Its never to early..

To be festive!

I saw this cake in the Observer Food Monthly magazine (it is a Nigel Slater recipe) and made it because I am feeling extremely excited about Christmas and this looked like a perfect early festive cake!

The cake smelt amazing whilst cooking because of the cinnamon and ginger, and looks lovely once its done. It only took 25 minutes to cook and I had the oven on quite low. Finally I spread the large amount of big pillowy Clementine icing on top and it was perfect! Once I had the icing on I popped it all in the fridge so the icing could set a bit and make it a bit easier to cut.

(My cake ingredients waiting to be turned into something delicious!)

A note about this icing: in the recipe it said 300ml of cream cheese, and of course on the cream cheese tub it is measured in grams. I put the whole tub of 200g of Philadelphia in and I was happy, but you might need more if you want it even thicker or less if you prefer it thinner.

I made quite a few substitutions in this recipe, not because I didn't think they would work but simply because I didn’t have the ingredients in. The main one was not including the diced ginger or ginger syrup. This made the cinnamon more prominent – not a bad thing in my eyes (or taste buds!) Then I used plain brown sugar instead of muscovado, which meant the cake wasn’t such a dark treacly colour. Finally, I used raisins instead of sultanas!

Maybe in future I would try with the ginger syrup etc. to get a much stronger ginger taste, or even go the other way and add extra clementine to the cake itself to make it extra fruity. Parts of the method for making this cake were similar to my last recipe. One last complaint is it uses lots of bowls, mixers, saucepans and spoons! Here is the link to the recipe for the cake! :)

(The finished cake, with the zest of one more clementine on top!)

Cake and An Award!

What could be better?

Mmmmm this tea bread was absolutely delicious! I wasn’t sure whether I would really like it but I definitely do. The recipe calls it a dark and sticky tea bread which is perfect for it – it is like a dark toffee cake in some ways. Making it was such fun as well because you boil sugar, sultanas, water and butter up with bicarbonate of soda! Like making honeycomb, it puffs up very high so if you make this watch it very carefully – just as the recipe suggests :) I liked this unusual technique of boiling everything together because the mixture goes from a very pale golden brown, gradually to a dark golden all the way through to a thick dark toffee-mixture. Also, the liquid rehydrates the raisins and they puff up like cranberries! The recipe says to cook for 1 1/2 hours, but I only did it 45 minutes and it was definitely done – in fact it probably could have had less.

The recipe is from Frugal Food by Delia Smith. This book was originally published in 1976 ( I have the old version!) but Delia has recently republished it as a big hardback book – the same recipes but in more modern measurements. You can find the recipe here, on Delia Online.

Now, my award! I was thrilled to receive the I <3 Your Blog Award from Steph, of Obsessed With Baking. Steph started her blog a few months before I did and I urge you to go over and read it. She is a member of TWD and the Daring Bakers and makes lots of delicious things!

I am passing this award onto:

1. Marie of A Year From Oak Cottage

2. Tulip of Tulip’s Kitchen

3. Antonia of Food, Glorious Food!

4. Culinary Travels Of A Kitchen Goddess

5. Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

I hope they like it and thank-you again Steph!

Bakewell Slice

The exact origins of Bakewell Tart are not very clear, but the story that most people know is the one about the woman from Bakewell, in 1820. She owned a pub called the White Horse Inn and left instructions for her cook to cook a jam tart. However instead of stirring the eggs and almond mixture into the pastry, she spread it on top of the pastry. It was such a hit it became a regular feature at the pub (now called the Rutland Arms) and two shops in Bakewell still claim to sell the original recipe. There is also Cherry Bakewell (like the Kipling variety – iced with half a glace cherry on top) and there's also a Bakewell pudding which is made with puff pastry.

The Bakewell Tart I made yesterday is from Tana Ramsay’s book “real family food” and is a traditional version – shortcrust pastry, spread with jam and covered with an almond sponge. It was yummy! We won this book in a competition a while ago but this is the first recipe we have made from it. Also, it is the only Ramsay family book in our house! But this recipe did work well, was easy to do and had great results. A keeper methinks!

The recipe said to use 375g bought shortcrust pastry, but as I belong to Baked from Scratch <<<> I decided to make my own so I used my Mum's simple recipe...

250g plain flour

125g butter

50mls water

Put your butter and flour in a mixer and whizz to breadcrumbs. Add as much water as you need to bring it together to a dough!

Then I carried on with Tana’s recipe..

Bakewell Slice, from real family food by Tana Ramsay.

375g pack of shortcrust pastry (or make your own as above...)
8tbsp raspberry jam (I used blackcurrant but you could use any flavour – strawberry and cherry would be good too)
170g/6oz unsalted butter, softened
200g/8oz caster sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
2tbsp lemon juice
1tsp baking powder
250g/110oz ground almonds
50g/2oz flaked almonds
icing sugar, to dust

1. Roll out the pastry until it is approximately 3mm/ 1/8 inch thick. Line a 22cm/9inch tart tin and trim the edges with a knife. Chill in the fridge for ½ hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5. Prick the base of the pastry, add some baking beans or dried pasta then bake blind for approximately 15minutes. Remove the baking beans and place the pastry back in the oven to lightly colour for five minutes.
3. Spread the jam over the pastry and start to make the filling.
4. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Slowly add the eggs and lemon juice. Add the almond extract and fold in the ground almonds.
5. Spoon the mixture over the jam base and spread evenly. Sprinkle over the flaked almonds.
6. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes until the filling is golden on top and feels firm in the middle. If the pastry starts to get too brown, cover with foil.
7. Remove and allow to cool.
8. Dust lightly with icing sugar. When totally cool, slice up.

Oh, and todays special Food Holidays are: National Pumpkin Day, National Pretzel Day and National Mince Meat Pie Day. October is also National Caramel Month and National Vegetarian Awareness Month. I love these random days!

Digestive Biscuits

Recently my parents went to stay in a beautiful hotel (Le Manoir de Raynaudes) in the tarn region of South-West FranceThey had a lovely time and brought back lots of presents! First up, for me and my sister, some very pretty and totally French chocolate baguettes :)

They also bought home two bags of crackly, nutty, almond tuile biscuits which my Mum adores and were greatly appreciated at my Dad’s work!

Finally, Mummy took her book that Orlando Murrin (the owner of the hotel) has written all the way to France. It is full of recipes for the food that Orlando serves at the hotel. He signed it too!

It is a beautiful book and my parents had a lovely long weekend there. Because they had such a nice time and they told me how good the food was, I decided to recreate some of the yummy food they had had over there back in rainy England...no easy task! They had told me about some delicious digestive biscuits they had been given and as the recipe was in the book, and I adore digestives I chose to give these a go.

Sure enough, they were truly scrumptious! Nutty from the oatmeal, crunchy round the edges and softer in the middle. I like these because they could be used either truly savoury for a cheeseboard, or sweeter by being dipped in chocolate for homemade chocolate digestives!

Here is the recipe – try them and see what you can do! Also, buy the book as there are lots more yummy things in it – I would like to try the mint truffles next :)

Home-made digestives, from A Table In The Tarn by Orlando Murrin

Makes 15-30, depending on size

100 medium oatmeal or rolled oats
100g wholemeal flour
45g brow sugar
75g butter
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3-4tbsp milk
squeeze of lemon juice

1. Process the first 3 ingredients until well combined.(Oatmeal, brown sugar, wholemeal flour)

1. Add the butter, bicarb and salt, then most of the milk and lemon juice. Whizz until the mixture comes together, adding the remaining milk if necessary. The dough will be slightly tacky.
2. Roll out on a floured surface to biscuit thickness and stamp out rounds of whatever size you fancy. Making them small and elegant is harder work than making large ones. Prick once or twice decoratively with a fork.
3. Bake at 200’C (190’Fan) for 10-12 minutes, till just starting to go brown at the edges, not all over. Smaller ones might take less time.

Veryy yummy! Oh, whilst researching for a fun topic for me and Chloe to do as a form assembly, I stumbled upon a great website with a National Food Day for every single day of the year, as well as Food Weeks and months. Every time I post I shall update you on that days day (if you are still following!) although I warn you some are extremely random! Today, October 21st, is Apple Day and National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day! October is the month of many random foods, including National Cookie Month – very appropriate considering my last post! Also, this week is Chicken Soup for the Soul Week!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

OK, so yesterday I said I wasn’t such a fan of cake. I do like, however sticky iced loaf cakes – just like this one!

One thing I find very annoying about baking is when I settle down to make whatever I have chosen, and then I find haven’t got one of the ingredients. So out I hop to the shops, buy what I need, come back and try again. I read a little further down the recipe and check the fridge and OH there is another ingredient I don’t have! Out to the shops I go again, trying not to catch the person’s eye at the till or just exclaiming “Forgot this!” Aargh it is very annoying and makes me want to own a Sainsbury’s so I would only have to go downstairs! I know, normal people would read the whole recipe through first but what can I say!

My Mum found this recipe on The Guardian website and it was a nice simple bake pretty much just organising the wet and dry ingredients separately and then mixing together. Not a lot to say about the cake apart from: it has a nice dense crumb, and if you are a lemon fan, try it out because it does have a strong lemon tang!

More Cookies!

I know, another cookie recipe! At this rate I should probably rename this blog Cookie Baker! Ok maybe not, but I do know that this is my seventh cookie recipe on here! I make them a lot because there are soo many different cookies you can make and they are so easy to whip up. My favourite two sweets are cookies and pie J and I’m not such a fan of cake – so it all makes sense really! Anyway, these cookies do deserve to be on here!

There’s often a little story behind my cookie bakes – a new book, an event or a time honoured recipe. Today however it was just this simple equation: Sister wants cookies + Teen Baker wants cookies and a break from homework and to blog = ...double chocolate cookies!

They are from Rachel Allen’s book, Bake, just like the oaty ones last week. Not quite as healthy as the oaty ones, but just as tasty. Rachel Allen provides the basic cookie recipe and then I added the Double Choc Variation so I’ve included that beneath the recipe below. Another variation she had was dried cranberry (which I tried recently when a packet came free in our Ocado shop and I liked) and white chocolate which sound yummy

These cookies came out crisp on the outside and like a brownie inside! They have hardened up slightly since but still have a delicious fudgy centre.
Basic Cookie Recipe, and double chocolate chip variation, from Bake by Rachel Allen

225g (8oz) butter, softened

110g (4oz) caster sugar

275g (10oz) plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 170’C (325’F), Gas Mark 3.
2. Cream the butter in a large bowl or in a food mixer until soft.
3. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Sift in the flour and spices or grated zest (if using) and bring the mixture together to from a dough.
5. Using your hands, roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place them slightly apart on a baking tray.
6. Flatten them slightly with the back of a damp fork and bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes or until they are slightly firm on top. (mine took 12 minutes, they were very soft when I took them out but they harden as they cool on the tray)
7. Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Double chocolate chip variation:
Use 250g (9oz) plain flour and add 50g (2oz) sifted cocoa powder to the flour. Bring the dough together and mix in 125g (4 ½ oz) dark or white chocolate chips ( I bashed up most of a 200g milk chocolate bar).

A couple of weeks ago now, I was thrilled to receive my first blogging award! It was from the great Marie, at A Year from Oak Cottage. It was the Brilliante Weblog Premio-2008 Award (to give it its full title!) and I was very honoured. Thank you Marie!
I know I have to pass this on to seven people, I think, but I’m still deciding so I will get back to you! Tomorrow, its lemon time :)