Stash Avalanche

Felt a bit bunny at the weekend...

They look so pretty all together.

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Chocolate flapjacks, take 2

The first chocolate flapjacks I made were delicious, but after they were gone, I started thinking about the recipe, and how it might be better.

Me G had commented on how he thought there wern't enough oats in them, and I did feel like there was a surfit of toffee (although should one really complain about such a thing?), so I did a bit of tweaking, and yes, I do think that the results were even better than the first lot.

Chocolate Flapjacks

(tweaked from a Green and Blacks recipe via Jo and Susan)

175 g dark muscovado

150g butter

1tbs gloden syrup

1tsp instant coffee (dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water)

1 dsp vanilla extract

5 tbsp cocoa

2tbsp dessicated coconut

200g jumbo oats

100g porridge oats

 Melt the sugars and butter in a pan over a low heat. Mix in the cocoa, coffee  and vanilla extract. Add the oats. Tip into a lined 9x9" (that's about 20x 20cm off the top of my head) tin and bake in a preheated over (140C) for about 15 minutes. Allow to cool a little before marking into squares.

Makes 16. You could cut them bigger but I think it would be a bit too much. This, coming from me, is really saying something!

Sorry, no photo. They got eaten too quickly.

Chocolate flapjack

I read blogs. I cook things. I find bad and dangerous things to cook from blogs, and this is one of them. Very bad indeed.

It comes to you from Susan at Canadian Abroard via Jo at A life in lists.

I only made half quantity because the recipe looked a bit odd in quantities and temperatures but it came out fine. I won't quote the recipe here, Susan has it with notes here, but I will tell you a few things:

The original recipe for full quantity goes into a 9" square tin. I made half and put it in a 12x6"ish tin because that was the first thing that came out of my baking drawer. It made a flapjack about half an inch thick which is just how I like it. I get the impression that Susan's version will be thicker.

I left it in the oven for 25 minutes because it looked so uncooked and practically liquid. Turns out this is ok, and it will solidify once cool.

I used only muscovado sugar because that was what I had.

I think it could easily take more oats.

Really, seriously, line your tin.

It is utterly delicious and I don't think I'll ever be able to eat a 'normal' flapjack again.

It's here. Go cook it. Do it now.

 

... and I baked

And yesterday morning I made a cake, because a) you can't have friends round and not bake a cake (even if you have made a metric tonne of biscuits), b) I had a craving for hazelnut cake and c) I had ground hazelnuts that needed using up.

You can jazz this cake up with chocolate icing, nutella or whipped cream, but for me, it is one of the few cakes that I love best absolutely plain.

Ground hazelnuts can be pretty difficult to find - I think I've seen them only once here in Ireland; mine came from Germany - but you could whizz some up in a coffee grinder or food processor. I've also made this cake with walnuts, and I suppose you could use coarsley ground almonds but I think that version might need a splosh or two of almond essence. Oh my god, I've just had an idea to make an almond version and put glace cherries in it - the ultimate cherry cake! - but then I am a total glace cherry whore, so you'll have to excuse me if that sounds like too much.

I digress.

The recipe that I made was a mix of imperial and metric, and works out (in exact terms) like this (but you can probably round up/down with no problems):

7oz (198g) caster sugar

7oz (198g) butter

2tsp vanilla essence

4 medium eggs

7oz (198g) flour

200g  (7.1oz) groung hazelnuts

splosh (50 - 100ml) milk - optional

You make it just like a standard sponge.

Preheat the oven to 175C. Beat the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and then the eggs, beating them in one at a time with a spoonful of flour to minimise splitting. Add the rest of the flour and the ground nuts, and mix in thoroughly. My mixture was somewhat stodgy so I added a splosh of milk to loosen it a bit but you might not have to do that - see how you feel. Spread it into a 23cm tin either lined with baking parchment or buttered and floured. I used a spring form tin, but a normal sandwich tin would also be fine so long as it is well greased/lined. Bake for around 30-40 minutes and test with a warmed skewer before you take it out. Let it  cool and jazz it up as you feel. I cut some stars out of a piece of paper (software like MS Publisher(alright, I'm old skool) makes star drawing easy), put it on the top of the cake  and sprinkled icing sugar over it. Take of the paper and presto! pretty stars.

Recently I have been cutting down on the amount of sugar I use in sponges, so a 4 egg cake will have 7oz sugar rather than 8oz for example (I always bake imperial rather than metric sponges - it's easier to remember). I nearly always put ground almonds in my sponges too (say 3-4oz in a 4 egg sponge) and as a result cut down the butter as well. There doesn't seem to be any loss in cake performance, and I get a moister cake which stays moist for longer. It also stays on my hips for longer but that's another story.

We ate it. It was delish. Go bake one.

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.

 

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.

Banana muffins

(Every time I type 'banana' my fingers seem to want to go on and on. Bananananananana...)

So. I thought I'd posted about these long ago. Turns out I hadn't, and they're so good, you really ought to make some. They're from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook (no surprise there) and are sugar free. I make up a batch every couple of weeks and stick them in the freezer for Stashlet's afternoon snack. Stick one in the microwave on defrost for about 1½ minutes and it's pretty much ready to eat. 

I haven't tried this, but apparently you can save up over-ripe bananas but putting them in the freezer until you have as many as you need.

*******

Banana muffins

from The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook

150g (5½ oz) self-raising flour (white, wholemeal or half and half)

½tsp ground cinnamon, nutmeg or mixed spice (optional)

60g (2oz) butter (preferably unsalted) plus extra for greasing

4 large very ripe bananas

2 large eggs, beaten

Pregaet oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and lightly grease a muffin tray or line with paper cases.

Sift flour and spices into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas to a smooth thick puree consistency using a fork or potato masher. Add the eggs and melted butter, and mix well.

Pour the banana mixture ino the flour and fold together lightly, then spoon the mixture into the muffin tray.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown and springy, then remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before turning out.

Baking notes:

• I use muffin cases, it saves on trying to gouge cake out if it sticks
• I melt the butter in the microwave then mash the bananas in with it - saves on washing up!
• this amount of mixture fills 12 large muffin cases reasonaly full but the muffins don't rise much so don't worry too much about over-filling the cases
• you could also use mini muffin cases
• these freeze well and can be defrosted in the microwave

Happy bananaing!

 

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.

 

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.