strawberries & cream

there are few things that say summer to a Briton like strawberries and cream - so when the sun first began to show its head towards the end of exams a bake containing these ingredients was definitely in order.

this vanilla sponge coated with whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate buttons was baked to spur april on as she continued with her exams after everyone else had finished. so I moved from procrastibaking to motibaking! (I would apologise for the abundance of baking puns but I will only continue doing them...)

this is a great cake for the weather - it doesn't take very long or involve much effort (perfect in the heat) but is a great summer treat.

whipping the cream

another treat made for this afternoon tea were smarties cookies - however I forgot to take photos once they were made (as usual, bakes don't hang around for long!) but here are some snaps of the mixing process....

for now i'm going to take the fact that it has clouded over as a sign from above that I really should do something productive with my day rather than just lounging in the garden again, it's a hard life...

love,
nen
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procrastibaking take two: passion fruit tart

so the second of the procrastibaking extravaganzas was the passion fruit tart from john whaite bakes which is an absolutely gorgeous book and one I would thoroughly recommend to anyone.

this recipe jumped out as another simple one in terms of ingredients (especially as Tesco has a deal on passion fruit at the time) and was another summery recipe to chase away the revision blues.

the pastry recipe was pretty much the same as the previous one, although this was a little more difficult to handle. getting it into the tin is always a bit of a challenge!

the best part of this recipe was getting to try passion fruit for the first time. I couldn't believe I hadn't had them before as they are so scrummy! it was hard to restrict myself to the one spare and not gobble up the whole lot!

such an interesting fruit

the fruit are scooped and sieved so that the juice remains.



the fillings were also very similar and this was also best put into the tart case when it was already on the oven shelf.

the results of this tart were absolutely stunning, it's amazing to get such a vibrant yellow colour from all natural products! and the taste certainly lived up to the visual promise.

the tart is finished with the pulp of the two remaining fruit (which was useful for hiding the crack!)

this was a really tasty tart which I hope to make again over the summer as it is the perfect accompaniment for an afternoon tea or as something sweet to finish off a BBQ.

and I hope this shows how easy and satisfying it is to make your own pastry and turn it into a scrumptious tart!

love,
nen
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end of exams!

as of 4:15 yesterday afternoon i had officially completed my first year at university - scary stuff! one of my first thoughts as i put my pen down after two hours of writing about medieval marriage and beliefs about death was that i could now dedicate more time to writing this blog - as well as having a summer of baking ahead of me! the sun is still shining and we're off to the pub for a celebratory drink. this weather puts me in the mood for a gorgeous peach and raspberry tart (a hummingbird bakery recipe). i've made it once before and it is so refreshing and yummy! (apologies for the low picture quality, these were taken on my ipod)

i remember being so chuffed that it turned out looking so much like the original picture (normally a rare occurence!)

after the pub i am off home for a day (job registration) and hopefully i will have time to whip up some brownies - if so photos should follow!

love,

nen

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