Pyrex & Rhubarb Pudding

Yesterday I  brought these little lovelies home.

 I spied them in the window of my local thrift shop and thought they would make darling little bowls for crumbles (rather than the 'soup' bowls they were labelled as).

The design isn't my normal colour choice but its the exact one my mum so I couldn't say no!

When I got home I wanted to use them straight away, and, spying the overflowing pot of eggs from our chicken I changed the crumble in my mind to sponge and along with the rhubarb hubby brought back from the allotment the day before, i devised a recipe for Rhubarb Pudding

Rhubarb Pudding

You will need:

3 sticks of Rhubarb

2 eggs

125g Self Raising Flour (1 cup)

125g Sugar (1/2 cup) + extra sugar to sweeten rhubarb if desired

125g Butter - room temperature

Preheat Oven to  175C

Begin by pre cooking the rhubarb until slightly softened,chop and microwave for 5 - 8 minutes or heat on stove.

Strain off liquid from rhubarb and discard.

Spoon rhubarb into base of Pyrex dish(s) sprinkling with a little sugar to sweeten if required

In a bowl cream sugar and butter together.

One by one add eggs to the bowl and mix.

Sieve flour and stir into the sponge mixture.

Stir until combined.
Spoon mixture over rhubarb, and level off.
Place in oven an cook for 30 minutes until sponge cooked thoroughly and golden.


Serve hot  - delicious with a scoop of ice cream

{Ministry of Food} Teapot Biscuits Recipe

 I was delighted at the weekend when I found these super cute teapot cookie cutters on sale. 

Hubby was a bit miffed on missing out on some coffee cake the day before so I broke with tradition  and made these teapot biscuits coffee flavoured  for him!!

 Recipe

275g Plain Flour

25g Cocoa Powder

30g Drinking Chocolate Powder

75g Icing Sugar

1 tbsp instant coffee

225g Stork

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 175C

Crush coffee powder into a fine powder using a pestle and mortar.

Sieve flour, cocoa powder and drinking chocolate into a bowl. Add coffee and set aside.

Cream stork together with icing sugar and vanilla extract.

Gradually add sieved dry ingredients (flour /coffee/ cocoa )  to this mix. Bring together until dough forms a ball. 

Remove from bowl and roll out on a flour dusted surface until  0 .75cm.

Cut shapes from dough and place on greased baking tray.

Bake for 12 minutes until cooked through but not coloured.

Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

When cooled decorate.

Enjoy!!!!

Retro Christmas Tipples

I'm sure I'm not alone on this one but people seem to have special drinks they associate with christmas time! (and if you don't drink stay tuned I have some treats for you too)

From a  mulled wine at the Christmas Nativity, to a Sherry left out for Santa, there seems to be an assortment of nostalgic tipples, here are a few of my favourites....

For me, christmas morning has memories of my mother making snowballs as a pre dinner drink and me sneaking the bubbles and cherry from the top! This tradition has now passed full circle and my daughter now pinches the bubbles from my christmas morning drink!!!

{Snowball Recipe}

Place 2 measures of Advocaat and 1/4 measure of Lime Cordial

into a glass. 

Top up with Lemonade and 

add a glace cherry!!

The next Christmas Tipple for me has to be a local, Babycham! I spent my childhood peering out my window when we went through Shepton Mallet, craning my neck to see the larger than life Babycham deer!

Babycham is a light sparkling Perry and was lauched in 1953. It was also bought in every year by my parents 'especially for guests at christmas'!

Now to start a few traditions of my own.....

Popular in the 50s, I'm looking forward to trying this on a cold Christmas Evening

{Hot Buttered Rum}

Place1 teaspoon of caster sugar in a warmed glass

Add ¼ cup boiling water, ¼ cup dark rum, 1 tablespoon butter

 Sprinkle with nutmeg & serve

{Mulled Ginger Wine} We're big fans of ginger beer here, so when I saw this on the shelf the other day, I had to pick up a bottle!! Seems a pretty good candidate for a new xmas drink!

{Non Alcoholic Tipples}

Lots of us don't drink when were at Parties, designated drivers, on meds, children sharing drinks etc so its a great idea to have a few non alcoholic drinks available...

No quite sure how this one came about other than, the children wanted a cocktail on xmas eve....

{Kids Christmas Eve Cocktail}

Add 1 tsp sugar to a tumbler 

Add 2 quarters of lime and muddle

Add 1/2 glass of crushed ice

Top up glass with lemonade

Decorate with loads of umbrellas and gawdy fab decorations!!! 

{Mock Champagne Punch}

Combine I litre of chilled sparkling water and chilled ginger ale.
Add 3 cups of chilled white grape juice.
Serve immediately in champagne glasses

{Mulled Wine Alternative}

I'm not claiming to have a recipe for this only a tip on what I do... take a normal mulled wine recipe and substitute a red grape shloer or similar for the wine. I've also just warmed up shloer with a mulled wine spice bag in it to infuse flavours, adding sliced clementines!
Quick, easy and infinitely quaffable!

{Christmas Coffees}

Add some christmas flavours to your hot drinks with a teaspoon of syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, caramel, this list is as long as your imagination!!

Spinkle on a festive design to your cappuccinos....

Chin Chin! And remember to drink responsibly!

{Ministry of Food} - Friendship Cake

Another misty grey day today so I decided to stay tucked up in bed turned on the radio for some christmas tunes and headed to the kitchen with Herman!

Herman is a German Friendship cake ( a sourdough cake that is handed out in starter form to your friends when you split the mix). Now I reckon Herman counts as a vintage recipe as I remember passing on tupperwares of Herman starters for my mum in the playground at school 25years ago when I was at Juniors.

I've been wondering about this for a while recipe and  was ever so pleased to see a friend handing out small tupperwares of something in the playground - yay! Herman was back!!!

I've lovingly looked after him for the passed 10 days , feeding and stirring as directed then today it was time to bake him!!

For those of you who are lucky enough to be given a Herman and maybe spill him all over the instructions your friend lovingly wrote out for you (Yes! that can happen, sorry Fran) here they are, if you don't have a friend to give you a Herman Starter then scroll down to the bottom of this post for a rather cheekily named Billy No Mates Cake and you can start one yourself!!

Herman Instructions

Hello, my name is Herman.
I am a sourdough cake. I'm supposed to sit on your worktop for 10 days without a lid on.
You CANNOT put me in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling, I am dead.

Day (number listed below)

1.You get Herman and put him in a large mixing bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel.
2 & 3 Stir well
4Herman is hungry. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugar and milk. Stir well.
5-8 Stir well
9.Hungry again. Add the same as day 4 and stir well. Divide into 4 equal portions and give away to friends with a copy of these instructions. Keep the 4th one.
10. Using the 4th portion.
Stir well and add the following:

1 cup sugar
half tsp (teaspoon) salt
2 cups plain flour
2/3 (two thirds) cup of cooking oil
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 cooking apples cut into chunks
1 cup raisins
2 heaped tsp cinnamon
2 heaped tsp baking powder

Mix everything together and put into a large greased baking tin. Sprinkle with a quarter of a cup of brown sugar and a quarter of a cup of melted butter. Bake for 45 minutes at 170-180C. When cold cut into finger pieces. Cake freezes well and is also delicious warm with cream or ice-cream.


"Billy No Mates Cake"

Ingredients

• 1 Cup plain flour
• 1 Cup caster sugar
• 1 Cup plain natural (live) yoghurt
• Half Cup milk
• 1 small sachet fast-action dried yeast (breadmaker yeast)

Put all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
IMake sure you use a natural live yoghurt, as this  contains what you need for the sourdough culture being created.

Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon until fully combined to a smooth batter-like consistency.
If the mixture is too thick to run off the spoon, add a little more milk and mix again.

After being left alone for 24 hours, the mixture will turn frothy and should make your daughter ask "mummy has that cake mix got alcy-hol in it, as she walks past and smells it! So we're looking for aslightly alcholic smell here, fermenting apples etc.
Give it a good stir - the froth will collapse, but the mixture will remain fairly bubbly.

You now have a starter for your Herman Cake. Measure out 1/2 pt and go straight to day 10 on the instructions....