Tea Loaf Cake

I don't often buy shop-bought cake whether it is a mass-produced branded one or supermarket own brand. I find them a bit dry, a bit sweet for my liking.  Hubbs (Mr Leaf) likes them though.  When they come individually wrapped in slices they are convenient for him to take to work and on special offer - well, I treat him :p  They do a light fruit cake one which has notes of mixed spice and is rather delicious if I may admit!  I tried creating my own...

Tea Loaf Cake

150ml boiling water

1 Earl Grey Tea Bag

250g mixed dried fruit

200g soft butter

75g caster sugar

75g soft light brown sugar

3 large free-range eggs

1 zest of an orange

40g ground almonds

210g self-raising flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

1.5 level teaspoon mixed spice

Put fruit into a small bowl, tuck in the tea bag and pour on the boiling water.  Leave the fruits to swell and soak up the liquid.

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4

Grease and line 2 small loaf tins.  I used a rectangular aluminium foil container and a 2lb loaf tin.

Cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy.

Add an egg into the mix along with a spoonful of your measured flour, mix until the egg has been incorporated.  Repeat with the remaining eggs.

Tip the fruits along with any liquid into the cake mix, give the tea bag a good squeeze. I emptied the bag of it's leaves into the cake mix as I thought it might improve flavour.  Add the grated orange zest and the ground almonds and fold in.

Sift the flour, baking powder and spice into the bowl, fold to combine.

Spoon into the greased tins and bake.  My loaf tin took 45-55 minutes and the smaller aluminium container took 35-45 minutes.  If the cakes brown too much, lower the heat slightly.  When you are checking the cake, give the tin a shake.  If the mixture wobbles, cake is not ready and may need another 10 minutes before you check.  Use a skewer to test the cake in the centre any gooey wet mix indicates cake is not ready and may need a further 5-10 minutes.

Sprinkle a little caster sugar on top of the cake when done, or dust with icing sugar.  Leave cake in tin for 10 minutes before cooling on rack.

*** Verdict
Not the same as the mass produced one which is lighter in colour (I suspect the tea leaves in my cake give it a richer colour) and I think if I stuck with one flavour instead of Earl Grey Tea and orange with the mixed spice it might resemble the bought-cake.  Nevertheless, my mummy friends all enjoyed the cake and at least I am happy eating something I know I made (even if hubby eats the plastic wrapped version!) :)

Happy 2013 !

A simple design of ice blue fondant and sparkly snowflakes.
(Photo does not reflect the true colour or the sparkly effect )

A fun snowball scene

Crikey! How time flies!

Three years ago I started this blog to record my odd ramblings, my son growing up, my baking endeavours and gardening adventures.  Garden hasn't had a lot of exposure on here - probably due to a lack of me being in it! Baking, well - I'm always in my kitchen baking away :p

Here's a look back at our Christmas 2012 seeing as I was too busy baking to stop and blog :(

No icing or marzipan for this one - dried fruit and nut topping

Gold Star Wreath

I made several Christmas Cakes this year to gift to friends and family. Each one has been decorated differently and it was a joy to do!

Home-made mincemeat and home-made gluten-free pastry

I had a pre-Christmas Meet with some of my Mummy friends - we met because we were expecting our little people 2 or so years ago and have stayed firm friends and our little ones play together too!  One of my friends is gluten intolerant and vegetarian so I made these Gluten-Free Mince Pies so she could indulge in the festive season!

The package on right is Gluten-Free Biscotti ~ Apricot and Almond

I do like to bake and share so I have been biscotti crazy again this Christmas concocting different combinations of fruits and nuts into biscotti so I can package and give to friends.  It certainly guarantees a smile on people's faces!

It was fun decorating these trees with my son 

I try not to leave the little people out where I can so I made some Gingerbread Trees and People for a few of my friends - oh and of course, for the little person here too :D  Although I secretly think my son enjoys the  "Smarties" (Chocolate Beans) more than the gingerbread itself! 

My personal project this Christmas was to create a Gingerbread Scene - 3D of course!

My Gingerbread Display I made for my son and niece - we ate the gingerbread after Christmas!

Thank you to you all for reading!

May 2013 bring you much baking / cooking / crafting / gardening adventures!

Cherry, Almond and Apricot Loaf Cake

I wanted cake.  I needed cake.

Supermarket cakes just won't do.  On the occasion when I've wanted a small celebration cake and haven't had chance to bake, the resulting bought cake has not been too my liking.  Too sweet, not moist enough and usually too much sickly sweet butter icing.

Flicking through some of my favourite cake recipes and baking books I thought I'd bake a Cherry and Almond Cake.  I knew there was a tub of glace cherries in the cupboard and I always have a block of butter in the fridge for impromptu baking.

When it came to gathering ingredients, I discovered the glace cherry tub was already opened so I wouldn't have enough.  Hmm...what to do?  I found some dried apricots and so, Cherry, Almond and Apricot Cake was born!
 

Cherry, Almond and Apricot Loaf Cake

200 g butter (softened, but not melted)
175 g caster sugar
75 g ground almonds
Few drops of almond extract (optional if you like a stronger almond flavour, swap for vanilla if you prefer or omit)
3 large eggs
200 g self-raising flour
100 g glacé cherries (quartered)
100 g dried apricots (snipped into quarters or sixths)

Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is lighter in colour and fluffy.  (I like to do this by hand in a bowl and a wooden spoon as I find a hand-mixed cake has a lighter texture than if I use my stand-alone mixer.)

Add the ground almonds and the almond extract if using and mix in before adding eggs in one by one and mixing until just combined.  With the last egg, add a tablespoon from your measured flour when you are mixing it in.  It stops mixture from curdling which can result in a dense and heavier cake.

Toss the cut dried fruit with a tablespoon of your measured flour.  This stops the fruit from sinking.

Sift the flour into the cake mix and fold in with a large metal spoon.

Tip in the fruits and the remaining flour if any and fold in.

Spoon mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin (mine is a 2lb loaf size) and bake in a preheated oven at 170 deg C, Gas 3 for 70 minutes.  Cake should be well rise, golden and spring lightly when pressed with a finger.  If the cake wobbles in tin, then it is not ready.  Test cake with skewer ensuring no wet crumbs.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.


*     *     *

Cake was wonderfully moist from the ground almonds as well as being rich and creamy from the butter.  I think next time I might reduce butter to 175 g as some fruit still sank in my cake :p  I wonder if that's because when you are spooning mix in, the fruits tend to go in first and when I scrape bowl clean with spatula, its plain cake mix that tops the cake off?

My son loves this cake - although he won't eat the fruit.  :p  This cake disappeared in 2 days so I tried to make a similar cake with vanilla, white choc chips and fudge bits.  It didn't work.  The choc and fudge bits sank to the bottom and resulted in a chewy and sweet bottom layer :p  Son still ate it but hubbs (Mr Leaf) didn't take extra helpings.  The cake took longer to disappear too :p

Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

Can't believe how quickly time passes!  My last Blog Entry was almost 6 months ago?!?!  Naughty me!

I will have to learn to write short posts and I dunno, edit photos so they are a collage of pictures in one post?  I hate waiting for the upload time :p

Chunks of moreish Refrigerator Cake :)

OK, this chocolate confection goes by many names: No-Cook Cake, Chocolate Tiffin, Chocolate Biscuit Cake (Prince William's favourite apparently), Rocky Road and of course, Chocolate Refrigerator Cake.  Needless to say, many names means many recipes.  I was inspired to make this after seeing a Facebook post from this lady, Jo Wheatley, winner of Great British Bake Off 2.  She has a Facebook page which I have been following.  Her picture of these decadent goodies made me want to make this...

When I make something, I now have an annoying habit of googling the name of the item and reading different variations of the recipe before I make my mind up which to follow.  If it's measured in grams opposed to cups, then I'm more likely to try it - just because I put my bowl on the digital scales and throw things in as I need to. 

I used this Annabel Karmel recipe as my base and used Jo's ideas to create my refrigerator cake.  It is delicious with crunchy and gooey textures and quite rich!

The chocolate mix turned out into my swiss-roll tin ready for chilling

Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

Ingredients:

150g/5oz milk chocolate

150g/5oz dark chocolate

100g/3½oz unsalted butter

150g/5oz golden syrup

small bag of Malteasers (honeycombe balls covered in chocolate 37g bag)
small bag of Minstrels (chocolate buttons encased in a candy shell 42g)
small bag of White Chocolate Buttons (70g)
8 biscuits (rich tea, ginger snaps, digestives, oat biscuits ~ any would work)
50g rice pop cereal
10 marshmallow lumps - quartered (could use mini-marshmallows too)

I made this cake with one bowl, one spoon.  Minimal washing up!  I put my bowl (microwaveable) on my digital scales and added things as I went along - it saved getting separate bowls messy and having lots to wash up :)

Break chocolate into pieces into a microwaveable bowl.
Add the cubed butter and the golden syrup to the bowl.  

Microwave at 100%  (mine is 800watt) for 30 seconds.  Take out and stir the contents.  If there are any remaining lumps of chocolate, microwave again for 15 seconds.  The mixture does not need to be hot, just warm enough to melt the chocolate.  Stirring continuously will help.
When the mix has all turned to liquid, tip in your Malteasers, Buttons, Minstrels, rice cereal, marshmallows and snap the biscuits up as you add them in too.  You can put these in a bowl and bash lightly with the end of a rolling pin if you like - but do not turn it into crumbs - lumpy is fine.
When everything is thoroughly coated in chocolate, tip out onto a shallow tray (I used 20cm x 30cm) lined with cling film (make sure there is excess cling film off the edges to wrap the cake).

Level out as best you can with the back of a spoon. 
Fold the excess cling film over the cake and place in fridge to set (1-2 hours).  Cut into small pieces.  It is quite rich so you do not need a big piece :)

I decorated the top of my cake with drizzles of white and dark chocolate before cutting it up :)
Melt one bar of white chocolate (100g).
Melt remaining dark chocolate left over from making refrigerator cake (50g) - left over milk chocolate is for stress-related emergencies >.<
Drizzle, squiggle, splodge the melted chocolate over the cake as your creative talents allow :)  Replce in fridge for a few mins to harden before chopping into as large/small pieces as you like :)

The beauty of this cake is you can adjust the ingredients as you like.  Add chopped dried fruit (raisins, apricots, dates, stem ginger, sour cherries, cranberries, list is endless...) and nuts (hazlenut, brazil, pistachio) if you prefer.  Or soak the dried fruit in alcohol for 24 hrs prior to making this if you want it to be an adult-only treat!

See the soft, gooey marshmallow, crisp, crunchy Malteaser?

Bagged and ready as a birthday gift to my neighbour :)

We're Jammin', We're Jammin'.....

Have been meaning to make jam for a week now....

I  bought a mango a week or so ago and it was a bit firm although the sticker said 'Ripe and Ready', I asked hubbs whether I should cut it up for our fresh fruit dessert.  I did.  It was hard.  Tasted sour.  Not ripe.  Knew I should've trusted my nose and instincts.  Usually I would give the fruit a gentle squeeze in my palm and it should yield a little.  Next a sniff test.  Does it smell aromatic?  Yes?  Well it's ready! 

Well, what was I going to do now with an unripe mango? 

"Stir-fry it." Hubbs says. 

"Yuk!"  I say.  "I'm not into having fruits cooked with meat for stir-fry."  I have eaten kiwi with chicken and stir-fry beef with mango and it's not really my cup of tea.  Don't mind pineapple in a good ol' sweet and sour dish though! :0p

"Turn it into jam then."  Hubbs final suggestion.  Sounded good at the time.

So, it took me a week (or two) to finally get round to making the jam.  I saw 2 punnets of apricots on discount at the supermarket and bought those thinking apricot and mango sound divine!  Thought my sad little mango probably wouldn't be enough so  bought a cheap small one to join it. 

When it came to making the jam yesterday, my unripe mango (sitting sadly naked in the fridge - well, it was peeled and had nothing but clear cling film to shield it's modesty!) was beginning to look a little brown and squishy in places.  I cut the unsightly portions off and proceeded to sample the fruit.  Still did not taste good.  Still sour and now a nasty aftertaste (mango prob past its best).  OK, bin time for the poor mango!

Despite that, I prepared the apricots and the cheap mango.  Oh, note to self, cheap mango means it's the fibrous kind.  The one with more fibres round the central stone than flesh!  (Smells good though!)  Hmm...could do with more fruit?  I raided the fridge to see what else I could find.  I found a ripe peach and a few cherries.  What do I call the jam now?  Will think on this one.

The jam smelt so delicious when it was being made!  Such a rich, intoxicating aroma!  That is the best bit about jam making!  The taste?  It gave my tongue a punch full of fruit flavour!  Other jam successes have been raspberry jam made from raspberries picked from my mum's garden.  Once you've tasted home-made raspberry jam you'll be sorely disappointed in the supermarket offerings!  Blackberry is not such a hit (picked from local hedgerows so free food! Yay!), lacks the full fruity flavour - just offers a sweetness about it and more seeds than raspberries.  I made plum jam too earlier this year from cheap plums from Aldi.  Again, the fruit is sweet but lacks a depth of flavour.  I guess the secret might lie in using fruit which is rich and aromatic in flavour.  Saw some British Strawberries in Asda's yesterday.  They smell and taste delicious.  Would be tempted to jam these too if I hadn't used up my empty jam-jar collection!

Love the fabulous colour from my "Summer Fruit Jam" - Apricot with Mango, Peach and Cherry.  Sounds like a fairly accurate description? 

This batch of jam was largely made with little measuring.  My rule is usually 500g fruit plus 500g sugar equals jam - I got this from reading somewhere on the internet and followed this basis for raspberry jam I used granulated sugar so had to add 2 teaspoons of powdered pectin (helps the jam to set.).

Recipe

1085g prepared fruit (I used apricots - 14, cut into 1/8, stone removed; 1 peach, cut into 1/16, stone removed; 1 mango, flesh chopped, stone discarded; around 20 cherries, quartered and pitted)

1000g of jam sugar (has added pectin and is suitable for soft fruits such as strawberries, peaches...)

Juice of half a lemon

knob of butter

Method

I placed the chopped fruit and sugar in a large saucepan and added half a cup of water (maybe I shouldn't have added this?) to help the sugar dissolve.  I warmed the mixture gently over a low flame stirring to get the sugar to fully dissolve.  I also added the juice of half a lemon to improve the flavour.  I've found when doing this when making raspberry jam it prevents it from just being sweet, but have a very slight sharpness to it which makes it moreish.

When I was sure the sugar was dissolved (this is very important because if there are undissolved sugar crystals, they will stick and burn on the bottom of the pan when you do the next stage - boiling), I turned up the flame and let the mixture come to a rolling boil (that won't go down when stirred).  Careful!  Use a large pan to make the jam as boiling hot sugar is very hot and can scald!  Boiling jam does spit too!

Boil for 4-5 minutes.  Take pan off heat and put a teaspoon of jam onto a cold saucer (I put a saucer in the freezer when I start jam-making.)  Leave for a minute then push the cooled jam with your finger.  If the jam wrinkles, the jam is ready.  Add a small knob of butter to the jam and stir in.  It helps get rid of the bubbles in the jam so you get a clearer jam in the jar.  Leave the jam to cool slightly (5-10 minutes) before filling the jars - you don't want the glass to shatter!  Pour the jam into warmed sterilised jars.  To sterilise jars, wash in hot soapy water and rinse.  Place upside down in a low oven to dry.  Careful when handling as the jars will be hot out of the oven and also after being filled with hot jam.

I've given a jar to my mum as there's only so much jam 2 people can eat!  Only thing is, this morning, I've discovered the jam is rather soft-set and looking a bit runny in the jars.  Maybe as a result of adding water to the fruit and sugar mix?  I will have to re-boil the jam for 1-2 minutes and do the saucer test again.  Which is strange as I thought it was fine?  Odd thing is I have a ramekin of jam (all jars were filled) and this seems to have set fine?  I will just have to have some jam and toast and sample it!

Mmmm...!  It's surprisingly good!  An intense fruity hit of apricot and peach which is pleasantly sweet and tangy without the sweet sickliness of store-bought apricot jam.  I think the golden orange hue comes from the cherries I added!  :0)  I think this would delicious on warm buttery scones or even a simple swiss roll.  I'm pleased with this batch of jam!