Hampton Court Palace

I had a very enjoyable visit to Hampton Court Palace at the weekend, and thought I’d share some of the delights of one of my favourite historic sites with you. I didn’t take any photos at the weekend because I thought I had taken plenty the last time I’d visited. Turns out the photos I had taken previously were neither as numerous, nor as high in quality as I’d remembered, so I do apologise for that.

Hampton Court is one of those wonderful places where you are struck, not just by the majesty, and awe-inspiring size of the building, but also by how close to history you feel merely by being there. You can really imagine history happening there, and my goodness, did a lot of important history happen there. The palace is probably best known as a Tudor palace. I’ve always been under the impression that it was (well, the half of it that everyone thinks of as Tudor), and so I was most surprised to find that the initial archway, so emblematic of Hampton Court in all its Tudor glory is in fact a Victorian construction. Thanks to the wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable staff, I also discovered that Henry VIII’s palace would not exist at all had it not been for government turning down William III’s request for funds to finish his palace, a fact that physically makes me cringe at the thought of what would have been lost.

The whole visitor experience is fantastic, they have events every day to engage visitors of all ages with the history of the place, but there’s plenty of wandering to be done around Tudor kitchens, the private apartments of later kings and queens, and the stunning gardens. Whilst travelling through the Great Hall, admiring the impressive tapestries covering the walls that are currently having conservation work done on them, I found myself in the middle of a tour group. I’m not always the biggest fan of organised tours, but this particular tour guide had many an interesting tale to tell, including the sorry tale of the painted Tudor ceiling, the paint having been removed in the 1950s (I think) as they thought it was a Victorian addition. They realised half way through their mistake, but completed the job nonetheless, devastating! It makes me appreciate groups like Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage, and the National Trust who take care of our heritage, and hopefully wouldn’t let such vandalism occur today.

Travelling through the Tudor courtyards to William and Mary’s section of the palace, it’s like travelling through time, such a stark contrast, both equally beautiful and fascinating in their own way (although the Tudor section is supposedly more haunted, seems we have Henry VIII to thank for that!). I was lucky enough to be there when there weren’t too many other visitors, and entering the Georgian apartments felt like stepping back in time. Through closed doors (which I was allowed to enter, honest), it felt like I was merely exploring my own personal palace. They have managed that difficult balance between giving enough information and not spoiling the atmosphere of history by putting up too many signs, etc. The audio guide was hugely informative, and there were plenty of members of staff to hand for any further questions.

The gardens of Hampton Court really are stunning, and you catch glimpses of them through windows as you walk around the palace. It would be easy to spend many hours soaking in the wonderful surroundings (and getting lost in the maze…). I also discovered that there is an exhibition about the garden there that I had not come across before.

An utterly marvellous palace, with such a fascinating history. I bought the guide book, and was interested to find that although it hasn’t been a royal residence for many years, and was opened to the public by Queen Victoria, there were still residents there, known as grace-and-favour residents. Imagine living in such spectacular surroundings…

Red velvet celebration cake

As you may be able to guess from its appearance, I made this cake for Valentine's day, but I see no reason why red velvet cake can't be eaten on any given day of the year. Having never made red velvet before I just followed a recipe from a book, and, although the overall taste was nice, I wasn't blown away by the cake. There are plenty of recipes online though which you may wish to try out, I found one on the BBC Food website, and I used the recipe for icing from this site:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/RedVelvetCake.html

The only addition I made was to add a layer of sliced strawberries and raspberries in the middle, which I think worked quite nicely with the recipe I used, but then I don't know how red velvet usually tastes...

Rather than plagiarise someone else's recipe, I thought this post could be more about the decoration than the recipe itself. I'd never made roses from icing before, so I don't claim to be an expert, but I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. First I rolled out a reasonably small slab of red icing, and using a knife, cut a thin strip. I then rolled this into a loose coil, working downward, creating a more prominent middle. I then cut patches of icing, and using a nifty tool I picked up in Hobbycraft

(essentially a stick with a small ball on the end), attempted to make it look more petal-like (basically rolling the ball around on the icing to make it curl up somewhat). I then wrapped a few of these around my initial coil of icing (the additional layers were not wide enough to encircle the entire coil, try and not make them more than about half the width). It took a while to make enough, there were lots of rejected scraps, but if you keep at it you should get a fair few made with relative ease (and if not maybe just have a centre-piece with however many went successfully). I found I ended up with quite a long 'stem' of red icing which can easily be snipped off.

To complete the cake I thought a few leaves would be a nice addition. Simply done; roll out some green icing (a bit thicker than the red icing, as it doesn't need quite so much shaping), cut out roughly leaf shaped sections with a knife, and using a slightly thicker knife, or a pointy tool that you might get in a set for cake decorators, mark a central partition, and scrape in vein lines, to the edge of the leaf, which should make a nice, slightly jagged edge.  Arrange in a pretty fashion, and you have an attractive cake to give to a loved one. 

Cake decorating fun

For Christmas, happily, I received rather a few books. This little treasure found its way under my tree, and truly is one of the best cake decorating books I have come across for a while. Some of the techniques seem way too complicated for me, or rather require more skill than I possess, but whether or not you feel up to the more complicated techniques this book provides some great inspiration, and certainly opened my eyes to some new techniques that didn't sound too difficult. The first that I tried out was using cake stencils, and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the result.

Having perused the internet for some pretty stencils I found that they are actually quite pricey (some of them were about £24 for just one stencil), and what I really wanted was for something a bit cheaper to get me started. Luckily, in my local bookshop I came across a set that had eight stencils in and only cost £13! One of the stencils shown on the front seemed like a good choice for the cake I had in mind, and so I bought them, studied my cake decorating book some more to make sure I did it right, and gave it a go. I admit I was initially somewhat put off by the
images on the front, which look to me a little

dated, but once I'd opened it up and seen the stencils themselves I could not have been more happy, and with my trusty cake decorating book to hand I was confident I could make a lovely looking cake.

I set to work baking my cake. I'm sure most cakes would be fine to use (any that are tasty with icing anyway), but I just made a basic sponge as it was for a birthday cake.

To save you trawling through old posts, here's my recipe:

• Line an 8 inch baking tin, and pre-heat your oven to gas mark 2 or 3 (depending on the make).

• Cream together 8 oz./225g Stork with 8 oz./225g caster sugar.
• Beat in 4 large eggs.
• Gradually fold in 8 oz./225g self raising flour.
• Pour the mix into cake tin and bake for around an hour.

To decorate, cut the cake in half (once cooled), cover one half with buttercream icing (keeping some to spread on the outside of the cake to make the roll out icing stick), and the other half with raspberry jam, and sandwich together.

I then kneaded my roll out icing on a lightly dusted surface (with icing sugar), and added some green food colouring, kneading until a light green, even colour was created.

I spread the remainder of the buttercream on the outside of the cake, and placed the icing on top, smoothing the edges, and cutting to size.

Finally, onto the new and exciting part. First, I made up some black royal icing (either mix an egg white with icing sugar, or buy royal icing sugar and follow the instructions on the packet). It needs to be really quite thick, so it doesn't run. This next bit was one of the more nerve-wracking moments in baking, placing the cake stencil on the top of the cake, and using a knife spreading the black icing all over the top (holding the stencil in place as much as possible). You can imagine my delight when pulling back the stencil to reveal this lovely picture (and no, it didn't come out absolutely perfectly, but I was more than happy with it, and relieved that there wasn't a massive blob of black icing on the top of my lovingly baked and iced cake).

Everybody seemed very impressed with the cake, and I admit I felt a bit of a fraud as it was much simpler than people seemed to think. It's a great technique, especially if you are short on time, and very effective. To get a bit more complicated/creative you could try adding different colours to the stencil, or even trying to make your own (I think my cutting is a bit too clumsy for this, but hopefully one day).

The Meat Free Monday Cookbook

I’d had my eye on this book for a while (I defy you to look through it and not think the meals inside look delicious), so you can imagine my delight when I found it cheap in the January sales. It has since become one of my most used cookbooks. Whether it be a slight variation on a breakfast favourite, a tasty lunchtime treat, or a full out dinner, this book has some seriously good recipes.

Split into sections for food to fit each season, this book will encourage you to eat healthy, fresh food all year round (I can’t wait to get growing in my allotment this year). There have been a couple of recipes that I haven’t been overly keen on, but with a few adjustments make perfectly tasty meals. On the whole the meals have been fantastic, and I have discovered new foods, giant wholewheat couscous being a favourite thus far. There’s a recipe for each meal of the day for every Monday of the year, complete with ideas for sides, so whether you’re a seasoned veggie, or just trying it out, you won’t be stuck for ideas.

The only slight issues I have with this otherwise fantastic book is that some of the ingredients required are a bit obscure, and on the expensive side, but this can easily be combated with some slight changes to recipes depending on budget and availability (most of the ingredients can be found in somewhat more expensive/ health conscious shops). In saying that there are plenty of recipes that can be made relatively cheaply. My other qualm is the length of time it takes to prepare and cook some of the recipes. An hour and a half on a packed lunch, or a few hours on dinner after a day at work is a little excessive, but these recipes can always be kept for days off (and, let’s be honest, are tasty enough to make the effort worth while!).

All in all, a brilliant book that I would recommend to vegetarian, and meat-eater alike. There are still so many more tempting recipes to try out, and I’m happy to say it’s helped get 2012 off to a healthy start.

Rediscovering a love of card making

Throughout my life I have tried quite a range of different crafts, and one I used to spend a fair amount of time (and money) on was card making. I think my initial idea was that it was a cheap way to give cards, and then went a bit crazy online and spent way more than I ever would have on cards. I don't feel too bad about this though, as all these things keep and can be used at a later date for more card creations.

Having split my time over the past few years between two different houses, some of my crafting has declined as I haven't had the many tools and random bits and bobs I have accumulated over the years to hand. For my last birthday my parents gave me a nice card making set, and, it being my Gran's birthday next week I thought it was about time I put it to good use.

The box was full of all kinds of goodies; blank cards and envelopes, decoupage pages, gift tags, box templates, basically anything and everything you could want to make lots of adorable cards. I'm pretty pleased with how the card turned out, and definitely plan to get back into this craft.

For anybody who has thought of getting into it, I would recommend buying a set such as the one I was given as it can be a bit daunting choosing what to use the first time, and you can end up spending a lot of money on things you may never use. A set like this makes card making simple and rewarding, and provides all you need to create some lovely cards which I'm sure would be gratefully received.

All things Dickensian

With the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth almost upon us I have wholeheartedly thrown myself into Dickens season. The BBC have put on an array of fantastic programmes about his life and works, and there's still more to come. I'm not sure I can quite bring myself to watch the adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood with its imagined ending. Unfinished novels are tantalizingly frustrating, but they are unfinished, and, unless we find some long lost manuscript (I wish!) I can't help but think they should be left that way. That's not to say anything against the adaptation, I'm sure it will be brilliant, especially if Great Expectations was anything to go by!

In the spirit of Dickens season, I thought it was about time I visited the Dickens Museum in London. I was particularly excited about this, which almost made me slightly hesitant about visiting, as these things rarely live up to expectations. It was, however, a fantastic experience.

From its unassuming exterior I knew my hopes hadn't been entirely unfounded.

 

You enter through the house next door, meaning that the house Dickens lived in has been mainly unspoilt by gift shops, cafes, etc. The museum feels much more like visiting somebody’s house than going to a museum. In large part still decorated as close to how it would have been as possible, and with minimal cabinets you are free to wander round at will, enjoying the atmosphere. Spread over four floors, you are able to see the wash room, wine cellar, still room, study, library, bedroom, and several other rooms. I was lucky enough to go whilst the Christmas decorations were still up, and it was certainly a welcome sight. Christmas as we know it is so closely identified with Dickens and how he described Christmas to be that it was really very special to see the house in which he wrote Oliver Twist decorated as close to his descriptions as possible.

 

In the library a TV had been set up (one of the few features that seemed out of place) with a half hour film about Dickens’s life, which was an interesting addition to the visit, and made it possible not to have too many signs with information around the house, making the experience feel all the more genuine.

I understand the museum has plans to expand this year, making use of the house next door to allow for more visitors, and a more in-depth exploration of the history of the house, and its most famous inhabitant. This is certainly a museum I can see myself going back to time and time again.

Feeling even more inspired to find out yet more about Dickens I headed over to the British Library where they currently have a small, free exhibition about Dickens and the Supernatural. Another fascinating exhibition, you learn not just about Dickens, but in popular beliefs about the supernatural in the nineteenth century. Although Dickens was sceptical about many of the beliefs, ghosts, and unexplained phenomena feature heavily in many of his novels. You also learn of a fascinating link between one of his tales, and a real life event which was spookily similar to that of Dickens’s imagination. A fantastic exhibition, as always, from the British Library.

Later in the month I plan to visit the Dickens exhibition at the Museum of London, but in the meantime I plan to get on with reading some more Dickens, where to start, where to start...?

'Shades of Grey' by Jasper Fforde

I’ve been interested in trying a Jasper Fforde book for quite some time, they appealed to me greatly, I do know some people who don’t get on with them, but thought I’d give Shades of Grey a go. The first couple of pages were somewhat bamboozling, the kind of feeling you get at the beginning of a novel such as Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, or Oryx and Crake. It takes a little while to settle into the new world being portrayed in the novel, and get used to its various quirks.

Once I’d got past the initial disorientation, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It introduces you to a world where the hierarchy is based on colour perception, and everything is quite strictly regulated. Some of the moral code may seem a bit historic, and the strict hierarchical concerns which decide who can marry who certainly seems to hark back to a previous era.

There have been a series of ‘Leapbacks’ whereby things have been lost, and the number of facts deliberately reduced. The library no longer holds many books, but the librarian proudly knows where they would all have been placed. This leads to some amusing confusion, Catch-22 being part of a series of fishing books, and such, which I’m sure many book fans will enjoy.

The utter dependence on the Word of Munsell raised some interesting ideas to me. In one of the Leapbacks the production of spoons was banned. Eddie, the main character, questions this, and is told that sometimes you just have to accept that Munsell knows best. As a Christian, I have often been faced with the idea that we don’t understand everything, and that a lot of it just comes down to faith. Reading this it seemed somewhat ridiculous, but it made it more apparent why so many people find it absurd when explanations of belief rest merely on the notion of trusting that you don’t know, but that there is a bigger purpose.

This book does suck you in, though it takes a while for the core of the plot to become apparent, it’s an enjoyable journey. There are moments that will make you laugh, but also parts which will cause strong feelings about the injustices being laid on some of the characters. The world in which it is set proves to be a lot more corrupt than initially seems to be the case, and it’s not until the very end that you discover the truth about which characters are to be trusted.

All in all a fantastic book which I would definitely recommend. Apparently the next one in the series is not out until 2013, which just seems too far away. In the meantime I will have to keep myself amused with some of his other novels, but I eagerly await his next offering in this series.