My Pop-up Tearoom for Macmillan Cancer Support

On Friday morning I transformed my living room into a pop-up tearoom for two hours to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. I was slightly nervous as to if many people would turn up, but I needn't of worried. I don't think my living room has ever had so many people in it at once. Neighbours, friends, parents from Lily's old school and parents from Lily and Arthur's new school all came and enjoyed homemade cake and tea, and best of all, they all donated so very generously. 

It is hard work preparing and holding this little event; I make all the cakes myself (I even made the tablecloth!), but the support from everyone makes it so worth the effort. This year I made £355.00 (£120 more than last year). The power of cake eh!

Photos: Buttercup Days

Those Chocolate Swirl Meringues That We Ate On The Beach.

It now seems an age away, but less than a month ago, some friends came to visit for the day. It was their annual summer trip down to seaside: they still live where we used to live in Middlesex. With five children between us we headed to the beach in the afternoon. I bought each of our child guests buckets and spades and made an afternoon tea picnic to enjoy before paddling in the sea. I took along a Blackberry, Almond & Cardamom Cake and these Chocolate Swirl Meringues, for which my friend Reena requested the recipe. So Reena, here as promised is that recipe. It's one to do of an evening when your gorgeous children are tucked up snuggly in bed and you feel like a bit of pottering about in the kitchen. 

Chocolate Swirl Meringues

100g good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped or broken

3 large egg whites

150g caster sugar

cocoa powder, to serve

Makes approx 12

Preheat the oven to 150℃ / 130℃ fan / gas mark 2 and line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.

Heat the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

Put the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously, until all the sugar has been incorporated and the mixture is very stiff and glossy. Drizzle the cooled melted chocolate over the meringue and use a metal spoon to fold it gently through to create a marbled effect with bold chocolate streaks running through the mix.

Carefully place spoonfuls of meringue in 12 large dollops on the baking trays, making billowing peaks on each one with the back of a spoon.

Put the tray in the oven and cook the meringues for 30 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave them to cool and dry in the oven overnight.

To serve, pile haphazardly on a large plate or decorative dish and dust with a little cocoa powder.

Recipe: Bill's Cookbook: Cook Eat Smile.
Photography: Buttercup Days

That Week in September + Naked Cakes

September is a crazy month for us. It starts with a new school year (or in this years' case - new schools), it's the busiest month of our business year and at the end of the month I will be hosting a pop-up tearoom at home as part of Macmillan Cancer Support's 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning'.

The kid's have been settling in well at school, particularly Lily. Arthur is mostly taking it in his stride, but is coming home (at lunchtime!) exhausted. He is due to start full-days after next week - I'm unsure if he is ready for it. We have the option to keep him part-time till after Christmas, so we'll see how he goes next week and decide.

Next week David and I are off to London to play our part in the London Design Festival. As last year, we will relocate our press office to Tent London. This years show, along with its sister show Super Brands London, looks set to be an must-see design event. My three-part review from last year can be found here, here and here, if you want to get a flavour of it. It's well worth a visit.

My parents will be coming to stay and look after the kids, ferrying them to and from school and taking in swimming lessons and cinema trips already scheduled for next weekend. I couldn't think of anyone better to leave the kids with, but despite them being 8 and 4 and doing this 'September thing' for several years now, I still hate leaving them and seem to spend my time in London with a permanent knot in my stomach, which won't subside until I return home.

Once back from London, I have under a week to prepare for my pop-up tearoom, so I've been trying to bake a few sponges this week - the ones that freeze really well - in order to get ahead. Naked, they look very plain, but once filled, iced and decorate they should look irresistible. So far there is a Honey & Poppyseed sponge and a Lemon & Almond Sponge - by the end of the weekend there will also be a Courgette sponge.

This will be my second year as part of the World's Biggest Coffee Morning. Last year was a huge success; exhaustingly busy, but well worth it. You can read about it here. Macmillan's are a worthy charity who I like to support. My original reason for getting involved with Macmillan was in memory of my father-in-law who we lost to cancer 10 years ago, but in the last year two friends of mine have been diagnosed with cancer - these are women who are in my age group with young children. The help that Macmillan's provide when your world is turned upside-down is priceless. In my mind holding this annual event is really a no brainer. Fingers-crossed, in two weeks from now, I'll have a heavy donation box and just crumbs left on the table ..... and normality will return as we move from a busy September into (a hopefully less hectic) October.

Photographs: Buttercup Days

New School No. 3 + Chocolate & Pistachio Biscuits

It has been a scorcher today - the last burst of summer, before she gives way to autumn. But despite the temperatures, I feel as though summer has ended: school is back, the football season is underway and the supermarkets are stocking Christmas goods (!).

Today, was Lily's first day at her new school - a big day. It's her third time as 'the new girl'. It was never our plan to move her around schools as we have, but luckily she doesn't seem affected by it, if anything it has made her a rather adaptable little girl, ready to take on any situation she finds herself in, which isn't a bad life skill to have. The school she is at now is where we had always wanted her to go. It's been a bit of a journey, two schools and an almost-house move, but we got there in the end.

My mind was preoccupied today, wondering how she was getting on in her new environment, full of new faces and unfamiliar routines. So I set about baking a batch of these Chocolate & Pistachio biscuits for us to have when she got home - a bit of baking can be quite a good way to kerb anxieties.

3.20pm couldn't have come soon enough. She came out of school smiling and filled me in on the days events on the short walk home. She loves her new school and has made several new friends - I had no need to worry. I'm so very proud of her. 

The biscuits, by the way were also a success. 

Chocolate & Pistachio Biscuits

220g unsalted butter

80g icing sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

280g plain flour

30g cocoa powder

70g whole blanched pistachios

For the dough, combine the butter, icing sugar and salt. Add the egg, flour and cocoa powder. Add the nuts and combine. Chill for 1 hour.

When the dough is firm, roll it into a sausage and cut into 5mm slices. Preheat oven to 190C / Gas 5.

Arrange biscuits on a baking tray and cook for 12 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool.

Recipe: A la Mére de Famille
Photographs: Buttercup Days

An Afternoon Down the Plot + A Blackberry, Almond & Cardamom Cake

The end of summer can bring with it some good allotment days. Granted, there are weeds fighting to take over the minute I turn my back, but there is also warm weather and some half decent harvest. I never loose the trill of picking something from the plot, however small or un-perfect its appearance. Our rather scabby looking cucumbers are bursting with flavour and the rainbow chard and curly kale just keep on giving. 

On our most recent visit we came home with a good picking of raspberries and blackberries, which I used to make my new favourite cake: Blackberry, Almond & Cardamom. I love an almond based recipe, adore cardamom and am always up for a blackberry, so this cake really is my cup-of-tea. The recipe is from Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking ... Scandilicious - probably my most thumbed cookbook this summer.

We ate the cake (with a dollop of mascarpone) and polystyrene cups of tea on the beach with friends who had come down to visit at the weekend. Just perfect.

Blackberry, Almond & Cardamom Cake

Serves 6-8

125g butter, softened

200g golden caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 medium eggs

250g ground almonds

2 tsp gluten-free baking powder

1 tsp ground cardamom

¼ tsp salt

200g fresh or frozen blackberries

200g summer berries to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/fan 160ºC/gas mark 4 and lightly oil a 23cm round cake tin.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time along with a tablespoonful of the ground almonds to stop the mixture splitting.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the rest of the ground almonds with the baking powder, cardamom and salt.

Use a large metal spoon to fold these dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Stir until just blended, then add the blackberries and stir once or twice more to incorporate them.

Scoop the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake on the middle oven shelf for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake is well risen, looks golden brown and feels firm to the touch. Let it cool in its tin on a wire rack before turning out.

Serve the cake either on its own or with mixed summer fruits piled on top and with some sour cream, crème fraiche or mascarpone.

This is quite a moist cake, so it will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight tin or wrapped in foil.

Photographs: Buttercup Days

Blood Orange, Mango & Peach Granita

The weather over the weekend was rather blustery, not cold but mild enough to remind us that we're entering the tail end of summer. Time to start wishing for an Indian summer, and maybe still time to make some truly summery recipes.

I made this Blood Orange, Mango & Peach Granita a few weeks ago during the heatwave. It's summer in a little glass bowl. The recipe is from What Katie Ate: Recipes and Other Bits and Bobs by Katie Quinn Davies. It takes no time at all to make a batch of this pretty ruby-iced pudding, so seize the opportunity while the sun is still shining. The autumn crumbles will have their moment all in good time.

Blood Orange, Mango & Peach Granita

1 mango, peeled, flesh cut into round pieces
3 ripe yellow peaches, stone removed, cut into chunks
2 cups fresh blood orange juice
Juice 1 lemon

Add all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and whizz until smooth. Hold a sieve over a deep baking tray (approx 42 x 30cm). Pour the granita liquid through the sieve into the tray pressing as much of the pulp through as you can, discard whatever final bits which won’t pass through then carefully transfer the filled tray into a flat shelf in the freezer. Freeze for 2-3 hours or until required then scrape into fluffy granita snow using a fork or two. Serve immediately.

Photography: Buttercup Days.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

Last week, the children and I went to a (4th) birthday party at the beach. The little gathering took place at one of the beach huts and adults and kids alike enjoyed this cake that I bought along.

I've mentioned before my love of the food blog Green Kitchen Stories. The Banana Granola recipe that a featured not so long ago is one of theirs. So is this one. I'm a fan of using vegetables in cakes: not because I'm some kind of health freak, but because I love the way their addition makes for such delicious moist cakes and it is a pretty good way to use any vegetable gluts we may reap from our allotment. I've paired chocolate and beetroots together in the past, and have always been pleased with the outcome, so I was keen to try out this recipe. The beetroot gives the chocolate a depth, meaning it is not too sweet and the texture is good and fudgy. 

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

100 g sunflower oil (coconut oil or olive oil)
125 ml maple syrup (or honey)
50 g dark chocolate (70%), broken into pieces
250 g (approx 3 - 4 medium) raw beetroots, grated
3 eggs
375 ml spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
a little melted butter and a dusting of flour for preparing your tin.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175°C. Using a pastry brush painted your cake tin with a thin coating of butter. If you are using a fancy shaped tin as I did, ensure you butter all the fluted parts to enable your cake to come out the tin cleanly and easily. Finally give your tin a light dusting of flour and set aside.

Warm the oil in a medium size saucepan on very low heat. Add the maple syrup and chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat. 

Add the grated beets. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and then add them to the pan. 

Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt together and stir into the beet mixture. Pour the mixture into your prepared cake tin. 

Bake for 25 minutes or until slightly dark and crackelated on top and still a little sticky inside. Enjoy!

It is utterly perfect served on its own with a cup of coffee or dress it up with seasonal berries and serve with mascarpone.

Recipe: Green Kitchen Stories
Photography: Buttercup Days