Ok, so here I go again. I only meant to take a few months' break and it's been what... 4 years? Well, you know how life takes over and the weeks and months just fly. The children are growing up very fast - now 6 and 10 and certainly keep us out of mischief. We still enjoy baking together, and Evan's favourite part is still licking the bowl! Last weekend, we made some Viking Cupcakes complete with 'blood splatters'... thanks to Horrible Histories!
I really hope you're all keeping well in these strange times. Hard as it is, one positive is to see how creative everyone is becoming during lockdown. I've heard so many people say how they're enjoying cooking from scratch, and trying other hobbies that they don't usually have time for. We've been discovering the local area on our family walks, spending time in our garden (thank goodness for Easter sunshine!) and (mostly) enjoying the challenge of homeschool.
Anyway, to the new blog... The idea actually came just after I started the first one In those hectic days when Megan was a newborn, I'd drop Evan at pre-school, come back and feed her while eating my lunch - and before I knew it, it was time to pick the boy up again. Well, in those snuggly baby feed times I started watching a programme called 'Britain's Best Bakery'. It was only on for 2 series, and I caught the second. It was brilliant - teams from UK regions would compete against each other, using their local ingredients and unique recipes. I loved to see the pride that they took in their areas, and thought I'd like to learn more about this.
My plan is to take regions of Britain, one at a time, and explore their local dishes. Maybe I'll even try and come up with some of my own recipes, using local ingredients. I'd like to combine this with some visits, when travel is possible.again. I love exploring new parts of Britain, and there's still so much I haven't seen.
Regarding the different 'regions', I got in a real pickle trying to work out how best to divide it. There are geographical, electoral and actual county boundaries - which seem to change all the time! For example, I was born in a village in Monmouthshire, which then became Gwent, with is now under the City and County. of Newport. And that's just one example. So, I've created my own sections - and I apologise if I offend anyone by not being entirely accurate! My plan is to take each area, and explore for a few weeks at a time. So it's going to be a long term blog - I'm not having a time limit this time. Let's see where it takes us!
To research my blog, I have used the internet (and have a board on Pinterest entitled 'Heidi's Bake Around Britain'). But I was very keen not to rely on this, it just seemed too easy. So I've collected some cook books, and asked around friends for their own recipe ideas.
I particularly love these last two - they have a vintage feel to them and are well thumbed! Always a good sign.
I'd also love to hear from anyone who has a regional recipe that they could suggest. Even if you only have a vague idea, I'll try and research it.
I'm going to introduce this project with a recipe from Leicestershire, my adopted home for the last 20 years. It is 'Sand Cake' - a timely recipe, as it mainly uses Cornflour and only 25g plain flour. With the current plain flour shortage, I thought this could be useful. I found another blog which suggests it could be made with potato flour:-
Here's a posher version which flavours it with chocolate and orange:-
My recipe comes from the 'Taste of The East Midlands' book, pictured above. It doesn't go into the history of the recipe, but internet sources also link it to Gloucestershire and Shropshire, as well as Leicestershire. All I know is that it is a very old recipe, and the weblink above says it was mentioned by Mrs Beeton in 1861.
Here's my version:-
Leicestershire Sand Cake
Cake Ingredients
75g (3oz) butter or margarine
115g (4oz) caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
115g (4oz) cornflour
25g (1oz) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Icing Ingredients
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp water
115g (4oz) icing sugar, sifted
Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/GM4
2. Cream the butter/margarine with sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in eggs, and add lemon rind. Sift cornflour with flour and baking powder, and fold into mixture.
3. Turn into greased 450g (1lb) loaf tin. Bake in preheated oven for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn onto a wire rack and cool.
4. To make icing, mix lemon juice and water into icing sugar in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and just warm, and immediately pour over the cake, allowing the icing to run down the sides. Leave to set, and serve in slices.
(I think I should have added more liquid here, or maybe warmed the liquid less - it was a bit thick and didn't really run down. The cake dried out quite quickly - and I think a runnier liquid would have helped this).
This cake may not be to everyone's taste - I know some don't like the texture of cornflour, but needs must at the moment! This feels very much like a blitz spirit and indeed, we enjoyed it at our (socially distanced) VE Day party.
Take care all... until next time!
