What do you mean you don't like peanut butter??!

I've not exactly been showering myself in glory in terms of "mother of the year" lately.  I mean lets take last weekend as a prime example.  Instead of spending the bank holiday weekend with Madam I abandoned her (to her father obviously, I didn't leave a couple of boxes of cold Dominos in the kitchen and tell her "I wont be long") to go cover myself in glitter, don spandex and party in a field near Northampton at the glorious Shambala.  To be fair it was my birthday and at 33 years old it seemed utterly necessary to pop my festival cherry.  God that sounds so pathetic at 33...practically on the "Never Been Kissed" spectrum.  So yes, I had some time out and came back thinking I needed to step up my game this weekend to make up for it. 

Now we, like most of the country and (if Buzzfeed is taken as gospel WHICH IT SHOULD BE) the world, are completely engrossed in The Great British Bake Off.  Pose provides full commentary and critique whilst I sit thinking how I'd quite like to enter GBBO but not sure the BBC would approve of the sweet looking 33yo baker swearing incessantly in the background.  Inspiration peaked by Ugne's PB&J ice cream roll (GET IN MY BELLY NOW), Pose and I decided to do a little mummy-Pose-baking-bonding.

Peanut butter is food of the gods.  Fact.  You simply can't make me think otherwise.  I'm stunned that other than peanut butter cookies I've never really tried baking with peanut butter.  Or I'm just a purist.  I dunno.  Anyway, we thought we'd do something with peanut butter...and jam....and cake...and then wrap it all up in chocolate.  Because why wouldn't you!?

Recipe - PB&J Cake Pops from my own head

Ingredients

Cake pops:
¾ cups plain flour
½ tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup full fat milk

Filling:
Peanut Butter
Jam

Icing:
Slab of chocolate covering for cake (or chocolate,  but I had cake covering in the cupboard (as you do))

Equipment:
Cake pop maker
Cake release spray
Sticks (for the cake pops, I don't mean random sticks from the garden obvs)
Tray covered in baking parchment

(makes about 15 cake pops)

Method

1. Turn on the cake pop maker and spray the inside with a little cake release spray.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Using a food mixer (or not, your call) beat the butter until pale and fluffy, then gradually beat in the sugar until its fully incorporated. 
4. Next, reduce the speed and beat in the egg, the egg yolk and the vanilla. 
5. Reduce the speed again to low and gradually add the flour and milk (alternating) to the mix until its all blended.
6. Spoon a little of the batter into each cake "hole" (about ¾ of the way), then dollop a little peanut butter and a little jam into the centre.  Spoon a little more of the batter onto the top (so its about to go over the brim).  Close and cook for about 6mins. 
7. Once the cake pops are cooked, carefully ease them out and put on a wire rack to cool.  Make more batches.

The perfectionist in me is disappointed in the lack of roundness, but what are you going to do eh?

8. Break the chocolate covering into even(ish) chunks and melt in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water (or microwave it - I just don't have a microwave and yes I am ok with that). Once its all melted, take it off the heat.
9. Carefully put a stick in a cake pop (its a bit fiddly as the filling makes them a little unstable) and even more carefully dump into the melted chocolate and cover the whole thing in chocolate.  Put the cake pop cake side down onto the baking parchment.  Repeat with all the other cakes and let cool.

10. EAT ALL OF THEM AT ONCE.  

Yes that's a steering wheel.  I had a cake pop for breakfast.  Don't judge me.

This was all a bit of an experiment not least because I'd never used a cake pop maker before so I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.  Personally I think the texture of the cake was a bit close so I'll probably switch up the recipe a bit.  It could also be that the PB&J center affected the bake (ooooh I sound all Mary Berry!).  Regardless it'll need some refinement work which will mean a lot of tasting and then more tasting.
 

Damn.

Fake it and bake it - Oven Baked French Toast

When it comes to being a good mama in the kitchen (I've said it before) I live my life chasing the 1950s housewife ideal. I guess these days its more Mrs Flax in Mermaids and less Betty Draper in Mad Men...but then again maybe Betty Draper isn't someone to aspire to?  I mean her relationship with her daughter was pretty shitty and she smoked a lot...her love of a good cocktail is something I can most definitely get behind though. Then again, that description would fit Mrs Flax as snug as one of her wiggle skirts so I guess this means to be a good 1950s mama you basically needed to be able to balance looking fabulous standing next to the kitchen sink, balancing a cigarette in one hand and a dirty martini in the other.  As aspirations go, I got this.

When you watch 1950s era movies and tv shows (or in fact ANY American tv featuring a family) it's a given that there'll be a scene where the family are having a good ole all American Sunday brunch, be it pancakes, waffles or French toast.  A fry up it ain't.  When I lived in the US, Sunday's meant the Cromwell Diner and eggs benedict.  These days Sunday mornings are usually about 1 of 2 things depending on if Pose is with me.  If no Pose, its for chilling out and living every parent's fantasy - having a lie in (sorryI'mnotsorry there have to be SOME perks to divorce) - if yes Pose, then its still about chilling but also having quality time together.  So when I asked her what she wanted for breakfast a few Sundays ago and she produced a cookery book I got free with my pizza stone (which she claims is hers and lives in her play kitchen) I couldn't really say no.  I flicked through the book and landed on a recipe for oven baked French toast which peaked my interest, so naturally I put the cook book down, went into the kitchen and improvised.

Recipe - Oven Baked French Toast from my own head

Ingredients
1 egg
Good glug of milk (lets say 100ml)
1tbs caster sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
1 vanilla pod (if you have one otherwise no biggie)
Dash of vanilla essence
Sliced white bread (or whatever you have)

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C and grease an ovenproof dish.
2. Put all the ingredients (except the bread and the vanilla pod) in a bowl and if you are as fabulous as me and happen to have vanilla pods just lying around (I'm SO Nigella these days, just without all the coke) put a large slash lengthwise and scrape all the seeds into the bowl.  Whisk vigorously.
3. When it comes to the bread prep its pretty much up to you.  I used a large round cookie cutter and cut 4 circles of bread.  Take the bread and dip it in the egg mixture.  Arrange evenly spaced in the dish and pour over the rest of the mixture.
4. Pop in the oven and bake until golden, which is somewhere between 15-20mins.

As for serving go with whatever takes your fancy.  I would suggest maple syrup personally but my daughter is weird when it comes to maple syrup and refuses to eat it.  Seriously, she had a melt down when we were in Canada last week because I asked her to try the local maple syrup.  I'm talking FULL BLOWN TANTRUM.  I'm such a horrible mother.

Anyway, Pose opted for boltella* and strawberries, and I went with strawberries, blueberries a bit of greek yoghurt and yes, a drizzle of MAPLE SYRUP FOR ME.  Because, you know, I'm not a little weirdo *eyeroll* 

Well, most of the time.

Ciao for now...where's the amaretto? I've got washing up to do!

*Nutella

I don't even know you anymore...

So....uh.....hey there!

*she says sheepishly to the blog she's neglected for 2 years like a beautiful pair of horrendously expensive shoes because they were hidden in the back of the cupboard behind the cheap and comfy shoes*

It has been a while hasn't it?  I know, I know.  "Where the hell have you been???"  I hear you cry!! "We thought you were DEAD!!"  Or something less dramatic.  Like "Oh you. Yeah, I'd totally forgotten you did this".  A lot (A LOT) has changed in the last 2 years and in my defence I have been through a...er....transition period.

I got divorced.

In all seriousness, these things happen but it has meant a lot of big changes in our lives.  We moved house into our little cottage on the canal with roses around the front door, little lady started school and is about to finish her first year and I changed jobs again to work closer to home.

We travelled.  As a form of "I'm really sorry I'm divorcing your dad" I took the little lady to Disney World and she was treated like a princess. I went on a girls holiday back to the lovely Paris (twice) and took to the road again on a couple of business trips.  Tried skiing for the first time.  And, having agreed that my ex could take madam back to visit his family for 2 weeks at Christmas, instead of sitting on my arse feeling sorry for myself I decided to have an adventure taking a trip to the incredible Kerala in India for Christmas and learned how to surf.  Well, learned how to stand on a board on white water 15% of the time and spend the rest of the time being put through a washing machine but loving every minute.  I did catch 1 greenie though and I'm taking that for all its worth.

You've not had good curry until you've had it served on a banana leaf,
in a little Indian lady's back garden,
in front of  her cows.

I have of course kept up the baking and testing and tasting and seem to have fallen into the trap of running the cake stall at the school fairs.  Oh and don't think I've forgotten how to make an inappropriate cake, I made some seriously inappropriate cupcakes for another birthday...

Anyway, enough of that shizznit.  My sister has encouraged me to get back to the blogging so I'm back and even if no one else likes it I know I have at least 1 fan!