Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook Giveaway and Halloween Chocolate Orange Tart

 

 

I've got a great giveaway just in time for Halloween where not one, not two, but three of you can win a spooky cookery book full of recipes and ideas for party food for Halloween and any sort of horror-themed party (movie night?) you might want to hold at any time of the year.

The Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook is worth £13 and is a beautifully illustrated 160 page hardback cookbook with over 70 recipes and humorous advice for entertaining.

Hoxton Street Monster Supplies claims to be London’s "and quite possibly the world’s only purveyor of quality goods for monsters of every kind." All profits go to the Ministry of Stories, a creative writing and mentoring charity for young people which looks absolutely brilliant; I would have loved something like this when I was a kid and am going to look into signing up as a volunteer.

The cookery book says it is a revised edition featuring recipes suitable for humans, but has plenty of advice for what to do if you are inviting the undead to your party - allow extra time for zombies to eat dinner as they tend to be very slow; never seat a cyclops next to a giant spider (cyclops are sensitive about the fact that they only have one eye) and so on.

Recipes are divided into chapters: sweets and pastilles (including crunching bone toffee and fairy brain fudge), biscuits and cookies  (phlegmy dodgers, gingerdead men and toenail macaroons), cakes and bakes (clotted blood cakes, fresh maggot brownies, which I couldn't bring myself to make, and spiced earwax pie, which looked like treacle tart from the recipe), jams and curds (including human snot curd and pickled eyeballs), savoury snacks (chunky vomit dip, small intestine skewers) and potions and poisons (eg satanic smoothie).

The recipe for brain cake, or rather 'braaaiiiinnnn cake', made me laugh - translated for use by zombies. The recipe runs: "Oooooooog. BBBRRRAAAIIINNNNS! Brraaaauuuunnnnns. AAR! Errrrrg" and so on. So I won't be attempting that one.

If you can get past the slight sense of revulsion that I felt when reading the names of some of the recipes (yes I know they are not serious but some are just gross!) and read the introduction to each recipe they are really funny - and I can assure you that the recipes contain perfectly normal ingredients! I think this would go down really well with children in particular so if you fancy being in with a chance to win a copy of the book scroll down to the end.

 

The giveaway is open to UK addresses only and the books will be sent to the winners directly by the publishers.

I decided to make one recipe from the book so I could review it, and since it was over a week until Halloween and I wasn't about to throw a party I decided to make one of the most normal sounding recipes: Night Terror Torte. This is basically a chocolate and orange tart, using a ready-made sweet shortcrust pastry base.

You slice two oranges and cook them in a sugar syrup (mixture of sugar and water); bake the pastry case blind and then make the filling from ground almonds, butter, sugar and eggs then dark chocolate. Add some of the orange slices which you have chopped while keeping the rest for decoration, and bake the assembled tart in the oven.

 

raw:

 

 

cooked

 

 

scroll down for the giveaway- starting at midnight tonight!

 

 

 

 

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Provena Gluten-Free Products and a Giveaway

I've been baking a fair bit with gluten-free flour over the past year or so as I have a work colleague who can't eat gluten. From reading other blogs I know there are a lot of people out there in the same situation, and it's amazing the number of things you can't eat or have to check the labels on in case they contain gluten (sausages, for instance). And I always assumed she wouldn't be able to eat breakfast cereal as that contains gluten, but it turns out I was wrong.

Provena is a specialist in gluten-free cereals, flours and baking products - its range is oat-based and the company says it uses some of the purest and highest grade of oats in the world, which gives a better flavour. The oats they use are grown in Finland, a country with the lowest air pollution in Europe, which is all good for their products!

They sent me some products to review and also some to give away to one lucky reader - see below for the entry form.


Even if you can eat gluten, these products are worth a look. Did you know that oats can help lower cholesterol, they contain fibre which is good for digestion, and also stabilise blood sugar levels and boost metabolism, and give a slow release of energy throughout the day.

The products that Provena sent me, and which you can win in this giveaway, are:

Gluten Free Jumbo Oats:  won two gold stars at 2016 Great Taste awards. Provena’s flagship product; they say : "Large, wholesome oats, that brim with taste and goodness." You could use these to make a breakfast dish or to bake into cookies.

Gluten Free Flour Mix with Oats - won a gold star at the 2015 Great Taste awards. They say: "An honest, gluten free flour that creates better tasting bakes".

Gluten Free Oat Museli: gluten-free muesli containing apples, dates, raisins and sunflower seeds "for a superb start to the day".

Gluten Free Wholegrain Oat Flour: with even more fibre, suitable for sweet or savoury doughs "that create astonishingly tasty, well-textured baked goods".

Gluten Free Oat Bread Mix: a flour mix containing oats that "creates a bread with a fantastic texture and delicious taste"

Gluten Free Instant Oat Meal - a mixture of porridge oats and either raspberries or apricot (it comes in two flavours). I was quite curious to try this as I've had porridge before that you mix with milk and put in the microwave, but with this you only need to add boiling water (so it's much easier to make at work for instance). I tried the apricot flavour and it was really good!

Gluten Free Chocolate Muffin Mix - of course this is the product I turned to first and made up the packet mix to take in for my colleague at work. It was so quick and easy to make - you just add eggs and margarine. I was slightly confused by the instructions to add 150ml melted margarine as I had no idea how much that equated to before it was melted, so I guessed, and melted some in the microwave and then added a little bit more. The muffins turned out really well and tasted great - they have little chocolate chips inside them and my colleague was delighted!

I'm looking forward to trying out the other products but as the company wanted me to run the giveaway as soon as possible I haven't had the chance yet! There are also some great recipes on the Provena website.

You can find Provena on Facebook and Twitter and you can buy their products from Holland & Barrett and Amazon.

So here's what you can win, the full Provena range. The giveaway is open to UK addresses only; you just need to fill in the Rafflecopter entry form below.

 

 

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WIN: Bake In Black Review, Giveaway & Chocolate Cream Marshmallow Pie

It's not often I look at a cookery book and think 'that's genius'. I mean sure, I'm impressed by people who have been able to start a whole new cookery craze or style of eating like Deliciously Ella, but for me to actually flick through the book and smile at each and every recipe is quite unusual.

This week I was sent a recipe book called Bake In Black - Music Inspired Baking. Eve and David O'Sullivan are a food writer and musician who decided to combine their two loves, taking a song or album by a band they love and creating a recipe inspired by it. It's not just a play on words on the title (though the name of the book itself references Amy Winehouse) but they soak up what the music is about and infuse that into the food.

That results in recipes including:
Sex Pistols: God save the cream (angel cake with minted whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries)
Guns 'n' Roses: Sweet tooth o'mine (three-tier honey, molasses and maple cake with cream cheese icing)
Megadeath: Megadeath by Chocolate (chocolate and meringue layer cake)
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Rosewater (gluten free chocolate, almond and beetroot cakes with rosewater icing)
Meatloaf: Battenberg out of hell (chocolate and raspberry Battenberg)
Led Zeppelin: Glazed and confused (lavender-infused ring doughnuts with milk chocolate glaze)
and so on, and so on.

I hadn't heard of a lot of the songs or even some of the bands - this book has more of a heavy metal than a pop slant (but maybe there's an idea for a follow-up).

The book is really well presented with colour pictures for every recipe, and some interesting props in the photos, such as doughnuts resting on a guitar. The instructions are carefully thought through and easy to follow and I think this book would make a great gift for someone who loves music and baking.

I made a recipe from it called Faith No S'More - based on Faith No More of course, but also s'mores which are an American campfire snack. They have given me permission to reproduce the recipe here.

Serves 8
you need:
375g sweet shortcrust pastry
flour for rolling
200g dark chocolate, chopped
100g milk chocolate, chopped
300ml double cream
2 eggs
pinch of salt
small bag of marshmallows

Preheat oven to 180C/375F/Gas 4. Roll out the pastry to 1/2 cm thickness and use to line a 23cm pastry case [I used a loose-bottomed cake tin]. Chill while you make the filling.

 

Put the 2 chopped chocolates in separate bowls then bring the cream to the boil. Once boiling, pour into a measuring jug, then add 200ml cream to the dark chocolate and 100ml to the milk chocolate. Let stand for a minute or so, then stir each chocolate, separately, to combine.

Whisk the eggs into the dark chocolate, then pour into the pastry case. Add blobs of the milk chocolate mixture to the tin, then swirl gently to achieve a marbled effect [I found this quite difficult and ended up just pouring most of the milk chocolate on top of the dark chocolate].

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden an the mixture is almost firm. Allow to cool a little then chill in the fridge until set.

 

To make the topping, heat the grill to high, then top the pie with marshmallows so they cover the surface evenly. Put small pieces of foil around the pastry edges to stop them burning then put the pie under the grill and cook until the marshmallows are scorched, campfire style, around 2 minutes [from the picture in the book I thought the marshmallows were supposed to melt which they didn't really do, so I left them under the grill too long and the tops burnt! I managed to lift the burnt parts off and then it did look much better].

This was a gorgeous dessert, really indulgent and the melted marshmallow on top really took it to another level. I think it might actually have been nicer with a biscuit base rather than pastry but my other half very much enjoyed it, helping himself to two slices!

Now that I've whetted your appetite you can enter to win a copy of the book for yourself from Musicroom! UK addresses only though please.

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Giveaway: Exclusive new Slimming World recipe book

 

 

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You might have seen from my meal plan recently that I spent a week eating Slimming World ready meals to try out the new range. I wasn't able to have them for quite every meal as sometimes I was out and I did have a few treats as well, but I still lost weight that week.

 

I don’t normally eat ready meals and prefer to cook from scratch from recipe books, and since I started Slimming World I’ve purchased or received as freebies in group several of their recipe books. In fact I have over 100 recipe books in total, and probably ten or so of those are Slimming World ones.

 

So last week when I received a new recipe book in group I decided not to add it to my collection but instead to give it away to one lucky reader! This giveaway is not affiliated with Slimming World and so the postage comes out of my own pocket so I’ve decided the competition will only be open to those with UK addresses, sorry.

 

This is a full-size recipe book (not one of the mini ones we sometimes receive at group) and at the moment is only available in Slimming World groups if you buy a 12-week countdown, so you can’t buy it in the shops. The book is called “Food Glorious Food” and contains recipes such as beef wellington, steak and kidney pie, fish and chips, London particular soup, Welsh onion cake, summer pudding and Pimms jellies.

 

The whole family can enjoy Slimming World food whether they need to lose weight or not – the recipes are filling, satisfying and tasty and there’s nothing to stop you from serving them with extra pasta or potatoes for someone who wants to eat more. This is not what you might think of as ‘diet food’!

 

 

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Win a Morphy Richards Elipta Traditional Kettle

 

It’s the weekend, and I’ve got a competition for you!

 

 

 

How many of you have the same morning routine I wonder? For me, switching the kettle on is the first thing I do when I go downstairs in the morning (closely followed by feeding the cat while the kettle is boiling). I won’t ask how often any of you descale your kettles (it tends to be something that slips my mind!), so wouldn’t it be nice to have a shiny new one?

 

This Morphy Richards Elipta Traditional Kettle will add a dash of colour to your kitchen, it’s made of durable stainless steel, has a 360 degree cordless base (and helpfully a removable limescale filter) – and one lucky winner can get their hands on one for free, thanks to the nice people at House of Fraser.

 

They have plenty of other kettles on their website as well if this particular one doesn’t take your fancy.

  

The competition is only open to entrants with a UK postal address and the prize will be sent out directly from House of Fraser.

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Cake Decorating Store Vintage Goodies Giveaway

I buy most of my cake decorating supplies online and am always interested in checking out different websites. I recently came across CakeDecoratingStore.co.uk - they have a great selection of products at very reasonable prices. One thing I particularly like about the site is that it lists cake decorating classes and courses all over the country which is a really useful resource. The website has other features like a cake portion calculator, so you can work out how many your cake will serve and there are loads of ideas and 'how to' guides, like how to make a sugarpaste giraffe. Overall I think the website is a great one-stop-shop to both buy your baking and cake decorating supplies and get ideas and learn new techniques.

CakeDecoratingStore.co.uk has given me a few of their products to give away to one lucky UK entrant, together worth over £20. All you need to do is fill in your details on the Rafflecopter widget below and there are various ways you can earn multiple entries into the competition.

The winner will receive:

• The Wilton baroque cake decorating mould, RRP £11.99.  This silicon mould features roses, leaves, hearts and border patterns and can be used with fondant, flower paste or marzipan or even chocolate. Perfect for vintage-themed cakes and cupcakes.

• A set of 13 vintage themed cardboard cake toppers including flowers, tea cups, a bow and a happy birthday banner, which you can use to create a tea party scene on a cake or decorate cupcakes. Each piece has a pointed pick at the bottom to easily insert into the cake. RRP £2.39.

•  The PME wavy line crimper (£3) - simply pinch together around the edge of a cake that has been covered in fondant to give a lovely wavy effect. You can adjust the size and pattern by moving the o-ring on the crimper. I used one of these on a cake decorating course to make this cake and thought it was great.

• Ivory floral cupcake cases, £2.10 - a pack of 50, good quality, in a pretty vintage design.

• Vintage style 'handmade with love' ribbon - 1 metre, 15mm width. This pretty ribbon can be used around a cake or to tie together little bags of edible gifts. RRP £1.19.

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French Glace Cherries Baking Set Giveaway

Earlier this year I took part in a cookery workshop with French glace cherries and made some lovely jaffa cakes and financiers. The nice people at French glace cherries have now offered me a great baking set to give away.

One lucky winner - UK entrants only, due to postal constraints - will receive:
- two packs of French glace cherries
- a set of kitchen scales
- an apron
- a kitchen timer
The products feature the French glace cherries logo.

To enter, all you need to do is enter your details on the Rafflecopter widget below, and there are various ways you can gain entries to the giveaway. The competition closes on August 3.


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Alphabakes Roundup - Q

It looks like the letter Q really had some of you stumped! Or perhaps like both me and my co-host Ros you were away on holiday in September and didn't have time to bake. It means there were fewer eligible entries for the great prize we had on offer as well, so scroll to the end to see who won the Hotel Chocolat giveaway!

Jacqueline kicked off the entries this month with a Queen of Puddings: a traditional British dessert with a milk and breadcrumb base, spread with jam then topped with meringue which is then cooked in the oven.

Elizabeth from Law Students Cookbook has taken the ingredients of s’mores – an American campfire snack consisting of graham crackers (digestive biscuits) and marshmallows, added banana – and turned it into bread! Her Banana S’More Quick Bread looks delicious and Elizabeth says it wasn’t too sweet.

Eira from Cook Books Galore says she enjoyed the chance to make something savoury, and sent us these Herb, Shallot and Cheese Quichettes. They are individual mini quiches baked in a puff pastry case and use herbs from Eira’s own garden.

 

I also made a Queen of Puddings, but as I don’t like jam I decided to substitute curd – and found a jar of lime curd in the supermarket which I’d never eaten before. It was delicious and not hard to make at all.

 I also don’t like quiche normally as there is too much egg, so I was intrigued when I found a recipe in a weight loss magazine for a smoked salmon and dill quiche that combined egg and soft cheese in the filling. It gave the quiche a lovely flavor and meant it wasn’t too ‘eggy’.

A lovely fruity entry here from Elizabeth of Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary  and an ingredient I hadn’t thought of – she made this Apple Cardamom Cake with Quince Frosting. Elizabeth says she hadn’t tried quince before so didn’t know what flavor to expect – see for yourself what she thinks. This is a great autumn bake.

Here’s another smoked salmon quiche, but this time with fennel and spinach, from Jean of Baking in Franglais. She says quiche is a great way to use up leftovers and she managed to avoid the infamous soggy bottom!

The Q ingredient in these Mini Bakewell Cheesecakes, from Laura of I’d Much Rather Bake Than

, is something I love- Quark. It’s a sort of curd cheese, that I first ate when I lived in Germany – it is popular there as a simple dessert sweetened with sugar and lemon juice. Quark is a very versatile ingredient though and I use it a lot these days as it’s free on Slimming World, in both sweet and savoury dishes. These cheesecakes look delicious and thanks to Laura for hopefully introducing some of you to a new ingredient!

 

My co-host Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker is off on holiday so only made one thing for this month’s challenge rather than her usual two or three! She has treated us to this Leek, Mushroom and Gruyere Quiche – the first time she has made quiche and she says pastry isn’t really her thing. I think this has turned out really well!

Clare thought of something that hadn’t occurred to me beginning with the letter Q, and made flapjacks using Quaker Oats – great idea! I love flapjacks but sometimes find they start to crumble when I slice them – these look like they held together really well.

Johanna from Green Gourmet Giraffe made these Quince and Walnut Garibaldi Biscuits, which were inspired by the TV show “Call the Midwife”; these biscuits were considered post-war treats, but I think they still taste good today!

  

A second entry from Jean at Baking in Franglais – and another outing for quince. She’s made these Quick Quince and Coconut Tartlets and funnily enough – given the previous entry- uses a 1940s cookbook for the recipe. Jean even used her mum’s bun tin to bake them in, which she says must be about 60 years old!

Silverbeet is an ingredient I didn’t think I was familiar with  - Mel atSharky Oven Gloves, who lives in New Zealand, has used it to make this Silverbeet and Feta Quiche. But according to Google, those of us in the UK would know it by the name of Swiss chard. Whatever it’s called, her quiche looks very tasty.

I was hoping someone would come up with a bake using quinoa and Sue from MainlyBaking did not let me down! She sent in this Quinoa and Hazelnut Cake; she says there were several stages and the cake took quite a long time to make but it wasn’t difficult. She added a chocolate fudge frosting – can I have a slice please?

A delicious savoury option from Fiona at Sweet Thing You Make My Heart Sing: she made these Quince and Camembert Flatbreads. I love cheese and something sharp to accompany it – in fact I’m sure I’ve seen quince jelly on a cheeseboard before – so these flatbreads are a great way to combine the two flavours.

Finally this month another Q idea from Vohn at Vohn’s Vittles – who I think might be a first time Alphabaker as well, so welcome! Here are some delicious Quesadillas – a toasted tortilla with melted cheese inside, though you  can add pretty much whatever filling you like. Vohn has used chilli, spring onions, tomato, coriander and prawns, which sounds fantastic. 

And the winner of these delicious salted caramel chocolate canapes from Hotel Chocolat is...

 
Jean of Baking in Franglais. Jean, please give us your (UK) address and the prize will be on its way! 

I can't wait to find out which letter we are baking with in October.... there aren't many left in the alphabet to choose from! Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker will have the announcement on October 1st.