Good Food Show

I have been on holiday to Spain which I will blog about in the next few days but I have a backlog of items to share! I went to the Good Food Show in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago with Molly and my Mum. It was a good day out and we all tried lots of different things - yummy!! Molly especially liked the yogurts. I tried some chocolate wine which I thought would be like a Baileys type of drink but it looked like wine and smelt of chocolate - not sure whether I could drink a whole glass of it. I also tried some delicious fudge which I could have eaten a slab of but I don't think my thighs or waistline would have liked it so I reluctantly ran past the stand! I bought some lovely little cakes from a company called Sponge . They were so cute and such a lovely idea ( I bought one for my foodie pen-pal this month - very handy to have gone to the show!) I chose the Carrot Cake, Chocolate and Sticky Toffee pudding ones, Stephen and I had them for tea. They are beautifully packaged and make lovely presents to send to people. I also bought some Christmas tree sprinkles for cupcakes and a lovely cat shaped cookie cutter which I have used and will post a photo of this week.
 I forgot to take photos as I was too busy trying all the samples and this is the only photo I took - look at the size of these meringues!!!

It as a long day but am very tempted to go to the Christmas one....

Tea set

It was my birthday last week. I love birthdays as everyone has to be nice to me for a whole day.

I didn't make a cake , I just didn't have the time but I did get this card...

I would love to do that with Molly but don't think I could bear the mess!

I got some lovely presents including this tea set I saw in a charity shop and my lovely boyfriend went and bought it for me,  there are cups, saucers, side plates, dessert plates, sugar bowl and milk jug but there isn't a tea pot so I shall be searching ebay and looking out for one. So keep your eyes peeled and  if ever you see one let me know....

Its not a cake!!!!

Well it is called Leek and mushroom bread pudding so could be classed as a dessert! It is basically a savory version of bread and butter pudding. You can use any combinations of flavours. Add bacon or chorizo, red onions, sweet corn , tuna and any combination of cheeses. The bread is better if it is a day old , I cut it into chunks and set aside then fried leeks and mushrooms, mix 2 eggs with cream , milk and cheese add the leek mixture to the cheese mixture and pour over the bread. Leave for at least 30 mins to soak everything in then cook for 50 mins...

Macaroons

I love Macaroons! They are deceiving though ... They look tiny and I always think you need to eat lots to be full but as I discovered 2 (or 4 halves!) do the trick nicely.

Leamington Spa where I now live has hundreds (yes really HUNDREDS!) of cafes and tea rooms. Of course being the lovely thoughtful person that I am , I have made it one of my missions to visit as many of them as I can! When I was pregnant this was one of my favorite past times although I felt sick every day eating cake made me feel slightly better! Some places are slightly more challenging with a pushchair but there are still some good ones. So when lovely Sarah visited not only did I make chocolate cake but we also went to a newly oppened cafe called Comme Si Comme Ca and sat in the courtyard and ate these naughty little things ....

My favourite one was the salted caramel one mmmmm closely followed by the pistachio one. The other 2 were cherry and passion fruit. The cherry was the dissapointing one didn't really have any flavour to it. Overall a definite thumbs up. I will be back...

Blueberry, Raspberry & white chocolate GOOD FOR YOU muffins

I never know whether I like muffins so it seems a bit weird to be making them! I don't really like the shop bought Blueberry muffins although if they were presented in front of me then I would eat them... In fact you could say that about most cake although if there were bananas in them then NO WAY would I touch them... even if they had delicious salted caramel in them... can't stand bananas which is causing a slight problem with feeding them to Molly! So far she only has them when we visit Grandma... Anyway back to muffins. The sun has finally arrived and on a Tuesday Molly and I meet up with our NCT mummies and babies and take it in turns going to each others houses but as it was lovely we decided to go to the park and I volunteered to bring some cake as I had seen this easy to make low fat muffins and we are all on diets trying to lose our baby weight. My weight is going very very slowly could be all the cake?.... No?

I strayed ever so slightly from the recipe and added white chocolate chips to them so probably not as low fat as they should have been .. Oops

Chocolate Cake

Who doesn't love chocolate cake???
I hardly ever make this as I always think of the nasty dry chocolate cakes that you get in horrid little cafes and this is always the only cake that is on the menu... Well determined to make a cake for my lovely friend Sarah who came to visit this weekend , I went in search of an EASY and delicious one... Everything has to be EASY and QUICK these days as I can only cook when Molly is napping and that can be either an hour or in some cases 2 hours - woo hoo !
So looking through some of my food magazines I came across A Classic Tearoom Victoria

Look at the chocolate oozing down the sides mmmmmm...... Apparently it serves 10 ?! The overall verdict was delicious .. Moist..and chocolatey .....will make this again , would be good as a children's cake....

CLASSIC TEAROOM CHOCOLATE VICTORIA
225g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
50g cocoa
2tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract

1.  Heat the oven to 190c/fan170c/gas 5
2.  Put all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and cream together !!! How easy ???
3. Divide between 2 x 20cm cake time and smooth over and bake for 25 mins

To make the buttercream filling....
100g softened butter
100g icing sugar
2tsp cocoa powder

1. Blend all the ingredients together until pale and fluffy
2. Spread over the bottom sponge & sandwich together with the top.

To make the icing........
100g milk chocolate
15g butter
30g cocoa powder
50ml coffee or water ( I used water)
1tbsp golden syrup

1. Melt the butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water ( I blasted it on 10 second intervals in the microwave) meanwhile combine the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan an heat until almost at the boiling point giving it a whisk until smooth.
2. Add the pan of ingredients to the melted chocolate  and blend to a thick icing and smooth over the top of the cake letting it drip down the sides.....
3. EAT!

We all agreed it was yummy and fortunately Sarah took some home so there wasn't too much temptation left for me although I did eat the rest of it for myself..
I am entering this cake into a fab blog that I have discovered Mrs M recipe link for June

May Foodie Penpals

My second month in the foodie penpals and I love it !! I received a lovely parcel from Paula at Try that wine which was full of yummy things........

Bacon Jam - Have seen this before and wondered what it tastes like... it is delicious and I get to eat it all as my partner is vegetarian.. shame! I haven't bought it before as was slightly put off by the fact that it is called Jam and imagined it to be sweet but it isn't, its like a chutney with bacon bits , I had it with salmon fillets which does sound odd but worked!
Cheeky Frog Popcorn - Fortunately there were 2 packets in the box so there wasn't any fighting between Stephen and I as to who had the most - this was yummy - chocolate orange flavour -had just enough chocolate to satisfy me and a lovely orange taste to it -  It will be hunting this out so that I can have some more.
Peters Yard Crispbread - This gave me a fab excuse to buy some delicious cheese- these are wafer thin crackers and have a lovely crisp texture and I think have a sourdough type taste to them - they were fantastic with the stilton that I bought.
Homemade Cherry Muffins - Now there were 2 of these but I couldnt stop myself and ate one as soon as I opened the parcel and then remembered that I hadn't taken a photo - oooppps they were packaged beautifully as well! They tasted gorgeous and Paula told me they were from Lorraine Pascals cookbooks and  as I appear to have all of her cookbooks (how did that happen??) then I will be trying these .
Olive Crispbreads - Again delicious and have these with some hummus one night whilst watching the TV - good snackage.
Selection of teas that I haven't yet tried but intend to this week and finally saving the best till last
Petes' homemade marmalade - Paulas' husband makes marmalade - It was sooo delicious had a carrabbean twist to it as there was some rum to it - made my toast very happy!

Thanks again to Paula for your thoughtful parcel..
Stephen calls them my food rations! Roll on next month.....