What To Cook For Your Mum For Mother’s Day By Lisa Faulkner

Number One bestselling author of Recipes from my Mother for my Daughterand Celebrity masterchef winner, Lisa Faulknertells us what five things she learned from her mother and gives us one of her favourite recipes from her new book Tea & Cake.

'5 Things I learnt from my mother

**1. To keep my shoulders back - **My mother was always standing behind me with her hands on my shoulders! When I was younger I was quite shy and I don’t think this helped my posture! She would always say “ When you walk into a room keep your head up and your shoulders back and smile!” It stood me in good stead and often in nerve wracking situations I can feel her behind me whispering those words.

**2. To Cook - **My mum was always cooking, everything and anything! I am a child of the seventies and we grew up on ratatouille, chicken kievs and a lot of mince! She did quite a few cordon bleu cookery courses and was always trying different things. My mum spent most of her time in the kitchen and if I wanted to hang out with her, the kitchen was the place to be. I learnt how to make pastry at about 6 years old. I still have a lot of her utensils including her glass rolling pin, which I love to use.

**3. Not to be afraid - **My mum never seemed afraid of anything, she was vivacious and outspoken and a whirlwind of beauty and fun and strength. She was the life and soul of the party and embraced life. She was also never afraid to show her feelings, when she felt down or angry everybody knew about it! I think that’s so important to be honest and true to you.

**4. Not to follow the crowd - **My mum died when I was 16. When she was really ill in hospital she wrote me a letter. I have always thought that was so very brave. In it she told me to (keep my shoulders back) and not to follow the crowd. I think she was worried I was very easily led. I probably was! She told me this a lot, but actually seeing it written down finally resonated with me and as I got older, I gained the confidence to stand alone, and follow my path.

**5. Life is short - **To grab everything that comes your way! If you're presented with a challenge theres that moment when you look down and think about every possible outcome and have that nervous butterfly feeling of should I or shouldn’t I?...Do it!! Life is short and scary and hard and soft and very precious so grab it with both hands.'

Strawberry Milkcake

Ingredients: ** ** For the icing:

300g butter, softened 300g butter, softened

300g Nesquick strawberry milk powder 500g icing sugar

4 eggs pink or red food colouring

300g self-raising flour 150g Nesquick strawberry milk powder

4 tablespoons milk 50ml milk

a little pink or red food colouring

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), gas mark 4, and grease and line two 20 cm (8 inch) cake tins with greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and strawberry milk powder together until pink and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, alternating with a spoonful of flour, then add the remaining flour, milk and as much pink or red food colouring as you need to create a delicious pink batter.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake in the preheated oven 30–40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar together with an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy, then add enough colouring to turn it pink. Mix the strawberry milk powder with the milk and add to the icing. There should be enough to sandwich the cakes together and cover the outside!

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