This last week has been a very trying one for us at home. I do value my privacy and don’t like to post too much detailed information about my family on this blog where I can’t restrict who views it, so I’m not going to divulge too much other than to say life with three very young children is a very testing experience. When any combination of those children get ill, that experience is made all the more trying. Our daughter has been quite unwell since the weekend and we’re hopeful that she’s on the mend now.

In any case, as we’re off to London tomorrow I thought that we should have a more relaxing evening with a family meal together so I have spent some time today cooking. Tonight we had carrot soup, roast chicken with white wine sauce and lemon drizzle cake.

Recipes
Carrot soup

2 litres of stock (I used home made chicken stock)
2lbs carrots, sliced
2 onions, sliced
25g butter
2 cloves garlic, chopped
natural yoghurt to serve (optional)

Melt the butter in a large pan, and add the garlic. Let it infuse for about a minute then add in your carrots and onions and let the vegetables soften over a medium heat. Once they’re soft, add your stock and turn the heat up until the soup is boiling. Cover and simmer for as long as necessary (I usually leave it for around an hour) then blend. Add a dollop of natural yoghurt if you feel like it, and serve.

Lemon drizzle cake

I had some gorgeous lemon drizzle cake from Theo’s cafe a few weeks ago and I decided to try and recreate it. Such a gorgeous cake, and reasonably easy to recreate. I googled for the recipe and found this entry on the Gastronomy Domine blog written by Liz so I’ve pinched it. The original recipe is from Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake book.

4oz (100g) soft margarine (I used butter as I had no margarine)
6oz (175g) caster sugar
6oz (175g) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 extra large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
zest of 1 lemon

For the topping:
juice of 1 lemon
4oz (100g) caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4, and line and grease a 7in deep round cake tin. Other recipes I found recommended using a 2lb loaf tin for this purpose.

Combine the sugar and margarine, then add the eggs and milk. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat the whole lot together. Add the lemon zest and tip into your prepared tin. Bake for 40 minutes. Liz recommends listening to your cake at this point – as she says, “to find out whether your cake is done; put an ear near it. An underdone cake will make tiny pricking noises. A done cake will be silent.

When you’ve taken the cake out of the oven mix the lemon juice and sugar together. Prick the cake surface with a skewer or fork then spread the sugary lemon (or lemony sugar, however you want to look at it) over the top, and leave the cake in the tin to cool.The lemon juice will soak into the cake, leaving a crunchy lemony topping. Turn out and serve.

Posted under baking, cooking, recipes