Recipe | Gooseberry cake

This seemingly plain cake conceals treasure within – pops of delicious, tangy gooseberry to cut through the moist sponge

GOOSEBERRY CAKE

200g very soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
200g golden caster sugar
4 large eggs
200g plain flour
75g soured cream or natural yogurt
100g oat flour (see below)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
300g gooseberries
5 tbsp demerara sugar

1 To make the oat flour, put the oats into a food processor and blitz on a high-speed setting for 5 mins or until you have a fine flour. Use on the day of making.
2 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160F/ 350F. Grease a 20cm round, loose-bottomed cake tin and line it with baking parchment.
3 In a bowl, beat the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding 2 tbsp of the flour with each addition (to stop batter splitting). Once all the eggs are added, stir in the soured cream or
yogurt. Once combined, fold in the remaining plain flour, oat flour and baking powder.
4 When the mixture is smooth, stir in the vanilla and 200g of the gooseberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared tin, then top with the remaining berries and sprinkle over the demerara sugar.
5 Bake for 45–50 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Recipe from Gatherings by Flora Shedden (Mitchell Beazley).

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Mindful moments | Download a chatterbox to colour in

Pretty much any activity can be a mindful activity, it’s fair to say, but colouring in, carefully and attentively, is particularly suitable. These beautiful illustrations by Emma Farrarons combine a colouring exercise with simple, fun and imaginative activities to help make any day a little more mindful. Download Emma’s chatterbox now or turn to page 52 of June’s The Simple Things for more mindful activities and colouring doodles.

Remember how much fun you had making chatterboxes as a child? Create a mindfulness chatterbox filled with eight different activities to help remind you to break your day and make time for mindfulness. Fold a square piece of paper as shown here. Come up with your own ideas or you can use the template as a guide.

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Listen | Songs for wandering

Songs to inspire meandering and wanderlust in equal measure.

Listen to our songs for wandering playlist now 

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Recipe | Homemade pesto

Use homemade pesto in the Strawberry & Pesto Pasta Salad (page 7 of July’s The Simple Things). Here’s how to make it

100g fresh basil, leaves and stems picked
60g grana padano or parmesan, grated
50g pine nuts, toasted
80ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, peeled

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender, season to taste and blend until well combined. Store the pesto in the fridge in a sealable glass jar and it will keep for about a week. Alternatively, roll it into a log using a sheet of greaseproof paper and store it in the freezer.

Taken from Green Kitchen at Home by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl (Hardie Grant). 

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Competition | Win a stay at Bude Hideaways in Cornwall with i-escape

Cornwall, tranquillity, coastline, countryside, luxury: is there anything in this list not to like?
On page 68 of July's The Simple Things (out 28 June) we visit Bude Hideaways, tucked into the Cornish countryside. Fancy a visit yourself? Entering this prize draw to win a three-night stay there is a good place to start. 

What you could win

The winner will stay in Red Barn, which sleeps up to four guests and a baby in one double and one twin room. One of two contemporary conversions on site, it features white walls, bold art, Eames chairs, Orla Kiely homewares, underfloor heating and wood-burners. Everything you could possibly need has been thought of. 

Owners Conrad and Karen live nearby and are warmth itself – totally discreet if you prefer to be anonymous, but there if you want tips on all the quaint villages, great eateries and beaches it has to offer.

Best of all, their gorgeous seven-acre smallholding is an enormous, safe haven for kids, with large lawns for kicking a ball around, free-range chickens strutting around, even a woodland den to discover – all of which gives parents the chance to relax, read books, admire the wildflower meadow, or simply do nothing at all. 

In good hands

Bude Hideaways is part of i-escape’s hand-picked collection of boutique hotels and stylish self-catering rentals. i-escape’s passionate team is dedicated to helping you find and book unforgettable places to stay, and all the properties in its portfolio are visited and reviewed in honesty.

For your chance to win…

Enter online at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk/competition/bude-hideaways before the closing date, 9 August 2017. The winner will be chosen at random and notified after this date. The prize does not include travel, food, drink or any extras aside from your three-night stay, which must be taken before 1 August 2018. Some weeks are excluded; find full terms and conditions online.

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Garden hacks | Make a lampshade strawberry planter

An unconventional use for an old light fixture is using its shades to grow strawberries – they’ll keep the plant’s invasive roots contained for the season. You could keep the fitting intact for a statement feature, or use shades individually.

YOU WILL NEED
Second-hand light fixture with several plastic or glass shades
Non-toxic paint
Soil
Fertiliser
Natural mulch
Strawberry plants

1 Take off all the wires attached to your light fixture. Lay it flat.
2 Using non-toxic paint, paint the fixture with a primer coat, then a top coat.
3 Once the paint has dried, place the glass shades upside down on the sockets.
4 Fill with soil mixed with fertiliser.
5 Plant with strawberry starts, water well, and mulch.
6 Set on a table or arrange directly in the garden.
7 Come autumn, place the container on a path or patio and cover container with mulch.

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Escape: A converted barn in Wales

See, do, stay, love the UK. This month: Jeska Hearne heads to the Welsh border for a family stay in an architectural gem 

Our regular travel series comes from online UK travel guide This is Your Kingdom, whose handpicked contributors explore favourite places, special finds and great goings on.

You can read about one we love each month in The Simple Things – turn to page 68 of the June issue for more of this rural adventure – and plenty of others at thisisyourkingdom.co.uk.

Jeska Hearne is a contributor to thisisyourkingdom.co.uk and co-founder of online lifestyle store thefuturekept.com. More of her photographs and stories can be found on her blog lobsterandswan.com and Instagram @lobsterandswan.

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Recipe | Peachy lemon verbena iced tea

A thirst-quenching cooler with fresh fruit and herbs

Peachy lemon verbena iced tea

Serves 4–6
1 ripe peach
A handful of lemon verbena
A drop of honey (optional) 
A handful of ice

Slice your peaches. Add to a large jug of water along with the lemon verbena. Swirl in a little honey, if you want a touch of sweetness. Let it infuse for 15 mins in the fridge. Add a handful of ice before serving.

This recipe is from our modern afternoon tea feature on page 24 of June’s The Simple Things. Other recipes include:
Rhubarb fizz
Curried egg & chive sandwiches
Crab, chilli & fennel sandwiches
Broad bean, goat’s curd & mint open sandwiches
Dark chocolate chip scones
Jammy raspberries
Cardamom, rose & strawberry cake
Cherry & elderflower cheesecake tartlets

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A could-do list for June

Things you might want to do this month (no pressure!)

• Eat strawberries straight out of the punnet
• Ride your bike with the wind behind you
• Stay up late gossiping with a friend
• Listen to the first album you ever bought
• Play tennis on a warm evening
• Leave the curtains open and wake up naturally with the dawn

What would you add? Come over and tell us on Facebook or Twitter. 

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Recipe | Cardamom and rose water lassi

A sultry midsummer’s eve calls out for an exotic dessert. Enter sweet, iced lassi with a mix of fruitily spiced cardamom and delicate rose water that transforms the traditional Indian drink into a grown-up after-dinner treat. 

75g caster sugar
6 green cardamom pods, split open
2 tsp rose water
500ml plain yogurt
About 150ml full-fat milk
3 tbsp granulated sugar
Handful of ice cubes
Handful of unsalted pistachios, cut into slivers, to serve

1 For the syrup, put 100ml water in a pan and add the caster sugar, cardamom pods and rose water. Place on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and you have a thick syrup.
2 Strain through a sieve and transfer to a blender along with the yogurt, milk, granulated sugar and ice cubes. Blitz until chilled, smooth and frothy. Serve topped with pistachio slivers.

Recipe from Round to Ours by Jackson & Levine (Quadrille).

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How to make mosquito repellent

Persuade mozzies to buzz off with this natural spray

You will need:
Small spray bottle
Distilled or boiled water
Witch hazel or vodka
Vegetable glycerin
Essential oils, one or a combination of the following: lemon, citronella, tea tree, rosemary, lavender, mint or eucalyptus

1 Mix your water and witch hazel (or vodka) in the ratio 1:4.
2 Transfer to your spray bottle, leaving space for shaking.
3 Add a tsp of vegetable glycerin and 30 drops of essential oil (essential oils shouldn’t be applied directly on the skin – and keep kids away from them too). 
4 Give it a good shake before use. You’ll need to reapply every few hours.

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Recipe | Squid with chorizo

Deliciously marinaded and served fresh from the grill, homemade kebabs are nothing like their greasy takeaway cousins and are just the job for a barbecue

This is a version of Madrid’s bocadillos stuffed with fried squid rings. Like the original, these skewers are wonderful, fresh from the grill, piled into a crusty roll with lashings of paprika aïoli.

Serves 4
400g squid, cleaned (ask your fishmonger to do this)
Zest of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
150g cooking chorizo, cut into 2.5cm chunks
Handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

for the aïoli
6 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp sweet smoked paprika

1 Cut the squid into 2cm rings and halve the tentacles. Transfer to a bowl and add the lemon zest, garlic and oil. Season and set aside for 15 mins.
2 Thread the squid onto four skewers, alternating with the chorizo, and brush with any marinade left in the bowl. Heat a barbecue or griddle pan to high and cook the skewers for 5 mins, turning halfway through, until the squid and chorizo are charred in places and cooked through.
3 Meanwhile, make the aïoli. In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, garlic and smoked paprika.
4 Scatter the skewers with the parsley and serve with the aïoli for dipping and the lemon, cut into wedges for squeezing.

Recipes from Posh Kebabs by Rosie Reynolds (Quadrille).

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Outing | PYO summer traditions

More than a chance to buy the freshest of veg, a day at a PYO farm is a treasure hunt in the sunshine. 

Some pick-your-own farms look like they could be in a snap from the 1970s – lines of fruit as far as the eye can see, punctuated only by a small wooden chalet. The simplicity of these places holds a strong sense of nostalgic charm, yet the new breed that can lay on a flat white and a fleet of miniature tractors to entertain accompanying tots as quickly as you can say: ‘One punnet, please’, has an altogether different kind of draw.

Pick Your Own has a number of precursors, such as in the Victorian farmers who invited their urban customers back to their land to harvest their own food, and ‘gleaning’ in the mid-20th century, when villagers were invited to collect and take home the corn that had fallen into the stubble after harvest.

More recently, the entrepreneurial Derbyshire farmer-turned-media personality Ted Moult is thought to have been the first to popularise pick-your-own strawberries by inviting visitors onto his fields in the early 1960s when reportedly, he greeted them one by one. As soft fruit became available in supermarkets all year round due to foreign imports, the pastime lost its allure, but with the 21st century’s renewed interest in seasonal food, it is regaining its rightful place as one of summer’s simple pleasures.

How to fill your punnet with only the sweetest, juiciest fruit

• Select strawberries in the warmest part of the day and, once you’ve established that they’re ripe (red all over), pinch the stalk between your thumb and forefinger and pull.
• Search for plump raspberries at the bases of the canes, which are often forgotten about. They should lift off easily when ready. Place in a shallow container in just one or two layers – they bruise easily.
• Remove the cluster of currants (black, red or white) on a branch before stripping it of its fruits.
• Gather under-ripe gooseberries in June for using in preserves, leaving enough fruits to sweeten for eating in July.

Turn to page 72 of June's The Simple Things for more PYO traditions.

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Small acts of kindness

We all need to look out for each other. Here are a few little things that can make somebody’s day.

• Phone someone for a chat
• Remember birthdays and don’t just text, send a card
• Leave a note, even when you’ve not much to say
• Set an extra place at the table for someone on their own
• Give a homegrown bag of veg or posy of flowers...
• ...or simply offer your time and a slice of cake

What would you add? Tell us at over on Facebook or Twitter.

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The best way to predict the future is to create it

 

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