Complete error on my part.

I made two exceptional desserts. Except that I messed both of them up.

The Hokey Pokey Toffee Ice Cream Cake….How cool does that sound?

I made the ‘honeycomb’ according to directions. It was all so promising.

But then the honeycomb never really crisped up. Sigh. At least the toffee bits I had on hand saved the recipe. The ice cream loaf was really good.

The second fail was totally my fault. The way the recipe was typed up in the magazine led me to forget…omit…the flour.

I could not figure out why the blueberry loaf had such a moist texture. And why it looked absolutely nothing like the photo in the magazine. Not even remotely close.

Then I figured it out. I reread the recipe. It was supposed to have some flour in it. 3/4 cup. Yep, that would explain it.

No worries, though. The failed blueberry loaf was so moist, so full of almond and cornmeal crunchiness…no worries whatsoever. Served with a bit of unsweetened cream it was quite heavenly.

If you try either recipe be confident that some toffee bits substituted for a comb devoid of crispiness or a complete omission of flour will get you some fabulous results.

Why on earth is it called Hokey Pokey? Because that is what someone calls honeycomb. Here is a good site I found if you want help to make it properly. Note, though, that Fatboybakes’ (Ha!) hokey pokey didn’t stay crisp for long either. I would just stick (Ha!) with toffee bits from the package.

Hokey Pokey Toffee Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:

100g golden syrup
100g caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
600g tub good-quality vanilla ice cream
200g raspberries
2 x 300g Madeira cakes (I used Sara Lee Frozen Pound Cake. I only needed one 300g cake.)
100g dulce de leche

Directions:

1. Lightly oil a medium baking tray. To make the honeycomb, add 100g golden syrup to a saucepan with 100g caster sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then increase the heat and bubble until the syrup thickens and turns a dark golden caramel colour. Whisk 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda into the caramel, then pour the mixture into the baking tray. Leave to cool and set, then break the honeycomb into pieces.

2. Soften a 600g tub good-quality vanilla ice cream. Fold through half the honeycomb (Note: I added packaged toffee bits here) and 200g raspberries (keep the remaining honeycomb in an airtight container). Thinly slice 2 x 300g Madeira or pound cakes and spread 100g dulce de leche thinly over all the slices (on one side only).

3. Use one-third of the slices, spread-side up, overlapping slightly to cover the base of a 1.6 litre loaf tin lined with cling film (with plenty overhanging). Spoon over half the hokey pokey ice cream (Sigh… I wish I had authentic Hokey Pokey), smoothing with the back of a spoon. Repeat the layers, finishing with the remaining slices of Madeira cake, spread-side down. Cover tightly with the cling film and pop the tin in the freezer until it has refrozen.

4. To serve, pull back the cling film and invert the ice-cream cake onto a serving plate. Carefully peel off the cling film. Sprinkle with some of the leftover honeycomb and slice thickly to serve.

Recipe from Delicious Magazine

Lemon Blueberry Drizzle Loaf

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g (1 cup) caster or granulated sugar
3 eggs
100g (3/4 cup) plain flour
100g (3/4 cup) polenta
100g (1 cup) ground almonds
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime

Ingredients for the lemon drizzle:

juice of 1 lemon
60g (1/2 cup) confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350℉.

2. Grease a 2 lb loaf tin and dust generously with flour, shaking out any excess.

3. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well as you add each egg.

4. Fold in the flour, ground almonds, polenta, baking powder, lemon and lime juice and zest. Add blueberries and fold in gently.
(This is where I messed up. In the original recipe in the magazine this step says: “Fold in the remaining ingredients.” And flour is not one of them. It is, instead, listed above the sugar. This was pure carelessness on my part. But, the recipe as written here would avoid that kind of omission.)

5. Spoon the mixture in to the tin and bake for 40 minutes, then cover with foil and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when you test the center.

6. Leave to cool slightly in the tin and then turn out carefully on to a wire rack. Mix the lemon juice and icing sugar together to make the drizzle. Prick the cake all over with the skewer the carefully pour the drizzle over the cake – you may wish to place a large plate under the wire rack at this point to catch any drips.

Serves 10

Recipe from Delicious Magazine. Improved directions found here.

The song ‘Come To This’ is beautiful. You somehow think that the two of them could work things out. It’s a very sad song.

But, you know what?

It fails.

Why?

I can’t listen to the song without hearing Mark Davis whistle whenever he sings the “S” sound at the end of words such as snows, romance, bliss, this….

It drives me CRAZY. Reminds me of this guy:

Then there is that sort of telephone sound when he sings that sometimes he calls her. I find it completely distracting.

Fail. And I can’t even eat the song.

Mark Davis-Come To This

I hope that Mark Davis isn’t the British pornographic actor that comes up as number two on a Google search. The accent is kind of wrong, right?

Seriously, check out Mark Davis and buy his music on his website.

I don’t own any of his other songs. Let me know if there is more whistling.

Cheers!