Cherry & Thyme Loaf

Simple and scrumptious, this frosty topped cake is fast becoming a warming new tea time favourite of ours as the autumn cold creeps in.

Recipe
My own
Serves 8

175g unsalted butter, room temperature
175g caster sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
175g plain flour, plus extra for rolling the cherries
1 tsp baking powder
a large handful of glace cherries
a smaller handful of fresh thyme leaves


1. Turn the oven to 180C (160C fan ovens), and grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.

2. Roll the glace cherries in a little extra flour, then on a separate plate chop the thyme leaves finely, and put both to one side.

3.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes until smooth.

4. Beat the first egg in to the creamed mixture, then a spoonful of the flour and stir gently before beating in the other egg. Add the rest of the flour and baking powder a bit at a time.

5. Throw in the cherries and chopped thyme. Very gently stir the cherries into the batter using a wooden spoon.

6. Pour into the prepared loaf tin. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes, checking to see if it is ready after 45. You'll know it's done once the top springs back under your finger and a skewer comes out clean.

7. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before placing on a wire rack or plate.

8. Once cooled but still warm, sift the top of the cake with icing sugar, and serve with a nice cuppa.

 

 

 

This cake was idly baked while listening to Lucy Rose's debut album Like I Used To, a present from my lovely friend Nadine

 

 

Gluten Free Fruit Jam & Toasted Almond Cake

This sweet spring cake is so easy and cheap to bake, a handy recipe to use when there's nothing more than a bit of jam and a few almonds in the kitchen cupboard. Marrying a gorgeous taste combination of a fluffy soft almond interior with a crisp, sweet crunchy exterior, it has all the hallmarks of a classic british tea cake. Plus, if you bake it in a special decorative cake tin, as I did, then it looks as if you've gone to so much more effort than you really have, a big thumbs up for an idle baker. Feel free to add more jam than I did - we only had a spoonful left in the bottom of the jam jar.

Recipe
My own recipe
Serves 8-10


200g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g golden caster sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
200g gluten free self raising flour mix (Dove's Farm recommended)
1 teaspoon baking powder (Barkart recommended)
1 teaspoon almond extract
80g toasted flaked almonds
1 and a half tablespoons cherry or raspberry jam



1. Turn the oven to 170C (150C fan ovens), and grease a decorative non stick baking tin (mine came from Lakeland), or grease and line a normal baking tin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together for at least 3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.

3. Add the first egg to the creamed mixture, then sieve in a little of the flour and beat well. Once combined, add the 2nd egg one with tablespoon of flour, and beat again. Add the last egg, beating hard until the mixture is light and frothy.

4.Next sift in the rest of the flour, and almond extract a bit at a time.

5. Throw in the toasted almond flakes. Stir gently until the flakes are just combined into the batter.

6. Spoon half the batter into the prepared baking tin. Then dot the cherry jam into the batter, using a skewer or teaspoon to swirl it around. Spoon the rest of the batter ontop, before smoothing it down evenly with a spatula.

7. Place in the oven to bake for about 45 minutes, checking it briefly after 35 minutes. Cover with foil if the top is browning too quickly in the final 10 minutes. You'll know it's done when the top bounces back under your finger and a skewer comes out clean.

8. Once baked, if you're using a decorative tin leave the cake to cool in the tin on a wire rack. Once cool, use a spatula or a fork to gently prise the cake away from the tin sides, before placing onto a plate.
If you're using a normal greased and lined baking tin then you can take the cake out of the tin after 20 minutes, to continue cooling on the rack.

9. Dust the top with caster sugar, plus any fresh or glace cherries if you like. Serve lukewarm or cold, with cream or vanilla icecream.

This cake was idly baked while listening to the REM album Out Of Time.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Christmas Fruit Cake: Murrambidgee Cake

I have a confession to make: I hate Christmas cake. Can't stand the stuff. The dense claggy crumb, the overly sweet marzipan and royal icing, it's just never done it for me. Not to mention all that hoopla with baking the cake a month in advance, soaking the fruit and rolling the marzipan and cutting pristine holly leaves out of ready to roll icing. It's a cake to be baked by a perfectionist baker, not an idle one.

So instead I've been searching my cookery books to find the perfect festive fruit cake, one that's quick and easy to make and scrumptious and subtle to taste. This wonderful recipe by Sophie Grigson is ideal, a family favourite created by her mother the great food writer Jane Grigson, which tastes gorgeous whether made on Christmas Eve or a week before. It's surprisingly healthy, consisting more of fruit and nut than cake. I've turned it gluten free and made a few other adaptations to use up our store cupboard glace fruit and nuts, but this is still very much the Murrambidgee cake of the Grigson family fame.

Recipe
Adapted from the recipe in Sophie Grigson's book The Country Kitchen. Buy the book on Amazon here

Serves 10-12

150g walnut halves
50g whole almonds
50g whole hazelnuts
50g pistachio nuts, shelled
50g pine nuts
250g stoned halved dates, or 100g sultanas & 150g dried peach halves
175g glace cherries
100g seedless raisins
100g chopped candied peel
finely grated zest of 1 lemon or lime
100g gluten free flour mix (Dove's Farm or M&S)
half a teaspoon baking powder
half a teaspoon salt
150g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
half a tablespoon thin honey
brandy or rum

1. Turn the oven to 150C (130C fan ovens). Grease and line a round 20cm baking tin.

2. Roast the hazels, almonds and pistachios for 10 minutes in the oven, then leave to cool before rubbing the skins off the hazels.

3. Chop the nuts and dates or peaches in half.

4. In a large bowl, mix all the nuts, candied peel, lemon zest and fruit together. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt on top.

5. In a second bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla extract together.


6. Add the beaten egg and vanilla, and stir until well combined.

7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin.

8. Bake in the oven for 1 and a half or 2 hours. You'll know it's done when a skewer comes out clean.

9. When baked, leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before running a knife inside the edges to lever the cake carefully out onto a wire rack.

10. Place the cake on a clean cloth, before piercing a few holes with the skewer into the top of the cake, and pouring the alcohol in.

for the optional topping:

apricot jam
2 teaspoons lemon juice
60ml water
walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pistachio nuts
glace cherries
glace ginger
candied peel
marron glaces
anything else you fancy

11. Heat the apricot jam, lemon juice and water in a saucepan over a medium heat. Boil for 10-15 minutes, before forcing through a sieve or wire strainer. Brush the liquid glaze over the top and side of the cake.

12. Place the topping fruit and nuts over the top of the cake, press down firmly before brushing with more glaze. Leave to cool and set.


13. Carefully wrap the cake in greaseproof paper, and then in cling film or kitchen foil. Store in an airtight cake tin.

This cake was idly baked while listening to Arcade Fire's album The Suburbs.

Snowstorm Birthday: Coconut, Ginger & Cherry Cake

I created this gorgeous layer cake for my father's birthday, a variation of the cherry and almond cake I've blogged about before. The addition of glace ginger gives it a particularly festive zinginess, ideal to balance out the gluttonous sweetness of the coconut and glace cherry. A very special and scrumptious cake. Dad loved it, and he certainly wasn't the only one!

Recipe
Cake base adapted from the cake recipe in Joanna Isle's lovely little book from the 1980s, A Proper Tea buy the book on Amazon  
Topping and other additions my own recipe.

For the base:
115g glace cherries
115g glace ginger
200g self-raising flour
pinch of salt (optional)
200g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
50g ground almonds
50g dessicated coconut
200g butter
half a tsp almond extract

1. Turn the oven to 160C (140C fan oven). Grease and line a 23 inch baking tin or two 18 inch tins.

2. Halve the glace cherries and glace ginger and roll them in a little extra flour, before putting them to one side. Rolling them in flour may stop them from all sinking to the bottom of the cake when it's baking (although, being an idle cook, I don't worry about that sort of thing).

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamed.

4. Add the first beaten egg to the creamed mixture, then sieve in a little of the flour and stir gently before adding the other 2 eggs, and the rest of the flour, salt if using, and almond extract a bit at a time.

5. Throw in the cherries, ginger, coconut and ground almonds. Stir the cake mixture gently by hand with a wooden spoon until the fruit and nuts are well combined.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin or tins and bake for approx 50 minutes, until the tops have browned and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave in the tins for 10 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack or plate.

for the filling:
4-6 tablespoons cherry jam (I used M&S red cherry conserve)

7. When the cakes have cooled, spread cherry jam over the bottom cake, sandwiching the other cake ontop.

for the topping:
100g icing sugar
2 tablespoons water or coconut milk
3 or 4 large handfuls coconut curls or dessicated coconut
1 large handful glace cherries
1 large handful glace ginger

8. Make glace icing by whisking the water and icing sugar together until a firm but runny consistency. Pour the icing over the top cake, letting it drip down the sides. Quickly scatter coconut over the top cake before the icing dries. Add the glace cherries and ginger to decorate, then sprinkle more coconut on top.

9. Leave for half an hour to let the icing and topping settle, before serving the cake with cream, custard or icecream.

This cake was idly baked while listening to The Velvet Underground & Nico's debut album.

Cherry, Almond & Coconut Cake

At the request of several readers, here's my adaptation of the wonderful old fashioned Cherry & Almond cake that I mentioned in my introduction 'a word on idle baking'. The only cake I knew how to cook until this spring, the one that started me on my idle baking odyssey. Fingers crossed it may inspire you to dip a toe into your own.

Recipe
Serves 8

Adapted from the cake recipe in Joanna Isle's lovely little book from the 1980s, A Proper Tea buy the book on Amazon  
I've simply added coconut and flaked almonds to create a tasty crunchy nutty topping. The topping is adapted from a recipe at http://www.tasteofhome.com 

For the cake:
225g glace cherries
90g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
170g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
90g ground almonds
170g butter
half a tsp almond extract

1. Turn the oven to 160C (140C fan oven). Grease and line a baking tin (anything from 18 inch to 23 inch round tin should work).

2. Halve the glace cherries and roll them in a little extra flour, before putting them to one side. Rolling them in flour may stop them from all sinking to the bottom of the cake when it's baking (although, being an idle cook, I don't worry about that sort of thing).

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamed.

4. Add the first beaten egg to the creamed mixture, then sieve in a little of the flour and stir gently before adding the other 2 eggs, and the rest of the flour, salt, and almond extract a bit at a time.

5. Throw in the cherries, and ground almonds. Stir the cake mixture until the fruit and nuts are well combined into the batter. Don't do what I did this time and absent mindedly put the mixer speed on high, thereby breaking up some of the cherries. Stir them very gently by hand with a wooden spoon instead!

6. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for approx 1 hour, until the top has browned and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave in the tin and put to one side for a moment while you quickly make the topping.

For the topping:

8 and a half tbsps demerara sugar
4 tbsps cold butter, chopped into smallish pieces
4 tbsps flaked almonds
3 tbsps dessicated coconut
extra glace cherries as decoration, optional

7. Mix the sugar and butter in a bowl. I used my fingers to rub them together, but then I like being messy. When the mixture is crumbly, fold in the coconut and almonds.

8. Back at the oven, turn the grill to medium. Spoon the topping onto the hot cake.

9. Carefully place the cake under the grill for 1-2 mins, until the topping is golden brown. Keep checking the cake under the grill - the topping will move from browning to burning very quickly. Alternatively you could place the cake back in the hot oven and continue baking until the topping is done.

10. When the topping is golden brown, take it out from under the grill and leave the cake to cool in its tin for 5 mins, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool for longer before serving. Put a few extra glace cherries ontop of the centre of the cake if you like.

This cake was idly baked to the sounds of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, combined with birdsong and newly hatched grasshoppers jumping in through the open window.