Sunday 7 November 2010

#3 Cooking post: Plain Sponge cake with strawberries and Butter icing.

Sponge cake with strawberries, strawberry jam and butter icing.



To make a decent cake I follow one rule:
Add equal parts butter, sugar and flour. Then add eggs until it has a smooth consistancy but doesn't pour like soup.
For this particular cake I used:
Cake:
  1. 8oz of self-raising flour.
  2. 6oz of sugar ~(this cake has alot of icing and jam in the middle so i used less sugar than if it was un-iced)
  3. 6oz of butter (I used less butter because it's spreadable butter which is softer and you don't need as much as if you used a block of butter...)
  4. Three large free-range eggs.
  • Mix everything in a bowl until smooth then pour into two greased tins.
  • Bake for 15-20 mins (until it is brown and bouncy to touch!) at 180degrees.
  • Take both from their tins (used a knife to ply them out if they stuck to the tin at all) and leave one to cool.

Filling:

  • Take the other one and apply a thin layer of jam to the top.
  • Then I added a layer of sliced strawberries before placing the top layer of cake above it.

Topping:

  • Mix a small box (yes, the whole box...) of icing sugar with three heaped tablespoons of butter (i used spreadable butter)
  • When all is mixed to form a thick batter, add water (about four tablespoons) until it is thin enough to spread with a knife.
  • (you might want to put some aside before adding the water because it was too thin to pipe...)
  • Take your cake and add big drops of icing over the top then spread with the back of a spoon.
  • If the cake crumbles under the icing, add more icing.
  • do the same with the sides by applying it with the back of the spoon.
  • Slice strawberries and put them around the edges
  • use a piping gun or bag to add a circle of decorative icing or drops of icing.
  • Add more strawberries!

The whole thing took about an hour but it's worth it!


Friday 5 November 2010

#2 Cooking post: Stuffed mushrooms with rocket salad.

Stuffed mushrooms with rocket and spinach salad with a lemon and balsalmic vinegar dressing and garlic new potatoes.
Cooking time: 20mins.
Preparing time: about 15mins?

Mushrooms:
  • Prepare mushrooms (some people peel them, pick out the stalk etc.)
  • Place raw,underside-up,on a tin-foil covered tray.
  • mix in a bowl:
  1. Adiquet cheese (for six mushrooms, about two big handfuls when grated)
  2. (I used mature cheddar.)
  3. Two teaspoons of parmasan cheese.
  4. Three tablespoons of wholegrain mustard.
  • Put half a teaspoon of butter in the middle of each mushroom underside.
  • add a few spoons of the mixture to each mushroom and spread over the underside.
  • Cover all mushrooms with a loose layer of tinfoil and bake at 180 degrees for 15mins.

After 15mins:

  • Remove from oven and remove top tinfoil.
  • Place under a grill for 5mins until cheese is brown.
  • Optional! Wrap warm mushrooms in parma-ham sheets!

Salad:

  1. A pre-mixed bag of rocket, water-cress and spinage.
  2. An advacado
  3. Cucumber, cubed.
  4. Four chopped spring onions.
  5. Chopped tomatoes.
  • Add a squeese of lemon (about five tablespoons)
  • Add a drizzle of balsalmic vinegar.
  • Mix!
Potatoes:
  • Wash, chop and boil!
  • (until soft, I cook them in their skins also)
  • Leave to cool a little then mix with three tablespoons of butter and three cloves of garlic, crushed.

Really easy and yummy! Could have done with perhaps double the serving haha...