My year 11 class, who I bake for regularly, have a two hour English GCSE exam tomorrow (their first exam of the season) followed by a lesson with me. Fun for me. I was asked by a student with a haunted expression, "You're baking for that day, right Miss?" so I have obliged.
I whipped up a batch of caramel hazelnut flapjacks as detailed in my last recipe post, but yesterday the green grocer had boxes of strawberries on two for £1.50 + a third free yesterday and so I had to snap them up. Strawberries can be tricky. I don't store them in the fridge if I can help it because they are prone to take on the taste of anything else in there and anyway, chilled strawberries don't taste right to me. When I looked at them this morning I realised I was either going to have to refrigerate them, eat all 3lbs today, or find a cake recipe.
Bizarrely, a lot of cake recipes out there on t'internet are made with cake mix and strawberry jelly. Cake takes almost no time to put together, especially if you use cup measurements instead of a scale, and so short-cut cakes confuse me.
Eventually I found this one but had no vegetable oil (except olive, which I know from experience is no good in cakes...), so I adapted it slightly for me. It made one cathedral-bundt cake and 10 fairy cakes.
3 cups self-raising flour (or if you, like me, only keep plain flour, make it 3 cups + 6 tsp baking powder - this worked fine for me)
2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup melted butter - this was probably about 6oz. I used what I had melted and didn't need to butter the cake tin.
1 & 1/2 cups strawberry puree - buzz the strawbs in a blender and then sieve. I reckon I blended about a pound and a half but I had more than necessary.
Red food colouring - optional
Easiest cake ever - just bung everything in a bowl and blend until smooth (this is definitely no slower than a box cake, surely!)
I added some red food colouring to give mine a really PINK colour but it was pale pink already. Bake at 180 degrees for about 35 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
I mixed half the remaining puree with a good whack of caster sugar (reckon it was about 1 part sugar to 1.5 parts puree) and then drizzled over the cooling cake as a glaze. Looks very pretty and they taste quite good in miniature. Waiting til I taste the cut cake tomorrow for my final judgement, though.
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Friday, 13 May 2011
Weekword
I picked this week's word: SINISTER. Today is Friday 13th (the only Friday 13th this year) and so it seemed apt, although I must say that nobody has mentioned it at all, so perhaps the whole concept seems a lot less sinister when it's sunny and bright outside.
Sinister is one of my favourite words because of where it comes from. It was the Latin word for left, but also meant awkward. Meanwhile, dexter means right, and also auspicious. Consequently, left handed people were "sinistra" and the word has a negative feeling to it. At the same time, our word for right is a homonym which can mean the right-hand orientation, or correct. And if you can write with both hands you are ambidextrous, which literally means "both sides right".
I really feel like language has been sending a message to lefties for a very long time. I'm not one, by the way; I just like the idosyncrasies of language.
Please visit these amazing blogs and read their entries and tell them how much you love them:
Emma at the Gift Shed
John at the Healing Seed
Carmen at Tales of a Biomouse
carola bARTz (who had good intentions but found life got in the way of her posting!)
Joye at Joyeful Art
I'm going to tag Emma to pick next week's word so go over to The Gift Shed to see what she comes up with.
Sinister is one of my favourite words because of where it comes from. It was the Latin word for left, but also meant awkward. Meanwhile, dexter means right, and also auspicious. Consequently, left handed people were "sinistra" and the word has a negative feeling to it. At the same time, our word for right is a homonym which can mean the right-hand orientation, or correct. And if you can write with both hands you are ambidextrous, which literally means "both sides right".
I really feel like language has been sending a message to lefties for a very long time. I'm not one, by the way; I just like the idosyncrasies of language.
Please visit these amazing blogs and read their entries and tell them how much you love them:
Emma at the Gift Shed
John at the Healing Seed
Carmen at Tales of a Biomouse
carola bARTz (who had good intentions but found life got in the way of her posting!)
Joye at Joyeful Art
I'm going to tag Emma to pick next week's word so go over to The Gift Shed to see what she comes up with.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Tuesday Ten
Ten Material Wants (it has been a while since I've done this one, honest)
1. This protective skin for my Kindle.
2. NYDJ Jeans. I have heard good things about how flattering they are on the chub. I intend to purchase these in NY at the end of the month.
3. Something new and fancy for my skin, like a serum. Skin looks like it needs a pick-me-up lately.
4. Interweave Knits Summer....as a subscriber, I would have expected to get this before they had it in my LYS, but it still hasn't arrived.
5. A travel hairdryer. To, yknow, use on my travels.
6. This book of short stories, which I read many times when I was a kid and haven't been able to find since.
7. A bottle of Hendricks gin. Best for summer drinking.
8. A new pair of large and dark sunglasses. My favourite pair are just a little too big and now, after three years of putting up with it, I have reached the end of my patience.
9. A new electric whisk that does not sound like it has sand in the motor when I am using it (my current electric whisk was a present from my grandparents for my 18th birthday, so it has served me well).
10. Olympics tickets! I applied for two pairs, but I am not especially hopeful. However, I would like to know one way or the other because if it's a no, I can get myself a little present from this list with the cash I have saved.
1. This protective skin for my Kindle.
2. NYDJ Jeans. I have heard good things about how flattering they are on the chub. I intend to purchase these in NY at the end of the month.
3. Something new and fancy for my skin, like a serum. Skin looks like it needs a pick-me-up lately.
4. Interweave Knits Summer....as a subscriber, I would have expected to get this before they had it in my LYS, but it still hasn't arrived.
5. A travel hairdryer. To, yknow, use on my travels.
6. This book of short stories, which I read many times when I was a kid and haven't been able to find since.
7. A bottle of Hendricks gin. Best for summer drinking.
8. A new pair of large and dark sunglasses. My favourite pair are just a little too big and now, after three years of putting up with it, I have reached the end of my patience.
9. A new electric whisk that does not sound like it has sand in the motor when I am using it (my current electric whisk was a present from my grandparents for my 18th birthday, so it has served me well).
10. Olympics tickets! I applied for two pairs, but I am not especially hopeful. However, I would like to know one way or the other because if it's a no, I can get myself a little present from this list with the cash I have saved.
Weekword: Sinister
I think nobody else has nominated a word so I am jumping the gun a little here and offering one of my own for you all to ruminate on.
In honour of this week holding a Friday 13th, I'm picking the word SINISTER.
If you want to join in, please leave a comment and make a post on your blog about this word by the weekend. On Friday I'll post a list of people taking part. Please feel free to join in even if you haven't done before! I'm really looking foward to seeing what people come up with :)
In honour of this week holding a Friday 13th, I'm picking the word SINISTER.
If you want to join in, please leave a comment and make a post on your blog about this word by the weekend. On Friday I'll post a list of people taking part. Please feel free to join in even if you haven't done before! I'm really looking foward to seeing what people come up with :)
Friday, 6 May 2011
Weekword
This week, Carmen over at Biomouse picked the word GYPSY.
This clip (I hope the embedding works - if not it can be viewed here and I should warn it has a little bit of bad language in it) is from a documentary about gypsy weddings. Recently there has been a six-part series of this documentary, following gypsy brides and looking at their culture and lifestyle in this country.
I found it FASCINATING. I could have watched double the number of episodes - it was so interesting to see into their communities a little bit. It was also really interesting to watch other people's reactions to what is evidently a very misogynistic society.
My reaction was somewhat different. There was a lot of disgust at the stereotyping of women, who are often expected to leave school very young to care for siblings, marry at 16 or 17 and dedicate their lives to cleaning their homes and raising children. I got a bit annoyed at the judgement.
Now, I feel like I have to pick my words carefully here because I don't want to seem as though I am condoning a society in which girls are forced out of school before they can read properly and where domestic violence cases are shockingly high. However! The judgements made in some cases got my back up, because they suggest, by proxy, that the "norm" is infinitely better. There are some positives to the way they live, not least the strong family bonds they build up. These young women also seem quite confident - more confident than a lot of girls I work with, some of whom I'm certain have been subject to something akin to "grabbing" themselves but quite probably given in for fear of being stigmatised for not giving in.
Anyway. Mr Z has just accused me of being on my soap box and since I could wax lyrical about this topic for pages I had better take the hint and stop ;)
The series certainly gave me lots to think about, in more ways than one. I can thoroughly recommend it. Watch out for one of my pupils who appears in the final episode, face pixelated out, tripping over a bride's dress outside a church! We have a fairly large number of traveller children at school. One of them had a full-on tattoo by the age of 13. He had a girlfriend in his class, too, but broke up with her pretty sharpish when he left school on his 16th birthday (with no qualifications - but he was the first generation of his family to stay that long so he didn't do badly). He is 19 now, and married. So, it's not just the women who don't get the choice.
Make sure you pop over to Carmen's blog to read the other entries this week and find out who'll be picking next week!
This clip (I hope the embedding works - if not it can be viewed here and I should warn it has a little bit of bad language in it) is from a documentary about gypsy weddings. Recently there has been a six-part series of this documentary, following gypsy brides and looking at their culture and lifestyle in this country.
I found it FASCINATING. I could have watched double the number of episodes - it was so interesting to see into their communities a little bit. It was also really interesting to watch other people's reactions to what is evidently a very misogynistic society.
My reaction was somewhat different. There was a lot of disgust at the stereotyping of women, who are often expected to leave school very young to care for siblings, marry at 16 or 17 and dedicate their lives to cleaning their homes and raising children. I got a bit annoyed at the judgement.
Now, I feel like I have to pick my words carefully here because I don't want to seem as though I am condoning a society in which girls are forced out of school before they can read properly and where domestic violence cases are shockingly high. However! The judgements made in some cases got my back up, because they suggest, by proxy, that the "norm" is infinitely better. There are some positives to the way they live, not least the strong family bonds they build up. These young women also seem quite confident - more confident than a lot of girls I work with, some of whom I'm certain have been subject to something akin to "grabbing" themselves but quite probably given in for fear of being stigmatised for not giving in.
Anyway. Mr Z has just accused me of being on my soap box and since I could wax lyrical about this topic for pages I had better take the hint and stop ;)
The series certainly gave me lots to think about, in more ways than one. I can thoroughly recommend it. Watch out for one of my pupils who appears in the final episode, face pixelated out, tripping over a bride's dress outside a church! We have a fairly large number of traveller children at school. One of them had a full-on tattoo by the age of 13. He had a girlfriend in his class, too, but broke up with her pretty sharpish when he left school on his 16th birthday (with no qualifications - but he was the first generation of his family to stay that long so he didn't do badly). He is 19 now, and married. So, it's not just the women who don't get the choice.
Make sure you pop over to Carmen's blog to read the other entries this week and find out who'll be picking next week!
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Tuesday Ten
Ten Haikus of the Moment
British 'sparagus -
I love thee. Shame your season
Is so very short.
I would like a nap
But instead I must wade through
Year 13 coursework.
Controlled assessment
By year 11 also
Must be marked this week -
unfortunately
Osama bin Laden's death
Makes them out of date.
Wore new shoes today.
Felt about six feet tall - well,
I WAS six feet tall.
In two weeks it is
My Geology exam.
I am quite nervous.
But one week later,
I'm flying to NYC,
Me and Mr Z.
(Whoopee!)
William and Kate,
Your wedding was so lovely.
Thanks for the day off.
Robin on the fence,
Watching the cat. Think its chicks
are learning to fly.
British 'sparagus -
Why do you make wee smell bad?
Small price to pay, though.
British 'sparagus -
I love thee. Shame your season
Is so very short.
I would like a nap
But instead I must wade through
Year 13 coursework.
Controlled assessment
By year 11 also
Must be marked this week -
unfortunately
Osama bin Laden's death
Makes them out of date.
Wore new shoes today.
Felt about six feet tall - well,
I WAS six feet tall.
In two weeks it is
My Geology exam.
I am quite nervous.
But one week later,
I'm flying to NYC,
Me and Mr Z.
(Whoopee!)
William and Kate,
Your wedding was so lovely.
Thanks for the day off.
Robin on the fence,
Watching the cat. Think its chicks
are learning to fly.
British 'sparagus -
Why do you make wee smell bad?
Small price to pay, though.
Monday, 2 May 2011
Cakes: Rhubarb, and Vanilla-Grapefruit Cupcakes
I have been baking today. I like the spring because it brings rhubarb, one of my favourite things. I like to make this cake with it.
12oz butter
6oz caster sugar
4 eggs
1lb self-raising flour
pinch of salt
12oz mixed dried fruit (I use a cherry/berry mix I get in Asda)
At least 12 large spoonfuls of stewed rhubarb
Beat the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the flour and the pinch of salt. Stir in the dried fruit and rhubarb. Turn into 2 lined 2lb loaf tins, and bake at 180 degrees for about an hour, until set.
I must say that I don't usually make it in loaf tins, as I only have one small one; it all goes in a big square cake tin and, as a result, always takes ages to set. However, it is quite a soft cake anyway.
I also had a bit of experimentation with some cupcakes before the holidays. I have gotten into the habit of baking for my year 11s, and since I haven't seen them for over a month I wanted to ensure their last memory of me was sweet. So, I made vanilla cupcakes filled with grapefruit curd, a la Cupcake Bakeshop, but with a little twist of my own. Here is the recipe I used -
8oz butter
2 cups vanilla caster sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2-3/4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the butter until fluffy and then beat in the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, and add the vanilla to the milk. Alternate adding these two things to the buttter, sugar and egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, which should be sifted in. Scoop into cupcake cases and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Make the grapefruit curd to this recipe, but using two pink grapefruits in place of the lemons.
Fill the cupcakes with the curd using the cone method. Top with a vanilla cream cheese frosting - I combine vanilla sugar with cream cheese and a bit of butter, and I added a smidge of red food colouring, for pink grapefruit suggestion. Top with pieces of candied peel.
They went down extremely well. The grapefruit curd is quite tart, which is why I really amped up the vanilla flavour of the cupcakes.
The final thing I invented recently was for the ski trip. I baked toasted hazelnut caramel flapjacks for the journey. We were on the coach for the equivalent of four meal times so I tried to come up with something that would sustain us. I used this basic flapjack recipe, and then poured a quantity of caramel sauce over the top and then pressed in 8oz of hazelnuts I'd toasted under the grill and bashed to pieces. My colleague Adam dared to suggest they were the best flapjacks he'd ever had, so I think it's safe to say I'll be making those again some time soon. Flattery will get you everywhere with me.
12oz butter
6oz caster sugar
4 eggs
1lb self-raising flour
pinch of salt
12oz mixed dried fruit (I use a cherry/berry mix I get in Asda)
At least 12 large spoonfuls of stewed rhubarb
Beat the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the flour and the pinch of salt. Stir in the dried fruit and rhubarb. Turn into 2 lined 2lb loaf tins, and bake at 180 degrees for about an hour, until set.
I must say that I don't usually make it in loaf tins, as I only have one small one; it all goes in a big square cake tin and, as a result, always takes ages to set. However, it is quite a soft cake anyway.
I also had a bit of experimentation with some cupcakes before the holidays. I have gotten into the habit of baking for my year 11s, and since I haven't seen them for over a month I wanted to ensure their last memory of me was sweet. So, I made vanilla cupcakes filled with grapefruit curd, a la Cupcake Bakeshop, but with a little twist of my own. Here is the recipe I used -
8oz butter
2 cups vanilla caster sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2-3/4 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Beat the butter until fluffy and then beat in the sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, and add the vanilla to the milk. Alternate adding these two things to the buttter, sugar and egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, which should be sifted in. Scoop into cupcake cases and bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Make the grapefruit curd to this recipe, but using two pink grapefruits in place of the lemons.
Fill the cupcakes with the curd using the cone method. Top with a vanilla cream cheese frosting - I combine vanilla sugar with cream cheese and a bit of butter, and I added a smidge of red food colouring, for pink grapefruit suggestion. Top with pieces of candied peel.
They went down extremely well. The grapefruit curd is quite tart, which is why I really amped up the vanilla flavour of the cupcakes.
The final thing I invented recently was for the ski trip. I baked toasted hazelnut caramel flapjacks for the journey. We were on the coach for the equivalent of four meal times so I tried to come up with something that would sustain us. I used this basic flapjack recipe, and then poured a quantity of caramel sauce over the top and then pressed in 8oz of hazelnuts I'd toasted under the grill and bashed to pieces. My colleague Adam dared to suggest they were the best flapjacks he'd ever had, so I think it's safe to say I'll be making those again some time soon. Flattery will get you everywhere with me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)