A new day, a new week, a new month and a new recipe......... Hope you all had a wonderful weekend....

You know how you end up with one or two apples at the bottom of the basket that somehow just get forgotten?  Well here is a great recipe to use up the little forgotten ones, simple and very enjoyable.  Easy peasy and as cheap as chips...

Simply called "Apple Cake".....

Ingredients:

175g Self-raising Flour
175g Soft Margarine
175g Caster Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1 1/2 medium size Apples, peeled and cubed
1 level teaspoon Cinnamon
Grated rind of 1 lemon (optional)
60g Sultanas
Icing Sugar to dust


Method:

1. Preheat your oven on 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4 and grease either an 18cm square or a 20cm round tin.
2. Place the flour, margarine and sugar in a bowl.  Rub in the margarine to form fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the eggs gradually and beat well.
4. Stir in the apple, cinnamon, lemon rind and sultanas.  Pour into greased tin.
5. Bake in the oven for 40 - 50 minutes until cake has risen and feels firm to the touch and a skewer comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.  Dust with icing just before serving. 

Tip

You can decide how big you want the apple pieces to be, I made mine on the small size but the choice is yours.  This cake can be enjoyed up to 3 days after baking; keeps well when covered in cling-wrap or in an airtight container and all I did was re-dust with some icing sugar.....

Sunday 24th, I was back in my kitchen baking and it was a lovely day.  Nothing beats working in a warm kitchen whilst watching the snow fall, turned out to be a beautiful day indeed......

I really stepped out my comfort zone on Sunday and made a Sponge Cake with Passion Fruit Curd Filling and Meringue, topped with Frosted Fruit.  Firstly I have never made any form of curd in my life and now having made Passion Fruit Curd, I am eager to try making Lemon Curd..... Also it was strange baking the sponge cake and then putting it back into the oven so the meringue could cook.  All in all, a day of learning and huge, huge success!!!   Please note that this is time consuming so you will be in and out the kitchen most of the day...... The most time consuming thing is making the curd, as you need to let it cool down and then refrigerate (you can make it the day before).

Ingredients:

Passion Fruit Curd
4 extra Large Eggs
180ml (3/4 cup) Castor Sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) Passion Fruit Palp (about 4 to 5 fruits)
60ml (1/4 cup) Water
10ml Finely Grated Lemon Rind
125g Butter chopped

Sponge Cake
2 x Sponge layer cakes of your choice, vanilla

Meringue
160ml Water
310ml (1 and 1/2 cups) Caster Sugar
4 extra Large Egg Whites

Fruit Decorations
A selection of fresh fruits (grapes, blueberries, white grapes, gooseberries) anything you want
1 extra Large Egg White, lighten beaten.
Caster Sugar for dusting.



Methods:

Passion Fruit Curd:
Combined the ingredients in medium heatproof bowl over simmering water and stir until mixture coats wooden spoon.  This can take up to half an hour, keep stirring as it thickens, you will notice the change in colour too.  Pour into separate bowl, cool and then refrigerate. 

Sponge Cakes:
Cut cakes in half horizontally so you have 4 halfs. 
On a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, place one layer of cake on the paper and spread one third of the curd, top with another layer of cake, spread with half the remaining curd, top with another cake layer and spread the remaining curd and top with fourth cake layer.

* Note - I only used 3 layers as my cake layers were quite thick.

Meringue:
Combined the water and 250ml (1 cup) Caster Sugar in small saucepan.  Stir over medium heat (do not boil) until sugar has dissolved.
Boil, uncovered, without stirring, until sugar reaches 116ºC on thermometer, or when a teaspoon of syrup, dropped into a cup of cold water forms a soft ball when rolled between fingers.
Remove from heat allowing the bubbles to subside.
Beat the egg whites with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form; add remaining sugar while still beating until sugar has dissolved. 
With mixer running, add hot syrup in thin stream; beat on high speed for approximately 10 minutes or until mixture is thick.  Allow to cool.  Spread meringue on top and sides of the cake.
Bake at 180ºC for approximately 5 minutes till nice and lightly brown.

Fruit Decorations:
Dip the fruit into the lightly beaten egg white and then dip into the caster sugar.  Place on plate lined with greaseproof paper and allow to dry for apporximately 1 hour or until the sugar is dry. (I placed mine in the fridge).

Arrange fruit on cake......and enjoy. 


This cake never touched sides at home or the office, I was afraid it might be sweet from the meringue but it wasn't and the sponge cake was so moist.  A weird feeling putting an already baked cake back into a hot oven but it does work.

How quickly does time fly?!!!   Another week has passed and I haven't posted my recipes as promised. However I am here now.......

As you may remember we spent the weekend of the 15th Feb up in Inverness visiting our Godchildren, Leighton and Anita as well as Alison and Steven (parents).  It was a wonderful trip and awesome to see them all.  Just before we went up, I made the easiest and most amazing Blueberry Muffins ever!!  I haven't made muffins often because I battle to get the recipe right but this time it worked and I am pleased to say I have made them again and they do come out amazingly... so here goes.....

Ingredients:

110g Butter
250g Plain Flour
250g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
125ml Milk
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
225g Fresh Blueberries


Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC / Gas 4.  Grease and flour a muffin tin or line with paper cases.
2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs and beat well
5. Add the milk and the flour mixture, beat till fully combined.
6. Stir in the blueberries.
7. Fill muffin tin 2/3 full and bake for 25 to 30 minutes (makes 12).

Enjoy.. they are very yummy, so light, airy and melt in your mouth....

Tips  - I decided that I liked the recipe so much I would use it as my base and experiment with various flavours.  I have since made Banana Cinnamon Muffins, replacing the blueberries with 2 ripe bananas (mashed) and 1 teaspoon Cinnamon.  I sieved the cinnamon with the baking powder, flour and salt, continued with the method above and added the bananas last.  Again they were divine....

Welcome to another week!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend; ours was quiet but very enjoyable and I once again spent yesterday in my beautiful kitchen.  Yesterday I decided to try something different and make some bread.  I don't have a lot of experience in bread making so decided on a Streusel Coffee Bread to start with, recipe looks uncomplicated (some breads can be pretty hard to make).  Please note that this Coffee Bread takes about an hour and 40 minutes to make (all inclusive) so don't start making this unless you have the time spare.  Over the coming weeks, I am going to be more adventurous in my bread making, rolls and pastries...... but for now, here goes......

 

Ingredients - Bread

500g Plain Flour
Pinch of Salt
10g Instant Dry Yeast (1 packet)
60 - 75ml Milk
60g Butter or Margarine (4 tablespoons)
150ml Lukewarm Water
125ml White Sugar (1/2 cup)
2 Large Eggs, beaten

Streusel Mixture

125ml Brown Sugar (1/2 cup)
60ml Plain Flour
10ml Ground Cinnamon (2 teaspoons)
45g Butter, melted (3 tablespoons)
40g Pecan nuts (chopped) - optional


Method

1. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.  Add the dry yeast.
2. Warm the milk slightly and stir in the butter till it melts.  Mix in the water, sugar and beaten eggs.
3. Make a well in the centre of a dry ingredients.  Pour in enough of the liquid ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon so that the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.  Knead the dough well till it becomes smooth and elastic.
4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, cover with greased plastic wrap and leave to rest for 20 minutes.
5. Prepare the Streusel Mixture by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
6. Knock the dough down and divide it into two equal pieces.  Press one piece down into the bottom of a greased 20cm pan.
7. Sprinkle half the Streusel mixture over this layer of dough.
8. Roll the remaining piece into a long sausage shape (very long).  Working on top of the Streusel mixture and from the centre of the pan, form a spiral shape by wrapping the sausage around itself.  Press down well to cover the Streusel mixture.
9. Sprinkle the remaining Streusel Mixture on top of the spiral.
10. Cover with greased plastic and allow to rise in a warm place until double in volume, about 30 minutes.
11. Bake in a preheated oven at 200ºC for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
12. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely.

Make a cuppa and enjoy a slice...... The comments I've received have been great, it is a bit dry but then again it is not a cake but bread.  However, it does not leave you with that doughy taste (I find this sometimes after eating a "heavy" bread) yet it has that lovely dough like taste. 


Tips - Please note that I used chopped mixed nuts as I did not have any pecan nuts and I did not roll the top dough into a sausage shape and twirl ~ I was running out of time so I shaped the top piece of dough into a round circle and pressed it on top of the Streusel mixture....


Note ~ We are off visiting friends in Inverness this coming weekend so sadly there won't be any experiences coming from my kitchen.  But fear not, I will be back in my kitchen on Sunday 24th Feb .........

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, just can't believe how quickly time flies and before you know it, it's Monday again......

For my baking weekend, I decided to try something a little different, I made an Orange and Coconut Cake, topped with frosting and toasted coconut = yum!  Originally I thought it may not work, I would never have put orange and coconut together (even in a shampoo!) but it works quite well.  I did find the cake to be drier than most so you may want to increase the amount of frosting you use between the cake slices but I am also thinking that maybe next time I'll add a touch more orange juice just to give it a little more moisture.

I must apologise for the quality of the photos of my cakes, I need to come up with clearer way to take my photos but for now........

Ingredients:

450g Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
200g Soft Brown Sugar
100g Desiccated (Shredded) Coconut
200g Soft Butter
2 Medium Eggs
90 ml Milk
2 Medium size Oranges (juice and grated rind)

Toasted coconut (on a baking tray, sprinkle a covering of coconut and lightly toast under the grill.  Watch this carefully as it tends to toast quickly).

Method:

1. Preheat your oven on 180ºC and grease two 20cm tins.  You may line them with greaseproof baking paper if you want but not necessary.
2. Sieve the self raising flour and salt into large mixing bowl. 
3. Add the sugar and coconut.  Rub in the butter till you have a bowl of fine breadcrumbs.
4. Make a hole in the centre and add the lightly beaten eggs, milk, juice and rind.  Mix well till fully combined.  Mixture is quite heavy and dense.
5. Split between the two tins and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour (till golden brown).  Always check the cake by inserting a skewer.
6. Leave to cool down a bit in tins (5 minutes), then remove and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting

250 g cream cheese

60 g unsalted butter, soft

200 g icing sugar

Beat the above ingredients together until creamy and spread half the frosting on the bottom half of the cake. Place the other half of the cake on top and using the balance of the frosting, ice the top of the cake, leaving the sides open.  Complete the cake by sprinkling the toasted coconut onto the frosting. 

To be enjoyed with a cuppa tea........

 Tip ~ you can add a little orange flavouring to your frosting to enhance the flavour of the orange in your cake.

  

Firstly I need to apologise to my sister, Kim, who requested that I put up a recipe for my Pop Cakes but I forgot..... sorry.... 

Over the Christmas period I made some Snowmen Pop Cakes with my Niece, we had such fun, so here is my recipe for making the Pop Cakes.  Remember to just let your imagination run wild, you can decorate these little cakes as you want......... and have fun!!! 

 

Ingredients:

1 Day Old Sponge Cake**
250g Cream Cheese

100g Chocolate (for 12 pop cakes) ~ white or brown chocolate
Decorations as required

(** For the Snowmen, I used a plain vanilla cake I had baked the day before / for the Choc Mint Pop Cakes I used a chocolate cake).

1 packet Lollipop sticks (I bought mine off eBay, dirt cheap)
Some old newspapers
1 Colander

Method:

1. Cut your cake into smaller pieces so that it fits into a blender.  Blend the cake till it resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Place all the breadcrumbs in a large bowl. 
2. Mix the cream cheese to soften it a bit (makes mixing easier).  You can add a little vanilla essences if you would like.  (For the Choc Mint Pop Cakes, I added 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder to the cream cheese).*
3. Now mix the cream cheese into the breadcrumbs, mix till completed combined.
4. Line one to two baking trays with greaseproof paper.  Mold the cake mixture between your hands, about the size of a golf ball and place on the baking tray.  To make the Snowmen, I made a row of golf ball size and then another row of smaller cakes (for the heads).  Freeze these till completely frozen, about 2 hours. 
5. Place the old newspaper down over  your counter, near your hob / stove.  Turn the colander over so it is standing on it's head.
6. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or a small bowl placed over a pot of hot, not boiling water).  Take care not to get any water into the melted chocolate as this ruins the chocolate and you will have to start again. 
7. Take the tip of the stick and dip it into the melted chocolate then quickly push it to the frozen cake balls (the heat from the chocolate helps the stick to slide easier).  For the Snowmen, remember to push the head on first and then the body (I pushed the stick all the way through to the end of the body.  This also helped to keep the Snowmen standing upright). 
8. Once you have all your cake balls on sticks, you can now roll each ball into the chocolate till well covered.  Gentle tap the stick on the edge of your bowl (or tap your wrist) to get rid of the excess chocolate.  Give it a few seconds for the excess chocolate to drip off.
9. Using the back end of the stick, balance your pop cake in the colander to dry completely.  However if you are going to use sprinkles / candy hearts / stars etc. you need to decorate the balls immediately so that the decorations will stick.   For the Snowmen, I waited till the white chocolate had dried completely before we decorated them using icing pens.

 * Note ~ a lot recipes say to use frosting to combined the cake (i.e. cake frosting) but this makes your pop cakes very rich, which is why I use Cream Cheese.

For the Choc Mint Pop Cakes, I made up the following icing and piped it onto the dried chocolate covered balls.

100g Icing Sugar
A few drops green colouring
A few drops Peppermint flavouring
Water

Sift your icing sugar, add the colouring (till you get the colour you want) and the flavouring.  You need to obtain a smooth icing which you can pipe so it cannot be too runny.  Using a little water (if required) mix everything so it is a smooth paste.  Spoon into a piping bag and snip off the end ~ now pipe the Peppermint icing onto your chocolate balls.  Leave to dry.

Additional Ideas ~ using white chocolate, cover your cake balls and then make up a Strawberry Pink icing using Strawberry flavouring and pink colouring to decorate your cake balls.  You can also use a combination of Lemon and Yellow colouring.   For Valentine you can cover your cake balls with milk chocolate and then sprinkle some candy hearts on.   Here are some other ideas too........

Hope you have fun making these.......

Happy Monday!!!!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, mine was great, thanks.  Apologies for not giving you details from the previous weekend but it was a flop so I avoided the kitchen!!!!  I suppose every great Chef has a bad day in the kitchen and Sunday the 20th was no exception for me, ha ha.......  Yesterday however was different and I am pleased to say I am back on track with my baking.....

Decided not to throw the over-ripened bananas out, instead I made a banana loaf which always goes down well in with my Boys and I also made a Stem Ginger Cake with Lemon Icing, which was a huge success ~ eureka!!!!

It was pretty simple to make and smelt divine when it came out the oven.  I hope yours will too, enjoy......(and yes that is the banana loaf you can see in the background)......

Ingredients:

 225g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground mixed spice

115g butter , cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing

115g dark muscovado sugar

115g black treacle

115g golden syrup

250ml whole milk

85g drained stem ginger , finely grated

1 egg

For the Icing

50g icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

 

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Butter and line an 18cm round, 7cm deep cake tin with greaseproof or parchment paper.
2. Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda and all the spices into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Set aside.
3. Put the sugar, treacle, syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and heat, gently stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to just below boiling point (it may look like it is separating (black lumps) but this is okay).
4. Add the stem ginger to the flour mixture, then pour in the treacle mixture, stirring as you go with a wooden spoon. Break in the egg and beat until all the mixture is combined and it resembles a thick pancake batter. Pour this into prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, until a skewer pushed into the centre of the cake comes out fairly clean. Leave to cool completely in tin before turning cake out. (To freeze: wrap in greaseproof paper, then in cling film. Freeze for up to 1 month.)
5. To make the icing, mix together icing sugar and lemon zest, then gradually add lemon juice until you have a smooth, slightly runny icing, adding more juice, if needed. Drizzle icing in a zig-zag pattern over surface of cake, turn cake around and drizzle again to create the cross-hatched finish (see below). Cake keeps for up to 2 weeks stored in an airtight container.  

I cannot believe it's Friday already and I haven't added anything to my blog as I promised, I am so sorry!!  It's also hard to believe it's mid-January already too...........

As most of you know, last weekend was the start of my new venture for 2013 ~ making something new every weekend so last Sunday I made a Chocolate Beetroot Cake (recipe obtained from www.uktv.co.uk).  During conversations with family and friends, this cake has been mentioned a few times and really grabbed my attention.  A while ago I made some Raspberry Chocolate Brownies for a good friend and found the contrast between the sourness of the Raspberries and the sweetness of the Chocolate was amazing.  So would Beetroot and Chocolate be the same?  Not quite but there was definitely the underlining taste of something new and from all the comments I've received from my Boys and my Colleagues at work, it was well worth the effort.  The Beetroot makes it a moist cake so don't doubt your oven or cooking when you cut it, it is supposed to be moist and sticks together as oppose to the normal crumb cake........

I also have never made Chocolate Ganache, this is the chocolate icing.  I let my icing cool a little bit, which thickened it to allow me to spread it over the cake but you can "pour" it over the cake whilst warmer, and then smooth it around the sides and top.  I will definitely use this Ganache again, am also going to try it with White Chocolate.

I hope you enjoy........

Ingredients

For the cake

100 g drinking chocolate
230 g self-raising flour
200 g caster sugar
100 g dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids
125 g unsalted butter
250 g cooked beetroot, (not pickled!)
3 large eggs, beaten

For the cream cheese icing

250 g cream cheese
60 g unsalted butter, soft
200 g icing sugar

For the chocolate ganache

250 g whipping cream
250 g dark chocolate, chopped
grated white chocolate, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

2. Grease and line a 25cm deep round cake tin

3. Sift the drinking chocolate with the self-raising flour into a mixing bowl, and then mix in the sugar.

4. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over hot (not boiling) water.

5. Puree the cooked beetroot in a food processor, then whisk in the beaten eggs.

6. Add the beetroot and the chocolate mixtures to the dry ingredients and mix together thoroughly.

7. Pour the mixture into a greased lined 25cm cake tin. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and leave the cake to stand in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
9. Split the cake in half.

10. To make the filling: beat the cream cheese icing ingredients together until creamy and spread liberally on the bottom half of the cake. Place the other half of the cake on top.

11. To make the chocolate ganache: heat the cream in a pan and bring just to boiling point, then remove the pan from the heat.

12. Place a damp towel on the worktop and place the pan of hot cream on this.

13. Add the chopped chocolate to the cream and beat vigorously until thoroughly mixed. Allow to cool slightly.

14. Spread the ganache on top of the cake and leave to set.

15. Sprinkle with the white chocolate to decorate.

Watch the space for this Weekend's Treat.......



A belated Happy New Year from my kitchen and I !!!   I hope you and your family had a wonderful festive season and wish only the best for you all in 2013.........

Apologies for the lack of correspondence over the festive season but I felt you could all do with a break from my kitchen and I wanted to spend some quality time with my lovely family.......... But 2013 has arrived with a bang so it's back to my promise to bake something new each weekend and give you the details.  Watch the space....... If anyone has some recipes you'd like to share or something you'd like me to make, please feel free to email me on leighandmandy@btinternet.com

Over the festive season I spent some wonderful time with my wee niece in the kitchen so will post our baking achievements with recipes shortly as well as the homemade Steak and Ale cornish pies I made.  Recipes and photos will be posted soon but for now, I am pretty knackered after my first day back so am putting my feet up with a cuppa......

With love
Mands