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).

lemony cake with crispy lemon topping

This is boyfriend's all-time favourite cake.  Actually, it's the only cake he'll eat.  A favourite of mine too, just try not to think too hard about all the sugar!

It's a Mary Berry recipe but I put more lemon in as I like it extra zingy

100g stork
175g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
juice of a lemon
milk

Beat the margarine,sugar  and lemon zest together and add eggs one by one.  Beat in the flour and baking powder.

You need 4 tablespoons of liquid so use the lemon juice and make up the difference with milk.

Pour mixture into an 18cm round greased cake tin and bake for about 35 minutes.

Whilst the cake is baking make the topping by combining:

juice of the other lemon
100g granulated sugar

Once the cake is baked, remove from oven but leave it in the tin and pour over the lemon/sugar mixture while the cake is still hot.  Leave to cool in the tin.

Make a nice cup of tea and eat cake

purple muffins

Still picking so many blackberries at the moment and there is only so much jam you need to keep you going over winter.  Last week I baked another blackberry tart but this time with windfall apples underneath rather than lemon.  Very nice, but it needs something else.  So this week I'm trying blackberry and cinnamon muffins to see if a bit of spice helps.






280g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
130g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 tbsp plain oil
120ml milk
2 eggs
200g blackberries

combine the dry ingredients together
combine the wet ingredients (except the blackberries)
beat the wet into the dry, then stir in the blackberries
divide into 12 muffin cases and bake for about 20 minutes at 180c

blackberry tart

I picked about a kilo of blackberries at the weekend and made jam.  Went out yesterday and picked a load more so I thought I would make a blackberry tart with a tangy lemon layer.



For the pastry:

150g plain flour
75g butter
1 tbsp icing sugar
water to mix


rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs.  Sprinkle in the icing sugar then add water to form a soft pastry.  Grease a 22cm round loose-bottomed tart/flan tin and line with the pastry.  Cover with grease-proof paper, fill with baking beans and blind bake at 180c for about 15 minutes.  Remove the beans and paper, and bake for a further 10 minutes or so until the pastry is cooked and golden brown.

I always line the tin with the pastry but don't trim until after it has blind baked for 15 minutes.  I find if you trim with a bread knife you end up with a nice clean finish.

For the lemon filing:

140ml water
1 lemon (juice and zest)
15g cornflour
1 egg yolk
small knob of butter
55g caster sugar

Put the cornflour in a jug with a couple of spoonfulls of water.  Bring the remainder of the water to the boil with lemon zest and pour this over the cornflour.  Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, add the lemon juice and boil until thick.  Add the sugar and butter and beat until smooth.  When the mixture has cooled down slightly, beat in the egg yolk.  Pour this into the cooked pastry case.

Once the lemon filing has set, arrange the blackberries on top then prepare the blackberry jelly.

For the blackberry jelly:

About 100g blackberries (I used the squashy and small ones that were leftover)
enough water to just stop the blackberries from burning
a table spoon of sugar
6g gelatine

Boil the blackberries with the water and sugar.  Strain to remove all the pips and pulp, then measure out the liquid.  You need 200ml of liquid in total so add more water as necessary.  Bring this back to the boil, sprinkle over the gelatine and whisk until combined.  Allow to cool then pour onto the tart over the blackberries.  Allow to set - takes about 1 1/2 hours in the fridge - and sprinkle with a little icing sugar.

Serve with a cup of tea and a sunny day

owl cake

A leaving cake for someone at work who likes owls.  It was either that or a lemon cake but the owl won the day. 

I made a three layer cake - two chocolate and one vanilla.  To make the chocolate I used my trusty very chocolate cake recipe in 2 20cm loose bottomed tins.  For the single vanilla layer

115g stork
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

cream the stork and sugar together.  Add the eggs, then beat in the flour and baking powder.  Bake in a 20cm round tin for approx 25 minutes until perfectly done.

I had a slight accident with one of the chocolate layers and actually cracked it in half as I moved it.  Never mind, made up some ganache with 150ml of double cream and 150g of plain chocolate.  With all the skill of a plasterer I smoothed it over and layer up the cake - chocolate cake, ganache, vanilla, ganache, chocolate, with an extra coating of ganache all over to help the icing to stick.  Using ready-made chocolate fondant icing I covered the cake and decorated in a rather 'angry bird' owl fashion.  Not too bad for a first attempt I think. 

krantz cake

Currently my absolute favourite cookbook is Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi.  It's a beautiful book full of splendid recipes and fascinating pictures.  Everything savoury I've tried so far has been truely delicious so I was keen to try the chocolate krantz cake which is a yeasted cake. 

The only real problem I had was my dough wasn't rising fast enough in fridge and I needed to get some sleep so left it out in the warm for a little while to speed things along.  This meant that the dough was very soft and more difficult to work with.  Also, it meant I didn't get the twists quite as defined and even.

However, it worked. Quite a lot of faffing about a challenge, great fun making it, and really seriously tasty.

Recipe is quite long so here it is:

(click on recipe if you actually want to be able to read it)

chocolate krantz cake

I decided to make one chocolate krantz and one cinnamon so made half the chocolate filling and then the cinnamon filling as described.  Not really keen on walnuts -I always think they are a bit disappointing.  All that work trying to crack them open, most of them end up in tiny pieces (on the floor, on the dog, down your top) and when you do eventually get one of the little bastards out whole, they taste a bit musty.  I know, buy them really shelled but I still find those plump little nutty brains don't taste a nice as they say they're going to!  So I used almonds instead which I do like.  I think the combination of the almonds, cinnamon and syrup gives the loaf a taste and texture rather reminiscent of baklava.  Everyone who tried both actually said the cinnamon was the best.  One comment was 'seriously delicious'.

Thanks Mr Ottolenghi!

cinnamon krantz cake

geraniums are looking good too!

raspberry bakewell cake

Not so many cakes coming out of the kitchen lately.  Far too much gardening to do at this time of year but the arrival of the first raspberries and loganberries (apart from the odd ones I've been grazing on) has prompted a cake.  This one is from the BBC Good Food website.  They've got a bit of a thing going with raspberries at the moment so may be more to come.

140g ground almonds
* 140g butter, softened
140g golden caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
** 250g raspberries
2 tbsp flaked almonds
icing sugar, to serve



Pre-heat oven to 160c.  Cream together butter and sugar.  Beat in the eggs one by one then add the ground almonds, flour and vanilla.  Spoon half into a lined and greased 20cm loose-bottomed round tin, top with the raspberries keeping them about 15mm from the edge, then spoon the remainder over.  Sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake (well) for 50 minutes.

Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar.


* I used my trusty Stork once again.  I really should have shares in the company

** only had about 150g of raspberries and loganberries so added a couple of tablespoon of last year's blackcurrant jam to make up the fruitiness.  Seems to have worked out just fine.

bye bye banana cake

My last Monday in the office so it had to be banana cake didn't it!

I started with a standard Victoria sponge

100g stork
40g golden syrup
60g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

Normal method, cream together margarine, golden syrup and caster sugar.  Beat in eggs, then flour and baking powder.  If it looks a little thick, add a splash of milk.

Pour the mixture into 2 greased and lined 6" (15cm) sandwich tins and bake at 180c for about 20 minutes until nicely done.

Now to make it bananary and tasty.  Firstly I made a toffee sauce

* 100ml double cream
100g light muscavado sugar
50g butter

Put everything in a saucepan and melt together.  Boil for about 8-10 minutes until it thickens and stops frothing.  Don't be tempted to lick the spoon as it's really, really hot (but delicious)

* I actually had whipped double in the freezer so I used this and it worked the same as double cream when it melted

Once the toffee sauce had cooled I poured it over the insides of the cake and let it soak in a bit.  I had about 200ml of whipped cream left so smoothed this over on top of the toffee sauce then added sliced banana to one side.  Sandwich the two halves together carefully.

To finish off I melted about 40g of dark chocolate in a bain marie and drizzled over the top of the cake making sure it dripped down the sides a bit.

This was just enough for 8 ladies!

happy birthday Julia

A cake inspired by gardening for Julia's birthday.  It's a bit of a wild garden with unkempt grass, daisies and buttercups and not a reflection on Julia's lovely garden.






I used my trusty Very Chocolate Cake recipe and went over the top with the decoration.  For the filling I had some ganache made up in the freezer (more cream left over from St George's Day) and some homemade blackberry jam.  Never tried freezing ganache before but it works well.  Whipped it up before freezing and it came out ready to use.

grass/hair nozzle

To decorate I smoothed some reserved ganache over the sides and decorated with ivy leaves made from ready-made icing with a bit of green colouring in.

The top was green butter icing using a grass and hair nozzle.  Never used this before and it took a bit of getting used to.  You need to squeeze the piping bag and pull up sharply.  I got better as I went along so some of the lawn was a bit uneven but whose isn't?





Daisies, buttercups and butterflies were made using some more of the ready-made icing again in varying colours.








So there you have it, way too much chocolate, sugar and artificial colourings.
Yum!

Pretty pleased with the results and had a great time making it. 

Right, what next?

happy Friday cake

Thursday afternoon was a bit quiet in the office so the ladies decided I really should make a cake for Friday.  Still jam and cream left over from St George's Day scones (cream ready whipped in the freezer) so chocolate cake with cream and strawberry jam it is....

I recently bought a heart-shaped silicon baking mould but haven't had an opportunity to use it so this seemed like the right time.  It's about 20cm across on the widest point and 4cm deep. 

So, for each layer I used

35g melted plain chocolate
85g stork marg
85g light muscavado sugar
20g cocoa
85g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
50ml milk

The usual method - cream together the marg and sugar.  Beat in the egg.  Put the dry ingredients together and add half to the marg/sugar/egg mix.  Stir in the melted chocolate.  Add the other half of the dry ingredients.  Pour in enough milk to make it just right and beat until everything is well mixed in. 

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Rinse and repeat!  (I only have the one heart shaped mould)

Once cooled sandwich together the two halves with copious amounts of strawberry jam and whipped cream.  I reckon I used about 2 tablespoons of jam and 100ml of double cream whipped up.  I tend to mix the jam and cream together before putting it in the cake as it just makes it easier.

OK so the ganache is a bit rough but it was iced at about 5.30 on Friday morning!

To finish I melted the rest of the chocolate I had (I'd bought 2 100g bars so that would have left about 130g less the couple of squares I ate whilst waiting for the cakes to bake) and made a quick ganache* using around 100ml cream and smothered the cake in chocolately yumminess.  Topped it off with pink fairy sprinkles and ta da!  Happy Friday cake

Love you!






* to make ganache, melt the chocolate in a bain marie.  Whilst it's melting, bring the cream to the boil then gradually beat the cream into the melted chocolate a bit at a time.  Once cooled it can be whipped for a lighter texture.

orange and raisin scones

This one is for Dad as I know he's partial to scones.  I have rather a lot of whipped cream left over from St George's Day so a good way to use some up.


to make about 8 scones
225g self raising flour
50g butter
2tsp baking powder
25g caster sugar
1 egg
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
*50g raisins


Combine the flour, baking powder and sugar, and rub in the butter.  Beat the egg and make up the amount of liquid to 130ml with the orange juice and a bit of milk if need be.  Add the orange zest,  raisins, egg and juice to the flour mixture and form a soft dough.  Gently roll it out to about 15-20mm thick and cut up using a 60mm cutter - don't mess it about too much as you want them to be light.  Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes at 220c.

Serve with too much jam and whipped cream


* I always soak my dried fruit it boiling water (or tea without milk) for at least 10 minutes before using them as it makes them a bit more succulent.


So scones...the fastest cake in the world...

breast-ever birthday cake

Making a birthday cake for a friend who is 60 this week.  What does a 60 year old man like?  Hmmm?  I had a few suggestions from other people but decided to do a boob cake.  This is my first attempt at a novelty cake.

Initially I tried to make the entire cake in a 1lt pudding basin to get the right shape but the sponge wouldn't cook properly all the way through.  I was left with an uncooked centre so the outside was munched on with a cup of tea whilst I thought about what to do next.  Second attempt was still in the pudding basin but cooked in the microwave.  Whilst this cooked properly and had a good shape I'm not so keen on the texture of microwave sponges.  They seem more like steamed sponges and have a tendency to go a bit dry once cooled.  That one is now in the freezer ready to make a trifle.  Third (and final attempt) was a basic Victoria sponge, half in the pudding basin for the round top and the other half in a 7" round sandwich tin.

Per boob (as I only did one at a time)

175g stork cake margarine
175g caster sugar
175 self raising flour
1 1/12 tsp baking powder
3 eggs

Beat together margarine and sugar.  Add eggs.  Beat well, then add flour and baking powder.  Pour equally into a greased pudding basin and lined sandwich tin.  Bake at 180c for about 25-30 minutes.  I found the pudding basin section took a longer than the tin.

Leave to cool and do it all again.

I used butter icing and home-made blackberry jam in the middle.  For the butter icing I used 200g butter and 400g icing sugar.  Beat well and try not to eat too much.

For decorating, (after a bit of googling to get some ideas I found a lovely pair by Little Pickers)  I reserved some of the butter icing and covered the cake completely with a thin layer to ensure the icing stuck.  I also made sure the gaps where the two cakes joined were covered to ensure a smooth finish.  To make the flesh colour I used a tiny bit of red food colouring and an even tinier bit of yellow in a block of white ready made icing.  Smooth it over and then go mad on the bra.  The lace was just thin bits of black icing slightly crumpled.

Note to self: make sure you cut your finger nails quite short before doing icing again!

Very pleased with these.

pineapple upsidedown cake

A seventies special today.  I had a pineapple that was starting to look a bit past its best so pineapple upsidedown cake it is.  Haven't had this for absolutely years and never made it before.

for the pineapple top/bottom
4 thick slices of pineapple
50g light brown sugar
50g butter
glacé cherries

Cream together the butter and sugar and spread over the bottom of a 20cm square lined tin.  Arrange the pineapple in a pretty pattern then put cherries in the centre of the rings and dot some round.  Try not to eat too many cherries!

for the cakey bottom/top
150g stork for cakes
150g self raising flour
150g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 tbsp of some liquid*

* use the syrup out of the tin if using tinned pineapple, or honey, or (as I did today) some toffee ice cream sauce left over from the banoffi cupcakes.

Cream together the margarine and sugar.  Beat in the eggs, then the flour, baking powder and liquid.  Pour over the pineapple and bake for about 40minutes at 160c.  Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes to let the syrup set a bit then flip it over and get out the flares.

Easypeasy

choccy bunnies and easter chicks

Easter next weekend so I think some biscuits are in order.  Choccy bunnies for Boris and some yellow chicks on orange biscuits.

for the biscuits
100g softened butter
100g caster sugar
1 egg
275g plain flour
zest of 1 orange

Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest.  Beat in the egg.  Add the flour and mix together until a soft dough is formed.  I found it was still a little too crumbly so added a squeeze of orange juice.

Roll out until about 5mm thick and using cutters, make into bunnies and chicks.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190c for about 15-20 minutes until just golden brown.  Leave to cool.  I then popped them bake in the oven for a few minutes just to crisp them up and biscuits should traditionally be cooked twice*

for the orange topping
about 100g icing sugar
a squeeze of orange juice
a couple of drops of yellow food colouring

Mix together until just liquid but not too much so.

for the orange topping
50g dark chocolate
a squeeze of orange juice

Decorate the chicks with yellow icing and the bunnies with chocolate.  Leave to set in a cool place.

OK, so they're not brilliant but they make me happy!

* The name biscuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere, coctus (to cook, cooked), and means "twice-cooked".  This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried out in a slow oven.