Magpie Make & Do ~ Choconuttynana Loaf

I love banana bread - it has that unmistakable taste of childhood nostalgia - and always tend to whip up a cheeky loaf if I have any bananas on the turn. This variation adds a little something for those of you, like me, with a sweet tooth...

Ingredients

10oz/285g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

4oz/110g butter (plus extra for greasing)

8oz/225g caster sugar

2 large eggs (the best you can find, and ensure they are free range)

4 very/over ripe bananas, mashed

3fl.oz/85ml buttermilk (alt: normal milk mixed with 1½ tsp lemon juice)

1 (generous) tsp vanilla extract

4 tbsp Nutella

Method

1. Preheat over to 180°C/350°F.

2. Sift dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla essence to the butter and sugar mixture.

5. Fold in flour mixture.

6. Dollop in your Nutella one tablespoon at a time, distributing around the surface of your mixture. Stir through very roughly to create a marble effect.

7. Grease a loaf tin (approx. 8"x 5" or 20cm x 12.5cm) and pour in mixture.

8. Place in the oven to back for approximately 1 hour, or until well-risen, golden brown and leaves a skewer clean when pierced through.

9. Remove from the oven to cool in tin for 10 minutes or so, then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

10. Devour!

Serving suggestion: You may think me disgusting for suggesting this, but I am a huge fan of combining salt and sweet, so I like to cut a decent slice (c.1.5cm thick) and spread it with a naughty layer of butter. Incredible with a cuppa...

Bon appetit!

pp x

'Twas brillig

Good evening, one and all! I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the milder weather while it lasts. A colleague at school mentioned the s*** word today - yes, apparently we may be in for yet more of the white stuff again next week. As much as I enjoy a good seasonal dusting of snow (I was even a tad disappointed not to have a sprinkling on our wedding day in December), now is not the time, surely?! I myself am most definitely not keen to have any more until at least November, please.

I'm sorry not to have shared my highlights with you last Sunday, as intended, but having been rather busy, I only managed the one post ~ my last ~ from my bed, and only just in time for lights out. This week has been a busy one too, so whilst I'm desperate to share lots of odds and ends with you all, I thought it best to save them all for a double whammy of content this weekend, so to speak, rather than squeeze them in in a hurry midweek.

One of the more pleasant reasons for having been so busy, is that Sunday last found me up in London, all mimsy with the borogoves at the Sanderson Hotel, enjoying their wonderful Mad Hatter's Tea! It was such a fun and culinarily novel experience, that I felt it merits its own solo post, rather than a mere cameo in a smorgasbord...

Even without the themed afternoon tea, the Sanderson itself epitomises the nonsensical and disproportional world of Carroll's Wonderland. The interiors are both plain and garish, minimalist yet busy, juxtaposing as they do the tastefully elegant and the conspicuously absurd. Bright white walls provide the perfect blank canvas for an array of lurid, giant furniture, and through the soft, clean lines of a hand-carved chair, for example, you might spy an over-sized portrait of a lapdog. Though it is part of a chain, the Morgan Group (its sister hotel on St Martin's Lane is very similar in style), and this approach to interior design is hardly original, the Sanderson still manages to retain a sense of individuality.

The tea itself was very tasty, and included some quirky surprises, which I won't spoil! The tableware was designed specially, and successfully reflects the Alice in Wonderland theme along with something of a vintage circus vibe. I don't want to go into the minutiae, as it is so worth experiencing for yourself. It would make a great gift. For further details of the tea on the Sanderson's website, click here. Just a few photos to give you an idea of the treats in store that will make you chortle in your joy ~ Callooh! Callay!

pp x

PS Best recital of the Jabberwocky I've heard, by the legendary Christopher Lee ~ what a voice...

Heavenly angel cake.

Having wanted to bake one of these for what feels like an awfully long time, it was such a joy to finally get around to it this weekend, and now I am very happy to share that joy with you all!

I first had the inclination to try my hand at this a couple of months back, when I was offered Mr Kipling's incarnation of the traditional angel layer cake. His version is not true to original recipes, lacking as it is in the plain sponge department, and tastes, like so many other shop-bought baked goods, mildly synthetic. It was nevertheless tasty, and so I resolved to bake one for His Lordship at the first opportunity. There is something undeniably nostalgic and really rather kitsch about this cake ~ the density of it, its appealing vintage fairground colours, the subtle vanilla sweetness of the unctuous buttercream... Salivating much?

I must confess that I cannot take any credit whatsoever for the recipe that follows, as I found it (having trawled the internet for some time, dodging recipes for angel food cake - a different confection entirely) on a lovely blog by the name of Nom! ~ thank you, Nicola! My only tweak to the recipe was that although the icing between the layers is only intended to be minimal, I found that with the increased surface area of my cakes (see the tins I used below) I needed a double batch of the buttercream.

Ingredients:

*        225g butter at room temperature (a good quality one)

*        225g caster sugar

*        4 large free range eggs

*        225g plain flour

*        1tsp baking powder

*        3 tbsp whole milk

*        1tsp vanilla extract

*        85g icing sugar

*        35g butter again, keep this aside for the buttercream

*        pink and yellow food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (celcius).

2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Break in two eggs, half of the flour, baking powder and vanilla (sifted), whisk, and repeat with the other half. Now add the milk and whisk into the mix. 

4. Take a third of the mixture into a seperate bowl and add either the pink or yellow food colouring until you get the desired depth, remember, it's 'angel' cake, so don't make it too strong. 

5. Take another third in another bowl and mix in the other colour. 

I couldn't get pink, so used a little red food colouring instead. This wasn't ideal, as it turned out: the final result was a somewhat insipid salmon, rather than a lovely candy pink.

6. Now grease and line a loaf time, three if you have them. 

I used square sandwich tins instead...

7. Divide the mixtures into the tins and bake in the oven for about 25-35 minutes. Check with a skewer to make sure its cooked perfectly.

8. Leave to cool

9. Once cool make the buttercream by whisking together the butter and icing sugar, you can add some more vanilla extract to this for an extra kick of gorgeous if you want - I did.

10. Level the three layers and stack with a layer of buttercream between the layers. 

 
11. Slice and eat. Nom!

This really is such a deliciously simple treat to make, and looks effortlessly impressive served in a neat little tranche with a cup of tea. I do hope you'll be inspired to have a go yourselves ~ perhaps you could experiment with the colour combinations? Blue, lilac and pistachio green might look pretty..? Let me know how it turns out!

Bon appetit! pp x