Festive Muffins

Yes the C word is around the corner. Coca Cola have aired their annual "Holidays are Coming", Hellman's Mayonnaise have shown their credit crunching been-showing-the-same-unremastered-ad-since-1980's, households are beginning to compete as to who can rack up the biggest electricity bill with gaudy decorations and various z-list "celebrities" are battling out in the OZ jungle by eating various parts of a kangaroo's anatomy.

A great respite from all this was a trip to the Fabulous Places Christmas Market at Blackbrook House near Belper to discover some great Derbyshire independent businesses and people. I Spoke to Julie at Vintage & Cake about 50's Swing Dresses, discussed gluten-free cooking with Charlotte from Cupcake Corner, debated the virtues of edible glitter with Wendy at Quirky Cookies, picked up some stunning parrot tulips and anemones from Kerry at The Blossom Tree and finally Claire from Things We Make. I've been chatting to these businesses via twitter so it was lovely to be able to put a face to a name. Another great business there was Jack Rabbits. They have a fab new little business opposite the Cathedral in Derby, sell gorgeous food and cook on an Aga...need I say more!

I've been playing around with festive recipes for a while. Primarily for my Cookery Club Kids. Mince pies went out of the window as a straw poll of my Cookery Kids told me that kids don't like mince pies, Christmas truffles not idea, (you wouldn't believe how long it takes to melt 16 sets of chocolate of chocolate in the microwave!) even these festive muffins couldn't tempt them away from Stained Glass Biscuits. Some of the children have made these biscuits before, but they still insisted in making them again. Kids are always amazed by the way the boiled sweet melts to make sugar glass. So given most of the Cookery Kids claim to not want to make these muffins due to the dried fruit in them these are for the adults to enjoy.



To make these muffins extra Christmassy I cooked them in my star moulds. I have to admit funky shaped silicone moulds don't cook as evenly as traditional round moulds, but they still taste great. One thing I would say is don't over mix as this mixture has a tendency to make dense heavy muffins if mixed too much.

Festive Muffins
Makes 16 regular or 8 large

300g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
225ml milk
50g butter, melted
1 egg
handful of typical festive dried fruit (eg glace cherries, sultanas, citrus peel, cranberries)
1 tbsp mixed spice
flaked almonds, for decorating

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar.

2) In another bowl whisk together egg, milk and butter. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, stir until well combined.

3) Carefully stir in the dried fruit and spoon into cake cases into 2/3 full. Sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake for 25-30 min until risen and golden.

Christmas Marzipan Cake

Ok, ok I know it's September and usually I wouldn't be thinking of Christmas let alone beginning to bake for it for a while but I have some excuses. 1) October, when I usually bake Christmas Cake is booking up fast, 2) I want to feed and feed the cake, 3) the generous Wm Morrisons contacted me and ask if I would like to submit a Christmas Cake recipe for their customers to try and as a thank you they would send me a big box of ingredients.

I played around with a few ideas including Guinness and fruit beer (for any regular readers of my blog this won't surprise them one bit!) and settled on the idea of a marzipan laden cake...minus icing. This is based on the fact I'm not a big icing fan as I find the majority far too sweet. At Christmas time will gladly pick off all the icing on a Christmas Cake to be just left with the delicious marzipan and fruit cake. Now I understand that marzipan is a bit of a marmite ingredient; People either love it or hate it. I love it. The reason for soaking the fruit in orange juice rather than the traditional alcohol is that this really does enhance the taste of the fruit of the cake. The alcohol will come later!



I decided to essentially combine the succulent fruits of my Simnel Cake with the marzipan filling of a stollen and together they made a delicious cake that looks a bit like a Dundee Cake, but smells of sweet, sweet marzipan. The aroma in the kitchen as I was baking this cake was amazing. Due to the amount of ingredients crammed into such a small cake along with the juicy fruit it did take longer than a usual fruit cake to bake. For a change we are planning to start eating this in early December and not leave it until Christmas Day when by then you begin to become thoroughly sick of anything too heavy & fruit laden.

Ideally a Christmas cake should be made no later than 1 week before it is needed. The longer the cake is left the more it matures and the flavours develop. If stored correctly Rich fruit cakes can last for up to a year.

Maybe I should start a trend - Christmas Cakes aren't just for Christmas...

Christmas Marzipan Cake
Makes a 18cm round / 15cm square cake

100ml orange juice
150g sultanas
100g raisins
100g currants
50g dried cranberries
50g dried apricots, quartered
50g dates, stoned & quartered
50g glace cherries, halved
50g mixed peel
110g butter, softened
90g muscovado sugar (or soft dark brown sugar)
2 eggs
250g plain flour
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp mixed spice
50g flaked almonds
1 tsp almond extract
1 tbsp marmalade
1 tbsp black treacle (this gives the cake both taste & colour)
200g marzipan cubed & frozen (you can find my recipe for it here)
whole almonds for decoration
Rum, brandy or whisky for glazing

1) Before making a start on the cake soak all of the fruit in the orange juice overnight and make sure the cubed marzipan is in the freezer.

2) Line grease and line your tin with both baking parchment and greaseproof paper. For good instructions on how to do this pop over to dear Delia. Preheat oven to 150oc.

3) Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time to stop the mixture curdling. If it does begin to curdle stir in a handful of the flour. Once eggs have been added stir in the almond extract, marmalade & treacle.

4) Next, stir in the remaining ingredients alternating between the marzipan, fruit and flour. Mix until well combined. If the mixture becomes too stiff to mix add a splash of milk to loosen the mixture.

5) Pour into the lined tin, level the top of the cake then decorate with the almonds. Bake for 3 - 3 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean of cake mix.

6) Remove from the oven brush the cake with your chosen article then allow to cool completely in the tin. Remove from the tin and wrap in fresh greaseproof paper. Store in a preferably airtight tin or container until ready to eat.

7) Every 3-4 week make holes in the top of the cake using a skewer and feed with your chosen alcohol. I use around 50ml of alcohol per feed. Try not to over feed the cake as this can make the cake soggy, dense and a texture more akin to a Christmas Pudding.

Lemon Drizzle Fairy Cakes

To counteract the unsummery weather we've had recently I wanted to inject some sun into the kitchen. Lemon is one of my favourite ingredients in both sweet and savory cooking and decided to play around with my fête fairy cakes recipe. This time I swapped the custard powder for cornflour as I didn't want the vanilla to dominate, but still wanted to have the light fluffyness that both custard powder and cornflour give to a cake.

For baking these I used individual silicone cake cups and they are slightly bigger than traditional fairy cake cases, but not as big as cupcakes. To be honest these cases and a spatula are the only piece of silicone bakeware I would recommend. In my experience the other type of silicone bakeware just don't work, are a pain to transfer to the oven, nearly always still stick, don't keep their heat well, which inturn doesn't bake the food as well. For every other type of baking I stick to traditional metal pans.

I wanted to use the mini jelly lemon/orange slices I had seen for sale somewhere recently, but could I find them when I wanted them? nope. I remember when we used to get these fruit slices in our stocking at Christmas I deemed them as the height of sophisticaion. My perception of sophistication has changed somewhat since then. Instead of decorating them with the elusive lemon slices decided to decorate them with some of the lemon zest.

One of the first things given to me from my Mum for my kitchen was a citrus zester. At first I thought "what on earth would I do with a zester", but I can honestly say it is one of the best gadgets I own. Rather than the fine zest a grater produces it produces long ribbons of zest which is ideal for decorating. Plus I have less chance of adding part of my finger to the dish than I would with a Microplane. For a loaf version of this cake try Tara's Lemon Drizzle.

Lemon Drizzle Fairy Cakes
Makes 12

140g unsalted butter, softened
140g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g cornflour
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
100g icing sugar, sifted

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Arrange cake cases in fairy cake tin. Beat together butter and vanilla sugar then one by one beat in the eggs.

2) Into the bowl sift flour and cornflour then fold into the batter until ingredients are well combined. Stir in lemon zest. Half fill each cake case with the batter.

3) Bake for 15 min until risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

4) Beat together icing sugar, lemon juice and boiling water until you have a smooth icing. Using a teaspoon drizzle the icing over the cakes then leave to set.

Baileys Cheesecake Brownies

Ok, I've fallen off my "get healthy for the 3-peak-challenge" diet in quite spectacular style. Up until yesterday I had been quite restrained but seeing a picture of cheesecake brownies on Tastespotting tipped me over the edge. Plus Summer Holiday Boredom is hitting big style and I sometimes I just NEED to bake to kill time. Anything to avoid watching the horrors of Jeremy Kyle & Loose Women.

Given that one of my most requested cakes from co-workers is my Baileys Cheesecake (I have refined my presentation of this dessert since that photo was taken!) I felt obliged to have a go at making Baileys Cheesecake Brownies. Well, I do have a penchant for sneaking in the odd glug or two of Baileys into various baked items. Right up there on the unhealthiness stakes, but goodness do they taste good.

The brownie part isn't exactly what I would call a brownie, but it is still a luscious, moist, rich and dense chocolate cake. The one minor criticism Hubby had to make about these was that I had used Baileys with a hint of coffee rather than plain Baileys as it's all I had in the house. Um...he hates coffee. I'm not complaining though as it means more for me! Saying that he isn't saying no when I offer him one with a cup of tea. Tonight we're having them for pudding with a generous spoonful of Cherry Beer Ice Cream.

Baileys Cheesecake Brownies
Makes 16 small but undeniably rich brownies

Brownie mixture
110 g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa)
110 g butter
120 g vanilla sugar (or caster sugar)
60 g plain flour
2 eggs
glug of Baileys

Cheesecake mixture
225 g cream cheese
40 g caster sugar
1 egg
another generous glug of Baileys

1) Preheat the oven to 150oc then Line a 23 cm/8 inch square cake tin with baking parchment. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bain marie. Remove from the heat, add the sugar and stir then leave to cool slightly (if you don't do this you may end up with scrambled egg brownies).

2) Beat the eggs one at a time into the brownie mixture, beating until it is glossy. Stir in the Baileys until well combined then gradually fold in the flour then pour into the cake tin .

3) For the cheesecake mixture beat the cream cheese and sugar together. Add the egg and mix then stir in the Baileys until all is well combined. Top the levelled brownie mixture with the cheesecake mixture and using a knife, gently swirl it into the chocolate mixture.

4) Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes before cutting into squares and serving.

Welsh Cheesecakes

As I've mentioned before I have a bit of a thing for kitchenalia. Trust me, if I had a big farmhouse kitchen nailed to all the beams would be random pans and Victorian jelly moulds. At moment my collection is very much orientated around vintage cookbooks. I love looking at the recipes and ingredients. The one thing great about a lot of old cookbooks is that they are plain and simple. They don't beat around the bush and unsurprisingly the recipes often work really well. They are also the kind of book that tells you how to be a good wife and look after your servants. I think Hubby is still wishing I would follow some of the advice in the books.



Stuffed in the back of one of the books given to me by Grandma was a catalogue from one of the local grocers. Unfortunately the grocer is no longer but some googling shows it was an important and well known place within the local community. Within the catalogue is adverts for long-gone products, apart from the Rowentrees Cocoa. The Rowentree advert means I can date the catalogue to around 1910, so Grandma must have been given this cookbook by her mother. I love looking at the claims the various products make. I don't think you would get away with it now! By clicking on the pics you can see the adverts in more detail.



Yesterday I had the craving to make Jam Tarts and while flicking through a copy of a Good Housekeeping book called The Home Book, from around 1920's-1930's, I stumbled across a recipe for Welsh Cheesecakes. One thing about old cookbooks, they often don't have pictures, however they sometimes tell you how to present the dish. Even with the basic presentation instructions I still wasn't 100% what they were meant to look like, let alone taste like. To be honest I'm not sure why these are called a cheesecake as there is no cheese in them. Some research suggests that the term "cheesecake" in olde English may mean just a tart, but I'm not sure.



A few years ago I did have a bit of a pastry phobia and have tried many shortcrust recipes over the year, but always come back to this recipe as it always works perfectly. These cakes are essentially jam tarts with a basic sponge topping. The pastry worked out at the perfect short texture and the buttery sponge helped offset the sweet jam. It's very difficult to just eat just 1 of these little dainty cakes with my morning cup of tea. Tonight we may have a few warm with some Cherry Beer Ice Cream. mmmmm... As this is a 80 or so year old recipe I've kept it in old style ounces rather than grams.

Welsh Cheesecakes
Makes 12 individual cakes

Shortcrust pastry
8 oz plain flour
4 oz unsalted butter, cold from the fridge and cubed
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
cold water (you'll need no more than 1/4 pint)

Filling
Raspberry jam
2 oz plain flour
2 oz unsalted butter
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder

1) First get started on the pastry. Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Add the chilled water a small amount at a time and mix with a knife until you have a good dough. Roll into a ball, cover in cling film and chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

3) Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder until you have a smooth cake batter.

4) Roll out the pastry until around 5mm thick. Using a 3 inch cutter, cut rounds and press gently into a bun tin. Place a small amount of jam on top of the pastry then top with 1 tsp of the cake batter. Using the scraps place a cross of pastry on top of the batter.

5) Bake at 200oc for 10 min, or until well risen and golden.

Fête Fairy Cakes

Today is fête day, but with storm clouds rumbling outside and showers of hail I'm seriously thinking it is going to be called off. Like all good fêtes we have a cake stall. As I'm renowned for my general cake geekiness I thought I should contribute to the cake stall. No nipping off to Tescos and trying to pass their cakes off as mine, for me!

I decided to make something that I haven't made in years. While cupcakes have been à la mode for the last few years I wanted to go English Old School and go for the cupcake's daintier, less ostentatious cousin - the humble fairy cake. Until I made this batch I had forgotten how much smaller the fairy cake is compared to a cupcake.

As I'm not a huge fan of icing at the best of times, though I love the look of big cupcake swirls, I wanted to use a thinner icing that could be brightly coloured with ease. This icing acts more like self-levelling concrete and hides all the cake imperfections and also can hide a cake if it hasn't risen as much as you hope. Frankly I wanted another excuse to play around with my new food dyes.

I found the animal decorations in the back of my baking cupboard. Hubby bought them when we attempted chocolate covered apples, but thankfully I found hundreds and thousands before we made them; and yes these sugar animals were still in date. Hopefully the cakes sell well and make some money.

There is a secret ingredient, well not so secret as I'm about to tell you, that goes into these cakes; and it's custard powder. The custard powder does 2 things. It makes the cakes fluffier as well as flavouring the sponge. Hubby tasted one of the cakes last night and spotted the subtle custard taste. I don't really use custard powder for making custard, I prefer proper custard or a tin of ambrosia (yes I know, but there is something very comforting about it!) and use it in baking more. If you have any custard powder you can use cornflour to help keep the cakes fluffy. Of course cornflour alone won't flavour the cakes so add some vanilla extract.

This recipe is based on a Good Food recipee, though I have altered the method and icing.

The storm is getting worse...I wonder if these cakes will end up on the staffroom coffee table tomorrow instead.

Fairy Cakes
makes around 20

140g unsalted butter, softened
140g caster sugar
3 eggs
100g self-raising flour
25g custard powder

for icing
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp boiling water
food dye (optional)
sprinkles (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 190oc. Arrange cake cases in fairy cake tin. Beat together butter and sugar then one by one beat in the eggs.

2) Stir in flour and custard powder until ingredients are well combined. Half fill each fairy case with the batter. Don't over fill or you won't have room for the icing to puddle.

3) Bake for 15 min until risen and golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

4) Beat together icing sugar, lemon juice and boiling water until you have a smooth icing. Colour with dyes if wanted. Using a teaspoon slowly pour the icing on top of the cakes. You can guide the icing somewhat as to where you want it to go. Once you have finished icing, cover with sprinkles and leave for the icing to set.

Sour Cream Rhubarb Cake

At the moment Hubby & I are training for the Yorkshire 3-Peak Challenge, I was coerced into doing it by a good friend. One of my lifetime ambitions has been to complete a marathon and considering there is no chance you'll get me running a marathon the next best thing is to walk the equivalent distance of a marathon while taking climbing 3 peaks along the way...oh and all in 12 hours. Thinking about it, running the London Marathon is becoming more appealing.

Back in me youth I would have had no problem but now I'm a 20-something I need to get my fitness back and prepare myself mentally for it. We've been doing quite a lot of walks recently and am slowly trying to increase the distances. This bank holiday We headed to Calke Abbey to do a 12 mile walk while taking in the bluebells and Foremark Reservoir with of course the obligatory ice-cream stop. The one thing I like about walking is seeing the seasons change and I'm getting better at spotting wild food.

The other task for the bank holiday was to find something to do with the rhubarb that was beginning to take over the raised beds. Now, rhubarb is my most hated veg, yes to me it's a veg as it grows up from the ground rather than from a tree/bush/plant. It doesn't help that I've never had much luck cooking with rhubarb. I've tried making crumble with it and roasting it, but nothing could make me like it...until now. Ok I lie the Rhubarb Bellini I drank at River Cottage began to convert me.



In time honoured tradition of having surplus veg and not having a clue what to do with it I put it in a cake. Think back to the Beetroot Brownies & Squash Honey Drizzle Cake (though I have Hugh to thank for both of these recipes). While surfing the web for a recipe that took my fancy I stumbled across a recipe for Sour Cream Rhubarb Squares on the Good Food website. I did alter the recipe somewhat as many of the comments mentioned it was too sweet and I overestimated how much of the rhubarb int he garden was ready to be picked. I was really pleased with the result. It made a beautifully moist and light cake with the nuts on top giving a nice contrasting texture. It also worked well hot with a custard just as well as it did cold with a cup of tea. I imagine it would also work with apple instead of rhubarb.

Sour Cream Rhubarb Cake
12 slices

100g unsalted butter, softened
50g golden caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g of mixed nuts, roughly chopped (I used brazils, almonds & walnuts)
200g soft dark brown sugar
1 egg
225g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300ml soured cream
150g rhubarb, chopped into 1cm pieces

1) Melt 15g of the butter then stir in caster sugar, cinnamon and nuts. Put to one side while you make the cake batter.

2) Preheat the oven to 180oc then line a 33x23x5cm baking tin. Cream together the remaining butter with the soft dark brown sugar and egg. Then fold in flour, bicarb, soured cream and rhubarb. Pour into tin.

3)Sprinkle the cake with the sugary nut mix. Bake for 35 min.

Bara Brith

I'm a bit of a melting pot. Half English, Half Welsh but with German influences from the 3 years I spent living there; so for all the Welsh people out there, an albeit belated, Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus...or Happy Saint David's Day for you non-Welsh speakers. To celebrate I made Bara Brith and lobscowse (a Welsh version of Scouse).

Bara Brith, translated literally, means speckled bread and is a traditional cake in Wales. There are essentially two types of Bara Brith. A version made with yeast, or a longer lasting version made with self-raising flour. I opted for the self-raising flour version as there is only 2 of us to eat it and wanted it to last.

After some searching around I came across an authentic sounding recipe. Few problems, it wasn't particularly well written and the recipe stated a 1lb loaf tin. No way was all the cake mix going to fit so used my baking experience and put it in a 2lb loaf tin instead. I'm glad I did as it filled a 2lb tin perfectly.

I only have feint memories of Bara Brith so wasn't totally sure what it was meant to taste like, but I think I certainly got close with this cake. It was a surprisingly delicious cake, with a pleasant marmalade taste throughout the slice. The texture was also just right, perfect for lunchboxes. Not bad considering I was winging it towards the end of the recipe! It looks similar to my banana bread that I made last week, but it tastes very much different.


Bara Brith
Makes a 2lb loaf

450g mixed fruit
300ml strong tea
450g self-raising flour
2 tbsp marmalade
1 egg
1 tsp mixed spice
6 tbsp muscovado sugar
honey, for glazing

1) Soak the fruit in the tea overnight. Don't drain!

2) Preheat oven to 170oc and line a 2lb loaf tin. In a large bowl mix together the tea soaked fruit, the remaining tea, flour, marmalade, egg, mixed spice and sugar. Pour into the tin and bake for 1.5 hours, or until a skewer comes out clean. If the top is browning too much, cover with foil.

3) Once cake is baked, allow to sit for 5 min before removing from the tin, then brush with the honey to get a shiny glaze. Allow to cook fully before slicing.

Banana Bread

I admit, I'm quite frugal and refuse to throw good food away. The odd bit I do throw, usually because it has gone past edible point, always gets composted. After writing my Love Food Hate Waste post last year I've become better at reducing waste and the campaign is now getting people to think about new habits be it using leftovers or getting better at portion control.

Bananas are an essential fruit in this house. My breakfast is incomplete without one. Very rarely are they left in the fruit bowl, but with us being away last weekend we returned to 4 bananas looking a bit worse for ware. Not one to throw away food I set about making some banana bread.

Another reason for baking a cake is that while in Axminster last weekend Hubby treated me to a set of Emma Bridgewater cake tins and I had to christen them. No more battered Roses tins for me. Actually come to think of it the last time I saw one of my Roses tins it was being used to try and save a poorly goldfish in the staffroom. Hmm I'll now stick to my new tins and not let goldfish/stick insects be put in them!

I use Nigella's Banana bread recipe. It's produces a perfect light and fluffy cake and the recipe doesn't need changing in any way. You can also make it be replacing a bit of the flour with cocoa which is just as delicious. The walnuts give a nice texture to the loaf. As you can tell by the picture there isn't much of it left! If you don't have any very ripe bananas, peel them, cut them and blast them in the microwave for a few seconds until they have begun to soften. The one thing I would say is that if you use a mixer to make cakes by all means use it up to stage 2 then after that do it by hand or the walnuts get crushed.

Banana Bread
from Nigella - How to be a Domestic Goddess
makes 1 2lb loaf

100g sultanas
75ml rum
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g granulated sugar
2 eggs
4 small very ripe bananas, mashed
175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
60g walnuts, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract

1) In a small saucepan gently heat the rum and sultanas until boiling then take off the heat and cover. Leave for an hour or so to allow the sultanas to soak up the rum.

2)Preheat oven to 170oc. Beat together the butter and sugar then the eggs and bananas.

3) Stir in vanilla, walnuts and drained sultanas then slowly sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. Fold until combined. Pour into a lined 2lb loaf time and bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours. Allow to cool in tin before slicing.

Raspberry Beer Brownies

Being married to a man who was brought up close to the UK's heart of brewing, it's not surprising that his interest in beer has rubbed off on me. I could quite happily sup on a half pint of porter, but my ultimate favourite has to be Samuel Smith's fruit beers especially the raspberry one as it tastes of summer. The taste of summer is just what we need as the snow is beginning to settle outside.

After stocking up on some of the beer at Sound Bites in Derby yesterday, I had a brainwave on the drive home. You can make brownies with Guinness, so surely you can do the same with glorious Raspberry beer. I also made them to celebrate having 100,000 hits on my blog since it started. To add some additional colour to the brownies I stirred some raspberries into the batter.

To be honest, I cook with beer just as much as I drink it and like wines different beers go with different dishes. The smell of the brownie batter as I made these was divine and once cooked they tasted like my raspberry truffles in a gooey cake form, can't be bad! Just note, if you do make these it makes quite a sloppy batter, but don't worry they will still bake well.

Raspberry Beer Brownies
Makes 16

4 eggs
140g caster sugar
300g dark chocolatr
70g unsalted butter
110g plain flour
2 tsp cocoa
290ml raspberry beer
100g raspberries
icing sugar

1) Preheat oven to 190oc and line a deep 8 inch square baking pan with baking parchment.

2) Combine eggs and sugar. On a medium heat melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Allow to cool for about 3 mins.

3) Stir chocolate mix into egg mix. Sift in flour and cocoa. Beat until well combined.

4) Whisk in beer then fold in raspberries. Pour batter into the pan pan. Bake for 25 min until a skewer comes out just about clean. It will continue to cook slightly after being taken out of oven.

5) Once cooled, drench in icing sugar and slice.

Blue Ballet Squash Honey Drizzle Cake

The weather people love to get us (well me)excited about the prospect of heavy snow. So this morning woke up excited like a child at Christmas only to pull back the curtains and find the most pathetic sprinkling of snow, which soon disappeared after a heavy downpour.

Today is Stir-up-Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent and when you traditionally make the Christmas Pudding. Due to a busy diary I made my Christmas pudding a couple of weeks ago, but still wanted to do some Christmas baking this weekend. For the last couple of years I've been making suet-free mincemeat and this year wasn't going to be any different. I often alter the recipe each year depending as to what I have in. This year I used Green Goblin cider and Pussers Rum. The smell while it was bubbling away on the stove was heaven. I've made a promise to myself that I'm going to do Christmas baking throughout December and I've found a recipe for chocolate stollen which is next on my list. Watch this space.



This year I have well documented the plight of the Blue Ballet Squashes in the garden. A few weeks ago one was roasted for roast dinner and the second has been patiently waiting on the kitchen worktop for us to do something with it. After making the beetroot brownies a couple of weeks ago a fellow blogger pointed me in the direction of another Hugh F-W cake recipe that had appeared in the Guardian and contained butternut squash. I decided that if they cake would work with Butternut, it would work with Blue Ballet squash. Now I used to be a passionate hater of vegetables in cakes, but Hugh is slowly turning me around to them.

After grating 1kg of apples for the mincemeat the last thing I wanted to do was grate some squash. Plus a "squash + sharp knife = ouch" incident from a couple of years ago permanently scared on my thumb, I'm a bit fearful of this humble vegetable. This is when the trusty food processor comes into play and rather than grated squash I used finely diced squash. It produced a very thick cake mix and I was a bit apprehensive that I wouldn't work, but it produced a perfect, beautifully moist cake where the flavours had all combined and the squash had melted into the cake. Absolutely delicious. It would also work well with a orange cream cheese frosting but Hubby has begged me to leave it as it is.



It's a bit of a mouthful when it comes to the name of a cake, but hey ho!

Blue Ballet Squash Honey Drizzle Cake
makes 1 2lb loaf

180g self-raising flour
90g light soft brown sugar
90g golden caster sugar
pinch of mixed spice
pinch of grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
zest and juice of 1 orange
180g butter, melted
2 eggs
300g squash, peeled, deseeded and grated/finely diced
75g walnuts, chopped
50g sultanas
1 tbsp lemon juice
5 tbsp honey

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Mix together all dry ingredients and orange zest. Then beat in butter and eggs until you have a smooth batter. Gently fold in squash, walnuts and sultanas. Pour into a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake for 50-55 min until skewer comes out clean.

2) About 5 min before cake is ready in a small pan heat honey, lemon juice and orange juice, simmer until it has thickened. When cake is ready take it out of the oven, skewer a few holes in the top of the cake and pour drizzle mix over. Allow to cool in the tin (due to the moisture content of the cake it takes a great deal longer than you expect to cool).

Beautiful Beetroot Brownies

This week is National Baking Week and to celebrate I decided to make brownies, very special brownies with a intriguing ingredient. My love of baking is well documented. I enjoy it because it is stress-relieving, creative, rewarding, fun and I believe a home-baked good is always better than shop bought.

Hugh is officially a god. If he can turn a humble beetroot into a glorious, moist, rich chocolate brownie he's a god in my eyes. Hey you know what I'm like, I'm always drawn to pink food like a magpie to anything shiny, and if it is pink and glittery...well I'm hooked. The taste was nothing like I expected. You can certainly taste the beetroot, but rather than it being an earthy taste its paring with dark chocolate turns it into a deep sweet taste, not unlike cherries. This has helped conquer my belief of vegetables not belonging in cakes.

This recipe was featured on River Cottage Autumn last week and has caused a bit of a stir on foodie forums. One thing I did find was that I had to bake it for quite a bit longer than the original recipe, but this is probably because I used a different sized pan.

Beetroot Brownies
makes 16 squares
From River Cottage Autumn

250g 70% dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g boiled beetroot, grated (boil your own, or use ready boiled-as long as it's not pickled!)

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Line an 8x8 In a bain-marie (or using the oven method Hugh uses in the above link) gently melt together the chocolate and butter. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

2)Whisk together the sugar and butter then beat in the chocolate/butter mix.

3)Fold in the flour then beetroot. Pour into the tin and bake for 20-30 or until a skewer come out just about clean. Allow to cool in tin before slicing as it will continue to cook until cooled.

Piles of Parkin

Parkin has been on "must bake" list for a while and when Sylvie @ A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit made some for British Food Fortnight I decided I had to give it a go.

Parkin is from Yorkshire and traditionally eaten on Bonfire Night. The principle ingredients of parkin are flour, oatmeal, fat (traditionally lard), black treacle and ginger. Lyle syrups are archetypal ingredients in British baking and the tins are kitchen icons. Black treacle reminds me of cooking Christmas cake with my mum. There was always a fight as to who would lick the spoon clean. As a child I was always intrigued by the lion logo on the tin. Innocent little me thought it was a sleeping lion with stars above it; in reality it is a dead lion with a swarm of bees. No I don't get it either, though wikipedia does go some way to explain it. I perfer to think it is still a lion happily dreaming away!

Black treacle has the ability to be explosive (hence why it tells you on the tin not to open it after best before date and dispose of it). Maybe this is why it appears in so many dishes associated with bonfire night!

I think I may have slightly overcooked it, but with a few days of rest it should begin to go stickier. I was also expecting it to come out a bit darker in colour so next time may use soft dark sugar instead of golden caster sugar. Saying that, it still takes very good!

Parkin
from A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit

125 g butter (if using unsalted butter add 1 tsp salt)
125 g golden syrup
125 g black treacle
125 g golden caster sugar
250 g plain flour
250 g medium oatmeal
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten

1) Preheat oven to 150°C/Gas 2/300°F and line a 10x10 baking pan. Gently heat the butter, golden syrup, treacle and sugar in a pan, stirring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved.

2) In a bowl sift together flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt (if using), ginger and cinnamon. Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter mixture, beat until everything is combined.

3) When combined add the egg and mix until you have a smooth soft batter. If the batter seems to be stiff add 1tbsp of milk.

4) Pour into the tin and bake 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool before removing and cut into squares

Celebrating British Food - Bakewell Tart

Summer made a brief appearance here in the UK over the weekend; basking the ground in glorious autumnal sunshine. Hey it was short lived, but at least it brought us some cheer.

We spent Sunday at Kedleston Hall on the outskirts of Derby, walking around the grounds and eating picnic on the lawn. It was packed out with people taking advantage of the beautiful weather, The Duchess exhibition and the fact they were giving free puddings away in the restaurant as part of their British Food Fortnight events.



This is why I love Britain, in particular Derbyshire not only do we have awe inspiring scenery but fantastic food. 20th September till 5th October is British Food Fortnight and the lovely Antonia @ Food, Glorious Food is hosting a British Food Fortnight Challenge. As soon as I heard about the challenge there was one thing I knew I had to make, Bakewell Tart. Possibly one of the most famous cakes in Derbyshire

Now there is lots of myths surrounding Bakewell Pudding/Tart. Don't let Mr Kipling make you believe a Cherry Bakewell is traditional. The Bakewell Pudding is believed to have begun in a pub in Bakewell when an inexperienced chef in the kitchen was meant to make a strawberry tart, but made something very different. The Bakewell Pudding is a tart made with puff pastry shell, layer of jam and eggy custard topping and an alleged "secret ingredient" (No I've never been able to work the ingredient out). The Bakewell Tart however has evolved from the Bakewell Pudding and is made with a sweet shortcrust base, layer of jam and a rich almond sponge topping. My original intentions were to make a Bakewell pudding, but decided a Bakewell Tart was more picnic friendly.



Bakewell Tart is one of my favourite cakes and I believe a perfect Bakewell tart should have a thin, but supporting layer of pastry, thick layer of raspberry jam and a deep, dense, moist frangipane sponge. A dry, tasteless Cherry Bakewell it ain't!

I admit I'm not too confident with pastry, but with the help of my trusty KitchenAid I'm getting there. I was really pleased with how the pastry and the overall tart worked out. For me it was the perfect Bakewell Tart, and trust me in my lifetime I've eaten my fair share!



Bakewell Tart
Serves 8-10

PASTRY

125g plain flour
75g unsalted butter, cold and diced
25g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp cold water
1 egg white

FILLING

100g raspberry jam
100g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
25g plain flour
100g ground almonds
1 tsp almond extract
30g flaked almonds

1)In a large bowl mix together flour, salt and sugar then rub in butter until you have the consistency of breadcrumbs. Stir in the egg yolk and water until you have a smooth dough. Flatten into a disk, cover in clingfilm and refrigerate for 45 min.

2)On a floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 3mm thick then line a 20cm tart tin with the pastry. Lightly prick the base with a fork and chill for 30 min.

3) Preheat the oven to 180oc (160oc fan). Line the pastry case with baking parchment and baking beans then bake for 20min until pastry is a light golden colour. Remove the beans and parchment, brush the inside of the pastry shell with egg white and bake for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 min

4) While the pastry is cooling beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and almond extract. Stir in the flour and ground almonds until well combined.

5) Spread the jam generously over the pastry base then pour frangipane mix on top of the jam. Level out with a pallet knife. Sprinkle with sliced almonds then bake for 35-40 until risen and golden.

6) Allow to cool in tin before eating.

Pimms O'Clock

This weekend the summer eventually arrived and in true British style we celebrated by going to Summer Classics concert in Victoria Park Southport. The weather was perfect. Not only was my brother performing on stage we also saw performances from Natasha Marsh and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. It was all finished with a fantastic fireworks display. Traditionally you take a picnic and I think some tables were trying to outdo each other. A few tables in front of us the men were wearing tuxedos, drinking from silver goblets and their picnic table had a candelabra. We also spotted another fancy table with a union jack cake covered in sparklers. It was great to see that people had really got into the fun of it. We've promised next year we'll go all out with table cloths, candles and tuxedos.

It's a great fun introduction to classical music and had a fab atmosphere. Lots of flag waving and during the Blue Danube Waltz, people (most of which looked like they had been drinking Pimms for a few hours!) were waltzing around the park.



Our picnic was made up of lots of different nibbles plus Pimms, wine & shloer. I also made Beth's Raspberry & Pine nut Bars. I added a handful of coconut that needed using up. Everyone loved them and I'll certainly be trying them again with maybe different fruits depending what is season.

If you ever get the chance to go to a Summer Proms concert I highly recommend it!

Raspberry & Chocolate Muffins

Ok, I promise, I will try and make sure the next post doesn't involve raspberries! The one problem I find about picking tonnes of raspberries is that you have to use them up within a couple of days picking or they begin to go off. Which in turn makes me wonder what on earth do supermarkets put on their raspberries to make them last so long...hmmmm not worth thinking about.

This morning Hubby pointed out that we had half a punnet of raspberries left and was wondering what I was planning to do with them. I initially suggested a smoothie, but I could see the disappointment in his eyes that I had suggested something healthy. Then the idea hit me - raspberry and chocolate muffins. His faith in me had been restored. This also meant I got to try out my new star and heart cake moulds.



The smell of them baking was gorgeous. They didn't turn out with the best texture, I'm not too sure if it was a bit too dense for my liking, but they still tasted nice and were perfect with a cup of tea. I've entered this to Food Blogga as part of Sugar High Friday.

Raspberry & Chocolate Muffins
Makes 16 regular or 8 large

300g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
150g golden caster sugar
225ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g butter, melted
1 egg
50g chocolate chunks (I used milk chocolate)
250g raspberries

1) Preheat oven to 200oc. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and sugar.

2) In another bowl whisk together egg, milk, butter and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients, stir until well combined.

3) Carefully stir in the chocolate and raspberries and spoon into cake cases into 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 min until risen and golden.

Melting Marshmallow Cake

This weekend has been the first weekend we're had free in a long time. It's been a well earned lazy weekend. Sometimes I need just a few days to loaf. I haven't baked for just the two of us for a while so handed Hubby my Cookie & Biscuit Bible and asked him to choose a recipe.

According the cookbook the base should have a soft cookie texture, but it turned out as a thick light sponge. This probably has something to do with the recipe stating a 9x9 inch pan, whereas I used an 8x8 thinking "ah a few inches won't make a difference", where in reality that extra inch each side adds up to an extra 17 inch square of pan. The end result is very sweet, almost too sweet for me and you certainly need a cup of tea with it. It very much reminds me of the kind of cakes you used to have with school dinners.

Melting Marshmallow Cake
Makes 12

130g unsalted butter, softened
75g vanilla caster sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
1 dsp vanilla extract
75g ground almonds
1 egg
115g self raising flour
150g raspberry jam
200g marshmallows, cut in half
icing sugar, for dusting

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Line 8x8 inch (or 9x9 inch if you want thinner base) baking pan with baking parchment.

2) Beat together butter, sugar and lemon until creamy. Beat in vanilla, almonds, egg then finally flour.

3) Spread evenly over tin base. Bake for 20 min until golden. Allow to cool in tin for 10 min.

4) Spread jam over base then arrange marshmallows, cut-side down, in a chequerboard fashion. Grill for 2 min until marshmallows have melted and turned golden brown. Leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Simnel loaf and cupcakes

In England it is traditional to make a simnel cake to celebrate Easter. Similar to a Christmas cake in that it is a spiced fruit cake. It features 11 balls of marzipan which represent the 12 apostles excluding Judas. The cake is thought to have been around since Medieval times and the name comes from the Latin simila meaning fine wheat flour.

Tradition dictates that it should be baked on Mothering Sunday by a daughter. If it is still moist when cut open on Easter Sunday it is a sign of a good cook (and potential wife!) As I only found this information out yesterday, and had missed Mothering Sunday I still decided to go ahead with it.

The original recipe for this Simnel Loaf cake featured in this months GFM, I made some alterations due to ingredients I had available. I also made my own marzipan, which is far better than any shop bought version. It is meant to make 1 2lb loaf, but I was left with loads of extra cake batter so made some simnel cupcakes to go with the loaf. It turned out beautifully moist, I'm glad it did or I would have been proved to be a shocking wife and cook! Method wise it is very similar to a Boiled Fruit Cake. Rather than the important 11 marzipan balls being on the top of the cake they are distributed throughout the cake, a bit like a stollen. You can use this recipe to make just simnel cupcakes (I guess this recipe will make about 18), use the same amounts. The cooking times for the cupcakes are below. I've entered the cakes in to Julia's Easter Cake Bake.

It's snowing here at the moment and we've been predicted heavy snow for tomorrow so we could be in for a white Easter.

Simnel Loaf and Cupcakes
Makes 1 2lb loaf and around 6 cupcakes

Marzipan
Makes 250g

125g ground almonds
60g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 egg, beaten well (you won't use all of it)

1) Sift sugar into bowl then mix in almonds.

2) Add the lemon juice then the egg a tiny bit at a time. Beat to a firm paste then knead. It will end up having the texture of grainy dough. If it is too sticky add a bit more sugar and almonds. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in fridge while you prepare the rest of the cake.

Cake

140g unsalted butter, cubed
175g golden caster sugar
250ml orange juice
75g dried apricots, quartered
275g mixed fruit
220g glace cherries
200g marzipan (see above)
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
50g flaked almonds

Icing
1 egg white
250g icing sugar
50g marzipan

1) Preheat oven to 150oc. Line 2lb with baking parchment. Ensure it goes high up the sides as the cake will rise.

2) In a large saucepan slowly heat butter, sugar, orange juice, dried fruits until boiling. Simmer for 10 minutes then allow to cool for 15 min. While this is cooling shape the cake marzipan into 11 balls around 2cm across.

3) Sift flour, spice and baking powder into the pan, then stir in eggs and almonds until everything is well combined.

4) Spoon cake mix into tin until it is about half full. Arrange the marzipan balls evenly over the cake mix then cover with the remaining cake mix (don't over fill the tin). Smooth over the top. Bake loaf for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 until a skewer will come out clean. Leave to cool in tin for 15 min, then remove and finish cooling on wire rack. Allow cake to cool fully before icing.

If cooking cupcakes bake for 30 minutes at 150oc.

5) Lightly whisk egg white then beat in icing sugar until you have thick spreadable icing. Spread over the top of cake. Roll remaining marzipan into balls and brown with a blow torch (you could do this under the grill). When the icing is almost set press the marzipan balls along the top.

Irish Mocha Cupcakes - Homage to the Baileys Blitz

The second item for my marathon "cheer up" baking session are Irish Mocha Cupcakes. These cupcakes are inspired by Sugar Plum's St Paddy's Day Pub Crawl Blogging Event and a coffee called a Baileys Blitz that fueled my university days. Baileys Blitz was a mocha coffee with a shot of Baileys topped with lashings of whipped cream and (rather randomly) maltesers....mmmmmmm..

In these cupcakes I've forgone the malteasers, but all the other ingredients are there in some form or another. I'm really pleased how well they turned out. Of course I had to "test" one of the cakes just to check they are fit for my workmates ;) The rich coffee chocolate sponge is complimented perfectly with the Baileys icing.

Irish Mocha Cupcakes
Makes 12

For the cupcakes
110g butter, softened
110g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
85g self-raising flour
30g cocoa
2-3 tbsp cold strong coffee

For the Baileys icing
210g icing sugar, sifted
95g butter, softened
2 tbsp Baileys

1) Preheat oven to 180oc. Cream butter and sugar together into light and fluffy. Stir in one egg at a time so they don't curdle.

2) Fold in sifted flour and cocoa, then stir in the coffee one tbsp at a time.

3) Spoon into cupcake cases then bake for 15 min. Allow to thoroughly cool before icing.

4) Beat all of the icing ingredients together. If the icing it too stiff add some more baileys, if it is too runny add a tiny bit more icing sugar. Ice cakes using a piping bag.

Malt Loaf

Today has been "come and visit the chicks" Day. The kids loved to stroke and hold them. To go with the countless cups of tea being made today I made a malt loaf. This was partially inspired by the jar of malt extract I found at the back of my baking cupboard. It only comes out when I'm making malt loaf or granola.

My memories of malt loaf go back to my school days where we used to literally fight over the slightly burnt corner piece of malt loaf that had a lovely caramelised, chewy texture. This recipe isn't as chewy as Soreen, but the taste is very close. If you want you can soak the fruit in tea for 30 min before adding to the cake mix.

Malt Loaf

75ml/3fl strong hot tea
8 tbsp (about 200g) malt extract
175g/6oz self-raising flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
150g / 6oz mixed fruit
1 egg

1) Preheat oven to 140oc. Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Mix malt extract and tea, then allow to cool

2)Mix all ingredients together, including malty tea and pour into tin. Bake for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours. Stand for 10 min before slicing.