She's an 1850s throwback

There is (was?) a British comedy quiz show called Shooting Stars hosted by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and often starring Mark Lemmarr. Why do I bring up yet another obscure television reference? Because today when someone commented that I was like something out of the Victorian era, all I could think of was the catchphrase from Shooting Stars that they used to describe Lemmarr; "he's a 1950s throwback."

Apparently I'm an 1850s throwback due to my obsession with writing letters, knitting, preserving, sewing and other such things. I think the comment was meant as a compliment, and even if it wasn't I certainly took it as one. I love writing letters (know me for a length of time and you will eventually be inundated by my postcards), now that I know I can make preserves I am revelling in it. I am also proud of my new-found knitting skills and will happy sit on the bus knitting row after row of N's long overdue scarf without shame. Also, I had promised I would finish the scarf over the weekend, it completely slipped my mind.

Things are slipping my mind quite a lot at the moment. I think the smell of boiling oranges is getting to my brain and in my marma-lady haze I keep forgetting things. I have such a back-log of stuff to post, stuff that is pre-River Cottage and pre-brownie. So pre-brownie in fact that I fear it will get lost in the depths of the hard drive forever.

I have a soup recipe, which was "quite good," (probably not worth posting in hindsight - or foresight actually since I haven't actually written about it), a recipe that came in a jar(!), and some tasters of the big project I talked about, all floundering. They will come (some of them) I promise. I also have all sorts of preserves to talk about, and even more oranges arriving on Wednesday (so many in fact that Abel and Cole rang me to check they had the number of kilos right and that I hadn't pressed the button by mistake!) Oh yes, bring on the marmalade production!


In the meantime I shall leave you with pictures of the orangettes I am in the process of making. I decided to have a go with Seville oranges because I thought the bitterness might balance the sweetness of them being candied. They're still not quite dry yet, so I haven't gotten around to coating them in chocolate, but I snuck a tiny piece that was aching to be eaten and to me they were good. They've got the bitter tang that I love about Sevilles, and yet they are sweet too.
I think they will definitely benefit from being dressed in chocolate. I plan to do them in very dark chocolate to compliment the orange without the cloying nature of milk. I have to say that oddly I think white chocolate might work well too. I know that sounds contradictory, but I think the creaminess will slightly subdue the tang, and so make them a little more delicate for those who don't adore the sharpness quite as much as me.

Speaking of which, I have lemongettes on the way too. I know they ought to be lemonettes, but N likes the "gettes" part and it's stuck!

Oh, before I go, some more housekeeping: I've finally fixed the comments. Apparently I'd left the old private settings on that stopped some comments. It should allow all comments now (although they are still moderated). Anybody out there want to say hello? Well now you can!

Healthy cake - I kid you not! or; it's easier and tastier to be vegan than you think

This weekend I was mostly baking...vegan cakes!

I have a very dear friend who is vegan. I don't see her anywhere near as much as I would like, which is silly considering she is only in Brighton. Annnyway, this Sunday we were off to visit friends in Lancing to catch up and continue our game of D&D. Lancing being only eight miles from Brighton it seemed rude not to pop in on Q. I had raved to her a little while back about the vegan cheesecake I had tried out, and promised to make her one for the next time I saw her. Not being one to break such baking promises I knew that even though we'd only be seeing each other for a few hours, and that would be over dinner, it just wouldn't do to turn up empty handed. So a vegan cheesecake had to be made. Oh, what a hardship says the baking obsessive!

I then decided to go one better. The tradition for D&D sessions is that whoever is the visitor brings cake. I'm not sure quite how is started, but last time round we were presented with a beautiful carrot cake, and when the five of us couldn't finish it, it was kindly left behind. I wanted to return not only the favour, but the cake tin! and so set about trawling recipe books for something suitable. Having been so concerned about the fat in my diet after a holiday of such weird food and some twinching sciatic moments, I wanted something as low fat as possible, without any compromise in the taste. A tough ask I know, until I stumbled on this site. I couldn't believe it. A fat-free vegan recipe for chocolate and orange cake. Perfect. I could even make one big cake, and steal out some of the batter to make a mini one for Q. She'd get two tasty vegan treats, and we'd get a healthy cake. Yep, a healthy cake. Sconto!

The outcome would also allow me to use the two mini cake tins I'd bought earlier in the week, totally justifying their purchase! hehe.

I won't post the recipe for the chocolate-orange cake as I used it exactly as the site says, and you can just enjoy browsing there. The only difference was that I used an 8" deep cake pan rather than a bundt tin, as I couldn't find one anywhere in time. It worked well to start with, but whilst cooling it sank. The mixture was clearly too light to hold up all the way through. I probably should have split the mixture and made a layer cake. However I iced the cake anyway and it didn't make any difference to the taste, except that the icing that pooled in the middle looked interesting and made it more moist. Despite the sinking it was alright, more moist than I expected, not gooey, but moist with fruit juice (and icing!). However I did think it was slightly chewy and although there was certainly no way you'd be able to tell it was fat-free I couldn't help thinking a regular chocolate cake might have been a better idea. It might be one to experiment with. Hmmm...


The vegan cheesecake was very well received and is fast becoming one of my new favourite desserts. Since it's made with tofu and yoghurt it's lower in fat and calories than normal cheesecake, but still tastes great. It's also so easy to make. Unlike my last attempt at a tofu cheesecake which only needed to be egg-free, this one had to be fully vegan so I did make some changes to the recipe I had. I couldn't get vegan cream cheese, so used soy yoghurt instead. This actually made a much better texture and was, of course, even lower in fat. I also needed a base that was fully vegan, so opted for store bought vegan digestives, mixed with toasted hazelnuts and blended with apple sauce. I had some left over blackberries so whacked those in with the the tofu mix, topped the whole thing with a blackberry puree and voila! Vegan blackberry cheesecake!


I think that my next vegan cheesecake experiment will be chocolate. I think the combination of really dark chocolate and the creamy tofu will work perfectly. Again I won't post the recipe because it is essentially the same as the previous one except with yoghurt rather than cheese and the addition of blackberries.

Hurrah for vegan low-fat baking!

Baking Day! (March) Part Two: More cupcake madness!

My recent obsession with cupcakes is somewhat taking over my life. I have been ordering all sorts of cute and exciting sprinkles to decorate them with and thinking up all sorts of batter/icing flavour combinations. I have even been dreaming about making them! Sad, but true.

So, although N had asked for something else to be the centre of Baking Day (post on it's way...) I just knew I had to indulge the cupcake fixation.

I didn't want anything too rich, and after a week of glorious late-February sunshine I wanted something to reflect the refreshing taste of Spring we've been having. So I decided to make citrus cupcakes; one set of orange, one set of lemon. I used a recipe for lemon cupcakes, and before adding the lemon juice and zest split the batter so I was able to mix one half with lemon juice and zest and the other with orange. The only problem being that I needed to remember which was which!



Once the cakes had cooled I decided to try out different icing combinations too. So, I iced six lemon with lemon cream cheese icing, and six lemon with orange buttercream, and then had six orange with lemon cream cheese icing and six with orange buttercream meaning I had one of each type of cake with each type of icing.



Ah, cupcake obsession sated for one weekend at least!


Now for the recipe: It was taken from the Cupcake Bakeshop blog, which I can't recommend too highly. I then adapted it for the orange ones. I have no idea how they've turned out as we haven't actually gotten around to eating any, but the batters smelt lovely whilst cooking and rose really well.

Lemon Cupcakes
12 regular cupcakes / 180 degree oven

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
11⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1⁄2 cup milk
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
zest of one lemon

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Measure out milk and vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

NB: At this point I split the batter and added half the amount of lemon needed to one and the equivalent of orange to the other.

6. Mix in lemon juice.
7. Fill the cups about 2/3 full and bake at 180 for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.