Easter Cake Bake, Round 2!

Pat a cake pat a cake baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can!

Last March I launched my very first food blogging event, the ‘Easter Cake Bake’. I asked my fellow bloggers to bake themed cakes for Easter. The event went down a storm and had 29 amazingly creative entries. Take a look:

If you click on each picture you'll be taken to the blog that it came from. It was so hard to find a winner but in the end I chose Cheryl at Gruel Omelet for this fabulous entry:

I hope you're feeling inspired now because we're going back to our kitchens armed with wooden spoons and creativity for round 2! Here's how to enter.

Entry Details

All you need to do is bake a cake, or several smaller cakes, with an Easter theme then post about it on your blog, including a link to this post so that people know what the event is about and how to enter. Feel free to use the logo too.

Once you've baked your cake and posted about it send an email with ‘Easter Cake Bake’ in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie@yahoo.co.uk by Monday 31st March with the following information:

• your name
• the name of your blog
• a link to your post
• a picture of your cake(s)

I’ll post a round up of all entries and announce the winner. Happy baking!

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of February - The Round Up

Here we are again with yet another fantastic round up of 'In the Bag' entries. February's bag contained forced rhubarb, an orange and sugar. Let's take a look at the dishes you made.

Andrew from 'Spittoon Extra' entered this wonderful Sweet Risotto with Rhubarb Compote.



Kevin from 'Closet Cooking' made us this sweet Rhubarb Crisp.



How about this Rhubarb Orange Cream Pudding from Caitlin of 'The Gooseberry Fool'?



This tempting Rhubarb Souffle was entered by Jonathan of 'Around Britain with a Paunch'.



I'd like a slice of Cakelaw's (from 'Laws of the Kitchen') Rhubarb, Orange and Yoghurt Cake.



This Rhubarb Fool with lovely little Orange Poppyseed Biscuits was entered by Antonia of 'Food Glorious Food'.



Now for a savoury entry from the lovely Kai over at 'Kai in London'. She made a Rhubarb Relish.



Wouldn't you love to delve into this Rhubarb Fool from Pixie at 'You Say Tomato.....I Say Tomato'?



Alexandra from 'Addicted Sweet Tooth' baked us a fabulous Rhubarb Custard Tart.



I'm drooling over these Rhubarb and Strawberry Tarts from Aran of 'Cannelle Et Vanille'.



Rachel from 'Coconut & Lime' had fun with these Rhubarb and Orange Pancakes.



My own entry was a Orange and Rhubarb Jelly.



Great job everyone!

"In The Bag" is a monthly food event run by Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie and Scott at Real Epicurean

Chicken, Chorizo and Watercress Risotto

I was really very pleased with how this turned out when I put it together for dinner last night, using leftover roast chicken and stock from the carcass. Chicken and chorizo is a great combination anyway, and the base rosemary flavour was a very complimentary backdrop. Whilst there wasn’t a great deal of flavour from the watercress it gave a really good texture and colour to the dish.

I really do think it’s worth taking the time and trouble to make your own chicken stock for this, and in fact any, risotto. The stock is what gives the rice so much flavour, and as the main ingredient in risotto, you really do want the rice to be packed full of flavour.

Whilst I’ve specified the amount of chorizo and chicken (yes, I actually weighed them just so I could tell you how much I used!), really just throw in a handful or two of each, roughly the same quantity. It probably is worth weighing out the rice because it can be deceiving and when it swells up you could end up with a lot more than you bargained for!



Chicken, Chorizo and Watercress Risotto

Ingredients
150g Risotto rice
100g Chorizo sausage
100g Leftover roast chicken
A handful of watercress
1 spring onion
1/2 a stick of celery
1 sprig rosemary
About 500ml of hot Chicken stock – fresh if possible
A slosh of vermouth or white wine
A knob of butter
A little olive oil

1. Finely chop the spring onion and celery, and gently fry them in the butter and olive oil for a minute or so.
2. Dice the chorizo sausage and add it to the pan, frying it for about 3 minutes.
3. Next add the rice and stir it around to coat it well with the oil that will have seeped out of the chorizo. Fry it for a minute or so.
4. Add a slosh of vermouth or white wine to the pan and allow it to sizzle so the alcohol burns off.
5. Chop the leaves from a sprig of rosemary very finely and add to the pan.
6. Start adding the stock, a ladle full at a time, stirring the rice continually so that it absorbs the stock. Wait for the rice to absorb one ladle full before adding another.
7. About half way through add in the roast chicken.
8. Once the rice is creamy and al-dente (softened but with a ‘bite’ in the middle) and the chicken is heated through take it off the heat and serve.

Serves 2

Orange and Rhubarb Jelly

This was my second attempt at making this jelly. The first time the jelly set, but wasn’t firm enough, and the orange overpowered the taste of the rhubarb. I used more gelatine this time, which gave a better consistency, and less orange juice and no zest, so the flavours were more balanced.

Even though I only used the juice from the rhubarb there was no waste as I used the pulp for a deliciously naughty rhubarb fool!



Orange and Rhubarb Jelly

Ingredients
500g rhubarb
Juice of half an orange orange
Approximately 150g caster sugar
3 Gelatine leaves
50ml of Cointreau

1. Chop the rhubarb into equal sizes and add to a pan along with the sugar and orange juice. Cook over a low heat for about 20 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft and has released its juices.

2. Take off the heat and strain it through a sieve. Once it's strained stir in the Cointreau and then taste the mixture – you may want to add more sugar, Cointreau or orange juice.

3. Soak the gelatine leaves in water for a few minutes then add them to the rhubarb liquid and stir to dissolve.

4. Pour the liquid into glasses or jelly moulds and allow to cool before putting into the fridge to set.

Look out for February’s ‘In the Bag’ round-up next week, for lots more rhubarb and orange recipes.