I’ve wanted to make a beery-chocolatey cake for ages as a result of seeing a bottle of Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and knowing it was destined for baking. Throw into that desire, the Chocolate Hearts I had sent to me and the deal was done. I saw Nigella’s recipe for a Guinness chocolate cake in ‘Feast’, but was worried it would sink dramatically in the middle and didn’t know whether my little heart could take a sinking cake again.

Then I saw one (that was pretty much the same) on Epicurious and saw the amount of reviews, which led me to Smitten Kitchen.

That was a long journey, but good recipes almost always involve this. Is it worth making? Would I make it again? Yes and yes. In fact, I made another batch the next day, so that should tell you all you need to know.

You put a cup of Stout and 8oz butter in a saucepan to start with. I had the urge to grab my diary and schedule my first heart attack. Panic not, you’ll be eating a portion, just a PORTION.

The aroma when it is melted. Oh my, it’s good

Then you add sugar and cocoa. At this point, it wasn’t the aroma that was getting me – it was having to stop myself from getting a ladle and drinking the lot. THAT was the problem.

Once that’s all whisked in, you leave it to one side to cool off a bit and turn to a large bowl with a couple of eggs and some sour cream in it. Whisk those two together with a hand mixer – just to combine them.

The pour the elixir of life cocoa-beer mixture in and whisk that in too.

Add the flour/bicarb combo and mix that in (I used the hand mixer for this bit – adding flour to liquid is just asking for floury lumps otherwise)

Then pour it into your muffin liners. The first batch illustrated something well. They rise a lot. The tin in the hottest part of the oven domed well, but the tin in the middle of the oven had a couple of cakes that didn’t dome due to the lesser heat. They did more of a sideways splurge.

Therefore, for the second lot of cakes, I filled the liners high with batter for the hottest rack, but used 8 rather than 6 liners for the lower tray and only half-filled them so they couldn’t splurge everywhere.

Holy domes.

I melted chocolate, double cream and a scatter of espresso powder together to make a ganache. The easiest way to get icing on to cake was to plant them into the icing face-first and swivel them round in it.

I liked the Tintin-esque look.

Then, I grabbed my Dr Oetker chocolate hearts and jauntily placed them on top.

Aren’t they a lovely reddish brown? Tis the effect of the bicarb and sour cream on the cocoa, apparently.

Such a lovely texture too – so soft.

Chocolate, Double-Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

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(All and some in part from Smitten Kitchen, Nigella Lawson and Epicurious!)

1 cup/250ml Youngs Double-Chocolate Stout (or any stout/Guinness)
8oz unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups caster sugar
2 cups plain flour
1 ¼- 1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (I got that tremendous rise with 1½ tsp, but with the second batch I made, I was too generous and got a faint taste of bicarb. Be mean)
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache
4oz dark chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp double cream
½ tsp espresso powder

Method

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F.
Line two muffin tins with a total of 20 liners.

Put the stout and butter in a large saucepan and heat gently to melt the butter. Once it’s melted, add the cocoa and sugar and whisk until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl to blend.
Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in a large bowl to blend. Add the stout-cocoa mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine.
Add the flour mixture and beat on slow speed.
Pour the batter into the paper cases and bake for 20 mins – checking that a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean. At this point, I removed the upper tray of cakes from the oven and moved the second tray up to the top to bake for another 2-3 minutes.
Put the tins on cooling racks and cool the cakes completely in the tins.

Ganache

Put the chopped chocolate, cream and espresso powder in a heatproof bowl and microwave in ten second bursts to melt them together – stirring briefly between blasts.
Once you’re happy with the consistency, dip and swirl the dome of each little cake into the icing and decorate with chocolate hearts, maltesers, sprinkles or whatever you fancy!

This is the only vanilla cupcake recipe I use. Why? It works every time. The cupcakes are reliable. The sweetness is perfect. They are substantial enough to fiddle with. In short, there is no reason to look further because this recipe is unbeatable for a delicious, good crumb, tasty little cake. Oooh, they’re nice.

It is the recipe for vanilla birthday cake found in the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. I also saw it in the Primrose Bakery cookbook; although they don’t accredit the Magnolia Bakery with the recipe, they are the same.

Cream the unsalted butter and sugar until fluffy. Be sure to regularly scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula throughout.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and very slowly add them. I do it this way to minimise any curdling.

Add your blend of self-raising and plain flour; alternating in three parts with the milk and vanilla extract and gently beat until it just comes together. Finish off with a spatula.

Divide your mixture amongst 12 muffin-sized cupcakes or 24 mini-muffins. I have used the regular ‘fairy cake’ cases and yielded around 17 of those. I tend not to use them because they always splay out slightly in the oven and you tend to get a drier result.

Bake for 15 (minis) to 24 (muffin) mins – check them at 12 and 20 minutes respectively, depending on how fast or slow your oven is. They will be golden brown, resilient to the touch and a cocktail stick will come out clean and/or with a couple of moist crumbs clinging to it. I have found, that unlike so many recipes, once the colour is attractive, they are ready. The only time I ever undercooked them (and they did taste a bit floury) was the time I thought they should come out a little on the pale side. No. Golden is perfect. Brown is overcooked.

Another thing. Let them cool in the tin – it stops the cases peeling away from the sides of the cakes.

The frosting. Place your first lot of icing sugar, unsalted butter and milk in the mixer. Mix, slowly at first, until it comes together, then allow it to beat for about… 3, maybe 4 minutes.

So you get a standard buttercream. Now, until I read the book, I would have left it at that, but no, they insist that you must keep beating and adding more icing sugar to get a great buttercream. Quite right too.

So slowly you add more icing sugar and beat away until the icing is beautifully light and can hold its shape well.

I use an icing bag for normal cupcakes, but for these minis, I use an icing nozzle/tube arrangement. The nozzles are smaller and I find it’s easier to turn a tight swirl with this arrangement as opposed to the clutching of a great big bag.

The pics show the way I make the swirl – nothing earth shattering

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The you just go crazy with the sprinkles. Simples.

Some other pics. 1 batch of two-tone icing – one left as vanilla, the other half coloured pink. One colour down one side of the bag, the other colour down the other side of the bag, twist the top and hope. It worked.

A non-swirled top. No idea what I did, I just didn’t feel like swirling. It was a fluted/ripply tip, so it pretty much did its own thang.

Another two-tone icing – this time, it was 1/2 vanilla and the other half was tinted green and lightly flavoured with mint extract. The decorations are melted white chocolate piped into shapes and the details added with those icing decorating tubes.

It was Christmas, in case that wasn’t screamingly obvious. I wasn’t being ironic in May.

Cupcakes for the parents to eat whilst the kids got the minis. They said they all loved the icing, so they got plenty of it.

60th birthday cupcakes. This time I tinted white chocolate. BTW, you must use either powdered or oil based colouring. Normal food colouring will not work because chocolate despises water. I had to go to great lengths to obtain the oil colourings (Wilton ‘flower’ colours), but you can get the powdered colours much more easily at a shop that specialises in sugarcraft. Add the powdered colours to the white chocolate steadily and keep stirring.

Vanilla Cupcakes (Magnolia Bakery)

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4oz unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/2 + 1/8 cup (I know, sorry) plain flour
1/2 cup milk
vanilla extract

Preheat oven to GM4/350F/180C

Line 12-hole muffin pan or 24-hole mini muffin pan with paper liners (when I make minis, I sometimes have some batter left over, so you might like to have some spare cases and a tin on standby)

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add the beaten egg slowly.
Combine the flours and add in 4 parts alternately with the milk and vanilla extract until just combined. Finish combining with a spatula.

Spoon batter into the cases.
Bake mini muffin cupcakes for 15 mins, and leave to cool in the tin (it seems to stop the case peeling away), then remove to cooling rack to air a bit.
Bake muffin-sized cupcakes for 22-24 minutes. Cool in the tin for around 10 mins, then remove to a rack.

Vanilla Buttercream

4oz unsalted butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk (at room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the butter, milk, vanilla and 2 cups of the icing sugar into the bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
Gradually add the rest of the sugar (you probably won’t need it all) until it is smooth and holds its shape for piping or spreading.
Beat a little longer to ensure it is velvet-smooth.
Use at room temperature.

Delightful Bread Pudding – not to be confused with its richer cousin, bread and butter pudding – is another way to use up stale bread.
As my Grandad pointed out to my Mum, the addition of dried fruit, butter, sugar, eggs and spices makes it a very expensive way of using up cheap stale bread, but it is delicious and filling. Just the thing to plug the vast, bottomless hunger hole that inhabits the space between coming home from school and eating dinner.
Speaking of children, this is a really good recipe for kids to make – the tearing of bread is laborious, but passes more quickly with someone chatting to you, little hands are good at squeezing water from soggy bread and they can beat it half to death with a wooden spoon because you can’t overmix bread pudding.

Interestingly, Grandad’s recipe book lists the recipe as a hot pudding to be eaten with custard, but we never ate it this way; no, it’s strictly left to cool and cut into slabs to be devoured as you would a piece of cake. A very substantial piece of cake, mind you, but still that’s our eating method of choice.
Yes, it’s a good rainy day recipe and it’s decidedly Autumnal here now. Sad for us to bid farewell to hot days, but great for good traditional bread pudding!

Take your stale bread

and tear it into ‘feeding small birds’ pieces. Not swans. Little birds.

Pour over enough cold water to saturate it. I used about 1½ pints, but start with 1 pint. There’s nothing to stop you drowning it completely, but it just increases the amount of time you spend squeezing the water out afterwards.
Let it sit for an hour to get thoroughly soggy.

Putting a couple of handful of soggy bread in the sieve at a time, squeeze and press the water out. You can use whatever utensil you like, but I had great success using my hands.

Once it’s all been squeezed, return to a large bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until it’s mushy and smoother.

Add the raisins, sugar, cinnamon and mixed spice and beat them in.
Add the beaten eggs and melted butter and beat that in too.

Add a little milk (I used about 2 tbsp) to achieve a nice dropping consistency

Pour into a greased baking tin (mine was 9×13″) and sprinkle some demerara sugar and a good rasping of nutmeg over the top. Bake for 1½ to 2 hours.

Until browned, firm and pulling away from the edges of the tin.

Cool in the tin, sprinkle with more sugar and cut into slabs, squares or dainty fingers.

Enjoy!

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Bread Pudding

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1 lb stale bread
9oz raisins
4oz sugar
4oz butter, melted or very soft
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
2 eggs, beaten
Milk to mix
Nutmeg and Demerara sugar to dredge

Tear the bread into small ‘feed the birds’ pieces.
Pour over cold water to saturate the bread – anything between 1 and 2 pints depending on the staleness of your bread. Leave to soak for an hour.

Heat oven to GM3/160/325
Grease a baking tin of around 9×13″.

Put a couple of handfuls of soggy bread at a time into a nylon sieve and strain and squeeze as much water as you can out of the bread. Beat with a wooden spoon to reduce to mush.
Add the fruit, butter, spices and eggs and beat together. Add enough milk to get a soft dropping consistency, but don’t let it get too wet. I only needed about 2 tbsps.
Pour into the tin and scatter with Demerara sugar and a good rasping of nutmeg.

Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until firm and pulled away from the side of the tin.
Cool in the tin, then when cold, cut into slabs or daintier fingers. Dredge with more sugar if you like.

Store in an airtight container – you can also freeze it.

Or Galette, or Crostata, or open-face pie, or bottom crust pie or as Alex said, ‘Oh. I thought it would have a lump in the middle, you know, like a hat’. It’s worth noting at this point that a strawberry pie was his request, thus he had a mental image of its appearance.
His disappointment didn’t affect his ability to eat two slices though, so disgard your worry.
The pastry is a Nigel Slater recipe and is really quick to knock together. You only chill it for the length of time it takes you to prepare the fruit, so no waiting around for upwards of three hours.
It could have taken a little more sugar for my liking, but we had some custard with it which sweetened it up nicely.

I’m not a fan of strawberries (unless they’re wild – in variety, that is; not in nature) but I have discovered that I like them cooked. Alex said that it tasted a little like jam, at which point it struck us that jam is the taste of cooked strawberries, rather than the pie tasted a little like jam. Oh dear. You had to be there, OK? So a little like jam, but not as sweet as jam and certainly fresher-tasting.
Yum.

Preheat the oven to GM6.
Add the sliced cold unsalted butter to the flour

and rub it in until it looks like breadcrumbs.

stir in 2 tblsp cold water and stir lightly,

then form into a disc and stick it in the fridge whilst you prep the fruit.

I got a punnet of dear little strawberries from the market. They were oddly small, but very fragrant.
Weighed them and they were about 450g.

Hulled them, halved them and sprinkled with 2 tbsp cornflour and 2 tbsp sugar (would have added more, in hindsight)

Combined them all together and sat to one side whilst I dealt with the pastry.

I floured a piece of baking parchment and rolled the pastry out to a large (kind of) circle. Somewhere in the region of 12″. Not to brag.
I piled the strawberries in the centre, as one does with these hat-less pies, but left the juices in the bowl. Trust me. Strawberries do not need additional liquid.

To gather the edges up, I lifted a bit of the paper and encouraged the pastry to nestle on to the strawberries, then lifted up the next bit, repeat, repeat.

You have to support the end of the previous piece to encourage a bit of a pleat, but don’t fret – it kind of does it by itself and I find that the lifting of the paper is actually an easier way to get the pastry up high over the filling as opposed to grabbing bits by hand and risking a tear.

All tucked in?…up? Huh.

Once all the pastry is pointing towards the middle, brush with milk and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Pretty!

Bake for around 40 mins. Expect lots of juice – I actually spooned some out of the tin after about 35 mins because I was worried the crust would get too soggy and it was fine. I don’t know whether this means you should also pour some juice away – have a look when you bake it and if you’re worried about it flooding, pour the juice into a jug. You can always pour it over the cooked pie when you serve it.
I explained to Alex that this was one of the reasons I chose to make an open pie – the juice issue. I explained that this way there was at least the opportunity for the juice to partially evaporate – whether the strawberries choose to evaporate their juices was beyond my control – but if the pie was lidded they would have no chance at all.
We had an interesting discussion about the profound nature of choices and the mechanics of evaporation whilst enjoying this dessert, but how much of it he retained, I wouldn’t like to say. His eyes were a little glazed, but that could have been the runny custard.

I have developed a disturbing inability to make Bird’s custard. I can make proper custard with the perils of egg yolks, but custard powder and milk? Weird every time. Sometimes lumpy, sometimes watery, sometimes not sweet enough, sometimes too sweet. It’s like an extreme sport – you never know how the custard will turn out.
Still, I keep chipping away at it.
The pie – with some excess juice removed

Once out of the oven, sprinkle with some more sugar and transfer it to a serving plate. I slid a long spatula between the pie and the paper a few times, then put it on to the plate whilst simultaneously sliding away the paper. It had the potential for disaster written all over it, so do take care.

Serve in slices with dodgy or most excellent custard. Or ice cream. Or cream. Or nothing at all.

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Strawberry Pie
pastry from Nigel Slater’s ‘Real Cooking’
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200g plain flour
125g unsalted butter, cold
2 tbsp cold water
450g strawberries, halved if small, quartered if large
2 tbsp cornflour
3 tbsp + sugar
Milk for glazing the pastry
Demerara sugar to scatter

Put the flour in a bowl and rub the butter in until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Stir in the water and lightly bring the dough together into a ball, adding more water if necessary. It is a firm dough, but don’t let it get sticky.

Chill the dough whilst you prep the fruit and heat the oven to GM6/200C/400F.

Halve or quarter the strawberries and combine them with the sugar and cornflour. Set aside whilst you deal with the pastry.

On a large piece of baking parchment, roll the pastry out into a large circle of around 12″.
Lift onto a rimmed baking sheet, shallow roasting tin, or large shallow pizza tin in my case, and spoon the coated strawberries in a pile in the middle. Don’t use any juices from the bottom of the bowl.
Swipe a strawberry from the pile and, ignoring the cornflour, taste to try and predict its sweetness. Scatter with more sugar if it’s too sharp.

To gather the edges up, lift a bit of the paper and encourage the pastry to nestle and flop on to the strawberries, then lift up the next bit, repeat, repeat. You’re folding the edges over the fruit as far as they will reach whilst maintaining the hole in the middle. It’ll look quirky (scruffy).

Brush the pastry with milk and scatter generously with the Demerara sugar.
Bake for 40 mins.
I checked at 35 mins and quickly spooned off some of the liquid before allowing it to cook for a further 5-10 mins.
Remove the golden brown pie from the oven, loosen from the paper with a spatula and slide on to your serving plate.
Serve in slices with custard. Or ice cream. Or cream. Or nothing at all.

That’s better! I reverted to the double boiler and it’s much thicker, holding its shape and my, oh my, intensely packed with blackberries. Even better, because we picked the blackberries from the park, free! Well I say ‘free’ – that would be apart from the eggs, sugar and butter. If picking wild fruit doesn’t give you that Hedgewitch glow then nothing will.

I’m loving these curds because the flavour is just so intense, but the butter and sugar temper the intensity. All of the flavour without having to grip the side of your chair.
Versatile too – I think of lemon curd as being something to fill a cake with or smear over fresh bread, but these berry curds are so very good on ice cream – a kind of fruit sauce but better.
Fantastic on crunchy toast and warm croissants, traditional on scones, they are a marvellous thing to have in the fridge. One of our friends ate it by the teaspoonful by the fridge door. That’s about as complimentary as it gets.

As with the blackcurrant curd, make a puree first by putting 450g blackberries in a saucepan with a splash of water, bringing to the boil, then reducing to a simmer for 10-15 mins.

Pass through a nylon sieve – draining initially, then forcing the fruit pulp through until it’s dry and exhausted. Put the puree (I got 350ml) in the top of a double boiler, or in a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water if that’s what you have.

Add 275g caster sugar, stirring to melt and slowly whisk in 3 beaten eggs

then add 70g unsalted butter and stir whilst that melts too

Then the cooking begins. It takes a long time to thicken this way, but you eliminate the chance of undercooking it because of your fear that it will scorch.

See? It has started to thicken and in fact, fulfils the requirement that a spoon is ‘coated’, but the line is not clean – the right side is drooping, so keep stirring…

Nearly there – the line I made when I drew my finger across is more stable and it’s beginning to leave a trail on the surface of the curd in the bowl, but I feel it could be a little thicker yet.

And we’re there. Not dribbling from the spatula but hanging a bit

and leaving a more purposeful trail on the surface. Excellent. Now you can decant it into two jars and once cool, keep in the fridge.

I had poached some peaches and had some vanilla ice cream. It needed a little something and blackberry curd was the something. Seriously, can’t recommend it highly enough.

Blackberry Curd

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450g blackberries
3-4 tblsp water
275g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
70g unsalted butter

Make a puree first by putting the blackberries in a saucepan with the water, bringing to the boil, then reducing to a simmer for 10-15 mins.

Pass through a nylon sieve – draining initially, then forcing the fruit pulp through until it’s dry and exhausted. Discard the pulp and put the puree (I got 350ml) in the top of a double boiler, or in a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water if that’s what you have.

Add the caster sugar, stirring to melt and slowly whisk in the beaten eggs.
Add the unsalted butter and stir whilst that melts too.

Keep the curd on the heat whilst you continue to stir. Eventually it will thicken, although this may take upwards of 25 minutes.
Once it drops, as opposed to dribbles, from the stirring implement and the curd leaves a trail on its surface, it is there.
Decant into two jam jars, cool and then store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

One small, yet significant detail before I start; despite the general use of a double boiler to make lemon curd, I always put it straight into the saucepan. I applied the same method to this and whilst the curd was great, it was too runny- in other words, fear had made me undercook it.
So I suggest returning to the traditional method of cooking it in a double boiler or sitting a Pyrex bowl over a pan of simmering water. A slower, but more sensible way of cooking it long enough to thicken it well without the fear of scrambling the egg or scorching it.

Remove the blackcurrants from their stems and place them and the water in a saucepan. (Don’t add any courgette, tomato or wild strawberries. That was just me basking in the wonderment of harvesting food from our own garden)

Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 10 mins.

Remove from the heat and force the pulp through a nylon sieve into a bowl.

It will initially drain freely, then you have to keep rubbing the pulp into the sieve and keep scraping the thick goodies from the underside of the sieve with a knife. Discard the exhausted pulp

Pour the sieved blackcurrant purée into a double boiler (or a medium Pyrex bowl sat atop a pan of simmering water) and add the sugar and butter, stirring to melt it.

Remove the bowl from on top of the saucepan and add the beaten egg, stirring as you do so to avoid egg lumps. Shudder.

Return to the simmering pan of water and stir until it thickens; this could take at least 25 – 35 mins, if not longer. As you can see from the picture, it had thickened, but not enough – I relied on the cooling to set it, but it needed more cooking. It should be more puddingy than this.

Once it has thickened, decant it into two jam jars, cool and store in the fridge.

Or, as I did, take a jar to your Mum and Dad and hope that your Mum is thrilled enough to make something we can spread it on… Result! Scones!

Eat it within a couple of weeks. If it lasts that long… (see – it really is too runny, but the taste, well. Intense. Delicious.)

So after the success of this blackcurrant curd, my mind wandered to the possibility of other berried curds. Alex and I went for a walk by the river to check out the blackberries’ progress. We came away with a pound of them – sour as sloes, but they cooked up nicely. Blackberry curd to follow later!

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Blackcurrant Curd

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300g blackcurrants
125ml water
275-300g caster sugar
70g unsalted butter
3 eggs + 1 yolk

Place the blackcurrants and water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and force the pulp through a nylon sieve into a bowl.
It will initially drain freely, then you have to keep rubbing the pulp into the sieve and keep scraping the thick goodies from the underside of the sieve with a knife. Discard the exhausted pulp.

Pour the sieved blackcurrant purée into a double boiler (or a medium Pyrex bowl sat atop a pan of simmering water) and add the sugar and butter, stirring to melt it.

Remove the bowl from on top of the saucepan and add the beaten egg, stirring well as you do so to avoid egg lumps.
Return to the simmering pan of water and stir until it thickens; this could take at least 25 – 35 mins, if not longer. If in doubt, spoon some on to a saucer and check that it doesn’t run all over the place. Also bear in mind that chilling it will thicken it up.

Once it has thickened, decant it into two jam jars, cool and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Oooh I love the sharpness of lemon drizzle cake – the sharpness contrasting with the sweet tender crumb, the sticky syrup that drenches it and I’m helpless to resist crystallised rose petals and violets. This is a Nigella Lawson recipe and it works perfectly every time.

I haven’t got a picture of it sliced because I made it for Alex’s school Summer Fair ‘Guess the weight of the cake’ competition. I was about to start when it hit me. It’s a loaf cake made in a 450g tin. Oh dear. That would kind of give the weight away, non? So I got out my long tin (30x11cm), did 1½ quantity and all was well.

Preheat the oven to GM4/180C/350F and grease and line your tin, bringing the paper just above the top of the tin so you can pull it out when it’s cooked. The original recipe is for a 450g tin measuring 23x13x7cm. Mine is 30x11x7cm and takes 1½ the amount.

Zest your lemon and put to one side. My friend Emily sent me this microplane grater from the States. It’s nice to think about Em everytime you grate something – I recommend it.

Cream together the butter and sugar then very gradually add the beaten eggs and zest

Once that’s all combined, add the flour and a pinch of salt and the milk. Spoon into the lined tin and put in the oven for 45-60 mins, depending on your tin size.

Towards the end of the cooking time, put your lemon juice and icing sugar in a small saucepan

and heat very gently, whisking to dissolve the sugar.

Once the cake is golden brown and a cocktail stick comes out clean, remove from the oven and pierce all over with the cocktail stick or a skewer.

Transfer the syrup to a jug (makes the drizzle more of a drizzle than a dirty great tidal wave) and carefully, evenly pour over the cake. Pay plenty of attention to the middle so that it doesn’t just soak round the sides.

Let it sit in the tin and start to soak all the syrup up

At this point, I decided to harness the power of the sticky syrup and pressed my crystallised rose and violet bits to the top. Let it sit in the tin until completely cold.

A very pretty, very delicious cake.

A little edit here. As I gave this one away, I couldn’t show you the inside. I have made another since then and snapped a picture of the cut cake for you to see. Yummo.

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Lemon Syrup Drizzle Cake
adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe

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Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F
Grease and line a tin measuring 30x11x7cm *original quantity for 450g tin at bottom*

190g unsalted butter
265g caster sugar
3 large eggs
zest of 2-3 lemons (depending on size)
265g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
6 tblsp milk

Syrup:
juice of 2-3 lemons
150g icing sugar (in fact, I only had 120g and it made no difference)

crystallised rose and violet petals to decorate

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and lemon zest.
Gently add the flour and salt, then the milk.
Spoon into the lined tin and bake for 55-60 mins – until golden and risen.

Towards the end of the baking time, put the lemon juice and icing sugar into a small saucepan and heat to melt the sugar. Transfer to a jug for easier drizzling.

Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and pierce all over with a cocktail stick or wooden skewer. Don’t stab it to death, but equally, be sure to pierce it all over.
Carefully, slowly and evenly pour the syrup all over the cake, giving it time to absorb the syrup.
If desired, press pieces of crystallised rose and violet petals on top.
Cool completely in the tin.
This cake keeps well if it gets the chance.

* Original recipe quantities for a 450g tin measuring 23x13x7cm*
125g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1-2 lemons
175g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
4 tblsp milk

syrup:
juice of 1-2 lemons (about 4 tblsp)
100g icing sugar

The pastry is a recipe of Nigel Slater’s – he calls it Shortcake pastry and it certainly is. It’s more of a batter than a dough and is as delicious as the filling.
I didn’t want a run of the mill pastry because early peaches can be a bit tart and I don’t really care for unsweetened pastry with fruit. Equally, I didn’t want to go the whole hog and make the shortbread pastry – too much of a treat and flavoured in its own right. So this pastry is the perfect compromise. A slight crumbly quality to the edges and a melt in the mouth joy to the middle.

Peaches, well the scent of peaches is the most evocative of Summer smells. Impulse buys used to be handbag and shoe related, now they consist of punnets of peaches. My, how this woman has changed.

Cream together 150g unsalted butter and 150g caster sugar until light and fluffy *wink*

Add one beaten egg and beat that in too.

Next, add 250g plain (all purpose) flour and 1 tsp baking powder and combine that in.

Turn out on to a floured surface and very lightly knead and squish it to make it smooth

Halve the dough

and roll one half out between two pieces of baking parchment. Don’t even think about rolling it out straight on to the surface – it’s way too soft for that.

Use the rolled out piece to line your 9″ pie tin, then wrap the other half in parchment and stick both that and the lined tin into the fridge for around 30 mins.

To the peaches. They seduced me shamelessly.

I used a punnet of 12 peaches that weighed around 1kg. I also threw in a couple of wizzened ones from the fruit bowl.

Remove the skins; some pulled off easily, but the firmer peaches were resistant so I cut a cross in the stem end and blanched them in a bowl of boiling water for around 40 seconds. The skins came away easily then.

Slice them up into a bowl.

Put 50g unsalted butter into a large frying pan on a medium heat, then place the peach slices into it and add a tablespoon or two or sugar.

You don’t want to cook the life out of them, but just cook them down a little.

Remove the peaches to a sieve over a bowl and collect the juices. Return the juice to the frying pan and simmer enthusiastically until they go syrupy.

Retrieve your lined tin and reserved half of dough from the fridge and place the peach slices into it

and drizzle the reduced juice over them.

Roll the second half of the dough out between your parchment until it is large enough to cover the top of the pie.

Pinch or flute the edges together – patch any pieces where necessary, it’s an easily damaged dough, but utterly forgiving when it’s in the oven so fret not.

Brush lightly with milk (I forgot) and sprinkle with some sugar.

Bake at GM4 for around 40 mins (it might take as long as 55 mins)

Mmm, golden with that fantastic crumbly look to the edge of the pastry. Go a shade darker than mine if you dare, because the bottom was a little less cooked than I would have liked.

Now, I have zero problem with adding cream, custard or ice cream to a slice of pie, but believe me when I say you don’t need to with this pie. I’m not saying you shouldn’t, just that you don’t have to.

Quite simply, it stands very nicely on its own two feet.

As the boy in the local Co-op says, ‘Enjoy’. (Dude, I just bought toilet paper and a pack of bacon..really? Enjoy?)

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Peach Pie Perfect

adapted from a recipe in Nigel Slater’s ‘the kitchen diaries’

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150g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
milk and caster sugar to glaze the pie

1kg peaches, skins and stones removed, sliced
50g unsalted butter
1-2 tblsp sugar

9″ pie tin (that is, 24cm across the top and 18cm at the base), lightly buttered.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and light.
Add the egg and beat to combine.
Add the flour and baking powder, combine.
Turn the dough out on to a floured surface and lightly knead until smooth.

Cut the pastry in half.
Roll one half out between sheets of parchment paper and use it to line the tin.
Wrap the remaining half in paper and put in the fridge along with the lined tin for around 30 mins.

Heat oven to GM4/180C/350F

Skin and stone the peaches, then slice the flesh into a bowl.
Heat the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the peaches and 1 tblsp sugar. Taste and increase the sugar as necessary.

Cook the peaches down a little – turn them to encourage the sugar to melt – for just a few minutes.
Remove the peach slices to a sieve over a bowl, then return the juices to the frying pan.

Simmer the juices at a lively rate to reduce them down to a lovely syrup – only takes a minute or two.

Remove the lined tin and reserved pastry from the fridge.
Place the peach slices into the pastry-lined tin and drizzle the syrupy juices over them.

Roll out the remaining half of pastry between two pieces of parchment and cover the top of the pie.
Pinch, flute or crimp the two edges of pastry together – patching if you need too.
It’s not the kindest pastry to handle at this point – it’s prone to tearing – but it sorts itself out in the oven, so don’t get cross with it.

Gingerly brush it with milk (I usually do it with my fingertips) and scatter with a little sugar.
Bake for around 40 mins. If you’re happy for it to go a little darker than golden, give it some extra time – the peaches, although half cooked, are still juicy and the extra time will insure you against a soggy base. Having said that, it is a silky pastry so you don’t get that nasty uncooked dough taste anyway.

Let it sit for a few minutes to catch its breath before serving. Hot, warm or cold, it’s a winner.

Or should it be Muesola?
Yes that’s right – granola meets muesli.
Before now, I have made muesli and I have also made granola. Muesli is great, fine, but I’m not the biggest fan of dried fruits, so my options are limited. Granola is great, very nice in fact, but can be too hard or too chewy and I hate the thought of over-developed jaw muscles. So unseemly…
Wouldn’t it be nice, I pondered, to have the concept of Granola in a more muesli form…

So I tried and I liked it. Oh, yes, I liked it. Slightly sweetened with that toasted oat flapjack aroma; it’s nutritious and tasty. It’s versatile too – change the fruit, increase or omit the nuts, change the sweetness… whatever rings your bell.

Heat oven to GM3/160C/325F

Fetch a large, shallow roasting tin (mine measures 13″ by 11″ – the larger surface area the better)

Into your tin, place porridge oats, desiccated coconut, chopped pecans, soft brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mix it up and drizzle in some maple syrup, some oil and melted butter.

Stir it up (little darling) and bake for 30 mins – stir once or twice during this time to even out the cooking.

Deep golden. Now let it cool completely.

So that’s the gran, now add some more (raw) porridge oats and raisins for the uesli.

Stir well and keep in an airtight box to ensure a tasty breakfast.

Have a very good morning!

—-

Granuesli

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500g / 6 cups porridge oats – half for the gran, half for the uesli
75g / 1 cup desiccated coconut
90g / 1 mean cup pecan halves, chopped
50g / 1/3 cup light brown soft sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
100g / 2oz salted butter, melted
2 tbsp oil
a drizzle (2 tbsp) maple syrup

150g / 1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to GM3/160C/325F
Into a large roasting tin, place HALF the oats – that is 3 cups -, coconut, chopped pecans, sugar and cinnamon. Mix.
Drizzle over the melted butter, oil and maple syrup. Mix.
Bake for 30 mins, stirring once or twice during this time to ensure even cooking.

Remove from oven and cool completely.

Once cold, add the remaining 3 cups porridge oats and raisins. Stir to combine, then store in a airtight tin/box/whatever.

Variations
Well, this can be varied as much as your preferences dictate.
If you want proper granola clumps, then increase the butter to about 5 oz and be sure to squeeze lumps together prior to cooking.

Vary the sweetness – cut it down if you want more uesli than gran, or change the sweetness – reduce the sugar, but increase the maple syrup. Use honey instead or maple syrup. Hey, use Agave nectar if you like. Ooh! Use golden syrup – that’ll nod nicely in the direction of the flapjack.

Don’t like nuts? Leave them out. Live for nuts? Put more in.

Hate raisins? Use a different dried fruit or leave it out altogether and just top your bowl with some fresh fruit instead.
Dollop some spooky yogurt on there too, whilst you’re at it.

—

This Sticky Date cake is effectively a boiled fruit cake, but as it’s egg-free and uses a tin of condensed milk, I was intrigued. It’s a recipe from ‘The Hairy Bikers: Mums know best’ and was given to them by someone they met. When Mum looked at the recipe, she recognised it as one of Delia Smith’s, so if ever you needed evidence that recipes do the rounds, then here you have it.

I have to say, I’m not sure that ‘sticky’ is the perfect word. It is sticky, but more than that, it’s moist and flavourful. The condensed milk gives it a hint of caramel and richness. As I say so frequently that I bore even myself, it is easy to do. It’s fun to do too – not least because the unappetising gunk in the saucepan transforms into quite possibly the nicest fruitcake ever.

So into your saucepan, put the raisins, dates, sultanas and currants with the butter, water and tin of condensed milk. At this point you’ll be thinking all sorts of things that I shouldn’t really post here.

Slowly bring it to the boil, stirring frequently to avoid the edges catching. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 mins.

Transfer it all to a heatproof bowl and set aside for around 30 ins to cool. If you want to speed the cooling process, just sit the bowl in a sink of cold water.

You can see how much the texture changes once it’s cool. If you should happen to stick your finger in to taste the mixture, it might feel a bit grainy, but don’t worry about that.

Stir in a tablespoon of marmalade

then fold in the flour and bicarb

Spoon into the tin and smooth lightly. Cover with the doubled piece of parchment and bake for 2 – 2½ hours. I checked my cake at 2 hours and it needed the additional time.

Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then take it out of the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

Slices nicely, doesn’t it? It can be a bit crumbly, but that’s hardly a problem when the crumbs taste as they do.

Who did that?!

mmmmhfdjikfjs *swallow* here’s the recipe.

—-

Sticky Date Cake

(recipe -modified by me- from Delia Smith, the Hairy Bikers, Tom Cobley and all)

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110g/4oz raisins
225g/8oz chopped dates
175g/6¼oz sultanas
110g/4oz dried currants
275g/10oz butter
275ml/10fl oz water
1 x 400g/14oz can condensed milk
300g/10 oz plain flour (or 150g plain and 150g wholemeal flour)

pinch salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 heaped tbsp chunky marmalade

Preheat the oven to 170C/340F/Gas 3. Grease and line a 20cm/8in square cake tin. Also prepare a doubled piece of baking parchment (to sit over the top of the cake whilst it cooks) and cut a hole the size of a 50p piece in the middle.

Place the raisins, dates, sultanas and currants into a saucepan together with the butter, water and condensed milk. Slowly bring the mixture to the boil, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from burning. Reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to a heatproof bowl and set aside to cool for around 30 mins. If you haven’t got 30 mins, put the bowl in cold water and keep stirring to cool it more quickly.

Meanwhile, mix together the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl.

When the fruit mixture has cooled, fold it into the flour along with the marmalade until smooth and well combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
Cover the tin with a double layer of baking parchment (cut a hole about the size of a 50p piece in the middle so that it doesn’t steam), then bake the cake in the oven for 2 – 2½ hours, or until the cake is springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. I checked mine at 2 hours and if definitely needed the extra time.

Allow the cake to cool for ten minutes in the tin before turning it out onto a cooling rack. Wrapped in baking parchment and foil, it keeps like a dream. We have a few slices left from 2 weeks ago and it is still perfect.