Sam's First Battenberg Cake...Jubilee style!

So, after many different cakes tested, Sam settled on a traditional English Battenburg Cake, but jazzed up with some jubilee colours! The recipe itself is pretty straight forward, and Sam has pretty much got the sponge recipe down pat. The only part of the recipe that was fiddly was that we used two tins, and had to align them exactly, and also, the cut sides of the cake were not easy surfaces to spread with butter cream. But overall, we had a great time making it:

Sam: 8/10! I really enjoyed making this cake.It was fit for a Queen :)

Sam's First Attempt at Lemon Drizzle Cake

So, with Sam's work Jubilee weekend bake-off only round the corner, he has gone into cake over-drive, road-testing other recipes that he could bring along. This week, he thought he'd give his old favourite Lemon Drizzle Cake a go, using a recipe from Olive. Having learnt the creaming method from the previous cake, Sam got off to a great start.

He could even be safely left alone to zest the lemons (he spiced things up a bit by adding a lime too)

My intervention wasn't required until the final stages, when a surprisingly dry cake mix gave away the fact that Sam had neglected to put in four eggs - yes! FOUR eggs! With disaster averted, Sam was confident that the cake would nonetheless turn out well, regardless of what order the ingredients went in. It seems that he was proved correct in this case, since the cake turned out as tasty as ever:

Sam was very pleased with himself :)

Sam's First Marble Cake

Now, I know what you're thinking - "Surely, Sam couldn't possibly have gone through life without ever trying any marble cake?!" Well I'd say that you were right! (And don't call me Shirley) In fact, this was Sam's first attempt at baking a cake, so he started off with a simple, familiar family favourite. So after finding a good, basic recipe for marble cake on the BBC Food website, he enthusiastically threw himself into the joys of baking. The initial stages of creaming the butter and sugar together were done by hand, so they needed a strapping young lad like Sam regardless, and I'll admit I've put his brute force to good use in other such situations. Here is Sam at work, in happy anticipation of the cakey goodness coming up:

 This project required the minimal supervision, just a few checks during mixing, and before going into the oven:

And after an hour's baking, it came out quite well:

Sam's comments: I chose this recipe because it was a childhood favourite. It wasn't too complicated, and I wouldn't mind making it again.  I've yet to perfect the recipe, as it came out slightly dry, so much so that at one point, I think I aspirated some crumbs and almost started choking! 7/10, but with promise for the future :)

Sam's First Macarons....Dutch style!

OK, so strictly speaking, these aren't Sam's first macaroons, but he only had one at Christmas, so this was his first chance to really savour them. I'd previously made macaroons at Christmas from the fabulous Lorraine Pascale. I'd tried a few macaroon recipes before, but this one is the only one I've found that properly works:

So, when I was invited to bring something along to a birthday party of a Dutch friend, I decided to give these a go again, but this time, with a twist!

Ok, so I couldn't get the colours quite right, but, I'm sure you'll agree, there is some semblance to the Dutch flag! Unfortunately, the red sides didn't turn out quite as well as the blue ones, so after finding an excess of blue macaroons, I decided to pay homage to Argentina too:

They seem to go down really well at the party, and by the time it was drawing to a close, every single one had gone!

Sam's First Chicken Cacciatore

Hello everyone, it's time for another entry, and Sam is back in the driving seat again! On this occasion he chose to make Pollo alla Cacciatore - this time, surprisingly by none other than the domestic goddess herself - Nigella! Initially, I was sceptical, since normally, chicken cacciatore has a reputation for requiring considerable time cooking/stewing. However, Sam had picked out this quick version from "Nigella Express", it was supposed to take much less time, and the recipe did in fact live up to its name! We were done in no time at all, which is a blessing on a week-night. Not only was it quick, but the flavours were really so delicious, we were fighting over who would have the leftovers for lunch the next day (In the end, I thought Sam deserved it, since he'd created the lovely dish in the first place)

We only slightly changed the recipe by adding some boiled potatoes for carbs, and I cheekily added a small portion of sauerkraut on my plate (You can take the girl out of Hungary, but...) 9/10

Sam's comments: It was so tasty my toes tingled! 9/10

Sam's First Easter Bread

So, since Easter is traditionally a time for the breaking of Lent, lavish celebrationary feasts and chocolate indulgence, of course we could not pass it without at least one notable mention of our culinary experiences. The most delicious of which was a modern take on the classic European Easter bread, bursting with butter and littered with tasty chunks of nuts and dried fruit, and hence widely popular especially around Eastern European countries, from Poland to Bulgaria and Greece.
This version was mainly based upon Olive's recipe for the Pecan Twist, which has a slightly different variation on the shape of the bread and uses pecans instead of more traditional European nuts. For added taste, we also threw in some chopped dried apricots and chocolate chunks. For the basic dough recipe, I used Dad's trusty old Beigli recipe - rich, sweet, yet springy enough to even make doughnuts from! So after leaving the dough to rise, I rolled it out, added the filling ingredients and proceeded to twist it in the method outlined in the magazine. It was a bit fiddly, but I think the result was worth it!
Within half an hour of cooking, the kitchen began to fill with the most delicious smells, which I later found out had percolated into the corridors and lead my neighbours to enquiry about what exactly was cooking, and by the time the day was drawing to a close, more than half of it was gone. Definitely a wonderful dish prepared fresh, it can be simply devoured in large chunks and is even better drizzled in honey or maple syrup depending on your choice.
Sam's verdict: Deliciously chewy 7/10

Sam's First Paella

A wonderful take on the classic chicken and chorizo paella!

Sam's verdict: Wonderful! 9/10. I like how the taste of Spain is expressed in this dish. I wish we could have had more. Can we have this every night?