COOKBOOKS GALORE

Until recently, I thought that a Hummingbird Cake was the same thing as a Carrot Cake! On one of my afternoon tea visits [I'm trying to find all the little tea shops in Northants!] I saw this cake and decided to try it, liked it so much that I had to make one. I need to take a cake for a retirement party tomorrow, so decided this was the time to make it. It's based on a recipe from an old 'Living' cookbook. preheat oven 180C/gas4                  Grease a 3x23cm sandwich tins and line bases. In a bowl sift together 250g plain flour, 250g caster sugar, 1 tspn cinnamon and 1 tspn bicarb. To this add 3 beaten eggs, 200ml sunflower oil, 100g chopped pecan nuts [you need a few more to decorate the top], 3 ripe and mashed bananas and 85g tinned pineapple, chopped, and 4 tbspn of its juice from the tin. Beat this all together with a wooden spoon till its mixed well. Divide the batter between the 3 tins then bake for 25-30 mins till golden and ...

My lovely German dil gave me a pretty Bundt cake tin for my birthday, but it stayed in the cupboard until I found it yesterday. I needed to make a cake, as my son and family are moving to my town today. [It will be so good to have some family nearby.] I have a bit of a 'thing' about cardamom at the moment, so wanted to use it as one of the flavours. I think orange goes well with it, so decided to make a cake with these two flavours. It's another recipe I was given by my friend, who runs her own tea shop, and is a good cake to make for a celebration. 220g Philadelphia cream cheese 220 g butter 250g caster sugar 6 eggs 350g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder Zest of 1 large orange 1 tspn ground cardamom Icing sugar Preheat oven 170°C. Grease or spray the Bundt tin/mould with Cake Release Whisk the butter and Philly together,  then add the sugar and beat it in. Whisk the eggs in one by one, then add the finely grated zest and the cardamom and mix together. Add t...

We had some friends for a few days and it was G's birthday, so I wanted to make a nice dessert instead of a cake. He loves ginger, and I had a large jar of ginger confit bought on our last French trip. This could give the cheesecake a good ginger flavour, and be the decoration on the top. I read somewhere recently that ricotta makes a good cheesecake, so decided to use half ricotta and half my usual Philly. I used digestive biscuits, but could have used something with chocolate in them. 180g biscuits 250g ricotta 250g Philadelphia cheese 200g dark chocolate 2 eggs and 1 yolk 80g caster sugar 80g candied ginger and 50g for the decoration 60g butter Icing sugar for top Preheat oven 150C/gas2 You need a 23cm springform tin. Blitz the biscuits in a food processor or bash them with a rolling pin. Melt the butter and mix with the biscuits crumbs. Use your fingers to press it into the base of the tin, then put in the fridge. Melt the broken up chocolat...