Raspberry buttermilk cake

It's been hot here recently - not as hot as  England has been, but enough to make our flat a little warmer than entirely comfortable, particularly with regards to sleeping. So, I've been a bit  reluctant to turn the oven on and further add to the heat. So about ten days ago I was debating whether to make this raspberry buttermilk cake from Smitten Kitchen or not - heat vs raspberry season. cake won. Let me tell you: it was well worth turning on the oven. 

The cake was straightforward to make using my Kitchenaid. It was a bit like the triple berry bundt cake. Mine took slightly longer to bake - I made it in a 8 inch tin, not a 9 inch one. The cake was delicious - it is also great warm. Mmm...

Happy baking! 

PS the recipe is here: 

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/05/raspberry-buttermilk-cake/

Homemade granola

I forget how I first found http://smittenkitchen.com/, but I've been following the blog for a while now.  So when I discovered that there was going to be a book, I was bound to buy it.  I had to wait an extra few months for the UK version, but it finally arrived. 

Now, since my honeymoon in America in 2010 and a rather memorable breakfast featuring granola near the Seaport museum in New York, I've had a soft spot for granola.  I recently bit the bullet and tried making my own and it's really very easy.  But it does generally have a fair bit of sugar and fat of one kind or another.  So, I was interested to see that Deb had a recipe for chunky granola with walnuts and cherries that had less fat and a bit less sugar. 

Making your own granola is pretty quick and easy. The time consuming task is chopping nuts up (unless you use flaked almonds that is) and the tricky part is not overlooking it, which I'm not sure I've entirely mastered. However the results have still been great. 

I used cherries (mixture of sour cherries from a health food store, which were super nice and super expensive, and morello cherries from Sainsbury's that for some reason had been soaked in apple juice) and pecans. I also used maple syrup, which I think was Deb's original suggestion but which has been anglicised to golden syrup (why? I mean I love golden syrup, but it's not maple syrup, is it?). 

I like my granola with yoghurt and fruit (banana, pear, berries (when summer arrives), stewed apple), but it is also good just with milk.

Happy baking!

Baking against the odds and the lemon cake everyone needs in their repetoire

So, I bought Annie Bell's Baking Bible the other week and decided to bake the apple oat bars.  All set and ready to go when I realise the only ingredient I don't have is ground almonds...  Back to the drawing board....

Next up, I decide that I ought to use up the jar of lemon curd that's been lurking in the kitchen for a while waiting for me to make one of my favourite easy cakes.  If only I could open it...  Even rubber gloves didn't help.  Unfortunately Fantastic Mr Fox was out and so my usual jar opening option was available.  Still, via the magic of the internet I get some advice and the jar opens.  Then my (digital) scales give up the ghost part way through the process and I have to revert to my analogue ones (I knew I had spare scales for a reason).  But finally I got the cake made.  

So is the cake worth proceeding in the face of battles with my kitchen?  Oh yeah....  Basically, it's a sponge but made with lemon curd - you put half the jar in as you cream the eggs and butter and dot the rest on the top of the cake to get a deliciously moist  lemony sponge with ingredients you have to hand.  As part of my continuing efforts to get healthier, I used some wholemeal self-raising flour this time (about a quarter of the total flour).  Absolutely one of my favourites and I usually make it all in the food processor - fast results and the dishwasher does all the cleaning up.  What's not to like?  

You can find the recipe (from Xanthe Clay) here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/3318608/Readers-recipes-something-simple-for-the-weekend.html  

And here's the finished cake - showing you that I'm not good at photography, lining cake tins or necessarily timing cakes (the lemon curd can catch easily).  Or showing you that even if you don't get those things perfect, you can still have a delicious cake.  




Happy baking!