Quick Apple Cake

When I made the Quick Apple Flan I said I would be interested to see how it turned out with self-raising flour instead of plain.

Thisevening I made the self-raising version, and it really worked out quite well. This time it was definitely a cake instead of a flan - much more fluffy and light, and less sticky. Quite a different dessert, which is why I decided to rename it and give it its own post.

Really good with custard. Original recipe here but replace the plain flour with self-raising.

This time I used two largish granny smith apples, and chopped them up a bit smaller to make slicing the cake easier.

Quick Apple Flan

I saw this recipe in the Frills in the Hills blog, using pears. I tried it and it was pretty good, but I thought the tang of apple would be better. So thisevening I made the apple version for dessert.

Helping me with the measuring were these pretty baboushka doll cup measures, sent to me by the lovely people at The Claytons Blog. Each one opens and has a different volume marked inside, and they all fit together neatly.

The original recipe calls for 1 kg of fruit, but I used four pink lady apples which weighed just under 500 g. Peel, core and slice.

In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk and sugar.

Add flour and spice and beat until you have a thick batter.

(If the batter is very thick, add a little more milk.)

Add fruit and stir in well.

Pour into a greased baking tin which has baking paper in the base. Cook for 40 - 45 mins at 190 C until golden. Cool in tin for 20 mins and then remove to a cooling rack.


Serve warm with custard or ice cream, or eat cool as a slice.

This is a quick, cheap and easy dessert, which is a good alternative to apple pie or crumble, and everyone here really enjoyed it.

If I have one criticism, it is that the batter becomes a little 'leathery' and I wonder what would happen if self-raising flour were used instead. (Hopefully nothing too disastrous, as I'll be trying it next time!)

(for the self-raising flour version look here)

Ingredients:
500 g apples, peeled, cored, sliced
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp mixed spice and a shake of ground cinnamon

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins (again!)

This time I used brown sugar instead of white sugar in this recipe and they are pretty good! Lovely crunchy top and fluffy interior.

So if you've got some blueberries and buttermilk hanging around, these (here and here) are good muffin recipes, and this blueberry buttermilk cake is worth making too.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins (another version)

This is a slightly different version of blueberry and buttermilk muffins. The other ones I made contained demarara sugar and butter, while these have white sugar and oil.

Put flour and sugar in a bowl, and in a large jug put oil, buttermilk, egg and vanilla.

Add the buttermilk mixture and blueberries to the flour and sugar, and stir until combined.

Because of the white sugar, the mixture is very pale - I normally use brown or demarara sugar, so I was surprised at how white it was.

Spoon into muffin trays and cook at 200 C for around 20 minutes. My little muffins took 15 mins.
The cooked muffins have a golden, crispy top and are very light and fluffy inside. I'm used to the more solid, substantial and sticky muffins, so to me these are a bit like the 'white bread' version - not as tasty - more like a light cupcake.

But very popular with everyone else, and they come out of the muffin papers very cleanly with no residue, which is unusual for a muffin!

Ingredients:
2½ cups (375g) self-raising flour
¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup (160ml) vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
¾ cup (180ml) buttermilk
100 g blueberries

Based on this recipe.

Mango and Sugar Plums

I had to take photos of this mango and the sugar plums and put them on here, because they're so beautiful!

Mango Smoothie Ice Cream

I read about this very quick and easy way of making ice cream on the Claytons Blog, where Coby made a banana version. It uses sweetened condensed milk and doesn't need to be churned in an ice cream maker.

I made mine with mango instead, as it's pretty warm here at the moment, and mango is such a summery flavour. Coby said her children called theirs 'banana smoothie ice cream' which is a good name, so mine is 'mango smoothie ice cream'.

Put the condensed milk and cream in a large bowl, then mash up the mango with a fork and add that too.

Whisk it up really well with electric beaters. (This was very splattery, probably because of all the little lumps of mango.)

Pour into a container and freeze for several hours. Take it out of the freezer 15-20 minutes before serving, because it will probably be spoon-bendingly hard at first.

It's a pretty sweet ice cream - not really surprising when you think that condensed milk is one of the sweetest substances known to man.

Today, for some reason I decided it needed biscuits and melted dark chocolate, but they weren't necessary at all - it definitely doesn't need accompaniment.

Ingredients:
Flesh of 1 mango
400 g can of condensed milk (I used skim)
Enough cream to fill the empty condensed milk can (about 300 ml according to Coby)

Strawberry and Cream Cake

My choice of birthday cake this time, and as it's summer, I thought it would be nice to have some summer fruit.

I'd never made this cake before - it's from Tessa Kiros' book 'Falling Cloudberries' where it's called 'Sipi's Strawberry Cake' - and as strawberries are delicious at the moment, I thought it might be a good time of year to make it.

In one bowl put the flour, sugar and 1 tsp of baking powder. Mix in the melted butter, milk and then add the egg yolks and beat in well.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, adding the remaining 2 tsp of baking powder as they start to become frothy.

Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.

Pour the mixture into a 22 cm springform pan, greased and floured.

I lined the base with baking paper, too.

Cook at 180 C for about 1 hour until top is golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Let it cool in pan for a while and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

When cool, cut in half horizontally with a long bread knife. Put base of cake on a serving plate.

This is where you can start filling and decorating the cake. The recipe said to wash and hull the strawberries, leaving a few with leaves if you like for the top.

Dice half the strawberries and put in a bowl with a tsp of lemon juice and a tbsp of the icing sugar. The other half you can use to decorate the top of the cake.

Whip up the cream into soft peaks with the rest of the icing sugar. Mix the chopped strawberries into a third of the cream and spread over the bottom of the cake (I put a layer of cream then the strawberries), then add the top of the cake and spread over the rest of the cream. Decorate with the remaining strawberries. And blueberries as they are very pretty and delicious!

Add candles, have everyone sing 'Happy Birthday' loudly, and then don't get to blow any candles out yourself because your children are so keen on helping. It's what it's all about.


This was a really lovely cake - a lot of that had to do with the fruit being so perfect, but the sponge was substantial and tasty - not a flimsy Victoria Sponge-type thing.

I only added 300 ml of cream to my cake and I thought it was plenty - Tessa Kiros uses 750 ml.

Ingredients:
sponge:
220 g plain flour
180 g sugar
3 tsp baking powder
180 g butter, melted
185 g milk, warm
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract

to decorate:
800 g strawberries (I used about 600 g)
1 tsp lemon juice
4 tbsp icing sugar
750 ml thick/double cream (I used a 300 ml tub)

Best eaten immediately but leftovers will keep well in refrigerator overnight.

Buttermilk and Apricot Crumble Cake

Not the most photogenic cake in the world!

I had some apricots and buttermilk in the fridge (both past their best), and found this recipe to use them up in a tasty way.

It's a sort of cross between a cake and a pudding, with a sponge bottom, fruity middle (you could use any soft fruit here, I imagine) and a sweet oaty topping.

First you cream the butter, sugar and egg, then add the flour, baking powder and buttermilk. Spread into a lined pan (I used a square Pyrex dish lined with a strip of baking paper) then top with chopped fruit.

Combine the topping ingredients in a bowl and spoon over the top of the fruit.

Bake at 200 C for 45 min (test with skewer) and cool before serving. Goes well with custard, especially if you find cooked apricot a bit tart. I think some cooked apple would be nice in the winter.

Ingredients:
100 g caster sugar
1 egg
60 g butter (soft)
160 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 ml buttermilk
300 g chopped apricots or other fruit
topping
100 ml buttermilk
50 g rolled oats
50 g ground almonds or walnuts
80 g brown sugar
pinch of cinnamon

(adapted from 'The Passionate Cook' blog)

Orange Cornmeal Cake

This is a cake recipe from 'Forever Summer' and it's the sort of cake that's supposed to be eaten as a pudding, for example with fruit and cream.

It's easy to make - beat soft butter until it's light, beat in caster sugar, egg, plain yogurt, orange juice and zest (and orange oil if you have some) - then fold in polenta (cornmeal), flour and baking powder. I made half the recipe and cooked it in a loaf pan lined with a strip of baking paper.

It's a soft, puddingy cake, which adds a light, orangey-buttery flavour to a bowl of fruit and cream or yogurt. It also has a slight crunch because of the polenta. We've been having hot weather here lately, so it's perfect for dessert or afternoon tea.

I have a similar recipe from an Italian cookbook which uses oil and no orange, which I'll be trying soon.

Ingredients:
250 g soft unsalted butter
175 g caster sugar
4 eggs
60 ml plain yogurt
zest of one orange, juice of half
half tsp orange oil if you have it (I found just the juice and zest was a strong enough flavour)
125 g fine (yellow) cornmeal/polenta
50 g plain flour
1 and a half tsp baking powder
To serve: mixed summer berries, and creme fraiche, marscapone or whipped cream

Watermelon Boats on Blue Jelly Sea

This was made by Oli and me today, and was inspired by Play School (on TV yesterday morning). The grapes are sailors and the mint leaves are flags on the boats!

Banana Breakfast Ring

This is really tasty (also from 'Feast'). It's a good way to use up overripe bananas, and it uses oil instead of butter. There is also some lemon juice and zest in it, which makes it less sweet than some other banana cakes/breads, and adds a nice tang. Very easy to make, you add wet ingredients to dry, so it's like making a big muffin.

Would be good for breakfast as it's not overly sweet, but good for any time of day.

Watermelon

Yesterday's afternoon tea

Sometimes I cut up some fruit for afternoon tea and it is just perfect - perfectly ripe and sweet and beautiful, just like this seedless watermelon.

Entered into 'Click' photo competition at Jugalbandi

Banana Smoothies

Banana smoothies made with bananas and milk (and a little bit of honey because the bananas weren't quite ripe enough to have the full bananary sweetness). If I have ice cream I add some, but I think they are more refreshing without.

Birthday Cakes

I wanted to add these here as well as on my family blog, because I think they are so pretty! Even though I do say so myself ;o)

I let the boys choose the type of cake they have for their birthday. Oli is still at the 'chocolate cake with Smarties' stage which is great because you can immediately tell from photos which year it was! The cake had been made at home and then transported to 'Nan's' house, which meant the '5' had slid a bit. The icing I like to use is a bit too thin for embedding Smarties, but it does taste very good!

Stuart was more specific and asked for butterfly cakes, fruit and cut-out biscuits.