friday's bake

Italian apple pie..

this recipe is from a book i picked up from the library this week Nigellissima - by Nigella Lawson, i have made a couple of the pasta dishes and last night we had the lamb steaks with anchovy and thyme - fantastic...

this pie is actually more of a cake than a pie, you make quite a thick batter in a food processor, add some chopped up apple and put into a spring form tin. sliced apples are added to the top of this, which is then sprinkled with a mix of demerara sugar and cinnamon...

nice served warm with custard and cream, but equally nice with a cup of tea or coffee.

 

friday's bake

i think sometimes the simplest things can be the best or tastiest. today's bake is gingerbread, i really like gingerbread, i probably like it best warm with custard,

 
no custard today though, just a drizzle of icing. tray bakes like this are perfect for lunchboxes as they travel well.

the gingerbread recipe came from this book, the young cook by audrey bradley. audrey is a very nice lady that chris started doing a garden for a couple of months ago, he was chatting to her about children etc this week and she gave him this book that she had written !. i'm not sure how long ago she wrote it and i can't find any mention of it when i googled, so i think it is no longer in print ?

its a lovely book of both basic sweet and savoury dishes to make, and i love the retro pictures.

audrey even signed the book for the children !

 

friday's bake

a day late, but here it is...

chocolate victoria sandwich, taken from The simple things issue 6 february.

this cake looked ok when I took it out of the oven, but then when i split it, the top part of it cracked and fell apart. that's ok i thought once the butter cream is in, the icing will cover over the cracks, but as it was quite a runny icing and it just sort of poured into the crack in the top !

resulting in this gooey mess, looks a bit of a dogs dinner does it not ?

you win some you loose some...

friday's bake

friday's bake this week is orange sponge fingers with lemon icing. i had no time to bake this morning, so when i had the oven on and a chicken roasting for tea i whipped these up, i always remember my grandmother thinking that you should never have an empty shelf in your oven, if you had a pie, for example, in the oven, you might as well make up a cake to put on the other shelf. i think i tend to go with this too.

 

a basic sponge - 6oz, 3eggs - with a squeeze of orange juice added, bake in a shallow tray, I use a swiss roll tin, cool, cut into fingers, approx 18, then drizzle with glace icing made up with lemon juice.

 

i often make these when there is a cake stall at school, makes a change from cup cakes.

friday's bake

today's bake is taken from issue 9 may 2013 of the simple things magazine. bread pudding cake, i have to say that the name sounds better than it tasted !, or indeed looked..



it was quite a strange texture, possibly due to the amount of milk soaked bread that goes into it and the fact that it has no flour ?

to be fair i think that i used the wrong sized tin, maybe if i had used a smaller tin i would have had a deeper cake. you live a learn, but i don't think this will be one that i try again....

friday's bake

 

today's bake is toffee apple flapjack, the recipe is taken from the great british picnic guide by mark price .

 

 

it is basically, cooked apple baked between two layers of flapjack mixture.

 

ideal to take on a a picnic as it would travel well. hopefully tomorrow it will be travelling with us for a day out up in the lakes, the two big ones are being taken away for three nights by some friends so it will be us and the two little ones. this happens at this time every year and i think all the children enjoy being one of two rather than one of four....

friday's bake

This weeks friday bake is plum and vanilla cake, it is taken from bill granger - bills food, it is basically a sponge mix with halved plums set into it and a crumble topping sprinkled over the top.

 

More of a dessert cake to have with cream, rather than a cake to have with a brew I think, but well worth having a go at.

friday's bake

 

today's bake are apricot danish. the recipe is from In the mood for food by Jo Pratt its a great book which is split into 'mood'  sections, i.e. in the mood for being healthy; in the mood for some comfort; in the mood for being lazy etc etc, you get the idea.

 

 

These apricot danish are made from very accessible ingredients and are really easy to make.

 

I used ready rolled puff pastry which I cut into eight squares. brush the surface with egg wash (egg yolk & milk), add a spoonful of ready made custard into centre of each square, top with sliced tinned apricot, scatter with flaked almonds and sprinkle with icing sugar. then bring two opposite corners over to meet each other in the middle, brush with a little egg wash and pinch together. Brush all over with egg wash and dust with more icing sugar. Bake for 12-15mins 200c.

 

you don't have to use apricots, you could use, tinned peaches or pears, or fresh sliced apple, plums or strawberries.

 A frothy cappuccino would be the perfect match for these.

friday's bake

this weeks bake is banana cake, I don't think I had ever had banana cake until a couple of years ago when I was given this recipe by an Australian. Since then it has become a family favourite.

banana cake
125g butter
220g caster sugar
2 x eggs
1 x ripe banana
dash vanilla extract
pinch of salt
250g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125ml milk

method
1. pre heat oven 180c
2. mix butter and sugar
3. add eggs
4. add mashed banana and vanilla extract
5. sieve salt,flour and bicarb, add alternately with the milk
6. turn into a greased tin, I use a 9" spring form loose bottom tin
7. i usually bake this for 45-50 mins

when cool ice with butter icing with the juice of a lemon added.

enjoy.

 

friday's bake

 

 

This weeks Friday bake is a lemon almond cake with honey. the recipe came from #8 April 2013 edition of  The simple things magazine.

 



Zesty lemon and sweet almond make this moist cake something very special.
This lovely light moist sponge- mainly due to the use of ground almonds and polenta with only a little flour - is just perfect for these lighter Spring evenings.

 

A big hit with everyone here.

friday's bake

I looked  in the baking cupboard and wondered "What shall I bake", the cupboard had taken a bit of a hammering on Sunday with lots of ingredients being used up for Chris's birthday tea party.

I did however have most of the 'basics'. After trawling through a few books, I came across this 'Store-cupboard chocolate orange cake' in Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess - perfect.

A great  larder-standby cake that can whipped up at the last minute. More of a pudding sort of cake to have with cream or custard rather than a just to eat cake I think though.

friday's bake

This weeks Friday bake was actually made by Finn. He does enjoy baking, but does not get much of a look in with me and his sisters. He decided on Chocolate chip cookies from this book Bill's food - Bill Granger. It took him a bit longer than it should have as he had to go up to the shop to get porridge oats. he came back after having to go to the supermarket in town as the local shop did not have oatmeal, OATMEAL ! you went for porridge oats !, "Do I have to go back ?", Yes !.
So with the right ingredients and insisting he required no help what so ever from his mother, he set to making the cookies. "What do you think Mum ?", "Good Finn, but was that egg not meant to go in ?" .

If your going to have a cookie, I think that you need milk to go with it. The little ones, and the big ones actually, like their milk in these mini milk bottles with a straw. Brings back memories of school for me, not pleasant either as the milk was either solid with ice or warm from being left by the heater or in the sun in the cloakroom, yuk !

As for Finns cookies ? His sisters' verdict was "A bit crunchy". Such harsh critics....

Moral of the story, check you have all ingredients before starting to bake, and realise there is nothing wrong with asking/taking a bit of advice/help.

Friday's bake

Does the weather affect what you want to bake/make or eat ? It does me, today is absolutely freezing here and therefore I felt the need to make a cake that was comforting and pudding like.

This Toffee Apple Cake - even the name sounds reassuring - is from River Cottage Handbook No.8 Cakes. It is heavy with sweet apples and creamy caramel.

Perfect for a cold cloudy day.