Adventures in self-preservation – Whisky ginger marmalade

I’m still trawling through approximately one billion photos from our wedding and honeymoon, so none of those yet. Instead, I have been taking further steps towards full domesticity by attempting to make marmalade.

When I was a kid, my mum and I would make marmalade using a handy pre-prepared tin of peel and pulp (Ma-Made, still available today) – I remember fun afternoons fogging up the kitchen windows and getting everything covered with a sticky layer of boiled sugar. But I thought I’d test out my lovely new Lakeland maslin pan by making the real deal – Nigel Slater’s seville orange marmalade.

It turns out there’s a really good reason to use the pre-prepared cans – making marmalade properly is a complete pain in the balls. The recipe starts off by telling you to “peel 1.3kg of seville oranges”. That’s about 14 oranges, and a potato peeler doesn’t work (I tried). Then you have to juice them.

That sounded like a right faff so instead I got out my Kenwood chef and found the juicer attachment. I juiced the lot, then used a grapefruit spoon (with a serrated edge) to scoop out the pith, then sliced the peel.

Next, you’re meant to put the pips in a “muslin bag” to boil up with the peel. I don’t have any muslin, so I put them in a (clean!) footsock and tied it up. It didn’t look pretty, but it did work:

You then boil the peel and pips gently for about an hour or so, then stir in a load of sugar and the juice of 2 lemons. I also added in about 6 lumps of stem ginger, chopped up fairly small, and a good slug of Scotch.

Nigel then says to boil it for 15 minutes until it’s at setting point. In reality, it took at least 45 minutes to get there, so the moral of the story is to keep testing. Or get a jam thermometer, which I don’t have.

I put in a bit more whsky and poured it neatly into jars without spilling it all over the kitchen (hurrah for jam funnels!), but it turns out I was too impatient and should have waited a few minutes more, as the peel rose to the surface. I’ll also need to wait till tomorrow to see if it’s set properly, but my taste tests along the way tell me it is delicious.

Music on Mondays: Belleruche – Stormbird

I can’t believe the new Belleruche album isn’t coming out until May – living with Ricky from the band, it’s been a constant presence in our lives since they first started working on it at the beginning of 2011. It’s been a hell of a year for all three of them, and it’s been fascinating to see their new songs take shape and hear about how they’ve been experimenting in  the studio.

Anyway, the first single  – Stormbird – is coming out soon and here it is:

Soundcloud link

It’s a real step forward in the band’s sound and I love it. And having heard the rest of the new album, it seems to me that 2012 is going to be the year that Belleruche finally get the recognition they deserve.

I’ve been a bit busy…

Normal blogging service will be resumed very shortly!

Talk In Colour – debut gig at Ginglik (or is it?)

When is a debut gig not a debut gig? Although our gig at Ginglik last weekend was technically our debut gig as Talk In Colour, we’re still the same lineup as the Shadow Orchestra, and still have the same tunes. But in a nod to the brave new world we’re in, we did have a completely new order for our set, which was more than a little confusing.

It was great to be back at Ginglik – somewhere we played a long time ago in a much earlier incarnation – so thanks to Colin for booking us. We were also really happy to get a nice long, unpressured soundcheck, and (more importantly) it sounded really good too. Then it was time to kick back in the club with some drinks and food, and wait for showtime.

Because it was our Christmas party, we had homemade mince pies, tinsel and even a mascot:

Though I think Nick’s tinsel halo looked a lot better than Chris’ tinsel pubes – you be the judge:

It was bloody freezing in the place, and I ended up keeping my vest on under my stage outfit. That’s rock and roll glamour for you.

The only thing we were missing was an audience. Showtime came and went, and there was still only a handful of people in the place. We held out for a whole hour, and eventually went on stage to a sparse audience. Clearly, booking a gig on one of the big Christmas party nights wasn’t a good idea.

Regardless, we really went for it and played a great gig. I started to feel a tiny bit self-conscious during the last track, as I realised I had been leaping around like an idiot in front of a half-empty room. Still, it went well and we should be going back next year – hopefully to a much bigger crowd.

Wedding cakery: Another ginger cake

Another attempt at a ginger cake, as I continue my quest for the top tier of my wedding cake.

Next on the list was the Gingerbread Guinness cake from Tea With Bea. I got a bit nervous as the batter was alarmingly runny, but the cake came out brilliantly and I brushed it with some syrup from a jar of stem ginger to make it extra yummy.

Unfortunately, it still had an uneven top, but after a quick Twitter chat with Bea herself, I realised that I could just slice the top off to get the perfect cake for my needs.

It tasted even better after a few days, so I reckon this one’s a keeper. I’ll make the proper tier closer to the Big Day. Now just the chocolate middle layer to go…

Wedding cakery – Making the first tier

Well, I’ve finally bitten the bullet and started making my wedding cake. On Sunday I set out to make the bottom tier – an epically huge 12 inch square fruit cake, using Delia Smith’s Rich Fruit Cake recipe.

The helpful “scaling up the fruit cake recipe” guide on her website only goes up to a 10 inch square cake, so I had to some some maths to scale it up to my 12″ square cake tin.  To help all you other bakers out there who suck as badly at maths as I do (although I have a PhD,  numbers are definitely not my forte) here’s the proportions of ingredients I used:

• Currants 1.35kg
• Sultanas 525g
• Raisins 525g
• (or just use 2.4kg mixed dried fruit)
• Glacé cherries, finely chopped 165g
• Mixed peel, finely chopped 165g
• Brandy 9 tablespoons (well, plus a few sloshes more to be honest…)
• Plain flour 675g
• Salt 3/4 level teaspoon
• Freshly grated nutmeg 3/4 level teaspoon (I used ground)
• Mixed spice 1.5 level teaspoon
• Almonds, chopped 165g (I left these out)
• Soft brown sugar 675g
• Black treacle 2 ¼ tablespoons
• Unsalted butter 675g
• 12 eggs
• Grated rind of 3 large lemons
• Grated rind of 3 large oranges

After the sums, the next challenge was working out how to make the damn thing.  Just soaking the dried fruit took up the biggest mixing bowl I own:

I started by getting everything ready. There was a *lot* of butter:

I put my trusy Kenwood Chef Titanium to work, creaming the butter and sugar, then blending in the eggs and flour. In the end, it was starting to curdle just with the eggs, so I alternated eggs and flour until I’d managed to squeeze everything in. Luckily it did look like proper cake batter at this point, which was reassuring.

Then I had a problem – how to mix in the fruit. I ended up using my huge old stockpot as an improvised mixing bowl. I’m pretty glad that it escaped the last kitchen clearout now, as it’s no good for cooking because the enamel is cracked.

I’m only little, so to get enough power to mix everything in I had to put it on the floor and use a peculiar rowing motion with the spoon, more like mixing cement than cake.

Then it was time to scoop it all into the tin (not an easy task either) and bung it in the oven. I tied some newspaper round the tin and covered the top with greaseproof paper, to help prevent it from cooking too fast.

Four and a half hours later, I tested it with a skewer and declared it done:

I sprinkled a bit more brandy over it, left it to cool and then wrapped it up in greaseproof paper, cling film and tinfoil and put it where the mice can’t get it. Phew!

Wedding cakery – in search of the perfect ginger cake

I’mplanning to make three different flavour tiers for my wedding cake – a classic rich fruit cake on the bottom, a chocolate cake in the middle, and a ginger cake on top.

In search of a tasty ginger cake recipe, I did a test bake of a 7 inch square version of Dan Lepard’s Malt Whisky and Ginger cake, which I’ve had pinned on the fridge for ages but never baked.

I doubled the recipe in order to fit the larger tin, and was a bit alarmed to see how sloppy the batter was, so I chucked in a little bit of extra flour. It also took about 1 and a half hours to bake, due to the larger size.

Although the finished cake tastes absolutely delicious and has a fabulous depth of flavour, I don’t think it’s going to be the top tier I’m looking for. Because it’s a loaf cake, the top rises and cracks quite impressively, making for an appealing teatime treat but not a neat flat top for icing:

Still, it’s been going down very well with my colleagues at work. Next I’m going to try the Gingerbread Guinness cake in my Tea with Bea cookbook, which will hopefully be a bit more well-behaved.

In the studio with Talk In Colour

I still find it a bit weird referring to the Shadow Orchestra as Talk In Colour, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

We’re oh-so-close to finishing off our new album, but it’s still missing that certain something. So we headed to our old haunt – Treacle Studios in Shoreditch – to muck about with a load of percussion and make some noise.

Chris in the control room:

In order to create a suitably uninhibited vibe, we utilised a few bottles of this amazing stuff – Marks & Spencers’ alcoholic ginger ale. Very tasty and perfect for a chilly winter evening:

(If M&S would like to sponsor our new album, we’d be very grateful…)

Mary gets her cowbell action on. Standing on a dolly is optional but adds a certain edge of excitement:

It turns out a metal bin is a remarkably effective drum – Bangin’!

More cowbell!

With a bit of luck, we should have the whole album finished by Christmas. It’s sounding great already, and I can’t wait to unleash it on the world.

Tru Thoughts birthday party at KOKO – featuring Belleruche and more

Last weekend I headed off to Brighton Record label Tru Thoughts’ 12th birthday party at KOKO in my role as one of Belleruche‘s official groupies. It was a fantastic night full of great music, good friends and wine gums on the rider.

Here’s a pic of Ricky Fabulous in front of a poster for the night just down the road from our house. Stuff like this amuses the hell out of us:

We went for *amazing* tapas at El Parador, just by Mornington Crescent tube station. I’m almost loathe to tell you about if, because it was sooo good and we’ll never be able to get a booking again if everyone starts going there.

First up on the bill was Anchorsong and the lovely ladies of his string quartet. I loved his set at the Queen of Hoxton when the Shadow Orchestra supported him, and I loved it at KOKO too.

I missed Nostalgia 77 because I was too busy stealing the wine gums upstairs in the dressing room, but of course I was right down the front for Belleruche’s set. They played four new songs in their relatively short set, including another outing for Kathrin on the bass. She looked so cool!

Ricky in full rock god mode:

I watched about half of the Hidden Orchestra’s lush electronic set. I was really impressed with the cellist they brought along – didn’t catch her name though:

All in all a triumph! Thanks to Tru Thoughts and the Soundcrash team for a great night.

Puppy Love

Meet the newest addition to the Arney family – Ferdy the cocker spaniel puppy. Sadly he’s not mine, but belongs to my parents:

Their old dog, Maisie (age 12) is not impressed by the new arrival:

I went to visit at the weekend and am completely besotted:

Here’s a short video showing him trying to get a biscuit out of a bottle. I could watch it all day – your mileage may vary: