Hummingbird Cake (without the feathers)

Yep, I made this.

I've got no idea why Hummingbird Cake is called Hummingbird Cake.  I can only speculate that its because of how sweet it is.  In fact, before a few weeks ago I'd never even heard of it.  

When I started the blog I often debated whether or not to tell colleagues (especially colleagues on my secondment.  I mean I wanted them to like me and thought that to let them see my silly little mind might not be the best idea).  When I kept bringing in baked goodies to work I got questioned on why I was always baking and having got to know 1 of my colleagues well I finally let on to my dirty little baking secret and she seemed quite enthusiastic about it (well people are...to your face).  I told her that I was very happy to take requests so she sent me a link to Sweetapolita's sky-high version of the Hummingbird Cake.  I was less happy about my enthusiasm about letting people put in requests.

Now I put off making this on the basis that it really looks far too fancy for just normal baking so I decided to wait until the right opportunity, a birthday preferably.  April rolled around and brought 4 birthdays in my team in the space of a week.  There are only 9 people in my team.  Time to attempt the Hummingbird Cake I thought....

I had a look on the web and found a recipe on Joy Of Baking's website and when I looked at the Sweetapolita recipe I noticed that she had also used the Joy of Baking recipe as a starting point.  They both looked good so I kinda worked back and forth between the two, using the Joy of Baking recipe but the Sweetapolita method on constructing the cake.  As usual, the actual recipe is in italics and my additional commentary is in normal font.

The recipe from the Joy of Baking and Sweetapolita

For the Cake:

1 cup (110 grams) pecans, toasted and finely chopped
3 cups (390 grams) all-purpose flour
2 cups (400 grams) granulated white sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup (180 ml) sunflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 x 8 ounce (227 grams) can crushed pineapple, do not drain
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium sized bananas)

For the Frosting:

1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz (227 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1 lb (454 grams) (about 3 2/3 cups) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
1 tsp (4 grams) vanilla extract

Garnish:
pecan halves

1.  Firstly to the cake....Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) with the rack in middle of oven.  Prepare three (I used only two pans!) 8" round cake pans with butter/oil spray and a parchment circle on bottom of pan. Set aside. 

I even bought new pans! Exciting times...no seriously

2. Chop the pecans.  I used one of my favourite kitchen tools - my Pampered Chef Food Chopper.  Its great, you just put whatever you want to chop underneath and bash the top, ideally focusing on someone you really dislike or something that is pissing you off then bang, bang, BANG!  All done.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

4. I could only find pineapple rings so I simply blitzed the pineapple chunks using a stick blender.  I then mashed the banana.

5. In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the lightly beaten eggs, vanilla, chopped pecans, oil, bananas, and pineapple.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.  

Looks a little vomity, right?  Tasty.

6. Divide the batter evenly into 3 (remember, I only used 2) prepared 8" round pans. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean from the centre of the cake (about 30 minutes - I don't know if my oven is playing up but I definitely had to keep the cakes in for a good 50mins). Don't open oven for first 20 minutes, then rotate pans, checking after 10 more minutes. Try not to over bake! Let cool on wire racks for 20 minutes (in the tins), then invert onto racks, remove the parchment paper and let cool until cool to the touch.  Wrap the cakes in foil and put in the fridge overnight (this makes them easier to slice).

7. Remove the cakes from the fridge and unwrap from the foil.  Taking a bread knife carefully and evenly cut each cake into 3 thin layers.

8. Then onto the icing...Using electric mixer (how generic, of course I turned to dear Berta), combine the butter and icing sugar until just combined.  Now I had some problems here, possibly due to the fact that I realised I only had fondant icing sugar.  The butter and icing sugar just refused to combine so I had to take some drastic measures.  I needed to warm the butter enough to be able to combine it with the icing sugar.  I thought that actually heating it would be a mistake so instead I took a bowl of lukewarm water and put the mixing bowl into the water - enough to warm the sides of the bowl (its metal).  This definitely helped and put the icing back on track.

9. Add the cold cream cheese, all at once, and beat on medium speed for about 4 minutes. Turn up to high speed for another 1 minute. It should be fluffy (mine wasn't but again I believe this is all down to the fondant icing sugar). Don't over beat, or the icing will start to lose thickness.

10. Onto assembling the cake!  Taking one of the bottom layers spoon a big blob of icing into the centre and carefully spread the icing to evenly cover the cake.  Always cut side down, place the next layer on top and repeat the process.  Repeat with the remaining layers.

No, there is no Tabasco in the cake.

11. Spoon the rest of the icing onto the top of the cake and, using a palate knife, smooth it all across the top of the cake easing it to the edge and down the sides (this was how I had to do it because of the consistency of the icing.  I think it would be more spreadable and less drippy with regular icing sugar).  Make sure the cake is evenly covered and decorate with a couple of pecan halves.

12. Carefully transfer to your serving dish! (I transferred it to my brand new spotty tins to take into work.  I love my new spotty tins)

This cake is quite sweet but fantastic and serves plenty.  It went down very well at work and every last crumb was eaten.  If you want a cake to impress - this is the one.  Personally I found it was best served off ducky paper plates that were left over from one of Posie's parties but obviously you do not have to recreate this ;)

I'm all up for gratuitous self-promotion!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

My friend M is pregnant and has so far had to endure horrible extreme morning sickness and its really taken its toll on her.  She arrived into the 2nd trimester and the sickness had finally subsided only for her to be diagnosed with SPD (sounds like something gross right?  Wrong!  Now get your mind out of the gutter).  So having gotten out of the sickness woods she's now in the pond of pain instead.  Being the wonderful, caring, sharing sort of gal' I am (and modest, totally totally modest) I suggested I came over to her house for our girls to have a play date and for me to let her put her feet up for a couple of hours and of course bring some baked goodies.  So since I keep telling everyone that I'm more than happy to take requests, having seen the posts on making Lemon Meringue Pie she asked if I could make her a Lemon Meringue Pie.  I said I'd see what I could do.

This did not fit with my whole "new recipes" concept.

Like I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of Lemon Meringue Pie.  I am, however, a fan of cupcakes and I'm aware I've not made any cupcakes yet for the blog (or even in the last few years).  I got to thinking.  Why not make a filled cupcake and use the meringue topping as the "icing"?  Yes, I know.  Not exactly controversial and certainly not new judging by my google recipe trawl, but given I haven't tried making cupcakes in a while it was certainly a bit of a gamble.

I am no good at gambling.  I get too excited if I start winning and then start placing stupid bets.  Like over Christmas.  We rented a house in Mystic, CT (absolutely gorgeous - I'd certainly recommend!) for a little reunion with a couple of my hubby's old college buddies and our respective broods and drank, gossipped and played poker once the kiddos were all tucked up in bed.  The second night I, the rookie loud mouth, somehow pulled a full house out of my **** and took most of the chips.  20 mins later I had somehow lost all my chips and was peeved I hadn't pulled another amazing hand out of the ether since I was now clearly the greatest poker player on Earth.

Anyway, massive digression.  Point is this time my gamble paid off.

The recipe - Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (adapted from a post on the Nigella Lawson website)

For the cupcake: 

215g self-raising flour 

60g caster sugar 

1 egg 

1 egg yolk 

1 pinch of salt

1/2 cup milk 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

90g butter, melted and cooled 

3 tablespoons lemon curd

For the meringue topping: 

2 egg whites 

125g caster sugar 

Makes 12 cupcakes 

1. Preheat the oven to 200C or gas mark 6 and place 12 cupcake cases in the holes of a 12-hole cupcake pan.

2. Melt the butter.

Oooh, melty melty

3. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar. Make a well in the middle of the sugar/flour mix. 

4. In separate bowl add the whole egg, egg yolk and a pinch of salt and beat together. Then stir in the milk, vanilla and melted butter (I note that the recipe I used as my base said "add milk" but didn't actually say how much milk to add. After having a momentary melt-down I had a quick trawl on the net and came to the conclusion of adding a 1/2 cup which I list above in the ingredients). 

5. Pour the egg mixture into the well in the flour mixture and mix on a low speed until well combined. Divide the mixture into the cases and bake for 15 minutes.

Yes I admit it.  I betrayed Berta and used Mummy-Dearest's dinosaur-yet-still-brilliant-30-year-old Kenwood.

6. Remove the cupcakes from the oven (but leave the oven on) and let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes. Do not take them out of the tray though! Using a small sharp knife (like a pairing knife) cut a hole out of the middle of each cupcake - about an inch deep (there is no further use for the cuttings so by all means have a bit of snackage action).

         

7. Using a teaspoon fill each hole with the lemon curd. 

8. (Having obviously washed out the mixing bowl for the mixer - be careful to make sure the soap is all washed out of the bowl and the bowl is dry as these can affect the meringue) Using the whisk adaptor for the mixer, beat the egg whites until they are light and frothy. Gradually add the sugar, whisking well after each addition until the mixture is stiff and glossy. 

9. Spoon the egg whites into a piping bag and using a fairly wide nozzle carefully pipe the egg white in a spiral, starting at the edge and ending in the centre with a nice peak. Put the cupcakes back in the oven for 5 minutes, until the meringue is golden.

Ok, I've not used a piping bag in a couple of years so forgive me for not being  "perfect"!

10.   Serve!

These are super yummy, especially fresh from the oven.  The cupcakes are really tasty and light - given Posie's usual cake-aversion she managed to get her hands on the "holes" and ate them all!  As bad as it may sound I was so happy she enjoyed them I didn't mind (plus she was helped out by Grandad).  They went very quickly and I only had 2 left to take into the office.  I felt rather miserly but at the same time I'm always eager to get external opinions on what I've baked so figured I'd let them duke it out over the last 2.  

The only irritation is that my mother's oven doesn't work properly and bakes a little too hot so it made the peaks of my meringue slightly cajun...

HOT cross buns, HOT cross buns, one a penny two a penny, HOT cross buns

So firstly, apologies galore.  I've not blogged in the last 2 weeks but that does not mean I haven't been busy in the kitchen.  I have.  But we went away for an Easter break so I have also been enjoying the cakey-bakey goodies that Paris has to offer.  In fact I rather overindulged in cheese, wine and patisserie!  We stayed in an apartment right on the edge of the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement that was literally a stone's throw from a market street filled with ice cream parlours, bakeries, butchers, wine shops, flower shops, bistros....it was an amazing location.  I'm hoping to take some inspiration from the trip so watch this space.

Saying that though.  Easter isn't complete without Hot Cross Buns, and whilst the Parisians lulled me into a food coma they didn't do Hot Cross Buns.  I however do!

I have a recipe folder filled with a ton of recipes that I have never tried.  I tear them out of magazines and file them away, never to attempt.  In fact one of the reasons I started writing the blog was to actually start making these recipes.  With the lead up to Easter the supermarkets, bakers and my mum start stocking up on the Hot Cross Buns.  I've spent a couple of weekends at the folks recently and have been loving toasted, butter smothered Hot Cross Buns for brekkie.  So, given my recent bread/dough successes I felt confident enough to give the Hot Cross Bun recipes a go.

I'm pretty certain this recipe is a Delia and certainly is seems pretty similar to the one listed on her website.

Now for this recipe I didn't have any mixed spice to hand but I did have a variety of spices in my spice/herb drawer so I searched around on t'net and made the mixed spice myself.

To make the mixed spice:
2 tbs ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

I didn't have ground cloves but had whole cloves so I started by grinding them in my trusty pestle and mortar.  Then I dumped everything else in and gave it all a good grind (wow, that sounds rather sordid.  Oh well).

Mixed Spice 

I made the recipe pretty much as directed except (as usual, I can't just stick to a recipe!) I didn't have any mixed peel and in all honesty I'm not a massive fan of my Hot Cross Bun being citrus-ey tasting.  

Ooh, frothy!

Here's a handy tip for working out what "hand-hot water is" (I mean, its not exactly a scientific statement is it??  What is lukewarm to me is hot to my little one!)  Anyway, go by this method - 1 part boiling water to 2 parts cold water.  Bosh - hand-hot water.

They smelled amazing when they were cooking.  Filled the whole house with a bready, spicy aroma.  Better than a Yankee Candle!

As you can see I didn't make the white crosses - I simply didn't have time to make shortcrust pastry as the recipe suggests. However, on the Delia website she suggests making the white crosses using "a flour and water paste made with 4 oz (110 g) plain flour and approximately 3 tablespoons water. Roll out thinly and divide into small strips, dampening them to seal" so I'd try that next time. Much simpler!

The best BEST way to serve them is cut in half, toasted and smothered in butter.  Bloody gorgeous!

I took them into work and they went down a treat.  One colleague ate 2...a second ate 3...he claimed he was doing me a favour.  Personally these are the best thing I've made yet.  I had one for breakfast all week and every time I opened the tub I got a waft of spicy goodness.  Yummers.

Pot-Age Patties

Bangers and mash.  Its proper British grub and everyone in my family loves it.  We've even converted the hubby.

Banger's are sausages.  I don't know why we call them "bangers" but this website provides quite an amusing explanation.  Strangely we also seem to call boobs bangers, in fact it was yelled at me the other day from some workmen.  "Oi luv!  You've got some great bangers!".  Yes, its every girl's dream being yelled at that she's got a good rack by the "panel" at a building site.  I have NO idea why boobs are also called bangers and I sincerely hope it bears no correlation with the sausage explanation.  Anyway...

My father looked after le Pose on Saturday night as hubby was off on a football training weekend (American not soccer) and I had been invited to an old friend's birthday party (literally known her my entire life from bump).  Just before I left he made their dinner - Bangers and mash - Posie's favourite.  Why is this important?  Simple, there was a ton of left over mashed potato and half a pack of uncooked sausages so I whipped up this little recipe...

The recipe - Pot-Age Patties with a Honey-Mustard Dressing (get it? Pot (potato) Age (sausage) well I liked it)

The patties:

5 medium sized potatoes, boiled and mashed with a little milk and butter

4 large pork sausages, casings removed leaving just the meat (you could also use store-bought sausage meat)

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

3 baby portabella mushrooms, finely chopped

1 egg

plain flour for dredging
olive oil for frying

The dressing:

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp Bulldog Mustard (or other coarse grain mustard)

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp lemon juice


A salad of some description - I used a pre-bagged mix.


1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6.


2. Put all the ingredients for the patties in a bowl and mash together with a fork then get it good and combined with a wooden spoon (or your mitts).

3. Grab a handful of the mix and shape it into patties about an inch thick (this recipe makes about 12 patties).  Dredge the patties in the plain flour.

4. Heat some oil (I used olive oil - my mother's close friend lives on an olive grove in Tuscany so I have an enormous can of incredible olive oil from their grove) in a large (preferably non-stick) frying pan or flat griddle.  Cook until golden brown on each side (about 5mins) then transfer the patties onto a baking sheet and cook for another 20mins.


5. While the patties are in the oven make the dressing.  Simply put all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk to combine.


6. Artfully place some lettuce on a plate (artfully place lettuce on a plate?  Seriously Lucy?!), put a couple of patties on top and drizzle (yes drizzle) the dressing all over.

Ah yes, artful salad.

7. EAT!


This was really tasty for a fairly light lunch made for my dad whilst Pose was asleep.  The sausage wasn't too overpowering but gave all the seasoning you needed (although I am always happy to add more sausage - British sausages were one of the biggest things I missed when I lived in the US and was the hardest thing to get a hold of.  The other was strong cheddar cheese.  Yes, I'm a cheese and sausage girl apparently).  To make it more brunch/hangover friendly it would be great without the salad  but with a 3min poached egg on top (cook it longer by all means, I just like my eggs nice and runny).

Enjoy :)

Mother's Day Afternoon Tea

I know you've just been dying to see this (yeah right! Edge of your seat sorta stuff I'm doing here!)

Whilst I finished the sweet side of the afternoon tea my sisters made the triangle sandwiches.  Using thin sliced white bread they cut the crusts off, buttered the bread and filled the sandwiches with:

• cream cheese and cucumber
• ham and Bulldog Mustard (a spicy wholegrain mustard made by The East India Company)
• chicken salad
• strong cheddar cheese and Branston Pickle (uber-Bristish condiment)

Traditional afternoon tea usually goes with cucumber finger sandwiches and cress finger sandwiches but really...cress, cucumber?  Who's tastes is that going to satisfy?  Ultimately its your afternoon tea so do what makes you happy.

Separate sandwiches were made for Nan (sans butter) and Posie (ham and cream cheese cut into shapes with cookie cutters) and the table was laid.

Don't you love my mother's salt and pepper shakers in the background...

My little sister also made some banana bread to finish the spread and we gorged on sweet goodies.

Not quite up to the Ritz standard but hey, not a bad effort on my part given everything else I was doing!!  Everybody loved the Lemon Meringue Pie's best but the Scones and the Welsh Cakes went down well too (of course with lashings of clotted cream).

Just to complete the saga though...you might notice that there are only 4 Scones and 5 Welsh Cakes and that I had originally contemplated making 8.  Well I had.  I arrived home from a hen party on the Saturday night at 12.30am.  I was staying at the 'rents as they were babysitting for me and I needed to be up early to get the food all prepped for the Mother's Day feast.  My bro' had waited up to let me in and upon my arrival informed me that my scones were really good.  It took me a few moments to register what he had just said and then I put my head in my hands.

...and whey (finally)

And so, the final piece of the LMP puzzle....the meringue!*

The recipe - LMP courtesy of the New York Times Cook Book (1961 edition!)

Part 2, the meringue

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

6 tbsp sugar (I used caster sugar)

1. Beat the egg whites until light and frothy.  Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until the whites are stiff enough to hold a peak (I used my mother's Kenwood to bear the brunt of this work.  I have made meringue before whisking by hand but its pretty bloody knackering!).

2. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat until the meringue is stiff and glossy (yes, I did the holding-the-bowl-upside-down-over-my-head test.  I always do.  It makes me feel like a superior baker (and no the whites did not fall on my head or out of the bowl although I'm sure that I will one of these days my cockiness will leave me literally with egg on my face).

3. Pile the meringue lightly on cooled pie filling, spreading it until it touches the edges of the pastry to prevent the meringue shrinking.

Yes, the iPhone was resurrected.  Huzzah!

4. Bake in a preheated hot oven (425F) until the top is brown, five to six minutes.

You might notice there is one meringue-free tart on the bottom right of the first picture.  While I was finishing off the LMPs, Nan cruised into the kitchen to watch me bake (and comment) and requested that I leave one of the tarts without any meringue.  I dutifully agreed as any good granddaughter should and continued to finish off the LMPs.  When we sat down to eat Nan then took one of the regular LMPs and claimed she had never put in such a request...

* I do apologise for the delay, it was not intended.  I had to go to a client event one night, overdid it that night so had to put myself to bed early the following night then had a friend's birthday party (which also involved me having to scale an iron poker fence....in heels....because I couldn't get out of the station.  In my mind walking the 10 minutes it would have taken to get to my car seemed too much like hard work but shimmying over the fence was fine?!?) and so finally here we are.  You really wanted to know that didn't you?