Apple and Date Cake with Walnuts

Apple and Date Cake with Walnuts

Recently I've fallen in love with, not only baking, but with the website: www.bakingmad.com

I don't really know why I hadn't found it before, but it's excellent! Really makes me love turning on the oven and following a recipe. So, naturally, this recipe comes from BakingMad.com

Originally it was just an apple cake but one of the suggested varieties was to try dates and walnuts. As you may know, dates are some of my favourite foods at the moment and probably now for the rest of time!

My version of the cake has dates and walnuts in the middle, topped with apple and cinnamon and a hard caramel out layer poured in the top.

Here's how you can make it:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C
(Serves 12)

1. Cream together 100g butter and 100g raw brown sugar until combined and pale
2. Beat in 2 eggs and then add 125g plain flour
3. Mix well
4. Now add 1 tsp of baking powder and +/- 2 tbsp cold water
5. Beat with a metal spoon until everything is combined
6. Stir in 16 pitted dates (diced) and 1 large handful of chopped walnuts
7. Pour the batter into a well greased, small cake tin
8. Now core and peel 1 medium sized apple. Slice very finely and lay on top of the cake batter
9. Now sprinkle 1 heaped tsp of cinnamon and 2 tsps of raw brown sugar on top of the apples
10. Cover with a large handful of sliced almonds

11. Bake for 35 mins (NB. The original recipe says 25-30 mins but I needed longer, so keep checking)
12. Remove from the oven and leave to completely cool

TO MAKE THE CARAMEL:
Put 150g caster sugar in a deep pan and heat over a medium heat until the sugar at the sides begins to melt. Swirl the sugar around and leave to melt. Continue to come back to swirl the sugar until it is all dissolved then immediately pour over the cooled cake.

Recent Bakes

*

*

3 Rocky Road Recipes that You HAVE to Try!

At the moment, I've been dedicating Thursday evenings to catching up on the Great British Bake Off. I love it! And every afternoon, after watching, I spend my time focusing my attention on recipe books trying to find something that I can bake without risk of failure.

Looking for something today, I poured through various recipes from a couple of my favourite baking websites (www.topwithcinnamon.com and www.johnwhaite.com) but eventually settled upon a 'classic' of ours: the rocky road.

Traditionally rocky road, the way we make it, consists of predominantly dark chocolate with little milk chocolate blend, pink and white marshmallows and rich tea biscuits.

But today, I looked for something else that was still relatively safe and came up with the following: Peanut Butter Rocky Road with Gingernuts and Cranberries. 

For me, I think it looks pretty well decorated and I'm very happy with the result!

Here's how I managed it and a couple of alternatives that you can try:

Peanut Butter Rocky Road with Gingernuts and Cranberries
Makes 16 squares

1) In a glass bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt 125g soft butter with 200g Hershey's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips, 100g plain chocolate chips and 3 tbsp of (wild) honey. Continually stir until everything is melted and then remove the bowl from the heat

2) Crush 175g gingernut biscuits into rough chunks and mix into the chocolate mixture 

3) Now stir in 3 large handfuls of cranberries until all combined

4) Now line a loaf tin with clingfilm or baking parchment and spoon in the chocolate mixture

5) Level with the back of a spoon and then crush 5 gingernut biscuits into crumbs and sprinkle on top

6) Chill for at least 2 hours and cut into squares. Store in the fridge until you wish to consume

My alternatives for this recipe are; 

Rich Tea, Date and Walnut Rocky Road

For this one, just use dark chocolate. Swap the quantity of honey for the same of golden syrup. After point number 1, roughly crush 150g rich tea biscuits. Add to this, 2 large handfuls of chopped dates and 100g of chopped walnuts.

*

Pistachio and Apricot Rocky Road

As with above, use dark chocolate. Swap honey for the same quantity of golden syrup and complete step number 1 of the original recipe. For this version, roughly chop 20 dried apricots and stir into the chocolate with 150g whole pistachios. 

Adaption of the Chocolate Loaf

I hate to be cynical; but it always seems like when you're looking for something you can't find it. But then when you're not, every door is open to you. When I became vegan for a few months, I could hardly find anything that would fill the sweet hole beyond fruit and Alpro Soya yogurt. The choices were very limited and I was hard-pressed to get a good baking recipe - even on sites that specialised in vegan baking.

Recently, I was searching for fitness tips and stumbled across 2 vegan baking recipes on FitSugar. The vegan no-bake brownies that I made (and that are listed under the 'recipe' section) were very nice. They lacked the gooey fudge texture of normal egg crammed, butter filled brownies but nonetheless calm the angry cravings of a sugar-deprived stomach. Essentially, they tasted vegan. 

The bet recipe I tried was sold to me as: "Zucchini bread that tastes like brownies". I had to give it a go. And, it was delightful. Even the raw batter tasted like real brownies. It was so chocolatey and fudge-like that I could instantly tell it would be a winner. When it was baking, it smelled divine and when I took it out I could finally say that I'd made something vegan that tasted 'normal'. It has quite a crumbly texture but it's not at all dry: a lovely treat for a Saturday evening! 

I had initially intended to make these into muffins by the mixture was incredibly sticky and formed a ball which I didn't want to break up. Beside, for the first try, which is always my mistake, I ought to stick to the original recipe. 

However, I did make a slight change. I am not a particular fan of dried cranberries so I substituted half of the required quantity for glacé cherries which are one of my favourite baking ingredients!!

(Vegan) Chocolate and 'Cranberry' Zucchini Loaf 

(Taken from www.fitsugar.com) 

NOTE ON THE RECIPE: This is an American recipe and so measurements are in cups. If you have cup measures then I always find that American recipes are a lot easier because they save you the hassle of measuring ingredients with scales. However, I have written the equivalent measure in grams alongside the initial measure for ease of access. 

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C

1. Grate 225g courgette (zucchini) thinly and place in a bowl. Place to one side
2. In a separate bowl, mix 120g wholemeal flour, 60g cocoa powder (unsweetened), 1 tsp and 1/4 of baking powder, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp mixed spice. Place this to one side
3. In a large bowl, Mash 1 ripe banana and stir in 110g caster sugar, 125ml canola oil and 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. Pour the shredded courgette into the above mixture and stir until combined
5. Stir in all of the dry ingredients
6. Add to the bowl 60g of dried cranberries or glace cherries
7. Line a small loaf tin with baking parchment, pour in the batter and bake for 45 minutes (The cake should be soft to the touch and cooked on top. Insert a skewer into the middle to ensure it is fully cooked)

mmmm...appetizing!!! 

Cake depression and VEGAN no-bake brownies!!

Yes, I was this close to sinking into an eternal abyss of cake depression. It seems a year of hardly baking has rendered my hands useless and I had lost nearly all my talent to produce, not elegant, but EDIBLE cakes.

I've had multiple cake disasters over the past few weeks, passing up food that looks hardly appetising and disappoints the taste buds. I had one more shot today at baking something that I normally wouldn't and, if this didn't work, I was throwing in the apron, oven mits and cupcake cases for good.

So thank goodness it worked.

Trawling the internet for 'miracle' foods, I stumbled upon a recipe for 'Vegan No Bake Brownies' which comes from www.fitsugar.com

These delicious morsels include some of my favourite things, including a particular indulgence of mine: dates!

(I've slightly adapted this recipe, due to a lack of applesauce.)

Vegan No-Bake Brownies (Cuts into 20)

1. Peel a medium sized pear and dice

2. Place in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave with 1 tsp water and cook for 1 minute

3. Remove from the microwave, mash with a fork, set aside and leave to cool

4. Blend 2 cups of oats with 1 cup of unsalted cashews, 8 fresh and de-stoned dates, 1/3 cup cocoa powder and 1/4 tsp salt in a food processor. The mixture should be fine and resemble a flour-y consistency

5. Slice a large, ripe banana and add to the food processor

6. Measure out 1/4 cup of the stewed pear mixture and add to the food processor (you will not need the pear again)

7. Blend in the food processor until the mixture becomes a dough-like consistency (it should be moist and stick together slightly)

8. Add 1 tbsp vegetable oil (and more if required until the mixture sticks together)

9. Oil a square metal dish and put the dough inside, pushing the mixture flat with your knuckles or the back of a spoon

10. When it is leveled, push 5 broken walnut halves into the mixture

11. Chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge

TOP TIP: Store in the fridge until you wish to consume

Turbo Oatlets Recipe

Intrigued? Well, this recipe is basically my take on some biscuits that I found on (yes, you've guessed it) BBC Good Food.

They were originally called 'Freezer Biscuits' - a rather unappetizing, uninspiring and bland name that would have you flick past them if you saw them in a recipe book. I suppose the name is practical since these biscuits ARE designed for the freezer.

However, I have christened my version 'Turbo Oatlets' for their speed, rough texture and miniature stature.

And here's how they're made:

Makes 30
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C

1. Whisk 200g butter with 200g dark brown sugar with an electric whisk

2. Then, beat in 2 eggs (1 at a time) until combined

3. With a spoon or rubber spatula, stir in 200g plain flour and 140g oats

4. At this point you can add whatever dried fruit, flavouring or chocolate that you desire. I used cranberries and cinnamon flavoured milk chocolate chips!

5. Take 2 teaspoons of the mixture and dollop onto a flat baking tray lined with baking paper

6. Round the mixture slightly with your finger and then lightly flatten

7. You should have 30 small balls of the mixture

8. Set to bake for 15 minutes

9. Allow 10 minutes to cool before transferring onto a wire rack until completely cool

TOP TIPS: 
You may end up baking these in batches for lack of oven space and baking tools. For this, measure the correct amount of baking paper and then dollop the mixture onto the baking paper BEFORE transferring onto the hot tray. If the tray is hot, the bottoms will begin to bake before entering the oven. Once you have dolloped the mixture onto the baking paper, simply slide onto the hot tray and IMMEDIATELY pop into the oven.

Overambitious baking

I am fairly ambitious with my baking, trying new things that I expect to turn out brilliantly. Needless to say, I am sometimes disappointed.

Today I made a chili and lemon bread - which should have turned out as a baguette but instead came to be an over-sized roll. I also made, probably more successfully, a blackberry and coconut cake taken from this recipe from the BBC Good Food site. I followed it to the 'T' so I can't claim any credit for this.

Mine didn't look quite as good as there and I feel like 1 hour might be slightly too long baking, so if I tried again I would probably have it going for 40 minutes instead and then giving it a quick check.

However, and I admit that it wasn't a complete disaster, I had a lot of fun baking which is the most important thing.

Unfortunately, I reckon that it's a lot more calorific than it makes out but small slithers will make it last longer anyway!

What's the deal with veggie cakes? (+ recipe)

The carrot cake is never questioned. It has been around since the medieval age and it seems to resonate with people: it is deemed acceptable to put this orange vegetable into our cake batter and top it with cream cheese frosting.

It was initially used as a sweetener, for lack of cheap and good access to the more common staple of any cake: sugar.

When I told my mum that I was going to be making courgette cake, she turned up her nose. It had never struck me that courgettes in a cake might be weird, but I found a recipe on the BBC that I thought I wanted to try. If a website publishes it, I guess it's normal.

But, actually, putting vegetables in cake is the norm a few of the reasons being that they sweeten the cake (as we saw with the carrot situation), they create moisture in the cake and are cheaper/ more easily resourced.

I've seen countless recipes for beetroot brownies and vegetables are a particular favourite for bulking out 'healthy' cakes.

So, today I've made a courgette traybake with orange (which I have yet to taste!) I have taken and adapted this recipe from BBC Good Food's courgette muffin recipe. 

Cuts into 8 large rectangles
PRE-HEAT OVEN TO 200 DEGREES C

1) Peel 180g of courgette and grate

2) Place in a large bowl

3) Add the juice of 1 satsuma and stir

4) Melt 75g butter and add to the mixture

5) Add one egg and stir (NB. make sure that the butter has sufficiently cooled to avoid creating scrambled egg)

6) Add 300g plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp of mixed spice and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon

7) Stir until all combined

8) Now add the juice of 2 more satsumas

9) Stir in 100g caster sugar and a generous handful of golden raisins

10) Now place in a shallow square tin and bake for 25 minutes

11) Once removed from the oven, leave to cool for 10 mins then turn out onto a wire rack

12) Slice into 8 and consume!