Rhubard Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream

My most fun purchase from the LA trip were some mini cake tins. On Saturday we had movie night with lovely friends and I was in charge of pudding so decided to try them out. They are like miniature loaf tins so perfect for making individual portion sized cakes, but I'm sure they will be useful for other things too. I love baking tins and have way too many - it is quite dangerous trying to take anything out of the cupboard where they live, impossible not to make everything fall on the floor and make a terrible noise. But I didn't have any mini loaf tins before so of course I simply had to get them, and any less than eight would have been pointless!

Anyway, back to pudding. I went to the shop without much of an idea of what to make, but pretty much straight away saw some lovely rhubarb and then it was easy to decide the menu. I don't have an ice cream machine but it is very easy to make it without one...although now I'm thinking of all sorts of flavours I would like to try so am considering buying one.

As I was making small cakes, the cooking time was quite short so I pre-roasted the rhubard for 15-20 minutes to make sure it went soft, but if you use a normal sized baking tin it would be fine to put them in raw.

50 gms Butter

2 Eggs

180 gms Sugar

210 gms Plain Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 Tsk Vanilla Sugar

1 dl Milk

2 Ruhubard Sticks

Cut the rhubarb in half lenghtways, then into 5 cm long pieces. Grease a baking tin and place the rhubarb sticks in it, just chuck them in or arrange in a nice pattern if you fancy. Whisk the eggs and sugar until thick and fluffy. Melt the butter. Mix the dry ingredients, then fold them into the eggs. Add the melted butter and milk. Pour into the tin over the rhubard and bake for 40 minutes at 180.

200 ml Milk

Cinnamon Stick

3 Egg Yolks

100 gms Sugar

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

400 ml Cream

Put the milk in a saucepan, add the cinnamon stick and leave to infuse for an hour. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Heat up the milk almost to boiling point then pick out the cinnamon stick and pour the milk over the egg mixture, whisking to combine. Pour back into the saucepan and cook for about 10 mins until you have a thick-ish custard. Add the cream then pour into a container, cool and freeze. After about an hour it will begin to set around the edges so take it out of the freezer and stir vigorously. Repeat a few times over the next couple of hours.

On my top 5 list of things to eat

This is definitely one of my top 5. Salt and pepper squid. Hot, spicy, salty, yummy. Love it. The secret to this is the crazy amount of garlic so make sure that whoever you are eating with also has some! 

We are lucky enough to live very close to Kingsland Road where there are more Vietnamese restaurants than you can count on both hands. This meal was had at Viet Hoa which is a classic, but normally we go  here or here where I actually prefer the food.

Most of the time I have the same thing: salt and pepper squid and a spring bowl. It never disappoints.

Almost open

This is the most exciting thing in the garden at the moment, and I am constantly checking on it's progress. Genius to put this bright orange poppy next to the black grasses - wish I could take credit for it but it self seeded so nothing to do with me, all I did was forget to weed it out.

So yesterday I had planned to have a big gardening day, and I wasn't going to let the weather stop me so put on waterproof trousers and coat. But after a while when my fingers were so cold they didn't function properly and water had managed to get into the gap between coat and trousers I started think about giving up. Then when my husband announced he was lighting the fire, going inside seemed like the right thing to do. A hot shower and some lunch later, the sun decided to come out! Couldn't believe it! Oh well, I managed to get a new clematis into the ground which was the most important job. And it was very cosy in front of that fire.

Smoked Mackerel and New Potato Salad

New season potatoes are here! So exciting*. Yesterday I was lucky enough to be served this gorgeous lunch by my lovely husband. Think it is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe but adapted according to what we had in the fridge. It goes without saying that supermarket mackerel doesn't compare in any way to the amazing ones we get in Sweden. In general I am exceedingly homesick at the moment and the thought of eating this in Grundsund with the amazing ingredients we can get there isn't helping. I look forward to making it there this summer - perhaps using self caught home smoked fish! That would be quite something, and as I am the proud owner of both fishing equipment and a smoker it is not impossible. Watch this space.

New Potatoes

Smoked Mackerel

Fresh Spinach

Spring Onions

Chives

Horseradish

Lemon Zest and Juice

Greek Yoghurt

Sea Salt and Black Pepper

*The fact I get excited by potatoes probably makes me a super dork but so what. I love them!

Pinks

Fallen petals.

 Front doors.

The sky last night.

Yesterday the sun made a welcome appearance and on my travels I took these pictures - there seemed to be a pink theme going on. Today it is back to more indoor-friendly weather so baking, eating and doing not much at all is on the schedule. Keeping my fingers crossed for better weather tomorrow because there are so many jobs to do in the garden. Luckily I have got a new rain proof coat, am sure it will come in handy!

In the post

These arrived in the post  yesterday. A month to go until Chelsea Flower Show - one of the highlights of early summer. Can't wait!

Book launch

Yesterday we went to the launch of the book '21 Designers for twenty first century Britain' by Gareth Williams at the V&A reading rooms. The book is lovely, and lots of the designers featured were there. Throw in a few glasses of wine to help us warm up and all in all it was a nice evening.

This is such a good little bookshop. I would really recommend a visit, they had so many fun and unusual books that I wanted to take a closer look at. I will definitely go back at Christmas time, think you could find some great present books here. And there is a bar - perfect!