That time of the year again...

Well it’s birthday time again this year and as usual I made my favourite White and Chocolate Pistachio cake.  I just kept adding the chocolate until it ran our - I hate to waste it and after all this isn't a professional bakery but home baked goodness!  I love it because the frosting isn’t too sweet but also light.  The cake with the raspberry vinegar in it makes it just that bit different.  This year I made some homemade raspberry vinegar as I could not find it for love nor money at the grocery store.  I found it on-line but the cost was really more than I care to pay to be honest. 

Here's the recipe I used to make it and really this is all that is on the ingredients listing - red wine vinegar and raspberry juice in varying strengths - how hard is it to make your own - not very!   

Homemade Raspberry Vinegar
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh, organic raspberries
3 3/4  cups white wine vinegar

Instructions:
• rinse raspberries. pat dry.
• place raspberries in a 1 quart ball jar.
• pour vinegar into jar, covering the raspberries completely.
• place lid tightly on the jar.
• store in your pantry, 2 weeks.
• after two weeks, place a mesh strainer over a 2 quart glass measuring cup and strain the liquid.
• discard the raspberries.
• transfer vinegar into a clean glass container and store indefinitely.

And no sooner had I found this recipe did I yes, find organic raspberries reduced at the store – well this was a sign!  So of course I made it and you know it came out really nice.  I gave it away to another friend who like me enjoys the taste and we both had some of this lovely ingredient for our recipes. 

The cookies (or biscuits as they are called in the UK) are ones I baked for work – in the UK if it’s your birthday you bring in the goodies for all to enjoy.  I suppose this is a good thing if all abide by it – which happens that not all do but this was my contribution.  I used King Arthur’s black cocoa powder (a shirt did get a burst of it – which thankfully washed out!) which makes them appear nearly black.  If you keep to 10 minutes in the oven they come out perfect if you like moist and chewy cookies. 

I added chocolate chips to mine as I had loads of them left over from another project and I cannot stand to waste anything, so in they went.  If I had some nuts I would have added those too but sadly, all out.  I found them quite nice and J certainly loved them too.  I have to say we got some ready-made ‘homemade’ style cookies from the store a few weeks ago so he had something to contrast to it with and of course mine won hands down (they cost only £0.14p for one so you can see why he wanted to try it!).  

That's it for now - more to follow as usual check back soon. Enjoy!

Feast of cake....

Well again it's been a long time since I last posted but as usual I'm a busy bee. I've been working like mad and when not at work just enjoying life and things like that. I look at other people's blogs and do wonder how they find the time - I'm busy with life and to post as well (sometimes every day!) would do me in.

In any event, it is J's birthday again and another Death by Chocolate cake was made. This time it was Deep Fudge Espresso Cake (to help me avoid the great big 'nut hunt' as I call it!). And boy is it full of espresso! It's a good thing I'm not sensitive to caffeine or else I would be in big trouble!

I had a bit of trouble with the icing - it somehow got bits of chocolate that either didn't incorporate well or hardened before I could mix it all in - I'm not sure which but in any event it sure was good! I'm a terrible piper but it isn't how it looks as J says - it is the thought and work that go into it that matter most....awwww...how sweet!

Enjoy your summer!

Even longer but now we're onto CHOCOLATE!

Well again a long time between posts but what can I say? Life has to be lived and while it's great to have an archive of what you do at varying times in your life I don't want to be in front of a keyboard and monitor all the time!

So what have I been doing? Well, I went back home in March/April to visit my niece for the first time since she was born. That was really great to do and I have many movies and pictures of our time together. I don't like posting pictures of her - suffice to say we look strangely and eerily alike! I will post one picture - this is of a telephone mast in Tampa - yes, it's meant to look like a tree - weird or what? I guess a mast would have been too daring for that part of town and well a fake tree that's a mast well that would be just so much better to look at! Um, OK....

I then of course returned home and to work (what a dirty word!) and it has been non-stop since. I have been off the last week but have been feeling poorly due to a bad back but today has been the first day I've actually been able to sit for any period of time so thought I'd put the sitting to good use!

I recently baked a cake for J which was a 'Death by Chocolate' cake - yes, I keep going back to that book. When you see the recipes and you try a few you will see why. In any event, here is my cake which I must admit looks home made but who cares?!

It's the tasting that counts and well with chocolate - how far can you go wrong? Not far in my book. In any event, it was very good and is sadly nearly gone too! Oh dear....will have to just make something else...check back soon!

Vegetarian cake?

In my reading quest - basically surfing around for interesting things to read I came across a blog post about a vegetarian birthday cake. Since I was a vegetarian this perplexed me since I never made much of a distinction between a veggie and non-veggie cake. After all most cakes are vegetarian, unless you are making something with gelatin in it you are safe with most if not all cakes.

Now I have had to make cakes with considerations for people who cannot tolerate wheat or gluten - simply make a flour-less cake, which will usually suffice. Or you can use soya flour which gives nearly identical results without much sacrifice to the taste. I made a mean flour-less cake in my 'Desserts to Die For' (recipe was For Chocolate Lovers Only but I omitted the chocolate nut ganache for another person's allergy) cookbook. I also made the wonderfully light frosting that went with it. Lovely... BTW, that blogger obviously had never heard of this cookbook - otherwise she would never have needed the net!

Anyway, that's my strange comment for today. Cooking wise I made bread (recipe from Dough - the sweet one because I'm going to make French Toast with it later in the week) and dinner was a bunch of leftovers from the week fish pie, potatoes, peas, and some shrimp. Rather pathetic but hey they all have to be used and I don't waste food. Unlike what I saw of some American households (even a few British ones too!) I do not throw food out. I work it so that it all is used up and not much goes in the bin. If only we had an outdoor garden to have a compost heap - I'd be a dangerous woman. Well I'm already dangerous - mostly to myself!

Childhood food memories...

I must admit I have a large cookbook collection probably in excess of 300 or so books. I began collecting many years ago (more than I probably care to admit about now!) but I have since begun to refine my tastes and am now quite discriminating on what books I will buy.

I tend to go off on tangents and when really into something I would get all the best books on the subject. For instance, once when in the bookstore, I saw this book on chocolate - it was like porn for chocolate lovers. I could not put the book down. I did not get it that day but of course, it only took me a few days to go back and get the book. What was it you ask? Death by Chocolate by Marcel Desaulniers. I remember then finding a show on one of the cooking channels back home - how I wish I had kept the videos I had taped, I taped over them with Martha Stewart. While I am happy to have some of her older shows (they were the best if you ask me) it would have been useful to keep his shows too. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

Anyway, despite having the book I made only one item in it for a long time (probably more out of fear than anything else - the recipes often are intimidating to read through let alone make). I then, when moving to England, found that cakes here were nothing like our American counterparts. Icing here is usually fondant but I think it is such a super-sugar rush that I cannot stand it. They really do not do icing as we do. Therefore, I began to broaden my baking horizons and started making most of the items in this book. My particular favourite is the White and Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cake. It really is the best frosting by far and has just the right amount of sweet, chocolate taste.

Now for the reason for the posting - see I am already on a tangent! I made yesterday a loaf of bread - nothing unusual in that but instead of the usual loaf I made a sweeter type of bread more akin to a brioche but not as sweet. I got the recipe from my Dough cookbook (another one I recommend) and this got me to thinking of my childhood and how we had gotten this type of bread usually for our Easter dinner.

I then began to think of all the other breads I had that I cannot now find and one was a poppy seed confection that really was out of this world. Therefore, I naturally turned to a cookery book that I saw in the States about 7 years ago called Polish Heritage Cookery, what a gem this book has turned out to be. Eventually I found a recipe, which sounds similar to what I remember but of course, it will be a lot of work. I will have to gather a number of ingredients for it but I'll report back when I have made the item. I hope that I can get the camera to work and take a picture of it as well. I must admit I am a techie but working that thing is often beyond me.

Now this is a rather long post but I find it is often food that transports us back to our childhood and to relive those pleasant memories gone by. I am lucky to have many of my family recipes that my grandmother made. I so wished that she had written them down even if they were in Polish - it would be something. I do have her cookbook but the date in it is well past when she would have begun cooking so I can only assume it was a present. I can see some similarities to the recipes of some items I make but they are never the exact - nor are the ingredients.

I tend to cook the same way - I will synthesise a number of recipes and tackle it my own way. I sometimes have flops but then again life is a learning curve. Hopefully, I’ll have a bit more to pass on when I am gone as I try to keep a record of the recipes I like and have adapted. At least I hope there will be someone in my family that will enjoy cooking and getting the best they can from their food. We shall see…