Semolina and Almond Cake

We were in Edinburgh for the weekend, without any of the 3 little ones.  A whole 2 days and 2 nights without being referred to as Mammy and Daddy.  No baby wipes, nappies, bread sticks, teddies or scooters stuffed into my handbag.  No walking around with sick on my shoulder as I look for somewhere to change a dirty nappy.  I even had time this weekend to paint my nails green - oh, the sheer luxury of it.  The best part of the weekend?  Two unbroken nights sleep and being able to sit in a cafe reading the Sunday papers - totally minor things to most people but pure bliss to me.

Our reason for going to Edinburgh was tinged with sadness.  We were at a fundraising night for a very sick little 3 year old.  He has a rare and aggressive form of cancer with a shockingly low survival rate.  How his Mum and Dad can face each day so positively is beyond me but they are taking one day at a time and sometimes even one hour at a time.  Regardless of the level of care and love of the medical staff, no little 3 year old should have to spend their days in hospital, being pumped with drugs.  No little 3 year old should have to remain in isolation because of infection and not see his 2 year old brother for weeks and months on end.  We all hope and pray that a cure can be found for little Alex - fast. 

You never know what's around the corner.  As a great philosopher once said, "Life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it".  I came home on Sunday afternoon and hugged my little demons so hard that I may have hurt them.  We have a lot to be thankful for. 

You can have a look at this link for more info. on brave little Alex.

I had this recipe bookmarked for quite a while so I made it as a treat when I came home.  It's a Nigella cake that I've changed quite a bit, although I've kept to the core ingredients.  Semolina is used in place of flour which gives it a lovely crunchy texture that you'd expect from using polenta.  The original recipe calls for cardamom in the cake but instead I've used ground cinnamon and almond extract.  Also, a cold lemon syrup is poured over the hot cake and although Nigellas original recipe uses orange blossom water and rosewater, I left them out.  The result was an extremely most lemony and almond cake, with a subtle hint of cinnamon.  Delicious.

Semolina and Almond Cake, adapted from Nigella Lawsons "Sticky Semolina Cake" recipe.

Ingredients

For the syrup

250g granulated sugar

150ml water

Juice of 1 lemon

For the cake

300g semolina

150g granulated sugar

125g butter

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

zest of 1 lemon

2 eggs

2 heaped tablespoons natural yogurt
1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

25 whole blanched almonds

Method
Make the syrup first.  Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and place on a low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Add the lemon juice and turn up the heat and boil for 5 minutes.  Take off the heat and allow to cool.  Then place in the fridge  to chill.

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and butter a 23cm square baking tin.
Place all the cake ingredients (except the whole almonds) into the food processor and blitz until it forms a batter.  Pour into the prepared tin and level the top.
Dot the cake evenly with the almonds in 5 rows of 5.  Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until golden.
Pour the cold syrup over the hot  cake and allow to cool in the tin.
Cut into 25 squares, with a whole almond on each slice.
This cake will keep for at least 5 days wrapped in parchment paper and kept in an airtight container.

Ginger and Lemon Scones

Best comfort food ever?  It's got to be a cup of tea and a scone.  Not very rock n'roll I'll admit, but I long ago became that person who doesn't care  if I'm "with it" or even know any more what constitutes being "with it".

There's just something so homely about sitting down to a scone with real butter.  It's familiar, it's easy, it's tasty and you don't feel the same guilt about eating a scone as you would a piece of chocolate cake.  Maybe it's just me and my crazy calorie guilt!

Scones are such a basic treat to make. If you were to take a week long baking course, scone baking would probably be covered in the first 10 minutes.  They're so easy to make, you can have warm scones on the table within 25 minutes.  Having said that, it's really difficult to get the perfect scone recipe. If you add an egg and you get a cake-like scone - not good. If you leave out the egg, you need to be careful that you don't overmix, otherwise you'll end up with a scone that's as hard as a football - not a particularly good outcome either.

This recipe is perfect, the scones are crumbly and soft and oh so tasty.  I'm not a fan of Jamie Oliver.  It's not that I don't like him, it's just that the word "over-exposed" comes to mind whenever I see him on the TV.  Having said that, this recipe is without doubt the best scone recipe I've ever tried and I've made scones with this recipe hundreds of times without fail. 

I mess around with the flavours all the time but since the ginger and lemon works so well in these scones, I decided to post this recipe.

Ginger and Lemon Scones, adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Makes 8 medium scones or 6 large scones.

Ingredients
225g (8oz) plain (AP) flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
50g (2oz) butter, very cold
25g (1oz) granulated sugar
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp crystallised ginger
200ml milk with a little extra to brush over the scones

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C (400F).  Line a baking tray with parchment paper (or you can just sprinkle it with a little flour).
Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger.  Using your finger tips, rub the butter into the flour.  Add the sugar, zest and crystallised ginger, mix them in quickly with your fingertips.  Add enough milk to mix into a soft dough.  Once the dough has started to come together, stop mixing.
Flour a surface and then gently roll scone dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick.  Don't knead the dough, the less handling it gets the better. 
Cut into rounds and place these rounds on the baking sheet.
Brush over with a little milk.  Bake for about 15 / 20 minutes until golden.   
Allow to cool slightly on the baking tray before letting them cool completely on a wire rack.

Lemon Thyme and Almond Loaf

I'm always afraid that if I add herbs to sweet baking, I'll end up with a quiche instead of a cake.  Something about "face the fear and do it anyway" made me make this cake and I'm so glad I did.  It's a zesty lemon cake but with an extra zing, almost a lemony fizz, from the lemon thyme.  I wouldn't have known the flavour was from the thyme, I would have possibly said the zest of a lime was used or perhaps a different variety of lemons.  The ground almonds keep the cake moist and the glaze (which sits on top of the cake and only slightly penetrates through the cake) is sticky and gooey.  Overall?  If you like Lemon Cake, you'll love this.

The original recipe is from "The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days".  I've made a few changes to it but the main difference is that I've added almonds which go so well with the lemon.

Lemon Thyme and Almond Loaf, adapted from "The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days"
Ingredients
190g (7oz) butter, softened
Zest of 2 lemons
3 tsp finely chopped lemon thyme leaves
190g (7oz) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
130g (7oz) plain (AP) flour
60g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp natural yogurt

For the soaking syrup
40g (1.5 oz) granulated sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tsp finely chopped lemon thyme leaves

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C (325F).  Grease a 2 lb (900g) loaf tin.
Beat the butter, zest, thyme leaves and sugar until light and fluffy.  This is easiest with a free standing mixer but a hand held one works fine too.
Add the eggs, one at a time, until well combined.
Sift the flour, ground almonds and baking powder into the creamed mixture in two batches and mix together on a low speed. 
Add the natural yogurt, then pour the batter into the tin and bake for 40-50 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean (it took my cake 60 mins before I was happy that it was ready).
While the cake is cooking, make the syrup.  Put all ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, allowing it to reduce by half and become slightly sticky.  Pour over the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Allow the cake to cool in the tin.

Can't Buy Me Love

Fork Biscuits and Coconut Ice

A perk of this gig is that you get to taste everything you bake, to make sure the fruits of your labour are worthy of putting in print.  Speaking of labour, tasting lots of baked goods does nothing for a lady who’s 8 ½ months pregnant and hasn’t known in months what part of the weight is “baby” and what part is “far too many cakes and buns”.

Part of the fun of baking is actually feeding people, especially when I’m feeding those who look forward to tasting some of my cakes and telling me how amazing they are!  Went to visit my nephews and nieces yesterday so I decided to make some “Fork Biscuits” and some “Coconut Ice” for them as a pathetic attempt to buy their love (my head is lowered in shame even thinking about it!).  They all went down a treat and I left with a smile on my face from ear to ear.  It’s the little things in life that give me pleasure.

My aunt has been making Fork Biscuits for years and years and typical of old recipes that have been passed on, they are as unfancy as you could possibly come across but they are also the most crumbly, slightly chewy, delicious biscuits you’ll taste.  She has always flavoured them with the zest of an orange, but cinnamon, ginger or chocolate chips can be delicious additions.   The ones in the picture are flavoured with orange and white / dark chocolate chips because that’s all I had in the house when I went to make them.  The recipe says to bake them for 15 minutes, but you’ll need to watch them like a hawk from 10 minutes as they very quickly go from underdone to overdone.  They never get a golden brown colour but they’re done when you see a little bit of colour at the edge of the biscuit.

I found a handwritten recipe for Coconut Ice in one of my Mam’s cookbooks.  Again, this recipe is at least 25 years old and I have no idea where it comes from.  Coconut Ice is basically a homemade Bounty bar.  What I love about it is that (a)if you close your eyes you could actually be eating a Bounty bar and (b) because the recipe is so old, it just sticks to the essentials, 3 ingredients and 4 or 5 lines explaining the method.  Simple, no fancy ingredients, no complicated technique and it works.  Delicious!  I haven’t changed any part of the recipe from my Mam so you can see what I mean.

These are both perfect for kiddies birthday parties but they’re too good to be reserved for kids only.  I firmly believe that either of these recipes wouldn’t be out of place if they were wheeled out with a cup of coffee after a dinner party for friends.   

Fork Biscuits.

Ingredients

110g (4oz) soft butter

55g (2 oz) caster sugar

150g (5 oz) self raising flour

Grated zest of 1 small lemon or 1 small orange

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4.  Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.

Cream the butter, add the sugar, flour and grated zest and mix until it all comes together.

The dough can be used right away, frozen or kept in the fridge for up to a week until you need to use it.

Form into small balls, the size of a walnut.  Place on a baking tray and flatten slightly with a fork dipped in cold water.  Allow plenty of room for expansion.

Bake for 15 mins.  Allow to cool slightly for 5 mins on the baking trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Makes about 20 biscuits.

Coconut Ice

Ingredients

500g packet of icing sugar

397g tin of sweetened condensed milk

250g packet of desiccated coconut

100g bar of milk / dark chocolate, melted

Method

Mix the icing sugar and condensed milk until smooth.

Add the coconut (reserving 1 tablespoon as a topping) and mix well.

Form into small balls with your hands and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Leave in the fridge to set for about an hour.

Dip each chilled ball in the melted chocolate and top with a little of the reserved coconut.

Makes about 50 walnut sized balls.

The Summer May Be Well and Truly Over But............

Lemon and Summer Fruit Cake

My first week of maternity leave from work has just started and I could easily get used to this lifestyle.  The kids are in the crèche, hubby is gone to work and I’ve made the decision that for all of this week I am doing the bare minimum for them and the absolute maximum for myself.  Sounds a little selfish?  It’s just that if I don’t take this time for myself, before I know it the new baby will be here, the two older kids will be at home with me too and free time will be a distant memory.  So household jobs can wait until next week (provided the new baby stays put for another while!) as I bake and read and watch TV – not very much else a heavily pregnant woman in severe discomfort can do.  Make hay while the sun shines!

I thought it time to start using some of my blueberries and raspberries from summer that I had frozen.  I found this amazing recipe in an Australian food magazine called “Australian Table” from April 2006 that my sister sent home from Australia.  I have quite a few of these magazines but I guess when time is constantly against me, I end up baking from the same books the whole time.  It’s so nice once in a while to flick through a book that’s been gathering dust for far too long.  Well, here’s my “gathering dust” recipe.  This is so unbelievably easy, it’s the baking equivalent of a “one pot wonder” in that you give all the ingredients one mix and bung the cake into the oven.  No funny ingredients either and next time I try it I’m going to try it with peaches instead of the summer fruits, I think they would go so well with the lemon.

The cake is so moist and the critics in my house are still raving about it (they can be pretty harsh critics!).

Lemon and Summer Fruit Cake (Adapted from “Australian Table” Magazine, April 2006)

Ingredients

300g self raising flour, sifted

295g caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

180 ml milk

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

130g butter, melted

200g blueberries or a combination of blueberries and raspberries.  The fruit can be frozen if that’s what you have.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease a 21cm loose-based tin.

Put everything (except the fruit) in a large mixing bowl.  Mix until well combined.

Spoon into the prepared tin.  Top with half of the fruit.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Sprinkle over the remaining fruit and bake for a further 30 mins.  Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then transfer to a wire rack.

This cake freezes really well, just wrap it well in parchment paper first.