Easter, Hotel Chocolat - St. Lucia, Fabergé, Fortnum & Mason, Soweto Gospel Choir, Simnel Cake

 

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Hotel Chocolat, St. Lucia

Easter eggs from Hotel Chocolat

Yummy, scrumptious beautiful chocolates and chocolate eggs, some made with the very fine cocoa produced in St Lucia.


St. Lucia is famous  for producing some of the finest cocoa in the world.   Most of St. Lucia's cocoa production is used for blending with lesser varieties for taste, texture, colour etc.  

You can purchase online from  HOTEL CHOCOLAT.   They ship throughout the world.  I often use them to send gifts to family and friends abroad.  They are reliable, prompt and delicious!!  

Hotel Chocolat, Boutique Hotel, St. Lucia, at Rabot Estate, is a great place where one can have a lovely chocolate themed lunch or dinner in their fantastic restaurant  facing the Petit Piton.  Also highly recommended: Hotel Chocolat's blended Portuguese wine to accompany any chocolate based dish. 

I remember on a visit to the Rabot Estate, some 20 years ago, meeting the great Scottish born artist, Alan Davie, who lived and painted on St. Lucia for many years. 

Alan Davie,Village Myths No. 36 1983, Tate Collection 

There is also at Rabot, an unexplained phenomena:  in a lake on the plantation is a small island which floats and drifts from side to side during the rainy season, possibly due to thermal energy, as Rabot is adjacent to  St. Lucia's drive-in Volcano.  Rabot is also famous for  being the scene of numerous battles between the French and the British, and until recently war artefacts were found on the plantation.

Half and Half Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat

Champagne Truffle Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat

 

FABERGÉ EGGS

Lilies of the Valley  Easter Egg by Fabergé

Peter Carl Fabergé also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé, 1846 - 1920, a Russian Jeweller, renowned for his Easter eggs known as Fabergé Eggs, using gemstones and precious metals.   50 Imperial Eggs were created.  The 1913 Winter Egg sold for US$9.6 million in an auction at Christie's in 2002.

Fortnum & Mason

 

Fortnum & Mason Fabergé inspired Easter Biscuits

Fortnum & Mason, aka "Fortnum's" is a luxurious department store, in Piccadilly, London, now with branches in Japan.   It was established in 1707 as a grocery store by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason and has gathered many Royal Warrants over the past 150 years.
Fortnum's reputation has been built on its fine quality, speciality foods and teas and its teashop.  In 1761, William Fortnum's grandson, Charles, went into the service of Queen Charlotte  and the Royal Court affiliation led to an increase in business. Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented the Scotch Egg in 1738. 

Fortnum & Mason  selection of Easter Eggs

eggs, eggs, eggs

As a child, I remember Easter Sundays being a joyous occasion.  Daffodils were picked from the garden and put in vases and the collection of beautifully hand painted Polish wooden eggs would be put out on display, then my mother would help me take the yolk and white of the eggs out by carefully making a pin hole at both ends and blowing gently until the shell was empty, then washed and dried,   we would then paint them, using dyes and acrylic or water based paint. 

 Sequin Eggs © C

Easter Egg gift boxes  © C

Ukranian Easter Eggs

The Amazing Egg Tree Fruit © C

The Amazing Egg Tree grown in the herb garden at
Llewellyn Xavier's Studio © C

Seeds available from
 HIRTS GARDENS through AMAZON.COM

This tropical plant produces 10 to 20 egg-shaped fruits. The fruit vary from pure white to yellow-gold. The purple flowers are stunning.  Eggs have a delicious melony taste. Can be eaten raw, baked, or fried. The Amazing Egg Tree is a exotic and unusual plant to grow either inside or out. Plant height: 36" tall. Prefers full sun. If grown outside you can move the plant indoors in the winter in a sunny window. 60 days.   Proper name: Solanum melongena 'Ovigerum'

Caribbean Easter Traditions

Easter is a time of joy for the Christian communities in the Caribbean, spent attending church services, followed by an Easter lunch.

Easter Lily Antique Print

Jamaica  Most churches and homes in Jamaica are decorated with Easter lilies, which seem to appropriately bloom at Easter.  The lily is a symbol of purity, innocence and virtue because of its delicacy of form and its snow-white color. The Easter Lily has come to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ. History, mythology, literature, poetry and the world of art are rife with stories and images that speak of the beauty and majesty of the elegant white flower. Often called the "white-robed apostles of hope",  lilies were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony.

BEQUIA has held an annual Easter Regatta for the past 30 years (St. Vincent and the Grenadines). 

BARBADOS  Barbados has a national kite flying contest on Easter Monday.  The Oistins Fish Festival created by one of the Caribbean's most elegant and beautiful ladies, the Lady Stella St. John, wife of former Prime Minister, Sir Harold St. John,  created the annual event in 1977, which is fast becoming one of the Caribbean's major events.

MARTINIQUE and  GUADELOUPE Most Martiniquans and Guadeloupeans spend Easter time at the beach and one of their traditional dishes is Land Crab - le Matoutou de Crabes. Guadeloupe has a Crab Festival.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Easter Sunday, Baked Pork, Ham and other meats are eaten.  Hot Cross Buns are an Easter treat.  

ST. LUCIA Most St. Lucians will attend a church service on Easter Sunday.   A St. Lucian tradition is kite-flying at Pigeon Island in the North.

GUYANA Also has a tradition of flying of kites on the sea wall in Georgetown and on open lands in villages. Easter 1885 serves as a good example. “The appearance of the sky all over Georgetown, but especially towards the Sea Wall, was very striking, the air being thick with kites of all shapes and sizes, covered with gaily coloured paper, all riding bravely on the strong wind."

Kite flying competitions are also held in the Bahamas, Bermuda, Grenada and St. Kitts and Nevis.

THE MARVELLOUS

SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR

Do listen to these links,  you will be enthralled, better still try to see them live on one of their world tours.   AMAZING GRACE,   MUDIMO, THINA SIMNQOBILE, KHUMBAYA (note the egg shaped instrument at the beginning of the video).

Don't  know which one is my favourite singers as they are all brilliant.  Their costumes are magnificent,  colourful and majestic and they create music sometimes without accompaniment  (archapello) .   Just amazing!

CD's available at Amazon.com

S i m n e l    C a k e

 © C

There are numerous myths surrounding the origin of Simnel cake which is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, then toasted, and eaten during the Easter period.  A layer of marzipan or almond paste is also baked into the middle of the cake. On the top of the cake, around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls said to represent the true disciples of Jesus Christ; Judas Iscariot is omitted.  The other legends are that in the 17th century female servants would bake this fruit rich Easter cake to take home  to their mothers after Lent.  Another myth is that the name is believed to come from a  brother (Simon) and sister (Nell) who wanted to make an Easter cake for their mother.  The word Simnel comes from the Latin word Simila which means fine wheat flour.

 

recipe

500 g Marzipan (rolled or ready to roll packet like Dr. Oetker) for top of cake, including  11 balls and centre of cake (You can make your own almond paste with ground almonds, sugar, beaten egg and almond or bitter almond essence - I find the latter gives a nicer flavour - roll out two circles to fit the cake tin and make the 11 balls with the remainder).

175g butter

175g brown sugar

3 eggs

125g all purpose flour

50g ground almonds

1/2 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

7 drops bitter almond essence or 1 tsp almond essence (optional)

350g mixed fruit: raisins, sultanas, currants and glacé cherries

50g  mixed peel

grated zest of 1/2 lemon or lime

2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed in a pan

Preheat oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.

For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated and then fold in the sifted flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger alittle at a time and the ground almonds.  Then, add the mixed dried fruit, cherries, peel and grated lemon zest and fold into the mixture.

Put half the mixture into a greased and lined 18cm/7in cake tin.  Smooth the top and cover with the circle of almond paste.  Add the remainder of the cake mixture and smooth the top leaving a slight dip in the centre to allow for the cake to rise.  Bake in a preheated oven for 1 1/2  to 1 3/4 hours or until golden on top.  Test by inserting a wooden skewer - if it comes out clean, it is ready.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a cake rack.

Remove from cake tin and brush the top of the cooled cake with the warmed apricot jam.   Put the remaining marzipan circle on top and the rolled balls around the edge.

I use a cook's blow torch to brown the balls and top of the cake, alternatively, you can put the cake under the grill for a couple of minutes but watch that it does not burn.

Tie with ribbon and decorate or leave plain.

Caribbean Flowering Trees

at Easter Time

Gliricidia photos by Forest and Kim Starr  

Logwood Blossom     

Nature by H.D. Carberry

We have neither Summer nor Winter

Neither Autumn nor Spring.

We have instead the days

When the gold sun shines on the lush green canefields-

Magnificently.

The days when the rain beats like bullet on the roofs

And there is no sound but thee swish of water in the gullies

And trees struggling in the high Jamaica winds.

Also there are the days when leaves fade from off guango trees’

And the reaped canefields lie bare and fallow to the sun.

But best of all there are the days when the mango and the logwood blossom

           Mango Blossom © C

Mango season to follow soon!

Happy Easter

Creole Christmas Cake, Spiced Rum, Jade Mountain, Pitons

Creole Christmas Cake

Why start with Christmas cake in January?  Well,  it is at this time that the fruit is soaked in rum for the cakes to be made in November or December, you may want to use a tablespoon or two of the rum-soaked fruit for ice cream, or with a plain cake, during the year.  Almost everyone who has had my cake asks for the recipe.

The Fruit to be soaked in Rum 

You need a  good quality dark rum, I use Chairman's Reserve Spiced Rum from St. Lucia - as it adds that special flavour but any nice Caribbean dark rum is fine.

Jar number 1 - 1 lb each - Sultanas, Raisins, Currants, Prunes (pitted). 

Jar number 2 - 1 lb each - Dried: Apricots, Apples, Pears, Peaches.

A nice Ball Corporation Glass Preserving Jar   or similar.  The purpose for using two jars is to separate fruit so that the fruit are not all the same colour.

Put fruit in large jars and pour the rum over it.   Make sure you jar is properly closed.  I soak the fruits for one year but 6 months is ok.

Ingredients for the cake

1 lb butter

1 lb white sugar

1/2 lb flour

1/2 lb breadcrumbs

10 large eggs

1/2 lb candied citrus peel

1/2 lb candied cherries

1 lb walnuts

Additional ingredients (Dry Fruit– not soaked in rum so you get a lovely texture)

1/2 lb prunes (pitted)

1/2 lb sultanas

1/2 lb currants

1/2 lb raisins

Rum-soaked fruit

2 lbs mixed raisins, sultanas, currant and prunes soaked in rum and strained.

1 lb mixed dried apple/apricot/pear/peach soaked in rum and strained.

METHOD

Mix the rum soaked fruit with the dried fruit, then add walnuts, cherries and candied citrus peel, mix and set aside.

Prepare a large cake tin or two smaller cake tins by greasing and lining with wax paper.

Mix breadcrumbs and flour together.  Set aside.  Cream the soft butter and sugar together with an electrical mixer. Set aside.  Beat eggs and add to the butter and sugar mixture.  Add breadcrumb and flour mixture and mix well.  Add fruit/nut mixture and mix to blend.  Pour into cake tin.

Place cake tin in a large saucepan, on a stand with 2 inches of water, cover with lid, and steam for for 6 to 8 hours.  Check to make sure there is enough water in the saucepan during the steaming. Lift the lid carefully to ensure that the steam does not burn you.

This is a very moist, textured fruit cake that keeps very well and can be enjoyed with rum cream, vanilla or coconut ice cream.

You can cover it with marzipan and fondant icing or just decorate it with some pretty sugar decorations and ribbon.

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The magnificent Pitons of Saint Lucia from
Jade Mountain

The Pitons are unquestionably the Caribbean's most recognisable landmark.   The Gros Piton is 771 m, and the Petit Piton is 743 m high.

The Pitons are located near the towns of Soufrière and Choiseul on the southwestern coast of the island. (from Wikipedia).

St. Lucia’s dramatic twin peaks are the signature icon of the island. Formed of lava and rock, these unique volcanic mountains rise from the Caribbean Sea and are covered in green vegetation.  Hiking the Pitons’ challenging trails ends with a breathtaking view of the island and the Caribbean Sea.  The Pitons were named a World Heritage Site in 2004 by UNESCO.

Oprah Winfrey, the American Icon, once said the Pitons are one of the 5 places to see in a lifetime.

The Pitons are the most conspicuous features of St. Lucia's stunning landscape, and have become a symbol with universal currency.  They often feature in Llewellyn Xavier's art.

Edward Lucie-Smith from Llewellyn Xavier his Life and Work

The Pitons by Llewellyn Xavier OBE