However, the first couple of recipes that I tried never lived up to their pictures. It sort of bummed me out, and I put off finding a good recipe. That is until I was asked to make scones for someone’s wedding. That sort of put the fire under my butt that I needed!

So I decided to try Mary Berry’s recipe for classic Devonshire scones. Well, they had the same problem as the ones before, but this time, I decided to tweak them until they came out the way I wanted! Scones tend to fall into two camps – slightly dry and crumbly, or softer and layered. The first time I made this recipe, they definitely fell into the first category. And I’m not the biggest fan of the crumbly kind of scones.

on the left are the scones from the first attempt – and on the right are the scones after I tweaked the recipe I started thinking about it – crumbly is because of a lack of gluten development. Most scone recipes tell you not to work the dough very much – just press it together a couple times and cut it out. But that’ll end up with crumbly scones. If you want them to hold together better, you’ll have to knead the dough briefly – like 10-15 turns of kneading. By working the dough a bit, you’ll end up with a softer, fluffy texture – just the way I like them! Oh, and be sure to roll them out thick! If they’re less than 1/2″ in height, then they won’t rise as much. The thicker you roll it out to, the more they grow!_

Oh, and the original recipe said to use a mixture of egg and milk to wash the scones, but I found a whole egg worked best. I tested a few different options (egg + milk, egg white only, etc. etc.) and found that the best colour and shine came from a beaten whole egg. Feel free to sprinkle the scones with a bit of sugar if you want as well!

Now all you need is some clotted cream and fresh fruit jam! Of course, then you’ll need to decide if you’re the type who adds the cream first or the jam. Apparently, it’s a bit of a controversy over here. You can make your own clotted cream really easily if it’s not something your local grocery store stocks. All you have to do is cook heavy cream (whipping) in the fridge overnight! Serious! The slow heat separates the fat from the rest of the cream, and it rises to the top. Just scoop it off and whip it if you like yours fluffy (or not).

I used this recipe to make some myself! It’s so simple and just takes time. You don’t need to make as much as the recipe says, but simply fill your dish with heavy cream until it’s about 1-2″ high. It may only take 8 hours until the skin turns yellow on top, but longer (about 12 hours) if you’re making a big batch. If you’re not able to get some locally, it’s a great way to get proper clotted cream, no matter where you live.

So why not treat yourself to some proper clotted cream and scones, and have a mini high tea at home?

One of the first things that came to my mind was rhubarb doughnuts! Someone at my work had actually tried to make rhubarb and custard doughnuts before, but the acidity in the rhubarb jam he made caused the cream to curdle. Ever since then, I’ve always thought that if I were to do it, I would turn the rhubarb into a curd instead, as it would prevent any curdling. After all, you can mix lemon curd with cream and it’s fine – and lemon is even more acidic!

So I went back to my tried and true recipe for crème patissière, which is the same recipe I use for making lemon curd! I simply swap the milk amount for lemon juice and add as much zest as the amount of lemons I juice. I figured I could do the same with rhubarb purée! However, once I had stewed the rhubarb, and blitzed it – it wouldn’t press through a sieve like raspberry or some other kind of puree. Too much fibre. In the end, I didn’t see it and simply reduced the amount of cornstarch in the recipe to account for how thick the puree is to start with. I figured that the rhubarb purée was about halfway between how thin milk is, and how thick I wanted the final curd – so I halved the amount of thickener (cornstarch) to just 10g.

The rhubarb taste is there, but subtler than I was expecting. I’m debating trying to make these without the custard next time. I would double the amount of rhubarb puree, and just flavour the whipping cream with vanilla and fold them together. I think the flavour would be amazing – but then I love rhubarb, and it might be too strong for some. But even without the strong rhubarb flavour – these still taste great!

For the doughnut itself, I used the same recipe from Justin Gellatly’s book Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding, that I used in the paska doughnuts. Except, as these weren’t paska doughnuts, I used his traditional recipe with water instead of citrus juice. If you want a few tips on how to fry them, check out the paska recipe! My key tip is always to prove the doughnuts on parchment paper, rather than trying to lift them off a floured surface. You can even pre-cut the squares before shaping so that you don’t have to try and cut around the doughnuts once proven.

When I was trying to decide how to garnish these (all doughnuts need a garnish, IMHO), I was torn between poached rhubarb and rhubarb curls! In the end, I think the poached stuff works better, as it looks more like rhubarb at first glance. It is a better colour. However, the fact that you can make ribbons out of rhubarb is always fun. I used this recipe to make them.

Which garnish do you think looks better?

Either way, if you happen to have a glut of rhubarb from your garden or just love doughnuts, why not try these? You could even try reducing the amount of creme patisserie in the recipe to see if the stronger flavour is better? Taste is always a personal preference. Or, you can just eat the rhubarb curd straight – ha! Pipe it into tart shells, or make a rhubarb meringue pie! Enjoy!

A while back, while hunting for Danish inspiration photos on Pinterest, I stumbled across a beautiful recipe on Hint of Vanilla for a Rhubarb Danish (check out her blog, not only is it amazing, but she’s Canadian!). The shape of the Danish was unique, and the piping of the cream with the St. Honoré tip was beautiful. Quite frankly, her danishes (what is the plural of Danish?) look so good you might as well stop reading this now, and just head over to her blog – trust me, it’s better!

I’ve been wanting to try her recipe, or at least a variation of it, ever since. As I was buying rhubarb for my skillet cake (as well as to infuse some gin, like our sloe gin) I decided to buy a whole kilo and experiment. Since I was sending these with Richard to his work, I knew I couldn’t pipe cream on top, like the original recipe. So I decided to add creaminess with a pastry cream, piped under the rhubarb, flavored with blood orange and vanilla! After all, orange is a great complement to rhubarb, and I was buying them anyway for other recipes.

As I was making this recipe on my two days off, and was trying to cram like 8 recipes in those days, I tried to go the lazy route. I had seen puff pastry and pie dough in the grocery stores and assumed that you could probably buy ready-to-roll croissants or Danish dough. Wrong… wrong, wrong, wrong. I had hoped to spend my days off doing so many things and didn’t want to make Danish dough. It’s not hard, just time-consuming.

So because I already had my other ingredients, I decided to just suck it up and make the dough. Except I misread my recipe twice and had to make the dough three times (!!) before I got it right (that is what happens when I rush things). Then, of course, I was trying to rush my turns, and was freezing the dough in between to chill it quickly… and forgot about it between the first and second turn. When I tried to roll it out, it was still too cold and I broke the butter sheet… gah! So please, don’t look too closely at the dough in the photos, and do what I say, not what I did.

The layers weren’t very nice in the end, but the flavor is still there. These two days weren’t my best because I was trying to do too much. I ended up not doing everything as well as I should have.

I made a half-batch recipe, which makes about 7 proper Danish, with scrap left over. The full recipe makes 15 Danish, and the excess can be used to make the little mini bite-sized ones.

If you find that you have extra pastry cream left over – don’t worry! It tastes amazing and you could pretty much just eat it with a spoon… or dip fruit in it… or pipe it into tart shells and top with fresh fruit! It’s pretty versatile.

Mmmmm… now I want to make these again, but take my time to do the dough properly! If you’re feeling up to it, Danish dough isn’t really hard, just takes a good couple of hours to make. However, if your shop has it for sale, you might want to take the easy route! This recipe looks long and daunting, but trust me, these aren’t as hard as they look!

Rhubarb and blood orange semolina cake | Hello Victoria

In the early months of the year, the produce options can feel a bit limited. Berries are crazy expensive, stone fruits are even worse, and everything feels a bit dull. However, what some people don’t realize is that winter is citrus season!

Now is the time to experiment with blood oranges, grapefruit, bergamot lemons… etc. Not only is citrus in season, but here in England forced rhubarb is upon us! You might not be able to find it at every grocery store (mine didn’t have it), but Borough Market is currently in supply.

I’ve always loved rhubarb, even as a kid. I remember my mom picking my sister Bethany and I big pieces from her plant, and we would dip the ends in sugar and eat them. We were weird.

But I digress… back to the recipe!

I’ve been getting tons of recipes and inspiration from Waitrose’s monthly magazine. It’s free for people who sign up for their Waitrose rewards card, and chock full of great recipes. I’ve made a lot so far, and haven’t had a bad one yet!

Not only are the recipes good, but the magazine highlights what’s in season for that month, and does a series of recipes based on it. For the February magazine, there were lots in there with rhubarb and blush oranges, and this recipe was the first on my list! (Side note – are those different from blood oranges? The ones I bought said “blood’ but were nowhere near as deep red as the kind back in Canada – perhaps they were blush?)

I have had cakes made with polenta (corn meal back home) before, and loved them (I love corn bread too!!). When I first read this recipe, I thought it was a polenta cake – but instead, this one is made with finer semolina flour. Oh well, I was still curious to try it!

The original recipe said to bake this cake in a skillet, but as we don’t have one, I transferred it to a simple round cake tin instead. Feel free to use a cast iron skillet if you have one available.

At first, the cake seems very, very dry – but that is where the blood orange syrup comes in! I’d suggest possibly adding the juice and zest from another orange to the mix, as I think the flavor would be even better. Make sure to flip your cake after the five minutes so that the juice doesn’t get all absorbed at one end, instead of being distributed evenly. (I made that mistake and found the bottom a tad dry – but serving it with the suggested Greek yogurt adds a lovely tang and moisture!)

If you’re feeling up for something a tad different, or just want an excuse to eat more cake, try this one on for size!