Stash Avalanche

KCW: let's try that again, shall we...

I have triple checked. This week really is Kids Clothes Week. My goal is a pair of Coastal Cargos; let's see how I do...

And just in passing, I made a double batch of these chocolate chip cookies last night for Mr G to take to work this morning. All gone before the camera made it to the kitchen but very delish.

Two!

Stashlet's birthday hedgehog cake looks a bit worst for wear (the buttercream would not cooperate) but judging by a small sample this morning (eaten purely for research purposes, you understand), it should taste fine.

How time flies...

 

 

If you want to make your own hedgehog cake, it's very simple:

• make a 3 egg sponge (that's 6oz butter or margarine beaten with 6oz caster sugar, then add 3 eggs (one at a time) with 6oz self-raising flour and 3 oz ground almonds)
• pour into a 9" sandwich tin and bake till a sqewer comes out clean in the middle, then allow to cool
• cut in half (so you have two half circles) then slice through the middle of each (so you have 4 half circles)
• sandwich together with jam or butter cream* (or whatever you like, really) then carve off the corners on one end to make a wedge-shaped head
• cover the whole lot in chocolate buttercream (or ganache if you're feeling fancy), and stud with halved chocolate buttons
• do a better job on it's face than I did

I used a double quantity of Pam Corbin's buttercream recipe (from the River Cottage Handbook no8: Cakes) which made just enough to stick the sponge slices together and cover the beast: beat 125g soft unsalted butter until pale and creamy, then mix in 200g icing sugar and 50g cocoa (that's the total weight) in three lots beating well after each addition. My butter was too cold and it was a total bugger to get it to stick to the cake, so be warned.

 

I made a cake

Sometimes I get a real craving for that pink iced sponge (known to my mother and I as 'pink cake') that Broomfields bakery used to sell - or perhaps they still do. Just a plain sponge with a pink glace icing. The sponge was moist and dense, and the icing was crispy on the outside but a bit soft underneath. Heaven.

I usually try to resist these sorts of cravings but yesterday was not a day for resistance so I baked. And on a whim I threw in a carton of yoghurt. And you know what, I don't know if it was the yoghurt or what, but I think it's the best sponge I've ever made, which of course means that even if I replicate the recipe to the letter, I will probably never achieve such perfection again.

I always measure in ounces when I make sponges, and I would say that if you do make this and convert to grammes, do it accurately and don't work on the 1oz = 25g round down. It just isn't the same.

7oz butter (I used a mix of salted and unsalted coz that's what I had)

6.5oz caster sugar

a good glug (probably 2tsp) vanilla extract

4 medium eggs

150g yoghurt (I used a carton of Lidl's probiotic vanilla but it probably doesn't matter)

8oz self raising flour

4oz ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 175 C (which for my uncooperative fan oven means about 150C), and line a 17 x 27cm (or thereabouts) baking tin with parchment.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together til pale and creamy. Add an egg and a spoonful of flour and beat in, then repeat the process with the other three eggs. Add in the yoghurt and the rest of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined.

Tip into the baking tin and spread out to fill the corners. Bake for around 30-40 minutes and test with a warmed skewer before taking out (cake mix on the skewer means it's not cooked yet, a clean skewer or a few crumbs means it's done).

Mine cooled in the tin for about 15 minutes before I took it out (due to an emergency nappy change) and was left to cool completely on a wire rack.

The sponge had risen quite high when it came out of the oven, and then sank again which had me worrying about nasty solid bits in the middle but it was all fine when I cut it.

The glace icing was a bit of an ad hoc mix, and colour-free (but only because I don't have any food colouring). I used about half a box of icing sugar (so around 250g) and perhaps a couple fo tablespoons of water (or you can use lemon juice).

The tricks to getting a good glace icing seems to be 1. you always need more sugar than you think, 2. you always need less water than you think, 3. use water just off the boil, you get a better set (and hence that crispy soft toothsomeness that makes a perfect Bloomfields pink cake) and aim for a paste - if it's runny it just won't set.

Delish.

 

Sewing for other people

You may now turn over your paper.

Here's the thing:  call me fussy, posessive or whatever, but I generally only make things for people who I know are going to appreciate what I made. If I know that my gift is going to get stomped on and left out in the mud, I don't give it. I put love into the things I make and I suppose I expect people to respect that. 

This includes food by the way, but we're talking crafting here today.

Conversely, giving hand made things to people I hardly know can be an eye opener in terms of whether they are my kind of person or not. Give them something I made with love and see what they do - a distracted "that's nice" and forget about it, or actually appreciate my time and effort, and be grateful for my thoughtfulness.

Outside the cozy bubble that is handmade blog and crafting land, making things by hand still seems, to some people at least, to be the cheap way out, with a nice box with Gap or whatever on the front being the preferred option. Strange that spending time and making an effort takes a lower place than buying something made by a machine or a poorly paid worker half way round the world.

I'm not sure if I'm taking things too personally (after all, once I give it it's theirs to do as they wish with it) or whether I have the right to expect respect. I think mostly think the latter.

Discuss.

One!

(It's a crap photo and a pink candle, but you get the jist...)

Hard to believe it, but a year ago today the (not so) wee Stashlet arrived on the scene. A week late and reluctant to make his appearance to the very end, the threat of a Cesarean finally got him moving. I never wrote that post about the whole labour-experience-thingy, mostly because I never had time and it would have been far too long to keep anyone's interest apart from mine. Suffice to say, I came out of it with a bouncing baby and the knowledge that apparently I have very good pelvic geometry.

Anyway, we're here today to talk about birthday cake, so let's do that, shall we?

I wasn't going to make a cake. We don't really do birthday's here at Stash Towers, and I know this makes me sound like a bad mother but Stashlet is far too preoccupied with throwing saucepan lids around the kitchen and freaking out the cat to notice that it's his birthday. But then my aunt phoned out of the blue all the way from Zambia to wish Stashlet happy birthday and said "you must send me photos of his party", and with no party and no cake I was suitably emotionally blackmailed into baking. That really makes me sound like a bad mother.

Moving swiftly on...

It's another recipe from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook. One that I hadn't tried before, and was a bit dubious about because I'm not a big fan of banana cake, but then I said that about the BLW muffins and they turned out to be a total winner (and in trying to find the post about them to add a hyperlink, I've just discovered that I never blogged about them, so I'll have to add them to the to-do list...).

This turned out to be good too. Be warned it doesn't rise much, and it possibly doesn't keep very well (it's very moist) but you only get a small cake so easy enough to eat in one sitting. The rest of ours has gone in the freezer so that my mother can have some when she comes to visit next month.

 *******

Banana Cake

from the Baby led Weaning Cookbook

butter or oil for greasing

100g (3½oz) self-raising wholemeal flour (or use plain flour and add 2 tsp baking powder)

½tsp ground mixed spice

50g (2oz) butter (preferably unsalted)

75g (2½oz) raisins (or chopped figs)

200g (7oz)  ripe bananas (that's pretty much 2 bananas)

50g (2oz) walnuts, ground or finely chopped)

1 egg, beaten

Topping (optional)

200g (7oz) cream cheese

50-100g (2-3½oz) 100% fruit spread or jam

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4, and lightly grease a 450g (1lb) loaf tin.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the spices. Cut or break the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour.

Using your hands, a pastry blender, or a food processor, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the raisins (or chopped figs) and make a well in the centre of the mixture.

In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, add the walnuts and stir in the egg. Pout the banana mixture into the flour mixture and fold in.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and put it in the oven. Turn the oven down to 160C/325F/gas mark 3 and bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Serve plain, with creme fraiche, or natural yoghurt, or covered with the topping. To make the topping, combine the ingredients thoroughly (using a blender or food processor if the jam is lumpy) and spread evenly over the cake.

*******

Baking notes:

• I hardly ever grease tins these days - I'm a total parchment convert. It's brilliant stuff  - if only you could use it in ring tins
• I soaked the raisins in milk for about 15 minutes because they were a bit on the dry side (drain the milk before you put them in the cake though)
• It's fine to use salted butter if you're not feeding babies or young children
  
• I used ground hazelnuts because that was what I had
• I used extra coarse wholemeal flour, again because that was what I had, but it also adds a nice nutty texture
  
• The idea is that you grind the nuts if your baby can't manage lumps but I think I would grind them anyway because a) I don't like pieces of nuts in cakes and b) I think the overall flavour wouldn't be so uniformly nutty with pieces
• I made a bit of glace icing with icing sugar and orange juice to drizzle over the top rather than the cream cheese topping, and was glad I did because the cake is very sweet and would, I think, be total overkill with cheesey-jammyness on top
• As I said it doesn't rise much so spread the mixture out neatly before you put it in the oven because any peaks or troughs will likely remain so after baking
• This cake probably keeps ok in the fridge for a couple of days but it is very moist so it should be eaten sooner rather than later
  

It was delicious. Much better than expected. Not overpoweringly banana-y, in fact it reminded me of a coffee cake I once had. Stashlet loved it so for a non-birthday birthday, it was a roaring success. Definitely one to make again.

 

Baked risotto

And while you have the oven on...

A while back, Alicia at Posy Gets Cosy wrote a post where she mentioned making her first risotto and I commented that I do mine baked (most so that I don't have to hang around the cooker for half an hour), and kind of promised to post my recipe.

I must say that I too am a latecomer to the world of risotto. The idea of slimey creamy rice with cheese just didn't do it for me but I must have been having an extra optimistic day when I was looking for something to feed Stashlet and I thought I'd give it a go. Turns out the rice is not really slimey, and the cheese actually works, and Stashlet likes it too, so it has been appearing regularly on the Stash Towers menu in a number of variations.

So here, belatedly, is the recipe.

*******

Oven-baked aubergine and courgette risotto

from the Baby-led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett

serves 2 adults and 1 baby (generously) (or 3 normal sized adult portions)

500-600ml (18-21 fl oz) vegetable stock

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 small aubergine

1 medium courgette

250g (9oz) risotto rice

knob of butter

60g (20z) grated parmesan

freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F/gm6 and put the stock on to heat in a pan.

Heat the oil (preferably in a flame-proof casserole so you don't have to transfer the food at the next stage). Add the onion and fry until soft. Add the garlic and after a few seconds, add the other vegetables. Cook until they start to soften. Add the rice and stir to make sure that all the grains have a light coating of oil. Add 500ml (18fl oz) of the stock and bring to the boil. Cover the dish (or transfer the mixture from the pan to an oven-proof casserole) and put it in the oven for 30 minutes, then stir gently and add more hot stock of necessary. Bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, check the texture of the rice: if cooked add the butter (if using), parmesan cheese and black pepper, and stir again. Cover the dish and leave it to rest for a few minutes before serving.

*******

A few notes:

If you're using this for baby weaning, cut the vegetables into sticks so that the baby can hold one end and eat the other. Otherwise, cut the veg however you want it.

Use a bigger pan than you would normally use to cook rice in - my first attempt had bits of veg sticking to the lid when it came out of the oven. Veg takes up more room than you'd think.

It seems to me that you can do pretty much anything you please with risotto. I've done several variations, the nicest was chicken and mushroom (3 chicken breasts sliced and browned with the onion, and 3 or 4 big portobello mushrooms cut into slices).

This stuff reheats well, and you can also make aranchini, which is basically cold risotto (with any big lumps cut small) rolled into little sausage shapes, dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and fried until crispy and golden. Haven't tried this yet but it sounds interesting.

I am bad and use stock cubes. My home made stock usually tastes crap. If you're feeding this to babies, make sure you use a low salt (or preferably no salt) stock.

Apple Sharlotka

Foof! A belated Happy New Year to everyone.

I haven't mentioned cake in a while but this weekend saw me baking a new cake, and baking it twice at that!

One of the blogs I read is Smitten Kitchen and on Saturday Deb posted a recipe for Apple Sharlotka which her Russian mother-in-law makes. It is so simple and so full of fruit that I went off there and then to bake it, and trial it on Mr G's friend Mr C.

This is what was left:

I'll take that as a positive response.

On Sunday, we had another visitor so I made a variation of Deb's recipe. I have to say I prefer my version but it is probably not very Russian anymore.

Deb's original version is here and mine is below.

*******

Apple Sharlotka - the probably-not-very-Russian variation

7  large Granny Smiths apples

4 medium eggs (or 3 large depending on what you have in the fridge)

120 g caster sugar

80g muscovado sugar (or dark soft brown)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

about ½tsp ground cinnamon

small handful of flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 9"/23cm springform tin with parchment (not greaseproof!). Butter the  sides of the tin. Peel, core and quarter the apples, then cut each quarter into slices about the thickness of a pound/euro coin. Sprinkle the apples with the ground cinnamon, turning as you sprinkle to coat all the slices. Tip the apples into the tin.

Make the batter by beating the eggs with the sugar (break up any lumps in the brown sugar before you start) and vanilla essence until thick and you can lift the beaters out and make a trail in the egg mixture. Fold in the flour until just combined (a bit like making brownies) to end up with a very thick batter.

Pour the batter over the apples making sure they are all covered with the batter. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top. Bake in the preheated oven until a skewer come out clean (about 55 minutes). Cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so then turn out onto a plate, peel off the parchment and turn the cake right side up again onto a second plate. Eat warm or cold with a dollop of cream.

*******

A few notes:

Deb specifies Granny Smiths and that's what I used with my variation. For the first cake I used Pink Lady apples. I think Cox's Orange Pippins would be better than both of these, and will try that next time.

Deb descries this cake as a bit like a cloufouti although the 'sponge' reminded me more of British trifle sponges, but don't let that put you off!!

Both times my cakes came out well browned but with slightly crispy apples. Rereading Deb's recipe I see that she cuts her apples into little slivers rather than slices; also my oven runs ridiculously hot so even though I compensated, perhaps I should have turned it down further.

Happy baking.

oh. Ps. I finally added a photo of the cut Canadian fruit cake to the post from a while back. So full of cherries - heaven!

 

SMS Giveaway Winner

Thank you for all your comments! I'm glad I'm not the only one who really needs a piece of cake right now! There seems to be a chocolate cake bias going in the comments so here's one I made earlier which should satisy your eyes if not your cake gland. The icing didn't turn out exactly how I'd imagined but hey ho, it tasted pretty ok.

Now on to more urgent matters...

The SMS Giveaway winner was picked by random.org ...

...who was Theresa...

Congratulations, Theresa! Cherry cheesecake most certainly counts. Look out for an email from me very soon.

Canadian fruit cake

Hello. Here for the Giveaway? You need to be here instead!

Lots of you are craving chocolate cake by the looks of the comments on the Giveaway post so I thought I'd let you know that Joy the Baker has a chocolate mint swiss roll thing going at the moment. Sounds delish! I spent half my teens baking peppermint victoria sponge. Aah, the calories...

But I digress.

Meghan commented that she'd like pineapple upside down cake which reminded me that I should share this pineapple christmas cake with you. I'm afraid you only get a photo of an intriguingly wrapped lump as we haven't cut it yet, but I'll try to remember to post one of the real deal once we start eating it.

This recipe is one that my mother cut out of the newspaper so long ago that it only comes with imperial weights. It makes a light coloured but full of fruity goodness cake that you could have for christmas or take on picnics (when it isn't blowing snow at 100kph outside like it is today!).

*******

Canadian Christmas Cake

7oz self-raising flour

1/8 sp salt (I suspect a pinch is much the same thing)

5oz glacé cherries

1lb tin of pineapple (I use crushed pineapple)

5oz butter

4½ oz granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tbs brandy

9oz sultanas

3oz cut mixed peel

Set the oven to 325F / gas mark 3.

Sift the flour and salt together. Cut 8 cherries into small pieces and reserve. Cut half the rest into halves. Roll the whole and halved cherries in flour and shake off surplus. Drain the pineapple and if it isn't already srushed (I really recommend it), chop it as finely as you can.

Cream the butter and sugaruntil light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. stir in the brandy, flour, and then all the fruit except for the reserved cherries. Turn into a greased 2lb loaf tin (or line it with baking parchment), level off the top and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour.  Scatter the reserved cherries on top and bake for another hour (so 2 hours total baking time).

Leave until cool before removing from the tin, wrap well and kep for at least 2 weeks before eating.

*******

I am a total glacé cherry fiend so I don't bother with the cherries on the top; everything goes in the cake. Apparently this will keep indefinitely in the fridge, but frankly wouldn't you rather eat it and make another?

ps. if anyone comes across a website where you can convert square/loaf tin sizes to circular tin sizes, please let me know. Somehow a proper christmas cake needs to be round...

added 09-01-12 We cut the cake (not today but I'm only just getting round to posting this) and it looks like this:

I actually found it too sweet (not having eaten it for years) so next time I will cut down the sugar by an ounce or so. But the excessive number of glacé cherries will remain.

Baby baking

Not sure I've mentioned it, but I'm doing baby led weaning with the wee Stashlet. I find the auguments for it so convincing that I can barely walk down the baby food aisle of a supermarket without getting somewhat outraged... but that's probably just me.

Anyway, since the Stashlet appeared, my diet has gone rather haywire so I thought I'd try out some recipies from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook to get me back on track. Baking seemed the easiest option to fit in during naps so I went a bit crazy, as you can see.

This Baked Oat Cake is made with oatmeal rather than wheat flour and has no added sugar, and despite spending three times longer in the oven than the recipe suggested, it turned out rather well. The sweetness is provided by apples and sultanas. Stashlet's opinion: ooh, I can squish this and eat it.

I love savory muffins so I was very happy to make these Spinach and Cheese Muffins. I added a bit of ham too although I think it got lost in the general cheeseyness. Mr G's opinion: am I really only allowed one? Stashlet's opinion: yum! He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.

My only grumble, which happens with all savory muffins not just these, is that they stick horribly to the tin or to paper cases, which is a total pain in the arse. I think it might be the cheese, but if anyone has suggestions for improving the situation, do please let me know!

Flapjacks. But suprise flapjacks, because they're cheese flavoured (yes, we now have no cheddar left in the house). Sounds weird, tastes suprisingly good. Next time I think I'll try them wth onions in. Good for taking out on trips and pretty substantial in the wave-it-about-and-bang-it-on-the-table department. Stashlet's opinion: Nice, but the crackly paper bag it came in is much more interesting right now.

I'll definitely be making more from this book and if I have enough time, I'll stick a few of the recipies up on here too.

added 28-09-11 Bummer time: turned out that every subsequent time I gave Stashlet a muffin or flapjack, he projectile vomited all over the place shortly afterwards, with the clear conclusion that he's allergic to cheddar if not all cheeses. So cheese is off the menu for the time being. The doctor said that babies with eczema often display more food alergies so we will have to curb our enthusiasm for a while...