It's All Greek to Me....or German?

Having recently returned from a sunny week spent relaxing in Kos I can now say that I enjoy a hot & sunny vacation, on occasion.

Up until this point I have been someone who dives into the shade as soon as the sun peeks out from behind a cloud and have preferred sticking to cultural city breaks rather than poolside lounging. 

I'm now the gal lathered in factor 50 who happily wears a humongous wide brimmed sun hat, scooting my sunbed to readjust as the parasol shade moves throughout the day.  

Now moving on to the delicious side of the vacation....

The well catered hotel subscribed to my ethos of the glory of cake and afternoon tea.

Each day at 4.30 a selection of cakes and hot beverages were laid out and allowed us to partake in a caffeinated sugary energy boost.

There was also an air-conditioned Coffee Bar on site (think walk-in freezer).  Not only did it offer espresso based drinks and yet another selection of sweet things to tickle our taste buds but it was also a very welcome blast of cool to help us in our daily battle against melting in the Grecian heat (30+ C / 90+ F).

I freely admit that I was quite giddy when we found this place.

  

Of course we ate proper meals as well as cake.

Every meal offered a large selection of grilled fish, skewered meats, and Mediterranean vegetable dishes as well as the familiar stodgy carb fest (french fries & spaghetti bolognese) for those who were creatures of habit. 

Random German dishes could also be found sprinkled in amongst the Greek delights. Various Schnitzel, gherkin salads, cabbage dishes and rye bread meant my buffet plate was truly internationalised at each meal.  

The uniting factor for each of these meals of course, was that they always included sweets of some kind. 

Vacation is the time to indulge, so why not have a sugar ball infused waffle with your breakfast muesli & fruit?

Why not pair up your healthy dessert of fresh melon with baklava & creme caramel?

Why not indeed. 

Long live fun in the sun or should I say a warm welcome to it finally, whichever the case may be.

    

 

Tyneside Coffee Rooms

Far: Banoffee Cake with Caramel Frosting

Fact: there are some fantastic places to have coffee in Newcastle.

I can appreciate the technical skill and extreme dedication to customer service that it takes to create a half-caf extra shot, extra hot, skinny caramel macchiato to the same standard each and every time, and I do indulge in a handcrafted beverage from the worldwide chains every so often quite happily. 

However, I can also appreciate a uniquely cosy one-off coffee shop that makes a helluva cuppa served in a chunky painted mug and whose decor comes complete with mismatched chairs, lumpy throw pillows and a take one/leave one book shelf in the corner. 

One of these wonderfully unique places is the Tyneside Coffee Rooms on the second floor of the Tyneside Cinema.

Blueberry cake with cream cheese frosting

Ok, so it doesn't have mismatched chairs or lumpy pillows, but it has fabulous red velvet seats with a greatly varied menu and they always seem to have a delicious selection of cakes (which come in very satisfyingly large portions!).  

Not only do they serve coffee but they also have a wide variety of tea and the loose teas are even served in funky tea cafetieres that perch on top of your cup.

It’s a great place to pop in and grab a cuppa to sip over good conversation, or to have lunch before a big shopping expedition in town.

I especially like the fact that there is movie memorabilia, factoids and photos in an exhibition in the corridor on your way into the coffee shop. 

The Tyneside Coffee Rooms is definitely a one-off coffee & cake experience.    

Make and Mend Market Treats

Here we have a little eye candy from the most recent Make & Mend Market and I can personally vouch for the deliciousness of each and every item seen here.



Lemon Dream from Poor Girl's Kitchen



Poor Girl’s Kitchen had an array of tempting goodies to choose from and I had to really hold myself back from getting one of everything.

I was even lucky enough to be the enthusiastic winner of four delightful Pet Lamb Patisserie cupcakes of my choosing. 

All I had to do in order to win the tasty quartet was to be the first fan to visit their stall in the Grainger Market and yell (yes, yell) out the secret password.

 

Caramel Bar from Poor Girl's Kitchen



Since I was out of the house early already for park run and also near enough to the market venue anyway, I figured why not give it a try? 

After finishing park run, I jogged my way through Newcastle town centre (won’t be doing that again anytime soon, yikes!) over to the market, checking via my phone along the way to see if they had released the secret password.

I was nearly at the entryway to the market when the password was finally announced.  I kept up the pace until I was standing directly in front of one of the Pet Lamb ladies who was sitting calmly at their stall.



Cupcakes from Pet Lamb Patisserie



I quickly asked if it had already happened and when she said no, I couldn't help but smile knowing I was about to be super-duper embarrassed and then I proceeded to yell out:

“MUFFIN TOP!”

Having successfully won, I just grinned like an idiot whilst choosing my cupcakes and I don’t think I stopped grinning until well after I had eaten the majority of my treats accompanied by a cup of tea in the comfort of my own home.

Pick Your Own...

 ...strawberries!
 

The sign upon entering the farm should read: Risk life & limb fighting off the hordes of drunken wasps in order to enjoy some of our deliciously ripe fruit.

Ok....I admit it, I am a wasp-hater, and believe me the feeling is mutual since I was stung enough times as a kid to know that I should just steer clear of the little yellow & black terrors. They may be tiny but gosh oh gee their sting hurts like an elephant stepping on your toe(or what I imagine that would feel like).



Spot the wasp?

Perhaps I am overreacting ever so slightly, but there were indeed a few wasps buzzing around the strawberry fields at Brockbushes Farm this weekend which is to be expected in the great outdoors.  More than once though I had to abandon the perfect strawberry due to a (cunning & vicious) wasp nearby naughtily nibbling on a fuzzy pile of over ripe berry flesh.

Putting my irrational fear of wasps aside, I absolutely love the idea of ‘Pick Your Own’(PYO) farms. Not only do they make for a fun place to visit with their quaint little Tea Rooms and cutesy Farm Shops bursting with local products, but the whole idea is to go and pick only the best fruit.  You see exactly where it comes from and cut out the middle man.  It’s a win-win situation all around.



Summer Fruit Pie



After a hard working afternoon of picking fruit(or even a tough twenty minutes of wasp-dodging) you deserve a reward and may choose to sample some of the homemade treats that the quaint Tea Room has on offer.

You may decide to sample a slice of their Summer Fruits Pie and it may just be one of the largest pieces o’ pie you have ever seen. 

   

Bakewell Tart

Or perhaps you’ll choose a slice of the extra moist, make you drool, Bakewell Tart and you will be wishing that you had received the biggest piece you have ever seen.

Whatever you choose, just make sure you get yourself your own little pot of English Breakfast tea (and don’t forget to use the little pot of hot water supplied to top up your teapot).

Charity Bake Sale - DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal

Our Charity Bake Sale

In my place of work we have built quite a reputation for our ability to raise money for charity purely through the power of baking.  

We have worked hard to nurture this reputation over the years and this week’s Charity Bake Sale was certainly no exception. 

There were delicious goodies a plenty!

Near: Stained Glass Jello
Far: Guinness Chocolate Cake

The beautiful buffet of treats consisted of both homemade and shop bought deliciousness all spread out on tables in one corner of our office with colleagues from across departments tempted by our efforts coming and going throughout the day.

Let me tell you, it is incredibly difficult to resist trying one of everything or just digging in and eating it all when it’s right in front of you all day.



The sweet and savoury dishes sat side by side, with delicately constructed desserts nudging up against their sturdier savoury counterpart.  A plate baked Steak Pie and a lattice topped Spinach Pie alongside the Blueberry Lemon Millefeuille and Coffee Kisses. 

Left: Coffee Kisses
Right: Cinnamon Apple Muffins



I have to admit that the Coffee Kisses are one of my all time favourite bake sale treats and I love it when they make an appearance at our Bake Sales.

The recipe comes from the Bero cookbook and they are incredibly more-ish.

They go especially well with a mug of coffee or cup of tea, well heck, technically they are great even with a glass of water! 

I’m not ashamed to say that my mouth is watering now whilst just gazing at the photo of them, mmm...



Blueberry Lemon Millefeuille

All my drooling aside, I’m very pleased to confirm that we raised a whopping £247 in aid of the DEC’s East Africa Crisis Appeal.

It really warms my heart that I am lucky enough to work with such wonderfully generous and giving people, thank you to everyone for making it such a success!

Jesmond Mixer Market

Poor Girl's Kitchen Caramel Bar

Good food, a nice atmosphere and unique stalls are all attractive individual aspects to hope for when attending a local market.  It is a huge bonus when all three aspects come together in one local venue. 



The Mixer Market in Jesmond offers a lovely combination of local food (especially baked goodies, mmmmm!), vintage items and craft stalls. It is held on the last Sunday of each month and it has a really friendly, creative and very welcoming vibe. 

Cake Poppins Hedgehog Cake Pop

There appears to be both regular stalls and new stall holders each time which means there are always new things to check out alongside your trusty favorites. 

This was the second time that I've attended the market and I was not disappointed.

Poor Girl's Kitchen Mint Glory-o's

I only wish I had a larger budget since there were some really unique items that would have made great gifts, but as it was this time around, I was totally focused on satisfying my sweet tooth, mmmm..... 

• Cake Poppins: http://www.cakepoppins.co.uk/
• Poor Girl's Kitchen: http://www.poorgirlskitchen.co.uk/

The Hummingbird Cake Adventure

When you ask someone what kind of cake they want for their birthday, you presume the reply will be a bog standard answer like: “chocolate” or “vanilla”. However, when the birthday boy has a wicked sweet tooth (and a cake addiction to boot!) you get the reply “I’d like a Hummingbird Cake please”.

If I’m honest, I had absolutely no idea what it was and was slightly embarrassed as a fellow lover of cake that I had to begin by researching it.  As it turns out, it is a cake made famous years ago (1978 apparently) when someone submitted the recipe to a popular American magazine.  

Of course like many other cupcake fans I had immediately made the assumption (due to the name of the cake) that this recipe must be a creation of the Hummingbird Bakery.  For those of you not aware, it is a London bakery that makes amazing cakey things and those of us with serious hankerings for sugar outside of the London area are especially appreciative that they have indulged us with gorgeous cookbooks that provide many of their fantastic recipes.   

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen ...

As it turns out, this is a perfect example of a straight forward not-too-much-fuss recipe with a quite impressive end result. Just the kind of thing I like to try my hand at!

The ingredients were basic items found in any grocery store or even already in your store cupboard if you are lucky and they were not pricey at all (love that fact the most!).  The only ‘fancy’ ingredient was actually the pecans, and in the end I opted for walnuts because my local grocery store, good old Aldi’s, didn’t have any pecans in stock that day. The only other slight deviation from the recipe was the fact that I used only two cake layers since storing an iced three layer cake would have been a bit of a nightmare with the tools I have at hand.  

Aside from those slight blips the recipe was followed step by step and turned out pretty well in my humble opinion. The birthday boy gave it a thumbs up and I suppose in this case that is what really counts.

Layer one and layer two of the cake with icing in between, ready for the final icing touches.

It starts to look like a proper cake, just needs finishing touches of cinnamon dusting & walnut halves.



One giant 'Birthday Boy' slice o' cake coming up!



The UK version of the recipe (the one I used):

Hummingbird Cake

from the Hummingbird Cookbook published by Ryland Peters & Small (via a print out from the following link which no longer works: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/627134)

Ingredients:

300g caster sugar

3 eggs

300ml sunflower oil

270g peeled bananas mashed

1tsp cinnamon, plus extra to decorate

300g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp vanilla extract

100g tinned pineapple, chopped into small pieces

100g chopped pecans or walnuts plus extra to decorate

Cream cheese frosting:

600g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter at room temperature

250g cream cheese

Prep time: 25 min

Cook time: 25 min

Serves: Makes 10-12 slices

This recipe is classed as easy.

Method:

1.       Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3.

2.       Put the sugar, eggs, oil, banana and cinnamon in an electric mixer or use an handheld electric whisk and beat until all the ingredients are incorporated. Don’t worry if the mixture looks slightly split at this stage.

3.       Slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and vanilla extract and continue to beat until everything is well mixed.

4.       Stir in the chopped pineapple and nuts by hand until evenly dispersed.

5.       Line the base of three 20cm cake tins with greaseproof paper. Pour the mixture into the tins and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched.

6.       Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

For the cream cheese frosting:

7.       Beat the icing sugar and butter together using an electric mixer until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.

8.       Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until completely incorporated.  Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy at least 5 minutes.

9.       Place one cake on a stand and spread about one-quarter of the cream cheese frosting over it with a palette knife.  Place a second cake on top and spread another quarter of the frosting over it.  Top with the last cake and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides.  Finish with pecans or walnuts and a light dusting of cinnamon.

Another version of the recipe but with American measurements: http://www.joyofbaking.com/HummingbirdCake.html