Tag: Cake

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Bakes Recipes

Carrot, Orange & Walnut Cake

The humble carrot is cheap and in plentiful supply in our shops at the moment. So, I thought, what better time to bake up a carrot cake?

There are already a whole host of carrot cake recipes out there, so I read through a few before deciding how I would approach mine.

I was looking to make a single tier traybake, incorporating mixed spice, sultanas and walnuts alongside the carrot, topped off by a cream cheese frosting with the tang of orange zest.

I actually found a Mary Berry recipe that was more or less what I had in mind, so was largely influenced by that. Cheers, Mary! My only real deviation was to throw a handful of sultanas into the cake mix, as I really like the added juiciness they bring.

I was pleased with the results – that’s it in my photo at the top of the post – and it has gone down well in the ADK household.

The orange cream cheese frosting is irresistible. I strongly advise dipping your little finger in once it’s made, scooping some up for a preliminary taste test before spreading the rest on the cake. Believe me, you won’t regret it.

Servings

This will give you around 16 slices.

Timings

30 mins to prepare, 40 mins to bake at 160C in a fan oven. Make the frosting while the cake is baking and allow 5 mins more to apply it when the cake has cooled.

You Will Need

For the Cake

  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 150g light brown sugar
  • 50g chopped walnuts
  • 50g sultanas
  • 2 eggs
  • 150 ml vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 200g coarsely grated carrot

For the Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 200g cream cheese
  • 250g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • zest of 1 orange
  • handful of chopped walnuts

Method

  1. Grease and line a traybake tin. The one I used is 22cm square. Switch a fan oven on to 160C.
  2. Sieve the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and mixed spice into a bowl. Sprinkle in the sugar, chopped nuts and sultanas.
  3. Mix the eggs, oil, milk and grated carrot in a separate bowl.
  4. When the oven is up to temp, pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix thoroughly with a spatula until no dry ingredients are showing. Scrape into the traybake tin and level. Put in the oven for 35 – 40 mins.
  5. While the cake is baking, make the orange cream cheese frosting. Place the butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and orange zest in a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until thick and creamy. Place the bowl in the fridge until required.
  6. Check if the cake is fully baked – the top should be browning and a skewer inserted in the middle come out dry. If it is, take from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin.
  7. Once cool, remove carefully from the tin and spread the orange cream cheese frosting all over. Top with the chopped walnuts.
  8. Cut into slices and serve.

Customise It!

Swap in some chopped toasted pecans for the walnuts if you wish. Frosted toppings like this often look good with a sprinkle of edible blue cornflower petals, if you have them. They are more about visual effect and presentation, though, rather than adding to the taste.

Here’s a song that came on Spotify while this traybake was in the oven. I hadn’t come across it for a while, and remembered how good it was, so here it is: Birmingham post-punk band The Au Pairs with It’s Obvious.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Spiced Plum & Almond Bakewells

It’s Valentine’s Day, and here’s a sweet treat you’ll love.

Recently we received a delicious present from a family friend – a jar of her home made Spiced Plum jam. Rich with soft plums in a silky, sweet coating and laced with the delicate influence of star anise, it deserved some special treatment.

I liked the idea of pairing it with almond, so have used it here as the jammy foundation for these bakewell slices. Never mind if you don’t have any spiced plum – ordinary plum or raspberry jam will do a perfectly fine job. Try to use home made though, as it gaves the cake that extra personal touch!

Servings

This made 16 bakewell slices.

Timings

30 mins to prepare, 10 mins to blind bake the pastry base at 180C, and 40 mins to bake the whole traybake at 160C (fan oven).

You Will Need:

For the Pastry Base

  • 125g plain flour
  • 100g plain wholemeal flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 100g butter or baking spread
  • a few drops of cold tap water

For the Sponge Filling

  • 150ml veg oil
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 160g caster sugar
  • 1tsp almond extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 25g flaked almonds
  • 5 – 6tbsp fruit jam

Method

  1. Grease a traybake tin – the one I used is 20cm square – and line with baking paper.
  2. Sieve the plain flours and salt into a food processor with blade fitted. Chop the butter/spread into cubes and add in. Pulse a few times until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add in a few drops of water and blitz. Repeat until the ingredients are fully combined and you have a ball of pastry dough whirling around inside the processor bowl.
  3. Roll out the pastry dough on a floured surface until it is roughly the size of the tin, including the sides. Carefully transfer to the tin and gently press down against the bottom and sides. Trim the edges as necessary with a knife to make a neat edge. Place the tin and pastry in the fridge and turn on a fan oven to 180C.
  4. While the pastry is chilling, and the oven warming up, make the sponge filling. Sieve the self-raising flour into a baking bowl. Add in the oil, baking powder, sugar, ground almonds, eggs and almond extract. Whisk with an electric mixer till combined into a smooth batter.
  5. When the oven is up to temp, remove the pastry and tin from the fridge. Line with a large, crumpled piece of baking paper and fill with ceramic baking beans. Place in the oven for 10 mins.
  6. After 10 mins, remove the tin and pastry from the oven, and turn the heat down to 160C. Remove the baking paper and beans, and spoon in the jam, spreading it evenly over the pastry base and into all 4 corners.
  7. Pour the sponge batter on top of the jam and smooth out to make even. Sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly all over the top, and place in the oven for 35 – 40 mins.
  8. Remove from the oven and check it is fully baked – a skewer inserted in the centre should come out with no wet batter showing. Leave aside to cool in the tin.
  9. Carefully transfer to a board and chop into slices. These will keep for 2 – 3 days, though they will all be snaffled up without delay, I assure you.

Customise It!

In addition to using your favourite fruit jam, you can feel free to use ready made or ready rolled pastry if you wish.

For Valentine’s Day I have chosen a track for the ADK Playlist written by that old punk romantic, Pete Shelley. This blog has a special relationship with his band, of course, taking its name from the title of their first album, the seminal Another Music in a Different Kitchen. This track is actually from their third album, but I’ve been playing it recently while making these bakewells, and realising how good it sounds. So here they are: Buzzcocks with You Say You Don’t Love Me.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

It’s Blackberry Time!

Late August is the time when lots of free, fresh fruit starts ripening up on our local hedgerows – the joys of blackberry picking are here!

For me, this usually involves stowing a large sealed plastic box in the pannier of my bike, and heading off into our nearby country park. It is relatively easy there to find a quiet spot where the berries are glinting high up in the late summer sun, turning all those solar rays into vitamin C.

This week I brought home just over 300g from a half hour session. I like to bake with them when they’re still fresh, so aim to complete the transition from hedgerow to cake in under 3 – 4 hours. Solar powered baking, if you like.

I decided to make the Blackberry and Coconut Crumble Squares that I’ve featured previously on A Different Kitchen. You can see this week’s batch in my photo at the top of the post, and again below.

It’s a favourite in our household, and there is really only a short window of a few weeks every year in which this traybake can be made fresh – so why not? Just follow the above link to find the recipe.

I kept a few berries back as I like to have them topped over oats, nuts and seeds as a breakfast dish, with some milk and honey. Grating or chopping in some apple, fresh from our trees in the garden, is the perfect complement.

There may well be more blackberry recipes over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Choice of music today can really only be from one band – the long-awaited Oasis reunion tour has finally been announced. Along with probably the other 65 million people who live in the UK, I shall be on the Ticketmaster site this weekend trying to get a ticket before they all sell out – wish me luck!

Then it’s a case of waiting until next summer to see the concerts. That’s presuming Noel and Liam haven’t fallen out again by then, of course…

Here they are at their Beatles-influenced best, with Whatever.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Dorset Apple Squares

Having invited friends over this week for coffee and cake in the garden, I was keen to bake something tasty and seasonal for us all to enjoy. The previous few days had been spent down in Dorset (home of the famous Dorset Apple Cake), which started me thinking, as the apple trees in the ADK garden are now laden with fruit (see below). With a bit of help from a recipe on BBC Good Food, the idea for this traybake slowly came together.

Servings

Makes at least 16 squares.

Timings

15 mins to prepare, 45 mins in a fan oven at 160C.

You Will Need

  • 400g apple
  • half a lemon
  • 220g butter, softened
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 350g self-raising flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ground cinnamon and dark brown sugar, to sprinkle

Method

  1. Grease a baking tray and line with baking paper. The one I used is 22cm square. Switch the oven on to 160C.
  2. Peel and finely chop the apple. Place in a bowl and squeeze the lemon over. Stir so that the apple is coated in the lemony juice.
  3. Place the butter and caster sugar in a separate bowl and cream with an electric mixer. Crack in the eggs and mix.
  4. Sieve in the flour and baking powder, and fold in with a spatula, so that there are no dry ingredients.
  5. Tip in about 75% of the chopped apple and stir to incorporate.
  6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and level with the back of a metal spoon. Sprinkle over a dusting of ground cinnamon, and then crumble over the dark brown sugar. Gently press in the remaining pieces of apple.
  7. Place in the oven at 160C for 45 mins, by which time a skewer inserted in the middle should come out dry.
  8. Remove and leave in the tin for 10 mins, before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Cut into 16 squares.

Customise It!

Use mixed spice or grated nutmeg in place of the cinnamon if you wish. Enjoy a square on its own to accompany a tea or coffee, or with a few dollops of cream or natural yoghurt alongside.

I heard this track on the radio recently, and was impressed by its fresh and distinctive sound. This is Sub Focus with Off the Ground.

Categories
Blog Desserts

Baba au Rhum

Of all the pastries we have enjoyed on our current holiday in France (and there have been a few 🙂 ), the one consistently rated the highest in our party has been the Baba au Rhum, or Rum Baba.

This eastern European delicacy was reinvented in Paris in the early 19th Century. The story goes that a cake that had become a little dry was enlivened by a little soaking in some rum.

Since then patisseries all over France have never looked back. Fast forward 200 years and this is the scene in our local boulangerie here in the Dordogne. Amidst a range of to-die-for pastries sits a line of Baba au Rhum.

As you can see, the Baba is served with its own pipette already inserted into the cake. The pipette is filled with rum, which is injected into the sponge before eating, by carefully squeezing the pipette with one’s fingers. It makes a dessert that is light, moist and boozy, topped off with a swirl of whipped cream. Mmm!

The Rum Baba has had some stiff competition from the patisseries we have frequented this week, see below.

Or maybe check out this selection..

Every one a piece of culinary artwork that it is very difficult to fault. In such company, it is saying a lot that the Baba au Rhum has been rated so highly by our group.

Formidable!

I can’t say whether the cake inspired LCD Soundsystem to record this track, but it’s a song I really like, so here it is: New Body Rhumba.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Upside Down

This Valentine’s Day, here’s a cake you’ll love.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a tantalising dish. All the while it’s baking, it conceals its secret, exotic ingredient. Peeking into the oven is of no avail, as the enigmatic fruit that makes it special is shielded from view, laying at the base of the tin like buried treasure. Then, when the baking is done, it’s fun to invert it and reveal all those juicy pineapple chunks.

This one is made with a fresh pineapple, mixed with a sprinkle of dark muscovado sugar. The muscovado combines with the juice to give the cake a rich sweetness and a treacly, marbled appearance (as with the slice of cake shown in my photo above).

Servings

16 servings.

Timings

15 mins to prepare and 30 mins to bake at 180C.

You Will Need

  • 1 fresh pineapple
  • 165g self-raising flour
  • 165g caster sugar
  • 165g unsalted butter or spread
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar

Method

  1. Grease and line a baking tin. Mine is 22cm square. Switch on the oven at 180C.
  2. Peel and core the pineapple, and cut the flesh into roughly 1 – 2cm chunks.
  3. Put the flour, caster sugar, butter/spread, eggs and baking powder into a bowl. Mix with an electric whisk till it is all combined.
  4. Arrange the pineapple chunks over the bottom of the baking tin. Sprinkle over the dark muscovado sugar.
  5. Pour the cake mixture over the top. Place in the oven for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clear. Remove from the oven.
  6. Invert the cake from the tin on to a wire rack (so that it is now upside down), and allow to cool before cutting into slices. Serve upside down, with the pineapple showing, on its own or with some greek yoghurt alongside.

Customise It!

Most published recipes for this cake seem to use tinned pineapple. I think it is nice to use the fresh article, seeing as it is so readily available in our shops these days. However, you can substitute the tinned version here, if you’re in a rush and don’t want to peel, core and chop a fresh pineapple.

A classy dessert like this deserves an equally classy track for the ADK playlist. Here’s Diana Ross with (what else?) Upside Down.

Categories
Bakes Recipes

Blueberry & Coconut Crumble Squares

Here’s a delicious tray bake that thinks it’s a fruit crumble. A cup full of the oaty, dark sugary, coconutty cake mix is removed before the eggs are added, and then spread over a top layer of juicy blueberries before baking. The result is a cake base with a fruit crumble topping.

Enjoy it warm or cold, on its own or with a dollop of custard or greek yoghurt alongside.

Inspiration for this post has come from BBC Good Food. It’s another variation on a favourite traybake of mine that I posted previously on A Different Kitchen. In this version I’ve changed the sugar from light brown to dark brown, and swapped in blueberries for blackberries. It demonstrates again how easy it is to play around with recipes, rather than feeling we have to strictly follow them to the letter!

Servings

Makes 16 squares.

Timings

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

You Will Need

  • 250g self-raising flour
  • 25g oats
  • 250g dark brown sugar
  • 200g butter or spread
  • 75g desiccated coconut
  • 2 eggs
  • 300g fresh blueberries

Method

  1. Grease a baking tin and line with baking paper. The one I used is 22cm square.
  2. Sieve the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats and sugar.
  3. Add the baking spread and mix in with an electric whisk, until you have a crumbly mixture.
  4. Take a teacup or sugar bowl and fill it with some of the mix. Set aside.
  5. Add the eggs to the large bowl and whisk in once more until it is all combined.
  6. Spread over the bottom of the baking tin, and smooth out towards all four corners. Scatter the blueberries on top, then sprinkle over the reserved teacup/sugar bowl of crumble mixture.
  7. Place in the oven for 25 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with no mixture sticking. Leave to cool.
  8. When cool, remove from the tin and cut into 16 squares.

Customise It!

Other fruit like raspberries will work well if you wish. Swap in light brown sugar for the dark if you want a lighter cake. Chuck a few chopped nuts or seeds in with the reserved mixture to add further texture to the crumble topping.

This week I’ve been following developments about the current musical collaboration between two legends of the Manchester music scene – John Squire (The Stone Roses) and Liam Gallagher (Oasis). So far they have only released a couple of tracks for streaming, and I am looking forward to hearing the whole album when it comes out next month. John Squire’s distinctive swiping guitar sound and Liam’s rasping vocals have the potential to make this something special.

It’s prompted me to listen to tracks by The Stone Roses this week. Their sound is an engaging mash-up of 60’s-era vocals and late-80’s dance. This is probably my favourite track of theirs, so I’m adding it to the ADK Playlist. It showcases the Roses at their best: choppy lead guitar, bouncy drums and percussion, steady bass and understated vocals: The Stone Roses with What the World is Waiting For.

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 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.

Categories
Blog Snacks

Hit the North!

Travelling around Scotland for the past month in our motorhome has been super fun, but all great things must come to an end. We are now gradually making our way back home, and have broken up the journey by spending a few days sampling the delights of the North of England.

My main photo above shows the Yorkshire Dales, taken from a walk along Leyburn Shawl. I love Wensleydale cheese, which is made not far away in the town of Hawes. It is a pale cheese with a chalky and crumbly texture, and is readily available in the local shops.

I enjoyed this Leek and Wensleydale Pastry Roll that we picked up in a local deli.

Warmed up in the motorhome’s oven, it was delicious, served with slaw we made from fresh veg bought in a local farm shop.

In this part of the world they also serve a wedge of Wensleydale cheese with a slice of fruit cake – see below.

I have had this before, and liked it, so ordered it again at an afternoon tea stop in a local cafe. The combination may sound a little odd, but the tastes actually complement eachother and work well together. When you think that there are other rich fruited puddings and desserts that are served with a dairy-based product, like cream or custard, it’s maybe not that strange a choice. The fact that the cheese is missing any sweetener doesn’t seem to matter, as there is so much sugar in the cake!

I am interested to know if there are any other parts of the world where fruit cake is served with a slice of cheese? Answers welcome in the comments below, please.

The Yorkshire wit is nearly as sharp as their cheese – what about this sign welcoming us to our stopover site for the night.

Don’t worry anyone, there was no cause for concern. Everyone had a good laugh about the sign – the Yorkshire welcome is a very warm one wherever you go.

By the time this post is published, I will be back home. I hope you have enjoyed the posts from my trip. It’s been a celebration of some of the culture and natural beauty that the UK has to offer, as viewed through my usual lens of Good Food, Great Music. We have tried to buy and eat local, and feature some of our great regional food and drink.

And speaking of Great Music, spending a few days in the North makes me think of this wonderful earworm of a track from The Fall. They’re not Scottish, or from Yorkshire, but I did nod respectfully to the memory of Mark E. Smith as we passed Manchester on the M62. And played this on the motorhome stereo: The Fall with Hit the North – Part 1.