Jamie's Italian, Leeds

As part of my friend Emma's hen celebrations, our party of nine hens took a trip to Jamie's Italian in Leeds to line our stomachs before killing ourselves with consumption!

I was the only one in the group who had eaten there before, and had enjoyed the experience both times so I was looking forward to my third visit.

As usual the queue for the restaurant had begun to snake around the building and it was only 6.00pm! Luckily groups of 8 or more are able pre book a table which saved us from having to queue. Cut to lots of stares and tuts from people who were waiting to get in! The table wasn't quite ready when we arrived, and the restaurant bar resembled a can of sardines, so we decided to go for a drink elsewhere and return later.

When we did return we were promptly taken to our table which was situated upstairs and away from most of the chaos, which was great. I have a feeling that the staff are trained to channel their inner Jamie Oliver persona, very friendly, very informal. Our waitress was just this, but it wasn't a bad thing. She was very  knowledgeable about the menu and confidently answered any questions we had.

After spending an age deliberating what to order, I settled on the crispy squid with chilli, lemon and garlicky mayo for starters and the scallop and squid ink angel hair pasta for mains.

The squid was soft on the inside and light and crispy on the outside, with a nice kick of chilli. The mayo added a massive smack of garlic.

When my main arrived, the contrast in colour of the pale scallop and the black pasta was stunning (the awful photo really doesn't do it justice) Again I was hit with an almighty whack of chilli and garlic, but the sweetness of the scallop held its own against the strong flavours.

Some of the other lovely looking dishes were the rabbit ragu parpadelle - rabbit in a marscapone sauce and also the pumpkin panzerotti - a stuffed pasta dish. Definitely a couple of dishes I want to try next time.

We decided against a pudding and leave room for the shots of tequila, sambucca and Jagermeister that were to be had!

In total the bill for 9 of us, including wine was just over £200. A bargain I think you'd agree!

Our hen had a great evening...cue singing, dancing and blisters (on my part!)...Can't wait for the wedding!!

Butternut Squash Cake

Last Thursday I finally managed to make it to this month's Clandestine Cake Club event. The club is run by Lynn, who also runs the Secret Tea Room.

The Clandestine Cake Club is not a competition, it's an opportunity to meet at a "secret" location to eat and discuss cake. Cake being the word - it's not about cupcakes, whoopies, muffins or macarons, it's all about the good old fashioned cake! Think of it as an extension of social networking...most of the people in attendance are on Twitter or write their own blogs, so it was good to meet in person and chat about cake! I met some really lovely people and am really looking forward to the next event.

This month it was held at Primos in the Leeds Corn Exchange. The theme for this event was "Saucy Sweet or Sensual Savoury" In total I think there were 20 cakes, all of the ones I managed to try I thought were delicious. There was a good split between savoury and sweet cakes. I have to say the savoury ones were delicious! In particular I liked the pistachio and chorizo, the savoury semolina cake and also the pesto and courgette loaf. A couple of these recipes can be found on the CCC Site.

I decided to go down the sweet route, but use a savoury ingredient - butternut squash. I find that vegetables in cakes tend to give a really moist crumb and this one didn't disappoint! The butternut squash can be substituted for the more traditional carrot, but I also think that it would be really good using courgette and a lime frosting to give it some zing. (Must give this a try...)

I received some really lovely comments about my cake and I think it turned out really well, because there was so much cake, there was enough to take back home and share the people at work (along with slices of some of the other cakes I didn't get to try!)

The recipe is based on a Jamie Oliver Squash muffin recipe, but I have tweaked it slightly, adding extra spices and using my method for cream cheese frosting.

Spiced Butternut Squash Cake with Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting

For the cake
400g butternut squash, skin on, deseeded
350g light soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
300g plain flour, unsifted
2 tsp baking powder
100g walnuts
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg, grated
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Grated zest of 1 orange
175ml extra virgin olive oil (I didn't have much EV left, so just used standard olive oil)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting
500g icing sugar
125g cream cheese
125g soft unsalted butter
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to to Gas Mark 4 / 160C (fan) / 180C. Line and grease 2 x 20cm cake tins.


Either grate or whizz up the butternut squash in a food processor - set to one side.

Beat the sugar and oil until light and frothy, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one in before the next. Then add the vanilla, the squash, walnuts and the orange zest. Beat gently

In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold into the Butternut squash mix.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake for approx 25 - 30 mins, but do check after 20 mins as it will depend on your oven. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack and leave until completely cold.

The quantities above actually made the 2 layers for the cake but I also got 24 mini cupcakes out of it too.

To make the frosting, combine all the ingredients in a mixer until smooth.

To decorate, sandwich a few spoonfuls of the frosting between the layers, and then using a pallate knife, spread the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. If you find that the frosting is getting a bit runny, then place the cake / frosting in the fridge for ten minutes or so and then continue.

I decorated the cake with a few walnuts.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea and a chat!

I'm really looking forward to the next meet up, the theme is Vivaciously Victorian...lets get the thinking cap on then!

An Egg-cellent result at Ironcupcake:Leeds!

Last Sunday I decided to make a return to the Ironcupcake:Leeds competition. I haven't been for about 8 months sadly due to one thing and another but I decided I needed to get myself out there again....I have previously entered 3 times and won the last 2 times I entered, which gives me a 66.6% success rate...But could I do it again?? I have been keeping an eye on the competition over the past few months, and I have to admit, the competition is fierce!

(Cut to a Rocky training montage, but instead of drinking raw eggs and running up and down stairs think of me eating cake batter and chasing a cat out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon...)

For those who don't know what Iron Cupcake is, it's actually a global competition that was started over in the US (Milwaukee to be exact). It usually happens monthly and each competition has a theme and the bakers have to create a cupcake which ties in with said theme. To my knowledge there are 3 Ironcupcake cities in the UK - London (which is unfortunately taking a bit of a hiatus at the moment), Leeds and Northampton. Those who attend are either "bakers" or "eaters" the eaters also do the judging and score each cake for taste and presentation. For more info on the Leeds competition, which is held at the lovely Adelphi pub, please visit the site.

So March's theme was Chocolate Bars - I was racking my brain to think of a cake inspired by chocolate bars. I've done Malteser cupcakes before and I've also done Dime Bar ones too and I didn't want to just go with something I was comfortable with! Lunch hours have been spent staring at the chocolate aisle in the supermarket, looking for inspiration, when the thought of Cadbury's Creme Egg came to me after a conversation with my friend Heather and also whilst passing the Easter eggs in said supermarket... But how would I do it?

Mmmm Creme Eggs...

I had various ideas on how to create my cake - I thought about just filling a chocolate cake with a creme egg filling and topping with chocolate ganache, but I just thought that visually, it would just look like a chocolate cake and I wanted it to look fun, like the eggs themselves!

So I settled on incorporating the Creme Egg fondant filling within the icing, using a chocolate cake as a base. Because the fondant is so sweet, I thought a devil's food cake base would work well and also use a cream cheese icing to further cut back on the sweetness. I wanted to top the cake with a mini creme egg, but rather than just plonk a whole one on top of the cake, I wanted the icing to look like it was actually coming out of the egg, so I decided to "crack" the Creme egg open.

Creamy Eggy Chocolaty Goodness!

As part of the competition rules, bakers are asked to provide 12 cakes, with 9 of them chopped into quarters for tasting. My issue with this from previous experience in other competitions is that it's difficult and messy to chop them up at the event. I've also tried chopping the cakes up prior to arriving but the sponge seems to dry out. I thought it would be a good idea to make up 3 standard sized ones and then make up 36 minis - meaning all the eaters get their own cake and presentation wise, it means the cakes still look good!

Minis

Overall I was happy with the cake, but if I'm honest I didn't think it was a winner - I'm not sure why, maybe I'm just too hard on myself! The Eaters seemed to really like it so that's all that matters - so much so that I came first place!Yay! Success rate is now 75% - not that I'm counting.

I had a taste of a few and I really liked Zoe's Toffee Crisp. For more pictures of the other cakes, check out the Ironcupcake Leeds site and also Em's blog, All the Small Things - she entered with a lovely Bounty cupcake and also was the evening's photographer. See if you can spot the hilarious picture of me grinning like an idiot, looking like a Chinese Janet Street Porter...

Some of the other cakes - yellow number 2 was my fave, Toffee Crisp!

More of the other cakes - some of the detail on some of them must have taken forever! Check out the characters on yellow 7 - Fruit and nuts!

April's theme is Nuts and Seeds...best get my thinking cap on!

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Ingredients
For the cakes, see my Devil's Food Cake Recipe

Cream cheese frosting
500g icing sugar
125g cream cheese
125g soft unsalted butter

Creme Egg Fondant Filling
170g golden syrup
60g butter, room temperature
375g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Yellow food colouring (I use gel colouring as the liquid stuff tends to water everything down)

To Decorate

3 x bags of Mini Cadbury's Creme Eggs

Method
Preheat the oven to to Gas Mark 4 / 160C (fan) / 180C.

To make the sponges, make up the devils food cake batter and divide into cupcake tins - cook for 20-25 mins for the standards sized cakes and about 10-12 minutes for the minis. Test with a cake tester - if it come out clean, they're ready. Leave for a couple of minutes in the tines and then take out the cakes and leave to cool on a rack.

To make the fondant filling mix the butter, syrup and vanilla in a bowl - ideally you want to do with with an electric mixer, or it will take forever! Gradually add the icing sugar, then the food colouring and carry on beating until smooth. Cover and set to one side.

YUM! Cream egg yolk!!

Make the cream cheese icing - again, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract and then gradually add the icing sugar continue beating until smooth and thick. Use immediately or if not, cover and store in the fridge.

Once the cakes are cool, you can start to decorate.

To get the two-tone swirled effect, place some of the fondant down one side of a piping bag and add the cream cheese down the other side - try not to combine / mix them up too much. you want a1/3 - 2/3 ratio of fondant to cream cheese icing.

Pipe out the frosting on a plate until the two tone effect comes through and then ice the cakes. To decorate, I used 1 mini egg per standard sized cake and a 1/4 of a mini egg per mini. Allow the fondant centre from the eggs to spill over the top of the cake...

Feel free to eat in whatever way you wish!