Spring is springing!

Well, it's spring now! The clocks have gone forward and even though it's been grey all day here (boo!) there's enough light to take photos when I get home in the evening. It's all good from now on! So I just thought I share this lovely daffy trying to flower in my front garden, having fought its way through the muck that passes for soil, and evaded drowning and repeated slug attack. It'll be even more beautiful when it opens!

Chocolate Fruit and (not Nut) Cases (without red noses)

G doesn't like cake. How can that be? How can someone not like cake? But anyway, he doesn't. He claims to like chocolate cake, but I don't ever remember seeing him eat it. (I think he likes his gran's chocolate cake which no-one could possibly replicate so we've given up trying!) But he does like these. In fact, he can't get enough of them, so they're the thing I make for his birthday, in lieu of a proper birthday cake.

I have to admit though, there is something rather enigmatically delicious about these. You wouldn't think it from the simple list of ingredients, but they are extremely more-ish, to the point of being addictive. Best from the fridge so that the chocolate is nice and set, but if you don't mind sticky fingers they're lovely at whatever temperature.

In 2001 Delia Smith published 12 new chocolate recipes in aid of Comic Relief. The booklet cost £1 and was possibly the best £1 ever spent (I think J probably bought it though, so I'm not claiming it's the best pound I've ever spent!) because I've made four of the twelve recipes, and of the remaining eight, three contain nuts so I'm unlikely to ever make them. That's a pretty good hit rate for someone who owns cookbooks they've barely opened let alone made anything from! These come from that little booklet and have been made over and over and over again in my household, always with a positive response. Be warned, they will dissapear in the blink of an eye. Because they were originally for Comic Relief they were Chocolate Fruit and Nut Cases with Red Noses. I subbed out the stipulated toasted hazelnuts for dried cranberries (as suggested by Delia) and have never bothered with the red noses (half a glace cherry) but if you want to, don't let me stop you! These are the perfect size for an after dinner bite.

So where is this fabulous recipe, I hear you cry. And you would be right to be dashing to the kitchen to make them - but not if you're on a diet as they're so addictive you'll be thrown right off track unless you've got a will of steel. The big night of Comic Relief may be over for this year, but Delia's legacy from 2001 lives on still.....

Chocolate Fruit (and Nut) Cases (without red noses)!
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
50g raisins
50g dried cranberries (or use 50g toasted whole blanched hazelnuts)
2 tbsp golden syrup
50g butter
60-70g cornflakes

Method (this is simplicity itself!)

- Line 2x12 hole mini-muffin tins with paper cases

- Melt the chocolate, golden syrup and butter over a bowl of hot water (barely simmering, although I just use boiled water from the kettle - by the time it has cooled down the mixture is melted!)

- Stir the melted ingredients together until well combined. Add the raisins and cranberries and mix briefly followed by the cornflakes. Stir gently, being careful not to smash the cornflakes if possible. Keep stirring, there is more than enough chocolate to coat it all, but you'll need to get right down to the bottom of the bowl, because the chocolate collects there and tries to hide! If you want to make more, add more cornflakes a few at a time, mixing until they're coated. Eventually the mixture won't take any more cornflakes as there won't be enough chocolate to coat them. If you're doing them to sell, I add more cornflakes, if they're for family I don't bother.

- Divide between the muffin cases and leave to set.

Enjoy - you really won't regret making these as they're so much better than I could possibly tell you!

PS For some reason, it's the dark chocolate and cornflakes that really make these. I can't imagine them working with milk chocolate or rice krispies. Sorry!

Lemon cake for a spring day

Well, it finally feels as though Spring might possibly arrive again. It seems to have been grey and miserable for far too long, and here in the North West of England, we didn't even have an exciting snowy break at the beginning of February (although actually I'm quite glad about that because I didn't really fancy driving in the snow, although it did look very pretty on the news bulletins!). So I am now waiting for spring. Things have buds on them, my daffodils are fighting (the losing battle) against the slugs and might attempt to flower at some point and there are snowdrops. Yes, it's time to celebrate Spring. And what better way to celebrate than with a light lemony cake. This isn't the kind of dense soaked in syrup drizzle loaf affair, but is somewhat lighter and more victoria sponge like.

I decided to go for lemon through and through. Lemon zest in the cake batter, lemon buttercream icing and a lemon water icing to top it all off. Lemon is the name of this celebration, with its lovely bright colour and gorgeous scent, it just says happiness and Spring to me.

Lemon through and through cake
Ingredients
4 large eggs
225g softened butter
225g caster sugar
225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
grated zest of 1 lemon

For the buttercream
75g very soft butter
150g icing sugar
grated zest of around 1/4 lemon

For the lemon water icing
130g icing sugar
juice of around 3/4 lemon (obviously depending on how juicy your lemons are!)

Method
- Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, flour and baking powder and combine thoroughly until light and evenly textured.
- Divide between the two prepared cake tins and place in the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Mine took 40minutes, but were perhaps slightly overdone.
- Remove from oven and when cooled enough to touch remove from tins and remove baking parchment (if used). Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the buttercream, cream together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the zest and mix through. When cakes are completely cooled, sandwich together with the buttercream.

For the lemon water icing, add sufficient lemon juice to the icing sugar to make a thick icing and pour and spread it over the top.

Decorate as you wish - had I been more organised I would have bought all yellow flowers to decorate the top. As it is, I had to do the best I could with yellow, pink and white. Well, at least you can tell it's home-made!!!

Light, lemony and delicious, this is the perfect cake for welcoming Spring this year! Roll on the warmer weather!

Coconut and lime buttermilk cake

This was the last of the cakes I made for Comic Relief. My colleagues were very generous and in total we raised £61.82, which I'm very proud of. I think this will help to make a real difference to a child's life (and hopefully more than one) so it really was worthwhile doing 'something funny for money'!!! I hope you'll want to try this one too - it was light and moist and delicious....

Coconut and lime cake
Ingredients
33og plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2/3tsp bicarbonate of soda
230g low fat natural yogurt
165g softened butter
265g caster sugar
4 large eggs

100g creamed coconut, grated

For the buttercream icing

100g very soft butter

Around 300g icing sugar

Grated zest and juice 2 limes

100g creamed coconut, grated

Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line an 8 x 12" cake tin.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb together into a bowl and set aside.
- Weigh the yogurt into a small bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Mixing slowly, add the eggs one at a time, continuing to mix for 30 seconds between each. Add a spoonful of flour if you're worried about the mixture splitting.
- Add flour mixture and yogurt alternately until all used up, blending well after each addition.
- When all thoroughly combined, stir in the grated creamed coconut.
- Spoon into the prepared tin then bake for 45 - 50mins (but start checking at 40 mins if you know your oven is hot) until a skewer/cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before unmoulding and allowing to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the icing:
- Gently melt the coconut cream with the lime juice and zest in a small pan. Allow to cool.
- Cream together the butter and 200g icing sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add a little of the melted (cooled) coconut lime mixture and a bit more icing sugar and mix in well. Keep adding a little more coconut/lime and a bit more icing sugar until it tastes nice and is a good consistency for spreading. (Sorry this is a bit vague, I sort of did it as I went along!)
- Spread the buttercream icing onto the cake.
- Enjoy the fruits of your labour!!!!


I cut this into 18 generous pieces.

It was very much enjoyed at work and I had lots of recipe requests for it. I think the buttercream icing went down particularly well. T managed to get a piece of this cake for once (as we were both visiting home simultaneously!) and his comments were 'It's not very coconutty' but he did like the buttercream. However, it smelled seriously coconutty while it was baking. Sadly I can't tell you whether his tastebuds are rubbish or not as I couldn't eat this one myself. So..... you'll just have to try it out for yourself and see what you think! Do you agree with my colleagues at work that it's fab - or my darling brother, that it's not very coconutty???

Do let me know what you think if you make it!

Carrot cake with orange icing

There are lots of carrot cake recipes available, but this one from Delia Smith is a definite winner for me. The recipe comes from her more recent 'How to Cook' series (before she lost face by doing the 'How to Cheat' series which I personally felt was a mistake!) and is in book one, in the Cakes and Biscuits for beginners chapter. I think it's appropriate that of all the things people can learn to cook, cakes come in book one!!! Delia is obviously a woman after my own heart!

This is called 'Low-Fat Moist Carrot Cake' in the book, but I first made it because it was the first recipe I found containing no nuts. I don't quite believe it's one of the quickest and easiest recipes ever, as Delia claims, but it's not too onerous either! I give you my slightly adapted recipe. The original can be found here.

Carrot cake
Ingredients
3oz (85g) dark brown soft sugar
3oz (85g) light brown soft sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
4 fl oz (120ml) sunflower oil
7oz (200g) self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 rounded tsp mixed spice
grated zest 1 orange
7oz (200g) carrots (weight before prep) peeled and coarsely grated
6oz (175g) raisins

For the topping
Juice of one orange
Icing sugar (probably about 150-200g)

Method
-Preheat oven to 170C/Gas 3. Grease and line an 8" square tin.
- Whisk the sugar, eggs and oil together in a bowl using an electric whisk. If your dark sugar is quite lumpy, it's best to squash all the lumps out first (otherwise you'll end up with pockets of sugar in the final cake).
- Sift the flour, bicarb and mixed spice into the bowl.
- Fold in the carrots, orange zest and raisins.
- Pour into the prepared tin and place in the oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes (although mine always takes longer - around 50-55minutes) until it is well risen and feels firm and springy to the touch when pressed lightly in the centre.
- Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. When the cake is nearly cool, make the icing. Mix the icing sugar and orange juice together to a pouring consistency. (Sorry this isn't more precise, but it depends how thick you want your icing, how juicy the orange you use is etc etc.)
- When completely cool, cut into pieces (12) and drizzle over the icing.

The syrup glaze that Delia specifies is really nice, but sadly I forgot all about it this time! Her quark cheese topping is absolutely gorgeous too, but I needed something more practical (i.e. could be stored outside a fridge) so an orange icing was better for me.

This was also part of the Comic Relief fund raising effort on my part. My work colleagues enjoyed this greatly. It's a really moist and juicy carrot cake, and is nice and spicy too, with lots of flavour from the dark sugar.