Steamed Amerena and Marsala Pudding

You will need:

A good quality jam, I used amerena cherry.

150 g sugar

150 g butter/margarine

200g flour

2 eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream the sugar and butter together.

Add a few tablespoons of jam.

Add the eggs.

Add the flour and baking powder.

In a saucepan add about 4 heaped tablespoons of jam. Heat gently until it becomes almost liquid. Next add Marsala wine to taste.

Coat the inside of a heat-proof dish with some of the jam mixture. 

Now add the cake batter. Pour the remaining jam mixture on top of the cake batter. 

Cover with grease-proof paper and then foil.

Place the bowl inside a colander inside a saucepan of water that reaches about 3/4 to the side of the bowl. Cover the bowl with a saucepan lid.

Leave the water to boil checking periodically that there is still water in the saucepan.

The cake will take about 2 hours to cook but it will be lovely and moist. Check it every now and again.

Cream the sugar and butter

Stir in jam

Add the eggs

Add the flour

Adding Marsala

Add Marsala to the jam

The jam becomes almost like liquid

Coat the bowl

Put the mixture in the bowl

Cover with grease-proof paper

Steam the pudding

Tiramisu'

You will need:

500 ml mascarpone 

500 ml cream

150 g sugar

2 egg yolks

Cup of cold strong black coffee 

Sponge fingers

Bitter dark chocolate powder

Marsala (optional)

My family likes me to make the tiramisu' quite creamy so I have adapted the recipe to suit them. Also I don't like the idea of eating raw eggs so again I adapted the classic recipe.

Pour the cream into a heat-proof bowl. Add the egg yolks and sugar. Stir well. Place over a saucepan and allow to heat up but not boil. I added a spoonful of Marsala wine at this point but I don't always do this. A friend happened to gift me a bottle.

Whisk the cream mixture which should have thickened a bit. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Once the cream mixture has cooled add the mascarpone and lightly whisk. Now you can start layering. 

Place a layer of sponge fingers in a dish. You can either make one big tiramisu' or make it in individual bowls. I usually have more success if I sprinkle the coffee on the sponge fingers than when I dip them in coffee. You don't want the fingers to become soggy.

Add some of the cream mixture. Sieve cocoa powder on top of this. Start the procedure again. Continue, ending with a layer of the cream mixture covered in the cocoa powder. 

Place in the fridge for a few hours to set.

Mix the cream, eggs and sugar

Add the Marsala

Add the mascarpone

Layer the fingers

Cold coffee

Add a layer of mixture

Sprinkle on cocoa powder

You've reached the top. Now refrigerate!

Enjoy a slice

Cin Cin, Prospect, St James, Barbados

My good friend Sherry and I went to Cin Cin for lunch today. Apart from the great food and service the setting was absolutely beautiful overlooking the Caribbean Sea. I can imagine it being quite a romantic restaurant at night but it was nice to see a Mum treating her little boy to a birthday lunch.

Crab cakes with a spicy remoulade sauce

Chili shrimp penne with garlic crumb

Jord's Carrot Cake

My son enjoys cooking and baking. Carrot Cake is his speciality.

Grate the carrots

You will need:
250g of wholemeal flour (Jord used white flour)
250g brown sugar
250g grated carrots
200ml olive oil
4 eggs
your favourite spice to flavour

Mix the dry ingredients

1. Mix the flour, carrots, sugar and the spice together. 
2. Beat the eggs together then add them to the dry ingredients.
3. Add the oil to the ingredients and mix well.
4. Pour into your prepared greased or lined tins.
5. Jord used a goose shaped mould and at Christmas, tree moulds.

Add the eggs

Jord showing me a  way to separate yolk from the white.
 Use a  plastic bottle to suck up the yolk.

Glacè icing

Slice of cake and an espresso

Christmas Carrot Cake

Chicken breast with Maple Syrup and Bacon

Using a non-stick pan cook the chicken breast. Wrap thin rashers of bacon around the chicken. Add maple syrup but keep the fire low so not to burn the chicken. After a few minutes the bacon should be cooked. Add a little more maple syrup. 

We ate the chicken with roast potatoes.

Barbadian Fast Food

A lot of Barbadian (Bajan) fast food is really good quality.
One of our favourite places is Just Grillin' found in Holetown, St James and Rockley, Christ Church.

Grilled dolphin sandwich with coleslaw and Caesar Salad
 at Just Grillin', Holetown

Everything is grilled from the potatoes and vegetables to shrimp, chicken and burgers. I think the food is healthy and really tasty and my children love it.

Forgot to mention, Dolphin is a type of steak fish it is not actual dolphin.














I know that these are chips but it is so nice to be served fresh chips not frozen ones. This meal was from a beach bar called Ju Ju's in The Garden, St James.

Grilled flying fish sandwich with squash and vegetables from
Just Gillin', Holetown, St James 

'Big Fat Greek Burger' from Opà, Limegrove Centre,
 Holetown, St James

Grilled marlin sandwich with coleslaw and rice and peas, from
Just Grillin', Holetown, St James

Bakewell Style Cake

Form crumbs 

Add water and make into a smooth ball

Using 500g of flour, 250g of butter and a little sugar make the pastry base. Make a breadcrumb-like mixture then add cold water slowly until you can make a ball that's not sticky and well formed.


Roll out to about 1.5cm thick. Place the baking tin you are going to use on the pastry. Cut around it and then grease the tin and place the pastry inside it. 


Bake the pastry 'blind' by placing greaseproof paper on the pastry and then weighing it down with rice or dried beans. Bake at 160° for about 15 minutes or until the pastry is almost cooked.


Spread cherry jam or your favourite flavour onto the pastry base.


For the cake mixture cream 300g of sugar and 300g of butter together. Add lemon zest and the juice of 1 1/2 lemons.


Add 5 eggs and mix well. Stir in 400g of flour and a packet of baking powder, (about a tablespoon). 


Pour the mixture onto the pastry base and
bake for about half an hour until golden. Use
a chop stick or something similar to check
if the cake is cooked.

Place in a greased baking tin

I had some mixture left over so I half filled  cup cake cases with it then added a spoonful of jam. Put some mixture on top of the jam. Bake again at 160° for about 10 minutes or until golden.

Roll out pastry

Cover with greaseproof paper and add rice

Bake until almost cooked

Add your favourite jam

The cake mixture

Pour on top of the pastry case 

Smooth the mixture

Ready to eat

Add a little jam 

Enjoy the cup cake.