A simply elegant Wild Maine Blueberry Spongecake with Sticky Toffee Pudding Sauce!

You can see why I'm calling this sponge cake! I have adapted and added to a very simple recipe called "Huguenot Torte" from the book "Sundays at Moosewood restaurant" - I made the recipe to the letter first time around and then second time I amended it with the addition of one more egg white for volume, twice the amount of blueberries and nixed the pecans as I felt the pecans overwhelmed the taste and texture of the cake, with just blueberries the flavour really shone through - then I added the piece de resistance of Sticky Toffee Pudding Sauce, for what couldn't be improved with it's addition??

Herewith I give you my version with the alternative of pecans if you'd like to try it that way too:

Before you start the recipe do avail yourself of a small - 6" round - baking tin, butter it and then line it with parchment which you butter again - the first time I made the recipe I didn't do this (the book did not mention doing it so I thought it was not necessary) and it was very hard to manipulate the cake out of the pan - with the parchment it was easy peasy!!

HAVE ALL YOUR INGREDIENTS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE this helps infinitely with the volume achieved when whisking the eggs!

Preheat oven to 325F

INGREDIENTS: Makes 4 small servings

1 whole egg

1 egg white

4oz/1 cup of blueberries

(or if you want to try as the original recipe 2oz/ 1/2 cup blueberries and 2oz/ 1/2 cup toasted pecans broken into pieces)

2 1/2oz/scant 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

2oz/1/2 cup white flour

a goodly grating of nutmeg

a pinch of salt

1. Whisk, whisk, whisk the whole egg and egg white together with great aplomb until it achieves great volume - I found this was helped by popping the bowl with the eggs into another larger bowl with a couple of inches of warm water in it....

2. Add the sugar bit by bit and whisk in between additions until when you lift the whisk out of the mix it leaves a marked trail thus:

 3. Sift baking powder, a pinch of salt, grated nutmeg and the flour together and then fold into the egg mix in three batches - be gentle and don't mix too much or you'll deflate the volume - don't worry if not all the dry ingredients aren't perfectly mixed through - it will work out fine!

4. Add the blueberries in one go and gently fold through.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan:

6. Bob into the oven and bake for about 40 minutes until it smells good and the top is nicely browned and set to the touch:

7. Leave in the pan for about 10 minutes then remove with the aid of the parchment, remove the parchment and leave on a cooling rack until completely cooled.

In the meantime make the 

STICKY TOFFEE SAUCE:

2 1/2oz/ heaped 1/4 cup brown sugar

 1 1/2 oz / 3 tablespoons salted butter

2 tablespoons cream or half and half

1. Put all three ingredients in a pan to melt together, mix and keep mixing whilst letting it bubble a couple of minutes until it gets a bit thick - allow to cool and then pour on top of the cake:

Now whip up a good 1/2 cup/4 fluid ounces of heavy/double cream sweetened with a tablespoon or so of sugar and dollop on top of your cake in a random but pretty mound:

Here's a picture of the nice crumbly surface of the cake which has the texture of a macaron:

This is the one I had a hard time removing from the pan when I didn't use parchment so it cracked a lot and below is a pic of the original pecan and blueberry version showing the inside texture, it was a gloomy day so I took the cake outside to photograph:

..and the better, in my humble opinion, version with more blueberries and no pecans:

and a close up of the lovely light texture:

I do hope you try this cake - it's ever so easy - there's so little in it for the size of cake it makes and it's really very lovely. I also tried it again yesterday and this time I used raisins - it wasn't as good as with the blueberries but it was still VERY good.

BTW the blue pattern you see in these photographs, my "Blue Rhapsody" can be purchased on any number of items at my CafePress shop HERE and also on fabric, wrapping paper, decals and wallpaper at my Spoonflower shop HERE - thanks!! 

HAPPY BAKING!! Let me know if you make it - Patricia

Easy, delicious, reliable, wonderful no knead bread recipe from King Arthur Flour!!

 Even though I made this myself, and admittedly it's not a British pudding/dessert, I have to admit it's some of the best bread I've ever tasted...seriously, it is GOOOOOOOD and so ridiculously easy - how could I be selfish and not share!

Thank you KING ARTHUR FLOUR for this fabulous recipe!!! 

You don't have to know about yeast, or proofing, or leavening or  rising - all you have to do is weigh and measure correctly and do a bit of simple timing -

AND THAT'S IT!!!

Here it is straight from the oven and waiting to be slathered with slabs of gorgeous Kate's Butter from Maine....

Here's the link to the recipe:

WHITE NO KNEAD BREAD

or

BROWN NO KNEAD BREAD

I do recommend doing both by weight and not volume as it's much more reliable that way - same recipe every time - no variations in how you fill your cups.

Look at the beautiful texture - and the bread is moist without being in any way soggy - the crust is crisp and browns beautifully - I use the white recipe to make 8 largish rolls as above. The bread also cuts fantastically WITHOUT any crumbs - bread crumbs drive me nuts - and it toasts like a dream!!!!

Of you pop and bake, bake, bake - let me know if you use this recipe and how it works for you -

HAPPY BAKING, Patricia
 

Strawberry Charlotte with Roses de Reims Biscuits for La Fete National!

For La Fete Nationale , or Bastille Day as we English speakers call it,  I made a Strawberry Biscuit Roses de Reims Charlotte with Glaceed Angelica gifted to me most generously by Isabelle White at Histoire Sucree - the most divine place to buy beautiful and exquisite French confections - nougat, calissons, marrons glace, the list goes on and deliciously on.

A beautiful pink boite de biscuits and gorgeous glaceed angelica.

 

A close up of the candied angelica, technically known as Angelica Archangelica - what a cool name!! - I thought to myself as I beheld this delight - it reminds me of celery - and it has the stringy ribs like celery and sure enough, now I did some research, I find it is indeed called wild celery - it is a medicinal plant and is used to flavour various liqueurs including Chartreuse. The flavour is hard to describe but it is distinct and tastes particularly good when eaten with whipped cream - the combination somehow transcends the sum of the two parts. 

It is not hard to make this celebratory dessert but it is time consuming and preferably you should make it one day ahead to allow the strawberry mousse to set up nicely - I had quite the palaver making mine as the weather was atrociously humid causing great concern over fluffing of meringue/marshmallow and curdling of creams but I prevailed and everything turned out well as you can see.

To begin with you should have Roses de Reims biscuits available and if you don't have them to hand Ladyfingers will suffice in a trice - if you don't happen to have angelica either any candied fruit would be nice - whatever you think would taste well with strawberry mousse.

Let's make the cake first - just a small 6" thin disk to help be the foundation of our Charlotte - this should be made the day before to harden a little overnight and develop flavour the way cake does so well.

CAKE: Enough for one 6" shallow cake which should be buttered and floured ready for use - pre-heat oven to 350F

2oz/half a stick soft butter

2oz/ 1/2 cup white flour

2oz /scant 1/3 cup sugar

1 egg whisked lightly 

2 tablespoons cocoa powder sifted with the flour

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

2. Add egg in 3 goes and beat well between each addition.

3. Resift flour and cocoa powder into the batter and fold until blended.

4. Put batter into prepared pan and smooth.

5. Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

6. Allow to cool completely and put in a tin overnight.

STRAWBERRY SAUCE:

1lb strawberries - the best you can find - sliced 

1oz/ 1/8 cup sugar

Toss strawberries with sugar - then cook for about 20 minutes until the juices run and they start to thicken - allow to cool and then liquidize to a nice vivid red sauce.

STRAWBERRY MOUSSE:

4oz / 1/2 cup strawberry puree

3 tablespoons/ 1 1/2 ozs butter 

In the top of a double boiler melt these 2 ingredients together - allow to cool - set aside

2 egg yolks

1oz/ 1/8 cup sugar

In the top of a double boiler whisk these together until they resemble thick mayonnaise - take off the heat and continue whisking until cool - set aside

2 egg whites
 

5 ozs/ heaped 1/3 cup sugar
 

large pinch cream of tartar
 

  4 tablespoons hot water.

1. Put all 4 ingredients in a large bowl set over a pan of lightly simmering water - don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water or the eggs will cook.

2. Whisk like crazy until the mixture forms soft peaks, and at this point it should be quite hot to the touch making your eggs safe if you are using commercial eggs.

3. Take the bowl off the heat and keep whisking until cool and about this thick:

Whip 4 fl ozs heavy/double cream with 2 tablespoons sugar
 

TO ASSEMBLE MOUSSE: Fold the strawberry puree very gently into the whipped cream, then fold in the whipped egg yolks and finally the whisked egg whites - I didn't add any gelatin as I don't like to use it but it could have done with some kind of thickening agent like gelatin or agar agar, which is much trickier to use especially with dairy ingredients - I packet of unflavoured gelatin used as per manufacturers instructions would work for this amount of strawberry mousse.
 

THE CHARLOTTE:

6oz chocolate chips melted in the top of a double boiler.

1. Place the chocolate cake on your presentation plate and cover with the strawberry sauce you didn't use in the mousse.

Now dip the bottoms of the Roses de Reims biscuits or Ladyfingers one by one in the chocolate and stand smartly around the chocolate cake thus:

Ahhh...my little Stonehenge dessert :) I forgot to take a photo but I now strew some of the glaceed angelica cut into small pieces atop the puree...

Allow chocolate to cool completely - you may need to do some stone mason work to help the biscuits stand and hold the mousse thus:

When the chocolate is cooled - by the way - don't cool the chocolate in the fridge or it will cloud and look unattractive! 

Now gently pour the mousse into the centre of the roses de Reims ring you have created:

At this point I would allow the mousse to sit and gel for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight.

And now for the fun cream furbelows and decorations - whip up some more sweetened cream and decorate to your hearts content, then add angelica, or glaceed/candied fruit of your choice in a pleasing pattern, and finally some nice, genteel dollops of the remaining strawberry puree - I would have added some sliced fresh strawberries too but with the humidity we have had lately the strawberries did not look good enough for decoration - the season seemed awfully short this year!!

ET VOILA!!!!!

Bonne fete mes amis Francais - s'il vous plaît excusez mon mauvais Français - from Maine, which is named after the French province of Maine 
and home to Acadian culture

 Merci beaucoup Isabelle - Patricia

The various colours of Wild Maine Blueberries

As you can see they're not just blue -at least not to start with - they go through a variety of delightful, mellowed shades from green and almost white through red, lilac and purple to finally end up that beautiful bloomed blue.

As you can also see in the picture above there's a reason why they used to be called Starberries - a name I think should be revived for it's romantic ring.

Blueberry barrens only bear fruit every other year - here's a link to the UMaine information on our wonderful wild berry and click on the name to visit one of our state's growers in Blue Hill, Maine: GM Allen and Son

Even navy blue and magenta...the one below I took at dusk and couldn't quite get the focus but the camera did capture the glow of these berries in the evening light:

I will have a new Blueberry recipe coming as soon as the crop is in probably around August 1st.

 I just recently created this logo for the Etsy Maine Team using a blueberry painting I did some years ago and I created a watercolour painting of the state bird, the Chickadee, especially for the logo:

This the Facebook cover above and the profile picture below:

 and a t-shirt design for the teamies to wear with pride!

And now there's an Etsy Maine Team CafePress shop too - hooray - click HERE! for t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and so much more

 This is the original blueberry painting I scanned and used for the background - I will be making an allover print of it soon for my Spoonflower shop.

and my best shot so far of wild Maine blueberries - available as a print in my Etsy shop HERE

These cool blue delphiniums are also blooming right now - their colour always amazes me - such a pure and glistening sky blue with a hint of lavender - so very pretty

Isn't this colour palette just breathtaking with the wild daylilies:

 

This post is part of the Rurality Blog Hop - click the picture link to visit the other participants: