The Sugar Bar

When I was a kid, Chupa Chups lollipops were like crack for me (and I’m not saying a child on crack is the best thing, or actually legal but I’m just saying..). The banana chocolate combo was a little sickly but I totally heart-ed it. And the strawberry ones were always so satisfying. Then in high school, it was suddenly really cool and fashionable to have a lollipop in the mouth about 24/7. You didn’t really need to suck on it. Just have it there. Have it exist in your mouth = instant popularity. It doesn’t quite work that way now unfortunately. But lollipops sure do bring me lots of joy just looking at it or giving them away.

I meant to make lollipops along with champagne jam for Meeta’s Monthly Mingle but totally missed the deadline having had to deal with life and some lollipop failure last week. Meeta celebrated her 609th post (congratulations!) and 4 successful years of her blog with the very elegant and regal queen of wines – champagne. I was so psyched for this! When I saw her MM tweet, my online shopping for candy making stuff began and it was all quick quick chop chop efficiency. Sadly enough, I haven’t been that efficient in meeting the deadline.

Thankfully, Meeta’s been too kind to wait for my entry and so here’s my contribution. It also Easter break and time for Easter sweeties. All the more reason to try again in hopes that I can spread some sugary joy to others. My lollies weren’t perfect but they were lollipops nonetheless and still a great improvement from the ones before. Only one was quite as it was meant to be from the butterfly mold but I was elated enough that they were unmolding fine from having greased the molds very generously. Of course, simply greasing a baking parchment to form round lollipops is and would’ve been dead easy if I’d done that last week right from that start. Now why didn’t I do that last week to save me all the post-candymaking failure depression? Well, we live and learn. That seems to be my motto of late!

I couldn’t decide at first between my champagne jam or champagne lollipops since the latter is sorta a cheat, using champagne oil instead of the real bubbly to flavour the hard candy. I finally opted for the latter. The jam can wait when juicier summer berries start hitting the shops. She says. Let’s hope I stay true to my word and don’t get carried away by something else. I’m just too fickle.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m gonna sit back, relax, and nurse my sorethroat. In the meantime, these lollies are gonna make nice little Easter gifts! Happy Easter folks.

Red Champagne Lollipops
Recipe adapted from She Simmers’ recipe here

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup water
1/2 dram champagne oil
couple of drops red food colouring
lollipop sticks
sunflower oil, for greasing molds
baking parchment (optional – if not using molds)

Generously grease with sunflower oil lollipop molds. If making round lollipops without molds, prepare baking parchment across flat surface or cookie tray, secure it down and grease with oil.

Combine sugar, light corn syrup and water in a heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil without stirring. Secure candy thermometer to the saucepan, making sure that the bulb of the thermometer doesn’t touch the base of the saucepan but is somewhere between the bottom of the saucepan and surface of the candy mixture so that temperature recorded is accurate.

Allow mixture to boil until it reaches 250-260d F. When it does so, carefully add a couple of drops of red food colouring. Gently swirl the saucepan to mix the colouring into the candy mixture. Do not use anything to mix it as the boiling action will allow for the colouring to mix through.

Continue to cook until mixture reaches 300d F.

Remove saucepan from heat and once the boiling action stops, add the champagne oil or any other flavour oils you are using and carefully stir through.

Pour syrup into prepared molds. The syrup will start to harden almost immediately so work quickly. Place lollipop sticks in the centre, pressing it into the middle of the hardening syrup. I add a little more candy syrup over it so that its securely fastened into the candy.

Leave to cool for 8-10mins. The lollipops should be ready to unmold by then. Allow to cool completely left standing in a glass, or put the sticks through a colander so that the candy does not touch any surfaces.

Under running tap water, rinse off excess grease and continue to let it dry off. Don’t attempt to wipe the surfaces with cloth or paper as that will leave unsightly marks.

Wrap lollipops with plastic wrappers, tie with ribbons and send them away as Easter gifts!

First, a big thank you to Forever Better, Míele’s PR Company, for inviting me to this event and another thank you to Cherry (she and Lauren liases with the invitees) who is the sweetest person ever. I’m glad I could make it down to the BBC Good Food Show this time round as I had deadlines to meet last year and missed out on all the great foodie shows and tastings. After Saturday, I’m tempted to book my tickets for the next Good Food Show in the Birmingham NEC come summer as that promises to be an even more taste-blowing event.

An experience never to be forgotten and one I’ll always remember by from the puddings we tasted, one of which I was unable to get a photograph of because my camera decided to give up on me shortly before we sampled it. [*I do apologise for that. If I'd been more prepared for low battery, I would have more pictures on of the other things I sampled and stalls visited] But I’ll get to the food we nommed on for lunch later.

There was much going on with the Masterchef Theatre, the Cookery Experience, the Invention Test and all the time, celeb chefs like James Martin, Michel Roux Jr, Theo Randall, etc. were bouncing back and forth between these shows. On the main stall floor, the famous Harumi Kurihara was giving live demonstrations; sushi academy masterclasses, kitchen knife skills by Marianne Lumb (who we bumped into in the ladies!!), sugar roses classes by Phil Usher, cupcakes classes by Squire’s Kitchen and even duck carving were amongst the activities or classes you could take part in. So much to see, so much to sample, so much to enjoy – it’s no wonder the BBC Good Food Show was spread over 3 days 13-15th November. As much as I enjoyed the whole day-out at the Olympia Grand Hall soaking up this splendid experience, I was sorry that there was too much to do within a single day and unfortunately missed quite a few exciting classes like the cupcake and sugar roses demos.

Nonetheless, I was thrilled to have seen the Masterchef hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace. They are hilarious! So were the Plenty ladies Brenda and Audrey who were right mental! And the previous winners from Masterchef – Steve Groves (whom I adore to pieces) and Mat Follas were there at the Invention Test as judges. A surprise last contestant was James Martin, who appeared a few minutes late much to everyone’s delight. A giant roar from the audience, a squeal from both Anne of Anne’s Kitchen and Sunita of Sunita’s World, (and I’m so glad I finally got to meet these 2 gorgeous foodbloggers! A little starstruck but they were so sweet and easy-going) and an unashamed catcall from yours truly. What? That man’s so loveable and dishy, if a tad bit chubby.

Andi Peters interviewing Steve Groves & Mat Follas

Invention Test was a joy to watch and many of the contestants whipped up – in a stressful 30minutes – some very tasty looking dishes from prawn curry, to vietnamese-inspired pancake to a hearty penna pasta dish using the key ingredients given to them: prawns, pork, pears, etc. Anne, Sunita and I had cowardly turned down the invitation. Being stared at whilst cooking, cooking under a blinding spotlight, cooking against the clock and knowing that this is a competition would’ve gotten to me. Something bad would’ve happened – like setting my hair on fire, scalding everyone around me, chopping a finger off. It wouldn’t be pretty and the whole event might end with a heart attack and me being rushed to the hospital in a half-charred state. I don’t do well under pressure when it comes to the kitchen and small working spaces. But at the end of the show, Sunita was having regrets of not having accepted the challenge and blimey, do I adore her more for it! What a gutsy foodie! I shall need to learn to be more courageous like her.

Plenty ladies Brenda & Audrey having a laugh

As much as I had a great time with the Masterchef Invention Test, what totally made my day was wondering about all the stalls, especially the Great Taste Awards section. So let’s have a look at some of the stalls we visited. There were too many stalls to see, both on the ground level and the floor up. We certainly didn’t get to look at everything but what we did see, we liked very much!

Crabbies 4% alcohol Ginger Beer – this is great. Very crisp and refreshing. Perfect with a slice of lemon. You can find this in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and even your local Wetherspoon’s most likely! These were going for 3 bottles for a fiver and The Angel in Islington will offer you it for nearly £3 a bottle. I’d definitely be getting this for summertime barbies and I’m tempted to get a bottle of this for ginger beer battered fish and chips. Savvy?

Rachel’s Organic Yoghurt – I’ve always try to keep a tub of Rachel’s Greek Yoghurt with Honey or the Rhubarb Yoghurt in my fridge as they taste so good, one of the creamiest low fat yoghurts available in shops and are a great way to jazz up a fruit medley pudding. The new toffee & milk chocolate flavours are great. Toffee is a real winner and doesn’t have that sickly weird colour that toffee “flavoured” yoghurts usually do. A hefty creamy white yoghurt, yum yum.

Tropical Sun’s plantain chips – my first time tasting plantain and I really liked them! Good crunch, looked like banana chips but without the sweetness of it. Very more-ish.

Kikkoman and some live cooking demos – available is Kikkoman’s range of sauces, soy sauces, marinades and a counter for demos. Unfortunately, we just missed it and didn’t get to taste any of the teriyaki chicken that were snapped up in a flash.

Laverstock Park Farm and their offerings of buffalo burgers, ice cream, mozzarella cheese and lagers – you can find most of their products in Waitrose and I’ll definitely be popping into my local Waitrose for the mozzarella made from water buffalo milk. The creamiest, softest and most delicate oozy mozzarella that still holds up well. The buffalo milk is supposed to make this mozzarello firmer but not too firm. I like this a lot! And you’ll be pleased to know that their products are free-range as their buffalos have had a great life grazing on open pastures except in the cold winter.

Eudoro’s porchetta, prosciutto and cheeses – quality meats here are food porn at its best. The cheeses are beautiful to look at and Anne had a taste of the gargonzola. I would’ve loved to takeaway a porchetta panini for dinner that night but somehow backed out. Why did I do such a silly thing?! Regrets.

Yum Yum Tree Fudge – beautiful handmade fudge from Suffolk made from British sugar in a wide range of creative flavours like chili chocolate, lime & coconut, cappucino, lavender, mint chocolate, lemon bon bon, raspberry, etc. Check out their website for more at www.yumyumtreefudge.com

Ethiopian Coffee Company – we didn’t get any coffee although I bet we needed it, surely. This stall smelt amazing.

There were too many stalls to visit in just a day and too much eating and gawking!

•••

Our Restaurant Experience lunch in tapas-sized portions. Restaurants at the show were the Blue Elephant, Roast, Café Spice Namaste, Launceston Place, Skylon, Boxwood Cafe, Theo Randall at The InteContinental, Min Jiang (a new comer to the GFS), Urban Caprice and the MasterChef Restaurant featuring dishes from winners Thomasina Miers, Steven Groves, James Nathan and Mat Follas.

Theo Randall at The InterContinental: Cape Sante – Panfried Scallops with Pancetta, Red Chili, Rocket & Lentils

The Masterchef Restaurant: Mat Follas’s Lavender Mousse with Hokey Pokey and Berry Sauce

The Masterchef Restaurant: James Nathan’s Chocolate & Orange Sponge Pudding

My Shopping Haul:

I love fudge. I think Sunita got 2 bags for her family. I got 1 for a lemon-fanatic friend who was visiting that evening and 3 for myself. Who’s greedy?

Yum Yum Tree Fudge: A medley of flavours – lavender, mint chocolate, lemon bon bon

Mr. Vikki’s Tomato & Nigella chutney, Plum-infused Sake, WARRE’s 10 year tawny Port, Fruits of the Forest Balsamic Glaze

WARRE’s port wine was very impressive, especially the 25 year aged vintage but going at £25 a pop, I wasn’t too eager to split with that kind of money despite the port being very rich, dark and smooth. Hey! It’s the recession. We gotta be wise about things like that, eh. I settled for the 10 year aged that was also very lovely but going for only a tenner! Whey. Talk about Diva doing bargain shopping.

At Apulia Blends stall, I was blown away by their selection of extra virgin olive oils, the apple balsamic vinegar and the fruity glazes. I do love a good balsamic vinegar but I’ve never ever bothered with balsamic glaze. A taste and I was sold. Tempt me with ideas of pouring these glazes on ice cream – I’m sold even more. This forest fruit one was going for £6.50 a bottle which in my opinion, is worth every penny. The shocking thing, however, was that I found the same bottle at the Shoreditch Food Hall just round the corner from my pad being sold for a quid cheaper. Who knew?

Really delicious apple balsamic vinegar at nearly £12/bottle

I’m a loyal customer of Japan Centre as they have the best and biggest range of Japanese groceries I could possibly ever need away from home. Part of the Oishi JAPAN exhibition by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries participants, I was happy to find them plugging a good couple of bottles of sake amongst other kuramotos (sake makers). Tasted some very nice junmai daiginjo, a citrus flavoured sake, some sochu and this wonderful plum-infused sake I couldn’t resist. I love my sake warm and drinking it traditionally from those cute wooden square boxes is always a treat but this plum-infused baby was very lovely drunk cold.

And what about the chutney? There were many stalls selling chutney and it was hard to choose what to taste and where to taste but Mr Vikki’s caught out eye with their huge array of bottle reds (and I mean chutney, not wine). Arranged from the mildest to the hottest, we were glad we started at the bottom of the range in heat – Tomato & Nigella. I do love spicy chutneys but I’m not great at taking the heat as I dislike the tongue-numbing sensation after which always worries me that I’m losing my tastebuds! The guys at Mr Vikki’s were very friendly and my favourites were the Tomato & Nigella and Chili Jam. And to top it all, they were part of the Great Taste Awards section. Winners they are.

I had a great time with Sunita and Anne! The BBC Good Food Show totally made my weekend although I was so knackered after like never before. Took me all of Sunday to spring back to my normal self. I’ve also started writing down a few recipes I’ll be testing with the new ingredients I’ve got so do come visit again for more exciting posts! I have some sweets and main dishes up my sleeve in the coming weeks to come.

Hope everyone had a fab weekend. Have a good week ahead and only 11 days to London Food Blogger Connect!

I promised a chocolate torte recipe and here it is! It’s an easy to remember recipe I picked out of a book whilst staying at the boyfriend’s house; a real gem of a recipe, this torte is extremely rich but light – the ultimate chocolate decadent indulgence. It’s got a lovely wrinkly top, is usually quite crumbly at the sides and I find it’s sunken shape simply adorable. When I took this out of the oven, I had to garner all my mental strength to block out the calorie warnings the better half of my psyche was sending out. Pffft. I am having cake today and nothing is going to stop me. Not even the morning-after guilt is going to deter my determination to eat a fat slice. TO SELF: I need that. And that’s that. No arguments.

There’s also the fact that I should really be unpacking and reorganizing my room. So baking is really procrastination in disguise. I made up for that with about 10 mins of taking out the collected rubbish in my bedroom. The bin bag was about the size of Santa’s xmas present sack (on a really busy day) dragged down three flights of stairs, through the living area, out the door, through the front porch past the main gate to the rubbish bins right at which the bag had finally decided to give way and exploded to reveal an embarrassing variety of things: old books, used tissues, an in-the-process-of-oxidization apple core, the odd broken trinket purchased years ago when I thought I was cool, a used ballpoint ben that had seen better days, etc. It wasn’t fun I can tell you, trying to clean up this explosion of mine. Talk about a blast from the past.

Now wouldn’t you say it’s all the more reason to have a nice sitdown out on the patio with the dogs, a cold glass of Pimm’s and a slice of cake?

This recipe, I must say is rather special to me. It was recently added to my collection of other simple, rustic, unpretentious cake recipes; it is also a pudding recipe that the boyfriend and I followed for a dinner we were supposed to cook for the -rents. Well, his parents. Baking highstrung and nervous is not pleasant but the end results, I can say, were pretty damn good. And although our main course didn’t go quite according to plan due to unforeseen circumstances, the pudding was spot on. I reckon on his part, it was a pretty amusing sight to watch me squirm, forget the sequence of events when it comes to whisking, turn sheet-white and have my tongue turn to stone upon the appearance of Parent A. Preparing the brandy cream was a little bit of challenge as I was so tempted to down the whole bottle for Dutch courage. Thankfully I did not and I survived the ‘ordeal’. I exaggerate, as is appropriate to my storytelling style. The dinner was very nice and pleasant, and pretty much ended on a dreamy chocolate-induced note. Whey!

I love chocolate and love it in all its many forms except for the unfortunate few: white chocolate, orange chocolate and chocolate ice cream. It’s not that I won’t eat them. I just prefer not to because I don’t 100% enjoy them as I do, say, with very dark chocolate, molten chocolate cakes, brownies, hot chocolates, etc. Chocolate torte, on the other hand, is top on my list of chocolate cakes. I just love the way it looks. It makes me think of everything homemade, natural, gatherings with friends, the childhood favourites we always come back to like barley sugar, popcorn and TV dinners but with posh candles, grandmothers, my lovely cocker spaniel who looks a little rough-around-the-edges kind of dishevelled. Besides, tortes are made with just butter, eggs, brown sugar and chocolate. It’s really a recipe for chocaholics that does not deviate at all from the VIP ingredient – CHOCOLATE! For me, this is the LBD of all cakes. You can dress it down or jazz it up. Either way, it’s still superdeeduper good and you can’t fault it for its classic simplicity and elegance. 

I used to be a big fan of Devils’ Food Cake. I am a torte convert now. And I’m glad to share this recipe with y’all since it not only makes me reach chocolate high in 2 seconds flat, it has given me quite a few interesting memories and a wonderful opportunity to boss a special someone around the kitchen.

So…what’s your favourite chocolate sweet then? Mudpie? The notorious gooey brownie? Molten chocolate puds? Would love to hear what you’ve gotta say and if anyone else shares the same passion for tortes.

I could stay and talk but I’ve got a chicken that needs to be roasted before Mum gets home and if that bird ain’t golden brown and glossy with a honey lemon glaze by the time she’s back from the hairdressers, I might be in some trouble. So laters, I gotta go get roasting.

Dark Chocolate Torte with Brandy Cream
Ingredients

250g 70% cocoa dark chocolate, broken up into chunks
125g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
6 medium eggs, separated
100g + 25g light muscovado sugar

Grease and line a springform pan.
Preheat oven to 160d Celsius.

Separate the eggs, placing the egg yolks in a larger bowl than the egg whites. Set aside.

In a glass bowl over a bain-marie, gently melt the dark chocolate and butter. Stir at regular intervals to ensure that all the pieces are melted. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Whisk the egg yolks with 100g sugar for about 3-4 minutes until the mixture leaves a trail when whisk is lifted. The yolks should have become thick, doubled in amount and turned a light lemon yellowy colour. Fold in the chocolate mixture.

In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until peaking. Gradually whisk in remaining 25g sugar. Then, fold a quarter of the whites into the chocolate yolk mixture to lighten it. Finally, fold in the remaining whites until just incorporated. Be careful not to overmix.

Pour into the prepared springform pan and place in preheated oven to bake for 30 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack in the springform pan til it is cool enough to handle. Remove from pan and let cool on a cool cake stand. I prefer not to let the torte cool directly on a wire rack as it is often too delicate and crumbly.

Some prefer to have their tortes cooled in the fridge so it becomes firmer and fudge-like. I like to serve mine immediately or have it warmed in the microwave for about 10 seconds before topping with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

For the brandy cream:

double cream
1-3 tbs brandy, depending on how much cream you are serving

I do not follow a recipe when it comes to brandy cream. I simply pour some double cream and a few tablespoons of brandy to my taste into a bowl. Whip whip whip. And serve.

Because my kitchen was boiling hot in this tropical heat, my cream melted fairly quick but nothing could take away the gorgeousness of this brandy-tasting cream. Melted or no, heavenly.