Pistachio and raspberry friands

Here’s the recipe for the pistachio and raspberry friands I made to go with three other flavoured types for my friend Sarah’s wedding – you’ll also find the recipes for the blueberry and almond friands, hazelnut and strawberry friands and my favourite, blackberry and almond friands elsewhere on the blog.

Blueberry and almond friands

Another week, another wedding cake commission!  This time, I’m making one wedding cake and 80 heart shaped little cakes, for my friend Sarah who I used to work with.  She’s getting married in Caerphilly Castle, in an amazing medieval banquet hall – so I suggested we keep the cakes quite simple and rustic, to fit with the theme and surroundings.  Having made friands before and every time they’ve been such a hit, I decided to make four types – the blackberry and almond kind I’ve made and loved previously, plus some almond and blueberries, as in the recipe below.  I also experimented with different nuts, making pistachio and raspberry friands and some hazelnut and strawberry ones.

Pecan pie

To go with our American cornbread and chilli today, I made another classic American dish for dessert – pecan pie.  This was delicious and lasted well for days.  In fact, I think it got better over time, as the filling solidified more.  I’ll definitely be making this again – even if I’m not so convinced by the concept of cornbread!

Cornbread

I made this classic American dish to go with a slow cooked beef brisket chilli Lu made for dinner with friends this afternoon.  None of us had ever tried it before, but we all agreed it looked great and just as you’d imagine it – I based it on a Martha Stewart recipe and so I think it must be as close to as ‘classic’ cornbread as you can get.  I have to confess though, that we all found eating it with savoury chilli pretty bizarre, as it’s as sweet as cake!  I think it must be a US thing – like maple syrup with bacon for breakfast – but we all agreed a far more British way of eating it would be for pudding with custard!

Chocolate hazelnut fig cake

I made this cake for our friend Liz’s baby shower - three layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with buttercream made with ground toasted hazelnuts, fresh figs and topped with edible rose petals. 

Lovely Liz at her baby shower

Lemon madeira cake (10 inch square)

This is the middle tier of the three tiered wedding cake I’m making – to go with the enormous 13 inch chocolate fudge cake bottom tier and the 7 inch fruit cake top tier.

Chocolate fudge cake (13 inch square)

This is the bottom cake of the three tiered wedding cake I’m making for Lorna.  I’ve never made such a huge cake with such huge quantities! Making it took most of the day as I had to leave the melted chocolate mixture – which filled a huge casserole pot – to cool for a good couple of hours!

Pumpkin chocolate muffins

We arrived home on Thursday from a wonderful holiday on the Greek island of Symi.  The need to dig out winter coats, hats, scarves and boots so we could take Doug the Pug for a walk, and one day back in a grey office on Friday left me with serious post-holiday blues!  This morning I decided the only way to cope was to embrace the onset of autumn with some baking – pumpkin muffins choc full of dark chocolate chunks.  These definitely put a smile back on my face!

Fruit cake (7 inch square)

I’ve been asked by my friend Debbie in work to make a three-tiered wedding cake for her friend Lorna’s wedding in October.  We’re about to go on holiday for a fortnight, so I decided to get a head start and make the fruit cake for the top tier before we leave.  I’m then going to give it to Debbie to cake sit for me, and feed it brandy every few days while we’re away!

Apple, pistachio and persimmon cake

A delicious, moreish, warm and cosy pudding of a cake this - made to use some apples from our friends Emma and Geraint's garden that I brought home after a lovely supper with them yesterday.