Tag: baking
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Courgette and Cardamom Loaf Cake
IT IS THAT TIME. The courgette tide has arrived and will not abate. The marrows crash through the allotment, like huge, watery uninvited guests at a dinner party. (I end up making spiced courgette chutney every year; here’s the best recipe I’ve found). I’ve made courgette cake before but wanted to throw in something extra.…
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Cranachan Cake
Usually, Cranachan combines oats, whisky, honey, raspberries and cream. Traditional Scottish Cranachan has its roots in both the raspberry harvest in June, and in crowdie, a type of fresh, soft curd cheese traditionally made on small holdings and by crofters on the Scottish Highlands and islands. Crowdie itself has a long history, right back to…
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Simple Cider Apple Cake
It’s been a bumper year for apples, thanks to early rain and lots of sun. So here’s a SUPER EASY, dump-it-all-in-together-in-a-bowl rustic apple cake, to use up a few. It also involves cider – why wouldn’t it? – but you can easily replace that with liqueur, apple juice or even just milk. For the cake:…
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Cardamom & Coconut Cake
Is there anything more comforting than the smell of freshly ground cardamom? Maybe a freshly baked cake or pastry, where the buttery baked smell combines with hot sugar and fresh, floral, spicy sweetness? Niki Segnit, author of the one of my most-referenced food books, The Flavour Thesaurus, says that cardamom and coconut, especially in Indian…
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Halwa Carrot Cake
I came up with this cake a few years ago for a friend from Pakistan who said he was missing carrot halwa (gajar ka halwa), and who also loves carrot cake. So, for his birthday I decided to try and combine the two… After a few test runs, and a lot of texting my friend…
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Blackberry Madeleines
Autumn is now officially here; the tomatoes have turned orange on brittle stems, the courgettes are finally ending their reign, and now is the time for golden quinces, autumn apples, and a few last, late blackberries clinging to brambles. It was when we were on our way home, the sun sinking low and golden, that…
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Dandelion Syrup Cake
This is a cake I first made earlier in the year, when spring dandelions smothered my allotment in bursts of bright yellow. They looked so beautiful and healthy (I’m very good at growing weeds) that it seemed a shame to dig them up and chuck them on the compost heap. So, I picked an entire…
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Plum and Hazelnut Frangipane Cake
On my allotment, there’s a huge plum tree that overhangs the fence. Every year it sags almost to the ground under the weight of all the fruit and since I can’t bear to see them rotting on the branches, I, err, tend to liberate a fair few. (It’s not scrumping if no one else cares,…
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Recipe: Winter Spice Madeleines
Madeleines have got to be one of my favourite things to bake (and no, of course I’m not biased!) They’re sweet, petite, take only a few ingredients, a fraction of the baking time of a larger cake, and bring so much happiness. The last batch I baked disappeared alongside a pot of tea in around…