Ginger and Apricot Loaf

Another one of my favourite loaf cake recipes. This one uses stem ginger to give a better flavour than ground ginger. I've found a similar shop to the much missed [by me anyway] Julian Graves stores, so I stocked up on walnuts and dried fruit, including apricots. This such a quick loaf to make, and you can chose whether to ice it or not. I think the recipe is a WI one, as my mil gave it to me, and she usually used their recipes.

Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin.

In a large bowl put 115g wholemeal flour, 115g plain flour, 11/2tspns baking powder, 150g soft brown sugar, 115g soft butter, pinch salt, 2 beaten eggs, zest of a lemon and 2 tbspns of milk - beat it all together with an electric hand mixer. Stir in 175g chopped dried apricots [the no soak ones] and add 3 pieces of stem ginger chopped finely together with 4 tbspns of the ginger syrup. Finely slice a 4th piece of ginger and keep for the top.
Spoon mixture into the tin, level, then arrange the 4th piece of ginger down the centre of the top.
Bake for about 1 hr or so. Mine took 75 mins, and I had to cover the top with some foil, as it was getting too brown.
Leave in tin for about 15mins then turn onto a wire rack.
I decorated the top when cool with some lemon glace icing [I used 115g icing sugar with about 1 tbspn of lemon juice].

A nice treat with a cuppa  - a lovely subtle ginger flavour and a bite from the apricots. A good combination of flavours.

Autumn Apple Loaf

This is my kind of cake - a nice simple apple loaf cake - just right for using up some apple windfalls which a friend gave me. Have been busy making chutney and trying apple butter [delicious]. I made some apple muffins and scones for my children to take, and this loaf for us. It's also nice as a dessert.

You preheat oven 170C/gas3 and line a 900g loaf tin with some baking parchment.

Using an electric mixer, beat 175g caster sugar and  175g butter together till nice and fluffy then add 3 eggs, one at a time. Add a tspn of vanilla extract and mix in.
In another bowl mix 225g of plain flour together with a tspn of baking powder, a tspn of ginger and a tspn of cinnamon.
Add this to the batter and fold in. Then add about 25ml milk to make a soft batter.

Peel and core about 3 small apples - chop most of it into small pieces, but leave a few pieces to slice for the top of the loaf. Mix the apple pieces into the batter.

Spoon the batter into the tin and arrange the slices along the top. Sprinkle about a tbspn of dark brown sugar over the slices.

Bake for about an hour till golden.

                          A lovely moist cake; you can taste the spices and then the soft apples pieces.

                                   I suppose the recipe is really a variation on a basic Madeira cake.

Pecan and Honey Loaf

I still have some pecans to use up from the bag I bought a while ago from the sadly- no- longer Julian Graves shop. I love making loaf cakes, so this is my variation on a recipe that had walnuts in it. Had a pot of local honey in the cupboard which needed using up, so added 1 tbspn to the cake mixture and also put 1 tbspn in the icing.

190g butter
190g caster sugar
190g plain flour
1 tspn baking powder
3 eggs
1 tspn vanilla essence
1 tbspn runny honey
60g chopped nuts - pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts

Icing - icing sugar, lemon juice and 1 tbspn of honey - depends how thick you want your icing to be  as to how much icing sugar and lemon juice you use!

Preheat oven 170C/gas 3
Grease a 900g loaf tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer till white and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each one.

Fold in the flour gently, a bit at a time.
Add the vanilla and 1 tbspn of honey, then mix in the chopped nuts by hand.
Spoon into the tin and bake for about an hour, till risen and golden.
Cool on a wire rack, and when cold, spoon over some icing made with icing sugar, lemon juice and the other tbspn of honey.

Lovely subtle honey flavour in the background, enhanced by the icing. Good texture, moist, and think I prefer pecans to walnuts. A useful recipe to have, as it can be played around with to give new flavours.

Orange and apricot loaf

Yet another version of my favourite bakes -  loaf cakes. I like these cakes because they're quick and easy to make and keep well.

175g dried apricots
150ml orange juice
400g plain flour
175g caster sugar
100g raisins
1/1/2 tspns baking powder
1/2 tspn bicarb
1/2 tspn salt
grated rind of 1 orange
1 egg, beaten
25g melted butter of margarine
sugar of choice to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4
Grease a 900g loaf tin

Soak the apricots in the orange juice.
Then put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Add the apricots and orange juice, butter, orange rind and the egg and mix it all together. The mixture is very stiff.

Put it into the tin and bake for about an hour till it's golden and firm.

I used golden caster sugar, and only 100g, as 175g seemed a lot. I sprinkled some golden granulated suagr over the mixture in the tin.
Ready to eat with our afternoon cuppa!

The recipe is adapted from a book I've had for ages but not used much - 1000 Cakes and Bakes.

I found it a bit dry, and there wasn't much flavour from the orange juice, so would use a little more liquid next time and maybe some orange essence. An orange flavoured icing drizzled over?
I don't buy raisins often, but they were on offer - need I say more!

I

Honey and banana loaf

We love teabreads and loafcakes, so I made this one to use up a couple of very ripe bananas.

This recipe was given to me by my aunt many years ago, and it's delicious. I've changed it to metric.

225g sr flour
1/2 tspn grated nutmeg
100g margarine or butter[softened]
225g bananas [weighed without skins]
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
6 tbspn thick honey

topping
2tbspn honey [warmed]
crushed sugar lumps or nibbed sugar

Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F

Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin and line base with greaseproof paper.

Put flour and nutmeg in a bowl and rub in the marg. or butter till it looks like breadcrumbs.
Mash the peeled bananas and stir into the flour with the sugar, eggs and honey.
Beat it well until it's evenly mixed.
Put into the loaf tin and bake for about 45 mins. Check that the top's not browning too much, or if it is, put foil on the top.
Allow the loaf to cool then put onto a wire rack. When it's completely cool, brush the honey [which has been warmed in a small pan] over the top and sprinkle on the sugar.

This is nice on it's own with a cuppa or spread with butter.

I brought some nibbed sugar back from France, so used this on the top. I also added some mixed spice to the flour mixture as I love spice!

Apple and spice loaf cake

If you read this blog, you'll know that we love teabreads. Wanted to try a new recipe, so found this one on the BBC Good Food site. You'll find it  here.
I tweaked the spices and used some 'quatre epices' which is much like mixed spice in the UK. I found it rather sweet so maybe less sugar next time. I like the sliced apple on top; it gave the cooked teabread  an interesting look.

We had a slice of it with a cuppa.