COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I’m a great muffin fan and have adapted my basic recipe, given to me by an American friend, many times. This is my latest idea. I made the muffins and was asked by a friend if I could make some for a party with the icing you usually get on a carrot cake.  280g plain flour, 1 tbsps baking powder, 1 tspn mixed spice, pinch salt, 115g soft dark brown sugar, 200g grated carrot, 50g chopped pecans or walnuts, 50g sultanas, 2 eggs, 175ml milk, 6 tbsps sunflower oil Optional: icing - 75g soft cream cheese, 49g butter and 35g icing sugar, sprigs of orange zest Preheat oven 200C/gas6. Grease a muffin tin or use muffin cases. Sift together the flour, baking powder and spice. Add carrots, sugar walnuts and sultanas and stir together. In a jug add the milk, oil and beaten eggs. Mix well. Make a well in flour mix and add milk mixture. Stir gently till just mixed. Don’t over mix or muffins will be heavy. Soon into the muffin tin - I use an ice cream scoop. Bake for 20 mins till risen. Cool...

Something to cheer us up in these miserable days. Was given a bottle of local cider, and had several apples needing using up, so found this recipe from an old Woman's weekly magazine. You need:  330ml cider, 150g melted butter, 4 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated, 2 large eggs, 150g soft brown sugar, 300g plain flour, 2 tspn bicarb, 1 tspn mixed spice, 1 tspn cinnamon, 1/2 tspn grated nutmeg, 200g raisins or sultanas and 100g roughly chopped pecans. Preheat oven 180C/gas4         Grease and line a 20cm spring form cake tin. Pour cider into a pan and bring to boil. Lower the heat to simmer and let the cider reduce. You need about 100ml. Melt the butter in another pan and pour the cider over to cool a bit until just warm. Mix the sugar and  eggs into the apples and pour in the butter and cider. Mix together. Sift the flour and spices together then fold into the mixture. Finally add the fruit and nuts and stir together. Pour into the ca...

I love loaf cakes. They’re easy to make, easy to cut and so useful. A few very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl was my inspiration for this loaf cake. I added some pecans, and used the buttermilk left over in the fridge from making scones. Cake : 3 ripe bananas, 100g pecan nuts broken into small pieces, 100g soft butter, 175g soft brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 250g plain flour, 1 tspn bicarb, 1 tspn mixed spice, 100 ml buttermilk Topping: 1 small banana, sliced, Preheat oven 180C/gas4.        Grease and line base of 200g loaf tin Beat the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, a bit at a time. Mash the bananas and add to the batter then add  flour, bicarbonate and mixed spice and fold in. Stir in the buttermilk then most of the nuts, saving a few bits for the top. Pour into the loaf tin, then put the sliced bananas on top and sprinkle over the rest of the nuts. Bake for about 45-50 mins. If...

This cake is another result of a baking cupboard sort out. I had some brazils, apricots and dates to use up, but not enough of each to use on their own. I love loaf cakes, and just took out the mixed dried fruit from the recipe I usually use in this cake, and added my store cupboard finds. 140g soft margarine 2 large eggs 250g self raising flour 60ml milk 140g caster sugar – reserve 1-2tbspn for cake topping 125g each of dried apricots and pitted dates - each piece cut into 3 65g chopped brazil nuts 1 level tspn mixed spice    Preheat oven 150C/Gas 2  Grease and line a 900g loaf tin.   Cream margarine and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs to the mixture a little at a time and one by one, mixing well .  Put the fruit and nuts into a bowl and add 2 or 3 tbspn of the flour to coat the fruit and nuts. Sieve the rest of the flour and the mixed spice into the cake mixture.  Fo...

I've had a very nice French lady staying with me . She came with a party from our twin town in France. I bought some wine and a nice bottle of cider, only to discover she didn't drink any alcohol! So I decided to use some of the cider in a cake. A nice easy cake to make; am not sure where I found the recipe as it was scribbled on a piece of paper. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                Grease a 20cm square cake tin. Cream 125g butter and 125g caster sugar together till nice and fluffy. Mix together 225g sr flour, 1 tspn bicarb and 1 tspn mixed spice. Fold half of the flour mixture into the batter then add 200ml cider and mix well. Stir in the rest of the flour and pour batter into the tin. Bake for about 35-40 mins. Cool the cake in the tin then sprinkle some caster sugar mixed with a little more mixed spice over the top. It's a nice moist cake with a soft texture. The cider flavour comes through well and the sp...

I love carrot cake, and the other day I was out with a friend and spotted another vegetable cake, this time with parsnip in it, so I wanted to make one. I have a friend who has a lovely little tea room, and she gave me this recipe - it's very popular in her shop. For the cake you need - 175g butter or margarine, 200g demerara sugar, 100ml maple syrup, 3 eggs, 250g sr flour and 2 tspn baking powder, 2 tspn mixed spice, 250g parsnip, peeled and grated,1 medium eating apple, grated, zest and juice of an orange, icing sugar to dust the top. Preheat oven 180C                     Grease and line the bottoms of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup gently in a pan. Allow to cool a bit then beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour and baking powder and the spice. Add the parsnip, apple and orange. Pour into the tins and bake for 25-30 mins. Cook in tins for 5 mins then take cakes out and cool on a wire rack. Sandwich th...

I made these to take to a local coffee morning. Chocolate and spice go so well together. These freeze well, so you're never short of something sweet when the mood takes you! You need - 200g dark chocolate, 210g plain flour, 11/2 tspn ginger, 1/2 tspn mixed spice, 1 tspn cinnamon, 1 tbspn cocoa powder, 110g butter, 120g dark brown sugar, 4 tbspn golden syrup, 1 tspn bicarb, whole almonds to decorate Preheat oven 160C/gas3 Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper Chop the chocolate up, and in a bowl sift the spices and cocoa together with the flour. In another bowl beat the butter and sugar till fluffy, then add the golden syrup and beat again. Dissolve the bicarb in 11/2 tspn boiling water. Beat half o f the flour mixture into the butter one, beat in the bicarb then the rest of the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chunks and mix well. Roll into a sausage shape and cover in clingfilm. Chill for about 2 hours till firm. Cut slices off the roll and place on the ba...

I love Simnel cake at Easter and always made one for my husband and me, but the rest of my family either don't like marzipan or dried fruit, so I thought I'd try making small cakes with almost the same ingredients, then I could freeze some for me and give a few to friends. I didn't put the marzipan layer in the middle of the little cakes, but put a layer on top, and to make it more springlike, I cut it out with a flower shaped cutter. The final decoration was a sugar flower  - I'd bought a packet a while ago and they needed using! Preheat oven 180C/gas4                  You need a greased 12 hole silicone or metal muffin tin. 125g butter, 125g soft brown sugar, 2 eggs, 125g sr flour, 1 tspn mixed spice, 1 tspn cinnamon, 1-2 tbspn milk, 125g dried fruit and zests of 1 orange and 1 lemon [I didn't have any good mixed peel, hadn't got any home made, and I hate the cheap stuff, so decided to use zest instead], 100g marzipan, 2 tbspn apr...

I made a couple of batches of cookies recently, so thought I'd post the recipes here. They're both very easy and quick to make. The first one is for Chocolate-chip and Oats cookies, and the second one is for Ginger and Chocolate cookies. For the Choc-chip and Oats ones  - Preheat oven 180C/gas4  Mixture makes enough cookies to cover 3 baking sheets, but I did it in 2 batches, as I only have 2 baking sheets. Beat together 125g butter, 100g soft brown sugar, 110g caster sugar and 1/2 tspn vanilla extract till pale and thick, using an electric hand beater, then beat in 1 egg. Fold in 110g oats [not the jumbo ones]. sieve 150g plain flour with 1/2 tspn baking powder and 1/2 tspn bicarb. together and fold into mixture. Finally fold in 175g dark chocolate which has been chopped [not too small] and 150g peeled and chopped hazelnuts [you could toast them first]. Using a tablespoon or an ice cream scoop, put balls of dough onto the baking sheets, leaving a space between eac...

Over the years I've gathered quite a lot of recipes for apple cakes, but I found this one recently in an old magazine cutting. I've made crumble cakes before, but this one has 2 layers of apple, so a bit different. It also has some elderflower cordial in it, which sounded like an interesting addition. The recipe used a 27x25 cake tin, but I only had my Wilton's brownie tin which is 27x17.8 so I made 3/4 of this mixture. Even so, it made a large cake; there was plenty for 6 people and some left over for us. This is the original recipe. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 27x25xm baking tin. Cream together 200g butter or margarine and 200g caster sugar. Add 4 eggs one at a time and beat together. Add 350g sr flour, 2 tspn mixed spice and 1 tbspn elderflower cordial and fold in. Put half of this batter in the tin. Peel and thinly slice 500g cooking apples [about 2 large ones] and put half over the mixture in the tin. Spoon over the rest of the mixture making ...

I seem to be making a lot of chocolate cakes lately, but this one is a bit different in that it has tropical flavours and ingredients.  I found the recipe in a booklet I picked up at a food fair, and it's a cake I've been meaning to try. I found a bottle of rum in the back of the cupboard, and as well as my using it for Flognarde, a recipe you can find on   Phil's blog  'As Strong As Soup' , I'm going to use some in this cake [opt]. The tropical part comes from the creamed coconut, pineapple and dessicated coconut. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 20cm springform tin. For the cake: Cream together 100g soft butter and 200g caster sugar till pale and fluffy. Stir in 60g melted chocolate and 2 egg yolks. Sift together 175g sr flour and 1 tspn mixed spice, then fold these into the batter with 4 tbspn creamed coconut, 3 tbspn milk and 1 tbspn rum [or you could use pineapple juice]. Beat the egg whites till stiff then gently fold them into the ba...

I was inspired by a recent post on the excellent Strong as Soup blog           http://asstrongassoup.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/black-sticky-gingerbread-random-recipe.html    to look for a recipe my neighbour gave me for a gingerbread made with honey. This is a very different gingerbread from the dark moist one on Phil's blog. The method is unusual in that you put the dry ingredients into a bowl, then heat the honey and pour it over. It's got a good spicy flavour and as Phil said in his post, gingerbread is great for taking on an Autumn walk, or with your afternoon cuppa, or even as a dessert with some custard. The original French recipe used 'quatre epices' but I don't think there's much difference between that and our mixed spice, and I found some ground aniseed in a local deli, but you could leave it out if you don't like it. 250g runny honey 250g plain flour 100g caster sugar 1 tspn baking powder 1 tbspn vanilla sugar 1 tspn ground anis...

I went to a farmer's market yesterday and couldn't resist buying yet more apples. It's the time of the year for them, for pies, cakes, chutney, jam. What could I do with them that would be something different? I remembered some apple recipes I'd cut out of a magazines ages ago, so I looked through them and found this one. I'm sure there are many recipes for regional Harvest Cakes, but my being Welsh, this recipe seemed very appropriate, and it's not long since we had Harvest.The countryside around us has been buzzing with combines and tractors. It's an unusual cake because the fruit is put in in middle like a sandwich filling, and it seems as if there's much too much fruit for the batter. But have faith, all will be well! Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 18cm cake tin Melt 175g butter with 175g soft brown sugar - don't worry if it's not all dissolved, but stir it. Cool for a bit then add 2 beaten eggs. Sift 225g sr flour together...

I wanted to make something different and this recipe fitted the bill. It was given to one of our friends when they were staying in an hotel in Mumbai and is supposed to be a good ending to a spicy meal. I've made yoghurt cake before, such as the one using a yoghurt pot as a measure, but this is completely different; for one thing it uses ghee, clarified butter. There's a big Indian community locally so I was able to find it in one of the Indian shops, but I think I've also seen it in the supermarket.You can make your own - heat double the amount of butter you need and pour it into a dish. Allow it to cool for 15mins then carefully pour off the clear golden liquid on top - this is the ghee. You don't need the milk solids underneath. The cake has an icing made with sour cream and icing sugar. I made a few changes to the recipe as I don't like dessicated coconut, which was used to coat the sides of the cake tin after they'd been greased. The leftovers were added ...

We're having a new kitchen installed starting on the 28th, so today is my last day for using my oven. Tomorrow, OH and friend are taking out the last part of the old kitchen which I've been hanging on to, the sink unit, dishwasher, cooker and washing machine. From tomorrow, I'll have a microwave and a slow cooker in the dining room for 2 and a bit weeks.  What fun! So I decided to have a bit of a Bake In today, last time in my gas cooker, as it will be looking for a new home on Freecyle. I'm having a new electric oven and gas hob. The gas cooker was in the house when we bought it, so we decided not to change it till we changed the kitchen. The Bake In - I made some chocolate chip muffins, a banana loaf, cheese scones and a very easy Bara Brith - not using Gran's recipe, but one a new friend gave me.   I made the cheese scones from the Good Food site; here's the recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheesescones_1287 The banana bread recipe ...

I love apple cakes and am always very happy to find a new recipe. It's a very country looking cake with little chunks of apple and dried fruit. Nothing refined about it, but the taste is good. I love spices and this one has cinnamon and mixed spice. It's made using the rubbing in method, and I found it difficult to get all the ingredients together. I didn't think I'd mixed it properly, but it came out fine. There's a lot of mixture for 1 egg! 400g apple chopped into dice 125g mixed fruit 125g brown sugar 125g butter 1 large egg 1 tspn cinnamon and 1 tspn mixed spice Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and line a 20cm springform tin. Rub together the butter and flour till it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg, sugar and spices and mix together. Then add the apple and mixed fruit. Bake for about 35 mins till the middle feels firm when you touch it. I didn't have any mixed fruit so used raisins. You can see that the apple stayed in little ch...

I'm going through a 'Cook British' phase, so wanted to make some rock cakes. Had some apricots and sultanas to use up so tried a variation on the original. A big success. Will make double next time, as son arrived, and together with OH ate them! I did manage to salvage one for me! 100g white sr flour 100g wholemeal sr flour 2 tspns baking powder 1 tspn mixed spice 100g soft margarine or butter 50g light brown sugar 50g dried apricots [chopped] 1 egg 2tbspns milk light brown sugar for dusting on top of cakes preheat oven 200C/gas 6 Grease or line a baking sheet [I used the reuseable baking paper I got from Lakeland] Put the flours, baking powder and spice into a bowl and mix together. Add the margarine or butter and rub in till like breadcrumbs. Stir in the fruits and sugar. Beat the egg with the milk and add to the bowl. Mix to a stiff mixture [add a bit more milk if it's too dry]. Put mounds of the mixture on to the baking sheet and sprinkle some ...

Happy St David's Day! Thought I'd make a few Welsh cakes to celebrate. My husband likes them well done and I prefer them golden.  I got my lovely Emma Bridgewater daffodil mug for Mother's Day last year. This is Gran's recipe which I always use, hence the lbs and ozs! After sprinkling sugar on top, she always added a knob of butter. We ate them warm, straight off the bakestone. This recipe makes about 24 cakes, but I halved it today as there are only 2 of us;  I'm not sure if they'd freeze well. 1lb plain flour 4oz margarine 4oz lard [I use Trex] 4oz currants 6oz caster sugar 1/2 tspn mixed spice 1 tspn baking powder 1 egg pinch salt 2 tbspns milk Put the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, then rub in the fat. Add the currants and spice and mix together. Beat the egg a little then add with enough of the milk to make a firmish dough. Roll out on a floured surface till about 1/4" thick, then cut into rounds. Grease a bakestone an...

Yet another apple cake! We still have some more Bramleys to come - a great year for them. Helen is a friend who is an excellent cook. She made this cake during one of our visits and it's really delicious. Bob,my husband,hates bananas, but loves this cake. He doesn't know that there are any in it!!! This amount makes 2 generous 2lb loaf cakes, but I usually halve the recipe. I'm not sure if it would freeze. 250g unsalted butter 250g dark brown sugar 500g sr flour 4 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped 5 small ripe bananas 500g sultanas 4 large eggs cinnamon and mixed spice to taste [I use a lot as I love them!} Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Beat sugar and butter together till fluffy. In another bowl beat eggs and bananas together and then add to the sugar mixture. Add the apples and mix well. Add the spices to the flour and then add gradually to the mixture, mixing well after each addition. Divide between the 2 tins and bake for about an hour. In my ov...

We have a lot of windfall Bramleys to use up, so I made this apple cake. The recipe is from Sue L, a lovely lady on the bbc food forum. This is her blog - http://www.mainlybaking.blogspot.com/  . It's good as a cake and also great as a pudd. with ice cream or cream. The recipe: 250g butter or margarine 300g sr flour 1 beaten egg 350g apples - peeled, cored and sliced 150g caster sugar 1/2 tspn cinnamon 1/2 tspn mixed spice 1 tbspn brown sugar Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F Grease a 20cm cake tin. Melt fat in the microwave in a large bowl. Stir in the beaten egg and caster sugar. Gradually stir in the flour. The dough should be like cookie dough. Spread half the dough into the bottom of the cake tin.Use fingers to spread it evenly. Mix the apples with the spices and arrange in an even layer on top of the dough. Cover with the rest of the dough, again using fingers to spread it out.Sprinkle top with the brown sugar. Bake for about an hour, or till golden. Leave ...