Tag Archives: How to be a Domestic Goddess

eek!

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12

It’s Bea’s eleventh birthday on Tuesday and so we threw a little party on Saturday.

Matilda and Martha usually have very clear ideas about what they want to do for their birthdays, who they want to invite and what they want in the way of presents.

Bea is only ever clear about one thing – the cake.

This year she wanted a zombie.

Hidden beneath the thick layer of green icing is my go-to birthday cake – Nigella’s buttermilk birthday cake which I have written about many times (prettier version here).
I make one cake, slice it in two and then layer it back together again with Nutella into which I whip lots of double cream. If you are tempted to try this, be warned: the Nutella always resists the addition at first, and then sort of gives up and goes soft and glossy and completely delicious.

flapjack fail

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10

I was aware that I have a tendency to blame Nigella when things go wrong in the kitchen. And I admit that in order to blame her, it doesn’t much matter whether or not she had a hand in the recipe in question: a curse thrown in the direction of the Goddess of Domesticity always makes me feel a little bit better. But I didn’t realise that anyone else had spotted this ungenerous habit, until yesterday, when a sympathetic little voice called out: “bloody Nigella, mum?” as I was peering unhappily at some flapjacks I’d just taken out of the oven. Yes. Bloody, bloody Nigella.

With half term almost upon us, I decided that a bit of quick, batch-baking of the rock bun/flapjack variety was in order: fill those tins, stay ahead of the game and keep the whining at bay. Or at least that was the plan. I have a simple flapjack recipe, which I know almost by heart and, more significantly, the ingredients are all store cupboard staples.

Yesterday, however, in some sort of crazed, hey it’s the holidays mode, I decided that I was no longer satisfied with the tried and true and I wanted a new flapjack recipe instead. Apron on, oven fired up, I turned to my increasingly battered copy of Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess. An hour or so later, when I tried to ease the cooled flapjacks out of the tin, it was clear that I was dealing with a big, flaky, flapjack fail – slicing sand into circles would have been easier. I really don’t know what went wrong. I have since compared different recipes, and all are so varied in terms of the ratio of oats to butter and golden syrup that I can’t identify what caused the fail. So having learned my lesson regarding change, I went for my default setting for culinary blame: Bloody Nigella! *

Anyway, today, normal flapjack service was resumed.

All this and I don’t even like flapjacks.

The girls do though, and the flap rubble / jack rubble, whatever, tastes very good with yoghurt, added to cereal and as a crumble topping.

* I do love her really. I can forgive the faulty flapjacks because her recipe for scones is fabulous and the Buttermilk birthday cake is central to all our birthday celebrations. 

milestones

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4

After a somewhat stormy start to the new school term, life has calmed down a little. That’s not to say that the days aren’t without their explosive moments, but generally everyone is a little less fraught (apart from my relationship with Sybil and her relationship with the garden, that is) and we have established a rhythm to the week. Martha has moved up to the juniors, and I feel we have passed a major milestone now that we no longer have a child in the infants.

On Sunday we celebrated Bea’s tenth birthday and another milestone was reached – two children whose ages are in double figures*. As ever there was a cake, the last birthday cake of the year for my immediate family. It was the usual buttermilk number from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess, but with 25g of cocoa powder replacing the same weight in flour. The middle is Nutella mixed with whipping cream, which blends more easily than the extra thick double cream. Bea and Matilda decorated it, Sybil caught the crumbs.

It didn’t last very long.

* I had an odd moment when I typed that phrase, and wondered whether it should be double digits instead. Naturally enough I googled “double figures vs double digits” and came across a lovely book on British English, which I can’t seem to link to, though I will try later – must go now, as I am already late for the school run. Ooops.

cake two

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8

Yesterday was Matilda’s last pre-teen birthday party, which is quite a strange thought.

It was lovely to meet some of her new school friends, and a huge relief not to have to deal with party bags or party games – just a trip to the cinema and supper back here. But although most aspects of the celebration have changed, the cake remains the same -

Nigella’s Buttermilk birthday cake from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. It’s very versatile and I used it for last week’s cream and raspberry cake as well. 

Over the years I have adapted my own butter icing, which I judge by eye and taste, simply slinging the stuff in the mixer and adding a few drops of milk if it gets too thick; Nigella’s icing recipe contains so much sugar I find it completely inedible. I usually only make one cake which I slice in half and spread with Nutella mixed with extra thick double cream, again a something I’ve adapted over many years – it’s very simple and extremely moreish. Just splodge about three heaped tablespoons of Nutella in a small bowl and then add thick cream, stirring vigorously between each spoonful – it will seem to split and go very sticky at first, but as you add more cream it will gradually emulsify, becoming smooth and glossy, but with a mousse-like texture. For a more sophisticated, grown-up version, you can melt some good quality dark chocolate and add that to the mix.