Magnificent Vintage Mondays @ The Little and Bath's first vintage/retro night market, starting April 2nd 5pm-9pm

21/02/12

Hello all!

Re: Bath’s first Vintage/Retro night market,

 in conjunction with ‘Vintage Mondays’ @ The Little Theatre Cinema, Bath

(starting April 2nd 5pm-9pm).

For the last 5 weeks, The Little have been hosting ‘Vintage Mondays’ – they have been great fun and really successful, but we’re changing the way things work so that we can make them even bigger and better!

As of Monday 2nd April, The Little will hold ‘Vintage Mondays’ in the cinema, and the ‘St Michael’s Centre’ next door will be hired for a vintage/retro night market! (It’s a great vintage location with tea/coffee making facilities, toilets and a beautiful bay window.)

This means that you can get dolled up, potter around the market, have a vintage make-over, head in to The Little to see a film (with old-fashioned uniforms, usherettes and intervals) and then pop back into the market for tea/coffee and cakes! What an evening!

There is currently space for 10 stalls, each pitch having space for one large ‘catering’ type table (c. 2 meters) and space in front to provide depth to your stall. The market itself will run from 5pm-9pm for the public, but is open from 4-5pm for setting up, and 9pm-10pm for clearing away.

Although there is no parking, there is space for unloading to the left of The Little (next to the Thermae Spa) – so after unloading, you will have to find a space to park your car for the evening.

The pitches are currently only £6 each for our first market, which is an extremely competitive price, and although subsequent stalls may be priced slightly higher, we aim to keep each pitch around £10 or under.

We are looking for a range of vintage and retro stalls from the 20s, right through to the 70s, hopefully with a range or clothing/accessories, ceramics, glassware, bric-a-brac, fabric, kitchenalia, books, jewellery and small furniture pieces. (A selection and variety you’d normally expect at a vintage/retro market.)

If you are at all interested in booking a stall, or know someone who might be, please do not hesitate to contact me.

NB. We may also need a couple of volunteers on the night to serve tea/coffee and cakes – so if that sounds like something you’d like to do to get into the vintage/retro scene and meet the guys at The Little, please give me a buzz!

Cheers, Ruth
(I am an employee of The Little but will also be a stallholder on the night – a good ‘go-between’!)

• Missdelectablecollectable@gmail.com
• 07921 219090


• www.facebook.com/delectablecollectable

(Visit my site as I’ll have a stall there, with ‘delectable’ wheat-free goodies and ‘collectable’ ceramics!)

A-Z of miss dc's collection (for sale)

Most of what I collect and sell is made in England, but as my interests, knowledge and collections grow, I have included some pottery from Wales, Germany. Japan, Portugal, Sweden and France................

A - Alfred Meakin, Avon Ware, Arthur Wood, Abaty pottery (Wales)
B - Biltons
C -
D - Devonstone, Denby
E - Elizabethan
F - Falcon ware (SylvaC)
G - Granville. Gien (French)
H - Hornsea, Hillstonia, H&R Jonston Ltd
I -
J - J&G Meakin, Johnson Brothers
K -
L - Lord Nelson pottery
M -Midwinter,  Moira pottery
N -
O-
P - Prinknash, Prinknash Abbey, Poole pottery, Portmeirion, Paragon (Her Majesty's reg. fine bone china,  Premier Potterskraft (Japan)
Q - Quantock pottery (Wales)
R - Rorstrand (Sweden), Royal Daulton, Royal Vale. Royal Worcester, Royal Kent bone china
S - Staffordshire Ironstone, Sadler, Secla (Portugal)
T -
U -
V -
W - West German pottery, Woods,
X -
Y -
Z -

Stem Ginger Shortbread (wheat & gluten free)

Thankfully this recipe worked much better this - the second time around. Having written an evaluation from last time (a good tip) and then following those tips this time, success is upon us!

200g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
260g plain flour (Doves Farm wheat-free blend)
40g cornflour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt
50g chopped glace ginger
2 x lined baking sheets

put butter in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until creamy and slowly add sugar bit by bit, continuing to whisk intil paler in colour and fluffy.
weigh out the flours and add salt, ground ginger - sieve into butter/sugar mix and mix with wooden spoon to bind.
add glace ginger and combine with hands until mixture is soft enough to combine into a dough.
roll out into a 20cm long log shape and refrigerate for 30 mins.
pre-heat oven to 170c and cut dough into circles 1cm thick.
ensure that you leave sufficient gaps between them (you may need to bake in two batches) and bake for 20 minutes until firm to touch but not darker in colour.
remove from oven, sprinkle with caster sugar and completely leave to cool (do not attempt to touch them or they'll break up!)

The result is delectably crips and light shortbread with chewy bits of ginger and a delicate ginger flavour. You'll never know they're wheat-free (as with all miss dc's baking).

Quick carrot & orange cake

In preparation for my third 'delectablecollectable' stall at the Vintage & Antiques Fair, Green Park, Bath, I am experimenting with recipes....

Clearly, all recipes I follow have to be adapted because the 'delectable' branding is entirely wheat and gluten free; this has been a very positive aspect to my baked good selling really well and being very popular.
I tend to adapt recipes I use, using up what's in my cupboard, and with a tendancy to enjoy using brown sugars instead of caster, the results are never 'promised-as-pictured' but for me, this just adds to the excitement!

Last year for my partner's birthday, I made a carrot and orange cake and served it with a cream cheese and orange 'drizzle' sauce and it was delicious, so adapting that further, this is today's baking.......
(NB. This cake is dairy free too and low fat!)

175g soft dark brown sugar
175ml vegeatable oil
3 eggs, lightly beaten
140g grated carrot (2 medium carrots)
100g raisins
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g Doves Farm wheat-free flour - plain
1 tsp Xanthan gum (binding agent for wheat-free recipes)
4 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp ground cinamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice

Frosting: 175g icing sugar, mixed with 2 tbsp fresh orange juice - to a consistance of single cream (to pour over the cake in zig-zag motion, allowing it to drip decoratively down the sides!)

Put sugar, oil and eggs into a large mixing bowl and lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Add grated carrot, raisins and orange zest and combine.

Mix flour, baking powder, Xanthan gum and spices and sift into the 'wet' mixture. Lightly mix all ingredients until just combined. (The mixture will be fairly runny.) Pour into a prepared, greased cake tin and bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes, until the centre 'springs' up when pressed lightly. Also use a cake 'pricker' to test if it's done by piercing the cake in several places; if it comes out 'clean' (with no trace of cake mix) then you're cake is done.

Turn it out carefully onto a wire rack to cool, and peel off parchment whilst the cake it still hot.

NB: do this too soon and your cake may break apart; do this too late and the parchment will solidify to your cake bottom!!!

delectable

de·lec·ta·bleAdjective/diˈlektəbəl/
1. (of food or drink) Delicious.
2. Extremely beautiful.

The 'delectable' part of delectablecollectable (referred to as 'dc') is my own homemade baking using ingredients that are wheat-free. I was diagnosed as 'wheat intolerant' 8 years ago (after spending 6 months working in a French restaurant eating nothing but coissants, pastries, baguettes & pasta!) and have since tried to cut it out, in the early years - entirely and currently - when I fancy it! Gladly, I do not suffer from Coeliacs Disease so can still stuff my face when I want to but do have to deal with the consequences of bloating, fatigue, sluggishness, tummy pain, lethagy etc (not very nice). I searched the supermarkets for wheat free items (Sainsbury's and M&S do their own brand) but did not find them very tasty - the yummy chewyness of most breads and baked goods is due to the gluten and so they are often crumbly, sometimes even fall to pieces as they lack the binding ingrediet. Becuase they are also so pricey, I decided instead that if 'wheat-free' was for me - I would have to make and bake it myself....
So, I first started by using Doves Farms flour (http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/) in cake recipes I already liked and had much success. However, sorry Doves Farms, but I cannot and have not made even one successful bread using their flour - they form a sticky dough, don't rise, fall apart and don't really taste very nice either. Because of this, and then finding that the wheat-free breads I did find were so expensive, a friend suggested using 'Spelt' flour. Spelt is our ancestral grain, is naturally lower in gluten and therefore easier to digest - therefore one can avoid the above stated negatives of eating wheat. There are varieties of Spelt - white, wholemeal etc but it makes a wonderful bread that has the chewiness of a normal wheat free loaf, without the bloating. It's not cheap at c. £3.50 per kg bag but it's the way forward. I have worked my way through about 15 spelt bread recipes and after adding less or more water or oil, adding egg, vinegar or none, dry yeast or baker's, proving or double proving, oats, seeds, honey or sugar, I have come up with my PERFECT loaf.

So...without wittering on any more, my 'delectable' breads, cakes, cookies and goodies will be onsale alongside my 'collectables' (see my new album for what's on sale) at the new V&A Market at Green Park (see my Event). www.facebook.com/delectablecollectable

Midwinter Pottery

I discovered Midwinter Pottery a couple of years ago after being bought a vase by my parents that was rather more retro than I normally collect. The vase - pictured below - was a hand painted, brightly coloured vase which at first I wasn't quite sure I liked! (Sorry folks!) Despite this, I did like its unusual and asymmetrical shape at the lip and loved the fact that it was hand painted and so very original. (Rather unlike the 'flower-power' retro transfer prints I was used to from the late 1960s - ealry 1970s.) When I 'googled' 1950s ceramics, I came across several pictures on the image search that I loved and eventually landed on the 'fashion' shape – by Midwinter - which is the 'rounded-edge' square style (everyone who knows me is starting to understand my theme!)
As I mentioned in a link previously on DC, Steven Jenkins, a friend and ceramicist (what do you call someone who makes ceramics?) who works and sells in Frome, enlightened me to a wonderful Vintage, Retro fair at Rook Lane Arts Gallery in Frome. It was there that I stumbled across two plates and first learnt the name 'Jessie Tait'. The design I had landed on was called 'Savannah' - a very typical 1950s design with cross-hatch and lovely yellow squares, which immediately made my eyes light up....so the hunt was on for more Jessie Tait designs. Two years ago, I paid £15 for the two plates then and since they have probably increased in value to around £20. (It's very important to look at the quality of the painting and glaze and obviously avoid ANY faults, crack or chips when collecting and buying and selling.) At the fair in Frome, I 'ummed and ahhhed' over buying a matching cake stand, but didn't and you guessed it…have regretted it ever since. (Thankfully my friend has a very trustworthy and dedicated contact who collects and deals in Midwinter, so watch this space...)
Jessie Tait - one the longest running designers at Midwinter sadly passed away about a year ago. I was gutted to have missed an exhibition that her Grandaughter helped to put on, of a huge personal collection in London. A real shame.

So - Midwinter caught my eye then and has obsessed me ever since. From that first 1950s wrapped vase that my parents bought me, I have moved back 20 odd years from my first love of 1970s ceramics, to 1950s. Although I still own my two plates and one bowl - which unfortunately got broken recently - I'd love to start collecting more. My stall at the Vintage&Antiques Market in Bath will hopefully allow me to sell on some of my old ‘likes’ and acquire some new ‘loves’. Namely – 1950s Midwinter and West German 1970s pottery...

Chorizo, bean & vegetable cheese crumble & potoato dauphinoise in the pan

Day off. Very glad. Would normally spend all my free time cooking/baking or mooching around charity shops, fairs & markets to search for collectables. Hence - delectablecollectable. My two main passions in life.

I love a day when I'm really in the mood to cook, and today is one of those days. So, a quick peek into the fridge and cupboards (to see what I already have) swiftly makes up my mind that I will cook a vegetable crumble of some kind and potato dauphinoise in the pan. Neither of which I have really done before but of course with the help of the internet, and my growing pile of cooking books, I have an idea of where to start. To be honest, most things I cook, I just make up as I go along - and then if they're a success, I write them into my recipe book. Well, the 'notes' section on FB will allow me to do that easier and also add photos so that the balance of 'delectable' and 'collectable' of this site if more even.....

I cut an onion in half, grate about 150g of cheese and get out the butter as these ingredients are included in both recipes. Yes, only 150g of cheese for both dishes and I will usually use half margarine, half butter as I tend to try and make them slightly healthier. One sauce pan on, one frying pan on, tiny cubes of onion fry in both, the ones for the dauphinoise in butter, and for the veg crumble in olive oil. I did cook these simultaneously, creating a huge mess in the kitchen and a massive pile of washing up – but I’ve always thought ‘unless you use all the rings on the hob – is it really proper cooking?’

I add slices of chorizo to the onion and add cubed pieces of all the veg I have in my fridge – green beans, spring onions, red onion, a M&S bean salad, tomatoes – tinned and cherry and half a tin of sweetcorn. Whilst that is frying the pan, I add milk and cream to the other onions in the sauce pan and as it’s boiling slice two large baked potatoes into slices about 3mm thick (no larger.) The potatoes then cook in the milk for c. 8 mins. It smells lovely! (Beware of milk boiling over.)

So – potatoes are cooking and veg is cooked. I add one tin of chopped tomatoes to the mixture in the frying pan, season and add torn pieces of my home-grown basil. This then gets transferred into a glass oval dish whilst I make the crumble mixture.

I soften 100g butter/marg (1:3 marg: butter) and add 175g of flour. This is a combination of wholemeal spelt flour, 100g, and Doves Farm wheat-free white flour blend, 75g. The mixture is then rubbed into a crumble mixture and I add sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, grated cheese and seasoning. Pour this evenly over the veg mixture in the glass bowl and press down firmly.
Crumble = done!

The potatoes have now cooked in the buttery, oniony milk and are now ready to be arranged into the frying pan. (I use the same frying pan, unwashed, as it has all the lovely flavours in it still from the chorizo and veg mixture frying in there previously). I layer the potatoes carefully into the frying pan and pour over the milk/cream sauce. Sprinkling over the last of the grated cheese – only c. 50g, I also season this and leave both dishes ready to cook tonight. The crumble will need about ½ hour in the oven until golden and the potato dauphinoise only about 2-3 mins under a hot grill to melt the cheese and slightly heat up and brown.

Healthy, yummy, wheat-free dinner = done!

Spelt Bread Experimentation...

Yesterday I made three loaves of bread but as they turned out, two will be for my stall and one for me. (I know people like things to look homemade but I am annoyed that I didn't split the dough evenly between the three tins, thus causing three sizes: small, medium and large. The medium and large being for sale.)

I have a bread recipe that is created out of 11 separate recipes and I'm happy with it but after chatting to a fellow baker friends, he suggested that if I put less dough in the tin then is would have more space to rise and be of a lighter consistency. So I split the 500g after proving it twice but it was not enough for two loaves. Yesterday, I used a total of 1125g of spelt flour for three loaves and clearly that was not quite enough either. The quest for a multiple batch recipe still continues.

Today - Tuesday 20th September - I have used what's left in my cupboard in an attempt to make two more loaves for my stall. I decide to use 450g flour for each loaf, a total of 900g but I haven't got enough spelt flour so the mixture ends up like this:
620g organic spelt flour
20g plain white flour blend (wheat-free)
260g white self-raising flour (wheat-free)
= 900g in total

I follow the 'best spelt loaf yet' recipe referred to above, as closely as possible just doubling what I need. So here are the ingredients below:
900g flour mixture of spelt & wheat-free flours (see above for amounts)
2 tps salt
6 tbs oil (2 extra virgin, 4 vegetable)
2 tbs honey
2 tbs sesame seeds
2 tbs sunflower seeds
fresh baker's yeast (in cake form)
600ml warm water.

I used fresh baker's yeast (just ask behind the bakery section of a supermarket, e.g. Sainsbury's - it's very cheap, c. 50p for enough for 3-4 loaves.) After researching on the net, I discovered that each 0.6oz (17g)  of the yeast 'cake' is equivalent to one dried 7g sachet. Yesterday I used 4 x 7g sachet to make 3 loaves, so a total of 28g.
28g divided by 4 = 9.33g per loaf. For three loaves today if I multiply that by 3, that equals 18g.
I'd rather they rise more than less because of the different flour blend today, I round that up to 21g. That is 3 x 7g of dried yeast and using the above calculation: 1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast = 17g of baker's fresh yeast.
Therefore:

3 x 7g dried yeast = 3 x 17g of fresh yeast =
21g of dried = 51g of fresh yeast.

Again, I used the net to research HOW to use baker's yeast and found the following:
If you are using it you need to 'test' that the yeast is still 'alive' and will make the bread rise, so you need to carry out a small 'proofing' experiment. Dissolve the yeast into warm water (38 degrees Celsius) and add a pinch of sugar. Leave for 5-10 mins and the solution should bubble and foam. If it doesn't - the yeast will not make the bread rise.
I also found out, very helpfully, that to get water to exactly 38 degree you need to use 300ml boiling water to 600ml cold water and then pour out the amount you need. For today's three loaf batch of dough, I used just over 600ml of 'yeasty water'.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and then add the seeds, oil and honey (measure out oil first and then the honey just drips straight off the spoon!) and stir into a mixture. Add the warm water with dissolved yeast in bit by bit combining with a spoon first. When all the flour and liquid is combined, use hands to incorporate all ingredients properly and turn out onto a (wheat-free) floured surface. The dough should not be wet or dry and cracking. I turn it out slightly wetter as when it hits the floured surface and is kneaded then it gets drier naturally. I also keep a jug of warm water to the side and regularly dip hands in it when I kneed. I knead it for 5-7 mins until it resembles the feel of a flabby but soft tummy! It should feel soft and stretchy and should not have any cracks.

Remember to flour the bowl you put it back in to prove (otherwise it sticks) and cover with a warm/damp t-towel (otherwise the top dries into a crust - that then falls off when toasted!) and leave to rise until double the size in a warm place (next to my gas fire on low is great in my house.) This takes about an hour.

When you take it out of the bowl - some of the air will naturally come out - 'knocking back' the dough, so divide the dough exactly between two greased loaf tins and leave to rise for c. 45 mins until the height is about an inch below the desired height. It will needs to bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 35-40 mins. I top mine with barley flakes for aesthetic appeal so add these on top and press lightly into the dough.

The taste is a nutty, seedy loaf that has a complex texture which is light and crunchy when toasted. Perfect with Mum's apple & ginger jam!

LUSH!

A little bit about miss delectable collectable

delectablecollectable (small, local Bath business)

Delectable - homemade wheat-free & spelt breads, cakes, cookies and goodies...
Collectable - 1940s, 60s & 70s ceramics, pottery, glassware, kitchenalia etc...

As 'Miss Delectable Collectable' , I spend all my free time persuing my two passions - wheat free cooking and baking - trialing recipes and inventing new ones; and trawling charity shops,
markets, auctions and house-clearances and car-boot sales to find treasures to either keep or sell on. I love reading, researching and writing about the two topics - the 'delectable' and the
'collectable' and my 'blog' in its early form is under the 'notes' section on my Facebook page. (This is a public URL):
www.facebook.com/delectablecollectable.

I also love the vintage/retro scene in Frome, and am starting to expand my wardrobe so its in-keeping with my dc business! When I'm not pottering in Frome, searching for collectables or baking, I'll be working my way through Barbara Pym's novels - which I am addicted to - all set in England in 1950s. Very little of my life is lived in the modern days of 2011 but I'm really happy spending time in my retro inspired flat, listening to music from the 40s and thinking of perhaps a simpler life....I love the glamour of post-war Britain and also love the escapism that films set in the 40s-70s provide. I sometimes wonder whether I was born to live in 2011 but am assured that the choices and enjoyable life I live now is really only available to me now! I am very lucky to be able to dedicate time to my passions, supported by my main job as a Primary School teacher - the one definitely better thing in modern day life.  ;-)

You will be able to see what is for sale at the next stall on 27/11/11 in the album 'items for sale at delectablecollectable stall' and if they have been 'sold' it will say so on the individual photos. The prices against each one are 'guide prices' and I'm hoping by the November stall to set up at Etsy site to sell the collectables.

I am also really happy to sell my cakes to local cafes, groups or individuals and will be updating the site with my prices.

Perfect lemon & poppy seed muffins

I've never made muffins. And wonder is a muffin just a big cupcake?
Well, now I have answered just that questions by 'googling' a recipe and finding out, after buying a cupcake/muffin Hamlyn cookbook that they involve a slightly different combining method with the 'wet' and 'dry' ingredients but also they contain yoghurt! Now that, I didn't know.

My baking cupboard is an ever-evolving place. I love this cupboard, and what I love even more, is when you can bake with what's already in there, without having to go out and buy anything. (Clearly, this means that your cupboard needs to be well-stocked and in my case, making sure that 'butter, eggs and sugar' are always on your shopping list, whatever you go out for.)

So - flour, sugar, eggs, butter, yoghurt, lemon zest and juice, poppy seeds, icing sugar. Got.
In my cupboard are also my wheat & gluten free essentials: gluten free baking powder and xanthan gum.
The guidelines suggest 3 tsp of baking powder per 225g (8oz) of flour and 1tsp of xanthan gum per 150g of flour.

Method:
Mix 225g of flour, 3 tsp of baking powder, 1 tsp xanthan gum, 175g caster sugar, zest of 2 lemons and 1 tbsp poppy seeds in a bowl and then beat the 3 eggs into the 100g of natural yoghurt. Add the 'wet' ingredients into the dry and combine, also adding 175g softened butter and blend with an electric whisk until lump free and combined.

Spoon into muffin cases (mine rested in a cupcake tin) and bake for 20-22 minutes until just browning and springy to the touch.

These are really, really easy and smell divine.

Icing: 225g softened butter, 400g icing sugar, juice of 1 lemon and a couple of drops of yellow food colouring (to achieve a beautiful buttercup yellow shade) and any yellow decoration, e.g. yellow icing flowers.
Mix butter, icing sugar and lemon juice until a good consistency for icing and use a pallet knife to spread over cooled muffins (you could decorate with some grated zest and pipe icing if you make it thicker.)

Miss DC's first batch of muffins. Exciting.

Rich spiced chocolate, fruit & nut cupcakes

Ok, so today is a good day. Despite not being called for work (as a supply teacher), I have decided to use up the contents of my xmassy cupbaord stock and make something to celebrate the safe arrival of my brother and his girlfriend's baby girl. Clearly, nothing cheers me up more than baking - and if I'm in a fab mood anyway, I'll bake too!
I aquired a new book '200 cupcakes' (Hamlyn all colour cookbook range) and found a recipe in which I could encompass my Lindt chocolate bear. (Sorry Mum, I love chocolates but you know me and just 'chocolate'!) So searching for recipes with 100g chocolate, I found a fruity, chocolately recipe and scanning down it, realised that I had most of the ingredients in my cupbaord already, and that I could substitute most of the rest of the ingredients!
So it goes a little something like this....(in brackets is my variation on the ingredient stated in the book!)
65g lightly salted butter (I used 50g butter + 15g marg)
65g light muscavado sugar (light brown sugar 40g + caster 15g)
65g plain flour (Doves wheat-free plain blend)
15g cocoa powder (25g galaxy hot choc powder)
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 egg
50g glace ginger chopped
100g mixed dried fruit (I used 75g glace ginger and 50g mixed fruit peel)
100g dried mixed chopped nuts (hazelnut, walnuts and pistachio mix)
100g milk chocolate chopped (a bashed to bits Lindt Bear!)
topping - chopped mixed nuts, chopped chocolate and caster sugar sprinkled over before they went in the oven.
This recipe made 8 cupcakes.
Method:
Mix flour, mixed spice, chocolate powder together and leave to one side.
Beat butter/marg with sugar and add in egg and whisk.
Stir in flour mixture and then add chopped chocolate, nuts and fruit and stir until equally combined,
Spoon into 8 cake cases and bake for 35 mins at 150 degs celcius until firm to touch.
and OMG - they're amamzing and fairly Christmassy too - so a great January recipe to use up what's left in the cupbaord....

:-)

Peach, cherry and almond Clafoutis

Ok, so yummy wheat-free deserts are quite hard to find, so this recipe adapted from a BBC Food recipe is the perfect desert for everyone.....
ingredients:
125ml whole milk
125ml double cream
2-3 drops vanilla essence
4 eggs
1 tbsp wheat-free Doves farm flour blend
30g butter
400g can of sliced peaches
100g pitted cherries
2 tbsp brown sugar
flaked almonds
mix cream, milk and vanilla in a pan and boil for one minute - set aside to cool.
use an electric blender to cream the eggs and sugar until light and bubbly and fold the flour a bit at a time.
melt butter in a pan until lightly bubbling and add brown sugar and peaches - bake for 5 minutes.
pour cooled cream and milk mixture into the egg/sugar mixture and whisk lightly.
place/arrange fruit in a flan dish and pour over the 'egg custard', sprinkle with almonds and bake at
180 degrees for about 30 minutes until golden brown and firm to the touch - the top willl be just baked and the inside 'melty'.

EAT HOT!

Ever-so-easy wheat-free apricot & almond cup cakes

Friday night and there's nothing enough in the cupboard to satisfy my sweet cravings and it's just too cold to leave the house, so in true miss dc style it's time to raid the 'baking cupboard'......
I have been going through a various few recipes of cupcakes, flavours etc and now armed with an understanding of ingredients and their ratios, I decide to go ahead and just make up my own.
So these yummy little cakes are miss dc's own recipe; here goes...
150g 'I can't believe it's not butter!'
150g dark brown soft sugar
200g plain flour (Doves Farm wheat-free blend)
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
3 eggs
2 tsp almond flavouring
2-3 drops of vanilla essence
50g crushed flaked almonds
1 tbsp ground almonds
75g apricots (dried and cut into little pieces)
NB - leave flaked almonds and tiny apricot pieces to decorate too.
Easiest method in the world:
weigh out/measure the sugar, 'butter', flour, baking powder and put into a bowl with the eggs and flavouring.
Using an electric mix, blend for 1-2 minutes until light and creamy and then use a spoon to stir in the fruit and nuts.
Spoon out equally into 18 cup cake cases, decorate with flaked almonds & apricot pieces and bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes until lightly browned, ensuring the cakes 'spring up' to the touch.

This recipe creates a yummy marzipan ish cake which, because of the darker sugar, is slightly crispy on the top but lush and fluffy in the middle. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......