The roads are Melting!

Well its been a little while since I did the Oyster rockerfellers... well, if I'm honest then its been a few weeks, things tend to snowball when you're not looking. Its funny I read an anecdote some years ago now (yeah, I know that makes me sound a whole lot older than I actually am, hence my friends calling me "dad" when we're out).
But the saying went "all young boys range in age from 8 to 88", I was called upon to provide the catering for a friends stag party with much to nine blokes chagrin discovered we are not the rambo's we thought we were. My brother had refused to give details about where we were going for the daytime event and required me to make sandwiches.... I have a tendency to go overboard when cooking.

As it is my Brother Nick spent the two weeks running up to it insisting that I keep it simple, it was a like a mantra, a doctrine - keep it simple, keep it simple. Well, me being me it was simple but still not simple. The menu was two things: Pulled beef in a rich and spicy gravy on Brioche with pickled vegetables followed by Orange and Polenta cake with what was supposed to be crème fraiche.

well it is apparent that my 'fancying' up the food has both gone in my favour and gone against me, they now expect it every time we have an event (insert appropriate moment to grumble over this but secretly take great pride). Well the brioche nearly went wrong (1st batch went in the bin, which then proceeded to mock me by rising in a light fluffy texture IN the bin), the beef was scoffed along with the vegetables - turns out if you put chilli on anything then lads will eat it!

We mainly spent our time knife and axe throwing, paid for of course - we didn't raid B&Q and start throwing them around in the woods willy-nilly for fun. But as I pointed out we know now for a fact how we lost in 1066, Harold employed the British who it seems couldn't hint the broadside of a barn at 10 feet.... but you know sometimes its fun to man it up, grab hold of a broad axe and sling it at a tree stump to make it stick

Anyway I will return to the subject of oyster rockerfellers at some point but I feel there day has come and gone, viva la summer - chilled cider, fresh salads, fruits and shoots pulled straight from the garden with gluttonous amounts of ice cream mixed in (I've got plans I tell ya, mwahahaha....*ahem*, whoever said give him a forum clearly didn't know me that well) But here is a quick cake recipe to do over till the weekend - I'm going to have a run at turkish ice cream with rose involved.

Orange & Polenta Cake

320g Butter
320g Caster Sugar
300g Self Raising Flour
150g Cornmeal
4 Large Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Paste
Zest of 2 Oranges
Juice of 2 oranges
2 tsp Salt

Well as with any cake recipe make sure your butter is soft, otherwise you'll either break your wrist, the spatula, both or the cake will misbehave in the oven and you'll have visited both wilkos and the A&E for no reason.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, line a large cake tin very well, with greaseproof rising at least an inch over the rim of the cake tin to protect the cake

Cream the butter & sugar together until they've reached a pale and fluffy consistency, add in the vanilla paste & orange zest at this point.

Mix the cornmeal, salt and flour together, break the eggs into the cake mix two at a time with an equal amount of flour mix till smooth, do this in batches to avoid lumps, gently folding at all times but don't overmix.

If the mix seems a bit thick, use milk to thin out to a dropping consistency before putting into the cake tin and baking for 45 minutes or until done. As soon as it's done take it out of the oven but don't remove it from the tin. In a small saucepan put the orange juice with an equal quantity of caster sugar

Boil the orange down to a syrup, (when its close to done I tend to put some strips of orange zest in to make candied orange to decorate, before both the cake and the syrup cools. Take a skewer and stab it all over (don't go all psycho on it though), now pour the syrup all around evenly but get the candied zest in the centre and remove from the cake tin (I used a loose based tin to allow me to take the tin off after the syrup in case you were wondering!)

Well Its twenty past eleven at night on a very hot and sticky night, good talking to you and thanks for the views and likes on facebook everyone