It’s Jim’s birthday!
I had been nagging him for at least a month, trying to get him to decide on what he wanted by way of a cake (He gets one every year and I take it up to his office in London. It’s amazing how quickly a bunch of accountants can demolish a Doctor Who Tardis cake…) and so I decided for him, cupcakes, and he picked the flavours… Team effort!
Lemon Cupcakes
It’s Jim’s birthday today so we headed up to London. Jim commutes so when he’s up there for five days out of seven, the last thing he wants to do is spend his weekends there but there was something geektastically tempting for him up in the British Library. We detoured through Soho and Chinatown on the way back and found the Hummingbird Bakery. Jim wanted to leave me there and I would have quite happily lived in there…
We got a Rocky Road Cup and a Cheesecake Brownie!
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This recipe is my fail safe. Every time it produces beautiful little griddle cakes. And today, I didn’t need anything else to go wrong (but luckily I only came away with a £40 vet bill that proves that cats don’t always land on their feet). Everything is mixed together by hand, so no need to be scraping bits of dough out of the Kitchenaid attachments and they are cooked in a dry frying pan so no waiting for the oven to preheat. They keep well in an airtight container and can be topped with anything, sugar mixed with mixed spice, honey, butter, jam…
Ingredients
250gr self raising flour
125gr butter (the recipe I inherited calls for half butter and half lard, I like it better with butter though)
1 handful of sultanas (about 70-80gr)
80gr caster sugar
1 egg
2 pinches of mixed spice
1, Rub the butter into the flour and mix in the mixed spice.
2, Add in the sugar and sultanas and mix well.
3, Mix in the eggs, first with a fork but then get your hands in there and form it into a dough
4, Turn it out onto a well floured surface and roll out to about half a centimetre thick. Cut out little rounds with a pastry cutter. I used a one with a fluted edge but press down hard to cut through any sultanas.
5, Heat a heavy based non stick frying pan to a medium heat and place in as many as you can fit bearing in mind you will need to flip them over.
6, Brown evenly on each side and transfer them onto a cooling rack as they will need to be cooked in batches.
For the record, this is the cat who doesn't always land on her feet. Her little sister however is made of rubber and springs and tiggers...
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Dear Mr/Mrs Courgette Plant
I hate you. Well, actually I love you but you have taken over my garden, forced me to relocate your neighbouring cucumber and pepper plants, sat and watched as the relocated cucumber died, slurped every drop of moisture out of the ground, and to top it off you sneakily grew about a million children in about three days.
So I am turning your children into cake.
Lots of love,
Hanna
Adapted from this recipe
Ingredients
250gr grated courgette (grate them and wring as much juice as you can out of them. I wrapped mine in muslin and gave it a good squeeze)
2 eggs
115ml vegetable oil
180gr golden caster sugar
225gr self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
Grated zest of three limes
Preheat oven to 180o/c
1, Whisk the egg, zest, oil and sugar together until pale and creamy
2, Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until well combined
3, Stir in the grated courgette
4, Pour into either two 7inch sandwich tins, muffin cases, or silicon baking moulds and bake for 25 minutes. The larger cakes will take more time. Check they are cooked when an inserted skewer comes out clean.
5, Make a simply glaze with juice from two limes mixed with icing sugar to your preferred consistency.
Fresh beetroot? Pickle it? Throw it in a soup, a smoothie or a salad? It’s got limited options. I had heard of a ginger and beetroot chutney and this recipe confirms that ginger and beetroot go deliciously well together.
I have a great carrot cake recipe and decided to switch the carrots with beetroot and add in some stem ginger. Plus baking this in muffin cases makes the packed lunch fairy’s work a lot easier!
Ingredients
170gr brown sugar
110ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
190gr self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
200gr coarsely grated fresh beetroot
1inch piece of stem ginger (from a jar) finely chopped or 1/2 inch of fresh ginger grated
Preheat oven to 180o/c
1, Whisk the sugar, eggs, ginger and oil together for around 2-3 minutes until thick and pale.
2, Add in the flour and baking powder and mix until well combined.
3, Stir in the beetroot until just combined.
4, Spoon into a lined muffin tin and bake for 20-30minutes until browned and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
5, Wait until cool and then drizzle on glacé icing and top with ginger slices.
