Pea Sauce for Pasta or Gnocchi

With the weather turning and the nights drawing in I fancied something bright green, fresh tasting and spring like to keep the feeling of summer going just a little bit longer. So I came up with this pea puree to use as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi or even as a vegetable side dish. It is so quick and simple that is has become one of my quick go to supper dishes.  Plus I almost always have all the ingredients to hand.

Lemon & Blueberry Almond Slice

What do you do when you find you have arrived at the airport 24hrs too soon to pick up your guest and you just baked a cake that morning for the occasion. This is the situation that I found myself in on Tuesday, muppet that I am, but better then 24hrs too late, hey? Anyway with this dessert cake there was no need to worry that it wouldn't still be great a couple of days later. It is rich and dense and moist and will keep for days without drying out (I have been keeping mine in the fridge and it is still ok).  I am not sure if my recipe should really be described as a cake as it is more suited to a pudding. It only uses eggs as a raising agent and so really isn't light and fluffy like a cake. Serve warm or cold with yoghurt if you can have dairy otherwise try it with summer fruits such as fresh blueberries, raspberries or strawberries.

 

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I am posting two recipes here. One is your classic crunchy sugar topped light sponge made with wheat flour and the other is a gluten free lemon drizzle cake with an interesting ingredient. The wheat sponge is a slightly adapted version of Mary Berry's lemon drizzle from her book Ultimate Cakes which is an excellent book if you want to start baking classic teatime cakes. You can buy the book from Amazon or most book stores seem to stock her as she is such a prolific writer not to mention domestic godess. If I ever want to bake a cake I look up her recipe first.

The gluten free recipe comes from BBC GoodFood and despite having mashed potatoes in it makes a really wonderful cake. It is dense and moist and could be served as a dessert. If you prefer to follow the recipe on the bbc the link is here although in my recipe I use more lemons as a prefer a zestier cake. The photos here are of the wheat flour lemon cake but the link has an accurate photo of what the gluten free cake looks like. My advice with this cake is to not tell people what the unusual ingredient is until after they have tasted it.

Both of these recipes make a pretty lemony cake so reduce the lemon juice in the drizzle if you prefer a less zesty cake.  

Gluten Free Lemon Curd Cupcakes

I recently bought my mum the Harry Eastwood Book - Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache as it has lots of gluten free recipes. It also uses vegetables instead of the fat such as courgettes and this sounded perfect for getting rid of a vegetable garden glut in a delicious way.

Here I have used the sponge recipe for her Strawberry & Cream Cupcakes but used lemon curd instead of jam and didn't add a buttercream top as these little cakes were rich enough. I really recommend her book which is quirky and fun with lots of lovely photos and you get to freak out your friends and family when you tell them what vegetable they have just been eating unbeknownst to them!

My cupcakes tasted really good being moist and tasty and coming out of the paper case easily - you really cannot tell that these are gluten free. However, they were really not particularly pretty and would look much better with a butter cream topping with a dollop of lemon curd added. As my OH and I both liked them as they were then all the pictures show them "naked" and like the best of us not looking their best.

You could make these little cakes dairy free if you need to by using good quality jam instead of lemon curd which is normally made with butter.

Lemon & Orange Curd

One of my Dad's favorite things is lemon curd preferably dolloped into pastry to make a lemon curd tart (known rather unpleasantly as lemon turd carts in our family following an amusing slip of the tongue by a young relative). It is divine spread on toast or a pancake. An old family friend used to make the best lemon curd tarts with homemade lemon curd and although this curd recipe isn't quite as good (I lack her 60+yrs experience) it is still delish and perfect to use in baking. Unfortunately, she passed away just over a year ago and making this is reminds me fondly of her and my dad who is currently thousands of miles away. I will be attempting to make mine into gluten free cupcakes so look out for the recipe.I made mine with lemon and orange but you can use just one citrus fruit if you prefer just remember to increase the amount of sugar to taste if all lemon and the reverse for all orange.