Birthday Banoffee Cheesecake

There's little point in asking my husband what he wants to eat on his birthday, the answer is always the same - steak, and cheesecake. The query usually only extends to 'Where?' and 'What kind of cheesecake'.

Being that we are still in lockdown we couldn't go to his usual favourite, El Gaucho, for steak so I decided to push the boat out and order a prime rib from the Ginger Pig - a well known butcher in London. I first encountered the Ginger Pig on a trip to Borough Market with my dad, several years ago. We were both entranced by a large rib of beef. It was blackened with age I remember a woman stood next to us saying how it was disgusting that they could have mouldy meat on display and that they were going to give someone food poisoning. I can only assume it is people like her who are why when you get supermarket steak it is still bright red and bloody looking (sorry vegetarians)

 If I am honest I can't remember how good the steak we bought that day was, this was probably 8 or 9 years ago. But I do remember the overall quality of the meat on their stall every time I've been past it since so they were my first thought when trying to source something special to be delivered. So that was the steak sorted - 1.1kg of prime rib, or a Cote du Boef to give it it's French name, to share, because even he can't eat a whole one that size on his own. Though he'd give it a bloody good try.

Then there was the cheesecake. I have made a variety for him over the years and for a few years Apple Crumble Cheesecake was the favourite (one year morphing into Cherry Crumble). This year, however, a declaration was made that he wanted to combine two of his desserts of choice - and so Banoffee Cheesecake it was.

Questioning some of my choices - happier with some than others. Apricot, honey and thyme tart.

A few days ago someone posted a picture of their peg board on Instagram. Sat in the corner of my spare room, neglected, was the very same peg board which I never got round to putting up. Inspired I thought "oh! I could put that up this weekend!".

Roll on Saturday and I take down the notice board I was going to replace the peg board with only to discover mould behind it. We live in a Victorian terrace, damp is a perennial issue, this was not a massive surprise.

What I should've done - got some bleach spray and cleaned it off and carried on with my day.

Socially distanced picnic with Semi-sourdough Yum Yums with a Salted Vanilla Glaze

Recently lockdown rules have changed in the UK, allowing people to meet up with a single friend or family member from another household as long as they stay outdoors and 2m apart. Of course many people were doing this anyway (and indeed I have seen some friends when dropping things off etc) but this has been limited a bit further by restrictions on travel. Now though you are also allowed to travel to take outdoor exercise meaning you can see people who live a bit further away.

Cooking in Lockdown and a return to blogging.

Peach and Nectarine Tart

Like many people, the current lockdown situation for me has it's definite pros and cons. On the one hand, I miss seeing my family terribly, I am itching to get back to my aerial hoop classes and sometimes I get sick of the inside of my house. On the other I have never had more time sew,  I've been exercising probably more than I ever have due to Zoom classes, and I get to have an extra 90 minutes (and then some) in bed every morning before I have to commute the 10 paces to my desk.

Mary Berry's Baking Bible: Sachertorte

Mary Berry is pretty much the British doyenne of home baking. She started out as an oven tester for the gas board and has gone on to write a huge number of recipe books and become a successful television personality. There's no denying she was a big part of why Great British Bakeoff was so successful, tempering Paul Hollywood's more scathing remarks with comments that your grandmother might make to make you feel better about a cake that was otherwise a bit, well, rubbish.

I only own two Mary Berry books, and the one I decided to use this week was a much later addition to my library than the first but it's certainly comprehensive. Mary Berry's Baking Bible is a comprehensive compendium of stalwart baking recipes. Nothing is revolutionary but everything is well thought out and nigh-on foolproof. Which is good because when I decided that what I wanted to make for a Fuddle (food huddle, don't google it, Urban Dictionary does not agree) at work was a Sachertorte I didn't anticipate being struck down with a stinking cold. But very little will get between me and my baking plans so despite feeling a bit like death warmed up I spent the evening making a Sachertorte.

I've never actually eaten a Sachertorte before. It probably wouldn't even be my first choice of cake to eat out if presented with it alongside other cakes. I am a little on the fence about the idea of jam being involved in a chocolate cake - though not quite as much as my brother who's worst nightmare is to discover a one has been sandwiched with jam (well, maybe not his worst nightmare but he's vocally anti fruit and chocolate). However it was something I had never baked before and it could also be easily adapted to fit the two dietary restrictions at the fuddle - citrus free and coeliac friendly.  Of course then my German colleague extolled her love of a Sachertorte, so no pressure there!

Despite not having eaten one before I had a pretty good idea of how the Sachertorte should look and what the textures would be like. I knew I would want good quality but not too high cocoa solid chocolate and the best apricot jam I could easily acquire. Helpfully there is an Aldi on my way home from work and being a German chain chocolate and jam are something they excel at.

After a rest and some more sudafed I set about making the cake , starting with the chocolate. There's something slightly soothing about melting chocolate - the velvety texture and the rich aroma wafting up from the double boiler.  This was then left to cool slightly as I creamed the butter and sugar. The chocolate is then added followed by the egg yolks and vanilla and then ground almonds and a small amount of (gluten free) flour are folded in

There are no raising agents in the cake with the only lift coming from the eggs. The  whisked egg whites are gently incorporated, taking care to knock out as little air as possible. This light yet rich batter is baked in a 9inch baking tin to create a relatively shallow cake with a tender crumb. A lot of recipes have you sandwich two such cakes with the apricot jam but Mary keeps things simple with just one.

Once cooled, I coated the cake in apricot jam and then realised to my horror that in my cold muddled state I had used far more chocolate than I meant to in the cake batter leaving me with in sufficient for the ganache. Whilst some were quick to point out that surely the increased chocolate content in the sponge could not be a bad thing I was also worried what effect this would have on the sponge - would it be denser than hoped? It looked OK and it wasn't like I could start over.. but what of the ganache?

Fortunately I remembered that that previous weekend we had been to the new local zero waste food shop, the Bishy Weigh, and as luck would have it I had bought a jar full of chocolate chips.  Not because I needed them, just because I could. Thankfully there were enough to make up the amount needed for the ganache which is made by melting chocolate with double cream to a pouring consistency. Unfortunately I think due to the lower quality of the chips the ganache did split slightly with the fat from the chocolate pooling out but it was just about salvageable. This was poured over the cake to coat the top and sides in a thick layer, smoothed with a palette knife and allowed to set.

The final step was to write the traditional 'Sacher' on top with milk chocolate. My piping skills are amateur at best (decorating is not really my forte) and the chocolate was very liquid so I decided I just had to go for it and hope for the best.

And what was it like? Despite my concerns about the extra chocolate the cake was lovely and light and the apricot jam gave a subtle tang that cut through the richness. My colleagues demolished it at high speed despite having indulged on all sorts of other delicious things at the fuddle so it was definitely a success!

James Martin, My Kitchen: Scallops with black pudding and apple & Caramelised quince and apple tarts

Certain ingredients always seem like a real treat. Scallops is one - they are the sort of thing that is mostly encountered in restaurants and seem that bit too expensive to buy fresh. When I was still living on the south coast I remember my mum and I being the unexpected beneficiaries of glut of scallops. A family friend, who is a boat builder, had been paid for some work he had done for a fisherman with the most enormous sack of fresh scallops still in their shells. As his wife was away and there was no way he could possibly tackle such a feast on his own he gifted us some. I don't remember how we ate them - likely very simply pan fried. I do remember they were delicious.

The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook: Coconut Meringue Cake

I've always read a lot of American food blogs, particularly baking ones. I think partly because the things they were baking were not necessarily part of the every day British baking lexicon - there were key lime pies, lemonade bars, tres leches cakes... I could go on.

What often baffled me a little about some of the blogs I read was the prevalence of using box mixes to make cakes. It must be a difference in culture because over here my impression has always been that box mixes are mostly deployed by parents to placate children who want to bake looking for an easy option. In the States, however, it seems like it is commonplace to bake from these rather than 'from scratch' and often a box of  cake mix will be the starting point for a recipe that then goes on to add extra eggs, milk, butter. You know, the things that would go into a normal cake.  It always seemed like an oddly lazy option to me, particularly for people who were supposed to be keen bakers. Maybe these cakes turned out to be delicious though, who knows? We don't get 'white cake box mix' here so I will never find out.