Raspberrie Mille Feuille with homemade ice cream

Grease and line 1 large or 2 small cake tins.
Pre heat the oven to 170C
Place the raisins in the water and simmer until the water has been absorbed.
Sift together dry ingredients.
In a bowl beat together the oil sugar and seeds from the vanilla pod. Add the eggs and beat until smooth and thick.
Mix in the courgettes, ginger, lemon rind and raisins, then fold in the dry ingredients. Finely beat the egg whites to a meringue texture and carefully add to the cake batter.
Pour into the tins and bake for 1 and 1/2 hours until firm (and a skewer comes out clean).
Leave to cool in the tins.
Mix together cream cheese, maple syrup and lemon juice.
Cut the cake in half horizontally, then fill and top the cake with the icing. Yum!

Head for the Galloway Forest Park in southern Scotland www.holidaysouthernscotland.co.uk/discover_article.php?id=1014 this week as the most spectacular meteor shower of the year is set to illuminate the skies.

The Perseids meteor shower regularly peaks at this time of year, with Thursday night and Friday morning (August 12th and 13th) providing the greatest number of shooting stars.

Galloway may be a great place to see the spectacle as the Forest Park has Dark Sky status, an official recognition by astronomers of the almost total absence of any terrestrial light pollution, meaning celestial objects can be seen extremely clearly.

Southern Scotland and Galloway Forest Park also offers plenty of opportunities to go walking, including a climb of Merrick, the highest peak in the south of Scotland.

Culzean Castle and Country Park is celebrating success as a top-quality
visitor attraction today. The dramatic cliffside castle, which is widely
regarded as Robert Adam’s greatest masterpiece, and its extensive country
park have been confirmed again as a five star tourist attraction by Visit
Scotland. Culzean Castle and Country Park is one of Ayrshire’s most popular visitor
attractions. The castle boasts stunning interiors, including the impressive
Oval Staircase and Round Drawing Room, and a fine collection of furniture
and artworks and brings the grandeur of life from the late 18th century to
life for visitors. It is also home to a wonderful Armoury display, complete
with flintlock pistols and swords, which is the second largest collection of
its type in existence.

The wider country park has over 20 miles of paths and tracks, guiding
visitors through the wonderful woodland, designed landscapes and gardens, to
the Deer Park, the Swan pond and 5 kilometres of coastline with fascinating
rock pools and clean bathing beaches. The park also has its own
award-winning ranger service which runs an exciting and varied programme of
events throughout the summer.

Many of the guests at Cosses Country House www.cossescountryhouse.com visit
www.culzeanexperince.org

Australian guests stayed last night on their way to Ireland – a lot of
guests stop over before getting the ferry from either Cairnryan to Larne or
Stranraer to Belfast. Visitors arriving in Scotland often spend their first
night or two with us also. Local crab with tomatoes from the greenhouse and rocket with a grapefruit
and sweet chilli dressing; Pink Crailoch Lamb with garlic and ginger
finished with Madeira and Redcurrant sauce, new Anya potatoes, baked
courgettes with lemon, olive oil and mint, cobra beans and hot beetroot; the
dessert in the picture; Aiket Bri, Strathdon Blue and Gruth Dhu and
Tobermory cheese with home made oatcakes were all on the menu! All the
herbs, fruit and vegetables are from the kitchen garden. Sweet Peas filled
all the vases and as it was a damp evening the guests enjoyed their malt
whiskies in front of a log fire.