Tag: Brambly Hedge

Poppy Eyebright’s Wedding Cake: Hazelnut Honey Cake, Elderflower Whipped Cream, and Fresh Strawberries

Posted June 22, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Guys, this may be the most delicious thing I’ve ever made. I’m not even kidding. Poppy Eyebright’s wedding cake was my biggest motivation for making a Brambly Hedge menu to begin with, seeing as it’s the most iconic food in all the Bramby books. I’m SO glad I made it. It turned out amazing!

I feel like whenever anyone talks about Brambly Hedge food, we can’t help but gush about Poppy’s cake: three tiers of sponge cake interspersed with layers of cream and strawberries. I think we all imprinted on this cake because it’s simple yet decadent and highlights fresh, comforting flavors. It’s the physical embodiment of all things Brambly!

Interestingly, the description of Poppy’s wedding in the Brambly Hedge book SUMMER STORY doesn’t contain a description of her cake. Instead, we see several illustrations that include a cake fitting the description above. There is a larger, fancier cake in the illustrations as well. However, it hasn’t achieved the first cake’s level of fan recognition. This might be because it’s more formal, making it less emblematic of Brambly Hedge’s cozy cottage aesthetic. I like to imagine the larger cake was for the guests, while the smaller one was a bride and groom cake for Poppy and Dusty.

With that in mind, I decided to make mine a 6-inch cake. Since the book gives no description of the flavor, I decided to take my inspiration from another Brambly Hedge book. SPRING STORY describes Wilfred Toadflax’s birthday cake as “hazelnut cake with layers of thick cream,” which fits well with the illustrations of Poppy Eyebright’s wedding cake.

To start, I took the sponge recipe from the Honey Clementine Cupcakes in my new cookbook, A LITERARY PICNIC, and subbed in ground hazelnut for some of the flour. I was afraid it wouldn’t rise properly, but it turned out incredible. It’s quite possibly my best sponge recipe ever. It’s a lovely golden brown on the outside, and inside it has a texture that is somehow delicate and substantial—like if cake and banana bread had a baby.

For the cream layers, I whisked some elderflower liqueur into whipped cream, which added a lovely floral sweetness. To balance the richness of both the cake and the cream, I dotted fresh strawberries between the layers and added whole strawberries on top for decoration.

Could this be my magnum opus? It’s definitely one of my proudest culinary moments, and the pictures turned out amazing too (I had some perfect weather for outdoor photos!). So grab a plate and take a slice of this masterpiece out for a relaxing snack in the sunshine. It begs to be enjoyed with fresh air and greenery!

Brambly Hedge Chestnut Soup

Posted June 8, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Over the past several weeks we’ve made Brambly Hedge recipes inspired by summer and autumn—now it’s time for a wintery recipe! In WINTER STORY, the woodland creatures of Brambly Hedge are cozy in their homes enjoying the autumn bounty they stored away when the delight of the first winter snow inspires them to throw a Snow Ball.

This cozy, savory chestnut soup (a variation of one by A Hedgehog in the Kitchen), is just like the one the Toadflax family serves just as the children discover the first snow. It’s super easy and quicker than most soups, and it would pair beautifully with a cottage loaf. I love how strong the rosemary flavor is. It’s the perfect thing for a cold day. Enjoy! 🙂

Cottage Loaf with Homemade Ricotta, Honey Roasted Hazelnuts, and Macerated Blackberries

Posted May 25, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

The next dish in my Brambly Hedge menu is inspired by the bountiful harvest in AUTUMN STORY. I couldn’t decide on just one recipe, so I brought a bunch of them together into one delicious entree!

Bread is a Brambly Hedge staple, so I started with a traditional English cottage loaf (using this version of Paul Hollywood’s recipe that provides American measurements). To top the bread, I made Attainable Sustainable’s homemade ricotta cheese. This was my first time making ricotta, which was a lot of fun. It’s very similar to farmer’s cheese, which I made for my SARAH PLAIN AND TALL menu a few years ago. I highly suggest ricotta or farmer’s cheese if you’re new to making homemade cheeses. They’re super easy, and the only special tool they require is a cheesecloth.

Blackberries are all over AUTUMN STORY (including the illustration on the cover!), so for a touch of sweetness I macerated some blackberries in elderflower liqueur. Finally, I tweaked my roasted hazelnut recipe from MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN to make honey roasted hazelnuts, the perfect complement to the blackberries.

Top it off with fresh sage for a bit of herbal earthiness, and you’re ready to celebrate harvest time with the woodland creatures of Brambly Hedge.

Strawberry Scones with Lemon Moscato Glaze

Posted May 11, 2023 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

Welcome to a menu I’ve been wanting to make for years: one inspired by Brambly Hedge! If you’re unfamiliar with the series, just imagine if Redwall had been written as early chapter books with cozy cottagecore themes and utterly gorgeous illustrations. I have the box set of the Brambly Hedge seasonal stories, and I’ve been itching to make a menu inspired by each season. So let’s get started!

We’ll begin with SUMMER STORY, which follows the events surrounding the wedding of Poppy Eyebright, who runs the Brambly Hedge dairy, and Dusty Dogwood, the local miller. I brought their two crafts together and made a recipe that uses flour, butter, milk, and cream—scones! Strawberry scones to be exact, since fresh strawberries are one of the foods brought to the wedding. To jazz things up, I drizzled my scones with a lemon Moscato glaze inspired by the homemade white wine Basil Brightberry sets aside for the wedding.

I think the glaze might be my favorite part of this recipe. It gives the scones some needed zing, brightening all the other flavors. My son, our resident bread enthusiast, is a huge fan of these scones. He’s already asking when I’ll make them again!

P.S. If you’re a Brambly Hedge fan and are bummed I didn’t make Poppy’s iconic wedding cake, don’t worry. It’s coming! Since we get a beautiful illustration of her cake but no description of the flavor, I decided to combine it with the birthday cake from SPRING STORY, which has a detailed flavor description. So for dessert I’m make Wildfred Toadflax’s strawberry hazelnut birthday cake and style it to look like Poppy’s wedding cake. It will be my 4th Brambly Hedge recipe (the second-to-last one in the menu), so stay tuned!