Christmassy foodie things - the return of cake sunday

One of the foodie bits I made over chrimble were some filo pastry mince pies. Frankly these are so easy I feel a bit of a fraud giving a 'recipe' so here's a synopsis with pics of the process.

Filo was my choice as t'chap hates pastry having a pathological hatred of fat and has too many times over the years had soggy bottomed pasties putting him right off, I think. I also hate thick pastry - all too often found on bought mince pies, which is a shame as a mince pie is one of the sweet things I like at this time of year. We only had a couple though - the rest came to the pub with us in a much belated return of 'Cake Sunday'.

1 Jar mincemeat - mine was homemade from a friend and boozy and gorgeous it was too!
Filo pastry - note that it needs to be removed from the fridge 20 mins before use - I only realised this on reading the box immediately prior to wanting to use it so it had 5 mins on the radiator instead. ;-)

A little melted butter

Preheat oven to Gas 4.

Unroll filo and carefully seperate 2 sheets. The size of sheet can vary vastly - I was using 'Jus-Rol' chilled and the sheets are way smaller than their frozen version. [In fact about half size, near enough.] Anyway - cut into sections - 4 for this size sheet. Lay them at angles to each other - see pic. Place in case / cake or muffin tin hole - push down carefully. I reuse foil cases as well as using my silicone cases - one of the few useful things I've found to do with them frankly as they stick like gits with cakes. [The silicone ones, not the foil.]

Fill generously [though I may have been a little too generous as I only got 11 from the whole jar of mincemeat!] Brush a little melted butter on the edges of the pastry and draw closed, scrunching together.

Bake 10-15 mins until pastry edges are golden.
Cool on a wire rack - be aware that if you have accidentally torn the pastry the filling will ooze out at this point until it cools enough to 'glue' itself shut.

Take to pub and share with friends and feel all warm and festive and fuzzy. :-D

Use last cut bits of filo for a savoury mushroom, pesto and blue cheese mix as a treat for Chap for leaving me be in the kitchen even though we were running about an hour and a half late at that point!

...and something I didn't do...

...namely Cake Sunday. There's a good reason though. Well - in actual fact me being a forgetful muppet is perhaps not exactly a 'good' reason, but it's the only one I have.

You see it being Easter and all I thought - ooh - I'll try Simnel cake. I am a lover of marzipan; many years ago it was not unknown for me to buy a block to eat 'neat' as it were. I looked at various recipes and thought that apart from the lovely marzipan it pretty much sounded like a fairly dull light fruit cake with a smidgen of ground almonds added. 'Pah - we can do better than that' thought I. Having received this years bumpf for the allotment including the info on the show I now had a new recipe - cherry and almond cake. [For the show you have to make their choice of cake to their recipe!?!] My grand plan was therefore to make a cherry and almond simnel cake - marvellous I hear you all cry. Scribbled the list, nipped to the shops (4.50pm on Saturday evening) purchased said ingredients and went on my merry way. It was only over a bevvy or 2 later that I suddenly realised - had I bought marzipan??! Had I buggery - hadn't written it on the sodding list. Doh!! And which day of the year is every shop shut - Easter Sunday of course!!

Ah - weellll - everyone will surely be full of chocolate on Easter won't they? They don't need cake do they? Cake Bank Holiday Monday has a nice ring to it doesn't it? Yes, yes and yes??

And what is it that the shops have run out of on the bank holiday Monday immediately after Easter Sunday? You guessed it... thwarted by a lack of marzipan. *Sigh...*

Cake Sunday #3

I was saved from having to think too hard for this weeks choice of calorific installment by an opportune post on Friday on a rather good forum I frequent. This then is Pam's Spiced Bread Pudding how I made it.
8oz seeded wholemeal bread, torn into small pieces
0.5 pint milk
6oz dried mixed fruit
1oz dried cranberries
1oz candied peel
4oz soft brown sugar
2oz butter
1 heaped tbsp ground mixed spice
1 egg
4 tbsp milk
Ground nutmeg + demerara sugar for the top

I followed Pam's instructions just changed the composition of the fruit content as I had dried cranberries in the house (to make some fudge for a friend I'm visiting later this week) and I like the zingy taste they give. Candied peel is a personal favourite of mine hence that was added. Mine took nearer an hour at gas 4 - 4.5. [I think my oven is particularly rubbish at lower temps like gas 4. Many cake recipes seem to use this temp and my efforts always take way longer, yet at higher temps it behaves perfectly, so from now on it's 4.5 - 5 for me.]

Preheat oven. Gas 4 is 180 c if your oven behaves at this temp.

Soak bread in half pint milk until softened, mine took about 20 mins with frequent stirring round.
Whilst this is sitting measure out the fruit, peel, sugar and mixed spice - I kept them all in the same weighing jug.
Melt the butter, meanwhile lightly whisk the egg and 4 tbsp milk together. Add melted butter and mix together. [Ensure your butter isn't spittingly hot otherwise I guess it could start cooking the egg - eggy lumps in the pud we do not want!]
Stir dry ingredients into the bread mix. Then add the liquid and stir all well together.
Grease a dish well and pour mix in, smoothing the top. Sprinkle with nutmeg and bake. Once set on top sprinkle sugar over then return to oven. Total cooking time 45 mins + dependant on your oven's performance.
I didn't have vanilla sugar as Pam uses in the original recipe so used brown demerara sugar.

This was really tasty and smelled glorious whilst cooking. I'm thinking that you could make whatever combination of fruit and spices you fancy - dried apple and cinnamon or a caribbean type one with dried papaya and pineapple perhaps? Or how about the addition of alcohol for a little extra kick? I'm a sucker for Baileys and this could be a winter comfort winner, maybe with chocolate chips? Ooh! I think this is definitely one to come back to and experiment. Only when I can feed most of it to someone else though or I'll be the size of a house! :-D

Cake Sunday #2

Decided to make a variation of jam infused cake inspired by Nigel Slaters Marmalade cake recipe. I wanted to use some of the bramble jelly recently given to me by my ma.



Jam buns

6oz / 175g s.r.flour
6oz / 175g butter
6oz / 175g sugar
3 lg eggs
4oz / 100g / 4 tbsp jam

Preheat oven Gas 4 / 180 c.
Soften butter - I did mine in the microwave. Beat well with the sugar. Beat eggs and add bit by bit, beating each time. Soften jam - again in the microwave and beat in. Flour - sift a bit in then fold in, sift the next bit in until all incorporated.
Bake 40mins. Makes 18-20 buns.

Next time - more jam and less sugar I reckon. These came out nice and moist but didn't taste hugely jammy to my mind and my mothers jam is very definitely high fruit content!

Think I may try a marmalade version - could help cut through the sweetness if I used a lime marmalade perhaps?

Cake Sunday

I went for buns rather than a cake, primarily because I realised late on Sunday afternoon I was bereft of bloody grease proof paper for tin lining so had no choice.
My rather idiosyncratic recipe I evolved is as follows:

4 oz self raising flour
*2 oz wholemeal bread flour
*2 oz plain flour
0.5 tsp bicarb soda
6oz butter - salted
6 oz sugar
Spoon honey
1 cooking apple - large
Approx 2ish oz vodka soaked hazelnuts
0.5 tbsp cinnamon
0.25 tbsp mixed spice
2 eggs

*The flour mix was supposed to be 4oz s.r. and 4oz wholemeal but I realised half way through adding the wholmeal it was actually bread flour and being unsure what affect this could have on the finished product I switched the last 2oz to plain flour as I'd already added the soda for the wholemeal flour.

Preheat oven - I used half way between gas 4 and 5.

Melt butter in microwave and stir thoroughly into sugar. Add honey and stir well again. [I used runny honey - prob easier on the mixing.] Add beaten eggs, stir in. Sift in flour, bicarb and spices, stirring well after each sieve load. Add apple; chopped into small pieces for buns, and nuts and mix well. Bake at gas 4.5 for 45-50 mins until done.

Not bad if I say so myself. Think next time I'll try them with some carrot in as well, being a fan of carrot cake.

Choices, choices...

Despite currently being ensconced in the office on a beautiful sunny afternoon (*sobs*) my mind is somewhat adrift still over the choice of baked good I should present my esteemed friends with this afternoon at the pub for our inaugural 'Cake Sunday.' I think I have just about decided on a cross between a spiced apple and walnut cake recipe given me by a colleague and a very old Dorset apple cake recipe which was the first thing foodwise I ever made at school. Primary school in this case. The Dorset recipe has the advantage of being the quicker of the 2 and with the addition of a few of the bits / ideas from the other recipe will be lifted from the simple to the seriously munchable. I hope. I mean when can vodka soaked hazelnuts ever be a bad idea? I will let you know but for now must once more lower nose to grindstone in order that I may leave, very soon, very soon indeed.