Spiced Peaches

To finish off the Rugby World Cup Final street party, we made some more of Nigella's spiced peaches. We do love these spiced peaches, and we knew everyone else would too!

Caitie combined 8 cans of peaches in syrup, 60ml white wine vinegar, 8 cinnamon sticks, some fresh ginger (not quite as much as the recipe called for), 2 teaspoons chilli flakes, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon peppercorns and 12 cloves.



It was brought to the boil for one minute, then it was ready to serve. Yum!!



We served it with ice cream, and it was a big hit with the adults, but a bit spicy for the kids. After everyone had finished eating, we bottled what was left and gave it as gifts to the neighbours. It was much appreciated. :)

Potato Salad

We were invited to a street party for the Rugby World Cup final and had to take a plate for a shared dinner/BBQ. We decided to make a potato salad, which generally goes down well. It helped that we had a large container of mayonnaise to use up too!

First Caitie had to chop and boil potatoes.



When the potatoes were cooked, Caitie added mayonnaise, peas and spring onion.



We used some fresh chives from the garden, and some fresh parsley for a garnish.





It was finished off with a touch of paprika. Mmmm, yum!!





The potato salad was a big hit with boys and men who appreciated a heartier feast. Almost all the potato salad in both bowls was eaten. Success!

And to finish off, we made enough spiced peaches to share.... Check out the next entry for those!

Lemon Curd

Caitie's teacher was having a birthday on the first day of term, and Caitie wanted to make a gift for her. She'd already been a recipient of some spiced peaches, so we decided to make her some lemon curd. We'd made the lemon curd before using a recipe by Petrina at Kitchen Alchemy. We knew it was yum, so we hoped Caitie's teacher would like it too.

Caitie and her dad set up a bain marie or water bath, and melted 140g butter. Then they added a cup of caster sugar and stirred it until all the sugar was melted. Then Caitie poured in 3 beaten eggs while her dad stirred quickly.



Then it was time to add a cup of fresh lemon juice and a tablespoon of lemon zest that Caitie had grated earlier. Caitie and her dad stirred it over a low heat for 15 minutes, then poured it in to cute little glass containers.

We put some muslin cloth over the top of the one we'd made for Caitie's teacher and added a little tag. Hope she likes it!!

Cupcake Decorating Class

This afternoon Caitie went to a cupcake decorating class at Devine Cakes. Caitie's dad took her along, but forgot the camera, so you'll have to excuse the image quality as he ended up using his phone to take pictures.

From what I understand, they were given an assortment of 'blank' cupcakes to choose from (Caitie chose all chocolate ones!) and then allowed to decorate them as they chose. They were shown how to make a Cookie Monster cupake, and then given lots of different coloured icings, edible decorations, etc.









Caitie said that first they used a piping nozzle that had lots of little holes in it, so the icing came out 'like grass'. Then they rolled white icing in to balls for the eyes, then made flat circles of black icing 'for those bits in the middle of your eyes'. Then they put a wee cookie in his mouth. Looks awesome, Caitie!









Caitie loved it. She really enjoyed it, because she learned how to make something specific (the Cookie Monster cupcake), got to be creative and it was all hands-on. Her dad said he thought it was a good class, because they allowed the kids plenty of freedom and they were constantly hands-on so the kids didn't get bored.



I loved the Cookie Monster cupcake. I thought he was just gorgeous. But Caitie ate him. lol We all enjoyed a cupcake each - they were a bit sweet with the amount of icing Caitie had put on each one, but pretty good!



In my unofficial 'reviews' of external cooking lesson providers, I give a thumbs up to Devine Cakes. All good feedback. :)

Lemon Curd

I love lemon curd, but I'd never made it before. However, when I found this recipe from Petrina at Kitchen Alchemy, I couldn't resist trying this with Caitie.

After reading through Petrina's recipe, we made sure we had all our ingredients prepared and ready to go before starting the cooking. We had 140g butter, 1 cup caster sugar, 3 eggs (beaten), 1 cup lemon juice and 1 tablespoon lemon zest. Caitie grated the lemon zest, and I squeezed the lemon juice (which thankfully took just the 4 ripe lemons we had!).



Then we set up what I call a water bath, with a smaller saucepan inside a larger saucepan of water. We melted the butter and then added the sugar. Caitie and I took turns stirring it until we were fairly sure all the sugar had melted. Then I stirred quickly while Caitie poured the eggs in through a sieve. Thankfully no disasters and it all looked good to me. So we added the lemon juice and lemon zest.



We stirred it over a low heat for 15 minutes, but it never seemed to thicken. Petrina's recipe called for 3 large eggs where we'd only used standard (medium?) eggs. Perhaps another egg was required? So we beat another egg and added that (using the sieve again). Still no thickening. Uh oh. Had we made it wrong? Well it definitely wasn't thickening, so we gave up and poured it in the jar. Perhaps it would thicken upon cooling? I had a wee taste test, and it certainly tasted like delicious lemon curd. Caitie was surprised to find it wasn't tart at all, yet still tasted like lemons. :)



Later that evening, we checked on our lemon curd, and it had thickened beautifully! Perhaps not quite as thick as the bought stuff, but perfectly good enough for spreading on a slice of toast. And it tasted sooooo good. Will definitely make this again. Thanks for the recipe, Petrina!

Apple & Custard Pie

This pie was a bit of a cheat's version, but I decided that was okay since Caitie still learnt something. Besides, Nigella is always cheating, why can't we? :P

We started off with a sheet of sweet short pastry (see, I told you we were cheating!) which we used to cover the bottom of a pie dish.
For the filling, we peeled, cored and diced a bunch of apples (maybe 6-8 medium apples). Then we cooked these in non-stick frypan with some butter, muscovado sugar and cinnamon. Mmmm.... Smells so good!
Then we made some custard using Edmond's custard powder (still cheating!) and milk. About a cup of custard.
We put the apples in to the pie dish, then the custard on top. Then we placed a sheet of puff pastry (final cheat, I promise!) over the top and sprinkled it with muscovado sugar.

Caitie's dad was telling Caitie how puff pastry was made, and why it needs a preheated oven. Basically, it's a layer of pastry and then a layer of butter, folded, flattened, folded, flattened, again and again until you have very thin layers of pastry and butter right through your sheet. When you place the puff pastry in to a hot oven, the steam from the butter 'puffs' your pastry up. If you place it in a cool oven, then it doesn't puff, because the butter will just slowly melt instead.

We baked it for quite a while at 180 degrees (I think). Maybe 40 minutes?

I am amused to see the change in our style of cooking already. Even in just six months, we've gone from following the recipes to the letter, to just throwing ingredients in and judging quantities ourselves. I've watched Caitie's dad cook like that for a long time, but have never been brave enough to 'experiment' myself, and yet in teaching Caitie how to cook, I am learning too. It's quite a neat wee cycle. :)

Oh, and the pie was good. Yum!

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

Caitie and her dad made chocolate self saucing pudding today, using a recipe from the Edmonds Cookbook (2002 edition).

First Caitie beat 100g butter, three quarters of a cup of sugar, 1 egg and a teaspoon of vanilla essence together. Then she sifted 1 and a quarter cups of flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 tablespoon cocoa together and folded the dry ingredients in to the wet ones. The mixture was put into a casserole dish, then the fun part...
Over the top, Caitie sprinkled half a cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cornflour and quarter of a cup of cocoa. Then her dad poured 2 cups boiling water over the back of a metal spoon on to the top, and it went in to the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes.
Caitie's dad explained to her that the reason he poured the boiling water over the back of a spoon, instead of straight on to the pudding, was so that the water didn't wash all the sugar, cornflour and cocoa off the top. When the water is poured over the back of the spoon, it comes down more gently and allows the ingredients to stay on the top of the pudding where they're supposed to be.


A great pudding for kids, because it's not pretty or elegant or anything - just yummy!


We enjoyed it with cream. :)