Ginger, Oat & Sultana Cookies

This cookie recipe comes from the wonderful Popina Book of Baking. I have made them before and found they worked particularly well as a form of bribery when babysitting a 3 year old for a day.  It's amazing how you can get them to behave with the lure of a homemade biscuit.  I'm not sure that it would be one of Super Nanny's chosen methods but there you go!


They are a chewy cookie and the ginger sultana combo is delicious. I like to think the oats make them marginally more healthy too....


The recipe can be found in The Popina Book of Baking.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Roulade

This month's We Should Cocoa Challenge was set by Chele of the brilliant Chocolate Teapot blog. Chele challenged us to create a Swiss roll or a roulade, of course containing the obligatory chocolate element. I have previously made one roulade before which was a lemon sponge version and was basically pretty awful. Let's just say if I had dropped it on my foot it would have resulted in a trip to A&E. For this reason I was a bit dubious how this challenge would work out. I also decided to put a little extra pressure on myself by making it for pudding for friends who were coming round for lunch yesterday. Having completely slept in I didn't have much time to get this ready let alone the rest of the lunch!


I found the recipe for this White Chocolate roulade which is meringue based on a magazine website. So I got out my newly bought Swiss roll tin and got going. Yes the roulade cracked when I rolled it but according to Delia that's fine and let's face it what Delia says goes. I love this recipe and was also pleased as it was my first meringue attempt too. I made a raspberry coulis which I drizzled over the roulade when I served it. In hindsight I should have taken the photo after the addition of the coulis as my poor roulade does look a bit anaemic in this picture.  I had actually planned to take a photo of a leftover slice but it all went. I blame the 3 year old who came back for seconds!


The Recipe


4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
5ml each cornflour and lemon juice
100g white chocolate, broken into pieces (I used Lindt)
200ml double cream
5ml vanilla extract
1 punnet raspberries


Preheat oven to 160°C (140°C fan) mark 3. Line a 33cm x 23cm (13in x 9in) shallow baking tin with parchment paper.
Put the egg whites into a large bowl and whisk until stiff but not dry. Gradually add the caster sugar, whisking all the time, until the mixture is thick and glossy. Beat in the cornflour and lemon juice until well combined.
Spoon the meringue into the prepared tin and spread out evenly. Bake for 25min until a light golden crust forms. Leave to cool in tin for 5min. Lightly dust with icing sugar a rectangle of greaseproof paper a bit larger than the baking tin, then invert the meringue on to the paper. Remove tin, leaving paper on the meringue, and leave to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, then remove from heat and leave to cool. Make the coulis by blending the raspberries and icing sugar until smooth. Sieve into a jug. In a medium bowl, whip the cream and vanilla until the cream just holds its shape, then fold in the cooled white chocolate.
Peel paper from the meringue, then evenly spread over the cream mixture. Sprinkle over hazelnuts and raspberries. Using the paper underneath it to help you, roll up the meringue from the short edge. Don't worry if cracks appear - they'll add to the log effect.
Transfer to a serving plate, drizzle over coulis, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Mini Chocolate Bundt Cakes

I have been in NYC for work this week and while it was mainly all work I did manage a little trip to the New York Cakes &  Baking Supply on W22nd Street. This shop is amazing! It has every kind of anything you need for baking - I just wish I had had a bigger case with me. I think the man on the photo may have been the owner - he was somewhat curious as to why I was taking photos of the shop - you can kind of get that from the photo.  He asked me what I was doing with that particular NY friendly charm. Anyway, when I explained that basically I thought his shop was brilliant and that I had bought some things he seemed a bit happier but still somewhat bemused.  Being limited on time and suitcase space I picked up a few things which included some very cute Crayola type candles which will look great on cupcakes, some pretty cupcake wrappers and a mini bundt cake silicone tray.   


I arrived back on red eye this morning and have been fighting instant sleep mode all day. So, to keep myself awake I thought I'd put the bundt tray purchase to good use and get baking.  I have slightly adapted a recipe I found on the lovely Alpineberry blog.  Mary from the blog uses melted chocolate in hers but I reduced the amount of flour and substituted with cocoa powder which has resulted in a really nice not too sweet cake.  Apologies for the cup measurements but too tired to convert and my friend has bought me some fab cup measurers (more on those later). Right, is 7pm to early to go to bed?!


The Recipe
1 cup plain flour & cocoa powder (I did about 70/30)
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
4 oz unsalted butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk


1. Preheat the oven to 180c.  Butter a 6 mould mini bundt pan.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. In a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together until smooth.  Add the egg and beat for a minute, then beat in the vanilla extract.
4. Add half the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.  Add the milk and mix until blended.  Then add the remaining flour mixture and again mix until just incorporated.  
5. Divide the mixture evenly among the moulds. Bake for around 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.  Remove from silicone moulds when hot then leave to cool on a wire rack.

Mjuk toscakaka or Amazing Swedish Cake

For this month's Random Recipe Challenge Dom at Belleau Kitchen told us to dig deep into baking books/sections and pick a baking recipe. This obviously suited me perfectly! After gathering a tottering pile of books I picked at hazard The Art of the Tart which is a sweet little book by Tamasin Day-Lewis. I've made a couple of the savoury tarts from this book but the opening at page 80 was for this Swedish tart recipe. This is I think my absolute new favourite recipe which would be as apt for a dinner dessert as it would be with a mid afternoon cup of tea. This tart shaped cake is moist yet light with the most delicious crunchy, fudgey flaked almond topping.


The Recipe


150g butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
5 tbsp water


Topping
30g flaked almonds
60g butter
5 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp milk


1. Preheat oven to 180 c and butter a 22cm tart tin.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the eggs one by one, then add the vanilla extract. Sift in the flour and baking powder, beat thoroughly, then add the water and continue beating until smooth. Put the mixture into the tart tin, smooth the top and bake for about 30 mins. Remove from the oven and then turn the temperature up to 200 c.
3. For the topping, put all the ingredients together into a saucepan and heat until the mixture bubbles. Spoon the mixture over the tart and return to oven to brown for 5 mins.

Stem Ginger Cake

A friend recently gave me Tom Aikens Cooking after a rather lovely lunch at his restaurant, Tom's Kitchen, on Cale Street. The book has a small but great baking section at the back. I've had some stem ginger lingering at the top of the cupboards crying out to the be used so went for this recipe. It was also the perfect chance to try out my new oh so cute mini loaf tins. This cake is so light and delicious I will make it again and again. I served it straight warm, straight from the oven, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream as a pudding during a visit from the in laws.

The Recipe

230g self-raising flour

1 tspn bicarbonate of soda

1 tbspn powdered ginger

1 tspn powdered cinnamon

1 tspn powdered allspice

110g unsalted butter, diced

110g black treacle

110g golden syrup

110g dark brown sugar

280ml milk

45g stem ginger, chopped

1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas 4. Grease and line a loaf tin (or use mini loaf tins as I did).

2. Sift the flour, bicarb and spices into a bowl. Add the butter and rub together until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Melt the treacle and syrup in a small pan and leave to cool to room temp. In another pan melt the sugar in the milk, then add the stem ginger. Mix this into the flour, followed by the treacle an egg.

4. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45 minutes.