I am off to visit the wonderful Lady K today for some belated birthday revelry and of course I didn't feel I could arrive cake-less. For my birthday last year my parents gave me a card which had the words "birthdays are nature's way of telling you to eat more cake" on the front. I couldn't have put it better myself. Birthdays should always have cake.
I didn't feel like making a layered chocolate cake this year (and if I've remembered correctly I made K chocolate cupcakes last year) so I decided to go a bit off piste and do something completely different. Plus I need to be able to transport it easily on a bus for a few hours and a towering chocolate frosted masterpiece just spells disaster. So whilst curled up in front of the cricket on Thursday I pulled all my cookbooks one by one off the shelf looking for the perfect cake to make. Strangly, nothing struck me as being quite right. Then I happened to glance up at the television and catch the apple-filled fruit bowl in the corner of my eye and remembered this recipe.
I had apples, and it looked like I'd be able to get it safely on a bus, and having been given free-range by K to make whatever I thought would be a good I decided to go for it. I'm so glad I did, the smell of the apples coated in rum and spices filled the flat with the most tempting aroma.
I adapted the recipe slightly - no alcohol, now come on, if there's one thing that birthdays have to have as well as cake it's alcohol, and if you can combine the two all the better - and didn't have a tube pan so used a springform pan instead. Oh, and I changed the sugar and spices. I also made a sneaky test cake for us to have as dessert last night. Seriously, you have to test things that are presents for other people to make sure they're okay! The result? A nice dense cake lightly flavoured with vanilla and rum, topped with slightly caramalised spiced apples. The large version also has apples inside which I think will only make it more delicious. I think it would be very nice served warm (or cold) with a rum-raisin or vanilla bean ice cream. Ah, for the want of a KitchenAid ice-cream making bowl!
Here's the recipe as I made it. It makes a dense, not too tall, 23cm cake, probably quite a few servings, but for a birthday gathering it'll be just right.
Spiked spiced apple cake
6 apples,
1/2 tablespoon mixed spice
1/2 tablespoon nugmeg
dash ground ginger
5 scant tablespoons brown sugar
Rum (probably between one and two shots (25-50ml)
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup blood orange juice (I also added a dash of lemon, of course I did!)
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
50ml rum
Preheat oven to 180C. Line and grease a springform pan (mine is about 23cm). Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with spices and sugar and pour over the rum. set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. Then add the rum and stir until combined.
Pour half of batter into the pan. Spread half of apples over it (make sure you include some of the spiced rummy juices too). Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top (again adding the final juices from the bowl). Bake for about 1 then cover with foil to stop the apples burning, the apples should be slightly browned by this point, then bake for aprox 45-50 more mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool before turning out.
I hope you have a good weekend, I'm off to deliver cake and throw some shapes on the dance floor...(there were rumours of dancing, but I think I might just be seated in the pub, my shape throwing really isn't up to much)
So, Lent starts today. This is the time when people give something up for forty days. Now, N and I aren't religious, but it's always good to indulge in the holiday spirit (and pancakes), so last night we made pancakes and decided what we might give up for Lent.
I've decided I'm going to give up my attempts to be healthy* and just accept that I like baking, and the results taste good.
N has decided to give up giving things up.
Sniff has decided to give up any attempts to keep his eyes open for more than an hour at a time and has dutifully curled up on the sofa for a nap. He's a trouper that cat, he really is.
So far we're all doing pretty well.
While we might be a household that (sort of) believes in moderation, in fact as N says, ""everything in moderation, including moderation." we're just not that good at will power. Oops.
* I'd like to point out that I actually think we do eat pretty healthily, loads of fruit and veg and fibre. But I do like a bit of cake and in moderation I think that things that make you happy are good.
The wonderful goodness of the recent Meyer lemon experiments got me thinking about how I don't actually bake enough purely with lemon. I adore lemons and yet searching through the recipes I've made and posted I think there are only a couple that actually use lemon as the main flavour, and that's just not right.
So when I found us without bread for breakfast on Sunday morning I couldn't resist making something with lemon again. I hunted out the amazing scone recipe that has been handed down from my grandmother, to my mother and now to me, and decided that the light texture and wonderfully quick and easy recipe would match perfectly with my desire for lemon and growling impatient stomach.
This time I used a normal lemon, but I think the sharpness was just what I needed as I find things that are too sweet a bit much in the morning. I made a half match which wielded four triangular scones (rolling and using round cutters was just too much), perfect with coffee for Sunday breakfast. We were having brunch as it happened so these scones were added to other things, and so got a dash of maple syrup across them. Oh yes, do that, it's lovely.
These are some seriously delicious scones, so be warned you might scoff them all in one sitting without noticing. I'm so glad I only made four. Oh, and they really don't keep well so you just have to eat whatever you've made in one day. I wish I could lie and say that's a shame, but it really isn't!
Lemon Scones - makes four (but can easily be doubled or tripled for more)
4 oz self-raising flour
3/4 oz caster sugar
1 oz butter
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
zest of two small lemons, or to taste (I like mine pretty lemony)
Preheat the oven to 230C and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone
Mix all the ingredients together, rubbing the butter into the flour so it becomes like crumbs. Add enough milk to make a dough. Roll out into a rectangle (don't roll too thin as they won't rise much) then cut across the diagonals to make four triangular scones.
Place the scones on the baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes (until they are just golden). Serve slightly warm with a tiny drizzle of maple syrup, or opened with lashing of butter and lemon jelly.
See, I told you it was easy!
p.s. I'm a little slow on the uptake, and have only just discovered this wonderful little bit of software that makes your pictures like old school polaroids. I'm totally in love with it and thought this recipe perfectly suited such a quaint picture.
I don't think it was a Meyer lemon that Nicole sent, but sunshine. Nicole has commented in emails that when her Meyer lemons arrive from her Lemon Ladies it is like a box of sunshine has arrived on her doorstep. I think this is exactly what the Meyer lemon brings, and in the case of this little doorstep it seemed to happen quite literally, upon the arrival of Nicole's package the sun has begun to shine and there has been a definite hint of spring in the air. Hurrah!
Armed with sunshine, a lemon burning a hole in my mixing bowl, and N working from home, I decided on Thursday that it was time to tackle the difficult question of what to make with my yellow bounty.
Having eagerly read all the lemon posts on Nicole's blog I decided that if I could get as much zest and juice as possible from the lemon I could probably make two things. Lemon bars and lemon butter cookies. So I set about very, very carefully zesting my lemon.
I don't think a lemon has ever been so carefully and methodically zested in history. I was determine to get every single last bit of usable zest, and I think I managed it. I was so impressed at how much I managed to get, that I will be more precise in all my lemon zesting in future!
Once I'd done that I rolled the slightly warm lemon (from being in my hands) along a chopping board a few times and then cut it open to juice it. The warming and rolling trick is one from my Mum, she uses it when making lemon curd (yet another thing on my "to make" list this year) and she says that if they are slightly warmed in a microwave or in your hands and/or rolled on a counter top they give more juice. Once again I very carefully got every possible drop out of the lemon, and it turned out to be just enough for the lemon bars. Perfect.
I stupidly didn't save the seeds to plant my very own tree, but given my history of killing off perfectly good fruit trees (my lemon from last year didn't make it through the winter) that's probably for the best.
Having gotten as much as possible from the lemon it was time to get on with the baking action. I did indeed have enough to make both the bars and the cookies! I was so pleased. I adapted the recipes ever so slightly, taking the sugar in both cases, mixing it with the lemon zest and whooshing with my hand blender. This little trick is supposed to get as much oil from the zest as possible (and the oil is where the flavour is) and impart it into the sugar for a stronger flavour. It's not something I've tried before, but wanted to get the most from my Meyer lemon I figured now was the time to try. I have to say both recipes were very Meyer lemony so it probably worked.
I think my bars were a little shallow, probably because I didn't have an 8" square tin and so had to improvise. I also think I might have either over-mixed the topping, or cooked it too long, because it had a slightly white, crusty, almost merengue top. I have to say that I rather liked this about them, as it was very slightly like eating a Meyer lemon version of my Mum's lemon merengue pie (which is delicious in case you were wondering).
The cookies I made in two half batches, one vegan and one non-vegan. I have tucked the dough for the non-vegan away in the freezer so we can draw out our experience of the Meyer lemon for as long as possible (ie until my Mum gets here in a few weeks) and I baked up the vegan version for immediate indulgence. Due to the vegan margarine they were a lot softer than expected, even with a bit more flour added. Even after chilling the dough didn't really firm up enough to slice cleanly, and would probably have benefitted from being rolled and cut with cookie cutters. They also didn't have the short-bready quality that the ones Nicole sent me at Christmas did, again I think because of 
the marg. They were slightly soft in the middle even after baking and cooling. I still really enjoyed them though, and the flavour was lovely. I'd definitely make them again with ordinary lemons (or Meyer of course if I can source them here) and can't wait to try the all butter ones.
I'm not going to post the recipes because they're there on Nicole's blog and you should head over there an see all the other lovely things she's made with Meyer lemons too.
I will however have another lemon recipe of my own appearing soon which I think would be equally good with Meyer lemons, and that I plan to serve with Nicole's Meyer lemon jelly to celebrate my Mum's visit (can you tell I'm a bit excited about some mother-daughter time?!)
This afternoon, London (well, my bit at least) was treated to a little taster of what spring was like. Proper sunshine, not weak winter sun, streamed into the garden and for the first time in ages I was able to open the doors and windows for the pleasure of soft breezes rather than just an obligatory airing with freezing gales.
Sniff not only tentatively venture outside today (after days guarding the sofa and the cricket), but even managed to catch some rays.
I like winter, it's comforting stodgy meals, cuddling up on the sofa under blankets and enjoying hot chocolate (especially vegan hot chocolate from Alaska!), but I'm definitely ready for Spring to begin being sprung.
Here's the recipe as I made it. It makes a dense, not too tall, 23cm cake, probably quite a few servings, but for a birthday gathering it'll be just right.
