Dusting off the icing bag!

For Christmas I asked for an icing set and received a neat little set from Tala, and finally have put it to use 3 months later!

Growing up my mum always made my birthday cakes, from beautiful fairy castles complete with ice cone turrets (that my uncle sawed off much to mum's horror!) to the cat shaped cake which took the best part of mums afternoon to pipe buttercream all over!

Last year I kept it simple with a lovely coconut sponge cake but decided this year I wanted to make something more special and challenge myself......I made a 23cm vanilla sponge, sandwiched together with good strawberry jam....and so 2 hours later, 48 petals individually cut and hands dyed between varying shades of green and pink this is the result!

I still have a lot to learn but am pretty pleased with the result and mum loved it, which makes it all worthwhile :)

Nectarine, prosciuttio & mozzarella salad

This is more assembly of very lovely ingredients than actual cooking but I wanted to share it with you all.


I made this on Sunday as a starter for Mothers Day meal and after an amusing incident when mum mistook the pine nuts as lemon pips, it went down very well!


Its lovely, easy to assemble, light and summery, you can find the recipe here at bbc good food. Their's is made with peaches but I could only find nectarines which were semi-ripe upon eating, following 4 days on our windowsill, though I don't think you would want them too soft for this dish anyway!

Lemon Tiramisu

This year for Mothers day, mum asked for Tiramisu when I prompted her for pudding suggestions...however I had planned a more summery fishy meal and concerned the coffee flavourings would clash afterwards...after a little googling I stumbled across this recipe by James Martin for Lemon Tiramisu (link removed as vanished!) and decided it would be much more suitable!

Post making notes - I think my retro serving dishes (have been in the family about 30 years!) are maybe smaller than James used as ended up with 5 filled and a seperate bowl. Additionally the lemon syrup made a lot and barely used half! Maybe go for 100ml of water rather than 200ml. Another tweak is that my plan to use the lovely Italian Amaretti biscuits I was given for Christmas backfired, as I had, ahem, got a bit peckish in the week and didn't have enough leftover! In the end I used trifle sponges courtesy of Waitrose, which I sliced in half to fit the dishes and used to make two layers, rather than the one layer stated in the recipe.

The main point is though that they taste lovely, creamy and lemony and with a little tweaking are a definate 'keeper!

Back from Amsterdam

I am now home sweet home, and seriously thinking about salad after 4 days away involving lots of bread and cheese! Chips are definitely not on the menu here this week either!

As I type, the sun is streaming through the window, an old Masterchef is on TV and I have a pile of cookery books lined up, trying to decide what to cook this week! Really struggling to decide though, am hoping Jamie will inspire me shortly as I need to go food shopping!

I also phoned the office first thing and told them I would be back tomorrow instead, not that I can really blame jetlag as the flight was only 50 minutes! The sunshine was too tempting to resist!

Whilst in Amsterdam, I couldn't resist going in a select few kitchen shops whilst there and picked up these cake decorations; dark chocolate coated coffee beans, multicoloured chocolate drops, the cutest bunnies ever and Easter sprinkles!

Unfortunately to poor lighting and a not so great camera, a lot of the food pictures didnt come out very well, so not many to show here!

Hot, sweet peppers stuffed with fresh cheese we had in a Mexican Steakhouse...spicy little bombs that were weirdly addictive!

Inside the Heineken brewery, we got to try some barley liquid which tastes very strange, a little like rice crispies in liquid form!

Random pictures of central Amsterdam:

Mozzarella fingers with sweet chilli sauce, lovely gooey centre with crispy outer:

My friends chocolate pancake, it was huge!

One of the many canals!

My new friend Mikey, he took a shine to me in a bar and spent the evening on my lap. He obviously gets fed well as he weighed a tonne!

Steak and chips, perfectly cooked to pink:

A window to drool over:

More sightseeing:

Our interesting 'snack' courtesy of KLM. Both rolls were similar to brioche, though less sweet, one contained mascarpone with a hint of lemon, interesting but edible, the second I didn't eat as was cheese and mayo, which is not my cup of tea!

Our huge breakfast at Heathrow Airport, was an early start so needed something hot and filling!

Out of Office!

Just a quick post to say I am off on my foodie travels to Amsterdam at the crack of dawn tomorrow!!

Back next week with piccies!

Anne
xx

(And on an equally exciting point I managed to get tickets to see Michael Jackson on tour this summer!!!)

Fusilli with creamy pancetta & spinach sauce

This was our Sunday night supper, according to what was leftover in the fridge, pretty good haul this week!

Serves 2

200g good quality Fusilli pasta

150g pancetta, cubed

1 fat clove garlic

150ml approx 1/2 fat creme fraiche

120g fresh spinach

1 egg

Handful grated parmesan

Pinch sea salt

Freshly milled black pepper, as liked

Boil pasta as per instructions, about 1/2 way through the cooking time, heat a seperate pan to medium and fry the pancetta, once browned, slowly add the spinach, stirring frequently, mince the garlic and add (I used a coarse microplane and grated directly into the pan). When the spinach has wilted down, remove from heat. Beat the egg in a bowl, add creme fraiche and parmesan, season to taste and mix in really well.

Drain the pasta quickly so that it keeps hot and return to the pan (I have self draining lids on my saucepans), add the pancetta and spinach mixture, add the cream mix, stir well quickly with a wooden fork / spoon and place lid back on pan, allow to stand for 2 minutes before serving