No.104 A Jubilee Bento

At the beginning of June there will be events throughout the UK to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Like with the recent royal wedding, there will be street parties and parades and in the case of myself and a few friends, a jubilee themed picnic! With the Diamond Jubilee just around the corner, royal emblems and British flag themed colour schemes and designs are popping up everywhere in shop windows, merchandise and even clothing ranges. Most of the associated merchandise and paraphernalia is not in my taste, but I am well known for having crown shapes in my jewellery. I even have what I refer to as my 'birthday tiara' which is a sparkly little item I pop on my head to wear only on my birthday. So, since crowns are somehting I'm very fond of, I was pleased to re-discover this purple crown food pick in my collection and use it to create a bit Jubilee-ness in little t's bento for tomorrow!

Little t has noodles cooked in a home made broth of vegetable stock and chili, some raw pepper 'frills' and some black pepper fried crispy tofu. In his dessert layer he has a piece of vegan ginger cake I baked yesterday, some satsuma pieces and some juicy blueberries. There in his ginger cake is the crown tooth pick, as placed by the little hands of little t himself.

Below is a picture of another recent bento that was particularly tasty. It has roasted vegetable couscous, grilled vegan burger slices, and a cherry tomato. In the fruit layer there was some pieces of 'Welsh cake' which is like a flat, fried scone, some kiwi and satsuma. Delicious.

If you have any Jubilee celebration plans of your own, leave me a comment and let me know. I'd love to hear what's going on.

My bento article in the WTKF online newsletter

In April I wrote an article to highlight my bento creations, and the making of bento in Western society, to be entered in "Shomen" The Welsh Traditional Karate Federation newsletter.  I've attached a link on the previous text. Take a look. I think it turned out quite well!

Vegan Simnel Cake

Happy Easter! I'd like to share my vegan friendly Simnel cake recipe with you. It makes a deliciously moist, light fruit cake with a lemon and cinnamon flavour.

To make a round, two layered cake and have enough mixture left over for approximately 9-12 Simnel muffins, use the following quantities:

550g of self raising flour 

300 g of caster sugar

300g of dairy free spread (I use Pure spread)

300g of raisins

300g of chopped glace' cherries

2 tbsp of cinnamon

5 generous tbsp of lemon juice

1 tbsp of mixed spice.

Rice milk or water to soften.

Allow the raisins to soak in the lemon juice overnight. Mix the dried ingredients first, along with the spices then blend into a thick paste with the spread. You'll need to add a little rice milk or water as you mix it up to loosen the paste, but don't make it as sloppy as you would for a cake that includes a raising agent such as baking powder. This cake won't do very much rising since it is meant to be a denser, fruitier cake, more like a loaf. Separate into two tins with enough mixture to just about fill to the brim. Any excess mixture can then be baked at the same time in cupcake cases.

It will take approximately 25 minutes to cook in an oven set at 160 degrees. Check often and take the cupcakes out as soon as the tops have started to brown slightly. 

Before the two sponge halves of the cake have properly cooled, place a layer of marzipan between them. It will melt slightly into the cake and form a nice filling. Once cooled completely decorate the top with a further layer of marzipan and add the traditional marzipan balls if you like. 

Enjoy! 

No.103 'Rabbits in the flower bed' bento

Hello all! Spring is upon us. I always think that Winter is my favourite season but I can't help getting a bit excited by the beauty of Spring blossoms, the return of all things green and new life springing up all over the place. The view from the back of our house looks over the gardens all up the street, now wonderfully in bloom. There are tiny, leaping rabbits running through the flower beds every day. Even though I am quite poorly and out of action at the moment because I've had my second wisdom tooth out, I can't help but smile at the cheeky baby rabbits somersaulting crazily back and forth.

Today's bento has rabbits in the flower beds, too. A bed of mediterranean spiced tomato cous cous with juicy tomato flowers, spinach leaves and carrot rabbits. The second layer has pickled gherkins and three tiny tomato puff pastry rolls. This bento is going to be on show today at little t's school because he is giving a talk about bento as an assessment. He has practised a wonderful talk about the origins of bento making and how our family enjoy our bento creations. He will present his own meal as part of the talk and he has a large colourful board with pictures of our bento all over it along with some bento facts. I am so proud of him.

A Very Vegan Valentine's Day

A very happy Valentine's day to you from Bentovention! Mr. Bentovention was away today so it has just been Big T, little t and I at home enjoying heart themed baking, puzzles, games and crafts. This morning we made vegan chocolate muffins and cherry heart shaped shortbread. Over lunch we solved a few Valentine's Day cryptograms, mazes and sudoko downloaded from Activity Village, a great free resource online for children's craft ideas. This afternoon we sat down together and got our sewing projects out. Big T continued work on her embroidered 'self portrait' that she's creating and little t continued work on his cross stitched little picture of his toy penguin. I like to encourage 'free style' sewing rather than working often from pre-packaged designs. We just pick up whatever bits and bobs we have in the sewing box, thread a needle and improvise. With a child's imagination added to the mix, we get some beautiful, unique results. 

While the children worked on their ongoing projects I put together something that I'd planned to make especially for Valentine's Day. A pixellated shaped heart in red felt with an embroidered chemical compound for chili. I have a spot to hang it in the kitchen that will be just right. 

While we are renovating the house in bigger ways than usual and I am engrossed in writing my PhD thesis, my bento creations are going largely undocumented. That will change as soon as my kitchen is finished and things have settled down. Best wishes to you all!

Vegan chocolate muffins: 200g of self raising flour, 100g of caster sugar, 100g of cocoa powder, 200g of dairy free spread, 1tsp of baking powder and a dash of rice milk to soften the mixture. Bake for 25 minutes at 170 degrees in the middle of the oven. For the topping blend dairy free spread, cocoa powder, icing sugar and rice milk in small quantities until you achieve the consistency you like. Add a cherry or an icing heart.

Vegan cherry shortbread: 200g of dairy free spread, 350g plain flour, 200g of caster sugar, a dash of red food colouring, strawberry flavouring and chopped glace' cherries. Blend into a loose paste and leave to cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. Roll out and cut with a cookie cutter before baking at 160 degrees for approx. 15 minutes. The biscuits will further harden as they cool so beware of over cooking them. Enjoy!

And finally, here is a picture of my sewing project for the day.

No.102 Christmas at Bentovention

Hello all! Big T and little t returned to school after their Christmas break yesterday. We had a nice time together over the festive period and cooked and baked to our hearts' content. Most of our baking went un-photographed, since our priority was relaxing and enjoying one another's company rather than documenting our activities. Sadly, that also meant that we took very few photographs of our Christmas time at all! Just a few on the 25th.

I'd like to share a few of the Christmas things I did photograph. Above is one of the school lunches little t had before the holidays. It contains vegan sausage and stuffing panini sandwiches, a home made treacle-mincemeat mince pie, soy-cheese and crackers, a satsuma and purple plum, a box of raisins and a candy cane. I usually put tinsel and an ornament on the cooler bags the children have for bento at Christmas time but this year I came up with the idea of gift wrapping the actual lunch.

Below are the two centrepieces the children made for our living room and dining room. The gold platter was Big T's design and the red platter was little t's. I gave them glass dishes, candles, ribbon, scented dried flowers, slices of orange I baked in the oven with cinnamon and holly snippets, then I let them make their own arrangements. I was REALLY pleased with the outcome.

Next up are some pictures of the main dish I made for Christmas day, which was a nut and cranberry wellington. The filling consisted of pureed chestnut, chopped walnuts, garlic, wholemeal breadcrumbs, steamed cranberries and fried, diced white onion. The pastry was also my own vegan creation, which I did make a little thick in places. It held it all together though. The children thought it was delicious and my husband thought it was double delicious (he had a double portion!).

For all of you that enjoy a peak into my cooking and my home life here on Bentovention I'd like to wish you a happy new year to come! little t and Big T have started to take soup and tea in their new flasks to school each day while the weather is so bitterly cold. Normal bento making will be resumed again soon!

No.101 'Happy Olives' bento

Hello all! Here is the bento I have just made for little t for tomorrow. It's wholewheat spaghetti with some delicious, saucy vegan bolognese. In the second layer is some home made (also vegan) garlic ciabatta and a little collection of happy olives! I have drawn the olive faces on with a toothpick and I'm quite pleased with the cute little smiles.

We are all excited about Halloween dress up and activities at the moment. We have quite a nice collection of Halloween decorations that we've made over the past few years so it'll be great to get those out and to make some new ones too. Not to mention the decisions about how to carve our pumpkins this year!