Rum and raisin slices

If there is a flavour combination the CCD (Caked Crusader’s Da) cannot resist it’s rum and raisin, thus for Father’s Day this seemed an obvious choice.


I adapted the recipe – originally it was for sultanas soaked in Irish whiskey but as I don’t like whiskey......can you see where this is going?


The CCD loved this cake and wanted it noted that he had three pieces of it. Normally he has a piece of cake but never seconds. This time he had seconds and thirds and kept some slices back for tomorrow. In my baking career this has never happened so it is truly an event worth documenting! In fact, I felt like the Man from Del Monte had just said "yes"!

These are a very simple bake and the only planning involved is making sure you soak the fruit for long enough before you make the cake. I used a mixture of golden and brown raisins and soaked them in rum for about 36 hours. By this time they were plump, juicy and sparkling like jewels.



Ingredients:
For the raisins – make well in advance:
150g raisins
100ml dark rum

For the cake:
130g unsalted butter, at room temperature
130g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
130g self raising flour
2 tablespoons Demerara sugar


How to make:

- At least 24 hours before you plan to bake the cake, soak the raisins in the rum. Cover the bowl tightly (I used clingfilm) and, whenever you pass the dish, peel back the clingfilm and give the raisins a stir.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line the base and sides of an 18cm square tin with baking paper.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and light.
- Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
- Stir in the raisins and rum.
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until you reach the stiff peak stage.
- Fold the egg whites into the cake mix in three batches alternately with batches of the flour.
- Spoon into the tin and level the surface.
- Sprinkle the Demerara sugar over the top and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out cleanly. Mine took exactly 25 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out and letting cool completely.
- Cut into fingers.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Toffee apple and almond tart

Today is Father’s Day so my baking took on a CCD-friendly (Caked Crusader’s Da) twist. The CCD likes toffee, apples and, unsurprisingly, toffee apples so this tart looked a winner for him. I adapted the recipe from one of Richard Corrigan's so knew it would be good!


None of the stages of this recipe are difficult but there are a lot of stages so make sure you have enough time to make it. The pastry is buttery and delicious. I thought it was going to be tricky to work with as it was a sticky dough but it was incredibly well-behaved; it didn’t tear at all. Look at the buttery colour of it:


The bed of almond sponge puffs up around the apples when it cooks and takes on the juicy flavour of the dulce de leche. It really is a treat for the tastebuds. I think this tart was professional standard – you’d be delighted to get this in any restaurant or patisserie.


I used apples from the fruit and veg box kindly provided by Abel & Cole. As these were sweet red apples, I mixed them with some Granny Smith’s to increase the tartness of the apples.


As always I like to provide serving suggestions.....


....and a ‘spoon shot’:


Ingredients:
For the pastry:
250g plain flour
125g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge and cubed
50g caster sugar
2 eggs

For the almond cream:
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g ground almonds
25g plain flour

For the apple layer:
4 dessert apples, peeled and cut into slices (I cut each apple into 8 wedges)
1 tablespoon caster sugar
4 tablespoons dulce de leche

For the topping:
35g unsalted butter
15g plain flour
65g Demerara sugar
25g ground almonds
Handful of flaked almonds

To serve: custard or thick spooning cream


How to make:
- Start by making the pastry. Place the flour, butter and sugar into a food processor and blitz until you have breadcrumbs. (You can do this by hand with the old rubbing the butter into the flour method)
- Add the eggs and blitz again.
- Tip out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, with a little extra flour if necessary, bring the mixture into a dough.
- Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C/fan oven 130°C/300°F/Gas mark 2.
- Roll out the pastry between two sheets of clingfilm until it is large enough to line a 25cm loose bottomed flan tin. There is no need to grease the tin as the pastry is so buttery. I found the pastry behave really well and there was no tearing thus no patching needed. Leave any surplus pastry hanging over the edge
- Line the pastry with a sheet of baking paper and fill with baking beans and bake blind in the oven for 45 minutes. This sounds a long time but the light is very low so the pastry won’t burn.
- Remove the paper and beans and, when cool enough to touch, trim away the excess pastry.
- Increase the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Now make the almond cream: cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then the ground almonds then the flour. Put to one side.
- Now cook the apples. Place the apple wedges in a pan and cook over a high heat so that they soften and release some juice.
- Add the sugar and ensure that the apples are all coated. They will start to caramelise.
- When the apples are soft and golden, but not falling apart, remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool a little.
- Now make the topping: rub the butter into the flour until you have breadcrumbs.
- Stir in the sugar and almonds.
- When the apples are cooled stir in the dulce de leche.
- Now assemble the tart for final baking. Spread the almond cream into the pastry case. It will look like there is too much but, with careful spreading it will easily fit.
- Arrange the apples on top making sure you scrape all the lovely dulce de leche out of the pan as well.
- Sprinkle the topping over the apples along with a handful of flaked almonds.
- Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, making sure the topping doesn’t burn. Mine took just over 40 minutes.
- Serve either warm with custard or at room temperature with cream.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Iron Cupcake London – prizes

The second ICL challenge takes place on Monday 6th July, and the theme is “summer fruits”. Just to remind you all of the details:

Are your cupcakes up to the challenge? Are you worthy of the Iron Cupcake Winner’s rosette and the acclaim that comes with it? There’s only one way to find out…..

ICL Challenge II: Summer Fruits

Make one batch (i.e. 12) of cupcakes using summer fruits in any way you wish…

On the night everyone will have a say in declaring the winner, who walks away with the ICL Winner’s rosette plus a cupcake themed goody bag (presented in the much-coveted ICL bag!) see details below.

Event details:

Monday 6 July 2009

6.00pm – 8.30pm

Barrowboy & Banker pub, 6-8 Borough High Street, SE1 9QQ

Entry fee: £5 – even if you don’t wish to enter the competition why not come along to taste the cupcakes? (Entry fee includes tea or coffee)

For further information visit:

I can now reveal the prizes – ta da!


The main prize is a fabulous cupcake courier that allows you to transport, not 12, not 24 but 36 cupcakes!!! It is an amazing item and special thanks must go to the lovely people at The Cupcake Courier who donated the prize.


Of course, if you’re in London you can win the cupcake courier at ICL, if you’re not in London then hot foot it over to The Cupcake Courier website and buy yourself the Rolls Royce of cupcake transportation. When they’ve travelled in one of these, your cupcakes will never let you put them in Tupperware or an old biscuit tin again!

Along with our terrific main prize you’ll also have noticed cupcake magnets, lip balms and a cupcake candle. All of these will go to the winner and also the first runner up.

See you on the 6th July......

Summer fruit vanilla cake

This is a recipe that gives you options: you can leave the fruit out and have a lovely plain vanilla cake; you can vary the fruit depending on what’s in season; you can replace the fruit with something else – chocolate and nuts, perhaps? You can dress it up with whipped cream or buttercream; you can leave it whole or cut it through to make into a layer cake.


What I’m trying to communicate is that this is one of those staple recipes that every good baker should have in their armoury. I see it as the equivalent of that perfect pair of black trousers you can dress up or down depending on the occasion and they’ll always look good.


After seeing some beautiful blueberries and raspberries I decided to use them in my version of this cake. I love the colour combination of the purply-blue and red plus both fruits pack a punch which adds depth of flavour to the sponge.


The cake uses yoghurt which gives a denser –but not heavy - texture to the sponge. The vanilla syrup, drizzled over the cooling cake ensures that each bite of this cake will be succulent and fragrant with vanilla.

Ingredients:
For the cake:
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g golden caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 eggs
85g plain flour
100g full fat yoghurt
250g self raising flour
3 tablespoons milk
200g raspberries
150g blueberries

For the syrup:
50g golden caster sugar
50ml water
Seeds from half a vanilla pod

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/315°F/Gas mark 3.
- Line the base and sides of a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.
- Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little of the plain flour if the mixture starts to curdle.
- Beat in the yoghurt.
- Combine the two flours then very gently beat into the mixture. Stop as soon as the flour is combined.
- Gently stir the fruit into the batter and ensure that it is distributed nicely throughout the batter.
- Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 1 hour 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Mine took 1 hour 40 minutes.
- Now make the syrup: heat all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool.
- Once the cake is out of the oven leave it to cool for 30 minutes before making holes right the way down (use a skewer) and pouring the syrup over. It’s best to do this a little at a time and wait for it to be absorbed rather than swamp the cake all at once.
- Leave to cool completely then store in an airtight tin.
- Serve with cream and fruit or however you wish.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.