Golden Syrup Cake

We set out to make a ginger cake, but ran in to difficulties when we couldn't find Black Treacle, dark brown sugar or stem ginger in syrup. On top of which, we managed to buy castor sugar instead of icing sugar (surely sucre poudre sounds like powdered or icing sugar!!). 

We were determined to make a cake anyway and I invented to use what we had (a lot of Golden Syrup).

This recipe is based on a top secret family recipe called '4 to 2 to 2 to 1 cake' which has been passed mother to daughter for generations. Doug insisted we had to go metric though...

Doug says it is the best cake he has been involved in making (although he also claims it is the only one...)

It made a good birthday cake

Original 4 to 2 to 2 to 1 recipe

Ingredients

4oz Self Raising Flour

2oz Butter

2oz White Sugar

1 egg

Some milk if required

Anything else you fancy like sultanas, mixed spice, ground ginger, cherries, chocolate drops, icing etc

Salt

Method

Cream butter and sugar together 

Mix in egg (it goes lumpy) 

Mix in flour (add milk if seems too stiff). 

Put in cake tin or individual cake cases and cook at 175 C until brown on top and a skewer comes out clean

Golden Syrup 'tastic recipe

Ingredients

225g Self raising flour (we actually used plan and added 4 tsp baking powder)

112g Butter

100g Soft Brown Sugar

2 eggs

Some raisins (ginger pieces would be nice too)

4 tsp ground ginger

200g Golden Syrup (or more if you want)

Salt

For icing

Caster sugar

Juice of half a lemon

Juice and zest of half an orange

Method

Melt together syrup, butter and sugar over low heat

Put dry ingredients in a bowl and add eggs then stir in the melted mixture

Put in a cake tin (8x8 inches for flat thin cake or we used a bread tin for 500g loaves, there needs to be some headroom for the cake rising) and bake at 170 until skewer comes out clean (approx 40 - 60 mins depending on dimensions of tin) 

If the cake seems to be getting very browned put some baking foil over the top

Make drizzle or 'icing' by putting lemon and orange juice and zest in to a bowl and adding castor sugar until it is quite thick but by no means solid.

Once the cake is cooled a bit drizzle the icing over and eat warm.

40 today!! How did that happen??

The big four oh has clearly prompted a mid life crisis which explains why we are in Chamonix...

Intensive mid life crisis therapy

Thanks to everyone for texts and emails (and thanks to parents for giving me such a memorable birth date... and for many other things too of course...)

Things you can't buy in France

There are a number of things that we *can't live without* that aren't readily available in France eg Lyons Golden Syrup, Marmite, Tabasco Sauce, Sunpat Peanut Butter and Cadbury's Hot Chocolate. In Chamonix they are all available on the 'English shelf' in a number of the supermarkets however they are very expensive and only available occasionally, so we need to a.) work out how to make our own b.) find a substitute c.) live without or d.) hope for care packages from home

Golden Syrup - a.) - Recipe here
Peanut butter - a.) - planning on making when we have a blender
Tabasco sauce - a.) - planning on making when we have a blender
Hot Chocolate b.)/d.) - will try some of the French ones but having tried in the past none are quite as good, maybe it is a matter of practice.
Marmite - d.) - no idea of recipe, I think it is a closely guarded secret, hard to imagine substitute

Golden Syrup Recipe

We found this tastes a bit different to 'real' golden syrup - which is made as a by product of refining cane sugar rather than by partially inverting refined sugar. But it is pretty tasty. We are thinking about trying again with brown sugar and using citric acid instead of lemon as there is a slight lemony flavour to this batch, we think because the zest went in there on the slice of lemon.


Ingredients
For caramelised sugar
100g sugar
25 ml water

For the main syrup
500g Sugar
300 ml water
1 slice lemon

Instructions
Put the ingredients for the main syrup in a pan and boil slowly

While it is boiling make the caramelised sugar by putting the sugar and water in to a small pan and heating without stirring until the mixture starts to brown (about 8-10 mins probably), when this happens swirl in the pan slowly so it doesn't burn, continue heating until a dark gold colour is reached (a little bit darker than the finished product is going to be but don't burn).

Add this to the main pan and continue to heat this until the mixture reaches a temperature of 110 degrees (or a little higher if you want the syrup stiffer). Probably about 40 - 60 mins

Put in to glass jars while hot (if it is too runny when it cools just heat for a little longer)

Feeding the Birds

Something we have been looking forward to about moving out of London is having somewhere to feed the birds, I have spent some time trying to get a good photo of one on the feeder

There were a lot like this

But finally got a good one of a Crested Tit

Thanks for the feeder Janet!! (the sunflower hearts didn't make it out here yet...)

Doug's bread

C'est super n'est pas?

We made beer last week and kept some of the yeast from the bottom of the barrel. We made bread there and then with some of it and fed the rest with flour and water so keep it alive.

Doug made his first loaf of bread with it - it came out awesome!!

The yeast

Ingredients 

500g strong white flour

Warm water

Yeast (about 1/4-1/2 cup of starter depending how fast you want it to rise or 7g dried yeast

1 tsp salt

Instructions

Put flour and salt in a bowl

Add the yeast

Add sufficient water to make a sticky dough

Leave for about an hour

Knead until dough is smooth and springy sprinkling on flour as necessary to stop sticking

Shape the dough by tucking the sides underneath to create ball shape of if using a tin a shape similar to the tin

Place on backing tray or in tin and cover with oiled clingfilm

Cooking

When the dough has risen to twice it's original size back in a hot oven for about 30 mins or until well browned. Turn the oven down a bit if it seems to be browning too fast.

Leave to cool a bit before cutting and eating

Day in the Grands Montets

We had a lovely day in the sun with Sarah, it was WARM. We took it quite leisurely with a few sit downs in the sun to admire the view but managed to cover a fair amount of ground anyway.
At the end of the day we came down a gully under the Plan Joran chair lift. It is reasonably steep - something that photos always fail to do credit to.

Red - The route

Doug setting off 

Rhoda and Sarah on way down

View from near the bottom