Lemon meringue pie 12/10/09

Where to begin? I wanted to make lemon curd, so I did. Then I thought I would make meringue pie for the stall, so I decided to go all out and make the meringue from the Baker and Spice book where you melt the sugar slightly. I disregarded their warnings about needing an electric whisk, and hand whisked it. But to no avail (or light, white fluffiness). So I had no pie for the stall and was left with the base of the pie.
My friends Jill and Daniel were coming over for dinner and I made this...



Needless to say i made the meringue the way my mum had taught me (the normal way!) and it was delicious.

Chocolate Guinness Cake 21/11/09

This is the cake I made for my brother in laws 40th birthday.
I used to make it a lot for the cake stall at Columbia Road. It is the Nigella recipe from feast and is really easy because you can do it all in a saucepan!
When I worked at Cafe Oto I amended the recipe and make it with Pitfield Porter instead - so any stout would work wonderfully. I might try it with Newcastle brown...



My friend Jo recently asked me to make the cake for one of her friends as a birthday present and I remembered how amazing it looked with loads of white candles on top.

15/11/09 Chestnut, celeriac and potato pie

Some friends were coming around for dinner and I had been wanting to do two things; make rough puff pasty and use the chestnuts that I'd bought. So I decided to do a pie.
Lots of the cooking and baking that I do for other people is rooted in selfishness. I want to try out a new technique, or have some things that need using up and nine times out of ten these things turn up as presents.
Here is the shiny, pasty loveliness before I baked it.



Bang! B-E-A-utiful out of the oven. I was very pleased with myself.



I sliced the potato and celeriac and crumbled the chestnuts in between the layers. I had some left over French onion soup and I made a bechamel and added the soup. This was the sauce in the pie. This is how it turned out on the inside.



To accompany the pie I cooked red cabbage and apple with balsamic vinegar and made a puy lentil salad with mustard vinegrette. All plates were emptied!

05/01/2005 The root of baking

This is the cake my mum made me for my 22nd birthday. She taught me all I know and encouraged me to bake when I was little. I used to be wowed by her beating arm - so fast! I think I've caught up to her now.

Cake stall signage

27/07/2008 First cake stall at Colombia Road

Eleanor, Claire and I had been offered the opportunity to run this stall by our friend James who works on the coffee stall opposite. We were very excited. Below you can see the urban background to the stall.



In the photo below you can see the inspired 'CAKE STALL' sign.
I think we made about thirty quid each!

05/05/2007 Rhubarb and ginger cake

I adapted a Nigel Slater recipe to make this cake and because I'm silly, I didn't write the exact recipe down so have never been able to repeat it quite like this first time.
When I made it I was a little too eager and took it out of the tin too soon so it broke and one third fell on the floor. My flatmates were more than pleased to eat this bit. The rest was then eaten on a bench in Tring by 4 greedy girls.