You may be a bit tired of my Winter and Autumn range of stodgy, warming things that include root crops and apples, and trust me, I’m just tired of Winter, but this is quite a pleasing little loaf and really easy to make. Â Don’t be …
Well, we are winding through the bitter bones of Winter and it seems like Spring is trying to be sprung.  It may even have managed it in some corners of the hemisphere. In my little neck of the woods, there is an undeniable lightening of the evenings …
You know something’s a winner, don’t you, when you’ve adapted from our national treasure, Dame Alison Holst.  As you’ll all know, I have a bit of a thing for old-school cook books and recipes.  So you can imagine I could not leave Alison Holst’s Simply Delicious cookbook, circa 1975, behind when I found it for three dollars at a Star Boating Club book sale.
I don’t mean to imply, of course, that you need or want to be adapting Alison’s recipes. Â It’s just that the original of this one, Lemon Cream Cake, calls for a cup of cream. Â I like my cholesterol as much as anyone, but these days you’re just much more likely to have yoghurt in the fridge.
It’s a great cake for this time of year, when although the dark of winter is lifting a bit, you still want something moreish and warming.  And, just to be helpful, lemons happen to be in season, so the rest is common sense.  I whipped this up recently to go with a cup of tea following a family roast lunch; it’s so easy that you can get it in and out of the oven before you need to worry about getting any mains cooked.
I generously slathered this one with lemon icing and passionfruit pulp, but it also works very pleasingly with a little stewed fruit. Â It’s another of my lazy all-in-one bowl baking jobs, and perhaps this is what I like about it most of all.
Ingredients:
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Â Grease a 23cm round cake tin and line the bottom.
Put the eggs, sugar and yoghurt into a medium-sized bowl. Â Beat them together until thick and creamy.
Sprinkle the lemon rind over the top and fold in the self-raising flour.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the centre springs back when pressed.
When it is cold, ice it if you fancy.
Who doesn’t welcome a splash of colour for lunch at this grey and freezing time of year? I know I do.  This spiced bean and tomato soup is on high rotation in my kitchen at the moment.  When it gets to Sunday night and I need to think …
I am so happy it is tamarilo season once more.  I love tamarillos.  Not just for their cheek-sucking tartness, but also because I think they are one of the most beautiful fruits, with their plump, ruby skins and yellow flesh. Tamarillos, which were once known as …
So, bliss balls are a thing right now.  Anyone who reads my blog will know that I take great joy in the retro tried-and-true; the less sexy the better (although I’m sure we all agree that Delia looks a total fox on the cover of this 1982 How To Cook).  I’m not always so adventurous when it comes to the hottest trend.
But, thing or not, bliss balls are scrumptious.  I believe their popularity comes from the fact that they get their lovely moreish-ness from things like dates and cocoa powder, so they provide a delicious little morsel without sending your blood sugar skew-whiff.  Personally I just like them because the dates and cocoa make them all dense and fudge without being sickly.  And a little delicious morsel?  Count me in.
My tried and true Bliss Ball recipe is not my own, but comes to me courtesy of two of my lovely sisters.  So please find their excellent recipe below – I promise it’s quick, and the results are superb with your post-lunch cup of tea.
Ingredients:
1/2 C dates (I’m assured that raisins and sultanas also work well)
1/4 C almond meal
2T cocoa (be generous!)
1t vanilla essence
1T peanut butter
1T oil (I use olive)
1/4 C dessicated coconut
Boil the kettle. Soak the dates in boiling water for ten minutes. Drain the water, reserving 2T of water.
Place the dates and all the other ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
Test the mixture with your fingers.  It should clump nicely without being too sticky – add some of the date water if it’s too dry, or more almond meal if it’s too sloppy.
Wet your fingers and roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls. Â You can roll them in a little coconut at this stage if you fancy, although I prefer them without. Â Refrigerate for half an hour to set, and keep them in the fridge.
What’s not to love about a cake that you can make entirely in one cake tin? Hardly any dishes and quick to boot.  Because, although I love to cook and bake, there are times when I am too greedy or impatient to fuss around.  If it’s …
It is indeed a happy accident, that my arrival at ANZAC biscuits in the Edmonds Cook Book as I head forth in my self-imposed Edmonds Challenge has coincided so closely with ANZAC Day. ANZAC Day always puts me in mind of Aud and Reg, my …
Every Autumn when I start spying lovely plump pears, plums and apples, thoughts of warming fruity goodies are not far behind.  This particular little loaf I’m bringing you today has been a long time in the making.  It first starting flitting about the corners of my mind a few years ago, when the aforementioned greedy Autumnal thoughts lead me to this delicious chocolate and pear cake. So this Autumn, finding my fruit bowl running over with many sweet little apples, I began hankering after something upside down-y involving apples.
It has taken a little experimenting, but I am happy to settle on this combination of slightly spicy ginger loaf topped with apples.  Upside down fruit-topped baking, I have concluded, needs a reasonably hefty cake to support it, and ginger loaf is up to the task.  I used this ginger loaf recipe as a base with some tweaking of my own, including a little wholemeal flour to give it some extra muscle.  And also because I love wholemeal flour.
For this spiced apple and ginger loaf you will need:
Apple topping:
Ginger loaf:
Butter your loaf tin.  Peel your apple if you like, although I prefer mine with a little bit of skin.  Quarter the apple and cut each quarter into thin slices.  Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle into the bottom of the loaf tin.  Lay the apple slices in top of this mixture and set aside.
Melt the butter and golden syrup together in a large saucepan.  Add the egg and the sugar and mix in.  Then add all the other dry ingredients except for the baking soda.  Mix the baking soda into the milk and then add this to the mixture.
Pour the ginger loaf mixture into the tin, on top of the apples.
Bake for 50 – 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.  This may seem like a long time for a little loaf, but the fresh juicy apple slices make the mixture quite moist and mean the loaf needs longer to bake.  Trust me, I have been faced with the sad, sucking noise of turning out under-cooked baking in earlier versions of this apple-topped cake, when I have had less patience with the length of baking time.
Rest the loaf for a few minutes in its tin before running a knife around the edges and gently turning upside down.
The apple keeps this loaf tasty and moist. It can be a little prone to breaking up, so you may like to use a spoon, particularly if you fancy this warm with some vanilla ice-cream.  This, I can recommend.
Happy baking.
I love walnuts.  Perhaps this started with the grand old walnut tree in our garden when I was little.  When I wasn’t swinging from it or chasing the chickens that lived at its feet, I was happily crushing walnuts between concrete blocks so I could prise the …