High Tea by the High Seas

As I mentioned earlier I recently celebrated my birthday and there was only one place to do it this summer .... at the Olympics (wearing my new knickers). The only tickets I could get on the day were for the sailing down in Weymouth and Portland. A long drive from London but thankfully the weather made it worth it.

With all good birthdays there is always cake although this year was slightly different as it was the first time since being a child that it was bought ready-made.

I know, I know... not what you want to hear from a cake blogger but there is a reason for this. I had to choose between cake or scotch eggs and as you can't buy pork free scotch eggs there was only one way to get around the dilemma. I did add a twist by using cute little quail eggs.

You'll need:
12 quail eggs
250g sausage meat (I used chicken mince flavoured with dried herbs and paprika)
2 spring onions
Panko breadcrumbs
Flour, for dusting
1 hen's egg

First, boil your quail eggs for 2 mins. No more, no less. It's important to get the timing right. When the time is up plunge them into cold water to stop them cooking and to cool them so they can be peeled.

 Be gentle with them as they can be delicate.

Next take each egg and with a teaspoon of the sausagemeat, begin to mould the meat so that it surrounds the egg completely. Once this has been done for all the eggs you'll be ready to breadcrumb.

In three different bowls, put flour, beaten hen's egg and breadcrumbs. Place the sausagemeat covered eggs first in the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs. If you like a crunchier coating place in the egg and breadcrumbs again before semi-shallow frying for 4-6 mins.

These were enjoyed with a beetroot relish carried to the venue in a little jam jar. Followed by the birthday cake with a cup of tea.