Tabby Cat Birthday Cake

Since I’m on holiday and wanted to schedule a few posts for when I was away I thought I would share this with you. Isn’t it brilliant?

 

My sister made this cake for my birthday, using an idea and instructions from a brilliant cake decorating book I got her from Sainsbury’s that only cost £5 for a big hardback with lots of colour photos. I think her cake has a very professional finish even though she is quite new to covering cakes with fondant. The stripes look perfect and the cake was so cute! The cake underneath was delicious too – a Victoria sponge.

 

I’m so used to making my own birthday cake - I don’t get many opportunities to make big cakes and I usually don’t want someone else stealing my glory! I think I would feel the same about a wedding cake but that’s a bigger challenge). But in this instance I’d been really busy and we popped in to see my family for a day right before we went on holiday – so it was lovely that she made this for me! I might have to let someone else make a birthday cake for me in future!
 

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Italian buffet party menu

 

 

It’s the Italian Grand Prix and for Formula 1 Foods this time I’ve got not one Italian recipe, but a whole buffet menu!

 

We had family over for my boyfriend’s birthday earlier this year and I decided to do a buffet with a mixture of hot and cold food. I wanted to make sure there were a few fairly substantial dishes along with things like sausage rolls and hit upon the idea of giving the whole meal an Italian theme. There are so many things that work well for buffets, from pasta dishes to cold antipasti. Here’s a description of what I made and bought (after all who has the time to do an entire buffet from scratch?). As I was also catering for vegetarians I’ve noted which dishes are suitable with (v)

   

Cold food – nibbles and starters:

Bread sticks, aka grissini, with sour cream and chive dip which I bought (v)

 

 

 

Caprese salad of sliced mozzarella, tomatoes and basil leaves, drizzled with oil (v)

 

 

 

Antipasti: red peppers from a jar (v); stuffed olives (v); sliced salami and prosciutto

 

 

  

Hot food: nibbles and starters

Mozzarella sticks: mozzarella pieces in breadcrumbs which I bought from Iceland and cooked in the oven (v)

 

Sausage rolls – not really Italian but my boyfriend wanted them!

 

Garlic bread (v)

 

Mini margherita pizzas, which I bought and cooked in the oven (v).

 

Main dishes

Italian herb chicken mini fillets (from Tesco)

 

Tomato and mozzarella pasta bake (v)

 

Meatballs with farfalle pasta and tomato sauce

 

Tuna, cannellini bean and red onion salad with a mustard dressing (mix olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and garlic to taste). Can also do a portion without tuna for anyone who doesn’t eat fish.

 

 

 

Stuffed peppers, filled with risotto rice and melted mozzarella

 

 

 

Dessert:

Mini Profiteroles from Iceland – these are sometimes known as a French dessert but were apparently invented in Italy

 

Nigella’s cappuccino pavlova

 

 

 

I also served birthday cake, cupcakes and cookies, which you can read about here.

 

  

 I'm sharing this with Formula 1 Foods, the blog challenge I host, as the theme this month is Italy.

 

 

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Restaurant review: Wahaca, St Paul's, London

Before we booked our holiday to Mexico, my boyfriend had never eaten much Mexican food – and I wasn’t much more familiar than the cuisine than him. I’d only been to Mexican restaurants a couple of times and aside from making fajitas and enchiladas at home I don’t really cook Mexican food either.

 

As we were going to be travelling around as part of a tour group, I knew we often wouldn’t have much – or any – choice of restaurants. It turned out that we had set menus a few times as well, so it was lucky I had introduced my boyfriend to a few dishes in advance.

 

My birthday was right before our holiday so I took the opportunity to get some of my friends together for a birthday meal at Wahaca. Wahaca is the phonetic spelling of Oaxaca, a state in Mexico that is known for its food; masterchef winner Thomasina Miers set up a restaurant by that name in 2007 focusing on Mexican street food. The chain now has a handful of London locations plus one in Cardiff, but you can’t book a table for dinner in any of the London restaurants apart from St. Paul’s. That suited me as a lot of my friends work in the City so it was central for all of us – the restaurant is actually upstairs in the One New Change shopping centre but it feels like a proper restaurant, not a shopping mall food court.

 

The street food idea means the bulk of the menu is small plates with the suggestion of ordering a few per person. There are some larger main courses as well, but as we were a large group we decided to share the street food between us. We did a quick calculation and decided to order one of everything – not something you often get the chance to say to a server!

 

Among the tacos I particularly liked the pork pibil, which is slow-cooked marinaded pork with pink pickled onions, served in a toasted tortilla. The tostadas were open tortillas topped with different things like chicken Caesar or black beans; I loved the sweet potato and feta cheese taquito, which was a rolled-up tortilla. Quesadillas are toasted tortilla sandwiches, filled with things like chicken and cheese. Each dish is priced around £3-£4 and usually contains three of each item so they are easy to share. It was great being able to try different flavours together and to learn the meaning of terms that are usedl I was pleased that the food wasn’t too spicy either. I also sampled a couple of cocktails which were very good!

 

 

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Schwartz Grill Mates

I'm terrible when it comes to marinating meat - I buy the ingredients, mix the marinade - and then usually realise that the recipes says refrigerate overnight, and I wanted to have it for dinner this evening. Also, you sometimes need quite bespoke ingredients for a marinade which means you then have half-used bottles lurking at the back of your cupboard for months if not years.

For both those reasons I really like the idea of these Schwartz Grill Mates. They have 23 different options from marinades to oils to glazes, and some are as quick as brushing on to your meat 15 minutes before the end of cooking. What could be simpler?

I was sent a selection of the sachets, which retail at £1.40; they are enough for the whole family (I marinated two whole packs of chicken thighs for a barbecue and there was plenty in the packet) but you just throw the empty packet away at the end and can try something different next time. Obviously that does work out more expensive in the long run but it is far more convenient and ultimately avoids waste if you do buy different ingredients and then don't use them up.

I used the Mediterranean BBQ glaze on my chicken which was really tasty and I can't wait to try the other flavours!

Thanks to Schwartz for sending me the sachets to review.

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Premier Inn Purple Sauce review

When I was a child, Saturday lunch was always a version of a fry-up or beans on toast (macaroni cheese on toast for me as I don’t like baked beans) – accompanied by red sauce, or brown sauce. We never called it ketchup, and I can’t even remember the proper name of brown sauce (HP sauce?) – it was always red sauce, brown sauce. Well, now there’s a new one: purple sauce.

 

Created by Premier Inn with the help of a chef called Ed Baines, Purple Sauce is designed to go with the traditional English cooked breakfast, served at Premier Inns. It has a blackberry base, with other ingredients including crushed chillies, toasted cumin, smoked salt and cider vinegar. It has no artificial colours, flavourings or additives, which is always good to know.

 

 

They sent me a bottle to try out – luckily my parents were visiting and I was planning a full English breakfast (it’s not something my boyfriend and I often have, as I’m not keen on most elements – I’d rather just have a sausage sandwich!). I made sausages, bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and baked beans, and put this bottle of sauce on the table next to the ketchup. I didn’t have any brown sauce so I waited to see which one my dad would reach for first.

Everyone was quite willing to try it and the reaction was a positive one- unusual, but in a good way. My parents said they weren't sure they would buy a whole bottle of it if it was sold in the supermarket but would definitely have it if they were staying in a Premier Inn.

 

It has got a slightly smoky flavour, which goes well with sausages; I can see this working nicely with pulled pork too. I even wondered about using it in a sweet dish, such as the filling for a pastry tart, but I didn't have time to try this idea out before going on holiday!

Thanks to Premier Inn for sending the sauce to review.

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The Alphabakes Roundup - Z

Z is quite a fun letter for Alphabakes. It’s not as difficult as it first looks and you can be really creative with zebra and even zombies coming into the mix last time. If you take Z to stand for zest, you can make any recipe using lemon, orange, lime – you get the idea.

 

Our first entry this month was this novel take on Eton mess with chocolate and orange, from Dom at Belleau Kitchen. As well as orange zest it uses marmalade and Dom says the sharpness of those flavours cuts beautifully through the sweet chocolate meringue and chocolate cream. It definitely looks good enough to eat!

 

 

 

Ages and ages ago I made a zebra cake but hadn’t gotten around to blogging it. It was actually from a packet cake mix (for shame!) which I wanted to try as it was from America and the Duff Goldman brand (him off Ace of Cakes). The cake was tooth-achingly sweet but this is a useful blog post to explain the technique behind how to make a zebra cake. Plus, it looks cool!

 

 

My mum Jacqueline made her first ever zebra cake as well, using more of a swirling technique; it results in the same effect and her colours - chocolate and vanilla - are rather more realistic than mine!

 

Fiona at Peanut Butter and Spice has sent us this Coconut and Lime Crème Brulee which she has been able to make even though she is lactose-intolerant. This is a lovely summery combination o flavours.

 

Z can stand for zucchini which of course is the American name for courgette (I wonder why it is so different, when we call most things by the same name?). Elizabeth at the Law Students Cookbook made baked zucchini with parsley and oregano, which she said was really easy and tasty. You could have this as a main course or a side dish so it seems very versatile.

 

 

More zucchini now, this time with cherry tomato in a quiche from Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen. She has grown her own courgettes and these cute little mini quiches would be perfect for a picnic.

 

 

Making another appearance but this time in a sweet dessert, we have chocolate courgette (zucchini) loaf with nutella and cranberries. Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker is my co-host for Alphabakes and great at coming up with new recipes and flavour combinations so I'm sure this cake tastes good! She warns that you do need to squeeze the water out of the courgette though.

I ought to know what Zwetschgendarschi is as I used to live in Germany, but Suelle from Mainly Baking had me stumped! To put it more simply, this is a plum tart. It has a layer of marzipan on top of the dough which sounds good and the yeast dough Suelle used contains less fat than regular pastry.

Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker has got some more courgette to use up, so made these brie, courgette and red pepper muffins. She says these vegetarian ones tasted even better than a version she made with bacon!

I got a spiralizer for my birthday and it's really fun to use - I finally plucked up the courage to try making courgetti or zucchini noodles from a recipe by Deliciously Ella. The sauce is also home made from red pepper and tomato and it tasted much better than I was expecting given I don't actually like courgettes!

Now back to something that doesn't use courgettes - we have lemon zest as the Z ingredient here, in this lemon tiramisu from Jean at Baking in Franglais. It's a refreshing take on an old favourite and would make a lovely dessert for a barbecue.

Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than made this chocolate chip yogurt courgette bundt cake and managed to convince her brother and his children that the green flecks were sprinkles! The grated courgette (sorry, I mean sprinkles) make the cake really moist and I would think the chocolate would hide the flavour!

The last time we had this letter for Alphabakes I came across za'atar, a Middle Eastern spice blend, and was wondering if someone would use it this time. Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen has done so, in this oven-baked za'atar tomato and potato frittata. She said it's good for picnics, barbecues and buffets.

Finally another entry from my Alphabakes co-host Ros of the More Than Occasional Baker. She made these zucchini and orange marmalade muffins with cranberry and pecan which she enjoyed for breakfast.

That's an impressive selection of dishes for what is undoubtedly a difficult letter. Thanks to everyone who took part - visit The More Than Occasional Baker on Sept 1st to find out which letter we are baking with next month! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get ready for my engagement party...

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F1 Foods: Belgium roundup and the next challenge: Italy

The Belgian Grand Prix gave me a great excuse to make a Belgian chocolate cake! Actually I was going to make it anyway and realised afterwards I could enter it into Formula 1 Foods - it was a practice run for making a wedding cake! I'd never made a 12 inch cake before so had no idea how long it would take in the oven so wanted a run through, and that weekend was pretty much the only one I had free before the wedding of Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker, who is getting married in only a short number of weeks! I'm glad I made it when I did as I will now have even less free time.... as I have to start wedding planning myself. I got engaged last weekend!

So here's the chocolate wedding cake I made - you're not going to see it in all it's glory as I don't want anyone to see how it is going to be decorated yet!

Suelle from Mainly Baking made these Belgian-inspired chocolate, peanut and biscuit spread cookie bars which I'm getting hungry just thinking about! She used Speculoos biscuit spread, peanut butter and chopped roasted peanuts. Suelle said she doesn't think they were entirely successful but they look pretty good to me!

 

I've never heard of Carbonnades Flamandes so thanks to Jane from Onions and Paper for introducing me to it. From the name I expected it to be a sweet dish for some reason but it's actually a beef and ale stew - a great idea to use Belgian beer. And just the thing for a cold day which we have unfortunately had rather too many of in August!

 

Funnily enough the final entry was also a Belgian Carbonnade, this time from Elizabeth at the Law Student's Cookbook.  She served it with bread and apple sauce which sounds like a nice combination.

 

The next Formula 1 Grand Prix is in Italy, over 4-6 September. I'm giving you until Weds 16th to get your Italian recipes in (as I will be away and can't do the roundup any earlier) so that's plenty of time!

 

 

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