In the kitchen with Mel- Ginger bread house (Guest staring my 5 year old cousin, Xavier)

My 5 yr old cousin came over today, bringing with him a build your own ginger bread house from Ikea and 5 packets of lollies. I was up for the challenge and so I volunteered to become a construction worker, architect and exterior designer. I was of the impression that building a ginger bread house would be easy, I was sadly

mistaken. After demolishing one wall I enlisted the help of a professional (shall not be named). He took over my roles of architect and construction worker and managed to assemble the various panels into an approximate house shape. At this stage the house resembled a derelict housing commission, house.

My cousin Xavier

Reconstructed wall

After waiting for the mortar, icing, to dry I let my cousin loose to decorate the house in anyway he saw fit. Using our supply of sour straps, M&M, and two different kinds of party mix (Which had all been previously separated into colours) we created our magnificent creation.

It even had a flower garden.

For those wishing to attempt a ginger bread house, all I say is make sure you have a lot of patience and a cute little kid to help you out and if all else fails just get fat eating the lollies.

In the Kitchen with Mel- Lemon & Chocolate Tart

So one of my really good friends is getting married at the end of this year and today was her engagement party. She requested that everyone bring a plate of food so I decided to get into the kitchen and cook her something amazing. What I created, even if I do say so myself, was pretty yummy. Here's the ingredients and method so you can try to recreate it yourself.

Ingredients

Base

• 115 g/4 oz plain flour
• 25 g/1 oz cocoa powder
• 75 g/2 & 3/4 oz butter
• 25 g/1 oz ground almonds
• 50 g/1 & 3/4 oz caster sugar
• 1 egg beaten

filling

• 4 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 200 g/7 oz caster sugar
• 150 ml/ 5 fl oz double cream
• grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

• Block of Dark chocolate, for the chocolate caraque, for decoration
  

Method
Shift the flour and cocoa into a food processor. Add the butter, ground almonds, sugar and egg and process until the mixture forms a ball (this can also be done in a Mix Master or similar, using a dough hook). Gather the dough together and press into a flattened ball. Place in the centre of a 20cm/8 inch, loose based tart tin, and press evenly over the base of the tin with your fingers, then work the excess pastry up the side with your thumbs (allow excess pastry to go over the edge0. Cover (with plastic wrap) and chill for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6. Remove the base from the fridge and trim off the excess pastry. Prick the bass lightly with a fork, then line the tin with baking paper and fill with baking beans (if you don't have baking beans a heavy bowl or similar can be used). Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the pastry no longer looks raw. Remove the beans and the pastry and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until the pastry is firm. Reduce the oven temperature to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2.

To make the filling, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolk and sugar together until smooth (once again can be done by hand or in a mixer). Add cream and whisk again, then stir in the lemon rind and juice. Pour the filling into the pastry case (be careful not to over fill, as I did) and bake for 50 minutes, or until just set. When the tart is cooked leave to cool and then remove from tin. Decorate with chocolate caraque (best done by scraping a knife along the back of a block of chocolate) before serving.
ENJOY

Mel

In the Cucina With Mel and Louise- CROSTOLI

Today my friend Louise came over and we decided to get into the kitchen and make a cake. After discovering that we only had one egg in the house, this idea was quickly changed to making Crostoli. For us, Crostoli bring back memories our year 12 Italian class, where these light airy biscuits were a staple study aid, although we had never actually made them ourselves.
For Louise, the making of these biscuits uncovered her love of deep frying, and for me, I learnt to never turn down an apron when working with flour and icing sugar.
The pictures of the Crostoli above are taken by Louise, who is a fantastic photographer and you can follow her blog at www.raspberriesinwinter.blogspot.com
Mel