River Cafe Risotto Milanese

Risotto is one of those dishes that I have always struggled with. The same could be said for rice in general. It seems to be my downfall. Last year I tried a Sausage, Red Wine and Broad Bean Risotto, which was the most successful that I'd been but it was far from traditional. It was time to take it back to basics and learn from the best. Recently having purchased the original River Cafe Cook Book from a charity shop, we have been working our way through Italian classics. I am now in love with the idea of spending a summer in Italy, exploring different pizzas, pastas and wine and pottering round on a Vespa in a white sundress. Finally, I have discovered why risotto is so often raved about. The Risotto alla Milanese is a rich, creamy and satisfying dish and although it does take a lot of love and attention to achieve, the finished result is well worth the effort.  

Risotto alla Milanese 

from The River Cafe Cook Book

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
300g Arborio or Carnaroli Rice
1 litre Chicken Stock
150g Butter
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 White Onion, peeled and finely chopped
75ml Dry White Wine
175g Parmesan, freshly grated

Method

Heat the chicken stock. 

Melt 75g of the butter and all the oil in a large saucepan. 

Gently fry the onion until soft. 

Add the rice, and off the heat, stir until the rice becomes totally coated; this takes only a minute. 

Return to the heat, add 1 cup of hot stock and simmer, stirring, until the rice has absorbed nearly all the liquid. 

Add the saffron. 

Continue to add more stock as the previous addition is absorbed. 

Nearly all the stock will have been absorbed by the rice; each grain should have a creamy coating and yet still be al dente. 

Add remaining butter in small pieces, the wine and the parmesan, being careful not to overstir. 

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

It seems that I have gone a little crazy for raspberries this month. They're not even in season. But if you bake them into treats then who's to know! It's also been a bit of a stressful month so far - a month of change and hard work. Naturally, I fall to baking to act as stress relief. After a particularly harrowing day yesterday, I not only prepped and cooked chicken livers for dinner (59 pence! How could I say no?) but crafted a batch of these raspberry strewn lovelies. As far as baking goes, these are very straight forward. Using only 40 minutes in total (25 of these are spent in the oven), it will be no time before you bite into a warm, gooey treat for the most depressing month of the year.  For those afraid of cream cheese, give these a try. You'll be surprised by how much you enjoy it.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

NB: Raspberries can be replaced with any other berry of choice.

Ingredients

100g Soft Cheese

250g Caster Sugar

175g Raspberries

200g Plain Flour

2tsp Baking Powder

2 Eggs

75ml Oil 

1tsp Vanilla Extract

A pinch of Salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C or 170C (fan oven) and line your muffin/cupcake tin with cases. You could also use a flat baking tray.

Beat the soft cheese with 25g of sugar and pop in the fridge for later.

In a small saucepan, heat the raspberries with another 25g of sugar and bash together until they form a coulis like consistency. Try to be uneven in your smooshing as a few bigger bits of berry are lovely. Put to one side to cool.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, baking powder and a pinch of salt. 

Add the eggs, oil, vanilla and stir together thoroughly or use a beater on a very slow speed. Stir through the raspberry mixture. Don't worry if your mixture looks a bit odd and lumpy.

Fill each case to about 2/3 and plop a teaspoon of the soft cheese mixture into the middle of each. Use your finger to push down gently. 

Bake for 25 minutes or until risen and golden brown.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Who says vegan baking can't be awesome? This is a great chocolate cupcake recipe with no dairy products and a little fruit surprise in the middle. This recipe is converted from a US version so apologies for the strangely accurate measurements. You can also use the recipe for a normal vegan chocolate cake rather than cupcakes. Just use sandwich tins or a spring-form cake tin.

Cake Ingredients

384g Plain Flour

6 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (I recommend Green and Blacks)

2 tsp Baking Powder

400g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Salt

10 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp White Vinegar

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

473ml Water

1 Fresh Raspberry for each cake you bake

Chocolate Frosting

6 Tbsp Pure Vegan Spread

2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder

100g Icing Sugar

Preheat your oven to 170C. 

Take a bix mixing bowl and add all of your dry ingredients. Mix them all together.

Make a well and add the liquid ingredients.

Whizz together with an electric whisk.

Pour the mixture into your cupcake cases and into the middle of each cake, place your fresh raspberry.

Bake for 25 minutes. 

To test if they are done, skewer the middle and it should come out clean.

Leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack.

Take another mixing bowl and add the vegan spread. Whisk until light and fluffy.

Add the cocoa and icing sugar (adding more if not thick enough) and whisk until combined.

Once the cakes have cooled, pipe or spread the buttercream on top and enjoy!

Wilcox Wedding Cakes

On a side note: Puddings and Pies is now on Facebook! Please take a moment to like this page here.

Last month I undertook my first ever wedding order. 60 cupcakes, half of which were to be vegan, alongside appropriate decoration and cake toppers.

We opted for Stem Ginger cakes with Lemon and Honey Buttercream and Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream and a Fresh Raspberry Center.

I will be posting the recipes for these later on, but for now let me just leave you with some pictures of the display.

I'm available for any function or party, just send me an email at georgie.wishart@gmail.com

Dorset Apple Cake with a Plum Jam Glaze

I found out at an early age that my name, Georgina, means 'girl of the farm'. I also come from Dorset. This means that I occasionally get teased about my southern, farmer nature. When I find my farmer-esque accent slipping in to my daily speech, I panic and run and hide from my heritage. But today I'm celebrating Dorset! It's a beautiful county with so many things going for it. One of which is the Dorset Apple Cake. 

My dad and his girlfriend have an apple tree in their garden and recently gave me a large bag of apples to use up. What better way then to stick them all in a cake? Then eat the cake. The glaze is another creation of leftovers, as I had some leftover cider from my cassoulet and half a jar of plum jam looking a bit lonely in the fridge.

Dorset Apple Cake with a Plum Jam Glaze

Recipe adapted from Delicious Magazine 

This is a great cake to be eaten while it's still warm, so don't wait to tuck in!

Ingredients

For the cake:

225g butter, softened

450g apples

1 lemon - zest and juice

225g caster sugar

3 large eggs

225g self-raising flour

2tsp baking powder

25g ground almonds

Demerara sugar for topping

For the Glaze

3 tbsp Plum Jam

50ml Dry Cider (Optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Grease a springform cake tin and line with baking paper.

Peel, core and cut the apples into small pieces and toss with the lemon juice.

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a bowl until fluffy.

Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, adding a little flour with each addition to keep the mixture smooth.

Sift the remaining flour and the baking powder into the bowl and fold in with the ground almonds.

Drain the apple pieces well and then stir into the mixture.

Pour into the cake tin and level the mixture.

Cover the top with demerara sugar.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until well-risen and brown. To test, poke a skewer into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean then it's ready! If the cake is browning too much, make it a hat out of baking paper to protect the top.

Whilst the cake is cooking, melt the jam and cider together in a small saucepan. Leave this to cool and  set.
Once the cake is out, leave it to cool in the tin for ten minutes.

Remove the cake from it's tin and pop onto a plate. Use a pasty brush to cover in the jam glaze.

Halloween at the Wishart-Whites

Halloween is a weird one. I enjoy fancy dress, I enjoy holidays in general... But there is a very British part of me that think it is ridiculous and commercialized. This year we are living in a big family neighborhood,  so the prospect of trick or treaters was high. Rob and I unfortunately disagreed on how to deal with trick or treaters. Rob would rather scare the living daylights out of any approaching customers, whereas I would love to pander to little kids in cute costumes. I would never let my own children go trick or treating as I would ask myself 'Why should strangers be required to provide sweets for my children?!'. In any case, a holiday is a holiday and that means an excuse for including food in some way. So I cooked a menagerie of halloween treats, we turned out the lights and partook in a blu-ray viewing of Cabin in the Woods.

Firstly, I baked a batch of devil's food cake cupcakes. The recipe for which can be found here. To make them halloweeny, I scooped out a hole in the middle of the cake and filled it with chocolate buttercream. I then covered the cake in buttercream for frosting. I then crushed a packet of bourbon biscuits (or you could use oreos) and dipped the cakes into the mix. This created an earth like texture. Finally I stuck a gruesome but tasty worm in the top! 

Continuing the theme, I created a spooky halloween cocktail consisting of red grape juice, apple juice, ginger beer and black food colouring.

For the main course, we enjoyed a 'Cauldron Curry'! A scarily healthy take on the thai green curry with chicken and loads of green veggies. This was a Martha Stewart recipe that can be found here!