Showing posts sorted by date for query sandwich. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query sandwich. Sort by relevance Show all posts
I am enjoying a quiet Saturday as I sit and write this. Usually at the weekends, I like to bake a cake or some such.
Sometimes it will be a fancy cake, especially if we are celebrating something. More often than not it is a Victoria Sandwich Cake. This is quite simply, the best.
In all truth our favourite cake is the simple Victoria Sandwich Cake. That is the one we enjoy eating most of all, and the one I enjoy baking most of all.
I know I have shared it with you before, but can you ever share something that you love too many times? I think not . . .you can never have too much of a good thing!
My mother always filled our cakes with jam. With jam in the middle a cake needs no other adornment. Especially if you use really good jam. And I always do.
My father always loved cake with jam in the middle and it was something we all enjoyed. My jam of choice has always been Bonne Maman. It just has the nicest consistency and the right amount of fruitiness!
Jam is a very versatile ingredient. You can change the flavour of a plain cake such as this just by varying the type of jam you choose to use.
But it must always be a good jam. Homemade is good of course, but if you are buying your jam, make sure you get a quality one.
More often than not I will use strawberry jam. That is my favourite, along with raspberry which follows a close second.
These are what are the most traditional for this purpose. Any red jam looks great actually.
Here are some suggestions to shake it up a bit. Add a bit of lemon zest to the batter before baking and fill it with some wild blueberry jam.
You have yourself another tasty combination. The flavour of lemon and blueberries together is unmatchless.
If you add some freshly grated nutmeg and a bit of vanilla. Fill it with peach or apricot jam and your cake is lifted to an entirely different level.
Or you could fold raspberries into the cake and fill it with peach jam. Voila, a sort of a peach melba cake!
And don't get me started on lemon curd. Lemon curd in the middle is another favourite of mine. I completely adore Lemon Curd.
I could eat it with a spoon. Shhh . . . don't tell, but whenever I use it I always eat a cheeky spoonful. That's yours and my little secret now.
In the summer filling this cake with a layer of whipped or clotted cream and sliced strawberries turns this cake a beautiful indulgence . . .
You cannot get much better than a cake filled with softly whipped cream and berries. You do have to eat the whole thing on the day, but that is so not a problem!
This is a cake that can be as simple as you wish. It can also be as elaborate as you wish. It suits all occasions.
It is the Birthday cake of choice in this house and so quick and easy to whip up. You can seriously have one of these on the table in less than an hour, tops and that allows for cooling.
It is perfect for cold and dismal, rainy autumn afternoons near the end of September. A day when all you want to do is hunker in with a good book and a hot cuppa.
A day when you can pull a blanket over your knees and just hunker down. A day when you are wanting comfort of the utmost kind.
If ever there was a cake that you could consider to be a comfort cake, this is it. Comfort, pure and simple and most delicious.
Yield: Makes 1 7-inch cake
Victoria Sandwich Cake
Popular during the reign of Queen Victoria, this cake remains popular to this day, which is a huge testament to it's taste and ease of baking!
ingredients:
- 170g of butter (12 TBS,)
- 170g caster sugar (3/4 cup)
- 3 large free range eggs, beaten
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 170g self raising flour (a scant 1 1/4 cups)
To finish:
- strawberry or raspberry jam
- caster sugar or powdered sugar to dust on top
instructions:
How to cook Victoria Sandwich Cake
- Butter and base line two 7 inch sandwich tins. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
- Sift the flour together with the baking powder.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.
- Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, taking care to use a cutting motion so as not to knock out too much of the air that you have beaten into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins, levelling off the surface. Make a slight dip in the centre of each.
- Bake on a centre rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen well, are golden brown, and spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for five minutes before running a knife carefully around the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cooled, place one layer on a cake plate. Spread with raspberry jam. Place the other cake on top, pressing down lightly. Dust with icing or caster sugar and cut into wedges to serve.
If I am lucky this will last us several days, but since it is a favourite of both of us, I don't expect that it will be around much longer that. Quick, easy and delicious. Qualities that are pretty hard to beat!
Up Tomorrow: Fried Egg Sandwiches (brought forward from the other day)
Its my husband's 81st Birthday today. Its also the anniversary of the day we first met in person. I always tease him and tell him I am the best Birthday Present he ever received. Most of the time he would agree with me . . . unless we are in the car. Then it becomes quite debatable. He says he doesn't drive. He just steers.
Two of Todd's favourite things are Victoria Sponge Cakes and Raspberry Jam Tarts, well any jam tart really . . . he just loves anything with jam in it.
You know how you create ideas in your mind of things you want to do . . . and you picture them all out and in your mind they come out looking fantastic . . . but in reality, they don't even come close to touching what you had envisioned them as being?
This is one of those things. Every time I look at it I laugh. In my mind I saw this beautiful Victoria sponge with two layers of butter cream along with a layer of sweet jam in the middle. ✓✓
Two ticks . . . one for the Victoria Sponge . . . two for the butter cream . . . and wait a third . . . ✓ for the jam, raspberry jam. Bonne Maman, only the best for my man.
Normally I don't put butter cream on top of a Victoria Sponge, just in the middle. The top is usually dusted lightly with either icing sugar or caster sugar . . .
But today I had the idea in mind that I was going to decorate the top with raspberry jam tarts, again Bonne Maman ones (I could have made from scratch, but was stretched for time). I wanted to put a layer of vanilla butter cream on the top as well, to hold the jam tarts in place.
I decorated each jam tart with a small dollop of butter cream and a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands cake sprinkles . . . and then placed them lovingly all around the outside of the cake. I had an extra one and so I cut it up into little bits to decorate around the candle in the middle of the cake.
I just used one big fat candle in a tiny Bonne Maman jam jar as a holder. (Bonne Maman figured big in my cake plans today!)
You would have to have a really big cake to sport 81 candles, so I reckoned one big fat one was as good as 81 smaller ones.
Its not the prettiest Birthday Cake in the world. Not near as pretty as I had envisioned when I was dreaming it up . . .
But it didn't really matter because Todd loved it . . . two of his favourite things . . . plus all of the love I put into it. He was quite happy with it. He's not hard to please.
The cake itself is a really good cake, with a lovely moist crumb and beautiful texture . . .
Homemade Vanilla Butter cream Frosting? You can't go wrong. Its delicious too . . .
Bonne Maman Jams, next to homemade, they are the best in my opinion . . . .
And their jam tarts on their own are also rather moreish . . . not sure if it worked all together. I dare not hazard a taste because the sugar in all of this would send me into a Diabetic coma, but my dear husband was one very happy Camper, and that's what counts.
Yield: 8
Raspberry Jam Tart Birthday Cake
This is the kind of cake you bake for someones birthday when their favourite things are a Victoria sponge and raspberry jam tarts!
ingredients:
For the cake:
- 170g butter (12 TBS)
- 170g caster sugar (1 cup)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large free range eggs, beaten
- 170g self raising flour (a scant 1 1/4 cups)
For the butter cream:
- 225g butter, softened (1 cup)
- 390g icing sugar, sifted (3 cups, confectioners, powdered)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 to 2 TBS double cream
To finish:
- 6 TBS of raspberry jam
- 8 raspberry jam tarts, plus one crumbled if desired
- hundreds and thousands cake sprinkles
instructions:
How to cook Raspberry Jam Tart Birthday Cake
- Butter and base line two 7 inch sandwich tins. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.
- Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light in colour and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture begins to curdle, add a spoonful of the flour.
- Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, taking care to use a cutting motion so as not to knock out too much of the air that you have beaten into the batter. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins, levelling off the surface. Make a slight dip in the centre of each.
- Bake on a centre rack of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the sponges have risen well, are golden brown, and spring back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in the pan for five minutes before running a knife carefully around the edges and turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the butter cream, beat the butter and sugar together on low until well blended and then continue to beat on medium for another few minutes until it begins to become fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and 1 TBS cream, only adding the second one if needed until you have a frosting of spreading consistency.
- Pipe a tiny bit of butter cream in the centre of each jam tart and sprinkle with the cake sprinkles.
- Place one layer of cake on a cake place, top side down. (I like to anchor it in place with a bit of butter cream. ) Spread with half of the butter cream you have left. Spoon the jam over top of the butter cream and spread it out a bit with the back of a spoon. Top with the other cake layer, bottom side down. Spread the top of the cake with the remaining butter cream. Place raspberry jam tarts decoratively around the top edges of the cake and sprinkle the centre of the cake with some more cake sprinkles and some chopped jam tart if you wish.
- Serve cut into wedges.
Happy Birthday Todd. I am going to be spoiling you all the day through with little things. We doing his proper celebration on Wednesday next when Tina and Tony are coming over for a slap up roast dinner.
Up tomorrow: Homemade Gingernut Biscuits/Cookies
When I was a young newly-wed, I relied a lot on magazines and newspaper clippings for new and delicious recipes to cook for my husband and growing family.
I did not own many cookery books at the time. I had The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, and several volumes from the BHG Cooking Library.
There was no Internet to source recipes from. Half the time recipes did not even have photographs to go along with them.
You really didn't have much of an idea of how they were supposed to look when done, or how they were going to taste.
Another way of gleaning tasty recipes was to have them shared with you via family and friends. Those were the best recipes of all.
You knew that if they were tasty enough for people to want to share them with you, then they were tasty full stop!
This recipe comes from my ex MIL, Elizabeth. She also gave me my basic fried rice recipe, which was one she had gotten from one of her neighbours when she was living in Winnipeg.
Both recipes used prepared minute rice, which was (I'm ashamed to say) pretty much the only rice that we used back in the day.
I didn't grow up in a household that served rice. The only rice I had ever eaten came from Chinese restaurants, so minute rice was my bar of experience.
Thankfully I have grown tons since then and now I would rather die than serve anyone minute rice.
This recipe I am sharing is for a delicious casserole type of side dish. Country Style Casserole. The card on which it is written is yellowed with age and stained.
It is one of my tried and true treasures. It is a recipe which has withstood the test of time.
Cooked rice is mixed with grated carrots, almost but not quite in equal measure . . . and sliced spring onions . . . the original recipe only called for one, but I think two is better.
I love recipes that you can tweak a bit here and there to make them your own.
Added to the mix is a good quality mayonnaise. I have my favourite, and you probably have yours.
If I am not using homemade, I am using Hellman's. It is the best in my opinion, but I am open to trying new things.
Mom always used Miracle Whip. I still miss Miracle Whip . . . it was the best on a fresh Tomato Sandwich, in the summer, fresh tomatoes from the garden, on soft white bread, with salt and black pepper.
To me this is the taste of summer. A fresh tomato sandwich with miracle whip. I think mom had a tomato sandwich for lunch just about every day of her life!
But I digress . . . along with the mayonnaise you will need one large free range egg, lightly beaten. I only use free range, rspca approved (if I can get them) eggs. I like to think I am eating happy eggs from happy chickens.
If I could, I would have my own chickens, and they would all have names. Names like Ditsy and Fluffybutt, and Little Red. They would be like family.
Along with the egg, carrot, mayo, and onion there is also cheese, whole milk and seasoning. Remember cheese is salty. I use a good old strong cheddar as it has a beautiful flavour and I choose un-dyed white cheddar.
There is enough orange in there from the carrots. Poured into a baking dish, tightly covered and baked, this casserole is really delicious and goes well with just about everything. Its even great on it's own.
A sprinkle of chopped parsley and voila! A delicious side that doesn't cause you to break into even the least amount of a sweat.
Country Style Casserole
Yield: 6
This deliciously easy casserole goes together very quickly, especially if you use a ready cooked pouch of rice. Gleaned from a magazine ad, the original recipe used prepared minute rice, which I might have used once upon a time, but would never use now. Instead I like to use brown rice. I have been making this tasty side dish for years!
ingredients:
- 320g cooked rice (2 cups) (Use your favourite, long grain, basmati, brown)
- 165g peeled and grated carrot (1 1/2 cups)
- 120g grated strong cheddar cheese (1 cup, old cheddar) (I like the white)
- 110g good quality mayonnaise (1/2 cup)
- 80ml whole milk (1/3 cup)
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 2 spring onions (scallions) thinly sliced
- salt and black pepper to taste
- chopped parsley to garnish
instructions:
How to cook Country Style Casserole
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 1 litre/4 cup casserole dish.
- Mix together all of the ingredients, seasoning to taste with some salt and black pepper. Pour into the buttered casserole dish. Cover tightly and bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, uncover, sprinkle with parsley flakes and serve immediately!
We enjoyed this with a Costco rotisserie chicken and some runner beans from the garden. It was a quick, easy and quite enjoyable meal. If you have a vegetarian in your life this would make a great main dish, especially if you add some toasted nuts.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I am really excited to show you this delicious store cupboard recipe today for a Hearty Tomato & Bean Soup. This makes a lovely, quick supper for those nights when you are rushed off your feet and yet your family is nipping at your heels wanting supper NOW!
I received some beautiful Lemon Sole Fillets recently from Seafresh, the online fish monger. I adore sole. It is one of my favourite cuts of fish. It is so delicate and has such a beautiful flavour. The sole from Seafresh is especially tasty. Lemon sole is a wonderfully tasty alternative to Dover Sole, which is of course the King of Soles! I find it just as enjoyable in my opinion!
The Lemon sole was part of a beautiful box of fish I received last week from Seafresh Quality Foods.
Seafresh sells quality fish, seafood,
poultry and meat. I have been very impressed with both
their product and their delivery service in the past! There was absolutely nothing
that I could fault with any of it, and I still cannot. Feel free to read about my experience here.
The Lemon Sole comes in a 1KG package, skin on, with there being 4 to 5 fillets per package. I skinned it, which is very easily done. I am not a person who is that fond of eating fish skin, but some people love it. If you are like me you can find a video on how to do that here.
A sharp knife is all you need. Of course you can also cook it with the skin on. Its all a matter of preference.
I wanted to give it a very simple treatment of cooking today. Nothing fancy as I really wanted to highlight the delicate flavours of this beautiful fish.
Back in Canada I used to be able to buy bread crumbed fillets of sole from time to time and they were gorgeous. There is something incredibly delicious about mixing those two completely different textures . . . the soft perfectly cooked and delicately flavoured fish . . . crisp buttery bread crumbs . . . sigh . . .
Today I opted to make the crisp buttery breadcrumbs a separate entity on their own . . . a garnish of sorts . . . but no less delightful or tasty. Just crumb a thick slice of bread into coarse crumbs and then fry them in butter until lovely and crisp . . . and golden brown . . .
I treated the fish with a very light hand. I seasoned it simply with fine sea salt and coarse black pepper and then I dusted it very lightly with some plain flour . . .
I then pan fried it until it was golden on both sides in a mix of olive oil and butter . . . it doesn't take very long . . .
Two minutes per side does the job. There is nothing worse than dried out, over-cooked fish. These were . . . dare I say it . . . pure perfection.
I served each fillet with a sprinkle of those buttery crisp bread crumbs and some wedges of lemon for squeezing . . .
Accompanied with an assortment of fresh garden vegetables . . .
Runner Beans from our own garden, and some fresh carrots dressed with dill butter . . . and for Todd a serving of brown rice on the side . . .
This was a beautiful meal . . . it really was the perfect way to begin our week.
The fish would have been beautiful all on its own without the crumbs . . . but those crumbs added a really delicious touch that we both enjoyed very much. A little bit of something you love really does you a world of good.
Fillet of Sole with Crispy Fresh Bread Crumbs
Yield: 4
Delicately flavoured and perfectly cooked fillet of sole, topped with crisp buttery fresh bread crumbs. I served with wedges of lemon. Perfection.
ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds of sole or other mild flavoured fish, skinned
- 70g plain flour (1/2 cup)
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 TBS olive oil
- 3 TBS butter
- 2 large slice of stale bread, made into coarse crumbs
- 2 lemons quartered
instructions:
How to cook Fillet of Sole with Crispy Fresh Bread Crumbs
- I like to make the bread crumbs first as the fish cooks quite quickly. Its nice to have the bread crumbs all ready to go. Melt 2 TBS of butter in a large skillet. Once it begins to foam, tip in the bread crumbs. Cook stirring and tossing together in the butter until golden brown. Tip out onto a place lined with paper towels. Set aside and keep warm. Wipe out the skillet.
- Season the fish fillets with salt and black pepper. Dust with flour lightly, shaking off any excess. If the fillets are very thin, you can sandwich two together into one fat fillet prior to seasoning and dusting.
- Heat the olive oil along with 1 TBS of butter in the skillet over medium high heat until the butter begins to foam, swirling them to mix together. Add the fish fillets, presentation side down. Cook quickly, browning on both sides and allowing no more than 2 minutes per side. Place onto a heated serving platter, scatter the crispy bread crumbs over top and garnish with lemon wedges. Serve immediately.
We really have been spoiled lately with the opportunity to eat some lovely fish. Fish is so good for you and we both love it.
At the weekend Todd had an additional treat of a Prawn Mayonnaise Sandwich using some of the Cooked Salad Prawns from Seafresh. He was in Prawn Sandwich Heaven. The prawns were firm, pink and juicy. I thawed some of them and then mixed them with some good mayo and bit of sour cream, finely chopped celery, salt, pepper and some chopped fresh dill. He thoroughly enjoyed it. Its not every day I make him this kind of a sandwich, so it was a real treat! These lovely cooked prawns are also very good in salads!
A few things about Seafresh:
- Same Day dispatch on orders received before 1 PM.
- All packages are carefully hand packed.
- Free delivery on orders above £50, £8 on orders below that amount.
- Responsibly and sustainably sourced.
- Air Blast Frozen at source within 4 hours of being caught.
- Wide variety to choose from.
Follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Note - Although I was gifted with product free of charge for the purposes of review, I was not required to write a positive review in exchange, nor would my integrity allow me to recommend anything if I did not truly like it. Any and all my opinions are my own entirely.
Up tomorrow: Blackberry & Apple Jam
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