Sticky ginger and banana bread

I had wanted to post this in time for Bonfire Night as the warming ginger in this cake seems to make it perfect for eating next to a bonfire, preferably with a mug of mulled wine in the other hand. Even though it's a little late, it's still perfect for perking you up in colder weather.

This started life as a Jamie Oliver recipe, but has since swayed quite a lot off course. Jamie's recipe is here, for my version, I added a couple of bananas I had lying around (they were actually snuggled up to the last of our green tomatoes in the hope that they might turn red) and cut down on the vast quantities of sugar and golden syrup. However, the finished result is still sticky and sweet and full of gingery kick. It's also firm enough to travel well as a little snack for the office, which is always good.


I also wanted to share a neat trick that I discovered recently. If you don't have a cake tester (who does?) then a strand of spaghetti works really well. Instead of huge dents left by testing with a knife, and I usually end up testing a few times, you get a barely discernible hole. Genius!

Ingredients

8 pieces stem ginger
4 tbsp stem ginger syrup
150g butter, softened
100g golden syrup
50g dark muscavado sugar
2 eggs
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp soft brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Put the stem ginger into a food processor and whizz until it's a paste.
Add the syrup, softened butter, golden syrup and sugar and blend until thick and fluffy.
Add the eggs and blend again until well combined and smooth.
Sift in the flour, baking poweder, ground ginger and cinamon and blend until a thick better forms.
Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin, smooth the mixture with a spatula and sprinkle over the sugar.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes, or until risend and golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Read more...

Apple and olive oil cake

I've been lusting after the Ottolenghi Cookbook for a while and I finally got it for my birthday a few weeks ago. A weekend lusting after the cakes and beautiful salads ensued as I littered it with post-it notes for 'must try' recipes.

For those of you not familiar with the London restaurant, this book is all about big and beautiful salads, using ingredients in new and delicious ways as well as the most fabulous cakes and pastries - the best of both worlds then...(see this post for 101 Cookbook's take on Ottolenghi and another recipe). Yotam Ottolenghi also has a regular column in the Guardian on Saturday - Yotam Ottolenghi's inventive, modern vegetarian recipes.

Everyone who has this book has recommended the apple and olive oil cake so it was top of my to-do list. A light and airy cake packed full of apples, lemon zest and olive oil. The olive oil is not overpowering at all but adds a wonderful complex flavour. And, it just keeps getting better, the whole thing is sandwiched together with luscious maple syrup icing (I used golden syrup) - a delicious butterscotch take on the classic cream cheese icing.

This cake was devoured in a matter of days to a chorus of quiet 'mmms...' Need I say more?Make this cake and make it soon.

Ingredients

280g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4tsp bicarbonate of soda
120ml olive oil
160g caster sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 Bramley apples, peeled cored and chopped into 1cm dice
grated zest of 1 lemon
2 egg whites

Icing
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g light muscavado sugar
85ml maple syrup (or golden syrup)
220g cream cheese, at room temperature

• Preheat the oven to 170C
• Sift the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
• Meanwhile, whisk the olive oil, vanilla and sugar (preferably with an electric whisk) together until voluminous and smooth. Next whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
• Stir in the apples and lemon zest and then the flour.
• Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold carefully into the cake batter.
• Grease and line two sandwich tins and bake for 45mins until a cake batter comes out clean.
• Once cooked, allow the cakes to cool completely before icing.
• To make the icing, beat together the butter and maple syrup and sugar until light and airy. Beat in the cream cheese until totally smooth.
• Use the icing to the sandwich the cakes and smooth the remaining on top.

Read more...

Carrot and Pecan Cake

This cake was inspired by the delicious Gails in Hampstead. We went there for a post lunch cake and coffee (and promptly spent £10!). I decided on the carrot cake, a big blousy affair covered in cream cheese icing, moist and absolutely delicious.

It inspired me to make my own, especially as there are usually a few carrots lingering at the bottom of the fridge. This cake is a mish mash of flavours, yoghurt and oil for moistness, chopped dates reduce the amount of sugar needed and add a touch of caramel, a hint of orange and plenty of chopped pecans.

Is it as good as Gails? I think so and I don't have to pay 4 quid for a slice...



Ingredients

75g yoghurt
125ml sunflower oil
zest 1 orange and juice of 1/2
150g sugar
100g dates, finely chopped into a paste
3 eggs
175g plain flour
2 1/2tsp baking powder
2tsp cinnamon
3 carrots, peeled and finely grated
100g pecans, chopped

Whisk the sugar, oil, zest and yoghurt in a large mixing bowl.
Add the eggs one at a time and whisk in thoroughly followed by the orange juice and dates.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and mix well.
Stir in the carrots and pecans.
Transfer to 2 lined sandwich tins and bake at 180C for 30mins until golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

For the icing, beat a 200g tub of cream cheese cheese with 200g icing sugar and a squeeze of orange.
Read more...

Banana, Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

I've taken to freezing bananas whenever there's a stray overripe one lying around. It renders them almost completely useless, as they turn into a sludgy mess when defrosted. However, looks aside, they do make perfect banana bread and that way I can freeze a banana every so often until I have enough in the freezer to bake with.

I came across this recipe while looking up Nigella classic banana bread in How to be a Domestic Goddess. These are ridiculously easy to make and taste as good at they sound. The dried raspberries (or cherries) contrast with the sweet banana muffin and the white chocolate adds a butterscotch touch.



Ingredients

Taken from How to be a Domestic Goddess but changed slightly

125g butter
200g sugar
1tsp vanilla
3 ripe medium bananas
4tbsp yoghurt
2 eggs
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2tsp baking powder
300g flour
40g dried raspberries, cherries
50g white chocolate

• Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray with cases.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the sugar and vanilla using a fork.
• Add the bananas, mashing them into the mixture as you go.
• Stir in the eggs, yoghurt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
• Finally add the flour, chocolate and raspberries, stir until just combined and divide between the 12 muffins cases.
• Bake for 20mins until golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Read more...

Brixton's Bazaar

Anyone who loves to cook harbours fantasies of having their own market stall. Naturally, I have always wanted one, but having worked in the food buisness for a long time, I know that it is a lot of work for not a lot of reward. That said, I found myself agreeing to fill a spot at the up and coming Brixton's Bazaar - a market that's just got going opposite the Ritzy and in time will be on the newly renovated Windrush Square complete with live music and performances.



So, a Saturday of baking ensued and my friend Kat and I produced a pile of brownies, lemon drizzle cake, carrot cake, vanilla cupcakes and chocolate Guinness cake. All the usual suspects but so good when homemade (well). Of course, the chocolate Guinness cake is a little different, a Nigella gem (obviously) - you do get a hint of Guinness in the cake, but really you just end up with a rich, dense, almost fudgy cake that is so easy to make (recipe here).


Things were a little quiet as the market has only just got going, but there were still plenty of people and it was so satisfying to see people enjoying the cakes - there were a few double takes when people tried samples and said "wow, that is really good!". Having said that, several people seemed genuinely surprised that we actually made them ourselves! Of course, in my experience, the best bit about doing a market is the sense of community and the swapping of goods at the end. In exchange for some leftover cakes we got some olives, a chorizo and some delicious creole fish cakes. Read more...

Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake

This is based on the fabulous yoghurt cake recipe. If I haven't mentioned this before, then you must must must try this recipe. It's so so easy, requires NO weighing and is endlessly adaptable. My personal favourite is dark cherry yoghurt, replacing some of the flour with ground almonds or even oats.

Great for people who don't bake much, all you need is a bowl large enough to mix everything in and a receptacle for baking. Try muffin, sandwich or loaf tins. Even a large rectangle tin would be perfect for creating bite size cakes for afternoon tea.

I'm still developing student recipes for www.oxnosh.co.uk. While I knew this recipe would be great for students, I wanted something that would also work for a birthday cake. Birthdays are generally the occasion when most people dust of their mixing bowls. To me, birthday + student = chocolate. So, I tweaked the yoghurt cake recipe and came up with this version using cocoa powder, no chocolate melting involved!

You end up with a rich, moist chocolate cake ready for decorating. Make sure the cake is comletely cool before attempting to ice, too many times have I let impatience get the better of me and ended up fighting back the melting whipped cream (and the tears) as it cascades down the side of the cake.
Here we've filled the cake with whipped cream and iced with chocolate ganache, but you could try a mascarpone and raspberry filling. An easy grown up version - chocolate and raspberries are a delicious combination, strawberries would be great too. Mascarpone, although a little more expensive is great because all you need to do is stir it vigorously with a little icing sugar and maybe vanilla until it's soft and billowing like a dense whipped cream and stir the fruit in gently. Spoon generously onto one sandwich and top with the other.


My top tip for icing a cake successfully with minimum mess is to tear 4 long strips of greaseproof paper and place them on the edge of your plate. Top with the filled cake and do one layer of icing. The greasproof paper means you can be as messy as you want (within reason), you're going for general coverage here, trying to make the surface as smooth as possible in a thin coat of icing. Let this chill in the fridge before doing the second layer.

Once dry, pull the strips out from under the cake for a perfectly clean plate.

Chocolate Ganache Icing

• • 300ml double cream
• • 125g dark chocolate
• • 2tbsp icing sugar

Melt all the icing ingredients in a small saucepan, stirring gently. Keep whisking until it becomes thick and glossy.

Wait until the cakes are completely cool before icing. Place four strips of baking paper (or just normal paper) on the edge of a plate and place one of the cakes on top.

Pour half the cream into a large bowl with 1tbsp icing sugar and whisk until softly whipped (the peaks stand up by themselves). Spread this over the cake on the plate. Top with the other half.

Melt all the icing ingredients in a small saucepan, stirring gently. Keep whisking until it become thick and glossy. Ice the cake in 2 thin layers, chilling in between. Read more...

Carrot and Coconut Cake

Inspired by this recipe on 101cookbooks.com - I was all set to make a crazy sugar free super healthy cake. Thwarted by my local shops and with a distinct lack of dates, this isn't as healthy as I'd hoped for. But, like I said if you want to do that, make this recipe instead.

What I did come up with was a tropical carrot cake if you will, packed with dessicated coconuts, raisins and carrots. Perfect for an afternoon pick me up and I'd imagine all the better with some cream cheese frosting.


Ingredients

125ml oil
225g soft brown sugar (or 200g caster sugar )
3 eggs
3 medium carrots, grated
175g plain flour
2 1/2tsp baking powder
2tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp nutmeg
50g raisins, soaked in boiling water for 5mins and drained
100g dessicated coconut

• Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of a loaf tin with baking paper. I usually just use one big piece to line the base and the longer sides and don't bother with the shorter ones.
• Whisk the sugar, oil and eggs together until well combined.
• Sprinkle in the cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and flour, using a wooden spoon, stir into a thick batter.
• Stir in the carrots, coocnut and raisins. Spoon into the loaf tin.
• Bake in the ven for 30-40mins until its firm and springy on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Read more...

Apple and Walnut Cake

Fresh from the success of my oat and raisin cookies and still having a love affair with cinnamon scented baked goods, I came up with this cake. Really, I was also becoming accustomed to a little afternoon treat to perk me up and needed something to fill the cookie gap. While this cake is definitely going in my bag for tomorrow, I also had a sneaky piece tonight, warmed through in the oven with some ice cream. I imagine it would also be divine with a cloud of whipped cream dolloped on top.


This cake is dead easy to make, a simple batter made with oil (which incidentally makes it incredibly moist), with the apple chunks (I don't even bother to peel them) and chopped walnuts stirred in. I cooked it in a tray, but you could try it in a loaf tin or even a springform tin or try using some ground almonds instead of the walnuts.

Ingredients

125ml sunflower oil
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
225g plain flour
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp cinnamon
2tsp baking powder
250g apples (about 3 small ones), chopped into 1cm chunks
75g chopped walnuts

• Whisk the sunflower oil and sugar until completely combined.
• Whisk in the eggs one at a time.
• Stir in the flour, baking powder and spices.
• Add a little milk until the batter is of 'dropping consistency' (i.e. it drops off a spoon readily)
• Stir in the apples and walnuts.
• Spoon into a lined cake tin and bake at 180C for 30mins (times will depend on the type of tin used) until a skewer comes out clean.

Read more...

Oat and Raisin Cookies

I like chocolate in the right context - a dark and fugy brownie, thick and gloopy for dunking churros or an intense chocolate cake. But when it comes to most sweet things, ice cream, cakes etc. I prefer something a little plainer.

I like the simplicity of these oat and raisins cookies. To be honest, I thought about doing away with the raisins altogether and just having a soft and chewy oat cookie flavoured with cinnamon; but they do impart a little nugget of sweetness. The inclusion of oats also makes them fair game for breakfast. I made about 24 cookies from this, baked in two batches. Truth be told, the first lot burnt and I threw them out in a temper, but the second half were delicious, they kept happily in tupperware for several days.

The recipe is from Bake! by Rachel Allen and pretty straightforward. The only snag with making cookies is knowing when to remove them from the oven. Perfect chewy cookies become rocks in a matter of minutes. You want them golden around the edges, just hard; and still very soft in the middle. Once out of the oven, they will firm up a huge amount, I prefer mine on the edge of too soft rather than hard.

**Recipe from Bake! by Rachel Allen

Ingredients

Makes 25-30 cookies

110g soft butter
110g caster sugar
110g soft brown sugar
1 egg
2tbsp water
1tsp vanilla extract
250g porridge oats
110g self raising flour
1/2 tsp salt
110g raisins

• Cream the butter and sugars together with a wooden spoon or electric whisk until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, water and vanilla.
• Stir in the oats, flour, salt and raisins until you have a thick and stciky dough.
• Roll the dough into walnut sized pieced and place onto a lined baking sheet, spaced out.
• Bake at 180C for 15-20mins until light golden brown but still soft.
• Allow to cool for a few mins and then transfer to a wire rack.

Read more...

Breakfast Muffins

Well, winter has arrived, we're all wrapped up in coats, scarves and gloves have been dusted off, we even had snow! Of course, this means that in the vegetable box there are a lots and lots of carrots, onions and potatoes. This is no bad thing, I love carrots. The thing is, they seem to be going limp disappointingly quickly, which again isn't exactly a disaster, carrots roast up so well, especially in a soup, maybe with some lentils?

This time though, I decided carrot cake was the way to go, I started off with this carrot cake recipe intending to make muffins, but then as I started, I kind of got carried away, adding some plump juicy raisins, walnuts and oats for texture, a grated apple because, well, why not? So, what came out of the oven wasn't exactly carrot cake, but still delicious in a plainer sense, more something I can carry out the door with me in the morning to munch on on the tube, feeling a teeny bit healthy, well... all those oats, walnuts, carrots and apples!


Makes 12-15 muffins

250g sugar
200g flour
100g oats
1tsp salt
2tsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250ml oil
4 eggs
3 medium carrots, grated
1 apple, grated
100g walnuts, chopped
100g raisins

• Boil the kettle and cover the raisins with the hot water in a bowl.
• Meanwhile measure out the sugar, flour, oats, salt, cinnamon and soda in a large bowl.
• Add the oil and whisk well to combine.
• Crack the eggs in and whisk.
• Drain the water off the now plump raisins, add to the batter along with the carrots, apple and walnuts. Stir well.
• Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases, bear in mind that the mixture doesn't rise an awful lot so you can fill the cases at least 2/3 full.
• Bake at 180C for about 20mins until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Read more...

Damp Chocolate Cake

Another treat from How to Be a Domestic Goddess this is a simple plain loaf cake. That's not to say it isn't incredibly damp, intense and worryingly moreish. This is perfect on its own with tea or coffee or made more elaborate with the addition of some berries and ice cream or custard. Nigella confesses to liking it spread with cream chees, hmm will have to try that one out...

As its so moist, this cake keep like a dream, just make sure you line the tin well, or get some liners. It also improves after a day or so, perfect to make in advance.

Ingredients

225g soft butter
375g dark muscavado sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp vanilla
100g dark chocolate, melted
200g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda, added to the flour
250ml boiling water

• Preheat the oven to 190C and line your loaf tin.
• Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and vanilla, beating in well.
• Next pour in the chocolate and mix this in well too.
• Add half the flour to the batter and stir well, now add half the water and stir carefully until fully combined. Repeat with he rest of the flour and water.
• Be patient stirring the batter as you will end up with a very liquid consistency. Now decant into the loaf tin, don't be alarmed if it fills the tin almost to the top, the cake barely rises on cooking.
• Bake for 30mins, then turn the oven down and bake for another 15mins.
• Bear in mind a cake tester won't come out completely clean as the cake is so squidgy, it will also tend to sink a little in the middle for the same reason.
• Once cooked, remove from the tin and allow to cool.

Read more...

Carrot, Orange and Pistachio Cake

Carrot cake freshened with orange zest and a little texture from pistachio nibs comes together to make an altogether grown up carrot cake. Taken from the excellent Dan Lepard, I find his recipes tend to err on the side of complicated, so I’ve tweaked this to make it a little more user friendly whilst maintaining the seductive ... By all means use his recipe and look at others too, they are not your run of the mill cake recipes and all the better for it too.


Cakes come into the realm of true indulgence when iced, and look particularly pleasing a top a cake stand, I used a very simple cream cheese icing, with a little lime juice and icing sugar. The other day, my friend Kat brought me some carrot cake she made with cinnamon cream cheese icing, something I’ve never thought to do but delicious! I’ve lined this up to try with my next carrot cake.

I normally have some tahini knocking around to make hummus, it also make a very good sauce in its own right that’s perfect for roasted vegetables; here are some other recipe ideas. I'm sure no else is as silly as me, but a word of warning, do not keep tahini in the fridge. According the jar, it should be stored at room temperature and gets hard and difficult to use when kept in the fridge!

Whilst aimlessly browsing in Waitrose today, I saw a beetroot and tahini dip, I’m going to do some research, give it a try and get back to you, its always good to have new beetroot recipes...

Ingredients
75g tahini
125ml sunflower oil
Zest of 2 oranges, and 100ml juice (about ½ orange)
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
3 medium carrots (about 200g) grated finely
100g chopped pistachios
175g wholemeal flour (plain will do fine)
2½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg

• Grease and line the base of 2 sandwich tins and preheat the oven to 180C.
• Whisk the tahini, oil zest and sugar until smooth, next whisk in the eggs.
• Add the carrots and mix to distribute evenly, your mixture should now be a vivid orange colour! Add the orange juice and stir thoroughly.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg into a separate bowl and mix together. Combine with the carrot mixture and fold together.
• Finally, fold in the pistachios and transfer to the cake tins. Bake for 20-25mins until the tops are golden and firm to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing.

Icing
100g cream cheese
25g icing sugar
Juice and zest of half a lime.

• Beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until softened, add the lime juice and beat until smooth.
• Sift in the icing together and stir until dissolved.

Read more...

Lemon Drizzle Cake

I'm a big fan of plainer cakes, the kind that you can bake at the beginning of the week and have a slice (or two) everyday with a cup of tea. Lemon drizzle cake is a classic example of this genre, the syrup adds a little extra gooeyness to the cake.

This recipe is, naturally, Nigella's and you can't really go wrong with that. I like to sometimes substitute half the flour for ground almonds, or add poppy seeds to the cake (these little black seeds really transform it into something else). With my bottle of limoncello in hand, I've also been known to add a splash to the syrup. Now I'm also thinking that you could make a lime drizzle cake (use the zest of 2 limes instead) or orange, you'd probably need less sugar for the syrup.

We used this last night to make a mini trifle, I put a slice of the cake in the bottom of a small dish, topped with raspberries doused in icing sugar and limoncello and then topped with greek yoghurt (I couldn't be bothered to whip cream after I melted the wire on the my electric whisk).


Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon and 100ml lemon juice, about 1 lemon
175g self raising flour
pinch salt
4 tbsp milk

Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs one at a time, whisking thoroughly in between and finally the lemon zest. Now sift in the dry ingredients and fold together, add a little milk to loosen the mixture if it looks too stiff, t should be of 'dropping' consistency (i.e. it 'drops' off a spoon when held up). Transfer the mixture to a greased and lined loaf tin and bake at 180C for 45mins or until golden and a tester comes out clean.

Whilst the cake is cooking, prepare the syrup. Add the lemon juice and icing sugar to a pan, heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

Once the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and prick all over with a cake tester or knife, now pour the syrup over, allowing it to sink into the cake. Try to pour it over the middle so that it doesn't all go down the sides. Wait until the cake is completely cold before removing from the tin. Read more...

The Lavender Bakery

So, whilst trying to find a website for the post on Violet Cupcakes, I came across this blog for The Lavender Bakery. Another business making beautiful cupcakes with local, seasonal, organic and fair trade ingredients. It was this picture that caught my eye, how cute is this cake? I also saw a post where someone ordered lots of cakes to use as party invitations, I want my own cakes with my name on now! Read more...

Violet Cupcakes at Broadway Market

One of the treats I procured at the market were these dinky little cupcakes from Violet, the stall next to ours, click here for pictures of the stall - which is beautiful. This are a bit more special than your run of the mill cupcakes, even more special than the more famous cupcake sin London. Firstly, its all organic ingredients. Secondly, the sponge itself is nice too, too often with these cupcakes, its all about appearances and the sponge is all dry and hard. Thirdly, the icing was amazing! They use real fruit purees to colour the icing, and you can really taste it. I must experiment with my own soon....

Read more...

Blackberry and Limoncello Trifle

Oh my god. This is seriously my favourite dessert in the whole world. I cannot begin to describe the joy of eating this. My friend Jamie gave me a bottle of limoncello, a key ingredient in this recipe a few weeks ago and since then I've been dreaming of this trifle.

This is of course, based on a Nigella recipe and naturally Jamie introduced me to it, but now I can't remember who decided to change the trifle sponges for brioche, but either way, this only adds to amazingness.

This time I also decided to change the recipe further and use half double cream, half mascarpone. The only real disadvantage with this recipe is that the ingredients are pretty pricey. Seen as though I bought most of the ingredients in Waitrose, I couldn't bring myself to spend all that money on mascarpone. Plus, I think the double cream adds a lightness to the rich intense mascarpone.

As with most Nigella recipes, this makes a loooot, but it actually improves with age, so I wouldn't worry about making the whole batch, the leftovers can often be the best part. the picture is of an individual trifle that i made, mostly because I found these dinky dessert glasses. Otherwise I've been dreaming of this trifle dish

Ingredients

1 loaf brioche
200g blackcurrant jam
750g blackberries
1 200g packet amaretti biscuits, blended to a rubble
250ml limoncello
juice ½ lemon
100g sugar
2 x 250g mascarpone
½ pint double cream

Using half the jam, make sandwiches with the brioche, cut in half and squish into the bottom of your trifle dish. Sprinkle over half the amaretti biscuits and drizzle over 150ml of the limoncello.

Add the lemon juice, remaining jam and blackberries to a pan, simmer gently until for a minute or so until the juices start running. Now pour this over the liquer drenched brioche.

Whisk the double cream until its in stiff peaks and set aside. Now whisk the mascarpone with the sugar until smooth, slowly whisk in the remaining 100ml limoncello, then fold in the double cream. Dollop this delightful mixture on top of the berries. Now cover with clingfilm and allow to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight so that the flavours can mingle. Take the dish out of the fridge about 30mins before you want to eat and sprinkle over the remaining amaretti biscuits.

Try not to eat it all yourself....

Read more...

Custard Tarts

So I finally got round to recreating the amazing custard tarts I had a few weeks ago, having spent the interim time thinking about them a lot. Turns out they're pretty easy to make especially if you buy the pastry. Using cornflour in the custard, not only thickens the custard but stabilises the mixture so its much less likely to split. I baked these in a cupcake tray and then transferred them to the paper cases afterwards mostly because they looked pretty...

These are pretty standard portugese tarts, in looking for a recipe, the flavourings varied a little, I went for vanilla and nutmeg but some use orange zest and cinnamon which I wasn't so convinced about.

Ingredients

Makes 16 tarts

3 egg yolks
115g caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
250ml single cream
150ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch grated nutmeg
300g puff pastry

Whisk the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a pan until smooth, slowly add the milk and cream. Heat over a low heat, stirring fairly continuously until the mixture has come to the boil and thickened. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla and nutmeg. Cover with clingfilm, making sure the clingfilm touches the surface of the custard to prevent a skin forming and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile roll the puff pastry out to a rectangle about 1cm thick, roll up along the short side into a sausage and cut into 16 1cm rounds. Take each round and roll out flat to about 10cm diameter. Press the pastry rounds into the cupcake tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and grate a little nutmeg on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard are golden. Read more...

Mars Bar Rice Krispie Cakes

Rice krispie cakes were always my favourite thing about cake sales at school. Mars bar rice krispie cakes are really a whole other level of fudgy joy. My friend Jamie, the original baking goddess introduced me to these and now I would never make any different. Its as easy as making normal rice krispie cakes, just melt the mars bars with a little butter and stir in enough rice krispies so that they are evenly coated, allow to cool and try not to eat them all! Read more...

Gooey Chocolate Pudding

These are possibly the easiest dessert you could make, yet they still offer everything you could want in a sweet treat. Rich intense chocolate pudding with a gooey centre. The only difficult part is cooking the fondants, but even then its not that stressful as its fine to slightly undercook them, you just end up with more goo in the centre. Of course these need to be eaten with double cream, or ice cream, or maybe custard?

If you don't have ramekins, you can make this is in one large dish instead, but cook it for longer.

Ingredients

Makes 4 fondants

100g dark chocolate
100g butter
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
2tbsp flour

Melt the chocolate and butter. Meanwhile whisk the eggs and suagar together, whisk in the melted chocoalte and then the flour. transfer to 4 greased ramekins. Bake at 180°C for 12-15mins until the top feels frim but still soft underneath. Read more...

Beetroot Cake

Don't be put off by the title, think carrot cake...

I've started getting an Abel and Cole veg box, which I really love. They also do lots of other products, so I've been getting eggs delivered every week and I've just ordered some mackerel caught off the coast of Cornwall, that's some sustainable fish. As lovely as it is having all these vegetables at my disposal, I am only one person and there was a lot of veg, I got through most of it, but was left with some sad looking beetroots at the bottom of the fridge. Now, I love beetroot and it can be used in all manner of ways, (I'm thinking beetroot and mackerel salad next week) but this cake recipe caught my eye and I do always like to have cake around. I added some oats to this too, so it is positively healthy eating.

Ingredients

200g raw beetroot, peeled and grated (about 2-3 medium beetroot)
100g sultanas, soaked in boiling water and drained
150g sugar
3 eggs
150ml sunflower oil
1tbsp baking powder
150g plain flour
100g porridge oats
2tsp cinnamon

Whisk the eggs, oil and sugar together. Then fold in the flour, oats, baking powder and cinnamon. Finally, fold in the beetroot and sultanas, Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased and lined cake tin. Bake for about an hour at 180°C. This worked well in a 20cm round cake tin, but I think would also make a nice loaf cake. Next time I think I will also try icing it with some sort of cream cheese icing. Read more...