Saturday 9 March 2013

Baking and making - CAKE UPDATE INFO!

The rain finally reached us sometime in the night. Don't know when exactly as it is coming from the north and is therefore, missing the bedroom windows. Hasn't taken long though to see large puddles forming in the garden, indicating that the ground water is still high.

Such weather (4 degrees Celsius), sees us BOTH in the kitchen, baking and making. Yesterday, taking a leaf from Frugal Queen's book, I managed to buy a pork shank for £2.48 from Morrison's (the only supermarket so far that I have found one in!). Should have noted that she said to cook it overnight in the slow cooker. 

I started mine at 9 a.m. and it took until 9 p.m. for it to be falling from the bone. Being so late at night, we decided to shred it and this is how much we got.


The liquid turned to jelly overnight in the cold conservatory and was used to make and freeze gravy.

Today, I have lined two dishes with the pork, cooked some carrot and swede and placed them on top. This afternoon, I shall make enough mash for them both to be turned into a pork shepherd’s pie. We shall have one as it (the gravy is already inside) and the other once cold will be frozen. Not bad methinks for maybe a total of £3.20.

DB is in baking mode and has decided to bake a rich, moist chocolate we read over at Rhonda's blog chocolate cake

Here it is upside down freshly turned from the tin and now the correct way up. The white line at the bottom is a dusting of flour from the tin and will be brushed off.It may look burnt but isn't. Just a very deep chocolate colour.


We had months ago, bought a nice combination tin from Ikea, that can either be used as a normal 9” cake tin or as today, have the insert put in which turns it into a ring cake. 

We have just had a piece with some tea. Rhonda adapted the original recipe and halved the sugar. Now, we really don't like sweet cakes but to us, this was almost sour. Nowhere near sweet enough, next time we will have to have the 2 cups of sugar rather than the one Rhonda recommends. Each to their own I guess.

8 comments:

  1. Get a good recipe for pulled pork (USA)...I cook my pork shoulder in the slow cooker with a homemade BBQ sauce..delicious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Care to leave the recipe Lynda in case someone fancies having a go?

      Delete
  2. Rain started about 1130 last night in our neck of the woods, Dc.

    I read the post about the pork shank, I have two in the freezer from a couple of weeks ago, to be used soon. What I want to know is where are all the bacon hocks - same cut, I think - you can't find them for love nor money. Excellent for soup making and loads of meat on them. In fact it's rare to find a ham-on-the-bone joint anywhere, even at Christmas. All we get in the supermarkets are the Danish produced (which the Danes won't eat!) waterlogged variety (like the bacon) with no bone in. Sheesh, when did THEY disappear?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean, maybe Morrison's have some? I know of a butcher in Pott Row (near King's Lynn) that occasionally has ham hocks, could always try them.

      Delete
    2. Thanks, Dc. I've had a bit of meat from the butcher at Gayton..had a whole lamb from the farm at Easy Winch one year, through them. Am thinking of going back to them and see what they have.

      Delete
  3. I'm salivating reading your post! The choccy cake looks especially good to me, cant resist a lovely piece of cake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nor us which is why we only bake them very occasionally.

      Delete
  4. I love pork pies.

    Like for Linda in my area pulled pork is a popular thing. However, instead of a tomato based sauce we use a vinegar based one. Our state is split all but in half over which is the best. (North Carolina) In the west they use a tomato based sauce and in the east we use the vinegar. Me? I like them both.

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you, will read all your comments and try and answer any questions you leave. Please leave comments in English. Don't forget to come back and read my reply! All comments are moderated so if you try to link it to a commercial web site, it will not be published.