Fried Bacon Sandwich - or how to recover your camping mojo

My love of camping and the great outdoors is nothing new. There's almost nothing I like better than heading off in Daisy, our camper van, for a week, a weekend, or even a night, exploring new places and heading back to our home from home at the end of the day. I love eating outside, sitting out under the stars, but am equally happy (OK may be not quite so happy, but you know, happy enough) huddled in under the canvas awning, or even in the van, with a bottle of red wine playing Uno as the wind howls and the rain lashes down. I've eulogised plenty about it all before so I won't go on about it...

Sometimes, though, there are moments when it's not quite what it cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong it doesn't put me off for the next time, but there are definitely challenges that make unbidden thoughts flash through my head. 

Mainly "What on earth possessed you?" type thoughts. 

We had a moment like that this last week, camping on Shell Island in North Wales. The campsite itself is an odd sort of place - out on a causeway, you can camp in the sand dunes or facing inland with views over the salt marshes to the mountains beyond. It should be the best place to camp in the world ever. For various odd reasons, it's not quite that good, but we still had a great time. However, one night, the wind got up, blowing straight across the site.

"Will the kids be alright?" (they sleep out in an awning most of the time)

"Yeah, sure"

The wind got stronger. We went to bed ourselves, having checked everything twice.

The wind got stronger. 

There was banging and flapping. Noises we couldn't identify.

The Husband valiantly got back out of bed to do more checking.

In the end, we just couldn't cope with the idea that somehow the wind would whip up the awning, blowing the kids straight over into the salt marshes that we were camped right on top of, so we brought them in to the van and I spent a largely sleepless night with Pink on one side of me, out of her sleeping bag, legs thrown over mine, muttering to herself as she tends to do, and the Husband, family duly safe and protected, snoring loudly in my ear on the other... It could have been worse, I suppose - Blue got to sleep on the floor of the van, nose to nose with the dog.

After a night like that, the best thing of course is a morale boosting bacon sarnie (sorry, all you vegetarians out there, but it really is), but no ordinary bacon sarnie - allow me please to introduce (drum roll please) 

the Fried Bacon Sandwich. 

For this, you need to make sure you are the person cooking the bacon. And really, given that just looking at it makes your arteries tense up a little, it should only be eaten in dire need. But it is so good.

Cook the bacon up for all the sandwiches you are making - then make everyone else's sandwiches first (part of the treat is that only one person gets it). DO NOT clean out the pan you cooked the bacon in. At the same time, make sure there's a coffee on the go somewhere. We take a stove top espresso maker with us - it has justified its van space on many occasions.

Butter 2 slices of pappy white bread, and lay one butter side up on a plate, or the table, or wherever, and put your own bacon on the bread along with any sauce you choose (red tends to be my choice). Heat up all the left over bacon fat/oil that's still in the pan, then place the second slice of bread, butter side up, in the hot fat and fry gently till crisp. Depending on how much fat there is in the pan, the bread may absorb it all. You won't be eating these often, so that's OK. Once the bread is crisp, remove from the pan, and place butter side down (the butter will have gone all melty, by the way. Mmmmmm).

Slice the sandwich in 2, take your sandwich and cup of freshly brewed coffee somewhere far away from husbands, children and dogs, with a view, and enjoy 5 minutes peace and quiet. 

Mojo restored, you can crack on with the rest of your day - whatever that might involve.

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Camping Cake

Camping cake comes in many forms. The main thing of course is that there is cake when you are camping and beyond that it's really up to you, but in case you were needing a bit more guidance, here are my thoughts on what constitutes good camping cake.

Let's get one thing straight. Delicate doesn't cut it. If you're going camping, the last thing you need is delicate cake. You need something fairly substantial. 

Anything that includes filling or buttercream is out on grounds of practicality and the fact that in the unlikely event that the weather is good, it's likely to melt.

If it's got oats in it, you're onto a good thing - you use up a lot of energy with all that fresh air and out of doors stuff. 

Ditto fruit/veg because if you can get it in cake form, well that's got to be a bonus.

It must be 'cup of tea' cake. Cake your tea would be too wet without. I'm not suggesting you're going to dunk it or anything, just that if you've got a cake that tastes perfect with a cup of straight up builders tea, you can't go far wrong.

This cake is based on one from the Camper Van Cookbook. I like the Camper Van Cookbook, although the recipes aren't necessarily ones I'd choose to cook while we're camping. Only a very few of the recipes are actually by Martin Dorey, and I'm not sure the author of the bulk of them has done much camping - her recipes are quite ingredient and utensil heavy, and time consuming. That's not to say they aren't good recipes - what I have cooked from the book while camping has always turned out well. Lamb Burgers with spring onions and feta and Lemon Cup Cheesecakes are particular favourites, but I remember the burgers took quite a long time to put together, and with limited utensils, out in the fresh air, I think I'd be just as happy with some good sausages...


There is, however, a section of pre-camp bakes: stuff you'd make to take with you, and I cannot recommend these highly enough. They are great cakes (and biscuits) that absolutely hit the spot in the fresh air. This one is one of Blue's absolute favourite cakes, and went down very well in Suffolk the other weekend .

Sticky Ginger Treacle Cake

200ml milk
3 tbsp treacle
100g butter
75g plain flour
200g soft brown sugar
125g porridge oats
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinammon
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Line a 20 cm square tin with greaseproof paper and pre-heat the oven to 150C/130C fan.


Place the treacle and butter into a small pan with the milk and gently bring to the boil till the butter is melted. Set aside to cool a little.

Seive the flour, ginger, cinammon and bicarb into a large bowl, then stir through the sugar and porridge oats.

Stir the melted ingredients quickly into the dry ingredients, pour into the tin and bake for 45 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into 16 squares and store in an airtight container. This is sticky cake (the name gives it away) so if you need to stack, separate layers with greaseproof paper. 

Of course, you don't have to go camping to make this cake, but I really think you should give it a go

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BBQ Ribs for the best weekend ever

We have a great local butcher. 

The other week, I was in there and had my head turned by some mighty fine racks of ribs he had in the chiller cabinet. I bought 2 racks, intending to feed them to the children as a playdate tea, but I got my weeks wrong, and the ribs went in the freezer.

This can only have been a good thing, as it meant we could BBQ them last weekend in what will surely be pretty high up on my list of "best weekends of the year" - even though we've only had just over half the year.

 
Yes, we had a hot, sticky and fairly slow journey to darkest Suffolk on Friday night, but once we were there, well, everything was brilliant. The site is very much 'of the moment' - plenty of bunting and hand written signs around, low density camping. A few Dorset bell tents to rent, the option to camp in the woods, Swattesfield Campsite is one I would definitely recommend if you like low key relaxed camping. It's just quite a long way from Hampshire for the weekend...




The weather was awesome, the campfire burned bright at night and the Pimms flowed. The children were occupied in the woods that surrounded the camping area, and the adults were mostly occupied with a wood fired pizza oven that was on the site (of which, more in another post), and we had a gourmet BBQ on Saturday night. And then Murray won Wimbledon as we chuntered back down the M11 in the sweltering heat of Sunday afternoon. Pretty much perfect.

So back to the ribs, which were our contribution to the gourmet BBQ. Ribs are great at any time, but marinaded and cooked over hot coals, they take on a smoky loveliness that can't be beaten. Not the cleanest and tidiest things to eat, but, you know, who cares?

The marinade is based on the one Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall includes in his fantastic Meat book. In a fit of whirlwind organisation, I managed to decant about half the ingredients into their appropriate amounts into various small containers, and then just chucked in the bottles of anything else I needed into the van, but forgot the recipe - not even in scribbled form, so once the time for marinading came round, I had to wing it. 




I should say that Pimms had been consumed at this point, but not too much, and so I'd take this as a guide rather than as a definitive recipe. Just keep tasting as you go...

For 2 racks of ribs - approximately 24 ribs in total. I didn't count. I was drinking Pimms.

3 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons dark muscovado sugar

3 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

freshly ground salt and pepper

sherry vinegar to taste - probably about 3 tablespoons

Mix everything together and marinade the ribs for a good hour or 2 - longer if you can.

Cook on a suitably heated BBQ (let your friendly BBQ king take over at this point, if this is not you). They will take 10-15 minutes, may be 20 depending on how much meat they have on them.

Serve as you like. We had potato salad and a rather fancy broad bean (double podded no less, at the insistence of Mrs L) and chorizo couscous. We do like to camp in style...

I'm linking up to the Four Seasons Food challenge hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Chez Foti which has BBQ as the theme this month.

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Camping food - Cheese & Marmite Pasties

We had another camping trip this weekend. A quick one in that we didn't head off till Saturday morning, and didn't go far - just to where we keep a sailing dinghy on Southampton Water. The view is not beautiful (Fawley oil refinery, although it does have a certain industrial beauty) but it's situated in a lovely country park, and there is a camping field attached to the club. Nothing grand, but a flat sheltered field - and frankly that's all you need.

Anyway, now we have Daisy the campervan, which is fully stocked and ready to go at a moment's notice from a 'kit' point of view, my main concern (well, isn't it always) is food. Clothes too, but I've long since learned that for a weekend trip, there's no point packing much in the way of 'changes of clothes'. I just try to make sure there's a jumper and some waterproofs, for any inclement weather that might be rude enough to strike, and appropriate easy access footwear (crocs or wellies). If you were looking for it, I can't really offer much more advice than that on the packing front as far as clothes are concerned. I also don't have a 'master camping list' to share with you - of a type which I once saw passed from one friend to another, kept as a reference document for future trips. As long as I know there's gin on board, I can live with out a dustpan and brush...

Not just gin, but treats. Some form of cake (this weekend, there was brownie). Bacon, for sandwiches on Sunday morning. Proper coffee (Daisy has her own stovetop coffee maker - yes, I know, proper coffee probably smacks more of glamping than camping, but I don't care - you can't beat an alfresco bacon buttie with a mug of proper coffee of a morning). This weekend, we also had cheese & marmite pasties.

Pasties are a great thing. What's more, I don't know a man who doesn't find his food infinitely more attractive if it's wrapped in pastry. I might try wrapping myself in pastry one of these days and see what reaction that provokes - or may be not.

Despite dashing the collective male hopes in the RJ household when the response to the question "Have they got meat in them?" garnered the response "No.  Well, they do have Marmite", the verdict was that they were pretty good.

They started out as  Good Food recipe, but frankly, I am always suspicious of pasty filling quantity these days, having over produced on several occasions, despite having followed filling to pastry ratios in a number of recipes to the letter. So I reduced the filling ingredients to something I thought more likely, and added in a good handful of chopped parsley.

Cheese & Marmite Pasties

Made 7 decent sized pasties and a small one.


500g shortcrust pastry
350g peeled, grated potato
100g grated cheddar
60g fresh breadcrumbs
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 large handful of flat leaf pastry, finely chopped
1 large & 1 medium egg
salt & pepper
1 good tablepoon of MarmiteLine a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

Pre-heat the oven to 160C/140 fan, and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.

Mix together the grated potato, cheese, breadcrumbs, spring onions and chopped parsley with the large egg and a good grind of salt and pepper.

Roll out the pastry on a floury worktop and cut out 16-17cm circles of pastry (our cereal bowls are the right size) - as many as you can: hopefully you'll get about 7.

Melt the Marmite in a saucepan with a splash of water, and brush onto the pastry rounds, leaving a border all the way round of about 1-2 cm. Divide the filling between the pastry circles, placing in the middle of the rounds. Beat the remaining egg, brush lightly around the border of each circle, then draw up the sides and squeeze together to make your pasties. Brush with the remaining beaten egg*, then place on a lined baking sheet and bake for between 50-60 minutes (mine took 55) till golden brown.

In an effort to come over all vintage picnic chic, I packed my pasties in my favourite cake tin, lined with a tea towel. Wrapped in foil, or in a plastic bag would do just fine.

I'm linking up to a new blog challenge - Four Seasons Food, which looks like fun!


Four Seasons Food hosted by Delicieux and Chezfoti




*The original recipe states that these can be frozen once the pasties are formed but before you brush them with the beaten egg, and then baked from frozen till the centres are piping hot. I didn't but it's a top tip, guaranteed to elevate you in the pasty queen stakes...

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Curry in a hurry? No, on the beach, actually - A review of the Barricane Beach Cafe

So the second May Bank Holiday is upon us. The Husband is still in the desert and I have escaped North for a couple of days, before returning South and taking the kids camping on my own. I won't speculate about my sanity - I lost most of that on the M1 on Friday afternoon/evening -  or the likely success or failure of the planned expedition at this stage. If I'm not totally traumatised by the whole thing, I may share the highlights at some point, but for now, I am reminiscing about the first May Bank Holiday.

It feels like an age away, and yet is was only a few weeks ago, that we went with some great friends, to North Devon, and had a totally brilliant weekend away.

Liz's photo of our camp by night...

If you're interested in the campsite we stayed at, you can read the guest review I wrote for the lovely Yellowfields Camping blog. If you're interested in campfire campsites, and more back to basics camping, you really should visit this blog, but here, as you know, it's mostly about the food.

One of the reasons why it was such a great weekend was that it allowed us the opportunity to eat curry on the beach as the sun went down. In England. In May. 

Allow me to present the Barricane Beach Cafe.

When the Husband and I 'discovered' this place, thanks to a throw away comment in the 'Wild Swimming - Coast' book by Daniel Start (which I would thoroughly recommend if you have even half an inclination to swim in the sea around the UK. What? You don't? Why ever not??) we couldn't believe it. Just round the corner from the surf paradise of Woolacombe, more a cove than a beach, is the lovely Barricane, or Shell Beach, and at the top of the beach, not much more than a shack, outdoor tables only, is this cafe. Al fresco dining at its best.  

On our first visit 3 or 4 years' ago, the kids were too young to appreciate the experience (if my memory serves me well, Pink was particularly objectionable), but we recognised it as 'a special place', and I've been itching to go back ever since.

I have never been able to find a dedicated website for the Barricane Beach Cafe - it crops up, though, on other blogs. Trip Advisor has a whole load of rave reviews on it, and these are ones you can actually believe. During the day, it serves sandwiches, cakes, cold cans of drink - the usual. From 6 p.m. though, curry is served.

Currently £8 for a generous plateful, we had the choice of 'devilled chicken' or 'devilled beef' curry. More Malaysian/ Thai style than Indian, but no less delicious for that. And that's it. 2 choices. With rice and salad. Perfect (although jacket potatoes are available making it an ideal place to go if you need to satisfy less sophisticated palates at the same time).

Thrown in with that is the opportunity to eat your plate whilst gazing out to sea as the sun goes down, and feel awash with goodwill. Which, as the advert goes, is priceless.

Your view - should you choose to accept it...

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Caramel & sour cherry flapjack - or what M&S don't want you to know

It comes to something, doesn't it, when you're ripping your own recipes out of magazines. 

That makes me sound terribly grand but the truth is, I write a recipe column for our local parish mag (circulation, a whopping 734) and a couple of months ago, I treated them to this flapjack recipe that I made on a whim, having some left over tinned caramel and not wanting to eat it there and then with a teaspoon from the tin. I didn't blog it and then realised that I had thrown away my notes. The relevant issue of the parish mag was the only place it was recorded.

I had to rootle through the various piles around the house to dig the recipe out again (required eating for the weekend's camping trip) - no luck, and then - horrors - as I was emptying out the recycling I realised that my copy of the relevant issue was in there to be chucked out. I ripped out the relevant section, and decided that I'd better blog it and record it, otherwise what had been a happy accident would take me several failed attempts and many tins of caramel to recreate.

The thing that I love so much about these is the similarity to one of my guilty pleasures - those soft flapjacks sold in small bitesize squares in tubs by high end supermarkets. Bitesize, of course means that I always eat far more of them than necessary, and to be honest, I never buy them - but the Husband occasionally produces a half-finished barrel that's been at work. They never last long, and the tubs are great for freezing things in.

For me these are the best flapjacks I have ever made. After many attempts using different methods and ingredients, I may never try another recipe again....

Caramel & Sour Cherry Flapjacks

200g tinned caramel
220g unsalted butter
100g soft brown sugar
320g oats
75g dried sour cherries

Line a 20cm square tin & pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan.

Melt together the caramel, butter and sugar over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally. Add in the oats and dried fruit, stir together and press into the tin with a fork.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, till golden brown. Simples.

I have also made this and then melted 65g dark chocolate and drizzled it over the top. 

Just saying.

R&J or M&S?

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Freedom - and chewy fruit bars

One of my favourite things to do is to drive into the sunset. Usually on a Friday evening, heading west down the A303. Who cares that it's usually choccablock with bad feeling and stress emanating out of the other vehicles as thick as the exhaust fumes around us - we have a van and the coast is calling. Passing Stonehenge, skirting Salisbury Plain, into Wiltshire, North Somerset, usually ending up somewhere on the Dorset/Devon coastline. Freedom.

So, yes, you've guessed it, Daisy is back on the road and I have itchy feet.

Never mind the steely skies - we want an adventure!

For 6 months of the year, I am without wheels. The Husband needs the car for work and Daisy is too much of an old lady to be out on the roads in winter. That's OK - I work at home, the children go to school in the village, and if necessary, I can get everything we need for day to day living locally - veg from a local box scheme or the back garden, meat and fish from the butcher, eggs from our own chickens, a Co-Op, a couple of gift shops. The Husband travels a lot, but me? I stay put. I can go for what seems like WEEKS without leaving the village - apart from walking the dog, when I might stray into a neighbouring parish. By February, I'm starting to twitch and by mid-March, well, stir crazy would be a good place to start.

But then, as the end of March approaches, the prospect of Daisy's release from her winter quarters. Will she start? Will she make it up the hill to the garage for her MOT and service? This year, as she has for the last 2 years, all has been well. A tense time charging up the battery, the need for a new thermostat and advice to 'keep an eye on the water level' - a panic of a SORN notice and she's back on the road.

She wasn't taxed till 1 April, and a visit from my mother in law last weekend, work commitments - and, frankly, the appalling weather, has kept us as yet uncamped, but I've been desperate to get out in her - and even more so for the first trip to be a fun one rather than something dull like going in to town to get new school shoes.

Fortunately, today was the day, and I rounded up the kids and Fred the dog and headed East to the great forests of Bracknell to meet up with 2 of my greatest friends, their respective gorgeous children, and Barnaby the yellow labrador. Not a night away - not just yet - but a fun afternoon. And I can't tell you how fantastic it felt to be back behind her wheel, chugging up the M3 at 56 miles and hour with an eye on her ever temperamental petrol gauge. Happy days.

The Look Out was heaving - the car park and play/den making areas at least, but once assembled, we headed off into the Crown Estate woods which surround the Discovery Centre, at which point the children formed a pack and went rampaging off, sticks in hand, into the undergrowth.

See any children? Me neither - marvellous

Just what they need. Freedom.

Of course, all this activity requires sustenance, and my contribution to proceedings were some chewy bar things that I got out of the Hairy Dieters book that I borrowed from the library earlier in the week. I wasn't sure how they would be received, but I had some rice krispies supermarket own brand unsweetened puffed rice cereal that needed using up, and this has loads of dried fruit and oats in it too. Definitely healthy. Blue and I made it this morning - it was very easy to throw together although there's a sticky porridgey moment that required adult involvement. We didn't have any flaked almonds (almost a national emergency in the RJ household) nor enough maple syrup, so we made substitutions of pumpkin seeds and runny honey.

According to the Bikers, these will last 5 days in an airtight tin. You'll have to take their word for it - with 9 feral, wood-rampaging offspring to fuel, they didn't last a day. And if you cut it into 24 pieces (equal pieces, that is) each one will be 82 calories.

25g pumpkin seeds
40g dried apricots, chopped small
40g dried cranberries
40g raisins
75g unsweetened puffed rice cereal
40g dessicated coconut
100ml maple syrup
50ml runny honey
400ml cloudy apple juice
125g porridge oats

20x30cm brownie tin - lined with greaseproof paper



Pre-heat the oven to 190C and roast the pumpkin seeds on a baking tray for 5-6 minutes.

In a bowl, mix together the roasted seeds, dried fruit, cereal and coconut

Put the maple syrup, honey and apple juice into a large pan, and warm for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally. Tip in the oats, stir and bring to a simmer over a gentle heat. Keep stirring for 4-5 minutes till the mixture thickens, then remove from the heat and stir the porridge into the dry ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into the lined tin, flatten well, then bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. It will be golden brown and the surface crisp.

Leave to cool for about 30 minutes before cutting into squares and removing from the tin in the paper. Peel off the paper and leave to go cold.

Chewy and fruity and the kids loved them. And did I get my drive into the sunset - well yes, as we headed back west from Berkshire to the RJ corner of Hampshire, I almost felt the rays of a sunset glowing around us. Before the rain started, that is...

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Where Food meets Fiction "The School of Essential Ingredients" - and White Cake

Looking back from this dreary October evening, as the rain lashes down outside, and I can barely face heading down the garden to shut the chickens in, it’s hard to think that actually we (the Recipe Junkie clan) had such a wonderful summer. And we did. One of the highlights of our family holiday when we pottered over to France was the amount of reading we all did. The kids read, the Husband read and I, luxury of luxuries, got to read, uninterrupted, sometimes for even an hour at a time.

One of the books that kept me rapt was one that my mum passed on, almost as an afterthought, but it was such a gorgeous read that I feel compelled to share it with you.

 

“The School of Essential Ingredients” by Erica Bauermeister is a gorgeously understated and beautiful tale of an unusual cookery school where there are, in fact, no essential ingredients – only the needs and desires of the pupils. Steered on their journeys of culinary discovery by the enigmatic Lillian, the participants, of course, learn more than how to cook – they learn self-esteem and confidence. They develop new relationships, overcome grief and heal old wounds. The story is gentle and undemanding, with an element of whimsical fairy tale to it but manages not to slip into sickliness. For me, Bauermeister has created a series of characters that, in the best Maeve Binchy tradition, I really cared about. I had a morning to remember while we were in France, sat with a cup of coffee overlooking the most wonderful beach in the company of the seabirds and this book....

I'll share the picture too, just so you get the idea...

Each chapter focuses on a different character, and Lillian seems to know instinctively which recipe or type of cooking will be appropriate for which character. Carl, attends the classes with his wife, Helen. His recipe is a White Cake – something I had never come across before. But lo, the joys of Google, many traditional recipes (traditional for the US, I guess) abound for a cake made simply with butter, sugar, flour, vanilla and eggs, the eggs separated so that the yolks are combined with the butter/sugar, the flour added alternately with some milk, and the egg whites are whisked and folded into the batter before baking. In the book, the method is not so much as a method, more a caress. The way the creation of the cake is woven into the story of Carl & Helen’s marriage, as seen from Carl’s point of view, is simply beautiful, using words that conjure up so much more than just cooking:

“Lillian put the butter into the bowl and turned on the mixer, the paddle beat its way into the soft yellow rectangles. 

Slowly in an impossibly thin waterfall of white, she let the sugar drift into the bowl.... The paddle continued its revolution around the bowl and the class watched... as the sugar met and mingled with the butter, each drawing color and texture from the other, expanding, softening lifting up the sides of the bowl in silken waves.”

Utterly delicious.

Well, you know me and cake... I wish I had had the patience to wait until the kids were tucked up in bed before embarking on my attempt, but it was not to be, so at the same time as making leek and potato soup withfish finger croutons (I know how to serve up a gourmet treat for my kids), I set to. I’d like to say that my attempt could have been described in such thrilling tones as Lillian’s but unfortunately, what with almost burning the fish fingers, and remembering that Pink had to be at ballet, it was a less soothing experience. I also had a dilemma because I only have one bowl for my Kenwood mixer, so ended up making the butter/sugar batter then scraping it into another bowl before whisking the egg whites. For all that, the cake seems pretty good, and I am quite pleased with what I have come up with, although I fear it may be a little sickly for my taste. As I was making it, I kept thinking "LEMON" but for the first go, at a white cake, I had to put those thoughts aside. I think it might need a few more attempts, so I’ll let you know once it’s perfect, but for now, I give you:

White Cake (with apologies to Lillian)

For the cake: 2 x 20cm loose bottomed cake tins, buttered and floured, bases lined; 120g unsalted butter, 200g +40g caster sugar, 2 large eggs, separated, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 120ml milk, 180g self raising flour, 2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt, pinch cream of tartar

For the frosting: 120g soft unsalted butter, 200g cream cheese (at room temperature), 300g icing sugar, sifted, 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Pre-heat the oven to 180⁰C.

Sift together self raising flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the butter till soft then add 200g of sugar and beat again till light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition, and then add the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk – beginning and ending with flour – flour, milk, flour, milk, flour. Set aside the batter. Beat the egg whites till they start to foam, add the pinch of cream of tartar, then beat till soft peak stage. Add in the remaining 40g of sugar then beat till stiff-ish peaks. Fold the egg whites into the batter, divide between the prepared tins, bang down to even the mixture out and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes till a cake tester (whatever you use – I have a trusty skewer) comes out clean. 

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then remove from the tin and allow to cool properly before wrapping in clingfilm and popping in the freezer for an hour or so – this will help you spread the icing/frosting.

Make the frosting by creaming together the butter and cream cheese, then adding in the icing sugar a bit at a time beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Add in the vanilla extract and beat again till light and fluffy. Use to sandwich the cakes together, and then to spread over top and sides.

As well as my idea for the recipe, my Google surf advises me that there’s a new book out soon by the same author, called The Joy of Mixing, which picks up the stories of some of the characters. It’s on my wish list already.

I'm linking this up to a blog event I found via the Tinned Tomatoes Blog called Novel Food which aims to encourage people to create dishes inspired by books they have read. Well I was definitely inspired by this book, and there's more where that came from - I am seriously thinking along the lines of Antonia and Isabelles' stuffed turkey breast with rosemary, cranberry and pancetta for a certain feast coming up in a couple of months' time...

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Damp Weather? No, Dampers

So, another wet morning dawned and I contemplated the school run and dog walk, once again smothered in wet proofs. Pink had left her wellies at school (she went home with a friend yesterday) and I had no suitable alternative footwear for her, having given in to her pleas for summer sandals when she needed new shoes. And she was wearing tights, so, much as I  thought "Well she can just wear her crocs up to school" the reality of following this through was that I would end up at school trying to pull her wet feet into tights while feeling stressed that I wasn't already walking the dog so that I could get home to start work... In the end she wore tights and sandals, and skipped to school, the skipping rope leaving muddy lines up the back of her tights. It's rained all day and it's raining now. Our house is an old one and it needs some sunshine. I just feel cold and damp.

We had the wettest June since records began? I don't doubt it. And July looks like it's going to be just as bad going on current form, but frankly I've stopped looking at the forecast because it's one thing to be depressed about the weather as it happens, but you move in to a whole different realm once you start being depressed about weather that hasn't even happened yet.

Against all the odds, we have been camping 6 times this year already, and experienced mixed weather conditions, from the cold (the Husband took the kids for a night before Easter), through the wet (the first May Bank Holiday, and a night in half term)  to the totally and utterly glorious. This last weekend counted as a glorious one. Despite the predicted heavy showers, the only real rain we encountered was some persistent drizzle on Friday night, a short shower late Saturday afternoon as we were thinking of packing up fron the beach anyway, and rain as we left at the end of Sunday. And Saturday was fabulous. Windy, but with real proper sunshine. The kind of day to remember on days like today.




yes, I know it's a rubbish photo but I only had my phone with me





We were camping just outside Padstow on a cute little site called Dennis Cove Camping, literally walking distance from the harbour - and to the beaches. We had fish & chips from Rick Stein's chippy on Friday evening in the drizzle, and Saturday dawned windy but sunny so there was nothing for it but to head for the beach. We had a great seaside day. After various attempts to swim (I can attest to the fact that it was freezing, having done the decent this and immersed myself - and I speak as one who grew up swimming in the sea off the west coast of Scotland - but maybe it gets colder the older you are...), the children joined forces and set to building an enormous fort, while the adults variously assisted, read books and threw endless stones into the sea for the dog (me).


We had a mega BBQ on Saturday night and we'd had such a good afternoon on the beach that I didn't get round to making the damper scones that I had come prepared for, anticipating fairly miserable weather for most of the weekend and thinking we'd need some cheering up.

However, undeterred, (and with the bit between my teeth), I decided to make the dampers on Sunday morning. My lovely friend Louise made these when we were all at Forgewood on the other utterly glorious weekend we've had this year, She got the recipe out of a little camping cookbook from M&S (of all places) and I was keen to give it a go.

Mini Damper Bread Rolls

(to make about 8)

275g self raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
175 ml milk
2 tablespoons runny honey
olive oil to grease; butter and jam to serve

If you are planning to make these while camping and don't have a handy set of camping scales (like I don't) you can measure out the dry ingredients before you go. You can also measure out the milk, or make a handy marker in a cup or other receptacle that you might take with you. I kind of winged it using a plastic mug...

Basically, combine flour and salt in a bowl then mix together the milk and honey and add to the dry ingredients; mix together to a dough, and then form the dough into 8 scone shaped pieces. You do need to make then reasonably flat because otherwise they won't cook in the middle - I know - I was that person who ended up having to slice them in half mid-cook...

Get your fire/stove going, lightly grease the pan you are going to use - a frying pan type is good, but anything really would work, then place the dampers into the pan for about 10 minutes, turning regularly. You can check that they are cooked by tapping - if they sound hollow, bingo.

in the pan

with jam

Serve with butter and jam (I can recommend rhubarb and vanilla...), tea or coffee, and a sense of satisfaction, (even if your fingers are now covered in dried up sticky flour mix and you have to trog back to the shower block to wash them...)

woops - not sure about the black smudge there...



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