Chocolate, lots of chocolate, and even more cream

Valentines weekend has mostly been about food - a very unromantic bout of marmalade making, further proof that I'm inclined to over boil a haggis thus bursting it (proof I could have done without) and the happy realisation that I can poach an egg (I don't much like them so had never tried before but by some happy chance I didn't over cook it and it stayed nice and neat). There was also a chocolate pudding/cake which I'm prepared to be quite enthusiastic about.

My family are coming for dinner tomorrow and basically lots of chocolate with even more cream is the pudding that should please most of us, it will undoubtedly give my father indigestion but it's what he wanted so it's what he's going to get (specifically he wanted the pudding, he's just going to have to put up with the indigestion). The cake in question is Fiona Cairns 'Chocolate love cake' though as I don't have a suitable heart shaped tin mine is just a chocolate cake. I made one for Friday night half thinking it would do for Monday as well but in the end have had a second go partly to improve on my first attempt but mostly because there wasn't enough left to go round. 

This isn't so much a cake as it is a huge chocolate truffle sitting on some sponge, it needs to be made the day before you want it but otherwise it's beautifully simple. You make a syrup from 25g of golden castor sugar and 25mls of water bought to a gentle boil and simmered for a couple of minutes, add 50 mls of liqueur or brandy (for my second attempt I'm using frangelico and I'm also going to throw some hazelnut praline on top of it) and set aside for a moment. For the sponge base Fiona says you can use a ready made flan case because it only needs a thin layer, and I'm not going to argue, they're about 99p which is both far cheaper and much less trouble than making a cake specially. Cut the sponge base to fit into a 20cm cake tin (it needs to have a removable base) and then brush the syrup over it until it's all soaked in. Meanwhile melt 220g of good quality dark chocolate (in a bowl over a pan of hot water) and whip 450ml of double cream until it's just beginning to thicken. She really means it when she says just beginning to thicken, first time round I over whipped the cream so the texture was slightly wrong in the finished article - still delicious but not quite right. When the chocolate is just melted and still hot, slowly pour it over the cream whipping it all the time as you go. As soon as it's incorporated pour it over the sponge (even second time round that was more a case of spooning and smoothing than actual pouring) then cover in clingfilm and stick in the fridge until it's time to serve. I like everything about this cake.  

Cinnamon bun-cake

To celebrate finally finishing my Christmas cake it seemed appropriate to bake something new so I opted for my own little bit of scandomania and looked for a cinnamon bun recipe. The older I get the more appealing a cinnamon bun becomes as compared to something like a cup cake or anything else smothered in to much icing, until now my go to recipe has been this one but it makes a lot of buns and a change doesn't go amiss sometimes.

I've had 'Scandilicious Baking' since it came out but apart from the Santa Lucia buns haven't used it much, but I found a good looking bun recipe in it yesterday and had pretty much all the ingredients I needed to make them so that's what I did. I guess my next project will be to find something which isn't based on a sweet dough in there.

Possibly the best thing about these buns from my point of view is that the quantities are a little bit more modest (the worst is that there was no need for baking powder so my new kitchen accessory remained unused) this bun recipe makes 7 rather than 12, they're also reasonably quick to produce - at least in terms of anything bready and that's good too.

To make the dough scald 225mls of milk with 75g of butter. Meanwhile measure out 425g of strong plain flour (the original recipe uses a mix of plain flour and spelt flour which I didn't have) 70g of castor sugar, one of those little sachets of instant yeast, half a teaspoon of ground sea salt, 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom (this is a flavour that I'm coming to particularly associate with Signe Johansen and whilst I like the lemony hit it gives these buns I'm not overly sold on it and would say it was distinctly optional) because I misread somewhere along the line I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the dough but I like cinnamon so that's staying in). By the time all the dry ingredients are assembled and stirred together the scalded milk butter mix should have cooled enough to add along with an egg. It's a wet dough so it's much easier to use a mixer of some sort than hands... When it's turned into a nice dough cover the bowl with cling film and put somewhere warm for half an hour to rise. Meanwhile butter a 23cm spring form tin and make a filling out of 75g of soft butter, 50g of caster sugar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, and half a teaspoon of vanilla salt (the salt adds something special and is worth having on hand) cream that lot together. When the dough has risen to about double in size roll it out into a rectangle about 35cm long 25cm wide, spread all over with the filling and then roll up into a long sausage. Cut into 7 rounds and arrange in the tin. Put it back somewhere warm to rise for another 20 -30 mins and heat the oven to 200c or gas 6. Have a tray to put the cake tin on or risk butter dripping all over your oven. When the dough has doubled in size again glaze it with egg and a sprinkle of sugar, put it in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 mins (or until cooked). Allow to cool and then enjoy.

More Christmas Cakes

Christmas madness is in full swing at work (bless my father for asking if things were beginning to wind down now - they're not) it's also in full swing at home. Christmas biscuits are made, Christmas fudge is made, oranges have been candied and dipped in chocolate, I finally found some reasonably priced figs with which to make fig and pomegranate jam,  Fiona Cairns Fig and Almond mince meat has been tested in a mince pie and found extremely satisfactory, cards are written and posted and finally all the cakes have been decorated. 

I guess it's obvious that I love baking (I really do) so the chance to bake for others is one of the things I like most about Christmas. If I had more time (or was more organised) I would do a lot more of it, there were a whole stack of recipes in Annie Rigg's 'Sweet Things' I wanted to have a go at but haven't quite gotten round to (cherry and kirsch fudge is cooling as I type though) and there should be plenty of time in the new year to play in the kitchen so for now the cakes are an end to it all. 

There have been a few cakes this year and I've been reasonably pleased with all of them, working out decorative ideas and trying to make them work is another Christmas pleasure. The one with the sugar paste wreath was going to have a simple but elegant ivy leaf design but it became clear that sometimes more is better in that the more I piled on the better it looked. It's the first time I've tried colouring sugar paste so I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it turned out to be. 

The cake with the stag on is for new year and will be travelling so I thought a flat design would be better, I've had some gold leaf hanging around for a while so it seemed like a good time to use it. There must be a right way to apply gold leaf to things but I have no idea what it is. I bought a quantity of it a couple of Christmases ago with the idea of covering gingerbread for presents, one failed biscuit suggested it might be an expensive error of judgement. Further experiments haven't made me like working with it any more. I find it sticks to everything you don't want it to (brushes, fingers, tweezers, the packaging it came in) but absolutely doesn't want to stick to what you want it on. It blows about on the faintest draft or breath, jumps about with static, rips, or sticks to itself, rubs off whatever you're putting it on with the lightest of pressure - and generally makes you feel like the best option would have been to stick it altogether in one lump and sell it for scrap value. Plan 'A' had been for something a bit neater, plan 'B' for a less uniform more ragged effect came into play with the first leaf. It will be interesting to see how much remains on the cake as opposed to the side of the cake tin by the time we want to eat it. 

Autumn - fruit and baking

The clocks have gone back, the Summer mugs have been packed away and the Winter ones are out, my flat still smells of fruit cake and today I got some bargain quinces. They should have been a pound each which felt like a lot because these aren't the biggest quinces I've ever seen (though quite possibly they are the smallest) but I was prepared to bite the bullet and pay out to keep my friend R supplied with quince jelly (Diana Henry has a lot to answer for Sugar Salt Smoke is still my favourite cookbook, her quince and star anise jelly is fantastic) when happily they were reduced to 19p a piece. Much better. It seems Leicestershire cooks are indifferent to quinces (Waitrose's loss is my gain) I'm slowly coming round to them but they've always been to expensive to really go crazy with so my experiments are mostly jelly based. I planted a quince this year but it refused to put out so much as a leaf so they remain as elusive as ever which is a shame because just the smell of the fruit is enough to make me want to have it around.

It's a smell that pales by comparison to fruit cakes though - all that citrus and spice is heady stuff, and I love the way the fruity and syrupy ingredients look, it's part of what makes baking such a pleasure - which is why this is basically going to be a picture post. Maybe autumn isn't so grim after all. 

Sunday Cake

There are many things I love about river Cottage books not the least of which is that they reliably give good cake recipes. This is the chunky apple and marmalade cake from the new 'Fruit' book, or as near to it as my store cupboard would allow, and is the sort of cake which I used to pass over in favour of chocolate when I was younger and less wise. I still appreciate a good chocolate cake (really, really, appreciate - so much so that writing this is making me wish I had a slice to hand) but I'm less keen on icing and a chocolate cake so often wants a bit of frosting on it and somehow these days things with fruit, nuts, and spices are just more appealing. 

Anyway this is a lovely cake - it glowed like gold in the morning sunlight, it's damp and luscious with much of the depth of flavour you get from a traditional fruit cake but without the heaviness, and above all it makes an excellent accompaniment to a cup of tea (or coffee).

3 tablespoons of whisky, 100g of sultanas, 100g of ground almonds, 175g of plain flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, a pinch of salt, 5 nice apples (or about 500g), 200g of unsalted butter, 200g of soft brown sugar, 3 eggs, 150g of thick cut marmalade (this version reflects what I had to hand, the original recipe uses a darker sugar which would be better, and also brown flour). Warm the whisky and add the sultanas to soak. Prepare a 20cm springform cake tin, heat the oven to gas 3/ 170C, and peel, core, slice the apple into chunky slices. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, mix the flour, almonds, baking powder and salt. Beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoon of the flour/nut mix then add the rest of the flour/nut mix before folding in the marmalade, apples, and sultanas. Into the tin and bake for about an hour and a quarter or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for about 15 mins before removing and letting cool completely.   

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Miss Pym's birthday felt like a good excuse for baking a cake, so reader - I did (and the title makes it clear what sort). Something I've noticed in Pym novels is a definite pre-occupation with food; meals being planned, tea, lunch, dinner, and supper all being consumed, and cakes frequently considered. It's one of the things I like about Pym because it's very much how I think about day to day life - what needs to be bought and how it can be use to make the most of money and time. What will do for me, what can be shared, what small treats and luxuries will be stowed away... And like Mildred in 'Excellent Women' it's not unusual to find cookbooks by my bed. I'm honestly not obsessed by food, but I like cooking and breakfast is generally

the first thing I think about in the morning. 

Deciding on a suitable cake to mark a Barbara Pym birthday, and also the 60th anniversary of the Queens coronation is just the sort of thing I like to do over Sunday breakfast, I opted for a pineapple upside down cake because I had a tin of pineapple which has been begging to be used for a while, thought it had a suitably retro feel (I don't know, but imagine it would have been pleasingly exotic post rationing, also it reminds me of school dinners in a good way), and just as significant it meant I could use one of my favourite pans.

Lindsey Bareham's 'The Trifle Bowl and Other Tales' really made me think about how kitchen toys shape how I cook and this is a toy I love. It's a Le Creuset tarte tatin pan which the Scottish one gave me (he knew

I'd love it) for Christmas, I have a respectable collection of the stuff now (big enough to make me dread the day I might move out of this flat and will have to lug it all downstairs) with a few favourite bits - this pan is near the top of the list of favourites. It just works really well, everything turns out of it beautifully and it's fun to use - one of those things that you don't imagine needing until you have one.

The cake itself is okay, it's a Nigella recipe, and for Nigella doesn't have a huge amount of butter or sugar, I got rid of the cherries and used a soft brown sugar with vanilla instead. It's ridiculously light and fluffy which means you want to eat a pile of it. and it does have a nice old fashioned feel to it. What it isn't is the golden slab of rich loveliness that I remember from school, though that would be fixed by using more of everything and pouring custard over it. 

Easter Weekend

Sadly it's almost over and time for me to go back to work (bank holidays don't really happen in retail) but I'm till feeling quite pleased at getting a very unusual three days off together, and having got them managing to have such a very nice time, and unusually still having a lot of chocolate left. 

Today has been far more about the boat race than any religious festival which may have coincided with it and probably more about cake than either. I enjoy the boat race, probably because it's the sort of sport I can understand - only 2 teams, 1 winner, and it doesn't last very long. It's also pretty to watch, I live next to the river in Leicester where both our local university teams practice - watching the eights working together is always impressive even when they're only beginning and still a bit clumsy. This years race was very satisfying to watch, not least because Oxford won so under the terms of our traditional bet my partner now owes me a pack of tea cakes (Tunnock's naturally).

Making Easter eggs turned out to be a really good plan, there has been a small but definite improvement in my chocolate handling skills, but more to the point is the time it takes. I like making bread for the same reason; although no individual part of the process takes to long or is especially demanding you can't rush it, a couple of hours pottering around with the radio for company and the air scented with melting chocolate is as good a way as any to wind down when I can't handle the excitement of a book. I meant to take better egg pictures but they got eaten and I didn't.

There was also a cake - there had to be a cake, I couldn't spend 3 days at home without making one and I had a real craving for a honey cake. This one is hard to beat although I still haven't actually made it with wholemeal flour (this time I had some nice spelt flour which has come out lovely). It's a shame cake isn't a healthy option - this one isn't shy of either butter or sugar but it's so good that I just don't care.

Last Night I Baked 60 Cupcakes

... And this morning I got up at 6.30am to ice them all. They're for a work Comic Relief fundraising thing where I hope the charitable instinct will kick in because these cakes aren't entirely my best work (I did try, but it's been a long, long, week, last night wasn't the best time for an epic baking session). I set out to make red velvet cakes - and here's some product information; the Dr. Oetker natural red food colouring is made from beetroot, it smells, and tastes, strongly of beetroot. No amount of sugar or cocoa in the cake masked the taste of beetroot, nor did a generous dollop of vanilla flavoured icing. I don't dislike beetroot but it isn't the chocolatey flavour I hoped for, and furthermore whilst the cakes were an attractive red on the outside a sample cake revealed that they were chocolate brown on the inside which means the beetroot didn't even do what it was meant to - not a colouring I'll use again.  

The second lot of cakes were meant to be minty green velvet as a sort of nod towards St Patrick's day but it turned out to be an inauspicious moment for innovation, it was clear from the moment that I added the colouring that khaki was the best I could hope for. So the renamed mint chocolate swamp cakes got their minty icing, where it turned out it wasn't a good time to improvise either. I had made a lot (A Lot) of cream cheese icing assuming that if vanilla and lemon worked in it so would mint, turns out it tastes and feels a lot like toothpaste which may be why it's years since I've used mint flavouring (when I grow mint I like a really peppery one so hopefully this is a personal quirk and the swamp coloured toothpaste cakes will be more appealing than they sound).

The final lot of cakes were chocolate Guinness ones from a Nigella recipe which was both a very definite nod to St Patrick's day and also to my job. I've wanted to do this recipe as cupcakes for ages but never had an occasion until now so here's a bit of a warning: there is a lot of very runny batter involved, really a lot, in fact something like 3 pints of it. I had blithely assumed it would make 12 good sized cupcakes (the sort that go in muffin cases and not the much smaller fairy cake) it actually made 24 which was inconvenient because my oven doesn't like to multi task, taking a strictly monogamous view of one cake tray at a time - as punishment it encouraged the second tray to erupt and escape (by which time I was really tired). Despite this the Guinness cakes are good. The Nigella recipe uses frightening amounts of butter and sugar, however you make this cake it's one that needs to be shared around. The Guinness gives a rich depth that's most appealing  and stops it being too sweet, I like a crème fraiche based topping which helps to hint at the tang of a good pint but used a vanilla icing this time which works well on the smaller size. I was really pleased when I found some black paper cases because with a bit of a squint these almost look like mini pints... 

The rest of the day has been dominated by Rugby which I don't understand but is mesmerising anyway.      

Sunday baking is back

Well for one Sunday at least Sunday baking is in full swing. I got caught out by the snow this weekend, my journey home that normally takes 15 minutes took 2 hours - not because the snow was particularly bad but because traffic was. The world and his dog apparently decided to leave work at the same early time - and got precisely nowhere very, very, slowly. The snow wasn't the problem, ice and far to much traffic were the cause, and the result is that I abandoned initial plans for the weekend, and as today has bought lots more snow I've spent it indoors and in the kitchen.

Checking the cupboards and fridge for comforting winter food ingredients revealed a lot of half used odds and ends left over from Christmas baking so a fruit cake was inevitable. We finished my Christmas cake this week and I've been missing it, truthfully I would have liked to bake another just like it and have it plain but I didn't have any cream, or any inclination to venture out for some. Happily Dan Lepard is not a one fruit cake kind of a man, and half a jar of slightly grainy honey suggested his cinnamon honey fruit cake. Previously my favourite chunky fruit cake was this one from 'River Cottage Everyday' but the honey cinnamon one beats it by a mile (and the River Cottage one is pretty good). 

It was also a chance to use the 5 inch cake tins I got a while back and have only looked at since which has given me 2 cakes instead of 1. It's nice to know that the recipe splits perfectly, the smaller size suited my oven too which tends to take it's own sweet time to cook things so they get a bit crispy on top, so I'm sure with a bit of thought I can come up with some good reason why 2 cakes are better than 1 (apart from the obvious).

The Honey and Cinnamon Fruit Cake recipe is here. I used whisky instead of brandy or cold tea (though I had plenty of cold tea I had more whisky) which I'm inclined to regard as an improvement. The flavour really comes through and is wonderful. I also made lots of wine mulling syrup, a lamb honey and prune tagine, and an apricot upside down cake... It may be cold outside, I may have to venture out to work first thing tomorrow, I may (and most likely will) end up with wet feet before I get home - but when I do get home there will be no shortage of comfort food.      

Christmas Cake - Was it a Success?

Having almost finished the mince pies my mother made me (I think she makes the best mince pies ever - I have never ever had better - and fear I have no chance of rivalling her prowess) it was quite clearly time to start on the Christmas cake. 

A few weeks back I read somewhere (I can't remember who or where) one of those really obvious things which somehow you never consider until it's pointed out to you and which boiled down to practice makes perfect. It was an observation that restaurant cooks make the same dish over and over which is why they get so good at them, and not so many years ago we cooked at home in the same sort of way - a few dishes that appeared again and again and lack of variety aside there's something to be said for it; every time I make bread it gets better because every time I do it I know a little bit more and the same is true of the Christmas cake...

Last years effort was the first fruit cake I'd ever baked - there's nothing very challenging about it - but it was all a bit new and mysterious especially as every recipe is different, second time round I felt I could mess around with it a bit; I found the glacé cherries rather too sweet last time so this year substituted half of them for dried apricots soaked in whisky which for me is a big improvement - next time I might dispense with the cherries altogether. This time round I had a much better idea of how long my oven would take to cook the beast and just generally it all seemed altogether more satisfactory - perhaps because I've discovered that a fruit cake made the way you like it is an altogether more enjoyable proposition than any other sort.

Fruit cake is a recently discovered enthusiasm, or at least the enthusiasm is recently discovered, a nice slab of it (though moderation is necessary) is just the thing to have with a cup of tea; it's rich spiciness transforms even the dullest winter afternoon, I put it down to the solid Victorian comfort of the thing, and the way it feels like it's been built to last and urge the unconverted to have a go... I like the tradition of it too, both in the idea that it's a throw back to the 13th Century crusaders returning with new flavours and ideas, and that my father loves a good fruit cake - they strike me as a very gentlemanly sort of snack and something that calls for further experimentation.   

Sunday

I know this is stating the obvious but it's amazing how much a day of doing things you enjoy, and can afford, will cheer a person up. I've been feeling a little low recently but after spending last night watching utter rubbish on television, and today doing Christmas cooking and catching up with friends I feel like a new woman. 

The baking consisted of mince pies (pastry somewhat too short as some of them disintegrated) two kinds of fudge, and the final dipping of candied oranges in chocolate - basically my favourites from the last couple of Christmases. I'm particularly pleased with the fudge as I find it all too easy to burn and this lot didn't even come close to catching. I had meant to make some sort of biscuit as well but didn't get up early enough to organise that so they'll have to wait. The second batch of fudge was the chocolate and walnut from 'Sugar and Spice' the first lot was a universal hit, second time round I like the recipe even more which fills me with enthusiasm for further experimentation with this book. 

There has also been a gathering together of all the other things I've made over the last few months with Christmas in mind. The Russian Plum Liquor, and Apricots preserved in Muscat (though I've used a fortified moscatel - same grape, Spanish name - partly because it's unfashionable enough to be slightly cheaper, partly because I think the extra alcohol will be good for the preservation process. It's a luscious and lovely wine anyway with clean grapey flavours that will be perfect for apricots) are from Diana Henry's 'Salt Sugar Smoke' - still my book of the year for it's wonderful combination of the unusual and brilliantly simple. There are also all the jams and jellies from the same book - the shelves will look bare when they've gone but it will be licence to start again and I'm obviously looking forward to that...

Other reasons to be cheerful this week have been bumping into Fiona Cairns at work - she shops with us semi regularly but whenever I've spotted her before I've been far to busy or she's looked far to harassed for me to be able to buttonhole her - not this time, and so I got to hear a little bit about her new book (coming out in September) it's about seasonal baking and is apparently the book she's always wanted to write. I especially loved 'Bake and Decorate' and am really looking forward to this one. 

Finally Reading Matters has posted a round up of bloggers books of the year (including mine - the excellent 'Island Years Island Farm') I've just spent a happy half hour browsing through titles, adding both to my wish list and blog list - the latter certainly fits my criteria of enjoyable and affordable occupations. 

In the Kitchen

I have good intentions regarding spring cleaning but they never actually amount to very much. Autumn is a different matter - the run up to Christmas is such a big thing in retail that over the years I've developed a real need to feel organised in good time, part of that is a desire to clear the decks of all the past years accumulated crap, another part is settling down to making things ready for Christmas. I know it's only October but now is the time for jam and jelly making - and I've made a lot of it. It's also turned into a big week for baking...

Work asked me to make a cake for the shop's second birthday on Friday - a cake - there are about 150 of us and although not everyone will be around at cake time one was never going to be enough which I maybe ought to have thought of before I said yes. In the end I made four cakes, two got sandwiched together to make a giant chocolate cake, there is a carrot cake because it's my favourite and that's what matters after a couple of hours baking, and a lemon layer cake which tried to escape from it's pan but was just about rescued... Because I was in the kitchen all day and the oven was on I also made jam, some scones for afternoon tea with the Scottish one, roasted a pheasant to share with the blond, and made some Brownies as well. She had to stop me from making short bread too - by that time I was on a roll and didn't want to stop. 

It was, by my standards, a lot to get through in one day, normally my Kitchen would look like a bomb site at this point, but happily the blond took charge and wouldn't let me leave the washing up, she also put everything away so I really do feel organised today which is wonderful (it won't last).

The jam is particularly exciting - it's the Fig and Pomegranate from 'Salt Sugar Smoke' which I've wanted to make since I first opened the book. I think I'll call it Persephone jam though, partly as an homage to Persephone books reaching their 100th title, and partly because the generally Greek and Autumnal feel of figs and pomegranates make it appropriate - mostly though it's because I struggle to spell pomegranate (I try to put in another 'm', spell check changes it to permanganate which baffles me, and the whole thing becomes very stressful) Persephone I'm fine with. 

This is a lovely jam and absolutely worth making, figs in supermarkets are fiendishly expensive but I managed to buy well over a kilo of them for £3 from my local market. It was the end of the day and they were going cheap, normal price is four for a pound which is still considerably cheaper than the supermarket rate, so it's worth shopping around as 400g is roughly nine to ten figs.

  

Miss Hope's Teatime Treats - Hope and Greenwood

Tea and cakes aren't going away... Of all the vaguely retro traditions and fashions doing the rounds the institution of afternoon tea is the one I can most get behind. I know it never really went away but I truly believe it's something that should be encouraged at every opportunity - and the more elaborate the better - which is one reason why I'm always so pleased to see another tea book.

It's such a civilised way of entertaining; lots of nice things to eat as well as the fun of making them, child friendly, and doesn't swallow up the whole day like lunch can, or the whole night like dinner will (both of which I enjoy. Tea is also an excuse for pretty crockery - if I had the storage space I'd have a nice collection of vintage cups and saucers but currently every available flat space (including much of the floor) is taken up with books, booze, and cooking pots, also I'm not desperate to have more things to dust. Happily tea is a meal that can accommodate a bit of mismatched china and a lack of formality as well as all out show stopping effort.

I have mixed feelings about the jolly hockey sticks and gin tone of the Hope and Greenwood books; a little can go a long way when you're not in the right mood for it, though much like gin it's also something that can really hit the spot when you are in the mood. I'm fond of gin and a devotee of the fudge recipe in the first Hope and Greenwood book 'Life is Sweet' (great fudge; the perfect texture, lovely flavour, makes enough to eat plenty and share plenty) and since I first made that I regularly turn to these books for inspiration. 'Miss Hope's Chocolate Box' was the book that gave me the confidence to have a go at making my own chocolates - something that's great fun if a little bit fiddly.

That fudge recipe meant I came to this book with high expectations and I don't think I'm going to be disappointed. There are two things that I'm initially quite excited about, the first being small cakes - not fairy cakes, proper cakes, only smaller - 5 inches to be precise. So that's a cake small enough for two to easily get through without totally overdoing it, big enough to share around a little further, small enough to justify making a couple for the tea table, big enough to hopefully leave a left over slice for the next day. 5 inch tins aren't the easiest size to find but they're out there and I now own one which I look forward to trying out soon. I'm also assuming that now I have a couple of recipes which give times, quantities, and temperatures I can adapt other fruit cakes - a whole world of little cakes.

The second source of excitement is the drinks section; a really good mix of cold, hot alcoholic and alcohol free beverages. There is a recipe for Russian tea that calls for oranges, lemons, cloves, and sugar which sounds wonderfully exotic and warming - something between a cup of tea and mulled wine. Darjeeling gin fizz also sounds good, but nothing sounds better than the fireside rum tea with it's cinnamon, maple syrup, tea, and rum. There's a lot of god stuff here - maybe even enough to persuade me to clean up and invite people into my home for some sort of entertainment. Maybe. 

Cups of tea and slices of cake

When I get to work on Monday morning Christmas will have officially begun, I would say it's to early but the stock has been an unwelcome reality for a few weeks now and it's going to be such a relief to have it out on the shelf rather than in a solid wall between me and anything I want to get to, also I've seen pfeffernusse. Still it's hard work and I'm sitting here at the end of the week wondering if I can put off dealing with laundry until tomorrow, and what would be more relaxing - bed with Mae West (on film) or a bath with Mae West (book). Most likely is falling asleep on the sofa until I get woken by cramp or cold half way through the night...

A bright spot in all this is cake. I had been on a bit of a self imposed baking ban over the summer but after I found some very elderly cans and jars at the back of a cupboard there was a bit of a tidy up and a ready made excuse to use up some of the many half full bags of sugar, nuts, dried fruits, and all the rest of the stuff with best before dates looming. A superabundance of elderly nicely matured marmalade and dessicated coconut has made Dan Lepard's 'Short and Sweet' the inspiration for most of my recent baking - Lepard seems to like both and it's been fun working through quite a bit more of this book.

From being a book I wasn't going to bother with 'Short and Sweet' has become almost indispensable, it's even close to usurping Nigella's 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess' as the go to cake book - close but not quite there, not until I find the equivalent of Nigella's Brownies which have been providing an unequalled sugar and chocolate hit for more than a decade now.

Cakes baked have been the brown sugar chocolate loaf cake - this one was a disaster after most of it escaped from the tin and landed on a baking tray that I'd thoughtfully placed under it against just such a possibility - I don't have a lot of luck with loaf cakes. More successful was a marmalade and vanilla cream layer cake but it all got eaten before I could take a picture - there were guests, it wasn't just me and a fork. Had I actually used the fine cut marmalade specified rather than the chunky home made sort it would have been even better.

Most successful however was an Orange Macaroon cake, this is the one I'd make again. Nice texture, good flavour, and just the right amount of coconut. Now all I need is another cup of tea. 

Scandilicious Sunday

Any serious plans I had for today got off to a bad start after getting plastered with my mother in a car park this morning. We had a bottle of chilled champagne and it was raining so it seemed logical to drink it, of course once it was open we realised we had to finish it because wouldn't it have been a shame to waste it? So we did finish it. In twenty minutes. Neither of us are used to doing that for breakfast so when the rain stopped and we got out of the car we were - well we were very giggly. The rest of the morning passed in a happy haze.

Back home, and after a restorative nap, I really wanted to bake another cake - after last weeks below par effort my pride needed rescuing, also I have a copy of 'Scandilicious Baking' to play with, and my poor kitchen aid hasn't had the exercise it deserves recently. Because I haven't been baking much recently my cupboard and fridge both have a collection of things that need using up which was yet another reason to make cake (it's amazing how many half full bags of different sugars one woman can collect). The recipes which really attract me in 'Scandilicious Baking' are the bread based ones, both sweet and savoury, I really look forward to trying them at some stage, but the things I had to hand suggested the Flourless hazelnut and whisky chocolate cake - except with almonds because that's what I had. 

The flourless chocolate cakes I've made before have all involved melted chocolate and whisked egg whites, this one doesn't which makes it much less trouble to throw together and significantly reduces the washing up. The whisky gives the batter a real kick, and as I type smells pretty good, the cake also looks to be behaving and better yet flourless batters are meant to sink a bit in the middle. I have high hopes. 

It was almost a really good cake.

I was really keen to make something from 'Scandilicious' and this seemed like a good week for a bake. Danish coconut dream cake felt like the obvious choice because not only did I have all the ingredients but it specifically calls for vanilla salt and I've been wondering what to do with the jar of it I have for almost a year now. It's a deceptive sort of recipe in that the cake bit is all very reasonable and innocent looking and then you start on the topping. The topping is not innocent, it contains enough butter and sugar to make Nigella think twice, consequently it's delicious. 

Not my best effort.

Unfortunately I made a bit of a mess of this one. I didn't have a 30 x 20 cm baking tin handy and thought that a round 23cm tin would be okay, it wasn't. the cake didn't want to cook in the middle and when it had been in almost twice as long as the recipe suggested the outsides were in danger of over cooking, which is when I started to dicker around with the oven shelf. Unsurprisingly the cake sank a bit in the middle. The smaller tin also meant there was a lot of topping to go round, most of it congregated in the sunken dip in the middle so when it came to crisping that bit up it only really worked on the edges. The result is a curate's egg of a cake; parts of it are excellent. It's also worth noting that it's very rich and makes a huge amount, perfect for parties a bit much if you don't think you'll be sharing. 

4 medium eggs                                   Topping

300g golden caster sugar                    200g butter

1 tsp Vanilla extract                            200g light brown soft sugar

150g of melted butter                         150g dessicated coconut

150ml of buttermilk                            100ml whole milk

300g of plain flour                              1 heaped tsp vanilla salt

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Pre heat the oven to 190c / gas 5, find a baking tin 20cm x 30 cm and lay two sheets of parchment paper in it cross wise (this is to make it easy to lift the cake out later).

Whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Pour in half the melted butter and buttermilk, sift in half the flour and fold in, then add the rest along with the baking powder and salt. Pour into the baking tin and cook for about 20 mins - or until cooked.

Meanwhile stick all the topping ingredients into a pan and bring to simmering point. Simmer for about 5 mins stirring all the time so the sugar doesn't catch, and until the mix has reduced a bit and is nice and thick. 

When the cake comes out the oven up the temp to 220c/gas 7 and cover the cake with the topping. Whack it all back in the oven and cook for 5 to 10 mins until the topping is a deep golden colour, don't let it burn. 

Finally let it cool in it's tin, and finally eat.

Sometimes Only Cake Will Do

I love baking and I love cake but made a conscious decision to indulge in less of both this year seeing as it's both an expensive and fattening hobby. Mostly it's been okay, though I'll make a birthday cake for anyone who'll accept one at the moment, but some days really demand cake. Yesterday was just such a day so seemed like the perfect time to use up some of the pre baking ban ingredients slowly passing their best in the cupboard. I was looking for something inspired to do with cherries and coconut but didn't really find anything, what I did find was an exciting chocolate cake recipe. Exciting because it involves marmalade and I've stopped buying bread too (not eating cake is pointless if you eat lots of toast with Nutella on it instead) so have a stock pile of jam and marmalade awaiting inspiration.

Marmalade brownies are a favourite but the beauty of this cake is all the same flavours with less ingredients and possibly a shade less trouble. It's a Nigella recipe from 'How To Be  A Domestic Goddess' because often when you want cake nobody else delivers quite like she does. This one is called Store-Cupboard Chocolate-Orange Cake - which is the worst thing about it (I'm sorry but it's a terrible name) because it's made with things you tend to have around. The name gives no indication of the lush rich chocolate and orange flavour, the yielding dampness, the aromatic splendour, and the all round gorgeousness of this cake which manages to be both decadently rich and very hard to stop eating.

Chocolate Marmalade Cake.

125g unsalted butter 

100g dark chocolate

150g caster sugar

300g good marmalade (Nigella says thin cut, I only had thick cut)

pinch of salt

2 large eggs (beaten)

150g self raising flour

Preheat the oven to gas 4 or 180 degrees C and put the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan on a low heat to melt. Butter and flour a 20 cm springform cake tin. When the butter is nearly done add the chocolate leave for a moment to soften and then remove from the heat and stir until all smooth and melted. Add the marmalade, sugar, salt, and beaten eggs. Stir until everything is coming together nicely and then add the flour and beat till smooth. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 50 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes before releasing from the tin. Good warm as well as cold this is basically a well baked brownie with a bit of spring in it. 

The chocolate seems to do something to the marmalade, it loses its bitterness leaving an intense orange flavour, because I used thick cut there are chunks of peel that still have a marmalade hit though, I feel that this adds a certain sophistication and wouldn't change it. It isn't the prettiest looking cake but I have to say again - it's delicious. 

Nigella says you can substitute the marmalade for the jam of your choice, and most excitingly for puréed prunes, I'm looking for an excuse to bake this again soon. 

The Cake

The Cake will continue to be referred as The Cake in honour of it's epic nature. It was baked by my sister (something of a cake diva) and is the Rococoa cake from Nigella Lawson's 'Feast'. The recipe albeit including a picture covers four pages and can be found here, although as ever with Nigella (and this is why I like her) the instructions are easy to follow. The process can be made a little simpler by buying chocolate loaf cakes rather than baking your own sponge. Sister baked everything from scratch. 

This is a cake she's wanted to make for a couple of years but it needs 24 hours chilling time, feeds a small army, has a full shopping list of ingredients, and so, in short, calls for quite an occasion. I flatter myself that I provided just the excuse she's been looking for (although it's possible that the other people coming round for dinner also had something to do with it). 

The end result was delicious (though terrifyingly rich, it's as well there were lots of us, Nigella says serves 10 -12, we think The Cake did a bit more than that) so well worth all Sister's effort, the Scottish one and I contributed the marzipan cherubs (he modelled them I made the fig leaves and did the gilding - we didn't have much gold leaf to hand so although it looks messy in the picture the overall effect was attractively antiqued - honest.)

To eat The Cake is basically a super chocolaty sort of tiramisu and very much recommended for anyine who has the time and patience to put it together.

Despite the rain

Initial plans for today (made in last weeks sun) were for a picnic at Kirby Hall. Then the rain started and it no longer seemed like a very good idea, but I wasn't going to be done out of the promised treat of a mornings intensive baking - I woke up at half past seven and couldn't stay in bed any longer thanks to the excitement of trying a new recipe, and if that sounds like I need to get out more than bear with me. I've cut down on the baking recently partly in an effort to save money, and partly to eat less cake, which is all good - but I do miss making things and any excuse is welcomed, so before the blonde picked me up today I made spinach and feta parcels, scones, jam tarts, and Queens's Gingerbread...

The Queen's Gingerbread came from Dan Lepard's column in The Guardian, I'm almost annoyed with myself for making this my Jubilee bake because although Dan Lepard is excellent I feel our relationship is becoming a bit exclusive and there are still so many other cookbooks to flirt with (really I do get out of the house sometimes). On the other hand Queen's Gingerbread is egg free (good for L who is severally allergic), highly spiced with flavours that give more than a nod to the first Elizabethan age, and was quite unlike anything else I've baked before. It was also quite quick and easy, goes down a treat with tea, and made a huge amount that's perfect for sharing around.  

After a picnic in the comfort of L's dining room we went to the Astley Book Farm and although both the blond and I were sure we knew the way we managed to miss not one, but two, junctions on the motorway (I blame the rain which made for appalling visibility...) when we finally managed to send ourselves southbound again it was only to go twice round a roundabout before eventually still taking a wrong turn - the back streets of Bedworth on a rainy Sunday are not precisely the spot I'd choose to find myself in. Fortunately L clearly had an accurate (if unflattering) opinion about our ability to get from A to B and had bought a sat nav, ten minutes later we were parked up had managed to stop laughing hysterically, and saw the SALE sign.

The book farm provided bunting, a marquee that smelt of slightly damp canvas and grass, and a very enjoyable conversation about Dorothy Whipple with the owners - I don't think I could have had a better day.

Gingerbread recipe - I fiddled with this just a bit to fit what I had and take into account that none of us are mad about ginger (and I could still have used less)...

450g plain flour

5tsp ground ginger

2tsp ground nutmeg

2tsp cinnamon

a pinch of cloves

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

250g of castor sugar

150g of melted butter

150g each of runny honey and black treacle

75g each of mixed peel, dried apricots, and dates blitzed until well chopped

A good handful of flaked almonds

Line the base of a 20 cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper and set oven to 180 degrees/gas 5. Gently melt the butter, remove from heat and add the sugar, treacle, and honey - mix well.

Throw the flour, spices, and bicarb into a bowl making sure they're lump free, stir in the treacle mix and dried fruits until a nice stiff dough is formed. Press this down into the baking tin making sure it's nice and level  then press in the almonds. Bake for 25 mins until it's all evenly puffed up, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin before cutting up. 

     

Another Birthday Cake

This time a Battenburg which I made in honour of my sisters birthday (I might add she was singularly unimpressed with the effort I put into this pointing out that she still had Christmas and Easter cake and that someone else had already given her birthday cake - I contend that home made Battenburg isn't something that happens to you everyday and that as an adult you have a duty to pretend to be pleased with gifts). I think I'm a fairly competent baker; I'm not scared by unfamiliar recipes, I like a challenge, and I have a few skills in the kitchen, albeit not terribly impressive ones, so whilst I'm not great British bake off standard you wouldn't worry about eating one of my cakes.

However the finishing touches are a different matter - I love a beautifully decorated and presented cake, the fancier the better but lack the patience and ability to pull off anything terribly impressive myself. Whichever way you look at it it's the kind of thing that calls for practice and a woman living on her own can only make so many cakes and biscuits before diabetes beckons. This was my second attempt at a Battenburg (the first one was a slapdash disaster) and I really put a lot of effort into making it look good, which was going well for me until the marzipan stage. It got a bit thin, stuck to the board I was rolling it out on, was inclined to tear, and generally wasn't inclined to wrap itself round the cake in a delicious almondy embrace. Finally I managed to make it look not terrible and all I had to do was tidy up the ends - by the time that was done there wasn't much cake left.

Battenburg is a wasteful sort of thing to make - lots and lots of trimmings both of sponge and marzipan, but after quite a bit of sampling it's clear that it's more than the sum of it's parts - the combination of vanilla sponge, nicely sharp apricot jam, and marzipan is really damn good. Home made is better than any I've ever bought (though who doesn't like the tiny Mr Kipling version that you can try and eat in one bite?) and I've always liked the pink and yellow squares thing. I will make this again when a suitable occasion presents itself. I used the recipe in Fiona Cairns 'Bake and Decorate' and really liked it - I hope my sister does too, though so far she says she hasn't tried it yet (how can she resist, I KNOW how much she likes marzipan...)