I had a few days off before my birthday this year, and the majority of my time seemed to be taken up with baking, which was fantastic! However I did manage to fit in a few other things such as a spot of shopping, a trip to Oxford and No.1 Court tickets to Wimbledon!
I had quite a varied menu to prepare for, I made Summer Sausage Rolls and Millionaire’s Shortbread to take into work, individual chicken and sauasagemeat pies to take in my picnic to Wimbledon and my Chocolate and Cherry Birthday cake for Sunday afternoon tea along with more sausage rolls and sultana scones.
Summer Sausage Rolls
I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and I can thoroughly recommend it. In fact I made a quantity and a half to make sure that there were enough to go around and to completely use up a pack of puff pastry. The flavours are fantastic and only improve the day after baking. Don’t be tempted to put more than one clove of garlic in even if you make a quantity an a half, otherwise the flavour will overwhelm all of the other lovely ingredients. The inclusion of the sundried tomatoes and basil is great and adds a lovely summery fresh flavour. You may think that the rolls may be such a different texture to a sausage roll that you may be used to, but once the chicken and bacon has been diced, it melds into a great texture. One final tip, make sure that you make enough for everyone as it is impossible to eat just one of these!
Individual Chicken and Sausagemeat Pies
For the last couple of years my mum has used a fantastic recipe for a Christmas pie that always goes down fantastically hot or cold. I always enjoy it at that time of year so I was keen to see if I could adapt the recipe so that it could be used all year round. I decided to omit all of the fruit and keep just the chicken and seasoned sausage meat mixed with softened red onions. I bought individual pie dishes from Lakeland (If you want to make a proper double-crusted pie, a metal pie dish is essential) as I thought that their individual size would make them perfect to take on a picnic. I used shortcrust pastry on the bottom, a layer of sausage, then chicken, then sausage then a puff pastry lattice lid. Individual pies obviously take a slightly shorter time to cook than a large pie, so keep an eye on them if you are adapting a larger pie recipe. I worked from the large recipe and found I had enough sausage but too much chicken and pastry, so I will need to work on my quantities for next time I make these. I already have ideas for all sorts of individual pie treats including steak and ale and chicken, ham and leek!
Chocolate and Cherry Cake
As has now become a bit of a tradition over the last few years, my yearly birthday cake as usual had to be something spectacular! I decided to steer away from a sugarpaste covered cake from the last few years, and once more delved into my favourite Mich Turner cookery book and chose a chocolate and cherry cake covered with ganache and decorated with fresh cherries. The cherries used in the cake are soaked in vintage port overnight, and then folded gently into the mixture. The cake comes out of the oven looking almost like a brownie with a papery cracked top, but fantastically flat so great for decorating! The recipe stated to use a ganache buttercream to put onto the cake as a crumb coat first of all, but I thought that might be a bit of overkill, so I stuck with just using the ganache to decorate it.
Tips for working with Ganache: When recipes mention pouring ganache over cakes, it always fills me with trepidation, and because of this I have never actually tried it. I find you get exactly the same effect by allowing the ganache to cool and using a palette knife to spread it over the cake. You get the same shine and the same finish, but without the heartbreak of losing some of it to your counter and your sponge cloth.
I always try and leave cake and ganache separately overnight before putting the two together. If when you come to spread it over the cake, your ganache is too hard, put the glass bowl over a pan of boiling water poured from the kettle. Keep stirring and watch carefully until it gets to the desired consistency. If it goes too far, don’t worry, let it cool down a bit, better to be too runny than too hard or it will pull crumbs out of your cake.
When working with ganache, dollop a large amount on the top on the cake, and then using the palette knife carefully spread it and work it down over the sides, this way you wont be in any danger of dropping a dollop on the counter and it can be more controlled.
When piping, the ganache needs to be a little harder. Do not waste money on a fancy piping bag holder, a tall glass will do the job just fine. Add the desired nozzle to the bag, put the bag in the glass, fold the sides over the top and voila, a piping bag stand!
