Passion Fruit Posset

With the sight of summer ever closer, the meals get lighter and fresher. The heavy casserole and soup recipes, gradually get pushed to the back of the recipe books. The salad recipes become more used, the desserts become less chocolate and sponge based, and more fresh fruit based. Its also the time i start using all the tropical fruit that i love: I could never tire of eating mango and passion fruit!!

If you had to pick a fancy dessert, that seemed really difficult, but isn't, then a posset would definitely be it. Having grown up watching my mum do a lemon version every time she invited people over, there was no doubt in my mind, that it was easy, and super delicious. With my recent craziness over passion fruit (you'll understand in a few posts), it seemed like an obvious choice to combine the two!! Plus, i had a dinner party that i was cooking for, so it was an obvious choice, as these can easily be made a day or two ahead.

Serve them in individual pots, topped of with extra passion fruit. Serve them with crisp coconut biscuits (recipe coming soon!!!). If you wanted to add another element, top with small cubes of mango, and sprigs of mint for extra colour.

Ingredients

600ml double cream

120g caster sugar

6 passion fruit

1 lime

coconut biscuits to serve, optional

1. Put the cream and sugar, into a saucepan. Gently heat up until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil, and reduce to a simmer for 3 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, scoop out the pulp from 5 passion fruit, and pass through a sieve. I prefer to blitz the pulp, for a couple of seconds, so the juice separates from the seeds better.

3. once the cream has simmered, take off the heat and stir in the passion fruit juice and lime juice.

4. allow to cool slightly, before pouring into ramekins. chill for 4-6 hrs or overnight

5.  to serve, spoon over the flesh from the leftover passion fruit. Serve with coconut biscuits, if wished.

Lemon, Almond and Polenta Cake

With summer on its way...Hopefully. I start using lemon, in a whole lot more recipes. This is just the start of it, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look on it. This cake is one of my new favourites,as its so moist and it's really lemony, unlike some recipes which lack flavour, unless accompanied with lemon icing, but this isn't one of them.

I also love almonds, so this cake was right up my street. I have also used polenta in the past in cakes see here, and love the unusual crunchy texture it gives. I also love how this cake is gluten free, so I can eat as much as I like without getting a sore tummy.

Serve at afternoon tea, or as a easy summer dessert. Personally, i would chose the dessert option with greek yogurt, or if your feeling really fancy dollop on creme fraiche, sprinkle on thyme, or lemon thyme if your really trying to impress someone.

Ingredients

200g butter
200g caster sugar
200g almond flour
100g polenta 
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 lemons
125g icing sugar

1. preheat the oven to 180 °/ gas 4.
2. beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
3. in a separate bowl mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder
4. beat in a little of the dry mix into the butter and sugar, followed by one egg
5. add the rest in, alternating between egg and the dry mix, finally beat in the lemon zest
6. place into your prepared tin, and into the oven for 40 mins, or until golden, and coming away from the sides
7. meanwhile, make the syrup: mix together the lemon juice and icing sugar, bring to the boil in a small saucepan (or in the microwave, until the sugar has dissolved.
8. once the cakes done, prick with a cake tester, pour over the syrup whilst the cakes are still hot. leave to cool fully in the tin
9. when cool, serve with greek yogurt and thyme if wished

March Favourites 2015

I thought i would switch up the content on my blog a bit. Starting with endless posts starting with" where has that month gone"; Except maybe not this one, it went pretty fast i suppose; but i was doing work experience this month, which meant waking up at 4:10, (that's no typo unfortunately) so the days did tend to drag a bit.

1. Clinique moisturiser : An oldie, but a goodie. The original was my first ever moisturiser, and i loved it, but i thought it was a bit expensive, as i was so young. I then tried the new formula when it came out, and loved it even more, but put off buying another bottle for quite a while, but I'm so glad i bought it again, as it makes a visible difference to my skin.

2. Spring Flowers: Don't look so pretty. I love spending time in the garden admiring them, just because they are so pretty. Spring is definitely my favourite season because of the flowers, not mentioning the sun these past few days.

3. E45 hand cream: My life saver. Without this, I'm pretty sure my hands would have bled. The detergent for cleaning at work experience, ruined my hands. This eased my pain, and repaired my hands each night, before they started stinging again.

4: Chocolate Easter eggs: I just to add these in; One, Lindt is my favourite chocolate, and two, i love how pretty they are with metallic foil, and Easter is all about chocolate. Right?

5. Pretty honest, Sali Hughes:My favourite thing. I finally caved and bought it, I'm so glad i did. Its a bible for beauty, anything i don't know about i look it up in here, and will most definitely find what I'm looking for. Even if your obsessed with makeup, and think you know most things about makeup, don't say you do until you've read this book. Plus, its a great coffee table book.

 What things have you been loving this month? Let me know.