Blackberry tea loaf

I've been a bit slow in posting this, but back at the beginning of September I made this delicious tea loaf as a way of baking with blackberries while they were still in season.  The recipe comes from the National Trust "Teatime Baking Book" by Jane Pettigrew and along with the blackberries, lemon and black treacle help to give this loaf a lovely deep flavour.  A yummy teatime treat I will definitely be making again next year.

Incidentally, the National Trust has a variety of recipes available on its website.  Among the recipes ideas for puddings and cakes is one for a blackberry and apple upside-down cake.  The blackberries may be over, but I have just come back from Herefordshire with a bag of hand-picked Bramleys (courtesy of the P's) and an apple upside-down cake sounds a very appealing idea...

GBBO Challenge Week 1: cherry cake

It's back!  Did you watch?  Last Wednesday the Great British Bake Off was back on our screens.  Thankfully the jump to BBC1 seems to be the only thing that has changed; it is the same gentle show it ever was, inviting you to put aside your worries for an hour and indulge.  For a competition, its surprisingly soothing, even as I wait to see how the bakers' showstoppers will turn out.

Never mind the trolls (it's a baking show for goodness sake - more cake less hate people!), I love all the bakers; they are there doing what they love and, with the technical challenge, they're always prepared to have a go.

This year I'm going to try doing the technical challenge from each show (although I reserve the right to pick something else if the technical challenge looks particularly impossible!).  Unlike the bakers, I won't be baking against the clock or having to worry about what Paul and Mary might say.  I fully expect to make mistakes - but hopefully in doing so I'll learn something as well.  And it should be fun...

Cherry cake
The first week's challenge was a cherry cake.  I used a Linda Collister recipe from The Great British Book of Baking.

My understanding from the show was that there were two things which could have a major impact on how good my finished cake was: how I prepared the cherries and the consistency of the cake mix.

Following the recipe, I rinsed the cherries under warm water (to remove their sticky coating), dried them in kitchen paper and mixed them with a little flour, before adding to the (well beaten) mix.

The cake was supposed to be in the oven for one hour, but when I checked it after 40 minutes it was done!

The recipe I was using was for an unadorned cake, but in the spirit of GBBO I decided to decorate mine as they had in the show - with lemon drizzle icing, toasted almonds and cherries.  This was also a good excuse to use a piping bag for the first time.

The icing, while delicious, could have been thicker and my piping skills leave something to be desired, but it was my first time so I'm not going to judge myself on that!

I will allow myself one moment of smugness though - the cherries didn't sink to the bottom!  And, perhaps most importantly, the finished cake is rather yummy (even if I do say so myself!).  This is one I will be making again.


Perhaps not something I would want to present to Mary Berry
but I'm proud of it all the same



Success - the cherries didn't sink!

Chocolate orange cake

As I have mentioned before, I have a particular like for chocolate orange as a flavour.  So when planning cakes to make for a gathering of my friends for my birthday, a chocolate orange cake was a natural choice.

Not being able to find a recipe, I decided to adapt recipes I did have for chocolate sponge and for chocolate frosting.

The chocolate sponge is based on Nigel Slater's recipe for a chocolate coffee cake - instead of 3tbsp of espresso coffee I added 3tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice and some orange zest to the cake mix.  The recipe makes a cake with a lovely texture, and this amount of orange worked well to give the chocolate sponge a yummy flavour, without the orange taking over.

For Christmas Mum had given me some Orange Blossom water, and this seemed a perfect opportunity to try it out.  I used it to flavour the chocolate frosting; it took a bit of trial and error (lots of tasting required!) to get the balance right - a couple of tablespoons seemed to do the trick.

Then all that was needed was some orange zest to brighten up the top of the cake.

This is a grown-up chocolate cake, in that it is not a sweet chocolate cake.  I love chocolate orange as a flavour, and I was a bit worried that this cake (which I basically made up based on nothing more than the fact that I really like chocolate orange) wouldn't live up to my expectations; I needn't have worried.  It was delicious and went down very well with my friends.  Definitely one to make again.

Thaxted Sticky Tea Loaf

Three words to describe this tea loaf: sticky, fruity, delicious.  Spread some butter on it, pour a cup of tea and its the perfect accompaniment for your three o'clock tea break.

A slice of tea loaf - tea time sorted!

The recipe comes from a book given to my brother and me (my brother being my current lodger!) by some good family friends of ours who live in the beautiful Essex town of Thaxted.  The recipe book is called (pun alert!) "On a Chicken Wing and a Prayer", being a cookery book sold to raise funds for the ongoing restoration of Thaxted Parish Church.  All the recipes have been donated by people from the town; I am very grateful to whoever donated the recipe for this tea loaf!


"On a Chicken Wing and a Prayer" - Recipes from Thaxted Parish Church

The recipe is wonderfully simple.  To be honest I made it on a slight whim, having an urge to bake something and realising that all the ingredients were items I had - tea, mixed fruit, brown sugar, self-raising flour, an egg and cinnamon.

The fruit and sugar are soaked in tea overnight.  I think next time I make this I will be a bit braver and make the tea stronger.  I'm having friends over at the weekend, which I think will be the perfect excuse to make this delicious loaf for a second time.  I may even let them eat it before three o'clock tea time!


The finished loaf - already half gone!

Chocolate and beetroot cake

Yes, you did read that right!  This is something I have wanted to try making for a while, so when I got some beetroot in my veg box, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Making this cake was definitely a reminder to read and re-read the recipe before starting!  I had happily peeled the beetroot when, checking back at the recipe, I realised I was supposed to cook it before peeling.  Luckily, it turns out you can cook beetroot in the microwave.  Once tender, it gets blitzed in the processor and then combined with the chocolate.

The recipe did seem to call for all the bowls in my cupboard - beetroot and chocolate in one, egg whites in another, yolks, sugar and butter in a third, and yet another for the flour and baking powder - certainly a lot of washing up! 

I was pleased with the resulting cake; chocolaty, but not too sweet, and a dash of ginger to the mix adds a nice depth of flavour.  I was expecting the colour to be a bit redder than it turned out, but that's a minor quibble.  In all, a good use of my beetroot I think; a slice of the cake, warm, with some ice cream made a scrummy pudding.

 

 

Orange cake

Looking for a recipe for a nice layer cake to make as a birthday cake, I came across a recipe for an orange cake in the Primrose Bakery book, and couldn't resist giving it a try.  It looks so pretty - I love how the orange zest on top is dispersed by the icing dripping down the sides - and tastes delicious (even if I do say so myself!).  The use of orange zest (in the sponge and buttercream) and freshly squeezed orange juice (in the buttercream and icing) gives the cake a lovely flavour.  Certainly one I will be making again.

Afternoon tea with carrot cake

Time spent in the kitchen to produce homemade bakes for friends and family is never time wasted; the results are always appreciated and it's a real joy to sit down with the ones you love and be able to share with them something you have spent time (that most precious of things) making just for them.

My dear friend Maud came to see me on Saturday, which gave me a lovely excuse to get out the china and set out an afternoon tea spread.

We got through several pots of tea (Betty's, of course) while munching our way through sandwiches and sweet treats.  For the sandwiches I was fortunate enough to have been in receipt of a batch of fresh eggs, which had come from a farmer local to the P's in Herefordshire.  Beautiful deep yellow yolks made the egg mayo sandwiches all the more enticing.

I had fun planning the baking.  The cake is a carrot cake made from a recipe in the Great British Book of Baking.  The recipe is easy to follow and makes a yummy, moist cake.  Carrots, walnuts, orange zest and spices flavour the sponge, and the frosting has a cream cheese base given a citrus lift with the addition of orange zest and fresh orange juice.  It was really rather good, even if I do say so myself.

Another first was the chocolate chip shortbread.  A quick and easy recipe, made in a fluted tart tin and divided into eights, the pieces are a lovely accompaniment to a cup of tea.

I also made scones.  Following my previous experiments with blueberry scones and cheese scones, only a batch of traditional sultana scones would do for this occasion, and were a perfect way to try the homemade blackberry jam I had made the week before (more on my jam making exploits to follow in a later post, I promise).

And if you're thinking this all sounds like a lot for two people, you would be correct!  A long tramp through the fields and along the river meant we were ready for seconds, but there was still a lot left so I was able to send Maud away with a few treats.  As for the rest, my brother seems more than willing to help finish them off.

Victoria Sandwich

  
A summer classic: the Victoria Sandwich.  For this I used a recipe in the Great British Book of Baking.  This is the second time I have used this recipe and both times it has made a beautiful cake; the recipe is easy to follow and produces a lovely sponge.

Both times I've made this cake it has garnered compliments, but it is easy to make and it is the finishing touches that I think make it special: the dusting of icing sugar, the fresh raspberries and of course this beautiful cake stand.

I have to say a word about the cake stand.  It was given to me by my Grandma after my Grandpa very sadly passed away.  The stand originally belonged to Grandpa's mother, and as Grandma isn't using it she very kindly gave it to me.  It gives me great pleasure to be giving it a new lease of life: I like to imagine that my Great-Grandmother at one time used it to present her own Victoria Sandwiches at gatherings of family and friends, and I am simply one person in a line of home bakers.  There is something about the permeance of objects handed down: it was here before you and it will in all likelihood be here after you.  Whatever seems so terrible today is really nothing more than a fleeting moment; more than a cake stand, it's a sense of perspective.

There's an interesting summary of the history of the Victoria Sandwich here (along with some good tips for making your own) - even including Mrs Beeton's recipe from 1861.  The Victoria Sandwich cake is named, as one would expect, after Queen Victoria.

For a cake whose joy is in its elegant simplicity, there is nevertheless plenty of competition to create the "perfect" Victoria Sandwich, and you can find yourself being judged on the choices you make.  Caster sugar or icing sugar?  Cream and jam, or just jam?  What kind of jam?  Cream or jam first?

I was reminded of this when handed a programme for my local Royal Show.  This includes strict instructions for making a Victoria Sandwich (and note these are still given in imperial!):

Divide between two 8" sandwich tins

3 large eggs

6oz butter (or margerine)

6 oz castor sugar

6 self-raising flour

raspberry jam

castor sugar on top

As you see, this recipe requires castor sugar on top.  This is also the approach taken by the WI and Mary Berry.  I used icing sugar, which I prefer for being light and soft on top of the cake - and is what the Great British Book of Baking recipe goes with.

On the cream and jam issue, I say one must have both (this is a treat after all), although the more traditional approach is jam no cream - but let's not treat that as sacrosanct (and Mary Berry says it's fine to add whipeed cream, so that's ok!).  And there's something rather therapeutic about whipping cream - that with a bit of patience and a spoon you can create white peaks of airy fluffiness.

As for flavour of jam, I say go with what you like.  I went with raspberry, but blackberry jam would be a great autumnal twist I think.

The advice I would give is to make sure you properly grease/line your cake tins - make the process of releasing the sponges as easy as you can for yourself.  The sponges can be made the night before, and you can whip the cream up the next morning and leave in the fridge until you use it, but I would recommend leaving it until the last possible moment before assembling your layers.

My Victoria Sandwich may not match the expectations of the traditionalists, and its not going to win me any prizes, but it was fun to make and even more enjoyable was sharing it with friends over a long overdue catch-up.  A perfect Saturday afternoon.

Aubergine in a chocolate cake? It'll never work...

At the same time as my attempt at blueberry and lemon scones, I undertook another adventure in the kitchen - using aubergine in a chocolate cake.

I know, it sounds weird; it sounds like it should not work at all.  But then there's carrot cake, so why not other vegetables?  I have previously used courgettes to make a chocolate cake, resulting in a moist cake with a lovely taste without being too sweet.  When I was given Harry Eastwood's recipe book "Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache" as a present, the possibilities for further experimentation with vegetables in baking opened up before me.  This is a gorgeous book and the few recipes I have made from it so far are easy to follow (with helpful tips for novices like me!) and the results have come out rather yummy.  The book also includes some of her "cake diaries".  These are interesting as they give you an insight into the trial and error that is involved in creating the recipes - showing that even for a professional cook, things are not always perfect first time.

For the Ps' visit, I decided to risk making Harry's "Chocolate Heartache" cake.  The aubergines are heated in the microwave before being skinned and puréed.  By the time they have been combined with melted chocolate and all the other ingredients you would be hard-pressed to know there was any aubergine in the cake mix.  The finished result was a deliciously indulgent torte-esque chocolate cake.  I challenged the family to guess the "mystery ingredient" and no-one could - although they all agreed the result was delicious.  Even my brother gave it the thumbs up, and this was after he found out what it did contain - I cannot ask for higher praise than that!

I will certainly be making this cake again.  It has also given me the confidence to be brave in my baking, and I am looking forward to trying another of Harry's recipes soon.  So watch out, the next time you're biting into one of my cakes you may be surprised when you learn what it contains!

To find out more about Harry Eastwood, and to order her recipe book "Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache”, click here.