It's All About Passion

"My love gave me a passion-flower.
I nursed it well - so brief its hour!
My eyelids ache, my throat is dry:
He told me that it would not die.
My love and I are one, and yet
Full oft my cheeks with tears are wet
-So sweet the night is and the bower!
My love gave me a passion-flower.
So sweet! Hold fast my hands.
Can God Make all this joy revert to sod,
And leave to me but this for dower
-My love gave me a passion-flower."
~Margaret Fuller

I bet I had you going with the title this morning. What I'm actually going to talk about today are Passion Flowers. I know that I had led a somewhat protected life before coming to England. (haha) Moving over here has broadened my experiences and knowledge in a myriad of ways. There are many things I had never seen, tasted or experienced before coming over here. One of them was Passion Flowers.

When Todd and I were living up in Chester, we often took ourselves on walks through the town of an evening . . . and when we did we always passed this house on the corner of one of the streets that had a wall covered with these lovely and most unusual flowers. I didn't know what they were, and in fact had never seen anything like them before. Todd didn't know what they were either. Every time we passed I looked at them and thought to myself . . . one day I will have a garden with some of those in it . . .



It wasn't too long after we had moved down here that we were visiting a new friend and I noticed that he had the same flowers growing along his fence. Finally! Someone who might be able to answer my question about what they were. Passion Flowers was his answer and he very generously gave Todd and I a seed pod to bring home and plant. We saved it all winter and then in the spring judiciously planted it at the back of our garden shed Now, some three years later it is a beautifully big plant and covers the back of our shed and weaves it's lovely tendrils and blossoms around the outside garden.



It's so beautiful to look at and has a tenacity that goes beyond anything we can understand. It has managed to find a crack in the low stone wall that surrounds a small patch behind the shed and it's tendrils and fingers have even found their way through that to the world beyond.



It is a plant that actually comes from South America and was brought over to Europe in the 17th century by Jesuit missionaries. (Just on a side note here . . . it is said that one of my ancestors was one of the last Jesuit missionaries to the Huron Indians . . . now back to our regular programming) They went over there to spread the Christian Message and fell in love with the majesty and beauty God's bountiful creation, the flora and the fauna . . . a multitude of unexpected plants and animals.

No more so was God's handiwork more manifest than in this one particular plant . . . the passion flower vine . . . so called, because it represents Christ's suffering on the cross. It is a climbing vine and probably distantly related to the cucumber. It uses it's tendrils to climb up walls and other plants, which probably came in really handy when it was growing in the Amazon forest as it sought to rise about the canopy of trees and plants towards the sun . . . its flowers are remarkably beautiful.



A typical passion flower has five sepals and five petals. These are said to represent the ten apostles who remained faithful to our Lord. Immediately inside these is a shape found inside no other flower. This corona is formed of two stacked rings of very fine filaments, often brightly coloured like the sepals and petals. This corona is said to represent the crown of thorns worn by our Saviour.

Protruding from the centre of the corona is a small post, upon which rests the ovaries, five stamens and anthers, and three stigmas. The five anthers are said to represent the five wounds in the Saviour's body . . . the three stigmata the nails. The leaves . . . the spear that pierced his side. The tendrils . . . the scourges that whipped his flesh.



It is indeed an extremely beautiful plant and made even more so for the wonderful gift of love that it represents. Beautiful and easy to grow . . . exquisite and exotic . . . it's like having something more precious than even the Da Vinci code right in your back garden . . . (it also produces edible fruit which is said to have a mild lemon flavoured pulp, although in all truth I have never been brave enough to try it for myself!)

In just a few days now we are off to Cumbria, home of the sticky toffee pudding, or so I am told. When we were there a few years ago I tasted this delight for myself and fell in love. A few nights after we arrived I found some lovely little puddings made by the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding shop in a service area nearby where we were staying, and I have to say we ended up having it every night for the whole rest of the time we were there . . it was soooo good!

I have since learned how to make it for myself and I have to say it my version is every bit as good as the one we had up there. Give it a try for yourself and see if I'm not right. It truly is delicious.



*Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake*
Serves 6

A lovely rich date cake . . . covered with a lusciously rich and tasty toffee sauce. This is truly to die for . . . I like to serve it warm and cut into squares covered with oodles of the sauce and with a delicious pitcher of cold double cream on the side for pouring over top. Let's face it . . . when you are already in that deep, what's a few more calories . . .

50g soft butter, plus more for buttering the tin
175g dark brown demerara sugar
200g self raising flour, plus extra for dusting the pan
1 TBS golden syrup
2 TBS black treacle
(you can replace the above with 3 TBS molasses if you can't get the syrup and treacle)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g pitted dried dates, chopped
1 TBS baking soda

FOR THE TOFFEE SAUCE:
100g soft light brown sugar
100g butter
200ml double cream

Pre-heat the oven to 200*C/400*F. Thoroughly butter a 9 inch square tin with a good knob of butter and then dust inside with flour, shaking out any excess.

Place the dates in a saucepan with about a cup of water and bring to the boil. take off the heat and allow to sit for a few minutes, then puree in a food processor or blender. Add the baking soda.

Cream the butter and sugar together completely until well mixed. Slowly beat in the golden syrup and treacle (molasses), eggs and the vanilla, mixing in well. Add the flour and mix in. Stir in the date mixture, making sure all are well combined. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or just until the top is firm to the touch. Don't over bake. You want a moist cake.

To make the sauce, melt the butter and sugar together in a saucepan. Add the cream and bring the mixture to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. You want it somewhat thick, and yet at the same time nice for spooning over the cake.

Serve warm pieces of the cake in bowls with lots of the sauce spooned over top. Pass a jug of cream separately at the table if you dare!