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
London Particular is a delicious Split Pea Soup! The name comes from the famous fogs of London back in Dickensian times, which came to be known as London Particulars or Pea Soup Fogs.
Fogs so thick that you could scarce see your hand in front of your face.
From Wikepedia: Pea soup fog (also known as a pea souper, black fog or killer fog) is a very thick and often yellowish, greenish or blackish fog caused by air pollution that contains soot particulates and the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide.
Not just common in Dickens's day these heavy fogs continued sporadically throughout the ensuing years. In fact there was a particularly bad incident in 1952 which was called "The Great Smog of London," which came to be known as one of the worst air-pollution events in the history of the United Kingdom.
I think actually fogs such as this were quite prevalent throughout Europe, especially in the colder months when people were using their coal fires. My mother had a photograph of me standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1959. You can just barely see me and only the feet of the tower as the fog is so dense and so thick.
I dare say those "Pea Souper" fogs were not as near delicious as this fabulous soup, London Particular, which had its beginnings at the Simpson's in the Strand restaurant in London.
This soup is rib-stickingly thick and very delicious, and really quite simple to make!
My mother always made us lovely pots of pea soup after we had enjoyed a baked ham either for New Years or Easter.
We always had a ham on those special occasions and the bone was always used to make a delicious soup.
Hers was done in the French Canadian style however, using whole yellow dried peas. They are not so easy to get these days, and I have never seen them over here.
We did so love her soup. She used to make a huge pot of it and we would enjoy it once on the night, with the remainder being frozen for future use.
Always whenever any of us (after we had grown up and left home) made the trip home, she would be certain to feed us a supper of this soup and another of her home baked beans at least once during our stay.
I can't speak for anyone else, but for myself I can say that this was something I always looked forward to and enjoyed very much.
This is not that soup, but it is just as delicious in a different sort of a way. Its thick and flavourful . . . and as I said, very simple to make.
You do need to begin by soaking the peas over night, so be prepared, you will need to do this in advance of making the soup, but once you have done that, the soup comes together very quickly.
If you are lucky enough to have homemade ham stock in the freezer, use that. I have never seen a ham over here sold on the bone and so I have never had a ham bone over here to make stock.
Instead I relied on ham stock cubes to make my stock. You can also use chicken stock if you wish.
Other than the split peas and stock, there is bacon, carrots, celery and onions. Simple.
As an homage to my dear sweet mother I chose to add a bay leaf and some Nova Scotia Summer Savory. You can leave those out and the soup will still be delicious, but if you have them to hand, I do recommend.
You could in also use a bit of dried thyme instead of the savory, if you find that impossible to procure. I bring mine back with me from Nova Scotia and keep it in my freezer. It is that precious to me.
It takes about an hour and a bit to cook, so not that long really. Once the peas are nice and tender, you then puree half of the soup.
I used my immersion blender to do this. (Don't know what I would do without it!) You can also use a food processor or a regular blender.
You then stir the pureed portion of soup back into the pot and reheat the soup gently, seasoning it to taste with salt and plenty of black pepper . . . ready to be serve ladled into heated bowls . . .
Garnished with clippings of crispy bacon and chopped fresh parsley . . .
As always Todd enjoys his soups with a piece or two of buttered bread or a crusty roll . . .
The North American in me prefers mine with crisp crackers and I always crumble some of them into the soup. A "common" practice I know . . . but a leftover from my childhood. The heart wants what the heart wants . . .
Yield: 6
London Particular
So named because of the thick "pea soup" fogs that used to plague the city of London for years and years! This recipe is adapted from a book I have entitled "Mom's Favourite Recipes," published by Octopus Books.
ingredients:
- 300g dried green split peas, soaked overnight in cold water (1 1/3 cups)
- 25g butter (2 TBS)
- 4 rashers/slices streaky bacon, diced
- 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 sticks celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 litres of ham or chicken stock (6 cups)
- 1 bay leaf, broken (optional and my inclusion)
- 1/2 tsp summer savoury (optional and my inclusion)
- salt and black pepper to taste
To garnish:
- a handful of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
- 4 rashers/strips of streaky bacon, grilled until crisp and snipped
instructions:
How to cook London Particular
- Drain the peas in a colander and rinse. Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When it begins to foam add the bacon and onion. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion has softened and the bacon has begun to release it's fat. Add the carrot and celery. Continue to cook for a further 5 minutes or so until golden.
- Add the peas and the stock, along with the bay leaf and savoury, if using. Bring to the boil, stirring. Boil rapidly for about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce to low, cover and then cook for about a hour, until the peas are very tender. Remove the bay leaf and discard.
- Cool the soup slightly and then puree half of the soup in a blender or food processor until smooth, or use an immersion blender. Return to the saucepan and reheat. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper.
- Ladle the hot soup into heated bowls, garnishing with parley and bacon. Serve immediately. Crusty rolls or crackers (my preference) are lovely with this.
When I was a child I would crumble so many crackers into my soup that it became almost pudding-like . . . I so enjoyed that. Tomato soup was especially good this way, with a knob of butter melted on top. Oh boy, now I am drowning in happy foodie memories. Yum!
I decided to bake Pitcaithly Bannock today in honor of Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight.
This is an annual celebration of all the best that Scotland has to offer from every corner of the country.
To honor it I chose to share a recipe of Historical import.
I have adapted the recipe from one in the book Scottish Baking, by Sue Lawrence. I picked it up a few years ago when we were in Scotland.
The original recipe was written by a Margaret Stewart in 1799, so its very old. She lived in the Manse in Erskine, near Glasgow, where her husband was minister.
One of my ancestors, Boyd McNayr was born near Glasgow, in the county of Lanarkshire in 1778.
His father was a soldier in the Kings Navy and he went with his father to the New World when he was 8 years old, so in 1786.
He was left with a family in Halifax, Nova Scotia, while his father went off to do Navy stuff. I can only assume he was in a ship wreck as his father was never seen nor heard from again.
When I saw the dates and origins of this recipe, I was particularly interested.
I can only assume that since Boyd was left with people in Halifax his mother was passed away and that he had no other family.
This must have been a sad little boy who had already faced many challenges in his life.
I like to think that he may have enjoyed slices of Pitcaithly Bannock with his mum as a small child.
It was known to be a type of celebratory type of Scottish shortbread biscuit, created to be served on special occasions.
The addition of caraway, orange peel and nuts was a very common place thing to do at that time.
Sugar would have been a luxury, and indeed these are not really sweet cookies.
Most of their luxurious flavour comes from the addition of caraway seed and orange zest.
Make sure your caraway seed is fresh, or you might just as well leave it out as it won't have much impact.
These are wonderfully crisp and buttery, with a bit of a sandy texture from the ground rice/rice flour.
You can make your own rice flour by blitzing raw rice in a food processor until finely ground, or in a spice/coffee grinder. Easy peasy.
They are very easy to make. You simply beat butter and sugar together until light and pale in colour.
I did mine by hand as I don't have an electric hand mixer and I didn't want to drag the stand mixer out from where it is stored.
Once you have achieved this you stir in the flour and rice flour, orange zest, caraway seed and a pinch of salt. I would do this by hand.
If it is over mixed you can toughen this delicate mixture. So best to do it by hand.
Once the soft dough is done, you press it into a prepared tin evenly, using floured hands. I tried to get it as evenly as I could.
You will need to prick it all over with a fork prior to popping it into a very slow oven.
Don't be too pedantic about the placement of these pricks . . . they bake out in the baking.
I went to the trouble of making a pattern with the fork and it all baked out, so it doesn't matter what it looks like . . . just prick it all over with a fork.
Dust it with more sugar and cut it into fingers or squares as soon as you take it out of the oven.
Once it has cooled it will be too late to do so.
You will be rewarded with beautifully crumbly, buttery, crisp shortbread fingers, wonderfully flavoured.
Pithcaithly Bannock
Yield: Makes 24 servings
A Scottish type of shortbread which was considered to be very festive and would often be decorated with large caraways and orange peel. You can bake it in a round and cut it into Petticoat Tails or bake it in a Swiss roll pan such as I have done and cut it into fingers. Either way it goes down a real treat with a hot cuppa!
ingredients:
- 225g butter, slightly softened (1 cup)
- 100g golden caster sugar, plus more for dusting (1/2 cup)
- 200g plain flour, sifted (1 1/2 cups all purpose, less 4 tsp.)
- 100g rice flour/ground rice (2/3 cup)
- pinch salt
- 1 heaped tsp of caraway seeds
- the finely grated zest of a small orange
- 40g finely chopped blanched almonds (7 1/2 TBS)
instructions:
How to cook Pithcaithly Bannock
- Preheat the oven to 150*C/300*F/ gas mark 2. Butter a 9 by 13 inch Swiss Roll tin and line the bottom with baking paper creating an overhang to help you lift the bannock out of the pan when you need to.
- Measure the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale. This will bake about 3 to 5 minutes. You can beat by hand as well, which will take roughly twice the time. Sift the flour and ground rice into the bowl. Add a pinch of salt and the orange zest and almonds. Stir to bring together into a soft dough. Don't over mix. Using floured hands press this into the prepared tin in an even layer. Prick all over with the tines of a fork.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until uniformly pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and dust with more caster sugar. Cut with a sharp knife into squares or fingers. Let cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before lifting out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container.
Stored in an airtight container these will keep for days and days. If anything they get better tasting as the days progress. They would indeed be very pretty at Christmas time with a bit of icing on top and some sprinkles, or even bits of candied cherry. In any case, Happy Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight!!
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons