Food & Drink

Queen of the cakes

Sadie Smith

Sadie Smith is an award winning cake designer and baker from Cake by Sadie

Smith, Wimborne Cheesecakes are up there with my top desserts to make and eat. I very rarely find a good one when eating out, either the base is so thin you can hardly taste it, or it is soggy, so I have created a recipe which gives you the right amount of every component. A nice thick buttery biscuit base with a generous layer of cheesecake filling swirled with juicy and fresh seasonal fruits. This recipe uses fresh blueberries, although you can buy blueberries all year round from the supermarket, I much prefer to make the most of the short blueberry season and pick my own, you really can taste the difference. There is just one week left of this year’s season at Brothers Farm in Wimborne and they are well worth a visit, not just for the delicious blueberries but for some of their seasonal flowers cut from the field or to grab a coffee and cake from the café.

Ingredients: 100g blueberries 1 tablespoon sugar 3 tablespoons of water 200g digestive biscuits 125g salted butter 300g cream cheese 60g icing sugar 250ml double cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method: Line an 8” round tin with baking paper Place the blueberries, sugar and water in a pan and bring to the boil, allow to simmer for around five minutes until the fruit is soft and thickened, remove from heat and allow to cool Crush the digestive biscuits until they resemble breadcrumbs Melt the butter and add to the biscuits, mixing well Press the biscuit mix into the tin and chill Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract In a separate bowl whip the double cream until it forms stiff peaks Fold the cream into the cheese mixture Add half the blueberry syrup and give it three or four stirs, no more as you want to create a ripple effect Pour onto the biscuit base Top with the remaining blueberry syrup and swirl around the top Allow to chill in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight

TOP TIP: the recipe for this cheesecake can be made with any topping, such as strawberries, honeycomb, and lemon, just substitute the blueberries for your chosen topping.

Eat Festivals inviting county producers

Scrummy things to eat and drink will be on offer at festivals in Yeovil on September 18 and December 11. Eat Festivals are celebrating a bumper year, having just held a great event in Honiton. A big turnout at Honiton Gate to Plate brought a real buzz to the high street with more than 50 local food and drink producers plus sponsors Jurassic Fibre, strolling entertainers and music from Court Productions. Head of Sparkle, Sarah Milner Simonds said: “This was our first year delivering Honiton Gate to Plate and it was wonderful to have such a great turnout. The feedback from native businesses was that their tills were ringing all day and that this was the busiest the High Street had been since lockdowns began in spring 2020. “We had 11 cancellations in the days running up to the event due to pings from Track and Trace – which meant we had a few gaps on the day, but we know that the producers who were able to trade had lots of great conversations and sales. We are sorry that some sold out early in the day – but we think the weather forecast meant people came early. “It was great hearing from visitors how they had invited friends and family to join them for the weekend and

Cooking...

with Martha Legg

My husband and I love to travel. Well, we did until covid struck! A couple of years ago we did a road trip around Sicily, which is a beautiful island. We stayed at an AirBnB near to the base of Mount Etna, which was something my husband had always wanted to do. Getting up early one morning to go up the mountain, we arrived at the bottom of the cable car and were the first ones up. (There is no way we could have walked up there!) It was a beautiful morning, a little bit cloudy. After the cable car, we climbed aboard a bus with huge wheels, to go up the last part. We spent an hour or more, with a guide, climbing round the rim of an inactive part of the volcano, listening to the booms and watching the smoke as Etna grumbled away. We discovered that if you put your hands a few inches into the ash it was really hot. Of course, we took loads of pictures, as one does! When we returned from our holiday, we eagerly looked at our pictures and were rather horrified that it was hard to tell the difference between Mount Etna and ourselves! We had no idea we had put on so much weight! It was time to look at some low fat/calorie meals one of which was this seared salmon recipe which has since become a firm favourite of my husband. Fortunately the diet worked and we both lost more than a stone in weight. I wish I could say that we kept it off, but covid put paid to that, or was it the nightly wine?! Ingredients: 400gms salad potatoes (charlotte) 1 glove garlic or a cheating teaspoon of lazy garlic! 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or a dash which I think is about the same!) 360g of cherry tomatoes, halved 25gms basil leaves 4 salmon steaks 25gms parmesan shavings

Method: Cook potatoes in salted water until just tender Mix garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasoning in a bowl, add the tomatoes and basil and stir well When the potatoes are cooked, cut in half and add to the tomato mix tossing well to coat Heat some sunflower oil in a hot frying pan, salt the bottom of the salmon and fry for 2 minutes each side or until cooked. Put the salmon on a plate and season with salt and pepper Add the parmesan to the salad mix and then add to the plate and you are good to go!

Enford Farm Shop Durweston DT11 0QW Home reared and locally produced meats, game, deli, fruit, veg, free range eggs and lots more. Follow us on Facebook for all our latest meat pack deals and what’s in fresh that week. Fresh 昀sh van in the car park Wednesdays 9.30am-2pm how they love having a festival on their doorstep. We want to be a Half a pig approx £100 good neighbour and we extend our Chicken feeds etc available thanks to those who live and work in the town centre for their warm welcome and encouragement.” Open Wednesdays to Saturday 8.30am-4pm. Head of Spreadsheets Bev Milner Outside shop with self service Simonds said: “It was really nice to for essentials 8am-8pm open daily work alongside the old and new market managers, the town council 01258 450050 and chamber to deliver this event. “We will be on the hunt and

to try market trading encouraging more Devon and Dorset producers to apply to trade in 2022 – we open for applications in early November and offer a lot of support for businesses who are new to market trading. “We were so pleased we dodged the weather that was forecast and it was wonderful to see the High Street full of smiling faces and wagging tails.” Visit: eatfestivals.org.