Escaping to the antithesis of London for a Sunday afternoon is heaven. As I type this onto Blogger right now, I'm pondering whether it would actually be feasible to grab a train once a month to the most deserted patch of countryside I can find in Worcestershire, and just lie down on the grass for an afternoon...

Anway, so back on Sunday I actually awoke at the crack of dawn just to bake a carrot cake for my uncle's retirement party. I think I'm going up in the popularity stakes amongst other family members aha, as it turned out delicious (pretty sure it was because I opted for a cream cheese icing, which is that little bit more moreish)...

Anyway, I wouldn't normally blog about personal life, but it was such a fantastic afternoon. The band were great, and the catering was AWESOME. I was still feeling stuffed at work the following morning!

My sisters' cakes. Cutely decorated with a mound of marshmallows.

mon gâteau aux carottes.

The caterers prepared a delicious feast of bite sized dishes, which kind of meant you didn't feel guilty about eating what essentially was a 6 course meal...

The menu was entirely in Italian as well, which made choosing dishes to eat after you've drunk 3 Peronis and a substantial amount of Pimms was quite hilarious: even after studying Italian for a year, I cannot say 'Buongiorno' accurately to save my life.

Rollata di Salmone Affumicato

Tartara di Pesce e Cocco

Foreground: Meringhatta con crema di banana e cioccolato, Tazza al cioccolato, Crema caramellizzata all' arancio (Baby pavlova with banana chocolate cream, chocolate pot and orange crème brûlée)
Background: Torta al mascarpone con fragole e cioccolato blanco, crostatina al limone (Strawberry and white chocolate cheesecake, lemon tart)

also, slightly cut off the photograph on the left (which surpisingly enough, I didn;t get round to eating as I actually had to run for the train back to Paddington) was a torta della nonna, which is known as 'Grandma Cake'...

175g brown sugar (recipe states 'light' but I tried it out with dark as well and both taste delish')
175g self raising flour
Grated zest of 1 large orange
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Icing*:
1 1/2- 2tbsp orange juice

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a bowl. Once done, sift this into the mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Lightly mix all the ingredients together until fully amalgamated.

My first carrot cake attempt that I tested out on work colleagues.

Labels: Baking and Patisserie, Bishampton, Catering, Cheesecake, Creme Brulée, Food Photography, Garden Parties, Smoked Salmon Photographs

I’m currently 125 miles away from London for an entire week, enjoying the peace and quiet back home until I finally begin to crave The Evening Standard and red buses once more and literally dive head-first on to the next Marylebone-bound train. And Easter is here, which means goodbye to denying oneself of chocolate, biscuits and other of life's little pleasures.

Of course, if anything I've gorged more on chocolate over the past 40 days, having given up bugger all for lent. So, perhaps a tiny bit of a break from baking the usual chocolate-covered-muffin is needed? 

I am partial to a rare cheesecake-baking session, so here’s one I made earlier, using a recipe from Olive Magazine. It’s a baked raspberry cheesecake, which is so simple to do! I usually opt for a really time consuming New York Cheesecake, which delivers superb results, but involves refrigerating the bloody thing overnight (who can wait that long?!)

• 8 digestive biscuits
• 50g butter , melted
• 600g cream cheese
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 175g caster sugar
• vanilla extract
• 2 eggs , plus 1 yolk
• 142ml pot soured cream
• 300g raspberries
• icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Crush 8 digestive biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Mix with 50g melted butter. Press into a 20cm spring form tin and bake for 5 minutes, then cool.
2. Beat 600g cream cheese with 2 tbsp flour, 175g caster sugar, a few drops of vanilla extract, 2 eggs, 1 yolk and a 142ml pot of soured cream until light and fluffy. Stir in 150g raspberries and pour into the tin. Bake for 40 minutes and then check, it should be set but slightly wobbly in the centre. Leave in the tin to cool.
3. Using the remaining 150g raspberries, keep a few for the top and put the rest in a pan with 1 tbsp icing sugar. Heat until juicy and then squash with a fork. Push through a sieve. Serve the cheesecake with the raspberry sauce and raspberries.

Labels: Baked Raspberry Cheesecake, Baking, Baking and Patisserie, BBC Good Food, Cheesecake, Easter Weekend, Lent, Olive Magazine