Autumn Cakes & Bakes

Spiced Autumn Sponge

Our glimpse of an Indian summer was brief and it’s now the dark nights and bare trees leading into Winter. I love winter food, rich stews and warming soups. Heavy red wines and a shot of brandy in your hot chocolate after a chilly dog walk. The one thing that I will miss though is Summer baking, the abundance of British berries made for quick, light and easy sweet treats; scones with strawberry jam, humongous meringues stuffed with raspberries and cream. Lots and lots of cream. The one I’ll miss most is the Victoria sponge. The perfect cake for me as it’s so quick and has just 4 main ingredients all of which I have in the larder anyway. But rather than say goodbye to Victoria until next year I wondered about giving her a Winter makeover? Adding a little spice and swapping the sunny flavors of strawberry or raspberry for something a bit richer. So here’s a twist on that Summer classic, spiced autumn Victoria sponge..

 

Grease and line 2 loose bottom cake tins 7/8″ Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4 180 degrees

Weigh 4 eggs then measure out an equal amount of self raising flour, golden caster sugar & butter

Cream together the softened butter & sugar until light – at least 5 minutes

Keep the mixer running adding 1 egg at a time along with a teaspoon of flour

Add the remaining flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon & a splash of milk. Fold to bring together.

Add half of the mixture to each tin & pop into the oven for 20/25 mins turning the tins after 15mins to stop the edges catching.

Once cooked leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack. It’s at this point I have to leave the house and come back after an hour, other wise I’ll try to build the cake with the sponges still warm and end up with a reservoir of cream where the cake should be.

The use an autumn fruit jam to spread on 1 side of both sponges. I like to use Hawkshead Relish Company’s Bramley and Bramble. A layer of whipped cream and then stack the 2 sponges together. Dust with icing sugar, decorate with blackberries. Serve with a mug of hot chocolate safe in the knowledge that you can hide the calories under cashmere until next Summer.

What a Tarte

Can I confess to a food crime? I don’t like desserts, cake yes, but desserts? No thanks. I’ll pour over the food sections of the Sunday papers but as soon as I hit a sweet page I turn straight over to the gardening section and I like gardening even less.

So when I’m planning a meal I’ll spend an age thinking about what starter with which main and completely forget to plan for pud. It’s when I’m unpacking the shopping that I remember. When I fill shelf after shelf with salad, vegetables, cheese and meat but nothing remotely chocolaty, gooey, crumbly or custardy.

In desperation I’ll search the recipe books for something that I have all the ingredients for, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla pod, check. Delighted that I have everything you need it’s then double despair when I get to the end I read those dreaded words “chill overnight.” Bugger!

So here’s a recipe that has saved me time and time again. The beauty of it is that so long as you keep a block of puff pastry in the freezer the other 3 ingredients are things you’ll already have in. Plus you can prep it in advance and just whack it in the oven after you’ve served the main course.

Pre-heat oven to gas mark 6/210*C

Peel, core and quarter 10 tart apples, Granny Smiths are good, British is better

Smear a 24cm round tart dish (I use a frying pan without the handle) with 60g unsalted butter

Sprinkle 110g golden caster sugar over the butter & arrange the apple quarters in a circular pattern over the top

Put the tin on the hob on a low heat and let the butter & sugar caramelise the apples (about 20mins)

Roll your puff pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin & cut a circle slightly larger than your tin

Place the pastry over the apples tucking it down around the sides

Place in the oven for 20/25 minutes till risen & golden

Once out of the oven let it stand for 2 minutes before tipping upside down to turn out onto a plate

Serve thick wedges with ice cream or creme fraiche

 

Mucky Books

Every recipe book has one, a page that’s so regularly used it’s where the book naturally opens. As you try and open it the pages start to tear, glued together by a mixture of sugar & butter. Writing barely legible in parts hidden where a resting coffee cup has left its mark. It’s the recipe that never fails, the one you turn to when time is short or the cupboards are bare.  Here’s mine, a carrot cake from Bill Grainger’s book “Bill’s Basics,” that I’ve meddled with. While Bill sifts & orders the ingredients I find just chucking everything in a bowl and giving it a cursory mix works just as well.

Pre-heat oven to gas mark 3/170*C

Grease and base line a 23cm spring form cake tin.

Whisk 3 eggs with 250g of soft brown sugar.

Add 200g plain flour, 200g grated carrot, 3tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 100g sultanas, 100g pecans, zest of 1 orange, 250ml sunflower oil, 1 small well drained can of chopped pineapple (buy the supermarket basics tin, tiny reject pieces are perfect!)

Stir well to combine and pour into the greased tin. Bake for 1 – 1 15mins, leave to cool in the tin before topping.

For the topping melt 50g butter and mix with 200g cream cheese, 200g icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla essence.

As it contains fruit and vegetables this cake is almost good for you, meaning you can cut a large wedge  guilt free. In the unlikely event that it survives an afternoon it keeps brilliantly because of the moist pineapple.

So what’s your favorite mucky book……?

 

 

 

6 of the Best Boutique B&BS

Another Top 6 slot for The Ashton in The Sunday Times Travel, it was from October last year, which reminds me just how slack my blogging has been recently!

 

 

No draughts, no soggy toast:these homely hideaways rival the swankiest hotels for style & service, and says Helen Fry, trump them nicely on price.

For vintage charms: The Ashton, Lancaster.

If a trip to the city of Lancaster isn’t yet on your to-do-list, it’s time for a rethink. No, honest. For such a compact place it’s got plenty to see. What’s more it’s perfectly positioned for trips to Morecambe Bay, the Lake District and the (underrated) blustery beauty of the Trough of Bowland – all fells and peaty moorland. Lancaster has yet another string to its bow – one of the best B&Bs in the country.

The Ashton’s owner, James Gray, is a former television set decorator, and his considerable creative talents have worked (seemingly) efortless contemporary magic on this Victorian villa on the edge of town. In 5 bedrooms, set over 2 floors, expect the unexpected: silky Egyptian cotton, five-star comfy mattresses and sleek wetrooms with underfloor heating.

Downstairs (you will notice on arrival, over tea or a glass of something chilled,) framed vintage-magazine covers brighten smokey grey walls, tweed and velvet cohabit with chandeliers, while mood-enhancing music soothes road-weary nerves. And just in case you thought you had to trudge out for food, here you can scoff breakfast, dinner (3 courses or a deli board) and elevenses – homemade cakes beneath glass domes on the sideboard.

Alex Polizzi’s Top 6 Value for Money UK Beds

Absolutely floored & delighted to be picked by Alex Polizzi as one of her top 6 in March’s Sunday Times Travel Magazine. Even more delighted by what she had to say about us…

“The most stylish B&B in the country is The Ashton in Lancaster. No disrespect to the town, but it’s not something you’d expect to find there. It’s owner, James, has done an excellent job on the decor, with chic muted tones and roll top baths – it’s like a 5 star hotel. It’s a real gem and best of all, James is welcoming and genuine – something you don’t always get from B&B owners. It’s also a great place to base yourself if you’re looking to venture out into the countryside.”

For those who don’t know – how could you not know !?! Alex is hotel aristocracy, she presents The Hotel Inspector on Channel 5 and still finds time to run her own hotel, The Tresanton in Devon. Her cleavage is equally celebrated & even has its own Facebook group….

101 Uses for a Black Banana

Banana & Pecan Loaf

Every morning I lay out the sideboard for breakfast, carefully assembling a still life of fresh fruit anchored by a bunch of bananas. Then every morning, once everyone has had their breakfast feast, I carry the bananas into the kitchen. All still bunched together, intact, exactly as they started the day. Once back in the kitchen they will sit in a bowl, slowly progressing through the colour chart to black. In the afternoon I will drive to the supermarket to buy slightly green bananas for the next day. The banana routine has happened everyday since we opened, despite the fact that no one has ever eaten a banana at breakfast.

I’d love to break the cycle, to not have to look at a bowl of slowly aging bananas all day. But I can’t, it’s all part of our 5 star grading. Not the official Quality in Tourism grading, this award comes from a much tougher inspector, my Mum. To be 5 star there must be the provision of a banana (fairtrade) to be sliced over yoghurt (greek or of similar creaminess) and topped with granola (home-made, obviously!)

So in order to keep my family 5 star gold award  I keep buying fairtrade bananas and have a stack of recipes that call for as many overripe bananas as possible. Here’s one of the best, enjoy smeared with butter & a cafetiere of strong coffee for a perfect afternoon treat.

Banana & Pecan Loaf

75g softened butter

110g golden caster sugar

125g plain flour

100g wholemeal self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

50g pecans snapped in half

Heat oven to gas mark 4, 180 degrees

Grease & line a 450g loaf tin

Cream together butter and sugar until pale, add eggs & vanilla extract, use 1tsp flour with each egg to stop the mixture curdling

Sift in flours, baking powder, & fold in mashed banana. Stir through nuts.

Spoon into lined tin & bake for 40-50mins

 

Alex Polizzi’s Little Black Book

You may remember my New Years phone call from Channel 5’s ‘The Hotel Inspector’ saying that she would like to come and visit…Well, 6 months later, Alex Polizzi’s ‘Little Black Book of Hotels’ has hit the shelves and guess who’s first on the list!

Alex takes the hassle out of hotel selection, revealing her pick of the very best places to stay in Great Britain. And you can rest assured that all of the outstanding destinations featured—one for every weekend of the year– live up to the inspector’s impeccable standards.

Here’s a taster of what she had to say about us….
“You could be forgiven for thinking that the glory days of Morecambe, its spectacular bay, arcades and Winter Garden, once host to the West End’s finest shows, were long past. The completed restoration of the famous Art Deco Midland Hotel, however, with sculptures designed by Eric Gill, has encouraged high hopes that it may provide a springboard for the area’s resurgence. In much the same way nearby Lancaster – once a thriving Georgian port at the centre of trade with the West Indies – seems on the up and up.Although its trading days are long past, the town now has a champion in the form of James Gray, the native-born but recently returned proprietor of The Ashton – a square, handsome house with regular windows, built in 1834 with stone from the local quarry, now Williamson Park. James opened it only 18 months ago, having spent five months transforming the five rooms.On approach, you drive into a gravel courtyard where chickens and ducks wander, apparently untroubled by any predator. A knock at the slate-grey door and you are into the hall. On your left is the sitting room, with its ivory pillar candles clustered, burning, in the grate. The bookshelf and table are stocked with what seems to be every interior design book ever published. The walls and ceiling are painted in “invisible green” – a dark and sexy colour that sets off the room’s mirrors, flowers and candles.The dining room on your right, painted in the same colour, has a huge, marble-topped wooden sideboard displaying homemade cakes under sparkling glass domes. The lighting is flattering, and the general effect is stage-set perfect, yet homely.”

We have one copy of this fantastic book to give away, to enter simply send your name and email address to ‘stay@theashtonlancaster.com’ along with your answer to the following question to be added to our customer database.

Q– How many hotels are featured in the book?

Winner to be announced next week!

Bloody Ducks & B@stard Foxes

Not a great start to the day. Woke to find a mass of white feathers on the lawn & fox attack confirmed when I found a very battered looking Wilma wandering in a state of shock. Took the very difficult decision that she was too damaged to survive & put an end to her obvious pain.

Feel dreadful not just at having to do the deed but also that I wasn’t more forceful at trying to get them into bed last night. Whilst the chickens head to bed at dusk the ducks delight in staying out as late as possible and evade any attempt to force them into their coup. Despite numerous warnings about foxes sometimes they just don’t listen.

Amazingly despite the mass of white feathers and assumption of her demise Betty reappeared later from a hiding place under the fire escape. So now what to do? Ducks aren’t happy living alone, but do I commit to another and have to spend every night chasing around the garden with a torch. Or fence everyone in so that even if they decide to stay out the fox has less of a chance? Or find Betty another home so someone else has to stay up until the early hours running around the garden?

3 in a Bed

Well it’s my last night of curling up on the sofa covering my face in a mixture of horror and delight at the B&B owners on tonight’s ’3 in a Bed.’ It’s only the last episode of series 1 and already the programme is becoming pretty formulaic; representing the knobs we have Nick & Georgina of Grade 2 listed, 5 star rated, Frampton House in gorgeous rolling Dorset. In the pleb corner we have Pat & Wilf who’s 3 star Granville is perfectly situated should you need deep fried cuisine & slot machines in England’s glamorous North West. Not even in the ring (but hovering in an aura cloud just above) are Melvyn & Ann who’s unrated Nut Tree Cottage couldn’t be better named.

So first stay of the episode is to sunny Blackpool and our fellow B&B’ers pull no punches on the journey to Pat & Wilfs but from very different perspectives. Nick worries about his hubcabs, Geogina declares it not somewhere she would choose to visit. Melvyn rumminates over the environmental impact of the Illuminations. Ann just looks tired & bored by her husband. Inside it’s clean, tidy & funtional for £50 a night what else could you expect? For the first time this series no one does a white glove, hotel inspector dust check, YAY!

Pat & Wilfs entertainment takes in the Golden Mile & bingo at the social. To Georgina it’s like “Laura Ashley on an acid trip” but everyone joins in with the social club fun & we’re treated to Nick’s pink panted Dad dancing.

As you can imagine breakfast performs true to form, the only form of fruit comes from Mr Delmonte & everyone is presented with a plate your GP would proclaim as morbidly obese. The post breakfast check out scores Pat & Wilf 100% with everyone paying their £50 room rate.

So from the Vegas of the North it’s off to experience some Southern hospitality. True to form the welcome at Frampton House is accompanied by a pack of black labs, shame they couldn’t rustle up a minor royal to take tea with though. Nick & Georgina are truly welcoming & after depositing their guests in antique stuffed rooms leave them to inspect. Yet again no white glove tests or desperate dust seeking activities ensue, just a cup of tea & time for Melvyn to absorb a ‘wonderful energy.’ Despite the prospect of a good nights sleep in a comfy bed Ann looks as knackered as ever and has an emotional moment on the boat as our trio catch fish for tonight’s dinner.

Despite Georgina’s restaurant quality cooked dinner (a bargain at £25 per person including wine, price will increase after my stay) the knobs only score 95% with Wilf knocking off £5 for the lack of smoke alarms in the bedrooms & Pat being very concerned about being overlooked in the bathroom while doing her make up. Personally I think the sheep should be voicing their concerns. Melvyn & Ann pay 100% despite having as cold a nights sleep as always at different corners of the bed. (MELVYN, SHE HATES YOU!)

Last visit of the episode sees our intrepid B&B’ers off to Somerset for between the Cheddar Valley & Glastonbury Tor lies Nut Tree Cottage a rustic reworking of Steptoe’s Yard. Our pre ad break exchange with owners Melvyn & Ann hadn’t been 100% positive. “Are you looking forward to playing hostess?” “Not really, it’s not my thing.” Bodes well….

The rooms at Nut Tree Cottage look gorgeous, hand crafted, simple, clean & tastefully done. They might be Ann’s Dorian Grey. Melvyn starts off the afternoon’s excursion with meditation in the stone circle he built on ley lines after psychic messages. Wilf picks up the same messages in this special place, unfortunately his are from Vodafone, not quite the same calming effect. In a similar vein the afternoons coach rides takes his guests on a similar yawn inducing tour of spiritual sites, not even the spunk fountain raises a smile.

Breakfast proves the real trial as we watch Ann turn out plates of vegan sausages with an expression that just wants you to call Amnesty International & release her from her misery. The final scores on the doors are knobs 100% plebs £5 short, Wilf had trapped wind & was again worried about smoke alarms (please can someone tell them chip pan fires are not that common in the South.) So a draw with Frampton House & this week’s winners of the ‘Best Value Award’ are Pat & Wilf at The Granville.

Interestingly it wasn’t the car crash episode you’d expect to end a series, all the couples were incredibly aware they had different guests, markets & prices. What did you did notice was people’s different reasons for doing B&B; for the knobs it’s a steady income for when the stocks and shares aren’t performing, for the plebs it’s everything, job, life, pension, passion. Whilst at the Nut House it’s needed, if not wanted, to pay the mortgage.

Quite a heart warming episode & I was almost tempted to call Channel 4 about about the next series & then I realised – ARE YOU BONKERS!!!

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Is everything ok? Ermmmmm……no!

Just been out for my birthday dinner to a pub recommended by friends. Nothing to look at but the food is amazing apparently. So pull in to a deserted car park, walk into a grubby porch filled with cheap, clip framed certificates & through to a dismal bar sporting St George’s flags & beat up looking locals. No judgements made, my mates had always been upfront about the no frills philosophy. Chalk board menu looks promising, Morecambe Bay Shrimp, Port of Lancaster smoked fish; just the sort of food I source and sell. Great!

Shrimp arrive on a square of supermarket cut price bread with a slight orange glow. Now I know about orange glow, I’m a regular at St Tropez, but it’s not a great look for me or for shrimp. Morecambe Bay shrimp are brown; caught cooked and potted. They have a short shelf life because they are not buggered around with, no preservatives, colourings etc. These have certainly taken a flight from Norway & stopped at the duty free cosmetics counter on the way.

I was unfortunate enough to have to try my main course twice. Had to ask how my first rare sirloin had been cooked, I wasn’t sure if boiling steak was a food fad I’d missed out on. Steak number two was so dreadful I didn’t even want a doggy bag for Bailey in case she caught CJD.

So what to do? Pay up and never go back? Complain & risk a bogey in your dessert?

Well as a business owner it’s lovely when that feedback is lovely; but it’s better when that feedback points out your flaws. It’s the be, demand decent food and say when the service doesn’t live up to the service charge .