After finishing the mound of assignments which I've had in recently I can eventually relax and start to engage in some mandatory Christmas activities such as of course baking mince pies. This time however I decided I wanted to make the mince pies slightly differently and when I found this recipe in my Jamie Magazine I had to give it a go. I love mince pies, however sometimes I find that the traditional ones have a bit too much mince meat in for my liking and these ones eliminate that problem perfectly.
The pies are made out of two types of pastry, a soft puff pastry filling encased in crunchy filo pastry and not only do they taste good they are ridiculously easy to make as well, you can find the recipe here. Basically you spread the mince meat onto a sheet of rolled out puff pastry and add whatever flavours you want, I added lemon and orange zest, brandy and some dried cranberries, you then roll it up into a giant swiss roll and refrigerate it for half an hour. When you take it out the fridge you cut them into discs and place them into a filo pastry lined muffin dish and bake for 25 minutes. They might not be the prettiest looking mince pies however they taste amazing and are definitely a different take on the same old mince pie.
Thanks for reading,
Naomi ♥
With the return of The Great British Bake Off I decided to make a classic British cake, in my mind Victoria Sponge cakes, although so basic, are one of life's great pleasures. A moist, light sponge sandwiched with freshly whipped cream and berries or jam is such a Summer combination and no serious tea and cake session should be without it.
I got my basic recipe from 'Jamie' magazine, the jubilee issue, so it's full of lovely cake recipes which I'd love to try in the future. However I wanted to jazz up the basic recipe a bit so I put a bit of elder flower cordial in when I was whipping the cream. I'm aware that the elder flower season has been and gone but I had some cordial in the house so thought I'd give it a go. The cake itself turned out well, however you couldn't taste the elder flower as much as I would have liked unfortunately, maybe i'll add more another time, or a less concentrated syrup.
Did anyone else watch the bake off tonight? I think I've got a favourite already, hello James!
Recipe
(Georgie Socratous - Jamie Magazine)
Serves 14
Ultimate Victoria Sandwich:
225g unsalted butter cubed and softened, plus extra to grease
225g white caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs, beaten
225g self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
A splash of milk
200ml double cream
250g fresh strawberries
1 tbsp elder flower cordial
1 1/2 tbsp icing sugar plus extra to dust
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the bases of 2 round 20cm sandwich tins. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Gradually mix the beaten eggs into the creamed and sugar. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt with a large metal spoon just incorporated (don't overmix).
- Stir in a splash of milk to loosen the batter, then evenly divide it between the 2 cake tins. Bake the cakes in the oven for 22-25 minutes, until golden and cooked through. (To test, insert a skewer into the middle of a cake; it's ready when the skewer comes out clean.) Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to col completely.
- Hull and roughly slice the fresh strawberries. Pour the cream into a large bowl and whisk until you have soft peaks. Sift in the icing sugar and gently fold through, stir through the elder flower cordial and taste.
- Place one of your cakes on your chosen plate or cake stand and spread over the cream, but not right to the edges or it will spill later. Scatter the strawberries and top with the second cake.
- Dust with icing sugar and decorate with extra strawberries, if you like.
Thanks for reading,
Naomi ♥
