Something for the Weekend

She's probably best known for her marriage to Beatle, John Lennon, but Yoko Ono is also a successful artist in her own right. We're excited to head down to the Serpentine Gallery this weekend to check out the retrospective, To the Light, which celebrates her five decade career!

Rhubarb Rhubarb

This week we feel that we are much in need for some tea and wholesome cake-loving! Why not try making our Rhubarb and Apple Cake one cold and rainy June evening?

Ingredients

8 oz self raising flour

5 oz Demerara sugar

4 oz butter

2 small eggs, beaten

2 large cooking apples, peeled and chopped up roughly

1 tbsp white sugar

4 sticks of rhubarb, medium sized

100ml water

Pinch of salt

Whipped cream, as desired

Method

-       Heat oven to 180C

-       Prepare rhubarb sticks: peel and chop into cube-like pieces and put the water sugar and rhubarb into a pan together and gently heat until soft

-       Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl and rub in butter to make ‘breadcrumbs’

-       Add and mix in the chopped apple and beaten egg

-       In a well-greased oblong cake tin, grease with butter and lay greased grease paper

-       Put in half the cake mixture, then evenly add in the cooked rhubarb and put the second half of the cake mixture, spreading evenly on top

-       Sprinkle on Demerara sugar

-       Bake for 1 hour

-       Serve with whipped cream

By Melodie Walter

Pop Ya Collar

We're loving the new neon necklaces from Yayer. The crescent shape necklaces sit snugly under your collar and they're helping to add a little pop of colour under our white shirts... but now to decide on the green or pink?

These Little Boots were made for walking...

Hooray! Little Boots is bringing funky disco back! 

 Little Boots aka Victoria Christina Hesketh is a 28 year-old electro-pop singer-songwriter from Blackpool and is a musician who sings, plays the piano, keyboards, synthesizer, Stylophone and a Japanese electronic instrument called Tenori-on.

Since releasing her first album Hands in 2009, which was more pop-sounding than electro, we’ve not heard much from her, until now. 

And we have to say we’re extremely excited that she has returned at last. Magical and synthetic - her music is bound to put us all in the mood for summer nights full of dancing and fun, come rain or sunshine. 

The video to Little Boots’s new song Headphones is guaranteed to make you want go out and party in your hipster gear and in the words of Lykke Li “dance dance dance.” 

Modelling a pair of incredibly funky silver wedges, with super-cool styling throughout the video – this woman knows where it’s at. With some rad dancing too, one cannot come to the end of watching this without feeling foot loose and fancy free. 

We believe that everyone is in need of cheering up and what better than this funky disco tune from Little Boots (available to purchase from iTunes)

  . 

By Melodie Walter

Healthy Lunching

After the Jubilee weekend you might be feeling overloaded with the food from all the festivities that you’ve been having so we decided here at Cellardoor to make a healthy option for this week: a ginger and sesame pork summer salad! We’ve also included some seasonal foods, cucumber and curly lettuce.

Ingredients

For the main

Diced pork 40g (cut into small strips)

½ cup brown basmati, red camargue and wild rice

3 big leaves of curly lettuce

1 spring onion (thinly sliced)

Handful of cashew nuts

2 French Breakfast radishes (thinly sliced)

Small chunk of cucumber (diced)

36g cubed pineapple (from tin)

For the marinade

1 tsp ground ginger spice

2 tsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp cornflour

3 tsp clear honey

1 tbsp sesame oil

For dressing

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp clear honey

1 tbsp pineapple juice

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper for seasoning

Method  

- While the rice is cooking you can make your marinade; put the soy sauce, ground ginger, honey, sesame oil and pork strips into a bowl to marinate for 15mins, and then add and mix in the cornflour

- Heat some oil in a frying pan until hot and cook the marinated pork strips until cooked; leave them to one side while you make the dressing

- Put into a small saucepan the pineapple juice, soy sauce, ground ginger and honey and heat for a 1/2min and whisk in the oil and seasoning to make your dressing

- While this is cooling down, set up a plate with the curly lettuce leaves on and prepare the radish, spring onion and cucumber

- Mix together the rice, pineapple chunks, spring onion, radish, cucumber, marinated pork strips, cashew nuts and mix in the dressing, leaving some to drizzle on top

- Carefully place mixture into leaves

- Enjoy your healthy summer salad 

By Melodie Walter

French Fancy

The new collection from Carven has got our mouths watering, just look at those juicy colours! They've gone for a more feminine take on the season with flirty skater skirts, prim collars and cute prints.  

"For spring we wanted the Carven girl to be still the girl that you know, this kind of fresh, chic Parisian girl, but we wanted her to travel with no passport, with no idea of frontiers. We wanted her to get influenced by many things around," says  Guillaume Henry. "I like girls to be whatever they want. They can be, like, the six-year ever or they can be the most shy," he added.

We're huge fans of the French brand, and we've definitely got our eyes on those printed shorts! 

In bloom

If you're rarely seen without your camera, then this could be the perfect accessory for you! These cute camera straps from Bloom Theory are absolutely gorgeous - and will make your camera feel extra special! 

Far from the woods

An elusive voice, lovely lyrics, and a family affair - meet Emily - from Emily and the Woods. We caught up with the girl behind the guitar for a quick chat... 

So I see that you are not long out of uni - is that right? 

I graduated at the end of 2010, from Exeter university. I'd decided to play music full time when I left, so I committed myself to it then! I did work and do lots of different jobs. I know what I want to do though so the focus was always there. 

The band has become a family affair, what with your brother, Benedict and dad featuring on your EP...

Although I've mostly played solo or with my brother this year, I have been lucky enough to work with lots of other fantastic musicians. My dad played bass, piano and guitar on the EPs and we recorded them at drummer Roy Dodds's studio. 

Is there anyone else in your family involved in Emily and the Woods? 

No, though my mum and sister are very supportive! 

 And lastly - How would you describe your sound?

That's a tricky one...it's always hard to think about your own music objectively! I am influenced by lots of different kinds of music; from folk to soul, and I've been listening to lots of Jeff Buckley recently. I can't get enough of the most recent Maccabees album too! I mostly play a hollow body electric guitar which informs the sound a lot... and the live sound is growing and changing the more I play. Come to a gig to find out!

Emily and the Woods will next be playing at Jack Wills Varsity Polo in Windsor on June 09. You can purchase their EP on iTunes.

By Melodie Walter

Kensington's Cultural Feast

Here at Cellardoor, it's no surprise that we're huge fans of emerging talent and what could be better than an evening of just that! If that also sounds right up your street, then look no further than Kensington's Cultural Feast. The event, which aims to bring something a little different from the norm, will be showcasing the best new talent from the world of music and the arts. So that means that you can listen the musical delights from the likes of The Keston Clobbers Club and Chrystina Kendall whilst browsing the works of some beautiful visual artists. And what's more - tickets are only £5, bargain! We'll see you at the front...

Crown Jewels

Here at Cellardoor we couldn’t let such a historic event pass by us without having our own Jubilee celebrations in honour of Her Royal Majesty’s 60-year reign. We enjoyed lots of champagne, cakes and of course strawberries and cream! Take a look at what we made and be inspired for your future garden parties and summer revelry.

Ingredients

Serves 2

400g strawberries

75g strawberry jelly

500ml pink champagne

140ml double cream

56g ground almond

½ tsp rose water

1 heaped tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp almond essence

A few almond flakes

150g blueberries

For the crown:

Puff pastry

Coloured icing (icing sugar, water and food colouring mixed together)

Edible gold dust

Method

- Heat oven to 200C

- Roll pastry and cut out into the shape of a crown, put it into a ramekin with pre-greased baking paper inside and lay with rice and bake in the oven until golden (check regularly so it does not burn)

- Once cool, decorate with coloured icing and brush on lots of edible gold dust

- Make the jelly (follow packet instructions) but add to the mixture 500ml pink champagne and 350g strawberries cut in half into a bowl to set – leave in the fridge overnight or for 6-8 hours

- For the almond cream: whisk together 1 tsp almond essence and double cream until it becomes stiff, put quarter of the cream in a bowl; fold into the mixture the ground almonds, golden syrup and rose water and put into the fridge to set

- To layer the pudding, put the strawberry champagne jelly into a small glass, layer with blueberries and then carefully layer the almond cream on top

- Sprinkle on the toasted flaked almonds

- Put the whipped cream with almond essence set aside the night before, into a piping bag and carefully make a circular shape on top of the pudding, using the crown’s circumference as a guide, and place the crown gently on the cream circle

- Use any remaining fruit to freeze into ice-cubes and serve in a glass with our Strawberry Boozer: Gin, tonic, strawberry syrup (like our raspberry syrup we made last week!) and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, if you’re feeling brave.

Have a royal time – whatever occasion you are celebrating.

By Melodie Walter