I have not baked for ages it seems, been rather busy of late. So here is rather a feeble post from me but a delicious one I think. I love dates and pecans in cakes so what better than to combine them, especially in a banana loaf recipe. This one is based on the chocolate, walnut and banana loaf in my WI book, I replaced the chocolate and walnuts with dates and pecans. It’s a lovey moist cake, especially with the dates, – it didn’t last long.

115g butter
175g caster sugar
2 large bananas, mashed
2 eggs
80g plain flour
80g wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
% tablespoons boiling water
115g walnut/ pecan pieces, chopped
175g milk choc chips or equivalent chopped dates. I think I used slightly less than 175g so it wasn’t too dense.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, beat in the bananas and the then the eggs (don’t worry if it looks a bit curdled). Fold in the flours, bicarb and cinnamon. Stir in the boiling water, this will produce a soft mixture.
Gently fold in the nuts and dates or whatever you’re using.
Spoon into a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin and smooth the top.
Bake at 160 degrees/ 180 for a fan oven for about 1-1 1/2 hours until dark and golden and well risen.
Leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on to rack to cool.

For some reason when I bake muffins with the fan on they sometimes grow noses. These are particularly nosy ones. They didn’t all turn out like this thank goodness, but I’m tempted to stick a couple of eyes on them and some whiskers perhaps.

I made this recipe up, just played around with the basic muffin ingredients. They don’t contain any sugar or butter, just oil and eggs, and lots of banana.

300g sf flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
4 tbps sunflower oil
200ml milk
3 tbsp honey and lemon (something I bought by mistake instead of just honey)90g chopped dates
40 raisins (for Ivy’s benefit, might just stick to dates next time)

Mash the bananas. Mix together the flour, bp, dates and raisins, make a well and add the eggs, milk and oil, mix well. Add the bananas and honey.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 180, with the fan for noses or at a higher temperature without the fan for regular muffins.

I’ve been a bit off the boil, so to speak, with cake baking. I did however make these chocolate pots on Saturday night for some friends – they are pretty delicious and dead simple.  They are very mousse-like without the use of horrible gelatine, so I’d call them a mousse rather than a chocolate pot, which implies that they are dense and dark. It’s the first recipe I’ve made from Chocolate Box, a book that came with a chocolate hamper from Marks and Spencer (a welcome Christmas present).

Ingredients
225g/8oz plain chocolate (I used Co-op’s own fair trade, which is very good)
4 eggs, separated
6 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp dark rum
4 tbsp double cream

Method (makes 6)
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and leave to cool slightly.
Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar until very pale and fluffy (I didn’t get mine to go ‘fluffy’ – i think that’s the wrong description?)
Drizzle in the melted chocolate and fold together with the rum and cream.
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and fold into the chocolate mix in two batches. Divide between 6 individual dishes (I used my lovely ivy-leaf cups and saucers and you can see) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

They suggest decorating with whipped cream and chocolate shapes but I just plonked a few raspberries on top which went beautifully with the chocolate.

I cracked two eggs whilst making another batch of Lavender Cupcakes the other day so I had to make soemthing else as well (of course I did). These jammy buns are from a nice little book my sister sent me Best-kept Secrets of the Women’s Institute: Cakes and Biscuits (only their cakes and biscuits apparently) by Jill Brand. This recipe looked nice and simple but I didn’t put nearly enough jam in them, and I used plum as I didn’t have any rasberry. They are very scone-like and great with a cup of tea, they need to be eaten fresh or in a couple of days – so hard.

225g SF flour
pinch of salt
80g margarine (I used butter)
80g caster sugar
2 eggs
Jam of some description

Rub the fat into the flour and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, mix well to form a stiff dough – (the dough was not stiff at all for me at this point so I added more flour.) Turn the dough onto a floured surface and form into a roll, divide int 10 pieces and roll each one into a ball.
Place on  a greased baking tray and make a hole in each one (making sure not to go all the way through ) and fill with a little jam – more than I did – a big teaspoon I’d say. Close the whole and spinkle with sugar, although if you left the whole open and flattened them a bit they’d be a lot like jammy dodgers. Bake at 180 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool a little on the tray before turning out onto a wire rack.

The other cake in the photo is the carrot cake version of the beetroot cake I made recently but with dates instead of raisins. This recipe is very moist and light but it does crumble a little in the middle when you cut it – rather annoying.

My sister-in-law Riette once made us a delicious South African dessert, which was very much like a steamed pudding even though it was baked in the oven. I then discovered this recipe in my Green & Black’s cookbook – another South African dish with that wonderful steamed pud texture to it, made ‘tipsy’ by the boozy syrup. I made it at Christmas as an alternative to the conventional pudding and in honour of Riette and her homeland! It’s best served with custard we think. The G&B book has its own twist (mainly just have got it into the book if you ask me – you could easily leave out the chocolate). I would never have though this kind of dish would come out of South Africa as I imagine it to be roasting hot all the time (obviously not true), but apparently they’re very into their hot dinners!

Batter:
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
240g dates, stoned (or 250g with stones), chopped
125ml/ 4fl oz boiling water
40g unsalted butter
200g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
25g preserved ginger, chopped
100g glace (yuk) or dried cherries – definitely dried!
40g walnuts, chopped (last time I used pecans)
50g dark chocolate, minimum 60 percent cocoa solids

Syrup:
75g granulated sugar
200ml water
salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g unsalted butter
60ml brandy or dark rum

Oven and 180 degrees, grease a 23cm flan or pie dish well with butter (needs to be quite deep).

Pat the bicarb over the dates and pour over the boiling water, stir and leave to cool. Cream the butter, sugar together and add the eggs, beat thoroughly. Sift together the flour, bp and salt and stir into the creamed mixture.
Add the date mixture, cherries and nuts. Spoon the mixture into the pie dish and bake for 35 minutes. Place the chocolate in the freezer. Prepare the syrup – you need to pour this over the tart as soon as you get it out of the oven. Boil all the ingredients for the syrup together for about 6 minutes until they form a syrup.
Remove the tart from the oven and prick the surface all over with a fork. Immediately pour over the syrup then grate the chocolate over the top. Delicious! Great with custard on a winter evening, or any time really.

Sorry, lame joke. I thought I’d have a bit of fun with my old faithful recipe:

8oz flour
6oz butter
6oz sf sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp bp
(I only remember it in ounces)

I wanted to make an Easter nest for some mini eggs, but also had a craving for chocolate orange. I added the juice and zest of one orange to this mix and two tablespoons of cocoa mixed with water to have the mixture to create a marble effect. The icing was simply 300g of icing sugar and about half the juice of an orange. It is a versatile recipe and worked well in the ring tin although I forgot to add the baking powder so it didn’t rise as much. Dan and Fran brought round a similarly decorated cake too (you can see it in the background), delicious icing, you’ll read about it here. Just helping myself to some now.

I received a special delivery from France last week – some dried organic lavender flowers from Kate’s mum. I had an enjoyable Monday afternoon (while Ivy was asleep and my mum nipped to the shops for us) baking lavender cupcakes. They are another recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and I got on better with this one, although I think it only makes nine decent cakes rather than the suggested twelve. My mum pointed out of course that perhaps there’s less cake to make room for more icing. Cupcake icing is so mega sweet that I think you can do with less so I made 3/4 of the suggested amount. You can play with this though, but I think Kate would be happier with more cake and less icing. I did leave the lavender to infuse with the milk overnight – I think it’s worth doing it for the maximum time. I seem to keep altering the methods the book suggests – Dan agrees that it’s sometimes a bit odd to whisk up mainly dry ingredients with a hand whisk in an open bowl – obviously it’s going to go everywhere!

They are surprisingly not as overpowering as you might think and have a lovely calming subtle flavour, well that’s my opinion.

Cakes:
120ml whole milk
3 tablespoons lavender flowers
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
40g unsalted butter
1 egg
12 small springs of lavender (or a few flowers for the top)

Frosting:
25ml whole milk
1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter
couple of drops of purple/blue food colouring

Put the milk and lavenders flowers for the cake mix in a jug and leave in the fridge over night (or as long as possible – a few hours). Do the same with the milk and flowers for the frosting. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
Put flour, sugar, bp and butter in a bowl and rub in the butter until a sandy mixture (don’t whisk it as they suggest – what?!). Strain the lavender infused milk and add slowly to the mix beating well, add the egg, beat well. Spoon the mixture evenly between 12 (9) cupcake cases and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden and bounces back once touched. Leave to cool completely before spreading on the icing.

Lavender frosting: Beat together the icing sugar, butter and colouring (I get it started with a wooden spoon or you have a snowy  kitchen again). Strain the milk for the icing and add slowly to the mix beating well. Beat for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy and ready to use.

(The icing’s a bit too turquoise – needs to be more blue, oh well have to experiment more)

So, experiment number two:
I’m making Kate and Kerim’s wedding cupcakes, they’re getting married in France in September – what a task eh? Kate’s very keen on Lavender cupcakes, which I have yet to experiment with, but they also want variation to mix up the colour scheme a bit and as a contrast to the floral flavour. This recipe is based on the Peaches and Cream cupcakes in the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, the peaches recipe didn’t quite cut it. We decided that pear and ginger is a superior combination and topping with Chocolate makes it even more luxurious.

The original recipe tells you to layer the bottom of the cases with the peaches but this means that you don’t get the complete cupcake shape that Kate desires so I chopped up the pears and mixed them in along with some crystallised ginger and some preserved (two different batches).

The general consensus is a thumbs up – they are very moist and the ginger adds a kick – not so good for those who don’t like ginger however! I tried to make the icing as rich as possible, to give it a more sophisticated cocoa taste. I think they probably are best eaten with a little spoon, the original and this recipe are more of a dessert that a cupcake.

120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
40g unsalted butter
1 x can tinned pears (approximately 211g)
40-50g crystallised ginger, chopped small
pinch of salt
few drops of vanilla
120 ml whole milk
1 egg

Icing
200g icing sugar
40g cocoa
80g butter
40ml (ish) milk

Place the flour, sugar, bp and salt in a bowl and rub int the butter until it’s a sandy texture. With a hand-held mixer or similar add half the milk to the dry mixture until combined then whisk up the eggs, vanilla and the rest of the milk separately and pour in the mix, do not over beat. Stir in your chopped pear and ginger and divide between 12 cupcake cases. Bake in a preheated oven (at 170 degrees) for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and spring back when touched. Leave to cool completely before icing.
Icing: Place the butter, icing sugar and cocoa in a bowl and beat to combine – add a little milk to help with the process then add the rest, adjusting as necessary. Beat with a hand-held mixer until fluffy  – the longer you beat, the fluffier the icing!

Eat with a spoon preferably, or enjoy getting sticky.

… and a few hearts (it was close to valentines day)

I thought it was about time that Ivy and I did some proper baking together, and what better to start with than Gingerbread men – or people, to be more PC. I nearly made the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book but that involved leaving the mixture overnight – will try that another time. This is good old Mary Berry, but probably fairly basic.

Ivy had a go at rolling out her very bit of dough and helping with the cutting and adding the eyes. She possibly enjoyed eating bits of the mixture more however and dusting flour all over herself and the floor?

I don’t know how good at biscuits I am, I always end up rolling the dough too thin and I slightly over baked some of them! Oh well, they did taste great in the end, I even love them when they’ve been in the tin a while and are little soft. This recipe made a ton but perhaps that is partly because of the rolling out issue.

150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsps ground ginger
100g Margarine (I used butter)
175g light muscovado sugar
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg beaten
currants to decorate

Preheat oven to 1ª0 degrees. Lightly grease 3 baking trays
Measure flour, bicarb and ginger into a bowl, run on the marg/butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs then stir on the sugar. Add the syrup an d beaten egg then mix to form a smooth dough, kneading lightly with the hands towards the end.

Divide the dough in half and roll out one half to  about 5mm thick. Cut out gingerbread men and ladies and place them on the baking traces, decorate with the currants creating eyes and mouths, buttons etc. Repeat!

Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until slightly darker in colour. Cool slightly on the tray then lift off on to a wire rack.

Good fun to eat too – biting off limbs and heads.

I have wanted to try making something sweet with beetroot for a while, I never used to like the stuff at all until Lawrence introduced me to beetroot and cheese sandwiches. This recipe is from the Riverford cookbook you can use carrots instead or a mix of both I guess. The beetroot looks so beautiful when it’s grated and added to the mix, I wish it kept that bright red/purple look once it was cooked. It’s very simple to make and bakes very evenly with a lovely colour, the texture very moist and you really can taste the beetroot, which I like – nothing worse than making a cake with ingredients for the sake of it and all you taste is sugar. I added a bit of cinnamon by the way, I think it needed something extra, perhaps nutmeg would work too?

So I also decided to have a go at making muffins, English ones that is. The intention was to make them early and have them for brunch but we decided to go to the Tate in the morning so it turned into afternoon tea. I’d never realised that they were cooked on the top in a heavy saucepan – I was convinced it wouldn’t work and the insides would be gooey dough once I cut them open – but they weren’t, they were perfect! I don’t think I’ll ever buy a pack of muffins again, very simple and just half a bag of flour, some salt, yeast and bit of sunflower oil. Oh, and dusting with semolina to create that lovely crisp texture on the outside is essential. I followed the recipe in River Cottage Bread book:

500g white bread flour
325g warm water
10g salt
5g dried yeast
drizzle of sunflower oil
semolina for dusting

Mix the dry ingredients, add the water and combine until it reaches a sticky dough then add the oil and turn out on to a surface to knead – the key is in the kneading (Daniel Stevens’ book explains all the methods very well) and leave until doubled in size, took about an hour for me. Then deflate the dough and divide into 9 pieces, shape each into a round (again, research this), flatten to about 1-2cm, cover in semolina and leave on a board covered in a plastic bag until doubled in height. Heat a heavy bottomed saucepan (even better if you have a Rayburn or Aga) over a medium heat and carefully place about 3 muffins at a time in the pan. Cook on one side for a minute or two then turn, cook for a further 10 minutes turning occasionally. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Cut open, toast and pile up some poached eggs on top (with a sneaky bit of cheese in between) or keep it simple with loads of butter and some Marmite. So rewarding!