APPLE GINGER CAKES WITH LEMON ICING

I love ginger cake and came across this recipe from Australian Women's Weekly. To quote from the book 'it's the fabulous fusion of flavours that makes these little cakes unique'.

The tin they were cooked in, I believe, is called a 6-hole mini fluted pan or you could use a texas-style muffin pan which is 180ml capacity. You can buy these from eBay or TK Maxx. I'm sure other online stores also sell these.

I greased the mini fluted pan with Cake Release from Lakeland, this helps them to come out of the pan cleanly.

WOMEN'S WEEKLY HOME BAKED

ISBN 1863964118 - Page 225

Makes: 12

You will need: 2 six-hole mini fluted pans or 2-six hole texas muffin pans, well greased.

250g butter (softened), 330g dark brown sugar, 3 medium eggs, 90g golden syrup, 300g plain flour, 1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda, 2 tablespoons ground ginger, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 170g coarsely grated apple (unpeeled weight 200g - a large apple or 1½ average size apples), 160ml hot water.

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beat until well combined between additions. Stir in syrup.
3. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, stir in sifted dry ingredients, then apple and the water.
4. Divide mixture among prepared pans, smooth tops.
5. Bake in oven for about 25 minutes. Stand cakes in pan 5 minutes, then turn onto wire racks to cool.
6. Drizzle lemon icing over cakes.

Lemon Icing

320g icing sugar, 2 teaspoons softened butter, 80ml lemon juice (approx 2 lemons).

Stir icing sugar into medium heatproof bowl, stir in butter and juice to form a paste. Place bowl over small saucepan of simmering water, stir until icing is a pouring consistency.

RASPBERRIES AND CREAM ICE

I was inspired to make this whilst looking through the August 2008 Sainsbury's Magazine. Nigel Slater, ice cream and raspberries - perfect.

Unfortunately, I had a problem with this recipe. If you eat this straight from the freezer the cream ice and raspberries are frozen solid. If you thaw it for a while, the cream ice melts and reverts back to its original consistency and the raspberries remain frozen.

We served ours semi-melted and had lots of extra raspberries with it.

Serves: 6

You will need: a 10 x 16cm loaf tin, 9cm deep, the base and sides lined with clingfilm.

75g caster sugar, 3 large eggs (separated), a few drops of vanilla extract or a knife-point of vanilla seeds, 275ml double cream, 250g raspberries.

1. Add the sugar to the egg yolks and beat until thick and pale. Stir in the vanilla. Whist the cream until thick, but still able to slide a little when the bowl is moved from side to side. You don't want it to be stiff. Fold the cream into the egg yolk and sugar.
2. Crush the berries with a fork. Just mash them lightly.
3. In a clean bowl and with a clean whisk, beat the egg whites until stiff. fold them tenderly into the mixture, followed by the crushed raspberries. Pour into the lined tin. Tap gently to level the mixture then cover loosely with clingfilm and place in the freezer for a good 4-5 hours until frozen.
4. To serve, slice with a heavy, sharp knife into thick pieces.

Note: this recipe contains raw eggs.

JAMIE OLIVER'S FABULOUS FISH CAKES

This is one of Jamie's 'Feed Your Family for a Fiver' recipes from Sainsbury's Try Something New Today.

They were very easy to make and instead of my usual method of cooking fish cakes in butter and oil in a frying pan, these were cooked in the oven with only a drizzle of oil over them and obviously this is a much healthier option.

The basics salmon was surprisingly good, and I wouldn't hesitate to use this again in recipes requiring cooked salmon. Make sure you go over the salmon though for the odd few bones because you wouldn't want your children to have any of these in their mouths!

I didn't follow Jamie's salad to the letter because I had other salad ingredients in the fridge to use up, but I give the recipe below.

On another note - I still prefer to fry my fish cakes for extra taste and colour, also I always add some chopped parsley to the potato and salmon.

Nigel Slater says tinned salmon makes 'deeply flavoured fish cakes'. He has written a charming piece about fish cakes for Waitrose.

As a child we always had fish cakes made with tinned salmon and mashed potatoes. They were mostly served with baked beans and then we used to prod open the fish cakes and pour malt vinegar inside of them! That meal was always one of my favourites as a child. Does anyone else remember having this dinner or a variation of it? I would love to know.

Here is Jamie's recipe:

Serves: 4

You will need: 350g basics salmon fillets, 4 baking potatoes, 1 lemon, 1 egg

1. Place the salmon fillets in a metal colander over a pan of simmering water. cover and steam for 5 minutes.

2. Peel the 4 potatoes, cut each into about 8 pieces and boil until soft. Mash and leave to cool. Remove any skin from the salmon, flake and mix with the potatoes, a lightly whisked egg, lemon zest and some salt and pepper. Roll the mixture into 8 fish cakes.

3. Drizzle olive oil on both sides of the fish cakes and cook on a baking tray in a preheated oven for 15 minutes at 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 or until crispy on the outside and heated through.

For the salad: Round lettuce, cucumber portion, 2 tomatoes, 1 red onion.

1. Quarter the heart of the lettuce and set aside.

2. Chop all the remaining washed salad ingredients, including the outer lettuce leaves.

3. Place in a salad bowl.

For the dressing: Dijon mustard, juice of the lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

1. Make a well in the middle of the prepared salad and squeeze in the juice of the lemon. Add a dash of olive oil, a spoonful of Dijon mustard and the salt and pepper.

2. Mix through the salad.

3. Serve the fish cakes with the salad and quartered lettuce heart.

GRILLED PINEAPPLE WITH RUM SAUCE

My husband loves being 'BBQ Man' on Saturday evenings in the summer and last weekend he knew from Metcheck.com that the weather forecast was for rain and gale force winds, but he still insisted the weather would turn out OK.

We go through this nearly every weekend in the summer and then the planned outdoor BBQ ends up being cooked indoors. Although, to be fair, we have had a handful of BBQ's so far this year.

Last year he put his foul weather gear on, put the garden parasol up and proceeded to BBQ!!! How's that for sheer determination. I have to admit though we did have visitors, and he thought he would put on a 'bit of a show'.

The pineapple cooked really well on the grill pan! The sauce was delicious and not too rich. The pineapple was a little difficult to eat, and I think after cooking, the pineapple should be cut across the width down to the skin, then you won't have to fight with it so much!

Delia Smith has a wonderful recipe for coconut ice cream which would go very well with the pineapple.

EASY SUMMER FOOD

ISBN 1841728233 - Page 192

Serves: 6

For the rum butter sauce:

100g soft brown sugar, 100g unsalted butter, 100ml dark rum, 1 medium pineapple with leafy top if possible, cut length ways into wedges and core removed.

1. Put the sugar, butter and rum in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves.
2. Brush a little of the mixture over the pineapple wedges, then cook them on a preheated barbecue or on a stove-top grill pan for 2 minutes on each side until charred and tender.
3. Serve with ice cream and remaining rum sauce.

PASSION CAKE

I have no idea why this is called passion cake - can anyone help on this one?

In my previous post, I made mini coconut loaves with fresh coconut and after wading through countless recipes that needed coconut decided on this recipe, perhaps in part because it only needs 28g of my precious coconut!

The cake will cut much better straight from the fridge and can then be brought up to room temperature for eating. If you like lots of topping then I would double up on the ingredients. You can see from the photograph it looks as though I've been mean with the topping. Unfortunately, I didn't have any mascarpone cheese left to make more.

I'll definitely be making this cake again, it was crumbly, moist and full of flavour and the unusual topping went perfectly with the cake.


I made this cake especially for my son who came home for the weekend and he said he thought it was amazing. In fact, we all thought it was amazing!

Sue Lawrence, the author of this book, won Masterchef in 1991 and was the President of the Guild of Food Writers from 2004 to 2007.

SUE LAWRENCE ON BAKING

ISBN 1856262669 - Page 70

You will need: 18cm loose-bottomed, base-lined cake tin.

For the cake: 170g butter, softened, 170g soft light brown sugar, 3 medium eggs, 198g wholemeal self-raising flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 28g desiccated coconut, 57g raisins, 170g carrots (peeled weight) finely grated, 57g chopped walnuts.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer on low speed until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well mixed.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Using a metal spoon, gently fold into the creamed mixture, followed by the coconut, raisins, carrots and walnuts. Mix gently but thoroughly.
4. Turn into the tin and level the top. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a fine skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for at least 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the topping: 2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese, 2 tablespoons natural yoghurt, 2 teaspoons runny honey, 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts.

1. To make the topping, beat together the mascarpone cheese, yoghurt and honey until smooth.
2. Spread over the top of the cold cake and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

The cake can be frozen completely iced. Store in the refrigerator after defrosting.

MINI COCONUT CAKES WITH MALIBU ICING

I decided to make my own desiccated and shredded coconut, and after carrying out this laborious task, made these delightful little coconut cakes.

FRESH BAKED - LOUISE PICKFORD
ISBN 0600613569 - Page 56

Makes: 8 cakes

I have slightly adapted this recipe. The original recipe used passion fruit icing and the recipe for this is given below.

You will need: 125g softened unsalted butter, 150g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 125g self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 100g desiccated coconut, 2 tablespoons milk.

For the icing: 125g sifted icing sugar, 1-2 tablespoons passion fruit pulp.

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas 3.
2. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and process for 1 minutes or until evenly blended.
3. Oil and base-line an 8-hole mini-loaf tin. or 12 hole muffin tray. Divide the mixture equally into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until risen and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

To make the passion fruit icing:

Beat the ingredients together until smooth. Put the cakes, still on the wire rack, over a large plate and pour over the passion fruit icing, allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cakes. Leave to set.

For the alternative icing:

1.250g instant royal icing, 1-2 tablespoon Malibu and enough water to make a smooth, runny paste that will ice the top of the cakes well.
2.Coat the cakes with icing and decorate with fresh shredded coconut.

FRESH COCONUT


Delia Smith on her website gives instructions for this 'operation'. It's definitely a job to do on a rainy day. A word of warning here, don't smash the coconut to within an inch of its life, or you will end up with small shards of coconut that take forever to peel (like I did!).

You will also need a fairly hardy food processor to make the shredded coconut because the coconut is quite tough.

After you have either desiccated or shredded the coconut, place in a ziplock bag and pop into the freezer. It freezes beautifully and takes only moments to defrost.

Never again after tasting fresh coconut will you ever be tempted to buy something out of a bag.
Another plus is that the coconut isn't 'sweetened' - pure bliss.


The coconut essence in the photograph can be purchased from Jane Asher and I use this in cake batter, icings etc.