Banana bread

Ingredients:

150g demerara sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large free range eggs

2 bananas, mashed

275g self-raising flour

shake of ground ginger

shake of ground cinnamon

150g unsalted butter, melted

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 / 170 degrees C
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until combined, the leave for five minutes - it will go a bit frothy
• Whisk for a few more minutes, then add the mashed banana and vanilla and whisk until combined
• Add the flour and spices, and stir to combine
• Add the melted butter and stir until smooth (there will be a few lumps from the bananas)
• Pour into a large cake tin (I always use silicone) and bake for 50 minutes
• Turn halfway round through cooking
• Test with a skewer and if it comes out clean, it's ready
• If not, leave for another five minutes
• Turn out on to a cooling rack and leave to cool nearly completely (it's easier to slice when cool!)

Tuck ★★★★★

Reit, co ni off te! (Pun intended) Sa’i erioed wedi trial ysgrifennu adolygiad bilingual o’r blaen – but after seeing the glorious Tuck at Wales Millennium Centre last night (a diodde hangover effing ofnadw heddi) I thought I’d give it a go.

I’m a Welshy Welsher, but my half-German husband isn’t – yet we both understood, both got it (I did have to translate one particularly rude joke into English for him!) I fod yn onest, o’n i wrth fy modd yn eistedd right in the front (eye-to-crotch level). Beth o’n i ddim yn disgwyl though, oedd y dyfnder ac amrywiaeth o emosiynau. Laughter, yes of course; but crying? No I wasn’t expecting to cry. The scene where they were going through clothes, man alive! O’n i’n llefain fel babi. “I just want to smell her.”

What can I say about the music? Odd e’n ffantastig. I thought I knew Stifyn Parri, then he goes and does this. Ffocin el de (fel ma nhw’n dweud lan yn y Gogs)! He was so good. They all were.

I haven’t enjoyed a theatre experience as much as this since I saw Charlotte Church’s Last Mermaid.

Everything was on point, okkurr.

★★★★★ Pump sêr. Five stars. I would say go and see it, but I think it’s sold out. Good. Odd e’n ffuckin excellent.

Alun, Mared, Jess a’r criw wedi warae blinder ‘da hwn. Methu aros gweld beth sy’ nesa’.

#TUCKtheplay

neontopia.co.uk/tucktheplay

Swedish sunshine cake

Ingredients

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

150g unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

150g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla paste

50g ground almonds

handful flaked almonds

Method

Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6. 

Grease a 23 cm silicone cake tin and sprinkle with ground almonds.

Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla.

Stir in the melted, cooled butter.

Add flour; mix until smooth (it will look lumpy to begin with, keep mixing until it's smooth)

Spread the batter into the prepared tin. 

Sprinkle flaked almonds on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. 

Allow cake to cool slightly before removing from the tin. 

Cool completely on a wire rack. 

This cake keeps very well for up to a week in an airtight container or plastic bag.

Overheard on a saltmarsh (filmpoem)

I made a filmpoem based on a poem I've loved since I was eight years old. I still have The Puffin Book of Magic Verse that my parents bought me, the date inside is the day before Halloween 1986! I originally borrowed the book from my school library, loved it, then asked my Mam to buy it for me. She had to order it from W.H. Smith's in Llanelli, and I remember being so excited to go and fetch it.

So here is a weird little film to illustrate "Overheard on a saltmarsh" by Harold Monro.


Overheard on a saltmarsh (flmpoem) from Andy Murphy-Williams on Vimeo.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

Chocolate and honey cake with crème de marrons filling (eggless cake)

Ingredients

For the sponge:

90g margarine or unsalted butter

80g unrefined golden caster sugar

3 tblsp runny honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

200ml milk (not skimmed)

185g self-raising flour

20g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:

2 heaped tblsp crème de marrons

2 tblsp runny honey

2 tblsp sifted icing sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 / 190 celcius

Grease and flour two 23 cm cake tins (I always use butter and ground almonds, and silicone cake tins)

Cream the butter and sugar

Add the vanilla and honey and mix together

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder

Add a third of the dry ingredients, and a third of the milk, and mix thoroughly

Continue until it is all mixed together

Divide between the two tins and smooth flat

Bake for 25-30 minutes, testing with a skewer at 25 minutes

Cool in the tins for 5 minutes

Then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cool

Mix the filling ingredients together until combined

Turn one of the cakes upside down

Spread with the filling

Put the other cake on top

You're done! Congratulate yourself then shove that cake in your mouth!

An old waltz (filmpoem)

I made a filmpoem. I've always loved watching them, and wanted to try one for myself.


An old waltz (filmpoem) from Andy Murphy-Williams on Vimeo.