Saturday round-up of deliciousness

... or a complete link fest! I can't believe how much wonderous food has been cooked, photographed and blogged since I last wrote a round-up.  So, have a rifle through this lot and see if there's anything that tickles your fancy. In the meantime, I'm off to prepare for my Sicilian holiday. (Hurrah!) Back in a week or so. 

Something yummy for dinner

Scarborough Fair egg and chips

Grilled courgette salad

Zucchini fritters with feta and dill and tomato salad

Spicy baked eggs with ham and tomato

Crab and samphire pasta 

Szechuan chicken wings 

Chicken with courgette, halloumi and honey

Hot smoked salmon and leek tart

Burmese coconut chicken noodles

Machaca burritos

Turkey burgers with brie and grilled apples

Crisp sweetcorn fritters

Scrumptious soups  

Cucumber yogurt soup

Thai rice soup 

Cheddar corn chowder with savory ham and cheese muffins

Bready things 

Dinner rolls 

White focaccia pizza with zucchini

Scugnizzo pizza

 

Pretzel corner

Soft pretzels

Soft and chewy sourdough pretzels

Cakes

Carrot cake

Rose & cardamom cake

Fudge cake

Vanilla apple bundt cake

Blackberry, apple and maple loaf

Blueberry loaf cake

Black and blue streusel cake

Mars bar crispy cakes 

Banana and caramel cheeseless yogurt cheesecake

Other assorted sweet goodies

Fresh strawberry tart with lemon cream

Blueberry almond cookies 

Pistachio brownies

Dan Lepard's blueberry and choc-chip cookies

Pierogi with blueberries

Peach shortcake

Chocolate truffles - as seen on TV

Blueberry beignets

Super creamy vanilla ice cream 

Key lime pie 

Cinder toffee

Peach and poppy seed muffins

Drinkies

Lavender syrup

Chicha de tamarindo

Butterscotch layer cake

Another cake! This is the third I've made in two weeks (I also made a Lemon and raspberry griesstorte to celebrate my two year anniversary at work). I think it might be time I took a break from cake! But before I do, let me just tell you about this wonderful cake.
It came about because this weekend I needed to make a birthday cake for my great aunt. She and my grandmother are twins and they turned 80 on Saturday. Little sis and I were each assigned a birthday girl. She made a chocolate and almond cake for my grandmother, so I needed something a bit different from that. I spotted this beauty in How to be a Domestic Goddess. I've rather overlooked it over the years, but I'm so glad I've discovered this one. It's a perfect birthday cake - and includes making the most scrumptious caramel sauce.

Making caramel was quite exciting, actually. It's amazing what you can make with water, sugar and double cream - and a bit of vigilance. To my surprise, I managed not to burn it, and when you mix it with the cream, it's just heavenly. Mix half of that with a bit of cream cheese for an icing, drizzle some of the rest over, Jackson Pollock style. You're left with quite a lot of caramel left over, which is no bad thing. I left it behind with the parents, who bought some ice cream specially to eat with it.
You can find the Butterscotch layer cake recipe here.

Digging in!

Chocolate and hazelnut meringue birthday cake

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned the grand old age of 28. It's a beautiful age, apparently. (So one of my friends was informed by a Polish lady we work with.) I took the day off work and had the laziest of days pootling around Cambridge and my flat. I had a bath at 1pm. I read a detective book set in Sicily as part of my acclimatisation in preparation for my upcoming holiday. I could afford to relax, you see, because my birthday cake had already been made, taken to work and devoured. (Though there is talk of Mr 'Splorer baking me another just for me and him.) 

I toyed with the idea of making this dressy chocolate loaf cake. I still really want to make that cake - it looks so classy and sophisticated. But I decided that for a cake worthy of my birthday I needed drama. And I think meringue just screams drama. Not to mention a cake that contains the best part of five bars of chocolate. (No one tell Mr 'Splorer how much that means I handed over to Green & Black's!) So I chose this Chocolate & hazelnut meringue cake, from the wonderful blog Tartelette. Check out her post for some gorgeous photos of what it should look like! She's adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart. It's basically a rich chocolate brownie-like cake, with a meringue topping with bits of chocolate and hazelnut folded in. It's very rich and very delicious. Personally I wasn't sure that the chocolate in the meringue was really necessary, but it went down very well in some quarters. And I got buckets of positive feedback from the workmates. So, all in all, a highly successful cake and I would totally recommend the recipe. 

I do, however, have one small gripe! Why, oh why, do Americans measure butter in tablespoons? (Or am I being unfair? Is it only some Americans?) Why would you decide to measure something solid in spoonfuls, especially assuming that you have a perfectly decent set of scales somewhere about your kitchen? Madness! 

Oh, and before I go, I must just be a proud big sis and show you what I got from little sis for my birthday:

This is me 'sploring you see...

And here I have conquered a cake mountain!

Peach and blueberry cake

This cake is a Nigel. We all know that you can rely on Nigel. And he really doesn't let us down with this cake. In fact, it's quite clearly going to become my go-to summer cake. It's the perfect cake for whipping up with whatever wonderful summer fruit you can find. Eat it hot and it's a really scrumptious fruity and almondy pudding, but wait for it to cool and the taste of the fruit really shines through. I've made it twice - once with the specified peaches and blueberries, and then with nectarines and blackcurrants. And when I came home with apricots Mr 'Splorer requested it again. (The poor lad got Apricot and Almond Tart instead.) 

Just two small tips. Firstly, don't worry if there doesn't seem to be much cake mix compared to fruit. It rises quite a lot in the oven to reach the perfect fruit/cake ratio! And secondly, sprinkling a spot of granulated sugar over the top before it goes in the oven gives the top a lovely crunch. You can find the recipe here.

Thursday round-up of deliciousness

The Google Reader is absolutely heaving again, so it's definitely time for another round-up. And there's been a lot of deliciousness around this week. I hope you find something that makes your mouth water and your tummy rumble. (Mine certainly is after collating all this!) 

Dinner ideas
Donna Hay's Lemon Parmesan risotto - a really simple idea, but one that reminds me that I really should make risotto more often. It looks so scrumptious.
Southwest black bean burgers with avocado cream - I'm slightly obsessed with Mexican flavours at the moment, and I do like a veggie burger, so this sounds right up my street. 
Chipotle beef tacos with caramelized onions - more Mexican flavours, this looks really tasty - and like the perfect thing to do with my delicious Smoky Chipotle Sauce from the Cambridge Chilli Farm. 
Cullen skink - a wonderfully named Scottish soup/stew made with smoked fish, mashed potato and served with poached eggs. It looks so comforting and delicious. 
Steak burgers with Stilton and ale - a really mouthwatering combination of flavours. Who could resist a juicy burger with ale-y onions and melted Stilton oozing on top? 
Chilled cucumber soup with borage and sour cream - a refreshing, tasty option perfect for summer. We've just to wait for summer to come back now!   

Puds, cakes and cookies
Elizabeth David's chocolate mousse - a really simple recipe - just chocolate, eggs and sugar. And Darina assures us that it's "undoubtedly the best".
Chocolate, raspberry and hazelnut swiss roll ice cream cake - this was the July Daring Bakers' challenge. I couldn't participate because it involved making two types of ice cream - and I only have the tiny freezer compartment at the top of my fridge! But when I finally get a decent kitchen with a proper freezer, this is the version I'm going to make. I love all these flavours and it looks just spectacular. 
Chelsea buns - I adore Chelsea buns. One of my very best childhood memories is my Grandad bringing me and my sister two Chelsea buns - each! These ones look perfect - sticky, shiny and squishy. 
Blackberry yogurt cake - a beautiful loaf cake, studded with blackberries bleeding out their delicious juices. 
Orange scented chocolate chip cookies - it feels like every round-up contains a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I love the orange/chocolate combination and these look perfect. I might actually get around to making them! 
Chocolate hazelnut palmiers - which basically involve rolling up puff pastry with Nutella, hazelnuts and cinnamon sugar, slicing it and baking. Doesn't that sound amazing? 
Little ginger cheesecakes - they look like cupcakes, but are actually little cheesecakes which Marie made with preserved ginger steeped in Teachers Scotch Whiskey. Such a cute idea.
Chocolate & hazelnut meringue cake - a recipe adapted from Martha Stewart, which is a flourless chocolate layer topped with a hazelnut meringue layer. It looks beautiful.  
Carrot cake cookies - another Martha Stewart recipe with carrot cake cookies sandwiched around a cream cheese filling. A really cool take on one of the cake worlds' greats.
Malted prune loaf - this looks like a kind of superior malt loaf, and a perfect way to start the day, as Madalene did, accompanied by a cup of builders tea. Yum! (And while we're on The British Larder, I really want to visit Madalene's newly opened pub and restaurant of the same name.)

Asian flavours 
Vietnamese chicken and mint salad - a Nigella recipe with "cool and crisp" flavours, which looks just delicious. 
Beef rendang - Lizzie describes this as "rich, thick, unctuous and intensely beefy" and the photos are making my mouth water! 
Duck, orange and honey stir fry with lots of greens - I love stir fries as a tasty way to include a big pile of veggies in one meal, and I love duck, and I think it's about time these two things met up. And you just know that the orange and honey is going to work wonderfully. 
Sichuan style cold pork belly & cucumber in a hot garlicky sauce - just the name is enough, isn't it? Well, if it's not, go and check out the photo. It sounds and looks absolutely delicious. 
Jap chae - a Korean beef stir fry with noodles, described by Gary as "a lovely plate of noodles". As I have yet to find a Korean dish I don't like (well, apart from rotten fish) I really want to give this a try. 
Vietnamese Caramel Shrimp Banh Mi - I have heard tell of Banh Mi (Vietnamese baguette sandwiches, as far as I understand) on the food blogs, but have yet to try one myself. This version looks both extremely delicious and totally do-able.

Snacks and sides 
Oven dried salt 'n' vinegar crisps - homemade crisps, isn't that a fine plan? And soaked in vinegar, too. A light, crispy - and healthy - snack. 
Piedmont stuffed peppers - a really simple Delia recipe involving roasting peppers with anchovies, garlic and cherry tomatoes. I love roasted peppers with a huge passion, so this sounds like a great way to jazz them up a bit.
Perfect mayo, plus herby potato salad - I have had no luck making mayonnaise recently, so I'm hoping this classic recipe from the Roux brothers will come to my rescue. And a herby potato salad sounds delicious. 
Homemade soda farls, morcilla & eggs - actually, I'll skip the morcilla (Spanish black pudding) but the soda farls remind me of childhood trips to my grandparents' house in Belfast, where I was always scoffing as much soda bread as I could get my hands on.
Sausage picnic bread - why take sausages and bread to your picnic when you can combine them in one wonderful package? The perfect portable picnic food. 

And finally, for the Spanish speakers amongst you, check out these Valencianas de chocolate, prepared for a food blogger meet up in Valencia. Why didn't they have those when I lived there?!