Easter Cake

So I am almost feeling a little bit of a con creeping back onto my blog and posting as if there has been no absence… but I have had an extraordinarily busy time since my last post sending my little boy to nursery in Rome (the only little english chap amongst the italian piccoli!), starting a new job at the International School here, helping my husband through a tricky time at work and launching our supper club to welcome guests to the Roman food scene! But fleurmakes has been on my mind and with the Spring taking some time to bud this year I thought I would use my easter holiday to re-energise this blog with lots of springtime recipes that I have been indulging in. Starting with this Easter Cake (not a traditional Colomba, they are best bought!) Happy (nearly) Primavera from Rome!

Easter Cake inspired by Mary Berry’s Victoria Sponge Recipe

Ingredients:

4 large eggs

225g Self Raising Flour (I made my own with masses of baking powder and good ol’ 00 plain flour)

225g Caster Sugar

225g Butter

2 tsp baking powder

Fresh strawberries

Strawberry jam

Whipping cream

 

First I preheated the oven to a toasty 180degreesC and got on with simply weighing and combining the flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder and butter. I mixed gently in the electric mixer until just combined and poured them into my heart shaped moulds. Cake made with easter love!

I baked the cakes for 25 minutes and left to cool before releasing them from the silicone mould. 

Once completely cold I whipped up my cream with a tbsp of icing sugar, dolloped my jam over the bottom layer, added sliced fresh strawberries and topped off with a layer of cream before adding the upper most sponge.

 

Enjoyed by the lake in Trevignano with my parents on Easter Sunday, and then again by my little boy on Pasquetta for his breakfast! The only way to start the day!

 

 

Lovely Lavender Buns

So Luca and I were off to play with two new girlfriends of his and he wanted to bring something along that would really show off his taste for the finer things in life…smartie cupcakes wouldn’t do so we instead opted for an infusion of lavender in our buns. These buns are also ideal for children because they are made with olive oil and very little sugar, adapted from my recipe for the Italian breakfast-time cake, Ciambella.

Ingredients:

1 pot of natural yoghurt 125g (keep the pot)

3 pots of plain flour

1 heaped tsp of baking powder

1 egg

3/4 extra virgin olive oil

1 pot of light brown sugar

A little slug of milk to loosen the mix if necessary

2 heaped tsp of lavender (available in Waitrose- I randomly added it to my shipment when stocking up with asian ingredients)

I started with the yoghurt and then used the empty yoghurt pot to measure out the rest of my ingredients. I gave it a good mix with my mixer but a strong arm and wooden spoon would also be ideal. I poured the mixture into silicone cases because I had them handy and were the kind of pastel colours that added to the whole impression that Luca was a man of sensitivity and good aesthetics, he had TWO women to impress don’t forget!

They needed about 15 mins in a oven at 180degreesC until browning and a knife came out cleanly but don’t be tempted to open the oven door too often.

Served cool without any icing makes them a perfect treat for your little ones (and my big one who polished off the last six with a cup of coffee as he walked in from the office…although the pastel shades of the cases might have been lost on him!).

Sweets for our sweets

Luca insisted on making something yummy for two of his favourite “aunties” Les and Lou who are arriving straight from the office in London tonight. Although it’s only just March they may well get that warm, balmy moment as they step off the plane at the airport, March in Rome is already 22 degrees and we are LOVING it! So to something delicious…a fun recipe to make with Luca because it is mainly just stirring in a great big mixing bowl. These chocolate brownies from our beloved Australian Bill Granger are totally foolproof and I decided to make two batches; one for our equally delicious friends and one to suck up to my wrinkly, quite terrifying but seemingly friendly nonna from next door- I am desperate for her to be my friend, a total inspiration with her perfect nails and hair even at seven in the morning at knocking on 90yearsold. Awesome.

Ingredients:

• 350g caster sugar
• 80g cocoa powder
• 60g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 200g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 160degreesC. Line a 22cm square baking tin with baking paper. Stir together the sugar, cocoa powder, flour and baking powder in a bowl. Mix in the eggs, butter and vanilla until combined, and then mix in the chocolate. Pour into the tin
and bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack.

I promise you Mummy that I just did the “stirring” bit not the “tasting” bit.

Cut into squares to serve. Dust with icing sugar to make pretty!

And this was Nonna’s batch, “io faccio torta ingelse per voi (please like me!)”, do you think she’ll appreciate the very English Granny plate?

 

When life gives you oranges….

….keep baking!

I seem to have rather alot of bright oranges filling up bowls in my kitchen and although we are consuming them at EVERY meal time raw and unadulterated I thought perhaps we could have a sweeter treat!

Using a fail safe recipe from Nigella for lemon loaf cake I decided to just switch lemons for oranges. Plus I was quite excited to finally discover Italian self-raising flour…the plain kind is available everywhere however I had been on the hunt for the self raising kind so I could stop asking friends to risk their ryanair weight allowance for a few 1/2 kilo bags!!

Ingredients:

• 125g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• zest and juice of 1 orange
• pinch of salt
• 175g self-raising flour
• 2 tbsps milk

Cream the butter and sugar together. Mix in the eggs, followed by the zest and juice. Add the salt and flour and if necessary loosen the mixture with the milk. However along with the delivery of our shipment I was reunited with the main man of my kitchen…my very handsome KitchenAid which makes this cake easy peasy…I just chuck the ingredients in in the order given above and keep the motor running.

Pour into a lined and greased loaf tin and bake for up to 45mins at 180degrees or until you can pull out a sharp knife cleanly.

I added an orange cream icing- simply 200g icing sugar and a squeeze of orange juice, mix until smooth and pour on the cooled cake. Perfect with a cup of English tea in the Roman sunshine!

p.s. another plug for my pasta e ceci…I urge you to try making it, I had it for lunch today and it reminded me just how tasty it is…