An Elastic Waistband Cake Recipe

Hazelnut and Chocolate Cake

If you like 'fluffy' and/or light cakes - you'd better give this one a miss… This one's moist and chunky!

Serves 8… (well about 4 in our case!)…

Ingredients:-

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140g (5oz) skinned Hazelnuts

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3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

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1 Tablespoon of Black & Green's Drinking Chocolate Powder

(optional…I added this because I like my chocolate chocolatey!)...

in any case an extra spoon of cocoa powder shouldn't do any harm!

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60g (2 oz) Plain Flour

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30g (1 oz) Self Raising Flour

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185g (6 oz) Soft Brown Sugar

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250g (9 oz) Unsalted Butter, softened

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4 Eggs, separated

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icing sugar for dusting.

Method:-

Toast the Hazelnuts under a hot grill… turning/shaking etc., so that they 'toast' all round and don't burn. Leave them to cool, then put them in a food processor and blitz down to visible bits NOT too fine or they will become oily… You can instead chop them by hand with a sharp knife. Transfer to a bowl with the cocoa powder and the sifted flours… Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C…(350 degrees F/Gas 4)

Beat together the sugar and the butter until very creamy. Add the egg yolks one at a time - mixing well after each addition. Add the hazelnut/cocoa mixture and stir well. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry glass bowl until soft peaks form then fold into the mixture. Pour into an 8 inch sprung cake tin which has had a quick wipe round with butter or margarine. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer or knife blade inserted into the centre comes out clean. Rest for 15 minutes… then having released the cake from the tin allow it to cool on a wire rack… Dust with icing sugar before serving…

It's especially nice with a blob of Creme Fréche or Greek Yoghurt .

Finding my feet... or is it wings?

I found myself writing this piece of prose/poem about 'what comes next' back in 2008 after the passing of a friend's daughter... Vicky, a life cut tragically short. I'm not a religious person, but feel (and certainly after experiences since my dad passed on) that there is an energy... that those who 'no longer live here with us' can control and are capable of using when their mood - or the happenings here with us tell them that we need a reminder about them... a bit of spiritual guidance maybe... I sent it to Vicky's folks in the hope that it may be read at her funeral in New Zealand... I read it myself at Terry, a cousin's, funeral in Yorkshire and also sent it to a friend, Malcolm, down in Cornwall after his partner/soulmate, Teri passed on in 2010. If anyone wishes to 'adopt' this and to change the lines which are personal to those who have 'moved on', then I would be very pleased - especially if it provides comfort.

Don't be frightened if you hear me at the door...or even see me at the window.

Pretend it's a trick of the light...or another one of those bumps in the night.

The spirit is strong and, I'm finding, quite playful in its first few days, weeks and - maybe months...

whilst waiting for another 'mission'.

You know...finding my feet - or is it wings?

But I'm not likely to phone and I doubt I'll e-mail. Texting? Well personally I was never that big a fan.

All that predictive stuff...If I was too quick it would end up nonsense...all wrong.

But I will be sending messages through the wind in the trees or maybe the surf on the rocks and sand.

Wherever we walked together listen out for me. I've always felt that I'd be able to do that.

You know...finding my feet - or will it be wings?

And always, from now on...help spiders out with a glass and a card...take care not to squash their legs.

You never know what happens next. And, another time (well into the future I hope) it could be you.

Although - I always fancied I would come back a human - like this last time round. Being me was good.

And they say that...out there...you know...you go back to the time when you were at your best.

For me that means being young, running, jumping - fresh faced...thirty-ish. Definitely...fit...Before IT...

You know...finding my feet or wings.

You may think you see me out - in a crowd, or walking along a country lane... incongruously between towns.

I'm already working at appearing for longer and for being more than just a fleeting scent or smell.

But, until I get the calling to make a full life of it again...I'll maybe pop in and out of your life.

Just in an incidental, experimental kind of way and then only from time to time. It's quite tiring...

You know...finding my feet...my wings!

Ginger & Apple Cake

(photo to come the next time I make it!)

5.5 oz Butter

6 oz Soft Brown Sugar

2 Tablespoons of Black Treacle

8 oz Plain Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger

2 Teaspoons Bicarb

5 fl oz Milk

1 Beaten Egg

2 Apples (use Bramleys) peeled, chopped and sprinkled with lemon juice (not essential - like... don't rush out to the shops if you don't have any).

OVEN 160 • Use a 10" Round or 9" square tin

Melt butter, sugar and treacle together and leave to cool.... Sieve flour, bicarb and baking powder, ginger...Stir in milk, egg and cooled liquid and apples. Spoon into tin... Cook for 1 Hour at 160... Knife test after 50 minutes

You can serve this warm as a pudding with Creme Fraiche, Greek Yoghurt, Double Cream or Ice Cream... or, in my case, all 4! Well at least two!!

A Musical Weekend in the Sun (with the odd shower)

About 3 months ago I booked tickets for the London Feis in Finsbury Park, North London... It's rare I would go to something like this, some 50 acts over a two day period...It's what, financially, we would call (including a hotel for 2 nights) an arm and a leg job! Naturally I've been to a few good gigs - maybe peaking with Bruce Springsteen a couple of times in Paris and also him and the Killers at a lovely little festival in Brittany... the festival of the 'old cart' or something. I often think they could do with a bit of marketing help - but not a two day festival. But... I had been listening to www.lastfm.com which is my regular all day long music 'fix'...and they have this neat link for when people are on tour...you can check who's appearing where... And I was listening to Gaslight Anthem and clicked the 'on tour' button. Before I picked up on the Gaslight Anthem on 'last' I had never heard of them and so I didn't realise they were popular enough to hold the main stage at a major festival (what do I know?). Anyway I was able to check the lineup at the Feish. I was astounded. There was hardly an act on there that wasn't already on my playlist on 'last' (OK then stages one and two)...Even without the headline acts, Bob Dylan and Van Morrison it was a very worthy show. I thought "in for a penny"... I remember being amazed that it seemed a lot of money I was spending on the tickets but then I thought - to hell with it - something hideous could happen tomorrow... Just do it! Well, it wasn't quite the next day but two weeks later....on April 29th I had a heart attack!

Fortunately I was dealt with by that team of angels we all moan about in the British National Health Service... and so, come the time to join the other 45,000 festival goers I was well up for it...

First of all... Vince (That's the organiser) where were the big screens?

The weather on the first day wasn't very inspiring and it was definitely 'wellies win the day!' But the crowd was friendly (mostly Irish you see) and so warm they turned the rain to steam! It was a terrific weekend...

Paul Brady: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzW6RQ-5jqM&feature=related

The Waterboys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoGbbKV0hUU

Sharon Shannon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHjbY-LxNw&feature=related

The Undertones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAtUw6lxcis

Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64c3dSy-7N0&feature=related

Horslips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozo1UiH1qA0

Nancy Griffith http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnMajQgYgqo&feature=related

Foy Vance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL8A-b9XZaI

Foy Vance does some sampling and sequencing when he kicks off some of his songs and builds a fantastic music bed within the first minute of each one...within just a few seconds he builds up to sounding like a whole band... Absolutely magnificent!...My personal favourites:- Foy Vance (he's gonna be really famous), Sharon Shannon (so passionate about her music) and Paul Brady (we chose to listen to this guy over Van(short change) Morrison and...it was a good decision)... I'm not so sure we missed anything earth shattering. We've seen him quite a few times and if it's one of his 'headache nights' it's too late... Paul Brady was great. His song, The Island, is magnificent. We saw, but not under brilliant circumstances, Nancy Griffith perform a couple of songs. Poor thing, she must have thought it was all her birthdays come at once because, just as she began her set, the marquee, which would probably hold a thousand people, suddenly filled to capacity - there was almost a rush. We were already standing inside the outer edge by 'the door' (I just love two of her tracks... Speed of the Sound of Loneliness & Late Night - Grande Hotel) and she was singing the first one as we made our way in....when a surge of extra people loaded the tent up as if it would burst... a deluge as the clouds had just opened up had caused a stampede for shelter away from the main open air stage

Anyway, away from the music, I have made a resolution (and it isn't even new year)...based on having had a heart attack and coming out of the other side OK... What my Ma used to call 'shit or bust'... And my dad used to nod philosphically in agreement and say..."She's right you know... There's no pockets in a shroud"!

So, we are going to do stuff that previously we might have just mused over and allowed to pass over us in a 'that would have been nice' kind ofway... Or say... 'there certainly isn't time for that'! Well not any more.

What's next? Well I'm thinking that maybe in September we'll be flying up to the Highlands of Scotland and picking up a camper van (RV) and driving along the shores of Loch Ness and along the Caledonian Canal to the west coast.

Wish us luck!