Happy Easter!

Hope you've all had a great Easter weekend!  We've had a good one, full of food; fun and family.  My parents stayed for 5 days, which was lovely, and provided plenty of opportunity to try out some new bakes.

 

 

I started by making an Easter Simnel cake, something which I've heard about many times, but never baked or eaten.  It's similar to a Christmas cake, but has a thick layer of marzipan baked into the middle.  You pour half the cake mix into your tin, add the marzipan, and finish with the remaining mix.  It's baked, and then decorated with more marzipan.  The finishing touch is 11 balls of marzipan, arranged around the edge of the cake.  These represent Jesus' 11 disciples, with Judas missing as he was the betrayer.  The marzipan is egg washed, and toasted in the oven to brown.  Now, Rachel doesn't provide a picture of the finished cake, so I did a bit of hunting on the internet.  There seems to be a lot of variation... some are covered top and sides, some just on the top.  There are those decorated with chicks or mini eggs, and those that have stuck to the classic marzipan balls.  I decided just to marzipan the top, with a ribbon around the cake for decoration.  Evan picked a nest of Easter chicks to sit in the middle.  He was keen to help me decorate the cake, which was lovely, and rolled out all 11 balls.  Here he is, concentrating  hard on brushing on the egg wash...



Now, we had a bit of a disaster - when the cake was toasted, the marzipan balls melted and started sliding off the cake.  I have no idea why.  Perhaps the fan oven was a bit fierce?  I was really disappointed, as it looked lovely before that.  Ah well, good job I wasn't on Masterchef or the Bake Off.  Here is the finished cake (don't laugh!)

It did taste nice, and the pieces of hot cooked marzipan which slid off were delicious!  I'll try again next year, maybe lowering the temperature of the oven. 

Of course, we had traditional roast lamb for Easter Sunday lunch.  For afters, I cooked Rachel's 'baked brown sugar custards', AKA crème brulees.  My mum often makes these, and I've kept meaning to have a go.  I was given a kitchen blow torch around the time we got married - nearly 10 years - and believe it or not I've never filled it with gas.  Well, this challenge is all about making me try new things so, off to our local hardware store to fill it up.  The custards are really easy to make - you use a classic custard recipe in which you whisk eggs and sugar, then bring milk and cream to simmering point in a saucepan.  You pour the milk and cream onto the egg/sugar mix, whisking all the time.  The custard is poured into individual ramekins, and baked in a bain marie (water bath).  You can serve the puddings warm, or leave them to cool.  Either way, you sprinkle each with a little soft brown sugar just before serving.  Torch to your heart's content, until the sugar is crunchy.



I'll definitely make these again - they're so easy and can be waiting in the fridge until you need them. 

Easter Monday dinner was Rachel's 'Pork en croute with spiced cabbage stuffing'.  The cabbage is finely shredded, and cooked with cream; coriander; cumin; and mustard.  This gives great flavour to a vegetable which can often be bland.  It's stuffed in to a pork loin which has been split and opened out, and finally wrapped in puff pastry.  We all loved this dish, and it was especially appreciated after a long bank holiday walk/cycle ride.  Again, it didn't look pretty as the pastry split.  Must work on my presentation skills, but until then I'll just enjoy the flavours!

This weekend, I've also revisited Rachel's 'Bakewell bars' (see blog from 18th August 2014).  This time, I made them 'Mr Kipling' style, with icing and cherries on top.

 

 

Loved these! The bars were great without the extra topping, but it made a nice change.

 

So that's our Easter weekend!  We all feel as if we've eaten non-stop, and need to lighten up for the next few days!   But I've really enjoyed all the baking, as well as the eating.  I'll finish with one of the highlights of our weekend - Evan had his first turn to look after the school hens.  We had to let them out in the morning, put them to bed at night and top up their food and water.  They provided us with 6 eggs over the weekend, so fresh eggs for Easter breakfast.  They say you really appreciate your food when you know where it comes from, and that's so true.  Those eggs felt very precious, and tasted fantastic.  We're looking forward to our next turn!