Happy birthday Finn - Elderflower Cake with added Angry Birds!

 

Finn is now five years old. I am frankly amazed at where the time has gone (as is any parent from what I can gather) but every single day of my life since his arrival has been blessed with his smile, his charm, his energy. Like his sister Lola, his very presence in my world is special, wondrous, the things miracles are truly made of.

 

  A grainy baby Finn, newborn

 

So, when it came round to the subject of birthday cakes, I asked him what he would like dreading the word 'dinosaurs' as last years' birthday cake offering looked more like a pigeon than a T-Rex. He said 'Angry Birds' and I really got to wondering just what sort of mess I would make of them. Well, I did better than expected. They might be a bit rough and ready but you know, from a distance, if you squint, they look a little like those pesky little birds that I have catapulted at piggies whilst having an idle moment or two. yes, even mums like Angry Birds!

 

The sponge cake recipe is an elderflower cake recipe taken from Fiona Cairns' 'Birthday Cake Book' which is so, so pretty. I am not surprised that she was chosen to make William and Kate's wedding cake. I have often looked wistfully at her beautifully perfect cupcakes ensconced behind the glass in Waitrose. Each twirl, each curl, each delicate flower so splendid in its execution. I can only dream of being so adept. But it's not only her fantastic decoration that I am a fan of, it's her actual cakes which are innovative and interesting. I liked the idea of an elderflower cake and whilst I might not have achieved the total effect as I went my own way in terms of decorating the cake, it was still a nice cake to make and to eat.

 

The original recipe suggests a filling of elderflower flavoured cream with additional strawberries to bring out the summery elderfloweryness (yes, I invented a word!) but my only addition apart from angry birds was to spread a generous dollop or two of strawberry jam to sandwich the two cakes together. I think I may have missed out on the wow factor of elderflower and strawberry combined, but I needed to adapt the recipe and method to suit my purpose.

 

The recipe below is for the cake only. As far as making Angry Birds goes, it's quite hard to demonstrate but my plan of attack was to print out some pictures of the birds and then use sugar paste to create them. I cut the basic shapes out with a knife and then cut or modelled the remaining details and stuck them on after moistening the sugarpaste with a dab of water. I covered the cake with sugar paste and then stuck the birds on whilst everything was soft and pliable, only then allowing the paste to dry out.

 

Finn was impressed. His opinion was the one that mattered.

 

Elderflower cake, taken from Elderflower and Strawberry Cake in Fiona Cairns' 'The Birthday Cake Book'

 

Serves 24 (so I halved the recipe below to serve 12)

 

Ingredients:

 

450g (1lb) self-raising flour

 

450g (1lb) really soft unsalted butter, diced

 

2tsp baking powder

 

8 eggs, lightly beaten

 

Finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons

 

450g (1lb) golden caster sugar

 

4tbsp elderflower cordial

 

 

The Angry Birds:

 

Red, yellow, black, green, blue, orange sugarpaste

A black edible marker pen

 

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 4. Butter three 20cm (8in) round cake tins and line the bases with parchment. (I used 2 sandwich tins)

 

 

 

Cream the butter and eggs then add the sifted flour and baking powder, lemon zest and sugar and beat well, adding the cordial towards the end.

 

 

 

Pour into the cake tins and bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven, leave for a couple of minutes, run a knife around the rims and turn out onto a wire rack. Remove the papers and cool. Trim the cakes flat.

 

 

 

Sandwich with strawberry jam and place on a flat plate.

 

I put some 'grass' to try to disguise the imperfect way that I decorated the sides of the cake!

 

Roll out the sugarpaste, on a surface lightly flowered with icing sugar, to an even depth, then place over the cake. Smooth the edges as much as possible and trim.

 

 

 

Make your birds as described above. Once made place them onto the top of the cake.

 

 

 

Serve, preferably adorned with candles, to an excited five year old.

  

  

 

From the garden: Gooseberry and Elderflower Filo Pie

 

I have neglected my garden now for about six years, funnily enough about the same time I have had children, but there are still some things that thrive in there apart from bindweed. Hidden here and there amongst the overgrowth are little glimmers of the past where I had fruit plants from which I had this romantic notion that I would have bumper harvests all the time and would whisk them away to the kitchen and so something marvellous with them. Being a) not talented in the garden department, and b) living in a country where Summer happens in March and a few days in September, means that my attempts have been met various levels of failure, but if there is one thing that can be guaranteed to bring forth something I can do something with, it is my very thorny gooseberry bushes and my unwieldy blackberry bushes, both of which seem to thrive in grey cloud and sodden soil it would seem.

So, this year's crop of red tinged sourness was initially frozen by me in two plastic bags because I was about to go to France and couldn't really do them much justice. But, once returned I had plans for one of the bags and this is the result, a Nigel Slater inspired gooseberry filo pie. I currently have lots of filo pastry which I bought when I did my supermarket shop in Calais before returning to the UK, and pastry in all its forms is cheaper and in many cases better than I can make, plus it speeds up stuff. Sometimes I like to make quiche on a whim. How exciting.

The alteration I made to this recipe was that I added a little elderflower cordial to the gooseberries. If you have never had gooseberries and elderflower together, then you really, really should. It is so amazingly tasty. It does make for a filling that is a little liquidy, but that pleases me in all honesty as I can then pour a little cream on it and make it even better. Crispy filo, tart gooseberry liquor, unctuous cream. I can think of little better.

Gooseberry Filo Pie, adapted from Nigel Slater's recipe in the Guardian newspaper

Serves Mum and Dad twice, whilst Lola and Finn had an ice cream from the freezer (yes, I failed)

Ingredients

350g gooseberries

1 tbsp elderflower cordial

80g caster sugar

125g ground almonds

50g butter

6 leaves of filo pastry

 

A little Demerara sugar

 

Cream, to pour over

 Method:

 

Top and tail the gooseberries, removing any stalks and dried flowers. Put the berries in a bowl, add the caster sugar, elderflower cordial and the ground almonds and toss them gently together.

 

 

Melt the butter, then brush a little of it on the base of a 22cm metal baking dish or shallow cake tin. Lay a piece of filo pastry in the tin, leaving the edges overhanging the sides, then brush it with butter. Add a second sheet and continue, layering and brushing until all the sheets are used.

 

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4 and place a baking sheet on the oven shelf.

 

 

Tip the gooseberries into the baking dish, then pull the over-hanging pastry sheets into the middle to lightly cover the berries. If you twist the pastry sheets as you do so you get interesting folds and ripples and the crust will crisp nicely. Brush lightly with butter and sprinkle with Demerara sugar. Note: My pastry sheets were thicker than the filo pastry I buy here, and as such wouldn't fold down in the way I wanted them initially. I folded them as I could, brushed the top with butter and then put a saucer with a tin of beans on the top of the filo to get it to 'lie down'.

 

 

Bake for 20-25 minutes, on the hot baking sheet (the extra heat will help the base to cook, although it will always be slightly soft) till the top of the pastry is crisp and golden.

 

Serve hot, or warm, with cream.

 

A pudding to make my diet crumble: Apple and elderflower crumble

Crumbles really are smile inducing things. There isn't a much finer pud than hot fruit waiting to be discovered through a thick layer of sugary, ever so slightly salty, buttery rubble. When I was a kid, the measure of a good crumble was whether it was one of those types that 'stuck to your ribs', that is, it had that right balance of sharp fruit but the crumble was gooey as it had part collapsed into the lovely liquor given off from the apples, or the rhubarb (particularly rib sticking) or whatever fruity sidekick you had chosen. A good crumble should have a pleasing soporific effect, as once it sticks to your ribs and leaves you smiley, you then feel the need for a bit of a doze, post lunch, in a crumble daze. And they are easy to make, great for using up dodgy looking fruit... in fact, I am failing to find the negative here.

The crumbles of my youth were either apple or rhubarb, the latter, oozing a greeny and pinky hue from under a delicious golden rubble. Apple ones were just as delicious, mostly, but were generally lighter in texture, and that's no bad thing. But if you didn't know your apples, you might end up with a pale green pulp redolent of apple sauce which wasn't quite the effect desired. That is why, in my opinion, you shouldn't let a Bramley apple near a crumble - A personal view admittedly. I like chunk, sweet appley chunk, with a waft of cinnamon in the vicinity.

I decided to add a splosh of elderflower cordial to the mix for two reasons. One: apple and elderflower is delicious, and two: It was in the cupboard and I often like to add it to sparkling water. Whilst the finished dish will not have you thinking 'Wow! Elderflower!' I do think it adds a hint of something quite pleasant.

The crumble recipe I give here is very approximate. Indeed, I recommend you don't follow it because you will have your own idea about how you like your crumble. And the recipe I use changes every time. Basically, I am looking for something that looks like biscuits that have been bashed with a rolling pin, which when you taste it raw, should be rubbly, sweet, salty, 'buttery' and these days nutty. And you need plenty of it: Now is not the time for restraint when it comes to making a crumble. I want some of the underside to dissolve into the fruity soup below, to give that rib sticking effect, and I want the top to caramelise nicely as the butter and sugar mingle and melt. I would also be extremely disappointed if some of the molten fruit did not seep up through the edges of the rubble, creating pools of dense fruitiness here and there.

Yes, I'm smiling.

Apple and elderflower crumble

Serves 4, plus Lola and Finn.

Ingredients:

Six to eight firm, sweet eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

1 tbsp lemon juice

25g butter

50g sugar, added to taste. You may need slightly more or slightly less, and for that you need to taste the mixture

50ml elderflower cordial

1 tsp cinnamon

For the crumble: You may need to vary the quantities and my advice is taste a little of the crumble.

150g plain flour or maybe wholemeal if you fancy

150g butter

a pinch of salt

a handful of walnuts, finely chopped or blitzed. (Or other nuts of your choosing)

1 tsp cinnamon

50g sugar - could be white, demerara, soft brown.

Method

Peel, core and quarter the apples and coat them in the lemon juice in a bowl to stop them browning.

Melt the butter over a gentle heat in a frying pan.

Add the apples. Coat them in the melted butter mixture and leave to soften on a gentle heat for a few minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent them from sticking and browning.

Add some of the sugar, the elderflower cordial and the cinnamon. Stir to combine and leave to blip away for a few minutes. Taste the liquid. You might feel it needs more sugar.

Pierce the apple slices with a sharp knife. They should be cooked or almost cooked. Transfer the apple mixture to a suitable dish.

For the crumble, combine the butter and the flour and either rub between your fingertips to combine or else whizz in a food processor. Add the sugar, salt and cinnamon and walnuts. Mix to combine.

When you are happy with the crumble mixture, top the fruit with it. I like to have about half an inch of crumble mix on top. If there is any crumble mixture over I tend to put it in a container in the fridge and make another crumble soon.

Place in the oven, on a baking tray to avoid any oven cleaning later on, at 180c for about 30 - 40 mins, or until the top is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up the sides. Remove to oven and allow to rest for about 5 - 10 minutes as it will be very hot.

Serve with vanilla ice cream maybe, or cream maybe, or custard, definitely...and prepare to smile.