Thursday 21 September 2017

Double chocolate cake: for birthdays, or not birthdays

I used to make this cake very regularly growing up and can practically make it with my eyes closed, although I expect that would be even messier than my usual baking exploits.  We had a magimix-style mixer that I used for the sponge and a Kenwood Chef (like the ones on GBBO but older than me) for the buttercream, shrouded with a tea towel to try and contain the clouds of icing sugar. 

I could tell you that I made two cakes so I could test the effect of adding baking powder - this wasn't in my original recipe but I had read many "perfect" sponge articles lauding the fluffiness of sponges with a teaspoon of extra help so I wanted to give it a try. But the real reason I made two is that I was having a birthday party, so I made one to share and one to eat all by myself 🐷


As luck would have it, a genius of witchcraft and wizardry made a rainbow cake for the party, so now I have BOTH cakes all to myself. Well, I did until I ate one.

I still enjoy licking the bowl (at each stage) as much as the finished product, which is why I use the step-by-step approach rather than the popular all-in-one method for the sponge. It's very easy - literally child's play...

Ingredients 

For the sponges:

170g unsalted butter
170g caster sugar
3 medium eggs (should weigh around 170g in their shells)
170g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 tabsp cocoa powder

For the buttercream icing:

500g icing sugar
4 tabsp Cocoa powder
250g unsalted butter


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C, and grease and line two sandwich cake tins with baking paper.

2. Cream together the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy, using a stand mixer or electric beaters if you have them


3. Beat in the eggs


4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and fold in gently using a metal spoon


5. Distribute the mixture evenly between the two cake tins and level the top with a palette knife


6. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the sponge is springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins and leave to cool on a wire rack


7. Make the buttercream by sifting the icing sugar and cocoa powder over the butter and mixing well. It will make a cloud of icing sugar, and take a while to come together. If the cream is too stiff, try adding a little bit of warm milk until the mixture is spreadable but not sloppy


8. Scoop half the buttercream onto one cooled cake and spread out evenly. Repeat with the other half of the icing and the second cake. Put one cake on top of the other. Decorate at will.


I like my double chocolate cake in the style of 80s restaurant favourite, hot chocolate fudge cake. Microwave a slice for 30 seconds and serve with a big dollop of Greek yoghurt. Cake heaven!






Saturday 9 September 2017

Blackberry and apple crumble: more cosy comfort food

Legend has it that on my first birthday I demanded blackberries and sausages for breakfast; tired of arguing with me about my food choices (I might have been a bit of a fussy eater - I know, you'd never believe it now) my parents gave in and that's what I had. Almost (exactly) 39 years on, I still think this is a perfectly valid breakfast option; in fact I believe it's an early version of the now trendy "paleo" diet. Anyway, the point is I love blackberries, and their appearance all over the place, from countryside hedgerows to IKEA car parks, means it's nearly my birthday - yay me.

People often refer to berry picking as a fun childhood activity. I'm not so sure. Our Granny used to take us to Brimham Rocks to pick bilberries, and we'd kneel in the thorny brush for hours, filling ice cream tub after ice cream tub with tiny little purple berries. We certainly had a sense of achievement, and a happy Grandma, but I'm not sure it was "fun". Try it now as an adult and it's entertaining for about half an hour. So if you can find one, take a small child and tell them it's fun - it should keep them quiet for a while anyway.

I was lamenting the fact that it's a bit tricky to find brambles in the city, and it seems an outrage to pay for plastic packaged ones in the supermarket, when we were walking a section of the capital ring a couple weeks ago. As we huffed and puffed up a small hill with a pond at the top, I realised we were surrounded by brambles loaded with ripe blackberries. Unlike popular walking spots like Hamspead Heath, this trail was quiet and the bushes barely touched by London foragers. If only I'd brought a container with me! But no, we had to walk past mile after mile (I may be exaggerating a tiny bit) of brambles, taunting me with their giant juicy fruit.


Back in the Barbican, I hunted around for any hidden wilderness, community orchards or neglected car parks, but any potential bushes had been stripped bare before I got there. I did, however, stumble upon the Barbcian residents' allotments, located around the back of Shakespeare tower. Chatting to one of the allotmenteers for this month's BarbicanLife magazine, I discovered the range of unusual fruit and veg being cultivated right here in the concrete, despite the dry and windswept conditions (and occasional thief). I even picked up a few tips for our balcony gardening exploits, such as sheltering more delicate plants with larger more sturdy ones to protect them from the wind. 


So if you're lucky enough to have countryside and child labour to hand, this crumble is a delicious way to enjoy your foraged fruit. If not, local farmers markets are the best place to pick up reasonably priced fresh seasonal fruit. Either way, the chill of autumn in the air calls for hot, comforting puddings, and this fits the bill perfectly.

Ingredients
(Serves 4)

For the crumble
75g cold unsalted butter, cubed
100g plain flour
25g ground almonds
50g sugar
2 tbsp finely chopped nuts (optional)

For the filling
1 cooking Apple
400g blackberries
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon 



Method

1. To make the crumble, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the ground almonds and sugar. Sprinkle with a little cold water, mix briefly and chill.


2. Peel and core the apple and cut into chunks. Add to a pan with a tablespoon of water and another of sugar, and soften over a low heat for 5 minutes.

3. Add the apple, blackberries, cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar to a pie dish. Top with the crumble mixture and sprinkle over the chopped nuts, if using.


4. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes until the top is golden


Serve with hot custard and eat on the sofa in front of the latest BBC drama. 

Wednesday 6 September 2017

Baked rice pudding: cosy comfort food

Well that happened rather suddenly, didn't it?! One minute we're enjoying cheesecake and summer berries in the sunshine and the next minute IT'S AUTUMN and you have to leave the house prepared for all possible weather situations... so not much different from summer then.

The nights drawing in had me craving for some comfort food, specifically in the form of hot puddings. First on the list - and yes, there's more to come on this theme - a traditional baked rice pudding. Maybe it's the "back to school" vibe having an influence as this made a regular appearance on the school dinner repertoire. I've never made rice pudding before, partly because I'm quite fond of the Ambrosia tinned version and partly because the Bearded Argenitnian doesn't like it - something we're unable to test now as I ate the entire bowl "for research purposes" before he got home.


Once again I was surprised by the variety of recipes for what I had though was a simple and straightforward pudding. Recipes from the Dairy has a rich version daring from 1817, containing dried fruit and peel, brandy and eggs; Woman's Own Cookbook (1964) has got it completely wrong with a cold, gelatinised concoction; and Delia's Evening Standard cookbook from 1974 doesn't have a recipe for it at all! Thankfully, the Poor Cook and the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book concur with the back of the rice packet instructions and I don't see the point of meddling with perfection. Heating the milk before mixing with the rice doesn't make much difference except adding to the washing up, and other ingredients such as eggs, cream and butter make an already stodgy pudding even richer. 



Ingredients
(Serves 2 greedy people)

50g short grain rice
2 tbsp sugar
600ml whole milk
Nutmeg
Butter for greasing

Single cream and jam for serving



Method

1. Grease a pie dish with the butter, then add the rice, sugar and milk. Mix well and grate over the nutmeg.


2. Bake in the oven at 150C for 1.5 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. If it's still runny, bake for another 20-30 minutes until firm but not solid, and it has a golden skin.


Serve with a splash of cream and a dollop of strawberry jam - perfect for a chilly autumn evening, and a million miles away from school dinners.