Gluten free pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin frosting

It's that time of year again when we buy our pumpkins from the local store, spend an hour or so scraping away the inside and carving a face on it only to have to throw it all away a day later. How sad!

I can't say I am that fond of pumpkin. I always feel it is such a waste to throw the perfectly good flesh away but whenever I try to use it for some recipe or other it always comes out yuk! Pumpkin soup - not great (although the little snowballs liked it), roasted pumpkin - a sloppy mess ... so where am I going wrong?

I came to the conclusion that it is not me, it is the pumpkin's fault. I bought a can of pureed pumpkin just to prove to myself that it is the pumpkin and made a discovery. Pure pumpkin has a very specific taste - not one that I am keen on personally - but if you add lots (and I mean lots) of spices, especially cinnamon, it can be quite nice!

So yesterday, we were invited to a post Halloween party and I decided to make pumpkin cupcakes using the canned pumpkin. And as the cupcakes didn't use the whole can, I used the remaining pumpkin for the buttercream frosting. And they tasted GOOD. So good I might even have a go at pumpkin pie sometime (when I master gluten free pastry!). But I still need to figure out how to get the scooped remains from the Halloween pumpkin into a puree that I can cook with?

There's always next year ...

So here's the recipe for the pumpkin cupcakes with pumpkin buttercream:

Pumpkin cupcakes

Ingredients
280g self-raising flour/gluten free flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
110g margarine
200g caster sugar
5 tbsp brown soft sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
180ml milk
250g pureed pumpkin (canned is fine)


Preheat the oven to 190°C / Gas 5. Place 24 paper cases in muffin tins.

Mix together the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.

Beat the butter, caster sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light and fluffy.  

Add the eggs one at a time, allowing each one to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next. 

Remove the bowl from the mixer then stir in the milk and pumpkin puree and then stir in the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. 

Pour the cupcake mixture into the prepared muffin cases.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 25 minutes. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make the icing (see below) then when cool pipe the pumpkin buttercream onto each cupcake and decorate with sprinkles or jelly worms or other suitable toppings.

Pumpkin buttercream

Ingredients
90g unsalted butter
 100% pumpkin puree
900g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Cream together the butter and the pumpkin puree in an electric mixer, until the butter is a light orange colour. The pumpkin won't totally combine at this stage so you won't be able to get a completely smooth mixture even after several minutes but don't worry about it, it will blend well once the icing sugar is added.

Beat in the vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Add the icing sugar and mix well until smooth. I always add the icing sugar and mix by hand first to avoid clouds of icing sugar billowing out and settling across my whole kitchen. Once the icing sugar has started mixing in to the point that it doesn't fly everywhere, I then finish it off with the beater on my trusty Kitchen Aid until it's smooth and blended evenly.

Little Love Cakes creates high quality and bespoke cakes for any celebration in the Twickenham/ Teddington/ Richmond area. Visit us on Facebook at littlelovecakeslondon.

Each cake is baked and decorated using high quality ingredients and is decorated with care and great attention to detail - we know it's the little things that make a cake special and unique. 

© 2014 Nicola Noble & Little Love Cakes: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look. 

Gluten-free cheesy scone topped cottage pie

I wanted to try making something different for dinner tonight, so I thought I would try topping beef mince/cottage pie with cheesy scones instead of mashed potato. It needed to be gluten-free so that I didn't have to make two versions and the end result turned out yummy.

I struggle using gluten-free flour for pastry-type things as the resulting "dough" can't be rolled out (it just doesn't form a cohesive dough) but I have previously discovered a recipe for scone pizza base that uses an egg which really seems to help.

The resulting cheesy scone topped cottage pie turned out really well and got the thumbs up from all of the Snowball family - and they are a hard bunch to please, especially Mr Snowball!

If you are interested, I made the beef mince base by adding onion, carrots, orange pepper (so the kids thought it was carrot!) and peas to the mince, together with a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and a crumbled beef oxo cube.

The cheese scone topping would also work really well with a chicken base, with mushrooms etc. I think I will give this version a go sometime soon.

Gluten-free cheesy scone topping

Ingredients
225g gluten-free self raising flour
pinch salt
75g butter
160g grated mature Cheddar cheese

rice milk (about 2tbsp)
1 egg

Rub the butter into the gluten-free self raising flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the grated cheese and about two tablespoons of rice milk, then add the beaten egg and bring together into a dough-type ball.

Break off golf ball size pieces of the mixture, flatten slightly in your hand and place on top of your ready prepared beef mince.

Bake in a preheated oven (200⁰C/400⁰F/Fan 180⁰C/Gas Mark 6) for 20-25 minutes, or until golden on top.

© 2013 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Mr Snowballs wanted a Star Wars Death Star cake

It was recently that time of year again when Mr Snowballs put in his request for his birthday cake with clear instructions that he wanted a Star Wars Death Star cake. I always argue that the sort of cake he wants should be reserved for "special" birthdays (such as my niece's 18th, mum's 70th, sister's 50th, best friend's 40th) or for our children's birthdays. As 40 something is neither, I always try to persuade him to be happy with a "norrmal" cake but it never works. So Star Wars Death Star is was ...

I didn't have the courage to make the whole cake into the Death Star but opted instead for a round cake with the Death Star on top. Mr Snowball informed me that if I wasn't going to do a "full size" Death Star then he also expected an Imperial Star Destroyer - he doesn't ask for much really!!

I have to admit that I had great fun making this cake and I was really pleased with how it came out.

The bottom sponge was gluten-free Victoria sponge with a mashed banana to help add moisture (gluten-free cakes are always so dry!). I covered the cake board in turquoise fondant and the cake in black fondant over Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing (I seem to have an aversion to making buttercream after the gallons I had to make for Sophie's birthday). Then came the fun part.

I moulded the Death Star out of rice krispie treats (RKT); I have never used these before for my cakes but thought it would be easier than trying to bake a large cake ball. It was very quick and easy to do - I made the RKT before the school run one morning and by the time I came back it had set enough for me to start making the Death Star. Justin has some Lego Star Wars planets and I used one of these to mould the ball, greasing each half liberally before squashing the RKT in them. I read in a few recipes that it is a good idea to crush the rice krispies before mixing with the marshmallows and butter and I will definitely do this next time as there were quite a lot of divots on the outside of the ball. Also next time I will try to leave it longer to harden up, although the ball shape didn't distort too much.

I pushed the two halves of the soon-to-be Death Star together, emphasised the death ray hollow a bit more with my thumbs and then covered the ball in light grey fondant. I did this by cutting two circles of the grey fondant and placing over the RKT (I got the right size by using the Lego Star Wars planet as a guide), joining them across the middle of the ball. I then rolled out dark grey fondant and cut various shapes out of it: I cut circles to fit into the death ray hollow bit (marking it with the back of a knife before I put it on); a long strip to go around the middle of the Death Star; a circle cut into pieces of pie for the top; and almost-square shapes to go around the outside. I worked out that the squares needed to have angled sides to fit onto the ball. Once they were all on, I added random markings with the tip of a #2 icing nozzle and a knife and added tiny non-pareils (which was very fiddly!).

I made the Imperial Star Destroyer by stacking various cut and rolled pieces of fondant together, some white balls of fondant at the back with some silver balls and marking it with a knife. I also added a tiny Tie Fighter.

The finishing touches were Mr Snowballs' name in Star Wars style font in the turquoise fondant and copious amounts of sparkle to brighten the whole black/grey thing.

And the verdict? For someone who has high expectations, Mr Snowballs seemed suitably pleased with his cake and I had fun making it. Maybe next time I will be brave enough to tackle a whole Death Star cake ...

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

One of the few benefits of having a shady garden is that my rhubarb plant loves it and with all this rain we've had recently I was able to get some lovely fat, beautiful rosy stalks which I chopped and froze within minutes of plucking from the garden.

We went to someone's house for dinner on Saturday and I offered to take pudding so thought I would do a twist on my gluten-free crumble (see my previous blog here).

I put the frozen rhubarb in a saucepan with quite a lot of sugar and warmed it very gently until the rhubarb had softened but not disintegrated and then drained the lovely rhubarb juice off into a jug.

I baked the ginger gluten-free biscuits (ginger and rhubarb are just so good together) and crumbled them up once they were cool.

I mixed icing sugar and delicious pink rhubarb juice into some mascarpone which I then swirled through the chunks of cooked rhubarb, before topping with the biscuit crumble to create a rhubarb fool crumble. The resulting pudding was delicious.

Two things I would change for next time: I would try to get some glass sundae dishes so you could see the rosy pink rhubarb swirled with mascarpone under the crumble; and I would add more rhubarb juice to the mascarpone - I was worried about making it too runny but once the puddings had sat for a while it all thickened up a bit. Alternatively, I could have taken the rhubarb juice to pour over the top before eating!

Another recipe I tried some time ago using the rhubarb was apple rhubarb bread. I baked this using gluten free flour and the apple and rhubarb kept it moist. The original recipes calls for finely chopped rhubarb but I found that it became lost in the baked cake and next time I will keep bigger chunks so I can actually tell that there is rhubarb in the cake. 

Another recipe that may work well with rhubarb are quick and easy biscuits called diggles. I have made these several time with blackberries but I can see rhubarb working for a slightly more adult version.

I have put the recipes below. If you have your own rhubarb I hope you enjoy making some of these and if you don't have your own plant make sure you get hold of some rhubarb while it's in season.

Rhubarb fool crumble

Ingredients
rhubarb

ginger fairings (see here for the recipe)

mascarpone

icing sugar

juice from the stewed rhubarb

Gently stew the rhubarb until soft but still holding shape. Drain off the juice into a jug and keep to one side. Allow to cool. 

Mix a small amount of icing sugar with the mascarpone (to taste) and add some of the reserved rhubarb juice until it's the consistency of single cream.

Place some rhubarb into individual dishes and swirl the mascapone cream through. Crumble the ginger fairings over the top to finish and serve with a jug of the rhubarb juice.

Apple rhubarb bread

Ingredients
1.5 cups chopped rhubarb
1.5 cups chopped apples
1.5 cups brown sugar
0.5 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts
3.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, eggs and vegetable oil. Stir in the rhubarb, apples and vanilla.

In a separate bowl sift together the baking powder, salt and flour. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just moistened.

Stir in the finely chopped nuts and pour into a greased baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees, for 50 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean.

Remove bread from pan, cool on a wire or wooden rack and wrap for storage.

Rhubarb diggles

Makes 12
Rhubarb (in small chunks)
1tbsp granulated sugar
85g butter or margarine
225g self-raising flour
85g caster sugar
1 medium egg, beaten

Lightly cook the rhubarb and stir in the sugar to coat the pieces. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Rub butter into the flour in a bowl. Add caster sugar and make a well in the centre. Add the egg to the well. Mix until you have formed a dough.

Break off 12 pieces and shape into rough balls the size of a large walnut. Place on to silicone paper on a baking tray, leaving a good gap between them. Make a dent in the top with the end of a wooden spoon, then spoon in a couple of pieces of rhubarb.

Bake for approximately 12 minutes until just golden. Remove and cool.

NB. the original recipe uses blueberries but blackberries also work very well

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

At last - I've found a yummy gluten free crumble!

I don't know about you, but I have had real trouble making a nice gluten free crumble. I have tried many times to make a crumble topping using gluten free flour and all it ever does is go black and slightly burnt on top. I have doubled up on the amount of butter in an attempt to get it crumbly rather than floury; I have tried to cover it to stop it burning; I have added oats in an attempt to change the texture but none of these ever result in a crumble that even comes close to a golden, crumbly crumble using normal flour!

So in a moment of inspiration, I decided to try baking gluten free biscuits and then breaking these up on top of the filling and IT WORKED!!

My mum used to bake a biscuit called a ginger fairing (you can tell it's an old recipe as it's still in ounces!) and I have played with these recently using gluten free flour and they come out just as delicious. So for the apple crumble I was making, I substituted the ginger with cinnamon and added some oats for a slightly different texture, baked the biscuits then crumbled them on top of the apple filling and warmed them up again in the oven.

It was so delicious I made it again this weekend with a fresh from the garden rhubarb filling and this time I was a bit rougher with the baked biscuits and crumbled them much more so that there were no gaps across the top of the pudding. Sadly we ate them all before I could take a photograph!

Below is the recipe for the biscuits:

Ginger Fairings

Makes about 12 biscuits
4 oz butter
1 level tablespoon golden syrup
6 oz self-raising flour
pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 level teaspoon ground ginger or cinnamon
3 oz caster sugar
2 tablespoons rolled oats (optional) 

Melt the syrup and butter over a low heat. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger/cinnamon together, add the sugar and mix into the melted butter. I also added the 2 tablespoons of rolled oats at this point.

Roll a rounded teaspoon of mixture into a ball in your hands. Place the balls fairly well apart on an ungreased baking tray. Bake on the centre shelf of a moderately hot oven (375°F, 190°C, gas mark 5) for 12 to 15 minutes or until cooked. Leave to cool slightly before removing them from the baking tray.

I know it is going to become a regular addition to our menu.

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

A bit of a Star Wars theme going on ...

There is a price to pay for living with a Star Wars mad 40 something year old: I receive e-mails throughout the year with photos of amazing Star Wars birthday cakes and the related anticipation of one such masterpiece appearing for his birthday. In previous years I have managed to "ignore" the constant trickle of hints but this year I was asked specifically to create a Star Wars cake.

The brief: just a simple Star Wars recreation of the battle of Hoth, complete with power generator and an AT-AT walker. Oh, and it should include Jelly-Belly jelly beans!! So nothing too complicated then? And all this with a week to do it ...

First step - scour the web for images for inspiration. Interestingly very few were stills from the film which surprised me, and most were other peoples' physical recreations of the battle scene (I should be thankful that my other half is not quite as nerdy as those people) which wasn't very helpful for my need to be as accurate as my skills allow (now who's the nerd?). I did find some useful images which helped formulate the design and off I went.

I made a 9" gluten free vanilla sponge and filled and coated with a lime and desiccated coconut buttercream (a flavour experiment which worked very well). I then covered the cake and board in one go with white fondant. Next step was to create the snowy crevasses, then make the power generator. I cut eight large thick circles in grey fondant, used a smaller circle cutter to mark the inner circle and added lots of texture before sandwiching them together into 4 pairs. I used two pieces of spaghetti to stand each circle upright and then pushed a long piece of spaghetti through the middle of the circles and cylinders of fondant between each circle. I finished off the power generator with some grey supports.

A standing AT-AT walker was not going to be possible in the timescale, as I would have had to make it in sections and let each section dry before putting it all together; so I opted for the fallen one which I think came out well. I also added a gun turret positioned in the snowy crevasses.

As I mentioned earlier, the brief included Jelly-Belly jelly beans and as I had't included these in the sponge itself I had to find a way to include them in the decoration. I decided to use white ones (incidentally these are coconut so fitted very well with the flavour of the buttercream!) and turn them into Rebel Alliance fighters. Smiley faces drawn with an edible ink pen, brown hats, snow goggles and a black gun and my guys were in place. Mr "I want a storm trooper and some more realistic (like in the film) people" didn't seem that impressed but they made me smile every time I looked at them so they were staying!

The finishing touches of his name in Star Wars writing (template created on the computer, printed, cut out and placed on grey fondant which I then cut to shape) and some edible snow like sprinkles and glitter and the cake was finished ...

As it was also Star Wars day recently (May the fourth be with you) and we had a packet of gingerbread dough in the fridge that the kiddies had persuaded Daddy to buy for them, we decided to use the fantastic Star Wars cookie cutters that we bought last year on our holiday in Florida.

I helped them roll the dough out and they both picked two cutters each and cut and plunged Yoda, Darth Vader, Boba Fett and a stormtrooper.

The baked gingerbread cookies came out very well and they enjoyed eating them. Perhaps another time (when they are a bit older) we might also have a go at icing them ...

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Mini-cakes

It's my mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday and I wanted to make a birthday cake for her. But as they are emigrating to Australia in two weeks time it really needed to be a small cake - enough for everyone to have a slice on the day and be gone.

I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like (almost one of the first images of a cake I ever downloaded from the internet and virtually my first pin in Pinterest) and decided to bake the sponge (gluten free so Jase could share it) in small pyrex ramekins, rather than bake a larger cake which would have to be cut to size after baking. A small victoria sponge mix (4oz each of flour, margarine and sugar plus 2 eggs) filled four ramekins perfectly. The only disadvantage of using the ramekins was that they flare outwards slightly, so I did need to trim the baked sponges to be straight-edged, but that was a minor point for something that actually worked very well.

The sponges were quite tall, so I used two cakes and sliced them in half horizontally, creating four layers. This did make quite a tall cake which proved tricky when it came to covering with fondant. The height of the cake (in relation to the diameter of the top) meant that the fondant hung in pleats around the bottom when I placed it on and it started cracking towards the bottom of the cake when I began to smooth it. The first attempt cracked so much that I decided to lift it off and start again with another piece. This worked much better and although it still cracked a little, I was able to cover these cracks with the pink fondant bow around the bottom of the cake.

I was pleased with how the flower on the top came out, although I should have left the layers to dry slightly longer as the petals started breaking away from the middle part of the flower. This didn't show when it was all put together and I was pleased with how the petal edged looked after I had "frilled" them.

I had two other sponges left so decided to make one more (smaller) cake and the decoration for this was also inspired by a Pinterest pin (two pins in one go - my pin to make ratio must be quite high!)

This one has a dahlia type flower on the top made from cutting mini marshmallows in half diagonally and dipping in edible glitter. The glitter only sticks the inside cut part, and the result is a pretty, glittery petal. I then put a blob of buttercream on the top (I wasn't going to make royal icing just for that) and placed the "petals" in circles, starting at the outside and working my way in. Again, such a simple but very pretty cake.

And for those of you keeping count (I only used three of the four sponges I baked), I filled the last sponge with lemon curd and buttercream and we all shared it for tea!

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Beetroot brownies

Mr Snowballs has decided he wants to juice! So I ordered a juice box from Abel & Cole and this lovely box of fruit and veg came with a ridiculous amount of beetroot. I can't bear beetroot - the earthiness is something I have never developed a taste for. Rather than force myself to drink gallons of pink, earthy juice (although I do have to admit that in moderation and seriously diluted with other things such as carrot, celery and ginger it's okay) I searched for recipes to use at least some of the remaining beetroot up. I came across a beetroot brownie recipe on BBC Good Food website.

The comments all say that the beetroot makes the brownies really moist, so I decided to make them using gluten free flour, in the hope that the moistness of the beetroot compensated for the dryness that is gluten free baking. I also didn't have the right amount of dark chocolate (the recipe states 200g of 70% cocoa) but did have 130g of 100% pure cocoa (the unbelievable Willie's Supreme Cocoa) which I thought would work well.

It is a very simple recipe to do and didn't actually take too long to make. I didn't sift the flour properly so the finished brownie had the odd tiny ball of flour but not enough to cause a problem.

And the verdict?

Really good!!! There was no hint of the earthiness of beetroot (I think the 100% cocoa probably helped drown this out) and they are unbelievably moist and sticky. They also have a delightful pink tint to them which is very appealing. I have tested them on a number of people and very few of them have guessed the secret ingredient. I will definitely be making these again - although this time it will probably be with the 70%  chocolate the recipe states as I have run out of my super strength cocoa. It will be interesting to see if this makes a big difference ...

Jelly Belly jelly bean rainbow cake

My husband is addicted to Jelly Belly jelly beans so this year I decided to make him a gluten free jelly bean birthday cake.

I found a gluten free cake mix in the local supermarket which I decided to try and it was amazingly easy, although sadly didn't taste as good as I had hoped. I got two packets and made three 6" sponges and six cupcakes. I cut up a random selection of Jelly Belly bean Belly Flops and put these into two of the sponges, creating a jelly bean confetti cake (lots of recipes for this on the web).

The confetti layers sandwiched a plain layer and all were fixed together with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream. I then coloured some buttercream green for the sides of the cake and some blue for the top. My daughter and I then sorted out a selection of beans the colours of the rainbow and created a rainbow on the top of the cake. Random beans and a jelly bean flower were stuck to the sides of the cake. 

I topped the cupcakes with Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing and a "sprinkling" of jelly beans.

I even managed to hide the cake from hubby until his birthday and, needless to say, neither the cake or the cupcakes lasted long!

© 2011 Nicola Noble

Lego stormtrooper cake

Last night I went to my cake decorating course and started creating my lego stormtrooper cake. I had previously cut out the shape of the cake from the nice gluten free sponge (the horrid cornflour one got fed to the ducks yesterday!) and thankfully it didn't matter that the head had fallen off the body as I just stuck it all back together and hid it under the fondant.

I opted for a 2D approach rather than trying to make the stormtrooper. I managed to cut out and position a lot of the black fondant and the tutor introduced me to the art of "extruding" to get thin rope like pieces (another thing added to my Christmas list!) At the end of the session the cake did look a bit like an odd person with a black belt wearing a rucksack and hoodie and sporting a rather grand moustache ...

Luckily I had a free morning this morning, so while Sophie was at school I set to and finished it. I added some more black and created the lego hands, then finished off with some dark grey royal icing and a little bit of white royal icing on the face.

I am really pleased with the finished cake, although the head seems a bit too small and the belt went wrong. If this had been for a proper occasion I would have covered the old cake board too - not sure what colour I would have chosen though, maybe orange? As it was, I didn't have enough fondant (or time during the session) to cover it.  I'm sure that with a star wars mad husband and an almost two years old boy I will be making this cake again in the future so all things to learn for next time!

Gluten free cakes - and how not to make them

I have been doing a cake decorating course at my local adult community college and this coming week we are going to create a mini novelty cake. So, in a brief moment of madness I decided that mine was going to be a lego stormtrooper. Okay so that's not too bad ... but this is for my husband who, being gluten and dairy intolerant, feels really left out whenever I do some baking for the kids. So I found a new cake recipe in a birthday cake book that is made from cornflour, eggs and sugar.

Somehow I don't think I did it right because the resulting cake was disgusting. The top crust totally broke into bits and the bottom of the cake was an eggy disaster. I think that I mixed the eggs at too high a speed in the mixer and it really didn't taste good at all.

I did cut it into a rough stormtrooper shape but yesterday decided I was going to abandon it and try a more conventional cake. Through trial and error, I have discovered that my husband can eat processed milk products so this time I used butter, eggs and gluten free flour as per a normal victoria sponge. The resulting cake was soooo much better.

I am going to try the cornflour cake again, mixing the eggs at a very low speed this time and see whether that makes a difference. I'll post the results when I've done.