The Sugar Bar

Two Easters ago, I baked a feast. I went so crazy there were cakes, muffins and cookies everywhere: on the tabletops, in the bedroom, in the freezer, in the fridge. It was gloriously nightmarish. A thoroughly obsessively psychotically sick affair.

Last Easter, I believe things were a little more toned down. Moderation was key.

This year, we went for a nice balance of things. Don’t they say good things come in pairs? Two’s a nice number. Well-rounded and more acceptable. In that case, this Easter, we’ve got cookies and cakes. No more than that. No more, no less. I thought we were quite clever.

On Tuesday, we had a nice little wander through the Oxford Covered Market. There’s a cake shop in there which I’ll blog a little later on about. Truly inspiring cakes and sugarcraft. And they make personalized easter eggs made to order too! In fact, H and I had our Easter eggs from there last year. They were yum. And almost too pretty to eat. It’s shops like that that make you feel like you’ve gotta bake. You leave wanting to make something of your very own, to get creative and start challenging yourself in the kitchen. I don’t suppose we really did challenge ourselves but we sure had good fun in the kitchen that day.

Little fairy cakes topped with dolly mixture (we’ve so gotta love these sweets…so mildly flavoured and pretty to look at) for Easter cakes and a twist on the usual oatmeal raisin cookie which gives you something to talk about as well if you’ve got guests coming round for tea. I haven’t posted a recipe for the Fairy Cakes as H actually remembers this basic recipe by heart. It’s simply margarine, vanilla, flour, eggs, sugar all skillfully beaten by hand then baked at 175d Celsius until ready. Cooled, then frosted with a mix of icing sugar and water. Voila. Top them with sweets or decoration of choice. Cute as a button.

When it comes to eating cookies, dunking in a glass of cold milk is second nature. Or sometimes just eating it sans milk is pretty okay too. Dunking in hot coffee or tea seems unthinkable to me. I’ve seen my mum do it and it leaves rings of buttery-surfaced coffee in the cup. I’ve seen my mates do it and it just all looks a little drippy, a little messy. This time I tried it with this oatmeal cookie and I have a strange feeling my cookie-eating ways have been forever altered. Or at least, when it comes to oatmeal cookies. You’ve gotta dunk them in something warm. Leave the cold milk for the chocolate chip cousin. Oatmeal cookies have so gotta be dipped in a hot coffee or tea. A momentary experience of sweet bliss, as comforting as a spoonful of warm honey-laced porridge. So good.

Happy Easter everyone! Hoping the Easter bunny sends out much sugary love to all. Will post up some of my little Oxford visit here soon.

Oatmeal Cherry & Walnut Cookies
Ingredients

115g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup/225g dark brown sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup glace cherries, chopped
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 175d Celsius.

Cream butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, then beat.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Add oats to this and mix. Add to wet mixture of creamed butter and sugar. Mix until it is just incorporated.

Fold in cherries and walnuts. Do not overmix.

Form into 1-2 tbs balls or simply drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-18mins or until just golden brown.

Cooking it for longer gets these cookies a darker shade and they turn into nice crunchy cookies when kept. Cooking for 15mins leaves it nice and chewy in the middle so cook according to your preference. Leave to cool on sheets for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

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!

I met someone last Sunday who might sincerely believe she was stamped [ROYALTY] on her backside when she was born. Not a great way to start this most elegant, gorgeous and wonderful blog post but it’s gotta be done.

Some women think they’re princesses. I mean there’s nothing wrong with getting the princess treatment, to be pampered like a princess (each to their own I suppose) if that existence wasn’t one that bothered humble, noble plebians like us. Fair enough, I suppose princesses do still exist in this day and age but that’s no reason for me to sit about content that I’m acting like someone’s slave. If you want a personal slave, hire one or go invent an android. Anything. Just get off your bum and do something remotely productive.

In the world of retail (and let’s be more specific and narrow that down to fashion retail), employer-employee-customer relations can be damn tricky. And when customers are the weirdest, rudest and unappreciative, it’s hard to restrain ourselves from saying something like: ‘What? Are you dumb?’ or when you’ve really reached your limit with these little kids trying on clothes that barely cover their arses and are determined on turning the fitting rooms into a jungle, ‘Oi kids, get out. And never come back’. And then when it comes to shoplifters, ah don’t even get me started on that one. I get red and angry as a beetroot. At the end of the day, after the frustrations gradually melt away in the steam from a hot cuppa tea, I suppose it’s still something to learn from, to muse and quite often to laugh about (after about 3 paragraphs of passionate bitching). I was planning on telling the story of Princess A and her Eyebag Boyfriend. It got really good typing it away and therefore, forgetting the more urgent issue of my research proposal but the whole story sorta turned into a sarcasm-dripping, black humour infused bitch fest. So I cut that out completely.

Couldn’t let that ruin your visual appetite for these lovely sweets from Sketch – The Parlour, now could I? I’d be a horrible foodie to do that to you. And if you really were itching for a good story (or bitch), you know you’ll definitely need to join us Tea Ladies for our next meet-up. Suyin‘s got some good ones from work too and Mowie‘s so calm and lovely, he’ll sort out your ruffled nerves instantly with that good humour of his. If all this mean gossip talk’s put you off, can I say once that’s over and done with, we really do immerse ourselves in delicate, ladylike chatter too?

So. There are princesses. And then, there are princesses. At Sketch, you are made to feel just a little bit like one. Step in and you’re instant cake royalty – the good kind. Lush interiors, Victorian furniture, big windows and floor-skimming curtains, rich upholstery and carpeting, dim lights and decadent atmosphere spliced with quirky pop art and caricature posters and skull lamp-shades. Sketch is an eclectic mix of things classic, vintage, grunge and of pop culture. Once you’re sat at a table (if you get one, guard your fortress like I did as tables are hard to come by. I saw Suyin go walking by through the window a little lost but nope, stayed and stubbornly guarded my table instead of going out to welcome her. I’m that bad a friend but that loyal a cake fan), you’ll see all the menus of the day printed in elegant calligraphic script slipped into the pages of a frayed old hardcover book (mine was Chemistry right smack in the formulas of CH3 COOH or something like that). Instantly feeling like Alice in a strange and exotic wonderland, you’ll be impressed with the huge variety of drinks, cocktails, mocktails, appetizers, teas and sweets to accompany it. You’re almost convinced you’re eating with vintage silver cutlery too!

And I positively felt a bit like Marie Antoinette at certain moments too. Decadently surrounded by lavish furniture and crazily beautiful pastry, waited on my beautiful wait-staff dressed in flocked floral and ruffly uniforms. It’s like simply the thing of dreams!

Of course, us Tea Ladies with a sweet-tooth bigger than the universe when put together went straight to the Signature Cakes menu. We were in heaven. There was nothing we could fault. Each cake and pastry was perfectly made, perfectly served and dreamy to taste. The little descriptions on the menu helped us deconstruct and draw out the tastes of each bite on our tongues, making it last as long as possible. I licked my fork quite a few times to get every bit of pastry cream. I was quite unembarrassed to do that actually. Sketch’s pastry chef got everything right and it was hard to say which one was the best or favourite. Every one was great in their own way. I gotta admit I was thoroughly impressed with the pastry cream though and the moistness of the pannacotta encased within the tart base and a white chocolate top layer.

Pannacotta Tartlet – tonka bean macaron, Medjool dates, fresh and preserved grapefruit

Pâte à Choux – pâte à choux, lemon pastry cream, mango and passion fruit jelly, vanilla and almond whipped cream

The next was blackcurrant heaven. Can’t wait to eat this one again as it was very refreshing and the dark purple shade was extreme food porn for me! The same shade as my bedding actually. The blackcurrant marmalade…one word: exquisite.

Cardinal – blackcurrant macaron, blackcurrant marmalade and violet mousseline cream, garnished with a blueberry and sugared petal

And the last but not the least at all…one to make the Maya gods proud.

Café Guanaja – hazelnut and praline, Guanaja chocolate cream, sacher biscuit, coffee and sabayon chocolate cream

This quirky, edgy, cool and extremely stylish place is one to visit again and again, whether it’s the Parlour, the Michelin star dining room aka The Lecture Room & Library or the evening bar The Glade or the art gallery which turns into a gastro-brasserie by night aka The Gallery. Hmm…pardon me saying so, but even hanging out in the toilets and the experience en route to the ladies was quite glorious. Don’t believe me? Check it out. Fancy lights, jewel-studded flush buttons and giant jewel handles. You can’t get as cool as that.