Clíona's Amazing Chocolate-Caramel Christening Cake

Hello everyone! I've been a busy little bee the last few weeks - a new job and lots of life-stuff going on. My little niece-to-be had her chistening ceremony recently and her Mum asked me to make a cake I'd made before that she'd really liked. Well - say no more!
I won't lie...2 days went into the decorating of the cake (well, I do have to work too!) but the basic cake itself is very simple and even a novice cook should be able to knock this one out in an evening. The decorating is slightly trickier but there's nothing stopping you from giving it a bash, after all, this is my first attempt of doing anything like this myself.

A word of warning: this is RICH cake. Tiny slices. Seriously. You'll thank me later.

Makes a very tall 8" cake - approx. 12-16 slices

Ingredients
For the Vanilla & Chocolate sponges
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml natural yoghurt
1tsp vanilla extract
5tbsp cocoa powder
For the Caramel & Choc-caramel sponges
225g unsalted butter, softened
175g soft light brown sugar
50g dark brown sugar
175g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml natural yoghurt
1tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp cocoa
To assemble and decorate
1 can Carnation Caramel
1 quantity chocolate buttercream

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. grease and line the bases of 2 x 8 inch (20cm) sandwich tins with baking paper. 
2. For the vanilla and chocolate sponges mix all the ingredients, apart from the cocoa,  together with an electric whisk. Transfer half the mix into another clean mixing bowl and whisk in the cocoa. Scrape the mixes into the tins and bake for 20-25 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean.
3. Repeat this for the caramel and choc-caramel sponges, again reserving the cocoa until you've split the mix between two bowls and whisking it into one batch. Bake as before.
4. Allow the 4 sponges to cool fully on a wire rack.
5. Place the vanilla sponge on a base (or plate) of your choice. Spread a third of the caramel over the base sponge and top with the caramel sponge. Spread another third of the caramel over this and top with the choc-caramel sponge. Spread the final third of the caramel over the choc-caramel sponge and top with the chocolate sponge.
6. Cover the cake in chocolate buttercream and chill in the fridge for an hour.
7. Remove from fridge at least 15 mins before serving.
8. Relax, enjoy, and watch everyone marvel when you cut into the cake and they see the colour graduations of the sponges!

Earl Grey Tealoaf

I used to hate things like this, didn't like fruit in cakes and buns at all. In fact, hard as it may be to believe but I used not like baked goods at all. Yes, I was MUCH skinnier back then! I didn't know what I was missing out on though, and once I started to change recipes to suit what I do like then I discovered that actually, fruity cakes aren't that bad at all. So here's my take on the humble tea loaf...made a bit fancier with posh tea and a variety of fruits.


Makes 1 loaf


Ingredients
350g mixture of sultanas, dried apricots and dried dates plus the zest of one lemon
140g dark muscovado sugar 
300ml hot black tea made with 2 earl grey teabags
300g self-raising flour
1 large egg

1. Put the fruit and sugar in a bowl and pour over the hot tea. Stir well, then cover and leave to soak overnight (I actually leave it for 2-3 days).

2. To cook, heat oven to 150C/gas mark 2 and lightly grease a 1lb loaf tin and line with a wide strip of baking parchment (helps lift it out when it's done).

3. Stir the flour and egg into the fruit mixture, turn into the tin and level the surface. Bake for about an hour and a half until well risen and a skewer inserted into the loaf comes out clean.

4. Cool for a few mins in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool fully.

Gorgeous on it's own, spread with butter, toasted, or if you're feeling really bad fried with butter and golden syrup! Can be frozen too if you're making it ahead of a party or something, just wrap it in tinfoil and allow to thaw at room temperature.

Frosted Yoghurt Orange Cake

I found this recipe in GoodFood's 2012 calendar (it's the January recipe). GoodFood do this calender every January issue and it is month upon month of delicious recipes and gorgeous food photography. As is their entire magazine every month actually. Go on, go out and buy a copy. I'll wait...


Anyway, this is a great post-Christmas treat (she says in the middle of March). It's tangy and not too sweet so ideal for the post-chocolate period when we've all eaten far too much. It's also dead handy to throw together if you're expecting people at short notice - almost everyone has a jar of marmalade and some yoghurt hiding in their fridge.


IngredientsCake
175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled (plus extra for greasing)
225g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
grated zest of 2 oranges
3 large eggs
150g pot of natural yoghurt

Frosting
250g tub mascarpone
85g icing sugar
3 tbsp fine shred marmalade

1. Heat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease a 1kg loaf tin, then line with a strip of parchment.

2. Mix the flour, sugar and orange zest in a large bowl.

3. Beat the eggs, melted butter and yoghurt together in a jug. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Tip the batter into the loaf tin, smooth the top and bake for 50mins-1 hour (until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean). Cool in the tin.

5. To make the frosting beat the mascarpone, icing sugar and marmalade together with a spoon until well mixed. Remove the COLD cake from the tin and strip off lining paper. Spread the top with the frosting and pop in the fridge to chill. Return to room temp before eating. Enjoy!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

One last cupcake recipe before I leave them for the world of dieting (BOO! HISS!) - my chocolate orange cupcakes. I only have a bad, blurry iPhone photo of these bad boys as they were eaten very, very quickly. Even Kezz had a few and he's not a cake eater usually. Again, the icing can make more than you actually use depending on how thick you lay it on. I currently have a small half jar of it in the fridge that I'm trying not to eat with a spoon...

Makes: 36 mini cupcakes or 12-14 cupcakes (I made 24 minis and 6 normal - yes I know there's only 20 minis in the photo - the other 4 were eaten as they were iced. They're THAT BLOODY GOOD!)

Ingredients
For the cupcake mix
150g/5.5oz unsalted butter, softened
75g/2.75oz plain chocolate
250g/9oz caster sugar
5 large eggs
150g/5.5oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Grated rind of 2 oranges

For the icing
550g/1lb icing sugar
160g/5.6oz unsalted butter, softened
50ml orange juice
50g/1.75oz cocoa powder
Grated rind of 1 orange

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line an appropiate sized tin with the paper cases of the size cupcakes you wish to make (i.e. muffin tin lined with muffin cases). Melt the chocolate in a heatproof dish set over a simmering pan of water (or in the microwave making sure you don't allow it to burn). Once melted set aside and allow to cool slightly (but not become solid).
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture and fold together with a metal spoon.
3. Fold the orange rind into the mixture. Check that your chocolate has cooled, then add it to your mixture and fold in again.
4. Divide the batter between the cases, filling each one to about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes (less if you're making the mini cupcakes) or until risen and springy to the touch (a skewer poked through the middle of one should come out clean). Leave to cool slightly in the tin before removing to a wire rack and allowing to cool fully (this is very important as otherwise the icing will melt and run off them).
5. While the cakes are cooling you can make the icing. Whisk together the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter in a clean bowl until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the orange juice and zest and whisk at a high speed for several minutes until light and fluffy (the longer you whisk the fluffier the icing you'll get).
6. Divide the icing between the cold cupcakes. 

You could decorate the tops with little orange sweets, edible orange glitter, candied orange peel or pieces of Terry's Chocolate Orange if you're really feeling decadent! Mine sadly didn't last long enough to properly decorate and photograph nicely... I will be making them again (for a party or something, not for us to sit down and eat on our own in an evening!) and will decorate them properly then and update the photo!

A New Start, and Some Delicious Seeded Bread

Well hello everyone! Apologies for the lack of activity the last 2 months or so, I've been busy!

So, what have I been up to? Well, I've been making, and eating, lots of cake and other yummy delights (my poor waistline!). I've also been making lots of jewellery and trying to sell it. It's going, eh, okay I guess. Definitely not as much fun as the cooking is though which is why I have decided to turn my energies back here. I'm even looking into going back to college to study culinary arts. Well, 30 is the new 20 after all... So this fresh start down in Co. Cork is going to turn into a fresh start career-wise as well. I have to admit, I'm very, very excited!

In honour of all this new-ness I thought I'd share a brand new recipe with you guys today. Fresh out of my head, not even finished baking it yet! It's a variation on the white bread that I've been making of late. I LOVE bread, I really do. There's so many things you can use it for. I like my breads simple and unfussy. Kezz likes this bread too but he adores seeded bread so I figured I'd go for the best of both worlds and make my favourite bread seeded this time and see how it went.

I don't know about any of you but I for one hate buying bread. I know how simple it is to make so it just seems wrong to purchase it. Standard sliced pans seem too fluffy and insubstantial since I started making my own and I balk at the prices for artisan breads - what I'd pay for a single loaf I could buy the ingredients and make 4 or 5 myself! Plus who can resist the smell of freshly baked bread, or the seemly magic process of watching the dough rise? That's the best part about making bread yourself, you're not just getting the end product but the whole experience. It brings back memories in such a rush too, sitting in either of my grandmother's kitchens, watching the bread some out of the oven, smothering the still-warm slices in butter and home-made jam and then running outside to eat it in the sunshine, shooing away curious bees attracted by the sweet, warm stickiness. Try putting that in a wrapper!

Nothing can evoke memories in quite the same way that scents can. The smell of coconuts will always remind me of holidays in the sun, and of sunburn! Orange blossom always brings me back to the time I spent in Toronto, though I have no idea where that connection was made. Fresh lemons remind me of my Mum making us pancakes for breakfast, tomatoes remind me of one of my aunts and the greenhouse she had in her former home in Dublin. Scent connects us to our past, to moments shared and experiences we'd almost forgotten.

A final word on this dough before I dive into the recipe; it can be used for almost any variation. The standard dough, sans wheat bran and seeds, makes a lovely white bread. Just leave them out and follow the rest of the recipe as it is. It also makes lovely pizza dough, simply roll it out and cover it in the toppings of your choice after the first proving, then pop it in the oven. It makes insanely good toast with a slightly sticky, chewy texture. Sliced and covered in peanut butter and chopped banana it is the super quick anytime of day snack (honestly, try it - peanut butter and jelly be-damned!). I've made it with beer today but you can use water too, I often do and it's just as good. It can also be used as the base for fougasse (basically a french style focaccia). Anyway, on with the recipe!

Makes: 1 large round loaf

Ingredients

500g/14oz strong white bread flour (plus extra for dusting)
300ml/ 1.25 cups hand-hot water/beer/milk
1 handful of wheat bran
1 generous handful mixed seeds of your choice (I've used sesame, sunflower, linseed and pumpkin)
7g sachet easy-blend yeast (available in most supermarkets) or 15g fresh yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar (or honey)
2 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl, there's no need to sift it. For the dried yeast you can just pour it in too. The fresh yeast needs to be crumbled in and rubbed into the flour a little (like you would if making pastry or a crumble). Add the wheat bran, salt and sugar (or honey) now too.
2. To get your hand-hot liquid I find that it's best to take about one-third of the overall liquid and boil it, then add the cold two-thirds. This ensures it's warm without being too hot (it needs to be warm enough the activate the yeast but not so hot that it actually kills it!). Add the oil to the liquid and give it a quick stir.
3. Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour in all the liquid and oil mix in one go. Mix quickly using your hand (or a wooden fork) to make a soft, sticky dough. Make sure you wipe the dough around the bowl to pick up any loose flour.
4. Sprinkle a clean work surface with flour and turn our the dough onto it. Knead the dough by stretching it away from you, and then folding it in half toward you before stretching it away again. Give it a quarter turn and repeat. You'll get into a rhythm after a minute and it's a great way for working out any stress or frustrations!
5. After a few minutes make a little pocket in the dough and pour your choice of seeds in here. Continue kneading for a few more minutes until you have a nice scattering of seeds throughout and the dough is smooth.
6. Put the dough back in the mixing bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rest for an hour. The dough has risen enough when it has doubled in size and springs back when you press it gently with your finger. This is the first proving.
7. Tip the dough onto a floured surface once more and knead gently for a few seconds to remove air bubbles (knock it back as it's called). Shape into a round and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Make 3 or 4 slashes across the top with a sharp knife. Cover once more and rise for 30 minutes (this is the second proving). While it rises preheat your oven to 240C/475F/Gas Mark 9. Bake for 30-35 minutes until browned and crisp (you'll know it done if you tap the bottom of the loaf and it sounds hollow).
8. Cool on a wire rack. This bread should keep for 2-3 days but honestly, it's normally all gone by the next morning in this house!

I know looking at this it can seem like a lot of work but honestly it's not. It can be made even easier for you too. Want fresh bread in the morning but don't have 2 hours to play with? No problem! Instead of leaving the bread to sit for one hour to rise at room temperature you can make it up to step 5 above the night before and then pop it in the fridge to rise slowly overnight. Get up the next morning, follow step 6, turn the oven on to heat and then go jump in the shower. By the time you're done the bread will be ready to pop in the oven and you're done! By the time everyone else is up you've fresh bread on the table and you can seem like a kitchen wizard - able to knock out yummy bread in no time!

Three Fruit Scones

I love fruit scones. I especially love ones that are bursting with fruit! It's such a shame that most scones these days are limited to a handful of raisins, there's so much more that could be added! I've used the dried fruits I happened to have in the kitchen for these, but try any combination you like, once you keep the quantities the same you'll be laughing!

Makes: 10 scones

Ingredients

120g dried fruits (I've used 45g sultanas, 45g chopped dried apricot, 30g chopped dried prunes)
450g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
120g butter
2 large eggs
5 tablespoons milk, plus extra for glazing
Pinch of salt
Orange juice for soaking

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.
2. Put the fruit mixture in a bowl and pour in enough orange juice to cover. Stir, and leave aside.
3. In a large bowl mix your flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. In another bowl or a jug beat the eggs and milk together. Drain the fruit.
5. Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour in your egg mix, followed by the mixed fruit. Stir well, until you have a soft, dry dough.
6. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and roll out to a thickness of 2cm. Using a 7cm cutter cut circles from the dough. You'll need to add the scraps together and re-roll it to get all 10, but try not to over-work the dough either.
7. Place the scones on a baking sheet and glaze by dipping a pastry brush into some milk and brush over the scones.
8. Pop in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a lovely golden brown.
9. Allow to cool slightly on a wire rack before serving. I'll have mine with real butter and a coffee thanks! :)

My Best White Bread

Nothing beats the smell of freshly baked bread coming out of the oven, or slicing it to the exact thickness you require, not what (insert big bread company name here) thinks you should have. Like everything else made at home there's no unpronounceable ingredients, no chemicals added to make it last for weeks on a shelf, no plastic bag. Just you, a warm kitchen, and a little bit of love.

Makes 1 large loaf.

Ingredients

450g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
Good pinch of salt
7g sachet dried yeast
1tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
300ml warm water

Method

1. Mix the flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the oil and water, stirring well together to make a soft dough.
2. Now, you can either turn the dough out and knead it by hand on a floured surface for about 10 minutes, or use an electric mixer with dough hooks attached for about 5 minutes. I used to always do it by hand until I actually tried the dough hooks, now I'm converted!
3. Return the dough to the bowl (or leave it there if you used the hooks!) and cover with clingfilm. Pop it somewhere nice and warm (like an airing cupboard) for an hour so the dough can rise. It should just about double in size.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently knead for 30 seconds or so, this is called 'knocking back'. It should be lovely and smooth at this point.
5. Shape the dough into a large rectangle, the length of the baking tin and three times the width. Grease the tin well and fold the dough over itself three times lengthways. Pop it into the baking tin with the join underneath (it gives it a better appearance once baked). Cover in clingfilm again and leave to rise for another 30 minutes in a warm place once more.
6. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for 25 - 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn out the loaf and tap the bottom, if it sounds hollow then you'll know it's cooked. Cool on a wire rack for at least half an hour before slicing. As delicious as warm bread is, it's so much harder to slice properly, and I've butchered many loaves with my impatience to get eating!

*This loaf should keep for 3 or 4 days in an airtight container.

Crumbly Raspberry Oat Slices

Moments before I om, nom, nom...

Sort of a do-it-yourself cereal bar, without all the stabilisers and hydrogenated this and that. Any soft fruit can be used here, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, whatever is your favourite. You could also add some chopped nuts if that's what takes your fancy. If you're using fresh fruits pop them into the freezer before you start, I like to break the frozen raspberries apart with my fingers so I have a fruit crumble, it gives me a much more even layer.

Makes: 16 slices

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter, diced and allowed to soften slightly
100g plain flour
75g extra coarse wholemeal flour
150g porridge oats
175g caster sugar
250g raspberries
zest of one lemon
icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Grease a 10 inch square shallow baking tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl rub in your butter, flours and oats until they resemble a coarse crumble. Add your caster sugar and lemon zest and continue mixing until starting to come together slightly.
3. Put half the crumble mix in the baking tray and pat down firmly. Cover with raspberries in an even layer.
4. Add other half of crumble mix and pat down firmly again.
5. Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until golden brown in colour. Remove from oven, cut into slices and allow to cool in the tray before removing.
6. Dust with a little icing sugar and serve. Delicious!

Maple Bacon Breakfast Muffins

For the last month or so I've been dying to make these muffins but every time I tried to I'd find I was out of maple syrup, or had no muffin cases, or something else would go awry. Finally today I made them, and they were so worth the wait. They've also given me an idea for another type of breakfast muffin...oh well, there goes the weekend!

Ingredients

220g plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
3tbsp golden caster sugar
1tsp salt
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled (Marks & Spencer do Crispy Smoked Bacon Strips, 6 of them are perfect!)
225ml milk
2 eggs
125ml rapeseed oil
60ml maple syrup

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6. Line a muffin tin with 12 cases.
2. Mix your dry ingredients, including the bacon, in a large bowl.
3. Mix your wet ingredients in a large jug or another, smaller, bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and pour the wet mix in.
5. Fold together with a metal spoon until well combined. There will still be a few lumps and bumps don't worry about them too much.
6. Spoon your mix into your cases (about 3 tbsps a case should do it) and pop into the oven.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden coloured and well risen.
8. Cool on a wire rack. Seriously, they're much, much better cold. Plus you won't end up with a roof of mouth blister from the hot bacon like me...learn from my fail #LFMF

Pineapple upside-down cake

I had never had pineapple upside-down cake until I made this one. You need to be fairly sure that you'll eat something when you're making about 2kgs of it but I figured it had sugar, butter, booze...what's not to like! As it turns out it is delicious, and one I'll certainly be making again. I had no rum when making this so I used whiskey and it was still yum. Kezz describes it as being "like an Irishman having a Caribbean orgy in my mouth". It really is that good!

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

(for the topping)

100g butter

100g light muscovado sugar

2tbsp Irish whiskey (or dark rum if you want to be traditional)

432g can pineapple rings, drained

(for the cake)

50g unsweetened desiccated coconut

100g butter, room temperature

200g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

175g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

2tsp vanilla extract

125ml milk

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4 and butter your baking dish (I used a 9" square tin). 
2. Melt the butter, sugar and whiskey in a small saucepan until all the sugar has dissolved. 
3. Place the pineapple in the baking dish and then pour over the syrup to form an even layer and leave aside.
4. Cook the desiccated coconut in a dry frying pan over a gentle heat until it starts to turn golden. Remove from the heat and combine all the remaining ingredients.
5. Pour into the cake tin and pop into the oven.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and well-risen.
7. Turn out onto a large plate and allow to cool slightly before serving.

Sticky Ginger Loaf

Oooo made this one last night with lashings of brandy. Kitchen stank to high heaven of booze for a while afterwards, you'd swear we'd been entertaining the town drunk in there but my oh my was it worth it in the end for the yumminess! This was taken from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage Everyday' cookbook, definitely worth investing in!

Serves: about 12-14 slices

Ingredients

75g butter
125g dark muscovado sugar
150g black treacle
150g golden syrup
75ml dark rum (I used brandy as that's what was to hand and it was grand)
2 medium eggs, beaten
225g self-raising flour
1tsp ground allspice
1tsp ground ginger
A pinch of sea salt
75g preserved stem ginger, chopped, plus a little of it's syrup

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160C/325F/Gas mark 3. Grease and line a loaf tin with at least 1 litre capacity.
2. Melt your butter, sugar, treacle and syrup in a saucepan over a medium heat until combined. Leave to cool a little, then mix in the booze, followed by the eggs.
3. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the melted mixture and stir until smooth.
4. Stir in your chopped ginger and syrup.
5. Pour the mix into your prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour (until a skewer instered in the middle comes out clean).
6. Leave to cool a little in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool further.

Finally, some pictures! Of course, I was halfway through eating it when I remembered to take a few shots so please excuse, had ginger loaf hanging from my mouth LOL

Lemon Butterfly Buns

You cannot fail with cupcakes. Everyone loves them, young and old alike. Walk into any room with free cupcakes and see what I mean. Everything after that becomes "Om, nom, nom..."

Makes 12

Ingredients


115g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
115g butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
Finely grated zest of one lemon
2-4tbsp milk

(for the filling)
55g butter
115g icing sugar
1tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5. Place 12 paper cases in a bun tin.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter, sugar, eggs, lemon and enough milk to give a medium-soft consistency. Beat the mixture throughly until smooth, then divide evenly between the paper cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until well risen and golden. Cool on wire racks.
3. To make the filling place the butter in a bowl, add the icing sugar and lemon and beat well until smooth and creamy.
4. Once the cakes are completely cooled use a small sharp knife to cut a circle from the top of each cake. Spoon a little of the buttercream filling onto the cake and then cut the circle you removed in half, and press each half into the filling to resemble wings. Dust the cakes with icing sugar before serving.

Banana Bread

I love my banana bread. Some people make it with walnuts through but I'm a purist, no walnuts here! If you want to add some though just throw about 50g chopped walnuts through the mixture and stir them in before pouring into the tin. Enjoy!

Ingredients


Butter, for greasing
125g white self-raising flour
100g wholemeal self-raising flour
150g demerara sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 large over-ripe bananas, peeled
175ml unsweetened orange juice
2 eggs, beaten
4tbsp rapeseed oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4.. Lightly grease a 1lb loaf tin.
2. Sift the flours, sugar, salt and spices into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mash the bananas with the orange juice, then stir in the eggs and the oil. Pour the wet mix into the dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Pour into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

Scrumptious Chocolate-Orange Cake

I love this cake. Seriously, I want to run away with this cake and live on an island having little cake babies and eating them. It's Terrys Chocolate Orange in cake form and it's divine and I cannot make enough of it. You think I'm mad now but just wait until you have some!

Ingredients


150g unsalted butter
75g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
250g caster sugar
5 large eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Grated rinds of 2 large oranges

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line two 1lb loaf tins.
2. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl sitting over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't actually touch the water). Remove from the heat once the chocolate has melted.
3. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the mixture and fold in.
4. Transfer one-third of the mixture to the melted chocolate and stir together. Stir the orange zest into the remaining mixture.
5. Place one quarter of the orange mixture in each cake tin, spreading to an even layer. Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture in, then the orange, then the chocolate again and so on until you have split the mixtures evenly between the two tins. Swirl the tops until you have an even layer.
6. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
7. Leave to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire rack and removing the lining paper to cool completely.

You try and stop at one slice....

Rich Fruit Cake

I hate fruit cake. Really, I do. I have refused to eat it for years. I came across this recipe, tried it out for myself and it has converted me. Now in fairness I still don't eat other people's fruit cake but by hell I'll eat mine!

Ingredients


Butter, for greasing
175g stoned unsweetened dates
125g ready-to-eat dried prunes
200ml unsweetened orange juice
2tbsp black treacle
1tsp lemon zest
1tsp orange zest
225g wholemeal self-raising flour
1tsp mixed spice
125g raisins
125g sultanas
125g currants
125g dried cranberries
3 large eggs, separated

Method

1. Grease and line a deep 8 inch round cake tin. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Chop the dates and prunes and place in a saucepan. Pour in the orange juice and simmer for about 10 minutes. remove from the heat and beat the fruit mixture until pureed. Add the treacle and zest and leave to cool.
3. Sift the flour and mixed spice into a large mixing bowl (adding any bran that gets sieved out). Add the raisins, sultanas, currents and dried cranberries. 
4. When the date and prune mixture has cooled beat in the egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff and holding peaks.
5. Spoon the fruit mixture into the dry ingredients and mix together. Gently fold in the egg whites with a large metal spoon. Transfer to the prepared cake tin and back in the preheated oven for and hour and a half. Leave to cool in the tin.

And that's pretty much it! You can cover it in marzipan and royal icing to have a lovely Christmas or wedding cake. You can keep it in an airtight tin and infuse it with brandy. My personal favourite is to either A. eat it sliced with butter and a big mug of hot chocolate or B. sliced and fried in 1tsp butter, 1 tsp golden syrup, a very naughty but nice foodie treat!

Simple Chocolate Sponge

This is basically a chocolate flavoured Victoria sandwich and it's a great one to whip out at short notice. I love cake mixes where everything gets dumped in the bowl at once! A very more-ish cake, it doesn't last long in our house!

Ingredients


(For the cake)
125g soft unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1tbsp golden syrup
125g self-raising flour
2tbsp cocoa powder

(For the filling and topping)
100g icing sugar
50g soft unsalted butter
100g milk chocolate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3. Grease two 7 inch shallow cake tins.
2. Place all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric whisk to form a smooth and fluffy mixture.
3. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and level the tops. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until slightly springy to the touch. Coo for a few minutes in the tins and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Meanwhile to make the topping and filling beat the icing sugar and butter together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Melt the chocolate and beat into the mixture. Use half this mix to sandwich the two cakes together, and spread the remainder over the top of the cake. You can dust with a little icing sugar too if you'd like.
5. Serve, well, anytime you want some good cake!

Turnovers

This is the very basics of baking, the stuff that looks great, tastes amazing and is so simple that kids can do it with you and have loads of fun. Think of it as the next step on from Rice Krispie buns. Presuming that like me you’re using shop bought puff pastry that is. If you decide to do it from scratch well, it’s a bit more like advanced mathematics!

I’ve included 3 different types of filling here, but there’s loads more out there to try.

Do remember though, if you have small helpers especially, that jam comes out of the oven at boiling temperatures, and that it sticks to skin like glue. You do not want a jam burn.

Ingredients

500g puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

Golden caster sugar, to sprinkle

Drop of milk

(For the apple filling)

3 cooking apples

50-100g golden caster sugar (depending on how sweet you like them)

Splash of orange juice

Pinch of mixed spice

(For the jam filling)

Jar of jam of your choice

(For the mixed berry filling)

Whatever berries are in season, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries etc

50g golden caster sugar

Method

1.       Peel, core and roughly chop your apples/or wash and prepare your berries/ or open your jar of jam.

2.       Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 5.

3.       Place your apples in a saucepan and sprinkle them over with the sugar, add the orange juice and simmer until mushy and soft with a few lumps left here and there/ or simmer your berries and sugar until the berries are just losing their shape.

4.       Take your fruit filling off the heat and set aside to cool.

5.       Lightly flour a clean work surface and rolling pin. Roll out your puff pastry until just under 1cm think, then cut it into squares about 4-5cm in size.

6.       Take a pastry square, and put a teaspoon of your filling (apple, berry or jam) into the centre of the square. Dip your finger in the milk, then run it along two adjoining edges of your pastry.

7.       Fold your pastry over so that it makes a triangle shape, with the filling in the middle. Press the edges sealed with a fork. Repeat until you run out of pastry squares.

8.       Place your turnovers on a baking sheet covered in baking paper. Use a pastry brush to glaze them with the egg, them generously sprinkle with more golden caster sugar to coat.

9.       Pop them into the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden and crispy, and puffed up.

*I find that if I’m making a fruit filling for a pie or tart and I have some leftover it’s just as good as the filling for turnovers. Pop it in a small bowl in the fridge and one it’s covered it should keep there for 3-4 days, giving you loads of time to make them at your leisure.

Jamie Oliver’s Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

I have to give Mr. Oliver props for this pastry, I have tried countless other shortcrust recipes, varying the sugar, flour, flavours and I always, always come back to this one. If you try it you’ll see why! I tend to make twice what I actually need, and keep the excess in the freezer for a day that I want pie and can’t be bothered making pastry. This recipe though is for 1 portion, that is, enough to make 1 large pie.

You don’t want to over process shortcrust pastry, it can get doughy and chewy rather than that delicious buttery, crumbly texture we’re after, and for that reason I’ve given the instructions for using a food processor. I find it helps the pastry come together faster, and by removing the heat of your hands from the equation you remove the chances of melting the butter. I sound like a nag now, so I’ll just get on with it...

Ingredients

500g plain flour

100g icing sugar

250g cold butter, cubed

2 large eggs, beaten

Splash of milk

Flavouring of your choice (see below)

Method

1)      Sieve the flour and icing sugar together. Pour into your food processor and add the butter cubes and your chosen flavouring. Pulse until the mixture is crumbly and fine (should only take about 30 seconds).

2)      Pour in the eggs and milk, pulse for a few more seconds until the mixture starts to come together.

3)      Place some clingfilm on your work surface, and scoop out your dough onto it. Pat it into a compact, roundish shape (DON’T KNEAD IT), wrap it in the clingfilm and pop in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour. TA DA! You’re done, and you’ve made fantastic pastry. Go you!

*Flavourings:

You can use any of the following:-

Lemon zest, orange zest, lime zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice, cocoa powder, vanilla seeds

The list is pretty much endless. You will know from what you’re making what flavours are going to complement one another and work from there. Just remember that it’s the pastry you’re flavouring, not the pie, so go easy on it! You don’t want the crust on your gorgeous tart to overpower the filling. Similarly, try not to use a flavouring that is already present in the pie itself eg. Cinnamon flavouring in the pastry, plus cinnamon in an apple filling would be a cinnamon overdose and the flavour of the apples would be lost. Better to use some lemon zest and let it boost the fruitiness of the overall pie.

Apple and blackberry pie

This is a somewhat bastardised version of a Jamie Oliver recipe. I started out following Mr. Oliver’s recipe, only to find I didn’t have all the ingredients listed, didn’t like the idea of whole chunks of fruit in the pie, and I sort of went off on a tangent after that... According to Kezz this pie tastes like a summer garden, and reminds him of mown grass and sunshine, and flowers swaying in the breeze. How very poetic! High praise indeed from the son of a baker! I’ve included Mr. Oliver’s sweet shortcrust pastry here as I’ve made a few different versions and I always come back to this one, it truly is second to none. If you are pushed for time or don’t feel up to making pastry from scratch, fear not! This recipe works just as well with shop bought shortcrust, but I would suggest that sometime you give making it yourself a go. It’s surprisingly easy, and crazy delicious. Seriously, the man’s a genius.

If you’d like to try Jamie Oliver’s non-bastardised version it’s from his “Jamie at Home” cookbook, on page 348, and includes stem ginger (which I must try myself as I love all things gingery!).

Ingredients

1 sweet shortcrust pastry recipe (I use the lemon zest flavouring for this pie)

50g butter

100g golden caster sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)

4 cooking apples

4 eating apples

250g blackberries

1 egg

Water

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon OR mixed spice

Method

1)      Make your pastry dough. Once made wrap your pastry in clingfilm and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour. Shop bought pastry simply needs to be thawed (this takes 12 hours in the fridge, or about 3 hours at room temperature).

2)      Peel, core and roughly chop your apples. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

3)      In a saucepan large enough to hold all your apples, place your sugar and butter. Melt over a high heat, and once your butter has melted, reduce to medium heat and add your apples and enough water to come about a third of the way up the apples. Slowly cook for 10-15 minutes with a lid on, then add your blackberries and cook for another 5 minutes with the lid off. (A word of warning here, if you think your wooden spoons are precious, use a metal spoon at this point. My wooden spoons are a permanent shade of violent purple from this pie). Remove from the heat once cooked.

4)      While your pie filling is cooling get your pastry. Dust your work surface with flour and roll out half the pastry until it’s just under 1cm thick. Line a shallow, buttered pie dish with the pastry, and trim off any excess (a simple way to do this is to roll across the dish with your rolling pin).

5)      Spoon your pie filling into the dish, filling it up as much as you can without actually having it brimming. Roll out the rest of your pastry as you did the first half, and place it over the top of your pie. Trim the edges again, and push the two pastry layers together with your fingers.

6)      Beat your egg in a small bowl and brush over the top of the pie. Mix your leftover sugar and cinnamon or mixed spice together, and sprinkle over the top of the pie. Make a few steam vents in the pastry with a sharp knife.

7)      Pop into the lower part of the oven and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp. You may want to place a baking tray underneath it to save your oven from any sticky fruity splashes.

8)      Eat, and enjoy! Delicious hot with cream, custard or ice-cream, or can be wrapped in some greaseproof paper and tucked into a lunchbox to be enjoyed cold.

*I often have some leftover pie filling, and I tend to put it in a small bowl and keep it in the fridge. It’s gorgeous the next day with pancakes or French toast at breakfast (just quickly warm it through before using), mixed through natural yogurt it can be enjoyed at anytime as a quick snack, or it can be swirled through whipped cream to make a delicious fool. Great for getting fruit into kids!

**This pie keeps for 2-3 days at most, though I’d be surprised if anyone can actually make it last that long!

Apple Crumble

Apple crumble has always been one of my favourite comfort foods, and if you have ever had the real homemade deal you’ll know why. Crumbles and tarts are a great way to use up the inevitable autumn abundance, and since it can be prepared so quickly it’s a great dish to have up your sleeve to welcome guests with on a rainy afternoon. It’s too good to be kept just for visitors though, and makes a great fruity family treat anytime during the week!

Ingredients

750g cooking apples

Golden caster sugar

85g butter, cubed

175g plain flour, sifted

Water

Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Method

1)      Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.

2)      Peel, core and slice the apples. Layer them in an ovenproof dish with 150-225g sugar, depending on how sweet a tooth you have!

3)      Pour over the water. You want it to come about two-thirds of the way up the apple layers.

4)      Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (I find it fastest in a food processor); stir in 50g sugar, and the cinnamon if you’re using it.

5)      Sprinkle the mixture on top of the fruit. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

6)      Serve with custard, cream or ice-cream.

*For a more grown-up dessert, you can whisk some icing sugar and brandy through your cream before serving it with the crumble.

**This method works pretty well with most fruits, and can be varied to suit whatever is in season. Just remember that sweet juicy berries like strawberries need less water(about half the amount), and less sugar, than cooking apples do.