Cooking Day, Ben's Birthday Edition!

first up:

 Whole Baked Brie with Honey + Pecans

Ingredients:
-1 small, whole brie (about 300g)
-2 springs thyme
-2 tbsp honey
-a handful of pecans, toasted and chopped
-crusty bread to serve

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.

2. Put the brie in an oven-safe dish, make a few cuts in the top, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle thyme over.

3. Cover with foil and bake for 5-10 minutes until gooey.

4. Sprinkle with pecans, drizzle with honey and serve with warm crusty bread.

Also in the picture, some really nice goat's cheese from Whole Foods, courtesy of Dani and Mike, simply sprinkled with some black pepper and served with more bread.

Delish.

Blackberry + Apple Crumble Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:

-175g unsalted butter
-150g golden caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp
-4 eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 8 wedges
-3 large eggs, beaten
-200g plain flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-150g creme fraiche
-150g blackberries
-3 to 4 tbsp clear honey or maple syrup

Crumble Topping:
-50g unsalted butter
-50g soft brown sugar
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-75g flour
-50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a 20cm springform tin with baking parchment.

2. To make the crumble topping, melt the butter, then mix in the soft brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and chopped hazelnuts.

3. Heat 25g of butter in a large frying pan. Add 1 tbsp caster sugar and the apple wedges. Cook for about 10 minutes until the apples are tender and golden. Cool.

4. Beat together the remaining butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually mix in the eggs. Using a large metal spoon, fold in the flour and baking powder. Add the creme fraiche and mix until smooth.

5. Spoon roughly 2/3 of the cake mixture into the tin, spread level and scatter over 1/3 of the crumble. Top with the remaining cake mixture and level again. Scatter on another 1/3 of the crumble and arrange the apple wedges and blackberries on top. Finally top with the remaining crumble.

6. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours. Loosely cover the top of the cake with a sheet of parchment paper or foil halfway through the cooking time if it is browning too quickly.

7. Cool the cake in the tine for 10 minutes and then transfer to a serving plate. Warm the honey or maple syrup and drizzle over the cake. Serve warm.


and finally

Fresh Strawberries with Sour Cream and Brown Sugar
Ingredients:
-fresh strawberries
-sour cream
-brown sugar

Directions:
1. put strawberries, sour cream and brown sugar all in separate bowls.

2. Take a strawberry, dip it in the sour cream, roll around in the brown sugar and then eat.

3. Enjoy.
[simple, no?]
[was too busy eating to take photos...]