The Olympic Torch in Scotland

My husband, daughter and I have just spent a glorious week in my home town of Ayr on the South-West coast of Scotland. It was a visit that promised rare quality time as a family; and with my parents and old friends. Not only did our trip deliver just that, but it also thrust us into the path of the Olympic Torch. Here are a few photos of the historic moment:

A warm Scottish welcome!

My Mum & daughter Hannah join in the celebrations!

A room with a view …

And here it comes …

Torch bearer Sasha Ratcliffe!

 All in all, bearing witness to this ‘once in a lifetime’ event, really was a fascinating and delightful experience that I will always remember. Cross it off the list!

Scottish Tablet

Every day I thank my lucky stars that I was born Scottish! A number of delectable dishes have hailed (to use the Scottish dialect) from Scotland, but none so sweet as Tablet (or to give it another name, Scottish Toffee). Made with sugar, butter and condensed milk this recipe is very easy to make; however for those with a sweet tooth, BEWARE, for it is seriously moreish!

Ingredients:

• 1 pint/500ml water
• 8oz/225g butter, chopped into pieces
• 4 lbs/1.8kg super fine/caster sugar
• 1lb/450g of condensed milk
• Optional – flavouring as desired. Favourite include: vanilla, peppermint & whisky. Just add a few drops to taste.

Preparation:

• Butter a 12″ x 4″/30cm x 10cm or 7″/18cm square tin.
• In your saucepan (see note below) heat the water to a low simmer then add the butter. Stir until melted. Add the sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat to high and bring the sugar to a hard boil for 5 minutes (the mixture should boil really fiercely which helps to reduce the liquid and colour the mixture)  stirring all the time to prevent the sugar from sticking and burning. If you have a thermometer take the temperature to 120°C/ 250°F (also known as hard ball stage in candy and toffee making).
• Once the sugar is boiling, slowly add the condensed milk – TAKE CARE – the sugar is at a very high temperature and may splatter. Stir well then lower the heat and simmer for 20 mins. The mixture will bubble and resemble a moon crater, but don’t be put off, keep cooking. The mixture will also start to slightly darken.
• After twenty minutes or once the mixture is visibly thickened,  remove the pan from the stove and beat the mixture vigorously for 5 – 10 mins, add any optional flavourings.
• Pour into the greased pan and when the tablet is cool but still soft, cut into 1″ squares – you can even put the pan in the freezer to make sure it is completely cold.
• Wrap in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin.

Important Note: For this recipe you will need a heavy based 4-pint sauce pan but if you have a larger one I recommend using it; the tablet reaches a rolling boil and sometimes if you have the heat even a fraction too high the mixture can swell up very quickly and boil over. A larger pan will make it safer. This recipe reaches very high temperatures and I recommend you do not make this with children around.

And the finished result …. it’s sweet, it’s creamy, it’s crumbly and absolutely mouth wateringly delicious!

Enjoy!!

Earl Grey Cupcakes

In the search for something simple but interesting to bake, I happened upon a recipe by the Primrose Bakery for Earl Grey cupcakes – a must for a tea jenny like me! (For those of you not familiar with the Scots dialect, “jenny” means a lot of or a great number of. Hence, a tea jenny is someone who drinks a lot of tea). Indeed, my cupboards are bursting at the seams with countless varieties: flowering, loose leaf and bags. And visitors who come into my home and refuse a cup are generally met with a mixture of suspicion and horror!

Despite the array of colourful and delicately scented infusions, I regularly opt for a good old mug of builders brew or a refreshing cup Earl Gray. There is something decidedly British in doing so! And what better way to extend British tradition than to enjoy afternoon tea with cake ….

Ingredients (makes 12)

125 ml milk,
4 Earl grey tea bags,
110g unsalted butter,
225g granulated sugar,
2 large eggs,
¼ tsp almond essence [optional],
125g self-rising flour,
120g plain flour Butter cream icing,
115g unsalted butter at room temperature,
60 ml semi skimmed milk,
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract,
500g icing sugar
A few drops of lilac food colouring

Method

Preheat oven to 180c/ gas mark 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases. Heat milk in a saucepan over a medium heat until it begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add teabags. Cover with a lid for about 30 mins. Cream butter with sugar in a bowl until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add almond extract and eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Scrape bowl with a spatula to make sure that the mixture is well combined. Combine the flours in a separate bowl. Add a third of the flour to the butter and sugar mixture and beat well. Pour in a third of the milk/tea mixture and beat. Repeat until all the flour and milk has been added. Carefully spoon mixture into cupcake cases, filling each one two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25 mins. Test to see if they are cooked. Leave in tins for 10 minutes, then place on wire rack to cool.

To make the butter cream: beat butter, milk, vanilla and half the icing sugar until smooth. Gradually add the rest of icing sugar to produce a creamy and smooth consistency. Add a drop of colouring and beat thoroughly. When cool, ice the cupcakes and sprinkle with a little extra granulated sugar.

Tea-licious!

Happy Pancake Day!

Today is Pancake day, or Shrove Tuesday (as it is known here in the UK) – the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. ‘Shrove’ stems from an old English word ‘Shrive’ meaning to ‘confess all sins’. Hence traditionally Shrove Tuesday was a day when people asked forgiveness before Lent. On this day pancakes were cooked and eaten as a means of using up stocks of milk, eggs, butter; of which people were abstinent during Lent.

There are a great many customs associated with Pancake Day throughout the UK and Ireland. ‘Lent Crocking’, for instance, saw children passing from house to house asking for pancakes. If their request was refused broken crockery was thrown at the door! A further custom, nay superstition, included the belief that the first three pancakes cooked were sacred. Each would be marked with a cross, then sprinkled with salt to ward off evil spirits, before being set aside. 

In my homeland of Scotland, special oatcakes called Bannocks were made using oatmeal, salt and eggs and cooked on a griddle. A small charm would be added to the dough and if an unmarried person found it, they would be married within the year.

Today pancake races are a popular event throughout the UK. The aim being that you run as fast as you can whilst tossing a pancake in a frying pan. Some races are carried out in fancy dress whilst others have teams of people doing a relay. All are great fun to watch!

So whether you are running with your pancake through the streets or simply cooking it traditional style and serving with lemon juice and sugar – Enjoy! And Happy Pancake Day!

Today is Groundhog Day . . .

Today on a hillside in Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania, a roly-poly rodent called Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow in front of TV cameras and ecstatic crowds and was called upon to predict the weather. Phil emerged and saw his shadow, which according to legend, means that winter is here to stay for six more weeks.

Weird eh? Or apparently not so weird! For using animals to predict the weather is not a new ideology and may in fact date back to the early days of Christianity in Europe when clear skies on Candlemas – February 2nd – was said to signal a prolonged stay of cold weather. In Germany, this tradition transformed into a myth where-by if the sun shone on Candlemas, the hedgehog would cast a shadow, and snow would fall all the way into May. When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, they reassigned the tradition to native fauna; hence Groundhog Day was born.

The accuracy of Phil’s prognostications is, of course, subject to debate. His supporters argue that he is uncannily accurate, where-as the statistics do not give weight to this claim. In the one-hundred and twenty-six years since the tradition began Phil the Groundhog has been correct only thirty-nine percent of the time. In real terms, we’d be better off flipping a coin. But hey, a coin wouldn’t be nearly so cute!!

A Big Fat Greek Celebration

If you have read my previous post you will be aware that I have recently returned from the lush Ionian island of Zakynthos (or Zante as it is more commonly known). In addition to a well-earned break the trip’s purpose was to attend my friend’s wedding, and the baptism of her children.

Having recently got married myself, I remain naturally drawn to weddings. I enjoy nothing better than a Tuesday night in front of the TV watching “Don’t Tell the Bride”; although why any woman would allow her husband-to-be to arrange the biggest day of her life really is beyond me. I mean I know for a fact that if I’d granted my husband that privilege, I’d have ended up looking like a toilet-roll dolly with a colour scheme straight out of Villa Park.

Like me my friend arranged her own wedding. And although this may be consider old-fashioned by some, it was for all intents and purposes, no mean feat! You see my friend has married into a Greek family and so in addition to the guest-list, invitations, dresses and table plans there was also the Greek traditions to uphold.

Indeed, traditionally a Greek wedding is a marathon event which starts on the Wednesday previous to the big day itself. This serves as time for the betrothed families to get to know each other and is when, historically, a dowry of linen and household items was presented to the groom’s family (with whom the bride would have gone to stay post wedding day). Now-a-days however, new linen is bought and is offered as a gift to the bride and groom for their marital home.

On the day before the wedding (typically a Friday) the bride is welcomed into the groom’s family by being presented with gold . . . yes, gold!! My friend was gifted a stunning gold and diamond necklace, earrings and ring. I’m thinking that us Brits could learn much from our Greek counterparts when it comes to honouring tradition!

And then there is the wedding day itself; a very charming affair, and different in many ways to the traditional British wedding. Family and close friends are encouraged to gather at the parental homes of the bride and groom prior to the ceremony, meaning that the bride’s dress is far from secret! In addition, when it is time for the groom to leave for church the men of his family fire round after round from shotguns; an action that is repeated at the church and then later at the reception venue. Family and friends follow the bride or groom to the church to the sound of car horns tooting – an altogether extraordinary experience! And at the church the groom and guests congregate outside for the arrival of the bride; where the groom presents his wife-to-be with her bouquet and leads her into church.

The Orthodox services are generally longer than British ones; and with the addition of a double baptism, on this occasion, it meant that we were in church for approximately two and a half hours. However I can honestly say that the time flew by; so caught up in the pomp and ceremony we were! . . . In fact the whole day passed very quickly indeed; almost as quickly as my own Big Fat White Wedding . . . but that is a story for another day!