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Tuesday 28 February 2012

Happy Birthday - 18



My eldest daughter was 18 on Monday - I do not know where eighteen years have gone.

So, newly adult child (a contradiction?) requested Nigella's Chocolate Cloud Cake for her birthday cake which I made from "Nigella Bites" - page 110.  The only adjustment I made was to use orange juice in place of Cointreau. 

Decorated it with softly whipped cream, Mikado chocolate sticks, white chocolate covered blackburrants, chocolate stars and a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

It was really quite delicious and light.


Happy Birthday Baby.




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Monday 13 February 2012

The Bloggers Voluntary Code of Fair Practice




I made rather a huge blunder yesterday when I posted the recipe for Madeleines which I had taken from Dan Lepard's book Short and Sweet.  I mistakenly assumed that as long as I credited the author and book the recipe came from and was not trying to infer that the recipe was my own then all was okay.  Wrong.  So here is my very sincere apology to Dan Lepard for using his recipe in my post.

Vanessa Kimbell has kindly set out a few guidelines for safe blogging - for more information please read Vanessa's blog - http://writingacookerybook.blogspot.com/.



Nutella Madeleines

We love madeleines here, especially still warm from the oven with a cup of tea or coffee, so when I read A Trifle Rushed's post Saturday afternoon for Nutella Madeleines I had to pop out into the kitchen to make some.  They really are very simple to make but still I need a recipe and turned to Dan Lepard's book Short and Sweet for his version.











Sprinkled with icing sugar and eaten warm - these went down very well indeed with a mug of hot tea.

To read the original inspiration for these little babies - http://atriflerushed.blogspot.com/2012/02/nutella-madeleines-and-hot-chocolate.html

Thursday 2 February 2012

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

It was my birthday last week, the weekend prior to that it was my daughter's birthday, the Monday before that it was my father's birthday, ten days before that it was my brother's birthday .................... the birthdays seemed never ending.  By the time I reached my birthday the thought of making another cake filled me with dread - so I didn't bother!  My daughters were disappointed (despite there being cake in both cake tins), so the evening following my birthday when I went out for dinner with friends, they decided, unbeknown to me, to make me a cake.  I came home to a cake sitting on the cooker with "Happy Birthday Mummy" stuck to the tiles behind - I'm not sure how to describe how this made me feel, but I think proud sums it up best.  Not "proud that they love me so much to go to the bother" but "proud that they are growing into thoughtful young ladies".

Anyway, before a tear drips down my face onto the keyboard - elder daughter had been off school all week - ill, didn't eat for three days, dry rich tea biscuits for two days kind of ill - so on Thursday (I think) whilst eating lunch I was watching a repeat of one of Nigella's programmes and she made an easy flourless chocolate cake.  Elder daughter was obviously taking note, because that is the cake they made for me on the evening that I was out.

So, here is the cake



I have no idea which book this recipe is in (because I can't find it) - the girls downloaded the recipe from Nigella's website.  All I can remember is that the chocolate was melted and mixed with the butter, the eggs (5) were separated, yolks beaten with some sugar, whites beaten with some sugar - yolks mixed with the butter and chocolate and then the whites mixed in to finish it off  oh yes and Nigella used Cointreau I think it was, but as we didn't have any the girls improvised and added Amaretto (apparently when they couldn't undo the lid they asked their father to do it who commented "you're going too far now" - he didn't think so when he was tucking into a slice I can assure you.  Can't remember how long it cooked for or at what temperature!  Sorry.  They on Friday afternoon we had it for afternoon tea with some whipped cream resting gently on top.

Small portions were required only because of the depth of flavour of the chocolate.

I thought they did very well - even if they did use ten eggs!  Only five were required for the recipe but after a bit of a mistake they had to chuck the first five and start again!!



As I was writing this and worrying that I didn't have the recipe or book to refer back to for the details, it occurred to me that Nigella - just like Delia - doesn't need a surname for everyone to know who she is!

How many more Cooks/Chefs do we know instantly by their first name - Nigel, Heston, Rick, Tamasin, Jamie, Gordon - who have I forgotten?  Do let me know who I have omitted from this list.