SOMA Garden Market

Today I had a stall at my first ever farmer’s market, which was a resounding success. By the end of the day, I had one Snickers and peanut butter muffin, and about 10 cookies left over! My sister helped me with the baking last night, and we fell into bed at 2am. I’m so grateful for her help – I would never have gotten everything done otherwise! Many of my friends and family came along to support me and buy my treats, including Candi of The Boho Kitchen - who is going to have a stall there next weekend, so if you enjoyed her baking at the recent Dunmore Food Festival, take note. I had a brilliant day – everyone was so friendly and, most importantly, enjoyed my baking, which was the best thing. I was a bit nervous going into it, but got great feedback which really boosted my confidence. One lady who’d bought some flapjacks came back a couple of hours later to buy all the flapjacks that I had left…apparently her husband told her that they were nicer than the ones she makes!

I was so touched and thriled that so many people turned up to see me – I really appreciated the effort that you all made, so thank you very, very much. I’m booked in to do it again on the 21st August, so I hope to see you there next time! Hopefully my table will look like this by 4pm again…

Decadent Chocolate Mousse

Like any self-respecting girl, I love my chocolate, and this mousse is perfect for any chocoholics that you may know.  I use a mixture of milk and dark chocolate to give this dessert a sweetly creamy, yet intense chocolate flavour. This mousse is quick and easy to make – the only slightly tricksy bit is the adding of the egg whites, and that’s not very difficult at all. This makes a fabulous end to a meal with a cup of good coffee, and needs no embellishment (though some sharp raspberry coulis would be gorgeous). Make this for your next dinner party, and your guests will want to come back again, and again!

Chocolate Mousse (taken from Rachel’s Favourite Food, by Rachel Allen)

Ingredients:

120g good-quality dark chocolate (or use a mixture of milk and dark, as I do)

120ml cream

2 eggs separated

Method:

1. Finely chop the chocolate. In a saucepan, bring the cream up to the boil. Turn off the heat, add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted. Whisk in the egg yolks, and transfer to a large, wide bowl. This will make it easier to fold in the egg whites in the next step.

2. In a separate, clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until just stiff, and then gently stir in a quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites, being careful not to knock all the air out. It’s the air bubbles that will make your mousse feather-light and airy.

3. Spoon into little bowls, glasses or cups, and leave in the fridge for an hour or two to set. Rachel says that this fills about 10 small glasses, but I half-filled four heart-shaped ramekins instead. This mousse is so tasty that you’ll want to eat lots of it!

Lemon Squares

Flipping through cookbooks, looking for a recipe to use up three lemons that were on their way out, I came across this little gem in The Ballymaloe Cookery Course. These are outrageously, unbelievably quick and easy to throw together, and so are perfect to make just before you have people over for coffee and a chat. You tip butter, sugar, flour and eggs into a bowl/mixer, pour the resulting mixture into a Swiss Roll tin, bake, top it with a syrupy icing, and enjoy. This took literally three minutes to mix together, and it tastes like something that was slaved over for hours. The sponge is light and tender, and the icing is both tangy and sweet. They don’t need any accompaniment, but a blob of softly-whipped cream would be utter gorgeousness.

Lemon Squares (from The Ballymaloe Cookery Course by Darina Allen)

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

170g soft butter

170g caster sugar

2 eggs

170g self-raising flour

For the icing:

freshly-grated rind of 1 lemon

freshly-squeezed juice of 1-2 lemons (I used the juice of one and a half lemons, so add the juice of one and then taste)

110g caster sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

2. Put the butter, sugar, flour and eggs into a bowl, or into the bowl of a food mixer. Mix gently to combine.

3. Spread the mixture evenly into a well-greased Swiss Roll tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden-brown and well-risen.

4. Meanwhile, mix the icing ingredients together, pour over the sponge as soon as it comes out of the oven and leave to cool. Cut into squares and serve.