The Joy of Being Greeted by Cake

At the weekend I went to Sussex as I was running a 10k across some of the Seven Sisters. I won't talk about it as it was bleak and I feel bad going on about how horrendous I found it when The Thew covered 34 miles and was out in the freezing cold for over 6 hours. However he is a bit weird and likes challenging himself so I think my effort was pretty good for me. I knew I had been slightly duped when I saw the moto of the company organising it was 'Never, never, never, give up' and that they specialised in the hardest runs in the most stunning scenery. Didn't see that when I agreed to do it! (If this sounds like your cup of tea check out Endurance Life as it does what it says on the tin and is very well organised according to The Thew who has done a lot of these).

Anyway the cottage that my sister-in-law found us to stay in was wonderful and when we got there the owners had left us a homemade Maderia cake. There is a certain joy in being given cake and after a train journey all you want is a cup of tea and cake. Which we did!

 

I ran over these. I can assure you that they are steeper than they look and gale force wind coming at you doesn't make them any easier.

Cup Cake Cases

I love the cup cake cases I found in a shop in Columbia Road Market so thought that I would share them. If you're around Liverpool Street check out Keeping House for some lovely kitchen items. I basically want everything in the shop.

Chocolate, Banana and Walnut Cupcakes

The Thew is flying to Morocco in about 2 ½ weeks to take part in the Marathon des Sables. For anyone not familiar, and why would you be!, it’s a 155 mile run in the Sahara carrying everything you need for the 6 days you’re toiling away in the oppressive heat. They do give you a basic tent and rationed water on the way around so it’s not all bad! He likes to physically challenge himself and it seems to keep him out of trouble. If he’s not around he’s probably midway through a 6 hour run while carrying an 8kg pack and he’ll soon be home needing to be fed and watered. Something I excel at so we’re both playing to our strengths with this one.

To ensure he is at optimum fitness he does regulate what he eats. His diet is one without starchy carbs and is gluten free. He avoids refined sugar, overly sweet fruit (so green bananas are good, but ripe ones are bad) and anything processed. It’s fairly impressive and I have no idea how he does it. He loves bread and is mental for chocolate (although he does indulge in the 85% cocoa one) but over the years he has weaned himself off wanting them. I suppose still consuming alcohol helps, although no beer because of gluten. He is the most self-motivated and determined person that I know and his changes of diet over the years have proved a constant cooking challenge to me which I’ve enjoyed overcoming.  It also means that I eat much better than I naturally would and I’m much fitter as I tend to get scooped along with things he is doing. Although flying over the handle bar of a mountain bike speeding downhill isn’t something I wish to repeat.

So this week’s recipe owes much to the rejection of some bananas for being too ripe for him. I’ve let them continue to ripen as the browner the skin the better the fruit is inside for baking. It’s hard to do banana recipes on the spur of the moment because you need them ripe and everywhere sells green ones. Therefore I’ve taken advantage of the ones I have to do this and paired it with the blonde icing I did for the birthday cake I made last week (as I had left over white chocolate and crème fraiche). These are so simple to make, with the walnuts dampening down the sweetness from the chocolate, letting the bananas shine through.

If you’re feeling generous check out The Thew’s Just Giving page as he’s raising money for a great cause.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

125g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 ripe bananas

4 tbsp sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

300g plain flour (if you discover you only have s-r, like I did last night, then just half the bicarb and baking powder. It seemed to work!)

50g walnuts, chopped

80g milk chocolate, chopped (you can use dark if you prefer)

 

Frosting

100g white chocolate (good quality)

25g butter

100ml crème fraiche

100g icing sugar

1.    Preheat the oven to 180°C/GM4.

2.    Get a largest saucepan as you can do everything in on. Melt the butter and then take off the heat.

3.    Add the sugar, vanilla and bananas mushing the bananas in with a fork. You can do all the mixing with a fork.

4.    Stir in the sour cream and eggs and beat to a mix. Then add the bicarb, baking powder and flour. Mix well.

5.    Then add the milk chocolate and walnuts and mix again.

6.    Put into cupcake cases and cook for about 20/25 minutes. I made small cupcakes (filling the cases about 2/3rds) as I wanted to frost them but if you fill to the top then you’ll get more muffin sized ones. Either way works just test that a skewer comes out clean.

7.    Then to make the frosting melt the butter and white chocolate together. Beat in the crème fraiche off the heat and then stir in sifted icing sugar.

8.    Once cupcakes are cooled simple frost and serve!

Makes 24 cupcake sized ones and about 18 big muffins sized ones.

Coffee and Walnut Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a friend this week and I was more than happy to do so - especially as I was being given dinner as part of the deal. The brief was chocolate or coffee and walnut. I went one better and made a cake using all three! This is a 'proper' cake - grown up, not too sweet and perfect in civilised company. We ate it with wine while watching dubious Harlem Shake videos but it could be grown up if you wanted it to be.

The icing and filling is amazing. Nigella's blonde icing is truly a thing of amazingness. Just make sure you use a very good white chocolate as the cheaper stuff can be too sweet. Tesco have just brought out a cooks chocolate range which I think it very good.

Ingredients
450g butter
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
200ml strong fresh coffee, cooled
4 tsp cocoa powder
225g self-raising flour
175g chopped walnuts (plus extra to decorate)
200g white chocolate (good quality)
50g butter
200ml crème fraiche (the original recipe says 220ml but it comes in 200ml tubs so that's what went in)
100g icing sugar

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°/GM5.

2.    Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs in one at a time making sure you whisk well each time.

3.    Add the coffee and then the flour with the cocoa sifted in on top. Whisk well but don’t panic if it looks a little bit like scrambled eggs as this may curdle but it won’t matter once it’s baked.

4.    Fold in the walnuts and divide the mixture between two shallow tins that have been well greased – ideally put some baking paper on the bottom.

5.    Bake for 25 minutes. Now this makes quite a delicate cake so I’d suggest cooling completely in the tins. I made mine the day before they were needed and by the time I turned them out it made become more robust and didn’t break when turning out or sandwiching together. However you’re going to cover this in frosting so if it breaks just weld it together with that.

6.    Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

7.    Cool a little once melted, mix in the crème fraiche and the sift the icing sugar on top and mix in as well.

8.    Leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes and then use half to sandwich the two cakes together and use the other half to ice the top (you could do the sides but I was in a rush due to coming home late because the Central line was on the blink). Decorate with walnuts if you like and serve.

Irish Soda Bread

I had no idea what to make this Monday. I thought I had something prepared as I remembered writing out ingredients I needed. However when I looked at them they were for a birthday cake I’m going to make this weekand not something to bake on Monday. Shock horror! I started to think about things and realised that with my faulty electric whisk I couldn’t be bothered with anything that needed excessive use of that (due to the assistance of a knife shoved in the top to make it work). So I’m stuck.

Then a small miracle happens. I get out of a meeting and an email from my mum contains two recipes. One that I remember asking for and one that I didn’t remember asking for, (as I already have it), but that solved my problem. Bread - but without all that rising faff so it could be done quickly and without the need of a whisk. Soda bread was an integral part of my childhood as I spent three weeks in the summer there every year with my mum’s family. Mamó, my grandmother, would make bread every day and it was a staple with every meal.The smell of it invokes so many memories for me and as St. Patrick’s Day is soon upon us I thought it would be fitting.

I’ve left the recipe in cups (US) as when I used to watch Mamo make this she used to use a metal scoop to get the flour and oats from big bins under the stairs. I suppose it feels more authentic and more natural to use one easy measure for everything as this recipe is about providing a staple food for the family that is quick and easy to make. I suppose Mamó had made it so many times it was second nature to her. Don’t be put off by the yogurt. This simply replicates the buttermilk/yogurty liquid used originally and is easier to get hold of. I recommend butter and strawberry jam with a cup of tea, ideally in front of a peat fired range.

Ingredients

3 cups self-raising flour

2 cups plain wholemeal flour

1 cup porridge oats or bran (I prefer the oats)

1 tsp bicarb of soda (where it gets its name from)

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar

1 egg

1 large piece of butter (can you tell it came from my mum? Say about 80g but you don’t need to accurate)

Large tub of natural yogurt (ideally full fat)

Milk if you need it

1.   Preheat oven to 200°/GM 5

2.   Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl, mix well, then rub in the butter. You won’t get a full breadcrumb like mixture, as there is too much dry ingredients to fat, but you just want to disperse the butter throughout.

3.   Add the egg and yogurt and mix in. This will be too dry so add milk to bring it together and make a dough. You don’t want it too sticky but it needs to have some givein it.

4.   Knead the dough on a floured surface, adding extra flour if it’s too sticky. I’d say 3-4 minutes to just get it a bit elastic.

5.   Flatten out to about 2 inches thick and cut a cross in the top. Put on a floured baking tray.

6.   Bake for 45-60 minutes. The time will depends on all sorts of things – the type of oven, how thick it is, etc etc. Basically it’s done when tapping the bottom makes a hollow sound. Sometimes I get impatient and flip the bread over to finish it for the last 10 minutes but that’s normally when I’ve made it too thick.

7.   Once out of the oven cover with a damp dish cloth to cool. You can eat it hot (in fact I recommend it) but do allow it to rest for an hour once it first comes out.

Mother's Day Afternoon Tea

My sister and I rocked a mean afternoon tea yesterday. She made some amazing caramel cupcakes which I'm going to have to make. Add champagne and tea.

Lorna's Chocolate Brazil Biscuits

I was looking through my massive 1,000 recipe book after rediscovering it a couple of weeks ago in my quest for a scone recipe. It's amazing how many memories can be contained in a recipe book – being reminded of when you made something, events you were catering for or people who ate what you made. Every recipe book I have tells a different story with the pages of most used recipes covered in whatever ingredients are used to make them. At least it makes it easy for me to find my favourite recipes but with all the recipes each book has to only make a few seems a waste. This thought led me to go through all my recipe books in the quest for something new.

One book I use quite a bit was given to me by my good friend Lorna. It’s a Green & Black’s book and there are a few cake recipes I use regularly. Lorna bought me the book when we lived together in Neasden as she had experience my love of baking at university. We lived in the same house in the 3^rd year and while I might only have pasta in the cupboard for dinner I’d always have the ingredients for brownies! Cooking for people was a way of showing we cared and we’d sometimes embark on making epic dinners for all our housemates. Special occasions would normally be the trigger and anything from birthdays, Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving would see us heading up to Asda in Lorna’s little car.

So while looking through the Green & Black’s book I saw a recipe that had been created by someone called Lorna. This put with the fact that its Lorna’s birthday this week meant that the recipe was an easy choice to try out. It’s an interesting one as the wholemeal flour in these biscuits does make them a bit soft and crumbly, which they are mean to be. The batter basically acts as a vehicle for nuts and chocolate which is never a bad thing. I’m sad to say though that there might not be any for Lorna to sample herself when I see her on Saturday but I’m hoping a glass of champagne might make up for it!

Ingredients

75g butter
60g caster sugar
1 large egg
175g wholemeal self-raising flour (I couldn't find self-raising so bought plain wholemeal and added 3 tsp of baking piece to the flour and sifted it through three times. It seems to have worked out)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk
80g dark chocolate
80g milk chocolate
50g Brazil nuts (these are expensive so I recommend going to Holland & Barrett and buying their broken ones which are better value)
Pinch of salt

1.   Preheat the oven to 180

2.   Chop up the chocolate and Brazil nuts into chunky pieces. See that's why buying broken ones makes sense as you're not using them whole.

3.   Cream the butter and sugar together until light in colour. (My electric whisk broke at this point meaning I had to jam a knife in the top to stop and start it so I'm going to admit to just about getting there with this bit. I thought that the combination of knife and electrical equipment weren't really meant to go together so minimising the time spent with them together was best).

4.   Mix the flour into the mixture along with the vanilla extract.

5.   Add just enough milk to bind it together and chuck the nuts and chocolate in along with the salt. Mix well with your hand to get everything evenly distributed. If you add too much milk add flour a teaspoon at a time until it becomes less sticky.

6.   Roll out on a floured surface. It probably won't get thinner than about 5mm because of the chucks. Cut out with a 6cm cutter or something approximately that size.

7.   Place on a baking tray and cook for 17-20 minutes. You don't want to over-cook as they can dry out.

Now these see to be the first thing I've baked that taste better cold than hot! I think it’s the wholemeal flour as you can tell you’re eating something that isn’t completely bad for you. Leave them to cool before eating and I'd recommend a glass of milk or cup of tea to go with them.