Hazelnut tray bake

I love traybakes, so I've treated myself to a new tin - the Wilton 'Biscuit/Brownie' pan [28x18cm]. Now I'm fired up to try it out!
I bought some hazelnuts in Waitrose recently, so thought I'd make something using them.
This recipe is adapted from one that was in a magazine some time ago. I like the idea of a crumble base and then the cake mixture on top of it.

300g plain flour
175g butter cut into pieces
350g demerara sugar
200ml creme fraiche
2 eggs

3 tspns baking powder [level]

150g hazelnuts chopped in half

preheat oven 180C/gas4
Grease and line the tin with baking parchment.
Sift flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar. Sprinkle 350g of this mixture into the tin and press it down.
Beat the eggs and creme fraiche together and stir in the rest of the crumble mixture and baking powder.
Pour this over the crumble mixture. Arrange the hazelnuts on top, pressing gently.
Bake in middle of the oven for about 45 mins. I found that the nuts were getting too brown, so I covered them with parchment.

Now comes the fiddly bit! You need to get the bottom crumble crisp, so put a piece of parchment over the cake and put a baking sheet on top. Invert the cake onto the sheet. Take off the lining paper and put the cake back in the oven for about 10-15 mins.

To put it on a wire rack you need to invert the rack over it to get the cake the right way up. It's worth the effort, honestly!

This is what the finished cake looks like. When Bob had a look at the camera, he deleted the good photos!

Hop Pickers' Cake

When I was in town yesterday, I found a Bank Holiday bric a brac market. I love browsing in case I find old cookery books. To my delight, there was a stall selling nothing but cookery books. Heaven!

I bought 'The National Trust Book of tea-time recipes' [1991], an old red 'Mrs Beeton's Cookery Book', 'Good Housekeeping's Picture Recipe Book [1954] and 'The Baking Book' [1996] by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake. I like Linda Collister's recipes - she wrote the book that went with last year's 'Great British Bake Off'.

I decided today that I want to make some more British cakes, so decided on a 'Kentish Hop Pickers' Cake' from the National Trust book.

I lived in Kent for many years and visited hop farms. This is a lovely photo from an old calendar I had many years ago.

I've adapted the recipe to suit our likes in spices and dried fruit.

275g sr flour

1 tspn ginger

1 tspn cinnamon

175g soft margarine or butter

100g soft brown sugar

100g raisins

100g mixed fruit with peel

400ml milk

1 tbspn black treacle

1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda

1 tspn cream of tartar

Preheat oven 160C/325F/gas 3

Grease a 900g loaf tin

Mix the flour and spices together then rub in the fat.

Add the sugar and the dried fruits and mix.

Warm the milk and the treacle and add to the flour mixture a bit at a time.

Beat this well, then pour it into the tin.

Bake for 1-11/4 hours.

The cake was the texture of my Granny's 'Bread pudding'. All the fruit was at the bottom in a layer. It was a very runny mixture when I put it in the tin. Maybe it's meant to be more of a pudding than a cake? Perhaps it needed more cooking? There are no photos in the book, so I can't tell how it's meant to look!

I've been doing a bit of research, and I found another recipe for this cake on a traditional British cakes site; it says that the cake is much like a lardy cake in texture, so maybe my cake is OK. It tastes good anyway!

Apple sour cream cake

I love apple cakes and this is one I hadn't made before. It's good as a cake and as a dessert.

125g butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
200g plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
1 tbspn cinnamon
2 cooking apples
3 tbspn sour creme
topping
1 tbspn butter
2 tbspn sugar
1/2 tspn cinnamon

Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4

Grease and line a 23cm springform tin

Cream butter and sugar together till fluffy.
Beat in eggs and stir in vanilla essence, flour and baking powder, tbspn cinnamon and the sour cream.
Peel and chop one apple into dice and finely slice the other.
Add the diced apple to the mixture and spoon in the tin.
Arrange the apple slices on top.

                Melt the tbspn butter amd mix with the sugar and cinnamon. Brush this over the apple slices.

                Bake for about 40 mins till golden and cool on a wire rack.

Easter cake

We don't like marzipan, so our Easter cake is usually a chocolate one. We're off to Suffolk to our son tomorrow, and my contribution is this chocolate cake.

This is the recipe I use most often. It has oil instead of butter.

190g sr flour
2 tbspns cocoa powder
1 tspn bicarb. of soda
1 tspn baking powder
150g caster sugar
150ml milk
150ml veg. oil [I used sunflower]
2 tbspn golden syrup
2 beaten eggs

Oven 160C/gas3
Grease and line 2 x20cm sandwich tins
Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, bicarb and baking powder into a bowl.
Beat the milk, oil, eggs and syrup together and add to the bowl.
Beat the mixture till well mixed.
Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins. [My cakes took 45 mins in my gas oven.]
Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

For the icing you can use a chocolate butter cream, a ganache or this one, which I find isn't too sickly.

50g butter
4 tbspn sieved cocoa powder
3 tbspns milk
150g sieved icing sugar

Melt butter in a pan and add the cocoa. Stir and heat gently for about a minute.

Stir in the icing sugar and milk.
Take it off the heat and beat it well, then leave to cool and thicken.
There's enough icing to sandwich the cakes together and to spread some on top.
I added chocolate eggs for my Easter cake.

Hot Cross Buns

I've carried on my family's tradition of making 'Hot Cross Buns', using the recipe that my Mum and Granny used.
I still weigh the ingredients in lbs and ozs.

I've not given the recipe here as there are so many similar recipes on the web or in cookbooks or magazines.

Here's one I've also made and it's very good.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hotcrossbuns_397

I made 24 buns, freezing 12 when cool, before I brushed on the sugar syrup.

                     I love this plate - it's 'Robin' from Emma Bridgewater's  'Birds' series. The buns are covering the robin! Here he is!

Bara brith

This is my Gran's version of the Welsh teabread. You can also make bara brith [speckled bread] with yeast.

6oz [175g] currants
6oz [175g sultanas]
8oz brown sugar
10fl oz [300ml] very strong tea
10oz [275g] sr flour
1egg

Preheat oven 180C/gas 4/350F

Grease a 2lb [900g] loaf tin

Put the fruit and brown sugar in a bowl and pour over the hot tea. Leave it to soak overnight.
Stir the flour and beaten egg into the fruit mixture and pour into the tin.
Bake for about 1hour and leave to cool in the tin.
Serve as it is or buttered.

I added some cinnamon to the flour, and think next time I'll change some of the fruit for dried cranberries.
I'll also try different flavoured teas and maybe use half white and half wholemeal flour.

Zingy lemon bars

Had a couple of lemons left in the fruit bowl so thought I'd make a cake. Didn't want to make my usual drizzle cake, so found this recipe in an old copy of a French magazine.

I did a very stupid thing and opened the oven to check that the cake hadn't overcooked - so of course it's now sunk in the middle! I still haven't got the measure of this gas cooker - several things I've cooked lately have been overcooked, hence the checking of the cake! That's my excuse anyway!

Bottom of cake
125g plain flour
pinch salt
35g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
2 drops vanilla extract

Topping
2 medium eggs
170g caster sugar
grated zest and juice of a large lemon
1 tbspn plain flour
1/2 tspn bicarb. of soda
icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven 180C/gas4/350F
Grease a 20cm square cake tin.

Put flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor and mix. Add the butter and vanilla extract and blitz till the mixture becomes a soft dough.
Press this evenly into the bottom of the cake tin and prick with a fork.
Bake for 12-15 mins till it's lightly golden and firmish.
Leave to cool in tin.

Whisk the eggs with a hand mixer till frothy and gradually whisk in the sugar till thick and foamy. Whisk in the lemon juice and zest then the flour and bicarb.
Pour this over the bottom and bake for 20-25 mins till golden brown.

Leave to cool in the tin and then cut into 12 pieces. Dust with icing sugar.

It has a good lemony tang and I like the crunchy base.

Cranberry and cinnamon cake

Needed to make something quick for tea today, as my new neighbour is coming for a cuppa. This is a recipe I've been meaning to do for ages, so today's the day!
It's out of my handwritten notebook, so presume it's from a magazine or a friend.

175g soft margarine or butter[softened]
175g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
200g sr flour
1 heaped tspn cinnamon
75g dried cranberries
rind and juice of 1 orange
demerara sugar for the top

preheat oven 180C/gas5.
Line a tin 33x23 cm.

Beat the margarine/butter with the sugar.
Add the eggs and beat together.
Add the cinnamon to the flour and fold into the mixture.
Finally, add the cranberries, orange juice and rind. Mix to a dropping consistency.
Put into the tin and bake for about 25mins.
Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

This cake freezes well, so you can cut it into slices and freeze them in a suitable container.

I think it would taste good with an orange flavoured icing.

Apricot and sultana rock buns

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 brown sugar over each one.

I made 9 good sized cakes.

Bake for 15 mins and cool on a rack

Fruity teabread

Another one of my favourite recipes for teabreads. It's full of juicy fruit that's been soaked in tea and it's spicy too.

375g mixed dried fruit
125g soft brown sugar
150ml hot tea of choice
1 large egg
1 tbspn milk
50g chopped walnuts
225g sr flour
1 tbspn mixed spice

Preheat oven 150C/gas3

Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.
Put the fruit, sugar and tea in a large bowl and leave to infuse together for about 4 hours or overnight.
Beat the egg and milk together and add to the bowl with the walnuts.
Sift the flour and spice together and fold into the fruit mixture.
Put into the tin and bake for about 50mins to an hour.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Can be eaten on its own or with butter.

Pantry paella

Thought I'd post a recipe that wasn't baking this time.

 I watched Nigella's 'Kitchen' series and loved the look of this paella. We're off to North Wales tomorrow to visit our son and family, so I didn't want to go shopping.
Had some raw tiger prawns in the freezer, so this seemed to be the ideal time to try out this dish. We'd  brought some paella rice and spices back from Spain last year, and they were just lying in the back of the cupboard.
You'll find Nigella's recipe here

I wish I'd brought a paella pan back too, but I used my new heavy duty Tefal frying pan instead.

This is the finished dish. Nigella suggests you decorate it with lemon slices and coriander, but haven't any lemons left and I hate coriander!

Picau ar y maen - Welshcakes

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 and cook the Welshcakes for about 3 mins each side till golden.
Cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with sugar. They're best eaten warm, on the day they're made.