Tag Archives: recipe

17/01/2011 · 6:46 pm

‘a taste of the sun on toast’

Last year I found this article by Nigel Slater, unfortunately at the time of reading it I’d missed the Seville orange season by just a few weeks. I stashed it away in my memory banks until a couple of days ago, which happened to fall perfectly in the middle of my window of Seville marmalade making opportunity! I love Nigels infectiously passionate way of writing about food, it always compels me to roll up my sleeves and get busy in the kitchen. So this weekend I decided to do just that and pop my marmalade making cherry, or should that be orange!

Nigel’s recipe calls for 12 Seville oranges and 2 lemons…

Scrub them really well in case they’ve been sprayed with any nasties, then score them into quarters from top to bottom (not piercing the flesh) and peel off the rind…

Shred the rind into thin strips. I found this job quite enjoyable with the aid of some good tunes and a sharp knife. I opted for a medium cut marmalade (it would have been fine but my knife skills aren’t up to much and I got a bit distracted by the music I was listening to :)) If you prefer yours chunky just cut thicker slices…

Put the peel into a large pot. Squeeze the juice from the fruit into a measuring jug but don’t throw away the pips, flesh and pith!

Make the juice up to 4 litres with cold water and pour into the pot with the peel. Tie the fleshy leftovers in a muslin bundle and submerge it in the pot…

Cover the pot and leave it in a cool place overnight to infuse.

The next day bring the juice and the peel to the boil… 

Once boiling, turn it down to a simmer and leave it bubbling away until the peel is soft and transluscent. Nigel says that this can take anything from 40 minutes to an hour and a half but mine only needed 30 minutes to reach the perfect texture.

Remove the muslin bag of goodies and set it aside to cool.

At this point you add 1.25kg unrefined golden granulated sugar and turn up the heat.

As soon as the muslin bundle is cool enough to handle you need to squeeze every last drop of goodness out of the orange innards. The viscous liquid that came out had the delightful consistency of snot, which made for a bit of a weird sensation. But this magic goo is very important as it’s laden with masses of natural pectin, which helps the marmalade to set.

You need to bring the marmalade to a rolling boil and regularly skim off any froth that rises to the surface, otherwise your preserve will end up cloudy. This part of the whole process is definitely the most time consuming. I watched my boiling pot like a hawk wanting to make sure that I caught it at the exact point that it reached setting consistency. Nigel recommends boiling it initially for a good 15 minutes and then testing it by spooning a tablespoon of marmalade onto a plate and putting it in the fridge for a few minutes. If a thick skin forms on the surface of the chilled marmalade…it’s ready. If not, then keep it boiling and repeat the test every 10-15 minutes.

I had to exercise some real patience (not my strong point) as my marmalade took its own sweet time to reach setting point…a pot watching, froth skimming, nail biting 70 minutes! quite a bit longer than Nigel’s worst case scenario of 50 minutes.

But the gorgeous deep, rich preserve I was left with was worth every second…

Spoon the marmalade straight into sterilised jars and seal them immediately…

I resisted the strong urge to slather it straight into some toast and made myself seal every jar and wait until the marmalade was fully set before sampling it for the first time.

In the words of Mr Nigel Slater “here it is, a little pot of bright, shining happiness, full of bittersweet flavour and stinging thumbs”…

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09/01/2011 · 5:29 pm

Deliciously moist blueberry soured cream cake

Is it just me or does anyone else think that cookery books make for good bedtime reading? My favourite book at the moment is 101 Cakes and Bakes. There are just so many recipes in it that I need to try out. After much deliberation this weeks cake of choice was a blueberry soured cream number, which also came highly recommended by my little brother…

mmmm looks good doesn’t it?…

I love nothing more than a house full of the buttery sweet smell of baking and the feeling of taking a freshly baked cake out of the oven…

My cake turned out to not only look divine but was also super moist due to the addition of soured cream to the cake batter. It’s one of the easiest cakes I’ve made for a long time. Here’s the recipe if you fancy giving it a go…

175g butter

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

225g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

142ml soured cream

375g blueberries

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line an 8 or 9 inch cake tin.

Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until pale. Beat in 4 tbsp of the soured cream and then stir in half of the blueberries.

Pour the batter into the tin and put in the oven for about 50 minutes until firm but springy and golden brown.

Leave to cool while you prepare the frosting…

200g cream cheese

100g icing sugar

Beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together with the remaining soured cream until smooth and creamy. My icing was a bit runnier than expected because I made the mistake of trying to be more virtuous by using light cream cheese. To be honest, although it still tasted good I’d recommend going full fat for a more luscious frosting.

Spread the cream cheese frosting over the cooled cake and scatter over the remaining blueberries. The cake will keep in the fridge for a couple of days (if it lasts that long). I would go as far as saying that I think my cake was tastier after a night in the fridge…some things are worth the wait!

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03/01/2011 · 2:37 pm

Sod the New Year’s diet…

Christmas just wouldn’t feel like Christmas if I didn’t receive a cookery book of some description. This year my Mum bought me a little, unassuming looking recipe book called 101 cakes and bakes published by BBC Good Food. It’s chock full of really great sounding recipes, one of which I tried here back in September.

My sudden urge to get baking was also spurred on by the need to christen my new silicone 2lb loaf tin, a wonder of modern technology. Only those who have experienced the misery of an over browned loaf that doesn’t want to come out of the tin will understand my excitement ;).

I reviewed the contents of my fridge and settled on a yummy sounding pumpkin and ginger teabread, the recipe can also be found on the BBC Good Food website here. In the absence of a pumpkin I used butternut squash, which worked really well and adds moisture to the mix in the same way as carrot does in carrot cake.

Enough blethering here’s the recipe…

butternut squash and ginger teabread

175g butter, melted

140g clear honey

1 egg, beaten

250g raw peeled pumpkin or butternut squash, coarsely grated (approx 500g before peeling and seeding)

100g light muscovado sugar

350g self raising flour

1tbsp ground ginger

2tbsp demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees and butter and line a 2lb loaf tin or, if like me, you have a spanky silicone number you don’t need to do any preparation at all!

Mix the melted butter with the honey and the egg and add the squash.

Stir in the sugar (not the demerara), flour and ginger until all incorporated. Then pour into the tin and sprinkle over the demerara sugar.

Put in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until risen and golden brown…

I settled for 55 minutes and think I could have afforded to leave it for the extra 5 minutes. After removing from the oven, leave it in the tin for 5 minutes before turning it out to cool…

It’s delicious served warm from the oven, in thick slices…

and even better smothered in butter…sod the New Year’s diet and get stuck in!

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20/12/2010 · 9:03 pm

Christmas comes but twice a year

My Polish Grandparents (Babcia and Dzadzio) came to England after the Second World War and settled in Cambridge, where my Dad was born. The rest, as they say, is history. I love being half Polish, especially when it means that I get two Christmases a year! We celebrate our Polish Christmas (Wigilia) on Christmas eve and then have a full traditional English Christmas on Christmas day…the best of both worlds! Wigilia is traditionally a 12 course meal but thankfully for our waistlines we only have 5, which is still more than enough. Babcia used to do most of the preparation and cooking for our special meal and make it look easy. She gradually handed over the pearls of her wisdom and we have learnt how to prepare the dishes ourselves. She sadly passed away a couple of years ago but we are very proud to be able to carry on the traditions as she would have wanted. The main dish that has become my responsibility is the uszka (which actually means ‘little ears’ in Polish). Uszka are mushroom filled dumplings a bit like tortellini or ravioli. We serve them in barszcz (beetroot soup) as the first course of our Wigilia feast. They are quite time consuming to make but freeze very well so can be made in advance and are definitely worth the effort. Uszka are very popular with my family and so I have to make a LOT! This year I’ve made about 50 and there are only 5 of us eating them!

To start with I make the filling so that it has time to cool…

80g (ish) of dried porcini mushrooms

1/2 packet fresh chestnut mushrooms (approx 10), chopped finely

1 small onion, chopped very finely

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

My measurements may seem a bit vague but you can have a bit of artistic licence with the filling. Some people only use dried mushrooms, some use only fresh ones but I, maybe controversially, mix it up a bit and use both as I think they each add texture and taste to the filling.

Cover the dried mushrooms in boiling water and leave to soak until hydrated and pliable. When they’re ready carefully lift them out of water, so as not to disturb any grit that may have settled at the bottom. The liquid is great to use for the barszcz or a yummy mushroom risotto. Chop the mushrooms finely and set aside for the time being.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan and fry the onion until translucent, then add both the rehydrated and fresh mushrooms and cook for about 10 minutes until the fresh mushrooms have cooked down, any liquid has evaporated and the mixture has started to sizzle a bit.

Transfer the mushroom mixture to a bowl and add the breadcrumbs and egg to make a firm paste. Now’s the time to season your filling, add salt and pepper to your taste and leave to cool.

To make the dough…

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten

3 tbsp water (you might need more so add as necessary)

Put the flour in a large bowl with the salt. Make a well in the centre and add the liquid ingredients. Knead until a smooth dough forms, don’t panic if it doesn’t look like it’s going to come together just add more water and keep kneading…trust me, it will become smooth before long! Wrap the ball of dough in clingfilm and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it’s very thin (1-2mm). Cut it into 2 inch squares and put a small pile of the filling in the middle of each one…

Using your finger or a small pastry brush, moisten two sides of each square with water and fold in half diagonally to make a triangle, pressing out any air from around the filling…

Dab one corner with water and loop around to overlap the other corner, then press them together like this…

Once you’ve mastered this, repeat over and over and over…you’ll soon be a pro…

Put a large saucepan of salted water to boil. Drop a few uszka at a time into the water and cook at a simmer for about 10 minutes or until the dough is tender (like al dente pasta). Drain them well… 

If you are making them in advance, let them cool before layering them up with greaseproof paper in a plastic container ready for freezing. 

On Christmas eve I’ll have defrosted my uszka, my Dad will have made his own secret recipe barszcz and I’ll just warm the uszka through by simmering them for a few minutes, until they float to the top of the pan and are warmed through. We serve about 10 uszka in each bowl of barszcz but that’s because we’re incorrigible gluttons 🙂 

It all may sound a bit weird and wonderful to those unaccustomed to Polish food but all I can say is…don’t knock it until you’ve tried it…

Writing this post has made me even more excited about Christmas now…I can’t wait!

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13/12/2010 · 9:01 pm

A bit of respite…

I haven’t done any baking for 3 whole weeks and have been getting severe withdrawal symptoms. Friday and Saturday night were spent in whirl of birthday and Christmas revelry so by the time Sunday rolled around I was well and truly ready for a bit of respite and some good old baking and recuperation. 

I decided to experiment with some recipes from The Cupcake Deck, which I was given for my Birthday but haven’t had a chance to use yet. I couldn’t decide on one, or two so eventually selected three cupcake recipes to make…

The recipes used US measurements, which meant that I had the pleasure of christening my new Matryoshka Measuring Cups I love them!…

First up, some very topical White Christmas Cupcakes…

Snow white, moist, vanilla cupcakes topped with creamy, white chocolate frosting and white chocolate curls…

For the cupcakes – 

1 1/4 cups plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

85g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 egg whites, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside. In another bowl mix the milk with the vanilla and almond extract.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar until light in colour. The mixture will look grainy and lumpy but don’t panic. Turn the mixer down to a low speed and alternately add a bit of the flour mixture, then a bit of the milk until it is all incorporated and smooth.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are shiny and smooth and form soft peaks when you lift the whisk out of the bowl. Stir a third of the egg whites into the cupcake mixture and then add the remaining whites and fold in gently.

Fill each paper case to about 1/4 inch below the rim and bake for about 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean and the top feels firm.

Leave to cool whilst you make the frosting…

85g white chocolate, chopped

56.5g unsalted butter, at room temperature

112g cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until completely lump free. Put in a large bowl with the butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat for a further minute or so. Spread the frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes, mounding it slightly in the centre. It doesn’t need to look too neat as you’ll be covering it with gorgeous white chocolate curls…

To make the chocolate curls…

Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Warm a bar of white chocolate between you hands and use a vegetable peeler to scrape curls from the block onto the prepared baking sheet. I actually put the chocolate bar in the microwave for 10 seconds bursts until I was able to create good curls that didn’t break up. Once you have about 2 cups of curls, put them in the fridge or freezer to set.

Finally sprinkle the curls onto your finished white Christmas cupcakes and there you have it…

Next up orange-glazed cranberry spiced  mini cupcakes…

I’ve never baked with fresh cranberries before and had a moment of doubt after sampling a raw cranberry…it was horribly sour! However I decided to put my trust in the recipe and just go for it…

For the cupcakes…

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil (I used sunflower but the recipe said canola or corn oil)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp grated orange zest

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup fresh or defrosted frozen cranberries, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and prepare 36 mini cupcake cases on a tray.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl and set aside. Beat the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer until thicker and lighter in colour. On a low speed mix in the oil, vanilla extract and orange zest until blended. Mix in the sour cream , then the flour and finally the cranberries.

Fill each paper case to just below the rim. I managed to fill 36 little bite size mini cupcake cases but still had enough mixture to fill another 7 fairy cake cases as well. The small ones only took about 11 minutes  and the larger ones about 16 minutes but just bake until the top feels firm and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes, whilst making the glaze…

1 cup icing sugar

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

4-5 tbsp milk

1 tsp grated orange zest

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the icing sugar, melted butter and 4 tbsp milk with the orange zest and the vanilla extract until smooth and syrupy. Add another tbsp of milk if needed to get the right consistency.

Turn the cakes out of their tins and prick each one 4-5 times with a toothpick or skewer. Spoon the glaze over whilst both the cakes and glaze are still warm so that the gooey glaze soaks right into the cake and forms a see through shiny layer. Let them cool completely until the glaze becomes firm.

The recipe tells you that you can arrange quartered fresh cranberries on top of each cake but bearing in mind how sour my cranberries had been I decided not to. 

The mini cakes might not look stunning but they were so moist and spicy and the cranberries proved me wrong and cooked down beautifully so that they weren’t at all sour. The only problem with these little wonders is that they are soooo moreish and too easy to pop in your mouth whole…yum…

Lastly, I decided to revisit an old fave, the hummingbird cake, in cupcake form topped with a yummy swirl of cream cheese frosting…

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil (as before I used sunflower but the recipe said canola or corn oil)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 banana, mashed

1/2 cup chopped tinned pineapple, in it’s own juice, drained

1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl and set aside.

Beat the egg, egg yolk and sugar in an electric mixer until thick and light in colour. Mix in the oil and vanilla on a slow speed until blended. Mix in the sour cream and then flour until totally incorporated and smooth.

Finally add the cinnamon, banana, pineapple and pecans to the mixture and fill each case to 1/4 inch below its rim. Bake for about 25 minutes until they are firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool.

For the frosting…

113g unsalted butter, at room temperature

168g cream cheese, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups icing sugar

Beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat until completely smooth. I used the frosting straight away but found it to be a bit runny so I would recommend chilling it for a few minutes prior to icing your cakes.  When you’re ready put the frosting into a piping bag with a large star shaped nozzle and using a circular motion pipe a swirl onto each cake…and tadaa…

I took my array of cakes into work today and they went down a storm. They were all so moist and flavourful. The frosting wasn’t thick and claggy as you find with some cupcakes and the glazed cranberry spiced mini cakes were very festive but were a great alternative to a standard iced cupcake.

Now, all of this recipe typing and baking porn photo reviewing has made me decidedly peckish. I think it’s definitely time for a cupcake…the only problem is deciding which one to have! 

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Gallery

Cheat’s sausage rolls…shop bought puff pastry + good quality sausages (skin removed)…add a dash of pastry creativity, brush with egg yolk and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes…job done!

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24/11/2010 · 8:54 pm
15/11/2010 · 8:09 pm

You’ve got a friand…

Ever since my recent trip to Bettys in York I’ve been obsessed with financiers and trying to find the perfect recipe to try out. I discovered a few that incorporated soft fruits such as apricots or raspberries and I suddenly remembered the blackberries that I had picked in September and stashed at the back of my freezer for an occasion just like this. On my new mission to find the perfect blackberry financier recipe I stumbled on this one by Yotam Ottolenghi for blackberry and star anise friands. What is a friand I hear you ask…and what have they got to do with financiers??? well… let me educate you… friands are based very closely on financiers and are very popular in New Zealand and Australia but you’re more likely to find additional flavours and ingredients in friands such as fruits, nuts or chocolate. I decided to give Ottolenghi’s recipe a go but, controversially maybe, decided to omit the star anise, mainly because I didn’t have any and was feeling too lazy on Sunday night to go and buy some but also because I felt that it was a bit of an acquired taste and didn’t want to overcomplicate my friands and swamp the delicate taste of the blackberries.

I liked the fact that you bake the friands straight into the cupcake tin as opposed to using paper cases as it gave them a gorgeous golden brown crust with a very pleasant crunch…

They were amazingly light and moist and the glaze, which was made by mixing strained blackberry pulp with icing sugar was the most amazing colour…

My friands looked so pretty when I left the house first thing this morning before they took an unexpected a nosedive on the bus. Luckily they stayed in their containers but looked a little worse for wear by the time I got them into work. Fortunately my colleagues/guinea pigs weren’t overly concerned with aesthetics and wolfed them down…after all friands will be friands!

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01/11/2010 · 8:12 pm

Ruby ruby ruby ruby rubyyy…

I’m currently recovering from a very tiring but rewarding weekend. I embarked upon my biggest catering job to date, which I mentioned in passing a couple of weeks ago here. It was my friend Hannah’s parents Ruby Wedding Anniversary party and I somehow single-handedly churned out canapes and a hot fork buffet for 40 hungry revellers. I’d completely under estimated the amount of preparation time that’d be required and worked solidly all day Friday and Saturday with Han’s dad keeping me sane with a continuous supply of tunes from his ipod – bless him! 

Even though I was using an old, faithful recipe for a chocolate fudge cake that I’ve made loads of times before and had already experimented scaling it up here it was soooo much scarier tackling the real deal…12 inches, 2 layers and 10 bitten nails worth of chocolate fudge cake (rest assured no nail clippings went anywhere near the cake!)…

sandwiched and coated in litres of chocolate fudge ganache gooeyness…

and decorated with dark chocolate dipped strawberries, raspberries and my handwritten scrawl…

I was pretty happy with the finished article and luckily so were the happy couple. 

I usually make the standard 8 inch cake but to scale it up for a 12 inch cake you just need to use double quantities for each 12 inch layer (eg. 350g butter, 350g sugar, 6 eggs etc).

Here’s the recipe for the 8 incher, because after all who’s really going to be making a 12 inch monstrosity eh??…

175g unsalted butter

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

3tbsp golden syrup

40g ground almonds

175g self raising flour

pinch of salt

40g cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line 2 x 8inch cake tins.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs. Stir in the syrup and ground almonds, these 2 ingredients add amazing moistness to the cake. Sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder into the bowl and fold in gently. Add a little water, if necessary, to make the cake batter a dropping consistency. Divide between the tins and bake for 30-35 minutes or until they spring back when touched and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. I tend to err towards a shorter cooking time as I like it to be really fudgy although be careful as there’s a bit of a fine line between fudgy and undercooked 🙂

Leave the cakes in their tins for 5 minutes or so and then turn out to cool on a wire rack. While the cakes are cooking and cooling you can make a start on the ganache icing…  

225g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

55g dark muscovado sugar

225g unsalted butter, diced

5tbsp evaporated milk

1/2tsp vanilla essence

Put all of the ganache ingredients into a heavy based saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly until melted. It’s really important that you don’t leave this unattended or over heat as it will become grainy. I’ve learnt that the hard way and although it still tastes good, the texture and appearance is compromised somewhat. Pour the melted mixture into a bowl and chill in the fridge for about an hour until spreadable.

Use the ganache to sandwich and cover the cake. And there, my friends, you have it…a moist, dense chocolate fudge cake with gorgeous, gooey, heart attack inducing icing…enjoy!

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18/10/2010 · 11:48 am

Autumnal baking…

I feel like I’ve neglected my blog a bit in the last week. The annoying thing is that I’ve actually been super busy cooking and trying out recipes but have either forgotten to take photo’s or have lacked time to blog my latest kitchen exploits. My main aim for last week was to test out some of the recipes that I plan to use for a catering job that I’m taking on in a couple of weeks time…canapes and fork buffet for 40 people at a Ruby Wedding Anniversary celebration. On Monday I made courgette, chicken and pistachio couscous with an orange and harissa dressing which I managed to snap (badly) before me and Marky devoured it (I hasten to add…it was very yummy)…

Later in the week I also made pear and gorgonzola wrapped in parma ham (along these lines), sweetcorn fritters with a cucumber, tomato and avocado salsa, an all in one roasted sausage, butternut squash, new potato and beetroot bake with a dill and caper dressing and a pasta dish with pesto, garlic chestnut mushrooms and wilted spinach stirred through…sometimes the simplest of dishes are the best. Thankfully everything went really well and as true testament to the fact, my friends who I’d called upon to be guinea pigs wolfed down every last morsel with no complaints. 

I’ve just spent the weekend with an old University friend and her gorgeous 4 month old daughter. She happened to have the November Sainsbury’s magazine lying around, I’m such a sucker for a good food magazine or cook book that I took it with me for bit of bedtime reading…I was amazed at just how many amazing recipes it had packed into it! So after a lazy brunch of bagels topped with sliced avocado, smoked salmon and creamy scrambled eggs *drool* I set off back up to North London with a recipe scribbled on a scrap of paper stuffed into my handbag. I made a quick pitstop at the supermarket and when I got home I set about making…

spiced parsnip and apricot loaf with maple frosting…

I’d never heard of a cake containing parsnip before but am a great lover of carrot cakes so thought it was definitely worth a try! Here’s the recipe…

150g plain flour

50g wholemeal spelt flour

1tsp baking powder

1tbsp ground cinnamon

1 slightly rounded tsp ground cloves (I omitted this)

1tsp ground ginger

10 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed

4 eggs, lightly beaten

225g caster sugar

225ml groundnut oil

2 medium parsnips, peeled and grated (200g grated weight)

100g pecan halves, chopped

100g ready to eat dried apricots, chopped

For the maple frosting – 

75g soft unsalted butter

200g light cream cheese, chilled

100g greek yoghurt, chilled

1 1/2tbsp maple syrup

1tsp ground cinnamon

50g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 9 x 20cm loaf tin.

Sift the flours (I used self raising wholemeal flour so I only added 3/4 tsp baking powder) and baking powder into the bowl of an electric mixer (or use a handheld mixer). Tip any bran left in the sieve into the bowl too. Add the spices, eggs, sugar and oil and beat together. Fold in the grated parsnips, pecans and apricots and pour into the tin.

Bake for 1 hour 15 – 1 hour 30 minutes until golden and risen. Leave it to cool in the tin.

For the frosting whisk together the butter and cream cheese. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together. Put in the fridge to chill until later when the cake is fully cooled. Turn it out of the tin and  slather the frosting over the top.

For some reason my frosting turned out to be far too runny. It tasted good but was more pouring than spreading consistency. The cake was lovely and moist, rather like a carrot cake but with a gorgeous sweetness provided by the parsnip and nuttiness from the pecans. The edges had kind of caramelised (and no that’s not just code for burnt) which added a really lovely texture and flavour. I still, for the life of me, can’t work out what went wrong with my frosting but the fact that it was runny wasn’t detrimental to the overall taste of the cake and I guess that’s what really matters. 

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06/10/2010 · 3:45 pm

The taste of victory!

At long last Saturday 2nd October, the day I’d been eagerly awaiting since February when I started organising my birthday party, finally dawned and brought with it the most awful weather and rain of monsoon-like proportions. This most inauspicious of days saw my friends battling the elements clutching cake tins, tupperware and highly inventive home styled cake carrying devices from far and wide on public transport to take part in…

I don’t do anything by halves and with the help of my glamorous, graphic design assistant, Hannah we were all set with posters stating the rules and even official voting slips!…

You may recall that the original rules stated all entries had to be at the venue by 8pm but I started receiving panic stricken calls and texts begging for an extension due to inclement weather. So the deadline went out the window and a steady stream of entries arrived…better late than never I say…

Entry number 1 was my friend Marky’s Lemon and Sour Cream Cake (A Godfrey Family Recipe), which was essentially a shed load of sugar, some flour, 6 eggs, rind of one lemon and some sour cream, mixed up and baked slowly for 1.5 hrs. A simple, classic but perfectly formed creation I’m sure you’ll agree…

Entrant number 2 was Zannah with her star spangled hummingbird cake with vanilla bean icing…

Number 3 was from Han, graphics whizz…chocolate chip cupcakes with an espresso baileys cream cheese topping and there sure was a definite Baileys kick going on! And…she had a double tier cupcake carrier…this lady means business!…

Number 4, from Jennie and Mark, arrived looking like a clingfilm wrapped space ship but when unveiled was in fact a gorgeous sticky toffee banoffee cake, consisting of a banana sponge with a caramel banana whipped cream and mascarpone filling, topped with more caramel whipped cream and mascarpone and finished off with chocolate sprinkles and special happy birthday icing…

And entrant number 5 was my housemate Patti with her trademark coca cola chocolate cake…it’s so wrong that it’s right!…

Number 6, baked by my oldest friend Clare, was a plum, hazelnut and chocolate creation…

Cam baked entry 7, a gorgeously classy looking lemon afternoon tea cake, with lemon icing (my photo does it no justice at all sorry Cam!)…

Number 8 was a batch of Jellyberryfish cupcakes made by Dr Tan…

I thought they definitely deserved a close up…

Next up was Georgie’s entry…in her own words ‘hummingbird stuffed marshmallow cupcakes with vanilla and minimarsh glittery goodness… Fit for a birthday princess!’, which actually had a whole marshmallow hidden in the middle mmm…

Entry number 10 defied the laws of gravity and was iced in situ by Span. It was a delectable maple syrup and pecan nut floating autumn birthday cake…

Lianna had baked some perfect Hummingbird strawberry cheescake cupcakes…

and her housemate Laura had made pineapple and coconut cupcakes…

In all of the excitement, I’m very ashamed to admit that I don’t have a photo of entry number 13, the handiwork of my friend Simon! But I can describe it as the naughtiest looking chocolate cake known to man!…

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So, 13 entries in and voting on appearance commenced…after everyone had had a chance to take a look and cast their votes me and my mum took to the floor and judged them for ourselves. Then came the moment that everyone had been waiting for and salivating over…the taste test…

I was in heaven…13 cakes and I HAD to taste them all! I was cursing the limitations of my posh frock but at the same time blessing he invention of control pants!

I never thought it would so hard to judge a cake competiton but the standard was so high! The effort that had been put into the competition blew me off my feet and the decision was definitely a toughy! We counted up the voting slips, then me and my mum (baking oracle and cake appreciator extraordinaire) chose the winners from those that had received the most public votes.

I have great pleasure in announcing that the winner in the appearance category of the 1st Official Afternoon Tease’s Birthday Cake Bake Off was…

Hannah with her uber professional looking chocolate chip cupcakes with an espresso baileys cream cheese topping…

and the winner in the taste category of the 1st Official Afternoon Tease’s Birthday Cake Bake Off was…Simon with his ‘Ultimate Chocolate Cake’!

As a consolation for not having any photographic evidence of Simon’s immensely naughty creation, I have managed to prise the recipe from him for you here. I highly recommend giving it a try just make sure you have an elasticated waistband 😉

Thank you to all entrants, voters, friends and family…you’re amazing!…I had the best party and 13 whole birthday cakes…that surely must be a world record?!

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