Old fashioned fruit loaf cake

I have mentioned previously that Mr Lancashire Food has joined a walking club, so this week I had a special request for a buttery fruit cake, that would survive being in a rucksack for a couple of hours. So this is an old fashioned fruit cake, the type that your granny used to make for afternoon tea, seriously it would be great with tea or coffee though and keeps fantastically  wrapped in foil. In my humble opinion its better kept a few days before eating in fact.

What you need

• 175g soft butter
• 75g caster sugar
• 3 tbsp runny honey
• 3 eggs - beaten
• 225g self raising flour
• 125g - dried fruit of your choice (raisins, currants, sultanas, etc)
• 3 tbsp milk
• 2lb loaf, lined 

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Cream the butter and sugar together, once light and fluffy slowly add the eggs, adding a little of the flour if needed to prevent curdling
• Now mix the rest of the ingredients, adding a little more milk if needed if the mixture is very dry.
• Spoon your mixture into the lined loaf tin and smooth level
• Bake for approximately 50 -60 minutes, until golden, well risen and tested cooked with a skewer.
• Cool initially in the tin and then cool on a wire rack.

CCC No 16 - Strawberry and rose swiss roll for South Lancashire CCC visit to Thru the Looking Glass, Wheelton (16th)

Summer is in full swing in Lancashire and we have been really lucky to snaffle a great venue for our June clandestine cake club meeting. Our meeting was hosted at the delightful vintage tearoom "Thru the Looking glass" tea room is situated in the quaint Lancashire village of Wheelton, just outside Chorley. This gorgeous vintage tea room is so cute and so beautiful, delightfully quirky and has beautiful teas, coffees and of course CAKE ! 

Lynn the owner is also a very talented Interior designer as well and she stocks a great range of fabrics and interior design products. Thru the Looking glass also prides its self in catering for gluten and lactose free diets as well. 

                                         

                           


                           

Delightful outside seating area

                                  

Our theme for our meeting was "Vintage Classics" taking its inspiration from the tea room and our members rose to the challenge wonderfully, producing an array of delightful summery vintage creations. My bake for this meeting was a Strawberry and Rose Swiss roll the recipe is below.

The cakes we enjoyed

• Toffee apple cake
• Black Forest cake
• Caramel cake
• Pineapple upside down cake
• Victoria sponge with cream
• Battenburg
• Cherry cake (apologies to Anne as I missed photographing your cake)
• Weetabix
• Strawberry and rose swiss roll

We had a wonderful time sipping tea and munching cake on a lovely sunny Lancashire evening, our members old and new had travelled from near and far and thoroughly enjoyed our hidden gem of a location. Many I am sure will be back in the near future to visit this lovely tea room.

What you need to make the strawberry and rose swiss roll

• 3 eggs - free range, separated
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 100g self raising flour - sifted 
• 170g caster sugar
• Fresh strawberries - hulled and halved and sliced
• 200ml double cream - whipped to soft peak stage
• 2 tbsp strawberry jam (thinned slightly with the cordial)
• Rose cordial
• Greased and lined swiss roll tin

What you do 

• Firstly pre heat your oven to 180c 
• Now whisk the egg yolks and vanilla paste with 3/4 of the caster sugar until pale, light and fluffy
• In a separate bowl now whisk the egg whites , gradually adding the remaining 1/4 of the caster sugar until you reach soft peak stage. I use my trusty Kitchenaid mixer.
• Now gently fold a large spoonful of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture to loosen it and the fold in most of the egg white mixture trying at all times to retain the air in the mixture, now sieve in the flour gently and fold in, finishing with the last of the egg white.
• Now that the mixture is well incorporated, pour into the prepared tin, smooth with a palette knife if necessary.
• Bake in the oven for 10 -15 minutes, until golden and well rise and tested cooked with a cocktail stick.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin
• On another piece of baking parchment turn out the sponge, quickly removing the top layer of paper.
• Using the remaining piece of baking parchment , gingerly roll the swiss roll up still containing the paper. This is so the roll can cool folded to prevent cracking.
• Whilst your roll is cooling, mix the whipped cream with the jam and rose cordial, just gently you are going for a ripple effect and prepare your strawberries.
• Once the sponge roll is cool, unroll and spread the whipped cream mixture across roll and the strawberries , then gently re roll using the paper to assist rolling it back up.
• When roll dust with icing sugar and decorate to your taste, I used strawberries and rose petals on a vintage plate inherited from my Nanna.

And here's a cheeky image of fellow blogger Rachel (Vintage Folly) suitably vintage styled enjoying the tea and cake !

                                                  

Goosnargh loaf cake with orange buttercream filling and icing

Given that the theme for the latest clandestine cake club was "Lancashire afternoon Tea", I decided to have a go at re inventing the Goosnargh cake as a real cake.

Goosnargh cakes are a traditional Lancashire delicacy which are more like a biscuit than a cake, however there is traditional English cake "The Seed Cake" that shares some similarities. 

The Seed Cake features caraway seeds in much the same way as a Goosnargh cake does so that  was the inspiration for the cake, given that this was cake club I needed to enhance the cake so I decided on a fresh orange buttercream, caraway and orange being a traditional pairing.

I used Nigel Slater's Seed Cake recipe which can be found here, please pay heed to Nigel's advice re the quantity of caraway you use as otherwise your cake will be horrid, I have ignored his advice however when it comes to gilding the lily and plumped for fresh orange buttercream which seem to go down well at cake club.

To make the orange buttercream filling and icing , I used softened butter, icing sugar, juice of 1 fresh squeezed orange and the zest of the said orange, whipped until not grainy in my trusty mixer. A lovely fresh contrast to the caraway in the cake.


I am entering this post into Farmers Girl  Nigel Slater Dish of the Month linky that she runs with Sue over at A Little bit of heaven on a plate.

                                              

Vintage Tea Party Year

Don't you just love a book that along side recipes has craft and hair styling tips, what ! you never had one that has both ? well you never read one of Angel Adoree's seminal works. I just love this book , as soon as you seen the front cover you know you are handling something special, reminiscent of a fairy story book of your childhood, its enchanting.

This is Angel Adoree's second work and is just wonderful, vintage style and with great ideas on how to make seasonal and family celebrations special. The Vintage Tea Party year covers

• New Years Eve Tea Party
• Children Tea Party
• Coming of Age Tea Party
• Tea for Two
• Hen Tea Party
• Wedding Tea Party
• Mum To be Tea party
• Gentleman's Tea party
• Street Tea Party
• Picnic Tea Party
• Guy Fawkes Tea Party
• Christmas Tea Party

Each section has recipes, invites, thank you notes, decoration tips and funky craft ideas to get the party started. As well as penning cookery book , Angel runs a successful vintage event hosting company, this book is so much more than cook book and would make a great gift for a girl friend who loves all things vintage.

I received my copy of this book from Octopus Publishing free of charge, you can purchase a copy direct from them or alternatively Amazon or any independent bookseller.