A Classic British Treat

The Victoria Sponge - 100% Homemade.


A nice and easy cake to make and perfect for afternoon teas.

I used the recipe from deliciousmagazine, which required minimal ingredients.

Ingredients

Self-raising flour, caster sugar, egg, butter and a bit lemon to make the sponge and some bottled strawberry jam to make the filling (although it would be much better if you could make your own jam).

Cake mixture

Once the cake mixture is done, I divided it into two halves and poured into two spring-foam tins. You may put the cake mixture in one bigger tin. I chose to bake the two sponge layers separately as it is easier than cutting a big sponge into two equal halves.

Cake mixture in tins

Once the sponges are done, cool them on a rack before spreading any jam.

Sponges cooling

Sponges

Strawberry Jam spread

Once the sponges are cooled, spread strawberry jam on top of the bottom sponge then put the top layer sponge on top. Alternatively, raspberry jam can be used instead.

Victoria Sponge

Most recipes add whipped cream to the cake, but I am making the traditional Victoria Sponge which do not include whipped cream.

The edges of the sponge look torn. Perhaps next time I should grease the cake tins more thoroughly, lift the sponges out carefully and then dust the top with icing sugar.

Nice and tasty afternoon treat, with the hint of lemon cutting through the light and buttery sponge. Lovely strawberry jam sandwiched in between. Perfect with a cup of tea.

Here are some more Victoria Sponge recipes from deliciousmagazine and the queen of desserts, Mary Berry.

Souffle The Third

To fulfil a special request from a friend of mine, who really really wanted to try my soufflés......

My third attempt at making Lemon Soufflés and I think they looked much better than the first ones!

Exactly the same recipe by Mary Berry but slightly more cooking time as the ramekins I used were much bigger than suggested (possibly the reason why my last ones did not rise as much).

They rose beautifully, but to be a perfectionist, I still think they needed to be a bit more brown on top. Perhaps a couple more minutes next time!

I love those lovely little soufflés, light and fluffy with acidic flavour of lemon cutting through it. Simply delicious!


Perhaps I will be more adventurous next time and try different flavoured soufflés and even add some other ingredients in it.

Homemade Macaroni Cheese

One day at work, I just had this craving for a nice big bowl of macaroni cheese. I thought it would not be too hard to make, hence I went Google'ing' for the recipe.

I came across three almost completely different recipes (apart from the macaroni) and did not know which to choose!

There was BBC's, Nigella Lawson's and Jamie Oliver's recipe.

Votes were cast and Jamie's recipe won right out!

It was because he added a tiny twist to the classical "old-school frumpy Anglicized dish of macaroni cheese" by using four different types of cheese! 

So off I went to the supermarket to get the ingredients. Instead of Fontina or Taleggio cheese as suggested in the recipe, I got Cheddar simply because the other two were not available. I also added another ingredient to the dish for some protein - ham.

Ingredients

Recipe taken from Jamie Oliver's website.

Ingredients:

• 500g/1lb 2oz good-quality macaroni
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a knob of buttera small bunch of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked
• 100g/3½oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra for grating
• 100g/3½oz fontina or taleggio cheese, roughly torn
• 100g/3½oz mascarpone cheese
• ¼ of a nutmega
 small ball of buffalo mozzarella cheese




Method:

• Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. 
• Cook the macaroni in a pan of salted boiling water 2 minutes short of the timing on the packet instructions, then drain in a colander and reserve a little of the cooking water. 
• Heat the butter in a large heavy-based frying pan. When it starts to foam, add the marjoram or oregano and fry for a minute until it starts to crisp up, then turn off the heat. 
• Add your cooked pasta to the marjoram or oregano butter, along with a couple of spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water and the Parmesan, fontina or taleggio and mascarpone. 
• Return to a medium heat and toss and stir around until most of the cheese has melted and you have a lovely gooey sauce – you may need to add a little more of the reserved cooking water. 
• Season to taste, then tip it all into an earthenware dish. Grate over the nutmeg, tear over the mozzarella and sprinkle over the extra Parmesan. 
• Bake the macaroni cheese in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, finishing up with a quick whack under the grill, until golden brown and crispy on top.

And the result is......

Macaroni Cheese in oven-proof dish

Nice golden brown and crispy top that looks very inviting!

Plate of Macaroni Cheese with Peas

The Macaroni Cheese tastes amazing with all the different flavours coming from the four cheeses. Nice and 'gooey' but I thought it would have been nicer if it was a little bit MORE 'gooey' by adding a little bit more of the reserved cooking water.

I like Jamie's 'rustic and flavour-filled' take in his recipes! Yum Yum!