Easy Peasy Gooseberry Pie.

Don’t worry, I’m not going all autumnal like the rest of the web seems to be. Sometimes, you just need pie. You particularly just need pie when you buy gooseberries because you’re excited to see them on the shelf but don’t have enough to do preserving with them and aren’t reeeeeally sure how else you might eat the sour little chaps.

This is a brill pie for those new to pastry or those not new to pastry but who just can't be bothered with the faff of finesse, or maybe you love making pastry, it comes easy to you, but you’re just having one of those days that requires bishbashbosh sort of baking.

There’s no worrying about blind baking or shrinking or getting the right size tin. Just roll and scrunch and bake.

And this wonkyness adds charm and homemade lovelyness which will make people love it, and you for making it, even more than a fancy pants, jealous making perfect pie. So go on, make a pie. Bishbashbosh. With Love and Cake.

Free form Gooseberry Pie.

Adapted from my ol' mucker Delia and her Summer Collection.

A few notes:

• You can either make the pastry by hand or whizz everything together in a food processor...I swing between one method and the other. This time though, getting the food processor felt like an effort too far so I did it old school style.
• This makes a fairly small pie, I halved Delia's recipe. It'll feed 2 hungry boys or, if you've eaten a nice big meal first will just about stretch to 4 dainty portions.
• You can mix it up and make the pie with any fruit really, just adjust the amount of sugar you sprinkle over it to taste, gooseberries are particularly sour, something like strawberries would need less. Cherries would be divine.
• I served mine with creme fraiche spiked with elderflower cordial.

Serves 2-4

You will need

1 lined baking sheet

For the pastry

90g plain flour

40g butter, cubed

1-ish tbsp cold water

For the rest

1 egg, separated

1 tsp semolina or polenta

250g gooseberries

1 tbsp caster sugar

1-2 tsp demerara sugar

• First for the pastry. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
• Add the water and start to bring everything together to form a dough. You may need a teensy bit more water but only add it a bit at a time...wet is NOT best here.
• Form the pastry into a disc, wrap in clingfilm or pop in a food bag and rest in the fridge for half an hour.
• When it's nice and chilled...you're ready to make a pie.
• Get the oven on to 200°c.
• Now roll out your pastry, on a lightly floured surface, to about the size of a large dinner plate.
• Transfer this to your lined baking sheet. It doesn't matter if the pastry disc is a bit too big at this point, you're about to fold it up a bit.
• Brush the pastry all over with the egg yolk and sprinkle over the semolina. This will stop you getting a soggy bottom.
• Pile your fruit into the centre of the pastry disc, leaving a border of 5-10cm.
• Sprinkle the caster sugar over the fruit.
• Now fold the edges of the pastry in towards the centre, creating a rather ramshackle looking edge to your pie. Ramshackle is good here.
• Brush the outside of the pie with egg white and sprinkle all over with lots of crunchy demerara sugar.
• Get the pie in the oven and bake for 35 minutes, at which point it should be golden and crispy round the edges.
• Serve with ice cream, thick double cream or cool creme fraiche. Just pie.

New York Cheesecake with Strawberries.

I went strawberry picking....look....

Although I am the very proud owner of 2 healthy and fruit yielding strawberry plants, the 2 strawberries a day I'm get from them at the mo, while they make me puff out my chest a bit with green fingered (HA) joy, don't satisfy my summer fruit requirement. 

I simple can't help it. For 7 months of the year our local fruit choices are apples, apples or well nothing. And then the sun is supposed to come out and make everything ripe and shiny but it doesn't because this is Scotland we're talking about here and things like that rarely go to plan so add another 2 months of promised fruit with no actual fruit and me being stroppy about living in a grey, wet cloud.

But now....now fiiiinallllly, now that it's NEARLY AUGUST, the sun, well it's not exactly out, it's kind of teasing us and reminding us of it's existence without letting us get too excited while all London folk complain amount how stinkin' hot and humid it is...waahwaaah. SHH.

So anyway it was time, steaming hot day or no steaming hot day, for our annual trip to the lovely local Pick Your Own. We're lucky in Fife, there are many to choose from, it's berry country after all, but I couldn't not go back to the one we went to last year....it has CHERRIES (for me) and DIGGERS (for Mr Love and Cake).

I left with my basket was full of berries, my head was full of baking notions and now my cake tin is full of cheesecake. And what a cheesecake. I think, according to Nige anyway, that what makes a New York Cheesecake a New York Cheesecake is that it's like and fluffy and eeeever so slightly leans towards an airy baked egg custard rather that being one of those rich, fudgey, claggy ones. I have love for both but the lightness goes best with summer I think, or the hope of it at least. With Love and Cake.

New York Cheesecake with Strawberries.

From Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess.

A few notes:

• Didn't go strawberry picking? No probs...leave your cake topless (ooooo) or sub in some other berries.
• With this many biscuits to crush, you'll save yourself a lot of bother by crushing them in a food processor. It isn't the end of the world if this isn't an option for you though...double bag them, bashbashbashbash with a rolling pin and think of all the extra calories you can replace with cake.

Makes one mighty hefty cake

You will need

For the cake

1x23cm loose bottomed or spring sided cake tin, greased

250g digestive biscuits, crushed

150g butter, melted

225g caster sugar + 3 extra tbsps

2 tbsp cornflour

750g cream cheese

6 eggs, separated

2 tsp vanilla extract

150ml double cream 

150ml sour cream

pinch salt

zest of 1 lemon

For the berries

350g strawberries, halved or quartered

75g icing sugar 

2 tsp cornflour 

a few drops of red food colouring (optional)

• So lets bake a cheesecake. First for the base you need to mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter and the 3 tablespoons of caster sugar.
• Press the sandy mixture evenly into the bottom of your cake tin and leave to set in the fridge while you get on with the filling.
• Preheat your oven to 170°c.
• In your largest bowl combine the 225g caster sugar and cornflour.
• Then beat in the cream cheese, egg yolks and vanilla, either with an electric hand whisk or with a wooden spoon (more calories burned).
• Add the double and sour cream while continuing to beat and finally get the salt and lemon in there.
• In a separate clean bowl and with a clean whisk, whisk the egg whites so they form stiff peaks and fold them gently, a bit at a time, into the cream cheese mixture.
• Set your cake tin onto a baking sheet in case of leaks and pour the cheesecake mixture over the biscuit base.
• Bake the cake, still sat on the baking sheet, for 1 hour, at which point check that it's brown on top and that there's only a hint of wobble left...you want some, just not too much. If there's too much wobble (nobody wants too much wobble) bake the cake for another 15 minutes and check again. 
• When you're satisfied that the wobble is just hinted at, turn the oven off but leave the cake inside with the door shut until completely cool. If other people use your oven maybe put a MASSIVE note somewhere so they know not to absent mindedly turn it on a ruin your hard, calorie burning work.
• While the cake is cooking and cooling you can get on with the berries.
• Combine the strawberries with the icing sugar and let them stand for at least half an hour, I left mine overnight.
• Then drain the liquid off, saving the lovely ruby juice.
• Pop the juice into a little saucepan and add the cornflour and food colouring if you want extra rubyness.
• Heat the juice gently so that it thickens and becomes syrupy, then remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
• Mix the cold syrup back into the strawberries and they're ready to spoon over your ready and waiting cheesecake. 
• You made a cheesecake...BRING ME SOME.

Morning Coffee Cups.

Have you heard of Hope and Greenwood? Well they are wonderfully genius, wonderfully eccentric sweet makers. They make sweets with names like Pavlova Islands and Mallows D’amour and Squirrel Nibbles. There was even a scene of Made in Chelsea in one of their shops...you knowwww, the one with Millie and Francis and Jamie and....oh please don’t judge me.

Anyhoo...I’ve not been lucky enough to try any of the sweets made by their own fair hands but I am in possession of one of their magical books so I get to make some made with mmmmyyy own fair hands.

I’ve had the book since January (thank you Phoebe) but didn’t make anything from it for a good while. Of course I read it right through...I have a little cookbook obsession and have read many multiple times...but it was sweets, and, you know, making sweets is hard.

Stoopidstoopid me. Ok making SOME sweets is hard. I wouldn’t recommend making toffee after too many Gs&Ts...but off course making some sweets is easy and I’m silly for not getting my hilarious (and H&G aaare hilarious) little book dirty sooner. So they may be little, they may be ‘confectionary’, but please don’t make my mistake and presume that these Morning Coffee Cups are too much effort. You definitely could combine this recipe with too many Gins aaaaand it kind of implies the consumption of chocolate before breakfast is acceptable behaviour....so what are you waiting for. With Love and Cake.

Morning Coffee Cups.

From Life is Sweet by Hope and Greenwood.

A few notes:

• The original recipe for these uses dark chocolate so feel free to go that route, or you could use a mixture.
• Because we're not doing fancy things like tempering the chocolate here it might discolour a little bit on setting. Don't worry, it's not a problem, but if you're giving them as a gift you might not want to leave too long between making and giving.

Makes 10

You will need

10 mini foil cases

200g milk chocolate

25g butter

1 1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

10 chocolate covered coffee beans

• All you need to do is melt the chocolate with the butter; either do it in the microwave, checking VERY often, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
• Stir through the espresso powder.
• Pour the coffee-ee chocolate into your cases and top each one with a chocolate coffee bean.
• Leave to set for a few hours of overnight.
• You made sweets.

Moving Home Cherry Cake.

Apparently, when someone moves house, you’re meant to give them salt as a ‘new home’ gift; something about Slavic traditions and Jewish blessings. The thing is though, when you’re moving, even when you’ve moved, it usually takes a good long while before you can even see your new kitchen surfaces let alone know where your pot and pans are. And so you probably won’t be roasting potatoes or frying eggs or eating anything that requires your salt grinder to be freshly filled with any great hurry.

So when I knew I was soon to be off on a trip to stay with a lovely friend of mine, who had not only been moving but working crazy hard in the first busybusy weeks of an exciting new job, in her brand new flat, I knew salt wouldn’t reeeeally be an appropriate prez.

Cake though, cake would be welcome. The sight of a homemade cake sitting in an unfamiliar kitchen would add comfort. A substantial picnic style cake that keeps well and is low in sugar enough to act as dinner in fraught circumstances, could really be of some use. And so it was. And so it did.

So if you know someone who’s moving, or you get a new neighbour, maybe give the salt a miss and bake this cherry cake. The attributes; sturdy, filling and not too sweet, which make it perfect for picnics are the very same that make it THE ‘new home’ cake. And even if you don’t have that excuse, bake it anyway, it really is a treat. With Love and Cake.

Cherry Cake.

From Jane Brocket's wonderful book Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer.

A few notes:

• The almond essence adds a touch of marzipanny-ness about the cake which, if you're a normal sane person, you will love. If you're a non-normal, non-sane person who doesn't favor marzipan, just leave out.
• When this is a bit stale, it would be divine toasted and spread with a bit too much butter.

Makes 1 large loaf cake

You will need

1 loaf tin, around 23x13x7cm, greased and lined

225g self raising flour

100g ground almonds

zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

275g glacé cherries

225g butter, at room temperature

225g caster sugar

3 eggs

a few drops of almond essence (optional)

2 tbsp milk

• Preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Sift the flour and combine with the almonds and lemon zest.
• Pop the cherries in the sieve and rinse them with cool water so all the sticky syrup gets washed off.
• Give the cherries a good dry with kitchen paper and cut them in half.
• Add them to the flour mixture and stir around so they each get a floury coating.
• In a large, bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy looking and then beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the almond essence.
• Fold the flour into the eggy bowl until everything is well combined and the cherries are evenly distributed.
• Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and pop in the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, at which point the cake won't be cooked but you need to check if the top is browning too quickly and at risk of burning. If that is the case wrap the top of the cake in foil and pop back in the oven for 15-20 minutes. It's done when the top is golden and the centre is firm when you push down on it lightly.
• Leave to cool for a good while in the loaf tin; at least 15 minutes, and then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Hand over to your kitchen-less chum if you can bring yourself to part with it....maybe make 2.

Peanut Butter M&M Peanut Butter Cookies.

Oooow Peanut Butter M&Ms. PEANUT BUTTER M&Mssssss. I think I’ve become a bit renowned for my obsession with these beauties...every time one of my pals goes to the States (ok this isn’t oooften, but is not unheard of, especially from YOU dear gallivanting sister) I inSISt on these being brought back to me (yes yes I knooooow you can get them from Harvey Nicks but that doesn’t have the glamour of ‘oh yes a friend bought them back from her hols for me’).

And I LOVE that every time I’ve had a little visit from an Edinburgh (where Harvey Nicks in not a distant fantasy but actually exists) chum recently they’ve come bearing gifts in the form of all the types of M&Ms on offer....except coconut, mmmm exciting new discovery in store. I’ve had pretzel, I’ve had mint, but helloooo, it’s me and I am a PB fiend and of cooooourse it’s that variety of the snooker ball shiny treat that I hold in the highest esteem.

I haven’t really done any baking with them until now, mainly because...well, why tamper with perfection, but also because, contrary to what you might think, I don’t sit around all day popping M&Ms in to my mouth and my collection had started to swell to the degree that really I could have for many days in a row. Not that this is a negative situation you understand, just one that allows me to combine my love of PB M&Ms and love of baking without sobbing inside because of a suddenly deflated M&M collection....I had enough to act as a buffer you might say.

So yes....here we are...OF COURSE, because what else are you going to do with peanut butter treats apart from surround them with more peanut butter treat in the form of cookies. And these aaare cookies; bendy in the middle, crumbly round the outside cookies, as opposed to our smaller and daintier and a bit more uptigherer British biscuit. Oh look my last post gave love to just that variety of biscuit...you see I am an open minded lover of all flat, sweet, dunkable delights, there will be no biscuit prejudice here. With Love and Cake.

Peanut Butter M&M Peanut Butter Cookies.

Adapted from a bbcgoodfood.com recipe

A few notes:

• These, of course, don't have to be Peanut Butter M&M Peanut Butter Cookies, they could be just peanut butter cookies with no additions, or perhaps you'd like to use chocolate chips, of any kind, and have peanut butter and chocolate cookies. Up to you. I understand if you're M&M collection is too small for baking to include them.
• These are excellent with ice cream and would, I'm sure, make an even excellenter ice cream sandwich...just squodge some soft ice cream between 2 cookies and eat quickly before it all drips down your fingers.

Makes around 10

You will need

a baking sheet, lined with greaseproof paper

100g butter, softened

100g peanut butter, smooth or crunchy, your choice

50g demerara sugar

 50g caster sugar

 1 egg

100g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g Peanut Butter M&Ms

• As per uuush, preheat the oven to 180°c.
• Now get the butter, peanut butter and both sugars in a nice big bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk if you have one, or a wooden spoon and some sweat if you don't, until everything in nicely combined and fluffy looking.
• Then beat in the egg.
• Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarb and fold it all together so you have a nice smooth dough.
• Finally gently stir through the M&Ms so they get nice and evenly distributed.
• Now for the baking...lay tablespoonfulls of the cookie dough on your lined baking sheet, leaving a good space in between each one for it to grown big and wide, this might mean you need to bake in a couple of batches....better to do that rather than squish them in too close together and get one giant cookie.
• Bake the cookies for 5 minutes and then take out the tray and give it a good bang on a heat protected surface, like a wooden chopping board. This will make all the air leave the cookies alone and let them get gooey and bendy in the middle.
• Pop them back in the oven as quick as you can and bake for another 5-7 minutes....try not to let them darken very much, you want them only just to be golden round the edges for optimum gooeyness.
• When they're done, leave them on the baking tray to firm up for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool just a bit more....just enough time for your ice cream to soften.

Your Own Bourbons.

Making your own Bourbons....’WHAT?’ I hear you cry, ‘WHHHHHY would I do such a thing?...waste such time when a shop bought Bourbon is more than acceptable?’. And yesyes, I know it does take longer to make a batch than it does to pick them up off the shelf but I would never condone the effort of making something that doesn’t give you pleasure over and above that which you would gain from ripping open the plastic packet of a supermarket equivalent.

(Oh oookkk I would, because for me, baking for the sake of baking, makes life better...but I promise I would tell you if buying rather than baking had minimal impact on your eating enjoyment and that you should only attempt the homemade version in pursuit of the pleasure from the process...this post on homemade flaky pastry is a case in point).

So yes, a shop bought Bourbon, dunked in you tea, is a treat. But if you have a spare bit of time and want a real, from your own kitchen, pride inducing treat that you’ll want to share with your nearest and dearest, you could do worse than these chocolatey and, in fact, very Bourbon-ey biscuits.

They honestly are easypeasy and imagine how brill it would be if the vicar came round and you could offer homemade Bourbons (okok, I doubt you’ve got the vicar coming round anytime soon, does that even happen anymore? But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared). With Love and Cake.

Bourbon Biscuits.

From Cakes, Pastries and Bread by Jennie Reekie.

A few notes:

• Make these as big or small as you want really, they would be very cute as sort of a 'nibble' size. I made mine sort of 'Bourbon sized' and so that's how I'll instruct you.
• Don't believe what they tell you about all the things that stop syrup being sticky-to-your-spoony...basically syrup is sticky, so I find the best way to keep it in check is to use a spatula to get it from soon to bowl.

Makes about 15

You will need

a baking sheet, lined with greaseproof

For the biscuits

50g butter, at room temperature

50g caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

100g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

15g cocoa powder

For the filling

25g milk or dark chocolate, depending on your taste, chopped or in chips

1.5 tbsp water

50g icing sugar

• Are you ready? Get your oven preheating to 170°c.
• Cream together the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk or wooden spoon until it's light and fluffy and airy looking.
• Beat in the syrup to combine.
• Now sift in your flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold through with a metal spoon until you have a chocolate brown, fairly stiff dough.
• Roll the dough out thinly on a lightly floured surface and cut into rectangles about 2.5x6cm.
• Transfer the biscuits to your baking sheet and gather up the left over dough.
• Keep rolling out and cutting up until it's all used up.
• Prick the biscuits a few times with a fork for that authentic Bourbon styling daaarling and baking for around 15 minutes, until just starting to darken.
• Leave the biscuits to firm up on the baking sheet for a few moments and then transfer to a wire wrack to cool completely.
• Now to make the filling.
• All you need to do is melt the chocolate and water together, either in the microwave being careful to check regularly or over a pan of simmering water.
• Sift in the icing sugar and whisk together until you have a lovely paste.
• Pop in the fridge for a while, an hour or so, so it an cool an become a spreadable consistency.
• When the biscuits are 100% cold and the paste is ready, spread it over half the biscuits and make lovely chocolate biscuit sandwiches.
• Dingdong....vicar calling.

Non-Sporting Blueberry Mess.

So you know it’s Wimbledon final time this weekend yes? I don’t know why I asked actually.....of cooooourse you don’t. Not only do you not know...you don’t even care. You are a pooooor excuse for a English(wo)man.

So here I am to the rescue...to tell you that it’s the Wimby finals and that even though you don’t care, really you should take advantage of any vague excuse for a party, or not even that, an excuse to indulge...Pimms, strawbs, shouting at the telly...however indifferent are to sport you’ve gooooot to find that appealing.

And my treat for you...it doesn’t, in fact, involve strawberries or Pimms because I know really that you just doooooo not care and however delicious sounding the treat, if it’s vaguely sporty fun themed you will roll your eyes and click away.

So Blueberry Mess, as in Eton Mess with bluebs instead of strawbs and a bit of maple syrup thrown in for good measure, is Wimbledon-ey enough for me to feel satisfied that I’m celebrating this exciting bat and ball thingy and un-Wimbledon-ey enough for you to be able to make it any time, in the absence of rackets and serves. I hope you do. With Love and Cake.

Blueberry Mess.

A few notes:

• I’m sure I’ll tell you about real Eton Mess sometime soon but in the meantime, if that’s what you fancy, replace the blueberries with strawberries and the maple syrup with a sprinkling of sugar.
• A great use for homemade meringues if you have any or fancy making some...recipe here...but shop bought ones are a-ok too.

Makes enough for 2 after a light summery meal or 4 after a heavier one

You will need

150g blueberries

2 tbsp maple syrup

300ml double cream

1 medium sized meringue

• No oven here so first job is to gently mash the berries a bit so some get squidged and release their juices and others stay whole.
• Stir the maple syrup into the berries.
• In another, large, bowl whip the cream to soft, billowing peaks.
• Gently stir in the berries and crumbled up meringue so you leave everything rippled rather than combined. 
• Pour yourself a Pimms, turn the telly to BBC and cheer very loudly for Andy (fingers crossed)....or don't, your call.

We Need S'mores Bars.

There are a LOT of things that we (as in the good old British folk) like to laugh at when it comes to our American chums. I get to laugh at them a bit more than average I think, given the proximity of St Andrews to my little house and therefore mt proximity to a LOT of American golfer chaps running around that teeny town being (loudly) in awe about just how cute everything is.

  (If you're American, pleaseplease don't be offended, and keep reading, I'm about to say something nice, I promise)

There is aaaaalso a LOT of things that these American chums do that we, the Brits, need to pay attention to and that is missing from our little island. I’m talking Peanut Butter M&Ms, Butterfingers, Old Bay Seasoning, PRETZEL M&Ms ...who knew, Fluffernutters, s’mores.... 

S’mores. Why on EARTH do we not have s’mores. Have you even heard of them. I’m sure I hadn’t until I was some ridiculously old age....like 22. If not I will educate you....a s’more is something cooooool American folk make when they have camp fires or light up their grill. It’s basically a sandwich made of a toasted marshmallows and bit of chocolate and 2 Graham (as in grraaaaam) crackers. Look. And look.

Good heavens we must be missing out. Next barbeque, I am hitting s’more town. The thing is though, it kind of feels, up here in the frozen wastelands, like the next barbeque won’t be for another squillion years. Plluusss there’s the ‘marshmallows not being veggie’ situation. So here comes a recipe to the rescue, it’s here to save us from our poor s’more-less lives. Aaaand is a little nod to the 4th July. Phew, we're saved. With Love and Cake.

Baked S'mores Bars.

A few notes:

• I used Fluff, that magic 'marshmallow in a jar' stuff that I talked about here, but I know that might not be the easiest thing to find. If that's the case then why not have a go with using real proper marshmallows (if you're not veggie that is). I would go for mini ones, and I'm sure they'd be proper lovely.
• Use whatever chocolate you like. Do correct me if I'm wrong but I'm under the impression that Hersheys is de rigueur. Here, I used milk chocolate chips but you could happily use your fav and just make sure you chop it fairly small.
• You could make the biscuit dough in a food processor, just whizzing it all up together. I just didn't really think of that at the times so got my hands dirty the old fashioned way.

Makes about 12

You will need

1xshallow baking pan, 18x30cm, lined with greaseproof paper

170g wholemeal flour

180g plain flour

50g rolled oats

a sprinkle of salt

2 tsp baking powder

150g butter

80g soft brown sugar

6-8 tbsp milk

150g milk chocolate, in chips or finely chopped

1/2 jar Fluff, or a good handful of mini marshmallows

• First job, as per usual....preheat your oven to 180°c.
• Now to make the biscuit part...mix the two flours, oats,  salt and baking powder in a large bowl.
• Rub in the butter with your finger tips so the mix has the consistence of breadcrumbs.
• Stir through the sugar and then add the milk, starting with 6 tbsps and adding more, bit by bit, if the dough needs it to come together so it's not too wet but not too stiff.
• Split the dough in half and press one half into an even layer in the lined baking pan.
• Bake the biscuit layer for 12 minutes.
• As soon as it's out of the oven, sprinkle over the chocolate and spread the Fluff over that (as best you can, it's sticky stuff), or sprinkle over your marshmallows.
• Now for the last biscuit layer. I think the easiest thing to do is to sprinkle it all over in clumps and and press it down a bit...don't worry it won't be perfect and smooth but a bit nubbley and craggy, all the better for it I think.
• Get everything in the oven for another 25ish minutes until goooolden brown and oooooozy in the middle.
• If you can, eat around the camp fire....though no worries if it's sofa and woolly socks that are more appropriate.