Tuesday 31 December 2013

Vasilopita – Greek New Year’s Eve Cake

Vasilopita – Greek New Year’s Eve Cake

To go with our Greek meal with a load of friends at our house for New Year’s Eve, I made this traditional Greek New Year’s cake.  All over Greece it is baked every New Year’s Eve in honour of Saint Basil whose feast day is the first of January.  ‘Pita’ in Greek can mean a loaf of bread, a pie or a cake; ‘Vasilopita’ means ‘Saint Basil’s Cake.’  Baked with a coin hidden inside it, the cake is cut at midnight as the New Year dawns and a slice given to each member of the family or friends at the table, in order of age from eldest to youngest.  The person who finds the coin is said to have good luck for the new year. 

The story behind it is that one year in the last half of the fourth century, during a time of terrible famine, the emperor levied a sinfully excessive tax upon the people of Caesarea. The tax was such a heavy burden upon the already impoverished people that to avoid prison each family had to relinquish its few remaining coins and pieces of jewellery, including precious family heirlooms. Learning of this injustice upon his flock, the archbishop of Caesarea, Saint Basil the Great, called upon the emperor to repent.  The emperor agreed to cancel the tax and instructed his tax collectors to turn over to Saint Basil all of the chests containing the coins and jewellery which had been paid as taxes by the people of Caesarea.  But now Saint Basil was faced with the daunting and impossible task of returning these thousands of coins and pieces of jewellery to their rightful owners. He decided to bake all the treasures inside a great big ‘pita’ and called all the townspeople to the cathedral where he blessed and cut the pita, giving a piece to each person. Miraculously, each owner received their own valuables in their slice of Vasilopita!

Greek pita bread

For New Year’s Eve we cooked a Greek meal, with meze to start and lamb souvlaki.  I made these flat breads based on a recipe in the fantastic Tessa Kiros book, Food from Many Greek Kitchens.  Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a photo before they all got wolfed down hot from the pan – but they were brilliantly soft and airy, and definitely a recipe I’ll use again! 

Saturday 28 December 2013

Grissini breadsticks with poppyseeds

Grissini breadsticks with poppyseeds

I made these for our Christmas girls’ night and discovered how easy breadsticks are to make.  For these, I rolled them in poppyseeds and twisted them, but you could try all sorts of variations – rosemary, sea salt, sesame seeds, whatever you fancy.  I like that they are wobbly which gives them a home-made, rustic charm compared to the shop-bought variety.

Italian meringue, chocolate and chestnut cake

Italian meringue, chocolate and chestnut cake

This cake is based on one we watched James Martin make on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen programme before Christmas.  I decided to make it for our annual Christmas girls’ night, as it’s quite complicated and needed a special occasion!  It’s the first time I’ve tried making Italian meringue, which involves making a sugar syrup and pouring it into whisked egg whites – this ‘cooks’ the egg and you then use it to ice the cake, which is finished off by blow-torching!  The cake recipe here is for my new favourite chocolate fudge cake, rather than the James Martin recipe.

Monday 23 December 2013

Cranberry, apricot and amaretto mince pies with almond, orange and cinnamon pastry

Cranberry, apricot and amaretto mince pies with almond, orange and cinnamon pastry

It's Christmas Eve-eve and I've spent a very happy day baking - a couple of cake commissions for friends for Christmas, sausage rolls, ginger biscuits, and these fantastic deep-dish mince pies. Made in muffin tins, they have lots of room for really good filling, so I spruced up some mincemeat with dried apricots, blanched almonds, amaretto and fresh cranberries.  The pastry has ground almonds, orange zest and juice and cinnamon in too for extra festive flavour. Merry Christmas everyone!

Wednesday 18 December 2013

Vegan chocolate macadamia cake with blackberries

Vegan chocolate macadamia cake with blackberries

This evening we cooked dinner for six, including a friend who is vegan.  I decided to turn my chocolate courgette brownies recipe into something a bit more sophisticated - made with macadamia nuts instead of walnuts, a little coffee essence and baked it in a round cake tin.  I topped it with a mound of fresh blackberries, dusted with cocoa. Telling people once they've eaten the cake that it contains courgettes is great fun to watch - especially our friend Jon who refuses to eat vegetables. No-one would be able to guess, but their inclusion means this is really moist and magic!

Sunday 8 December 2013

Gin and Lime Gâteau au Yaourt with gin berry coulis

Gin and Lime Gâteau au Yaourt with gin berry coulis

I recently read about Gâteau au Yaourt, a staple in French home baking and often the first thing that children in France learn to cook.  That’s because it can be made be using two small yoghurt pots, which once you’ve emptied out the yoghurt, you use to measure out the rest of the ingredients.  I decided though to make a more grown up version, with fresh lime zest and juice, and a good glug of gin.  I served it with a coulis of mixed berries, which I also added gin and lime to.  It’s lovely and light and airy, with a great crust on top. 

Thursday 5 December 2013

Chocolate yule log

Chocolate yule log

I've never made a yule log or a swiss roll before, but was commissioned by a work colleague, Kara, to try it as she wanted a cake to share with the team on her last day in her job before she takes up a promotion.  I scoured the internet and found this brilliant Guardian guide to how to cook a perfect yule log - I like it because it shows the process I often go through in developing my recipes, researching classic recipes and combining the best bits of several to come up with what I was looking for.  In the end, this recipe is basically my favourite Delia Smith black forest gateau mixture - eggs, sugar, cocoa (it's a flourless recipe so great for those who can't eat wheat), but with Christmassy spices of cinnamon and nutmeg, and soft brown sugar instead of caster for a more caramel/ fudgy taste.  The ganache is made with a mixture of Galaxy milk chocolate and a little dark chocolate, so it's not too dark and rich.   Rolling it really isn't difficult either - just follow the steps in the recipe below...

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Pomegranate, macadamia and banana bread

Pomegranate, macadamia and banana bread

Macadamias are just about my favourite kind of nuts - as creamy as white chocolate yet deliciously nutty. A perfect accompaniment to banana bread to use up the black bananas, ripe-as-you-like in our fruit bowl, which were sitting alongside two pomegranates that were beginning to look tired and a little wrinkly. I felt like they were calling out to me to bake them into something wonderful - and this was the result!

Tuesday 3 December 2013

Two minute chocolate mug cake

I'm almost ashamed of this, but it works! And when you have a cake craving late at night and need an instant chocolate fix, it's an amazing invention - an instant, gooey brownie for one! If you don't believe me, try it...

Two minute chocolate mug cake

Sunday 1 December 2013

Chocolate orange and almond layer cake with blackberries

Chocolate orange and almond layer cake with blackberries

I couldn't resist the sight of a bar or three of dark chocolate with orange and almonds when I was shopping for ingredients to make a birthday cake for our friend Niaz. I decided to make a stripey layer cake from two types of sponge cakes - one chocolate and almond, the other orange and almond. The chocolate itself I made into a ganache, some of which I added to a buttercream for the filling, and the rest I poured over the top of the cake. I topped the cake with fresh blackberries and whole almonds, dusted with edible gold dust. Happy birthday Niaz!

Roast figs with honey, Marsala and thyme


Roasting figs is a lovely way to bring out their flavours, especially when at the end of the season they are a little green rather than the delicious deep crimson insides of really ripe black figs. Together with warm honey and fresh thyme, I added a splash of Marsala to enhance the flavours, even though we were having them for breakfast, served with my maple, pecan and cranberry granola and lovely thick Greek yoghurt.  A perfect Sunday morning, listening to Sam Cooke and reading the papers, eating my perfect winter breakfast! 


Maple, pecan and cranberry granola

Maple, pecan and cranberry granola

I've been using lots of maple syrup and cranberries recently, inspired by their autumnal flavours to make comfort food as we head towards Christmas. This granola recipe was such a winner I had to include it on the blog - the combination of maple syrup with dried cranberries and ground pecan nuts, tossed together with a little honey, oats and golden linseeds makes a brilliant wintery breakfast, but is also great to have in a jar in the kitchen to eat by the handful as you're passing!

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