STICKY TOFFEE AND APPLE TRIFLE

After the success of my Strawberry and Chocolate Trifle i thought i would attempt another variation of the classic trifle dessert and so was invented "Sticky Toffee and Apple Trifle" this week at Skylark Farm.
Break up some sticky toffee sponge and put in the base of your glass. You can find the recipe for the sponge here . If you dont want to make the sponge then purchase some Jamaican Ginger Cake as that would taste great in it's place.

Chop a couple of cooking apples and put in a saucepan and cook til soft, then spoon over the sponge pieces.

Cover the apple mixture with my homemade toffee sauce, recipe can be found here

Leave to cool and set in the fridge. When set, pipe some whipped cream on the top,& maybe sprinkle some chocolate shavings for effect

All that's left now is to eat and enjoy!!

I'm entering this post in the weekly Handmade Monday link party over at Handmade Harbour.

 Pop over to see what other clever crafters have been up to this week.

HANDMADE PIE PRIDE

I never intended to become a chef when i was younger. Infact, i got unclassified in my cookery O level at school and trained as a nanny at college before realising that children actually really annoyed me!!!
To me, nowadays ,my job cooking is as much a handmade craft as is my hobby of sewing. Each dish i create contains as much passion, time and patience as any other craft.
Over the years my forte has become Handmade Pies. Infact it was one of my steak and ale pies that secured my job as head chef at Skylark Farm last year!!
So imagine my sense of pride this week when a lady popped into the cafe asking for 8 pies to take home to Oxfordshire with her and would pop into the local town to kill time whilst i cooked them for her.
And then, the following day, a very posh lady from the village came to see me with 2 large dishes. She was having a dinner party and could i make her 2 large pies , enough to feed 9 guests!
For me that was the best praise for my work that anyone could give and i was truely proud.

I now produce several pies per week for our farm shop.
Below are a batch of Chicken, Bacon and Leek straight from the oven. If you look closely you will see i even put a pastry chicken shape on top of each one.

And here are a batch of Steak and Ale. Look closely and see the pastry cow shape on!

So that's my week, now pop over to Handmade Monday blog hop to see what other passionate crafters have been up to this week

STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE TRIFLE

It's that time of year again for tennis, strawberries and rain!!!
I have only been to Wimbledon once in my life and that was 28 years ago in my final days of school. I remember it well though. The sun shone and it was a scorcher. I wore sunglasses all day and ended up with a big ribbing from class mates for having "panda" eyes and we all got star struck seeing Cliff Richard watch Sue Barker play.

Ahh the good ole days! 

Nowadays I dont tend to take much interest in sport tho still enjoy a lovely bowl of strawberries and cream in summer.

This week one of our customers treated us to some strawberries that she had picked from a local farm. Sam said to me could i make something wonderful with them!! I dont quite know about wonderful but i could definately make something!

Just by chance we had made a chocolate sponge the day before that had broken in half as we tried to wrap it. So i broke it further into chunky pieces and put in the bottom of a sundae glass.

I then sliced the strawberries and put on top.

I  melted 200g plain chocolate in a pan and  slowly stirred in 150ml boiling water and 3 tbsps strawberry jam. Once all combined i poured over my strawberry/sponge and filled the glass. I put them to cool and set in the fridge.

When they had set i piped on some stiffly whisked double cream and sprinkled with chocolate shavings.

Comment of the day today from a customer was that "the trifle was to die for!"  How chuffed was i!!!

I'm entering this post into handmade monday blog link, why dont you pop along for a great read and creative inspiration!

Thanks for popping by.