Orange Lightning Cake

There seems to be a permanent trend and desire for super fast cooking. Jamie Oliver went from his 30 minute meals to just 15 minutes and magazines sell editions by emphasizing the fast and simple nature of recipes that are perfect for after work. Often, however, these recipes are hardly recipes at all, using pre cooked, chopped and garnished ingredients to get something tasty on the table fast. This cake is the best of both worlds: fits the speedy bill – hence it’s name – yet you end up with something delicious and all natural.I’ve seen lots of recipes for all-in-one whole orange cakes that involve boiling oranges for hours until soft and then whizzing to a smooth cake mixture. Today’s unusual cake goes one step further – simply quartering a whole, raw, unpeeled orange, taking out any pips and whizzing until smooth in a food processor followed by the rest of the ingredients. It feels quite strange, and a little bit wrong, but it works out so well! Whizzing up the fresh orange means the mixture and cooking cake smell amazing and the final cake has a great sunshiney orange colour.The little chunks of orange peel add a nice texture to the cake – just like candied peel but without all the added sugar! All in all I was a real fan of this cake – it’s one of those that you just keep cutting tiny slivers of until you realise rather a large proportion of the cake has now gone… You can find the recipe here (I left out the walnuts, keeping the delightfully soft and squidgy texture of the cake) – enjoy!

Spiced Apple Buns

These buns are the recipe I mentioned I was forced to put on hold due to the combination of a lack of ingredients + heavy snow = me not going outside. Normally I’d have just forgotten about the recipe and moved on to one of the many other tempting bakes in my cookbooks or recipe files, but something made me keep thinking about these. Then I was looking back through my archives and noticed that in January 2011 I posted these Stollen Swirls and in January 2010 I made Glazed Fruit Rolls – I clearly have a thing for yeasted rolls in January! It must be a combination of wanting to start the new year by challenging myself in baking including doing more work with yeast, and the more simple desire of something warm, doughy and carby to eat in the cold! Either way it was a clear sign and as soon as the pesky snow melted I was out making sure my cupboards were prepared for these.The recipe was an interesting twist from standard Cinnamon Rolls and I thought the combination of tart apple and super sweet marzipan alongside the rich bread dough would go down a treat. I was not proved wrong! When I was layering up the fillings onto my rolled out dough there seemed to be a heck of a lot of apple, marzipan and sultanas if I was planning to roll these up neatly. I decided just to add one large apple instead of two and whilst the buns were definitely quite full I think they would have benefited from the extra apple for more tartness as the apple chunks reduced in the oven quite drastically. Note to self: stick to the recipe! Having said that, I added a simple glace icing which I think added a good extra element.These are nicest warm out the oven, but even after a couple of days a few seconds in the microwave will easily restore them to this goodness. You can find the recipe here – enjoy!

Stollen Swirls

I made these before Christmas, and the post I’d written about them was pre-Christmas themed. That post never got posted and so new words had to be written. Except, why not keep it simple? It is New Year, a period when everybody is meant to be eating healthy salads and vegetables in order to get over festive excess (although who really does?). So, my main stollen point is: the swirls  were good, but I think could be a easily improved to make them so much better.  I’ve never attempted making the classic stollen before so I was eager to give it a go this year. This recipe was a little bit different and as I can never resist anything involving marzipan the baking began. The end result was tasty, they made the house smell gorgeous and the recipe worked perfectly. My key adaptation would be instead of forming a marzpian log down the centre of the swirls, roll it out into a thin layer on top of the dough and then add the fruit. This way, just like here, the marzipan would melt and go toffee-ish and impart its flavour across the whole swirl. Yum. I’d also up the fruit levels, and cut the rolls thinner so its less plain doughy. Failing that, I’d flavour the dough with spices like cinnamon to give this extra punch. Double Yum. You can find the recipe here, enjoy :)

Carrot Cake

Everybody’s tastes are slightly different. When you Google “chocolate chip cookie” you will get hundreds of thousands of results. Everyone has their own recipe for what they call the best chocolate chip cookie or ultimate brownie, and spend a life time tweaking it to perfection. But its not only chocolate cookies and brownies – the perfect carrot cake is a recipe I’ve been searching for for a long time. I’ve previously tried ‘perfect’ recipes which turned out too eggy, too oily, cakes where the sultanas/ cinnamon/ pineapple overpower the decent carrot flavour. But now, I feel I’m maybe getting closer. The recipe came from Nigel Slater’s new vegetable book, Tender and is apparently a recipe he is constantly asked for. Even in a book based purely around vegetables I will find a sweet recipe! The layers of cake baked up quite small and crunchy round the edges, so the icing complemented it perfectly. Although Nigel Slaters’ recipe was a mix of mascarpone and cream cheese I went full cream cheese and pumped it full of orange flavour.  I’m not going to say that this is the best carrot cake you will ever find because I’m sure it can be improved. But it is soft and decadent, it is full of different flavours that benefit each other and it is a good all-round treat. Give it a go!

Oaty Cookies x 2!

Q: What do you do when it is rainy and cold outside, and your blog feels neglected?
A: Bake cookies!

Or to be precise oat and vanilla cookies, followed by oat and raisin cookies! Both were yummy!
A few days ago I got Rachel Allen’s new book, Bake. I love Rachel Allen and her books – and I’d love to see her if I go to Ballymaloe when I am older.
The first cookie, Oat and Vanilla Shortbread was my first roll-and-slice cookie. I got the dough together and rolled it but I couldn’t get the perfect circles as in her photos, so mine were rectangular. It didn’t affect the crunchy, melt-in-the-mouth taste though! It would be easy to put add-ins to this shortbread – it might be extra good with lemon or orange zest, but they were good with just vanilla.

Oat and Vanilla Shortbread Cookies
Makes about 40

200g (7oz) butter, softened
100g (3 ½ oz) icing sugar, sifted
1tsp vanilla extract
200g (7oz) plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
100g (3 ½ oz) porridge oats

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C (350’F), Gas Mark 4.
2. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer until soft. (I did both the cookies using first my hand-held mixer and then swapping to my wooden spoon).
3. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then stir in the oats and bring the mixture together to form a dough.
5. Using a sheet of cling film to cover the dough, roll it into a log about 30cm (12in) long and 6cm (2 ½ in) in diameter.
6. Allow to chill in the fridge, covered in the cling film, for about 30 minutes until firm.
7. Remove the cling film, slice the log into rounds about 5mm (1/4 in) thick and place slightly apart on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

8. Bake in the oven for 15minutes or until light golden brown and dry to the touch.
9. Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Whilst those were chilling in the fridge, I tidied up and got started again on Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies. These were slightly different to the shortbread – a much stickier dough. Rachel Allen says you don’t need to line the trays but I always do as a precaution – after my chocolate cookies stuck! Rachel also says you could try putting chocolate in these instead of the raisins – but I’d like them with both!

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

makes about 30 cookies

110g (4oz) butter, softened
110g (4oz) caster sugar
110g (4oz) soft brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp water
1tsp vanilla extract
250g (9oz) porridge oats
110g (4oz) self-raising flour
1 level tsp salt (I left this out because my butter was salted)
110g (4oz) raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C (350’F), Gas Mark 4.
2. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in an electric food mixer until soft.
3. Add the sugars and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg, water and vanilla extract while still beating.
5. Reduce the speed and gently mix in the oats, flour, salt and raisins to form a dough.
6. Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place slightly apart on two baking trays.

7. Bake in the oven for 12-25 minutes or until light golden brown but still slightly soft in the centre.
8. Allow to cool on the trays for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

As you can see, I slightly overcooked the first batch of Oat and Raisin Cookies so they were a bit darker than the rest. Happily, this did not affect the taste and we are feasting on cookies! Now I'm off to Youth Group at the church where it is Film & Popcorn Night tonight - and I'm stuffed already!