Strawberry Jam

There seems to be loads of strawberries about this year. Must be the fine weather at last. My lovely neighbours have gone on holidays and left loads of strawberries (and lettuces) unpicked, telling me to help myself to them. I gladly went with bowl in hand to collect some lovely fresh ripe strawberries and as there were so many I decided to make some strawberry jam. 

Simple Strawberry Jam
There are only 4 ingredients in this simple strawberry jam.

• strawberries
• sugar (I use granulated)
• lemon juice - if not using 'jam sugar' - see below
• small knob of butter

I use slightly less sugar by weight to strawberries eg: 500g strawberries to 400g sugar. Strawberries are low in pectin (the sustance that makes the jam set) so you can buy special jam sugar with added pectin, or alternatively use regular sugar and the juice of a lemon (1 lemon to each 500g of strawberries)

Chop the strawberries and sprinkle the sugar over them. Stir to coat the strawberries and leave to sit for 2-3 hours, or overnight.  The sugar draws out the juice from the strawberries and it starts to dissolve in the bowl. Place a small plate or saucer in your fridge.

To sterilise your jam jars either wash them in a hot wash in the dishwasher, or put them on a tray into a warm oven for at least half an hour. Do not touch the inside of the pots when you remove them from the oven/dishwasher. Put the strawberries in a preserve or maslin pan or heavy based saucepan (I use the saucepan from my pressure cooker) add the lemon juice, if using, and bring slowly to the boil stirring with a wooden spoon. When it comes to a rolling boil, stop stirring and leave the strawberries to boil for approx 5 minutes (or when the temperature reaches 220F on a jam thermometer) Take the cold plate from the fridge and drop a little jam onto it. Leave for a minute to cool and then push the jam slightly with your finger. There should be a wrinkle on the surface of the jam, that inidicates that it will set. If there is no wrinkle, boil the jam for another 2 minutes and try the plate test again. Stir in a small knob if butter, This settles down the foam on the jam (dont know how, but it works!)

Leave the jam to sit in the saucepan for about 10 minutes.  This allows the fruit pieces to settle in the jam and you won't end up with strawberries floating to the top of the jam pot. Use a jam funnel (it makes the job so much easier) to pour the jam into the sterilised jars.  Top with a waxed disc while the jam is still warm, this melts the wax a little and seals the jam,and then cover with a sellophane disc. When the jar is cool you can label and top with a pretty jam pot cover.    

note: 500g strawberries will yield 2-3 small jars of jam.

Vintage Gingham Caddies

Red still remains a popular colour for kitchen accessories, and these new vintage style metal caddies and bread bin should fit easily in many kitchen's colour schemes. In a lovely warm cream and red, they have a retro look with a cute gingham band around the base and red handle on the lid. These are very reasonably priced at only €4.95 for the tea, coffee or sugar caddies, €10.95 for the biscuit caddy and €21.95 for the bread bin. http://www.kitchendresser.net/vintage-gingham-523-c.asp

New Traditional Kettles and Toasters from Prestige

We really like these new kettles and 2 slice toasters from Prestige. Available in Red, Almond Cream or Dark Grey, they have a slick pearlescent finish and a traditional appearance with a modern twist.

Kettles €69.95. Toasters €46.95.

Hot Cross Buns. One a penny, two a penny....

I love the warm spicy smell of them, warm from the oven, split and spread with lashings of butter and washed down with a cup of tea. Or toasted for breakfast the next day. They are simple to make, the only time consuming part being the dough rising. I just put sultanas in mine because I am not a fan of mixed peel, but you can add any dried fruit or mixture of fruits that you like.

I just throw everything into my Kitchenaid and let the dough hook do the hard work. When they dough looks smooth and elastic, leave the dough in the bowl (covered in clingfilm) in a warm place for an hour or so until it has doubled in size. After this first rising, punch the dough down and divide into 8-10 pieces, shape into balls and place on a greased baking sheet. Cover the buns with oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm place again for 30-40 mins to rise for a second time (Or you can at this stage leave them overnight in a fridge on the baking tray, take them out the next morning and leave in a warm place for 30-40 mins)

Before baking, the only 'fiddly bit' is doing the crosses. Mash about a tablespoon of soft butter or margarine into 2 tablespoons of plain flour with a fork and mix to a soft pipe-able dough with cold water. Put this dough into the corner of a plastic sandwich bag, snip the corner of the bag with a scissors and use it like a piping bag to make a cross on each bun. You can of course use a proper piping bag and plain writing nozzle for this but that would make more washing up!

Bake the buns at 180C for 20-25 mins until nicely browned. While they are still warm out of the oven, brush them with the milk and sugar glaze. Then put on the kettle and enjoy!

Hot Cross Bun Recipe:

210ml warm milk (30 secs in the microwave)

1 egg

450g Strong White Flour

1 sachet easy-blend yeast

50g soft butter or margarine

1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

3 handfuls sultanas (or any other dried fruit)

Place all of the above into a food mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix on a low speed for 7-10 minutes until the dough looks smooth and elastic. Follow directions as above.

Milk Glaze:

Put about 200ml of milk in a saucepan and add 2 heaped tablespoons of sugar. Heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved, but dont let the milk boil. Brush over the hot buns as soon as they come out of the oven.

21st Birthday cake

Its not too often that I get the chance to make a proper celebration cake, and I certainly do not profess to being a professional decorator, but when my Daughter turned 21 recently and decided to throw a party, I just had to rise to the challenge and produce something a bit special. I would have loved to make her one of those fabulous topsy turvy cakes that you see on Ace of Cakes, but that was stretching things a bit so I had to decide on a simpler design.  It had to be pink (everything has to be pink where she is concerned) and she wanted it stacked like two presents. We made a chocolate biscuit cake for the base, Nigella's buttermilk birthday cake (How to be a domestic goddess) for the top.  The cakes were covered in a thin layer of white marzipan before I covered them with fondant icing. I was pleased as punch with the bow I made for the top of the cake with some Sugar Florist Paste as it was the first time I had used it. I made the bow a few days beforehand and filled the centres with paper towel before leaving to dry out. Then I simply stuck on cut-out flower shapes and piped a few swirls on the cakes. I wrapped the stems of a few ready made sugar flowers around a pencil to add a quirky corkscrew effect. The finishing touch was a light coating of pearl lustre spray all over the cake to add a nice glistening shine. Not such a professional cake close up, but I dont think it was a bad amateur attempt!

Butterfly

We have just got these amazing Nordic Ware cake tins into the shop (and available on the website). These heavy duty, professional weight aluminium tins are exquisitely detailed and the girly side of me couldn't wait to try out the Butterfly cake pan. I would definitely recommend using Wilton Cake Release to grease the tin and ensure the cake will easily slip out of the tin. I have to admit that I cheated and used an odlums quick cake mix as I was too impatient to get the ingredients together. It worked like a dream. No problem turning out the cake (leave it in the tin for 10mins -no more, no less- when you take it out of the oven)

I could barely wait before I let loose on the pink and white icing. Ok, I won't win any prizes for my decorating skill, but what little girl (or big girl!!) wouldn't be delighted with this?

Other favourite shapes for me are the backyard bugs muffin pan, which can be used for cakes or jellies, the Beehive pan and the beautiful Rose bundt pan, which would be lovely filled with fresh fruits and simply dusted with icing sugar.

Eat Me!

Loving anything to do with cupcakes I was dying to buy this new book by Xanthe Milton aptly called "Eat Me" - The stupendous, self-raising world of cupcakes & bakes according to Cookie Girl. Its so pretty and pink and full of cupcake and cookie recipes.  I was particularly attracted to the French Toast cupcakes as I like anything with cinnamon.
As you can see they turned out perfect and luckily I had lots of tasters in work to eat them up! I would recommend using a large closed star nozzle from Kaiser for the buttercream icing, as the size of the nozzle means you can cover the cakes in two quick swirls.