit.  You can see from some of the photographs that he was joined by the Flopsy Bunnies.

I took a few photographs of the cake, but later when I looked at them, I felt they weren't quite right .  However, the cake and rabbits  had,  by that time been eaten, so I had to submit one of these photos to the Festival.  Do follow the link to the other cakes.  They are all amazing, and congratulations to the winner and runners up.  Such very talented people.

The cake was delicious, and I think it would  make a lovely child friendly Easter cake,  covered with yellow sprinkles, chocolate chicks and of course, some mini eggs.


I'll be linking my Peter Rabbit Cake to Zoe's round up of Edible Book Festival posts, which you can find if you scroll down  here.

Peter, munching on a carrot

Lots of lovely carrots for my rabbit themed cake

Dry ingredients

And wet

Preparing the icing

Making Peter's Jacket

Inspiring books and blog

An aerial view of the ckae

Peter and his coat

I was really finding it difficult to take a good photograph

This one is closer, but too dark

Each Peach, Pear, Plum
may have been easier!

Fairycakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese

I kept reading comments on twitter about the new Philadelphia cream cheese with chocolate, and when I saw some in Sainsbury's... well how could I resist!

I bought a tub and brought it home, what culinary use could I put it to?  I remembered my very successful fairycakes with Nutella which I had made last year, here, and thought that the chocolate cream cheese would be a great substitute and that if it worked I could make a great little cake for school functions, where anything containing nuts is not allowed.

I have to tell you it worked a treat.  The resulting little cakes are scrumptious.  I made a small batch, using the classic 2 egg  victoria sandwich mixture, and stirring in a teaspoonful of the unctuous  chocolate cream cheese.

I made these in some little silicone  heart shaped moulds, and they baked beautifully.  As they already contained chocolate I simply sprinkled a little icing sugar over.  Fantastic!

Delicate little fairy cakes

What a fantastic idea, cheese and chocolate!

I swirled a teaspoon of chocolate cream cheese

Into each cake

They cooked beautifully

Ready for afternoon tea (or morning coffee)

I'm definitely baking a bigger batch next time!

St Patrick's Day - Leprechaun Trap Cake - Rainbow Cake

I love reading other blogs and am always seeking inspritation.

Sometimes I discover something completely new,  something  that I've never heard of, and  I just have to try it!

Early in February I was looking at "not martha" and on Megan's  side bar there was a picture of a Rainbow Cake: Leprechaun Trap Cake!  Well, I just had to read all about it, and you can too, just look here.

I thought the cake looked fabulous, but as I don't have an angel food cake tin, I decided on a different rainbow cake.

My  next step was to find a recipe for a rainbow cake, I did an internet search and the first cake I saw was stunning, you can see it, here. (There is a video link, so you can see the cake being made, as well.)

I read the recipe and as I'm not great at American measures I decided to stick to my old, tried and tested Victoria Sandwich cake mixture. Noticing that Martha had used 5 eggs I opted for a 5 egg cake.

So I used 10oz butter and 10oz sugar, which I creamed together.  I added the 5 eggs (beaten) and sifted in 10oz self raising flour.

I then divided the cake mixture between 6 bowls and the fun really started.

I really wanted a striking cake, so used quite a lot of colouring in each bowl.  I used 6 rather then 7 colours as I thought indigo might be tricky, so I went for red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

I baked each cake in a 9inch greased and lined sandwich tin. (I had to bake 3 and then 3, as I only have 3 tins.)

The sponges were quite thin when they came out of the oven , but once I layered them on top of each other, (with parchment paper between) I saw that the cake was going to be a good size.

I made a batch of buttercream, which I flavoured with a hint of orange blossom, and started to layer the cake, as I didn't want the cake to taste sickly sweet, I put thin layers of icing between each piece of cake.

Because I still wanted to make the Leprecaun Trap I decided to cut out a circle from the top two layers of cake, I used a cookie cutter for this. Once the red layer was on the cake, I covered it all with more white butter icing (I had to make a second batch).  I sprinkled shamrocks around the top of the cake, avoiding the 'trap' and then put the cake in the fridge for half an hour,  to allow the icing to set.

Rather then pretzels I decided to use some cocktail sticks for my 'trap', they fitted easily into the iced cake, and I thought it would be fun to have a leaping Leprecaun heading for the gold!

I tested this cake on a few friends, they were delighted with the rainbow layer once the cake was cut.  I am now planning to make a second cake, for my daughter to take into school on Friday to share with her friends and teachers.  I think they'll all love it!

This cheeky leprechaun is after the gold

The layers of rainbow cake

A thin slice goes a long way!

The colours being added to the cake

Into the cake tins

The baked cake is really vibrant

The violet layer awaiting icing

Mixing the butter icing

Layering the cake

Shamrocks (and green edible glitter) on top of the cake

Setting the trap

A pile of tempting gold coins

Waiting for the leprechaun to see the gold!

a delicious slice of cake!

Fairtrade - Banana, Cranberry and Cardamom Tea Loaf

 I  am  a very keen supporter of fairtrade goods.  I believe that if I have the time to bake luxury food items using fruit, sugar, chocolate, coffee and tea, that where ever possible I should pay a few extra pence  and support farmers and small producers who are not as privileged as me.

The last two weeks were fairtrade fortnight, here in the UK, and the Take a Step campaign has been running.  Many supermarkets run marketing alongside fairtrade fortnight and to their credit make an effort to highlight fairtrade produce available in their shop.

Every year Waitrose produce a recipe card, and I usually try it.  This year it was Banana Tea Loaf, with Cranberry and Cardamom.  As you know I'm rather partial to Banana cake, and have recently been tweaking my own favourite recipe to produce my ultimate cake.  So I just had to try this new recipe.

The cake is lovely, though I would add another banana, and possibly some other spices next time I make it.

I didn't have Clipper Fairtrade Pure Green Tea teabags so I substituted some Jasmine Pearl Tea Buds from Canton Teas, which I think worked very well.

Do look up the recipe for the tea loaf , here,  and add your step for Fairtrade.

The loaf keeps well,
I baked this one four days ago

A golden loaf

Ingredients and recipe card

The loaf looks very tempting

Making my Jasmine tea

And steeping the cranberries

Cardamom pods

Rubbing in the butter

Adding the wet ingredients

No need for a mixer
the loaf can be made by hand

Into the tin

I can't wait to try it