This is definitely NOT the weather for ice cream! However with writing articles in advance, ice cream was on the menu yesterday. The violet passion is continuing - Bree who competed in Masterchef with me last year and who was a fantastic come back kid in this years programme (I know I am biased as she is a friend but I have never seen anyone have such an amazing professional kitchen round - Bree you are destined for great things!) is coming to visit soon and has found some violet lollipops. Violet tea is a permanent fixture in our house - even though it is so hard to find! And the latest addition to the range - Violet ice cream! I have also made this with rose water syrup with the crystallised violets to give the perfect Rose and Violet cream combination! Why not try both (although I will forgive you for waiting until warmer months to do so)

Violet Ice Cream
285ml double cream
285ml semi skimmed milk (or skimmed if you prefer)
150ml violet syrup (available from confisserie florian or by Morin syrups or if like me you find lots of violets you can make your own - a handful of violet petals, 200grams sugar and 200ml of water simmered over a gentle heat until syrupy and then strained)
50grams of crystallised violets

Simmer the cream and milk in a pan over a gentle heat until the mixture has thickened and gone a golden yellow colour. This should take approximately 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the violet syrup which will sweeten the cream. Leave to cool completely. Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker (or place in a tupperware box in the freezer and whisk every 30 minutes to add air until the mixture is frozen). When the mixture is almost frozen add the crystalised violets which add a nice crunchy texture to the ice cream. I used small ramekins for my icecream, turning them out to serve, drizzled with some violet syrup and some home made crystallised violet flowers.

Today is cold! I got in my car to take Sacha to the station this morning and the temperature outside was -9 C - I don't think I ever remember it being -9 here! Luckily our heating is now fixed (we tragically ran out of oil on Valentine's Day which put an end to my romantic dinner and I was forced to have a hot water bottle in my office - it was THAT cold!) so I can now enjoy the frosty scenes outside from the warmth of my office. Today I have the photographer coming to take photos for 4 articles - a lot of baking happened yesterday! My favourites are these little flower pot cakes which I made by chance with a bit of left over cake batter, just to see if they would work. I think these would make a wonderful wedding cake for garden lovers, served in tiers with different coloured flowers!

Happy Valentines Day to you all x x x

Last Rolo Cupcakes

Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo? If the answer is yes, then these cupcakes are for you! Hurry - you still have time to make them before tomorrow!

Makes 12 cupcakes
Preparation time 15 minutes plus 15 minutes baking and cooling time
112g (4oz) marg or softened butter
112g(4oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
85g (3oz) self raising flour, sifted
30g(1oz) cocoa, sifted
12 rolos
280g(10oz) icing sugar, sifted
125g(4 1/2 oz) butter, softened
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
sugar hearts for decoration

Pre heat the oven to 180oC/350F/Gas Mark 4. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and floffy. Add the eggs, one at a time to the cream mixture, whisking after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of flour. Add the remaining flour and cocoa to the mixture and fold in gently. Place 12 cupcake cases in a bun tray and place a spoonful of the cake mixture into each case. Add a rolo to the centre of each and cover with a little more cake mixture, ensuring that the rolo is covered. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until they spring back then touched. You may wish to turn the tray half way through cooking to ensure that they all cook evenly. Leave the cakes to cool completely before decorating. For the icing, add the icing sugar, butter, milk and vanilla essence to a bowl and mix until light and creamy. If the mixture is too soft add a little more icing sugar, If it is too stiff add a little more milk. Pipe the icing on to the cooled cupcakes in large swirls and decorate with the sugar hearts.

On a visit to Kathy Brown's garden at the weekend, I spotted one of my hen's blue egg shells that had been put to very good use! Kathy had cleverly planted sedums in the shells and they looked lovely. I have only ever grown cress in egg shells to make hair for egg shell people (a long time ago I hasten to add) and much prefer Kathy's grown up planting! Her garden was looking lovely, the winter garden especially with its seashore theme - lots of lovely shells and this cute crab sculpture climbing into barnacle covered pots. Kathy and I are hosting garden tours, cookery demonstrations and afternoon teas and evening garden walks with canapes one weekend this summer! Needless to say, we are loving coming up with ideas for floral afternoon teas - raspberry and rose petal scones and lemon and lavender cupcakes are our current favourites.

Friday saw the Chinese New Year celebration of the Year of the Rat. My Dad's birthday present from us was to attend the Chinese New Year Dragon Dance dinner at our favourite chinese restaurant - Taipan in Milton Keynes (definitely worth a visit for dim sum on Saturday or Sunday lunch if you are in the area). The dragon dance was spectacular with loud drumming that seemed to go on forever - it was quite hypnotic! We were also visited by the money God - I think all of us were secretly hoping that by giving our gift envelopes, we would be lucky and win the Euromillions lottery - sadly not! The food was of course delicious, with tempura and duck pancakes, dim sum, scallops and my all time favourite, crispy shredded chilli beef! Happy Chinese New Year!

This week's culinary project is herb breads for April's Country Kitchen, together with cooking with violets and baking in flower pots. They are such nice topics and I am loving coming up with ideas! These are some fresh violets that lovely Kathy Brown gave me from her garden to use for violet syrup - I need to pick lots more this weekend so will be off hunting them out in the countryside with my basket! My new column in Country House has also started this month - they have changed the column title from "Monthly Morsels" to "Hannah's Kitchen" without telling me and I was so pleased when I saw it yesterday!

As you will all I'm sure know, today is Shrove Tuesday and time to make pancakes! Pancake Day is celebrated a lot where we live. In Olney (our nearest market town, with lots of lovely shops and a potential tea room that I have been looking at closely!), a pancake race has been held on Shrove Tuesday since 1445. There are many stories about how the competition started; a woman hearing the church bell and being late, ran to church without realising that she was still holding her pancake pan or the pancakes being made as a gift for the bell ringer that he might ring the bell earlier, starting of the days holiday. Either way, the tradition is still strong today and at 11.55am this morning the women of Olney (who must be over 18, have lived in the town for 3 months and wearing traditional "housewife" costume) will race 415 yards tossing their pancakes in a pan. The winner receives a kiss from the vicar!

Whilst not quite as exciting as the Olney pancake race, in the village of Toddington where I grew up, our class would go to visit Conger Hill (pictured) on Shrove Tuesday arriving just before midday. We would put our ears to the hill and when the clock struck 12, you could apparently hear the witch inside frying her pancakes. I wonder whether they still have this as a school outing today - perhaps witches frying pancakes are not on the curriculum in this age of political correctness! We would then return to school and have pancakes for lunch!

My favourite type of pancake were those made by our dear Great Aunty Meg in Wales - sadly no longer with us - but I will never forget her apple pancakes. For the apple filling, peel, core and finely chop 3 large cooking apples and simmer in a pan with 200ml of water, 2 tbsp of brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and a handful of raisins, until the apples have cooked down completely and are soft. Fill each pancake with the apple filling and serve with whipped cream. A nice alternative to lemon and sugar!

I am back from a wonderful few days at Fitzbillies having learnt so much! Tom, Jill, George and Pauline are amazing bakers - here they are busy at work! You know that you have done a good days hard work when it gets to 8am and you have already iced around 200 fondant fancies! It is a good job I am an early morning person - setting off at 5.15am must be classed as dedication to my baking career!! I have managed to inflict my violet passion on Fitzbillies. The unusual oval violet cake below was made by Tom as an experiment in my honour - it tasted delicious! On Saturday I was allowed to play and come up with some new ideas so I made violet éclairs (picture above) - with violet liqueur in the cream and violet icing with small sugar violets as decoration. These were then sold in the shop! When I left there were only two left - a man standing next to me had just bought two and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself telling him how pleased I was that he had bought my eclairs. Anyway, these new eclairs will definitely be added to my baking repertoire - they would be perfect for an afternoon tea, made smaller and paired with rose éclairs! My arms have never ached so much as they did yesterday - it must have been the kneading of dough, stirring large pots of hot fondant icing and lifting the large trays of cakes - thank goodness I didn't drop any of the trays. Thank you Penny, George and everyone at Fitzbillies for another wonderful visit - I will be back soon!

I am off to Fitzbillies and am very excited! So much to learn...so little time! Charlotte added this wonderful sepia effect to the photo from my last visit and it looks as if it could have been taken decades ago - it has changed so little. So I beg your leave for a few days and will be back again next week. Think of me up to my arms in flour and chelsea bun syrup! I can imagine no place I'd rather be.

Quite a few of you have asked for the poppy seed cake recipe so I will post that next week. I use a German poppy seed paste Mohn Back which I have not been able to buy in the UK so am just trying to perfect a home made version of the paste!

This morning before work, I finally finished a baby sampler I have been stitching for my friend's new baby Tom. It has taken a month to finish which is not as quick as I would have liked given that Tom was born at the end of November and my gift is now very late! Still hopefully it is worth the wait. I blame my slowness entirely on the little fish pond and squirrels which took ages to finish as the stitches are so small. If you click on the picture you will get a close up. I just love all the little bees and ladybirds!

The first signs of Spring!

As I have mentioned before on this blog, afternoon tea is my favourite of all meals! This weekend my lovely German friend Maren was visiting from Hamburg and yesterday we hosted afternoon tea for the Brown family including my favourite German cake! On the menu...Welsh rarebit crumpets, Chocolate peanut cookies, Plum roulade, Lemon and white chocolate cupcakes, Chocolate and Violet cupcakes and my all time favourite German cake - Mohn Kuchen - a baked poppy seed curd cheese cake (pictured above)! Thanks to Jonathan for the lovely photos!

Today is Burns Night and I imagine a few of you will be celebrating. Although I am not a huge fan of haggis, Burns night is the one exception when I will force myself to eat some! After a few glasses of whiskey, it improves no end! Last year we celebrated Burns Night in great "style" - I piped the haggis procession in with my recorder and we all took turns to make the appropriate toasts to the lassies and responses. Andrew dramatically stabbed the haggis with a sword (aka kitchen knife), breaking the plate in the process whilst reciting the Ode to a Haggis (below for anyone who needs it this evening). Whilst I may not be a fan of haggis and find the below ode from Rabbie Burns slightly hard to understand, Burns Night is a perfect excuse for a party, and for that I am very grateful!

Ode to the Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect sconner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit:
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

Sometimes it is the little gifts you are given that are the most perfect for you. As someone who adores stitching and cooking, you will imagine my delight when I was recently given these vintage chocolate buttons. 18 different antique buttons, made from dark chocolate! They are all different and so beautiful that I now understand the expression "too good to eat!"

Last night was our monthly sewing circle - I failed miserably and managed three stitches before we all descended into giggles - it must have been the wine. We will have to try harder next time! It is so nice that women from all generations and walks of life in our village can get together and laugh so much! I took along some new cookies and they were given the seal of approval.

White Chocolate Praline Cookies
Makes 18, preparation time 10 minutes, cooking time 10 - 12 minutes
4oz butter
5oz caster sugar
1 heaped tbsp hazelnut butter
1 egg
5 1/2oz plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
100g white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/180/375F. Cream the butter, hazelnut butter and sugar with a mixer until light and then beat in the egg. Add the flour, bicarb and chocolate chips and mix again. The dough should be light but not too sticky, add a little more flour if needs be. Divide into 18 balls and place on greased and lined baking trays, pressing each cookie down slightly. Leave room between each one as they will spread during cooking. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until golden and still soft to touch - these cookies should be chewy not hard. For decoration, drizzle with a little icing or melted chocolate. Placed in a bag with a pretty bow these make a perfect gift.

A while ago when posting the recipe for rosewater and cardamom ice I was asked for the recipe the chocolate and pistachio fudge that was served with it! So here you are (finally)!

Chocolate and Pistachio Fudge

Makes 36 squares
Preparation time 10 minutes, plus cooling.

125grams/4 ½ oz butter
4 tbsp milk
300grams/10 ½ oz sifted icing sugar
100grams/3 ½ oz sifted cocoa
100grams/3 ½ oz pistachios, roughly chopped

In a large saucepan, melt the butter, taking care that it does not brown. Add the milk and heat for a further minute. Tip the icing sugar and cocoa into the pan and beat hard with a wooden spoon or a whisk over the heat until the fudge mixture bubbles slightly. The mixture should be quite thick but if it is too stiff add a little extra milk. Stir in the nuts and pour in to a greased 8 inch square cake tin. Leave to cool in the fridge until set and then cut in to squares and place in small cake cases. If you are feeling decadent, top each piece with some gold or silver leaf.

It has been what can only be described as a pleasant foodie weekend in our cottage. Saturday was my Dad's birthday - as it was only the two of us celebrating here he had a small cake!

We went for a lovely dinner to the Duke of Cambridge Organic Pub in our old stomping ground of Islington with our former neighbours Peter and Lorraine. The food was delicious - Sea Bass with Patatas Bravas, Chorizo and Cavalo Nero. Everything organic and naturally sourced and lovely seasonal food. I definitely recommend a visit.

Easter has arrived early and I have been formulating Easter Baking recipes for a new article all weekend. The air in our cottage has been scented with milk, white and dark chocolate. Needless to say, we have tasted and approved everything!

Finally, as my hens are now laying 7 eggs a day, I have painted a little sign to match their coup to start selling a few of the spare ones! Does this qualify us as a cottage industry I wonder?

Ginger Treacle Tart with Stem Ginger Clotted Cream Ice Cream

For the tart

500grams shortcrust pastry
11oz golden syrup
1oz syrup from preserved stem ginger
1oz butter
zest and juice of 1 large lemon
4oz fine breadcrumbs
milk for glazing the pastry

Line a 10 inch flan dish with the pastry and chill in the fridge until required. Melt the golden and ginger syrups with the butter over a gentle heat until the butter has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and breadcrumbs, ensuring that all the crumbs are coated in the syrup mixture. Pour into the pastry case and, if you wish, use any excess pastry to make leaves to decorate the top of the tart. Brush the pastry edges and any pastry decoration with milk. Bake at Gas Mark 5/180oC/Aga roasting oven below a cold shelf for 30/35 minutes until the syrup mixture has set and the pastry is golden brown. Serve warm with stem ginger ice cream.

For the Ice Cream

2 large eggs
227gram tub of clotted cream
150 grams caster sugar
250ml full fat milk
250ml double cream
4 stem gingers preserved syrup chopped finely

Whisk the eggs for 2 minutes until light and frothy. Whisk in the sugar a tablespoon at a time until completely blended. Pour in the cream, clotted cream and milk and whisk to blend. Pour into an ice cream machine and churn until almost set. Fold in the stem ginger and churn until set. Store in the freezer for up to one month.

Not that I am becoming weather obsessive but I woke up this morning so relieved that it was not raining. When I got back from a meeting last night, the stream in our garden had broken its banks and our bridge was partly under water. There was water up to the front door step and I went to bed really worried that the kitchen would be flooded in the morning. What a relief that the waters have receded. I really pity anyone who was flooded last night. Anyway, all this worry about flooding got me thinking about Noah's Ark and a patchwork quilt project of mine that has been on the go for several years and which I really should get round to finishing (the problem if your sewing basket is as overflowing as mine is that even if I stitched every day for the rest of my life I am sure I would never finish all my sewing stash)! Anyway this project has now moved to the top of my basket so might progress a bit quicker now. The book with patchwork pieces (you just add your own fabrics) is by Janet Bolton who has also written Mrs Noah's Garden. Somehow I have managed to resist the temptation to buy this second patchwork book - perhaps on the basis that I thought I would never finish the first! So these are the panels I have completed - cheetahs, crocodiles, giraffes and a lonesome elephant (not very two by two). If it gets to six months from now and I have not posted an update on more panels will someone please tell me off!

Yesterday two gorgeous munchkins Josh and Rosie came to visit for lunch. I am not sure how it is where you are but it has rained non stop here for what seems like days. The stream in our garden is at an all time high, a new (and unintentional) waterfall has appeared and the chickens are REALLY muddy. Anyway, when it is raining and cold there is nothing better for lunch than soup. Whilst us adults tucked into large bowls of dhal (a la Steven Wallis and a firm favourite in our house since he taught me how to make it) and naan, Josh and Rosie had mushroom soup.

Mushroom and spring onion soup
4 large portobello mushrooms (or any mushrooms will do), roughly chopped
4 spring onions, washed and finely chopped
1 sprig thyme and 1 sprig rosemary
25g salted butter
salt and pepper for seasoning
2 tbsp sherry (omit if serving for children)
800ml vegetable stock
100ml milk (any will do - I used skimmed but you could use soya milk for anyone vegan or dairy allergic)
Double cream and chopped chives to serve
Melt the butter in a pan and saute the mushrooms and spring onions with the herbs over a gentle heat until softened. This should take approximately 5 -6 minutes. Add the sherry and cook for 2 minutes to burn off the alcohol. Remove the herbs, then add the stock and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the milk and blitz with a hand blender until smooth. Serve warm with a swirl of cream and some chopped chives.

As fellow foodies, I know you will appreciate these foodie gifts that I received for Christmas as much as I did. This wonderful hot chocolate and hot chocolate whisk was from my brother's girlfriend Amy (incidentally Amy - we would have loved you just as much even if you hadn't bought the wonderful Dean & Deluca Hamper - but we were very grateful for it!) I have to say that this is the best hot chocolate I have EVER tasted and I don't know what I am going to do when the tin is empty - perhaps a trip to New York is called for!
I also received this wonderful book from Masterchef winner Steven Wallis - Lost Desserts, Delicious Indulgences of the Past. It is a real testament to how well Steven knows me as this book is my idea of heaven and I have read it cover to cover several times already. Recipes include Marbled Rose and Raspberry Fool, Lady Agnes Jekyll's Old Fashioned Orange Jelly, Caramalised Rice Pudding and Miss Grimble's Chocolate Angel Pie. They sound so heavenly and I can't wait to make them all!

A baked cheesecake makes a perfect gift for a friend - nicer than a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine and it is easy to transport. Next time you have some spare time why not make one! I know this one was gratefully received by the recipient.






Praline Flapjack Cheesecake
For the base
175g porridge oats
3tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
For the cheesecake
250g cream cheese
3 eggs separated
100ml double cream
25g plain flour
2oz caster sugar
3 tbsp hazelnut butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
For the nut topping
200g mixed unsalted nuts
4 tbsp caramel sauce, warmed
For the Caramel nut shards
500g caster sugar
200g mixed unsalted nuts (brazils, hazelnuts, cashews, macadamia etc)

In a small saucepan heat the butter and golden syrup and then stir in the oats, mixing well to ensure that all the oats are coated. Press the oat mixture into the bottom of a greased and lined 10inch spring form tin. Place the cream cheese, cream, egg yolks, caster sugar, flour, hazelnut butter and vanilla in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peak and then gently fold into the hazelnut mixture. Pour over the flapjack base. Place the tin on a baking sheet and bake in a low oven (160oC/325F/Gas Mark 3/Aga roasting oven below a cold shelf) for 1 1/2 hours until the cheesecake is firm to touch. To make the topping, warm the caramel sauce (you can make your own using brown sugar, cream, butter and golden syrup in roughly equal quantities) and stir in the nuts. When the nuts and cheesecake have cooled, pour the nuts into the centre of the cheesecake. If you wish, make caramel nut shards to decorate the cheesecake. Lightly grease a baking tray with a flavourless oil (sunflower or vegetable oil are ideal) and pour the nuts over. In a heavy based saucepan heat the sugar gently until it melts. Do not stir very much as this causes the sugar to crystallise and be very careful that the sugar doesn't burn. If you are worried, just take it off the heat for a few minutes. When the sugar has melted and is a light golden brown colour, pour over the nuts and leave to cool. Break into pieces and use to decorate.

It has been a busy few days. I was asked back to my old school to be the guest speaker at prize giving. Those of you who know me well will know that I really dread public speaking and this event was no exception! They did not want me to talk about Masterchef so instead I spoke about the importance of believing in yourself and taking every opportunity life throws at you! I survived and the speech was well received (apparently I am a "hollistic speaker" - not sure whether that is a compliment or not!)
I was presented with a lovely piece of art (pictured) created by one of the students - as a reminder of my shipping law days.

I have also just submitted my first article for my new monthly recipe column "Monthly Morsels" for Country House magazine which starts in February. The column was previously written by 2005 Masterchef winner Tomasina Myers so I have big shoes to fill! St Patricks Day has also arrived early as my next CK article is a St Patrick's Day feast and the photo shoot is tomorrow. Lots of guinness and some green and white cocktails!

Later this month, I am returning to the wonderful Fitzbillies for some more patisserie training and inspiration - I really can't wait to spend some more time with Gill, Penny and Tom - we are going to be doing Valentine's baking so I am hoping to learn lots more baking secrets from them!