plates | brass cutlery | placemats | vase
I realise that Mother’s Day is at different times in different countries but for us Brits it’s nearly upon us which always feels like quite a shock when February is such a short month! To get geared up I thought I’d lend you a helping hand with some table styling inspiration, a recipe and a free printable card. That’s Mother’s Day sorted, right?! Mother’s Day is one of those loaded occasions that can be wonderful and yet can also be so painful for those who have lost babies, struggled to become Mother’s or even lost their own Mum’s. I’d imagine it’s a reflective time for many and yet it’s still worth making a fuss of Mama’s for all they pour into raising and supporting their children for however long that’s been, short or long. It’s probably a little cliché but let’s be honest, women mostly celebrate with cake so I adapted a very simple Nigella recipe, bought some meadow flowers and whipped out the table cloth (my Mum wouldn’t actually approve as she’d be wanting to take an iron to it straight away).
I’ve used some beautiful pieces from Next to style this table which work perfectly with the laid back vibe I was hoping for. The napkins are simply linen offcuts from an old shirt and the tablecloth is in fact and old sheet. Who said I didn’t keep things fancy, eh? Formal afternoon tea’s have their place but if you find them a bit stuffy then invite your Mum around for some tea and cake this way instead. Use some spare foliage as cake decoration and use a mish mash of different mugs. Download my free design to print out on any card you’d like and find / buy an A6 envelope to match. I’ve even included a US version, knowing that ‘Mum’ is in fact ‘Mom’ instead. There are no bells and whistles, no glitter rainbow, tippins or soppy poetry on this card but you may have noticed that’s just the way I like it.
Moist Orange Cake with Blood Orange Drizzle
Ingredients
- approx. 375 grams oranges
- 6 large eggs
- 225 grams white sugar
- 250 grams ground almonds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
For the drizzle
- Juice of 1 blood orange
- 200g icing sugar
- Handful flaked almonds to finish
Method
- Put the oranges in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each orange in half and remove the pips. Dump the oranges – skins, pith, fruit and all – and give a quick blitz in a food processor. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190ºC/375ºF. Butter and line a 21cm / 8 inch Springform tin.
- Then add all the other ingredients to the food processor and mix.
- Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for an hour, when a skewer will come out clean; you’ll probably have to cover with foil or greaseproof after about 35 minutes to stop the top burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, on a rack, but in the tin. When the cake’s cold, you can take it out of the tin.
- Mix together the ingredients for the glaze but you can play around with the quantities depending on the consistency you’d like. Drizzle over the top and over the sides. Toast the flaked almonds in a dry pan until they start to go golden and then sprinkle on top of the drizzle. Grate some blood orange rind over the top to finish.
Thank you to Next for kindly gifting me the table ware linked above. I chose each item myself.
