Day 92 - Autumn Mess & Lemony Lovelies

The blackberries in the field are bloomin' rubbish this year.  I'm not sure what has happen ed but I've tried on several occasions in the usual foraging place but the berries are either tiny and not worth picking, or flyblown and mushy.  How disappointing.

I managed to get hold of some cultivated ones however which were HUGE and plumptious and very lovely indeed.

One of our very favourite desserts is Eton Mess, and I had an idea to try to recreate an Autumnal version of it.

I stewed the berries lightly with a tiny amount of water, sugar and a pinch of ground spice, until they were slightly softer but still holding their shape.

I then whipped up some double cream and scented it with a pinch of cinnamon.  I always add a pot of yoghurt at this stage to lighten up the cream and also to make it go a little further ( in this instance it was a thick toffee one), and stirred it through carefully so that the cream wasn't thinned out too much. 

Next step was to also add some finely diced and stewed apple and the blackberries once cooled.  I stirred through some of the blackberry juice too as it was such a wonderful colour.  When we were ready for pud, I added some crushed meringue and chopped nuts and folded it all together before serving.

We enjoyed it lots!  DD wasn't very keen as she preferred the usual strawberry and raspberry one I do but everyone else declared it a hit.  I need to see what other adaptations I can make to it now!

Lovely man and I are suckers for anything flavoured with lemon.  The Costa coffee chain sell THE most amazing lemon tart which we indulge in far more than we should really!

I tested out a recipe for Light Lemon Cake last week.  This turned out to be a lovely light sponge flavoured with lemon zest and sandwiched with lemon juice and zest flecked buttercream.  The lemon flavour really lifted the buttercream so that it wasn't sickly at all. 

Ta-dahhh!.  Hmm the sponge is looking a little darker than it actually was!

GO HERE to see the recipe I used. 

I'd be interested to hear of any tried and tested recipes lemony loveliness you may wish to share with me!

Hope life isn't throwing you too many lemons right now! 

Lots of Love xx