This week for my take over of Cookreel TVs Snapchat account we had the most awesome Food-venture!!  It started with a Gastronomic Expedition at London’s famous Natural History Museum. While I didn’t have time to go around the whole museum, I did visit the “Sensational Butterflies” exhibit. It was a delight for the senses. I have never experienced anything like it before.  “Color and Vision” as it is dubbed of beautiful butterflies all around! One even landed on my arm.

Some might wonder what butterflies have to do with food? Well not only are they an important part of the eco-system and cycle of life, HELLO the name says it all!  BUTTERfly! I’ve shared on here before about my love affair with butter so of course, I had to check out this naturalists dream come true!

The culinary creation part of the take over had to incorporate the theme, so I made beautiful Butterfly Buns. They are basically vanilla sponge cupcakes with the tops cut off and then make to look like butterfly wings.

To wash down the deliciousness I made my famous Lemon-Aid which I’ve shared on here before (click here to get recipe). And for fun I made edible caterpillars. Okay maybe they were really gummy worms I dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed up Oreo crumbs, but I have a great imagination. Don’t you remember one of my early posts about my invisible socks? Well, there is actually a fab recipe for a gluten, dairy, sugar free chocovado pudding (click here). But today’s recipes are well stocked with sugar, flour and of course butter!!!

Butterfly Buns

Ingredients:

125 g (4 ½ oz) butter softened

125 g (4 ½ oz) caster sugar (called fine granulated in the U.S)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

150 g (5 oz) plain flour (called all-purpose flour in the U.S)

¼ tsp baking powder

For the filling:

100 ml (3 ½ oz) raspberry jam

200 ml sweetened whipped cream, or use double cream (called heavy cream in the U.S) whipped up with 1 Tbsp icing sugar (called confectioner’s powdered sugar in the U.S) and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Sprinkles of your choice for decoration

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 190c/375 f and line a cupcake tin with paper cases

Cream butter and caster sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat a few more minutes. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and stopping to scrape down sides of the bowl in between each addition.

Sift the flour and the baking powder. Add to the butter/sugar mixture  a little at a time, slowly beating as you don’t want to over work the batter.

With an ice cream scoop, pop the batter into the paper lined tray and bake for 12-18 minutes. Check if done by putting  a wooden toothpick in the center of one of the cupcakes and if it comes clean (no wet batter or crumbs attached) then it is done.

Take out and cool on in the trays on a rack. Once cool cut off the top of the cupcake and cut the top in half. Then scoop a little cake out to make room for a dollop of raspberry jam. Then a dollop of sweetened whipped cream (you can spoon on or use a piping bag).

Arrange the halved tops onto the cupcake placing them in the whipped cream so they look like wings. Then decorate with your choice of toppings. I used silver balls (called dragees) and some sprinkles.

 

Edible Caterpillars

To make the caterpillars, separate 10 oreo cookies and scrape off the white frosting in the middle.  Put the cookies into a ziploc bag and bash to get crumbs. Then put the crumbs onto a plate or a bowl.  Then melt the chocolate in a another bowl (using a microwave or in a double boiler on the stove top). Then dip the gummy worms/snakes into the melted chocolate then dredge in the oreo crumbs and place on a parchment lined tray until cooled.

All in all it was a great day and the bonus was that I picked up  the famous children’s book The Hungry Caterpillar (but the coloring book versions) by Eric Carle to do as a Cookreel free give away. All that was needed for entry was a photo or drawing or image of a butterfly in the world. It was a way to give back to the good people watching. I know it is a children’s book but coloring has become a big trend for adults wanting some mindfulness activities.  In essence, it was a superfly butterfly day!

Spread your wings of LOVE,

YDP

ps. The butterfly buns are a variation of a fairy cake recipe from Rachel Allen

I am taking a break from recipes today to give you a little story about myself.  One you might not believe.  I am sure many of you think I am a “goody two shoes”.  But I’ve had my run ins with Justice!  As in the vice principal at my junior high school. No joke his name was Mr. Justice.

I’ll just go back a few years before I was a preteen adolescent trying to fit it with the crowd. I was a young child of a drug using, drug dealing mother. She had very interesting ways of doing things which I have talked about on here before.  One example that I’ve shared was how she used peanut butter to remove gum from my hair. Which explains why I am a peanut butter aficionado.  She also thought the best way to get rid of hiccups was to have us kids smoke cigarettes.  Sure, we would cough so hard our lungs would come flying out.  So of course the hiccups would be the last thing on our minds.  It worked a treat!

Anyway, because we were exposed to so many things young children shouldn’t be, like drugs on the kitchen table next to the box of breakfast cereal, our sense of right and wrong was a bit skewed.  So one day during lunch period at my junior high school, my best friend told me there were some older kids meeting out in the baseball fields and we were going to join in too. So we walked way out to the corner of the field, as far as we could go.  And when we got there these older kids were sitting in a circle lighting up cigarettes and passing them around. When it came my way I thought, I don’t have the hiccups why would I need this?  But I noticed none of the kids had hiccups either and they weren’t coughing their lungs out. In fact, they weren’t even inhaling they were just “puffing” and “blowing” and they looked pretty darn cool.

I wasn’t cool and I’m still not cool. I’ve never fit in ever, in any situation. While I tried in this instance to fit in, it was futile.  I did the little puff and blow one time to try and fit in, and then passed the cigarette to the next person.  Didn’t feel any more cool.  And I know I didn’t inhale.  Because I didn’t cough my lungs out like I would when my mom wanted us to stop hiccuping.  But it didn’t matter whether I inhaled or not.  Smoking on campus was against the rules.  The school bell rang to indicate lunch period was over and we all started to walk back towards the classrooms.  But before we made it back we were greeted mid way by Mr. Justice.  I don’t know if I’ve ever been so scared in my life as I was in that moment.  He was tall, he was menacing looking in his blue three piece suit and his balding head, which looked quite red from the invisible flames spewing forth!  I knew he meant business when he said, “follow me.”

We were all suspended from school and sent home.  My mom didn’t really react too much. She had a big drug deal she was working on at the moment to keep her occupied.  But I was upset. I was always a proud and conscientious student having been in the gifted program from the time I was eight.  Well that wasn’t very “gifted” of me, in fact that was pretty lame and stupid to go and get myself suspended. So I was face down on my bed crying when all of the sudden my oldest brother walked in. He asked my mom why I was home from school. When she told him he went ballistic. He walked over and literally with two hands picked up my whole body by my clothes and threw me across the room and it was only when I hit the wall on the other side I realized, um this hurts.  Now I was really crying!  After some choice words by the big bro, he left and I had days to think about the situation.

I returned to school with my tail between my legs.  But that’s okay.  Because my smoking career came to a brief and dramatic stop. Think of the money I have saved! Cigarettes are expensive!   Also, as a chef, having your taste buds in tact is so important as smoking is known to dull the taste receptors.  And when people discover I am 51 years old they are usually in shock.  But one of the top ways to keep from having aged skin is to give up smoking.  Since I gave it up after one day, I reckon I am ahead of the curve!   Finally, I think I am one of the few people I know that literally never gets hiccups.  My body might have such an aversion to smoking now that it will do anything to prevent the near possibility.

What the experience has left me with is an acceptance of smokers.  I get that it is an addiction. Whether someone has started because of peer pressure and wanting to fit it, or because their mom made them do it for some old wive’s tale (now called a hack) once you’re hooked its powerful.   While I don’t smoke myself and I don’t care for the smell, I get that it has some soothing qualities and certainly there is the oral fixation factor.  But my biggest complaint about smoking is the cigarette butts left behind everywhere.  It is so unsightly and actually unsafe for the environment.

When I attended U.S.C. in the Annenberg School for Communications, I did a speech and debate on the subject of cigarette butt litter.  I lit a fire (pun intended) under the behinds of people about how we need to put out the butts problem.  Cigarette butts can be picked up by small children or animal wild life such as birds and fish. They could become very sick if they swallow the butts. Cigarettes, if still lit when thrown on the ground, can start fires.  And if they wind up in the gutter, the rain will wash them into the water system. The chemicals that the filters have collected while the smoker takes a puff is so concentrated and can leach into the water system. Also not good.  I don’t blame the smokers actually.  Since the smoking ban inside restaurants, pubs and buildings, smokers are outside where often there are no receptacles to dispose of the cigarettes properly.  So they throw them on the ground. Not a good situation.  Like getting thrown against a wall.

I sourced a product from Australia called “Butts Out” and it is a portable cigarette ash tray.  I shared it with influential people at my university.  Somehow the trend didn’t take off.   It is pretty basic looking but I think it could be the next big accessory if it was all done in a cute rose gold or leopard print for the ladies or a premier league team logo for the lads.  In any event, I am not an anti smoker in spite of my past with cigarettes.  As embarrassing as the story is, I am glad I quit in a day and I realize some aren’t as lucky (or unlucky) as I was.  But never the less, I don’t think our environment or innocent children or animals should have to suffer.

While I don’t aim to be the poster girl for Butts, I do want to bring it to the table as a conversation.  Let me know your thoughts.  Oh and guess what?  My older brother with the hello crazy sister throwing skills,`also happens to be a great drummer.  I went to see him play a gig a few years back.  When I pulled into the parking lot I saw him with his band mates.  And he was smoking a cigarette.  I wasn’t strong enough to throw him across the room.  But lucky for me, all I had to do was give him a look and we were right back to that time and place.  Amazing the power of memories !

Inhaling LOVE,

YDP

P.S. There are many place online now to get “pocket ashtrays” and I’ll put some links below.

My Ashtray

No Butts

Raw Pocket

It was another fun CookReel TV Snapchat takeover. I had planned to do a gastronomic expedition and then return home to make a culinary creation. But things were a bit topsy turvy because of the exciting competition vote count for the first Master CookReel Competition!  So I baked up a batch of these amazing cookies and then ventured over to Buckingham Palace.  I mean, it is the number one tourist attraction in London for a reason!

While I wasn’t able to give these biscuits (what they call cookies over in this part of the world) to Queen Elizabeth II myself, I figured since berries and chocolate are her two fav foods, maybe I’ll be asked back to bake them fresh.  Can you imagine the gorgeous smell of these baking in the Royal oven?  There was a recent media posting that they were looking for a new chef, so I thought the best way to the employer’s heart is through their stomach! Until then, hope you give these a try yourself.  They are super easy to make and absolutely mouthwatering!  You could also substitute blueberries or blackberries for the raspberries and even add some lemon zest if you wanted.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

170 g tube of Condensed Milk

175 g (1 punnet) fresh raspberries

225 g (8 oz) unsalted butter

225 g (8 oz)  caster sugar

350 g (123 oz) self-raising flour, sifted

150 g (5 1/2 oz) White Chocolate bar cut into chunks or use chips

 

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F/gas 4.

2. In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the condensed milk and continue to beat a bit more, the batter will be pale.

3. Then, fold in the flour. Finally add the white chocolate carefully.

4. Put parchment paper on a baking tray. Take a small bit of dough into your fingers and flatten. Place 2-3 raspberries in the middle of the dough and work the dough around it to create a ball. Place on the baking tray leaving plenty of space between the cookie balls to allow for spreading when they bake. Repeat procedure with the rest of the dough.

5. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown at the edges but still soft. Put the baking tray on a cooling rack. Leave to cool and set before transferring to a plate.

6. The dough can remain the refrigerator (plain) for a week. Or you can prep the dough with the raspberries and freeze the balls in a freezer proof container for a month.

For this recipe I used the white chocolate chips, but I usually use the Green & Black White chocolate bar chopped up. You could even use a combo of both. I’m normally a milk or dark chocolate girl.  But for these cookies, the white chocolate is the perfect accompaniment to the berries.  And the cookies turn out a bit crunchy on the edges and nice and gooey in the center.  They are my Hubby’s favs and I think he pretty much ate the entire batch before they had fully cooled!  That is always a good sign.

So whether you are meeting the Queen, or miss her because you are late, give this recipe whirl. You won’t be disappointed.  I’m sure Hubby would be happy to help you polish them off!

Come again Spoon!  LOVE,

YDP

P.S. You can find me on Snapchat (username blissbakery) everyday, and on Saturdays at 12 noon GMT on the Snapchat take over of CookReel TV (username cookreel). This recipe is from Carnation.