Father's Day + A Time When I Didn't Like Pizza

It's Father's Day on Sunday. Both my kids have been plotting, planning and preparing over the last week for their daddies special day. They idolise him and approach this day with considerable excitement. My role in their carefully thought out plan is to try and turn the list of ever-so-slightly random and adventurous ideas into reality. 

Then there is my own dad of course. He's actually spending the weekend with my brother and his family, which will be a real treat, given that the distance between them (Isle of Wight - Tynemouth) doesn't allow for too many occasions spent together. I've written about my Dad before on the blog (you can read it here), but today I want to share a little story that came back to me recently.

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In 1980, we had a family holiday to America. It was a big thing. It was the first time that my brother or I had been abroad. We have a big extended family in Michigan, so this trip was spent in the company of our American cousins, all of who showed us a great and memorable time. Although only eight at the time, I remember it being an amazing adventure.

Naturally, many of my memories evolve around the food we ate. It was so different to what we ate back home: all the sweets were different and called 'candy', jam was called 'jelly' and as for breakfast cereal - I'd never seen so many varieties! I remember the pizzas too - great big things the size of dustbin lids. 

However, at eight I didn't like pizza. Even now, I can't give a legitimate reason why, I just didn't like it. These pizzas often marked the end of days sightseeing with relatives, but like I say I didn't like pizza. So my dad would go on a wild goose chase for a McDonalds to by me a burger (no gerkins). He wasn't a soft touch and I'm surprised he put up with such fastidious behaviour. On one such occasion, I remember him returning with my paper-wrapped bun rather incensed muttering something about 'almost getting run over trying to cross the busy highway to get to McDonalds'. To top it all, I dare say his pizza was cold when he got back to us all.

I love pizza now and wouldn't step within 100yds of McDonalds. Dad: sorry that I was a fussy-eating eight year old.

A Recipe For Heart Home: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Regular readers may recall the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake I baked for the food photography workshop I recently undertook. Well, I finally got around to writing up the recipe, and as of today it is over on the lovely Heart Home blog.

Ooh, and incase you were wondering where that cheerful floral tea set comes from, it's from a little gem of a local shop called Keep It Vintage. I can't pass its shop front without pressing my nose up against the window - its wares are as tempting as that second slice of cake.

French Toast & Roasted Rhubarb

I tore this recipe out of a magazine some months back and pinned it to my kitchen noticeboard in anticipation for the rhubarb glut that our allotment gives us every year. It's a quick and easy weekend breakfast for when you want to set the day off 'just so'. Perfect for an al fresco breakfast in the garden. 

French Toast & Roasted Rhubarb

Makes 8

5 Stems of rhubarb

2 tbsp Demerara sugar

3 eggs

100ml / 3½ fl oz single cream

90ml / 3 fl oz milk

2 tbsp caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

8 slices of small brioche loaf

Butter

Maple syrup or honey to serve.

Heat the oven to 200℃ (gas mark 6). Cut the rhubarb into 5cm pieces and place on a baking tray. Sprinkle with sugar and roast for 15 mins, or until tender. Keep warm.

Beat the eggs, cream, milk, sugar and vanilla in a shallow bowl. Add the brioche slices one at a time and soak for 1-2 mins.

Heat a knob of butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat until the butter foams. Add half the prepared bread and cook for 2-3 mins on each side. Repeat with the remaining bread, keeping the first batch warm in the oven until ready to serve. Serve with the rhubarb drizzled with a little maple syrup or honey.

Photography: Buttercup  Days.

Angel Cake

In amongst my cookbooks I have a now faded copy of 'The Sainsbury Book of Baking'. How it came to be on my shelf, I can't quite recall, but it had originally belonged to my mum. When I left home at 21, it was my one and only cookbook. I can vaguely remember it was part of a series: there was one that featured recipes made with a blender, which was rather niche. I do remember my mum buying them. It was 1980 and the books cost 99p each.

It was while browsing through this book that I came across a recipe for Angel Cake. I had never made it before and was intrigued by its ingredients list that read more like a meringue than a cake. Curiosity got the better of me and I baked it. The result is a light-as-a-feather vanilla sponge that is oh-so-pretty. On un-moulding the cake, I found the airy mixture hadn't completely filled the cake tin, so my Angel Cake was dotted with a few little craters. But it is homemade rather than shop-made perfection after all.

I made a simple rose and lemon icing to decorate the cake and popped a blousy chrysanthemum on top to detract from those craters. If you don't fancy the icing, just dredge the cooled cake with icing sugar for a pretty finish.

Angel Cake

25g plain flour

25g cornflour

150g caster sugar

5 large egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the icing:

100g icing sugar

1 tsp rosewater

1 tsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4.

Sift the flours and 25g of the caster sugar together 3 or 4 times.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, add remaining caster sugar a tablespoon at a time and continue whisking until very thick.

Carefully fold in the sifted mixture with the vanilla essence and turn into a 20cm (8") angel cake tin.

Smooth the surface and bake for 35 to 40 mins, though do check from 25 mins.

It is ready when the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Turn it upside down on a wire rack and leave in the tin until cold, when the cake will fall easily from the tin.

Dust with icing sugar, or decorate with a rose icing made by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl and mixing in the rosewater and lemon juice. If the icing is a little runny, add more icing sugar. You want it thick but pourable.

The Only Chocolate Mousse Recipe You'll Ever Need

We have a tradition in our house, where on their birthdays we let the children to choose their birthday dinner menu. Last week, on Arthur's birthday, he requested a chocolate mousse for pudding. I love a good chocolate mousse, but tend not to make them that often, so I set about my cookbook collection to find a suitable recipe. 

From Leon: Baking & Puddings, I decided to try the chocolate mousse recipe which is the creation of Leon co-founder Allegra McEvedy. I often adapt many of the recipes that I take from my cookbooks if the mood takes me, but this was a Lily that needed no gilding. I will never need turn to any other chocolate mousse recipe again. This one ticked all the boxes.

I left out the orange oil, simply as I had non to hand and topped my mousse with some chopped pistachio, because the boy loves a nut and I have a weakness for their vibrant green colour. 

Chocolate Mousse

serves 4

100 g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
30 g unsalted butter
2 free-range egg yolks
1 shot of dark espresso
a drop of orange oil or very finely grated zest of half an orange (optional)
3 free-range egg whites
15 g fructose, or 20g caster sugar

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt with the butter until smooth in a large bowl in the microwave, or over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water does not touch the surface of the bowl.

Separately whisk the eggs yolks until nearly white and thick in consistency. Gently stir the whisked yolks into the butter and chocolate, then stir in the coffee and orangey bit, if you are adding it.

Use an electric hand whisk to whip the egg whites to soft peaks, then add the fructose or sugar and whisk for another minute just to get that shine.

Beat a third of the egg white into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then add the next third more gently, and the last with the strokes of an angel.

Neither over-mix or leave white streaks, then divide into pretty things and leave in the fridge for an hour.

Images: Buttercup Days

More About That Photography Workshop

As regular readers will know, I recently undertook some mentoring from Brighton-based photographer Emma Gutteridge of Emma Lucy Photography. For amateur photographers like myself who want to learn either some camera basics or hone in on more specific photography skills, Emma offers bespoke mentoring sessions. I can't recommend her enough. On her blog, Emma has written a short post on our food photography session - check it out here and while you're there be sure to have a look at her stunning wedding photography which is jaw-droppingly beautiful.

All images on this post by Emma Gutteridge, Emma Lucy Photography. Food by Buttercup days. Props by Keep It Vintage.

A Birthday Picnic

On Saturday we threw a small 'Birthday Picnic' for Arthur and some of his friends and their parents. I still can't believe how lucky we were with the weather. Despite a less than positive forecast it stayed dry and the sun even made a couple of appearances. 

We headed to our 'local woods' at Three Corner Cospe for our picnic. Arthur loves the outdoors and is as happy as a clam when collecting sticks, leaves and pine cones. In fact he has a real stick obsession going on at the moment: every time we go out he returns with a stick or small bundle of twigs gripped tightly in his hands. We have quite a pile of them in our back yard now. He's reckoning on building a house with them apparently. So, with sticks in mind I worked on an outdoor woodland theme for the party.

I made little individual toadstool lunch boxes for the kids and filled them with some lunchtime goodies and made pasties for the adults. After lunch the kids did leaf hunts, rolled down the grassy slopes and collected sticks. I supplied each partygoer with a knapsack containing an i-spy nature book (so timeless!), a magnifying glass, twig pencil, sweets and bubbles. The kids had a great time and the adults all did too, which isn't always the case with kids parties. I expect the pasties played a part in that and the fact that the rain stayed away for the afternoon.