May 2013: Pizza cake, Slow cookers, Fruit Curds.

Pizza Cake

Pizza cake. Yes, this is pizza cake, and not in fact pizza which makes it slightly less gross!

I filled a round pizza tray with half the basic vanilla cake mix (Mine does not have holes in it - if your does, please remember to line it with baking parchment).  Baked for about 8mins at 200°C.

After this was baked and cooled, I spread the top with Strawberry jam, and topped it with grated marzipan.

Grilled for a couple of seconds to melt the marzipan and give it a bit of a browning. Et voila. Pizza cake. Tasted a bit like a bakewell tart, small pieces were very filling.

I had not in fact gone completely crazy. I was planning a topsy turvy picnic where all the foods were to look opposite to what they were, so desserts would look like savory foods and vice versa.


Slow Cooking

I love my slow cooker, never more so than after I had my baby. It meant I could have delicious roast meals super easy - as shown by this yummy roast lamb I did. You do most if the cooking in the slow cooker then tip it all out into a roasting pan, and crisp off the top in the oven. Sooooo tasty.

Then you use up the left over's in really easy meals, like fried up with rice, or in tomato in a wrap.


If you havn't got one get one. Really handy and made it so I could eat properly after I'd had her. Perhaps a little too well as I am now fighting to get the pounds off!!

Cute Cookie Cutters

Banana, Orange and Strawberry Curds

How cute are these!
The craft store near where I live has started selling cookie cutter recently. I wanted them all but I settled for these :)



Fruit Curds

I should probably do an entire post dedicated to fruit curds. I did a LOT of research on the net, and a LOT of experimenting. You've had Lemon curd - well turns out you can make basically any type of fruit curd. Yep.
And it tastes more awesome than the stuff you can buy in a shop. Yep.
And it's actually really easy with a bit of know how. Yep.

Coconut and Fruit Smoothie Curds

Oh and you can freeze it. YEP.
So why were any of us buying shop bought curd again?

The thing with fruit curds is you can do a ridiculous number of things with it. Layer it between cake slices, fill cupcakes, add to butter cream for flavor, add to Sweetened Whipped cream to make an easy fruit fool. You can freeze it to store, but if you eat it frozen it makes a divine creamy ice-cream like dessert which you can serve with other things. It's super versatile.

It all started with a recipe I saw for Strawberry Curd from Lavender and Lovage and the curiosity set in. I made that recipe and it was LUSH. I couldn't stop I wanted to know more.

It turns out there's quite a lot of science involved in making fruit curd. I wont bore you with it, basically if you follow the recipe as I worked it out it should just work but don't try and mess around with it unless you actually have looked into the science or you might end up crying over curdled curd.

Not content with finding a reliable recipe, I wanted a reliable LAZY recipe. Which is what I am posting, you mix it up and throw it in the slow cooker and it makes yummy curd, with out curdling, burning AND it's self sealing. Seriously.
I wasn't just being lazy at this point the baby was quite fidgety and stirring a pan of curd for goodness knows how long, and trying to work out if it was done yet ended up being almost impossible so there was reasoning behind it.

Oh. And DO seal the pot in the slow cooker. I forgot once, and it ended up curdled, and not the best tasting.

This is a great website for inspiration for different flavours, but basically it's all up to your imagination. I even used a fruit smoothie for the juice and it worked brilliantly. Coconut has to be a personal favorite, the combination of flavour and texture is spot on.

The internet gives lots of different storage time reccomendations, as I'm not sure which is food safe I am not going to advise - google it so it's at your own risk! I do recommend freezing though, I found no detrimental affects to the defrosted curd although you might need to give it a quick stir.


Fruit Curd - 2 1lb jars approx.

200ml Fruit juice/cordial/Coconut milk
4 large eggs
100g Butter
300g Granulated Sugar (reduce sugar a little if using cordial)
Optional - depending on chosen flavour add zest of 2 Lemons/ 1 Orange to give it some extra zest.

Set aside prepared jars (sterilised, or straight out of the top of a dishwasher - old Curry jars are ideal).
With an electric whisk, combine the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the eggs and combine. Add fruit zest if required, add chosen fruit juice and combine. Pour into the prepared jars and screw on the lids.
Place in a Slow cooker and surround with hot water (just below the lid of the jars), replace slow cooker lid. Cook on High for 2 1/2 - 3 hours depending on desired consistency.

Carefully remove from slow cooker using oven gloves and let cool on a heat proof surface, once cooled store in the fridge.

Coconut Curd Cake

After I stopped myself from eating the Coconut Curd straight from the jar (that was quite hard) I thought I better make some cake to go with it.

Basic Recipe Coconut cake, sandwiched with coconut curd, topped with Plain Buttercream (real butter, no flavouring at all) sprinkled with coconut. yum yum yum.

April 2013: Baby and Apple Marzipan Pastries

One fully baked baby!

So yeah April 6th, Emily was born. Needless to say not much baking was done in April!

I did manage to squeeze in some Apple pastries though. They were really easy and very tasty.

Cut some ready rolled puff pastry into even sized squares/rectangles. Spread over some Jam (warm it slightly to make it easier to spread if you like). Sprinkle some grated store bought marzipan over the top (if you put it in the fridge it's easier to grate). Then place some sliced apple over it (diagonally from point to point) sprinkle some cinnamon on top. Wrap over the points, glaze with a bit of egg wash and bake for 8-10mins. mmmmmmmm.