Cook the Books: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

When I saw that the current choice for Cook the Books was The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd my reaction was....finally. I know that I bought this book off the 3 for 2 table at Borders (remember them?) which tells you how long ago it was. I think I also bought Life of Pi at the same time, but I had never read any of them and the books didn't survive a book cull. I still intended to read it one day, and it turns out that now is that day.

To an outsider, the 1960s feel like a hugely significant period in history, specifically US history. From JFK, the moon landings,  and so much more. One of the most significant series of events related to the changes in race relations, which is where this book focusses. It's fair to say that the gains made during this period came at great cost, great personal cost for many individuals, and that even today, there are still instances of this happening.

14 year old Lily lives with her father T. Ray in South Carolina in 964. He is a violent man, but he is the only family Lily has since her mother died, an event that Lily only kind of remembers. The only real love that she receives is from Rosaleen, her substitute mother who is black.

Rosaleen is determined to register to vote in upcoming elections, the first time in her life she has ever been able to do so. Lily accompanies Rosaleen on the long walk into town, but it all goes wrong when Rosaleen insults three white men in town, and ends up in jail. T. Ray begrudgingly comes and gets Lily released but he leaves Rosaleen in jail. Lily is furious and decides the only thing to be done is to spring her from her cell, but she needs a plan. 

There are a few items in her deceased mother's possessions that Lily treasures, one of which is a picture of a Black Madonna with the words Tiburon SC written on it, and it is this that guides the direction that Lily and Rosaleen take. Little do they know but that they are heading to a place which will provide Lily with solace, joy, heartache and the answers that she is desperate for in relation to her mother.

Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by three black women who are named May, July and August Boatwright, who are beekeepers and honey producers. Lily has been drawn to bees so this is her chance to learn more. It isn't all sunshine and roses, but for the most part it is what Lily needs. She also gets to meet other members of a loving community, with all the quirky individuals who make it up. But this is 1964 and race issues are never far from the surface, and the local town's people are not necessarily pleased at the idea of a white girl living with the black women.

Whilst the race issues provide the framework for the story, there is so much more, especially as Lily comes to understand the events leading up to her mother's death which have shaped her so much despite her limited memories of that day! She also knows that T. Ray will eventually find her and she needs to be ready.

This is a book that shines a light on important events, but it is also filled with heart, and I am glad to finally have read it!

 With bees and honey being such an integral part of this story, I knew that I wanted to make something featuring honey but when it came down to it, I had a hard time choosing a recipe. I even have a cook book called Honey but there wasn't anything calling out to me. Let me clarify, there was nothing sweet calling my name. There is a Cardamon Basque Cheesecake that I want to make but it didn't feel honey forward enough for my purpose. In the end I narrowed it down to 3 options and my husband picked a chiffon cake. And then I did something completely different.

I ended up going back to an old favourite recipe which is relatively simple and very, very tasty!

I am sharing this review with my fellow Cook the Books participants and also at Foodies Read hosted at Based on a True Story

Honey Sponge Roll

4 eggs, separated
½ cup (110g) caster sugar, plus extra, for dusting
½ cup (75g) cornflour
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon honey, at room temperature
Honey cream filling
90g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey



Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan. Lightly grease and line base and sides of a 26cm x 32cm swiss roll pan.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until mixture is thick and glossy. Beat in egg yolks until just mixed.

Meanwhile, finely sift cornflour, flour, spices and baking powder. Lightly fold into egg mixture with honey, mixing gently until evenly distributed. Fill prepared pan shaking gently to spread mixture evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes, until risen and firm when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Turn out onto a tea towel lightly dusted with extra caster sugar. Quickly peel off paper and trim edges. Roll up immediately in tea towel starting from short edge. Leave to cool completely.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter until pale and creamy. Add honey and beat until well mixed. Add 2 tablespoons water and continue beating until mixture is smooth and creamy. Unroll cake and spread over filling. Roll up again and serve cut across into slices.

Weekly meals

Saturday -
Sunday -  Zuppo Tuscano
Monday - Steak, egg and chips
Tuesday - Out for dinner
Wednesday - Pork chop, mash and broccoli
Thursday - Butter chicken, rice and roti
Friday - Family dinner

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Polish Honey Cake

For a person who doesn't particularly like honey, I seem to be cooking with it quite a bit at the moment. The most recent recipe that I have tried is a Polish Honey Cake from In Belinda's Kitchen by Belinda Jeffery. This book was chosen as the Lambs Ear Cookbook Club book of the month a couple of months ago but I hadn't yet had the opportunity to cook from it. Given that I need to return it to the library I needed to get to cook something asap!

In addition to the honey, one of the other key ingredients in this recipe is dates. This is an ingredient I haven't cooked with a lot either. The combination of the honey and dates, along with the spices was a winner, and we will definitely having this one again.

However, we didn't quite follow the serving suggestions. Last weekend I cooked this on Saturday morning thinking we would have it for dinner, but we ended up going to watch my son play basketball. It was at an odd time so we got takeaway for dinner on the way home. Then we were out for breakfast and dinner on Sunday so there was no need for cake. This meant we didn't actually try it until Monday, and then we proceeded to have it as breakfast during the week. So for us this is a Polish Honey Breakfast Cake!

There are a couple of other recipes that I do still want to try out of the book, so I might need to reborrow the book. We'll see!

It certainly looks like Max gives this book his seal of approval

Polish Honey Cake (Belinda Jeffrey)    

¼ cup (20g) flaked almonds
400g unsalted butter
1 cup (350g) honey, plus extra to drizzle
1 firmly packed cup (200g) brown sugar
3 cups (450g) plain flour
1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp ground ginger
1½ tsp ground cinnamon
300g pitted dates, roughly chopped
2-3 tsp very thinly sliced glace ginger
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup (60g) sour cream
½ cup (125ml) hot black tea
2 tsp vanilla extract
Thick cream or vanilla bean ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 160º. Grease a 25cm non-stick bundt pan well, then press almonds into base and a little up the sides.

Place butter and honey in a saucepan over low heat, stirring, until the butter has melted. Stir in brown sugar.

Meanwhile, combine flour, soda, ground ginger and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add dates and glace ginger and toss to coat.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, sour cream, hot tea and vanilla, then whisk the egg mixture into the melted butter mixture.

Make a well in the centre of flour and pour in butter mixture. Lightly whisk to a loose batter, then pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto the rack and cool completely.

Slice and serve drizzled with extra honey, with cream or ice cream.

Weekly meals

Saturday -  Takeaway

Sunday -  Out for dinner

Monday - Smoky pork chops with mash, broccoli and gravy

Tuesday - Steak with roasted baby potatoes

Wednesday - Pork Nachos

Thursday - Out for dinner

Friday - Chicken Friccasee

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees

Welcome to today's stop on the blog tour for Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees and to this week's Weekend Cooking post.

It's 1946 and the war is over. It's time for everyone to go home and start to heal. And yet, as much as it was the end of the war, it was also the beginning of the Cold War. Germany has been divided into sectors amongst the Allies and the tensions that shaped the world for decades were building. The rebuilding of cities and countries across Europe has to start, rehousing of displaced persons needs to begin, and the search is on for the Nazi's who disappeared into the general population at the end of the war, with the assistance of some of the population who still were believers.

For teacher Edith Graham this is also the chance for a new beginning. She has spent the war at home looking after her mother. Now, she's been recruited by the British Control Commission to go Germany. Her job while she is there is to set up schooling in the ruins that is the city of Lubeck. The city is full of people living in the amongst the rubble, with barely enough food or clothes, scrounging the ruins for an existence with little time for schooling.

But Edith is not only there for the recovery effort. She has also been recruited to provide information to the British government. They are keen to located her former lover Kurt von Stavenow who was a doctor that they believe was involved in the medical "research" during the War. Edith and Kurt were close in the years before the war and she can't believe that the Kurt that she knew could possibly be the same man. After all, she had spent time with him and his aristocratic wife, Elisabeth, in Prussia before the war, and now Edith is tasked with finding either of them.

Von Stavenow is the kind of man that has caught the attention of lots of interested parties. The US and the Russians are both interested in what they can learn from him in the name of science. And even in the British government there are those are that are interested in the same thing. And then there are the parties that want to see people like him face justice for what they did during the war.

With all of these different agendas at play, it's hard for Edith to know who to trust. Everyone wants the information that Edith has collected, not least of all her friend Dori who is still in London. In order to pass information back Edith and Dori come up with a code that is centred around sharing recipes. And then there is Edith's American friend Adeline who pops up with alarming regularity. How is she involved?

In addition to Edith's female friends who all bring interesting voices, there are other characters like her driver Jack, the young refugee Luka who appoints himself as Edith's protector, and her occasional romantic interest Harry. Even within those closest to her, Edith has to question if they have their own agendas.

This book is very unusual. There are plenty of historical novels out there which talk about the female spy experience during war time, but I don't think I have ever read one in this kind of post war setting. The book also had a Cold War thriller feeling where it was hard for Edith to know who in her life she can trust, where there was danger and betrayal at every turn. And the ending. Oh my goodness I did not see that coming.

Celia Rees has written a lot of young adult historical fiction novels, but this is her first for adults. Based on this book I will definitely be looking forward to reading more from her in the future.

Using the idea of recipe as code was a very clever touch. There were plenty of examples of delicious sounding recipes mentioned, but this was also in the immediate aftermath of the war. There were shortages everywhere, and so there were also several recipes that I would be happy to never have to eat.

When I was reading the book I was trying to come up with how I was going to include a recipe for this post. There were a couple of recipes in the book that I have made before and shared on the blog including Lebkuchen (recipe here) and Apfelkuchen (recipe here) but the one that I decided to post is Bienenstich or Beesting Cake. I made it a while ago using this recipe from the Queen website. It's an unusual cake as it is made from brioche dough rather than cake but the combination with the custard was delicious.

Beesting Cake

Custard
2 cups (500ml) full cream milk
4 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
6 large egg yolks (approx. 110g)
½ cup (110g) caster sugar
1/3 cup (50g) corn flour
45g butter, room temperature

Brioche
½ cup (125ml) lukewarm milk
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
1 ½ tsp dried yeast
2 cups (300g) plain flour
50g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg

Topping
70g unsalted butter
¼ cup (55g) caster sugar
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp thickened cream
1 cup (120g) flaked almonds

For the Custard

1. Place milk, and Vanilla Bean Paste in a large saucepan over a low heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Combine egg yolks, sugar and corn flour in a large bowl and whisk to form a thick paste. Add a few tablespoons of warm milk mixture to thin out the mixture if necessary.

3. Slowly add half a cup of milk at a time to the egg mixture while whisking. Continue until all the milk has been added. Pour mixture back into saucepan over a low heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Once mixture starts to boil, keep mixing for 1 minute and then remove from the heat and pour into a clean bowl.

4. Place a piece of cling wrap directly over the pastry cream and allow to cool for 30 minutes before whisking through butter. Allow to cool completely, before refrigerating until chilled.

For the Brioche

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment, combine milk, sugar and yeast and allow to sit until foamy. Add remaining ingredients and mix on low for 1 minute, before increasing the speed and mixing for a further 5 minutes. Place cling over mixer bowl and allow dough to rise for 1 hour or until almost doubled.

2. Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 20cm round cake tin. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 4 minutes, adding more flour if needed. Press into the base of prepared tin, ensuring dough covers the base of the tin. Allow to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Method - Topping

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (fan forced). Prepare topping at the start of the second rise. Place all ingredients excluding flaked almonds in a medium saucepan over a low to medium heat until butter melts and mixture starts to simmer, cook for 1 minute until slightly thickened, do not brown. Remove from the heat and add flaked almonds, stirring well to combine. Set aside to cool.

2. Spoon almond topping over risen dough, do not worry about spreading the almond mixture as it will flatten out during baking. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in tin, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

3. Slice cake in half and spread custard over the base of the cake. Place top half on top of custard.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page.

Thanks to Random Thing Blog Tours for the invitation to participate for the blog tour and the review copy of this very interesting book, and for a review copy. Be sure to check out the other stops on the tour!

Weekend Cooking: Honey Sponge Roll

A couple of weekends ago I was at the boyfriend's house and I was feeling the need to make something. Because I am still in trying to impress mode I asked him what he would like. Should I make chocolate cake or brownies or lemon syrup cakes or white chocolate cheesecake, After a short deliberation, he looks at me and says that he wants a Bee Sting cake. Now, given that wasn't one of the options given I was a little surprised, but I went off to the internet to see if I could find a recipe.

Now it turns out that a Beesting cake is a kind of German honey flavoured yeasted cake with a kind of toffee topping, that needs to be beaten for quite lengthy period of times, and in some recipes left overnight before finishing, so in the end I went back and said no. There were a couple of reasons. The first was that I hadn't bought my stand mixer with me, and the second was that it sounded way too hard.

On Sunday morning though, I had a brain wave. The signature dish of one of my former colleagues is a honey log roll. It would have the honey and cream component that he was looking for, but without the hard work. Never mind the fact that we didn't have the mixer to be able to whip the egg whites. In the end he did that using the whisk attachment to a stick blender. Never mind that I have never attempted to make a sponge before and that I had never attempted a roll type cake at all. Thank goodness you can search the internet and find most things. A few minute and we had a recipe!! A quick trip to the shops to buy a baking tray and it was time to bake.

In the end I was super happy with how it turned out. It was so delicious, and I will definitely be making this again!

Honey Sponge Roll

4 eggs, separated
½ cup (110g) caster sugar, plus extra, for dusting
½ cup (75g) cornflour
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon honey, at room temperature
Honey cream filling
90g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey

Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C fan. Lightly grease and line base and sides of a 26cm x 32cm swiss roll pan.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating constantly until mixture is thick and glossy. Beat in egg yolks until just mixed.

Meanwhile, finely sift cornflour, flour, spices and baking powder. Lightly fold into egg mixture with honey, mixing gently until evenly distributed. Fill prepared pan shaking gently to spread mixture evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes, until risen and firm when lightly pressed with a fingertip. Turn out onto a tea towel lightly dusted with extra caster sugar. Quickly peel off paper and trim edges. Roll up immediately in tea towel starting from short edge. Leave to cool completely.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter until pale and creamy. Add honey and beat until well mixed. Add 2 tablespoons water and continue beating until mixture is smooth and creamy. Unroll cake and spread over filling. Roll up again and serve cut across into slices.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.