Author Archive: My Kitchen Wand

When something is expensive and not easy to get, it is always a good idea to find a way to extend the flavour in some way. I did that this summer with my handful of cascade berries that were turned into liquour and then chocolates. It allows more people to share in the bounty. Originally […]

Trading with other countries brings exciting new things from distant places and the spice trade is one example. Once Marco Polo and others went off traveling, the world of anise, cardamon and other delights opened up. European cities that had strong trading economies were first to see these spices and explore the possibilities. The first […]

Knowing that we had some chocoholics in the fall tea group I decided to add three options to the top layer of the fall tea tray. The port truffles can be found here and are an easy option for a luxurious chocolate treat that does not require tempering. The other two sweets on the plate […]

Tempering is the process of cooling something in order to gain strength for that product. It happens in glass and steel and chocolate. If chocolate is just melted and used to make a chocolate, the ingredients will melt in your hands before it can get to your mouth. Now please bare in mind I am talking […]

Well lucky me! I have discovered that I didn’t take very many pictures for these but I am sure we will be able to muddle through. (Update 10/14/2018, pictures found! What’s three years in the scheme of things?) I used my Scottish grandmother’s brown sugar shortbread with some tweaks. I will give you the original […]

Truffles are a wonderful way to get a soft creamy chocolate without having to get out the marble and temper. Four ingredients and you are off to the races. I chose port for the fall tea because I have always considered it more of a cooler season item. Port is a fortified wine which means it […]

The top layer of a tea tray contains the “sweets”. In this case cake, cookies and chocolates. I used a recipe posted in March as a starting point, Apricot Almond Whipping Cream Cake. The full post is here. To the recipe I added, 1 teaspoon of nice, warming ground cardamon and baked the cake in the 11 […]

I am really hoping you can still find plums somewhere in your part of the world. If not just pop this someplace safe for five or ten months from now when they are back in season, depending where in the world you call home. Italian prune plums are a favourite of mine and always mean fall […]

You just can not have an afternoon tea without scones, especially a cream tea as the Devonshire cream has to have something to go on. The frosted grapes and candied nuts on this plate are an added bonus, as is the homemade Earl of Raspberry Plum Jam . I mentioned the other day there were […]

With the two warm items complete, it is time to move on to cold sandwiches. Rolled sandwiches are really easy to make and I would very much recommend going to your local bakery and pre-ordering a sandwich loaf sliced lengthwise. Having the crust on while adding the filling gives the bread slices more stability and there is […]