No 38 - Mudcake

While I was as University I worked nearly full time 5 nights a week in a local restaurant.  The owners were head cook and maitre d' together and ran one of the most 'hip' restaurants in town.  They eschewed formal 'cheffing' qualifications and pulled together everyday dishes from a wide range of ultures and countries where they had travelled.  Dishes on the black board menu hailed from around the Mediterranean, Middle East, North and West Africa, Mexico, Indonesia & Japan - and anything else that was tasty, unfussy, fresh & personal.

Daily changes in the blackboard menu reflected that which was seasonally available and as much as possible was purchased from local producers. (And this was the 1980's)

Sue grew a wide range of herbs, and fresh herbs featured abundantly.  My own garden supplemented this on occasion.  We sometimes used quient afternoons when all 'prep' forthe evening was complete, to make up jars of colourful preserves that were displayed on open shelves between the otherwise open kitchen andthe dining room: salted lemons, spiced mandarins, red capsicum jelly, asparagus and red pepper strips, pickled carrot sticks for the antipasti platters, pickled qualis eggs, feta cheese in herbed olive oil & garlic......

Only the desserts and puddings were relatively unchanging -homemade icecreams, cakes, special mousses, and guest appearances using seasonal fruit.

This mud cake was a standard.  I don't recall it ever going off the menu, and it was always in demand.

Mud Cake

Sift together:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1 and 3/4 cups raw sugar (I use golden sugar in UK)

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

then whisk in

2 large eggs

2 cups water

1/2 up oil

And really whisk it lots.  Introduce lots of air.  Give your whisking arm a work out.

This is a really runny mix - don't be alarmed by that.

Line he base of a 9 inch loose botton tin and grease the sides.  Pour in the mix and bake at 180 degrees C (fan oven) for 1 hour. 

Let it cool in the tin.

When it is cold use a large knife to slice it into 3 layers horizontally.  Put raspberry jam generously between the bottom and middle layer.  Put raspberry jam AND some of the icing between the middle and top.  Put icing all over the top and sides.

The Icing:

1.5 cups icing sugar

1 cup cocoa

125 g butter

juice of 1 lemon

100 g sour cream.

Sift the dry ingredients, soften the butter and beat all the ingredients together.  I make this in advance, put it in the fridge for a while, then microwave it just before I use it - that seems to improve the texture, makes it  easier to spread, and makes it go really glossy.

No 37 - Lime Marmalade and Pear Cake

As promised I have been working on using up lime and ginger marmalade.  And there were some pears looking neglected in the fruit bowl that went into this cake  (pears and ginger always seem to go well together don't you find?)- so it was very moist, slightly gritty as pear cakes are (as pears tend to be) and was very popular at work - even without icing, which tends to just get stuck all over the place on the trip up to London.

Lime and Ginger Marmalade & Pear Cake

6 oz butter

2 oz butter

1/4 cup golden syrup

2 eggs

5 ox marmalade

10 oz flour (wholemeal if you like texture and believe in making cakes a bit more healthful)

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ginger (if your marmalade doesn't have it already - or you like extra)

2 grated pears

1 tsp soda disolved in 1/4 milk

Cream the butter sugar and golden syrup, beat in the eggs, then the marmalade.  Sift in the dry ingredients, addn the grated pears and lastly stir in the soda and milk.

I useda 9" ring tin for this cake - so that it cooks slightly faster.  Grease it well.

Bake at 160 degrees C for 1 hour to 75 minutes.  Cool it in the tin for about 15 minutes.

You could ice it with icing made from icing sugar and  lemon or lime juice - and sprinkle on chopped toasted walnuts if you like some class to your cake.  We just like cake - and this one is quite good as a pudding - still warm with lashings of custard......

No 36 - Lime Marmalade Cheesecake.

As promised recipe that can use Lime Marmalade....  I am not a fan of gelatine type cheesecakes prefering by far the baked kind, but this went down a storm at home and at work.  (Make sure it is well chilled before you transport it anywhere)

Lime Marmalade Cheesecake

Base (for a 9" loose bottom baking tin):
50 g melted butter
1/4 cup (50g) of castor sugar
1/2 packet of gingernuts smashed up in the blender (of use a strong paper bag & a rolling pin).

Put a circle of baking paper in the bottom of the tin, and press this mix into place.  Chill it while you are making the filling.

Filling:
225g soft cream cheese (full fat)
2 eggs (whites and yolks separated)
1/2 cup castor sugar
juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
150 ml cream
4 Tb lime marmalade
15g gelatine powder dissolved in 4 Tb boiling water

Soften the cream cheese and beat in the egg yolks and half the sugar.  Add the lemon, marmalade and cream and blend well.  Then stir in the well dissolved gelatine mix.

Set that aside until it is on the point of setting.  Meanwhile beat the egg whites until stiff and whisk in the remaining sugar until you get meringue consistency.  Fold this into the cheese mix, pour it over the base, and gently shake the tin to level the top.

Chill fo 3-4 hours. 

Topping:
another 4 Tb Lime Marmalade (that's the best part of half a jar of my runny batch gone by now....)
50 g chopped toasted nuts
Whipped cream

Warm the marmlade (your's won't be runny like mine) enough to make it soft spreading consistency (runny is really good) and spread it over the top and sides.  Coat the top and sides with the chopped nuts. 

Decorate or serve with whipped cream - if your cholesterol count will allow.

Marmalade

I haven't posted for ages, but I haven't been slacking in the kitchen.  For a while all my spare time seemed to be getting consumed by preparations for a charity fund raiser craft sale.  In addition to the sewing, knitting, crochet, there was sweet pickle, banana chutney, red onion marmalade and 3 kinds of citrus marmalade to make.

I turned my back on the Lime and Ginger marmalade just a litle too long and cooked it past the ideal setting point (so had to make another batch for the charity sale orders).  That means I have a couple of litres of runny lime and ginger marmalade to use up somehow.

On that basis I deviated a bit from my objective of baking recipes from my childhood collection, and went in search of interesting things to use up lime marmalade.  Watch this space....

Meanwhile I wanted to share this fantastic pink grapefruit marmalade recipe which is so easy we should all be making pink grapefruit marmalade. 

http://notjustanyoldbaking.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/pink-grapefruit-marmalade.html

Now that is how a baking blog ought to be - lots of photos, lots of explanation. 

I can't improve on that except to say: know your pink grapefruit - the redder the better.  The first batch I made used ruby grapefruit and was pink/red, the second batch the grapefruits were not so red (more pink than red) inside and the result looked like orange marmalade.


Xmas Trio - Lime & Ginger, Lemon & Honey, Ruby Grapefruit



No 35 - Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Square

Really easy -

Chocolate Coconut Macaroon Square

Melt 150g chocolate in a bowl over boiling water  - or in the microwave.

Line a baking tin (11" x 9" or similar size) with buttered baking paper (butter side up)

Spread the melted chocolate in the tin and put it in the fridge to set again.

Beat 2 eggs until thick,
add 4 oz caster sugar and beat until the sugar is dissolved. 
Fold in 6 oz of dessicated coconut and a tsp of vanilla essence.

Spread the coconut over the chocolate and bake at 135-145 degrees C for about 30 minutes.

Cut into squares while still warm, but leave in the tin until completely cool.

OK - looks a bit weird on the bottom because I melted dark and white chocolate together....

Savory Muffins

At this time of year we spend our Sunday's yacht racing.  I love sailing but it does sometimes make the weekends seem to short.  Sailing on Sunday, and 5 days of work in London, leaves only Saturday for everything else in life..... including the baking.

The allotment has very nearly been cleaned up - frost took all the pumpkins and courgettes a week ago.  The corn and beans are all harvested.  Only the bassica bed looks well stocked for Winter - that and some Swiss Chard (called Silver Beet where I come from) - nothing much there I can turn into baking (cabbage cake ....hmmmmmm .... although I have to say as an aside that kale in curry sauce - an accidental combination - wasn't as objectionable as might be anticipated).  We spent part of Saturday putting guttering on the shed so that we could collect rainwater for summer watering.  It felt like a mad project given that it has rained solidly for a week and the garden is completely waterlogged again.  

There had to be, however, time for the baking; muffins to feed to the crew on Sunday.  I have a recipe somewhere, but I tend to make muffins up as I go along and savory ones simply depend on what is in the fridge at the time....

Savory Muffins

Into a bowl: a small tin  of corn kernels (drained), some finely chopped up bacon, and some grated cheese (the tastier the better) - roughly equal quantities if you need better guidance - and a finely diced onion,

Yesterday I also threw in some grated courgette, tobasco sauce, and oregano.

2 cups of flour
4 tsp baking powder
2 small to medium eggs
1/2 cup oil  (or a couple of ounces of melted butter)
1/2 tsp B. Soda dissolved in some milk - made up to enough to turn the whole lot into a loosely sticky mess.

Dollop that into a greased 12 pot muffin tray.  Bake at 170-180 degrees C. for 15-20 minutes.

I find that muffins with cheese in them rise beautifully and have a disconcerting way of collapsing as they cool.  Slight overcooking helps to overcome this (and the corn, onion and courgette helps to stop them drying out in the process), or just eat them warm.

The photo is of the few that came back having beat around the Solent in a plastic box

No. 34 - Peppermint Square

This one is a bit too much like the last one - never mind.  One of my favorites as a kid - just because I liked eating sweetened condensed milk straight from the tin (there is always more in a tin that you need for any one thing....)

Peppermint Square

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
1 egg
6 oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 dsp cocoa

Cream the butter and Sugar and add the egg.  Sift in the dry ingredients and spread the soft dough out in a sponge roll tin.

Bake at 170-180 degrees C for about 20 minutes.

Topping - to be poured on while the base is still hot

2 oz butter
2 TB sweetened condensed milk
2 oz icing sugar
peppermint essence (I use the essence bottle cap full, it's probably about a teaspoon)

When all that is cool and set, ice with chocolate icing.  Cut into Squares.

No 33 - Keamish Square

I have no idea about the name....  I googled it and it appears to be a surname.  So I assume that sometime in the history of this recipe it was first published or promoted by a Mrs Keamish....

Keamish Square

4 oz butter
4 oz sugar
1 egg
6 oz floour
1 dsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg and sift in the dry ingredients.  Spread in a greased pan about 8" x 10" (or so), and bake about 20 minutes at 170-180 degrees C.

Spread it over with raspberry jam while it is still warm.  (In this one I used Oregon Grape Jam - which is very dark coloured.)

Topping:

4 oz butter
2 oz icing sugar
1 tsp gelatine - in 2 TB boiling water
Cream the butter and icing sugar, add the dissolved gelatine and beat until creamy.  Spread on top of the jam and when set, cover with chocolate icing.

Cut into squares when the icing has set.

 

Crumble Topping

All those blackberries, scrumped apples from wild-growing trees, overripe pears, some late strawberries from the garden... we have an abundance of fruit at this time of year.

Crumble sounds like one of those old-fashioned 'puddings' that grandmothers make, or which are served in pubs, smothered in custard (with or without skin!). The stiky-dry pub version (cloys the inside of your mouth, welds itself to the back of your teeth) involves rubbing butter into flour and sugar. 

This version is much easier, tastier, better textured, and considerably healthier.


Crumble Topping
(for about 8 large apples stewed up, or equivalent in other fruit)

2 Cups Rolled Oats
2 cups Coconut
3/4 cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 cup Raw Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Oil
1/2 cup Cold water

Mix the ingredients and pat them onto the top of a baking dish of fruit (cooked or uncooked fruit).  Bake 30-45 mins at 170 - 180 degrees C - until golden and crispy on top.

And here is a two person version of a pear and raisin crumble in the making.

No 32 - Fred's Original Bran Muffins

Wow – way too long without adding anything to the Blog.  It’s not that I haven’t been in the kitchen; it’s pickle, jam and chutney season and I have been making batches of preserves for a Charity Craft Sale, and for my Xmas hampers.  I’ve also been taking advantage of a remarkably (considering our wet summer) good supply of blackberries on the hedgerows to fill the freezer with fruit for winter puddings, and to make Blackberry and Apple Crumble on a regular basis.

Despite a waterlogged start the allotment is finally producing enough vegetables to feed us so I have been freezing beans and corn, and turning some of the surplus courgettes into cakes and muffins.  Courgette doesn’t add any flavour to your cake but it does contribute wonderfully to texture, making even bran muffins soft and moist.

This muffin recipe started my own recipe collection.  Prior to learning to make these in the ‘Home Economics’ class at school (aged about 10) all the recipes I baked from were my Mum’s.  Mum never made muffins - no idea why not, but maybe because microwave defrosting hadn't been invented in those (old) days!

The addition of courgettes to these muffins extends their delicious life by another 24 hours or so.  For years after I set up my own household, I would make variations on these a couple of times a week, to eat with soup for our evening meals.  They freeze well and microwave defrosting means you can have a hot fresh muffin anytime.

Original Bran Muffin Recipe

In a pot gently warm:
1/2 cup milk
1 oz butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon golden Syrup
When the butter is melted add
1/2 tsp Baking Soda

Pour the contents of the pot into the dry ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup bran
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
Handful Sultanas

Then add
1 beaten egg

Mix the whole lot up and bake  - 15 -20 minutes at 170 -180 degrees C.  Makes 12.

That's the standard recipe.  In the line after the sultanas add your own - 1 cup (or so) of grated courgette, grated pumpkin, carrot, apple, pear....etc, 1cup of frozen black currants (now that's a good one if you can get them), and 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds, or chopped nuts, etc if you like a bit of crunch.