Rhubarb and Almond Loaf.

So here is the second of my garden produce posts and this time I'm using rhubarb. There's quite a few recipes for rhubarb crumbles and compotes going around, so I went for one with cake. I came across this lovely recipe for a rhubarb and almond loaf in the Hummingbird Cake Days book. So here goes. . .

Stewed Rhubarb

 4 - 5 stalks of rhubarb - chopped into 2cm pieces

70g caster sugar

20g unsalted butter

Sponge

190g unsalted butter

140g plain flour

190g caster sugar

3 large eggs

1tsp baking powder

50g ground almonds

1/2 ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

25ml milk

100g stewed rhubarb (above)

Flaked almonds

1) Preheat the oven to 170oC and then grease the loaf tin with butter and dust with flour. (Loaf tin = 8.5cm x 17.5cm and 7.5cm depth)

2) To make the stewed rhubarb, place the rhubarb in a saucepan along with the sugar, butter and 50ml of water. Cook on a medium heat and keep stirring until the rhubarb softens (but not too much - otherwise it will just disappear into the cake mix). Set aside to cool completely.

3) Meanwhile make the sponge. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

4) Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure everything has been mixed in properly. 

5) Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and spices. Add half the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and eggs, followed by half the milk and mix well.

6) Add the remaining dry ingredients and then the rest of the milk. 

7) Stir in the stewed rhubarb and make sure it's evenly mixed. Pour into the loaf tin and sprinkle the flaked almonds on top.  

8) Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes until it has risen and has a nice golden colour. A skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean. 

9) Allow the cake to rest in the tin for a while before turning out to fully cool on a wire rack.

And so that concludes my blog post for rhubarb and almond loaf. 

I also must mention - with great sadness - that this is possibly my last post for this blogspot address. Apparently I have reached the limit for uploading photos under the free service. . .so I'm going to have a think and see if I can somehow get round this or look into starting a wordpress blog. This is actually quite well-timed, seeing as I'm back at university next week and I probably wouldn't be posting for a while anyway. However, I hope to sort this blog business out sooner or later and I will live to bake/blog another day. :)

Birthday Cake Bake-Off

I've really been enjoying the latest Great British Bake-Off series and have perhaps felt a little inspired. So, for my sister's birthday cake, I decided to set up my own little bake-off with my Mum. We ended up making quite simple cakes but they turned out quite well all the same! My Mum went for our traditional chocolate smartie cake and I went for a lemon sponge. I think I've made this post look quite sinister...but it was all in good humour.

Round One

Round Two

Round Three

And finally. . .

I don't think there's an outright winner, but to be honest, for me, it's not a birthday without a chocolate cake.

Anyway!! I shall leave it there. This was just meant to be a short post for a bit of light relief. Rhubarb recipe will be coming soon.

Courgette Cake.

The words courgette and cake probably shouldn't go together. . . but Flora's Famous Courgette Cake is the exception. This may seem like a random blog post, but it is in fact courgette season. We've been growing them in the garden and we've got a bit of a monster haul this year. There's only so many times you can have courgette for dinner, so I decided to experiment a bit with the baking. I came across this recipe in Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' (I'm ashamed to say I own this book). It's called Flora's Famous Courgette Cake and it's actually quite brilliant. What I don't understand is how Nigella manages to reference Aphrodite in a recipe for Courgette Cake. I suppose it's to be expected!

Cake

60g raisins (optional)

250g courgettes (2/3) before grating

2 large eggs

125ml vegetable oil

150g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Lime Curd Filling

75g unsalted butter
3 large eggs
75g caster sugar
125ml lime juice (4/5 limes worth)
zest of 1 lime

Icing

200g cream cheese 

100g icing sugar

Juice of 1 lime

Chopped pistachio nuts or hazelnuts

 

1) Preheat the oven to 180oC

2) With the raisins, put them in a bowl and cover with warm water to plump them up.

3) Wash the courgettes and then grate them - but not too finely - otherwise it will turn to mush. Sieve out any excess water.

4) Next put the eggs, oil and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy

5) Sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and continue to beat until well combined.

6) Now stir in the grated courgette and add the drained raisins. 

7) Pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 30 minutes until browned and firm to touch. 

8) Leave in the tins to cool for 10 minutes or so and then turn them out onto a wire rack. 

9) Now for the lime curd. . .Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the eggs, caster sugar, lime juice and zest and then whisk until thick. Be careful though. . . don't let the pan get too hot and immediately whisk, otherwise you may scramble your lime curd! 

And sorry. . . I don't have the photos for this bit - cameras/whisking/hot pans don't mix.

10) Now spread the lime curd filling over the two cakes.

11) Now to make the cream cheese icing. Nigella seems quite generous. . . so I would probably do a bit less than the recipe suggests. I think 150g of cream cheese and 75g icing sugar should do it.

12) Beat the cream cheese until smooth and then add the sieved icing sugar and lime juice to taste, continuing to beat until combined.

13) If you find the lime curd or the cream cheese frosting a little runny - put them in the fridge for 20 minutes before assembling the cake.

14) Using a spatula - dollop the cream cheese icing on the top and smooth over. Sprinkle with pistachios or hazelnuts.

And so there you have it! Flora's Famous Courgette Cake. I'm hoping that my next baking escapade will also involve some garden produce. Think rhubarb.

Swiss Roll Saturday

I recently bought a Swiss roll tin.

 

This is what happened on Saturday.

Cake

 25g butter for greasing

3 eggs, separated

140g caster sugar, plus 35g

1 tsp lemon juice

100g self-raising flour 

Pinch of cream of tartar

Filling

150ml whipping cream

200g lemon curd (give or take - depends how lemony you like it)

Topping

2 tbsp lemon curd

1 tbsp water

Icing sugar for dusting

1) Preheat the oven to 180oC. Melt the butter and use a pastry brush to grease a 33 x 23cm baking/swiss roll tin. Line the tin with greaseproof paper and brush with the melted butter once again. Dust with flour and tap out the excess.

2) Separate the eggs. 

3) Beat the yolks with the 140g caster sugar until pale and creamy and almost doubled in size.

4) Mix in the lemon juice and then fold in the flour. 

5) Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the 35g caster sugar and a pinch of cream of tartar to form soft peaks. 

6) Stir a third of the whites into the egg yolk mixture and then gently fold in the remaining whites. 

7) Pour the batter into the prepared tin and spread evenly. Bake for 20 minutes at 180oC until the cake has risen and feels soft and springy to touch.  

8) Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes. 

9) Dust the cake with icing sugar and then cover with a piece of clingfilm.

10) Invert the cake onto a chopping board or onto the back of another baking tin. 

11) This part was a bit tricky and I needed both hands...so you're going to have to trust me with this one. Take the short end of the clingfilm and carefully roll up the sponge - it's fine for the clingfilm to be incorporated in each turn. Set aside to cool. 

12) Meanwhile, whip the cream lightly to form soft peaks. Stir the 200g (ish) of lemon curd into the cream - try to mix it as little as possible.

13) When the cake is completely cool - unroll it from the clingfilm and spread the lemon curd and cream mix over it. 

14) Roll it up once more, but WITHOUT incorporating the clingfilm (obviously).  Wrap in a fresh piece of cling film and refrigerate. 

15) When ready to serve, remove the clingfilm from the Swiss roll. Stir 1 tbsp water into 2 tbsps lemon curd and drizzle over the top. Finally, dust with icing sugar.

A recipe from the Peyton and Byrne book of British Baking (one of my favourites) :D