Moist Almond Cake.

This recipe goes quite a few months back. I had an unusual number of lemons lying around doing nothing. This is not the norm in this house. As any good Mediterranean foodie I really really love lemons…in anything, not just in baking. That makes it perfect for use all year round.

Now how about this: the following recipe has almost nothing to do with lemons, so why am I rambling on about them you ask? It’s because the *original* recipe used the zest and juice of two lemons, but being such a klutz in the kitchen I zested my lemons, juiced them, placed the zest and juice into two small ramekins ready to go into the batter…yes…and of course I forgot about them!  I tipped the batter into the cake tin, into the oven it went and by the time I went about doing other things like checking any mail and cleaning the kitchen in between prepping other dishes, it was too late to add the lemons. This is definitely not the first time something like this happened, but nonetheless I was still angry with myself. I thought that the cake would lose out too much on flavour and maybe it would have lost some of the moistness. I am happy to say that I couldn’t have been more wrong. One has to admit one’s mistakes! The cake was good and moist. Thinking back, how couldn’t it not be?

This recipe is taken from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. Nigella says: “It is a plain cake, but gloriously plain.” It’s not meant to be a warning – this cake is meant to be made and enjoyed like all the simple things in life. It’s a cake for all seasons with or without the lemons. J preferred it without because he loves almonds. I think that it’s great either way. One thing I love here is the minimal amount of flour used; there are only 50g. The ground almonds take care of the rest. Here’s the recipe without the lemony element. I will make a note for those who would like them to be included as I go along. Here it is then!

• 225g unsalted butter, softened or slightly melted
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 50g plain flour
• 225g ground almonds
• ½ teaspoon almond essence (I used ¼ teaspoon almond extract instead)
• zest and juice of 2 lemons if using*
• a piece of kitchen foil big enough to cover the top of the cake**

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 and line or grease a 23cm springform tin. (I tried this cake twice also using a normal round cake tin. Make sure you *really* grease the tin well. But be careful; this cake is damp and very fragile.)
2. In a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together till you have a white mixture. Be patient – it *will* turn white. Beat in the eggs one by one and also add the flour, one quarter of it at a time. (Beating the eggs properly ensures some rise in the cake as there is no raising agent here.)
3. Now add the ground almonds, the almond essence, and if you like tip in the zest and juice from the two lemons at this point.* Stir very very gently. This is important to keep the air in the batter.
4. Tip the mixture into your prepared cake tin and bake for around an hour. This is only a rough estimate (as you can see in the book). Mine took 55 minutes exactly in both cases. So always keep an eye on it. After around 25 minutes cover the top of the cake with some kitchen foil to avoid burning.** You want it to turn a nice golden colour. Any more than that and it could burn. When the cake is done the skewer should come out clean. Don’t worry if there is a little gooeyness stuck to the knife or skewer. It’s ok if there’s just a little!
5. Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the tin for a little while. Then turn it on to a wire rack and let it cool completely. What I did at this point, and this is totally up to you, is to melt around 100g of dark chocolate with a knob of butter on a small pot of steaming water. Drizzle this over the cake. It’s an unfussy way of putting a little decoration. I don’t bother with anything else at this point – it will be gobbled up anyway! Nigella has some great tips on how to serve this cake too: either with some lemon ice cream or with raspberries or both! Enjoy and tell me what you think if you try it.

Enjoy!

Rob x

Simple Chocolate Muffins for Mothering Sunday.

It’s Mothering Sunday this month in the UK. I get so confused: in Malta it’s in May. The first year we moved here I sent my cards really early and our mums were so surprised. I have a reputation of sending greeting cards a month before someone’s birthday, but this broke all records! Lately people have been messaging me saying that I have not been writing about sweet things for the past few posts. That’s very true, reason being that I have not been baking much this past month or so. I will rectify this now, although the following recipe goes back quite a while.

These are difficult times for almost everyone, so instead of spending all your precious pennies I’m sure that a little bit of baking would go a long way instead. How about some cute fairy cakes with pink icing and loads of sprinkles for the special lady, maybe wrapped up in a pink box? Or perhaps the following chocolate lovelies…They are so simple to make. One thing to pay attention to has to do with convection oven. These tend to be too powerful for baking small cakes, so preheat the oven 10 to 20 degrees C lower. If you have a fan oven then preheat it to 160ºC here. This recipe is for 12 muffins and takes about 35 minutes or so. Happy Baking!

• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 175g self-raising flour
• 25g good quality cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (for convection ovens see my note above). Line or grease a muffin tin for 12 cakes.
2. In a large bowl mix in the butter, golden caster sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Place a sieve over the same bowl and in it tip the flour and cocoa powder. Sift the two ingredients into the liquids.
3. Using a whisk beat everything together well but not too much. Some lumps in the mixture is fine. It will turn out better!
4. Divide the mixture in the tins and bake for 15 minutes, or till a knife comes out clean. Keep an eye on them as they can burn easily!
5. Take them out of the tins after 5 minutes on a wire rack and let them cool.

If you want to make some buttercream to make them tastier, try mixing 150g unsalted butter, 300g icing sugar and 2 tablespoons milk in a bowl. Make sure you spread this on the muffins after they are completely cool, otherwise the buttercream will simply melt. Not nice. Happy Mothering Sunday to all you lovely mums!

Rob x

Sweet and Salty Rocky Road

I remember the day when I discovered that marshmellowy divine gooeyness that is Rocky Road. It’s something that I loved immediately, one of the reasons being of course, that it was so easy and quick to make. The *only* thing that I didn’t like was that it had to sit in the fridge to set for a few hours. But boy oh boy was my patience rewarded from that first bite. My many trips to the gym hasn’t made a big difference in deterring that bit of extra weight but that hasn’t prevented me from making them again and again. OK…one *again* is enough!

That was a few years ago. More recently I discovered another jewel in the crown: Nigella’s sweet and salty nut crunch bars. Now if I were to choose, most probably I would go for the salty stuff, even if it’s not that good for you. J says that I’m the personification of contradiction, if that could really exist. I love baking anything sweet, but when it comes to taste I do favour the odd bit of cheese. So unashamedly I confirm once more the fact that I can easily eat a whole tin of anchovies with some bread given the freedom to do that. Unfortunately I don’t have that anymore! What I can say is that this recipe satisfies both the sweet and savoury palate and I really don’t know what can be easier than this. I made these babies again a few days ago and they are waiting for me…*cough*…us quietly in the cold. And since I conveniently forgot all about them until now, I’m having a piece, thank you very much. Please don’t judge me! I won’t do that to you if you try making these. One piece of advice though – they are addictive so go slow.

So the easiest recipe in the world goes something like this:

• 200g dark chocolate, broken into cubes
• 100g milk chocolate, also broken into cubes
• 125g butter, unsalted and make sure it’s soft
• 45ml golden syrup (3 tablespoons, heaped)
• 200g peanuts, salted
• 4 Crunchie bars (40g each)

1. Line a standard round cake tin with kitchen foil, or use a foil tin. Whatever you prefer.
2. In a saucepan (preferably with a heavy base) tip the broken chocolate, the soft butter and golden syrup, and place these over a low heat. When the chocolate has melted completely remove the pan from the heat.  Now add the salted peanuts.
3. To crush the Crunchie bars, place them into a piece of kitchen foil, grab a rolling pin and bash them with it, till you have some bits that are rubble and some that are relatively whole, but not quite. (I’m sure you get me here!)
4. Add the Crunchies into the melted chocolate concoction and stir everything together. All you have to do now is to pour the mixture into the cake tin and press it down with a spatula or something flat.
5. Place in the fridge and let it set for around four hours. I’ve tried to make the waiting time a bit less, but unfortunately it doesn’t work…

Enjoy making and eating these, and don’t forget to send me some!

Rob x

Cola Cake

I love food, but let’s be honest, there are things that I don’t like to eat (or drink for that matter) that much. One of these is tea…I just can’t take tea. I don’t like the smell and I don’t like to prepare it. I do sometimes for J if that counts for something. I know that you will forgive me for this one small thing anyway! Another pet-hate of mine is raisins. Yes I know…I know…how can I not like raisins?! Believe me I would change this if I would! I bake with them often though, because they are a must-have in a lot of cakes and so on, and they’re so Christmassy too! So I do have a little taste every now and again.

Now I must tell you that this year I’ve decided to approach Christmas food in a different way. I did not make a Christmas cake because it takes us until July to eat it all, and frankly, Summer is no season for a cake that rich! Secondly we’re only two people at home so I don’t want to end up with loads of leftovers in the fridge. But we might have some friends over for the holidays so I don’t want to skimp either. After one of the joys of Christmas is being able to feed people and prepare a feast, even on a budget. I’ve already tried all my recipes so I feel prepared and I am so looking forward to this year’s festivities.

Recently I’ve come across a recipe from Nigella’s HTBADG for a Coca Cola Cake. Please don’t be frightened and don’t panic because there’s absolutely no reason to! You don’t need much and it’s there for a reason: it makes your chocolate cake so moist and wonderful that you won’t want to look back and do it any other way. I promise! It’s quick and easy to prepare as always and it’s a great bake for this period of the year, when it’s likely to have people visiting at short notice. (I love having people over; if I were still in Malta I think I would set up camp in my kitchen!) Storing this cake in foil in a cool place will keep it beautifully moist and fresh for around three to five days. But you can forget about that because it’ll be gone by two! Enjoy and tell me what you think if you do try it.

Things you will need for the cake:

• 23cm Springform round cake tin, lined with kitchen foil, then greased.
• 200g plain flour
• 250g caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1 large egg
• 30g yoghurt mixed w/ 100ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 175ml Coca Cola (Please – not diet!)

Ingredients for the icing (optional but hey it is Christmas!):

• 225g icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 x 15ml tablespoons Coca Cola
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4, and place a baking sheet on the middle shelf. In the meantime prepare the cake tin by lining it with kitchen foil and grease it will a some butter so nothing sticks. You can use this foil to store the cake in, away from anyone who might want to eat it all!
2. Take a large bowl. Put in the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda and mix. In a measuring jug beat in the egg, yoghurt, milk and vanilla extract. Grab a saucepan, put it on gentle heat, and melt the softened butter, cocoa powder and Coca Cola. Pour this cola mixture in the dry ingredients, mix well with a wooden spoon or a whisk. Then pour in the ingredients from the measuring jug. Combine everything well and pour the batter into the cake tin.
3. Place the tin on the baking sheet in the oven and bake for approximately 40 mins till a skewer or a knife comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool for around 20 minutes in its tin, and in the meantime prepare the icing.
4. In a small saucepan place the butter, Cola, and stir on a gentle heat till the butter has completely melted. In a small bowl, sieve the icing sugar. When the butter has melted, switch the heat off and remove the pan onto your kitchen surface and add the vanilla.   Gradually spoon the icing sugar into the saucepan beating well as you go along. You should end up with a spreadable icing which will still be a bit runny. So don’t worry.

Pour this icing while the cake is still warm. It will melt slightly but it adds to the gooey yummy-ness of this cake.

If you want to turn it up a notch, bake two cakes, spread some of that yummy hazelnut spread in between the two, sandwich them together and ice as usual!

Enjoy!

Rob x

Boozy Brownies

Some months ago I was going through my pantry and noticed that I had a whole packet of unopened hazelnuts. That’s very me unfortunately. It’s no news that sometimes I tend to buy food stuffs without really planning ahead. I’m improving though…Honest! Solution: Twitter and the lovely James Tanner. James kindly sent me a link to his recipe for Chocolate Nut Brownies. I changed it slightly because I had to work with what I had in the pantry at the time but the result was fantastic all the same. I’m no expert when it comes to alcohol so I just put my hand in the drinks cabinet and grabbed the first thing that was in there. That turned out to be a bottle of Islay, which was a good choice. Also I used 300g of hazelnuts instead of the selection which James uses because that’s all I had. Anything you use will be great anyhow: one of the beauties of these rich chocolate babies. You will love them. James, thanks again for this recipe. It was a hit.

• 560g dark chocolate, cut into small chunks
• 330g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 shots Islay whiskey (or water)
• 1 tablespoon of coffee granules/or a shot of espresso
• 5 large eggs
• 330g golden caster sugar
• 175g plain flour, sifted
• 300g toasted hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas mark 4, and line a 2 inch deep, 12 inch square baking tin with parchment paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a small bowl over a pan of simmering water, and make sure that the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Stir occasionally.

In another heavy-based pan, gently heat the whiskey (or water) together with the coffee granules until these dissolve.

With an electric whisk, beat the eggs and the sugar in a medium bowl, also over a pan of simmering water, until the double in volume. This is called a Sabayon or Zabaglione. It should turn light and pale. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Slowly fold in the melted chocolate mixture into the Sabayon. Be gentle so you retain all that lovely airy texture. Now mix in the hazelnuts.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Leave to cool slightly and cut into squares.

Note: If you don’t have an electric hand whisk you can still make these brownies but it will take *a lot* of whisking. But it’s not impossible. Take it from me – I tried and tested it!

Enjoy!

Rob x.