Strawberry Cream Cake

June is the perfect time for summer cakes despite the rain as you can enjoy summer by baking your cake and eating it too! The strawberry season was perfect in early June and I this cake went quickly as soon as it was set on the table. It's incredibly simple and a delight to make!

I modified this recipe from BBC good food's recipe of their amazing Victorian Sponge Cake, which was obviously very vital to making a nice fluffy cake. The link is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/victoriaspongewithst_90309

Definitely preferable if you have two sandwich tins so you can make a little layer inbetween them which just adds to its look!

Recipe

Ingredients:
For Victorian Sponge Cake (directly from BBC Good Food),
225g of butter
225g of caster sugar
225g of self-raising flour

4 large free-range eggs
1 tsp of vanilla essence
For filling and garnish,
200g whipping cream (no need to be accurate; but more is better!)
125g of strawberries (depending on how much you want on it!)
2 tbsp caster sugar

Directions:

1. Prepare two 17cm sandwich tins by lining them with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
2. Sift the flour in a large bowl. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Now add the eggs and flour into the butter mix. To do so, slowly add flour into the butter mix, alternating with each egg. I use this technique to ensure the batter doesn't get too dry or wet and to not overbeat the mix. Add 1 tsp of vanilla essence.
5.  Pour the mix equally into both sandwich tins and level it with a spatula. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool.
6. Flip the cakes upside-down and peel off the baking paper. Turn them over again and set them side by side.
7.  For the topping and filling, first cut the strawberries into quarters.
8. Using a mixer (as it is much easier!), beat the whipping cream with the caster sugar until it is slightly stiff and forms small peaks. Do not overbeat it as it will curdle!
9. Using a spatula (or the blunt edge of a wide knife), spread the whipped cream over one of the cakes. Then place the strawberries generously over the cake. Put the other cake on top of this and repeat by spreading the whipped cream. Decorate it with the strawberries and you're ready to eat!

This is an amazingly light cake, which makes it so more-ish and impressive when presented! So I definitely recommend making this to those who have that nagging strawberry craving as I made it out of a whim and it turned out great! Effortless and tasty, just what every girl wants ;)

A very Simple Rainbow Cake

This year has been a huge test on my baking skills, and I've been constantly chosen to be the birthday baker. So as my time in university draws to an end, I decided to end the last birthday cake with a bunch of colours shoved into one cake - the really lazy rainbow cake!

What most bakers do is, with much TLC, bake a layer of cake in a sandwich tin in a different colour. I decided to skip all that hassle, and merge it together to create some chaos. 

The idea is simple. Make the batter for a sponge/white cake and split it into several bowls. Colour each one in a different colour and shove it back into a tin and bake it. Yes, I make it sound crude but you'll get it easier that way. So here's the recipe for a Simple White Cake, and then the procedure will explain the process of making the rainbow cake:

Ingredients

•  1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (approximately 250g)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour, sifted (alternatively use all-purpose flour and 1 3/4 tsp of baking powder)
• 1/4 cup milk

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4. Use an 8x2 inch pan or a 9x1.5 inch pan. 
2. Using a large mixing bowl, mix softened butter with sugar until fluffy. Add the sifted flour alternately with the eggs and mix. Finally, add the milk to get a smooth batter.
3. Separate the batter into as many bowls as you want colours. So if you want 5 colours, split the batter into 5 batches. Easiest way of doing this is just getting the three prime colours to make blue, red, yellow, green and orange batter.
4. Then like a marble cake, alternate the batter into the cake tin. Your cake will end up with chunks of colours as seen below. You can also swirl the batter to create a more marbled effect.
5. Finally, bake the cake in the preheated oven for 30 - 45 minutes until an insert toothpick comes out clean.

So that's all fine and dandy. For the icing, I used a buttercream icing:

• Just mix 150g softened butter with 250g sifted icing sugar and 1-2tsp of milk and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. I usually just mix the icing until it forms stiff peaks.

Then you can colour the cake whatever colour you want! I opted for a sunny orangey pink colour which was more of an accident than a colour. The best part of course comes when you cut into the cake to see all the pretty colours!

Pollen Street Social Review

Recently announced to become a Michelin 1-star restaurant in 2011, I found the Pollen Street Social website incredibly appealing with an exciting selection of food.

Particularly for students who want to give themselves a treat, this place offers a reasonably priced 2-course meal for £22.00 and 3-course for £25.50 for its lunch set menu.

It's located at Pollen Street, a tiny walkway off Regent Street, London.

It's website is easy to use and allows quick reservations online, which they will re-confirm with you a day before your reservation: http://www.pollenstreetsocial.com/.

The place was definitely bustling with energy since 2pm that afternoon, filled with busy office-goers on their lunch breaks which was ideal for me and my boyfriend as it was more relaxed and didn't demand a great amount of etiquette from us. The waiters were incredibly suave, who each had a different task. Certain captains and waiters were in charge or food or drink exclusively and did not hesitate to let you know every detail on your order. You would first be provided with butter, olives and a selection of bread from a basket, which they would happily offer you more after you've finished.

Starters were slightly underwhelming. I had a slow-cooked egg with smoked haddock, finished with smoked haddock and parsely soup. Louis had foie-gras with ham and chickpeas topped with squid. While I thought my little dish was far too smokey, Louis thought his looked like something out of a spam can (but was nevertheless tasty).

The main course was probably the best meal of the day. I had a slow-cooked lamb neck fillet with mashed potatoes and parsnip while Louis had hake and leek in what I imagined was a beautiful butter and cockels sauce. The meat and the fish were cooked so perfectly; the lamb flaked at the touch of my fork and the sauce combined perfectly with the whole meal. The hake too, was soft and was a great combination with the leek which made it refreshing.

Not to mention, the house wine for both red and white were very good, particularly the Pollen Street white wine. At £8.00 a glass, it was worth it!

The dessert was not incredibly impressive for the cheese selection. You were given the choice to select your own cheese or have them select it for you, which you will be given different flavours of crackers, accompanied by pickled chutney of somekind. The sliver of cheeses were very thin and I wouldn't recommend it for the price paid. Possibly better off buying yourself a nice block of expensive tasty cheese.

However, the blackforest sorbet, chocolate mousse with cherry liqueur was amazing. The combination of chocolate with the sour sorbet was gorgeous and I would definitely recommend that.

Overall, the restaurant had a good ambience for the energetic (definitely not for one who is looking for privacy) and you'd be surrounded by friendly waiters and receptionists who are willing to cater to your every need. While the food didn't tick all the boxes, it was still a great experience but I would remain skeptical on the lunch menu on the website as it changes and was not updated, which was initially a little disappointing when we first sat down.