Lady Aga

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[lady-aga]

Lady Aga April Cakes

You know what they say, cakes are like buses- just much tastier and a little bit more expensive. Or something like that.  Anyway, April was a busy month in the Lady Aga kitchen - here are a few choice highlights I’d love to share with you:

Gold drip cake with sprinkle border - I posted a photo of the trial run for this guy on Instagram a few weeks back.  The real deal has been referred to by The Blonde as my finest work yet, and that man is my harshest critic (as well as my biggest advocate, natch! x)

My favourite self-penned cake recipe- lemon syrup soaked polenta sponge with lemon curd frosting and fresh raspberries

Bettered only with the addition of edible dogs and cats

Next up, a classic chocolate with gold glitter sugarpaste lettering

And then a cake I was too scared to walk out into the garden for its official photo shoot...

A two tier pink ombre with ombre buttercream and piped ombre buttercream roses adorning the top layer.  12 layers of sponge in total and breaking the kitchen scales at over 8kg

Fans of the ombre buttercream rose should dig these red velvet cupcakes

Although accidentally shooting the main event to this cupcake dozen on my camera’s Pop Art mode probably hasn’t done it any favours, sorry!

My eyes hurt looking at the photo and I’ve no idea why that setting even exists, but IRL it was a beaut, promise.

Last but not least, a First Birthday cake of the classic rainbow variety with vanilla buttercream for one of Baby Aga’s amigos

As ever, if you’re after a cake for any occasion I’d be delighted to bake for you and am all ears for any cakey requirement so drop me a line via the Cake Commissions tab.

Until next time... x

[lady-aga]

The Quality Chop House

First up, full disclosure, this meal was eaten a year and a fortnight ago - I was pretty pregnant at the time and The Blonde had hatched a cunning plan with a great friend of mine’s husband (she also being with child) to take the wives out for lunch to say thanks for carrying our kids.  The destination was The Quality Chop House and as ways of expressing gratitude go, a booking at this restaurant is as awesome a thanks as anyone could ask for.  The stark yet homely look and deceptively simple looking seasonal British menu have all the great elements of St John and Hix but what they do is totally their own.

With the sun out today and a distinctly Spring feel in the air I’m feeling nostalgic for those times of the great unknown and anticipation, of expectancy, excitement and mild terror, but above all I cannot stop thinking about The Quality Chop House’s confit potatoes - the carb to end all carbs.  But I’m getting ahead of myself... first up, an aperitivo for the male contingent:

Something sparkling for the gals

Bread, cultured butter, salted Marcona almonds and Nocellara olives served as a simple snack before we graduated onto the main events.

Breaded beef croquettes on a bed of the most perfect aioli; their crispy crunchy exterior beautifully complementing the slow cooked shredded beef that lay within

Poached Scottish langoustines with creamy mayonnaise

Burnt leeks, chopped hard boiled egg and anchovy - salty, sweet, smooth and simple, whilst being anything but straightforward.  The ingredients here are as high grade as the kitchen skills.

Hansen & Lydersen smoked salmon with watercress and horseradish - creamed and freshly grated.  If you’ve never tried H&L’s exceptional smoked salmon you are missing out - anything but your classic cure and generally served in sashimi-esque slices for maximum flavour and character. Jerusalem artichoke soup with hazelnuts and browned butter as a blurry background.

Shellfish broth, Riesling, wild garlic and sourdough with a Monk’s beard garnish

The most incredible Galloway beef mince with dripping toast you’ll ever experience; not for the calorie conscious, Lord only knows how much bone marrow goes into the sauce but I love their style.  Forget the vitamin-packed watercress; this dish is basically medicine through the medium of meat; I feel like there’s nothing it couldn’t heal.

And last but not least, THOSE potatoes - details on exactly how these were prepared fail me but, from vague memory, they are thinly sliced, baked in a tray of duck fat, refrigerated and compressed, chopped into slices, deep fried, drizzled with aioli (by the look of things?) and scattered with sea salt.  But don’t take that as gospel. True love, lust and a lifetime allegiance at first bite.

We passed on pudding as the boys said they had a second reservation lined up just down the road for desserts - but we had to have the truffles, because, you know, truffles.. In a stroke of pure brilliance, this alternative location turned out to be a cake-based secret baby shower at Granger & Co with a load of our girlfriends; even a year on this still makes me pretty emotional.  But enough of the nostalgia and back to the Chop House - if the restaurant doesn’t quite seal the deal, they also have a butcher and bakery next door where - joy of joys - you can buy those potatoes.

The Quality Chop House, 88-94 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 4EA

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Dutch Baby with Salted Caramel Apples

From the very moment the Dutch Baby crossed my radar, I knew it would be love at first bite.  Despite this immediate insight, it’s still taken me years to get around to baking one of these fluffy pancake/ Yorkshire pudding hybrids -  wasted, empty and meaningless years, I tell you.  Why I waited so long is a mystery, I had the skillet and the appetite so who knows.  With pancake day upon us, it’s an ideal solution for those who - like me -  can’t be faffed with the flipping.  Sorry, but sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day, and this is where the Dutch Baby -with its low maintenance ‘just leave me in the oven and I’ll do my own sweet thing’, laissez faire attitude - comes into its own.  Paired with tender caramelised apples and a generous glug of double cream, you’ve got the perfect pudding, be it Shrove Tuesday or any other day of the year.

For 1 greedy serving, you’ll need:

1 cast iron skillet, or an oven-proof pan (mine measures 5″ diameter, larger pans will obviously accommodate more batter)

40g butter (25g for your apples and 15g for the Dutch Baby)

25g light soft brown sugar

1 apple (Braeburn or Cox would work well, alternatively use half a cooking apple), peeled, cored and cut into thick slices

1 pinch Maldon sea salt

3 tbsp plain flour

3 tbsp whole milk

1 tsp sugar

1 large egg

Double cream, for serving

Icing sugar, for dusting

Pre-heat your oven to 220 Degrees C and then make a start on your salted caramel apples;

In a small saucepan over a medium heat, melt 25g butter and add the light soft brown sugar.  Stir until mixed.

Tip in your apples and stir until well coated with the butter sugar syrup, sprinkle over the sea salt.

Cook over a medium heat for around 7 minutes - the caramel will bubble and thicken slightly and the apples should be cooked through and tender, but still holding their shape.

Turn off the heat, but leave the saucepan on the hob.

Now make your batter by whisking together the flour, milk, sugar and egg in a jug.

Put the remaining 15g butter into your skillet and place the skillet in the oven.

Once the butter is fully melted, pour your batter into the skillet and quickly return to the oven so that you don’t lose too much heat.

Bake your Dutch Baby for around 18 minutes or until puffed-up and golden; the rule of cakes applies here, if you can smell it then it’s likely cooked through.

Remove the Dutch Baby from the oven, top with the salted caramel apples, pour over double cream and dust with icing sugar.

Serve straight away.

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Protein bites

If you’re looking for a sustaining snack that is both tasty and nutritious, look no further than these guys.  There’s no denying my obvious inspiration here is the Bounce Ball - however, this homemade version is a significantly more cost effective option.  It is also notably lacking in the questionable syrups which account for a fair proportion of the Bounce Ball’s ingredient list, whilst maintaining the same protein quota gram for gram. Super quick and easy, admittedly slightly messy- but with their fudgy flapjack consistency, you can probably forgive them that.

For 15 bites, 6g protein per bite:

25g coconut oil

50g honey

150g oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

50g desiccated coconut

100g smooth nut butter (peanut or almond work particularly well)

1tsp sea salt

30g protein powder (I use Pulsin whey protein)

Water, approximately 50ml for binding the bites together

In a small saucepan, gently melt the coconut oil and honey together until completely liquid

Pour the coconut oil and honey mix into a large bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well with your hands, adding water as you see fit

Roll into balls and leave to chill in the fridge - if you’re going to take longer than a fortnight to consume, store in the freezer.

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Cake Happenings

First post of 2017.  First post in a while, truth be told.  The below cakes are my vague offering at an excuse and apology for recent blog neglect; these guys took up just some of my time towards the tail end of 2016.  If you’d like to keep abreast of my baking efforts, please follow on Instagram where culinary updates are more frequent.

Chocolate drip Piñata cake - four layers of vanilla sponge, sandwiched with buttercream and strawberry jam with a solid ‘core’ of Smarties, a chocolate ganache drip and Smarties shards for a bit of elevation; I like my cakes tall.

Chocolate again - this time inside and out.  For this bake I veered away from my usual chocolate sponge recipe, which calls for a light and airy American-style batter style mix.  Instead, this guy was a ‘chocolate silk cake’ whose method called for a whole heap of melted chocolate, cream and soft brown sugar with a buttercream that was equal parts butter, chocolate and icing sugar.  The dream.  Potentially the most delicious chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten.

Next up, something a little lighter and more floral - my favourite self-penned cake recipe, lemon polenta sponge with lemon curd cream cheese frosting.  Decoration kept simple and chic with fresh flowers.

And last but not least, another of my go-to homemade concoctions, macadamia praline, scattered over three layers of chocolate sponge and whipped chocolate frosting. 

As ever, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’ve got a cake craving- I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time...  

[lady-aga]

Tomato, Saffron and Chickpea Stew with Kale and pan-fried Salmon

What a week.  What a year, even.  If you’re seeking solace and reassurance via the medium of food, this recipe should hopefully help to soothe your woes; warming and comforting, this is a healthy dish that won’t weigh you down.  With vague Sicilian and Moroccan influences and flavours that speak of sunshine and optimism.  Another gratifying element is that it can be consumed with just a fork -  my current litmus test for contented cooking;  bowl food at its very best.

Feel free to up the chilli content if you’re that way inclined, likewise most oily fish would stand up to the punchy taste - I went with mackerel on this recipe’s first outing and it was wonderful.  Similarly, cavolo nero or an alternative sturdy green leaf could be added in place of kale - the key is to gently stir your lightly-blanched greens through the stew just before serving so they retain their brightness.

Serves 2:

1 pinch saffron

1 tsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp boiling water

Olive oil

1 onion, peeled & finely chopped

2 garlic cloves & finely chopped

1/2 can anchovies, drained from their oil

125ml white wine or dry sherry

pinch chilli flakes

1 tsp Bouillon powder or other vegetable stock

1 can plum tomatoes

1 glass water (use your empty tomato can to measure - that way you won’t loose out on any of the can’s contents when you tip the water back into the stew)

1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 tbsp chopped black olives 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 large handfuls kale, tough stalks removed and chopped

2 salmon fillets

Using a pestle and mortar, grind up your saffron and sugar until you’ve got a powder, then pour over the boiling water to dissolve and create a saffron ‘syrup’ of sorts - set to one side.

Heat a good few glugs of olive oil in a large saucepan or casserole dish and then add onion and garlic.  Fry gently until softened (about 10 mins)

Stir in the anchovies until they melt into the mix, the scatter over the chilli flakes.

Pour in the white wine and allow to reduce a little before adding the Bouillon, tomatoes, water, chickpeas, olives and saffron ‘syrup’.

Simmer gently for a good 20 minutes until slightly reduced, then break down your tomatoes using a potato masher or similar

Season to taste - the anchovies will mean you might not need as much salt as you need.  Continue to simmer the stew until you are happy with the general flavour intensity, then keep on a low heat to warm.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add your kale, bring back to the boil.  Drain and set to one side.

Heat a little olive oil in a small frying pan and the fry the salmon fillets - skin side first.  Allow the skin to get lovely and crisp (the timing will very much be dependent on the size of your fish so keep an eye on it), then flip your fish and cook for a shorter time on the other side until cooked to your liking (I prefer my salmon slightly pink so remove after around a minute).

Gently stir the drained kale through the stew and ladle into shallow bowls before placing a skin-side-up salmon fillet on top.

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Egg Free Coffee Cake with Espresso Buttercream & Oreo Crumbs

One of the most gratifying things about baking cakes for other people - asides, of course, from a flattering Instagram tag (I mean, a picture paints a thousand words...!) - is when they come back to you for a second, third and occasionally, if you’re very lucky, a fourth bake.  At the risk of sounding all gushy, it really does mean the world and I’m very grateful to those of you who do return to Lady Aga.  It’s a competitive market out there; the outrageously gorgeous cakes that flash across my social media on a daily basis are enough to make any baker want to drown their sorrows of inadequacy in a vat of buttercream, but repeat custom does keep the spirits high, so thank you!

The cake you see today was a trial for one such customer (this guy being the tester-run for his first egg free coffee cake a couple of years back).  For the real deal, it will be enriched with walnuts and the Oreos ditched for a birthday message, but seeing as Oreo cookies are egg-free, I figured they were as good an adornment as any and in keeping with the theme.  Plus, you can never go too far wrong with chocolate and coffee.

Serves 8:

For the cakes:

2 x 6″ cake tins, greased and lined

25g Flaxseed

125g water

1tsp cocoa

2 tbsp instant coffee

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp boiling water

150g softened butter or margarine 

150g caster sugar

1tsp filter coffee (I used Lavazza)

150g self raising flour

50ml whole milk (optional)

For the icing:

350g icing sugar

150g butter, softened

35ml strong espresso (I made up a mini mocha stovetop and reduced the contents in a small saucepan to intensify the flavour)

Splash whole milk

2 oreo cookies, crushed

Pre-heat your oven to 165 degrees C

First make your ‘flax egg’ by mixing the flaxseed and 125ml water in a small bowl and setting aside for 5 minutes until thickened

In a second smaller bowl, mix the cocoa, instant coffee, vanilla and boiled water so that you have a sort of bitter vanilla mocha shot and leave to one side

In a free standing mixer/ Magimix/ or in a large bowl using a wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease, cream your butter or margarine, sugar and filter coffee

Mix together your ‘flaxegg’ and mocha shot and gradually add this mixture to your creamed margarine and sugar, beating well between each addition until completely combined.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl intermitently so that everything is mixed nicely together

Fold through your self-raising flour, taking care not to beat out the air from your cake batter

If the mix looks a little dry, add up to 50ml whole milk

Divide the batter between your two prepared cake tins and bake for around 25 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean - this is a sticky mix (verging on brownie-esque in consistency), so do make sure it’s fully cooked before removing from the oven - there is such a thing as too much squidge

Remove the tins from the oven and allow to cool a little before carefully turning out onto a cooling rack 

Whilst the cakes are cooling, make your espresso buttercream by creaming together icing sugar and butter until the mixture comes together (using either a free standing mixer, Magimix, or by hand with bowl and spoon)

Beat in the espresso and a splash of milk and turn up the speed on your mixer and continue to mix until you have a light and creamy icing

Spread a little of the buttercream onto a cake stand and lay down your base cake layer, sandwich with buttercream and top with the second cake

Apply a thin crumb coat all over the cake and leave to set in the fridge for 30 mins before applying another coat of buttercream; feel free to repeat the chilling process and apply another layer for a super smooth finish (this recipe makes probably more than you’ll need for this purpose)

Decorate with an edge of crushed Oreos and serve

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Lady Aga Cake Update

Whilst the lack of activity on this site might suggest that the lights are on but no one’s home, I can assure you that things are still happening in the kitchen. There’s no denying that having a four month old has definitely not aided my already erratic blogging frequency, but the oven is on and cakes are a baking.  Here are a few of my most recent commissions, for all you buttercream lovers out there.   As ever, if you’d like some Lady Aga cake in your life, do please get in touch.  For more frequent cakey updates Instagram is probably your best bet - where you can also search the hashtag #ladyagacakes for the latest bakes.

12″ Lemon polenta cake with lemon curd cream cheese frosting, fresh raspberries and edible glitter icing personalisation

12′ Naked cake with fresh berries for a London wedding

6″ American-style White cake with buttercream ruffles

7″ Victoria sponge with pink ombre buttercream exterior and vintage roses

Glitter letter personalised red velvet, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with multicolour swirl frosting

7″ pink ombre cake with sprinkle coating

7″ classic pink ombre cake

9″ chocolate layer cake with salted caramel frosting (interior) and chocolate buttercream (exterior)

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Cherry Pavlova with Lemon Curd Vanilla Cream

Summer simplicity at its very best.  Ok, so there’s an element or two of whisking involved, and you do have to switch on your oven, but these minimal efforts yield great tasting -and indeed looking - results. 

When the temperature rises, I’m all for a pudding that allows less time in the kitchen and more time in the garden sinking whatever seasonal beverage is on offer; which, for the record, this summer is Prosecco on ice - after 9 months spent mostly abstaining from sauce you’ll need something to break you in gently; served in a large wine glass with jumbo ice cubes, it still makes for a pretty chic and very refreshing tipple. 

Anyway, back to that pavlova.

For 6-8 servings you’ll need:

5 egg whites

250g icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla bean paste (1 tsp for the meringue, 1 for the lemon curd vanilla cream)

600ml double cream

4 tbsp lemon curd

500g (minimum) cherries

Pre-heat your oven to 140 degrees Celsius

To make the pavlova, line two baking trays (the flattest you have available; tins with sides can cause the meringue to steam) with baking parchment and draw a circle on each (I drew around my 7″ cake tins) - then flip the parchment so that your meringue won’t sit directly onto ink or pencil lead

In a large clean bowl (grease is the enemy of a light meringues), whisk your egg whites until stiff, then whisk in the icing sugar one heaped tablespoon at a time until all the icing sugar has gone and you have a glossy meringue mix.  Then fold in the vanilla bean paste

Carefully divide the meringue mix between the two lined trays and spread within the circle template

Bake in the oven for one hour before switching the oven off and leaving the meringues to cool fully in the oven (I left mine overnight, mainly because I was baking ahead of schedule and the oven was just a simpler storage option)

When your meringues are cool, make your lemon curd cream by whipping the double cream to soft peaks and then folding in the lemon curd and 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Spread a tablespoon of cream onto a cake stand or board to secure the first meringue layer, carefully place your first meringue onto the cream splodge and top with half the vanilla lemon curd cream

Sandwich the two meringues together and top with the remaining cream, then scatter over the cherries and serve.

[lady-aga]

National Cream Tea Day

Yes, it’s a thing - along with Peanut Butter Day, Nutella Day and Gin Day amongst many others.  So perhaps today is not one of entirely negative connotations - perhaps. In any case, and whatever your standpoint, the answer to the Brexit result is almost certainly cake, clotted cream and, let’s be honest, gin-spiked iced tea.  

I recently discovered you can make clotted cream yourself - yep, DIY cholesterol.  Rejoice.  The process may take the good part of a day and cost more than the off-the-shelf version when you factor in how long your oven will be running, but there’s nothing quite like a bit of kitchen alchemy from time to time. 

For the clotted cream:

A large quantity of double cream (I used 750ml)

A large heavy based saucepan with a lid - dimensions should be such that you’ve got a decent surface area of cream exposed but not coming more than a few inches up the pan (I used a Le Creuset-esque number that measures 19cm diameter)

For your scones (makes 8, adapted from The Telegraph recipe):

200g self raising flour

pinch salt

50g caster sugar

1 large egg

100ml double cream

40ml milk

1 tsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar

To serve:

Jam

To  make your clotted cream, pre-heat your oven to 80 degrees C

Pour your double cream into a heavy based saucepan and put a lid on it.  Leave in the oven unbothered for up to 8-12 hours or until a thick fatty yellow-dappled layer has formed (mine took 12) - you don’t want to knock the pan whilst it’s heating lest the fatty crust be punctured

Turn off the oven and leave the pan to cool before carefully transferring to the fridge.

Leave for a further 8 hours or overnight and then gently skim off the fatty layer with a slotted spoon

Transfer the clotted cream to a bowl, stir to combine and refrigerate until needed.

For the scones, pre-heat your oven to 220 degrees C and lightly flour a baking tray

Mix all your ingredients together in a large bowl with a fork 

Turn out on to a floured surface and knead briefly

Using a rolling pin, roll the scone dough out to an inch thick and cut your scones using a crinkle cutter (mine measured 2.5 inches diameter)

Re-knead and roll leftover dough and cut out more scones until all the dough has been used

Place the cut scones onto the baking tray and bake for around 12 minutes until lightly golden

Remove scones from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to take the heat off slightly before serving still warm

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Egg & Cress Asparagus Mimosa with Browned Butter

That would be Mimosa the salad, not the drink; I may be all baby brain right now, but if there’s one thing this girl recognises it’s cocktails and the difference between a sour and a sparkler is a marked one; some alcoholic beverages just work with an egg and others do not.

Anyway, this salad celebrates the final days of asparagus season with a nostalgic addition of egg and cress and a salty caramelised browned butter drizzle to tie it all together.  Light and simple with a minimal ingredients list and method, it fulfils all the criteria and then some of a Summer Salad.

Ingredients, per person:

a generous handful of asparagus spears (I was using slimmer stalks and went for 12 a head), tough ends snapped off/ neatly trimmed

1 egg, hardboiled peeled and chopped

a handful of mustard cress

30g butter

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil 

Whilst the water is coming to a boil, fill a large bowl with water and ice

Once your salted water pan is bubbling furiously add the asparagus spears

Bring the water back up to the boil (this should account for approximately 1 minute of the asparagus’ cooking time) and then cook for 1 min for spindlier spears or 1.5 mins for chunky monkeys

Quickly drain the asparagus and plunge immediately into the iced water

When the asparagus is cooled, remove from the water and dry off in a clean tea towel

In a frying pan large enough to accommodate the asparagus, brown your butter (failsafe method here)

Throw in the asparagus and toss about so that they are evenly coated in browned butter, continue to heat until they are cooked to your liking - I prefer mine a little on the al dente side so less than a minute will do in that case. 

Lift the asparagus out of the butter using tongs, arrange on a plate, top with chopped egg and a scattering of cress before drizzling over the browned butter 

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Lemon Polenta Wedding Cake with Lemon Curd Cream Cheese Frosting & Fresh Raspberries

It’s been a while since you last heard from Lady Aga; loyal readers may have made the connection based on a post from way-back-when in December 2015  that a life changing event could have interfered with my updates; if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know already...  Yes, Baby Aga has arrived! He made his entrance slightly earlier than expected, appearing dramatically (and perhaps inevitably) in the middle of a week that was already pretty packed in terms of events -  Monday being the funeral of my step grandfather and Saturday my baby brother’s wedding; to quote our unexpectedly poetic Uber driver who took us back from hospital as a newly expanded family of three: It was a week much like the British weather - all seasons in one go.

So four weeks ago to the day, when The Blonde and I should have been gearing up for one of the most beautiful weddings in the history of nuptials, we were in fact taking our gorgeous baby boy home in a haze of hormones, sleep deprivation and joy.  A bittersweet clash of life changing events if ever there was one, and to add to the drama I was the wedding cake maker... luckily for my bro and his divine wife, my sister in law is a girl full of wisdom and organisation; a month or so before the wedding, in one of my many pre-baby WTF text conversations with her, she asked the dreaded question I’d long been ignoring - Did I have a back up plan for the wedding cake?  My response, why would I need a back up plan? First babies are always late, right?  This one wasn’t due until a fortnight after the wedding so I assumed we were safe.  But, as they say in life, assumption is the mother of all F-ups; that and ‘man plans, God laughs’ - both being particularly apt in this instance. 

Anyway, apparently Bex was deadly serious about the back up plan so, with just over a week to go before the wedding, I finally completed the cake and had the three layers iced and stored in the freezer.  Transportation and assembly were details I could lock down later...

And so it came to be that mere days before the wedding I sent the dutiful Blonde home from hospital armed with instructions to buy Lidl out of fresh raspberries and a tutorial on how to make extra icing for sandwiching the tiers together.  I also sent a begging e-mail to my Dad’s best friend asking him if he could kindly drive the cake down from London to Devon (a duty which involved him booting his son out of the car to take the train - that’s apparently how much space a wedding cake takes up once boxed; 1 x strapping lad, Thanks James!).  My poor father received a zoned-out e-mail detailing how to dowel and stack a wedding cake with a brief to Mum on the decorating.  The rest, as they say, is history.

I’m not sure what life lessons to take away from that crazy cake tale, all I know is that a good family (and freezer!) will never let you down.  This post goes out to all those who so generously and unquestioningly helped me in my hour of need - and our divine little human with his comedic sense of dramatic timing - I love you all more than you could know. x

Photo Credits:  Jonny Lee & Alicia Pollett

[lady-aga]

Lemon Polenta Loaf Cake with Olive Oil and Rosemary

If you’re after a rich, sticky and zesty cake with plenty of texture and depth, this unusual sweet loaf is the recipe for you.  For those who prefer a little less bite with their cake, feel free to substitute the polenta for plain flour or whichever gluten free flour substitute you’re choosing to use.  This recipe features gluten free homemade oat flour for no other reason than pure experimentation and a distinct lack of enthusiasm to leave the house and re-fuel the plain flour stock - you know those Sundays...

As far as loaf cakes go, this one floats my boat in a major way; I munched two slices in quick succession with ridiculous ease.  I tried it out on my boss - he suspiciously took a single bite and then abandoned it for a spreadsheet. That was until I told him the recipe is based on one given to me by his wife, at which point he wolfed the remainder, declaring it to be nothing short of amazing.  Who says romance is dead?!

A word on my sunken loaf - I did a bit of research and it seems that, purely by virtue of it being yellow, it stands a less good chance of rising (that’s according to Nigella).  This one was baked at 165 degrees C and should perhaps have gone in at 180 C.  I’ve not tried at the latter temperature so keep an eye on your bake and lower the oven or cover with a cold tray if necessary.  Lastly, once the mix is in the tin, your cake needs to go straight into the oven - rather than messing about with photography and camera settings.  Occupational hazard.

For a loaf cake that yields around 10 slices you’ll need:

For the cake:

6 sprigs rosemary, 3 kept completely intact and the leaves picked from the remaining 3

3/4 cup gluten free oats (or plain flour)

3/4 cup polenta

zest 2 lemons

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cups caster sugar

1/2 cup olive oil

4 large eggs

Juice of 1 lemon

For the glaze:

Juice of 2 lemons

180g caster sugar

Grease and line a loaf tin (mine measured 20cm/ 8″ x 13cm/ 5″at its widest point) and pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C.

Tip your oats and picked rosemary sprigs into a grinder or strong blender and blitz until you have a flour-like consistency.  If you’re using plain flour, finely chop the rosemary and mix with the flour.

In a large bowl mix your flavoured flour (oat or plain) with the polenta, lemon zest, baking powder and salt - set these dry ingredients to one side until needed.

In a free standing mixer, beat together your olive oil and sugar.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition.

Pour in the juice of 1 lemon and stir through the dry ingredients.

Mix quickly until just combined and then pour the batter into your loaf tin, arranging the 3 remaining rosemary sprigs over the top of the cake.

Bake until completely cooked - around 45 minutes.

Whilst the cake is baking, make your lemon glaze by heating together the juice of 2 lemons and 180g caster sugar until thick and syrupy and reduced in quantity by around a third.

When your cake is cooked, remove from the oven and set the tin onto a wire rack to cool.

Then pour over the lemon glaze.

Once the cake has cooled, slice and serve.

[lady-aga]

Gluten Free Nutella Brownies

Don’t for a minute think that because these delectable brownies are gluten free they’re remotely healthy.  No no no, that oat flour, those ground cashews, the coconut oil, the tahini - all of those virtuous ingredients are rendered meaningless when you throw in nearly a jar of Nutella and an indecent amount of peanut butter chips.  But no matter, if the absence of refined white flour mean that more people can get involved with these brownies then the world will surely be a better place. 

Another plus is that they freeze beautifully and defrost in minutes - which, coincidentally, will be about as long as you should legitimately be made to wait before devouring a few.

For around 30 brownies, you’ll need:

300g Nutella

75g coconut oil

75g tahini

1 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

75g cocoa powder

125g oat flour (I made mine by grinding 125g gluten free oats in the spice mill of a Bamix until they turned into a fine powder)

75g ground cashews (made via the same method above, ground almonds would also work well)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

300g sugar (I used a mix of Caster and icing as that was all I had in the cupboard but a soft brown sugar would also work wonderfully here)

150g chocolate chips - I used Reese’s peanut butter chips for a quadruple nut hit

Maldon salt, or flaky sea salt, for scattering

Grease and line a small baking tin with baking parchment or tin foil (my tin measured 23.5 x 17.5cm at the base) and pre-heat your oven to 165 degrees C

In a medium saucepan gently heat the Nutella, coconut oil and tahini until melted and stir to combine

Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little before beating in the vanilla and an egg at a time

Add the cocoa, oat flour, ground cashews, salt, baking powder and sugar and beat until everything is well mixed

Stir through your chocolate chips

Pour the batter into your prepared tin, smooth with mixture and scatter over around half a teaspoon of sea salt - extra if you’re after a more saline kick

Bake for around 25 minutes until the top and the edges are pale and set but the middle ever so slightly wobbly (but not liquid- return to the oven for a further 5 or so minutes if you’ve still got a liquid batter on your hands

Remove the tin from the oven and allow to cool completely before refrigerating for several hours, or ideally overnight

Turn the brownies out of their tin and lining and place onto a wooden board.  Then, using a sharp knife dipped in boiling water and wiped with kitchen paper or a damp kitchen cloth, slice into squares.  Wipe the blade between each slice to ensure neat and even division of the brownies

Serve and enjoy

[lady-aga]

Rhubarb and Custard Cake

Another week, another rhubarb recipe - because the season is short and you’ve got to seize that day.  Regardless of whether you’re a die hard rhubarb and custard boiled sweet fan or not, this cake offers a slice of pure taste nostalgia with its creamy egg yellow buttercream, infusions of Bird’s custard powder and sharp rhubarb cutting through the golden sponge’s sugary haze.

Incidentally, if you can’t track down those rosy rhubarb stalks, a spread of good quality raspberry jam between the cake layers will do a similar trick - the resulting cake will have all the visual leanings of a classic Victoria Sponge but with an even more assertively retro taste.

For a 6″ cake to serve 8, you will need:

For the cakes:

225g butter, softened

225g caster or granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

70g custard powder

155g self raising flour

For the rhubarb compote - makes extra to serve alongside the cake (or as an awesome breakfast side dish), if liked:

500g rhubarb, washed trimmed and chopped into 1″ slices

100g sugar

For the custard buttercream:

500g Icing sugar

100g custard powder

180g butter, melted

150g sour cream

pinch salt

Pre-heat your oven to 165 degrees

Grease and line 3 x 6″ tins (alternatively you can prepare as many tins as you have and bake in batches)

In a free standing mixer, or a large bowl with wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease, cream together your butter and sugar until well mixed

Add your eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition

Pour over your vanilla and fold in the custard powder and self raising flour, mix until well combined

Divide the cake batter between your prepared cake tins and bake for 20 minutes

Whilst your cakes are cooking, prepare the rhubarb compote by heating your rhubarb and sugar gently in a large saucepan with splash of water for around 10-15 minutes or until the rhubarb is softened but retaining its form.  Set aside and leave to cool

Returning your attentions to the cakes - when cooked they will be springy to the touch and a skewer inserted will come out clean with no batter adhering

Remove your cakes from the oven, leave to cool for a few minutes before running a table knife around the inside of the tin and turning out the cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely

Whilst your cakes are cooling, make your icing by creaming together the icing sugar, custard powder and melted butter in a free standing mixer or in a large bowl

Once the mix starts to come together, pour in the sour cream, sprinkle over the salt and beat vigorously for a few minutes until lump-free, light and creamy.  Set your icing aside, as the butter cools you’ll be left with a thicker icing

Carefully level your cakes to make sure they are an even thickness - slicing away the top layer will also help the rhubarb permeate flavour-wise and leave a lovely pink stain

Smear a little of your icing onto a cake stand and add your first cake layer with the cut side facing up

Spread over a couple of spoons of the rhubarb compote onto the cake’s cut side and top with a thick layer of the custard buttercream

Liberally brush both sides of your next cake layer with the rhubarb compote, place on top of the first cake layer before topping with more buttercream

Take your final cake, spread another two tablespoons of rhubarb compote onto  the cut side and place this down onto the buttercreamed second cake layer

Apply a crumb coat of buttercream to the entire cake and leave in the fridge to set for at least 20 minutes, or until the icing is firm to the touch

Remove the cake from the fridge and coat with the rest of the icing, smoothing over with a palette knife

Return your cake to the fridge for at least an hour to ensure neat even slices, or if you can’t resist get stuck straight in

Serve with a few spoonfuls of rhubarb compote if liked

[lady-aga]

Spiced Coconut Bircher Muesli with Vanilla Poached Rhubarb

We may be facing the year’s greyest months but there’s always a shiny lining of the edible variety to any season and February’s is gloriously pink in tone. Yorkshire forced rhubarb’s moment has arrived once again to brighten up your plate and, as my father often laments, kill any wine dead in its tracks. Not that you need worry too much about that last point with this recipe.

The beauty of this dish is the speed and ease at which you can throw it together.  Just a bit of chopping, heating and mixing and it’ll happily sit in the fridge as your go-to breakfast for the week, requiring zero fuss or faff first thing in the morning but whilst still packing a punch in both flavour and health stakes.

For around 5 servings you’ll need

1 can coconut milk

1/2 can milk (swill this around the empty can of coconut milk to wash out any lingering coconut cream)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 nutmeg, grated

2 crushed cardamon pods

1/2 vanilla pod, split vertically

5 dates, stoned and chopped

50g raisins or sultanas

150g oats

75g almonds, finely chopped (plus extra for garnishing if liked)

500g rhubarb

100g sugar

1/2 vanilla pod, split vertically

Pour the coconut milk and milk into a large saucepan, add the cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamon pods, vanilla, dates and raisins.

Heat until the coconut cream has melted and the milk is hot but not quite boiling.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool.

When the spiced milk mix has cooled, add the oats and almonds and stir well.

Transfer to a bowl, cover with cling film and allow to infuse and soak overnight - in the morning remove the cardamon and vanilla pods.

Whilst the Bircher Muesli is doing its thing top and tail your rhubarb, discarding the tough ends.

Chop the rhubarb into inch thick slices and transfer from chopping board to a colander.

Rinse the rhubarb well (leaving some of the water clinging to the stems to aid the stewing) and tip into a large saucepan along with the sugar and vanilla.

Heat the rhubarb and bring to a light simmer, then allow to stew for around 10 minutes until poached but still holding its form.

When the rhubarb is cooked, remove from the heat and allow to cool.  Remove the vanilla pod before transferring to a bowl, covering and storing in the fridge.

Serve hot or cold -  spoon your Bircher Muesli into a bowl and top with the vanilla rhubarb, sprinkle over some more chopped almonds if you fancy.

[lady-aga]

Sachertorte

This recipe caught my eye in a recent Telegraph Magazine piece about Fortnum & Mason’s artisan chocolatier techniques.  Sachertorte is a rich and classic Viennese chocolate cake with its heritage in the early Eighteenth Century and a reputation for being complex.  Having made the thing, I’d say these rumours are unfounded; certainly the ingredients list is far from intimidating and the techniques really aren’t too taxing - unless you’re going to hand-whisk your egg whites, which I stupidly did after having wrecked the whisk attachment to my Kitchenaid during Fondant Fancy Gate.

Anyway, arm ache asides, the only other thing that really tested me was the patience required for the glossy chocolate glaze to set to an ideal spreading consistency; I had people coming round for tea (sort of goes with the territory when you’re up the duff and social set ups suddenly don’t revolve around vats of wine. Sigh...) and there just wasn’t the time, so we ended up eating this:

Something of a hot mess, but no less tasty for its thrown-together aesthetic.  Luckily the recipe makes heaps of glaze, so I just scraped up the overflow and remainder, chilled it and re-iced the cake the following day to more elegant effect.

The only thing I did change was to double the amount of apricot ‘icing’ that sandwiches the cakes together and which smoothes the edges.  Other than that, you’re getting the recipe as is.

Makes 1 x 9″ cake, that I imagine would serve at least 12 (the recipe says 8-10 but this cake packs a punch)

For your cake:

240g dark chocolate

240g butter, softened

240g caster sugar

60g cornflour

60g plain flour

5 eggs, separated

4 tbsp apricot jam, mixed with 4 tbsp boiling water

For the chocolate glaze:

320g sugar, caster or granulated

320g water

300g dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees C

Grease and flour a 23cm/ 9″ cake tin

Tip your chocolate into a bowl and set over a pan of just-boiled water. Leave the chocolate to melt, stirring intermittently

Using a Kitchenaid or a large bowl, wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease, cream together the butter and 120g caster sugar until light and fluffy

Fold in the cornflour, flour and egg yolks

In a separate clean bowl (I wiped out my bowl with a piece of vinegar-soaked kitchen paper to eliminate any risk of grease, which can deflate your meringue), whisk your egg whites and the remaining 120g caster sugar until you have a stiff meringue mix

Fold the melted chocolate into your butter, sugar, flour and yolk mixture

Then carefully fold in the meringue into your chocolate mix in three batches, making sure you don’t knock out any of the precious air

Pour the cake mixture into your prepared cake tin

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean

Remove the cooked cake from the oven and allow to cool slightly in its tin before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely

Once the cake is cool, slice in half horizontally and spread a layer of jam on top of one of the slices. Sandwich the two slices together, place on a cake stand and spread the remaining apricot ‘icing’ all over the cake

Place the cake in the fridge to set your apricot icing

Meanwhile, heat the glaze sugar in a heavy bottomed pan with the water and bring to the boil

Heat until you hear a thickish syrup, then break in the chocolate before turning down the heat

Keep stirring to prevent the glaze from burning.  

Once you’ve got a thick glaze (with a consistency between golden and maple syrup), remove from the heat and cool to 30 degrees C before pouring over the cake and spreading with an offset spatula to create a neat, glossy and uniform glaze