'Pumpkin Pie' Cheesecake

Years ago when I first started baking it was quite difficult to find recipes for things such as Pumpkin Pie. I'm showing my age a bit here but I used to have to read - wait for it - BOOKS to get a recipe. There was no surfing the net...well certainly not in my house. So if you couldn't find an American baking book anywhere you were stuffed.
Then, on actually discovering a recipe, I'd have to use the left over flesh from my actual pumpkin carving to make the cakes as it certainly wasn't available anywhere in cans! Life is easier now and Waitrose is one of a good few places to sell canned pumpkin puree but if you do have flesh left over from carving then that can be used too.
I know enough about baking to put together my own Pumpkin Pie inspired cheesecake just for something s little different so read on for the best Halloween recipe you'll ever eat (in my humble opinion...)

Biscuit Base:
220g Digestive Biscuits
100g Unsalted Butter, melted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp all spice
Dead easy - bung it all in a bowl and mix.
(Obviously you're supposed to make the biccies into crumbs first and my method is to throw them all into bowl and bash the crap out of them with the end of a rolling pin #CakeRage) Then just pour in melted butter and spices and mix up.
I'd say use a 20cm springform tin and put baking paper on the bottom, greased. Also grease around the walls of the tin with butter too. This is a baked cheesecake (New York style) and as it cooks you want the cheese filling to be able to peel away from the sides of the tin) Now you can spread your biscuit mix onto the paper and leave to chill for 30 min (ish)

Cheese:
700g full-fat cheese (3 1/2 tubs)
120g golden caster sugar
1 tsp all spice
3 large eggs
150g tinned pumpkin or pumpkin puree
When you're ready to make this bit, heat your oven to Gas Mark 3 (160C) - nice and low.
The cheese, sugar and spice can all be creamed together, then add the eggs one at a time making sure each is mixed well before you add the next. Then pop in your garish pumpkin flesh or puree (it will become a much less offensive Magnolia colour...)
This mixture can now be poured onto your chilled biscuit base. Put the whole thing into a bain-marie (i.e. a roasting tin big enough to fit your cheesecake tin in and add a few cm of water to.) Again this is because during cooking you don't want it to dry out too much and crack - the steam from the tin will keep the cheese soft and moist. If you're worried about water seeping into your springform tin (believe me the LAST thing you want is soggy biscuits...) then wrap tin foil around the bottom. I also popped foil around the top to stop it browning too quickly as it needs to stay in the oven for 50-55 min. When out it should look like this, then leave it to cool for a good long time (2-3 hrs):

Topping:
50g walnuts or pecans
50g butter
85g muscovado sugar (or similar)
Again, bung in the pan and melt together then throw/slather it all over the top of your cheesecake. Wait to cool again (yes...it's tough to wait so I suggest licking your bowl and spatula for the time being) and eventually devour.
If you give this recipe a go, let me know how it turns out and I apologise in advance for your Diabetes...xox

EYHO - Funeral Biscuits

A Sugar & Spice (and not-so-nice) History of Funeral Biscuits

As part of my involvement in Eat Your Heart Out 2012, I gave a lecture and presentation to over 100 journalists on press night. The lecture was about one of my favourite topics - Victorian Funeral Biscuits - and was based on an article I wrote a while back. It was entitled 'Mourning Coffee' and was all about the link between cake (or various sweet foods) and death...yes, there IS one! You can read the full article here: http://www.afternoon-tease.blogspot.co.uk/p/mourning-coffee.html and do e-mail me if you have any questions.
The above biscuits were made by Tasha and Fi of the food curiosity company Animal Vegetable Mineral and we gave them out during the first British Biscuit Festival. She recreated the recipe for the press night so as well as anatomical cakes and lots of Kraken Rum, the attendees had them to try as well. Spoilt!

It's Halloween tomorrow (my favourite holiday) so expect many more posts about my random spokky baking adventures over the next few days.
www.avmcuriosities.com
www.krakenrum.com
Until next time xox

My 'Tease Maid' Necklace

Bete Noire Jewellery

As part of Eat Your Heart Out 2012 I was asked to do several broadcast interviews. I wanted to make sure I had a personalised necklace from the fantastic Beth Noire to wear and many people asked me where it was from so here is the link: http://www.betenoirejewellery.com

I opted for the large double heart version and of course I chose Tease Maid to personalise it:

It's the cutest thing I've ever seen - I literally squealed when I opened it (and honestly squealing is NOT something I would ever do without good reason!) Look at the tiny spoon and sugar cubes! I'm just in love with it and have already decided on other things I want to buy and in fact a friend of mine, Zoe, has purchased one too :)

I also did a radio podcast interview for Londonist Out Loud and I wore the necklace then (and yes I do realise that people couldn't see it on the radio...) so I'll pop the link here for you in case you want to hear me discuss flagellation, scousers, cake and drilling holes in someone's head. Random, - but these are the things I know about......
http://londonist.com/2012/10/londonistoutloud26oct.php
This is a fairly short post as I'm recovering from the incredible #EYHO - I'm having a nice day off, baking Halloween goodies and watching Addams Family in preparation for Halloween, so expect more soon xox

Eat Your Heart Out 26th-28th October

Official EYHO Shoot!
I was so honoured to be a part of the photoshoot for the event which is going to combine cake and Pathology and is happening at my pathology museum (St Bart's) this October (for full details click on the tab at the top of the page).


Here is an example of the pics:

Photos: @NathanPask. Styling: @katieantoniou @shinythoughts

Hair: @Holly_Rudge.  Make-up: @EmAlexandraMUA
 

Edible necklace by Miss Insomnia Tulip: @missinsomniatul

I'm with a cake made by Lashanthie Chandrapala of 'Leshie Loves Cake' (orders to leshielovescake@gmail.com) which looked exactly like flesh with a syringe in but smelt divine and was difficult to resist while trying to pose...!
Other contributions will include those below:

STD Box Set by Two Little Cats



'Fungus Toe Cookies' by Nevie Pie Cakes

Breast Anatomy cupcake by M.I Tulip (The Biscuit Barrel)

The aim of the event is to combine my two loves: Pathology and baking into one large public engagement extravaganza to teach people about medicine, anatomy and disease in a totally new way. Co-curated with the notorious Miss Cakehead (http://evilcakes.wordpress.com/), who I previously worked with on the Resident Evil 6 launch, this is going to be an incredibly unique experience so get yourself down. If you'd like to volunteer in some way, contact me the teasemaid@gmail.com xox

Two Little Cats  - jenni.powell@yahoo.co.uk
Nevie Pie Cakes - nevie-pie@hotmail.ac.uk 
The Biscuit Barrel - orders@thebiscuitbarrel.com
Katie Antoniou - http://www.katieantoniou.com/
Nathan Pask - http://nathanpask.com/

Shoreditch Clandestine Cake Club - Meeting 5: "Whodunnit?"

Do I pass for Miss Scarlett?

Far more people than expected descended on an unsuspecting, dimly lit pub last Monday night. I had chosen the location for its red velvety walls, dark turquoise furnishings and plenty of wood as I thought it would be a good place for a Cluedo-inspired Cake Club. The theme was pretty much any 'super-sleuth' you could think of but considering Cluedo was first made in 1949 and that's pretty much my favourite era, I chose the glamorous Miss Scarlett for my own costume inspiration:

Others went with Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and Mrs Peacock:

Madeline as Poirot and Caroline as Marple

The lovely Polly as Mrs Peacock, complete with Peacock feather

The cakes were absolutely fantastic and I was so impressed with the different interpretations of the theme. I had opted for a fairly simple 'Miss Marble' cake as I had a lot of other things to do for the evening...namely my hair..! However, the array of cakes was totally amazing and I wish I could've taken pics of them all. Here's just a few:

'Miss Marble' and 'upside-down Professor Plum' cakes

'Tom Banana-by Midsomer' cake, Belgian Chocolate Moustache cake and 'Columbo coffee cake'

Pistachioed Moustachioed Belgian Choc cake, 'Colonel Custard and Miss Scarlett cake' and 'Mrs Peacock cake'

Martha's sponge cake with jelly gun!

My initial plan had been for us to split into teams of two and play Cluedo - I brought two boxes of it with me and tons of pencils and prizes. But the pub was so dim, we couldn't see a thing and there were really far too many of us. Thankfully I had a back-up plan of my 'fill in the blanks of the famous detective's name' game. It even included a picture round :) It was obviously quite difficult as can be seen by these ladies trying desperately to work out if Colombo even had a first name (Incidentally Debbie, Bergerac's first name was not 'Cyrano de') haha

After 2 tiebreakers (it really was nail-biting stuff) the winner received a brand new CSI box-set. (By 'new' I mean, it was in plastic packaging...it was actually Season 1 but it's not bad for free!) I also had an array of little prizes in evidence bags. You can just see the mini Cluedo playing cards and magnetic bookmark with a noose on it. There was also a Miss Scarlett compact mirror:

The rest of the evening was spent discussing our favourite detectives and enjoying cake, although I'm pretty certain that in the darkness everyone was suddenly expecting to trip over my bleeding corpse and have to find out Whodunnit. I might save that for my birthday party....
At the end of the night, Zoe ran off with my rather fetching Crime Scene tape and I forgot my tupperware so I took cake home in evidence bags:

Thanks so much everyone for coming and eating cake in the dark and expecting to be clubbed over the head with a candlestick at any moment. And thanks so much to Lynn Hill for devising the Clandestine Cake Club and giving me a reason to get people together to act nuts and dress-up once a month. Hope to see you all at the next one :) xx
Go to http://clandestinecakeclub.co.uk/ to join the network, then click on my Shoreditch group to join us :) For info on how to do hair and make-up, go to my vintage site at http://www.make-upbake-up.blogspot.co.uk/ xx

'The Park Lounge' at The Milestone Hotel, Kensington
Despite the fact that we just had a heatwave, we have crossed the threshold into September and that means it's Autumn. Does anyone else remember years ago we'd be getting ready for our new school term and purchasing new tights and jumpers and a 'big coat'? As the years have passed it's like the seasons are getting later and now September is fairly summery for us. Even most of winter is quite mild until we get to Jan and Feb and freeze our asses off... Oh, bring back cold September mornings with the smell of burning leaves in the air and chestnuts underfoot!
Anyway, musing aside, I absolutely LOVE Autumn - it's my favourite time of year. All the great things happen: Halloween, Bonfire Night, My Birthday (to name a few. E-mail me for details of the latter...) and of course you can mull cider and wine so you have a great excuse to drink all day, especially if you're at a market or in the park.
I've decided to start reviewing some great autumnal places to fit in with the time of year and I recently went to The Milestone Hotel, basically because in the pics on the web it looked like Sherlock Holmes' drawing room, or a place where Oscar Wilde may have sipped champagne and dreamed up 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

You can see what I mean: rows of books, soft lighting, velvet and giant paintings - The Milestone really didn't disappoint. The only thing is that photographs of places tend to make us imagine there are blanks to be filled in with our minds so I pictured this room with its grandiose decor as much larger than it was. It was gorgeous but it's really only the size of someone's lounge in their house.

That's quite nice though - it's not a negative. Less space = less people and noise (yes - I am an old person and I want to be able to hear my conversations...) so me and my guest (the lovely Amanda Sutton from Amanda's autopsies who I met during Taxidermy and Tea, see here for that review and her details http://afternoon-tease.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/taxidermy-and-tea.html) thoroughly enjoyed it.
The problem with reviewing tea for a magazine or similar publication is they treat you really well because they know who you are. Amanda and I were treated like royalty with a free full afternoon tea as well as champagne. The food was truly delicious with the typical finger sandwiches: smoked salmon, egg and watercress and ham and mustard to name a few. However there were a couple of very strange circular chicken mayonnaise sandwiches that had been rolled in chopped almonds that neither of us particularly liked (you can see them in the pic). Perhaps if they were Coronation Chicken circles the almonds would make sense, but with only mayo the combination was a bit strange.
The cakes were gorgeous but I think it's fairly difficult to go wrong with any kind of cake! We kept ourselves busy with mini eclairs, Black Forest cupcakes, almond financiers and coffee macaroons etc, and the room was very silent for that little episode...

Despite it being gorgeous it was also filling, so we had to ask for a doggy bag to take the rest of the cakes home. The Milestone provide you with a little carrying box plus handles so you can take them home in a dainty little case - however, I totally forgot to bring ours with me so that was a little fail right there :(

All in all it was a lovely ambient place to have a civilised afternoon tea with beautiful decor, gentle piano music drifting in from the conservatory and very helpful staff and I certainly want to go again and take tea in the conservatory itself (it has a totally different feel to the Lounge and would be lovely after a shopping trip with the girls):

http://www.milestonehotel.com/bar-and-dining/afternoon-tea

Head to the conservatory if you want to extend your summer but if you want to speed up the cosiness of autumn then do what I did and go to the Park Lounge xox


Shoreditch Clandestine Cake Club - Meeting 4 "Blitz Bakes": Ration Cakes
In order to be safe from the inevitable bombs dropping, I opted to have this 1940's Wartime Cake Club in the underground bunker known as Crimson Heart on Leonard Street.
Despite the cakes being made from only ration ingredients and in some cases original ration recipes, they were incredibly tasty! Here's a selection:

Hedgerow Drizzle, Date & Walnut and Eggless Fruit Cake etc

New attendees Jasmine, David, Madeleine, Tori, Jordan and Yvonne got right into the spirit of things by shoving my little Union Flags into the cakes and waiting patiently while we took the obligatory CCC photos to get everyone salivating. Here they all are!

From L-R, Yvonne, Maddy, Jordan, Jasmine, David, Tori

I gave David a prize for being the first male to attend Cake Club. Despite the fact that I always tend to have at least one man book every time, they don't turn up! Are they not aware that Cake Club is an untapped reservoir of lovely and talended ladies?!
The unusual thing about this event was that it was combined with my other event, a retro Avon tea party called Cake It On! which happens once every 3 weeks. Inevitably there was going to come a time when both events clashed, but that just made for a really interesting themed evening where I was able to give out relevant prizes for competitions and quizzes. The real wartime one was attempting to draw stocking seams down the back of your own legs...!

I need to have less tall friends!!

The prize for this was a fab British themed Baking Book and it went to Jasmine for doing very straight lines down BOTH legs! Great effort :)

As usual the evening did descend into chaos, and that always ensures that certain people (such as Martha who shall remain nameless...) use my quiz as an opportunity not to win the fabulous prize and instead to entertain us all. Cue the 'fill in the blanks' debacle which has given us such beauties as Anthea TURNER rather than Lana TURNER and GENE Simmons rather than GENE Tierney before... This time it was wartime baddies such as Herman Goring who became Herman MUNSTER haha.

Thankfully some people did take it seriously so here is the fabulous Kim recieving her prize of patriotic Avon earrings:

For more info on the rest of the night (and further pics), make sure you go to www.make-upbake-up.blogspot.co.uk for my other blog!! If you'd like to join the Clandestine Cake Club there is a link to the International network at the top of this  and then you can join my Shoreditch group :) xox

"Time for Tease" at Volupte Lounge, Norwich Street

http://www.timefortease.co.uk/

Perhaps I'm kinky or perhaps I just like value for money, but if I can have a cuppa and baps at the same time then I certainly won't say no. My penchant for a bit of titillation with my tea, and nipples with my nibbles, is fairly well known since I dreamed up the concept for this blog a couple of years ago: I wanted a nice tongue-in-cheek way to review afternoon tea, a supposedly innocent past-time that has its fair share of double-entendres (finger sandwiches anyone..?)
When I later discovered that someone had actually created afternoon tea which involved burlesque, it's safe to say I'd be there with knobs on - or tassels - I'm not fussed.
The day finally arrived and I crossed Volupte Lounge's dim threshold into a world of fabulous wallpaper, beautiful crockery and pin up pictures, and left the busy Jubilee streets behind.

It absolutely did not disappoint - it was everything I hoped it would be. From the moment we sat down at our table we were treated like Royalty (how apt) and offered a glass of bubbly. We then had plenty of time to peruse the menu of tea and tea based cocktails which are served in large or small teapots (This, I really like, as it means you can be an absolute booze-hound and no-one can tell...because the tea cocktails are actually HOT!)

  
As soon as we had chosen our delicious cocktails (and stipulated that although my companion was a vegetarian, I was happy to eat anything put in front of me) we were served a gorgeous array of finger sandwiches to nibble on almost immediately. I was pleased to discover that my favourite Coronation Chicken was on the menu, and happily not just for the Jubilee! (I was also given extra Coronation Chicken sandwiches as they are my favourite and for this reason alone I was ready to marry the waitress.)

The tea cocktail arrived in delicate matching china pots and we got down to the business of diving straight in.
Nibbling and sipping aside, we were able to have some time to chat (with mouths fairly full) before being pleasantly interrupted by the compere, the fantastic Ophelia Bitz, who regaled us with songs and jokes to warm us up. I have to say I was feeling pretty warmed up by the time the first burlesque artist came on, but that may have had a lot to do with the Gunfire (Lapsang Souchong and Rum) too....
After the first couple of acts, yet more delicate china arrived, this time a cake stand with scones and patisserie:

When I first saw it I did think it looked a little bit sparse compared to other selections I've had, but sometimes quality is more important than quantity. The little brownies were a divine gooey chocolatey mouthful, and the lemon posset with passion fruit was just tart enough to counteract any sickliness brought on by the copious amounts of booze and sugar. And realistically, we'd had so many nice sandwiches that any more cake would've killed us off.
Further welcome interruptions included more Ophelia Bitz, more acts (I won't put their pics on as it would spoil the surprise) and also some nipple tassels for sale courtesy of Rae Jenkin. My budget won't stretch to nipple tassels and pasties at the moment (there's another naughty joke: pasties and pastries...) but I took a card to browse the on-line selection. If I can get some of the cupcake pasties one day I'll know if finally 'made it' in the world of cake ;)
We really could've stayed there a lot longer - the decor was gorgeous and decadent and even the toilets were glamorous:

The music was great and the ambience was fantastic. It was with a fairly reluctant heavy gait that we ascended back into the bright London day around 2 hours after we'd arrived. I think next time I'll just head into the fabulous little upstairs bar and while the night away.
And there will be a next time for certain, for me and my companion who's already planning on bringing friends. 
Not only do the acts rotate so you will see different artists during different sittings, meaning you can keep returning and never get bored, but Volupte also host silent film in their Cine Illumine on the first Sunday of every month! I knew that afternoon tea and tease would be a match made in heaven and I can't wait to see if their Silent film and supper club is just as good.

http://www.volupte-lounge.com/

"Sip"-Tease Rating: *****
Pa"Tease"erie Rating: ****

Boudoir or Boring? rating: *****

Service with a Smile Rating: *****

Cheap or Chic? Rating: ***

Volupteas are on Saturdays and Sundays from 2:30pm - see website for more details,
Until next time....xox

Shoreditch Clandestine Cake Club - Meeting 3
"Monarchy Anarchy": Royalty Past and Present

My jubilee-themed May CCC meeting was a celebration of all things British, so it was apt that in typically British fashion the weather went all unpredictably bi-polar on us... A month ago I had chosen the perfect indoor venue, draped in regal velvets and silks; cluttered and cosy with gilded mirrors, thrones and velour galore. Then, of course, we had a heatwave (pretty unexpected after the wettest 'drought' we've ever had and yes, that is an oxymoron...) 
So on a sweltering May evening the surroundings and heat could easily have been a total disaster. Thankfully with a typically British stiff upper-lip the members of the Shoreditch CCC 'kept cool and carried on' despite the heat, and we had one of the largest funniest gatherings yet.

The Bridge Cafe and Bar, Kingsland Road

There was a little disaster in the form of my edible marzipan Imperial crown covered in gold leaf just dying and becoming a molten blob. And we certainly had to work quickly to take all the pics of our cake porn as the butter-cream and chocolate seemed to be melting before our very eyes like the Wicked Witch of the West. So, as soon as pics were done we dived in and OH MY GOD there were so many cakes and they were all gorgeous:

Victoria Sponge

Citrus and berry cake

Prince Regent, Pimms Cake and Battenburg

Earl Grey cake and Patriotic M&M's!

Not only were the cakes amazing (I literally can't put all the pics in) but the effort everyone went to for their attire was fantastic! We had tiaras, Union Jack bows, regal jewellery and a home-made crown which made us all look pretty silly amongst the regular (by which I mean normal) clientele of The Bridge. But we didn't care :) We were busy playing our Guess The Royal game and drinking our rather appropriate Corona's:

*weirdest pic I've ever taken at CCC... What u up to Maarf??

And I had to lay down strict rules that when you wrote on your neighbour's Post-It must be a real Royal and not Princess Leia or King Kong....! Anyway, Helen was the winner and she bagged herself a cute set of Avon Union Jack earrings worth £6 (courtesy of me and my other life as an Avon Lady). Can't complain!

I think I speak for everyone when I say a jolly good time was had by all and I'm looking forward to the real Jubilee if our Corona/Cake-fest was anything to go by! God save The Queen and all that - until next time..xox