"Here comes the bride, All dressed in white"! We have received wonderful news from my brother's holiday in Morocco that he has proposed to Amy and she has said yes! She must be mad (only joking Gareth). I am very happy for them both. In true Gareth quirky style, he did not buy her a ring but gave here a bag of metal and a stone and some lessons with a silversmith to design her own ring. I hope Amy liked this off the wall idea! We all knew that Gareth was planning on proposing and there is an engagement party planned at our house on Sunday to celebrate. Not wanting to tempt fate, I have not really started planning it yet until we knew she had said yes! Now I have no excuse and had better get organised. The centrepiece is going to be a strawberry topiary tree - it is something I saw when we were driving past a wedding in France and I spied it from the car window - I have no idea how they did it but am going to try my best to recreate it in place of an engagement cake! I will post a photo and instructions if we get it to work! Congratulations again Gareth and Amy xxx

Yesterday we made Cherryade - this drink always reminds me of Christmas as a child when the milkman would deliver a crate of fizzy pop a few days before Christmas eve - cherryade, limeade, cream soda, dandelion and burdock! We would go mad with excitement! This is a more summery version - made with fresh fruit, rather than E numbers!

Real Cherryade

juice of 4 lemons and zest of 1 lemon
3 heaped tbsp caster sugar
12 cherries, halved and stones removed

Place the lemon juice, zest, sugar and cherries in a heat proof jug and cover with 500ml boiling water. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally, so that the sugar dissolves. When cold, fill the jug with still or sparkling water and ice to serve. A perfect summer drink!

It has been a bit hectic this week. On Wednesday I gave talk to 60 lovely ladies from the WI - cooking for John and Gregg was easy in comparison with cooking for the WI! I was petrified! Still they ate every last crumb I had prepared so I can't have done too badly. I even got to sing Jerusalem - which I had always thought was a WI myth - clearly not! Another lady also spoke at the meeting and talked about the WI being the "Keeper of Crafts" now that needlework and cooking weren't being taught as much in schools and how some members of the WI are spending time in schools teaching these skills. This is such a wonderful idea.

Last night I was invited to Freddie and Charlotte's book launch in London of the Great Big Veg Challenge book. It is such a lovely book and filled with wonderful vegetable recipes and photographs. Two of my recipes have made it into the book - I didn't realise this until I saw the book yesterday and was so thrilled



Thank you Charlotte for your lovely words!







I wanted to take Freddie and Charlotte a present to celebrate their achievements so baked a batch of cinnamon and apple cupcakes, decorated with vegetables. All packaged up in a trug they looked quite pretty and Freddie had soon tucked in!

Thank you Freddie and Charlotte for a memorable evening!

I love sweet peas and just adore this picture of my mum picking sweet peas in her allotment. A small pot will fill the house with delicious scents of summer. Sadly their pretty petals are poisonous and cannot be used in cooking - although you can use garden pea flowers which are lovely in salads. Such a shame as they would look beautiful crystallised with sugar!

Strawberry Cointreau Charlotte

This dessert, with a pretty pink bow, would make a lovely alternative for a summer birthday cake. Topped with fresh summer berries, it almost looks too good to eat. The orange flavoured mousse is a perfect match for the sweet summer berries.

Serves 8 preparation time 30 minutes, plus chilling and 20 minutes baking

115g/4oz caster sugar

115g/4oz butter

2 large eggs

115g/4oz self raising flour

1tbsp powdered gelatine

2 tbsp water

225g/8oz caster sugar

285ml sour cream

350ml double cream

200g/7oz cream cheese

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Juice and zest of 1 small orange

3 tbsp Cointreau or other orange flavoured liquor

1 packet of Savoiardi/trifle finger biscuits

450g/16oz strawberries and summer berries to decorate

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/180/375F. Grease and line an 8 inch spring form tin. Using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and caster sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating with the hand mixer after you add each egg. Sift in the flour and add the orange and lemon zest. Using the mixer on its lowest setting, gently incorporate the flour to the cake mixture. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes until a knife comes out clean with no cake batter on when you insert it into the centre of the cake. Remove the cake from the oven and drizzle over 2 tablespoons of Cointreau and cover the cake with a clean damp tea towel. Leave the cake to cool completely. Whilst the cake is cooling, prepare the mousse filling. Quarter fill a small saucepan with water and heat gently. When the water is simmering, mix the gelatine and 2 tablespoons of cold water together in a mug and place the mug into the sauce pan to gently heat the gelatine. Stir the gelatine until it dissolves but do not overheat otherwise it will loose its setting quality. Using an electric whisk, mix together the caster sugar, sour cream, 250ml of the double cream, the cream cheese with the lemon and orange juice and the Cointreau to a smooth cream. Add the liquid gelatine to the cream mixture and whisk well with your hand mixer. Keeping the cake in the spring form tin, wrap the sides of the tin with cling film to prevent any spillages and pour over the mousse. Transfer to the fridge for 3 hours or over night to set. When the mousse has set and you are ready to serve, remove the mousse cake from the tin and whip the remaining 100ml of double cream to stiff peaks. Place the cake on a serving plate and attach the biscuits around the edge of the cake with the double cream. Secure in place with a ribbon bow. Top the cake with the fresh berries and serve.

I have a new computer system and it has been giving me a headache! It doesn't like blogger and wouldn't let me upload any posts! Luckily it seems to be working this morning which is a relief. I had a lovely quiet weekend (apart from watching an epic Wimbledon final - pleased for Nadal but sad for Federa - I thought they both should have won). I spent a lot of time writing recipes for the book and have now written 267 recipes - only 98 to go so I feel as if I have broken the back of it! Somehow over the next 3 months, I have to cook them all. That means 4 recipes a day!!!! We are going to be eating a lot of cake and cookies in this house between now and the end of September! I was thinking of setting up a stall outside my cottage to sell them, together with my eggs, but I think they would be taken by the crows. We did think we had an egg thief - although I was never convinced as the eggs were just disappearing, without the egg tray being taken. There was no evidence of any shell or egg, so we thought it couldn't be an animal taking them! My neighbour Pam finally discovered what had been happening when she spied a crow with one of her duck eggs whole in its beak! Naughty crows! Now my eggs for sale are kept inside! This was a lovely Gold Finch outside my office window last week. I hope you all had a nice weekend xxx

A few photos from our afternoon teas at the weekend. Our guests feasted on Rose and sour cream dark chocolate cupcakes, Violet fondant fancies, Rose and lavender drizzle flowerpot cakes, White chocolate coconut lavender flapjack, Cucumber sandwiches, Thyme flower mushrooms, Mini poppyseed scones with smoked salmon and peashoots, lavender shortbread, rosepetal scones with clotted cream and strawberries, baby meringues with rose petal cream, violet tea and violet prosecco. Cooking for 70 people is quite a large task - my poor Aga did not know what had hit it! Kathy gave wonderful tours of her garden and we jointly gave cookery demonstrations on using edible flowers in cookery - lovely ice bowls and petal ice cubes, lavender dressing, petal salads, lavender chicken, marigold petal bread! We had such a lot of fun and were asked by the guests if we could do another event at Christmas - mulled wine, mince pies and logs fires - with some Christmas cooking demonstrations. Having said never again on Saturday morning, my mind is now busy coming up with ideas of what to cook for a winter tea party! Will I ever learn to say no I wonder!!!

The postman has just delivered a parcel. Normally when he knocks it is boxes of boring files for work but today it was a completely unexpected parcel from my dear German friend Maren. You may recall the lovely picture of poppy seed cheesecake that appeared on my blog a few months ago. I faithfully promised to post the recipe when I had discovered how to make "Mohn Bak" (Poppy Seed Paste) at home, rather than using the packets from Germany. This has proved more difficult than I imagined! Maren and I have been e-mailing backwards and forward as the pastes I made never had the same texture as the packet mix - they are too crunchy and just don't work. My parcel today contained the solution - Maren has found the piece of equipment I was lacking - A poppy mill!!! I can safely say that I must now have every kitchen gadget under the sun! I am hoping this is the answer to the paste.

It has a great recipe translation on the box which made me smile - "How to make poppy-filling (pie) - one recipe from 105 years old book of recipes. Poppy to mill and then boil with milk. To cool and join suger. To make filling more thick, give please milled gingerbread. Further you can give succcessive: rum, cinnamon, muscat, honey, plum jam, lemon crust, clove". Perhaps this is why I have been going wrong. Anyway off to the kitchen to experiment!

The parcel also contained some other lovely baking goodies, some poppy seed chocolate, vanilla sugar, marzipan carrots and zebra chocolate rolls, cake candles with hearts and shamrocks on and napkins (and some packets of Mohn Bak just in case I still can't make the poppy seed paste work) Thank you lovely Maren - your parcel made me smile so much!!

Summer Rose Punch

What a weekend! So much baking that I can hardly move today!!! Talk about suffering for your passion! However, it was all worthwhile as our afternoon teas and canape evenings were a great success! I will post a little more about them when I have a few photos from Kathy to show you. In the meantime, this is one of the recipes from our edible flower cookery demonstrations - a Rose Summer Punch. It looked so lovely with the petals floating on the top!

Summer Rose Punch
Makes 1 punch bowl - serves 15 - 20
1 bottle rose wine
1 bottle sparkling wine
1 bottle sparking mineral water
1 ladle of rose liquor (or substitute 1 ladle of vodka)
1 ladle of rose syrup
1 punnet of strawberries, sliced
rose petals (which have not been sprayed with any insecticides)
ice cubes (frozen with small flowers in would make this punch even more spectacular)

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl and float the rose petals on top. Serve in large tumblers with lots of ice for a refreshing summer cocktail!

Earlier this week was my Grandma's 88th Birthday. She is a bit under weather at the moment (Get Well Soon Grandma - she will be reading this as my mum prints every page of my blog out for her!) so we did not have a big family get together. As there were only a few of us to eat the cake, this is the little cake I made. I had decorated the cake with sugar roses but it was lacking something in the middle - luckily I remembered that I had bought some little sugar bunnies a while ago as I knew they would come in handy one day! They looked perfect in the middle in amongst the green leaves - as if in a luscious cabbage patch. Before you ask, there is no significance to the three candles - in my defense 1) 88 candles would not have fitted on the cake and 2) I only had three pink and green stripy candles in my tin! Happy Birthday Grandma xxx

I found these greeting cards when we were in the Lake District and instantly fell in love with them! They are just perfectly me! They are almost too nice to send and I think I may frame them for the kitchen! For those of you who don't know the story of the Little Red Hen, it goes as follows:
The Little red hen was scratching about in the yard when she found an ear of corn. "Who will help me make some bread?" she said. "Not I" said the sleepy cat, "Not I" said the lazy rat, "Not I said the greedy pig". "Then I will make it myself" she said. She ground the corn to make the flour. She turned the flour into dough (which I am sure that she didn't drop on the floor as I did on MC!!!) She baked the dough in the oven and made the most delicious sweet bread. Then she buttered it with soft creamy butter, Neither the sleepy cat, not the lazy rat or the greedy pig helped out one little bit. "Who will help me eat this delicious bread" said the little red hen. "I will" said the sleepy cat "I will" said the lazy rat, "I will" said the greedy pig
"Oh no you won't" clucked the little red hen and she ate it all up, every last crumb and it was really delicious!

Kathy Brown has very kindly asked me to come and host afternoon teas and evening walks with canapes with her in her beautiful garden this weekend. We are also going to demonstrate some edible flower dishes and Kathy will give a guided tour of her lovely garden, including the new edible flower garden she has just planted. I am busy planning the menus and deciding which cakes to cook! It is such a nice event that Kathy has planned and I am really looking forward to being part of it. If anyone is interested, you can contact Kathy via her website or by e-mail kathy_brown@tinyworld.co.uk.

Souffle Pie

A quick and easy supper dish that is yummy with salad.

Souffle Pie

50g butter
400ml milk
200ml double cream
4 large eggs, beaten
100g cubed pancetta
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small tin sweetcorn, drained
3 croissants, torn into small pieces
100g emmental cheese, grated
salt and pepper

Grease a 10inch square baking dish with a little of the butter. Heat the remaining butter, milk and cream in a saucepan over a gentle heat until the butter has melted. Set aside to cool. Add the onion and pancetta to a frying pan with the olive oil and fry until the pancetta is cooked and golden brown and the onions are soft. Stir in the drained sweetcorn and cook for a further 2 - 3 minutes. Place the croissant pieces in a large bowl and add the pancetta mixture and pour over the milk. Season with salt and pepper, add the eggs and mix well. Pour into the prepare dish and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Bake in a hot oven (Gas Mark 5/190C/375F) for 30/35 minutes until the pie is golden.

Summer visitors to our garden

Very good news - two ducks that used to live in our garden have returned! The disappeared a year ago and we feared the fox had taken them but as I was in the kitchen this weekend I heard quacking outside the window and there they were, calling for scraps, just as if they had never gone away! How I would love to know where they have been all this time - perhaps in sunnier climes! The rabbits that live in the surrounding woodland are getting bolder and are now often found on the lawn outside our patio. This may have a direct corrolation with the fact that the grass has not been cut and is therefore providing them with a luscious feast! It is nice to have such good company when I am working from home!

Summer Puddings

My latest Hannah's Kitchen article in Country House is a rose water summer pudding. Looking at the photo (taken by my wonderful friend Jess), makes me want to grab a spoon and dig in!

Rosewater Summer Pudding with Strawberry Cointreau cream

Serves 6, preparation time 20 minutes, plus chilling overnight

For the pudding
8 slices of white bread, crusts removed
900g/2lbs fresh cherries (pitted), strawberries and summer berries
100g/4oz caster sugar
3 tbsp rosewater
For the cream

500ml double cream
200g/8oz strawberries
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp Cointreau

Simmer the fruit for the pudding with the caster sugar and rosewater for 10 minutes until the fruit is soft and the sugar has dissolved. Cut 7 of the slices of bread in half and one into a circle to line the bottom of the bowl. Soak each slice for a few seconds in the poaching liquid of the fruit. This will ensure that your pudding is a perfect pink colour all over when you turn it out. Place a circle of bread in the bottom of a 6inch/16cm pudding bowl and then line with slices of bread, ensuring that each slice overlaps. Half fill the lined pudding bowl with fruit, cover with a slice of bread and then fill with the remaining fruit. Cover the top of the bowl with additional slices of bread, ensuring there are no gaps and all the fruit is covered. Wrap the pudding bowl in cling film and place a saucer on top, weigh down and leave to chill overnight in the fridge. You should have some fruit left to decorate your pudding with when you serve it. For the cream, crush the strawberries for the cream with the icing sugar and Cointreau with a fork. Whip the double cream to stiff peak and stir through the strawberry puree. Gently invert your pudding on to a serving plate and serve straight away with the cream.

This week was Rosie Pea's second birthday - I cannot believe that it was two years ago that I was looking after Josh whilst Jess was in hospital having her. How time flies! This was her birthday cake - it was well travelled as my Aga has broken down again so it was baked in a neighbour's oven (the Aga man is here as I type fixing her - she is getting temperamental but then I think I would be tempramental if I have been baking and roasting for 80 years!)
So this was Rosie's butterfly birthday cake - very quick and simple but she liked it! The white chocolate malteser antennae were popular and it got me thinking that you could make lots of these and serve them stuck in half an orange like old fashioned cheese and pineapple as a sweet canape with no effort or cooking at all!!

My parents were both art teachers. Dad is now an art examiner and gets to travel to places such as Thailand and Kenya to mark A level art exams at international schools. My mum now works with children who are deaf and blind. Both are hugely artistic. Sadly the drawing gene did not pass my way - everything I draw invariably looks like a stick man. My dad popped over at the weekend to bring me a lovely present - a picture of my old hen Dora with the peacock in our garden that he had made with his new printing press. He has done the picture in two colour ways and the dilemma is I now have to choose between them and decide which one to keep. At the moment, I am favouring the yellow one as Dora is the main feature in the picture and it looks really like her. It also looks lovely hanging in my office! The red one however matches the colour of our dinning room and would look very nice hanging in there! Decision, decisions....help needed! At this rate, I will have to keep both! Thank you Dad xxx

Teenage boy birthday cakes can be problematic! Gone are the days of spaceships, dinosaurs, dragons. Our nephews are now sadly all too grown up for that. This weekend was Devan's 12th birthday and he and his sisters were performing at a dance show in their home town. Using this as some vague inspiration, I had some photos taken of Devan in his dance costume (Wildcats from High School Musical) and used this to decorate the cake. Surrounded with lots and lots of brightly coloured sweets (all my favourites!), this was such an easy cake to make and it was loved just as much as any of the other more elaborate cakes! Happy Birthday Devan!

Lovely Lake Windemere

I was lucky enough to eat at L'Enclume this week - my favourite restaurant of all time. I visited 4 years ago and I had dreamed of returning ever since. Simon Rogan is the closest thing to Willy Wonka I have ever experienced - his underground menu, 23 courses - no holds barred - was as follows:
1. Hot and Sour popcorn, Fennel crackers (like prawn crackers but fennel flavoured) and giant olives served on something that looked to be part of a car engine
2. A tropical punch cocktail dehydrated into a crisp wafer with a rehydrated fig syrup that was turn into a mousse in front of my eyes
3. Tiny wafer cones filled with a frozen red pepper mousse and topped with grated manchego cheese - these looked like mini ice cream cones
4. A truffle lollipop with pickled onion Turkish delight (I know this sounds like it should be repulsive but it was honestly delicious!)
5. Whim 01 - powdered tuna snow with mango mousse and a soy cake
6. A hot and sour soup which came with a syringe of egg that was injected into the soup to make swirly noodles
7. Memories of venus (my favourite course) - a mussel encased in lemon jelly, some tzatziki mousse and one hot meatball (I would have eaten this course over and over again)
8. Fois gras two ways - as ice cream with sweetcorn puree and hot fried in vermiccelli with fig puree
9. Razor role reversal - A razor clam shell filled with poached chicken in an egg sauce and an egg shell filled with razor claim in a chestnut soup
10. Cornish crab with vanilla sauce, served with violet petals
11. Parmesan three ways - cake, crisp and droplets with maple syrup and an sphere of liquid flavoured of mushroom ravioli when it dissolved in your mouth, served with rocket flowers.
12. Glazed pork cheeses with cocoa, date and cassia
13. Scallop with tonka curd, butternut squash puree and sweet brackets
14. Skate with broad beans and seaweed
15. Monk cheeks with squid ink risotto (memories of Masterchef came flooding back) with a passion fruit sauce - yum yum
16. Hot Pot - the most willy wonka dish on the menu - a lamb broth in which was floating 5 little pouches - when burst in your mouth, two tasted of potatoes, two of lamb and one of red cabbage - genius!
17. Veal with mustard flowers and onions
18. Delicious cheeses with grape chutney
19. Eucalyptus mousse with coffee snow and pears
20. Sticky Taffy Pudding - Another set out edible spheres - flavoured individually of the elements of sticky toffee pudding (vanilla, date, toffee, sponge cake, butter) - I was told to put them all in my mouth and bite - each sphere released a liquid and combined it tasted exactly as if you had just eaten sticky toffee pudding. It reminded me of Enid Blyton's Toffee Shock Buns for those of you who remember the Magic Faraway Tree!
21. Surrealists nitro slammer - tequila slammer with a salt wafer, nitro glycerin frozen tequila and a test tube of lemon syrup
22. Banana "Split" with strawberry flavoured bubbles and ice cream powder
23. Petit Fours - Vanilla choc ices, pistachio straws, walnut and wasabi truffles, tiramisu with liquid coffee pearls and tropical fruit jellies.

I am attaching the photos although they are not brilliant - my camera makes a bird noise when I use it and I was trying not to drive the other dinners up the wall! L'Enclume comes with a huge recommendation from me so if you are ever in the Lake District and are in need of a very special treat, you have to go. Cartmel is also the home of the sticky toffee pudding. I bought some from the sticky toffee pudding shop to bring home but, having eaten the above, it will be a few days before I feel like eating sticky toffee pudding I can tell you!

Sunday was Open Farm Day at Brown's Farm in Stagsden. Open Farm Day is a wonderful initiative, getting people into the countryside and showing where crops and meat come from.
Peter the farm butcher gave a demonstration on butchery and I followed him with a demonstration of some nice lamb recipes (using the cuts Peter had prepared in his demo) and summer salads. There was not a scrap left of the food I cooked so I think it was well received. Wonderful stalls selling local cider, home made fudge, Rosie Pea came along and had her face painted as a tiger (very cute) and farm walks through the crops. All in all it was a lovely day.

I have mentioned before my love of peashoots. Delicate leaves with curly fronds that taste of delicious raw peas. I had an e-mail last week asking if I would like to try some peashoots made by Vitacress - would I? Most definitely!!! There I was expecting a small packet, when the postman arrived with an enormous box containing not 1 but 6 bags of peashoots! All carefully packaged with their own ice packs. It was love at first sight!

I took some of them to a cookery demonstration I gave on Sunday and made peashoot and fennel salad and peashoot and lamb noodles. I passed round a bowl of fresh peashoots for the audience to try and the overwhelming response was "yum"..."where do we buy them" (M&S and Sainsburys have them). A few more converts to my peashoot campaign! You can read more about peashoots and find some lovely recipes at www.peashoots.com

So, if you stumble accross some peashoots, my advice is buy them straight away! You will not regret it. Last night we have this delicious peashoot, peach and mozzarella salad. We ate every last leaf!

Peashoot, Peach and Mozzarella Salad with Lavender Dressing
1 bag of peashoots
2 ripe peaches
1 buffolo mozerella (buy the best you can afford - it is worth it)
3 asparagus spears, roughly chopped (you can eat them raw, did you know!)
1 tsp ground culinary lavender
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or ordinary balsamic will do but it strains the mozzarella black)
1 tbsp lemon juice
Arrange the peashoots in a bowl and top with slices of the juicy peach. Tear your mozzarella into large pieces and add to the bowl, together with the raw asparagus. Whisk together the lavender, vinegar, lemon and oil and pour over the salad when you are ready to serve. Summer on a plate!

AroundBritainwithaPaunch have tagged me for a Meme

Here are the rules...

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.

2. Share 5 facts about yourself.

3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).

4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their Blogs.

It hardly feels like there are 5 facts about me that you don't know already, but here you go:

1. I play the harp but not very well! I have a lovely old 19th Centuary harp by Erard that my harp teacher found languishing in an old barn and restored for me. It is rickety but I love it. When the weather is good I take it out into the orchard and play - the birds sing back or so I like to think!

2. I do not like bananas, raw tomatoes or egg mayo sandwiches. I used to share an office at my old law firm with Panos. He was a really good friend and lovely chap but every day (without fail) he used to have an egg sandwich and a banana for lunch. The smell used to drive me mad. I resorted to having aromatherapy oils in the office - the smell used to drive him mad! We reached a happy medium!

3. My favourite hen is Black Rook (odd name I know - I have no idea where it came from). She is a dear little thing and very tame. I know I shouldn't have favourites. She weighs about a third of the other hens - who are all enormous. She will sit on my lap and likes to be stroked. Occasionally I bring her into the house to keep me company - my husband doesn't know this and would be cross if he did!

4. I have written 116 of my 365 cake and cookie recipes for the book - I counted this morning. I am not sure whether I am on target but hope I am. It is lovely but hard work! My favourite chapter is the Children's Baking Chapter.

5. We rented Clytha Castle in Wales for our honeymoon - we had the whole place to ourselves which was magical. I am convinced it was haunted and I am sure I saw a ghost.

Over to you, I tag :

More than Burnt Toast
Ritas Baking Tray
Domestic Goddess in Training
A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit
Food Glorious Food

When friends and family go on holiday, they are instructed to look out for nice recipes and unusual culinary delights to bring back. I often receive recipes cutout from newspapers and magazines from my Grandma and Aunt. As a result of people being very kind to me, I have a cupboard full of unusual sugars and spices from all around the world. During my Mums trip to New York and Boston they tried Boston Cream Pie which they loved. They kindly bought back the recipe and I can't wait to try it out!
Boston Cream Pie
Serves 6 -8
Cake Base
7 eggs, separated
8oz caster sugar
4oz plain flour
1oz melted butter
Place the yolks and egg whites in separate bowls and add half of the sugar to each bowl. Whisk both bowls well until the yolks have doubled in size and the whites are at stiff peak. Gently add the whites to the yolk mixture and fold in the flour and melted butter. Pour in to a 10 inch greased spring form tin and bake in the oven (350F/Gas Mark 4/180C) for 20 minutes until the cake springs back to your touch. Allow to cool.
Cream Filling
1 tbsp butter
500ml milk
500ml double cream
1 tbsp rum (I will substitute amaretto)
3 dessert spoons of cornflour
6 eggs
2oz caster sugar
Heat the butter, milk and cream in a saucepan and bring it to the boil. In a separate bowl whisk the sugar, cornflour and eggs until creamy and then whisk into the heated butter cream when it comes to the boil. Heat for a further minute and then set aside to chill (I would make this the night before you are serving). When it is chilled, stir in the alcohol.
Icing
6oz fondant icing
3oz plain chocolate, melted
5oz fondant icing
Warm the 6oz fondant in a bain marie to 105 degrees and then add the chocolate. If the mixture is not of a runny consistency, add a little water. Heat the remaining 5oz fondant gently so it is runny and place in a piping bag.

To assemble your Boston cream pie, cut the cake in half and fill with 2/3rds of the pastry cream. Pour over the chocolate icing and pipe the white fondant on in a spiral. Using a knife drag placed in the center of the cake, pull the tip gently across the icing to the edge of the cake to give the feathered icing effect. Smooth the remaining cream filling around the sides of the cake and covered to toasted almond flakes.

Is it wrong to be wanting a slice of this even though it is only 8am in the morning???!!!

It is an exciting day for me as today my recipes are out in Delicious. Two of the recipes are on their website - Raspberry Crumble Pie and Raspberry Maple Shortcakes for you to try! If someone had told me a few years ago I would have recipes in Delicious, I just wouldn't have believed it! My Shortcakes even made it onto the bottom of the front cover - I am a happy bunny!

After a rather frustrating morning with BT digging up my phone cable and disconnecting us, we finally have broadband again. It always amazes me how lost I feel when I don't have internet connection - whatever did we do without it??? I remember when I started work as a lawyer, I didn't even have a computer (I am making myself feel old just typing this)! How things have changed.

Anyway to more pleasant matters than phone problems...I have never been good at writing in icing. I think it must be to do with the fact that I do not have very neat hand writing. Lovely Tom, Gill and Penny at Fitzbillies tell me that it is just a question of practise but I am not convinced, or perhaps that I never have time to practise!!! I have however solved the problem for all who do not like icing writing! Simply print the name or your message on you computer and then attaching it with felt and two small buttons on to the cake ribbon with just a few stitches. Now I never need to worry if anyone asks for a name on a cake again!

Welsh Rarebit Crumpets

I love crumpets – they are an ideal standby to have in the freezer. They are perfect as a base for Welsh Rarebit or egg bread as the holes soak up the egg mixture much better than a slice of bread. This is a very easy snack to prepare.

Serves 1, Preparation time 5 minutes and grilling 8 - 10 minutes
2 crumpets
40g cheddar cheese, grated
1 large egg
1 tsp whole grain mustard
Salt and pepper for seasoning
A good dash of Worcestershire sauce

In a bowl, whisk together the cheese, egg, mustard and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. Place the crumpets under a hot grill and toast on both sides for a few minutes. Spoon half the cheese mixture on to each crumpet and grill until golden brown. If using an aga, this will take slightly longer. Serve immediately.

(Photo courtesy of www.aroundbritainwithapaunch.blogspot.com - thanks Jonathan)

This weekend we held a dinner party in our village and everyone was tasked with bringing a course each. Luckily I was given the dessert course - my favourite course! I started with a pre-dessert of margarita mousse with fleur de sel spoon cookies and lime pearls (not frozen peas as everyone thought!) with a good dose of edible glitter and a sprinkling of salt. The mousses contained tequila and cointreau and lots and lots of lime juice. We followed with rose and cardamom icecream with crystallized rose petals and baklava with cinnamon and walnuts (following on from a Greek themed main course) and a lovely lemon cheesecake made by Millie (who was hosting the dinner). Sharing out courses is such a good idea for a dinner party as it really shares the load and it is always fun to see what people come up with for their course.

I have baked so much cake this weekend that I am at risk of turning into a cupcake! It is a good job my hens are laying 9 eggs a day as I used 16 eggs in just one batch of cake batter! What would I do without them? This is the birthday cake I made for my sister in law Sejal who just turned 40. I had very little time to decorate it but was pleased with the result - it is amazing what you can do with a few fresh flowers and some pretty ribbon (I just fell in love with this Dragonfly ribbon the minute I saw it). I have also made a lot of cupcakes for children's parties this weekend - topped with flying saucers, dolly mixtures and jelly tots it was a real trip down memory lane of childhood sweets. When we were little my brother and I were given 10p every Friday to buy sweets - if we had been good! We used to plan all week what we were going to buy. Just thinking about this now makes me feel so old - I don't think you would get anything for 10p these days!