Getting back into the kitchen -- sponge cake, baguettes and tomato soup

[Bobbi]

Begin gently in the kitchen.

Help with the washing up.
Make a brew, put together a sandwich, to say thank you to someone who cares…

Then, maybe, using kitchen equipment try something a little more advanced.

Victoria Sponge with Philadelphia frosting

Equipment:
Stand mixer
7" Sandwich pans, greased
Silicone spatula
Weighing scales
Oven at 150°C

Ingredients:
180g cooking margarine
180g granulated sugar
3 eggs
180g self raising flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

Two heaped tablespoons lemon curd

30g softened butter
30g Philadelphia straight from fridge
60g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
Set oven at 150°C.
Grease sponge tins
Weigh out butter and sugar into mixer bowl
Beat until well combined
Add one egg and beat again to combine
Add other eggs one by one combining after each addition
Add self raising flour and baking powder
Mix to a smooth batter
Divide the batter between the two tins
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes

Meanwhile beat softened butter, Philadelpia, icing sigar and essence together for frosting on the cake.

After 30 minutes make sure the cakes are done following Mary Berry’s instructions:

Testing to see if a cake is cooked

Leave cakes in the tins together on a wire rack to cool.
Once cooled tip them out.
Coat the top of one of the cakes with lemon curd.
Place the other cake on it and gently squeeze them together.
Spread the frosting mixture over the top using the back of a spoon to raise swirls.
Scatter sprinkles over to finish off.
Store the cake in the fridge on a plate covered with an upturned bowl.

Make a cup of tea and be sure to take a slice of cake for quality control purposes.

Do the washing up and clearing up.

Plan your next culinary adventure.

Eat and share the cake.

keep on keepin’ on

afterthought
A perching stool is a great accessory in the kitchen.

[pamelai1]

Hope you were using your affected hand to make this (or at least getting it involved)??

[EmeraldEyes]

The whole process for making a cake is in fact both a mental and physical exercise. It involves so many mental processes, cognition, coordination, memory recall, the physical actions of eye/hand control, to name but a few. The whole exercise is well worth the effort for retraining the brain and you get to eat the fruits of your labour at end, so that’s a win win in my book

[SimonInEdinburgh]

For similar reasons I’m considering taking up wine & beer making

That and how to use up the millions of damsons with there rather large pits!

[Bobbi]

@pamelai1 @EmeraldEyes

It isn’t as difficult as you might imagine. It is all put together in the bowl of a stand mixer which does the bit I would struggle with.

Great satisfaction comes from accomplishing this but sharing the resulting cake creates a pleasure of its own.

On top of that it would be great to hear that others have given one of my recipes a try.

[Mrs5K]

This cake looks right up my street. I think i might have to nab a slice in exchange for a slice of my fruit cake and i love lemon curd

[EmeraldEyes]

I always feel I fare better using the more practical life skills for my brain training and memory jogging I like to give it purpose and meaning otherwise it gets too monotonous, I lose interest and can’t be bothered at times. Variety being the spice of life

How about
Damson Crumble . . . you can combine with other fruits of choice
Or

Damson custard tartlets

[Bobbi]

@Mrs5K

Fair exchange is no robbery.

The developers need to work on an email system that will transport cake from here to there and back, neatly and without crumbs.

@EmeraldEyes

I was never scared of exercise and hard work but treadmills have never been a source of pleasure.

Work has to be meaningful to be satisfying.

[EmeraldEyes]

Treadmills are never a source of pleasure for me either. The few times I’ve used them its been 10mins tops Much prefer to walk in the countryside around me

[SimonInEdinburgh]

Lea makes damson crumble but 1 serving has 25 stones in!

I’ve some reservations about brewing = drinking but the making & saving appeals

[EmeraldEyes]

How much saving for an experiment, doesn’t it take some paraphernalia to make

[tony_cave]

Brilliant advice and recipe.
I am an ex- professional chef who didn’t cook for several years post stroke.
I love cooking and was gradually able to start with small tasks in the kitchen at home and gradually more complex things as I felt more able.
I work around post stroke fatigue and now 14 years later I can more or less do anything.
B
Good luck on your journey

Tony

[Bobbi]

@tony_cave

Thankyou Tony, I’m in the third year since my “stroke adventure”.

I get a great deal of pleasure from cooking in our kitchen. I used to do a lot more before the stroke, but it slowed me down considerably. I’m no professional but am very interested in an amateur sort of way. I am trying to build up confidence and speed again. Maybe one day. My first post stroke bake was a batch of fruit scones. It took me ages to mix the ingredients. I tend to use a stand mixer these days.

This will be my next project, done since stroke on past occasions:

It makes a very tasty baguette. I’ll post a recipe and pictures when they are done.

In addition, the Stroke Association produced a number of videos about cooking post stroke that I have found useful. I have been housebound and doing stuff in the kitchen has kept me active.

Here’s a link for the Ingredients and instructions for the baguettes plus a bonus recipe for easy tomato soup:

Making a simple evening meal

Due to a supermarket delivery item swap we ended up with some yeast for hand baking, as opposed to our usual bread machine bake. So I found a simple recipe online to make baguettes by hand and we had boiled egg, onion and mayonnaise sandwiches for tea, which turned out to be easy to do and very tasty. I recommend trying it out. The bread was easy to make and we’ll definitely be baking it again. It isn’t hard to do, but you need to be patient, allow the yeast to work, which does take time. So…

keep on keepin’ on

[Bibs]

Has that been cut into quarters? Wow!

[Suzywong]

Cake looks yummy. I’ll deffo be trying to make it at some point. Thanks a lot regards suztwong

[Bobbi]

@Bibs & @Suzywong

Yes you are right, but Hilary and I shared the quarter, splitting it in half. I’m sure I could manage a whole quarter to myself without really trying but I need to exercise a little control.

Sadly the cake has since gone, another will need to be made before too long.

Making it in the mixer is easy and quite quick. Replace 30g of flour with 30g of cocoa powder for a very nice chocolate cake.

I’ve been thinking about yeast and bread and my next project might be a sort of spicy fruit bun, like Easter hot cross buns, the thought of the smell and taste of them is very tempting.

Keep on keepin’ on baking