Very Easy BBQ Spare Ribs

I have been going round and round in circles before sitting down to write this and I'm still not particularly happy with it but the sentiment is there. 

I started this blog purely as an online record of my recipes, I hadn't read many blogs prior to starting this and didn't imagine that I would enjoy writing. As it turns out I have enjoyed the writing aspect, particularly the ability to simply write whatever I think about whatever first springs to mind.

This realisation coupled with the fact I have finished my life as a student and am about to embark onto the next stage of life, otherwise known as the world of work; has meant that I have stopped and tried to take stock of what I want this blog to be. Do I want it to be simply a record of recipes or do I want it to be more of a record of my thoughts and deeds? The blogs I enjoy most are definitely the ones which couple recipes with snippets and anecdotes of the authors life. But does that make this blog a purely selfish endeavour? Am I writing for me or for people to read? How do you get that balance right, between contextualising your life and over sharing? Do I want to commit to my blog weekly, monthly of fortnightly? If I commit to it does it become a chore of I don't commit will I tail off and eventually give up?

So many questions so few answers. I have spent the last couple of days trying to read more blogs in an effort to discover what it is I enjoy about reading others blogs and gain an idea of what I want to get out of my blog. Incidentally this week seems the perfect opportunity to do this, as fingers crossed in two weeks I will be starting my new job meaning I won't have much time, whilst right now I am house sitting for my parents. House sitting is usually as simple as feeding the chickens and walking the dogs, however on this occasion my mother has not only left me with her pedigree Lavender Pekin Bantum chicks hatching but also a working Cocker Spaniel with a broken pelvis.

After much consideration I have reached the conclusion that the reason I enjoy the blogs which I read, is because they provide a snapshot into someone else's life.  So for those few moments that you are reading you can escape into someone else's world, compare your life to theirs and gain the inspiration to achieve your goals with a sense of belief that it is possible because here is someone who has done it. Be they small goals bake this, sew that, travel there or large ones such as transitioning from one stage of life to another. I guess what I am trying to say somewhat inarticulately is that for me a blog is kind of journal, sharing your trials and tribulations with you both know and don't. That no matter how exciting it is to receive invitations from PR's as your blog has now "made it" you need to be very careful that these don't take away from the essence of your blog, which should be a reflection of who you are and what you stand for. For me a blog is a personnel thing yes written to be read so reviews and recommendations are an important part of that, but primarily it is written as a cathartic reflection on the authors own life. Ultimately then a blog for me must be organic growing and changing as you do.

Anyway now on to the more important part the recipe.

This is truly one of the easiest recipes.

4 Racks or pork ribs 

5 Inches of ginger

1 Bulb of garlic

100ml Soya sauce

3 tbsp Dark brown sugar.

Simply finely chop or grate the ginger and the garlic. Mix together all of the ingredients and marinade in the fridge for at least an hour but ideally over night. Cook on the BBQ for about five minutes on each side, you will need to watch them as the sugar will mean that they do catch. Then serve, if you are felling super lazy you can use one packet of chopped frozen garlic and one packet of chopped frozen ginger from Waitrose. 

GBBO 1:1 Victoria Sponge

I must admit that I have been very bad about blogging recently. I thought that I would blog a huge amount whilst lodge cooking last summer, but when you are cooking four meals a day, seven days a week for three and half months the last thing you want to do is write about food. Not to mention that there was no signal at all and Internet was very hard to come by. Since returning from cooking I have been graduate job hunting and desperately trying to avoid all forms of procrastination. Something, which both blogging and twitter definitely qualify as. Then as more time passed it felt as though blogging again would either be admitting defeat on the job front or tempting providence.

As I have now secured full time employment in London pending contract shenanigans; now seems to be an opportune occasion to update my blog. I started this blog purely as an electronic record of my recipes in preparation for lodge cooking. However, now that I am about to embark on adult life as opposed to student living I feel as if I need to challenge myself to keep baking. Having contemplated cooking my way through a cook book aka Julie & Julia but I decided that not only will I not like a lot of what I would have to cook but I wasn’t sure how much I would actually learn. I have therefore decided to try and cook my way through all of the challenge bakes from The Great British Bake Off. This way I not only make sure that I keep baking once I am living on whilst learning a huge amount by having to try my hand at a variety of bakes. 

As I can't promise that I will have time to bake every week I am going to try and commit to attempting a bake off challenge every two weeks. If you have baked any of the bake of challenges then comment with a link to you recipe and I will add it to my post. In time I will work out how to make a widget or something like that work.

The challenge from episode one series one of the bake off was a traditional Victoria Sponge cake. This is a basic 2oz ratio cake which I would presume that most bakers have made at least once. My Victoria Sponge actually won the village bake off which was held in aid of the Queens Jubilee last summer, I piped a the royal cypher onto the top of it. 

The Victoria Sponge or Sandwich was named after Queen Victoria's who was fond of cake at tea time. According to the WI (Women's Institute) it can only be called a Victoria Spong if the filling is raspberry jam alone and the only icing is a dusting of sugar. However in our family a Victoria Spong always has not only jam but cream and own fresh raspberries as well.

3 Eggs

6oz Butter

6oz  Caster Sugar

6oz Self Raising Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 tbsp Milk

3-4 tbsp Raspberry Jam

1/4 pint Whipping or Double Cream

Pre heat the oven to 180C or 160C fan. Grease and line two 8inch round cake tins. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Add the eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour and baking powder. If the mixture is a bit stiff fold in 2 tbsp of milk to slaken it off. Divide the mixture equally between the two tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. An inserted skewer should come out clean. Allow them to cool in the tins before filling with a layer of raspberry jam and whipped cream. 

Thai Crab Cakes.

This is an old recipe of my mothers it is super easy to make as it does not require mash potato. It also works just as well with tinned crab as it does with fresh, if you are using tinned make sure you buy the ore expensive tins which are only white meat. This makes enough for a large started for four or a small main course.

450g cooked crab meat this is roughly two cans.
1 stalk lemon grass, finely chopped
1 tsp fish sauce
handful of coriander
2 heaped tbsp mayonaise
2 small red chilies chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
75g bread crumbs

Put ingredients into food processor and pulse it. You don't want to end up with a paste. Chill in fridge for 15 minutes. Shape and dust with flour. Fry in hot oil for about 4-5 minutes until crisp.

Marshmallow icing.

The basis for this recipe comes from the Primrose bakery book. I must admit that I have been really disappointed by this book so far but I am still reserving judgement. I am no going to bother posting the primrose recipe for the sponge as it was a pain to make. It involved three separate mixing bowls and folding in stiff egg whites. The sponge was not noticeably lighter and frankly didn't taste of much. The icing however really did work and would be a great substitute for fluff based icing used in whoopie pies as fluff is not cheap in this country.

120g granulated sugar
80g golden syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons water
2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract [optional]

Cook the sugar, golden syrup and water over a high heat until the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage 115C on a sugar thermometer. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until soft peak stage. Beating on a low speed while slowly pouring the hot sugar syrup in a steady stream on to the egg whites. Continue to beat on a low speed until all the hot syrup is in the mixing bowl.

Increase the speed to medium-high and continue beating the mxture until it becomes thick, glossy and cool. Add the vanilla extract, if using, towards the end of the mixing process.

Twice Baked Cheese Souffle

I have uploaded this recipe for Bebe. We have cooked together for years and both of us fortunately like cooking what the other hates. Cheese souffles are one of the things Bebe hates cooking so I usually make, unfortunately she is about to go off on a job where she has to make them three times in a week. She tried making them according to her mother's recipe and ended up with something which closely resembled puke. I unsympathetically laughed a lot, so here is a fool proof twice baked cheese souffle recipe. They are best made and eaten on the same day but do work if you make them a day ahead.

The photo is of a left over one so it has shrunk.

290ml milk
pinch nutmeg
pinch cayenne
pinch dry english mustard
45g butter
40g flour
110g grated strong cheddar
4 eggs
200ml double cream

Generously butter and line the bottom of 6 ramekins or moulds. Make a rue with butter, flour and spices. Add the milk as you would a white sauce bring to the boil for a couple of minutes and allow to thicken. Stir in three quarters of the cheese and the egg yolks. Whip the egg whites to a stiff peak, fold into the cheese mixture. Fill your containers. Cook the souffles for 15minutes at 180C in a bain marie.

They should have risen considerably but won't be cooked through. When they have cooled turn them out on to an oven proof dish. Don't over cook them of they won't rise again when you reheat them. To reheat sprinkle with the remaining cheese, pour over the cream and cook for 7-10minutes at 220C.

Salted caramels.

One of my favourite things to make is petit fours so having treated myself to a sugar thermometer I embarked on mission to make salted caramels.

This is best made in the bottom of a 2lb loaf tin. It makes 30-40 depending how big you chop them up.

180ml Double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
rounded 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp flaky sea salt
160g Golden syrup
200g Caster sugar
60g Salted butter

Line loaf tin with foil and spray the inside with cooking spray or liberally grease with vegetable oil.

Heat the cream with 1/3 of the butter with the vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from heat but keep warm.

In a medium sized pan heat the golden syrup with the sugar, and cook, stirring gently, to make sure the sugar melts smoothly. Once the mixture is melted only swirl the pan don't stir it.

Cook until the syrup reaches 310ºF (155ºC). Turn off the heat and stir in the warm cream mixture, until smooth. Turn the heat back on and cook the mixture to 260F (127C).

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cubes of butter, until it’s melted and the mixture smooth.

Pour the mixture into the tin and wait ten minutes, then sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of the sea salt over the top. Set on a cool rack and let cool completely. Once cool, lift out the foil with the caramel, peel away the foil, and slice the bar of caramel with a long, sharp knife into squares or rectangles.

Fruit tart with lemon and marscarpone.

I have promised various people that I would post this recipe. It is what I call a store cupboard pudding. It can be whipped up in ten minutes flat with very little thought, is super easy and looks so impressive. The only really important thing is to make sure that the lemon biscuits that you use are good quality otherwise it can end up being slightly bland.

500g Lemon biscuits

100g Butter melted

500g Marscarpone

1 Lemon

75g Icing sugar

Aprox 20cm tart tin

Pulverise the biscuits and add to the butter, place the mixture into the bottom if the tart tin. Cook for about tin minutes at 120C to firm up the base. In another bowl mix the marscarpone, icing sugar, zest and lemon juice. Spread this on top on the biscuit base and decorate with any soft fruit of your choice.

Goan Fish Curry.

One of the advantages of working as a lodge cook in Scotland is you do get some fantastic kitchen sink views. This is a photo of one that I think is hard to beat. The disadvantages include your kitchens looking like this! Having said that this particular kitchen might be basic but at least the oven is consistently hot which is a rare treat.

I am afraid I must again apologise for another not great photo, this dish doesn't hold very well and there weren't any left overs for me to stage a more artistic photo with. This is more of an aromatic curry that a hot one. I always make it with cod loins but you could use monk fish or some prawns as well if you have them. I tend to serve this as a main course but you could probably serve it in smaller porions as a starter.

1 onion finely chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
A lump of fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 garlic cloves crushed
2 red chilies
2 tsp tamarind paste
2 tomatoes roughly chopped
400ml coconut milk
500g white fish cut in large chunks
Handful of fresh coriander

Soft the onion with the mustard seeds over a medium heat. Add in the rest of the spices and cook for a couple of minutes to release the maximum flavour from the spices. Add in the coconut milk, tomatoes and 100ml of water bring to the boil, allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so until it has thickened slightly. The length of time needed will depend on your coconut milk if you are using low fat milk this will take longer as it is thiner than the full fat version. At this stage the curry can be left to sit until just before you wish to serve it. Add in the fish and bring to back up to a simmer it will only take about 3 minutes for the fish to cook, it should be translucent. Don't over cook the fish or it will simply fall apart and you will end up with a curried fish soup! Serve with a smattering of chopped fresh coriander

Polenta, goat's cheese and roasted cherry tomato canapes.

175g Polenta
850 ml Water
200g Soft goats cheese
Chives
Parsley
Cherry tomatoes

Bring the polenta up to the boil in the water and then reduce to a simmer. If you aren't cooking for a vegetarian you can use chicken stock instead of water. Stir occasionally if you don't have quick cook polenta this should take about 15 minutes until you have a porridge like consistency. Spread the mixture out on a roasting tin until it is just under a cm thick, leave to cool. Once cool is should be solid and can be cut with a pastry cutter. Fry the rounds until they crisp on the outside.

Chop the herbs and mix them into the goats cheese. Season add lemon juice if you think that you need to slacken the mixture off, this really depends on goats cheese which you use.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 160C for about 30 minutes until they resemble sun dried tomatoes. If you don't have time to do this you can just use sun dried tomatoes instead.

This can all be done and assembled well ahead of time. Serve at room temperature.

Prawn Wantons with Peanut Lime Dipping Sauce.

I have been meaning to make wantons for ages. They are super easy and make delicious canapes, the only difficulty is getting hold of wanton wrappers. Most chinese supermarkets sell them in their freezer sections. The sauce is good but if you are feeling lazy you could just use sweet chilli dipping sauce.

If you don't like prawns you could use chicken instead. You also don't need to use cooked fish but it does mean that they cook quicker when you deep fry them so you are less likely to to burn the wanton wrappers.

For the sauce:
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup roasted peanuts roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
Juice from 1 lime
1/2 Large bunch of coriander
1 tsp tabasco

For the Wantons:
1 Large handful of roasted peanuts
1 clove garlic
2 Spring onions chopped
1/2 Large bunch coriander
1 Tbsp soy sauce
340g cooked prawns
1 Packet of wanton wrappers there are usually 40 or so in a packet
1 Tbsp fresh ginger grated

1 Litre of vegetable oil for deep frying

Wantons put the garlic and peanuts into a magi-mix and blend until you have a paste. Then add the rest of the ingredients and pulse it, you want to achieve a relatively fine chop but not a smooth paste. To assemble place a level tsp pf the mixture into the middle of each wrapper, brush around the endges with water and bring all the corners together. This can be done up to a day ahead and they can be left in the fridge so long as they are covered in a damp cloth and cling filmed.

For the sauce put the coconut milk into a pan with the peanuts and simmer for ten minutes or so. Then place in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

To cook deep fry in hot oil for about 2 minutes until they are a deep gold colour.

Coronation Chicken.

I'm not a huge fan of coronation chicken I must admit. Whilst a good coronation chicken is delicious the majority of them are indifferent bordering on revolting, this recipe makes in my opinion a really good light coronation chicken.

150ml Cream
1/2 pint Mayonaise
1 tbsp Curry powder
Enough cooked chicken for six people most cuts work.
10oz Wild rice
1 Lemon
olive oil
1 Fresh Mango
Flaked almonds

Tear up the chicken. Whip the cream, fold in the mayonaise and curry powder. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Stir in the chicken and chopped up fresh mango. If you can't get ripe mango you could substitute it for a couple of tbsp of mango chutney but it is not as good. Cook the wild rice in simmering water, drain and stir in 1/2 lemon's juice and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Serve the chicken on top of the rice and garnish with toasted flaked almonds.

Roasted aubergines with pesto and goats cheese.

2 aubergines
3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
30g fresh basil
6 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp grated parmesan
2 cloves garlic
2 small goats cheese

Cut aubergines in half length ways. Criss-cross the flesh side, cutting into the flesh but not going through to the skin. Lay the aubergines in a roasting tin, drizzle with oil and season.

Put into hot oven 220C or top oven of the aga for 20-30 minutes until soft and lightly brown on top.

Put garlic, nuts, and basil in blender and blitz to a paste. Slowly add olive oil and stir in parmesan. Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice. This will keep in the fridge for three weeks with a film of oil.

Spread the pesto over the aubergines. Chop the cheese into chunks and put on top of the pesto. Place back into the oven at 200C for 10-15 minutes until the cheese has melted.

I have linked this up with Ren Behan's Simple and in season which is being hosted this month by Laura over at How to cook good food.

Elderflower liqueur.

This is something of a work in progress rather than a finished recipe. I would love to know your thoughts of ideas.

I have simply filled a jar with vodka and elderflower heads. It has been steeping for a week, but the top flowers simply float out of the vodka and go brown. I am slightly worried that this has ruined it as it is beginning to bubble. I have now placed a wax paper disc onto the top to attempt to weight the flowers down into the vodka. I am planning on straining it after a month and then adding sugar to taste.

Coffee and walnut cake.

This is my mother's favourite cake and such a classic that I thought it wise to have a fool proof recipe. I went with a Nigella one which worked beautifully, I particularly liked the addition of walnuts into the sponge as well as for decoration.

Sponge:
50g walnut pieces
225g caster sugar
225g soft butter
200g plain flour
4 teaspoons instant coffee powder
2 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs
1 tbsp milk

Buttercream icing:
350g icing sugar
175g soft unsalted butter
2 1⁄2 tps instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
25g walnut halves, to decorate

2 x 20cm sandwich tins
Serves: 8

Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C in a fan oven. Butter the 2 sandwich tins and line the base of each with baking parchment.

Put the walnut pieces and sugar into a food processor and blitz to a fine powder. Add the butter, flour, coffee, baking powder, bicarb and eggs and process to a smooth batter.

Add the milk next, it should end up at dropping consistency, this is where it liquid enough to dollop of a spoon but solid enough not to be considered a liquid. If it is very stiff add some more milk.

Divide the mixture between the 2 lined tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, before turning them out onto the rack and peeling off the baking parchment. Make sure you do leave them in the tins as the sponge is very soft and is likely to crack.

Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tablespoon boiling water and add it while still hot to the butter and icing sugar. Beat until you have a smooth paste.

I have linked this up to Forever Nigella over on Home made by fleur on behalf of Maison cupcake.

Butterflied leg of lamb.

If you have read this blog before you will probably have noticed that I like to bake once I have finished my academic work. So you can imagine that the list of things which I have been planning to bake post my last ever final was pretty long. However, low and behold, sods law and all, the day of my last exam and our oven breaks. This totally curtailed all my baking plans.

The only saving grace is that the weather has been beautiful, so we have been gardening. Ever since we moved in our garden has resembled something like jungle. Fed up of not being able to cook  'I do have such an expressive eyebrow don't I' and I went out and bought a BBQ. Predictably as we walked out of the shop as proud new owners of a BBQ it clouded over.

BBQ's and snow seem to bring out a cave man instinct in all men, 'I do have such an expressive eyebrow don't I' therefore insisted on assembling said BBQ. An hour and half later I was rather wishing I had done it myself.

Once said BBQ was assembled he insisted on being in charge of lighting it. This proved to be a bad idea as it swiftly went out, at which point I took over.

This is a recipe which my Father always cooks. It is not a very exact science.

A butterflied leg of lamb
zest of a lemon
1 tbsp dijon mustard
4 tbsp olive oil
sprig rosemary
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper

Marinade the leg of lamb in all of the ingredients. It needs at least an hour but over night is best. Cook it on a BBQ for 14 minutes on the first side and 12 on the second. Only put it onto the BBQ once the coals have stopped flaming and are grey. These timings will give you slightly pink lamb.

I have linked this up to Simple and in season over at How to cook good food.

Elderflower pannacotta.

I love making pannacotta, it is a really great light summery pudding. I have been meaning to experiment with different flavours of pannacotta for a while. Last summer I made a rather good passion fruit one but forgot to take a photo of it so never bothered blogging about it. This months Floral inspired Tea Time Treats spurred me on to attempt an elderflower variety. This recipe worked very well but remember that it only tastes as good as the elderflower cordial so don't scrimp on it. The recipe also specifies 2oz caster sugar but I prefer my pannacotta not too sweet so I only used 1oz.


Serves 6


3 sheets of gelatine
2oz caster sugar
100ml elderflower cordial
300ml double cream 
300ml milk


Heat the milk and cream through gently but don't let boil. Add the sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Soak the gelatine in warm water for a few minutes. Take the cream mixture off the heat and stir in the gelatine until it has completely melted. Add the elderflower cordial, stir and pour into six ramekins or moulds. Place in the fridge to set for a 3-4hrs it can easily be over night if you want to get ahead.


To release from the moulds dip them into warm water for a few seconds or run a pallet knife around the edge. Serve with soft fruit.

Calamari.

This recipe originally came from nigella express and in my opinion it is one of her best recipes. It make a great light meal with salad or a super easy canape. Don't bother buying fresh squid for this, it is more expensive and you should always freeze squid before cooking it as it tenderises the fish anyway. Waitrose sell it for £8 kilo


2tbsp flour
2tbsp semolina
1/2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper
300g frozen squid
vegetable oil for deep frying


Place the flour and seasoning in a sandwich bag to mix. Chop up the squid into mouthful sized pieces and add to the bag. Shake to cover the squid in the mix. Deep fry in batches in smoking oil they should not take more than a minute or so. Let them cool for a brief moment on kitchen towel this will get rid of a surface oil. Serve with mayonnaise with a small amount of raw garlic stirred in.

Rose creams.

I have been meaning to try to make Rose creams for a while now, for a multitude of different reasons. Though primarily because they are my Father's favourite chocolates. I have read a number of different recipes but was unsure as to the merits of each. Consequently I dove in the deep end and experimented. Many of the recipes contained either both or one of, rose syrup or double cream. I was skeptical of the cream as I was worried that it might make them go off quicker and the syrup because frankly I can't find anywhere not on the internet that stocks it and who actually ever gets around to making a recipe where they have to source ingredients from the internet only to ever use a couple of tables spoons out of a large bottle. I therefore based my recipe on peppermints creams which would mean that I would only need the readily available rose water. It did mean that they were marginally crumblier in texture.

2tbsp rose water
340g icing sugar
1 egg white
200g 70% dark chocolate
crystalised roses to decorate

Whip the egg to soft peaks. Stir in the sugar and rose water, knead until you have a soft dough. At this point I added a couple of drops of food colouring. Form into you desired shape and dip into the melted chocolate. Before the chocolate sets add you chosen decoration. I got about 40 or so out of this quantity of mixture. be warned it smells overly rosey before you cover in chocolate but the rose is a delicate taste and needs to be definite enough flavour not to be over powered by the dark chocolate. This recipe would work as a base for different flavoured creams just use an alternative essence.

I have linked up with this months tea time treats, the theme of which is floral recipes.

Liebster.

I have been very kindly handed a Liebster award from Susan at Not just any old baking. I was awarded it a while ago and I am slightly ashamed to admit that I am only now getting around to fulfilling my end of the deal.


The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, Liebster meaning favourite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note. A way of introducing other bloggers to the blogs you enjoy.


So without further adue my awards go to:


Fold in the flour I have only recently discovered this blog and believe that it deserves far more recognition than it gets. I am dying to try her rose and lemon macarons I just need to track down some rose syrup.


Vanilla frost cakes I love this blog I am continuously amazed by what she manages to achieve with fondant icing.

Weekly bake off I find the premise behind this blog really inspiring, it challenges you to bake the same recipe as everyone else that week and then to compare results. It proves that no matter how good a cook you are every time you make something it will turn out slightly different every time and to have confidence in what you bake.


Cake fairy blog I must admit that I am not a huge cupcake fan the average cup cake in my opinion is a dry sponge with too much overly sweet icing. However every time I read this blog I can't help but salivate.


Emma's kitchen diary This blog is very new but I was won over on my first visit. It is already full of recipes which are just my kind of food that I can't wait to have the time pending the completion of my finals to cook.

Jubilee lemon shortbread with raspberry buttercream.

When Fleur over at Home made by Fleur announced that she was running a baking competition for the Jubilee I could not resist entering. Every cooking magazine or blog had been suggesting reams of ideas for Jubilee baking.

However they mostly seem to be cupcakes, victoria sponges with different coloured layers, iced biscuits or cakes decorated with appropriately coloured soft fruit. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with the above, but I wanted to make something a little different for the Jubilee. I have been reading lots of american food blogs recently, which have been advocating piped royal icing decorations onto sugar biscuits. There were two things which put me off making these kind of biscuits. Firstly though these look amazing but I am always worried about how good they actually taste, kids love them the more icing the better, but for adults I always feel people prefer a slightly more dignified icing to cake ratio. Secondly having been an art scholar I always end up wanting to pipe a design way beyond my piping skills. And this proved to be no exception to the rule as I chose to try to recreate the Diamond Jubilee logo.

I therefore had a cunning plan, I piped my royal icing designs onto clear plastic there by allowing me to trace my pattern rather than having to work free hand. Once they were dry I carefully pealed them off and stuck them onto of my shortbread with a thin layer of white chocolate. I was initially worried that the white chocolate would be too sweet but having conducted a taste test it actually brought out the lemon flavour in the biscuits.

To make royal icing you mix icing sugar with egg whites until you get the required consistency and then add food colouring. For large areas you need to outline the area with a thicker icing and then fill it in with a thinner consistency icing some times know as flood icing. I made these with the same consistency through out.

For the shortbread, this supposedly makes about 30 4cm circles and I got 24 squares out if it.

pinch of salt
225g butter
75g caster sugar
275g plain flour
75g semolina
1 lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 160C. Beat together the butter and caster sugar until it is light in colour and an even consistency.

Beat in the flour, salt, semolina and lemon zest, then knead with your hands to form a soft dough. Put in the fridge for about 30 minutes before rolling. It is easiest to work with when cold if you have shaped the dough into a pancake shape rather than a ball.

Roll out the shortbread dough until its about 1/2-1cm thick. Cut out as many biscuits as you can, re-rolling and re-cutting any trimmings as you go. Place on a couple of greased baking trays and bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes until they turn lightly golden.

For icing

175g softened butter
350g icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp of raspberry jam

Beat the butter and icing sugar together until thoroughly mixed. Add in remaining ingredients. If you want a stronger colour you can add food colouring at this point.

To assemble cover the biscuits in white chocolate. If you need to assemble them a while before serving I would recommend icing both sides of the biscuits as this will stop the moisture from the filling making them sad. Next pipe a layer of buttercream, fill with fruit and complete with a second biscuit with a royal icing design on the top. I made larger ones as I used them as a pudding, I also trialled small ones which I stuck onto lolly pop sticks this worked equally well.

I have entered them into Fleurs Diamond Jubilee baking competition which she is running on behalf of Appliances Online.