Sour Morello Cherry & Hazelnut Loaf

Sour morello cherries and roasted hazels: its a flavour combination that makes me think picnics in the orchard with the hammock swaying in a warm breeze and a bonfire burning into the dusk. I get a childish pleasure from pushing the cherries higgledy piggledy into the top of the batter, and seeing how the pattern changes when it grows as it bakes. A delicious sweet-sour cake, and popular even with cats. Nico interupted the photo shoot, not to pose for the camera but in a cunning attempt to eat the warm loaf! She was thwarted yet again the poor minx. She's dreaming of the day when she'll get to the freshly baked cake before I do.

Recipe
My own.
Serves 6-8

150g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g chopped roasted hazelnuts, plus more for optional decoration
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon greek yoghurt, room temperature
100g sour morello cherries



1. Turn the oven to 170C (150C fan ovens). Grease and line a small 1lb loaf tin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

3. Add the first egg and the teaspoon of vanilla extract, and beat well.

4. Add the other 2 eggs, beating after each addition.

5. Gradually add the flour and baking powder in 2 stages to the batter. Beat the batter until smooth.

6. Fold in the chopped hazels, before adding the greek yoghurt, and half the sour cherries and stirring gently until combined.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin, smooth down the top and then dot the rest of the sour cherries into the top of the batter, pressing them in lightly.

8. Bake for 45-50 mins. Bake until the top bounces back under your finger and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

9. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 mins before placing on a wire rack or plate to cool further.

10. Serve warm or cold, sprinkled with some more roasted chopped hazelnuts if you like. Serve cream or creme fraiche on the side. Keep away from cats.

This cake was idly baked while listening to the Tori Amos album Under The Pink

Gluten Free Chocolate & Roasted Hazelnut Brownie Cake

Take no notice of the unassuming cracked exterior of this cake. Inside there lies the most rich and beautiful tasting nutty brownie cake. Moist and soft in the middle with nuggets of chocolate and crunchy slivers of hazel, this is definitely my cake crush of the week. If you're not gluten intolerant then you can use plain flour instead of the gluten free mix. Next time I'm planning on adding an extra egg to make a bigger cake for even more eating potential....

Recipe
Adapted from the brilliant recipe at the BBC Good Food website. See their original recipe here
Serves 8

175g unsalted butter, room temperature
225g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
65g gluten free plain flour (Dove's Farm or M&S recommended)
200g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
50g hazelnuts

1. Turn the oven to 180C (160C fan ovens), and grease and line a 20cm cake tin.


2. When the oven is up to temperature, place the hazels on an oven tray and bake for approx 4 minutes to roast them. Take out of the oven and leave to cool, before removing their skins and cutting the nuts into small pieces.


3. Heat the butter, sugar and 175g of the chocolate in a bain mairie, a heat proof bowl over a pan of just simmering water. Stir gently until the ingredients have melted together. Take off the heat and leave to cool in the bowl.


4. Add the egg yolks to the chocolate mixture, beating well until combined. Then, using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour, chocolate chunks and roasted chopped hazels


5. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until fluffy, before very gently and briefly folding them into the rest of the ingredients.


6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin, and bake in the oven for approx 40 minutes, until the top has cracked and bounces back under your finger.


7. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 mins, before placing on a wire rack or plate. Once cool, dust liberally with icing sugar and serve with double cream.

This cake was idly baked to the sounds of The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady by Charles Mingus

Chocolate Biscuit Refrigerator Cake

When I asked Mum what cake she wanted for her birthday, the answer was instantaneous 'Chocolate Biscuit cake please!'. I'd never made a biscuit fridge cake, and I'd forgotten how much I used to love the taste of it. Remarkably easy to make, without needing half the usual cake ingredients, it was a real winner. You'll be pleased to know that we let the birthday girl have the lion's share, but not without internal struggle. Just goes to show that this delightful cake thrills children of ALL ages.

Recipe
Adapted from one torn out of Grazia magazine last year, author unknown.
Serves 8

200g Rich Tea Biscuits
70g Maltesers
70g Mini Marshmallows
70g hazelnuts, chopped small
70g pistachio nuts, shelled
70g raisins or other dried fruit
150g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon golden syrup
250g dark chocolate
edible silver glitter, to decorate, optional
small white birds or anything else you fancy to decorate, optional



1. Line a 1lb loaf tin with cling film, making sure to leave extra overhanging the sides.

2. Put the biscuits in a double bag made from 2 plastic bags. Tie the end securely, and then hit the biscuits with a rolling pin, until all are crushed.

3. Pour the crushed biscuits into a large bowl, and then add the sweets, nuts and dried fruit.

4. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup together in a bain mairie (a heat proof bowl over a pan of just simmering water). Leave to cool for a moment.

5. When cooled a little, carefully stir the melted ingredients into the dry using a wooden spoon.

6.  Once combined, spoon the mixture into the prepared cling filmed loaf tin, and press it down gently to flatten the top evenly.

7. Place in the fridge for 2 hours, until solid.

8. Remove the cake from the tin once set by pulling on the cling film and easing it out with a knife. Turn it out on to a plate, and decorate with edible glitter. I added a couple of white birds I'd found in the local florist - purely for decoration and not to be eaten obviously!

9. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve. This cake slices best when just out of the fridge.

 

This cake was idly made while listening to the Anthony & The Johnsons album I Am A Bird Now

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.

Toffee & Hazel Loaf

Moist dense and nutty heaven, this loaf cake is delicious served hot or cold. The delicate toffee flavour works brilliantly with those rich and smokey roasted hazels to make the loaf taste extra special.

Recipe
Adapted from the Toffee Cake recipe by Aaron Maree in his wonderful book from the early 1990s, Cakes, Tortes & Gateaux of the World. Buy the book on Amazon here.
Serves 8

250g unsalted butter, room temperature
250g light muscovado sugar
1 and a half teaspoons vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
3 eggs
125g hazelnuts
125g dark chocolate
for decoration: 1 tablespoon cocoa powder & 1 tablespoon icing sugar

1. Turn the oven to 190C (170C fan ovens), and grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.

2. Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and bake in the oven for approx 4 minutes to roast them. Take out of the oven and leave to cool, before removing their skins and cutting the nuts into small pieces.

3. While the hazels are roasting, break the chocolate into small chunks and melt gently over a low heat hob. Take off the heat as soon as all the chocolate is melted, and leave to cool slightly.

4. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, before adding the vanilla extract.
5. Beat in the first egg, beating until well combined. Add the 2nd egg, plus a third of the sifted flour, and combine. Beat in the 3rd egg.

6. Then pour in the cooled melted chocolate, stirring it into the batter quickly.

7. Add the rest of the sifted flour, stirring gently to combine, before finally throwing in the chopped hazelnuts and mixing them into the batter with a wooden spoon.

8. Pour the batter into the tin until it reaches the top (you may find you have a few spoonfuls leftover as a cook's perk!) and bake for 40-50 minutes. You'll know it's done when a skewer comes out clean.

9. Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack.

10. When cooled, remove the cake from the tin and place on a plate. Dust with cocoa powder and icing sugar to decorate.

This cake was idly baked while listening to Lauren Laverne's radio show on BBC 6 Music

Cranberry, Apple & Hazelnut Loaf

This crunchy topped country cake is scrumptious, a light crumbly fruit loaf made from the delicious autumn fare of juicy apples picked from the garden, sweet dried cranberries and oven roasted hazelnuts. Being so fruity it's postively healthy, so a slice can count as 1 of your recommended 5 a day. The difficulty, as we've discovered, will be stopping at just one slice....

Recipe

Serves 8-10

Adapted from a recipe given at BBC Good Food Online. See their recipe for blackberry & apple loaf here. I've changed the fruit and added some extra touches such as the hazelnuts to make a loaf with a slightly earthier, rustic taste.

2 medium eating apples

2 large eggs

80g dried cranberries

80g hazelnuts

175g light muscovado sugar

175g unsalted butter

250g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

half a teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons demerara sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1. Turn the oven to 180C (160C Fan ovens). Grease and line a 2lb / 1.7 litre loaf tin.

2. Beat the eggs in a bowl until fluffy.

3. When the oven is up to temperature, place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast in the oven for approx 5 minutes, until golden and the skins are splitting. Check on them at 4 minutes, making sure they don't burn. Once roasted, take the baking tray out and leave the nuts to cool.

4. As if you were making a crumble topping, using your fingers rub the butter, muscovado sugar and flour together in another bowl, until the consistency of crumbs. Transfer 4 tablespoons of the mixture into a smaller bowl, then stir into that smaller bowl the cinnamon and demerara sugar and put to one side.

4. When the hazelnuts have cooled a little, quarter them, chopping finely.

5. Meanwhile give the eggs another quick beat, before grating the apples and orange zest over them. 

6. Add the egg, apple and orange mixture and a teaspoon of baking powder to the large bowl containing the rubbed in flour, sugar and butter. Stir the ingredients gently together.

6. Tip in the chopped hazelnuts and dried cranberries, again stirring gently.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin. Spoon the reserved topping mixture onto the cake evenly.

8. Bake in the oven for approx 1 hour 15 minutes, checking it after 50 minutes and covering the top with foil if it's browning too quickly. You'll know the cake's baked when a skewer comes out clean.

9. Leave to cool in the tin for at least half an hour before carefully transferring onto a wire rack. This cake is delicious warm or cool, but bear in mind that it's extra crumbly and difficult to cut when still warm, as I impatiently discovered.

This loaf was idly baked while listening to a recording of the Aquinas Piano Trio playing Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio 1914

Gluten Free Blueberry & Hazelnut Muffins

Now here's something healthy, naughty and tasty which can be eaten at breakfast, lunch or tea! I love muffins, they're the ideal (or should that be idle) way to bake for a lazy, messy cook like myself. I've added some hazelnuts to your traditional soft and juicy blueberry muffin to give it an earthy crunchiness, and made the recipe gluten free by using special flours. Simple and scrumptious.

Recipe
Makes 12 muffins

Recipe adapted from The Bake-A-Boo Bakery Cookbook by Zoe Berkeley
buy the Book on Amazon

50g hazelnuts
150ml milk
2 large eggs
200g blueberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
125g caster sugar
200g gluten free self raising flour (Dove's Farm or M&S recommended)
75g butter

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan oven), and line a 12 hold muffin tray with paper cases,

2. Line a baking tray with baking paper and lay the hazelnuts on it, then toast them in the oven for approx 10 mins. Leave them to cool for a few minutes before rubbing them with a paper towel or just your clean hands to get rid of the skins, before chopping them into three with a sharp knife. Put them to one side on a plate.

3. In a small bowl beat the eggs until frothy. Then heat the butter over a low hob until melted.

3. Once melted, pour the butter into another bowl and add the vanilla extract and milk, mix well before whisking in the beaten eggs.

4. In a larger mixing bowl, combine the flour, pinch of salt and the sugar. Add the butter mixture gradually in 3 stages, before throwing in the blueberries and chopped roasted hazelnuts. Gently stir the batter to make sure that it is combined.

5. Using a tablespoon, spoon the batter evenly into the 12 cases and cook in the preheated oven for 25 mins, until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Once cooked, leave to cool in the tray for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack or plate. Serve warm or cold, ideally with a warming cuppa of your choice.

These muffins were idly baked to the sounds of Cinematic Orchestra's album Ma Fleur