Easter

My Favourite Easter Recipes

Easter is finally with us and we have a four day bank holiday weekend   Yippee!   It’s a time when amongst all the chocolate there is usually some room left for other food and the recipes in this post are some of my favourites for the Easter weekend. Some are traditional, some aren’t.    But there should be one or two that will appeal to you.  Many can be made in advance and it can be nice to have some time to potter about in the kitchen preparing food to share with family and friends, particularly with the radio on.

Let’s hope for good weather despite the forecasts but we if not there is always the prospect of a lie in and another Easter Egg! Continue reading →

Simnel Cake

As a country we seem to love fruit cakes for celebrations.  Christmas cake and wedding cake and then this Simnel Cake for Easter.  There are signs that times are a changing of course with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry choosing a lighter Elderflower and Lemon Cake for their wedding but I do hope we keep the Simnel Cake as part of our Easter traditions just as it has been for centuries.

Simnel cake has a layer of marzipan running through the middle and with yet more marzipan, this time toasted, on top.  It seems to be a particular favourite with everyone I know.  Not as rich as Christmas it is traditionally  nowadays made for Easter with the eleven marzipan balls on top representing the apostles minus Judas.

The marzipan centre makes the cake very moist as it kind of melts into the cake.  The marzipan on the top is toasted with a blow torch which gives the whole cake another dimension.  I can’t resist adding chocolate mini eggs to the centre but they really aren’t necessary. Just cute! Continue reading →

Potato and Leek Al Forno

Creamy potatoes and leeks topped with crunchy breadcrumbs and baked in the oven   A fantastic accompaniment to chops or as a less rich alternative to pommes dauphinois

i can guess though what a lot of you are going to think as you cast your eye down the list of ingredients.  Ugh! Anchovies! I’m not going to cook that or, if I do, I am going to leave those out!  Fine, leave them out if you are vegetarian, but if you aren’t give it a go   They add a lovely savoury Unami taste to the finished dish and melt into the sauce so well you won’t be able to indentify them as a specific taste or see them   If you are vegetarian I’d add a couple of teaspoons of nutritional yeast flakes or a teaspoon of marigold vegetable bouillon powder instead of the anchovies.

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Potatoes, leeks and Anchovies

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Chocolate Biscuit Cake

We used to call this dark and luscious chocolate cake Tiffin, others called it Refrigerator Cake.  Ever since Prince William used it as his Groom Cake at his wedding it is now more commonly known as Chocolate Biscuit Cake. Apparently the Princes William and Harry used to have it (and even helped make it) when they were very young.

Chopped pistachios
Ready to stir in biscuits and figs

There are lots of variations to this, the authentic “Royal version” as made by Carolyn Robb so don’t worry if you prefer dried cherries, sultanas or apricots to the figs, or shortbread or rich tea biscuits to the digestives.  You can also use pecans, almonds or macadamia nuts instead of pistachios or if nut allergic just use more biscuit.  Talking of allergies if you are gluten intolerant there are really good gluten free stem ginger cookies that go really well with this – particularly when you use soft dried apricots as the fruit element.  You can also dress this cake up by decorating it with a thin layer of melted dark/milk/white chocolate after the cake has set and then embellish it with maltesers or even chocolate mini eggs! Or do as I have here and crush the mini eggs and lightly roll in.  If you are in the USA and find golden syrup difficult to get you can use corn syrup though this makes the cake slightly softer

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Iced Stem Ginger Cake

I love ginger and this is one of my absolute favourite cakes alongside Grasmere Gingerbread (which is more of a cross between a cake and a biscuit) and Catherine’s Sticky Ginger Cake (which is dark and delicious).  This cake is wonderful in the run up to spring with its tangy lemon icing topping a soft spiced sponge studded with amber jewels of exotic stem ginger.  A piece of this cake – especially with a cup of tea – is guaranteed to make life seem better and fill you with thoughts of bright spring days to come.  I always think of a jug filled with daffodils and an old fashioned teapot sitting beside a plate of these on the kitchen table!

Iced Stem Ginger Cake

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Hot Cross Buns

Q: What do you get if you pour a kettle of boiling water down a rabbit hole?

A: A hot cross bun!

A truly dreadful joke I admit but homemade hot cross buns are wonderful I promise   They are time consuming but most of that is because you have to wait longer than normal to let the dough rise, partly because it is an enriched dough and partly because the spices seem to slow the yeast down

Mind you, I cheat and make and shape my dough the day before and leave to prove in fridge overnight, then remove from fridge an hour before baking so we can have them for breakfast on Good Friday without getting up at the crack of dawn!!! Continue reading →

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