Clandestine Cake Club, Leeds

I attended CCC on Thursday, just before the showing on The One show.  I'm honoured to have been part of it right from the very start, and I hope to still be able to get a place now the club (and Lynn) are famous!

The theme was Ravenous Rock and Roll, as you know from my previous post I did a Record Cake.  My boss reckoned it looked more like a bowling ball though!

Here's some pictures from the evening of the other amazing cakes that were made.

I can't wait to see how big CCC is going to become.

Record cake

Ingredients:

200g butter
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour
4 eggs
Tsp baking powder

For the icing:
1.5 packs ready to roll black icing
280g icing sugar
140g butter

Method:
Grease and line 2 cake tins, put oven on to 180.

Beat the sugar and butter together till light and fluffy.

Add the eggs 1 at a time, with a little sieved flour with each.

When the eggs are all added fold in the remaining flour and the baking powder.

Scoop into cake tins and bake for 25 mins.

Take the cakes out and leave to cool.

When fully cooled start the decorating.

Make the butter cream and use three quarters of it to ice the bottom layer of the cake ready for sandwiching.
Using a small round cutter cut a hole in the centre of the top layer cake.

Sandwich the cakes together and fill the round hole almost to the top with buttercream.

Roll out the icing- I had to use quite a bit of icing sugar to avoid it sticking to the work top.

Check it fits the cake then use your cutter again to cut out the section.

Warm some apricot jam so it's runny and sticky. Paint the jam all over the cake then stick the rolled out icing on.

Press it down firmly and trim off any excess icing.

Fill any remaining gap in the round cut out with the buttercream and smooth off.

I cut out a music note and stuck that onto the white section- I thought about trying to add 'the Beatles' but that's a bit too fancy for my skill level!

Meal Planning Monday

Monday - Out with friend, maybe have a snack out

Tuesday - Eating at friend's house

Wednesday - Probably bolognese

Thursday - Cake Club, I'll be eating my weight in cake

Friday - fish of some sort, roasted veg

Saturday - Who knows!

Sunday - roast chicken, veggies

My meal planning is rubbish this week!  It's good to be so busy, but I'll be tired come Sunday.

On Saturday night I have no idea what's happening.  We've offered to have some of Phil's friends over for a meal, with kids in tow.  So I could be potentially cooking for 8.  The most I usually cook for is 4.

I need to do something simple, yet will appear fancy, these people know I'm a food blogger so will expect fancy cuisine.  Thing is, I'm not that good cook.  

Most importantly it needs to be teenager friendly.  My dinner parties have never catered for children before.  Nor have I cooked for so many before.  I'm at a loss with timings too, Phil's boys demand food pretty much as soon as the clock strike 5.  Yet I normally eat on a Saturday between 7 and 8.  I absolutely cannot have a dinner party at 5pm.

I have sorted in my mind that the kids can eat in the living room, and the grown ups will eat at the dining table.  That's as far as I've got.

So do I do food specially for the kids, and something different for grown ups?

LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE I feel sick at the thought of the stress I'll put myself under next Saturday.  That's if it even happens, we don't know if they're coming yet!!!

Check out Mrs M's blog for the other entries. 

Madeira Cake

I used a James Martin recipe for this cake but decided to cook it in a loaf tin.  Due to using a deeper tin I left the cake in for just over an hour, but unfortunately decided to turn the oven up at the end which resulted in some slight charring.....

I wanted to try the recipe to see if it would make a good cake to use for the swiss rolls I'm making for Clandestine Cake Club, I wanted to decorate the swiss rolls to look like sticks of rock, so wanted a plain cake to use so it wouldn't be a sweet assault on the tastebuds...

I think the crumb consistency is wrong though, and all the swiss roll recipes I've looked at, and subsequently tried this weekend, don't use butter anyway.

It went down well at work/home though!

Meal Planning Monday (on Tuesday)

Apologies for lateness with this post, I was laptopless yesterday.

Monday - corned beef hash in a giant Yorkshire pud (not exactly diet friendly but I didn't cook)

Tuesday - chicken stir fry, noodles for Phil, no noodles for me

Wednesday - Spicy bean chilli

Thursday - salmon with lemon and dill, broccoli and green beans

Friday - turkey steaks and roasted veg or eating out

Saturday - curry if in, or something grabbed out if we're not in

Sunday - Potentially roast chicken and veggies, plans subject to change


There you have it! Check Mrs M's blog for the other meal planners.

Recent Eats

Phil and I have been busy bees this week with cooking and baking, and some eating out too.

Mine:

Spicy tomato pasta and Butternut squash and spinach curry.

Chocolate brownie with salted caramel topping (must remember less is more next time I add a salted caramel topping).  The lemon meringue mess cake, which fell apart and the meringue burnt, resulting in needing to be covered with cream.

 

Valentines chocolate ginger hearts, made using an ice cube tray!

Phill's:

Baking for his work's pastry competition: 'Blue Watch' blueberry and apple pie and a goats cheese, basil and tomato tart.  He's still sulking that they didn't win, he was robbed (by a cheater!).

Breakfast: scrambled egg on bagel and tea: Chicken in mushroom, onion and white wine sauce with potatoes, carrots, green beans and spring greens.

Eating out:

Cattle Grid in Leeds

Butternut Squash and Spinach Curry

I made this for Phil and I last week, as it was a midweek curry I didn't feel too bad about using a spice bag as the base of the curry and then adding a few spices of my own.

Ingredients
Butternut squash, deseeded and chopped
1 onion, chopped
garlic puree
spinach leaves
fresh coriander
coconut milk
madras curry powder
turmeric
cumin seeds

Method
Heat some olive oil in a large pan and add the cumin seeds, when they start to sizzle add the chopped onion and then fry it off gently in the oil with the garlic puree.  Add the chopped butternut squash and let that cook for five minutes.

Add the curry powder and some extra turmeric, coat the butternut squash and onions with it and then add the coconut milk.

Let that simmer for about 15 mins then add the spinach.  Let that wilt for about 4 minutes while you chop the fresh coriander and then serve, adding the coriander to the bowls of curry.

Simple yet delicious.