patternpatisserie

A new design for Green Hive Honey Farm.

2012-01-26T18:33:00.003-05:00

Green Hive Honey Farm of Camden, Maine found some lovely 1lb Muth bottles for their delicious raw honey and asked me to redesign the original label (see a few pics down) to suit this new silhouette - an arched label for the front and a narrow label to hold the ribbon around the neck.

The neck label layout and a mock up of the finished (unfilled) bottle

I printed up 120 of each of the new labels and I love how they look all laid out together like this - each of the arched labels were cut out by hand - always more service than seems necessary!!

Seeing the design laid out like that above gave me the idea to do a textile design for my Spoonflower print-on-demand store and below you see the result of this idea.

Above is the original label and below a print I created from all the component motifs which is available as an archival print from my Etsy shop.

These lovely Muth jars filled with wonderful Green Hive Raw Honey is available from Fresh Off the Farm in Camden.

Steamed Apricot Pudding - not so pretty but soooo good on a chilly day!!

2012-01-20T17:59:00.003-05:00

Hello my little Steamed Pudding sitting in a pool of luscious Pouring or English custard - hot pudding and hot custard or cold pudding and cold custard or hot and cold together - any way works with this beauty, I prefer cold and cold - she may not be much to look at but as 'they' say "the proof is in the PUDDING!!"

If you have never had a steamed pudding before beware they are quite different in taste and texture to other desserts - they are like a moist sponge cake and they are dense yet light - how can that be?? - hard to say how - you'll have to try one, but they are delicious and somewhat addictive and there's nothing in the recipe to fail so anyone can do it!!

This is a simple recipe requiring no great baking skills but it does take time to do so factor that in - as with all recipes do read through first to know what you need to do and in what order.

The first order of the day is to get a nice big double boiler going so start that first and it can be heating as you make the pudding.

Here's a little still life of my ingredients - look at the colour of those eggs - from Farmetta Farm in Morrill, Maine, Kate's butter from Old Orchard Beach, Maine - breadcrumbs from my homemade bread (fantastic recipe here for no knead bread from King Arthur Flour), unsulphured Turkish apricots, organic lemon, organic milk and organic flour all from the Belfast Coop of course you don't have to use organic anything or Turkish apricots etc I just try to use the best ingredients I can to get the best taste.

THE APRICOT PUDDING

6oz of dried apricots of your choice chopped small

zest of the lemon

6fl oz water (3/4 cup)

Put these three ingredients into a heavy bottomed pan and gently simmer until very soft and getting squushy as below

Allow to cool about 10 minutes- now take out half the apricots and whirl in a blender 'til smooth - be careful not to put hot apricots in the blender as this can be a hazard and the heat blows the top of the blender so do let them cool to warm first set these aside.

With the other half of the apricots put them back in the pan with 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 1/2oz sugar, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 4 fluid ounces of water and simmer until nice and thick - set aside to cool.

Butter generously a one quart/2 pint bowl and when apricot with butter mix is cool dollop into this bowl.

Have all your ingredients at room temperature:

4oz/1 stick butter

2oz fresh white breadcrumb - not from stale bread

3 1/2 oz sugar

2 large eggs whisked together in a bowl

6oz white flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon lemon juice

scant 4 fluid ounces whole milk

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs bit by bit and cream between additions - if your mix curdles as seen below not to worry it will come back together again soon - curdling is unsightly but not a big problem in steamed puddings!!

3. Mix breadcrumbs and flour and baking powder together and then add to creamed butter and sugar in 3 additions alternating with the pureed apricots and milk - add the lemon juice and stir until you end up with a nice stiffish batter as below.

4. Spoon the batter carefully on top of the apricot/butter mix in the bowl and smooth over to finish.

Now we cut a round of greaseproof paper to cover the bowl generously....cover the bowl, fold paper over down the sides and secure with an elastic band.

Now cut a circle of aluminium foil, fold over the top of the bowl, secure with another rubber band and then for ease of getting the pudding bowl in and out of the steamer basket without scalding yourself tie string around the bowl in the manner below.

Now pop your little pudding into the 'basket' of the boiler and put it back in the pan on the stove...put the lid back and get the kettle on for a cuppa while you wait for your pudding to be cooked. I steamed this one for 1 1/2 hours on our humming wood burning stove...just to add to the Maine mystique. Remove the bowl from basket after the one and a half hours and remove covers - leave uncovered in the bowl for 10 - 15 minutes - after that time put a plate on top of the bowl and with covered hands invert quickly and give a shake to help the pudding plop out of the bowl.

Now a pudding isn't a pudding without custard so here's the recipe for that too - a little trickier but just be gentle and slow and you'll be fine!!

CUSTARD SAUCE, ANLANN CUSTAIRD
from "Irish Traditional Food" by Theodora FitzGibbon, a goodly trusty cookbook
1 heaped tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 whole large egg and 1 large egg yolk whisked together

10 fl oz/ 1 1/4 cups whole milk

1. Beat together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and sugar in a bowl.
2. Have another double boiler on the go.
3. Heat the milk to almost boiling in the top part of the double boiler but on the stove top to make it go faster.
4. Stir a little of the hot milk into the egg mix and then a bit more to temper the temperature.
5. Then put the top part of the double boiler back over the bottom and the boiling water and whisk the egg and milk mix into the rest of the milk
6. Do not leave the custard alone now until it is finished or it will curdle whilst you are not looking and you will have to start again. SO stir and stir and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to thicken and coats the back of the spoon as in the picture below...you take the spoon out of the custard, turn the spoon over, run your finger through the custard and if the line doesn't fill back in it is ready, don't let it cook too long or get too hot as the eggs will start to turn into scrambled eggs and the sauce will be grainy.....take off the heat immediately and continue to stir.

And to finish off with a little bit of design here's my latest textile pattern at my Spoonflower store - "Homespun Heart Patchwork"

Procure your Valentine's gifts early...

2012-01-07T01:12:00.006-05:00

...and Ye shall be rewarded by only having to pay economy rate shipping - for we all know how expensive express shipping can be. All these products are also print on demand so the more lead time the better to receive your gifts in time for February 14th 2012 which is a Tuesday by the way - Tuesday seems like the right day for Valentine's Day - I don't know why!

So - with no further ado - let us begin the shameless self-promotion - here is a gallimaufry of appropriately pretty items from my various online stores.

A kindle cover perchance?

...or perhaps an iPad sleeve already wrapped in plaid 'paper' and a trompe l'oeil gingham bow?

or a 3G hard case to protect your love's iPhone - the heart will give you away!!

A poster from my Etsy store for Green Hive Honey of Camden, Maine - the subtle, honeyed approach!

An allover fun polka dot fabric with a pretty pink ground for your beloved to swathe herself in (available shortly).

and a co-ordinating stripe for the Polka dot above to swathe yourself in and be in harmony with your love!

A poster or greetings card that leaves little to the imagination - no subtlety here - but still pretty!

Cupcake flip flops to adorn those twinkling little feet.

And so to bed - with your "cupcake" in her fetching pyjamas!!

Or a charming shoulder bag sporting a single tea rose for your loved one to look dashing on their shopping expeditions!

Thanks so much for taking a look!!

A Poem for the Old Year

2011-12-31T17:04:00.000-05:00



The Old Year by John Clare - the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet The Old Year's gone away To nothingness and night: We cannot find him all the day Nor hear him in the night: He left no footstep, mark or place In either shade or sun: The last year he'd a neighbour's face, In this he's known by none. All nothing everywhere: Mists we on mornings see Have more of substance when they're here And more of form than he. He was a friend by every fire, In every cot and hall-- A guest to every heart's desire, And now he's nought at all. Old papers thrown away, Old garments cast aside, The talk of yesterday, Are things identified; But time once torn away No voices can recall: The eve of New Year's Day Left the Old Year lost to all.
A toast to 2012 - let it be good for all!!

Earl Grey Tea Chocolate Truffles and Biscuits - for the New Year!

2011-12-30T20:38:00.007-05:00

Earl Grey Truffles and Earl Grey Biscuits/Cookies - very subtle and sophisticated!

Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles adapted from the book "Chocolates and Petits Fours" by Beverly Sutherland Smith

Start this recipe at least 4 hours before you want to serve the truffles as the chocolate needs a good amount of time to harden after melting - this is a very subtle flavour which greatly depends upon the bergamotiness of your chosen Earl Grey tea.

INGREDIENTS:

Ready for truffling - off we go!!

TRUFFLES:
6oz semi-sweet chocolate - chips or block your choice - if you use block break it into small pieces to assist in quicker melting.
2oz/1/2 stick butter cut into small pieces
6 fluid ounces heavy/double cream
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons strong Earl Grey tea (made from 2 tablespoons of loose tea and two tablespoons of boiling water - leave to steep for five minutes and drain - squeezing out the liquid from the tea - for use in the truffles) from preferably loose tea which tends to have a better, deeper flavour

COATING:
3 heaped tbsps unsweetened cocoa powder
3 heaped tbsps confectioners/icing sugar
1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea ground fine in a coffee grinder

1. Put cream and butter in a small pan and warm gently until butter melts and cream bubbles around the edges.
2. Add a couple of tablespoons of the hot liquid to the egg yolk and blend thoroughly – add a couple of tablespoons more and then whisk the egg yolk and liquid carefully back into the cream and butter mixture – reheat to just almost boiling whisking all the time to heat the yolk through and make sure nothing curdles.
3. Take off the heat and put chocolate into the mix and stir until it’s all melted.
4. Add the 2 tablespoons of liquid Earl Grey tea and blend.

Lovely chocolatey Earl Grey yumminess ready to cool for at least a couple of hours.

5. Chill until firm – this can take at least a couple of hours if not longer – chocolate takes quite a long to ‘set-up’
6. When truffle chocolate is set - it sets to a hardness like soft cookie dough - sift cocoa, icing/powdered sugar and ground tea together and spread on a small plate.
7. Form chilled truffle mix into small balls and roll in the sugar, tea, cocoa mix.

You can replace the Earl Grey liquid tea with 2 tablespoons of a liqueur of your choice - Brandy, Rum, Grand Marnier, Frangelico - they all would taste good - if you choose to do this then leave out the ground tea in the truffle and also in the coating too.
Ta Dah – you have delicious subtle truffles - they are very rich and the ones you see pictured below could actually have been half the size I made them here - I would go for a size a little bigger than a hazelnut.

Hello my little truffle!!

and now for -
Earl Grey Tea Biscuits/Cookies from a recipe by Claire Robinson on the Food Network.

These need to be chilled for at least 1/2 hour before baking so factor that into your timing.

INGREDIENTS
10 ozs white flour
2 heaped tablespoons loose Earl Grey tea ground fine in a coffee grinder
4oz icing/ confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
8oz butter at room temperature – I always use salted butter but you can use unsalted and then add a dash of salt to the recipe

DIRECTIONS: Makes about 24 biscuits/cookies
1. Mix together the flour, ground tea, and salt until the tea is just spotted throughout the flour.
2. Add the confectioner's sugar, vanilla and butter and either rub together by hand until it sticks together (as I do as I love to use my hands and not machines - makes a nice break from using the computer!) or pulse in a food processor until it holds together and a dough is formed.
3. Place dough on a sheet of waxed paper and roll into a log, about 2 inches in diameter. Tightly twist each end of wrap and chill in refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
5. Remove dough from fridge and slice the log into 1/3-inch thick disks.

I know this is Earl GREY tea but I didn't think the dough would look so grey!

6. Place disks 12 each on 2 baking sheets - about 2 inches apart.
7. Bake until the edges are just brown - the recipe said about 12 minutes but now I think 10 would have been better for mine as they looked great at 10 but I couldn't resist putting them back in for another 2 minutes and they came out overdone - so start checking at about 8 and see how you go - they should look like the picture below not like mine which are too brown.

GOOD colour for the biscuits!

My biscuits/cookies - they are too browned :(((( - they still tasted good though! and a nice texture too.

8. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks and cool to room temperature.

Ta Dah now you have Earl Grey Biscuits/Cookies to go with your Earl Grey Truffles – I have to be honest and admit the flavor of the Earl Grey in the cookies isn’t very pronounced and if I make these again I would figure a way to get the flavor out with boiling water as I did for the truffles above but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet as adding liquid will probably mess with the end result cookie/biscuit which is actually very nice!!.

Darkness has fallen and once again there's a little snow falling in Maine.

HAPPY BAKING AND TRUFFLING - let me know how your biscuits and truffles come out and

HAPPY NEW YEAR - here's to a fine and dandy 2012.

Do you know the difference between British and American Robins?

2011-12-23T20:20:00.003-05:00

Here's a beautiful photograph of a British Robin Redbreast taken by 4eyes photo in Kensington Gardens, London.

As you can he is quite different to his American cousin pictured below - especially so in stature - they do say everything is bigger in America but who thought that pertained to the wildlife too - the first time I was introduced to the American robin I was quite surprised at it's size, the American robin is about 8-11' tall and sleek and the British one only about 5" tall rotund and fluffy.

American Robins (Turdus migratorius) mark the return of Spring in most northern states. It is a migratory songbird of the thrush family and is named after the British or European robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are actually not closely related. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast.

The lovely Robin Redbreast – Erithacus rubela - is Britain's national bird "Of all our British birds, none perhaps has gained so complete a hold on our imaginations...as our red-breasted friend. He is a welcome guest in every home in the kingdom, and in turn acknowledges the compliment by trusting as do few of our native birds" - so said Lewis Bonhote on the robin in 1907 in his book "Birds of Britain". The Robin Redbreast is a well-beloved herald of the Christmas season in Britain, as important as Christmas pudding, log fires and Father Christmas himself - and is frequently depicted on Christmas cards – like the lovely example below by my friend Valerie Greeley....

and Canadian artist June Hunter...

The association between Christmas and the Robin Redbreast began because the postmen of the Royal Mail in the 1840’s used to wear bright red coats and became known as the “Robin Postmen” - and just as the postmen brought greetings of good cheer so did the robin with his splash of red in the winter scenery, his merry warbling and friendliness to humans – they are a tame bird because everyone loves them so although that relationship can be a little strained when the robins drink the cream off the top of your milk from your glass bottles with foil caps when left on the doorstep!! The robin’s in my neighbourhood even knew which milk bottles were the best to ‘tap’ and if there was a choice they’d peck through the “gold top” milk as that had the most cream leaving the red tops alone for the humans to enjoy.

When I was first working as a designer in New York I did sketches for Christmas designs with robins merrily chirping away amidst the snow and couldn’t figure out why everyone thought it was odd until I was told that robins represent spring in the US and the cardinal (especially the male who is all red - the female is taupe coloured) is the herald of Christmas on this side of the pond!! Male cardinals are a beautiful bright red and they show up easily in a wintery landscape – they are named after Catholic Cardinals whose vestments are the same glowing colour as you can see in the photograph and illustration below.

A lovely photo of the male Cardinal by Mike at Greenpix on Etsy

And an illustration of the male Cardinal by Regina Chui

For Britain the herald of spring is the cuckoo – a bird I have never personally seen or heard and whose numbers are declining dramatically and may soon no longer be enjoyed in Britain in the spring at all.

A Winter's Eve in Maine

2011-12-20T18:31:00.004-05:00

I love the look of trees silhouetted again the twilight sky.

As the winter solstice draws near - December 22nd 2011 UTC (Universal Time)

The crest of Blueberry Hill

Ahhhh....pink!!

The path up Blueberry Hill

Great looking berries!!

As the ground freezes harder and harder here in Maine it raises up around the stones to leave hollows like this around them - the moisture in the ground is expanding and freezing - I never saw this before I moved to Maine.

This also happens - ice crystals grow UP out of the ground as the stones go down, they are called needle ice - you can see the little caps of soil on the tops of the ice needles.

Happy winter - brrrrrr!

Brandy Snaps - burnt and not!

2011-12-17T19:08:00.003-05:00

This is how a Brandy Snap should look!! Crispy, lacy and oozing with lovely whipped cream!! They are half way between being a sweet/candy and a biscuit/cookie - if you like crunchy caramelly things - you'll like Brandy Snaps! In my experience Brandy Snaps actually don't have any brandy in them and most of the recipes I came across also didn't so I went that way this time but if you want to buck this tradition you can add a spoonful or two of brandy to your whipped cream filling.

SO - making Brandy Snaps is a lot like making crepes or pancakes - you have to get the temperature and time right and chances are you may throw away the first couple of pancakes or batches of brandy snaps - you kind of have to get your hand in - so to speak. They are actually quite simple but at the same time tricky so don't despair if you have to try it out a couple of times before getting it right.

Always read your recipe all the way through first so you know what to expect. This recipe can be a finger burner so adult supervision is necessary with children.

INGREDIENTS: for about 10 snaps

2oz/50g butter

2oz/50g sugar preferably brown

2oz honey/maple syrup/ golden syrup (if you have it available) - I used honey first and then maple syrup the next day - info for both is included below.

1 teaspoon ground ginger (even more if you'd like - the recipe called for 1/2 a teaspoon but that didn't flavour the first batch at all so I went to 1 teaspoon in the second and will happily go to a teaspoon and a half for the next time I make them)

2oz/50g plain white flour

Grated zest of one lemon

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 325F

2. In a heavy bottomed pan put the butter, sugar, lemon zest, ginger and syrup and melt gently until all is liquid.

3. Sift flour into hot liquid with the lemon juice and mix until smooth.

4. Allow to cool a little until the consistency of the mix looks like that below - warm and chewy - (my first batch I used whilst still hot and liquid and you'll see the grim results of that a bit further down)

5. Put four largish sized teaspoonfuls full of the mixture per naked baking sheet - no parchment or greasing necessary - and I would only do one sheet at a time - you'll see why when you watch the video below - I started with 5 per sheet but I think 4 gives you a better chance to get your snaps rolled without too much panic.

6. Bob them in the oven and start watching like a hawk to see their progress after 5 minutes - you want a nicely spread pretty evenly browned disc - mine stayed a little lighter in the middle and they worked out OK - I found the honey ones cooked faster and more evenly - the maple syrup ones were different but had a much better taste.

Ha ha - so this below is the result of the first go around - the recipe said to have the oven at 425F and cook for 15 minutes on parchment - NO!!! - the picture below is after 7 minutes and the paper was burnt to the bottom.

So I tried again - brought the oven down to 325F and started looking in the oven after just 5 minutes...these looked so much better - the recipe for the picture below is with honey - it produced a larger sized, lacier snap but I wasn't thrilled with the flavour - the honey overpowered the caramel flavour so next day I tried the recipe with maple syrup and got very different results.

Here's a video to show you what to do next - do watch before you start baking :) You can see how greasy this recipe becomes - be careful and don't burn your finger!!

These are the honey Brandy Snaps - they look great but the taste for me was only OK. Below is the first maple Snap - it didn't spread as much as the honey one's and had an odd sort of light coloured crust - hmmm - and it seemed to stay much hotter longer and got more crinkly crunchy faster and was harder to roll - but still - I preferred the taste and that's all that counts for me!!

and they looked more like little sausage rolls so.....

..with the third batch I turned the baked Snap disc over and rolled up the snap to be 'inside out' and the look was much better.......then I whipped up some cream - 4 fl oz/ 1/2 cup heavy/double cream with sugar to taste (and the brandy if you want it) - put it in a piping bag and then learned the best way to fill these little rolls so you get a good amount of whipped cream in there is to hold the snap vertically and sort of let the whipped cream fall out of the bag and down into the tube - if you hold the snap horizontally you can't get as much cream in there and really one always needs and wants more cream in there - doesn't one? - you should put cream in both ends of course!!

My absolute favourite way to have Brandy Snaps is to put the cream in and let them sit a few hours so the Snap starts to soften - it's still crunchy at the ends and toothy in the middle and then the cream squushes out - oh YES!!!! You can also add some chopped crystallized ginger to the whipped cream for a little more flavour - but it certainly doesn't need that!!

Look how differently how each batch came out - far left is the honey - better looking but not so tasty for me - next is the first maple batch good but a little ugly - second maple batch I didn't cook long enough and they were too soft - final batch of maple - nicely browned and I rolled them 'inside-out - upside-down' so they looked better and tasted great!

HAPPY BAKING - let me know how you do - Patricia

Recycling my own artwork - and having fun in the process.

2011-12-15T19:25:00.002-05:00

Many moons ago - yes, maybe actually 10 whole years ago - I created this tabletop pattern "Homespun", comprised of 20 different but related individual designs, for a company called PTS America and they in turn produced the ceramics and sold them through Bloomingdales - wee hee. Lately I have been perusing all the designs in my flat files and saw great potential in the above mix and match designs to re-use the elements and create new work for my own online stores - this involved scanning the art and then manipulating it in Photoshop - which I usually don't find to be that much fun but in this case I starting to get on a roll and now have gone down a wormhole of almost infinite possibilities - I am only showcasing the ones I have used thus far but I do have some more in mind. I was also inspired in this direction of traditional patchwork quiltiness by the continued popularity of the design below in my CafePress store - especially so on iPhone and iPad cases and sleeves.

"Quilt Design" 3G hard case

During my perusing I also scanned this 'country' patchwork design to use in combination with all the ones above.

"Bow and Gingham" iPad case at my online CafePress shop

This gingham bow is from the edge of one of the bowls in the top picture and the windowpane plaid is from another dinnerplate design in my art archives.

I took the square patchwork above and combined it with the red windowpane plaid and created the journal cover below.

"Plaid and Patchwork" journal available here .

...and then I combined all of the above designs and literally "patchworked" them together to create this allover design seen below on an iPad2 cover.

"Homespun" iPad2 cover

...and here is the repeat in it's full glory soon to be available at my Spoonflower shop (I haven't received my test swatch yet but when I do and (hopefully) approve the first sample then the fabric will be for sale) on a variety of different fabrics.

It was so much fun doing this - I was, and have been planning for quite some time, to start some new "from scratch" watercolour illustration artworks based on desserts and recipes which I will make, bake, photograph and illustrate - BUT having sat down on a number of recent occasions to do such and just not being able to get the flow going I finally realized what with the Holiday season upon us and other attendant things I should enjoy the recycling process you see here - which although it is time consuming and challenging is very different and somehow easier than creating new work. Starting the creation process of a new piece of art is surprisingly consuming - at least for me it is and it takes a whole different part of my brain and a big chunk of quiet time to contemplate. Thus I shall save the new work for the new year - here's to a productive 2012 - I'm excited to get started in just a few weeks!

How long can a run on sentence be??

Bara Brith - Fabulous Raisin TEAbread and an industrious squirrel.

2011-12-08T14:39:00.006-05:00

Bara Brith atop one of my fabric designs at Spoonflower

Oh My Goodness this is such an excellent recipe from a copy of British Country Living (the BEST magazine in the known universe) from February 2008 - why have I not made it before - was I leery of it's easy peasiness - perhaps - but now I make this about every 5 days and it comes out dandy every time!! If you like fruit cake this is a winner especially so as it contains only 7 pretty much on hand ingredients - maybe you'll have to avail yourself of raisins but I bet you have the rest in the house - there's no creaming butter or anything fancy but you do need to start soaking the raisins about 6 hours ahead of baking the teabread - that's the only 'hard' part. Off we go!!

Plumping up my raisins in good strong tea - yum!!

First make some strong tea - I have used regular black tea, Earl Grey, regular black with a little Lapsang Souchong - they all tasted good -I think Earl Grey is my fave though but the type of tea is up to you - I bet you could also use either green tea or apple juice - mmm - maybe I'll try apple juice in the next one - you'll need 10 fluid ounces hot tea (300ml) - nice and hot! Now put 10 ounces (about 280g) of dried fruit - I use just raisins but you can use raisins, currants, mixed peel and or sultanas - in whatever combination takes your fancy - pop them into a narrow bowl and pour on the hot tea - leave for about 6 hours - more or less - I have found 6 to be the optimum time - less and they're not plump enough and there's too much liquid left and more and there's no liquid left and the teabread burns on the outside. I added the zest of one lemon and mixed it in with the tea and fruit for a little brightness in the finished delight.

Pre-heat oven to 325F

Avail yourself of the following ingredients (including the raisins soaked in hot tea see above):

9oz (250g) self raising flour OR 9oz regular flour combined with 2 teaspoons baking powder (you don't need the baking powder in the self raising flour as it already has raising agents added to it)

1 large egg beaten

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cardamom - goes well with the lemon zest zing

5oz (125g) preferably brown sugar but white is OK too - I use slightly off white organic

THAT'S IT!!

1. Once your raisins are soaked and nicely plumped sieve the flour and spices into them (don't drain - you want the tea in there) - stir in the sugar, stir in the egg and beat a little until well blended.

2. Butter either an 8" round or a 6" round cake pan (those of you who know me know I have a ridiculous fondness for the 6" round and tall cake pan because it makes cute cakes as seen below) and add batter - smooth the top and pop into your preheated 325 oven - the oven needs to be low to be able to cook a long, slow time.

3. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours until springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean - check after one hour and if it is browning too much put an aluminium foil hat over to stop the top burning. This cake depends a lot on how long the raisins have soaked and therefore how much wetness there is to the batter.

The texture of the batter - wet but not sloppy!

Bara Brith "speckled bread"- a beautiful Welsh recipe - the recipe in the magazine said to keep it around for a few days before eating as it develops a nice elastic texture due to it's lack of shortening - yeh right - like I've been able to wait that long to find out - it's great as soon as it's cooled - it does get better by

the day and is faboo toasted with lashings of butter - also untoasted with butter is good!!

I made the yeasted Irish version, Barm Brack, of this a few weeks ago - it was lovely but it was much more of a bread with raisins in, harder and more time consuming to make and not as fruity - this recipe is a WINNER!!

HAPPY BAKING!!

It's another snow day here in Maine - as you can see there are still lots of apples on the tree out back and plenty on the ground for the wild turkey's and deer to nosh on.

And below - an enterprising squirrel found a place to stash his apple - in a hollow on top of the washing line pole - clever little devil - would LOVE to have seen him getting this up there - the apple is held nice and securely for him to nibble on safely away from his other wild neighbours!!

See you soon - my next post is about recycling my artwork - do drop by again. Patricia

Fragrant Quince and Ginger Cake for Thankies!

2011-11-18T21:02:00.002-05:00

Quince and Ginger Cake with Poached Quince and delicious Quince 'sauce'

If there were indeed such a thing as a runcible spoon I might perchance know it's whereabouts!

First we begin with the preparing of the Quince - an oddsome looking large pear shaped article which needs must be poached for a goodly amount of time in order to surrender it's roseate bloom and delightful taste which, for me, is very reminiscent of papaya. Quince were frequently (and should still be I think) used to perfume one's linen's in olden times - you can snuggle them in there and they will permeate your delicates with the most enticing aroma which is hard to describe - my whole house smelled of quince as I was given an amazingly generous amount of Maine quince to play with by the ever lovely rug weaver Sara Hotchkiss - thank you Sarah!!

To begin with you need to remove the fuzzy bloom from the quince by washing and then cut the quince in half - I tried a couple of different ways to remove the hard and pithy centres and found the best was with a potato peeler - I dug in around the centres and slowly prized the middles - pips and all - out - this can be quite hard and you must be careful not to slip and hurt your lovely hands.

Next I cut the halves into random cubes about 1/2" squarish as above - now the quince are ready for their poaching.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large quince cut up as directed above

(I used a recipe that called for 21ozs of quince which I dutifully acquired only to find it was WAY too much for this one recipe although it is nice to have some leftover to have on it's own or with the cake as I did but still that was way too much - I ended up using 8oz of the quince after it had been poached actually in the cake)

4oz sugar

4oz honey

Juice of half a lemon

Zest of one whole lemon

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

1 teaspoon cardamom

20 fluid ounces water

Place all above ingredients into a large pan, bring to a boil and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours until the quince is rosy red and soft but not mushy. Drain the quince reserving the liquid. Put liquid back in the pan and reduce until thick and syrupy.

4ozs crystallized ginger cut into small pieces

Juice of half a lemon

4 fluid ounces water

Put all above ingredients into a small pan and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Drain ginger and reserve liquid - combine with quince liquid and save for later.

The Cake: As with all cakes have the ingredients at room temperature

5 1/2 oz softened butter

9oz white flour unbleached

Good pinch of salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cardamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 1/2 oz sugar

3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk whisked together

3 1/2 oz creme fraiche or sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

1. Heat oven to 325F

2. Grease an 8" round spring form pan with butter, line with parchment paper and regrease lightly with butter.

3. Sift flour, salt, spices and baking powder into a bowl.

4. In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Add the whisked eggs bit by bit (maybe in about 6-7 goes) beating well between each addition to avoid curdling of the mixture.

6. Mix in a few tablespoons of the flour mix, the creme fraiche/sour cream and vanilla until well blended.

7. Fold in the rest of the flour, then the poached quince (8ozs weighed) and then fold in the poached ginger.

Folding in the quince and ginger to the cake batter.

8. Spoon (runcible or otherwise) mixture into the prepared tin and bob into the pre heated oven for about 1 and a quarter hours - check for doneness after one hour by inserting a toothpick which should come out clean - if not bob back in for another 15 minutes or until ready. If cake is browning too much at one hour mark cover with a hat of aluminium foil.

9. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven pierce the top a few times and spread the poaching liquid over to make a glaze.

10. Leave to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes then remove, take off the paper and leave to cool completely on a rack.

Here is the cake with it's uncooked friends and bereft of the addition of a side of cooked quince and poaching liquid.

If you cannot find or do not want to bother with quince I feel quite sure you could do the same recipe with poached pears - of course the regular pears wouldn't take anything like as long to poach and you would probably poach them in halves instead of smaller pieces as I think they might turn to mush - here's some pear poaching info from the ever wonderful David Lebovitz.

Again this is a cake that improves with age so you could happily make this a couple of days before Thanksgiving and save yourself a little bit of work on the day - keep in an airtight container until ready to eat!

Happy Baking - do let me know if you try this.

Cool new products at CafePress...please take a look see.

2011-11-10T18:06:00.001-05:00

What I love best about having a CafePress store is that I am free to do more designing whilst they take the unenviable (at least for me) responsibility of applying my uploaded designs to their products, shipping, gift wrapping, payments and returns...plus everything is done by 'print on demand' ie a product is only created when an order has been placed - each order is made custom - so I have no inventories to worry about and no upfront costs for products which may or may not sell.

The only hard thing for me is to figure how to get people to my store - thankfully social media is helping me do that (this blog, Facebook, Twitter) and for free - the only currency I am using right now is my time. YEA!!!

Just recently CafePress has added quite a few new, cool products to their range so here is an overview of the ones I like best.

The Sack Pack has a draw string top opening and you can wear on either shoulder or on your back - the Field Bag is a one shoulder or an across the chest deal - both nice and roomy with extra pockets.

A Sippy Cup made from stainless steel so no BPA worries for your wee baby and a Tea Tumbler with a built in strainer and keeps your tea hot or cold - how does it know?

Reusable shopping bags durable enough to carry 50lbs of shopping yet small enough to roll up and pop in your pocket.

iPad2 covers by Brenthaven is a top-of-the line iPad 2 folio with a PU Leather exterior and faux-suede liner in a slim and sleek design and iPad2 cases which are made from hard plastic and help protect your iPad from scratches whilst looking really cool decorated with one of my designs!!

iPad sleeves, Kindle sleeves and Nook sleeves all made from soft, double backed Neoprene.

Protective hard covers for your 3G iPhone (this quilt design is by far my most popular design at this point) and also your 4 or 4S iPhone slider.

iTouch2 and iTouch 4/4S pod hard, protective cases

Laptop skins for a variety of different laptops: PCs (Toshiba, Acer, Dell, HP & Asus), Apple Macbook and netbooks (Acer, Asus, HP Mini & Dell Mini).

Swanky Shoulder Bags in red, taupe or black

...and a Messenger Bag to run around the City with...

Each of these products is available in each of the sections of my CafePress store - unless, of course, it is a dedicated sections like Just Shoulder Bags - :)

Thanks for taking a look, Patricia

Pin It

A Tracery of Autumn Leaves

2011-11-03T14:52:00.001-04:00

It has been a strange Autumn so far here in Maine. The leaves are still on some of the trees and they are still green, many trees are bereft of their leaves and those leaves didn't really turn much of a colour before falling and THEN on Hallowe'en we had a heavy wet snowstorm so there were fully leaved, green trees covered in snow.

There hasn't been much in the way of red leaves or indeed full trees arrayed in their Fall splendour BUT I have captured some glorious pictures of golden, burnished, coppered, yellow, stained glass, creamy pretty leaves which to me all look like textile design repeats waiting to be created for my Spoonflower store.

I'll look back on these photographs one blizzardy day this coming winter and be reminded of the glory that is Maine in the Autumn - crisp, clear, bright blue shiny skies, THAT Autumn smell, the crinkle of rustling leaves and the cheeriness of the Fall glow....ahhhhh.

Which picture do you think would work best as an allover textile design?

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Happy Autumn everyone - have a cosy season....Patricia

An Irish treat for Hallowe'en - Barm Brack and the return of Pumpkin Boy 2009!

2011-10-27T21:56:00.003-04:00

Barm Brack, steaming hot tea, lashings of butter, autumn leaves and PUMPKIN BOY - my pumpkin from 2009 who spent the entire winter outdoors, miraculously became freeze dried and deteriorated no further once I brought him back indoors - he's been happy ever since!

Barm Brack or Bairin Beac is a traditional Irish yeast bread baked for Hallowe'en. Barm or bairin means the frothy yeast from the top of brewing beer which in olden times people used to rise their breads (going barmy means, in the north of England going crazy) - and brack or breac means speckled - because the raisins are speckled throughout the bread and some of them tend to break up when the dough is kneaded.

I tried this recipe twice as the first one was just too big and it got really dark on the top before it was cooked all the way through - a fact I didn't know until it cooled and there was a wodge of uncooked dough through the middle - this is how it looked when it was cooling - I thought it looked fine but I was wrong - I also lined the pan with greaseproof paper but it stuck badly - didn't do that one the second try and it was much better.

First attempt - not so good - that horizontal line is where it was, sadly, uncooked.

My second attempt worked yea!!!

RECIPE from "Irish Baking Book" by Ruth Isabel Ross

INGREDIENTS for two good sized loaves - this recipe rises like crazy or should I say barmy!! This particular recipe didn't call for it but I decided to start the day before and soak my raisins overnight in good strong tea - my Mum always did that and I have been doing it for anything that requires a bit of moistness like a breadcake or Christmas cake or pudding. It adds a really lovely note to the finished recipe. SO if you want to do that take 8oz raisins and soak them in a good covering of strong, hot tea - preferably overnight but for at least 4 hours to really plump them up - of course you can just use regular raisins or sultanas (a more moist raisin from green grapes). BEFORE you begin baking strain the tea off your raisins - if you wish you can replace a little of the milk in the dough with this sweet tea mix to add more raisin flavour to the dough).

Pre heat one's oven to 400F

1lb white flour preferably unbleached

8oz raisin (soaked in tea or not) or sultanas

4oz candied peel (this is traditional - I didn't use it as I didn't have any around but feel free to put this ingredient in or not)

Pinch of salt

1/2 oz or two packs of dried yeast

3 tablespoons warm water

10fl oz whole milk

2oz butter

2oz sugar

1 egg beaten

1-2 teaspoons nutmeg (depending on your taste for this spice)

1-2 teaspoons cardamom (depending on your taste for this spice)

Separately dissolve a couple of tablespoons of sugar in the same amount of water as a glaze .

1. Put flour and salt in a bowl and mix together.

2. Sprinkle the dried yeast on the warm water.

3. Warm the milk with the butter until tepid.

4. Add the yeast mix, spices, milk, butter, egg and sugar all into the flour and mix well.

5. THIS IS A WET DOUGH!!

6. Flour a board well and tip the mix onto it.

7. Start kneading and add flour as you go - the recipe didn't say to do this but the mixture was so wet I didn't have a choice - and the bread turned out great so I don't think it was wrong - continue kneading for about 15 minutes and it will become elastic and smooth and still quite soft.

8. Put into a warm bowl , cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a snug, warm place for about 1 hour - it will rise like a champion.

9. Now for more stickiness - put dough back onto floured board and start kneading and adding the raisins - this is quite hard to do and I found out the reason why you don't put the raisins in until now - I was watching the Great British Bake Off (a really good cooking challenge show with historical facts and sweet people - watch it if you can - maybe when you are ready to eat your Barm Brack!!) on YouTube and they explained this in the show - is because the moisture and sweetness may affect the rising of the dough - but honestly I think it would be EASIER to add them earlier - anyway do your best and knead as many raisins as you can evenly through the dough - mine looked like this below when I was finished - I should have added more raisins in hindsight and kneaded longer for better distribution - I didn't get them all in - I'll try harder next time!!

Nice and sticky!!

10. Divide evenly into 2 well greased 8" diameter cake pans, cover with cloths and allow to rise again for another 20 minutes - mine rose again like BARMY!!! - once again being the naughty girl I am I did mine in a 6" round pans that are taller than the average pan (because I love it and the resulting baked goods look so cute!) and they came out well - but I think an 8" would be easier to judge when it's ready because it would be shallower and not be prone to brown quite so much on the top.

11. Put in to bake for about 35-45 minutes but check regularly as I found it browns really quickly.

12. The ony real way to know it is done is to jiggle it a bit and see if there's just too much movement which was the case with my first one but I then didn't know what that meant OR remove it from the pan and rap the bottom with your knuckle an listen for an 'empty' sound - pretty esoteric but you'll know what I mean when you hear it - don't burn your fingers doing this!!

13. When you think it's done - and this is something you have to learn to sense with more bread baking experience - remove it from the oven - leave the oven on, and brush the top with the water sugar glaze.

14. Pop back in the oven for about 5 minutes and you'll get a nice shine on your loaf.

15. Remove - let stand about 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge and take out of the pan - leave to cool on a cooling rack.

16. When completely cold, slice (it's easier to slice when cold), toast - it catches very easily when toasting so keep an eye on it - butter generously and avail yourself of a nice cup of tea RELAX and have a nice quiet moment to yourself.

Really - this is just like a GIANT Hot Cross Bun!

Now THAT'S a piece of toast - YUM!!!!!!!!!

Happy Baking - let me know how it comes out - always feel free to post pics on my Facebook page - I'd love to see your Barm Brack!!

Waugh - the ghosts are here!!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN

The Colour of Autumn Leaves

2011-10-26T18:45:00.001-04:00

Yea - I found some pink leaves!

Fall/Autumn has been slow coming along this year and colours have been in short supply. There are still a lot of green trees out there - which seems awfully late to me - so maybe there'll be more colour to come. Tomorrow we are looking forward to our first snow - not a sticking one right now but you never know - enjoy the pictures, they speak for themselves.

Concord Grapes swathing an old industrial planer out in the fields.

I love this fluffy grass but don't know what it is - do you?

Another view from Blueberry Hill

I'll keep my eyes peeled for more colour and will post here for you to enjoy Fall in Maine.

Apple Parkin Slice

2011-10-22T16:19:00.003-04:00

Apple Parkin slice is an old Yorkshire/Lancashire recipe by way of Australia. Growing up in the north of England every bonfire night we partake of parkin - a chewy, oaty, dense, molassesy slice ( a 'slice' is halfway between a cake and a scone I'd say) - recently I espied this recipe in British Country Living for a similar 'slice' but with no molasses, lighter in texture and with the addition of apples through the middle (something I am not unhappy about as I am not a big fan of molasses or as we call it in the UK treacle- a nice onomatopoaeic word that sounds like the treacle being spooned from the jar!)

THE RECIPE - as usual in weights which nowadays I am translating from metric to imperial as I only have a weighing scale with ozs so the amounts may seem odd!!

INGREDIENTS:

7oz butter

9oz sugar plus extra for sprinkling

2 large eggs whisked together

12.5 oz white flour

3.5 oz rolled oats

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3-4 apples of your choice peeled and chopped

A little milk for making the batter a little softer.

METHOD:

1. Heat the oven to 350F/180C

2. Butter a square baking dish - about 8"

3. Beat butter and sugar together until light and pale.

4. Gradually beat in the eggs - I do this in about 4 goes with goodly beating in between so I don't go down the road of curdling.

5. Fold in the sifted flour, nutmeg and oatmeal and blend nicely.

6. The mixture will be quite stiff at this point - put half of it into the greased dish and press evenly.

7. Strew apples atop this evenly.

8. To the remaining mixture add a couple of tablespoons of milk or more to make the dough come to a dropping consistency - so spoonfuls plop onto the apples as below -

9. Smooth out the plopped spoonfuls to look like the pic below - and sprinkle with some extra sugar before popping into your pre-heated oven.

10. Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until the 'slice' is golden and firm to the touch - again as below.

This is a hearty sweet - another good keeper which tastes better the day after baking - but who can keep desserts around that long I ask you? You can serve this hot, warm or cold - with or without ice cream, lashings of cream or custard or on it's own with a good hot cuppa!

HAPPY BAKING!!! and do enjoy Great Maine Apple Day tomorrow October 23rd.

Apple and Lemon Curd for Great Maine Apple Day

2011-10-19T14:09:00.001-04:00

As you can see Great Maine Apple Day is coming up pretty sharpish and I have two recipes in store to celebrate this day - today it's Apple and Lemon Curd, a recipe adapted from "Country Harvest - A Celebration of Autumn" by Linda Burgess and Rosamond Richardson - and then Friday I'll post the recipe for Apple Parkin Slice

And so we begin by assembling our small cast of characters, six in all, for the recipe - I collected some windfall apples from our ancient apple trees out the back...they are a bit knarly and lumpy but ended up tasting great in the curd!

THE RECIPE: In weights as that is more reliable (see why here ) and to help you out here is a link to a great conversion site

1lb of your preferred apples chopped small

5 fl oz water

7oz sugar

2oz butter ( I always use salted - I like that taste in sweet things)

1 teaspoon (more or less according to your taste for it) freshly grated nutmeg

3 egg yolks whisked together

Juice and zest from two lemons (preferably organic when you are using the zest)

1. Put apples and water in a heavy bottomed pan and cook on medium until very soft - this took forever with my windfalls but when I made it with apples from local farmers it went pretty fast.

2. Press the apples through a sieve - you only need to do this if you want it really smooth but I was surprised at the amount of stubborn lumps I got that didn't squush through the sieve - so I would recommend doing this.

3. Return apple squush to pan, add sugar, nutmeg and lemon juice and zest and cook until sugar dissolves.

4. Add a little of the hot apple sauce to the egg yolks and quickly whisk together so eggs don't cook and curdle, then add a little more and do the same - you are tempering the eggs here so as not to end up with scrambled eggs.

5. Add the egg/apple sauce back in to the pan with the remainder of the apples sauce and cook gently until it begins to thicken - keep stirring and do not boil or again you will end up with scrambled egg yuck!! :(

6. Take the sauce of the heat and add the butter bit by bit - stirring and blending between each addition.

7. Allow to cool and do as you will with your lovely Apple and Lemon Curd - apparently this does not keep well so don't plan on bottling and using later - perhaps you'll like this as much as I do and it won't have the chance to stay around. This is also a good reason not to do too large of an amount at once...it needs to be fresh to be good unlike lemon curd which can be bottled and kept.

Happy Curding NOT curdling!

"Created by Mother Nature - Nurtured by Local Farmers" fabric from my Spoonflower shop

And here's the luscious finished curd - tangy, bright and with some tooth - not as smooth as lemon curd but honestly just as good. I used mine in a meringue tart so I could use up the leftover egg whites but also had it on buttered toast - divine!! - and it could easily and charmingly be the filling in a layer cake, or on the top of scones or a side for a roast of some sort - I'm not a meat eater so I'll leave it to your imagination as to which meat it would accompany well - the combination of fruit and meat is big in England so maybe I am remembering tastes of yore from my childhood.

Do let me know how your curd came out!

Sticky Toffee Pudding.....yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-06T19:24:00.000-04:00

Here it is - a slice or rather chunk of the iconic British Sticky Toffee Pudding - a moist, date laden cake with the most perfect sticky toffee sauce bubbled under the grill/broiler - you melt when you taste it, especially the day after it is made. DON'T let the idea of dates put you off...they are hard to discern in the finished pudding but they are absolutely necessary to the deep sweet flavour.

Here is the book containing my personal favourite STP recipe...do you think I've used it a lot? I tasted STP first about 25 years ago in the Lake District of England - a glorious area of the country - at a Restaurant called The Moon and after my epiphany I was glad to see they had a recipe book with that special delight therein...it has served me SPLENDIDLY over the years - haven't had one person not be thrilled with this dessert.

I am giving the recipe in weights and an approximation of cups also, but try to weigh if you can, it will be better, honest!
By the by a 'pudding' in Blighty means any dessert so if you are not familiar with the term in that context think of this as a form of coffee cake with a toffee icing!

Pudding batter:
6oz stoned dates preferably medjool..they are stickier and gooier and just plain better
8oz flour sifted..about 2 cups unsifted
1 teaspoon baking powder sifted with flour
1 large egg, whisked
6oz sugar....prefably brown but fine, about 3/4 cup
2oz butter...surely you can work that one out!
10fl oz boiling water
1 teaspoon bicarb ie baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Toffee Topping:
2 1/2oz brown sugar...oops didn't figure that one out, I suppose a bit more than 1/4 cup
1 1/2 oz butter
2 tablespoons cream or half and half
NB I usually double the toffee recipe and you'll see why when you've eaten it!!

1. Cover dates with boiling water, add vanilla and baking soda...let stand
2. Cream the living daylights out of the butter and sugar
3. Add whisked egg gradually to the butter and sugar beating in between additions
4. Add flour in thirds and cream between additions
5. Add sloppy datey goo to creamy floury goo and blend well...you will have a nice runny batter
6. Pour into greased 9 x 9 glass pan and bake for 40 minutes or so at 375F
Topping:
1. Heat sugar, cream and butter together in a small pan until sugar has dissolved
2. Pour over the baked pudding and place under hot grill 'til it bubbles.

Ye Olde Sloppy Batter

Bubbling happily straight from the grill/broiler...yea!!

Et voila....there's your sticky toffee pudding...wait until it is cool to serve...with vanilla ice cream if you fancy. BUT best of all save the corners for breakfast next day...if you can!!!
Let me know if you make it and how it came out...this recipe has never failed me and everyone I have served it to is hooked.

Happy Baking!!!

Flowers and Frogs - oh my!!

2011-10-05T20:07:00.003-04:00

I don't know how I got this picture or what I did to make it so painterly and impressionistic...it just happened....it like how the green foliage has greyed out and the asters are in movement - but really it had nothing to do with me, I just clicked!

The Asters (or Michaelmas Daisies) signalling Autumn on Blueberry Hill - don't the purple, green and spots of golden yellow work well together?

Then down at the pond a couple of weeks ago...I have been tardy posting these pictures - naughty moi - but here they are now reminding me of the bliss of that perfect summer day in the midst of a week of rain and drizzle and shades of colder weather looming nigh.

There were SO many frogs down at the pond...and they behaved very well allowing me to get quite close and see just how handsome they are. As soon as I moved too noisily or quickly though they all plopped into the water one by one - it was quite a comical sound.

Here's a little guy in among the lupine leaves - happy as a clam!!

"A lonely pond in age-old stillness sleeps . . .

Apart, unstirred by sound or motion . . . till

Suddenly into it a lithe frog leaps".

Basho Translated by Curtis Hidden Page

Next post is Sticky Toffee Pudding...one of Britain's most prevalent and popular desserts and deservedly so...it's DELICIOUS...see you soon!

Pear and Almond Cake.

2011-09-30T14:20:00.001-04:00

Here is my delicious Pear and Almond Cake with lovely caramelly slivered almonds covering it's nonce and a layers of ripe and luscious pears in the centre...yum!!

The recipe is from an old British Country magazine...one of my go to resources for British 'pudding' (the catch all word for all British desserts). In the last few years all Brit recipes have been converting to grams and kilos with attendant equivalents in ozs and lbs but now they no longer give the Imperial weights so I had to do a some maths to convert this recipe to Imperial for my little weighing scale is Imperial and it would be very confused if I asked it to weigh 75 grams. I have also decided not to go the extra step of supplying cups after reading a recent New York Times article about the inconsistencies of that weighing system - which I have long believed but now I have the NY Times to back me up...my thanks to them!! I hope this is not too much of an imposition for you...do avail yourselves of a weighing scale and your recipes will turn out more reliably and you'll be able to duplicate a good recipe much more easily. Otherwise here is a place to do your conversions.http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

THE RECIPE: for best results have everything at room temperature. Pre heat your oven to 350F

Ingredients for cake

6 1/4ozs/175g butter ( as you can see in the photo above I use Kate's salted butter)

5 1/2 ozs/150g sugar

2 large eggs whisked gently

8ozs/220g white flour, unbleached preferably

1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda/baking soda

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4 fl oz/140ml sour cream

Juice and zest of 1 lemon unwaxed and preferably organic

2ozs/50g ground almonds

2 peeled and sliced pears.

For the topping:

2ozs/50g butter (again I use salted you can use unsalted but this is a caramelly thing and really zings from the salt)

2ozs/50g brown sugar

2 tablespoons heavy/double cream

3ozs/75g slivered/sliced almonds

My ingredients minus the lemon and sour cream...

1. Cream the butter and the sugar from the cake list together until light and fluffy.

2. Add the whisked eggs in 4 to 5 goes...the less you add at a time to the creamed butter and sugar and the more you beat the better the amalgam and the less chance of curdling...things being at room temp also alleviate the chance of curdling.

3. Sift together the flour, baking soda and nutmeg.

4. Fold in half the sifted ingredients.

5. Fold in the sour cream.

6. Fold in the rest of the flour mix.

7. Fold in the zest and the ground almonds.

8. Toss the pear slices in the lemon juice.

9. Spoon half of the cake batter into a 20cm/8" SPRING FORM pan buttered and lined with baking parchment...you'll see later why I have that in capitals! I was naughty and used a 6" x 3" high cake pan (because it produces cute cakes that are small in diameter and tall but the cooking takes longer and is less reliable when the original recipe calls for an 8" diameter pan)

10. Layer your pear slices over the batter thus:

11. Cover the slices with the rest of the batter and bob in the oven for about 40 minutes.

12. Put the topping ingredients together in a pan and heat until the butter and sugar are melted...set aside.

13. Remove cake from the oven at 40 minutes and slather with the topping caramelly goodness and return to the oven for about another 15 minutes or until cooked...using a skewer to tell you if this cake is cooked is a little harder than usual as you may pick up some of the pear slices as 'wet' ingredients so you will have to use your judgement on doneness.

Now you can see why I capitalized the springform pan...I didn't read my recipe thoroughly enough and I used a regular pan and filled it a little too much...this cake rose quite a lot beware although if you used the size the recipe says to use you may well not have the silliness I encountered.... so how was I to get the cake out of the pan? I waited a goodly ten minutes for the cake to cool a little and the almond topping to set a little , I went around and around the edge with a knife until it seemed well free of the sides and then I inverted it onto a plate and then quickly turned it back right side up onto another plate... I was lucky it came out in one piece...be assured using a springform would have made this part a lot easier!!

Because of the sour cream and the pears in the centre this is a very moist cake - which I have a great fondness for AND it's flavour improves markedly with age...one of those better the next day cakes.

Happy Baking everyone...be in touch!!!

Having fun with Spoonflower!

2011-09-09T18:09:00.009-04:00

The actual fabric swatches laid out with the print outs from my computer...a pretty good match here!

Spoonflower is a print on demand company based in Georgia, USA. It's a wonderful idea and is an excellent resource for artists who want to sell their work directly to the fabric buying public and great for people who have Etsy shops and want to design their own fabrics to make up pillows, bags, teddy bears and all manner of things made from fabric. Above are two designs I just received today..."Europa" a painting I originally did as a watercolour design for use as a dinnerware pattern for PTS America as seen below and "Folkloric Star".

Creating the allover print for this design was challenging and fun...the most complicated print I have done so far...and I can't wait to do some more complex designs from my paintings!!

Once I have done the allover design for fabric/textile application I upload to Spoonflower and order a swatch size to see how the design prints. Next I size the design to work for flip flops in my CafePress store. I just ordered these flip flops for myself and can't wait to see how they look.

My first Holiday design "Folkloric Star" there'll be more to come...how about some snowmen??

Above...an allover print using two of my cupcake illustrations combined "Cupcakes Galore"

My "Created by Mother Design" as an allover - on the first sample I received the yellow was too bright, almost neon...as you probably know the image you see on your screen is different than the one that prints out onto paper and the colours are different from each and every printer SO calibrations sometimes need to be made. Below is "Kaleidoscope" which began life as a large scale acrylic painting on panel - my first sample of this I realized the motifs were too small so I am awaiting a new swatch with them enlarged.

I learned textile design on the job in New York City many moons ago working for a bodywear company who were wonderfully supportive so I am delighted I can now offer my own work via Spoonflower...I love fabric and I used to be thrilled and amazed shopping in the garment district in NY for new fabrics - I even used to make my own clothes but no longer have the patience to do that...sewing machines drive me nuts!!

The following is a list of the fabrics my designs will be available upon - (that's dreadful English but I'm not sure how to rework it!!):

Quilting Weight Cotton:
100% cotton fabric with a soft hand, easy to sew

Organic Cotton Sateen:
100% organic cotton sateen, glossy finish, white

Organic Cotton Interlock Knit:
100% organic cotton. Very soft, natural off-white knit perfect for t-shirts, dresses, baby clothes and more.

Upholstery Weight Cotton Twill:
Sturdy 100% cotton twill with an optic white finish.

Linen-Cotton Canvas
Sophisticated light-weight canvas woven from 55% linen and 45% combed cotton.

Silk Crepe de Chine:
100% silk with a delicate, semi-sheer texture

Cotton Voile:
100% cotton voile, combed, delicate, silky texture. Please note that this fabric replaces cotton lawn, which was discontinued on 11/30/2010.

I'm looking forward to making a scarf from this fabric...it's lovely!

* NEW * Cotton Silk:
55% cotton / 45% silk fabric with a soft sheen on the printed side

Are there any of my artworks you 'd like to see as a textile design?

Banana Raisin Tea BreadCake...so goood!!

2011-09-05T16:24:00.006-04:00

Does my puppy really think she's getting a slice of this divine Banana Raisin BreadCake...I think not!! - especially so as raisins can be lethal to our furry dog friends...but that aside this is a really divine cross between a teabread (a sweet loafy thing with yeast) and a fruit cake...it's really just a light fruitcake with bananas in to be honest and it is absolutely delicious.

The ingredients above and the cake pictured here don't have nuts in but the second one I made...and the third and now for sure the fourth had either walnuts or pecans in to round out the tooth and flavour...it's great without nuts but even better with and be sure to lightly toast the nuts first to elevate their flavour.
Adapted, ever so slightly, from "The Food for Thought" cookbook by the restaurant of the same name in Covent Garden, London....a wonderful vegetarian eatery.

Firstly heat your oven to 325F

Secondly soak your dried fruit in tea for a couple of hours to plump before using in this recipe.

I try to give measurements for cups and weights but I always do weights myself as it makes for a much more reliable recipe and for consistency when you make it again so I would recommend weighing if you can.

INGREDIENTS:

4oz/1 stick softened butter (I always use salted in desserts..I just like the flavour)

8oz/1 cup sugar

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup strongly brewed tea - I used Earl Grey and it was excellent!!

4oz/ 5/8 cup raisins

4oz/1 cup walnuts or pecans lightly toasted first until they are fragrant...allow to cool and then crumble to smallish pieces.

4 fl.ozs/1/2 cup liquid combination of whole milk (I used Elderfower Farm unpasteurized in glass bottles from Lincolnville, Maine) and the tea

strained from the fruit

2 goodly sized bananas mashed smooth

1 teaspoon bicarb of soda/baking soda

1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I LOVE nutmeg but you can use ginger or cardamom or a combination)

8oz/2 cups unbleached white flour

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract

1. Soak raisins in hot tea for a couple of hours then drain and reserve the tea....add milk to tea to make 4 fluid ounces/1/2 cup.

2. Cream butter and sugar together until light in colour and fluffy.

3. Beat in the tea/milk, bananas and vanilla...it will be sloppy and kind of curdled looking like below but not to worry!!

4. Sift dry ingredients together.

5. Gently fold dry ingredients into banana/butter slush until well combined.

6. Pour into a lightly buttered and floured cake tin...mine is 6 x 3 and it is a perfect size for this recipe...which can be doubled and made in a 9" pan.

7. Bake in 325F oven for about 40-60 minutes. The cooking takes a long time and you may have to check a couple of times to make sure it is cooked in the centre...my first one you see here was a little undercooked in the middle...but then I cooked longer the next time...just make sure a skewer slipped into the centre of the cake comes out clean and your cake is done. If your cake is getting too brown put a little aluminium foil cap on it until it is done.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before unmolding and allowing to cool on a cake rack...if you leave in the pan to cool or cover before it is completely cold it will sweat and become soggy...we don't want that do we??

I could happily eat a slice of this cake every day for the rest of my life...I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!

Happy Baking...Patricia

Dancing flowers, rowan berries and a new friend catching rays before Irene!

2011-08-27T15:31:00.002-04:00

All along the roadsides in Maine right now are swathes of Queen Anne's Lace dancing and bobbing...when the wind catches them they look like plates spinning on poles - just like you used to see in old fashioned circuses and variety shows (showing my age now aren't I?)

Close up the flower head of the Queen Anne's is made of many teeny tiny flowers

And when the flowers die the flower head curls in upon itself and starts to form the seeds

...ever so pretty too

And suddenly the rowan trees are heavy with berries...I never notice the berries coming on - they are just suddenly covering the trees with their glorious bright red berries. When I was growing up my Mum always said if there was a heavy crop of berries on the trees then we were going to have a bad winter as the trees knew the birds and little creatures would be needing more food.

A nice dense cluster of Rowan berries...also known as the Mountain Ash

And then who do we have here...

Yesterday afternoon I espied this tiny little frog - I'll bet he wasn't even an inch long- catching some rays in the daylillies...isn't he cute?

He was very patient as I took his photograph from many angles...

Does anyone know what kind of frog he is? Later in the day he had a reprieve from the sunshine as the pistils of the daylillies gave him a little shade. he was still on the flower late last night but is gone today...hopefully somewhere safe from the storm.

Thanks for visiting froggy - hope to see you again soon!

For everyone in the path of Hurricane Irene - be safe and we'll be seeing you on the other side

of the storm. Do eat lots of cake...it will be a comfort to you when the electricity goes out!

Cheers, Patricia

Now THIS is a blackberry!!

2011-08-18T16:43:00.004-04:00

Isn't this a thing of beauty? A truly ripe blackberry waiting to be picked in my neighbours garden across the street. The last time I had blackberries this good was when I was about 11 years old and went blackberrying with my friend, Helen, near the Twelve Pins Mountains in Galway, Ireland. We wandered through the hedgerows for hours covering ourselves with burs and bites and the juice from a thousand delicious blackberries. We then brought our bounty back to the caravan where we were staying and attempted to make jam...I say attempted because I don't think we knew what we were doing other than attracting huge amounts of wasps and annoying my poor Mother by covering everything in sight with blackberry stickiness....ah - those were wonderful days!!

There is a great fondness for blackberries in the UK not only as something delicious to eat but also as an object to be replicated in charming illustrations and my friend Valerie Greeley certainly does know how to illustrate blackberries as evidenced by the beautiful images below.

"Bunny and Blackberries" by Valerie Greeley

"Dormouse and Blackberries" by Valerie Greeley

"Jellies and British Puddings" by Valerie Greeley

and on that note should we indulge in a dessert made with blackberries (although I have to be absolutely honest here and say if your blackberries are as good as my neighbours eat them plain as nothing on earth can improve them!)...but if you must perhaps you'd like to indulge in Bramble Shaker-Quaker....a simple little ditty, a Yorkshire speciality batter pudding with blackberries. After I had made it I realized it is just a puffy version of the divine French Cherry Clafouti...maybe we should call it Blackberry ClaPOUFi.

So simple: Pre heat your oven to 375F

1. Heavily butter a shallow gratin type dish. I used 4 of the size above.

2. Scatter your berries as ye may...you will notice I added a couple of gorgeous cherries to mine because I happened to have them on hand.

3. Avail yourself of the following ingredients:

3 room temperature eggs separated

2oz / 1/4 cup sugar

2oz /1/3 cup flour

1 3/4 cups/14 fluid ounces whole milk

4. Beat egg yolks lightly with a fork.

5. Mix yolks with milk.

7. Mix flour and sugar together in a bowl.

8. Put liquid into a blender, add dry ingredients and whizz until smooth batter emerges.

9. Whisk egg whites to fluffy peaks.

10. Pour blender ingredients gently into whisked whites and blend timidly until well mixed...do not worry too much if there are some lumpy bits...better to not deflate than overmix.

11. Pour batter over blackberries and then spoon floaty egg whitey stuff over any holes where fruit is peaking through - see below.

Now pop into your nice hot oven and bake for about 35 minutes until beautifully browned as below

The recipe (from an old British Country Living magazine...my favourite magazine EVER) says to eat hot or warm...I actually preferred it cool for when it's hot it's HOT...those blackberries hold the heat!! You can put a dollop of cream or vanilla ice cream on there and I really

don't think it would hurt!!

And now for a bit of blackberry frivolity:

Available at my CafePress store

and a charming and very funny English video that involves said fruit.

A pictorial ode to a humble flower.

2011-08-03T00:19:00.003-04:00

“He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower.”

Mary Howitt

The Clover...small, unassuming, sweet and so very pretty close up. It is one of the main nectar sources for honeybees.....

Here is a link to "Clover-Blossom" a poem by Louisa May Alcott

...........about clover and a humble little worm....awwwww....

Blueberry and Apple Charlotte made with solar baked bread!

2011-07-29T18:46:00.004-04:00

The finished Charlotte with apples and blueberries bursting forth.

First I decided to try baking bread in our little solar oven...would it work here in Maine?

As you see below...YES it did...and what a wonderful loaf...I didn't get a brown on it but it was baked through and just delicious.

This bread was baked by the sun in Maine!

I used a faboo recipe from King Arthur Flour (click on the link for the recipe and I recommend doing the by weight version if you have a scale) which is no-knead and so reliably great...even, good crumb and moist without being soggy...just perfect!! Thanks King Arthur!!
If you don't have a homemade loaf then do avail yourself of a loaf with some spine....not one of those marshmallow loaves but one with some body and even perhaps a wholewheat of some sort...now they are stout and hearty and will add more of a certain kind of flavour that
I think would be good.

To begin the Charlotte we need to cook our blueberries and apples...I have to tell you the smell of the fruit and nutmeg simmering was a treat and a very evocative smell...something reminiscent of a Grandma's kitchen smell - which is exactly what James said when he smelled it...LOVELY!!

The Recipe: Blueberry and Apple Charlotte in honour of Fraughan Sunday The Irish celebration this coming Sunday July 31st of the humble blueberry called a Fraughan in Eire!

A Charlotte is another of those very simple, nursery pudding dishes from England which makes something delicious out of very little in the way of ingredients. How many ways can you use bread, butter, sugar and fruit...

Pre heat your oven to 425F

2 Granny Smith apples roughly chopped

10 oz blueberries (I have to be honest and tell you I couldn't use Maine wild blueberries as they had all sold out from the Coop the day I was doing this so I had to 'cheat' and use frozen organic high bush blueberries which didn't have the intensity of flavour one gets with wild blueberries...sorry, naughty me!)

1/4 - 1/2 cup/ 2-4ozs sugar depending on your sweet tooth...1/4 is just enough to sweeten...I used 1/4 but wish I has used a little more.

Goodly grating of nutmeg if you are so inclined!

Mix above ingredients in a saucepan and cook til bubbling and most of the liquid

is simmered away...allow to cool somewhat.

Whilst the fruit is cooking you can get on with making the lining for the fruit...from slices of bread.

Depending on the size and shape of your receptacle you will need a good half of a normal sized loaf...sliced medium. I used my trusty 7" diameter nice and deep cake tin (I love that thing...perfect size for nearly all desserts for two people!!)

Coat the inside of the tin you are using with a good veneer of butter and ten dust with granulated sugar quite heavily....then start working on how to line your tin with the melted
butter coated sliced bread.

FIRST: melt 4oz butter in a frying pan...I used a frying pan as it made the next step of dipping and coating the bread shapes with melted butter that much easier. SO dip and coat your slices on both sides before lining the tin with them. I cut 2 semi circles for the top and bottom each and even wide lines for the sides...theoretically your slices should overlap and if there are any gaps you should plug them with leftover bits...but I didn't overlap and as you can see my pudding held together surprisingly well. If you have extra butter left over just slather it around willy nilly on the inside of the bread lining

Lined with buttery bread and ready for the fruit

Pop your fruit into the cavity and as below top off with your extra semi circles (or circles if your slices are big enough...obviously mine weren't!)

Now pop your little Charlotte into the oven and bake until toasty and brown...now here's the tricky part...keep the oven on...remove the Charlotte from the oven...allow to cool a little, run a knife around the edge of the tin to loosen the little darling....put another baking tray on the top and invert to pop the Charlotte onto the new baking tray - return to the the oven uncovered for a final crisping

for about 10 minutes....et voila!!

You can serve hot, warm or cold with vanilla ice cream, traditional English pouring custard (recipe from England's Martha Stewart - Delia Smith!) or whipped cream. This is a quiet, subtle dish but is sure to delight because of it's unusual manufacture...if you like you can leave out the blueberries and have the much more traditional Apple Charlotte...but it is Fraughan Sunday we are doing this for so stay with the blueberries if you can!!

Images from a burgeoning Blueberry Hill, Maine

2011-07-19T22:32:00.008-04:00

The blue's but a mist from the breath of the wind

a line from the poem "Blueberries" by Robert Frost

I went for a walk up blueberry hill next to our house today and this is what I saw...ahhhhhhh!!! The whole hill is exploding with life and the blueberries are so beautiful...they are green with red edges, light blue, bright blue, very dark blue almost black (and I wonder if these are actually blueberries at all), pink, and light violet. Then there are white daisies, purple vetch, black eyed Syusan's and many other plants I don't know the name of.
The blueberries will be harvested soon - on or about August 1st -
this only happens every second year!

You can see why they used to be called starberries...

This looks like a tapestry to me...maybe from a design by William Morris, but my photo does not do it justice....


This picture is a little out of focus but I so love the way the blueberries look alongside the red berries (I don't know what they are...)

There is a huge patch of Black Eyed Susan's on the hill - how could I resist a photo?

... some junior berries getting ready to blue up!

In North America they are called wild blueberries or the old fashioned name is starberries - which I think is very sweet, in England and Ireland they can be called by any of the following names....whinberries, whimberries, whortleberries, blaeberries, fraughns, hurts, hurtleberries or the most popular, bilberry. Traditionally in Ireland the Sunday nearest to the first of August is 'Fraughan Sunday' when the wild blueberry is celebrated, this year that will be Sunday July 31st...what will you be making with your blueberries that day?

The Creation of the "Let Them Eat Cake" Logo

2011-07-05T18:16:00.001-04:00

This is a poster of the logo now available in my Esty store

Lindsey Schortz of Let Them Eat Cake Bakers in lovely Belfast, Maine really liked the looks of my "Just Call Me Cupcake" design below and wondered if we could use the cupcake and the retro style of the design to create a nice logo for her which would then be translated into a business card, Facebook masthead, Cafe Press store design and general all around design element to market her beautiful baked goods. Lindsey is famous for brownies, shortbread and wonderful coffee cakes plus so much more, she uses all natural ingredients - organic or sourced locally wherever possible and practical.

This design is available in my Cafe Press store

So off I went to my drawing board and came up with an idea Lindsey liked immediately.....thank you Lindsey!

...and the tracing and painting began. I just love creating type by hand....it soothes my fevered brow...somewhat akin to quiet meditation.


The Facebook page masthead

Some fun products from the Let Them Eat Cake Bakers Cafe Press store...and below
a close up of that design....

Here's a link to Lindsey's website (designed by our own beloved Thierry Bonneville ) where you can order her divine products which are also available at the Belfast Coop and Glendarragh Lavender Shop, Camden Maine...there they have the most delicious lavender shortbread made by Lindsey with their own lavender.
Now let's be off and eat some cake...no really!!

A Plethora of Pink and Red Poppy Pictures

2011-06-19T19:51:00.002-04:00

Now isn't this how the hats at the Royal Wedding should have looked? The pink poppies, for which I have waited quite the number of years to bloom, are THE perfect pink, no really they are...in person they have an inner glow that makes them

almost neon (in a good way) and they are a little more saturated and a little more perfect...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!
I am so enamoured of some of these photographs that I will have them available as archival prints in my Etsy store sometime this week.

Rhubarb and raisin squares baked in a circle and cut into triangles...

2011-06-14T19:35:00.005-04:00

Oh yeh...this is a good one based on an old fashioned British recipe of raisin squares....definitely try this if you like both rhubarb and raisins...what a wonderful combination...I am sure you can do this with all raisin...I'd say two cups if you go that way...or another fruit than rhubarb like apricots (fresh of course!!)

First of all avail yourself of the following delightful ingredients:

1lb rhubarb cut into small pieces

1 packed cup/6oz of raisins or white raisin or currants or whatever dried fruit you like but raisins were WONDERFUL

1 cup/7.5oz sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind...this REALLY adds to the flavour of this dessert

so don't leave it out.

A few hours before you want to bake the 'squares' mix the flour with the beaten egg until smooth and then mix all above ingredients together until well mixed...allow to marinate at room temperature.

Yum...flavours marinating and improving in deliciousness by the minute....

The 'squares' ready to have their second top layer of pastry added

Piecrust...Pate Brisee by Martha

Pre-heat oven to 375F

2 1/2 cups/10ozs of white flour

4 tablespoons sugar

2 sticks (8ozs) butter I always use salted, VERY cold

1/4 to 1/2 cup ice cold water

1 whisked egg white

METHOD:

1. Sift the flour

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the

dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour.

6. Take the pastry out of the fridge, allow to warm a very little, separate into two even sized balls,

roll out 2 nice circles.

8. Then line a 9" tart pie with one circle, brush evenly with the egg white and bob into the oven for about 10 minutes to 'set' the surface...take out and allow to cool for about 20 minutes.

9. Strew the luscious rhubarb and raisin mix over the somewhat baked bottom crust...don't worry it might be quite wet...go ahead...put it all in there and even it out as above.

10. Cover with the second disk of pastry...sprinkle with some sugar as below.

10. Bob back into the oven and bake for a goodly 55 minutes until bubbling and golden brown as below...allow to cool completely before cutting and eating...this is another dessert that really improves with a couple of days maturity...trust me!

Enjoy using up the last of this season's rhubarb with this wonderful 'pudding'

Bubbling and golden brown fresh from the oven...wait til I'm cold before you cut me!!

Visions of a picture perfect day in Maine...ahhhhh!!!

2011-06-05T13:31:00.002-04:00

We wait sooo long and work so hard for these pristine days in Maine and yea today finally we have one....Sunday June 5th 2011 is PERFECT and how lucky am I that I can walk out my front or back door and take these photographs of the glory that is today!

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do when I sit by the humming wood stove on a wild and wooly winter's day and dream of THIS day when the air is balmy, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing, the butterflies are fluttering, the poppies are popping and I am in heaven. Ahhhhhh....

Pretty poppies all in a row...

The first iris of the season....

Hope it is as beautiful today where you are as it is here in Maine on Lemonade Day and if you're in Blighty enjoy your community street party lunches partially funded by lottery money!!

Chocolate Biscuit Cake a la Prince William's Groom Cake....and it's no bake!!

2011-05-28T18:57:00.007-04:00

Here is a picture of the finished cake...if you like fudgey, chocolate, flourless cakes then this is the cake for you but with an added crunch of biscuits/cookies. Prince William choose this as his Groom cake for the recent Royal Wedding and the Queen herself is said to be very fond of it and is quite miffed if any slices are missing so the staff has to keep leftovers under lock and key.

First of all you should either buy the McVities Rich Tea Biscuits the cake calls for although I myself prefer McVities Digestives - graham crackers will work also and even better yet shortbread - there's a recipe for Earl Grey shortbread on this blog - you'll have to do a search in the box in the column on your right as I can't do a link to a post within this blog - just leave out the tea in that recipe - I baked the biscuits/cookies myself....here's the recipe for Digestive Biscuits:

Biscuits and a glass of milk anyone?

DIGESTIVE BISCUITS:

6oz/3/4 cup 100% wholemeal flour

1 1/2oz/1/2 cup medium oatmeal (I could only find normal size so I whirled it in the coffee grinder for a little bit...that worked)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3oz/3/4 stick butter

2oz/1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons of milk

1. Mix all dry ingredients together.

2. Rub in the butter...

3. Stir in the milk until the dough comes together.

4. Roll out fairly thin on a lightly floured surface.

5. Cut into 3" rounds

6. Bake at 350F until nicely browned...allow to cool.

I have a terrible tendency to overbake my biscuits/cookies so do err on the side of them being lighter rather than darker - mine were a little too dark and therefore a little too hard.

And now for the cake...so easy!!

1 egg whisked

4oz/1 stick butter salted

1 tablespoon sugar

6oz plain/semi sweet chocolate

1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup if you have it otherwise use honey which I did

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2oz/1/2 cup chopped walnuts

8oz digestive biscuits or rich tea if you are using them.

1. Melt 4oz of the chocolate, butter and whisked egg in the top of a double boiler until hot and well blended.

2. Add crushed biscuits, walnuts, sugar, cocoa powder and honey gently until well blended.

3 Line a 7" cake tin with greaseproof paper on the bottom and sides and pour in the choccy mixture...smooth the top and....should look like that below only smoother.

The 'cake' poured into the pan and sitting atop a copy of a new idea I am working on which will be revealed in the next post.

Allow to cool and set in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Remove from the pan and take off the paper, set on a cooling rack.

Melt the remaining 2oz of chocolate and pour over the cake as below...there's little Eleanor in the background observing the goings on! No chocolate for you...it's bad for doggies!!

I think perhaps I over baked my biscuits, which I have a tendency to do with biscuits, and they were little hard for this cake as it was difficult to cut and doesn't look as professional as some of the other versions of this cake I have seen so maybe you should invest the time in procuring yourself some Rich Tea biscuits to make your cake look like this!!

This is a 'cake' that tastes better the longer you wait before eating it - the longer you wait the softer the biscuits/cookies get which is nice!

I have to be completely honest I have been looking forward to this cake for ever so long but either because I didn't do a good job on the Digestives OR because I am not that big a fan of chocolate (it's true!!) I just wasn't that thrilled with it...glad it didn't take too much effort. The next recipe coming along is FANTASTIC and I was thrilled with the results so do check back or look in the right hand column of this blog and sign up for the posts by e-mail which means each time I post you will get an e-mail that links right to the blog...no checking back anymore....yea!!!

The rain in Maine....

2011-05-17T14:25:00.003-04:00

When the humid shadows hover
Over all the starry spheres,
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears,
What a joy to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed,
And to listen to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!

Every tinkle on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand dreamy fancies
Into busy being start,
And a thousand recollections
Weave their bright hues into woof,
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof.

First 2 stanzas of "The Rain Upon the Roof"

by American poet Coates Kinney

FYI "woof" here means weft as in the warp and weft of a fabric

As I look out the window the world is GREEN, the skies are grey, the rain is falling and the mist is rising. Maine is enveloped in a cloud of dank and drear.....cozy for a few days but please don't let there be a repeat of the summer of 2009 where we had, and I kid you NOT, 7 straight weeks of rain, rain, rain.

It does look pretty on the lupine leaves but all the plants are bowed low and are patiently waiting for the sun which is not due 'til this coming weekend.

Pure beeswax, lavender buds and lovely ribbon

2011-04-27T19:02:00.008-04:00

Have you ever smelled pure beeswax? It is a beautiful and cozy aroma and is such a lovely warm colour too. Our good friends Magy and Clay owners of Green Hive Honey Farm of Camden, Maine were wondering what to do with all their beeswax and James and I came up with the idea of custom sculpted beeswax tablets scented with lavender oil and scattered with Maine lavender buds.

The first step required James sculpting a special mold for the beeswax...as you can see he included a beautiful big bee and one of Green Hives' iconic flowers on a background of comb hexagons - nice job James!

Then we sourced some lovely, soft lavender coloured ribbon to hang the tablet by (don't hang it anywhere hot or in a window that gets too much sun...it will melt!!) and I created the custom packaging and a nice new label for "bee fragrant"

Here is the first tablet wrapped and ready to go in Green Hive Honey's favourite pink tissue paper...you know you want one...you can order from this page of the website....it makes an awfully nice gift from Maine made by Maine bees from a Maine company sculpted by a Maine artist with packaging and label designed by a Maine designer...YEA!!

Images from Maine on a beautiful Earth Day 2011!!

2011-04-22T11:42:00.001-04:00

I love these double daffs and have no idea where they came from...
they smell just lovely!!

Happy Daffs standing proud against the bright blue sky

Rhubarb, rhubarb what shall I make with thee...as you can see my rhubarb is not very far along today, it'll be a while before I can do a rhubarb post!!

Lots of daffs ready to bloom in the "Enchanted Forest" by the barn

Let them eat PIECAKE on April 29th!

2011-04-19T16:46:00.007-04:00

Here is a pencil sketch I recently did for a very good client of mine...we ended up going in a different direction than this and I suddenly realized this would be a good image for this particular post!! FYI I usually do all my lettering by hand but as this was a quickie for this post I did break down and go the clonky Photoshop route...please forgive me!

Just in case you hadn't heard there will be a Royal Wedding in good old Blighty on Friday April 29th 2011...and if you'd like to celebrate then I have found and tweaked the

perfect recipe just for you!

It's PIECAKE...a cake baked in a pastry shell with pecans (or walnuts if you prefer) and toffee sauce, I made mine with maple syrup as a tribute to Maine and it is GOOD!!! Definitely worthy of Royalty and a recipe I have adapted from British Country Living...most apropos don't cha think?

Here she is in all her Piecake glory...YUM!!!!!

EASY PEASY SWEET TART CRUST:

Enough for one tart case about 9” diameter…nice and thin,

I am not a chunky crust personage so if you like a thicker pie crust make this for a smaller diameter pan:

Have your oven heated to 350F

1 1/2 cups/6ozs of unbleached white flour

1/2 cup/2ozs confectioners/icing sugar

1 stick + 1 tablespoon/ 4 1/2ozs butter VERY COLD

1 large egg yolk

a tad of milk or cream if your dough doesn't stick together

1. Sift dry ingredients together into a medium sized bowl.

2. Grate the butter into the dry ingreds., and rub in until like breadcrumbs.

3. Add egg yolk and blend carefully until the dough sticks together

4. Mine didn't stick together with just the egg yolk so I added baby drop by baby drop some cream until it did start to come together...be careful once it does start to come together it does so quite quickly...don't let it get sticky!!

5.Tear dough into big chunks…..place strategically in pie pan and start squushing to a create a smooth even covering of the entire pan…pop back into the pridge or freezer for 1/2 hour or so and let it get nice and cold..

The beauty of this crust is that it does NOT shrink…(although I will admit it shrank a little when baked blind as in this case...but not much!!) it stays put…good crust!!...and it tastes like a really good shortbread…yum!!

6. Pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes and then allow to cool.

The crust smushed into the pie dish

Piecake ready to go in the oven...do you see in the background someone in the house is goldleafing

THE FILLING:
4oz pecans or walnuts gently toasted for about 10 minutes at 150-200F

3 large eggs

5oz sugar (I translated this recipe from grams and the amount is odd and doesn't then translate into cups easily...sorry!!)

5oz sifted white flour unbleached

1 stick/4oz salted butter melted

10 whole walnut or pecan halves for the top of the cake.

1/2 cup maple syrup

2oz/ 1/2 stick salted butter

1. Crumble nuts into smaller pieces and sprinkle evenly over the slightly pre-baked pie crust.

2. Melt 2oz of butter with maple syrup and gently boil until the syrup foams up...allow to cool and then evenly pour over the nuts in the piecrust.

3. Beat the eggs until fluffy then add the sugar a spoonful at a time until all is added and mix is thick and pale.

4. Gently fold in the sifted flour.

5. Gently fold in the melted butter.

6. Spread this batter over the nuts and 'toffee' and then place the whole halves on the top - as above.

7. Bake in 350F oven for about 20-25 minutes until evenly browned on the surface.

8. Allow to cool before cutting...this is a great treat with a good steaming cup of tea AND it greatly improves with a couple of days keeping IF you can keep it around for that long...James and I didn't manage it...YUM!!!

Here's to a long and successful marriage for William and Kate....

A British recipe from an Australia magazine with an Irish Custard for Maine Maple Sunday!

2011-03-24T11:33:00.005-04:00

And there we were thinking Spring really had arrived and all the snow would go away and the birds would be singing and the sun shining...silly us!!

Next thing you know the snow is falling with a vengeance and my little (and yes they are little) pails are full of snow along with sap. This year so far has been very good and the sap has been flowing apace...I already have one quart 'sugared down' and I used this for a recipe to celebrate this coming Maine Maple Sunday March 27th

The recipe is for Maple Steamed Pudding from Australian Vogue Food magazine many a moon ago but I have always been intrigued by the sounds of it...I have doctored it a little by adding breadcrumbs which give the steamed pudding a springy/bouncy texture and I added in grated carrot for a bit more moisture...it came out well I am glad to say.

MAPLE STEAMED PUDDING

Ingredients:

5oz/5/8 cup white flour

2oz/1/2 cup fine white breadcrumbs (I choose a slightly moist loaf and left the crust on...pulsed it in a coffee grinder to get nice crumbs)

1 good teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg or more if you like nutmeg the way I do

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/8/ 3 fl ozs cup milk

3oz/3/8 cup sugar (brown or white depends which you prefer)

2 large eggs whisked together

2oz/1 medium sized carrot finely grated ...I use a microplane to get it really fine

2oz of either butter (4 tablespoons) or suet (1/2 cup)...I use suet because I had it available and it makes the pudding less greasy

1/4/4 fl ozs cup maple syrup

Good pinch of salt

RECIPE:

1. Cream the butter or suet and sugar together...this doesn't work so well with the suet but make a brave effort as I did...you will probably still have a few lumps but that's OK.

2. Slowly beat in the eggs in about 4 goes.

3. Sift the dry ingredients together.

4. Dissolve the baking powder in the milk.

5. Add the dry ingredients and the milk in alternating batches until it is all well combined....blend in the pureed carrots...and you will end up with a not very appetizing batter like that below.

6. For this amount I used a larger bowl than normal as I have found these puddings do expand quite a lot...I used a 4 cup/6 1/2" diameter bowl. So grease the bowl well with butter...

7. Pour the maple syrup in the bottom and then gingerly add the batter to the bowl so the batter is basically in a puddle of syrup as below:

Then we cut a round of greaseproof paper to cover the bowl generously....cover the bowl, fold paper over down the sides and secure with an elastic band, or for purists with some nice string.

Now cut a circle of aluminium foil and do the same until you end up with what you see below

Now pop your little pudding into the top of the boiler...put the lid back on and get the kettle on for a cuppa while you wait for your pudding to be cooked. I steamed this one for 2 hours on our humming wood burning stove...just to add to the Maine mystique.

And thus you end up with a little hat shaped pudding that is sticky on the top and probably quite rounded on the bottom...you can level that off for presentation purposes so it sits level on the plate...don't be surprised if there's some pudding left in the bowl when you turn it out and do wait to turn it our for about 10 minutes which will make that process a little easier...you may have to tease the pudding away from the bowl a little in order to encourage it to drop out willingly when you cover the bowl with a plate and tip it upside down...good luck with that!

My poor little pudding is naked here but was soon dressed with lashings of straight maple syrup and a goodly puddle of Creme Anglaise or English Custard from an Irish book...I have added the recipe for that herewith:

CUSTARD SAUCE, ANLANN CUSTAIRD
from "Irish Traditional Food" by Theodora FitzGibbon, a goodly trusty cookbook
1 heaped tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 duck egg and 1 duck egg yolk whisked together, large regular eggs work just as well
10 fl oz/ 1 1/4 cups whole milk

1. Beat together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and sugar in a bowl.
2. Have another double boiler on the go.
3. Heat the milk to almost boiling in the top part of the double boiler but on the stove top to make it go faster.
4. Stir a little of the hot milk into the egg mix and then a bit more to temper the temperature.
5. Then put the top part of the double boiler back over the bottom and the boiling water and whisk the egg and milk mix into the rest of the milk
6. Do not leave the custard alone now until it is finished or it will curdle whilst you are not looking and you will have to start again. SO stir and stir and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to thicken and coats the back of the spoon as in the picture below...you take the spoon out of the custard, turn the spoon over, run your finger through the custard and if the line doesn't fill back in it is ready, don't let it cook too long or get too hot as the eggs will start to turn into scrambled eggs and the sauce will be grainy.....take off the heat immediately and continue to stir.

Please check out my friends', Alico and Castelle, blog, pastry chefs in Toronto, for more delicious maple recipes Chronic Master Baker (naughty things!!)
HAPPY MAINE MAPLE SUNDAY EVERYONE!!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Lá Fhéile Pádraig

2011-03-17T10:09:00.000-04:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day - Lá Fhéile Pádraig (Gaelic with the name pronounced Pawrick...one of my brother's has the name) one and all...above is a logo I designed a couple of years ago which celebrates the deep friendship between Eire and The United States of America. I circled the flagpoles with a Claddagh ring in honour of my parents who were born in Galway. The Claddagh ring is the adopted symbol of that town and is given as a token of love.

The Bees Knees revealed....

2011-02-23T12:57:00.004-05:00

Green Hive Honey of Camden, Maine has a new product and I am the happy one who had the enviable task of designing a new label for The Bees Knees "A Sweet Arthritis Remedy"!! Yea for me....below is the original label/logo I created for their raw honey and we used this as the starting point for the new label which will be categorized in the
Bee Healthy section of their business.

First I created the handpainted type, as you see below...something I derive a great deal of pleasure from, type and fonts have always fascinated me and remind me of the days when I worked in a commercial art studio hand laying Letraset by the ream, what a different world that was a couple of centuries ago or so it seems.

Next I silhouetted the banner from the original watercolour painting of the Green Hive Honey logo....

...then I found James' lovely drawing of a pretty bee to add to the label....

and THEN I scanned, cleaned and corodinated, or even coordinated although I do like the word corodinated - all the component pieces in wondrous Photoshop...which allows me to add the small type and not drive myself insane with drawing minute type.....we choose to use a pale yellow background and a round label to differentiate the regular eating honey from the beneficial honey...and Ta Dah...here is the label

Then off to do the photoshoot for me to upload to Etsy and James to do a new page on the website - just couldn't resist a pink background here

A little still life of jar, lettering and labels for the soothing of thine eyes!!

I posit a POSSET for your Beloved....

2011-02-04T13:06:00.003-05:00

How simple can a dessert/Brit pudding be? So simple it needed a colourful and fun background to give it some counterpoint, and hey with all the snow here and lack of colour I need something bright to revive my eyeballs.

ELIZABETHAN POSSET:

OED definition is: Drink made of hot milk curdled with ale, wine etc (sounds charming....) formerly used much as a remedy for colds. In the Elizabethan era it became the recipe you see below...a more refined pudding in the truest Blighty tradition.

OK I’ve said some of my other desserts/puddings here were simple but this beats them all….4 ingredients (you can even make it 3 if you want to use just sugar - delete the honey and add in 2 extra tablespoons of sugar) and 3 minutes of cooking and a really impressive and divine dessert results!! Sure to impress your beloved on Valentine’s Day!!

Makes 4 servings.

½ cup/3oz sugar (I used organic slightly brown sugar but if you want your
posset the palest of colours then use white)

2 tablespoons of honey (you guessed it I used Green Hive Raw Honey)

1 1/2 cups/12 fl oz heavy/double cream

Juice of one lemon
METHOD:

1. Put cream, sugar and honey in a heavy bottomed pan.

2.Warm to just barely boiling

3.Bubbly, simmer for 3 minutes and stir occasionally to prevent stickage

4.Transfer to a bowl, whisk in the lemon juice dribble by dribble…be in
awe as the mixture thickens.

5.Pour into small, ½ cup containers and allow to cool then pop
into the fridgerdator for about 4 hours until completely set.

6. This is a truly amazing dessert/pudding but I realize what it actually is is a slightly set sweet cheese…do try it, I know you will be impressed!!

There's part of that word that becomes so important in just 10 days time...but which should be as important every other day of the year! and YES glitter glue...I have found a way to use it in my geometric paintings....I know it's hokey and silly but glitter glue takes me back to my childhood and sparkly Christmas cards and my transparent pink plastic stilletos that had sparkly bits all through them...boy I LOVED those shoes and, of course, they were PINK!!

And here's some pictures of Maine's current disappearing act...more snow due tomorrow and potentially again next Tuesday...how much more shoveling does a girl have in her I ask you??

I took these pictures at dusk, my favourite time of the day to be wandering out in a snowstorm...the low light and snow certainly make any colour stand out admirably...and I was cheeky and used the flash to accentuate the gold leaf and tiny snowflakes.

James' "Leap, run, leaping" below is running out of steam and has almost sunk beneath the waves of snow, will she disappear completely in the days to come?

And finally "Girl Facing North East" stands strong against the winter winds.