My friend Herman, Gin, Cox Cookies and Cakes.

Herman

At the start of the year I dabbled in culturing wild yeast when I looked at making sourdough bread. The result was quite a success and something that I recommend everyone to have a go at as it was ridiculously easy to do! The bread I made with the sponge was, well, sour and it was quite a solid loaf but a success nonetheless.

Here's a picture of the culture bubbling away.

Upon arriving back into London this week a friend called to say they had a mysterious present for me that they needed to deliver sooner rather than later. We hastily arranged a drop off time and that evening I was presented with Herman. Herman came to me in a little plastic bowl, looking a little cold and in need of a feed, I had just been presented with my first sourdough cake starter.

It's the same concept as a sourdough bread starter but instead of feeding and discarding, as you would with the bread, Herman keeps growing with each feed, until you divide him up, give some away and then bake the sorry remains into a cake. There's even a book full of Herman related recipes, The Best of the Herman Sourdough Herald and apparently my mum was given Herman by a friend of the family way back in the 80's so the concept isn't new. I was very excited by it though; alchemaic baking in its most primal form.

Here's a photo of Herman as he stands in the kitchen, fed and happy and bubbling away,

Check back in 4 more days to see if he managed to survive and make it to being a fully fledged cake!

Sloe Gin

Not strictly baking I know, but when my Dad told me the sloe berries were ripe early this year I jumped at the chance to gather a few. Growing up in the Forest of Dean I learned where the best blackthorn bushes were and so I set off to gather. I managed to pick about 2lb in the end, leaving plenty for the birds to feast on as the weather gets cooler. 

Traditionally you are meant to pick them after the first frost, as this allows them to develop a fuller flavour, but by that time they are usually all gone so I cheated and put them into the freezer.

Once frozen I washed them (resulting in a frozen lump of sloe ice, I recommend washing and drying before freezing) and weighed out 1lb. 

I poured these into a 1litre Kilner jar and then using a rolling pin I 'muddled' them. 

Muddling is a word which best describes the act of mashing up fruit or herbs when making cocktails.

I added 150g of sugar to them, and then 5 cloves and half a stick of cinnamon.

Then came the gin, 750ml of it. 

I poured it over the top and then added 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract. The jar was sealed and shaken with gusto at the thought of the resultant liquor. I wrapped it in newspaper and put it in a cupboard. 

Now all I need to do is give it a shake every now and then and in three months it should be delicious Sloe Gin.

Cox Cookies and Cake

No alchemaic baking in this post, however I bought a new brownie pan from Lakeland yesterday and also bought Baked in America which has some good recipes I want to try out in it.

I also looked at some other books and in one found a great decorating idea.

Take some bubble wrap, wash it and dry it and then pour tempered chocolate over it. Once set, peal off the bubble wrap and you have a really interesting negative of the bubble wrap, in the chocolate. Brush with edible gold dust and adorn you favourite cupcake with this and it will be quite special. I got the idea from this book, Cox Cookies and Cakes a cook book based on the cake shop by the same name down Brewer Street in Soho. So inspired by this decorating method I decided to not buy the book and pay the shop a visit to sample their cakes and see the decorations for myself. Now Cox Cookies and Cakes is a shop developed by Patrick Cox a shoe designer and Eric Lanlard an award winning patissier. With those two at the helm I thought highly of the cakes they would produce. 

I settled on a classic and bought a red velvet cake, parting with 2.75 (even though the menu said 2.50) and, with my treasure in a little box, went to Green park to eat it (and take some arty fart shots with my phone).

Looks nice huh?! In the box, on the grass, oishi so desu ne!

Still tasty looking, nestled in the grass with the deck chairs in the back ground. A little crumb of some  pallid orange coloured cake on top as decoration. It was at this point I was beginning to doubt the redness of the cake and fear for the velvety texture that the name promised.

As you can see, my fears were well founded. This cake was neither red, or velvety. In fact it was as you see, some poor excuse for a red velvet cake, the colour barely there at all. The texture was even worse, it had some massive air bubbles in it and overall the cake had a plasticky feel to it. It reminded me of a cake made with oil as opposed to butter. It was spongey but not in a victoria sandwich way, more of a Savers multi-buy plastic bath sponge way. The flavour was good, a basic vanilla sponge really but not the red velvet cake it should be that being a rich cocoa flavour.

I was very disappointed and won't be going back, and I urge you to not bother either. The shop is incredibly gimmicky and they seemingly put more style into their cakes than substance, avoid, avoid, avoid.

Similarly I popped into a previous favourite of mine, the hummingbird bakery, and the cakes on offer were also disappointing. It seems like they have become stuck in a rut and their drive to develop new and interesting cakes is on sabbatical. I hope this is a blip and they pick up soon as they do know how to make a tasty cake.

I will be looking to visit the Outsider Tart cake shop of the Baked in America book fame, and I hope to be able to report a more pleasing experience.

Wow, when did my blog become a review blog... I promise baked recipes next time!