Apple and Cinnamon cake

It's been a while since I posted anything but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking.  Just forgetting to take a picture before the cake has been devoured!  So here's one without a piccie, but one of my favourites.

400g apples – peeled, grated and tossed in lemon juice and 2 tsp cinnamon

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

225g light muscovado sugar

3 eggs

225g stork margarine for cakes

Flaked almonds and sugar for sprinkling

Grease and line a deep 23cm round cake tin.  Pre-heat oven to 180c

Cream the margarine and sugar together.  Beat in the eggs one at a time then add the flour and baking powder.

Pour half the mixture into the cake tin and cover with the apple and cinnamon.  Don’t go quite to the edges.

Cover with the remainder of the mixture, sprinkle with the almonds and some sugar (I like demerara) and bake for 75-90 minutes.

Put the kettle on.

Leave in the tin to cool for about 10 minutes before turning out and make a pot of tea.

By the time it's ready to come out of the tin your tea will be nicely brewed and this cake is really lovely when it's still warm

bakewell tart

I had some flakey pastry left over from making pasties and a pie so thought I'd make something sweet.  Not the perfect pastry for making a tart but too nice to waste so I decided to try Bakewell Tart as I've never made this before.

So, a Mary Berry recipe once again.  Her recipe uses shortcrust pastry which would have been much nicer.  The Hairy Bikers recipe uses an enriched dough and tons of eggs but I'm guessing this was one of their pre-diet recipes.

2 tbsp raspberry jam
125g butter
125g caster sugar
125g ground almonds
1 egg
½ tsp almond essence
50g flaked almonds

for the icing

40g icing sugar

1 tsp cold water

Blind bake the pasty case for about 15mins at 180c, uncover and bake for a further 5 minutes to dry out.

Spread the base with raspberry jam

Melt the butter, add almonds and sugar.  Beat in the egg and almond essence.  Pour the mixture into the pastry case and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.  Bake for 35 minutes

Once cooled, mix up the icing and decorate.

raisin shortcakes

'I fancy a biscuit', I said.

'Oo, that sounds nice.  How about fruit shortcakes' he replied, salivating at the thought.

'I didn't know you liked fruit shortcakes.  You've never mentioned it before'.

So that was how I came to make fruit shortcakes today.

175g plain flour
75g caster sugar
100g butter
50g raisins
a sprinkling of demerara sugar

Mix the flour and sugar together.  Rub in the butter to form fine bread crumbs and bring together to form a soft dough.  A splash of cold water helps here, but just a splash.  Add the raisins.  I used them whole this time but I think in future I would chop them up to make smoother biscuits.

Roll out the dough on a lightly flour surface to about 5mm thick.  Using a 6cm cutter cut out the biscuits and place on a lined baking tray.  Prick the surface with a fork and sprinkle with a little demerara sugar.

Bake at 160c for about 18 minutes until very lightly browned.  They will still be soft at this time so allow to cool slightly on the baking tray for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack (and before eating them.  Raisins get extremely hot).

Cup of tea
Happy chap

banana bread

I had some manky bananas left and there was no way I was going to eat them.  I mean REALLY manky.  They were black on the outside and their bananary smell greeted me every time I went into the kitchen.  It was even beginning to seep into the living room so I knew it was time to use them up or bin them.  So, banana bread...

100g stork cake marg
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
3 manky bananas
225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cinnamon (maybe even a bit more)
some demerara sugar

Cream the margarine and sugar together.  Mash the bananas in a separate bowl and then combine with the marg and sugar.  I actually mashed the bananas first then adde the marg and sugar which made it much more difficult to combine everything so to hell with the washing up...use that extra bowl.

Beat in the eggs one by one them the flour, baking powder and cinnamon.  Add the milk and tip into a prepared loaf 2lb loaf tin.  I like to line and grease the tin.  Sprinkle with the dememera sugar to give a bit of a crunchy top and bake at 180c for about an hour until done.

Allow to cool, well at least try, and munch with a nice cup of tea.

Unfortunately this all got eaten before I managed to take a picture.



Bake at

mango layer cake

I have a friend who is rather partial to a mango so it seemed fitting to make a mango cake for her birthday.  The problem was, how to incorporate this very wet fruit into a cake without ending up with a soggy mess.

So I decided to start with a basic Victoria sandwich cake and man-go from there

225g stork
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cream the stork and caster sugar together.   Beat in the eggs then add the flour and baking powder.  Divide the mixture between 2 greased and lined 8" (20cm) sandwich tins and bake at 180c for 25 minutes.  Leave to cool

300ml double cream, whipped
1 large can mango, drained with liquid reserved
1 sachet gelatin

Slice each of the sandwich cake width-ways so you have four layers.  Keep the best, most level layer for the top.  Blitz the mango to a pulp in a food processor and begin to layer up - cake, cream, mango pulp, cake, cream, mango pulp....etc.  Keep a couple of tablespoons of the pulp back.  End with the best layer of cake.

To make the mango jelly.  Pour half of the reserved mango juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Sprinkle the gelatin on top and whisk in until blended.  Add a couple of tablespoons of mango pulp to give it a really vivid colour.

At this point I was wondering how the hell I was going to get this jelly on top of my cake without it either running off or soaking into the sponge.  I decided the best way was to line one of the sandwich tins I had used for the cake with clingfilm, pour the liquid in, and allow to set overnight in the fridge.  This is how I discovered that my fridge isn't perfectly level!

In the morning I had a perfect sized piece of vibrant yellow mango jelly to top my cake with.  I carefully placed this on top of my cake and smoothed any slightly rough edges of the jelly with a pallet knife warmed in boiling water.

Ta Da!

Movember palmiers

Had a fancy on for some cinnamon so I thought I'd have a go at palmiers today.

Palmiers, also known as elephants ears and coeur de France, are delicate little pastries made across Europe.  Each country seems to have their own version and name but I think they look like crazy little moustaches so perfect for Movember!

Normally made with puff pastry I thought I'd have a go with rough puff

For the pastry
175g plain flour
pinch of salt
100g butter
100ml cold water

Chop the butter into small cubes and add to the flour and salt.  Pour in the water and combine to make into a ball.  Chill the pastry for about 20 minutes and roll into a rectangle about 200mm by 100mm.

Fold the bottom third into the middle, then the top third down so you end up with the three pieces on top of each other.  Give the pastry a half turn then roll out again and repeat the folding.

Repeat this process 4 times and then wrap and put back in the fridge for half an hour.

To make the cinnamon filling:
40g melted butter
60g light muscavado sugar
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
30g flaked almonds crunched up

Mix the ingredients together

Once the pastry has chilled roll out into a rectangle about 300mm by 150mm and smooth over the cinnamon filling.  Roll the two longer sides into the middle sealing with a moistened finger to hold.

Wrap and return to the fridge for half an hour.

Slice the roll about 5mm thick and place on a baking tray.  Bake at 200c for about 20 minutes until golden and crispy.  I defy you to wait until they are cold to try!

chocolate orange muffins

One for the ladies at work today, choccy orange muffins

250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs cocoa powder 
50g stork
75g caster sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 2 oranges
milk
150g plain chocolate

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie and leave to cool

Rub the margarine into the flour then stir in the sugar, cocoa powder and orange zest.

You need 250ml of liquid so measure out the orange juice and make up with milk. 

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, then add the melted chocolate

I had some crunchy chocolate cake thingies so put them in at this point.  However, on reflection, I don't think they made any difference at all.

Pour the mixture into 12 muffin cases and bake at 200c for about 20 minutes.







They smelt really chocolately and the smell was seeping out of the tin on the way to work.  Due to the plain chocolate these were drier than normal supermarket muffins (which I always fine a bit damp and gluey anyway).