Raa raa raspberry day

These raspberry shortbread and chocolate hearts were made by my mum and I (helped) for her friend's daughter's weddings don't they look all delicate and nice...it's weird seeing how hairy raspberries are. The more I look at this photo the more cartoony it looks. I do wish I could have eaten more of these. Maybe I'll make some and instead of chocolate hearts they'll have chocolate flies.




I made this cake. I think they should have it as THE wedding cake look how luxuriously creamy it is. Vanilla sponge with homemade raspberry jam and fresh cream and raspberries...



Vanilla sponge cake recipe

6oz of baking margarine or butter
6oz of caster sugar
1tsp of baking powder
3 eggs
6 oz of self rasing flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to around 180c

1. Cream the butter & sugar
2. In another bowl beat the eggs with an electric whisk until fluffy
3. Sift the flour & baking powder a little at a time into the butter mix whilst gradually adding the beaten egg. Add the vanilla and mix well.
4. Divide the mix into two lined sponge tins
5. Bake for around 20 minutes until golden brown, springy to touch. Test by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake- if it comes out clean it's done.
6. Allow to cool, spread with jam, fruit & cream. Then make everyone look at the cake and tell you how much they like it.

Ravishing red onion and sundried tomato bread

I'm working on a recipe book at the moment with my friend Laura Mossop (there is a link to her illustration blog over there). I'm developing the recipes and going to work on the text within the book and she will do the design and illustration. The main point of the book is that it's going to be as much a piece of beautiful design as it is a functional book so hopefully it will stand out from the crowd. Lots of origional art work and digitally overworked photos... I am really excited about this, I love baking. I'm going to start recording the things I bake on here as well to give me practice at writing recipes & instructions down.



Ravishing red onion & sundried tomato bread




This recipe came out really fluffy and with a nice soft crust. I included the oil from the pieces of sundried tomato and lots of pepper.

Have a warm place prepared for the bread to rise- if you don't have anywhere particularly warm put the oven on low and pop the dough in there covered in a damp cloth.

Ingredients

475g of strong white bread flour (wholemeal, granary etc would be delicious too)
1 tbl sp olive oil
1tsp of salt
A good pinch of black pepper
1/2 tsp of sugar
1 1/2 tsp of dried fast action yeast
275ml warm water
1 small red onion chopped finely
4 or 5 pieces of sundried tomato chopped roughly

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt, black pepper, sugar, yeast, oil, onion and tomato
2. Add the warm water and mix
3. When the dough has roughly come together turn out on to a clean, floured surface
4. Knead the mixture ( sprinkling with extra flour if the dough becomes sticky) for around 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic
5. Put back in the large bowl and cover in a damp cloth, leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size- about 1 hour
6. Turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Gently knead the dough for 5 minutes
7. Shape the dough- I made into a round even loaf and divided it into 8 segments and shaped each segment into a roll.
8. Return to the warm place ( again covered in a damp cloth) and leave for around 45 minutes
9. Preheat your oven to around 200c and bake the bread until golden. The bread should should hollow when the bottom is tapped.

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot

This post is a salute to the delicious tea variety of Earl Grey. Named after the 2nd Earl Grey (a British prime minister) the tea is flavoured with the oil of bergamot. It is used as a flavouring in food, confectionary and cocktails and as a fragrance in cosmetics- examples of which will be seen in this post. See Wikipedia for all the information that I could have just copied and pasted here.


I have recently become a massive fan of the old Earl Grey and have been looking at Earl Grey themed items in order to understand it's addictive properties. Quite frankly any tea that requires you to use capital letters when you type its name deserves respect and a blog.


Oh and the title of this post (Tea. Earl Grey. Hot) is a famous quote from Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard loves the stuff and that is how he requests his brew.


Earl Grey 80z Creme Fraiche Whipped Soap
www.Savor.etsy.com

The item above looks delicious. I really think I might get into the luxury soaps that are available on Etsy, the whipped soaps look amazing. The soaps this seller sells look really nice and don't seem to be scented using sickly sweet fragrances... I would love to smell like an Earl Grey cuppa. They do a 'Gangsta olive oil soap' which is delightful and as they say 'they need good soap too'. This one is also vegan which is good to know.



Earl Grey Tea Shea Butter Soap
www.sweetpetula.etsy.com

Some more soap... The packaging of this Earl Grey themed item is really pretty- I like the botanical paper alot. Again the items from this seller seem really lovely and use natural oils and frangrances.



Claire Lowe Tea Jewellery
http://www.clairelowe.co.uk/page2.htm

Extrememly stylish and beautiful silver & resin jewellery which encapsulates real tea leaves and flecks of black tea.




Earl Grey Bracelet
www.jetaimeboutique.etsy.com

This bracelet came up on my Etsy search. I really like the silver grey colours of this bracelet and especially like the tea pot and spoon clasp.




Earl Grey a la Creme Truffles
www.denisesdelectable.etsy.com

Oh yeah... truffles infused with earl grey. A brew and chocolate is absolutely lovely I can only imagine what a brew and one of these delectable little treats would be like. This seller's other items include espresso martini truffles- No words are required to describe how good they sound.

This seller is also fundraising for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer using her Etsy sales.



On the subject of edible treats I have an American recipe for Earl Grey cookies.

2cups of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/2 cup of icing sugar
1 cup of butter
2 tbl spoons earl grey tea
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla


1.Cream butter and sugar
2. Sift in flour, salt and tea
3. Add vanilla
4. Chill the mixture for about half an hour
5. Preheat the oven to 180
6. Roll into balls and flatten- place on a prepared baking sheet
7. Bake for around 13 minutes until the edges are golden brown
8. Leave to cool


I have a tried and tested Earl Grey tea loaf recipe also. I will get a photo of this one up.

4oz/125g baking margarine
1/2 pint/ 275ml Earl Grey tea
60z/ 175g mixed dried fruit
40z/ 125g castor sugar
9oz/ 250g of self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp mixed spice

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas 4
2. Line a loaf tin
3. In a saucepan heat the margarine, tea, sugar and fruit. Stir continuously on a low heat, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat-simmer for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
4. Sift together all the dry ingredients
5. Mix the dry and tea mixture.
6. Pour into tin and bake for around an hour until golden brown

And check this one out from the BBC

Earl Grey 'MAR-TEA-NI'- Serves 1.

50ml/2 floz of Gin
35ml/1.5 fl oz of cold Earl Grey tea
20 ml/ 3/4 fl oz of lemon juice
12.5ml/ 1/2 fl oz of sugar syrup (gomme)
1/2 free range egg white
a twist of lemon peel to garnish

Shake all the ingredients up and serve with the lemon.