Rhubarb Spice Cake

Having never used Rhubarb in baking this is a first for me; I remembered seeing this cake on Antonia’s Food Glorious Food Blog (a great blog and worth visiting) and also more recently in my latest edition of BBC Good Food magazine. For me it jumped out as the ideal choice for my first rhubarb based bake. The ginger sponge is a light version of the old-fashioned gingerbread. The edition of rhubarb brings a wonderful moistness to the cake. This cake can be served with tea or even better, our plan for this evening, is to serve with a big dollop of custard. Rhubarb and custard with the spice of ginger, mmmm.

Banana Crumble Cake

This morning I decided to bake this luscious Banana Crumble Cake. The recipe is from my new book The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook, which is packed full of great recipes. If you care about food and where it comes from and want to support fairtrade farmers and workers, this is the cookbook for you. I had some fairtrade bananas going ripe in the fruit bowl and this cake seemed like the perfect excuse to use up those bananas. It isn’t a big fancy cake but a lovely simple everyday cake, which can be served with your favourite cup of coffee/tea or in bowl of hot custard (my son has requested the latter option for his dessert tonight).

Banana Crumble Cake

Ingredients
Topping:
55g Fairtrade golden granulated sugar
30g plain flour
½ tsp Fairtrade ground cinnamon
30g salted butter

Cake:
45g salted butter, softened
75g Fairtrade golden granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp Fairtrade vanilla extract
75ml semi-skimmed milk
110g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 medium (or 2 large) Fairtrade bananas, sliced

Method
Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas Mark 5. Lightly grease a 20cm (8in) square or round baking tin.
Make the topping first. Mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a bowl, then rub in the butter, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (I use a food processor)

For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar in another bowl.

Mix in the egg, vanilla and milk.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Then add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared tin.

Place the banana slices evenly over the batter, then finish with the crumb topping. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife placed in the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Chicken Casserole and Malteser Traybake

Today I have cooked a Chicken Casserole for our Sunday meal. My hubby has been requesting this for some time, so being a good wifey his wish was granted and voila Chicken Casserole for dinner. This is another easy to create dish and perfect for a lazy rainy Sunday like today. I will be serving this with creamy mash potato.

Chicken Casserole
SERVES 8-10
PREPARATION 25 MINS
COOKING 1 HR 30 MINS

4tbsp olive oil
4 leeks, cut into 1cm (½in) thick slices
6 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced
500g (1lb) baby or Chantenay carrots, scrubbed
8 large chicken thighs
4 chicken breasts, halved
3 fresh bay leaves
4 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
1 litre (32fl oz) chicken stock
Fresh thyme (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4). Heat the olive oil over a medium heat in a large frying pan or a large flameproof casserole dish or saucepan. Sauté the leeks, bacon, and celery for 5-6 minutes, or until they have softened (without browning too much). Add the carrots, chicken pieces, bay leaves, garlic cloves and stock. If you do have some fresh thyme, add a few sprigs of it to the mixture.
2. Bring to the boil, cover with a tight-fitting lid and transfer to the oven. Cook for 1 hour. Remove the lid and cook for a further 30 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely coloured.
3. Set the casserole aside to cool and then divide it into individual portions. Freeze in airtight containers and keep for up to 3 months. Defrost the casserole before reheating in a covered saucepan over a gentle heat.

Malteser Traybake

I present to you this weekend's second installment of traybake but today I have used Maltesers. I have lost count of the times I have made this traybake using Maltesers and it is by far the best no bake treat I've ever made. My son and hubby are addicted to this, infact anyone I know that's tried this has become addicted within seconds of the first bite! I tend to make it every once in a while as a treat (this stuff should come with a health warning, yes its seriously good), I don't want to add to the number of obese cases already hitting the nation, so a little of something naughty every once in a while does us all good. After all what would life be without a little traybake now and then!

Mint Aero Traybake

If you have experienced the Malteser Traybake Phenomena then you will know how highly addictive but absolutely delicious it is. But have you experienced Mint Aero Traybake? I can only describe this as good if not better than those Mint Viscounts! I was very disappointed to discover this week that our Mint Aero Bubbles are no longer green inside but all brown now!! The whole point of mint aero was the gorgeous green colour. I can only imagine that this is all part of the E-Number removal from sweets and chocolates, soon we will have to sign a disclaimer before trying anything, nuff said!

Mint Aero Traybake

Ingredients

100g butter

200g milk chocolate

3 tablespoons Golden Syrup

225g finely crushed digestive biscuits

225g Mint Aero Bubbles or Maltesers

Melt together the butter, chocolate and syrup then add the crushed biscuits and the mint aero bubbles or maltesers. Mix together quickly then pour into a lined swiss roll tin, level with a spoon and chill till set. For a special occasion drizzle with some melted white chocolate. Once chilled, cut into squares.

Pork Chops in Wine with Potatoes, Onions and Apples

This wonderful recipe is another gem from the book, Cook Simple by Diana Henry. In the book the recipe is called Smothered Pork Chops with Mustard and Thyme Butter but I omitted the mustard thyme butter, as this is not essential, but next time I will try it. I love the simplicity of this oven baked dish, the only stove top cooking you do is the browning of the pork chops. The end result was a dish that is packed with flavour and one that my family throughly enjoyed.

Arroz con Pollo y Chorizo

The postman arrived today bearing cookbook gifts from amazon, one being Cook Simple by Diana Henry, a book based on effortless cooking for every day. On opening the book this is the first recipe that jumped out at me. Upon reading the list of ingredients I realized that I had everything to hand so promptly got to work. I have cooked similar recipes to this but enjoyed the ease factor of the oven baked finish. These rice dishes have so much flavour with the combination of chorizo, chicken, smoked paprika, red pepper, onions and rice, I was lucky to have some Spanish paella rice left that my parents bought me over at Christmas from Spain. All in all this dish was loved by my boys and me alike, definitely one that I will make again.

Spiced Apple, Cranberry & Cider Cake

I am showcasing another cake from the amazing Cakes Galore by Valerie Barrett. I can’t rave enough about this book and it would be a book I'd buy to give as a gift to someone who loves to bake good cakes. This fruit cake is mixture of apples, dried cranberries, cider and cinnamon spice, a wonderful blend of flavours. You could easily serve this cake as a pudding with lashing of custard or along-side a nice cup of brew.

Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake and a 6 Word Memoir

I came across this delicious cake on Brenda’s blog, Tea and Wheaten Bread (a beautiful blog and worth visiting) and I knew there and then that this would be a cake my family would love and enjoy, especially my son who adores the chocolate/orange combination. The recipe is from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson, a book I have but for some reason never remember seeing the recipe, or maybe I did, there are so many wonderful recipes in the book. I have to say this was one of the easiest and quickest cakes to date, everything is just thrown together. This is a gorgeous light and moist cake, and the orange comes through delightfully against the chocolate.


Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake

Ingredients:
125g of unsalted butter
100g of dark chocolate
300g of good quality orange marmalade
150g of sugar
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
150g of self-rising flour

Melt the butter slowly in a heavy-bottom saucepan. When it's almost melted, add chocolate pieces, stir and take off the heat. Stir with a wooden spoon, until chocolate has melted. Add the marmalade, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir thoroughly (it's okay to leave small visible chunks of marmalade in the batter). Add sifted flour, stir and pour into a buttered and floured 20-22 cm loose bottomed cake tin or 2lb loaf tin. Bake at 180˚C/350.F/Gas 4 oven for 45-50 minutes, until the cake has set (test with a knife or wooden stick). Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. Once cooled dust with a layer of icing sugar.

Six Word Memoir

My sweet friend Rosie from Rosie Bakes a Peace of Cake has tagged me for a 6 word memoir. So here goes:

Sensitive
Loving
Caring
Glamorous
Girly
Perfectionist

I am going to be a rebel and tag 6 people (as it seems fitting with it being a 6 word memoir tag) and will be choosing the following:
Mrs B from Mrs B Baking
Gigi from Gigi's Cakes
Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments
Pixie from You say Tomato I say Tomato
Jules from Domestic Goddess in Training
Emiline from Sugar Plum

Rules:
1. Write your own six-word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five or six (choice is yours) more blogs with links.
5. Remember to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

Rich Butter Cake with Golden Buttercream

At the weekend I received Cakes Galore by Valerie Barrett and instantly it was love at first sight. This is a book every baker should have in their collection. Over the weekend I had a good browse and came across so many wonderful recipes that I wanted to bake there and then. So this morning I decided to bake the Rich Butter Cake and ice it with the golden buttercream icing from another recipe in the book, as I knew they would make a perfect combination. As my loaf cake was baking the entire house was filled with that buttery scent and my son came down from his room and said...mmmm that smells so good mum! The sponge in this cake is so fluffy and light, as you can see from the photo. And the buttercream really finishes this cake off well I think, I added a few drops of yellow colouring to give it that golden buttery look and sprinkled on some pastel coloured butterfly sprinkles.

Chocolate Apple Cake

I love this photo of my Madison, his such a poser and knows when to be cute to melt my heart! (Check out the head tilt and crossed paws, lol).

The weather here has been somewhat nicer with sunny intervals and warmer days, looks like spring has arrived and summer is a short distance away (can't wait for BBQ's, lunching and dining al fresco in my garden). So in celebration of spring I decided to bake up a cake and decorate it with pastel coloured flowers. This Chocolate and Apple Cake recipe was kindly passed on to me by a lady who owned her own bakery, and it was a favourite with the local school girls, so much so that on some days they had to bake over 5 of these cakes to keep up with the popular demands. I can totally see why this cake would have been such a hit, my son and his friends all love it and so does the hubby. The sponge is beautifully moist due to the grated apple and the buttercream icing is heavenly. A "must bake" for any true chocoholic!

Chocolate Apple Cake

Ingredients

250g (9oz) Plain Flour

25g (1oz ) Cocoa

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Bicarbonate of soda

100g ( 4oz ) Butter

250g ( 9oz ) Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

A few drops of Vanilla Extract

175 ml. (6fl oz) Milk

2 Cooking Apples or Eating Apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped or grated

Icing
450g (1lb ) Icing sugar, sifted

25g ( 1oz ) Cocoa

50g ( 2oz ) Butter, softened

90ml. ( 3fl oz ) Milk

Preheat oven to 180/350F/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm ( 8 in ) square cake tin.Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb. Put the sugar and butter into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Whisk in the flour mixture and lastly add the chopped apples and milk. Spoon into tin and bake for 1 hour or till cooked..When cake is cold, make icing by beating all ingredients together, spread over cake and make a swirly pattern and pop on some chocolate drops.

Serves: 12

Sticky Marmalade Tealoaf

Of an evening I sometimes love nothing but sitting on the sofa with a glass of red wine and reading through my cookbooks and discovering recipes to make at a later date. Last night I came across this gem of a recipe which I had book marked ages ago and decided to make this today. I knew instantly from reading the list of ingredients and viewing the photo this would be divine and I was 100% right! This tealoaf is wonderfully moist and full of flavour, the marmalade and pecans really complement each other!

Sticky Marmalade Tealoaf

Ingredients

140g/5oz marmalade (about one third of a 454g jar)

175g/60z butter, softened

175g/6oz light muscovado sugar

3 eggs, beaten

225g/8oz self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

100g packet pecan halves

Preheat the oven to 180oC/Gas 4/fan oven 160oC. Butter a 1kg/2lb loaf tin and line with greaseproof paper. Set aside 1 tablespoon of the marmalade in a small pan. In a bowl, blend the remaining marmalade, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and spices for 1-2 minutes until smooth and light. Stir in about three quarters of the pecans.

Tip into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Sprinkle with the reserved pecans. Bake for about 1-1 1/4 hours until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil after 40 minutes. Once cooked, carefully remove from the tin, and cool slightly on a wire rack.

Gently heat the reserved marmalade, stirring until it's smooth, and spread the glaze over the top of the warm loaf. Serve in slices.

Pasta with Ham, Peas and Cream

This pasta dish is a monthly if not weekly staple in our home, my boys can't get enough of it. It is so easy and quick to make and in less than 20 minutes you have what I can only describe as pure comfort on a plate.

Pasta with Ham, Peas and Cream

This recipe serves 2

Ingredients
200g farfalle or other short pasta
100g frozen peas
150ml double cream
150g diced ham
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan

Cook the pasta according to packet instructions in plenty of salted boiling water, and then after 5 minutes add the peas to the pasta water.When the pasta is cooked, drain with the peas. Put the dry pan back on the heat with the cream, ham and Parmesan and warm it through. Add the pasta and peas back to the pan, tossing everything together well.

Sunshine Bars

First of all I would like to say sorry for not having blogged much in the recent days after Easter but after all that Easter cooking and baking I was in much need of a break. I also celebrated my Wedding Anniversary on Monday and I was wined and dined all weekend, so no baking or cooking to blog. So after a small break I decided to make up a batch of these Sunshine Bars that are packed with so much goodness they will be great for pack lunches or snacking. The recipe can be found here: Sunshine Bars.