Chocolate Rapeseed Oil Cake

This Chocolate Rapeseed Oil Cake recipe was the result of a Clandestine Cake Club challenge.  The theme was Blind Date.  You had to bake a cake you had never baked or tasted before.  Now, this was a challenge in a lot of ways.  First, if I haven’t tasted a cake before it’s because I don’t think I’m going to like it.  Why would I bake something I won’t like?  Second, I like to have something reliable when baking for others.  I want to know how the recipe is going to work and what tweaks I might need to make to have something I’ll be proud of.  With this challenge I really was flying blind!

I hit upon Nigella’s Chocolate Olive Oil Cake because she happend to have tweeted about it around that time.  I like chocolate but I had never tasted an olive oil based cake before.  However, there was the small issue that I don’t like olives.  I use olive oil all the time in cooking where I’ll never taste the oliveyness but I felt that this was one of those times where it would make a difference.  I happened to have a bottle of Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil just begging to be used.  I love the nutty flavour of rapeseed oil, it’s just gorgeous, and I thought this would compliment the almonds nicely.  I was right, it gives a gorgeous nutty flavour and really gives another dimension to the cake.  I’m really keen on trying to use this oil in more cooking in the future.  I think it has a lot of potential!

The end result is a gorgeous nutty, moist, brownie like cake which would be a perfect dinner party dessert cake.  (Imagine it piled up with raspberries or other summer fruits and served with lashings of whipped cream if you will!)  However, it also held its own as a simple cake without any adornment.  The rich chocolateyness of the cake means it really doesn’t need any help to be delicious and the decadent squidgy texture will certainly have you coming back for more!

Serves 16

50g cocoa powder
125ml boiling water
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g ground almonds
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
150ml rapeseed oil (Yorkshire if you please!)
200g golden caster sugar
3 eggs

- Heat the oven to gas mark 5/190C and grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin.
- Put the cocoa powder in a mug then pour over the boiling water and the vanilla.  Mix together until you get a delicious looking chocolaty paste (don’t taste it, it’ll be gross!) Leave to cool while you do the rest.
- Mix the almonds, salt and bicarb together in a small bowl.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the eggs, sugar and rapeseed oil.
- Use a handheld electric whisk to beat the sugar, eggs and oil until plae and thick.
- Add the cocoa paste to this mixture and beat in.
- Add the almond mixture and gently fold in until everything is totally combined.
- Pour the mixture intot he prepared tin and bake int he centre of the oven for 45-50 minutes.  It should look just set int he middle and a skewer will come out clean when it is cooked.
- Allow it to cook for 10 minutes in the tin then run a sharp knife (I actually always use a thin bone handled knife for this) round the edge fo the cake to loosen it.  Then unspring your tin and either leave to cool completely or serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

 

 

Nigella’s Italian Banana Bread Muffins With Nutella

I’ve been working my way through Nigellissima, Nigella Lawson’s latest offering. One of the recipes people kept mentioning was the Italian Banana Bread so I thought I’d give it a go. Now, first off, the ‘Italian’ aspect is that there’s espresso in there. I have to admit I didn’t think that the espresso necessarily added that much to it. However, it is a gorgeous banana bread! Moist, springy and flavoursome.

The notes said that it would make 12 muffins, which it did, just. I wanted these for breakfasts and for me breakfast means portable. I also decided that, true to form, banana bread on its own was delicious but I always want some chocolate in there. My favourite trick with muffins is to add a teaspoon of Nutella to the middle for a gorgeous gooey chocolaty centre so that’s exactly what I did!

Makes 12

150ml rapeseed oil
3 very ripe medium bananas (I mean BLACK!)
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 eggs
150g golden caster sugar
175g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp instant espresso powder
1/2 jar Nutella

- Heat the oven to gas mark 6/200C.
- Put 12 paper cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.
- Take a large Pyrex jug or bowl and mash up the bananas with a fork along with the vanilla extract and salt.
- Beat in the oil. Keep mixing, it’ll happen!
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between additions.
- In a small bowl mix the flour, bicarb and espresso powder together until they’re even combined.
- Mix the flour mixture into the banana mixture until all the floury bits disappear. There will still be banana chunks in there so you’re not aiming for totally smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly between the paper cases.
- Dollop a teaspoon of Nutella in the centre of each muffin.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are set and a beautiful deep golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

I made this cake back in November and I am sorry to say that it totally slipped my mind!  That is not to say that it’s not good.  I’m particularly proud of the Kalhua buttercream.  But life got in the way, as in inevitably does!  I’m going to try to have a bit of a catch up around these parts and get the drafts I’ve got littering the place behind the scenes sorted out.

I was attending a Clandestine Cake Club event and the theme was Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  I knew how I wanted to decorate my cake, with the teaparty itself, but what to bake for the cake inside? Then it hit me!  What’s madder than a coffee cake at a tea party?  Well, probably something, but it seemed like a cute idea!

I love a coffee and walnut cake.  It is one of my absolute favourites but I hadn’t actually baked one myself.  I decided to go with a classic sponge cake and simply add walnuts and espresso into the mix.  It worked a treat!

I do have a confession though, when I first turned the cakes out of their tins I thought I’d had a complete cake failure and they were a disaster.  I thought they hadn’t risen enough so I started to whip up a new cake to salvage this disaster.  I stacked the layers up in order to clear the decks, which was when  realised.  The cake was perfectly tall enough, I had just forgotten that with 3 layers the individul layers would be much thinner!

Serves 12

150g butter
150g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp strong espresso
150g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g walnuts, roughly chopped
100g unsalted butter, softened
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp kalhua
500g ready to roll icing, 250g white, 250g coloured with paste colours as you like (You won’t use all of the icing up but I always find a use for icing)

- Heat the oven to gas mark 4/180C an grease three sandwich tins. I use silicone ones because they make turning out the cake so much easier.
- Put the butter and sugar in a food processor  and blitz until it is smooth and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time down the funnel with the motor running.
- Add in the vanilla and espresso and continue to mix well.
- Add the flour, baking powder and walnuts and process until the flour and baking powder are totally worked in.  There should still be come chunky walnut bits.
- Divide the mixture evenly between your three cake tins.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Be careful to check them as they’re so thin.  If using more than one shelf in the oven it’s usually a good idea to switch them around half way through cooking so they bake more evenly.
- Remove from the oven and turn out to cook on wire racks.
- To make your buttercream mix the softened unsalted butter with the icing sugar and kalhua until smooth and creamy with no lumps left.
- To assemble your cake spread 1/3 of the buttercream on each of the layers as you stack it on your serving plate.
- Roll out the white icing into a circle and then drape this over the cake like a tablecloth.
- Use the remaining coloured icing to fashion teapots, teacups and plates.  I also used some other cake decorations to make ‘food’ for my teaparty.  One innovation I was particularly proud of was using popping candy for the tea in the teacups.  I knew that the moisture in the icing would dissolve the popping candy and leave a sticky tea coloured liquid behind.   Go nuts, use your imagination!

Pork Pie

Every year for Christmas Mum likes to have a Pork Pie in for cutting at. Last year I bought the last pork pie in the shop after I left it a little late (read, Christmas Eve) and ended up with a 9″ monster! (Although, I think secretly Mum was a little pleased!) This year, having seen it on The Great British Bake Off and various blogs and magazines I announced that I was going to make the Pork Pie this year!

I went to the same butcher that produces divine Pork Pies for the meat and they were so helpful and encouraging. I got the meat minced by the butcher, which took almost all of the hard work out of it. You can, of course, buy the necessary pork from the supermarket but unless you have the ability to mince the pork belly and shoulder yourself I really must recommend you find a local butcher and explain to them what you’re doing. I’ve never been let down by my butcher, even though it can be daunting, be brave, tell them what you’re up to and they should be able to help you out.

665g pork belly, half diced to 5mm, half minced
165g smoked lardons or bacon, chopped to 5mm chunks
1kg pork shoulder, minced
1/2tsp ground mace
1 tbsp sage leaves, chopped
1 tsp thyme leaves

200g lard
220ml water
575g plain flour
600g hot chicken stock
12 leaves of gelatine
1 beaten egg for glazing

- Heat the oven to gas mark 4/180C and grease a 23cm springform cake tin with a little lard.
- In a large bowl mix the meats and herbs with your hands until well mixed.
- Season very well with salt and pepper.
- Fry off a teaspoon of the mixture in a frying pan and test it to see if you think it’s tasty.
- In a saucepan heat the water and lard until the lard is melted.
- Add it to the flour in a large mixing bowl and mix, first with a spoon then knead with your hands, until it comes together into a smooth dough. Make sure all the lumps of flour are gone.
- Take 2/3 of the dough and use your hands to press it into the greased tin to cover the bottom and totally up the sides and a little bit over the edge.
- Press the meat into the pie to make sure it doesn’t have any air bubbles in in.
- Roll out the remaining 1/3 of the dough to approximately 23cm round.
- Cut a hole in the centre of the dough so you can pour in the jelly later.
- Brush beaten egg round the top of the pie.
-Place the lid of the dough over the top of the pie and press gently.
- Trim off any excess pasty and then crimp the edges with your fingers.
- Brush the top of the pie with the remaining egg wash.
- Bake in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 40 minutes.
- Leave in the tin to cool completely.
- Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes then squeeze out and add to the hot stock.
- Mix until all the gelatine has dissolved then leave to cool to room temperature.
- Use a funnel or a piping bag and insert it into the hole in the centre of the pie.
- Pour in the gelatine mixture a little bit at a time until the pie is full and can’t take anymore.
- Pop it in the fridge and chill overnight until the gelatine is set.
- Release from the tin and serve Yorkshire style with chips and mushy peas!

Christmas Tree Chelsea Buns

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a good one and Santa brought you all the presents you wanted. Now commences the traditional week of turkey sandwiches in my household so I thought this would be a good time to catch up on posting the recipes I’ve been using over the past few days.

When I returned home for Christmas one of the first things my mum did was thrust a page torn out from a magazine at me and say “You could do this, couldn’t you?”. It was a picture of Chelsea buns done in the shape of a Christmas tree and would be prefect for breakfast on Christmas morning. (Which made a nice change from our usual breakfast of as much chocolate as you can eat.)


I made the dough and assembled the buns in a Christmas tree shaped paper case on Christmas Eve. Then popped them in the fridge overnight and then bunged them in the oven on Christmas morning to bake while we opened presents. For once I trusted a recipe totally. It is Paul Hollywood’s recipe from the BBC site so I was convinced that he would not lead me astray. It’s not often I put that much faith in a recipe’s author!(Although I have, of course, made a few changes to the recipe. I’m never satisfied!) However, I’m very glad that my faith was rewarded. There was a time when I was kneading the dough and it was sticking to everything that I thought I was going to have to give up and just add more flour but I persevered and it came together in the end!


It’s a lovely recipe full of Christmassy flavours. Orange, cranberry, cinnamon and mixed fruits all gloriously sweet and sticky but still not too heavy for all that. The zingyness of the orange lifts it all and it’s just really tasty! I think I’ll be making this recipe a lot more in the future, it does make me wonder hat other seasonal shapes I could make it into!


Makes 10 buns

500g strong bread flour
7g sachet fast action yeast
1 tsp salt
300ml milk
40g butter
1 medium egg

25g melted butter
Zest of one orange
2 tsp cinnamon
75g light brown muscovado sugar
100g mixed dried fruit
100g dried cranberries
100g dried apricots, chopped

2 tbsp marmalade, warmed
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp orange juice

- Take a large mixing bowl and add your flour.
- Add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other. Mix well and make a well in the centre of the flour.
- Put the milk and the butter in a jug and microwave for 1 minute until the butter is melted and the milk warm. Don’t heat it too much! The milk wants to be warm not hot.
- Add the milk and the egg to the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a soft dough. It will be very soft.
- When everything is combined tip the dough out onto a floured work surface and start kneading. It will be sticky so having a dough scraper in one had to lift it and kneading with the other had is probably the best bet.
- Knead it until it is smooth and elastic and looks more like a ball of dough. It will still be sticky but it will lift more easily and look smoother.
- Put the dough into a greased bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave somewhere warm and draft free for 1 hour until doubled in size.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll out to make a rectangle about 30cm by 40cm and about 1cm thick.
- Squidge the dough with your fingers along the long side nearest to you to tack it down onto the work surface.
- Brush the dough all over with melted butter.
- Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over it then scatter the dried fruits evenly over the dough.
- Starting from the far side roll the dough towards you, keeping the roll quite tight.
- Press down on the join to seal it together.
- Slice the roll into 10 slices, approximately 4cm thick.
- Place the slices cut side up in a well buttered tin. You can leave about 1cm between the slices as they will spread out. (I didn’t have space in my ‘tin’ to leave any room but it worked just fine!)
- At this point you can cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight or leave at room temperature for 30 minutes for the second rise.
- When ready to bake heat the oven to gas mark 5/190C and bake for 20-25 mins until just browning and cooked through.
- Take out of the oven and leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin (I couldn’t remove mine as they had stuck to the paper and the shape would be destroyed).
- While the buns are still warm brush with the warm marmalade.
- Mix the icing sugar and orange juice together in a bowl the drizzle all over the buns.
- Serve warm and don’t forget the napkins for sticky fingers!

Spice Biscuits

I love all the spice biscuits that come out of the woodwork around Christmas time. Be they Anna’s Pepperkakor (naturally) or Speculoos/Spekulatius/etc or just plain old Gingerbread they all make me feel warm and full of festive cheer. These biscuits aren’t any particular spice biscuit but rather they pull together the best features of many recipes I’ve tried over time.

We like a strongly spiced biscuit in my family where the warmth stays with you. And we all know I love any biscuit that can be cut into cute shapes. I’m quite the sucker for them in fact. These are great because they hold their shape brilliantly and retain a clear, crisp edge. They are incredibly versatile. I’ve made tiny gingerbread shapes for snacking on on Christmas morning, large ones for the tree, and even a few Gingerbread people for my family. They are so easy to throw together and exactly the pick me up needed sometimes at this time of year.

300g plain flour
4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp whole cloves, ground
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
150g light brown muscovado sugar
225g unsalted butter
3 tbsp milk

- Blitz the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and sugar in a food processor.
- Add the butter, chopped into chunks, and process until it forms breadcrumbs.
- Add the milk with the motor running.
- Turn out onto a work surface and bring together with your hands to form a smooth dough. If it’s sticking then another 25g or so of flour can be kneaded into the dough.
- Divide the dough into 3, form into discs and wrap.
- Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, overnight if possible.
- When ready heat the oven to gas mark 4/ 180 C and line a few baking trays.
- Working with one portion of dough at a time, roll out on a floured work surface to a thickness of just a few mm. I like mine to be at least as thin as a £1 coin.
- Use cutters to cut out your biscuits and place on a baking tray. They don’t need much space between them.
- If making tree decorations don’t forget to cut a hole for the string too! I use the tip of an icing nozzle.
- Bake in batches for 12-15 minutes in the centre of the oven until firm but not too dark.
- Cool completely on a wire rack.
- You can now decorate the biscuits if you wish.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I made this pineapple upside down cake for a Clandestine Cake Club event that just happened to be the same week as the first episode of Great British Bake Off. Now, here’s a confession, I hadn’t actually watched Bake Off before. However, so many people assumed I’d seen it and been inspired that I started watching and then, like the rest of the nation, became hooked!


The theme for the event was classic/ vintage/ retro cakes and I immediately thought of my mum’s 70s and 80s St Michael cookbooks and in particular this cake. Not that we ever used a recipe for making it when we were kids! It was a frequent feature and I still adore it. It’s a nice cake in that you can make it for dessert but it is equally at home as a cutting cake (you know, one on the side for cutting at!)


One thing I will not negotiate is that it must be served with cream of some kind. As a dessert it it sublime just slightly warm with vanilla ice cream. You can pipe the cream around it, as I did here, or just have a big bowl of whipped cream for dolloping! I’ve even served it with the suspiciously named ‘Topping’ when cream was unobtainable in Japan. It simply isn’t the same without some kind of cream, I’m afraid!


1 large tin pineapple rings
~13 glacé cherries
3 tbsp Demerara sugar
200g I salted butter plus about 1 tbsp extra for greasing
200g golden caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1-2 tbsp milk
Whipped cream!

- Heat the oven to gas mark 4/ 180C and well grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin.
- Drain the pineapple slices and place on kitchen towel while you make the cake mix.
- Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Gradually add the eggs and the vanilla, mixing well between additions.
- Finally, add the flour and baking powder and mix thoroughly until totally combined.
- Add the milk and mix well.
- Make sure there is a good layer of butter on the base of your lined cake tin. Then sprinkle over the demerara sugar evenly.
- Arrange the pineapple slices and glacé cherries in the base of the tin.
- Pour over the cake batter and smooth to make a level cake.
- Bake for about 40 minutes in the centre of the oven until the wobble disappears and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Turn out onto a plate immediately and then leave to cool either completely or until just warm and serve with either whipped cream or ice cream.

Graveyard Cake

This was my Clandestine Cake Club cake for the Halloween and Bonfire Night event last night. I chose a Gingerbread cake with Speculoos icing and Speculoos gravestones. The dirt path is crushed Oreos. It wasn’t the most popular of cakes last night but we demolished it today at the office!!!

I made the Speculoos icing using some Speculoos paste my mum bought me in France. You could probably achieve the sameish effect by blitzing some Speculoos with your butter for the buttercream.

Salmon and Summer Vegetable Bake

I really enjoy this dish so I thought I had better hurry up and get it posted before what we had of a summer was a long distant memory.  It already seems like months ago as the howling wind and rising flood waters surround me and the heating went on last week but this dish allows me to cling to lighter summer eating while still being warm, filling and very satisfying.

If you’re lucky enough not to have had all your crops eaten by slugs or birds or trampled by workmen (I don’t want to talk about it) then you can use courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes you grew yourself.  The rest of us will just have to look on enviously! (Although I still have hopes I’ll find some potatoes that the slugs haven’t had!)

Other than the flavours of this dish one of the delightful things about it is that you can, if you want, just throw it all in a roasting dish and bung it in the oven.  Minimal prep work is required and 45 minutes later dinner is served with no fuss and no extra dishes!  If you would prefer your tomatoes and courgettes to hold their shape a little more then you can precook the potatoes a bit by steaming them for 10 minutes and then cooking everything for 30 minutes.  For a family supper I wouldn’t bother, if you were cooking to impress then may be I would.

Another thing I like is that you don’t need any kind of sauce.  I am terrible for always needing something like mayo, ketchup or gravy if there isn’t a proper ‘sauce’ with something but the cream cheese topping does a delightful job of keeping everything moist and full of flavour.

Serves 2 (can be scaled up or down to whatever capacity your roasting dish can hold!)

2 salmon fillets
1 tsp green pesto
4 tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp bread crumbs (Feeling lazy? Panko work nicely too)
1 large courgette, cut into batons
2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes (whatever seems a suitable portion)
2 handfuls of new potatoes*
1 lemon sliced into quarters
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

- Heat the oven to gas mark 6/200C.
- Take a large roasting tin and pour in the olive oil.  Tip in the courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes and toss in the oil to coat.
- Mix the pesto and cream cheese together and spread on top of the salmon fillets.
- Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the cream cheese.
- Nestle the salmon between the vegetables.
- Give everything a good sprinkle of salt and pepper and add the lemon wedges to the dish.
- Cover with foil and pop it in the oven for 45 minutes.
- Test the potatoes to check they’re done.  A sharp knife should slide in smoothly.
- Serve, a nice crust bread would go well with this dish to soak up the juices.

*Alternative – Steam the potatoes for 10 minutes before tossing in the oil with the other vegetables.  Then only bake the dish for 30 minutes.

 

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am currently a little bit obsessed with the Chocolate Chip Cookies from M&S Bakery section.  They put something addictive in them I swear!  As a result I’m currently spending a lot of time trying to recreate that cookie.  I don’t hold out much hope of actually doing that but in the meantime I’m baking a lot of decicious chocolate chip cookies!

This one is my current favourite because of the melted butter.  It’s ridiculously quick and easy to throw together and makes a delicious, chewy cookie with nice crispy edges just the way I like them!  In order to get the full M&S experience you should eat the cookies warm… I challenge you not to scoff half the batch fresh out the oven, no one has that much will power!

Makes 24 large cookies

170g melted unsalted butter
220g light muscovado sugar
100g caster sugar (If you like the grainyness of the M&S cookies feel free to use granulated, I don’t like it so I use caster)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g chocolate chips (I use one bag of dark and one bag of milk for variety)

- Heat the oven to Gas mark 3/170C and prepare three baking trays.
- Melt the butter, I put it in the microwave for 1 minute but microwaves vary so be careful!
- In a large mixing bowl mix the melted butter  with both sugars until smooth.
- Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until smooth.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until it forms a dough.
- Mix through the chocolate chips.  *
- Each cookie should be about a 1/4 cup size of dough.  I use a dessert spoon to scoop and drop onto the baking trays.  Make sure they cookies are well spaced apart as they spread.
- Bake one sheet at a time in the top of the oven for about 15-17 minutes.  The cookies will still be soft but the edges should be a little brown.
- Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely/eat.
- Repeat with the remaining trays of cookies.

*I frequently put the bowl of cookie mixture in the fridge at this point and leave it for a few hours/overnight.  Sometimes, life gets in the way! I think this can result in a chewier cookie and a taller cookie with a bit less spread as the butter takes longer to melt and spread out.  (There is actual science behind this to do with the flour absorbing the liquid, apparently 36 hours chilling is the optimum but who is that organised?)