Chocolate Beet Cake

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the new food discoveries I've made since coming to the UK is that I actually like beets. This would make my dad very happy, but beyond that beets are actually extremely good for you. There are many articles out there on the bountiful health benefits of eating beets, so I won't bore you with those details here. What inspired this cake idea was a post by my friend Tammela a few weeks back for a beet salad. From there I linked to a set of beet recipes posted for beet week and found beet cake. This cake was vanilla and turned bright red when the beets were added and the finished cupcakes were topped with chocolate frosting. I thought it might be even better to make chocolate beet cake and went in search of recipes I could manage here.

I found this relatively simple recipe on BBC Good Food, a go-to source for recipes with ingredients I'm sure to find in the UK.

The Biggest Benefits:

• an ingredients list that doesn't include anything too ridiculous
• can be made in a loaf pan
• an opportunity for cream cheese frosting

The Biggest Detractors:

• the directions assume you have a food processor, which I don't here

The biggest reason that I haven't done much baking since my arrival is that I don't have the traditional tools for such a venture. Cake pans? I do not have the sheet, round, cup, or spring-form varieties (though this last would be easiest as there are shelves and shelves of them at TK Maxx). What I do have is a tart tin, a pie plate, and a loaf pan. Whatever I make should fit into those. The secondary reason is that Joe doesn't really eat desserts. He'll eat the pear bread I made, but that's about as close to a sweet treat as he gets. But Joe is away this week so I can make cake and eat all of it myself! ;)

Ingredients

• 1 large cooked beetroot, about 175g in weight, roughly chopped
• 200g plain flour
• 100g cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 250g golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200ml sunflower oil
• 100g dark chocolate, (not too bitter), chopped into pieces
• crème fraîche or clotted cream, to serve Screw that! Make cream cheese frosting!

Method

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. 
2. Tip the beetroot into a food processor and blitz until chopped. 
   
   
   
3. Add a pinch of salt and the rest of the ingredients, except the oil and chocolate. 
4. When completely mixed (you may need to scrape the sides down once or twice), add the oil in a steady stream, as if you were making mayonnaise.
5. When all the oil has been added, stir in the chocolate, then tip the mix into a lined 900g loaf tin. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Cook for 1 hr until an inserted skewer comes out practically clean. 
   
   
   
7. Leave the loaf to cool on a rack. Serve in slices with the crème fraîche or clotted cream.

I did originally want to buy fresh beets and cook them myself rather than buying the pre-cooked variety, but my grocery store was only selling beets tethered together in large quantities and I only needed 175 grams. As I hate having extra ingredients after completing and experiment recipe, I opted for the lower quantity this time. I was also excited to find golden caster sugar, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate in the exact amounts I needed for this recipe. No leftover ingredients = #winning.

My loaf pan is a bit more narrow than some out there, so I took my cake out after only 40 minutes because I could smell that it was done and I didn't want it to get too hard/dry.

This recipe made quite a thick batter and a cake that's a bit dense than I'd prefer. This may just be due to the fact that I wasn't able to combine the ingredients using a food processor as suggested and my arm can only whisk heavy batter so much. The chocolate flavor is rich and dark and I personally don't taste the beets at all. Next time I may try a different recipe or break down and get a cupcake pan. This final product is more fudgy brownie than spongy, light cake like I like. Still yummy, though!

Ladies' Weekend: High Tea & Jane Austen

The weekend after Christmas brought more girl time and foodie adventures. I have been eager to visit Borough Market since I first began my research for this move, but I didn't want to go until I had someone with me who would enjoy it as much as I would. I also heard that while the produce is exorbitantly priced, going for lunch is both reasonable and delicious.

We took the tube down to Bank so that we could walk across London Bridge on the way there.

I won't lie, going on Saturday after Christmas was not my wisest move as tour guide. We barely saw the market at all through the throngs of overcoated bodies. It was overwhelming to be smashed in with so many people and we kind of wanted to get in and get out as soon as possible. Still, the visit accomplished something I've been craving since the beginning of November: a true corned beef sandwich!

crowd crush

Borough Market and the Shard in the background

From the market we headed to another London landmark: Buckingham Palace.

The Palace is closed for visitors right now so we just walked in front of it and across Green Park to our afternoon reservation for tea at the Park Lane Hotel. My parents stayed at the Park Lane Hotel on their honeymoon 31 years ago, so this was particularly important to my mom. Since formal high tea is also on the London and Beyond checklist, I knew that this was the perfect opportunity.

Janis had never been to tea before, so this was even more special. Because it was still the Holiday Season, we were able to order the festive tea menu (see, it really is a thing everywhere) which included some wintry tea sandwiches and special desserts.

delicious tea varieties!

Our second sojourn out of London came the next day when we took the train to Bath. This day is a prime example of how sometimes I think I have it together and I really, really don't. Once again we had to catch the bus early on a Sunday morning and rare busses meant that we literally had to run to catch our train and barely made it. We jumped on the first carriage with an open door because I could already see the station employees closing compartments. The train started moving before we'd even made it to our carriage and found our seats! (FYI, if you're traveling from London to Bath, keep hold of your ticket as it is literally your way out of the station once you arrive. I did not realize this and left our tickets on the train, which had already gone on when I ran back to try to retrieve them. Luckily I found an understanding station agent who took care of us without asking too many questions.)

The most popular tourist spots in Bath are the cathedral and the Roman baths. As it was Sunday, the cathedral wasn't really an option and honestly, I don't really care about the baths. What we went for was the Jane Austen experience! Austen visited Bath in her youth and lived there for five years later in life, when she apparently lost her admiration for the place as her family's social standing slipped and it became less of a holiday for her.  Still, two of her novels are set in this quaint town and it is home to both the Jane Austen annual festival and the Jane Austen centre, our destination for the day.

Jane welcomes all of her visitors herself!

Austen's writing desk and a room dedicated to her work

Regency dress up!

We attempted to do the self-guided Jane Austen walking tour of the city, but quickly realized we didn't care that much and just went to the museum experience. It was after the curator's lecture and a short film, as we were walking through the period costumes and artifacts, that I realized I had accidentally booked the wrong return train and we'd already missed it! I was embarrassed by this oversight, but it worked out just fine as we just boarded the train at the time we thought we'd booked and there were no further issues.

Our Ladies' weekend was successful: 2 days, and 3 checkmarks on the London and Beyond list! Plus an evening of relaxing with a movie at home and some really good food!

On Reading and Reflection

Joe liked that my shirt matched the blanket

When I started this blog, I had planned to use it as a place to review and reflect on the books I read. While I have posted occasionally about books and articles that struck me in the last 4 years, I'm disappointed that I haven't written more on this topic. This year in particular, I have surprised myself by not posting about my reading assignments at all so far. It's not like I'm not reading - last term I read 10 authors for one seminar and selections on 10 topics for the other. So where are the reading posts?

Right now, I think the lack of posts on reading comes down to one factor: time. The structure of this course leaves very little time between assignments to reflect on a text in a meaningful way before diving into something new. Maybe the processing time is supposed to happen when we're writing all of our papers during third term in May and June, but I'm not sure. I have classes on Wednesdays and Fridays; this has been my schedule so far this term:

Week Zero (before term): complete research and write 6,000 word rough draft of contexts paper.

Week One (last week)

Assignments

(for Authors) 23 poems by Wallace Stevens

2 weeks worth of reading from fall term

(for Modernism & Sex) four articles by Schopenhauer and Freud totaling about 100 pages

Schedule 

Finish the contexts draft on Sunday for submission on Monday. Monday and Tuesday read the poetry for class on Wednesday. After Authors seminar, read the first of the four articles for Friday. Finish the Freud readings on Thursday. Class on Friday and a break in the evening.

Response

I was surprised by how many of the Stevens poems I recognized. I really liked his style in some of them, though I'm not sure how much I really understood, especially before our class discussion. He has a way with language that I like a lot, but that also confounds me.

The Schopenhauer reading ("The Metaphysics of Sexual Love") was interesting, partly because I knew that my classmates would be shouting "sexism!" in discussion. It reminded me a lot of the Psychology of Gender Differences course I took at LMU that is still one of my favorite courses ever (and literally the ONLY one I took at LMU that did not count toward anything for my graduation, I just really wanted to take it). There were some intriguing arguments, but overall his ideas seemed inherently flawed. The Freud chapters were easier to get through. I was surprised by how direct and easily comprehensible Freud's writing is; his arguments are clear, straight forward, and reasonable (most of the time). We read "'Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness," "On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love," and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle." I liked the first one best.

eating alone? better get some reading done...

Week Two (this week)

Assignments

(for Authors) two novels by Jean Rhys, Voyage in the Dark and Good Morning, Midnight (total: 320 pgs)

(for Modernism & Sex) watch Wagner's opera of Tristan & Isolde, a four and a half hour performance

Charlie wanted to read with me.
Again, Joe just liked the the book
cover matched the blanket...

Schedule

Completed Voyage in the Dark on Saturday and Sunday. Took a break on Monday to spend time with Joe before his trip home. Read all of Good Morning, Midnight on Tuesday. On the way to class on Wednesday, began next week's Author assignment on the bus. After class on Wednesday, watched the first half of Wagner's opera. Will complete opera on Thursday and read more of next week's novel.

Response

Jean Rhys uses simple, direct language, which I like because that's how I tend to write too. Even though her style isn't as elevated as a lot of the writers we read, her characters are very relatable and it's easy to see yourself in them in some way, even if your situation is very different. I had a tough time getting into Good Morning, Midnight because it's about a woman who feels out of place, lonely, and like she has no home and I happened to be reading it the day Joe left for a week in California and I was already feeling incredibly homesick. Bad combination. I really liked the seminar discussion on this one, though. The lecturer this time is one I enjoy a lot because he knows how (and when) to allow the class to follow a tangent but still remembers what got us there and how to get back on point afterward. As a teacher, I know how difficult that is sometimes so I really respect it in him.

Week Three (next week)

Assignments

(for Authors) Elizabeth Bowen's novel The Dream of the Heart (354 pgs), plus two short stories, "Making Arrangements" and "Porphyria's Lover"

(for Modernism & Sex) D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love (481 pgs)

Schedule

My goal is to finish The Dream of the Heart by Saturday or Sunday at the very latest. I want to finish Women in Love before Joe gets home on Thursday afternoon and then hopefully take a little time off to hang out with him.

And what's my reward when I finish these two long novels in week three? I get to start the Annotated Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov for the seminar 5 days later. And two more novels are due two days after that.

This is the first month of term.

books for spring term

I feel unbelievably lucky to have a flexible schedule and the freedom to spend this year reading. I can stay up late and eat dinner with Joe when he gets home from work at 3 in the morning if I want to. I can sleep late and spend the day in my pajamas if I want to. But if anyone thinks this course is relaxed, they've been fooled. In fact, after looking at the work I have in front of me I am starting to wonder why I'm spending time writing this post when I really should be tackling some of this reading.

Christmastime a la Britain

Beyond seeing London and visiting us, the biggest reason that both of our moms wanted to be with us was Christmas. When we decided to move here it was with the understanding that we would use my school breaks to travel in the UK and Europe, not to go back to California. When my mom learned that I wouldn't be home for Christmas, she immediately staked out that break for her visit and when Joe's mom learned that my mom would be with us for the holiday, she quickly jumped aboard.

Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day (24, 25, and 26 December) were days for relaxing and enjoying each other's company.

Christmas Eve

Festive Menus, set course meals with special recipes and treats, are popular all over London (and I imagine the rest of the UK). When we arrived in September nearly every restaurant we visited already had their Festive Menu available for booking any time from 22 November to the New Year. Joe and I wanted to participate in this tradition and give our moms a taste of fine British pub food, so we tried four different pubs in our area before settling on the Flask for our Christmas Eve "do."

The Flask did it right. We placed our orders ahead of time, so when we arrived they were ready to put on a little holiday party for us.

Christmas Crackers at every place setting - a British tradition (that I still don't understand).

A HUGE turkey dinner with all the trimmings in addition to our starters
and desserts - possibly the best valued meal we've had in an English restaurant.

Christmas "pudding" is a must, of course. Pudding is just the Britishism for dessert. This dessert is apparently like a fruit cake that is soaked in brandy for up to two months ahead of time. Then, on Christmas evening, you turn all the lights off and set it on fire and it glows blue. I even snapped a pic of this advert for it in a tube station on the way to the airport:

Here is Janis's Christmas pudding. I caught the blue glow!
The stuff on top that looks like cheese is custard, the British alternative to ice cream.

Christmas Day

All public transportation was shut down, so the moms got to order a taxi and avoid the bus for this visit to our flat. The day was relaxed. My mom and I cooked breakfast and dinner. We watched television (Christmas-y specials, DVDs, and a BBC special on Buckingham Palace). We lounged and occasionally dozed off.

instead of big gifts, we stuck to stockings

the most perfect London-themed Christmas wrap EVER!

Even in London we wanted to continue our tradition of Christmas brunch. We toned down the menu quite a bit, though, and stuck to pancakes and English bacon (basically ham) and, of course, mimosas. 

Pancakes the way we know them are an American thing. My regular grocery store does not sell pancake mix and only sells syrup in small bottles in the specialty foods aisle. We had to buy this pancake mix in the international food section at Marks & Spencer. In USD, this small container cost over $7. (Yes, we could have made scratch but this was a special occasion.)

Janis and Joanne both got to add pins to our map of the UK for the places we visited in County Kent. 

make-shift stocking weights on the radiator (that's like a fireplace, right?)

In the afternoon before the light disappeared, we took a walk to Waterlow Park, a hidden gem just above Highgate Cemetery and across the street from our flat. It was a beautiful day, perfect for a relaxed stroll. Joe and I love this park in our little corner of London; living so near a green space makes it easy to think we're not in a big city. 

On the way we saw a fox in the cemetery!

Instead of the traditional "Our First Christmas" ornament, our newlywed keepsake is a token of our year in England.

For dinner and dessert, my mom and I decided to be a little adventurous. We chose a Jamie Oliver recipe for roast Christmas duck that was delicious but more work than it may have been worth. The gravy/sauce was probably the best part. I love duck, personally, and will usually order it whenever I have the opportunity, but this recipe directed us to shred the meat before serving it and that wasn't very pretty. We also made the onion squash I'd received in my most recent Abel & Cole delivery, as well as Brussels sprouts (a British tradition), roasted potatoes, and Bailey's chocolate bread pudding with vanilla custard. Everything was delicious!

Boxing Day

Since BrewDog was closed on Thursday as well, I figured this was a good day to head down to Theatreland for a play. We debated the current offerings and tried to settle on something that would please everyone, but we just weren't hitting the right note. Lion King? Book of Mormon? A musical? A classic? Shakespeare?

Janis is a big Beatles fan and I knew she would be interested in seeing Let It Be, the musical that mimics a Beatles concert. My mom, however, would be more interested in one of the power musicals like Mama Mia or Les Miserables. So Joe and I decided to split them up and give them each what they'd want most: time with their own kid and the play they'd most enjoy. We also decided to keep the decision a surprise, even though we booked the tickets in the middle of November.

Both of our moms were thrilled when they opened their tickets on Christmas morning. Janis said she sang along to every word of the show and it was the closest she would ever get to seeing the Beatles live. Joe also really enjoyed the show, particularly its fidelity to each time period in the band's career. 

Seeing Les Mis live was an emotional experience for both my mom and I. From the first notes we both had to catch our breath; the music alone is so powerful and overwhelming. This musical is so special to us and we were both excited to share this experience here in London. Such a great memory to make!