By Lee Mahjen-Todd
Always the fourth Sunday in lent, 3 weeks before Easter Sunday and very much linked to the christian calendar Mothering Sunday wasn’t always about appreciating our mums.
Originating in the 16th century it was the church who gave people permission to head back to their ‘mother’ church as a pilgrimage to give worship.
As these churches were inevitably where their families were, domestic servants were given permission to head home, so it became a way to have a family reunion.
With children leaving home for work at age 10, it was a rarity for families to reunite.
Even though it was a religious pilgrimage, people are only human, so this day evolved over time to include gifts of flowers and baked goodies.
In the early 20th century, the tradition to began to fade , so in different in America, in 1913, Constance Penswick worked to revive the British tradition and protect the religious roots, she founded the Mothering Sunday Movement.
In World War ll the celebration was further solidified by American and Canadian soldiers stationed in the UK who brought with them ways of honouring their mothers.
Eventually America nandu k traditions merged and Mothering Sunday was born, with more of a commercial Mothers Day concept.
Over time, Families developed their own personal traditions, making the celebration unique to them.
When I was a kid, growing up in a not too affluent mining village, my dad used to leave the gate to our front garden wide open. Always full of newly opening daffodils, he used to watch out of the window as kids would ’sneak’ in and ‘steal’ bunches of these smiling yellow flowers.
He imagined them, being given, along with grinning faces, to mothers around the villages.
In later years, one of those, now grown up kids, came knocking at our door, and thanked him for the gift of the flowers.
Get in touch and leave your Mothers day family traditions.
Here’s a bake good enough to make for your mum.
Pistachio & Lemon Financiers
Everything looks cute when miniature, and cakes are no exception!
Financiers, originally small, French almond cakes made with brown butter, are those small fancy cakes I see on the rare occasion I’m treated to a high tea at some fancy establishment.
I’ve made my little financier cakes using pistachios ground up to a nut flour and love the flavour and texture they give.
There’s something about the pale green colour of pistachios that makes me smile. Using them in cakes and as a substitute for other nuts when cooking adds something quite special.
There’s a lightness in the texture of these cakes, and the addition of the ground pistachios makes this happen.
Less flour and more nuts in this recipe lift the mixture and gives the finished cakes a lovely mouth feel, and the addition of lemon, zest and juice, moistens the recipe too.
Go on, give them a go and make your mum smile!
What You Need
- 175g Butter – Softened – Plus more for preparing the moulds
- 175g Castor Sugar
- 150g Pistachio
- 75g Plain Flour
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice.
- Chopped Pistachios for decoration
Icing
- 200g Full Fat Cream Cheese
- 50g Butter – Softened
- 100g Icing Sugar – Sifted.
- Zest of 1 lemon
How It’s Done
- Heat the oven to 180c
- Rub butter inside the financier moulds – See Tip Box
- If not using financier moulds, use cup cake cases or even small cake tins
- Once the insides of the cases are covered in butter, sprinkle flour inside to coat the inside of the moulds. – See Tip Box
- Set the prepares moulds aside until needed. – See Tip Box
- Place the pistachios into a food processor and let the machine run until the nuts resemble a rough flour, don’t over process – See Tip Box
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the food processor and let it run until it comes together into a batter.
- If the batter seems too dry, add a little more lemon juice – one teaspoon at a time
- Place the cake batter into a piping bag and pipe into the prepared financier moulds, filling the moulds 2/3rds. – See Tip Box
- Place the filled moulds into the hot oven and bake for 15-20 minutes – Until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean. – See Tip Box
- Once baked let the cakes aside to cool in the moulds for 5 minutes before taking out of the moulds, transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
Icing
- Place all of the softened butter and half of the cream cheese into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until the butter has broken down, all lumps are gone and the mixture starts to become smooth.
- Once smooth, add the rest of the cream cheese, the lemon zest along with the icing sugar.
- Beat until it becomes a smooth and pipeable.
- Place the cream cheese icing into a piping bag and decorate by piping three dots on the top of the cakes. – See Tip Box
- Roughly chop the remaining pistachios and sprinkle over the top of the cream cheese.
Tip Box
- Make the pistachio flour – When grinding the pistachios, just grind them enough to enable them to turn into a flour consistency. Over grinding the nuts could end up with the mixture becoming a soft mush.
- Moulds to use – I have a silicone mould with rectangular inserts which is perfect when making a financier.
But if you’re not to bothered about the shape the cakes are in, it’s absolutely fine to use other shapes.
Use a few cup cake cases to make the cakes.
- Butter the inside of the moulds. – When buttering the inside of the moulds, make sure the butter gets into all of the corners.
- Set Aside – If the moulds are silicone, place the moulds onto an oven tray. This will make the moulds more stable and easier to place in and take out of the oven.
- Dusting with flour – 1) When dusting with flour, make sure all of the insides of the moulds, have a layer of flour.
2) Tap out any excess flour
- Fill the moulds – Don’t have a piping bag, not a problem. Use a spoon to fill the moulds up 2/3rds full.
- Baking – All ovens vary, so adjust baking time accordingly.
- Decorating – 1) I piped three mounds on top of the small cakes, but if piping isn’t your thing, use a palette knife to smooth over some of the icing on top of the cakes.
2) If you’d like to pipe a decoration but done have a piping bag, spoon the icing into a sandwich bag, tie off the top and cut off a corner of the bag. Use as you would an icing bag.
