Recipe - A Multi-Coloured Cake (that wasn't)

Last week I made one of my favourite cake recipes. Only, it didn't turn out the way I had expected it to. Sadly. This wasn't down to anything I did, I am an expert in Victoria Sponge, but rather a fail on the part of my food colouring! The cake still tasted lovely and was just as moist and yummy as always. Just not the multi-coloured marvel I had hoped for.

If you caught my twitter ranting last week when it went wrong you will know that I have said enough about this. And I don't like being a negative person. I will just say; when baking make sure you check that the colouring you use is bake stable. Most of them aren't nowadays!

I therefore umm-ed and ahh-ed about sharing and then I thought, no, EVERYONE can have a fail. It's what you do about it that counts. I won't make this a Pearl's Pantry entry because I do want those to all be stuff that have worked!

Right, so I should tell you what I did, first off, because it is Victoria sponge it is the most simple recipe. And really quite forgiving if you are a learner baker!

I made a 3 egg mix, so for that we needed:

6oz Self-raising Flour

6oz Butter

6oz Caster Sugar 

3 Eggs.

Yup, that's it. Told you it was simple. We start off with the butter and sugar in the bowl and then you cream them together until they've gone creamy and fluffy. I do all my mixing by hand, so it took a couple of minutes for me.

Then we add our eggs in. One at a time. And I find adding a spoonful of flour with each egg makes it a bit easier to combine. Mix it all together until all three eggs are fully incorporated.

Your mix will look really sloppy but don't panic. Add in the rest of your flour and mix that in. It's best to add the flour half at a time if you're hand mixing, makes it easier on the old arms!

Once the mix was ready I split it. I left a quarter in the bowl I'd been mixing in so that would remain yellow. I then but the other three quarters into 3 separate bowls so I could add colours into them.

I added red, green and blue. Then I greased and floured my cake tin which makes it easier to get the cake out afterwards. I spooned blobs of the different colours in and then gave them a swirl to make a sort of ripple effect. 

Bunged it in the oven and waited 45mins until it was done. To test your cake insert a skewer into the centre and if it comes out clean then it's ready. The cake will also start to shrink away from the sides of the cake pan.

When I took the cake out the oven it became immediately apparent the colours had gone wrong in some way. I did slightly hope that when I cut the cake in half it would be better on the inside. Nope. I did achieve a two-tone cake. But not the colours I had wanted at all :(

I sandwiched the two halves together with some chocolate buttercream and then made three colours of icing to go on top, figuring I could at least make it look a bit more cheerful that way. 

Madam then went wild with the icing and we ended up with a distinctly messy, rather failed but yummy tasting masterpiece!

Moral of the story? Failures are not always unsalvageable, cakes can be rescued with some random icing. It's a cake, how bad could it be! ;)

I'd love to know if you've ever had a baking disaster. I can promise you this was not my worst one... I'm still infamous for having burnt a packet mix cheesecake when about 10!

Love, Pearl.

   

Pearl's Pantry ~ Recipe 2: Cottage Pie

Hello! Time for another exciting installment in my recipe series :) Today I'm going to show you how I make Cottage Pie. Now, this is one of those dishes with an infinite number of variations. I like it this way, but you might not. Feel free to change ingredients as you wish.

Also, I cheated quite a lot with this version as I was doing it mid-week and madam and I just wanted fed. If I did it at the weekend I might make more of it from scratch.

To make Cottage Pie for 2/3 you will need:

200g Mince (I've used Quorn mince because it means you don't have to brown it off before using in the recipe.)
125g Mushrooms.
400g Mash.
100g Cheese (optional, but I can't leave it off!)
1 Small Onion.
1 table spoon Tomato Puree.
2 Cloves of Garlic or a big squeeze of Garlic Paste like I have here.
1 table spoon of Oil.
Salt, Pepper and Mixed Herbs to taste.

Equipment
1 large, deep Frying Pan/Saute Pan
1 Ovenproof Dish 
Set the Oven to 200C or Gas Mk 6

Now, has to be said before I start, I only used about half that pack of mince, and half those mushrooms. Just use the full pack if you want to make enough for 4-6 servings!

Also, if you use minced beef/pork/lamb whatever you'll need to fry this off to brown it and keep it to one side (empty it on to a plate with some kitchen towel on) while you get to the point where I add the mince in! Likewise, if you're making your own mash you need to pop the potatoes on to boil before you start anything else. 

Right, I always start by making sure everything I need to chop is done first. In this case, the onion and the mushrooms. I like big bits of mushroom, so mine is chunky. Substitute mushrooms for carrots or swede or whatever you prefer (red pepper is another fave of mine, but madam is having a no peppers phase *sigh*)

Then heat your oil in the pan and when it's hot add your onion and turn the heat down. Cook them for a minute or so by themselves.

Next, add your mushrooms (or whatever veg you used) cook that for another minute or so.

I then put in my tomato puree, garlic paste (so much easier!) salt, pepper and mixed herbs.

You need to let it cook like that for 30 seconds or so. If you think it's sticking, don't add more oil, just a splash of water to loosen it off.

Then we add in the mince (the pre-browned stuff if that's what you used). I then put a small amount of water in. We do not want watery mince, people! You can use stock if you prefer, I'm cooking for a small child I don't want to add too much salt...

Right, let it come to a simmer, put a lid on and leave it to cook away to itself for 10mins. This lets our flavours develop!

While that's cooking, we have to sort out the mash. Now, if you boiled potatoes you will have to drain them and mash them as you normally would. Me being lazy, I bought it ready made! And this is potato, carrot and swede mash as it's our favourite. Again, use what YOU like.

I shoved it in the micro for 3 minutes to make it easier to use and then gave it a stir. If you skip this step you will probably have some rather unco-operative mash on your hands...

The cooked mince should look a bit like this, see, not too watery! The more water there is, the more your mash will sink, more dense mince makes this next bit easier!

Then, when your mince is ready, tip it in the ovenproof container of your choice.

Spoon the mash on the top, carefully before smoothing it over.

Top with the cheese, if using. If you're not adding cheese you might want to use a fork to make marks in the mash to give it a bit of yummy texture.

Bung in the oven for 15-20 mins to make sure the cheese is melted and it's piping hot throughout.

Serve with your choice of vegetables/salad/whatever and enjoy! We like peas with our pie. And I like big marrowfat tinned peas the best of all! Mmmm, luminous green!

Any questions?

Love, Pearl.

Lifestyle - Gardening, Ballet and a Crumble

I re-read the very first post I wrote the other day as I was talking about it for something. And I was quite shocked by the way it made me feel and what a horrible memory I have of that point in time. It may have only been just over a year ago, but so much seems to have happened since then.

Then, last night, as I hadn't posted anything yesterday I decided to see if there was a post from last year and, lo and behold, there was one for 15th March 2013 so I shared that instead. And of course, I read that back as well. 

Both the posts mentioned my imminent eviction problems and how stressed I was about it all. This got me talking with my friend M about where the the whole eviction thing stood now. And the answer is - I don't know. I've not been evicted as yet, however I've never been told I can stay either.

They still come round on a regular basis and inspect my property, which I can completely understand (it was awful), but does stress me out still. I hate knowing someone else is in my house and looking at my things. I can't be there whilst they do it, it freaks me out too much. To that end, I have spent the afternoon sorting out my house (again) as the agency is coming tomorrow (Monday).

I know that it's tidy and acceptable and having completely re-done the garden the other week I feel like I deserve a medal! But I'm still freaking out about it! Is it just me being unreasonable? 

A Garden Triptych

Moving on to nicer topics, madam and I went to the ballet yesterday. We went to see the Three Little Pigs which was a special children's ballet by the Northern Ballet company. Their Ugly Duckling ballet was on CBeebies last year and madam had absolutely loved it.

I spent a morning trying to calm my very excited child down and not particularly succeeding, but then it was finally time to set off to the romantic location of Goole to watch the performance. We couldn't get to the Hull one as it was on mid-week and during school hours (stupidly). We had to set off before lunch which meant I took her to McDonald's on the way. This is her idea of the best meal ever. Not particularly flattering to my cooking...

So we parked up in Goole and found the venue. Madam was desperate to sit on the balcony and was thrilled when we were told that our seats were up there. We settled down and waited for the show. The venue is tiny, so even being on the balcony we were almost able to reach out and touch the dancers! However, there were a group of people who arrived who *also* had the same seat numbers as us. 

Madam in her outfit, our first view, our eventual view, madam with the band

There followed a slightly hurried re-arrangement in seating and we ended up on the very front row! We were right next to the band and so close to the stage the Big Bad Wolf nearly sat on my knee at one point! It was all over far too quickly and madam is now counting down until the next time she'll be able to go. As the tickets were only a fiver each, hopefully it won't be too long!

When we got home I made us some roast pork and then one of my crumbles using up the leftover stewed fruit from the other night. It was lovely! I do love a nice crumble :)

Apple, Rhubarb and Blueberry Crumble. Yum!

So, what have you been up to this weekend?

Love, Pearl. 

Pearl's Pantry ~ Recipe 1: Cheesecake

I have been talking to one of my very best friends about doing a tutorial for my cheesecake recipe for the last few days and have decided to use the opportunity to make a little feature for the blog! So, here we are, this is the first entry in to what will be a periodic feature I am calling "Pearl's Pantry" (see what I did there?)

My cheesecake is something I've mentioned before but I shall now give you my photo tutorial! The recipe came from an advert I saw in Heat magazine ages ago and I did not invent it.

To make 1 cheesecake you will need:

100g melted butter

200g crushed biscuits

397g tin condensed milk

300g soft cream cheese (full fat)

2 lemons.

1. First of all you need to crush up your biscuits into crumbs. I used Ginger Nuts this time (which were jolly hard to crush up, I can tell you!), but use whatever you like best. I have done bourbons in the past for a chocolate version...

2. Melt your butter and mix it in with the biscuit crumbs and then tip it in to your tin - mine is a 7" deep sandwich tin with a loose base - and press it down firmly. Then put this in the fridge to set up whilst you make the filling.

3. Put the cream cheese in the bowl and give it a bit of a mix to loosen it up a bit (a). Now add in the condensed milk and stir it all in, I use a fork to give it a bit of a whisk and make sure there are no lumps. It goes really quite runny at this point (b).

(a)

(b)

4. Juice your two lemons (a) and add in to the cheese and milk mixture (b) (it looks like you've curdled it and made a dreadful mistake, you haven't). Then the magic bit, mix it in and watch as it turns glossy and thick and unctuous (c). Good word that, unctuous...

(a)

(b)

(c)

5. Pour this mix over your chilled base and smooth over the top. Then put back in the fridge for at least 2 hours to give it time to set properly.

You can serve it just as it is, but madam and I like to put something fruity on top. We decided to make blueberry compote this time as we had ended up with loads of blueberries that needed eaten up.

We shoved the blueberries in a pan, added some water and sugar and then boiled it down for a bit (kind of like making jam, really.)

And then: dollop of compote on top of your slice of cheesecake = perfection.

And there you have it, one really simple cheesecake to try :) Do let me know if you give it a go, I'd love to hear what you do with yours!

Love, Pearl.

A New Year's Eve Summary

It's New Year's Eve today. I am deciding whether to attempt drunkeness on my own or whether it is just quite pathetic to sit alone with a bottle of red wine, a Harry Potter marathon and possibly my five year old...

I will definitely manage the Harry Potter marathon and I'm guessing the five year old will insist on staying up as long as she can... I do have a bottle of red that has been hanging around at home for ages and ages and now seems as good a time as any to drink it.

I have had an interesting year full of highs and lows as ever. I think I can safely say that some of the littlest things have made me most happy. Spending time with good friends, improving my crochet techniques, teaching myself new things, trying new recipes. I think my post from the other day  is probably the best illustration of where I am now.

Although, to be fair, I try new recipes all the time! It doesn't always work as well as I hope it will. Last night's strangely bland potatoes being a case in point. How can potatoes cooked in buttered stock and thyme not have flavour? Well, I achieved it. The experimental barbecue chicken worked a treat though... 

Worst moments? Probably during my college course earlier in the year, it stirred up so many strong emotions in me. I spent a lot of time thinking about myself which, athough in the long term was helpful, was hard to get through. I think this post probably sums up some of that darkness that still haunts me.

Although, those feelings are retreating more and more and I go longer between the utter blackness that surrounded me more times than I care to think about this time last year. I hope that there will be more improvements at this point next year. 

Maybe I'll even have found a job and a new boyfriend! Stranger things have happened after all...

  

fudge making and other stuffs

Today I 1) feel like I look in this flattering photo and 2) wish I was still at home in my amazing warm dressing gown!

 

 

I have set up madam's outfit blog, you can find the first post at this link: A Dizzy Fashion Story: Skele-fun. As she has birthday in 3 sleeps (the countdown of sleeps is literally the first thing she says to me when she wakes up!) this weekend's post will probably be her party outfit. I have bought her a body glitter stick, which, thinking about it, might have been a foolish plan!

 

I made fudge with my dad yesterday, this is because, despite having attempted to make it twice, it has failed both times. I found a recipe on this lovely blog and it had really good, clear instructions. Now, my dad is a chemist, he is trained to follow instructions precisely, how he has failed twice is beyond me!

 

So, I put myself in charge and followed the steps as laid out on the blog. My dad had to help with the final step, my arm was starting to drop off after so much beating of the cooling mixture! But we got something that looked a lot like fudge at the end of it. And, it had actually set mostly by the time I left to go to the gym! Given his last batch didn't even set up when mum shoved it in the freezer I think we can call it a success.

 

By the way, just how do you achieve that? It wouldn't even freeze?! I will admit that I don't think this version is perfect. Even though I thought I had melted it all down properly when we were beating it I noticed it was still a bit grainy, like not all the sugar had properly dissolved. I'm pretty sure it will taste okay, even so...

 

I also finally got rid of madam's old bed yesterday. It broke ages ago and then my dad took it all apart the other week whilst H and I had fun with the We Watch Film guys and watching Labyrinth. The pieces have been stacked up in madam's room ever since. Along with all the packaging for the new bed. But now it's all gone and no-one has to negotiate large cardboard box in the hallway! Result. 

 

I *didn't* get any more crochet done though, which I had planned on doing yesterday evening. I mainly messed about on Fruit Ninja whilst sort of watching Batman Begins and Casino Royale. The latter made me extremely late to bed and I had to really force myself out of bed this morning. Although, madam still beat me on the not wanting to get up stakes. And she went to bed at 8pm!

 

I might try sending her a bit earlier tonight as I am having so much trouble getting her going in the morning. We were actually late for school this morning. Despite living about a 10 min walk from the school gates. We didn't leave the house until 8.45, which is the moment when her class usually goes in with their teacher! I am a stickler for punctuality and her being late winds me up no end. And I have no idea how to improve it. I can't dress her, she's too old. I can't make her hurry up, she doesn't seem to care. I have tried threatening to send her in the nude, but she knows that's an empty threat as she has to be in uniform... What do I do? I can only try making her get up earlier so that she has more time to get ready. But then *I* have to blooming get up too. Urgh :(

 

I might actually have to go to bed at a reasonable hour myself! Ha ha!

 

Today I am mainly spending doing blogging and some research for a future post (I know, so not like me!) also I need to order my tickets for this months Classic Movie Tuesday (Ghostbusters, FTW!). I need to get maps from the Tourist Information centre so that I can start planning out a route for the Guide treasure hunt thing. Also, need to think up a prize for them... At some point I might even do some more crochet. Madam is proving far too big for the pattern I have and I keep having to increase things! I did buy an extra ball of yarn, so it's not too much of a problem. Though I have realised the colour is pretty much the same as her school uniform! Oops. Good job she likes burgundy...

 

I also, at some point, need to wrap madam's presents (including the ones from V and her dad) and on Thursday I'm cake baking/decorating! I have bought some really pretty candles which are supposed to burn with coloured flames, so we shall see :)

        

Guides, Rainbows and Birthdays

I'm feeling a little sorry for myself this morning. I have the start of a cold coming with it's annoying runny nose/watery eyes/fuzzy head fun. I should be used to it by now. Every time madam starts a new term at school she brings home a new cold. But it sucks.

 

I have been doing very little with myself in this new free time I now have (technically today is the first time I have *new* free time). But I have got back into doing some proper cooking. I love cooking but loathe doing it just for a small number of people. I have tried to combat this by using a bit of planning.

 

This week I bought a whole chicken and roasted it off yesterday. So we had a nice chicken dinner last night and I have half a carcass (well, plus a wing) left for today. And then I shall make stock with the leftovers :)

 

Now, this isn't exactly revolutionary. But usually I make extra helpings of things and then never really fancy eating the rest of it so it languishes in my freezer. Not really *actually* a money saver. But this technique means I will get 3 completely different meals out of what I bought! Genius. It's something I've been meaning to do for ages and then never quite getting around to it.

 

So tonight I will take the other half a chicken (possibly just the breast) and turn it into a chicken and mushroom pasta bake-type thing. Then I could make chicken soup. Which we can have on Saturday as mum makes tea for us on Fridays.

 

This Friday is the first one back at guides for this term. I'm excited to be going back, though worried there will be no guides left! I need to think of an activity to do with everyone that will be easy to do with a small (miniscule) number of people.

 

Before we broke up for summer we spent an evening making recycling boxes. We had the tables in a horseshoe for this activity. Usually each patrol sits around their own table. But I noticed how much better everyone was when they were closer together and, whilst we are so small, I wonder if we should keep the arrangement. We can always send them off to different areas if they need to work separately.

 

But I get the impression trying to break with tradition might not go down well! I'm also trying to persuade my mum to come in as a unit helper. She could just come once a month even. It would just be nice to have someone who knows how much effort I put in and comes from the same standpoint as me. Not that I'm saying I feel underappreciated, more that I feel impotent.

 

I'm always trying to ramp the guides up, but they tend to look at me as if I have three heads. I also think we need to do some proper planning and have ideas for what we're going to do over consecutive weeks. I know that we seem to have given up letting the patrols organise themselves as they just don't. Or more accurately, some of them do it. But not all. And not every week. There is *always* a patrol with nothing to do. It drives me insane.

 

We also always seem to be a last resort. You know, they have nothing else to do this week so they'll come to Guides. I was under the impression they were meant to come every week... But there is no point in my frustration.

 

They don't come every week as they're not inspired. So to an extent it's my fault. I just wish I could find the thing that does inspire them. I don't want our unit to fold. But at the rate it's going it'll be gone by Christmas. And then where will I be :( Because I have that unit in my heart. I guess I'd have to move to Toll Gavel. 

 

Madam will be at Toll Gavel for Rainbows soon enough! I can't believe she'll be 5 in 5 weeks time... Plans for her birthday party are starting to have to be set into action. We have the play centre booked for her and a few friends. I guess I need to think about what I'm even going to get her for her birthday! 

 

I have younger brother hunting for The Little Mermaid on DVD for her. But I want to get her something more. She doesn't need any more toys. Or clothes. What do I get her then? I guess I'll have to ask if there is anything she wants... Perhaps she'd have Rainbow uniform as a present...

 

This is her birthday last year...

 

new coat, new pushchair, new clothes!

princess cake...

 

And the year before...

 

it was all about pirates when she was 3

yup, that is a snowsuit she's wearing...

 

And when she was two...

 

hello kitty *everything*

 

There's no cake shot from when she was two... I don't even remember what I made!

 

For some reason there are no pictures of her first birthday. There was this though...

   

madam with her one true love: baby