Marmalade Pudding cake

Delightful greed explains the awful picture – it was the last piece, immediately prior to being wolfed down by me with lashings of cream! The cake did not hang around long, even my fiancée D who doesn't like marmalade, really liked it. This annoyed me slightly though as I really wanted to just hide it away and eat it all. It’s a glorious cake, bursting with delicious orangeyness and I urge you to try it soon!

The only minor niggle I had with the recipe is that I needed a square baking dish, rather than the rectangular pyrex one I used, as my cake was rather volcanic looking when baked! Oh to have a kitchen like Nigella and every pan in every size.... Why do I seem to have a cupboard full of random dishes, pans and tins, and not one remotely the size or shape ever needed? Please tell me I am not the only one who has this trouble?

Anyway, this cake is a good way of using up a lot of marmalade; I had seemingly acquired several various jars and in the end opted for a jar of Fairtrade organic orange marmalade, from Traidcraft which was perfect for the job, fruity, not too sharp but still with a lovely tang to it, I can highly recommend it.

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's recent ‘Kitchen’ book.

Makes 1 lovely cake
Requires 1 x 24cm square pyrex or similar ovenproof dish

Easy. Even easier if you have a food processor!

250g soft unsalted butter, plus a little extra to grease the pan with
75g caster sugar
75g light brown muscavado (from memory I was running low and mixed this with some soft brown sugar..)
150g + 75g marmalade
225g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (aka realise you have run out mid mixing and kind neighbour loans you again!)
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
Zest and juice of 1 orange - reserve ½ juice for the glaze

Oven 180/ gas 4/ fan about 160
Grease the dish with a little butter

Place the 75g of marmalade and ½ the orange juice in a small saucepan, reserve for later to make the glaze with.

Place all the remaining ingredients into a food processor, blend to a nice thick, creamy batter and decant into your baking dish, smoothing the surface.

If you are not using a food processor, cream the butter and sugars together, beat in the marmalade, then the dry ingredients, then the eggs and finally the juice and zest.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes, though do check after 30 minutes. The cake should be risen, and golden, check with a cake tester, as per Nigella, or a cocktail stick, as per me as I don't own one. It should come away relatively clean looking, though the marmalade does make for a sticky batter so bear this in mind.

Heat the reserved glaze mixture until melted and spoon evenly over the still hot cake, allow to cool slightly before eating.

Serve with lashings of custard or cream. Both are good. Hard to choose a winner on testing!

Lovely Lemon Cordial

After recently coming out of hospital, I found lurking in the bottom of the fridge a couple of tired, old lemons, bought several weeks ago and now not much use for anything other than the bottom of the bin. However, I really do not like to waste anything, and with the practical help from an assistant, as I can’t chop or lift anything for a few more weeks, we made an old favourite of mine – Lovely lemon cordial.

The recipe is inspired from my nanny J, who used to make batches of this all summer when I was a child, I have never found a recipe written down in her books, so this is my take on it. Also the quantities are a bit rough and ready but I’m sure you will find your own balance, to suit your personal taste.

Once its made, just top up with water as needed, mixing well with a long wooden spoon, and leave to sit a while before using again. The cordial will keep refrigerated for a couple of weeks. It is hard to give an exact date, though when you feel the cordial is losing its edge, it’s probably time to make a new batch up!

Depending on your personal taste, and how bitter your lemons were to begin with, dilute with ice cold water or sparkling water on a 1/6 ratio.

Ingredients

2-3 washed, unloved lemons, roughly sliced
5-6 tbsp caster sugar
Boiling water

You will need a tall glass, lidded jug, I think mine is about 2 litre quantity.

Rinse the jug out with freshly boiled water, add the lemons and sugar, bash about a little with a splash of boiling water and a long spoon, top up with boiling water and place the lid on, leave until cooled down and then refrigerate, allow 24 hours if you can before trying, to allow the flavourings to mingle together.

I love the joyful bitterness of this, even drinking a glass on a cold and wet afternoon, it can’t help but bring a little smile to your face, and think of the (hopefully!) sunnier months to come!

Hope you enjoy!

Its been a while...but we have a new shiny Kitchen!

Dearest Readers of my blog,

Sorry for abandoning you at Christmas time, I had to be bad Mrs Santa last year and I felt very guilty about it all. Many, many thanks though for all the lovely kind messages and e-mails, they all helped me get through a not so good time in my life and I am eternally grateful for the support :)

Unfortunately, as mentioned briefly on my last posting my health was not so good, and I ended up requiring two major surgeries recently; the great news though is that I am all fixed again, and though it will a few more weeks before I am back fully in the kitchen, I am ready and raring to go!

One thing I must add here, is that whilst I had a lot of people to thank, my up-most thanks also goes to each and every wonderful blood donor - I wouldn't be here, typing this now if it wasn't for their donations.

Say goodbye to the hideous Olive and beige delight, complete with wonky draws and broken doors:

And say hello to our shiny new, and very pink kitchen! Our (male) landlord had chosen white tiles, and white cupboards, so I thought it needed a woman's touch, not sure our kitchen fitters were exactly over the moon when I chose paint shade 'Moroccan Velvet 3' and a flowery blind but I am so pleased with the result!

I will be back very shortly with some new posts, hope everyone is well in blogger land :)

Anne
xxx

(01/07/14 - that kitchen sadly is no longer mine and I currently live once again with a very lame kitchen and antique oven!)

Extended Christmas Break…

This year I’d planned to bring you all sorts of festive treats. Unfortunately life has gotten in the way, and my health took an unexpected nosedive last week. Everything’s a bit up in the air until it gets sorted out. My inner foodie is sad but will be hoping to be back in the kitchen soon!!

Wishing all my followers and anyone passing by a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and I hope to be back soon!

I will leave you with some foodie pictures taken the past few weeks:

Loaded Salmon & cheese potato skins:

(Aka how to finally use that tin of pink salmon)

Gorgeous ricotta and roasted tomato bruschetta, at Jamie's Italian:

 Sell-your-soul-they-were-so-good Mushroom Fritti, also at Jamie's Italian:

How to scare your friends: Nigella's 40 Cloves of Garlic Roast Chicken:

Mini Blackberry and Coconut sponges

In need of a quick pudding the other night, with not much in the fridge and with no intentions of leaving the house in the snow, I came up with these great mini sponges, using blackberries from the freezer, which I picked a few months back and dessicated coconut, mainly as I had picked up a new bag recently. As I joked to a colleague the next day, it was sort of hedgerow meets Hawaii?! Though it was a very successful meet, and definitely a combination I will use again. To save time I used the Kenwood Chef, though they could easily be made by hand too. Though my life would be incomplete without the mixer and I am thankful every time I bake with it!

I loved the shape of these little sponges, and my guests seemed to like them too! There's just something about foods in miniature which appeals to the senses I think!

Makes 6, easy

Ingredients:

2 eggs
18 blackberries, frozen is fine
120g self raising flour
120g butter/ stork margarine
120g caster sugar (fairtrade, mine was from silverspoon, who were kind enough to send me a box recently)

1 Tsp Baking powder

2 heaped tbsp desiccated coconut
Drop of vanilla extract

I used dariole molds from Tesco Cookshop, no idea if they differ in size? Also a kettle full of boiling water and tray deep enough to hold the molds.

Pre-heat oven to Fan 160o/ 180o

If using a mixer, place the flour, butter, sugar and baking powder in the mixing bowl, beat together, adding the eggs one by one, until creamy and thoroughly mixed, stir in coconut. If by hand, cream the butter and sugar together first, then beat in the flour, eggs, then coconut until mixed together.

Half fill the molds with the mixture, place 3 blackberries in each, cover with the remaining mixture.

Place the molds in baking tray and fill halfway with boiling water, bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked though, risen and golden brown. If they are browning too much, reduce temperature slightly.

Cool slightly, and remove from the molds using a tea spoon or similar device!

Serve with hot custard or cream

A Perfect Christmas from Sainsburys

On Monday night, I braved the cold weather and the nightmare tube strike and eventually made my way into central London to Sainsburys HQ, alongside other bloggers to sample some delicious new party food products, mainly from the re-jazzed 'Taste The Difference' range. Did you know there are over 1000 items under the Taste The Difference logo? This past year, Sainsburys have been working hard to ensure all the products are at their best and all of the nibbles I tried were delicious!


I must admit that when it comes to entertaining large groups, catering for them can be a bit daunting and I have felt in the past a little bad inside for when resorting to serving up ready made party food, often as the quality has been so hit and miss. However there are only so many hours in the day and whilst I love being busy in the kitchen, am sure my guests would rather see me! (I hope so anyway!) Some of the products I liked in particular from Sainsburys were the mini fish n chips, which came served in these cute little newspaper holders:


(all images courtesy of Sainsburys)

Delicious chocolate truffles:

And believe it or not, mince pie ice-cream! Deliciously creamy ice cream, with chunks of TTD mince pies in! 

Along with the new products, this year Sainsburys are holding an exciting competition for you and your neighbours to win a Perfect Christmas, including A male voice choir, a massive snowfall to create a magical mood, a huge tree all decked out with lights, a dazzling firework display and delicious festive
food and drink! All you need to do is enter here and get your neighbours to enter too! Good Luck!  Incase you have missed the advert, you can watch it here