The menu said lemon meringue, but we had no cream of tartar, so I settled for lemon tart with a biscuit crust. The non-vegans got regular meringue that had been donated crushed up on top of theirs.
Remember the buttercream disaster of a few weeks ago? I've had tubs of too-runny orange buttercream sitting around in the fridge ever since. I don't have anything like enough of a sweet tooth to want to lather it onto everything. Finally I figured that since many cake recipes start with creaming butter and sugar, why not give the buttercream a whirl in its place?
I vaguely recalled that the ratio of flour to butter+sugar should be about 1:1, though obviously I didn't know what the sugar to butter ratio in the buttercream was. So I put together (everything approx):
I mixed the wet and the dry into the buttercream bit by bit, until a cake batter of a sensible consistency formed. I stirred in raisins and mixed peel, then baked it for about 40 mins at 160c.
The result was amazing! The cake has a perfect crumb, the spices and orange flavour come through nicely, and it has an undertone of creaminess that really surprises me. It doesn't look like much, but it turned out so much better than expected.
Coconut raspberry tart with a shortbread crust at the Community Kitchen. Choc hazelnut coconut cupcakes at home, for sharing.
Courgette choc chip cake in the Community Kitchen. I actually got to stay and eat it this time - they served portions double the size I would've, with cream! It was great.
Pumpkin gnocchi made by J and H on their visit. Also a pizza by me, because I was gifted some Violife (homemade seitan pepperoni, still fine in the freezer!).
Many mince pies at the Community Kitchen.
Used some of my fermented beetroot to make falafel, which was very good.
Turned yet more green tomatoes into ketchup, with some chillis. Also made a ginger loaf, but it sunk in the middle. Peach and raspberry cobbler at the Community Kitchen.
The buttercream lessons of last week paid off, and I successfully frosted the Community Kitchen rose and orange sponge. Also made rose and almond jelly/panna cotta puddings... The rose water from the summer really needed to be used up.
Due to being behind on my NaNoWriMo wordcount I had a pressing need to find out if jelly made an acceptable sponge cake filling, and also to decorate a two layer cake in elaborate buttercream frosting.
My first mistake was not skimming the domed top from one of the layers. My second mistake was to use the layer that had already split as the top layer instead of the bottom. My third, was not mixing the buttercream thick enough. My fourth was not mixing the new buttercream thin enough. My fifth was not doing a crumb layer of buttercream before the top coat. And overall I should not be trying to frost cakes late at night.
It looked like it'd been dropped, but it tasted good. I can confirm, jelly is an acceptable sponge cake filling.
Pear and almond tart at the Community Kitchen.
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Cooking with agarics and blewits from the woods.
Fancy chocolate tart with ginger and rose for N's birthday.
Apple cake, and there was some leftover puff pastry so I made a strudel with apple and homemade (not by me) fig jam.
Fancy pear and almond tart, and beet brownie at the Community Kitchen.
Chanterelles in dahl (criminal right, but I've had so many chanterelles..), with inkcaps on top.
Made many mushroom pies with ceps and cloud agarics and chestnuts, most went in the freezer.
Used my new silicon bundt tray to make a very fancy cake. I started with an orange polenta cake recipe, and substituted almost every ingredient (including orange - with lemon and lime, and polenta - with maize). It was still gluten free and vegan and delicious, and looked pretty too.
Made peach cobbler at the Community Kitchen (and hear later it was a big hit!).
An excellent lasagne at home with tomato/lentil/chanterelle sauce, and entire layers of ceps because we finally found enough to be extravagant.
Plus a rather fantastic apple pie with a super simple shortbread crust (was craving shortbread, and had so many apples to use up... and it was way faster than pastry. Will make again!).
Bread and butter pudding at the Community Kitchen. Summer fruit jelly at home, with the leftovers from bottling.