Baby food fun!

Baby Weaning: fun recipes to try

So the past few weeks we've been weaning the little one. We had some food pouches and finger food donated to us by a neighbour whose daughter has moved onto to bigger food, which has proved very useful when travelling especially. Moreover, the jars have come in very handy - a simple wash and sterilisation and they're perfect for my own creations. It's so much cheaper to re-use glass pots and small jam jars rather than buying those 'baby-specific' pots and tubs that shops flog.

I've been having a lot of fun making baby food recipes up. To be honest I started to read some stuff on baby weaning but, like the only baby book I got, I read about half then realised I've been able to keep baby alive without the book so there's not much point reading it. Just a few simple guidelines on what is appropriate food at various months is really all that's needed. 

Basically, it's common sense. Keep food simple, clean, well-blended and then move onto more complex flavours, proteins and textures later on in the weaning journey. 

We started with very basic food:

Blended avocado

Blended carrots (with a little water)

Steamed courgettes (blended)

Pureed prunes

Pureed apples

Mashed bananas

Butternut squash

Sweet potato.

Moving onto:

Spinach and apple

Avocado and apple

Apples and pears

Apples and strawberries

Banana and blueberry

Sweet potato and red pepper

Carrots and courgettes.

More complex:

Broccoli, carrots and potato

Mango, strawberry and a (healthy) rusk

Mango and plain natural yoghurt

Pears and cinnamon

Butternut squash, sweetcorn, carrot and turmeric

Pea, cabbage and mint

Sweetcorn, orange pepper and sweet potato.

Stage 2 (c. 8 months or, if you're like mine, you may well be feeding more complex proteins etc early)

Pureed lentils and red pepper

Grilled chicken and blended vegetables (no salt added)

Red pepper, tomatoes, white cod and parsley

Beef, carrot and parsnips.

Finger food/messy snacks

Soft steamed carrot

Roughly mashed banana

This is it so far - apart as I mentioned before for the various jars of 4m+ that our neighbour gave to us. 

Kiddilicious do some very good biscotti and flavoured wafers, which have no additives or preservatives in. Farley's rusks are also great - if you are very careful to make this an occasional treat as these do have sugar. 

Have fun! 

Greek orange marmalade dessert

If you have ever been to Greece, you will have seen there are thousands of ‘wild’ orange trees lining the streets.

Orange trees in Athens. Pic: Andrew Gustar

I love walking through Athens in spring, when the trees let their delicious floral scent fill the air when it’s blossom time. When the fruit ripens, the trees are replete with juicy-looking oranges. 

But while you can pluck these oranges and take what you want for free, you’d be laughed out of town if you tried to snack on one, as the fruit is so bitter it’s a very unpleasant eating experience.

However, while you cannot eat these the normal way, many Greeks use this bitter fruit to make a sweet called ‘glyko tou koutaliou’. The addition of sugar and honey in a preserving process cuts through the bitterness to create a nice marmalade-type of dessert.

You can use normal oranges (such as navel oranges) but many people prefer the Seville or Asian oranges as otherwise the sweet can be, well, too sweet.

To make roughly 1 kilogram of this (approximately two average-sized mason jars):

You will need:

• Oranges (normal 'Navel' oranges from a shop or, if you have access to them, the free, bitter kind). You will need 8 to 10, depending on the size.
• 1kg of caster sugar (yes, I know it's a lot. Bear with me).
• 4-5 tablespoons of Thyme honey OR 3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice to taste.

How to:

• Wash the oranges well if they’re shop-bought, especially if they are waxy. It’s worth grating the outside layer a little, as it helps to unlock the zest.
• Put the oranges whole and unpeeled into a large pot and cover them completely with lots of water, then bring these to the boil. Let them stay on the boil for 5 to 10 minutes (depending on how hard the oranges were in the first place).
• Drain the water and leave the fruit to cool down, because once cooled, you can slice into thick wedges and, after removing the creamy white pith, throw the wedges into the pot again and cover with the sugar.
• Resist the temptation to add water. The aim is to reduce the sugar and juice of the oranges into a thick marmalade.
• Bring to the boil, keep on the boil for 10 minutes and remove to cool down. Cover and leave for a day.
• The next day, bring the sticky mixture back to the boil, testing to see if the mixture is too sweet or too bitter. If it is too bitter, add the honey; if too sweet, add a few tablespoons of lemon juice.
• Boil for 10 minutes and scoop into your mason jars.

Greeks often eat this as a little treat, for example when they come home from school and want a light treat, or instead of cake for dessert.

George’s family usually give us several jars of this to take back to the UK with us but, as we rarely eat this sort of thing it has been left lying in the fridge. And as we are getting ready to head back to Athens we need to make room for more.

So I cheated with ready-made shortcrust pastry (with a little baby to look after I’m all about saving time) and made it into a tart. I blind-baked the pastry base first for about 20 minutes on 160 (find out how to blind bake here), then added a jar of the glyko to fill it up to the top of the crust, then baked again for 30 minutes on 160 (I have a fan-assisted oven which gets very hot so I usually take the heat down a notch from most recipes).

Oh it ain't pretty but it tastes pretty darn great! 

Basically, with the marmalade being made by our family and the pastry coming out of a shop, the whole thing took hardly any time to prepare or bake, which is great when it comes to fitting in dessert-making around feeding and entertaining a five-month-old baby!

Now although it wasn't elegantly prepared (I'm sure you will make it look much better), it smelled so good that we became rather impatient. I suppose we could have left it to cool down completely but we are greedy and hungry so ate it when it was a decent temperature.

As the ‘marmalade’ that our family gave us was quite sweet, we topped it off with cool Greek yoghurt to cut through the sweetness, but if your pie is more bitter to the taste, some delicious honeycomb or vanilla ice-cream will do just nicely!

Biscuit Baking the Tim Fisher Way!

Tim Fisher is an award-winning and widely respected pastry chef, having won more than 50 competition awards including over 30 medals at the British Open Cookery Championships. He also won the Dessert of The Year title in 2004.

And I, budget baker that I am on occasion, have had the immense privilege not only of meeting Tim on many occasions but also enjoying samples of his work - melt-in-the-mouth chocolate chip cookies, mini pastries, petite gateaux and delectable savouries when he catered for my friends' events.

This is why I am so happy to endorse his Biscuits and Cookies book, which can be snapped up at Amazon for a sweet £14.

I've enjoyed trying out his recipe for peanut butter cookies (you may recall I am obsessed with PB, and have a couple of years ago posted my own budget PB cookie bake). I won't say whose is better but I'll give you a clue - it's Tim's. Don't tell him! I'm also going to try out his custard cream and jammy dodger recipes - the sort of biscuits one never thinks to make at home but Tim makes it look easy...

What I really like is that Tim has made this book exceptionally accessible to the normal person who likes to bake every now and then. Too often recipes call for random and expensive items, like Belgian woodland truffle flakes, or Fijian salamander scales dipped in 100% Cambodian carob. This is not baking on a budget, but cooking on credit.

But Tim's book is designed to help even casual bakers like myself produce great-tasting treats for friends and family without having to shell out on unusual ingredients. Of course, if you want that little bit extra, there are some fancy biscuits in there too for those extra special occasions!

For those of you who happen to live in Surrey, England you might be interested in joining his Facebook: Tim's Pastry Club, or following him on Twitter: @timspastryclub Instagram: Tim's Pastry Club www.timspastryclub.com

Bake Off's pastry perfection: what is Blind Baking and how can I do it?

I s-pie. Pic: Samantha Beddoes (2012)

The Great British Bake Off (#GBBO) has filled us with a host of new terminology. Cream cakes are no longer cream cakes: they’re crème patisserie. In fact, it's actually Crème Pat. 

Those spaces under the oven where we all store our spare cake tins is actually a proving drawer, which should be kept clean and clear and tidy for when we need to prove our home-baked dough.

We're now alert to the dangers of soggy bottoms and dense sponges.

And, what is more, we all have to blind bake whenever we make pies.

But what is Blind Baking when it comes to pastry? Well, it's basically a way to get a perfect pie crust.

If you cook the pastry without its filling, the pastry could rise and become bumpy and uneven. But if you cook it with the filling from its raw form, the moisture from the filling could make the bottom of the pastry crust flabby and soggy. 

So blind baking involves weighing your empty pastry case down and cooking for a certain length of time to help get that perfect crustiness.

The easiest steps to follow when it comes to blind-baking shortcrust pastry (whether sweet or savoury) are as follows:

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6.
2. Fill the pastry case with a round of greaseproof paper and add baking beans (these are basically ceramic peas and can be bought quite cheaply from Lakeland or Amazon) to weigh it down.
3. I usually prick the bottom of the pastry a couple of times. I’m not sure why. My mum always did it so I do it.
4. Bake for 15 minutes (check on it though as some ovens are slow and fan-assisted ovens are fast) then carefully remove the paper and beans and cook the pastry for five more minutes.

This can then be cooled ready for whatever filling you need to put into the pie, flan or tart. 

PRO TIP: don’t touch the ceramic beans when they are hot. Please learn from my fail.

Christmas crunch munch burger

We've all had to get through the Christmas Turkey leftover stage and there's only so much turkey stew, turkey sandwiches and turkey ice-cream you can make before you start hating the smell and taste of the meat.

However this year we had a little twist on the turkey sandwich that was utterly delicious and definitely worth a try.

Among the Christmas leftovers we also had some cranberry cheddar and plenty of cranberry sauce with port.

This latter - the cranberry sauce with port - was exceptionally lovely as it had been bought as a gift for ourselves during the sale at Harrods in January 2017 for £1.20 (down from £6) and so was in itself a budget buy. A top-notch budget buy.

But of course any cranberry sauce will do, and if it is homemade - all the better! Nothing can beat home-made!

As I'd spent five days in a row (or so it seemed) peeling seasonal vegetables, the last thing I had the energy to do was make a loaf of bread just to make some sandwiches.

However, we did have four brioche buns from Waitrose which sported that famous yellow 'discount' sticker.

From Waitrose: excellent brioche burger buns

Honestly, if you've never been to Waitrose, definitely check it out after lunchtime - there are always excellent deals and these brioche rolls were less than half price and still within the use-by date.

I sliced some of the turkey breast and, warming it up in some stock so it was moist and full of flavour, set this aside while I put the top halves of each bun into the oven, covered with sliced cranberry cheese until this melted.

"I have to say this was far nicer than any turkey sandwich I'd eaten"

On the bottom of the roll, which I had lightly toasted, I liberally spread the cranberry sauce, laid two stock-soaked turkey slices on each one, put some thinly sliced tomatoes and cucumber and then pressed the hot cheesy top down on each roll.

Four rolls served three people: my husband had two, my friend and I ate one each (because we were pretending to be healthy).

I have to say this was far nicer than any turkey sandwich I'd eaten, not least because the brioche kept its consistency better - too often with flat bread the juices soak into the bread and makes it soggy.

Of course, I've still got 2 jars of stock and 1 box of the bird left to eat... but that's a story for a different time.

To find out how to make the most of the turkey bones to make stock, see my earlier post. Enjoy!

Krispie cakes - the no-bake party cake

How to use leftovers to make no-bake party cakes

Krispie Cakes. Credit: SimoneySunday

Cakes. Who doesn't love them? Likewise, marshmallows, Rice Krispies and sprinkles. What's not to like?

Now combine all these winners together and you get: Krispie Cakes!

Breakfast cereal always creeps past its use-by date in our house. We rarely eat breakfast (our morning food is a late porridge or a coffee at work).

Therefore, we have boxes of cereal which need to be used up as I love food but hate waste. And Krispie cakes are a wonderful way of using up spare or leftover Kellogg's Rice Krispies (or their no-name or store equivalent).

You will need:
1 bag of marshmallows
Rice Krispies
A saucepan
A few sprinkles for dressing (optional).

I used this massive bag of marshmallows from Lidl, which gave a nice colourful sheen to the cakes - yellowy pink. It cost just 69p.

To make:
Place marshmallows in a saucepan on a low heat and stir gently for a few minutes until all the marshmallows have melted.

Turn off heat immediately.

Slowly pour in the Rice Krispies and stir until all the Krispies are covered with the melted marshmallows.

Spoon out scoops of the mixture into paper cupcake holders and leave to cool. Sprinkle with Hundreds and Thousands or any cake sprinkles. I used some multi-coloured sugar balls from Tesco which looked pretty and added extra crunch.

Serve and enjoy!

Nutella cheesecake - the no-bake treat!

Nutella Cheesecake - pic from my guest Maribel (who declared the cake 'delicioso')

This post could have been called: 'How to make a Nutella Cheesecake in 20 minutes (and eat it in three)'.

I love this Nutella dish. It is easy, quick to make, always looks amazing and takes little to no time to make. It is also not as rich as you might think, which means it is perfect for a naughty treat.

We tend to use low-fat Philadelphia cream cheese and low-fat Flora Light spread, as my way of making it a little healthier - although if you're going to use an entire tub of Nutella as I do, perhaps that negates the healthy effort!

You will need:

For the base:

200g butter or Flora Light

100g brown or muscovado sugar

1 pack of digestive biscuits

For the topping:

1 400g jar of Nutella

1 300g tub of Philadelphia cream cheese

1 small bag of blanched whole hazelnuts to decorate (optional)

How to make:

Melt the sugar and butter together in a saucepan on a low heat. Stir until smooth, then turn off the heat.

Crush the biscuits and grind them until all the large chunks have gone. I have a kitchen gadget now that does this for me - basically a little hand-held, hand-powered grater thingy, but before that I just used to wrap the pack of biscuits in a clean tea-towel and beat the living daylights out of them with a rolling pin. Good therapy.

Anyway, I digress. Add the ground biscuits to the sugar/butter mix, and stir. The mix should be firm - like cookie dough - so that you can press it into a greased flan dish (or in my case, the lid of a large casserole dish).

Leave to cool slightly. In a clean bowl, empty the entire jar of Nutella and blend it with the cream cheese until there is no white cheese visible and the mixture is smooth. Spread it evenly over the top of the biscuit base and leave to set.

For decoration, sprinkle with cocoa and place the blanched whole hazelnuts on top. 

Serve and enjoy! 

*In the meantime, since making this for my friends Dave, Maribel and William, Dave has tried this recipe at home and he has added a layer of peanut butter between the biscuit base and the Nutella topping. My own husband thinks this is a step too far, and quite a few more calories too far, but according to Dave and Maribel, it tastes of Reece's peanut butter cups. Which sounds delicious.

Pumpkin Pie - easy recipe

Pumpkins are fun, let's face it.

Not only do people love playing with pumpkins come October, carving them into ever-intricate caricatures, but they also love the versatility of pumpkins, which can be used for sweet and savoury dishes.

Having posted a photograph of my no-baked pumpkin pie on Facebook last year, I was asked repeatedly to post the recipe - which I promised.

Now, three months later, here it is: No-Bake Pumpkin Pie.

No-bake pumpkin pie. Source @simoneysunday

You can either use condensed milk or, which I prefer, 300g (approximately 11oz) low-fat cream cheese, such as Philadelphia.

You will need: 
One can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk or 300g low-fat cream cheese
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg and some for sprinkling on top.
1 sachet Dr Oetker vegetarian gelatine (one sachet sets 1 pint of liquid)
1/4 cup water (approx 60ml)
16oz of soft pumpkin (453g)

Whipped cream for the topping (if you like)

Some pumpkin seeds for decoration

1 sheet of pre-cooked puff pastry*

How to: 
After chopping up the pumpkin (save a good hour or two for this - cutting and chopping a pumpkin, I have found, is a job for lumberjacks), reduce it in a pan with a LITTLE bit of water until soft. Not too much water - you will have too much liquid and you'll need to strain it.

Clean and save the pumpkin seeds.

When you've got 16oz of softened pumpkin, blend it gently until it is smooth.

Add gelatine to water in a medium-sized saucepan. I tend to use half a pint of water as the pumpkin is quite liquid (as is the condensed milk).  Leave it to stand for 1 minute, before cooking on a low heat for two to three minutes until all the gelatine is dissolved.

Meanwhile, whisk together the condensed milk (or cream cheese), cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until smooth. Add this to the gelatine/water mix in the pan, and stir constantly.

Cook for a further 5 mins or so until the mixture is slightly thickened. After removing from heat, stir in the pumpkin until blended.

Pour it into the pre-cooked pastry dish and leave to set in the fridge until firm.

When cooked and cooled, spoon the pumpkin mixture into the crust. Put in the fridge for 3-4 hours or until firm. Decorate with a sprinkle of nutmeg and pumpkin seeds.

Serve with whipped cream if desired.

*Cooking the pastry
I use ready-roll pastry as it's so much easier, but it will need to be cooked before using.

Put the pastry into a suitable pie case, press down the edges with a thumb or spoon to make a pattern, cover the bottom of the pastry with baking beans (to make sure the pastry base doesn't rise in the middle), and bake according to instructions.

Happiness in a pan

Let's clear two things up. You cannot actually find happiness in a pan, and this recipe is made in a rectangular casserole dish, but if happiness could be found at the bottom of a glass receptacle, this recipe comes close to it.

It is basically home-made three-layered party dip, and I got the idea from a family friend who is called Helen, and who served a version of this several years ago, to my great delight. Helen actually calls it something else, but this is a family blog, so I can't repeat what she calls it.

This makes an excellent and filling party dish, serving approximately 10 people, and can be made for very little cost.

Bottom layer: spicy chunky salsa
Two tins chopped tomatoes (25p each from Tesco), strained to remove superfluous juice.
1 red pepper, diced.
One finely diced red onion
Some fresh parsley, chopped.
3-4 small dried chilies, finely chopped. Use more or less according to taste.

Mix everything and set aside in a long dish. I use one nine inch by 21 inch 'pan' so it is fairly big.

Second layer: cool cream and chive
2 pots of sour cream
1 pot of cream cheese
Chopped chives.

I grow my own chilies, chives and parsley in wee pots on my kitchen windowsill - if you have the motivation to water and tend to these regularly you can save a lot of money.

Top layer: grated cheese
I buy mature cheddar in bulk to save money and grate it myself. It lasts much longer and is more cost-efficient than buying bags of pre-grated cheese.

Sprinkle the top of the cheese with paprika or freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Buy some corn chips/nachos to dip into it. I tend to use various supermarkets' own brand or budget bags of corn chips, as these are really good value for dipping and you can buy several big bags for £2, which works out in terms of volume and cost to be much better value than spending £2 on one bag of Doritos.

And that's it - just get dipping, right down through all those layers!

The teenagers I often have round really love this - they are always asking me if I am going to make it. And I love it too. Which is why I'm fat. Well, one of the reasons anyway...

Pan-fried chicken with spinach and pine-nuts

I love the versatility of chicken, and I am addicted to spinach. So this recipe of mine is a way to use two of my favourite ingredients for a healthy and filling meal.

The best thing is this can be made for approximately 90p per portion, so it is perfect for someone on a budget who only has the use of a hob-top, and it takes only 20 minutes maximum to cook.

This should serve four people.

Chicken, spinach and pine-nuts

You will need: 
1 large, deep frying pan (or wok)
4 chicken breasts - we use Tesco frozen chicken breasts, 8 for £3.25. These are perfect for families on a tight budget as it works out about 40p per chicken breast.
1/3 bag of fresh baby spinach (£1 per bag) - approximately 30p worth
2 tablespoons of pine nuts (£2.80 for a bag - lasts for ages).
1 brown onion
Dried herbs if available
Salt, pepper, butter/spread.

How to:
Defrost the chicken breasts.
Chop the onion and fry in a little butter/spread. Add the seasoning and herbs. Stir well.
When the onions are beginning to brown, dice the chicken and add this and a little more butter/spread to the pan. Keep stirring until the chicken is well-cooked (and not pink in the middle). It will take about 15-20 minutes depending on the heat.
Add the spinach and pine nuts, stir on a low heat.

This can be served with potatoes (served various ways), rice, other grains such as cous-cous or salad.

I used to make this and similar meals when I was a lowly student living on a very tight budget, and it always has a lovely 'wow' factor, despite how simple it is.

Award win for Crunch Munch tweeter

Afternoon all!

I've just found out that I have won an award for my usefulness on social media.

I have been awarded the following accolade from PanaceaAdviser for the money-saving hints, tips and tweets I regularly put out throughout the day.

This is quite an honour, given that I beat a prominent journalist on the Financial Times to achieve this Twitter Tweeter award!

Pizza. With Fruit? It must be - Fruit Pizza

I am not a great fan of doing any unnecessary work in the kitchen. Most of us live extremely busy lives, balancing work, family and social events so the idea of having to slave over a table making pastry or labouring to create the perfect icing is simply unappealing.

While I am all for doing things on a budget – and making pastry or icing from scratch is cheaper in the long-term – there has to be a limit to being a domestic goddess. Not all of us have kitchens the size of a supermarket, despite what TV chefs would have you believe.

Not all of us are so wealthy that we can afford not to work so live a life of baking luxury. There has to be a line drawn between doing it yourself and doing yourself in.

And this is where my fruit pizza comes in. It’s simply called Fruit Pizza. I believe I made this up out of my own head, having tried a recipe for making my own savoury pizza, and deciding that I could make a dessert along the same lines. I certainly have never seen this recipe anywhere else!

Fruit Pizza
This recipe will have your friends, family and even children oohing and aahing and getting all excited, despite the fact they are basically eating fruit – lots of it.

It looks amazing when it comes out of the oven, in all its sizzly, sweet, sticky glory and tastes divine. You can mix and match fruits to your heart’s delight – but a word to the wise, oranges, clementines and satsumas do not sit well with the other fruit. Leave the strong citrus fruit alone and stick with berries, bananas and orchard fruit.

You will need:
1 large, flat pizza tray, circular or square, lightly oiled
1 sheet of Jus’Roll puff pastry OR BETTER STILL make it yourself - recipe for this is elsewhere on this blog.
2 large apples
1 cup of blueberries
1 cup of strawberries, sliced lengthways
1 cup of blackberries
1 cup of raspberries
½ cup of custard – pouring custard will do but you can make it yourself and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Don’t allow it to be too thick-it has to be spreadable.
Two tablespoons of icing sugar to dust
Some cream – Elmlea low-fat pouring cream does the trick

What to do:
Roll the pastry out over the pre-oiled tray – whether square, round or rectangle, it doesn’t really matter. Score a distinct line about 1cm away from the edge of the pastry all round – this will help the edges to rise up in puffy goodness and go all brown.

Don’t make the base too thin – the fruit juices will penetrate the pastry base otherwise.
Take the cold custard and spread it over the base as if you were spooning tomato puree over a savoury pizza base. Sprinkle some nutmeg or Allspice if you like.

Start laying the fruit onto the custardy base. Have fun creating faces, patterns or just being liberal-handed. It doesn’t matter.

Cook it for 20 minutes on gas mark 6 or the electric equivalent. Personally, cooking with gas is just the best thing in the whole wide world, until the government announces that we’ve run out. I’ll cross that ecobridge when I come to it.

When the edges are all puffy and goldeny brown, take it out of the oven, dust it with the icing sugar and serve immediately at the table, using pizza cutters and a slice. If you leave it too long before you get to the table, the icing sugar will have dissolved.

Serve with low-fat Elmlea double pouring cream (30% less fat than normal cream) or go the whole hog and serve with vanilla ice-cream.

How to be extra:
People at school used to say I was “being extra” if I drew in the margins of my essays. If you want to be extra, crush a meringue nest into pieces and put that over the top. These usually come in packs of eight and you can use the other seven for another fabulous dish like cherry meringues or Eton mess. Or just eat them by your own, when nobody but the cat can see. And he can’t tell a soul…..

How to save money
1) Berries freeze brilliantly if you are using them for baking or for smoothies. So I tend to buy bulk whenever there is an offer on for blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. So if you freeze these – and they keep for ages – you can save money and time when you make this in the future. Apples can also be cut up into nice slices and, if sprinkled with a little lemon juice to prevent oxidisation, can also be frozen. However, strawberries do not freeze well AND keep their shape afterwards, so best to buy these fresh.

2) Make your own custard – but not from scratch, using vanilla pods and all that. Who has the time? Insanity. But do always have a tub of custard powder and granulated white sugar in your cupboard. This will help you save lots of money as buying a carton of pouring custard is exceptionally costly – you use it once and it’s gone.

And that's basically it! Enjoy.

Coffee walnut cake pops

Everyone has this moment of revelation, this wide-eyed Epiphany, this poignant moment of awareness that fills the visionary with equal measures of delight and wonder.

To wit - one discovers there’s half a tub of Betty Crocker chocolate frosting hidden in the fridge.

I know, I know, I do usually make my own frosting but some days you just need a quick fix, and one day in January I was doing cupcake decorating with my youth group and brought some pots of BC deliciousness in for them to use. I also had taken them home (how noble of me) and stashed them in my fridge.

Hello Betty Crocker. What are you doing in my fridge?

There wasn't enough for a full cake and it was too late on in the evening to make cupcakes just for the sake of it, but it was a joyous conundrum on which to ponder. I know I am not the only one to have seen the hallowed light (from opening the fridge door), and wondered what to do with all this chocolate frosting, for a friend recently posted a picture of her chowing down on the glorious goo.

But when there’s a good amount of leftover cake in the house, the possibilities of what can be achieved with that aforementioned half-pot of loveliness, increase significantly.

Thankfully I did not have to throw it out or sit there in front of Dirty Dancing and eat it with a spoon, which was my first thought. For in the fridge, wrapped in foil, I still had the top of my husband’s coffee walnut birthday cake that I had cut off in order to ice it smoothly (see my previous post on the Gravity Defying Cake).

And, with a little mixing magic, clean hands and no double-dipping, I turned a slice of leftover cake into a bevy of beautiful cake pops.

I simply crumbled the cake into a dish, and folded the frosting into it with a cool spatula, having left it for ½ hour to warm up after being in the fridge so long.

Messily, crumbly, stickily, I rolled about 14 balls of chocolatey walnut cake, and left them in the fridge overnight in my Lakeland cake pop mold to set solid. I stuck plastic lollipop sticks into them (which I had bought from Lakeland a year or so ago), and resisted the temptation to peek.

The next night, I melted some 80 per cent dark chocolate and some milk chocolate that was left over from some Rocky Road tray bakes I had made the previous week, and dipped the cake pops into them until they were covered smoothly. I had to do a lot of twirling over a sheet of grease proof paper to ensure they were coated properly and not dripping everywhere. If you have tips on how to prevent too much drippage, please do let me know, I'd be grateful!

Just before they dried, I coated the top with a few golden stars to add some cake-pop pizzazz and boom! 13 glorious chocolate walnut cake pops. From leftovers to lusciousness in a few easy steps.

Having some clear plastic bags that I use for my small handmade cards, I covered the pops up and tied them shut with a little silver tag. Perfect for taking to the office or storing for a teatime treat!

Chocolate cake pop. Source: Instagram via SimoneySunday

Note: I thought about taking them to share with the office. Honest, I did. But my husband and I ate every single one, and we're not sorry. Just a little ... fatter ...

A gravity-defying surprise for the birthday boy

Every year my husband and I have been together I've made him an unusual birthday cake - the first was a triple-layer chocolate cherry cake; three years ago he got a white chocolate and strawberry cake, and two years ago I made a chocolate explosion cake (see the pic at the bottom - from 2013). But this time, I thought I'd push the boat out a little and try out one of my new Lakeland toys which I'd been given at Christmas.

Coffee Walnut with Buttercream Icing. And Maltesers!

I decided to make him a coffee walnut cake with coffee buttercream icing.This is a very basic cake to make but can pack a wonderful flavoursome punch depending on how much coffee powder you use. I figured I'd need an easy cake to bake as I would be spending a lot of time decorating it - and I only had a few hours from the time I got in from youth group on the Friday until he came home from his friend's birthday party.

I tend to be lazy when it comes to baking cakes. None of this having to use a certain mixing dish or what-have-you. In fact, I don’t even like having to pound butter or spread until it’s soft enough to combine with the sugar. Nah. I just whack half a tub of Flora Light into a large saucepan, and melt it together with the right amount of brown sugar until it is combined perfectly.

When it has cooled down, I add the eggs and continue to put the ingredients together that way. It saves me at least 10 minutes of preparation time. It will revolutionise your cake-baking life, even if it makes Mary Berry faint in horror. And you know what? IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE TO THE TEXTURE OR TASTE OF THE CAKE AT ALL. 

I also can never be bothered to bake two small cakes to piece together. I use one big cake dish and then when the cake has cooled, I cut it carefully in half with a serrated bread knife. When it's covered with icing, NOBODY KNOWS....

So, here’s the recipe for Coffee Walnut Cake
50g walnut pieces (smoosh them up with a rolling pin to get ‘em small)
250g soft brown sugar
250g soft unsalted butter or Flora Light (plus some for greasing)
200g self-raising flour
3 large eggs
4 teaspoons instant coffee granules, melted into 1 tablespoon of boiling water.
Pinch of baking soda

Combine the ingredients and pour into a large round, well-greased dish. Cook for 40 minutes on 180 or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

It should be well-risen thanks to the self-raising flour. I know SF flour can make cakes a little dry, but with the extra butter/spread it should not be a problem. Because the cake will rise a lot, it will enable you to have enough leeway to cut it in half later on, when it has cooled, and to top-slice it ready for decorating.

For the buttercream frosting
500g icing sugar
200g soft unsalted butter
4 teaspoons instant coffee powder (again, melted in just 1 tablespoon boiling water)

Mix together until soft and a perfect consistency. When the cake has cooled, use a sharp, serrated bread knife to cut the cake in half carefully, and to cut off the top of the cake to create a smooth, flat base for icing. Set the top half aside in tin foil – you never know when you are going to need it!

Use some of the buttercream frosting inside the cake to create a scrumptious sandwich. The rest needs to be set aside to cover the cake.

For the decoration
One Lakeland gravity cake rod
Chocolate sprinkles
1 bag Maltesers (or any chocolate of your choosing)
Melted chocolate (warm but not hot)

Follow the instructions and stick the rod through the cake. Once it has been positioned into the cake, it is time to ice it.

Spread the buttercream frosting around the cake. Start at the top and work your way down the sides, letting gravity help your spreading and smoothing efforts. This, to me, was the most painstaking task of all and a few angry words were exchanged between me and the spatula. I am sure you will have better success than I did.

Be liberal in your application of the chocolate sprinkles around the cake. Then you’re ready for the Malteser mountain. Simply use a pastry brush to build up layers of sticky chocolate around the rod, and use as ‘glue’ for the Maltesers until they form a peak around the cake rod. Use chocolate to stick the empty packet to the top of the rod and voila! One gravity defying coffee walnut cake.

And yes, it was delicious and yes, I did eat most of the Maltesers off the cake when it had been put away. I tried to help myself but I considered that, at least, I would be helping DH to lose weight by gaining it myself.

Oh - here's the 2013 Chocolate Explosion cake. MMM.

Chocolate explosion cake 2013

Comfort pie

Growing up in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we did not have much money, so mum was always to be found busy in the kitchen, creating filling and delicious dishes for us out of whatever she had in the cupboard or fridge.

One such dish was what I came to call ‘comfort pie’, so-called because to me, it is the best word in tasty cooking on a tight budget – warm, comforting and delicious. And it was always something that whenever I was blue or sick, she would cook for me especially, as a treat. For example, when I once had an awful week at work and went round to her house to see her before I headed off to Bible study, she presented me with a bubbling casserole dish full of comfort pie, its potato ridges in stiff, browned peaks.

It has just three ingredients:
1 tin Corned Beef 250g
1 tin Baked beans
Mashed potato

The corned beef is to be diced up and put into the bottom of a casserole dish. Baked beans are then poured on top of the corned beef, followed by a mound of freshly-mashed potato. For an added taste punch, grate cheese and layer this between the beans and the potato for a dairy surprise.

Put it for 20 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees, and then it’s all ready.

It’s perfect for a budget meal – and can serve four people, together with some peas and carrots. It’s also adaptable enough to be cooked by people who do not have an oven – a recipe that I have shared with some of the people who come to our church’s food bank. Many of them have just a kettle and a microwave in their hostel rooms and do not have recourse to an oven or even a hob top, so this can be perfect for them, too, particularly as it only uses three ingredients, is filling, cheap and easy to make in a microwave.

Instead of having to boil and mash potatoes, they can use Smash – a perfect budget cupboard staple – to top the pie. In a microwave, the pie would take 15 minutes to heat up. Of course, it won’t get that crispy oven-baked texture on top of the mashed potato, but it still works. The best thing of all is that for four people, it can cost as little as 90p per person.

And for those Smash snobs – don’t be too proud to use Smash, or at least keep a tub in your cupboard in case of emergencies. I’ve used this sometimes when I’ve been too lazy to peel potatoes after I come home from work, and it bakes well in the oven. Add some salt, pepper and butter, and dust with paprika, and it creates a gloriously seasoned potato topping, or a base for home-made croquette potatoes, covered with egg and crispy breadcrumbs.

Delicious dumplings

Winter Warmer. Vegetable Stew with Dumplings. Source: SimoneySunday

Tonight I decided to use up all the vegetables that we had leftover in the fridge, ahead of our monthly food shop. I also had to use up some vegetable suet that was leftover from Christmas. So what better on the coldest night so far in 2016 than to make a delicious stew with herby dumplings?

I had planned for this of course, and had already soaked 1 cup each of lentils, barley, chickpeas, green beans and butter beans on the stove overnight and boiled them up for half an hour before getting down to the stewy business.

I chopped up an onion, and the rest of my broccoli and carrots, added some sweetcorn and a tin of chopped tomatoes, some herbs and seasoning, together with some vegetable stock, and put into the oven with the remaining pulses for nearly 2 hours.

Approximately 30 minutes before serving, I made some dumplings with 60oz vegetable suet, 1 cup of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 tsp of paprika, 1/2 tsp of dried rosemary and some salt and pepper, together with enough water to make a thick dough. Rolling the dough into floury balls - with floury hands - I layered these on top of the stew and put back into the oven for 20 minutes.

Verdict from my meat-eating husband was 'delicious'. And now the fridge is empty, waiting for some more fresh vegetables to be delivered tomorrow night!

As my mother used to say, waste not, want not. Had I thrown out those two sorry-looking carrots or the broccoli, I would not have had such a flavoursome dish. Best of all? It serves four - so more for hubby and myself another time!

Free? Yes please!

Tonight (14 January) I made dinner for two - for free. Let me caveat this: while this blog is predominantly for my own low-cost recipes, often using leftovers, this recipe is neither my own, nor was it using any leftovers. But it was free, and for that reason it gets a mention here. 

This evening my husband carried home with him a brown paper bag. When I asked him what was in it, I got the succinct reply: "food". It transpired that as part of a PR exercise, several bags of 'food' had been delivered to the office, and a couple of days later, the final one - ours - was finally on its way home.

I had been planning to use up the veg in my house, but when I opened the bag it became clear that the contents would not keep. For within the brown paper bag lay a variety of vegetables, including a rather ripe avocado and some downcast spring onions. 

The bag also contained a press release and a recipe. The bag had been delivered from a new healthy eating venture called Mindful Chef.  Its mission is to encourage good healthy and delicious recipes suitable for vegans or those with gluten intolerances. The recipe card I had was for Chipotle black bean burger with parsnip and sweet potato fries, accompanied with an avocado, parsley and cherry tomato salsa. 

Every ingredient had been measured to perfection, from the tiny pot of chipotle paste through to the parsnip and sweet potato. No waste, nothing left over. Exactly enough for two people and I didn't need to add anything to bulk it out (except, of course, for the obligatory tomato ketchup!) 

Rather than write out the recipe I trust the photo (s) to the left and the right will suffice.

They're not very clear but I don't have a decent camera. Or a decent smartphone.

What I loved: 

1) the black beans were lovely and full of flavour. I'm not sure where these particular organic beans can be bought but I suspect they will be relatively expensive compared to a supermarket's brand. I will do a test to see how brands compare as I will do this recipe again.

2) The fact every bit of food was used, with no wastage. You don't need hundreds of ingredients to make a delicious meal.

3) I will be honest. When I first saw it was a vegan recipe, I swore. Effing vegans and their cardboard-tasting no-meat crap. I am not sure why we meat-eaters get so antsy about vegans. Partly because every single thing is healthy and we feel guilty? Or because old habits die hard? I was also a little sad that there was no cheese melting over the burgers. But as tempted as I was to adulterate the recipe with a bit of Snowdonia's finest creamery cheese, I obeyed the recipe and was very glad of it. My husband and I both thought it was delicious, filling and after it, we felt satisfied, without the bloating that often comes with eating rice, potatoes, pasta, etc. 

4) The sweet potato and parsnip fries were enjoyable and we did not miss 'real' chips (even though I make my own potato chips).

5) The recipe was quick and easy to follow. In fact, it was a delight to follow.

Vegan meal. Pic credit SimoneySunday

What I did not like

1) Probably as a result of the bag being left in the office for two days, the avocado was just too mushy to form a proper salsa. Everything in the salsa bowl was covered in a little green slush. I thought it still tasted lush, but I would have preferred a firmer, crisper texture to the salsa. 

However, the lime dressing was a little too sharp for my husband, so perhaps in future I would not use the whole lime.

The slushy avocado and cherry tomato salsa @SimoneySunday

2) I was indeed confused by the very first instruction to 'boil a kettle'. There seemed to be no reason why. Was it to make a cup of tea while waiting for the burgers to cook? Was it to wash the veg? We shall never know. Perhaps MindfulChef could shed some light? 

With those two minor caveats, I have to say I loved this recipe and the idea of creating healthy, gluten-free meals. Indeed, I often cook meat-free meals to make sure we vary our diet and do a little bit to save the planet, but the fact we ate five portions of fruit and veg each in this meal, with no extra naughties save some salt and ketchup, means I am going to introduce more vegan meals into our weekly routine. 

While I would not buy the meal packs from Mindful Chef - we are attempting our own wee garden and have a good local grocer supporting local farms - I applaud and support its endeavours. I just wish there were something similar but cheaper for the people my blog aims to support: those on the breadline, struggling to meet daily bills. This is the sort of healthy, waste-free food so many families need, but cannot always afford.

Christmas Cake Ice-Cream

Icing the cake is getting more and more complicated every year - and more competitive, as people post perfectly smooth and detailed cakes on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I attempted a Snow Globe and it didn't work very well. I think I bit off more than I can chew. Still, while I am no icing queen, I do know how to bake a flavoursome, moist and boozy Christmas cake and it does taste a lot better than it looks!

And I do know a bit about basic icing techniques. One of the first things to do is to level off the top of the fruit cake once it has cooled/is ready out of the cupboard, by taking a sharp knife - I use a bread knife - to create a flat base for the marzipan and icing.

This left me with the equivalent of a large slice of fruit cake from the top of the cake. Did I jettison this leftover? Did this anti-waste campaigner throw it away? Mais Non! I kept it to one side. And today I finally did something with the crumbly goodness: Christmas Cake Ice-Cream.

I followed the same recipe that I posted earlier this year - 600g of whipped cream, 1 tin of condensed milk (with a bit of spoon and finger-licking when nobody was watching) and once this was mixed, I crumbled the cake into the mixture. It was enough to permeate the whole ice-cream so that every scoopful, once it has set (approximately 8 hours), will be full of cakey deliciousness.

Of course not everyone has the time or the patience to make their own fruitcake, so I would suggest this is a good way to get rid of the last one or two slices of the shop-bought Christmas cake, rather than throw it out once 1 Jan and its 'good intentions' come in. After all, ice-cream can be stored in the freezer for a few months.

Oh and here's the strange-looking cake... links to my Instagram page

Turkey Troubles

I love a bit of roast turkey at Christmas time. We get it from our local butcher, from a known farm where the animals are treated well, and I think the flavour of a 'happy turkey' really does come through.

However despite asking for a turkey that would serve 3-4 people, I still ended up with quite a large turkey - maybe our appetites in this country have grown too much because mum and I both recollected that turkeys never used to be so big, even the organic ones. Anyway. Like many families in the UK and no doubt any Western country, we have the age-old problem: What to Do with the Leftovers.

Turkey Troubles. Pic credit: wklw.com

Apart from the ubiquitous turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day, how can one maximise the use of all the meat on the turkey without any waste?

Generally I clean the whole of the turkey, cutting the flesh and putting it into a tub to freeze for a later date. I then get the bones, skin, remaining jelly/fats from inside the roasting pan, breaking some of the bones to get to the marrow, and then boil this up in a large pot to create some delicious stock - either to freeze or to use as the base of a soup.

However, even with this tub full of turkey and the pots of stock inside the freezer, I still have a lot of meat leftover. Here are some of my top five easy recipes guaranteed to whet the appetite; also with turkey being a lean meat, and veg being good for you, these are relatively healthy.

1) Turkey broth 
This is a great way of using up leftover veg, turkey etc on Boxing Day, to accompany the sandwiches.
In my broth, I used the following leftovers:
Roast parsnips (chopped up)
Roast carrots (chopped up)
2 pigs in blankets (chopped up)
Some turkey (small pieces)
All the leftover gravy
Leftover sprouts and chestnuts (chopped finely)
Some of the fat and 'jelly' from the Turkey roasting tin
Some cabbage.
Basically, everything except for the roast potatoes (which were all eaten), the stuffing (which went into the sandwiches) and the Yorkshire puddings.

As everything has already been cooked, the broth only needs to be boiled up once and then left to simmer for 5 minutes (while the sandwiches are prepared).

2) Turkey Tagine
This is not strictly a tagine as I don't own the earthenware pot from whence the dish gets its name. But I couldn't think of anything else to describe the dish - 'Turkey in a pot with cous cous' doesn't have the same kind of ring.

Ingredients:
Chopped up carrot
1 chopped onion
1 courgette
Turkey pieces (chopped)
4 tablespoons of Turkey jelly/fat from the roasting pan
1 cup of water
1 cup of cous cous
Seasoning to taste.

Put the chopped onion, carrot and courgette into a hot, deep pan with some olive oil, stirring continuously. Add the turkey and the turkey stock/jelly from the roasting pan. Stir until the vegetables start to soften and brown.
Add the cous-cous, seasoning and water, and stir
Put a lid on and slow-simmer it for about 5-10 minutes or until the cous cous has expanded and there is no more water in the pan.

3) Turkey shepherds pie
This is another great way of using up Christmas leftovers
Chop up remaining veg, some turkey and some of the turkey stock/jelly from inside the roasting pan and stuff into the bottom of a deep dish. Pour on a little gravy - not too much.
Add some mashed potato to cover the lot, and bake for 20 minutes or so until the top of the potato is brown.

4) Turkey omelette
Fancy brunch? Break 3 eggs, beat them in a bowl with some seasoning - salt, pepper, dried oregano or sage, put into a frying pan. Tear up some turkey and spread over the top of the omelette base. For additional punch, add some of the cooked bacon from the turkey. Grate cheese if you wish. Gently fold in half and cook for a few minutes on one side until golden brown, then flip to the other side and repeat.

5) Turkey pie
There is usually a lot of pastry left over from the mince pies/cheese straws/strudels that are baked up before Christmas.

Take the pastry and roll out to cover the base of a pre-greased pastry dish. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or so with some ceramic baking beads so it remains flat after being cooked.

Take some turkey, chopped up veg and some of the leftover jelly from the roasting tin. Fill the pastry base with plenty of filling. Roll another thin crust and put the pie back into the oven and bake it for 20 minutes or so, until the top is glazed and brown. Best served hot - but can be cooled and frozen!

March of the Penguins

I LOVE Lakeland.

I often ask for presents from here because there are often good sales on items I'd like, and I can use them again and again to create wonderful food.

One such thing I treated myself to was a set of stacking star-shape cookie cutters, so that I could create a stack of stars that looked something like this. This photo is from Lakeland's own website as I have not yet decorated and stacked my own stars.

Credit: Lakeland. Star cookie cutters. Beautiful!

Another thing I like about Lakeland is that with certain items they also provide basic and easy-to-follow recipes. So the recipe that came with the star cookie cutters can be found here  or I have reproduced it below.

You will need:
300g unsalted butter, softened
300g caster sugar
2 small eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract - I found that this was not enough so used 2 teaspoons in my Penguin batch
a pinch of salt - I did not use salt; I used slightly salted Flora Light
600g plain flour, sifted - Sifting does not really matter much (sifting is a bit of a Women's Institute-style myth. It's the mixing that does it, not the sifting. However don't use self-raising flour, it makes the cookies too puffy and dry.

How To:
Reheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), gas 4.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla and salt and mix well. Gradually add the flour and mix until incorporated. Bring together into a dough, divide into 2 balls, wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 3-4mm. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each use. You need 2 cookies of each size. Arrange them on prepared baking trays.
Bake the cookies on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 12 minutes, or until firm and golden, swapping the trays over if necessary. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOW for the PENGUINS. I do like penguins! I made some last year to adorn the 2014 Christmas Cake  - as can be seen below:

Which way to the South Pole? Penguin alert. Credit: SimoneySunday

Having purchased a cute little penguin cookie cutter from Biscuiteers in Notting Hill a year or so ago, I was keen to try to make iced penguin biscuits this year - but needed a good recipe. I toyed with the idea of gingerbread but I'd already made a gingerbread house and, I liked the basic nature of Lakeland's easy recipe.

So with a few tweaks - as I mentioned - I found it a little too low in flavour for my palate, I added extra vanilla flavouring and a teaspoon of cinnamon to make it a little more punchy. I also reduced the sugar element slightly as the icing itself will be sweet enough.

I used Fondant icing for the black and royal icing for the white, but I think next year I will try to learn liquid icing techniques as this took AGES to shape and cut the icing. I also used a small piping bag of red icing to fill in the beak, and some gold balls for the eyes.

And here are the end results - the march of the penguins.

Hallo mate! @SimoneySunday

Marching onward - the Penguin brigade @SimoneySunday