Easter Recipe 2013

Easter Rainbow Cake Recipe:

Easter rainbow cake

A rainbow cake has long been one of my favorites for a special occasion it look so impressive, yet it's relatively simple. You just need to set aside some time to bake three sets of sponges, and then decorate your show stopper. I've spent lots of time in our Test kitchen developing this fool proof recipe: the sponges are dense and squidgy, so they shouldn't rise unevenly any trimming. They're made in Paris so you only need two sandwich tins, and there's plenty of icing - no danger of running short before the end!

A Little Effort:

• UN-iced sponges only cuts into 18 slices
• Prep 2hrs 
• Cook 45 min-1 hr

I've only given these measurements in gram, as I want it to be really accurate, but if you are desperate to work in ounces you will find conversion chart at bbcgoodfood.com
You will need 3x these ingredient for six sponges (see below to make seventh layer)

Ingredient:

•  125g butter, softened, plus a little extra for greasing
•  225g plain flour
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs (very important to use correct size)
• 3 Tsp buttermilk
• 1/2 Tsp baking powder 
• pinch of salt 
• 1 Tsp vanilla extract 
• edible food coloring red, orange, yellow green, blue and purple, plus optional pink (see below)

For The Icing:

•  1 Tsp vanilla extract 
• 3x250g tubs light cream cheese  or mascarpone 
• 350g icing sugar

MAKE AN EXTRA LAYER:

 My recipe makes six sponge layers, but you can make one extra layer by having the cake quantities and baking a single sponge dyed pink - use this as your seventh layer. It’s not strictly necessary; the cake will still look fabulous with six but why not!

1. Heat oven to 160c/140c fan/gas 3. Grease 2x20cm round sandwich tins and line the base with baking parchment. Tip all the sponge ingredients, apart from the food coloring into a mixing bowl, and then beat with an electric whisk until smooth. 
2. Working quickly, weigh the mixture into another bowl to work out the total weight, then weight exactly half the mixture back into mixing bowl. Pick 2 of your colors and stir a little into each mix. Keep going until you are happy with colour the colour of the batter now will be very similar to the finished cake, so be brave! Scrape the different betters into the tins, but-try not to waste a drop of the better--a rubber spatula will help you. Bake on the same oven shelf for 15 mins until skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
3. Gently turn cakes out onto wire rack to cool.Wash the tins and bowls thoroughly, and start again form  step 1 this time using another colors.unless you're making the optional pink layer,repeat one more time to get 6 sponges, all of different colors. Leave them all to cool.
4. To make the icing, very brifly beat the vanilla and cream cheese or mascarpone with an electric whisk until smooth. Sift in the icing sugar and gently fold in with a spatula. Be careful the more you work it, the runnier it will get, increasing the chance of splitting.
5. Smear a little icing on your cake stand or plate just a splodge to stick the first sponge. Start with the red , then spread with some icing right to very edge. Repeat, sandwiching on top the orange , yellow, green, blue and finally purple sponges. Spread the remaining icing thickly all over the sides and top of the cake.

TOP TIP FOR PROFESSIONAL FINISH:

• When you make each batch, keep a tiny blob of batter back  then, as you dye each future batter, you can make sure the color strengths match.
• A palette knife , which has a long, round and flexible blade, makes icing big cakes much easier, as the blade is long enough to scrape the whole side at once. You can buy them in cookshops.
• A turntable really helps if you're trying to ice a big cake. If you don't have one, use cake stand instead.

Deadly Combination with Grapefruit:

grapefruit and deadly combination

It has long been known that grapefruit with certain medications dangerous reactions. Today, however, doctors argue that the risks are greater than previously thought. The combination can lead to an acute renal failure, respiratory failure, stomach and intestinal bleeding, niertoxiteit and even to death.

The reaction takes place because of an active substance in the fruit (called furocoumarinen) the activation of an enzyme in the body stops, which allows for the degradation of drugs. This can ensure that the body perceives as multiple doses of the medication, when in reality you have taken only one dose.

Alarming:

Structure of histamine

According to scientists, there are more than 85 drugs that can interact with grapefruit, with 43, which can lead to serious side effects. These include statins, immunosuppressive agents( involves an act that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system), and antihistamines(produce increased vascular permeability, causing fluid to escape from capillaries into tissues, which leads to the classic symptoms of an allergic reaction — a runny nose and watery eyes).

"Many of the medications that react with grapefruit are frequently prescribed by doctors and are essential for the treatment of common diseases," says the Canadian scientist Dr. David Bailey.

"Recently, we have seen a disturbing trend. Between 2008 and 2012, namely the number of responding medications increased from 17 to 43 percent, which equates to an average increase of six drugs per year. This is due to the introduction of new chemical entities and formulas, "said Dr. Bailey.

A major problem is that many doctors are not aware of the dangers of grapefruit. "And it is only when they know the dangers that they are the cause of the side effects may uncover," says Bailey. "In addition, patients are also unaware of the dangers. It is mainly a lack of knowledge affect us adversely."

What medications?

It is therefore good to know which products you should watch. In the first place, for grapefruit, of course, but also for other citrus fruits, such as the sour orange. Which also contains the furocoumarinen, that the operation of the metabolizing enzyme CYP3A4 counters. This enzyme inactivates in normal cases the effects of some 50 percent of all drugs.

Medications that respond to these chemicals have three characteristics: 1. they can be taken orally, 2. they have a very low to moderate bioavailability (the extent to which the active ingredient becomes available at the intended place) and 3. they undergo metabolism in the gastrointestinal tract through the CYP3A4 enzyme.

In medication with a very low bioavailability, the intake of a normal amount of grapefruit are analogous to multiple doses of the drug alone. The interaction may occur even if the grapefruit many hours for the medication absorbed into the body.

A frequent daily consumption may be a contributory factor. For example, the combination of simvastatin (a statin frequently used) and for three days a glass of grapefruit juice 200 ml, caused a systemic concentration of 330 percent compared to water.

Forty-Five and Older:

The biggest risk is that of the over-45s. They are the most likely to grapefruit to buy and use the most pills.

Due to the size of this population, it is possible that the numerical exposure to the interaction will increase. Especially when you know that older adults are less excessive systemic concentrations of a drug can tolerate. That makes him vulnerable to the interactions.

"This increase makes it necessary to better understand the interactions with grapefruit," says Dr. Bailey. Someone who is happy to play it safe, so better avoid the grapefruit in combination with medication.