The comfort of Rum and Raisins

I made this cake for my husband who has a particular weakness for anything rum and raisin flavoured. He stops at nothing - ice cream, rice pudding, semoule au lait and we discovered Les Petits Muffins raisin au rhum from Bonne Maman the other day. What a treat!

It inspired a baking session after work one day not long after. I started with a recipe for a date, ginger and honey cake and ended up with the most popular cake in our house so far this year. It fills the house with the most wonderful warming smells that you will want to make it again just to make your place smell good.

We are two, and we ate this cake within 3 days. It featured in every meal including breakfast. I can testify that it is terrifically good with a cup of tea.

Rum and Raisin Cake

250g self raising flour

150g butter

90g sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tablespoons honey

3 eggs

125g raisins

100mls approx. rum

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Pour the rum over the raisins, and microwave for 1 minute to encourage the raisins to soak up the rum (that's where the flavour is). Cover and leave to macerate while you make the rest of the cake.

Beat the butter and the sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg. Add the vanilla essence. Add the flour and honey and mix well. Check that your raisins are nice and plump. If not, zap them in the microwave to hurry them up. Drain the rum into your cake mixture. Shake 1 tablespoon of flour over your raisins so that the raisins are covered in flour. This stops them sinking to the bottom of the cake while it cooks. The raisins may look lumpy covered with flour but it will all disappear once cooked. Now add the raisins to your mixture and stir well.

Grease and flour (or line with paper) a loaf tin. Pour in your cake mix and cook in the oven for 20 minutes. As usual, the cooking times vary with each oven. It's cooked when you poke knife in and it comes out clean.

Cool the cake in the tin before tipping it out and enjoying it - but I reckon you won't be able to wait that long!

Soup it up

It's autumn and autumn means soup. Whenever the weather turns colder I discover a childlike adoration for hot soup. There is something about coming in from the cold and being warmed up from the inside out with a bowl of soup. Soup is usually filled with vegetables and vitamins which adds to it's appeal. I feel like I am 'souping-up' my defenses against winter illness.

Here is a tasty number that I whipped up the other day. It has a delicate flavour of vegetables, so think china teacups and silver soup spoons.

Autumnal Green Soup

1 onion

1 potato

1 carrot

20g butter

850mls vegetable stock

1 head of lettuce

100ml cream

salt and pepper

Diced the onion, potato and carrot into small cubes. Heat the butter in a large pot and sweat the vegetables for 10 minutes without colouring.

Add the vegetable stock and cover. Simmer for 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.

Finely slice the top 2/3's of the head of lettuce, leaving the harder whiter part of the leaves behind, and add to the soup. Cook until the lettuce has just wilted, about 2 minutes. If you cook the lettuce any longer you will lose it's bright green colour and your soup will become dull looking.

Cool the soup a little and purée. You can either do this in a blender or with a hand held mouli.

Adjust seasonings and add the cream.

from the store cupboard

I had a tin of carrots living in my cupboard. I'm not sure why I bought them because I'm not usually into buying tinned vegetables. The other night I decided to add them to our dinner menu of pasta (late night dinner after a long day at work). I took down the tin of carrots waiting for some inspiration on how to eat them.....

What transpired was a rather delicious asian flavoured dish of healthy vitamins. Here I kept it rather simple but I do think a dash of freshly grated ginger could work very well.

Asian Carrot Salad

1 x 400g tin of baby carrots

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Dressing

1 tablespoon olive oil

several splashes sesame oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

dash of oyster sauce

pinch of salt

pinch of sugar

fresh ginger

Mix the dressing ingredients together and test for seasoning. Adjust if necessary. Pour the dressing over the carrots and then sprinkle the final dish with a tablespoon of sesame seeds.

Eat with or without chopsticks - you choose.

the knitters

Look at these beautiful girls having a go at knitting. A group of us got together, some could knit, some couldn't. By the end of the afternoon everyone left home with something accomplished. It's given me inspiration to finish my vest that has sat, for the summer, in my knitting bag.

Waiting for Perfection

I have been waiting for Perfection. And now I'm giving up. Perfection is late and I must get on with things. I have been kept waiting long enough.

As a good friend of mine, Grant Erskine, pointed out tonight, perfectionism is to be focussed on the way or the manner of doing something. I have discovered that this more 'task focussed' style of thinking actually drains some of the fun out of life.

I am henceforth choosing to live Excellently. I will no longer passively wait for Perfection to arrive but I will proactively seek the company of Excellence. I like Excellence because she is already with me. I don't have to wait for her. She is a choice and she lives in my thinking. Because Excellence is being focussed on who you are doing your things for, not on how you do them. I like Excellence because she values people. I like Excellence because she likes to do things a little more than the expected.

So - my blog, in fact my life, will not be perfect. Because lets face it - I'm not perfect (surprise surprise!). I get grumpy when I'm tired, I am impatient when I have to repeat myself and sometimes, (but not very often), I do steal the covers on the bed.

I have made plenty of gorgeous looking and tasting dishes over the long months of my absence from my blog. I wasn't having a complete break down. But because I didn't consider them perfect (well, it was mainly the pictures I didn't like), I did nothing. Perfection never coincided with my inspiration.

So, I'm making way for Excellence. My dream may not be finished being dreamed but I can do what I can excellently as I discover what the meaning behind my passions and talents. I am no longer waiting for Perfection in order to act.

Here are my excellent Speculos that I made for an afternoon with the girls when they came over to knit. Check out the fun we had. Some complete beginners left with some seriously good knitting in hand.

Spring Adventures

I have children. Although we've been married for 8 months (feels longer than that!), I have two of them. They are kind that I keep for 6 hours and then give back at the end of the day. Two precious wee souls who sometimes I tuck into bed at night and sing songs to, and then leave for my own home where there are no toys to trip on or homework to be done. I pick them up from school the next day and listen to their stories of school life.

We decided to spend the day in the park, have a picnic lunch and to visit the menagerie, the little zoo. We packed the picnic, put on our hats and suncream and chose our special toys to bring for the day. The sun was shining, the flowers were out at last after a cold winter and I was full of expectation for a glorious day in the park amongst the blossom.

It started out like this; romantic flamingos, graceful on one leg, the giggles of contented children running in the sun and watching BIG animals.

And then we found the wild parts!  On my camera I ended up with more photos of savage animals than a flowery picnic in the sun.  We spent a long time watching the big cat from China and the crocodiles.  The animals were obviously happy with the sunny day and obligingly showed off their savageness with big displays of open mouths, wild grins and stealthy stares (thankfully all through very thick glass). 

The diversity of the world never fails to amaze me! It was a fabulous adventure on a spring day. Could I call it a savagely gracfeul outing? I'll leave you with the chinese big cat to decide for youself.

 

Vanilla Crème

It's warmer here now. I like that. I like the feel of the air on my skin and the sun on my face. I was born for such a time as this - summer.  I went out running the other day in the early morning. It's my favourite time of the day; when the world is waking up and birds have the parks to themselves.  Our closest 'park' has no grass so I'm not so sure it fits the bill as an official park, but it's a good place to run. I do feel a bit like a little mouse running his little plastic wheel in his cage as I do laps of the park to stretch out my exercise time, before heading for home. However, the trees are beautiful and the birdsong is enough to awaken my soul as well as my body. 

I made these petits pots de crème vanille the other day for friends who came over for dinner. They are perfect for warmer weather as they are a not-too-big and not-too-small kind of dessert. And one that doesn't leave your stomach sinking at the end of a dinner party. 

You don't need an excuse to make them. Quick and economical to make. They work perfectly well for a mid-week dinner in front of the tele if you can't wait for an official occasion. 

Vanilla Crème

serves 6

500ml full cream milk

4 egg yolks

120g sugar

35g cornflour

60g butter

2 vanilla beans (or 1 tsp vanilla essence)

Heat the milk with the vanilla pods until it reaches just below boiling point. Let it cool for 10mins, leaving the vanilla pods in the milk.

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and cornflour.

Take out the vanilla beans from the milk.

Pour the milk into the egg mixture, beating well all the time. Once mixed, pour back into the pot.

Continue to stir the milk over a medium heat until the mixture starts to thicken. 

As soon as it begins to boil take off the heat immediately and pour into your ramekins.

Let the ramekins cool and then serve with a small delicate biscuit of your choice.