Bakewell thumbprint biscuits

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I’ve been blogging it’s that good recipes can turn up anywhere; a particularly good source being supermarket free magazines.  This one is from the Co-Op’s magazine and combines two of my favourite things – biscuits and bakewells.  Sadly, I no longer live near a Co-Op but my mother in law does, and diligently picks up the new magazine for me whenever it’s available – thanks Dot!

We all probably made thumbprint biscuits as children; they must be up there with fairy cakes and rock buns as the ideal ‘starter’ bake for children.  But what I liked about this recipe was that it reinvented the familiar biscuit and introduced almonds and white icing to create a bakewell hybrid.  It really is a winning combination.

The recipe makes a lot of biscuits.  A lot.  The recipe said it would make 40, and I got 26 (this isn’t bad for me – normally when a recipe says 40 I get about 12!). This is very handy as it is a strong individual who will stop at one!

The lemon zest in the biscuit and the lemon juice in the white icing is quite strong; if you want the almond and jam to be more dominant I would recommend maybe using the zest in the biscuit and making the icing up with water.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
1 lemon’s zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
150g ground almonds
150g self raising flour
approx ½ a jar of raspberry jam

For the icing:
80g icing sugar
1 lemon’s juice
Handful of toasted flaked almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/Gas mark 4.

Line two (or four if you have them, otherwise you can just rotate the baking trays and use them twice) baking sheets with baking paper or non stick foil.

Beat together the butter, sugar, zest and vanilla until light and whippy; you will notice the mix turning pale.

Add the egg and beat well.

Add the ground almonds and self raising flour and stir until just mixed.

Take a heaped teaspoon of the mix and roll into a ball.

Place on the baking sheet.

Repeat until the tray is full – they do spread while baking so aim for a maximum of 8 per baking sheet (depending on the size of your sheet.)

Push your thumb into each ball to form a well.

Spoon ½ teaspoon of jam into each well.

Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes until golden and nicely spread. I found mine needed longer – about 16-18 minutes, but it’s good to check after 10 minutes if only to rotate the trays for an even bake.

Repeat the process until all your biscuit dough is used up.

Leave to cool.

Now make the icing: mix together the icing sugar with just enough lemon juice (you won’t need it all) until you have a thick but runny icing.

Drizzle across the top of the cooled biscuits.

Scatter over the flaked almonds.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Strawberry drizzle cake with clotted cream ice cream

I am such a cliché; it’s Wimbledon weekend so it has to be a strawberry cake!  This cake appealed to me for several reasons:

1. It’s really quick and easy to make
2. The way the strawberries sink into the cake during post-bake cooling leaving crispy edged cake batter in their wake
3. I have never seen a drizzle cake for anything other than a citrus fruit

This is not the cake for you if you want to produce something perfect-looking that will cut into clean patisserie-style slices.  If that’s your requirement, step away from this one!  I can say it because I made it: it looks a bit of a mess.  The weight of the fruit means it sinks a little as it cools; the strawberries become sticky and jammy and mean that the sponge gets juicy pockets in it and breaks when you cut it.  But if you can get past the looks...it delivers 10/10 on the deliciousness scale.

The sweet jam texture of the strawberries was an unexpected bonus – imagine the purest, most freshly made jam...and you’re getting there!  It was one of the loveliest textures I’ve come across in a cake for a long time.

Needless to say, but when you are making a simple cake like this it relies on the quality of the strawberries.  Tasteless strawberries will not become tasty just because they are baked.  I always think you should buy strawberries that have travelled the least distance, for me this means strawberries that speak with a Home Counties accent; I will seek out Jubilee or Elsanta varieties if I can as these seem reliably sweet.

I pushed the boat out in serving this cake with homemade clotted cream ice cream.  As sinfully delicious as it sounds – any ice cream that has the word ‘cream’ twice in its title has my full attention!  The cake would be lovely on its own, or with cream, but with ice cream it is an impressive summer dessert.  I dabble in ice cream but don’t post the recipes on my blog.  For this one I have made an exception!

Ingredients

For the cake:
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g golden caster sugar, plus 2 tablespoons extra for sprinkling
1 egg
120ml milk – whole or semi skimmed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
600g strawberries – washed, hulled and halved (take 6 and put them to one side for the icing)

For the icing:
6 strawberries – taken out of the 600g above
50g icing sugar, plus extra if needed

For the clotted cream ice cream:
2 eggs
125g caster sugar
454g clotted cream
250ml whole milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until well combined; it won’t go light and fluffy because of the ratios involved.

Beat in the egg and the milk.

Beat in the vanilla.

Fold in the flour.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Arrange the strawberries, cut side down, over the batter.  I had to pile the strawberries on in two layers – it will seem like you have too many, but it will all be fine!

Sprinkle the two tablespoons of sugar over the top.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes – 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Mine took just over an hour.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for approximately 15 minutes, before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.  Do not worry when you see the cake sinking as it cools – it does this!

While the cake is baking start making the icing glaze: chop the retained strawberries and sprinkle with one teaspoon of icing sugar.

Leave for approximately 15 minutes and then press the strawberries through a sieve to extract their juice.  As it’s a small amount of fruit the back of a spoon should do the job.

Take one tablespoon of the strawberry juice and mix with the icing sugar until smooth and thick.  If you need to add extra icing sugar or extra strawberry juice, do so.

Drizzle the icing over the cake and leave to set.

To make the ice cream: whisk the eggs until they become thick and frothy.  This will be quite noticeable so don’t stop before you see them become rich and velvety looking.

Gradually whisk in the sugar.

Add the clotted cream and milk and whisk well until the mix is well combined.

Chill in the fridge for at least two hours before churning in your ice cream machine per the manufacturer’s instructions.

NB. If you don’t have an ice cream machine simply spoon the mixture into a 2 litre tub and freeze for three hours.  Remove from the freezer, whisk until smooth, then refreeze for three hours.  Repeat this process a further three or four times before leaving to set for two hours and then serving.  The repetition of whisking is to break down any ice crystals and create that smooth texture which is so important.

Serve the cake in generous slices with cream, or ice cream for a summer dessert.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Rhubarb and custard cupcakes

When Duerr’s kindly offered me a sample of their new range of baking jams and told me they would send me the rhubarb and custard flavour, I was very excited as these are two of my favourite things!  I started thinking about what to use it for.   Since we have moved I haven’t fully unpacked all my baking boxes and every time I walk from the kitchen to the dining room I see boxes of cupcake paraphernalia staring at me as if they’re saying, ‘hey, what about us?  We want to move into our new home too!’  To placate my cupcake overlords I decided to make some cupcakes.

The jam is amazing.  It messed with my head a little bit because it was jam that tasted like rhubarb and custard boiled sweets....yes, that good!

I nearly didn’t post these cupcakes.  They were meant to have a custard buttercream I’d successfully made before...but it was one of those days were everything felt against me.  Lots of anguish and an abandoned buttercream later I decided to top them with a simple glace icing.  I was so fed up at this point I didn’t even let it set properly before photographing the cakes.  It would be a fair assessment to say I was in a bit of a mood (ahem).  You can see how angry I was by the fact I didn’t even stick a wafer daisy on top to pretty them up!

Summary: yes, they look like they were made by a particularly un-artistic five year old but, in their defence, they taste amazing.  The sponge was so fluffy, the jam so sweet and sticky and the simple glaze was actually all they needed.  I still wasn’t going to post them, but Mr CC took them into work and they turned out to be one of most popular bakes for a long time.  I’m a little ashamed by how they look but I shall bow to my eaters on this one!

Ingredients

For the sponges:
175g unsalted butter at room temperature
175g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
175g  self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk
6 teaspoons jam – I used Duerr’s rhubarb and custard jam

For the icing:

200g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Enough hot water to make a thick icing – add a teaspoon at a time – mine took 3 teaspoons

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan oven 160C/350F/Gas mark 4.

Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper cases.

Start by making the sponges: beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.  The mix should look almost whipped – don’t be tempted to skimp on this stage.

Beat in the vanilla and the eggs, one by one.

Fold in the flour.

Stir in enough milk to get a dropping consistency batter.

Spoon into the cupcake cases and bake for about 12-14 minutes or when a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean – better to be a little under than over, as they will continue to cook as they cool.  Don’t worry if they take longer (mine took nearer to 20 minutes) – they are big cupcakes.

Remove from the baking pan as soon as you can do so safely (the heat from the tin may cause them to overbake), and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Use a cupcake corer or knife to remove some of the sponge.

Spoon half a teaspoon of jam into each cupcake.

Now make the icing: beat together the ingredients until you have a really thick, glossy icing.

Spoon over the cupcakes.

Leave to cool and firm up.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Orange madeira cake

There is something about the juicy flavour of orange that lifts a sponge and elevates it to something far beyond the sum of its parts, and yet I find that I don’t bake with it very often.  This is a conundrum.  To rectify this I found a madeira cake recipe that used lemon and switched it to orange, also adding an orange glaze.

Loaf cakes are very satisfying for a blogger – they are usually quick and easy to get into the oven, and you’re guaranteed nice even slices to photograph!  The shape of the tin provides a nice crust and a soft sponge underneath…no wonder they are Mr CC’s favourite (as a side note I am pleased to report that, while he doesn’t really understand why, he has learned that ‘dry’ is not taken as a compliment when critiquing sponge!)

This cake smells glorious while baking in the oven; it is a cake to bake while you have people looking around your home thinking of buying it!  The addition of a small amount of ground almonds also keeps the cake moist and gives it a lovely crumb.

Using freshly squeezed orange juice in the glace icing pays dividends; it’s almost confusing in your mouth because you’re eating icing but tasting orange juice – it really packs a punch in terms of flavour.

Ingredients

For the sponge:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
grated zest of 1 orange
200g self raising flour
50g ground almonds

For the glaze:

100g icing sugar
enough orange juice to make an icing – add 1 teaspoon at a time

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan oven 150°C/340°F/gas mark 3.

Line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and whippy – don’t skimp on this stage.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like the mix might curdle (NB. Use this as a test – if you’ve beaten your butter and sugar enough it won’t curdle!)

Fold in the orange zest, flour and ground almonds.

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool, in the tin, for approximately 20 minutes before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

When the cake is cold you can make the icing: beat together the icing sugar and orange juice until you have a thick glossy glaze.  Add the orange juice 1 teaspoon at a time – it is very easy to make it too runny.

Spoon over the cake and let drizzle down the sides.

Serve in thick slices with a cup of tea.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Almond and cherry slices

Mr CC has been muttering of late that I don’t make his favourite sort of cakes.  The poor thing is practically malnourished due to my neglect! When I asked him what were his favourite sort of cakes he replied: anything that Mr Kipling makes.  Now don’t get me wrong; I am not (ok, I try not to be) a cake snob and will happily enjoy a Mr Kipling cake if there’s one on offer…but the thought of choosing one over a nice home baked treat is something I struggle with; if Mr CC heard my dramatic in-take of breath at his comment he didn’t let on. 

Mr CC mentioned, in particular, almond slices so I pondered how to take the essence of a Mr Kipling almond slice and pimp it up a bit.  I decided on adding a pastry base, chopped cherries and some thick white icing.  It then dawned on me that what I had actually created was the lovechild of a Mr Kipling almond slice and bakewell tart…and it tasted as good as you’d expect!

If you’re pushed for time you can forget the pastry and simply bake the filling; the result will be a very pleasing almond sponge.  The cherries work so well with almond.  Whilst I still can’t manage half a glace cherry on top of a cake, chopped into small pieces I rather like the fruity –almost jammy - chewy little pop they bring to proceedings.  The cake will keep for days - anything with almonds seems to get better day after day as the nut oil is released.

This basic recipe has some alternative options available – omit the cherries and replace with fresh fruit such as raspberries or blueberries; you could also add a layer of jam between pastry and filling.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

175g plain flour
85g unsalted butter – straight from the fridge
30g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

For the filling:

110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
150g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
50g ground almonds
100g glace cherries, chopped quite small
1 tablespoon milk
A couple of handfuls of flaked almonds

For the icing:

100g icing sugar
Enough warm water to make a thick, glossy icing - add it a teaspoon at a time

Method

Start by making the pastry: place the flour and butter in the food processor and blitz until you have fine crumbs.

Add the sugar and blitz briefly.

While the machine is still running pour in the egg yolk and water.

Stop the processor when small clumps of pastry start to form.

Tip the clumps out onto a sheet of clingfilm and, using your hands, bring together into a ball of pastry.

If you wish to make the pastry by hand rub the butter into the flour until you have crumbs.  Stir in the sugar, egg and water and, bring together to a ball of dough.

Roll the pastry out between two sheets of clingfilm – this saves having to add any extra flour and changing the make up of the pastry.

Line a 30cm x 20cm traybake tin with the pastry.  I like to use a disposable foil traybake tin as I find it easier to get the cooked traybake out! 

Use any spare pastry to patch the tin – it’s good natured and will patch easily.

Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.

Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for 1 hour. (Note that the pastry is rested after rolling – not before).

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Cover the chilled pastry with non-stick foil or baking paper and weigh down with baking beans.

Bake for 10 minutes before removing the paper and beans and cooking for a further 10 minutes or until golden.

Put to one side to cool while you make the filling.

Now make the filling: beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and whippy.

Beat in the eggs.

Stir in the flour and baking powder.

Fold in the ground almonds and chopped cherries.

Stir in the milk to slacken the mixture.

Spoon into the pastry case and flatten well to ensure there are no air pockets.

Level the surface and scatter over the flaked almonds.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the almond sponge comes out clean.

Leave to cool, in the tin, on a wire rack.

When the cake is cool make the icing: add warm water, a teaspoon at a time, to the icing sugar and mix until you have a thick, white, glossy icing.

Use a spoon to drizzle over the almond sponge.

Leave to set.

Cut into generous finger-shaped slices – I got 18 fingers.

Eat on its own with a big cup of tea.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Jam and custard bundt cake

I’ve had this gorgeous bundt cake for a while but not used it.  I wanted to save it for a special cake and this is it!  It was important that the outside of the cake was left simple and not over-iced so as to hide the intricacy of the mould.  Therefore, all the goodies are stashed away inside the cake and only revealed on cutting.

I hummed and hawed for a while over whether to put some glace icing over the top.  I do love glace icing but didn’t want to cover the cake, so I compromised – I went for a slightly thinner consistency of icing so it would cover but not hide the pattern.  Yes, I know it looked better without the icing but in my defence I truly love white icing! 

To stop the custard or jam seeping to the edge of the batter and possibly burning during baking I came up with a method to make channels in the batter and spoon the fillings into it.  Use a spoon or knife to make a channel like this:

Take care to spoon the custard and jam into the channel, making sure there is batter protecting it from the edges of the tin:

Cover with batter and spread carefully so as not to squidge the custard and jam out to the edge.

You get a lovely big slice from a bundt cake like this; the batter was the perfect quantity to fill the tin and, when baked, the cake only needed a thin trim to cut off the crust and make it stand nicely on a plate.

The sponge is lovely – soft and springy, and would be nice on its own with a buttercream or full covering of icing.  Definitely a keeper!

Ingredients:

For the custard:
2 tablespoons custard powder
1 tablespoon caster sugar
280ml milk

For the cake batter:
225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
450g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla extract
350g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250ml natural/Greek style  yogurt
4-5 teaspoons jam – I used strawberry

For the glaze:
150g icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons warm water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C/ fan oven 160°C/ 350°F/gas mark 4.

Spray the bundt tin with cake release spray – my bundt tin was a N0rdicware 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch.

Make up the custard according to the instructions on the packet and leave to set.  You want the custard cold before you add it to the batter.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy; don’t skimp on this stage.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, add a little of the flour if it looks like the batter might curdle.

Beat in the vanilla.

Weigh out the flour and bicarbonate of soda.

Measure out the yoghurt.

Stir in a third of the flour mixture followed by half the yogurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. Don’t over-beat the batter at this stage.

Spoon about a third of the batter into the prepared tin and ensure it is evenly spread out.   (NB.  I did this and my jam and custard sank during baking, so I think next time I’d put half the batter in first, then a layer of jam/custard, then half the remaining batter, layer of jam/custard, final bit of batter)

Take a blunt knife or teaspoon and bank the batter up the sides of the tin a little, to make a channel for the custard and jam.

Spread out half the custard onto the batter, taking care that it doesn’t reach the edges – you want it enclosed in the cake batter.

Dot some jam on top.

Spoon a further third of batter over the jam and custard, taking care not to squidge it out to the edges.

Bank the sponge again to make a channel.

Repeat the process with the remaining custard, jam and cake batter.  The final layer of cake batter should be spread smooth – no need to make a channel.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes, then de-tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make the glace icing:  mix the icing sugar with a little warm water until you have a thick, glossy icing that’s runny but not watery.   If in doubt, keep the icing on the thick side.

Spoon it over the cake and allow to drizzle down the sides.

Leave to set.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Pineapple and coconut cake

When Lindt contacted me regarding their new Hello Summer fruity chocolate range I zeroed straight in on the luscious looking white chocolate, pineapple and coconut bar. 

It didn’t disappoint and is a great chocolate bar to soften the blow of Autumn and Winter arriving so suddenly this year.  The berry, lime and strawberry versions are a bit of alright too, and Mr CC made very appreciative sounds over the coffee version.  (My toughest challenge on this one was holding him back long enough to photograph all the chocolate!)

As luck would have it, I had bookmarked the recipe for this cake from Laws of the Kitchen, one of my favourite bloggers. You should visit her site anyway, but especially if you want to find this recipe in cups.

I decided to add a pineapple glaze to the cake and scatter finely chopped Lindt chocolate over the top.  It worked well as the filling was firm enough to hold its shape when I cut it into fine shards.  The bar is shaped nicely – I always think long thin bars taste better than squarer ones!

The one mistake I made was forgetting to buy buttermilk.  My local shop doesn’t stock it and I couldn’t face a trip to the supermarket just for one ingredient.  So I did what I always do in a crisis...I turned to the internet!  I never realised how easy it is to make buttermilk – simply milk and lemon juice.  I liked that I could make the quantity I needed; normally when I buy a pot of buttermilk for a recipe I end up wasting some of it.  It wasn’t quite as thick as the shop bought version but did the same job.  In this photo you can see the curdling start to take place:

Thank you Lindt for the lovely samples...any time you need someone to taste your chocolate I will make the time to assist!!!

Ingredients

For the cake:

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
300g caster sugar
5 eggs
375g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
180ml coconut milk
120ml buttermilk (or make your own with 120ml milk and 1 tablespoon lemon juice)
100g desiccated coconut
230g crushed pineapple – save the juice for the icing (I could only get pineapple chunks so mashed them up a bit with a fork)

For the icing:

100g icing sugar
1 tablespoon pineapple juice (from the can!)

To decorate: Lindt coconut and pineapple chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

If you are making your own buttermilk mix together the milk and lemon juice and leave to stand for at least 10 minutes.  It will start to curdle but won’t become quite as thick as the shop bought version.

Line a 20cm square cake pan with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs one at a time – if the mixture starts to curdle add some of the flour.  Having said that, I didn’t find the mixture curdled – beat the butter and sugar for a long time and you should be ok.

Stir together the coconut milk and buttermilk.

Stir in 1/3 of the flour followed by half the buttermilk and coconut milk.

Repeat with a further 1/3 of flour and the remaining buttermilk and coconut milk.

Stir in the remaining flour and the baking powder.

Stir in the pineapple and coconut.

Spoon into the prepared cake tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 1hour – 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for 30 minutes in the tin before de-tinning and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make the icing – beat together the ingredients until thick and glossy.

Drizzle over the cake.

Sprinkle over shards of lovely Lindt chocolate.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.