British Cream Tea : Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Agatha Christie

At the moment I seem to be (yet again) addicted to Agatha Christie both in book and TV form.

I spend nights in on my own, whilst Toby is asleep on the next room and Billy at work, sewing, baking or cooking with Miss Marple or Poirot playing in the background. I also try to squirrel myself away, when possible, curled up somewhere with one of my dogeared volumes pressed up against my nose.

I just love the feel of the era the books are set in and have read them on and off since I was a small child; My mum always said I was born into the wrong decade.

I am also reading, on and off, a lot of the books I loved as a child. Every time I go back to my mum's I lighten the load on her bookcases by a few volumes...Enid Blyton, Francis Hodgson Burnett, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien. I blame Toby (I am building him a library I tell myself) but I think it is comforting at the moment to be reminded of the world I hid in as a child ;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Custard

I love custard, on its own, over rhubarb, with crumble or steamed sponge; melting into and curling around fruit or syrup or jam...

For me it does not have to be homemade. Birds is wonderful and is fabulous for an emergency pudding when only custard will do and I have no time or energy to spend even a minute longer in the kitchen than I must. But for true indulgence nothing beats homemade, unctuous custard, full of vanilla seeds and egg yolks....

So this is my recipe!

1 fresh vanilla pod

500ml full fat milk

5 egg yolks

80g caster sugar

1. Split the vanilla pod with a sharp knife and scrape out the seeds from the inside. Pour the milk into a pan, add the split pod and the seeds. Heat until just boiling, remove from the heat and leave for 15 minutes for the vanilla to infuse.

2. Put the egg yolks into a large bowl with the sugar and whisk, with a hand whisk, until pale and thick.

3. Pour the milk into the egg yolks and sugar mixture through a sieve, mixing well as you pour. Throw away the pod (the seeds will have fallen through the sieve and will be in the custard).

4. Put the custard mixture into a clean pan and cook slowly over a low heat, stirring constantly until it is thick and leaves a clear line when you coat the back of a spoon with the custard and draw your finger through it. This should take about 8 minutes or so.

5. Pour into a jug and serve with crumble or steamed puddings or pie or stewed rhubarb...or simply on its own ;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Little tiny paper Union Jacks

Fun tiny British Flags to decorate your table centres, cupcakes, gifts, knickerbocker glories, sandwiches, wedding favours or anything you want to add just that little bit of Britishness to ;)

The little flags are Union Jacks, the British flag, that I have distressed, faded and antiqued slightly to give them a soft feel. The reverse of each flag is embellished with a tiny gold crown. Each one is printed, cut and glued onto little wooden sticks to stick into anything you chose.

I just love them and have a tiny miniature jam jar full of them sitting on our dining table next to the cruet set.

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture 

Tea and cake and toast ;)

I just love this Etsy treasury; from the title to the pieces and, of course, the fact that my butterfly cake is included!

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Apple and blackcurrant crumble

Last night I made up a couple of apple and blackcurrant crumbles to put in the freezer for one of those days when only the gooeyness of the crumbly crumble as it meets the fruit layer is the only thing that will satiate me, preferably covered in lashings of hot custard.

I had a lot of apples and blackcurrants that I just couldn't go to waste so it seemed a perfect way of spending an hour or so in the kitchen!

There are loads of fruits you can make crumble with. My absolute favourite is rhubarb  but you can try almost any combination. I serve mine with custard as is traditional but I know some prefer cream or ice cream so its up to you.

And here, especially for Pamela, Jennifer and anyone else who wants to make their own, my apple and blackcurrant crumble recipe...

300g plain flour

175g brown sugar

200g unsalted butter (cubed at room temperature)

handful flaked almonds

450g apples (peeled, cored and cut into small cubes)

2 large handfuls blackcurrants (make sure all the stems are removed)

50g brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C degrees.

2. Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well until combined. A few cubes at a time add the butter and rub into the flour/sugar with your fingertips until it is all combined and the texture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Place the fruit in a bowl and sprinkle over the sugar. Stir well until the sugar coats the fruit and soaks u[ any juices. Take care not to crush the fruit..

4. Butter a 9 inch ovenproof dish, spoon the fruit into the bottom, level the fruit evenly across the base and sprinkle over the crumble mix. Top with the flaked almonds.

5. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes until the crumble is brown and you can see the fruit bubbling round the edge.

6. Serve with custard...lashings of custard.

Enjoy!

If you want to make up the crumble to freeze make both the fruit and crumble parts and freeze both separately in bags. Defrost both at room temperature or in the fridge overnight and make up the crumble and bake as above ;)

Let me know if anyone wants my custard recipe and I'll post that later this week.....

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Cake Tins

I must start off by making it clear I have cake tins, three lovely pink and yellow cake tins covered with little fairy cakes.

But that did not stop me coveting Emma Bridgewater's new set of union jack cake tins in John Lewis this week, much to Billy's amusement (I stopped in the middle of the aisle and my eyes lit up...allegedly)

I have never really been one for our national flag but have lately developed something of a fascination. Maybe concentrating on British foods has swayed me!

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Fairy cake recipe

Two lovely blog readers contacted me yesterday to ask how to bake heart shaped fairy cakes and how to make runny icing...

so here goes ;)

115g unsalted butter (room temperature)

115g caster sugar

125g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

115g self raising flour

2 tbsps milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 heaped tbsp icing sugar

lemon juice

red food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C degrees and line a fairy cake tin with heart shaped holes with 12 regular round liners. Press the liners into the holes as firmly to the heart shaped edges as possible.

2. Cream the caster sugar and butter until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs.

3. Sieve in the flour, fold in, then stir in the vanilla extract and milk.

4. Divide amoungst the liners and bake in the centre of the oven for about 17 minutes. Transfer the fairy cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Put the icing sugar into a small bowl and add lemon juice a tsp or so at a time until you have a thick paste. You want to be able to hold a spoon upside down without it pouring off the bowl, to form the hearts you will need the icing thinker than usual. Dip a cocktail stick into the food colouring and dip into the icing. Mix well. If the colour is not bright enough add another drop but be careful!

6. When the cakes are completely cool, spoon on the icing to form a heart shape, smoothing it into shape with the back of the spoon.

7. Store in a cake tin for up to 2 days.

Enjoy!

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

A night in the kitchen

Last night I spent all evening in the kitchen. I made bread, cooked a huge vat of mushroom and parsley soup and baked 12 heart shaped fairy cakes in pink cases with pink coloured, lemon runny icing. Mmmmmmmm!!

I watched Miss Marple on the television whilst I kneaded, mixed and stirred and I had a wonderful evening ;)

I wondered if spending a Saturday evening cooking at the age of 34 rather than spending it out on the town makes me old before my time?

But then I made a glass of citron pressé, sat down to eat a bowl of soup with a hot slice of bread and butter followed by a tiny pretty fairy cake and I realised I didn't care.

I may be old before my years but at least I have cake...

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the soup. I'd portioned it into portions in boxes for the fridge before I remembered.

It is yummy though.

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

All Things Original

This week I became a designer at the British online boutique site All Things Original; as we speak I am their featured designer!

I love the site; it is small and full of beautiful pieces of art and design. I am hoping that it will be good for me!

If you want to read more about me and British Cream Tea, I have been interviewed for their blog and you can read the interview here ;)

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture

Big boy shoes & tooth number 3

This has truly been the week for new, grown up things!

Yesterday we took Toby to get measured for his first pair of shoes. Now that he is walking fine in his bare feet I thought it high time he got shoes so could walk outside.

We took him to Clarks, where we all had our childhood shoes and where they use the same tiny primary coloured foot measure and have the same wall full of black school shoes that I remember from when my mother would take my sister and I each September.

And now he has a tiny pair of brown and red shoes of his very own with velcro straps.

And all over again I have to get used to the fact that he is not my little baby anymore. He is now a little boy...

 

The final milestone in the week of firsts was the discovery of a new tooth, number 3, at the side of his mouth. I am hoping that is what has been disturbing his sleep for the last week and, as such, we will all be able to get a bit more rest over the next few days.

If so I can get on with starting to sew some of the myriad of ideas floating around my mind for new year's spring and summer collections...

...because I have decided on both themes...

...roll on January!!

British Cream Tea: Delicious British Felt Food Sculpture