lovely lovely Lemon Cake

so this is Richard's welcome home cake - lemon sponge layers with my Dad's homemade lemon curd and plain buttercream

the inside looks like this

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet or anything but it tastes GOOD. It's just a basic cake mix with lemon zest and lemon extract.

I am a bit anal about weighing things when I bake and I actually weigh the 3 large eggs, in their shells and use the same weight of butter (or margarine), caster sugar and self raising flour.

Basic Cake Mix

enough for a 6 inch cake like this one or 12 cupcakes / 16 fairy cakes / lots of mini cupcakes 

3 medium eggs

equal amounts of caster sugar, butter (or margarine) and self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract or grated lemon zest & ½tsp of lemon extract

3tbsp buttermilk - use milk if you don't have buttermilk, but do try and get some buttermilk.

Pre heat the oven to 160°c (fan assisted) / 180°c (normal) /  gas mark 4 / 350°f

Line your cake tin with greaseproof baking paper or line your cupcake tin with cake cases

Weigh your eggs in their shell and then crack them into a bowl - if any of, the eggs are a bit iffy or you get a bit of shell in the bowl, you can sort it out and it's easier than trying to fish them out of the cake mixture.

Weigh out equal amounts of caster sugar and butter and mix until creamy. 

Then, add the eggs a bit at a time. The mixture may look a little curdled if the eggs weren't at room temperature when they were added but it will be fine!

Add any flavouring and mix well. 

Sift the flour into the batter (I double sift i.e. sift the flour into a bowl and then sift the flour again  into the cake mixture) and then fold the flour into the mixture. 

Add the buttermilk and fold it in. As I said before, use (full fat) milk if you don't have buttermilk.The cake(s) will be fine but they just won't be as 'fluffy' and moist. 

Spoon the mixture into the tin or cake cases. I'll tell you a secret, if I'm making cupcakes, I weigh the mixture as I spoon it into the cases. Yes, I know I sound like a twat and I'm ridiculously anal but all the cakes all end needing the same cooking time because they're all the same size and they all rise the same amount.

Put the cake(s) in the oven 

a 6 inch cake will need 45 - 50 minutes

cupcakes will need 18½ minutes

fairycakes will need 16½ minutes

mini cupcakes will need 14 minutes

These times will vary, depending on your oven and things like how clean it is. If you bake or cook a lot, I thoroughly recommend that you get an oven thermometer. My oven dial is out by about 10°.

You can tell if they're cooked by touching the top - it should be springy. Or you can use a skewer to stick in the cake - it will come out clean or with a couple of crumbs on it if the cake is cooked.

 Whatever size of your cake, take it out of the tin and let it cook on a wire cooling rack. Make sure it is/ they are completely cool before you decorate it / them.

Day 11 & possibly the best Beef Stew in the world

Richard's home tomorrow ... Richard's home tomorrow! 

I've made him a cake but I'm not going to post a picture of it yet so it's a surprise for him. But I also thought I'd make him a nice beef stew for his first dinner at home. I'm guessing he won't have had much beef while he's been in India and I know that he needs a break from curry! I made it today because the law of stews / casseroles is .. they taste so much better if you eat them the day after you cook it* 

There are a few things that I can cook without a recipe: lentil stew, chilli, fish pie, spag bol (I'm embarrassed to call it spaghetti bolognese because it's not even nearly authentic), baked chicken wings and beef stew. 

Beef Stew is one of those dishes that you can actually put in whatever's lying around and as it's going to cook for at least 4 hours even the oldest saddest vegetable in your cupboard (or fridge) can get chucked in and be given a new lease of life (if you know what I mean). Both Richard and I love it and even Edwin has been known to wolf it down - although he obviously didn't touch it when I made it last time. 

I use beef shin which you really need to cook for 3 hours minimum - longer is so much better! The gelatin in the meat is released during cooking and makes the gravy really thick and delicious and the meat all meltinthemouthtender and shin is CHEAP.  Obviously, you could just use normal stewing steak and it'll still taste good, just not as GREAT as if you use shin and besides, I'll judge you**

So here's my recipe for The Best Beef Stew in the World
serves 4 to 6

750g beef shin 
3 large carrots 
2 sticks of celery 
8 mushrooms
1 onion 
2 fat cloves of garlic 
2 tbsp of plain flour 
2 tsp mustard powder 
pepper 
salt
2 tbsp oil
1 cup of red wine
3 cups of water
2 tsp Worcester sauce 
3 star anise
2 bay leaves 
2 largeish dried chillis

Pre heat the oven to 150°c (fan assisted) / 170°c (normal) / 325º f  / gas mark 3 - yes I'm aware that technically by putting it in the oven makes it a casserole, but I DON'T CARE, I still call it a stew

Keeping the onion & garlic separate, chop the vegetables - as they're going to cook for ages, they don't need to be chopped to small unless you want to 'hide' the celery & mushrooms. 

Chop the meat into cubes - again these can be quite large but no more than 1 inch cube. As beef shin can be quite tough (when it's raw), use a really really sharp carving knife to cut it up or you'll struggle. Serrated knives are not recommended for cutting beef shin! 

Mix the plain flour, mustard powder & ½ tsp of black pepper onto a large plate and mix with the beef. Make sure all the beef is covered with the flour. 

(note the onions covered by clingfilm! I was wearing my glasses and my eyes are really sensitive to onions so unless I cover the onions, I'll be weeping and getting mascara in my teeth - never a good look!)


 
Heat the a large oven proof pan (it will need a lid) on the hob and when it's hot, add oil and gently fry the onions and garlic for a couple  of minutes.

Make sure that your pan is big enough to hold everything. I can't tell you the amount of times that I've started cooking the onions for the base of a dish in my smaller (but infinitely better!) Le Creuset pan only to realise that it's far too small and so have to decant everything into the bigger (casserole) pan. Melanie = Idiot.

When the onions are translucent, add the beef. I know that just about every other recipe will say to seal the beef in batches first and I used to do it but then it was impossible to fry the onions. The beef is cooking for so long, it's not going to dry out. Trust me!

'Fry' the beef for about 5 minutes (you might need to add a bit more oil)

Add the wine, water & Worcester sauce. Make sure you scrape the bottom and sides of the pan to incorporate the flour.

 
Chuck in the vegetables and the rest of ingredients and give it a good stir. Bring to the boil before putting the lid on and putting it in the oven for at least 3½ hours preferably for 4 or 4½hours.

If you want a thicker gravy, you can increase the oven temperature for the last 30 mins.

Serve with mashed potatoes and green veg. We're broccoli and green beans tomorrow.


My stew is still cooking so pictures of the finished stew tomorrow!

And ta daaaa! 
 

* also, in practical terms, I'll be at work so wouldn't have been able to cook it tomorrow.

**I won't really, I'll just be delighted that you cooked it at all ☺

Day 10: How not to make sugar syrup

or how to kill ANOTHER saucepan

or Melanie's an idiot

or how to find out your smoke alarm's not working

or reasons why I shouldn't be allowed to do anything when I'm pre menstrual *


I was going to make a chocolate cake but then I realised that I had a jar of my Dad's homemade lemon curd so I thought a lemon cake with lemon curd and (lemon) buttercream filling would be rather nice.

The actual making of the cake went absolutely fine (I hope, I'll let you know how it tastes) and as it was in the oven baking, I made some sugar syrup to put on the cake to help keep it lovely and moist (god, I LOVE that word). For some bizarre reason, rather than standing there and stirring it while the sugar melted, I put it on a medium heat on the hob and wandered through to the living room and sat down for a bit of faffing about**

About 10 minutes later the timer for the cake went and so I hurried through to the kitchen to take the cake out of the oven and was greeted with ... a kitchen FULL of smoke and the smell of burnt sugar - not at all pleasant. 

I quickly took the pan off the heat (and remembered to turn the gas off) and stuck it in the sink with the cold tap on and opened the back door to try and get rid of the smoke. My eyes were burning a bit from the smoke and I was coughing quite a lot so I was about to shut the kitchen door when I remembered the cake! It was still in the bloody oven. 

Fortunately, it was cooked so I could take it out of the oven.  And then I had to try and make some more bloody sugar syrup for the cake. 

The pan and the 'sugar syrup'

 

* is that too much information? tough titties princess

** ok, I admit it, I was pinteresting 

Black cloud, a rainbow & the sun - UPDATED

no, not a run down of my mood, but the boards in Edwin's classroom.

Edwin got time out today. He told me in a roundabout way by saying that he went to nursery today. Then he told me that you don't smack people, do you. Apparently, it was the boys who fight him but they're his friends so, it's a tricky one. 

He said that his name was the only one on the black cloud. Everyone else's name is on the rainbow and another boy's name is on the sun. Edwin says that he wants his name to be on the sun and I explained that he had to be a good boy, do as he was told and be nice to other people then maybe his name would be on the sun. 

Apparently, the boy on the sun wouldn't share the camera with Edwin, even though he asked nicely and waited his turn. Edwin seemed puzzled that this sort of behaviour means that your name goes on the sun. 

The only advice I could offer was to try again and if someone wouldn't share then maybe tell the teacher. Apprently Edwin did try and talk to the teacher but she didn't listen. It's even more frustrating because Edwin just doesn't listen to me when I try and talk to him about it.

I could cry. It reminds me of how much I hated school and feeling so frustrated at how unfair things seemed to be. Best days of your life? Bollocks.



Hang on, the whole situation is not a million miles away from where I spend an awful lot of my time.

*UPDATE* 

I've worked out why the boy wouldn't share the camera. 

Every week, the children in Edwin's class are allowed to bring in an item beginning with the letter of the week for Show & Tell. The camera incident happened on C day so I'm not surprised he wouldn't let Edwin have a go. One of the teacher's put the camera away to keep it safe.

Day 9: Home Straight

Richard's home on Thursday ... yay! I can't wait. I know I haven't really mentioned him but I do really miss him.

Wednesday is my day off and I want to bake something lovely to welcome him home.

My parents gave me a dozen eggs, which added to the 15 I already had in my fridge makes a LOT of eggs - what shall I bake?

Suggestions please!