Brambling, part 2

So, what to do with my glut of blackberries?

This recipe, from Nigel Slater, caught my eye recently. It is for hazelnut and blackberry friands and no, I didn't know what a friand was either. But I guess it's a 'moist, nutty little cake'. Yum.

I knew I had some flour, butter, eggs and a lemon. All I needed were some ground hazelnuts. Surely the fine food purveyors of Kentish Town could provide them?

Alas, not so. I had to settle for several tiny bags of mixed nuts.

Still, it only took ten minutes to separate out the hazelnuts.

And only another ten minutes to toast and grind them. A small price to pay for cakes which Nigel promised 'were so light that they almost floated away'.

All set with my hazelnuts, I looked at the recipe in earnest. Wait a second.  A whole pat of butter? It's our last, and I don't want to have to go the corner shop before I next eat toast. And five egg whites? I have absolutely no use for five egg yolks in the next 24 hours (we are spending Sunday at www.lords.org/Lord's). All this sacrifice for 8 little cakes? Madness.

So I abandoned Nigel and turned to my trusty Good Housekeeping recipe book. There I referred to, and bastardized, the fairy cake recipe. I added my freshly ground handpicked hazelnuts after the flour, and filled the cups liberally with blackberries before adding the cake mix.

Just half a pat of butter and one egg down, I made 6 little cakes, and 4 big ones to take to the cricket.

And I still have some butter left for my toast in the morning. A happy Saturday afternoon at Fox Corner.