Rosemary Cake

I love herbs. They bring so much taste, zest and greenness in the kitchen especially during the dullest of months. They are generally used in cooking I know, but I was really intrigued when I was flipping through Nigella’s books and found a recipe for a cake with rosemary. And incidentally, after making this I realised that it is quite a popular dessert too. I do have a confession though: rosemary is not one of my favourites. I cannot pinpoint exactly why; maybe because of it’s sometimes soapy taste and woody texture, or it could be simply because of it’s pointy shape. But there’s an endless list of savoury stuff using this particular herb, and you can be as creative as you want. It is great with chicken, though lately I don’t bother with it and use sage or tarragon instead, which works great for me.

Now I must say here that this cake was not very popular among those who had a taste. The cake itself was fine, but the rosemary bit was not to everyone’s liking. I was not surprised, but I loved not only the taste, but the aromatic smell wafting through my kitchen while it was in the oven. So even if I scared you off at the start (really…I didn’t mean to) I would recommend you give this a go. You could always serve it with some raw fruit, or a fruit compote if it’s not your cup of tea when eaten on it’s own. So here’s the recipe, taken from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess with minor variations. You need a loaf tin for this.

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 210g self-raising flour
• 90g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary, chopped but not too much
• 60ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar, set aside for sprinkling the top

Preheat your oven to 170ºC/around 350ºF/Gas Mark 3, and line a tin loaf with some butter and baking paper.

Cream the sugar and softened butter till everything is pale and light. Beat in the eggs slowly, preferably one by one, alternating with one spoon of flour.

Add the vanilla extract, then all the remaining flour. Now it’s time to add the rosemary.
To give the batter a slightly more liquidy consistency add the 4 tablespoons of milk and mix till it’s combined with the batter.

Pour your mixture into the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of caster sugar on top. Bake for approximately 1 hour, until a knife comes out clean.

This cake will keep well for several days if stored in an airtight container. Like all Madeira mixtures it is ideal for tea-time. Enjoy!

Rob x

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Too much Salt.

J and I have just arrived back from a brief holiday in the Lake District. Those who know us know that we love the Lakes, especially in good weather. This year, weather-wise, it was not good. We cancelled two days of camping and chose to head up north on Wednesday instead to stay in the tiny village of Seatoller in Borrowdale. That was a great choice: the valley was lovely with beautiful views all around, but with low clouds, mist and the heaviest rain we could barely walk. I could be exaggerating just a little bit but it was too soggy for my taste. We did manage to enjoy some walks here and there, and we went to our favourite little towns of Keswick, Hawkshead and did all the tourist things, among which was a visit to Hill Top, a farm which once belonged to Beatrix Potter. But I seriously digress…

Though this actually brings me to something I wanted to write about for quite a long time now. I don’t want to be a nag because no one likes that, myself included. But this has been bothering me. On to another story then! (Sorry…) While we were in Hawkshead we decided to have some coffee and cake from a quaint local teashop. Quaint is only the word J used to describe it, since it was really girly, but later he told me he felt squeamish when he saw it. Their chocolate cake seemed so delicious in the display area so that’s what I ordered. Result: it was so-not-delicious! It was dry and had too much salt in it for my liking – so I ask this: what is it with people’s obsession with chocolate and salt? There is no doubt that we are eating too much salt. Now this comes from someone who loves salty things – I could eat a whole tin of anchovies if given the chance. I say it because I would be the first one to put my hand up because I’m guilty too, even though I’ve given up on the anchovy-tin-bit quite a few months ago. Sad I know, but true! Thankfully these days many food stuffs have labels that indicate how much salt or sodium (they are different) you can find in that product. They make life a teeny bit easier.

I am trying to reduce salt in my cooking. I didn’t take it away completely because I need it. We all do. I still wash the beans from a tin to remove all those salty preservatives. More so after watching a celebrity chef on tv throwing the beans plus + the horrible goo into his dish = yuck! But salt in sweet things…*mm…let me think*…is not a good idea with chocolate. I just don’t like it, and I prefer to use herbs and spices, and pepper of course to season savoury stuff. I am no chef I know that. I’m a simple home cook and people are partial to different kinds of food – I know that too. But the fact that we should go slowly with the salt mill is well-known. Nothing new here. I won’t go into any health issues – we’re getting that everywhere and a lot lately and frankly you know the drill. I just want less salt in my sweets. Where can I get a decent saltless bar of chocolate? I wonder if that’s a lot to ask.

Rob x

Note: For a good guide for salt take a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/treatments/healthy_living/nutrition/healthy_salt.shtml

Lemon Cake – Part 2

Now there’s no doubt that Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess is full of good stuff. Somehow I find that her recipes here are more refined than those in her other books. To be honest I cannot pin point exactly why; to me they just are. Just try the next recipe, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s one of my favourites: Damp Lemon and Almond Cake. It’s not a flourless cake; you still need some plain flour for this, but if you like almonds like me, you will be completely smitten by this beauty.

If you want to learn from my mistake, I’ll tell you that it is essential that you use baking paper for greasing your cake tin. I didn’t and you can see that mine got a little burnt at the edges. (You will need a 21-23 cm springform tin.) What I can assure you though is this: it was delicious, especially with real vanilla ice-cream! You could serve it alone of course, or with some sort of lemon ice-cream or sorbet, but for me that would be a tad too much. You still don’t know which cake I like best…Let’s start:

• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 50g plain flour, or rice flour for a GF version
• 225g ground almonds
• ½ teaspoon almond essence
• juice and zest of 2 lemons

Preheat your oven to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4. Cream the butter and sugar together well. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a quarter of the flour after each egg.

When these have been well combined, gently add the ground almonds, almond essence, lemon zest and juice.

Pour into a very well greased and lined round cake tin and bake for around 1 hour. Mine was done after 55 minutes so every so often please take a look at your cake without opening the oven too much. After 30 minutes cover it with a piece of foil to stop the surface from burning.

After the cake is done remove from the oven and let it cool for around 10 minutes in its tin. Then turn it out slowly onto a rack.

Enjoy!

Rob x

Apricot and Date Loaf

A few weeks ago I bought a packet of dried apricots for a lamb tagine recipe I wanted to try. I never got round to it, no matter how many times I included it in my New Year resolutions (which proved to me that these don’t work). Since I did not want the apricots to remain in my pantry forever I preferred to use them in another recipe rather than letting them go bad or worse – eating them as is! So without further rambling (as is often the case with me) here is a really yummy cake for you to try. This makes 1 loaf.

• 150g plain flour
• 70g wholemeal flour
• 85g light brown sugar (you can use granulated white if you like)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• the zest of 1 orange
• 65g dried apricots, chopped
• 50g dried pitted dates, chopped
• 175ml milk
• 1 large egg
• 30g butter, melted

Place a rack in the centre of the oven and preheat at 190°C (375 F). Grease a loaf tin with butter and some flour or use baking paper.

In a large bowl combine plain and wholemeal flours, baking powder, orange zest and the dried fruits.

In a smaller bowl beat the milk with the eggs and the melted butter. Pour this over mixture of dry ingredients and mix everything together until just moistened.

Place batter into your greased loaf tin for around 40 mins. (Always test by inserting a knife or a skewer. If this comes out clean then your cake is done.) Leave to cool for 10 mins and remove the cake from the tin.

Enjoy!

Rob x