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Victoria Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream and Strawberry Jam

By Ozlem Warren on June 15, 2011 in Cakes and Desserts, Uncategorised 5

This is a very special and wonderful Victoria Sponge Cake recipe coming from a dear friend. My friend Gillian is a pro on this treat and she very kindly shared it. It is very easy to make and truly delicious, moist and perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

One of the joys of life – at least for me – is to share a delicious bite with a good friend; we baked this cake with the children and shared with a dear friend visiting us. A special moment to treasure, pause and enjoy. I hope you can have a chance to make and enjoy this treat, a staple of the classic English afternoon tea:) This cake is best eaten the same day. It can be refrigerated over night- if there are any leftovers!

Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 20 minutes Baking time:20 minutes

Cake batter for the 1st sponge cake (please make one more batch for the 2nd sponge cake)
4oz/ half cup self-raising flour
4oz/ half cup sugar
4oz/half cup unsalted butter
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Raspberry or strawberry jam
Whipped double (heavy) cream
Powdered (Icing) sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Bring butter and eggs to room temperature for about 1 hour ahead of time. In food processor cream butter and sugar together until light yellow and combined.

Slowly mix in beaten eggs (beat eggs well before including – the key to this recipe is beating in as much air as possible to make the sponge light and fluffy). Move butter, sugar and egg mixture to a bowl. Stir in vanilla.

Sift flour (adds more air!) and slowly and gently fold into the batter mixture. Pour batter into a 8″ cake tin.

Then, make a 2nd batch of cake batter and pour into a 2nd 8″ cake tin. Bake about 20 minutes – until light brown on top and knife comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

Leave the sponge cakes to cool on wire track. Transfer to plates. Spread jam on the bottom (flat part) of each cake. With an electric hand whisk, whip the double (heavy) cream really well. Place the whipped cream on top of the jam on the bottom cake. Put on the 2nd cake on top. Sieve powdered(icing) sugar on top of cake.

Slice and enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Afiyet Olsun!

Note: You may be asking – why don’t I make one big batch and divide between 2 tins? Good question. My friend says for some reason, the cake doesn’t turn out the same. So the cake is better when cooked in 2 separate batches!

Seasonal, organic produce, delivered by your door & Chard recipe

By Ozlem Warren on May 24, 2011 in A Slice of England, Uncategorised 2

I got a leaflet thru my door the other week, a company, Abel&Cole;, offering organic fruit and veg delivered to my door. I did hear about this though haven’t had a chance to try before, so decided to give it a go. As much as I would love to make it to the Farmer’s Market every week, I can’t always do that, so thought, this is great; Farmer’s Market comes to me. It is a great value and feels good that it is a fair deal to the farmers too.

Last Thursday, our first box of organic fruit and vegetables arrived and it was a happy sight! Wonderful, seasonal organic produce; Swiss chards, portobello mushrooms, bananas, lovely carrots and bell pepper, apple, onions, potatoes and more. I liked the fact that you are delivered whatever fruit and veg seasonal at the moment, and there is a surprise element to it. I can get the same or similar veg over and over again when shopping, and this has been a welcoming change – take chards, never really got into them before, but now that it was in my box, I was excited to try a new thing.

For the chards; I simply sautéed some garlic with olive oil, chopped the chard coarsely and added to the pan. I sautéed the chard for about 4-5 minutes, until wilted but still has had a bite to it. Seasoned with salt and pepper and squeezed half a lemon over it. Finally, I added a few sprinkles of red pepper flakes and served as a side dish. It was utterly delicious and I am won over 🙂

I am already looking forward to my next box!

Happy Cooking and Afiyet Olsun,

Penne with Olives, Garlic, Tomatoes and Dill – Domatesli, Zeytinli Penne Makarna

By Ozlem Warren on May 17, 2011 in Pasta – Makarna, Uncategorised 4

As much as we love cooking, there is a challenge for all of us to produce healthy, delicious, and easy to prepare supper at the end of the day. This is even more challenging at weekdays, as we juggle the school run, work, daily chores. At times like these, I try to make the most of what I have in my fridge and kitchen and come out with something, hopefully a delicious bite to eat. At one of days like this, I opened my fridge and found some good olives (and we do eat a lot of olives), cherry tomatoes on the vine, garlic and dill. My family loves pasta and the combination of these made a wonderful, delicious pasta sauce, that you can prepare in no time (and even ahead of time), mediterranean way.

The ingredients might change depending on what I have at the moment – courgettes (zucchini), mushrooms, onions, some good pecorino cheese .. all would make a wonderful sauce and can save that weekday supper.

Serves 2-3
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

350gr/12oz penne pasta
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
3oml/2tablespoons of fresh dill, coarsely chopped
90gr/3oz Turkish or Kalamata black and green olives, pitted and halved
30ml/2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Sprigs of fresh dill to serve
Grated parmesan or pecorino romano to serve

Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and sauté the garlic for a minute or two. Add the cherry tomatoes and olives, give them a good mix and cook for a further two minutes. Check the seasoning (olives can be quite salty) and season with salt, if needed, and black pepper

In the meantime, place the pasta in a saucepan of boiling water, add a little salt and a dash of olive oil. Stir occasionally and boil for about 10 minutes, until “al dente”. Towards the end of the cooking, take 2 tablespoons of the pasta’s cooking liquid and add to the pasta sauce, along with the dill. Mix well. Once pasta is cooked, drain the water and mix the pasta with the sauce.

Serve hot immediately, with sprigs of dill over the pasta and some grated pecorino or parmesan over the pasta, if you like.

Afiyet Olsun!