Apple & Honey Tart

This is a delicate and delicious cake, a glam way to use up a glut of apples. The recipe doesn't use any eggs, giving it a tart-like quality, and the honey creates a gooeyness perfect for showcasing those pretty glazed apple slices. It's one of those cakes that not only tastes and looks great, but also makes the house sing with the sweet smell of warm honey and apple.

Recipe

Serves 8-10

Adapted from Tessa Kiros' recipe for Honey Tart, in her lovely book Piri Piri Starfish: Portugal Found. Buy the book on Amazon here. I've turned that simple recipe into a more complicated and pretty apple tart, with a sweet apricot glaze.

250g clear runny honey

125ml milk

100g butter

150g plain flour

3 medium apples or 2 large
juice of 1 lemon

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

2. Core and cut the apples into thin slices, then toss in lemon juice to stop them browning and put to one side. Being an idle sort, I didn't cut my home grown apples that finely, because I like the rustic look, so just slice them thinner than this if you want yours to look more cosmopolitan! 

3. Gently mix the honey and butter together with a little milk.

4. Pour in the rest of the milk, before adding the flour and mix slowly until well combined.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

6. Place the apple slices in concentric circles over the cake batter, starting outside and working in. Press them gently into the batter.

7. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, then place foil over the top to prevent the apples from burning, and bake again for approximately 15 minutes more. You'll know it's done when the batter is brown and a skewer comes out clean.

8. Take the cake out of the oven, remove the foil, and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before carefully placing on a plate or wire rack to cool further.

for the apricot glaze:
4 tablespoons apricot jam
2 teaspoons lemon juice

9. Warm the jam and lemon juice gently over a medium heat for 5 minutes.

10. Strain the warm glaze through a sieve, to get rid of any lumps, then using a pastry brush very gently brush the thin glaze over the top and sides of the cake, being careful not to dislodge any of the apple slices as you do so. Serve with icecream or cream.

This cake was idly baked to the sounds of Goldfrapp's album Seventh Tree

Gluten Free Wild Strawberry & Orange Cake

This simple summer cake is my own creation, designed to showcase the the wild strawberries that grow in the sunniest patches of the garden. Wild strawberries are natural beauties, too frequently ignored in favour of their large watery domestic cousins. The tiny fruit jewels have a stronger, more intense berry flavour, and they taste amazing thrown into salads as well as used in cake toppings or fruit compotes. Have a forage around your local hedgerows or woodland and you can easily spot them; don't wash them before use or you'll drown them. You can of course create the glaze topping with large domestic strawberries, just be prepared to use more of them to create as much flavour as the wild variety.

Recipe
Serves 8 -10

200g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g golden caster sugar
200g gluten free plain flour (Dove's Farm or M&S recommended), sieved
1 tsp baking powder
1 or 2 tbsps ground almonds
grated rind of half an orange
juice of half an orange
3 eggs

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

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add 1 egg, the orange juice and rind, and beat well. Add the 2nd egg, plus the baking powder and a third of the sieved flour and combine. Finally, fold in the 3rd egg along with the rest of the flour and all the ground almonds. Mix gently until the batter is totally combined.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and put in the oven for approx 50mins. It will be done when a skewer comes out clean and the top bounces back when you touch it with your finger. Take it out of the oven and leave in the tin for 15 minutes, before carefully turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the glaze topping:

1 small bowl of wild strawberries
quarter of a cup of golden caster sugar
juice of half an orange
carton runny cream to serve (optional)

4. Mix together the topping ingredients in a large bowl and then spoon over the cake. Serve straight away with runny cream.

This cake was idly baked while thinking about Wild Strawberries, my favourite Ingmar Bergman film and a real classic. Here's one of the more whimsical bucolic scenes as an old man looks back at his youth. Have a peek while eating the wild strawberry cake.

Raspberry, Lemon & Almond Cake

So, it's time to say goodbye to Spring. The bluebells in the wood, spread out over the last month as a bright ocean of blue, have now receded to sleep for another year. The image of them in full bloom has imprinted itself in my memory, an image of hope and renewal to be treasured at times when life feels hard.

Of all the cakes I made this spring, my favourite creation was my simple raspberry, lemon and almond cake. Muddled together from a hotchpotch of ingredients, and with a tentative novice's hand, it turned out far better than I had hoped. Infact we gave it such a rave review that a friend requested a slice be sent over to London for her to taste. I posted it next day delivery with a large scrawled FRAGILE over the envelope, but still thought that by the time she opened it she would find only almond crumbs and a few broken raspberries. Not so! Apparently it arrived very much intact, and just as delicious. What a hardy little cake.

Recipe

Serves 8

For the cake:

1 carton of fresh raspberries, washed

1 tsp almond extract

3 large eggs, room temperature

180g unsalted butter, room temperature

225g plain flour (or gluten-free mix flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder (or gluten-free mix powder)

180g caster sugar

Grated rind of half a lemon

2 tablespoons milk (anything except skimmed)

1. Turn the oven to 180C (or 160C for fan ovens). Butter, flour and line a 23x7cm round tin.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, almond extract and lemon rind together until mixture is fluffy and light.

3. Gradually add the eggs to the butter mixture, one at a time. Sift a tablespoon of flour with the 2nd egg, then another tablespoon with the 3rd, folding them into the batter and beat well.

4. Sift in the rest of the flour and the baking powder before adding the milk and raspberries, and mix gently. Being an idle sort, I don't mind if the raspberries sink to the bottom of my cake, but if you'd rather they were distributed more evenly then roll them in a little extra flour before adding them to the recipe.

5. Pour into the tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.


For the glaze topping:
Half a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup of flaked almonds

1. While the cake is still a little warm, place the flaked almonds evenly on top.

2. Put the lemon juice and caster sugar in a pan, and bring it to the boil over a hob before turning the heat down to a simmer. The glaze is ready when it has been reduced by approximately a third.

3. Using a pastry brush, carefully brush the glaze on to the top and sides of the cake.

This cake was idly baked to the sounds of Laura Marling's album I Speak Because I Can