Great Cooks Blogroll

I have joined the Great Cooks Blogroll! If you glance at the bottom right corner of my blog you will see a link and the blogroll showing you all the sites who belong. Think of all the wonderful recipes these sites contain!

Rich butter cake

This cake is simplicity itself – a plain loaf that only takes about 10 minutes to make and put in the oven. But what rewards for so little effort! Sometimes you just want a really plain cake with lovely, subtle flavours but no fuss.


This cake is all about butter and vanilla. A marriage made in heaven!

A soft, close textured sponge not dissimilar to a Madeira cake but more vanilla-y. Perfect with a cup of tea (or coffee if you absolutely must). If you want to add another texture to the cake you can scatter crushed sugar cubes on the top of the cake before baking but I haven’t done this – I don’t think it needs it.

Here you can see the rich, buttery texture:


No other cake ingredient seems to waft such a delicious aroma around the home whilst cooking quite like vanilla. To me it is the culinary equivalent of the Sirens calling sailors to the rocks. Except no one dies.


I think this shot shows the beautiful “come and get me” texture of the cake:


Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons semi skimmed milk
3-4 teaspoons vanilla extract
250g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line a 900g loaf tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy. Don’t skimp on this stage – give the mixture a good beating for 5 minutes or so.
- Gradually beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Don’t worry if it curdles a little, as soon as you add the flour it will sort itself out.
- Fold in the flour and baking powder until well mixed in.
- Spoon into the tin and level.
- Bake in the over for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took an hour.
- Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and allowing to cool completely
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

What the Caked Crusader chose to bake to this week (23 Feb 2008)

I wouldn’t say that Stacey Kent is going to go down in musical history as one of the all-time great female jazz singers, but I have a soft spot for her uncomplicated style and the way that you always get the sense that she thinks the song’s the star, rather than her – she never spoils a classic with the modern curse of vocal acrobatics which seems to involve putting in 8 notes where only one is required.

Her plaintive rendition of “Fools Rush In” – possibly Johnny Mercer’s finest lyric and, trust me, there’s a lot of competition! – is her masterpiece; not a word or note is wasted and I still can’t listen to it without hitting the replay button!

Plum, almond and ricotta cake

This could very well be the moment I attain ‘nirvana’ in cake. Imagine a cake that has the lightness of the most beautiful sponge yet the richness and depth of flavour of a cheesecake and the moistness of the most wonderful friand . Then imagine that it has a layer of sweet jam and is topped by juicy caramelised plums. Then imagine that you don’t have to imagine it because it’s real!


There are no words to describe the loveliness of this cake. It looks beautiful, tastes beautiful and is ridiculously easy to make. It takes longer to assemble in the tin than it does to actually make the batter.


Any soft fruit would work in this cake - apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums – and I think it’s important to match the jam to the fruit. I happen to love plums and had a jar of homemade damson jam that provided a lovely match.

Don’t put the jam right to the edge as you want the cake to bake around it and enclose it. You don’t need to be too fussy about spreading it – blob it on:


Then cover with the remaining batter:


Any cake that looks this beautiful going into the oven is going to be a winner:


As it cooks, the sugar sprinkled on the top caramelises the fruit and makes a glorious topping:


This is what I believe is called a “serving suggestion”:


Ingredients:
250g ricotta cheese
140g unsalted butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
225g golden caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for the top
250g self raising flour
200g ground almonds
4 tablespoons of plum/damson jam
1 tin of plums (There were 11 in the tin of which I used 7), stoned and cut into quarters
Handful of flaked almonds

To serve: lightly whipped cream. I used Chantilly cream.

How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
- Line a 23cm round cake tin. I used a one piece liner as it saves having to grease the tin.
- Beat together the ricotta, melted butter, eggs and sugar until well combined.
- Fold in the flour and ground almonds. You will have a very thick, heavy batter.
- Spoon half the batter into the tin and even out.
- Blob the jam over the batter trying not to go right to the edge (it’s nice if the cake encloses the jam so it’s a lovely surprise when the cake is cut).
- Spoon the rest of the batter over the jam and, using a knife, even the surface.
- Arrange the plum quarters on top of the batter.
- Scatter over the flaked almonds.
- Sprinkle the tablespoon of sugar over the top and then bake for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 1 hour and 25 minutes. The cake will have risen and the sugar should have caramelised the fruit. The fruit will shrivel a little but this is where all the delicious flavour comes from!
- Let the cake cool for 20 minutes or so before removing from the tin and letting cool completely on a wire rack.
- If desired, dust with icing sugar before serving. Personally, I don’t think it needs it.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.