Creme egg cakes

As Easter was approaching and I had a little time on my hands I thought I need make a suitable Easter creation. I decided that it was going to involve Creme eggs, easily the best bit about Easter, but needed some ideas. This is where I Googled what people had made previously and posted on the net. An amazing array of Creme egg cakes had already been  made to draw upon as inspiration. Hands down the best creation though was a cake with a Creme egg inside. No recipe was really given but the baker gave a few handy hints on her Flickr page and this was enough for me to at least give it a try.

First of all buy a pack of Creme eggs and remove the foil. Then put them in the freezer so they will resist the heat a bit more when in the oven. Leave them in there for at least two hours, I left mine in overnight. Only take them out just before you put the cakes into the oven.

To make the cake batter I beat together 80g or butter and 80g of sugar until light and fluffy. Next step is add two eggs and beat them in. Next add 80g of flour and a teaspoon of baking powder and fold them in. I decided that chocolate cake goes best with a Creme egg filling so added two tablespoons of cocoa powder and mixed in until no lumps were left. To loosen every up a bit add milk until you get a dropping consistency.

As these will turn out to be quite bit cakes use muffin cases. Set out six cases into a cake tray and spoon in about two tablespoons of the cake mix into each case. Now it is time to get the Creme eggs out the freezer and put one into each case. I originally tried to keep them upright but the cake mix spilt out of the cases and left the chocolate eggs exposed. So to be on the safe side try putting the eggs in sidewards. To finish cover the eggs with the remaining cake mixture. Put in the oven, I put them in at gas mark 3 for about 40 minutes to be on the safe side and protect the eggs from melting. Once out the oven leave them to cool.

To make the icing weigh out 50g of butter and about 175g of icing sugar. Mix together well and if you need some help binding it together add a few drops of water. Then I added two teaspoons of vanilla extract to give it a bit more flavour. I piped the icing over the tops of the cake, leaving a bit behind to help me stick decorations onto the cake.

For the decoration I got some mini Creme eggs and cut them open along the join and did slightly different things as topping for each cake, using the icing to help stick them in place a bit more.

And the cakes are good, sticky and sickly but good. The goo from the Creme eggs escaped a bit so made the surrounding cake very sugary but was fun to eat and especially to make.

Chocolate Philadelphia spread

I did something outrageous and bought Philadelphia's new flavour spread - Cadbury's chocolate. It sounds wrong but this is what happens when Kraft, an American company best known for soft cheese, buys Cadbury's. Nevertheless I was feeling brave.

It looks the same as any other Philadelphia products, except it is purple. I peeled back the foil wondering what would be found there, but all I found was a rather pleasant looking spread, rather like chocolate spread.

My expectation was that it would taste like chocolate cheesecake, which I am not really a fan of, but I was wrong. Instead it tastes like cold chocolate spread with a sour after taste. It is actually quite nice, but then it tricks you and if you end up eating about a teaspoon of it then it ends up tasting gross.

I am trying to figure out what I can do it with though. The serving suggestion is on bread, but I can imagine that will be very sickly. I have heard that it ends up tasting like millionaire's cheesecake if you spread it on digestive biscuits, but I want to use it as an ingredient. My biggest hurdle though is my boyfriend doesn't like the taste of the new spread so this limits my options. In fact I think I am stuck with occasionally stealing bits when I open the fridge door.

In conclusion, a fun experiment but probably won't try it again.

The Linc

This is the last print issue of The Linc that has been worked on by a Reid or a Cresswell. Enjoy!

BBC iPlayer comes to Xbox

Finally I never need to use a laptop to catch up on television that I have missed ever again because iPlayer is now on my Xbox.

I never thought that I would be a person who would like the option to watch television on demand on my Xbox. When living alone I was quite happy with watching the television and if I needed to catch up on television then my laptop would suffice.

However, I then realised that maybe watching television would be something for everyone, not just when you are watching television on your own. I first realised this when my family where regularly using iPlayer on the Playstation to watch programmes that had clashed with other events. And it all seemed so simple.

Now I live with my boyfriend and we tend to watch television together. This alongside the fact that television of late is a bit hit and miss. Instead we just switch on the Xbox and log onto Netflix and pretend that television is watchable. So far we have got most of the way through Futurama and Scrubs and that is just the beginning.

And now we have iPlayer at our fingertips too, and it is easy to use and a fun application. The only thing now is I am beginning to feel very lazy when I think about the fuss of moving back to normal television from watching shows on demand forgetting that I am using a television.

Yes, I know I should get out more.

Photo: ChipperMist via Flickr

Duck socks

My duck obsession also extends to my clothing, here is a fine example.

Chicken teriyaki

I have taken a bit of a baking break this week - although I would like to say it is to be more healthy but mostly it is a time thing. So here is a recipe for a meal instead of delicious cake.

Fancying Chinese food I decided to make chicken teriyaki, I imagine the recipe I used was not that authentic but it was very nice and quite simple to do. The recipe comes from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy book.

It is best to get everything prepared before you start cooking. As this recipe serves two get two portions of rice ready to boil and cut up two chicken breasts ready to fry. Also cut up a bunch of spring onions until they are finely sliced, I cut up about five spring onions.

Then to make the sauce. The recipe says to use mirin, which is a rice wine, but I used a vegetable stock instead. Make up about 40 ml of vegetable stock and then add about 30ml of soy sauce and stir in a tablespoon of brown sugar. It tastes too salty then pour in some more water.

Now that everything is prepped start boiling the rice and cooking the chicken. Flavour the chicken with salt and pepper as well as same garlic and ginger. Once the chicken is cooked add the sauce and allow it to cook for another 3-5 minutes. Then add the spring onions and cook for a further minute. At this point you can also add some seasame seeds but I couldn't find any in the supermarket.

Then serve up the rice and the chicken and you are done. I suggest making it, it is fresh, simple and really tasty.

Emma the English Oak tree

Today I went to a conference about reducing Lincoln's carbon footprint and the parting gift was an Oak tree sapling which I have planted in a tub for the time being and popped in my garden. It has been named Emma

Mummy duck

This is a Mummy duck from my Mummy.

Life is what you make of it

This week I have made a realisation about life. The scariest thing about life is not what happens, but what could happen.

Let me explain what I mean. If you were to be made unemployed then you wouldn't be scared, you would be busy with sorting out what new jobs you can get, whether you can afford the rent so you have something to focus your attention on.

Whereas before that you would be worrying about if you are going to lose your job, whether it is something you need to worry about at all, where can you get a new job from. Essentially you have all the same questions but there is absolutely nothing you can do so much so that is a relief when you get the news, good or bad, so that you can actually do something to sort it all out.

The same thing can be applied to illness, exams or relationships. We may have an inkling about what will happen or plan what to do but it all comes back to this fear of the unknown. And as far as I know there is nothing to stop it apart from listening to the snowballing panic stricken thoughts your brain creates.

Photo: Sarah Faulwetter via Flickr

Zelda

So not my own music this time but today I bought Zelda Spirit Tracks for my DS and spent most of the day listening to the soundtrack,

Chocolate chip whoopie pies

This is the first bake that I haven't been 100% completely happy about. It all started rather ominously as I made a trek in the rain to get the few ingredients I needed by somehow forgot the marshmallows for the marshmallow filling, meaning a second soggy trip was needed. Whilst I was baking I dropped the mixing bowl - thankfully just a tablespoon fell out - and the filling wouldn't set properly. Yet they still tasted amazing.

So this recipe is a combination of chocolate chip whoopie cakes and then the filling comes from a recipe for chocolate whoopie pies. Both recipes come from Love Food's Cake recipe book.

Start by measuring out 115g of butter and 150g of light brown sugar, beat them together until you make a pale, fluffy mixture. Then whisk in an egg. Measure out 250g of flour and then start adding the flour to the butter, sugar and egg mixture gradually. Then pour in 150ml of soured cream (or I used 150ml of milk with a few drops of lemon juice). Mix well and when smooth add in 85g (or a packet) of chocolate chips.

Then spoon out about 20 discs of the mixture in to baking trays, as my baking trays are quite small I did a few at a time. Then put in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes at gas mark 4.

As it is quite a short baking time I wait until they have finished baking until I make the filling. So once the cookie/cake discs are out then oven start melting a packet of marshmallows (around about 225g) and 4 tablespoons of milk. Once they have melted remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Then get 115g of vegetable fat, or butter, and mix with 55g of icing sugar and beat together with an electric whisk until you have a creamy mixture. Then add the marshmallow mix and beat it in until the mixture is fluffy. This is where it went a bit wrong and I ended up adding quite a lot of icing sugar. But if you have problems then put it in the fridge to harden up a bit before spreading onto the discs.

Once the discs are cool and the filling is hard enough to spread without it spilling everywhere then put them together. They are very sweet so you can only eat one at a time otherwise you feel sick, but it is worth it.

Brick wall

Found this inspirational brick inside Lincoln's Drill Hall today.

Personal news

Today marks two years since I started going out with my boyfriend Jon. Now before this starts getting too personal and romantic here is a link to all the characters in Monty Python and the Holy Grail made 8bit.

Ducktor Who

This duck was given to me by my friend Michaela who was worried I wouldn't like it but look he is still pride of place in my bathroom.

What does television mean to you?

Television gets some tough press. It gets the blame for people wanting to become famous, dumbing down the nation and seen as a poor babysitter. But hopefully people will start to see the good that television can do as well, especially as the BBC's most recent success Call The Midwife has apparently got more interested in training to become midwives, as well as people wanting to become the next pop sensation.

Even without television people would have wanted to become pop stars or midwives, but it is a medium that will get people learning more about the world around them. So yes it is good to read to learn more about life and history but television can have a similar effect - and I am an avid fan of both.

This particularly struck me when watching the documentary Being Elmo which follows the life and career so far of Elmo's puppeteer, Kevin Clash. He learnt all about The Muppets and the work of Jim Henson through the TV and his appreciation extended to watching everything available to him to learn more. And this is where he was different to everyone else he created his own Muppets, puppets and characters all by himself of an amazing quality. This led to him working with his hero Henson and with The Muppets and responsible for Elmo. The remarkable thing though is he is not the only one to have done this as he gets calls from kids doing similar things. Now that wouldn't have been achievable without television and who doesn't love Elmo?

I have to say that my own educational and career choices are down to television too as Jon Snow and Jeremy Paxman led me into journalism. Now television may have started that, but other things helped to continue it.

Photo: Constance Marks/Being Elmo

Sea salt and olive oil pain d'epi

I have attempted making bread before but it doesn't feel as spectacular as it does to make a nutritious pie or a beautiful cake. Yet this pain d'epi looked fun to create. Turns out I didn't really make it look like it is supposed to but it was still fun. The recipe is from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy.

Start off by measuring 275g of strong white flour and pour into a bowl. Next add 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of yeast. Then gradually add 150-185ml of warm water, once it starts to look like a dough you can stop adding water, and also add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Once it has all been brought together to make a soft dough take it out of the bowl and knead the mixture for a good ten minutes or until is stretchy.

Next dust a baking tray - I needed to use a bigger try which is why mine looked quite podgy. Get the dough and make it into a ball shape and then roll it out into a sausage shape. Cover the dough with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm area for an hour.

Once the dough has risen take off the clingfilm and put the bread shortest way facing you and with a pair of scissors at a 45 degree angle make a large cut every 10cms to the middle of the dough, and then the same on the other side so it starts to look like a wheat stalk. This means that you can rip off pieces easily to eat.

Before putting it in the oven sprinkle the bread with flour and sea salt and then place in the oven for about 25 minutes at gas mark 6. You know when the bread is ready because it will be golden coloured and when you tap it the bread will sound hollow.

The annoying thing was even though I had intended to save it and use the bread throughout the week we ended up eating it all in about two days. Just need to make them look less fat.

Plants update

A quick update on my plants, lots of chives and the thyme is doing well and finally there are some shoots in the basil pots too. Still no peppers but they look like healthy plants.

To pay or not to pay?

Recently big companies, like Burger King and Tesco, got themselves into trouble for being part of government campaign which involved people working for them for nothing more then jobseeker's allowance. This sparked a lot of debate about whether people in these situations should be paid or glad for a job, and so I thought I haven't ranted about the job market for a while.

I can understand not paying people as part of work experience - and in my eyes that is one or two weeks shadowing people in the work place. Whilst I was a journalism student I did work experience stints like this regularly and fully appreciated the experience. In some places I got a few bylines, and although not paid they went out of their way to say thanks with a free lunch and a glowing reference.

But when you start finding unpaid internships for a month or three months then that is rude. Yes I understand that times are tough but you can't get round that by having a free dispensable worker. You don't get the quality of work you want, and more importantly, nobody feels particularly valued. Sitting at a desk, working in a shop for over 30 hours a week constitutes as a full time job and that means payment with money. Even if the money is just minimum wage, or a little over it that is better than nothing.

Not only can these huge companies afford it, it makes people feel like they are doing something in return for something. It feels crap to know that you went out all day to sit in an office to know that at the end of the day you can't afford to pay your way, let alone go to the pub to relax. 

As we having a bad time economically this is the time to change the system and make people feel valued, rather than see it as an opportunity to screw more people over and achieve nothing.

Photo: Guudmorning! via Flickr

Baby ducks

These are my ducks from my childhood. They have been chewed a bit.

World Book Day should be for one and all

The annual event, World Book Day, is coming up on March 1st. It is usually associated with children's books, those little vouchers you get given as a kid and dressing up as your favourite character from a book. As the World Book Day's website explains the day is a chance to get children and young adults reading.

Now, undeniable, this is a good idea. I vividly remember one year dressing up as Mary Lennox, the little girl from the Secret Garden. We photocopied my Grampy's dramatic front door key and I carried around a plush robin all day at school. My costume only lost out to a girl dressed as Mary Poppins, whose family made costumes for a living and happened to have a Mary Poppinsesque carpet bag. 

I also enjoyed the opportunity to get more books and to read more, but being somebody who already loved reading not much was needed to convince me. I mean one of my ambitions in life is to have a library room in a house - although made out to be cool and homely of course.

However, there are also a great number of adults who just don't read as well. Not because they can't but because finding the time to sit down and enjoy the written word seems hard to do. But we should. Through a book you get to live vicariously through other people, learn about things and people you never would in normal life or just enjoy yourself. 

If it is important to children then it is important to adults too and it would be sad to miss out on a simple pleasure in life.

Photo: jonathanpberger via Flickr