Tag: Baking

Categories
Bakes Blog

Winter Cherry Muffins?

Wherever I can, I try to be an ethical food shopper – conscious of the environmental and social impact of the produce that ends up for sale in our shops and market stalls here in the UK.

This means I have an issue with the black cherries that appear in our supermarkets this time of year. Nothing to do with their taste – they are every bit as delicious as they look. So what’s my problem?

Well, one look at the January frost on the ground in the UK will remind you that it is not exactly the season for luscious cherries to be blossoming on the trees. Just like Paddington Bear, they have travelled here all the way from South America. That is way too many food miles for my liking – the Earth could well do without the energy consumption and carbon generation associated with that amount of transportation, and the refrigeration needed to ensure they arrive here in fresh condition.

However, it’s never that straightforward, and this presents me with lots of dilemmas. Ok, I hear you say, so they’ve been shipped here from half way around the world, but isn’t it preferable that they have been grown naturally in a seasonal, sunny climate? Isn’t that better for the environment than the fruit, tomatoes etc that are grown out of season in a heated glasshouse closer to home, here in the UK or northern Europe?

And how is this different from the bananas, pineapples and other fruit and veg that we import? Or longer life items like tea, coffee and cocoa? If we boycott certain items, aren’t we damaging the trade of countries with less well-developed economies?

Aaagh! See – I told you it was a nightmare.

Over time, I’ve developed a few rules of thumb to navigate my way through this ethical minefield.

Firstly, as far as possible I buy and cook with food produced locally and in season.

Secondly, I’m fine with fruit and veg, and store cupboard foods, that we just can’t grow in our climate, like tea, coffee, bananas etc being brought here. When fairly traded, this creates jobs and helps the producer country develop and maintain a sustainable economy.

But as for foods we can grow here in summer (like cherries), I don’t see why we in the western world have to be so spoiled as to expect them to be shipped to us from wherever, all year round, regardless of the impact this has on the planet. If we really can’t do without cherries in our winter, we can preserve part of our own summer harvest, or put them in the freezer.

But wait – there is yet one further ironic twist that highlights the futility of this episode of global trade. This week in Sainsbury’s, the packs of South American cherries were all yellow stickered with massively reduced prices. They had reached their sell-by date without anyone buying them at normal price. Were my fellow shoppers taking an ethical stand and refusing to buy them?

It was too tragic a thought that all this beautiful fruit, having been carefully cultivated by South American farmers and brought all this way, would now begin decomposing on our shores, as soon as the yellow stickers expired later that day.

So I bought a pack – at a ridiculously reduced price that cannot possibly reflect the true economic cost of the whole enterprise to Sainsbury’s. I reckoned the loss-making exercise will have taught them a harsh commercial lesson, and that importing practices might now be changed.

For the record, I lovingly washed, chopped and de-stoned the cherries, mixing them with some cocoa and other long life, store cupboard ingredients.

I baked the choc cherry muffins shown in my main photo above. They were delicious, but I will wait to the summertime to post the recipe, when cherries are properly in season here!

But hey, here’s an idea: what if, for a couple of months this time of year, we get by with our native apples and the soft fruit we’ve grown through the summer, having preserved it or frozen it to see us through the winter. The planet can be spared the pointless exercise of transporting cherries half way around the world, and our lovely friends in South America can be left to enjoy their own fresh produce.

Now what’s wrong with that? Comments welcome!

In the meantime, here’s The Jam with All Around the World.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Brazil Nut Roast

Nut roast is one of my favourite dishes this time of year. I love the taste and the texture, with the contrast between the crunch of the nuts, the crispy toasted shell, and the soft, richness of the roast veg incorporated in the mix.

I didn’t make one over the recent holiday period though – traditional roast turkey and ham took centre stage on the ADK Christmas dinner table. I’ve been keen to make one, therefore, to start the New Year.

I was reading an article about the various health benefits of brazil nuts, and then discovered a special offer in Lidl for packs of them at a very reasonable price. Gradually, the idea for this dish began to form. I found a BBC Good Food recipe as a starting point and developed it from there. Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

It’s important to think about the blend of colours you want in the mix, to make it visually interesting and get the tastebuds tingling. You can see from my photos that I’ve included shreds of cavalo nero, fresh herbs and grated carrot – all seasonal and locally grown, by the way. Their green and orange stands out amongst the creamy chopped brazils, and the golden wholemeal breadcrumbs. In some places you will also spot a rich brown which comes from a secret ingredient – the Vegemite I brought back from my trip to Australia this time last year!

In a moment I’ll deal with some options to mix up the ingredients and customise it to your liking. Firstly though, here’s how I made it.

Servings

This will make about 12 generous slices, like the ones in my photo above i.e. 6 adult portions of 2 slices each.

Timings

30 mins to prepare, 30 mins to roast at 180C.

You Will Need

  • a 1.5l loaf dish
  • 1 onion
  • 1 red pepper
  • 200g chestnut mushrooms
  • 1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
  • 1 carrot
  • a handful of fresh herbs e.g. thyme, sage, rosemary
  • 100g red lentils
  • 300ml vegetable stock
  • 1 tbsp vegemite (or other yeast extract)
  • 5 – 6 leaves of cavalo nero
  • 100g wholemeal breadcrumbs
  • 150g brazil nuts
  • 2 eggs
  • sea salt and black pepper
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • a handful of basil leaves

Method

  1. Grease and line the loaf dish. I find that using baking paper for this really helps with removing the cooked nut roast from the dish, at the end.
  2. Finely chop the onion, red pepper and mushrooms. I find that doing this in a food processor, with blade fitted, gets the veg to the right size pieces to meld together in a nut roast.
  3. Put the oil in a wok on the hob. When the oil is hot, crush in the garlic clove, followed by the finely chopped onions, pepper and mushrooms. Let it sweat for a few minutes, stirring from time to time (leave the food processor bowl and blade to one side, with no need to wash it out – you will be using it again in a moment).
  4. Grate in the carrot and tear in the herbs.
  5. Pour in the stock and tip in the lentils. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 mins so that the lentils soften and the mix thickens. Dip in the spoon of vegemite, so that it slips off the spoon into the hot liquid and dissolves into the mix.
  6. For the last few mins of simmering, add in the cavalo nero, cut into fine shreds.
  7. After 15 mins, switch off and transfer the mix to a plate. Set aside to cool for 10 mins.
  8. Switch the oven on at 180C. Spread the brazil nuts on a tray and place them in the oven to toast while it’s heating up.
  9. Put the slices of wholemeal bread into the food processor, still with blade fitted, and blitz to breadcrumbs. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
  10. After 5 mins, remove the nuts from the oven and blitz to small pieces in the food processor. Don’t obliterate them to a powder, however – you want to retain an element of crunch!
  11. Add the nuts to the breadcrumbs. Then add in the slightly cooled veg and lentil mix. Finally, crack in the eggs. Give it all a really good stir so that it is fully combined. Give it a good seasoning with a grinding of sea salt and black pepper.
  12. Spoon the mix into the loaf dish and level the top by pressing down with the back of a spoon. Place in the oven for 30 mins.
  13. Remove and leave to cool for 5 mins, then invert it on to a chopping board to cool completely. It should look like my photo at the top of the post. When cool, it can be sliced with a bread knife, as shown in my other photo.
  14. Serve with a very simple tomato sauce, made by heating the chopped tomatoes in a saucepan, with the basil leaves torn in, until the tomatoes reduce and thicken. Grind in a few twists of black pepper.

Customise It!

Feel free to swap in other veg that is in season and/or that you have to hand. A couple of celery sticks chopped will go well, for example. You can add a combination of mixed nuts, instead of the brazils, if you wish. I’m a big fan of Vegemite, and think it adds a lot to the taste of a nut roast. I recognise, however, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so leave it out if you wish. A few shakes of Worcester Sauce would not go amiss in its place.

According to my Spotify Unwrapped for 2023, one of my most played bands in the last year has been Leftfield. I was not terribly surprised about that, as their This Is What We Do album, that came out in late 2022, has been played a lot in the ADK Kitchen. I’ve already featured a couple of tracks from it in other posts, and here is another. This is Leftfield with Pulse.

Categories
Bakes Blog

New Year’s Day

My New Year’s Day this year was notable for 3 things.

Firstly, I used up the last of the puff pastry and mincemeat from the festive supplies, baking the final batch of mince pies of the season (see my photo above). When this point in the season is reached, you really do know that Christmas is officially over.

Secondly, my wife and I joined a beautifully scenic group walk along our local section of the English Coastal Path. The walk leader explained that it has now been renamed the King Charles III Coastal Path, reflecting our new monarch’s aim of promoting access to the realm’s green and pleasant land. Well done, sir! I did wonder whether he and Camilla might surprise us somewhere along the route, popping up with some mince pies of their own, to wish us all a happy new year. It was not to be, however.

Thirdly, I fulfilled a New Year aim by launching a channel for A Different Kitchen on Instagram. Mission Control for the blog remains firmly here on WordPress, and there are no plans to change that. The tools on here for online writers are excellent, and I love the support, talent and inspiration within the WordPress community (yes, that’s you!).

However, people engage in different ways, and just as ADK also has an accessible Playlist on Spotify and a channel on X/Twitter, I thought it was time to open another on Instagram. I think of it like a restaurant chain, opening an outlet in a new town or community to meet another set of people. The concept remains the same – a personal view of the world through a lens of Good Food, Great Music. Whichever platform people choose to engage with, they will encounter the same style, attitude and values (oh yes, and the same jokes – thank you there at the back).

One week on, and so far it seems to have been well-received. I’ve had lots and lots of likes, comments and follows, and a few invitations to join groups and networks. It’s helped take my total follower count across all my platforms past 2,500.

If you are on Instagram, do please pop over to @differentkitch and say hello, so I can follow back.

All in all, a busy 24 hours to start 2024. Naturally, today’s musical choice is U2 with New Year’s Day. I saw them perform this live when it was still a relatively new track. I’d seen them in their even earlier days, and the main development of their sound by this point was the introduction of an electric piano. On stage, the Edge managed to play it with one hand, at the same time as playing the lead guitar slung around his neck. Oh, and he was also providing the backing vocals to Bono. What an all-round talented chap he is. I suppose these days you would call it multi-tasking.

Enjoy U2 with New Year’s Day.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Cranberry, Orange and Pecan Muffins

Just as I thought the UK season of imported fresh cranberries was coming to a close, what should I find? Only that a whole new batch of them has just appeared in Morrisons. North American friends – you have answered my prayers!

Time then for another round of muffins, obvs. This time I have blended the cranberries with the zest of an orange and chopped toasted pecan nuts, finished off with a whole pecan garnish. They can be enjoyed as a breakfast, a dessert or, erm, a naughty snack.

The pecan on the top gets a nice, deep roast as the muffins bake. Sometimes I save that whole to the last bite, to savour its rich smoky and nutty taste.

What better way to start 2024! Here we go, then…

Servings

Makes 12 muffins.

Timings

15 mins to make, 20 mins to bake in the oven at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 280g plain flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 110g fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped in a food processor
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 240ml milk
  • 90ml veg oil
  • 60g chopped, toasted pecan nuts
  • 12 pecan nuts to garnish

Method

  1. Prepare a muffin tin or mould. Switch on the oven to 180C.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and stir in the sugar.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine the egg, chopped cranberries, orange zest, milk and oil, and stir to combine.
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir so that no dry ingredients are visible. Add in the chopped pecan nuts with the last few strokes.
  5. Spoon the mixture into the tin/mould, and top each muffin with a pecan. Bake for 20 mins.
  6. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Customise It!

Omit the nuts if they are not your thing – the mix of juicy cranberry and orange will still taste great.

Fresh cranberries aren’t the only great American export featuring in the ADK Kitchen in these first few days of 2024. I’ve been playing a lot from Interpol, the group that the NME once described as the most important band to come out of New York. Hmm sorry, they’re not – just pause for a moment to think of some of the competition to that claim: The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Strokes to name a few.

They are very good, though. I went to see them live a few years ago at London’s Kentish Town Forum. It was on a weeknight, and I remember telling my boss that I had to leave work early that day to get to London to see Interpol. A look of fear and intrigue flashed across her face, worried that I had become entangled in a mysterious web of international crime.

At least I was able to see them play this track, which is one of my faves. Here are Interpol with C’mere.

PS. Happy New Year!

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Cranberry, Oat & Yoghurt Muffins

It’s that one time in the year when the UK’s lovely friends and allies over there in the US and Canada share with us your precious treasure of fresh cranberries. Thank you!

The rest of the year, we have to make do with jars of Ocean Spray Sauce. Not that I am complaining about that, though – they are a reliable addition to the winter dinner table. We also have dried cranberries, of the sort I used to make Cranberry & Pistachio Cookies, for example. However, none of these ever tastes quite the same as the fresh article.

So how excited was I this week, when I saw packs of fresh cranberries imported from America, sitting there in Sainsbury’s fruit and veg section, nestling up alongside the blueberries. I quickly threw a couple of packs in the trolley and began making plans.

Here I am sharing with you my fresh cranberry, oat and yoghurt muffins – just follow the recipe below. I like these because they bring out the natural sourness in the berries, which we can’t usually taste as the processed varieties have been sweetened before they reach us. That sourness is enhanced by the bitterness of the yoghurt, while there is also a chewy, nutty bite in the rolled oats.

The light brown sugar provides a complementary sweetness in the cake mixture, making for an overall, pleasing blend of flavours on the tongue. What’s more, as the fresh cranberries burst with the baking, they infuse the muffin with juice that will keep the cake moist. Irresistible!

See my main photo above for the muffins, including one I cut in half to show the richness of the filling. A highly satisfying, healthy muffin to be enjoyed at breakfast, as a snack or a dessert.

So, to all our North American friends – as you can see, we are taking care of your special gift to us, and turning them into healthy, tasty treats. Please keep these little fellas coming!

Servings

This will make 12 muffins.

Timings

10 mins to prepare, 20 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 200g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • half tsp salt
  • 85g rolled oats
  • 140g natural yoghurt
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 egg
  • 120g light brown sugar
  • 140g fresh cranberries
  • 90ml milk
  • 90ml veg oil

Method

  1. Switch on the oven to 180C. Prepare a muffin tray or mould.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
  3. Pulse the cranberries in a food processor with blade fitted, for a few seconds, 2 or 3 times. Light chopping will help them fully bake and soften in the muffins. Tip into the bowl of flour and stir so the fruit is coated.
  4. In a separate bowl, combine the oats with the yoghurt and bicarb. Leave for a couple of minutes, then stir in the egg and the sugar. Finally, stir in the milk and veg oil.
  5. When the oven is up to temp, combine the wet ingredients with the dry, and stir until no dry ingredients are visible. Spoon in to the muffin tray/mould, and place in the oven for 20 mins.
  6. When they are looking browned, as in my main photo above, remove to a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

Customise It!

If I was making one change to this, I would swap in broken pieces of white chocolate for some of the cranberries, at a ratio of up to half and half. That also helps bring out the sweet and sour contrast.

There really can be only one band to accompany this post, so I’m adding this track to the ADK Playlist. Limerick’s own The Cranberries with Dreams.

Categories
Blog Desserts

Take It Slo

I am in Slovenia in Central Europe for a few days. I’ve been enjoying the Christmas market stalls and bars, and generally getting in the festive mood sampling delights like Gibanica, above.

For the benefit of those who may not know, Slovenia is a European country bordering Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy. It has been an independent state since 1991, following the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Its capital, Ljubljana, is a compact and classy European city, with a medieval castle on a hill, an old town, cobbled squares and ornate bridges crossing a winding river. It is easy to walk around in a day, and can be reached in under three hours from London.

While here, it doesn’t take long to realise that the Slovenians really appreciate their regional food and drink. Gibanica, shown in my main photo above, is a traditional Slovenian cake, made with alternating layers of pastry, spiced apple, cream cheese, poppy seeds and crushed nuts.

You can also be pretty sure that the Apple Strudel will be good quality – see the portion I enjoyed below.

The cafe where we savoured these is in the courtyard of Ljubljana’s 14th Century Castle, now restored into a cultural centre with cinema, several museums, restaurants and shops. Perched on a hill, it has superb views for miles around. I climbed the many steps of the spiral staircase inside the ancient clock tower, not only to work off the Strudel, but to take advantage of the viewing platform at the top. I was rewarded with this view – the layer of morning cloud lifted to reveal the snowy peaks of the Alps to the north-west.

I expect there will be more to come from Ljubljana before moving on, so keep tuned for future posts.

In the meantime, I now know the answer to the question posed by the Black-Eyed Peas: Where Is the Love? Answer: It’s in sLOVEnia, of course!

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Fruity Coconut Flapjack

I enjoy the flavour of toasted oats in baking. I brought a bag of medium oatmeal back from my recent trip to Scotland, and used it to make the flapjacks shown in my photo above.

They are based on a recipe by Paul Hollywood, of Great British Bake-Off fame, and combine the oatmeal, which is quite finely ground, with rolled oats. The theory is that the two different thicknesses of oat adds chewiness. It also helps the flapjack mixture meld together, rather than descending into a collection of crumbly clusters, as flapjacks sometimes have a tendency to do.

Most importantly, they taste great, the golden brown oats mixing in with coconut, ground almonds, raisins and cranberries.

Servings

Makes 16 square flapjacks.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 25 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 150g medium oatmeal
  • 150g rolled oats
  • 50g desiccated coconut
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 50g dried raisins and cranberries
  • 200g baking spread
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 160g golden syrup

Method

  1. Grease and line a baking tin – the one I used is 20 cm square. Turn on the oven to 180C.
  2. In a bowl, mix together both varieties of oats with the almonds, coconut and dried fruit.
  3. Put the spread, sugar and syrup in a saucepan and warm on the hob until it has dissolved into a sweet, sticky sludge. Pour into the bowl of oats and mix well, till there are no dry ingredients showing.
  4. Scrape into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the oven for 25 mins.
  5. Remove from the oven – the top should be golden and there should be signs of toasting at the edges. Leave to cool in the tin.
  6. While it is cooling, cut with a sharp knife into 16 squares, while still in the tin. When completely cool, you can then lift out each square to serve.

Customise It!

Add other dried fruit, like chopped apricots, in place of some of the raisins and cranberries, or possibly also some ground toasted nuts or seeds. Don’t add more than the overall quantity of 50g however, otherwise the mixture will be more prone to crumble apart.

I said I’d feature a track by The Chats, the Australian punk trio I saw supporting Queens of the Stone Age last week. They are a lot of fun and don’t take themselves that seriously – a cartoon-like Aussie punk version of The Monkees. Check out some of their videos on You Tube. Here they are with Smoko.

Categories
Blog Snacks

Autumn at Stourhead

Time for a relaxing break from your busy day? Grab yourself a chamomile tea and settle down for a mindful 5 minutes, taking in this latest post.

Stourhead in Wiltshire is no ordinary landscape garden. We greatly enjoyed a visit there recently, while motorhoming in the west of England.

First opened in the 1740s, it was originally the brainchild of landowner Henry Hoare, who travelled widely and developed a taste for classical architecture. He commissioned the finest artists and designers of the day to create a series of temples, follies and curios that are scattered around the edges of a vast lake.

My main photo above shows the Palladian Bridge, with the Pantheon (modelled on the original in Rome) in the distance. My photo below shows the Temple of Apollo.

Stourhead has been impressing visitors for nearly 300 years, and the massive estate is managed nowadays by the National Trust. There is an accessible walk that goes right around the lake, and visitors can enter the idiosyncratic buildings along the way to discover the art and statues they hold. Here is the Temple of Flora looking particularly fine in the afternoon sun.

The mature trees and plants change colours with the seasons, meaning there are always new elements to experience and explore, whatever time of year you come. Autumn is special here, when the buildings nestle alongside shades of red, amber and gold.

The Gothic Cottage looked splendid with this blazing carpet of autumn leaf fall.

In my next shot, the Pantheon is seen from across the lake. Considerable thought has gone into the planning of the site, to create beautiful, ever-changing views from different perspectives.

This photo below shows the view across the lake from the window of the Grotto – a little cave built into the lake’s shore. The stillness of the lake made for superb reflections.

The sensory overload even continues into lunchtime…

A real highlight of visiting a National Trust property is a visit to the tea room. I opted for a cream tea, pictured below – a freshly baked fruit scone spread with clotted cream from Cornwall and strawberry jam, served of course with a pot of tea. It is a classic combo that is very difficult to beat, and was delicious.

Incidentally, I was reading about a lady who has visited all the National Trust properties in the UK that have a tea room – there are 244 of them – and eaten a scone at each. She has written a blog about them, rating each scone, and produced an overall Top 5. Her top prize went to the one tasted at the Treasurer’s House in York.

244 is a lot of scones, by anyone’s standards. I can only assume she accompanied this pursuit with 244 brisk walks around the grounds of said properties, to burn off all those calories.

My visit to Stourhead really was a feast for all the senses – an 18th Century theme park devoted to mindfulness, if you like. I can’t wait to go back again in Spring, when the trees are in blossom and there will be a totally new colour palate to enjoy.

And another cream tea.

Musically, places like this always make me think of Kate Bush for some reason – probably something to do with classical, romantic England at its finest. So here’s a track by her that is suitably mellow and contemplative: Mrs. Bartolozzi.

Categories
Bakes Blog

Autumn in Atwater

This time of year always reminds me of an autumn family trip to Montreal in Canada a few years back. One of the places I particularly enjoyed was Atwater Market/Marche Atwater. It is a very large farmers’ market housed in a lovely old art deco building. There you will find all kinds of gourmet food, meat, veg, bread, cheeses and seasonal produce. See my main photo above for this shot I took of pumpkins resting in the autumn sun.

There was a buzz of excitement all around as it was Halloween. The scary, decorated pumpkin display was something else, as my photos below show.

That night in the city, we saw lots of little kids dressed up in cute but scary costumes, being escorted by their parents from house to house to trick or treat, as the darkness was drawing in.

The parks were beautiful as the trees were turning all shades of amber and orange, leaving a golden carpet of fallen leaves on the paths, as my photo below shows.

This Halloween I shall be baking one of my favourites – Pumpkin Spice Muffins, shown below. Check out the link for my full recipe and post.

Have a fun evening, whatever you are baking, cooking, eating or drinking. Just remember to have that jack o’lantern burning at the window to keep any spooky spirits at bay. After all, you don’t want end up in the same situation as R. Dean Taylor (also a Canadian), in this chiller thriller of a Motown classic I’m adding to the ADK Playlist: There’s a Ghost in My House.

Happy Halloween!

Categories
Bakes Desserts Recipes

Hummingbird Slices

I tasted Hummingbird Cake for the first time on my recent motorhome trip to Scotland. It was served up in the delightful Cocoa Skye cafe in Brora (you can check out my post on it here). I decided I would come up with my own take on this when I reached home.

Incidentally, many of the beautiful places featured in my recent posts from Scotland have been battered this week by Storm Babet. Flooding has affected Angus, Aberdeenshire and Caithness, leaving us feeling how fortunate we were to experience brilliant sunny weather there, just a few weeks ago. Friends in Scotland – our thoughts are with you.

A little research tells me that Hummingbird Cake originated in Jamaica, and is now popular across the US. I’ll be interested to hear from any of my lovely American followers whether that is so?

I consulted several recipes before coming up with my own. One of those I read was by Jamie Oliver, who gave his version this convincing endorsement: “bake it, and get it in your gob”. Say what you mean, Jamie lad, say what you mean.

All the recipes I looked at made this a double decker cake. I wanted to make it single tier – I find a tray bake easier to serve and store, while having only one layer of cream cheese frosting makes it just a little less calorie-tastic.

I have stuck with the core ingredients of banana, chopped pineapple and pecan nuts in a spiced sponge, with cream cheese frosting and zesty sprinkles. The finished product is shown in my photo above, and has gone down very well with the family. So here we go, the ADK take on Hummingbird Cake.

Servings

Depending on how you cut it, at least 12 – 14 slices.

Timings

20 mins to prepare the cake, 30 mins to bake in the oven at 180C (the frosting is made while the cake is baking).

You Will Need

  • 280g self-raising flour
  • sprinkle of salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 50g pecan nuts, chopped
  • 2 bananas, mashed
  • 150g chopped pineapple, fresh or tinned
  • 2 eggs
  • 120ml sunflower oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g soft cheese
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 70g baking spread
  • 1 lime

Method

  1. Turn on the oven to 180C. Prepare a traybake tin (mine is 22cm square) by greasing and lining with kitchen paper.
  2. Sieve the dry ingredients – flour, salt, baking powder and sugar, into a bowl. Add the chopped pecans and mix.
  3. In separate bowl, mix the mashed bananas, pineapple, beaten eggs, oil and vanilla.
  4. When the oven is up to temperature, pour the contents of the wet ingredients into the dry. Stir until fully mixed, then pour into the prepared baking dish, evening it out with a spatula. Place in the oven for 30 mins.
  5. Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl with the soft cheese and spread. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Place in the fridge.
  6. Take the cake from the oven. Check it is baked by inserting a skewer in the centre – if it comes out dry it is done. Set aside to cool.
  7. Once cooled, lift the cake on to a board and carefully spread the cream cheese frosting all over. Grate the zest from the lime and sprinkle over. Place back in the fridge to chill.
  8. Take from the fridge and cut into slices. Keep these in a box in the fridge.

Customise It!

I liked this as it is, but you could decorate the topping with some small pieces of chopped pineapple or pecan if you wish.

I’m still enjoying listening to Scottish bands in the ADK Kitchen, so here is another great track to share with you: Del Amitri with Always The Last To Know.