Cinnamon Hearts for Friends

What better way to spend an afternoon than with a friend? Be it an old friend or new, whether meeting for lunch, or for coffee, or for a walk in the park, it’s the nicest way to spend some time. Fortunately for me I got to do this both yesterday and today. And two of the friends I spent this time with I met for the very first time, the first being the lovely Cherry Menlove and the second my friend Viv’s gorgeous little baby girl.

I had been so looking forward to these meetings and as I had some time this week, being off work, I thought it would be nice to bake some gifts. There’s something very special about baking for other people; happily mixing, and kneading, and rolling out dough whilst thinking of your friends makes you put extra care in and I like to think a little of the warmth and love finds its way into the baking somehow. Little packages of home-made treats are not only lovely to receive but they’re lovely to give, so it’s a very rewarding type of baking.

I had great fun making these cinnamon hearts yesterday, although I found the fondant icing a little tricky to work with at first – this was the first time I’d ever used it. I soon got the hang of it though and before long I was happily colouring it and cutting out little hearts and flowers. And not only was the baking fun, but so was carefully choosing the ribbon and making up the little packages. It was a lovely way to spend a few hours, and before I knew it, it was time to catch the train into London to meet Cherry.

Cherry and I have been talking via email for quite some time now. As many of you will know, we run the ‘In the Bag’ event, along with Scott from Real Epicurean. I’m an avid reader of Cherry’s blogs, Cherry's English Kitchen and Tales from Pixie Wood and I’ve really been looking forward to meeting her. We’d been talking about meeting up for ages so it was really nice to finally get to do so yesterday.

You really get to know people through their blogs and as such I just knew Cherry and I would hit it off. Cherry is the first blogger I’ve ever met so, whilst I was excited, I was a little nervous too. But I needn’t have been, Cherry was lovely and we chatted away non-stop. We went to a bar just off of The Strand and as soon as Cherry asked ‘shall we have something white and bubbly?’ I knew she was a girl after my own heart!

Cherry’s lovely Fiancé met up with us when he finished work, by which time we were well on our way through our second bottle of Prosecco. It was a fabulous evening and worth the inevitable hangover in the morning. I laughed when I saw Cherry’s email to me this morning entitled ‘headache’ and I opened it with a sympathetic smile and a pounding head!

This afternoon was just as wonderful as Rob and I visited my very good friend Viv and her adorable new baby. Viv and I live some distance from each other so don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like, which makes our get-togethers even more special. Of course this visit was very special indeed, being our first meeting since she gave birth to her little bundle of joy. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon and we hope to repeat it again very soon.

Cinnamon Hearts

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
250g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Fondant icing

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Beat the egg and gradually add it to the butter and sugar.

3. Mix in the flour and cinnamon, then bring together with your hands to form a dough.

4. The dough can be used straight away but is best after at least half an hour chilling in the fridge. It will be fairly sticky so you'll need to roll it out on a floured surface and sprinkle over more flour as needed. Roll the dough out until it’s about 1/2 cm thick.

5. Cut out heart shapes using a biscuit cutter

6. Bake the biscuits at 180C for about 10 minutes, but do keep an eye on them, they may need a few minutes less or longer. They should be very lightly golden when cooked.

7. Put the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

8. Roll out coloured fondant icing and cut out heart shapes using the same cutter as you used for the bisuits. Brush the underside of the hearts with water and place over the biscuits, gently rubbing over the icing so it sticks.

9. Decorate the biscuits with fondant flowers stuck on using a little water.

Bacon and Camembert Stuffed Pumpkins

I couldn’t resist these tiny pumpkins when I was at the farm shop at the weekend. They made perfect starters, stuffed with cheese and bacon, and they had much more flavour than the larger pumpkins; buttery and nutty, with an almost chestnut-like taste.

Ingredients
(quantities depend of the size and amount of pumpkins so this is just a guide)
2-4 small pumpkins (1 per person)
1 round of camembert cheese
1 or 2 rashes of bacon
Leaves from a sprig or two of thyme
Parmesan cheese for grating over

1. Cut the tops off the pumpkins and scoop out the seeds and fibres
2. Chop the bacon and lightly fry it
3. Cube the camembert and toss it with the bacon and thyme, then stuff the pumpkins with the mixture
4. Bake at 190c for 35-45 minutes
5. Sprinkle over grated parmesan cheese before serving

Stir It Up

It can’t have escaped your notice that we’re now on the countdown to Christmas. Halloween has been and gone (and after tonight so will have bonfire night), Christmas adverts have been on the television for a while, the Christmas editions of the food magazines are on the shelves, the shops are bulging with gifts and the red cups are in the Starbucks coffee shops. There’s no doubt about it now guys.

I’ve decided that this year, for the first time, I’m going to make a Christmas cake. I’ve never bothered before because, firstly, whilst I do like it I’m not a huge fan, and secondly, Rob’s mum makes us one every year so there’s no need for me to do so. But I love Christmas, and I love cooking, so I think it’s about time I joined in this tradition that bakers and home makers all over the world look forward to each year. The preparation and activities in the run up to Christmas are all part of the excitement for me so the Christmas cake making is surely something I can miss out on no longer. Anyway Rob and I have taken this week off work for a well deserved break so I have some time on my hands, and what better way to spend it than baking?

My first port of call was the internet for researching the all important recipe. As a first timer I need to be in safe hands and I need a tried and tested, fool-proof recipe. Well who else would I turn to but Delia? And sure enough, her recipe sounds great, the cake looks moist and scrumptious, and the reviews are outstanding. So with one Christmas cake recipe found, I headed to the supermarket for the ingredients. I played around with the fruit a little; I couldn’t possibly include candied mixed peel (bleugh!) in my first ever Christmas cake so I substituted with dried cranberries which seemed much more fitting, reduced the currents and upped the cherries that I love (the clue’s in the blog name my friends).

The first stage of the cake making, although there’s hardly anything to it, holds the promise of all the good things to come. The soaking of the fruit in alcohol, in this case brandy (one of my favourites), seems almost ritualistic. Certainly when I weighed my fruit, mixed it with my hands and poured over the brandy I sensed a little of the Christmas magic. I must confess to using more than the 3 tablespoons in the recipe; it seemed such a small volume for the amount of fruit and I’m not one to be reserved with alcohol! I didn’t go too crazy though, just doubled it. They’ll be plenty more alcohol to be had when it comes to the feeding of the cake!

So now the fruit is soaking until the morning, when I’ll move onto the next stage and start mixing up the rest of the ingredients. If anyone has any tips for this Christmas cake novice, or if anyone has made Delia’s Christmas cake and wants to share their experience, I’d love to hear from you.

Hotel Chocolat Competion Winner Announcement

Thank you to everyone who entered the Hotel Chocolat competition. They tell me they had a hard time choosing a winner from all the fabulous entries from ‘A Slice of Cherry Pie’ readers, but after much deliberation they have chosen the entry from……………………

Victoria Singfield!!!

Victoria, many congratulations. Hotel Chocolat will be in touch, if they haven’t been already.

Here’s Victoria’s winning entry:

“Please send the chocolates to my sister, Rebecca. She is in the third year of her midwifery degree and is working very hard. She is pursuing her dream, but is struggling for money. She can just about afford all essential things, but can't splurge any luxuries at all. I think sometimes a girl just needs some extravagance and I know she loves chocolate! Rebecca needs a boost, and to know that we all think she is fabulous, and is going to be the best midwife ever. And she might even share some chocs with me!”

Rebecca sounds like a fantastic person and very well-deserving. I hope she enjoys the champers and chocs!