Bake: Blood orange, almond and pistachio cakes

As much as I love living in Leicester I’m often a little envious when I see London based bloggers nabbing all the rare and exotic produce. I know the world is a small place now and most ingredients are only a click of a mouse away but today I’m talking about the fresh stuff, the ingredients that won’t fit through your letterbox and that deserve to be selected and packed into a brown paper bag by your own fair hand. This leads me to the blood orange, I’ve been reeling at the torturous sight of all the blood oranges popping up on Instagram lately. From Holly’s beautiful blood orange, bitter chocolate and honey cupcakes to Ed Kimber’s Jaffa cakes there’s been some inspirational baking happening and i’ve been dying to sniff out some of these little tinkers for myself. With the season coming to an end I had almost given up hope, that is until C and I went out to dinner at Carluccios last week.

C spotted them first, I was so distracted by the multi coloured pasta selection I had neglected to check out the window display. Nestled amongst the usual meringues, biscuits and chocolate tarts sat a crate full of Sicilian Moro blood oranges just waiting to be snaffled. They are a lot smaller than your average orange with a red tinge to the skin and crimson red flesh. At 50p a pop they are slightly pricier, but they do have quite a bit more to offer, aside from being the most beautiful orange you could ever hope to cut into they are higher in antioxidants and superior in flavour. The first thing I did was squeeze one and drink it fresh. Amazing. Next job was to deliberate over what I could make with them, a tough decision which took quite some time with so many ideas and only 6 little fruits to play with. Sunday lunch was in the making so I eventually plumped for cake. Not just any old cake, something puddingy and indulgent for a sunday afternoon. This recipe only uses two blood oranges so I had enough left over to make a sorbet toO.

This makes 4 generous cakes or alternatively the recipe will work in an 18cm tin, just increase the bake time to 45-50 minutes. 

You will need:

• 4 dariole moulds
• 100g unsalted butter plus extra to grease the moulds
• 150g ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150g caster sugar
• 50g pistachios
• 2 eggs
• 2 blood oranges

Pre- heat the oven to 145ºC prepare the tins by melting a little butter and painting it into the inside of the mould. Zest one of the blood oranges and reserve. Thinly slice the other blood orange so you have 4 perfect cross sections, flick out and discard any seeds. Place the slices into the base of the moulds. Juice the remaining blood oranges and distribute the juice between the moulds.

Lightly chop the pistachios and toast in the oven for 5-8 minutes until golden. Set aside to cool.

Cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy. Whilst this is happening weigh the almonds, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and keep close to hand. Break the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork until well mixed. Slowly add 1/3 of the egg into the butter and sugar mix and beat well to incorporate, then add a spoonful of the almond mix. Continue to add the egg and almonds in alterations until all incorporated. Divide the mixture between the 4 moulds and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inverted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

These cakes are best served warm, once they are cool enough to handle run a knife around the outside of the cake to loosen then invert onto a plate, sprinkle with a little ground pistachio (I ground mine in a coffee grinder- a new toy, massive excitement!)

So exotic Leicester wins again and I think I’ve ticked off all my winter food wishes this season. I’m ready for spring now, bring on the rhubarb…

Visit: The seaside, in winter

I’ve spent much of the last week exploring the coastline of East Sussex with my Mother, the beach is a beautiful place to be at this time of year and we’ve enjoyed a few bracing walks across shingle beaches foraging for beach treasure followed by cozy cups of tea in a little house by the sea. We’ve also enjoyed a few seafood dinners. It’s been amazing to get away from it all and breathe some sea air. Best of all, the beaches are practically deserted at this time of year, you can walk for some miles without meeting a single sole.

I’m planning to share more of our seaside adventures but for now I just wanted to share a few snaps from a few of our walks along the beach and suggest if you are at a loose end one weekend soon I highly recommend wrapping up warm and heading out to the coast for some fresh air and beachcombing.

 

Do: Free Activities for January

January is a bleak month, I find myself cold, penniless and feeling a little sorry for myself, so as well as planning what I’d like to make, bake and where I’d like to visit for the year ahead I’ve been thinking of ideas for low cost activities that I can do right now. Activities that don’t cost the earth but still allow me to still spend time with friends and be a little creative.

Here follows my list of free things to do when you’re tight on cash:

Board Games

We are big fans of board games here at Make Do and Spend towers, favourites include:

• Articulate
• Monopoly
• Trivial Pursuits
• Giant Jenga-  indoors (this just happens to be Truffle’s favourite too!)

Though C and I only own Monopoly and Giant Jenga we have friends that own other board games so we take it in turns to host dinner and games nights, perfect weekend winter warmers

Visit Free Museums and Art Galleries

This is a great way to take in some culture and get inspired by other artist’s work, we’re lucky enough to have the brilliant New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester so I’m planning a visit next weekend, try visitbritain.com to find free museums and galleries local to you.

Start a Sketchbook/Scrapbook/journal

This is a great way to document memories and bookmark ideas whilst out and about. B gave me a beautiful 5 year journal for Christmas and I really like the format of Keel’s simple diary as a different format for recording what sort of day you’ve had.

I’m also planning a little bit of sewing as I have a stash of fabric to play with

Pack Lunches

This is one of my all time favourite ways to save money, it’s simple, cheap, creative and a great way to use up leftovers

Store cupboard Baking Days

Again a great way to get creative and use up ingredients that have been hanging out in the cupboard for a few months. Last year I hosted a pizza making day for some friends who wanted to learn about making bread, it was a great way to spend time quietly catching up with friends without breaking the bank.

Free film viewings

Visit seefilmfirst.com and tellten.co.uk to find free film viewings and pre-views near you

Recycle, swap, and get paid to shop

If you’re a little bored of your film collection or, god forbid, looking to trade in any unwanted Christmas presents try freecycle.org  and swapr.co.uk for online swap shop communities, I’m also planning to sign up for grassrootsmysteryshopping.com where you can be paid for secret shopping trips in exchange for feedback on your shopping experience

Wrap up warm and get outdoors

Yes, it’s cold out but there are still adventures to be had and walking and cycling are free. On a recent bike ride I discovered that Leicester has a city farm open 365 days a year, who knew!

How are you saving your pennies this January?

Our week: 12 to 18 Jan

The week B had…

Made: SO many cups of tea – to keep warm! (My gutters had frozen – see above!)

Did: Enjoying the beautiful snowy scenes around Leicestershire – including a visit to one of the National Trust’s latest purchases

Spent: Put down a deposit on a holiday to Canada!

If you click on one link this weekend: I’m obviously still watching Puppy vs Orange – but I also I’ve just come across The Bagel Project. American photographer Justin Bettman approaches homeless people and offers them a bagel for their time. I haven’t had much time to read many of the stories yet – but I think it’s going to prove fascinating…

The week E had…

Made: A snowman, which inevitably led to a snowball fight!

Did: The snow put a halt to many of our plans this week, C and I were really looking forward to a day at the school of artisan food learning how to make cheese, this was unfortunately cancelled. Instead this week has been about staying warm and cozy, cooking comfort food, watching some good films and as ever, a little bit of baking

Spent: 3 hours in my car trying to get home from work- a 10 mile journey which would usually take 30 minutes at most. It was a terrifying drive and i’ve never been so glad to get home

If you click on one link this weekend: Sous Chef is an online shop for ambitious cooks craving adventurous ingredients, everything you need is here……..