dissecting a starbucks

I have been busy dissecting this Starbucks cake. My friend spotted it the other day and has set me a challenge to replicate it for her birthday. It's official title is 'Salted Caramel Sweet Square', I presume due to its layer of salty caramel, sweet biscuit base and chocolate topping. And it's a square.

So I have been carefully picking this little slice apart. I will begin at the bottom. A basic biscuit and butter base, much like you'd have on a cheesecake, so that's easy enough. Next is a layer of caramel. I can't say I could taste any saltiness in it, but I like that idea so I'll add a pinch to mine. Interspersed amongst the caramel were tiny biscuit balls and pecan nuts. Nice touch. The top was a layer of drizzled chocolate and scattered pecans. Out of interest, I looked at Starbucks' website, where a list of ingredients for their Salted Caramel Sweet Square included carrageenan and palm kernel oil. Yum. They also state that this cake is "topped with a layer of pretzels", but I looked hard and couldn't find one. 

In conclusion then, this bar is very much like the classic Millionaire's Shortbread, but with added salt (apparently), biscuits and nuts. Not much to dislike there. I'll let you know how I get on....  

hello spring

Today is the first day of Spring. There is cherry blossom on the trees, you can leave the house without a coat, sit outside a cafe without wanting to hug a heater. It's not dark when you leave work, festival line-ups are announced and thoughts turn to holidays in the sun. There are snowdrops and lambs in the fields, and chocolate eggs on the supermarket shelves. 


I spent the eve of the March Equinox in London. My friends took me to Columbia Road flower market, where we browsed the most beautiful little shops and ate calamari and king prawns out of paper cups. We stopped for coffee and noted the intensity of the sun on our backs. Here are some of the best things that I saw.

red velvet cupcakes

As it's Red Nose Day, I felt inspired to make these Red Velvet Cupcakes, so called because of the deep, scarlet colour of the sponge. This recipe comes courtesy of one of my favourite cookery books, The Hummingbird Bakery. I added my own little wine gum noses.

red velvet cupcakes
for the cakes
60g butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
for the cream cheese icing
300g icing sugar
50g butter
125g cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 170C
1. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
2. Slowly add the beaten egg and continue to whisk until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add this to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until the whole mixture is coloured.
4. Pour in half of the buttermilk and half of the flour and beat well. Repeat this process with the rest of the buttermilk and flour.
5. Add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar. Beat the mixture until well incorporated and continue beating for a couple more minutes.
6. Spoon the mixture into 12 cupcake cases, filling them two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
7. Leave the cupcakes to cool. While they are cooling, make the icing. Beat the icing sugar and butter together with an electric whisk. Add the cream cheese and continue to beat until it is mixed well. Beat for at least 5 minutes to produce a light and fluffy icing.
8. When the cupcakes are cool, spoon the icing on top, or use an icing bag and nozzle to create a swirly effect.

chocolate and salted peanut cheesecake

A few people have asked me about the recipe for the cheesecake I made for my dinner party. So here it is. I have a friend who has celiac disease so I used gluten-free digestive biscuits for the base. But bog-standard McVities work just as well.

chocolate and salted peanut cheesecake

for the base

200g digestives

75g salted peanuts

50g butter

2 tbsp golden syrup

for the filling

150g dark chocolate

200ml double cream

2 eggs

100g caster sugar

500g full-fat cream cheese

150g crunchy peanut butter

Heat the oven to 150C

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and then whizz it together with the digestives, peanuts and golden syrup in a food processor.

2. Press this mixture into the base of a 20cm springform tin, lined with greaseproof paper, and place in the fridge.

3. Put the chocolate and cream into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave it to melt.

4. Whisk the eggs and the sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the cream cheese and peanut butter, then fold in the chocolate and cream mixture. 

5. Spoon this mixture onto the biscuit base and smooth flat with the back of a spoon.

6. Place a roasting tin half-filled with boiling water in the bottom of the oven. This may seem like a bit of a faff but it stops the top of the cheesecake from cracking. Bake on the middle shelf for 1 hour 15 mins. It should be just set but slightly wobbly in the middle.

7. Cool in the fridge immediately and decorate with chocolate curls and crushed peanuts. 

sunday roast

With it being a Sunday I thought I would dedicate this post to the Great British Sunday Roast. Indulging in this traditional feast is one of my all-time favourite pastimes. Wake up late on a Sunday (if my body clock will allow), make a pot of tea, pop out for a Sunday paper and stroll down the road for a roast. It's good to avoid driving anywhere if possible - the walk back does wonders for the post-roast bloat.

So a couple of Sundays ago I was relishing the day ahead, having arranged to meet up with some friends at The Social, a new-ish bar on Gloucester Road. Having spent the night before there trying out their drinks menu we decided to give the food menu a try too. Now it's always a risk trying out somewhere new. I am usually a stickler for sticking to what you know or, better still, cooking one yourself. But every now and then its good to branch out, with the aim of widening the available 'good roast' options on a Sunday. So let’s cut to the chase. This was possibly THE worst roast I have ever had the displeasure to eat. We arrived, we ordered (chicken for me, beef for most of the others), we sat down and we waited with anticipation and hunger. Our food arrived not long after and it was plain to see that this was not going to be the gourmet treat we had been hoping for. We stayed positive and tried hard to praise the plate of food that lay in front of us. But it didn’t take long before the criticisms were flying. I think a simple list is the best way of relaying to you how terrible this food really was:

1. There was very little of everything. Which actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
2. The (unidentifiable) vegetables were boiled to within an inch of their lives and seemed to blend into one another, much like baby food.
3. The roast potatoes were undercooked and the skins were, well, just boring. I want crispy, crunchy bits on my potatoes please. 
4. The Yorkshire pudding was solid and kind of crumbled as you cut into it.
5. The chicken was tasteless, limp and pale. The beef looked anaemic. The vegetarian of the group described her nut roast as 'sandy'. Delightful.
6. I have saved the worst until last. The gravy. It was like no gravy I have ever seen. In fact it resembled less gravy, more the water that is left in the greasy pan after you have soaked it overnight, boiled up nice and hot. And that was poured all over our plates. We had (before seeing any of our food I hasten to add) requested more gravy, and here is what that extra portion looked like. I think the photo says it all.

Yes, those are globules of grease floating on the top. Needless to say we left hugely dissatisfied and still hungry. To the point where I went home and made myself spaghetti hoops and cheese on toast, which was tastier and didn’t cost me the best part of a tenner.

But the interesting thing is what happened when the waitress came over to clear our plates and ask if everything was ok. We all sat there, grinning through gritted teeth and nodding. There were definite mumbles of “it was great, thanks.” We talked about complaining, we certainly knew we should complain. Not in an aggressive, I-demand-my-money-back-or-else kind of way, but in a 'constructive', please-don't-ever-inflict-that-gravy-on-any-other-customer-ever-again kind of way. But was anybody 'brave' enough to say anything? Nope. Actually, I tell a lie, one of us did finally pluck up the courage to (politely) tell the chef what we really though of our meal. But the rest of us made sure that we were out of the door and halfway up the street before she did it. The Sunday Roast is one of Britain’s greatest traditions. Our inability to complain is not. 

pancake day

My boyfriend cooked me and my housemates some delicious pancakes. Lemon and sugar - classic.

dinner party

Last weekend I took on my biggest foodie challenge to date: a dinner party for 12. Now 26, I'm at the age where past dinner parties have mostly consisted of friends balancing plates of noodles on their laps. No meat, because that was far too expensive. It came to me recently that I wanted to host my first ever grown-up dinner party. Sounds rather pathetic written down, but that was my wish. Along with my housemates, I finalised a date and the lists began. Lists of who to invite, lists of possible courses, lists of ingredients, lists of things to borrow. After all of the lists, I woke up on Saturday feeling like a kid at Christmas, eagerly anticipating the mammoth task that lay ahead. I was organised to the point of considering drawing up a few spreadsheets (don't worry, I didn't). My timings were precise and the kitchen was spotless. Actually choosing what to serve turned out to be the most difficult part of the process. But here it is, the complete menu:

STARTER 

Chicken satay skewers with satay sauce

MAIN

Beef bourguinonne and dauphinoise potatoes served with Chantilly carrots and fine green beans

DESSERT

Dark chocolate and salted peanut cheesecake

or

Apple crumble and homemade custard

Cheese and crackers

My main concern for the evening was that I would spend the entire time in the kitchen, literally sweating over a hot stove, steadily drinking myself into a stupor with the leftover red wine. But I can safely say it was one of my favourite days / nights of 2011 so far. Sure, it wasn't plain sailing from start to finish. Two of our guests brought their own chairs to the party and we had to borrow plates from the pub across the road. There was a slight glitch when everyone had arrived and I counted 12 bodies in the room. I'm not sure how but, after all of my preparation, I had planned and cooked for just 11. I quickly rearranged a few pieces of marinated chicken and crossed my fingers that there would be enough carrots to feed everyone. Each guest arrived with a cheese of their choice which made for the most impressive cheeseboard to finish off the meal perfectly. I won't bore you with every little detail though. Here are some photos instead.