Chocolate & Beetroot

I had an urge to bake last week and so I went back to a recipe I have been tempted by for a long while. I like to try more unusual flavour combinations, like the courgette cake, and this time it was Nigel Slater’s chocolate beetroot cake. The beetroot flavour is there but very subtle and the cake itself is rich and moist. The recipe is very easy to follow but make sure you have an electric whisk to hand – soft peaks takes a long time with a hand whisk! Mum and Dad popped over on Sunday and enjoyed their slice, and Dan won’t let me take the rest to work… so it must be good!

Passionfruit & Chocolate

My favourite thing to do is wake up on a Saturday morning and watch Saturday Kitchen Live. You could say it's a bit of an obsession but I find I want to try and make (and then eat) everything they make. Afterwards was Nigel Slater, who I also love. I have tried his fig and blackberry pies before, but nothing else so I thought these chocolate cookies could not be ignored. The recipe is so simple and leaves the cookies deliciously gooey inside. We also had some bananas going brown again this week so I used them to make banana cupcakes with mixed spice and topped with passionfruit icing - yum! Everything I do at the moment appears to be food related, but I have gone for a swim two days in a row so I reckon that cancels out the naughtiness!

Christmas Trifle

For Christmas lunch, I was in charge of a couple of puddings including the Trifle (yes, capital T is required!) It's a Nigel Slater recipe that Ma had seen on TV a couple of nights before, which caused me to rush along to the supermarket to buy some physalis as other people would have seen the programme too and now they might sell out!!

It's Mincemeat Trifle and, though it took some time to prepare, it was enjoyable to make and those who tasted it liked it very much. It had a mincemeat and orange sponge base, custard, orange and lemon curd, topped with whipped cream, physalis, chopped pistachios and orange zest. I was very proud, quite a spectacle to behold!