Meanwhile in Maine on March 29th.....

James' bright spot sculpture "Leap, run, leaping" always give a nice splash of colour to the whitened landscape.

 Yes folks it's March 29th and this is the scene out my back windows today - it's snowy again - what's remarkable is that this time last week we had all the windows and doors open and a balmy breeze was blowing through with delicious smells of spring - it was 85F.

All is not lost though as we are heading forth to warmer weather and we're finally on the backside of winter. Also this late snow is welcomed here in Maine and they call it "Poor Man's Fertilizer" because it provides a last shot of nitrogen to the soil.

Through the branches to the woods beyond.

 I do love this kind of now that sticks to everything and makes it a wonderland of beauty.

and lo - as I look out of the window now there's a glimmer of light in the sky and the promise of sun a bit later today!

Well Easter is soon upon us and I am pondering what pudding (dessert) to make for the occasion - I am caught between Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding and a Steamed Easter Pudding with nutmeg Sauce - this is a blond version of Christmas Pudding and is a lot lighter in texture - What do you think dear Readers?

Upside Down Maple Syrup Cake for Maine Maple Sunday

Our first daffodil bloomed today - about two weeks earlier than usual but I can't say I wasn't thrilled to see it!

Not a very thick cake but still a very good cake - chewy, syrupy goodness abounds!

This year the maple syrup tapping started early and I wasn't aware I should have my buckets out until a couple of weeks ago - as soon as I realized I was missing the sap boat I put my little buckets out and garnered myself about 2 pints of the Maine liquid gold!!

This coming Sunday is Maine Maple Sunday when many of the sugar houses are open to the public and you can buy all manner of delightful Maple Syrup products as well as seeing how the syrup is produced in the 'sugaring down' process.

In honour of this day and in order to make something somewhat British with my stash of Maine gold I decided to make a Maine Maple Upside Down Cake I have been eyeballing for a while from a very old issue of British Country Living. The recipe turned out to be a little odd once I started using it in that it didn't give me an oven temperature and the cake part was kinda flimsy and I think in retrospect should have been twice the amount they stated - but with recipes you live and learn - so many recipes don't come out right the first time and you have to tweak them so bear that in mind the next time a recipe doesn't work well - it may not be you but the recipe itself!!

Always read the recipe through first to make sure you know in what order to do things!!

MAINE MAPLE SYRUP UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

Topping: MAKE THIS FIRST!

2oz/60g butter

2oz/60g sugar

6 fluid ounces/18cl of maple syrup

2oz/60g of walnuts, or pecans if you prefer, broken into good sized pieces.

Pinch of salt if you like that tangy flavour

1. Melt all above ingredients together on low heat in a pan until it foams as below - not a very good photograph but the steam kept fogging up my lens.

2. Pour this sugary goodness into a glass dish about 21/2" deep and 7" across - I bet you could do it in an 8" round also - then crumble the 2 oz of walnut over as below - allow to cool.

Now make the cake part: Pre-heat oven to 350F

CAKE INGREDIENTS: This is the amount I used in accordance with the magazine recipe but if you want more 'cake' then do double this part of the recipe.

1oz/30g butter

3 rounded tablespoons of sugar

1 large egg beaten

5oz/125g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

4 fluid oz/10cl whole milk

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add beaten egg in 3 goes and beat well in between - if it curdles a little that's OK - it will come together again with the addition of the flour.

3. Sift dry ingredients together - add a third of the flour to the butter mix - then half of the milk then another third of the flour then the other half of the milk and finally the last of the flour and stir well between each of these additions until you get a smooth batter like this -

4. Now gently dot the batter over the maple and nut mix being careful not to push it down into the maple mix thus:

5. Gently smooth over with a wet palette knife or back of a spoon thus:

6. Now pop into your pre-heated oven and bake for about 35 minutes (the recipe said 25-30) but mine took a good 35 - start checking at 25 for doneness - recipe is done when the top is pretty evenly browned:

7. Remove from oven and allow to sit for a couple of minutes before turning upside down on to a plate and there you have a sticky, glistening maple delight.

Happy Maine Maple Sunday and let me know how your cake came out - Patricia :)))

Date, Walnut and Guinness Cake for Saint Patrick’s Day 2012

Dark, nutty, moist - this is a GREAT cake.

This is a good one - get baking with you!!

This cake smells divine when it is just out of the oven and is a truly delicious morsel slathered with a nice layer of salted butter and a steaming hot cup of, if you can get it, Barry’s Tea. What a

wonderful way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day!!

From "Irish Baking Book" by Ruth Isabel Ross

  INGREDIENTS:

Leave your ingredients out to warm to room temperature for a better rise in your cake.

 8oz chopped dates

2oz chopped walnuts

  

4oz butter (I nearly always use salted for the taste)

7oz sugar

10oz white flour

7oz of Guinness or water if you prefer

1 egg well beaten

1 teaspoon baking soda/bicarb

I tablespoon milk

Pre-heat oven to 325F and grease either one 9” round cake tin, a small (6” round) high (3”) cake tin like mine in picture below (I like small high cakes) or two 1lb loaf pans – then line chosen tin with parchment paper to about 1.5” above the top of the pan – this helps shape the cake if it rises above the level of the pan (as mine did) and also stops the top from browning too much – although do check baking a couple of times and if the top is still browning too much add a tin foil hat.

1. Put the chopped dates in a pan, add the Guinness or water and bring to a boil, take off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes.

2. Add the butter cut in 8 or so pieces, stir and allow to melt.

3. Allow to cool about 10 minutes.

4. Now add the sugar, walnuts and egg and mix well.

5. Next sift the flour over the mix in three batches and mix well in between each addition.

6. Mix the baking soda with the milk and fold into cake mix.

7. Pile the delicious batter into chosen tin and pop in the oven for about 1 1/2hours – like I said above check on it to see the top isn’t browning too much.

8. Use a bamboo skewer or tooth pick to test cake for doneness – skewer should come out clean.

My well used small but tall cake pan (6 round by 3 high) which bakes very evenly and more quickly than it's non-removable bottom counterparts!

 9. Leave in cake pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out, remove paper and allow to cool on a wire rack – wait until almost totally cold before cutting as it will cut better when cold – but perhaps like me you can’t wait that long!!!

10. EAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT – preferably with a nice spread of butter – Kerrygold would be a treat if you can find it – of course I use Kate’s from Maine.

Oh oh - looks like some naughty Leprachaun had a bite already!!

 HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY TO YOU ALL - eat lots of cake!!

"Friends Forever" in Gaelic...meanwhile in Maine - whilst the rest of the country is having record high temperatures - here is 32F and snowing :(((((((((
You can purchase my design for Saint Patrick's Day on all manner of items at my Cafe Press shop HERE

"AMHAIRGHIN"
anonymous
I am the wind which breathes upon the sea

I am the wave of the ocean.

I am the murmur of the billows.

I am the ox of the seven combats.

I am the vulture upon the rocks.

I am a beam of the Sun.

I am the fairest of plants.

I am a wild boar in valour.

I am a salmon in the water.

I am a lake in the plain.

I am a word of science.

I am a point of a lance in battle.

I am the God who created in the head the fire.

Who is it who throws light into the meeting in the mountain?

Who announces the ages of the Moon?
Who teaches the place where couches the Sun?

This is the oldest known Irish poem, of Medieval date, and I am dedicating it to my dear departed Mum and Dad who were born in Galway City, and all my rellies far and wide.


I just added the print friendly button (below) to make it so much easier to print out this recipe - you can even delete the images to save paper and ink and enlarge the type size too - happy printing.

This blogpost is part of the Saint Patrick's Day bloghop over at Buttercream Bakehouse
 

Designing a logo for Farmetta Farm, Morrill, Maine

Here is the finished Farmetta Farm logo which I recently designed at the behest of proprietors Rose Rapp and Wes Soper.

As Rose says of the farm:

"We should have named the farm the happy critter farm. We strive to build this farm from the soil up. Having healthy thick dark soil will feed the animals, keeping them content to be who they are. Sheep being sheep. Chickens scratching up a storm. Ducks marching out on bug patrol. You just can't beat it!"

As I usually do with a logo design project and after ascertaining some important motifs to be included in the logo - specifically a sunflower and 'farmstead' - I created 2 or 3 loose coloured pencil layouts on tracing paper to present to the client for review and help pinpoint a direction in which to hone the design.

 The 3 above helped me realize that Rose and I had very different ideas of what farmstead meant and Rose asked specifically that it should evoke the farmstead - in my mind I was thinking of the farm buildings and homestead so I conjured a farmhouse - Rose was thinking of the fields and pastures and their moto is "From our PASTURES to your PLATE" - so here are some of the second go around sketches.

 As you can see I also played with type/fonts and colours in these last 2, and a half and full sunflower motif. The one above became the chosen design and we tweaked it in colour and layout for the final layout which I painted up in watercolour on paper and then scanned, cleaned and finalized in wonderful Photoshop. 

Next in the order of things we needed to translate the image into black and white for use on Farmetta's labels and order forms as 4 colour printing is expensive for a small operation and a throw away item. 

 

 Then onto Facebook:

Yes this was before the new timeline pages - little did I know they would be coming so soon - the one on the left didn't translate well into a profile pic so I redesigned the masthead to that on the right in order to show the whole name of the farm in the smaller profile picture that goes with each Facebook post. 

Then a new masthead and profile pic for the new Facebook timeline - where now the cover images are big and dynamic and wonderful - yea!!!! 

The new timeline cover - and profile pic below which actually sits on top of the cover on the live Facebook page. 

 

My partner, James Strickland, created the website based upon the logo I designed and the colour pallette I established and a wonderful job he did - don't you agree - click on the name to be whisked off there and take a look yourselves - Farmetta Farm 

Farmetta Farm eggs are fantastic and I always use them now in my recipes for this blog, James enjoys their excellent grass fed beef which is part of their CSA programme and I love visiting the donkeys, chickens, sheep etc when Rose and I enjoy a cuppa and a hearty laugh together at the farm. 

An Acadian chicken says "What?"

Donkey Mother and son - Holly and Jack

Bull eating apples - kept my fingers away from those eager teeth!!

Let me know what you think of my logo and be in touch with Farmetta if you want to buy any of their wonderful products.

Monmouth Pudding for Saint David's Day March 1st

Meringue, raspberry jam and a version of bread pudding underneath.

Happy Saint David's Day March 1st - National Day of Wales 

"Dydd Gwyl Dewi hapus!"

 The National symbols of Wales (Cymru in Welsh - pronounced come-rye) are the daffodil and leeks and even though there are no daffs growing in Maine yet (we're expecting 5-8" of snow tonight :(((() here are some pictures of mine from last year. If you click on the title link above you'll find lots of info about Cymru from the Welsh National Museum.

Here is a picture of the National Costume of Wales....

 and it looks like she is standing in front of an awning with the longest village name in that fair land Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch - translating to "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" -

don't even ask me how to pronounce it - here's a link to some information about the town on Wikipedia and an audio for the name!!

Wales is a BEAUTIFUL country and many Brits myself included have holidayed there as a child at seaside villages such as Porthmadog and Llandudno (pronounced clan-did-no - double ll's are c's in English.

So - on to Monmouth Pudding

A simple unassuming pudding but pretty with the meringue topping.

INGREDIENTS:

Topping: The more traditional is jam - I choose raspberry jam - I recently discovered this truly delicious, bright and fresh jam at the Belfast Coop and recommend it very highly if you can find it.

  Recently some people are replacing the jam with stewed fruit - apples, rhubarb or pears - but I like to go with tradition.

PUDDING:

1oz butter

3oz sugar

6oz fresh breadcrumbs - I used white with the crust included - you can use white or wheat with or without the crust - the colours will change and the flavour but it's your choice :))

3 egg yolks

16 fl oz buttermilk (get Kate's if you can find it)

Zest of one lemon preferably organic

MERINGUE:

3 egg whites

1oz sugar

1. Heat the oven to 350F and butter 4 individual ramekins.

2. Heat butter, buttermilk, lemon zest and sugar in a saucepan to just simmering.

3. Remove from heat, add breadcrumbs and leave to absorb for 10 minutes.

4, Stir egg yolks into the breadcrumb mix.

5. Divide evenly between 4 ramekins.

6. Bake in the oven until set - about 25 minutes. While the pudding is baking whisk the 3 egg whites to stiff and then add the sugar in 3 goes whisking in between each addition.

7. Remove the ramekins from the oven - don't turn the oven off - let cool a little then spoon as much jam or stewed fruit as you like on the top - thus -

8. Now pipe your egg white meringue atop the jam and pop back in the oven for about 10 minutes until nicely browned as below - you can enjoy whilst hot - with cream or ice cream or just as is or I preferred it cooled - for some reason I do seem to prefer my hot puddings cold - who knows why.
The breadcrumb pudding part does set up quite solidly - it is not a soft pudding - just FYI.

So off you go with your leeks and daffodils and Happy Baking on Saint David's Day!

Snowdon Pudding - Pwdin Eryri.

Snowdon Pudding with Lemon Toffee Sauce set against a background of my own design fabric at Spoonflower

 Eliza Acton gave the ‘genuine’ recipe in 1845, asserting that it was ‘constantly served to travellers at the hotel at the foot of Snowdon -Yr Wyddfa ’ - the ‘Pen-y-groes.’ I looked but could not find any info about this hotel but there is a town called Pen-y-groes. This recipe is a version of my own taken from a recipe in the January issue of British Country Living.

British puddings are an odd category especially so as ALL desserts in the UK are called pudding as in "Whats for pudding?" but then a pudding could be for pudding and then that usually means a steamed pudding such as the one we are having here. Steamed puddings are also odd in that they were usually created at a time when ingredients were scarce and the best was made of what little there was available - as in the very hard times during the 2 world wars. Here's a link to more information and a whole array of traditional British puddings

This particular steamed pudding is mostly comprised of breadcrumbs which makes it springy and much more sponge like - it is not too sweet and it is quite hearty for a cold and blustery day - you wouldn't want to be eating this in high summer!!

SNOWDON PUDDING: enough for 4 good sized servings - this recipe can easily be doubled.

Ingredients:

3.5oz raisins

4oz butter chilled and grated on a grating box - most steamed pudding recipes use beef suet but most people don't want to use that anymore or it's not easily available so I substituted butter and it turned out fine if a tad bit greasy - suet is great for lightness and is less greasy than butter in a steamed pudding

1 tablespoon of flour

2oz sugar

4oz fresh breadcrumbs (in the magazine they used only white breadcrumbs - I had a lot of crust hanging around so I made my breadcrumbs from those thus my pudding is quite a lot darker than the one pictured in the magazine - but this is your choice - I don't think either way tastes better or worse)

3oz lemon marmalade (I didn't have any lemon marmalade so I used ginger marmalade and I think it went really well with the lemon sauce - as you can see I do tend to go with the flow in terms of ingredients unless something is an absolute must for the recipe - you could use regular orange  marmalade too)

zest of 1 lemon - preferably organic

3 large eggs whisked well together

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. 

1. Grease a 1 quart/2 pint pudding basin/bowl/mould very well and put about one third of the raisins in the bottom.

2. Mix butter, breadcrumbs, flour, sugar, marmalade and remaining raisins together in one bowl.

3. In another bowl whisk eggs with lemon zest.

4. Stir egg mixture into the other mixture and it will look like this - 

5. Spoon this over the raisins in the greased bowl.

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

7. 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 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. 

 Remove the bowl from basket after the two 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.

 And thus you end up with a little hat shaped pudding which is quite probably rounded on the bottom...you cut some of the rounded part off the bottom for presentation purposes so it sits level on the plate. Now for the sauce - no pudding is complete without a sauce.

LEMON TOFFEE SAUCE:

This is pretty much of my own concoction as I didn't like the one the magazine gave so I took the recipe from my Sticky Toffee Pudding - left out the cream and added fresh lemon juice - YUM!!!

2.5oz sugar

1.5oz butter (I always use salted - I like that flavour!)

5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice - 2 small lemons worthish

1. Melt butter and sugar together.

2. Add lemon juice and allow to bubble until it thickens slightly - pour over your pudding and voila - get eating - I prefer my pudding slightly cooled and definitely like it the next day completely cool - both are ways are just fine!!

HAPPY STEAMING!!

A new design for Green Hive Honey Farm.

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.