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.

The Malteser Tree

I'm rather proud of my youngest son.
He's one of those kids that excels in everything he does,and he DOES everything! Football,rugby,saxaphone, clarinet,golf,pool,snooker,fishing,scouts, to mention but a few.
 He also knows you have to work hard for things and since January has washed the plates and pots on a Saturday at Skylark Farm to earn his own money. Here he is on the right of the photo with one of my chefs.

Today he even came the other side of the kitchen as we were short staffed and i taught him the basics so he could help out.

So in the week when he asked me to help him make a malteser tree, similar to one my sister had made me at christmas,as a gift for his English teacher, who was leaving, i was happy to help.

We started with a terracotta pot and filled it with melted chocolate and put a stick in the middle topped with a polystyrene ball and left it to set.

We then poured some melted chocolate on the ball and stuck maltesers on it.

We carried on until the ball was covered.

We colured some fondant icing orange and green and made lots of flowers.

Which we stuck between the maltesers.

I tied some ribbon around the stick for decoration.

Made a gift tag.

And the end result, a gorgeous Malteser Tree.

His English teacher was extremely "touched" by the gesture and loved it.

I'm entering this post in this weeks Handmade Monday which can be found on Handmade Harbour blog organised by Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts.

 I'm off there now to see what other crafters have been up to this week.

 

Linked Also on Foodie Friday and Everything Else  

The Finishing Touch

Often we can spend hours preparing food for guests but it can be a garnish that can really make the end result look quite spectacular. Today i'm demonstrating two such ways of wowing your dinner guests.

How To Make An Apple Swan

Take your apple and slice off the bottom 1/4. Leave to one side for later.

Sit your apple on it's now flat base and cut two wedges from each side of the apple making sure you leave a center strip about 1 centimeter wide.

From each wedge, cut another wedge.

Repeat this process again and sit them all inside each other and slide out.





From your center strip use a pointed edged knife to cut out a small rectangle.

Using the original 1/4, that you cut off the bottom slice, off the rounded end.

This is the tricky part. From your apple circle cut out the shape of a swan's neck.

Use a small piece of the red to make an eye.

Insert your swan's "neck" into the rectangular hole you made in the center strip of the apple and place wedges back where originally cut from.

And there you go an Apple Swan.

To keep from discolouring, spray with a solution of lemon and water.

How To Make A Tomato Rose

Using a sharp knife gently slice into the base of your tomato.

Without tearing the skin continue cutting round and round the tomato to form a long strip.

Start to curl the end round.

Keep winding round until it sits in the round base.

Cut semi circles of cucumber to sit at the base to look like leaves.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and give it a go yourself.

I'm entering this post in the Handmade Monday blog hop organised by Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts. Pop along to see what other crafters have been up to this week.

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Whoopie Pies

Today i am writing this post as an entry for a brilliant Monday Blog Hop for crafters called HANDMADE MONDAY which is organised weekly by Wendy of 1stunique gifts. This hop is now in week 41 and is a good way of directing traffic to your blog and also to see what other crafters get up to each week.
This is my first entry as Chef At Skylark but some of you visiting may know me from my other sewing blog Dreamstar Diary which, unfortunately, i am needing to take a short break from at present whilst preparing for my new job in the farm cafe. More details about my job can be found at http://chefatskylarkfarmhousecafe.blogspot.com/2011/10/welcome-to-skylark-farm.html

So for now let's talk about WHOOPIE PIES
When Sam (my boss) asked me to make Whoopie Pies my reply was "what on earth are whoopie pies?" She replied that they were the new craze. Two round cake-like biscuits sandwiched together by a creamy marshmallow filling.
So home to the computer i went to do some research. First i searched recipes and found this one
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cakes%20and%20Baked%20Fayre/Whoopie%20Pies.htm
My first attempt came out lovely but i hadnt made the filling stiff enough so as you bit into them the marshmallow oozed out the sides with nothing left once you reached the center.




So next attempt i whisked the filling for longer and then scoured Flickr photo sharing site to see how other peoples attempts turned out! It's a great site for inspiration it really is.
I made them smaller this time and split the mixture into 3 and coloured it red and yellow and in the yellow ones i added some fresh lemon juice.
And here they are drizzled with melted chocolate and dusted with icing sugar.



And just as finished all my research i saw an advert for a new Betty Crocker packet mix for Whoopie Pies!
Thanks for popping by and maybe i will see you at Handmade Monday again x