Mussel Men, Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake and Shonda Rhimes in the Stroud Green Larder Newsletter

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This is my favourite time of year and I think October may win hands down for best month. The food at the market is awesome and when we visited Stoke Newington farmers' market at the weekend we picked up some spaghetti squash and green tomatoes. I loved the homely feel of this market which only boasts small local producers, so you don't have any of the same old chain-stalls you see across other markets in London and because of this it has a lovely cosy community vibe. I am all about the cosy and the familiar this week as I have been nestling back into my family favourite recipes and made huge batches of bolognaise and fishcakes which have been keeping me going as the temperature keeps on dropping and I've been wrapping myself up in duvets in front of the TV. This weekend though it's all systems go as I am doing a special Halloween cake stall at Cakes from the Larder and I've been having great fun digging out my spooky cookie cutters and loading up my piping bag with green, purple and orange buttercream.

Easy Peasy Pork Bolognaise
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My Nan's Salmon Fishcakes
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LEMON AND POPPY SEED CAKE WITH LEMONY CREAM CHEESE ICING AND CARAMELISED LEMONS
Last week I was commissioned to make a birthday cake for 50 people for one of my lovely neighbours. The brief was poppy seeds. The natural pairing with poppy seeds is a citrus flavour so I went a little traditional and called upon lemon as I just can't get enough lemon cake at the moment. The bottom layer of the cake was 12 inches and the top layer was 10 inches so it was officially the largest tiered cake I have made and it was great fun to do. The sponge was intensely lemony with both zest and juice baked into the batter but it was offset by the plethora of poppy seeds studded throughout. The icing was made from a traditional swiss meringue buttercream laced with lemon and plenty of whipped mascarpone cream cheese.
I decorated the top with caramelised lemons which meant simmering the lemon slices in a sugar syrup for 3-4 minutes, then transferring them to a baking tray and baking them for about 45 minutes at a low temperature to dry them out. It went down an absolute storm.

If you are on a low carb diet then you will be all too familiar with zoodles, which are courgettes julienned into noodles (zucchini noodles - it's an American thing). All this time I have been slogging with my julienne peeler to create these brilliant veggie noodles but I see where I have been going wrong - I need a Sprialiser. The Huffington Post have committed themselves to investigating all the foods that you need to spiral right now.

STROUD GREEN WOMEN'S INSTITUTE
On Monday I was voted in as the President of the Stroud Green Women's Institute. This is a great honour and I'm nervous and excited about what that title entails. I talk about the WI a lot on my blog, obviously as I have quite a lot to do with it and it takes up a lot of my free time but it's surprising how few people know what the WI actually is. The Women's Institute was founded in 1915 to bring often-isolated rural women together, to revitalise rural communities and, as this was during WW1, to encourage women to become more involved in food production. Today it campaigns vigorously on a variety of issues which affect women and the wider community both nationally and globally, and encourages women to enjoy all sorts of activities and to develop new skills. At the moment we are organising our first ever Winter Fair to be held at the Stapleton in Stroud Green. We have got a great number of crafty and vintage-inspired stalls as well as an infamous WI Cake stall. I'm also going to be setting up shop as Preserves from the Larder selling my own chutneys, relishes, jams, jellies and my delicious Victorian Mincemeat.

I am a big fan of the food blog what katie ate but this week I was really won over by her Cinnamon Tea, Chocolate and Salted Caramel Tartlets. These are exactly the kind of treat I understand and cannot wait for the opportunity to give them a go. Oh, and she has a new cookery book out too which I will definitely be pre-ordering.

MUSSEL MEN
At the weekend we visited the Hackney Flea Market, I love a bit of vintage this and that and just about restrained myself from indulging in the huge amount of copper pans they had. Afterwards we were peckish and started wandering down Kingsland Road in search of somewhere interesting for lunch. We ended up trudging along for about 20 minutes before we found Mussel Men, somewhere we have been meaning to go for an absolute age. They started out life as a pop up serving a hellavu lot of mussels, but now they have a permanent venue and it's a real gem of a place. I had mussels with garlic butter and L had mussels marinere. They were served with the best kind of french fries, crisp but with plenty of potato flavour. They have a limited menu to just mussels and a few starters at lunchtime but in the evenings they have the grill on and an amazing array of fish and seafood on offer. We will definitely be going back to try that out in the future.

I loved this article I read this week when Mrs Marmite Lover met jam mistress, Vivien Lloyd. She seems to be a formidable woman, but then she would be as she was trained as a WI judge 21 years ago. What she knows about marmalade and jam isn't worth knowing and it's definitely on my to do list to attend one of her masterclasses.

SATSUMAS
I can barely contain myself when I see the first of the season's satsumas. This week I was in my element. They are the epitome of this time of year for me and are definitely in my top 5 foods ever. I can't really be doing with clementines or tangerines or the vague sounding easy peelers. Satsumas rule and from now until Christmas I will be devouring about 10 a day at least.

SHONDA RHIMES
On Wednesday British TV saw the return of of one of my favourite programmes, Greys Anatomy. It's now entering its eleventh season and although the romantic entanglements and surgical miracles aren't quite as enthralling as they once were it is still pure popcorn TV. Greys Anatomy was created by Shonda Rhimes, who also created Private Practice and Scandal, another one of my favourites. This week as well saw the launch of her new show How To Get Away with Murder and I loved the first episode so hopefully the rest of the series will be as gripping. Shonda Rhimes is one of TV's most powerful women and she is an absolutely fascinating lady. I read this article about her ages ago but thought it was worth sharing as I found her career story and her ethos so inspiring.

PET OF THE WEEK
This week there is a very deserved pet of the week. I haven't been well and so I have needed a bit of TLC. There was only one monster up for the task (well, there might have been more but Billy Buddy can be a little repellent to the other two monsters when he jumps on them and starts chewing their ears). But this week he has found an inner calm. He has tried his best to keep his barking at a minimum and hunkered down on a jolly nice little square of the sofa right next to me where he has stayed, curled up within the folds of my blanket. He even decided to rip up one of L's shoes rather than another one of mine, so he really is being thoughtful. It's not often that I can reward Billy Buddy for good behaviour but this week he has totally been man's best friend and not man's tasmanian devil, intent to destroy anything and everything that crosses his path. So Billy Buddy, I am expecting this week to be a turning point of good things in the future and to herald this you will be awarded Pet of the Week.

This Sunday, Cakes from The Larder will be at Falkland Road Market, N8. The vibe at the market really is great. Matt and Deb who run it want it to have a real community feel and it really does with meat, cheeses, veg, a smattering of vintage and crafty stalls and some hot food options so there really is something for everyone. But most importantly, there are cakes. Although Billy Buddy has begun getting a bit territorial about the stall and starts barking whenever anyone comes near it, he's not the most natural at retail. On Sunday we're doing a Halloween extravaganza with red velvet cake, a chocolate jaffa cake, ghoulish cupcakes, maliciously minted brownies and a blood soaked raspberry and white chocolate gluten free cheesecake. We've got vintage china at the ready should you want to eat cake and drink tea at the market in style and there will be a very chatty puppy to beckon you forth and not scare you away.

Have a brilliant weekend! Georgina x

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