Boil and Bake Christmas Cake

Last weekend I made mincemeat for the store cupboard for Christmas, this week I am baking a Christmas cake. Over the last few years I have made a variety of different cake recipes , traditional fruit , chocolate fruit, so this year I have gone for a boil and bake fruit cake, sort of a combination of the two. This recipe is based on one I came across in Good Housekeeping magazine and is very easy, the result appears to be quite impressive but only time will tell.

Ingredients

• 175g butter
• 500g mixed luxury dried fruit
• 100g ready to eat prunes - chopped
• 100g glace cherries - roughly chopped
• 100g Cranberries / Stem ginger (your choice)
• Finely grated zest of a lemon ( unwaxed)
• 150ml amaretto
• 175g dark brown muscovado sugar
• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 3 eggs beaten

8inch cake tin, loose bottomed - greased and lined on base and sides

Method

Preheat your oven to 140C. Place all you dried fruit in a large pan with the lemon zest and amaretto, bring to the boil and allow to simmer for approx 5 minutes. Then add the butter and sugar and allow to melt and stir to ensure well incorporated and the sugar has melted.

Take the pan off the heat and allow to cool  slightly before adding the other ingredients and spices, stir to mix well and pour into the prepared cake tin. Bake for approx 1-45 to 2 hours, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Once baked leave to cool in the tin, once completely cool, wrap and store in an airtight in, feeding at weekly / fortnightly intervals until Christmas.

Beetroot Rosti

Another #thinkyouknowbeetroot recipe this time for an accompaniment to a main meal, based on the traditional rosti recipe this one uses beetroot.

Ingredients

• 3-4 large cooked and peeled beetroot 
• 2 tsp Rosemary fresh leaves chopped
• Salt and pepper 
•  ½ cup of plain flour
• 2 tbsp butter

Method

Grate the beetroot with a coarse grater or food processor, Press any excess water out of them using a sieve. Heat a large non-stick pan on a medium heat ready to fry the rosti.Mix the grated beetroot in bowl with the rosemary and season to taste, then mix in the flour, adding just enough to bind the ingredients.

No with your hands press the beetroot mixture into patties and form the rosti, add the butter to the pan and once it begins to sizzle, add the beetroot patties.Turn the heat up a little, fry the patties for 10 minutes and allow them to crisp, shimmy the pan if they start to stick. Flip them over and fry for another 10 minutes on the other side.

Delicious, here served with chicken and a spinach sauce.

Beetroot Butter Pie

In one of my very early blog posts, I have a recipe for a traditional Lancashire Delicacy, this site is called Lancashire Food after all. I am talking about "Butter Pie" my most popular post by far, so in honour of the #thinkyouknowbeetroot challenge I have decided to "pimp" this most traditional of dishes. Beetroot is a traditional accompaniment to most meals which contain potato in Lancashire and is often served along side meat and potato pies and most famously with Lancashire Hotpot. The pie is a hearty meal which needs nothing with it other than maybe a cup of tea. I used Simon Hopkinson's "The Good Cook" pastry recipe from his Mum's Lancashire Cheese and onion pie as my base and went from there.

Ingredients

For the Pastry

• 60g Lard
• 60g Butter
• 200g Self raising flour
• pinch of salt
• 2-3 tbsp cold water
• Egg Wash

For the Pie filling

• 4 large potatoes peeled, cut into round approx thickness of a pound coin
• 1 large onion
• salt & pepper
• Butter ( it does contain butter!)
• 2-3 lightly pickled beetroot, cut to the same thickness as the potatoes

You will need an enamel pie dish, its not a proper pie unless cooked an enamel tin !

Method

Rub in your flour & salt with your fats until breadcrumb like or use a food processor like me. Slowly add the water, mixing until a soft dough is formed, pull the pastry all together to form a ball and allow to rest in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes, before rolling out to line your tin and to make a lid large enough to cover your pie.

Whilst the pastry is resting, parboil your potatoes and onion until soft, drain the onion and potato and place in the pastry case ensuring that you do this in two layers, inserting the beetroot in the middle, dot each layer with flakes of butter and season with salt and pepper. Once you have filled your pie then top with your pastry lid and crimp the sides, make a 2 small slits in the top ( 2 slits is traditional in my family) to allow steam to escape. Wash the top with egg and then bake in a preheated oven at 180c for approx 30 minutes, until golden and smelling delicious. Serve immediately.

This recipe is dedicated to all Lancashire expats where ever they may be in the world, a taste of home !

Apple and sloe vodka mincemeat

I have never made mincemeat before but inspired by Holly's Blog  , one of the finalist's in the year's Great British Bake Off, I thought I would have a go. Especially as I am still trying to use up the glut of apples from the Garden. The recipe is surprisingly easy and the results look and smell like the luxury mincemeat you can buy commercially ( haven't tasted it yet as you need to leave it for at least a couple of weeks to mature), I also took the opportunity of using some of my store of sloe vodka as the preserving alcohol. This is my second contribution to the  #homemadeandwellpreserved campaign. Check out Sue's blog for further yummy recipes Not just any old food blog or via twitter @TwitTottee using the hash tag.

Ingredients

• Apple - grated equivalent quantity of 1 large cooking apple (peeled and cored)
• 600g mixed dried fruit ( use whatever you like sultanas,raisins, currants, glace cherries)
• 300g suet 
• 250g dark muscovado sugar
• 85g mixed chopped peel
• Good pinch of ground nutmeg
• Good pinch of mixed spice
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon ( unwaxed)
• 100ml of alcohol ( whisky, vodka, gin, brandy, port, etc) whatever you like
• Fresh bay leaves

Method

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, leave for flavours to mingle for approximately an hour. Pack the mincemeat into sterilised jars ( the jars must be cooled otherwise the suet will melt) and seal. Leave for at least two weeks before use, ideally keep until Christmas and use to fill homemade mince pies. Could also make a great gift.

Sweetfire beetroot, goat cheese and rocket salad

As one of the lucky bloggers taking part in the #thinkyouknowbeetroot campaign from lovebeetroot  here is the first recipe using one of the samples I have been sent to play with. Any regular readers of my blog will know that I enjoy finding novel ways of using ingredients. I was lucky to already to have a supply of fabulous local goats cheese from Capra Products, the last of homegrown wild rocket and a few tomatoes from the garden. Sweetfire beetroot is baby beetroots marinated in a chilli olive oil dressing, so the beetroot has a slight chilli piquancy, I mixed up a quick olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing ( I use Gift of Oil black label) to pull the dish together.

Ingredients

• Salad Rocket
• Sweetfire Beetroot
• Goats cheese
• Tomatoes (optional)
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil

Method

Place the beetroot on your serving plate, sprinkle with rocket, crumble the goats cheese and drizzle with your dressing. Delicious, simple lunch ideal served with crusty bread to mop up the lovely dressing.

Spiced Apple Chutney

My cake baking, hen keeping friend Susan, who I met as one of the organisers of the South Lancashire Clandestine Cake Club, has launched her own cyber initiative #homemadeandwellpreserved. She has a lovely foodie blog called "A little bit of heaven on a plate".This initiative is for making preserves, either as additions to your store own cupboard or as a gift.

In recent weeks I have fighting a losing battle with fruit off the tree's in the garden. Apples and courgettes are mainly this years glut. As I really hate waste, I am in full blown jamming and preserving mode. This spicy apple chutney is a favourite way to use up some apples. Its an easy recipe and is lovely on a cheese sandwich or with a cold pork pie. 

Ingredients

• 225g Onions - chopped
• 900g Apples - cored and chopped
• 110g sultanas, raisins or chopped dates
• 15g ground coriander
• 15g paprika
• 15g mixed spice
• 15g salt
• 340g sugar
• 750ml vinegar - malt but you can use fruit vinegars as well

Method

Place all the ingredients into a large pan, slowly bring to the boil ensuring all the sugar has melted. Simmer for a couple of hours ( I can't be exact as it depends on the moisture level in your fruit), stirring from time to time to ensure the chutney doesn't stick and burn. Its ready when you can draw a spoon across and the channel does not fill with liquid. Pot into sterilised jars, seal and cool. Store in a dark cool cupboard for a couple of months for the full flavour to develop. Its not easy to be precise with how many jars either this recipe makes between 3 - 6 jam jars. 

Chocolate Beetroot Brownies

Flicking through this month's Country Living magazine I came across another recipe for Chocolate Beetroot Brownies, I normally use HFW recipe but thought I would try this one. The result is a very moist chocolatey brownie that also seems light in texture, this is hubby's favourite brownie so far and uses beetroot one of my favourite ingredients due to its vivid colour. Beetroot are very easy to grow in the garden too !

Ingredients

• 250g cooked beetroot ( or you could use a packet) pureed until smooth
• 200g plain dark colour
• 250g butter
• 250g caster sugar
• 3 eggs ( free range please)
• 150g self raising flour, sifted

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c, whilst the oven is warming for eco reasons, I put the butter and chocolate in a bowl to melt in the warming oven. Meanwhile whisk together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, whisk in the butter and chocolate  mix when melted and then add the flour, mix well and pour into your lined 30cm by 22cm baking tin.

Bake until well risen and until just slightly moist in the centre. This will be approximately 20 minutes. Allow to cool and then cut in to chunky pieces.

Another courgette cake recipe - Spicy this time !

The courgette plants in the garden are still producing in abundance and as we also have builders in at the moment any home baking isn't lasting very long, so I am baking again. This recipe has a lot of similarities to a carrot cake in its spicing and is a from a newspaper cutting I have had for many years, I think this was originally from the "Saturday Telegraph".

Ingredients

• 225g Caster sugar
• 170g soft brown sugar
• 350g plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarb
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 200ml sunflower oil, extra for tin oiling
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 225g courgettes - grated finely
• 200g raisins

Method  

Preheat your oven to 180c, oil and flour your deep cake tin - approx 33cm by 23 cm. Grate your courgettes and then add all other ingredients, beat to mix well and pour into your prepared tin. Bake for approx 40 -60 minutes until cooked and well risen. You could decorate with a cream cheese topping flavoured with orange or vanilla if you are serving straight away. This keeps well in an airtight tin and freezes successfully as well if wrapped in foil.

Freemasons at Wiswell

For a quite a while we have been promising ourselves a visit to the Freemasons@Wiswell, especially after we had attended the chef demonstration at Clitheroe Food Festival by Steven Smith. I booked our table a few weeks ago for my birthday lunch, the inn itself is cosily situated in a little nook off the main village green. Parking, I think could be an issue as this is a Lancashire hill village, so leave plenty of time to park but there is plenty of on road parking in the village. The inn's decor is rustic country pub style, warm and inviting, I especially liked the glass cloth style napkins and tartan curtains. We were warmly welcomed and seated at our table by the fireplace, Despite it only being just after 12 noon the pub was busy, we were brought menu's and our drinks order taken. The inn is well staffed and we were looked after well, all staff had a smile and were knowledgeable about the food and drink on offer.

The menu's changes frequently to reflect the seasons and the best local produce.  As this was our first visit and the fact that I like to try a seasonal menu we chose from the excellent value "seasonal menu", the a la carte also looked very tempting.

Various local beers were on offer including one from 3B's from Blackburn and also a local cider, after selecting our choice of the home-baked bread our starters arrived. I have opted for the Chicken and sweetcorn veloute, which was served in a china tea cup, this was a delicious well flavoured soup topped with a thick creamy swirl, crispy chicken skin crumbs and chives. Hubby ordered the the Pughs Piglet, a terrine of "porkyness" including being studded with black pudding, the terrine was garnished with apples and blackberries. If hubby could have licked the plate he would have. 

On to the mains, we had been recommended to order some of the wicked chunky chips cooked in duck fat, as neither of our mains came with potatoes, these were presented in a cute frying basket. Hubby's main was Hake with butter sauce, mushy peas and tartare sauce, this was pronouced "amazing"and quickly demolished, I did get to sample it however and it was beautifully balanced. My main was the Tandoori roast pork belly, pork nuggets and scratchings, pumpkin, apple and cumin. Yummy !


On to the desserts, spiced plum souffle with a hot plum sauce for Mr B, Lemon Tart for me served with a salted walnut crumble, poached blueberries, clove ice cream. The clove ice cream was awesome, I am sure without a delicate touch this so easily could become medicinal, but this was perfectly balanced and absolutely delicious when eaten with the plum souffle.


This was our first visit but I am sure it won't be our last.

Spout House Farm

Today saw our first visit to Spout House Farm in Higher Wheelton, Chorley. We have been meaning to visit for  quite a while as this is a supplier to our favourite restaurant " The Red Cat", which is just down to the road from the farm. The farm shop also comes recommended by Phil from Slow Food Lancashire and Throughly Food. 

We were warmly welcomed and glad to see that this is a family affair with the emphasis on local produce and  Lancashire, the lamb and beef is produced on the premises and at a great price, also they have local free range chicken and pork, cheese vegetables and baked goods. 


Pay them a visit. I have some lamb shanks I am planning to slow cook, so I'll let you know the results.

UPDATE - The lamb shanks were awesome, slow cooked .

Fantasy Cupcakes

This week I finally got the opportunity to use the voucher from Fantasy Cupcakes which was in the NW Fine Foods hamper we won. 


I arranged delivery to my place of work, this immediately created some excitement when the delightful looking box  arrived. When you order you have the choice of various different flavours of cupcakes and the style of decoration, I choose a vanilla sponge but left the decoration up to Melinda  from Fantasy Cupcakes. She didn't disappoint, the cakes had either a pink or blue butter-cream  swirls delicately decorated with rosebuds, butterflies, bows and edible glitter. All my work colleagues were very impressed, one so much so that she is seriously considering ordering cupcakes for her wedding, the cakes were delicious and enjoyed by all. 

Cupcakes and Muffins - Ann Nicol Flame Tree Publishing

I have recently been approached by Flame Tree Publishing to review my first cookery book. I was excited to receive a copy of " Cupcakes and Muffins" by Ann Nicol to review, this is a lovely chunky wipe clean softback filled to the brim with delicious looking recipes.

The author Ann Nicol is an expert on cake baking and cake decorating, having written for many leading magazines such as BBC Good Food, Women's Weekly and Home and Freezer Digest. Her passion is all things baking and she has published many books in this topic area.

The book is divided into 8 sections which cover all you need to know to bake and decorate great looking and more importantly great tasting cupcakes and muffins.Sections such as basic techniques, once they're done and decorating lead you through baking and decorating the cakes and muffins.

The book has lots of recipes for you to try, some that are more unusual as well as the basics and has many ideas for novel ways to decorate your creations. Each recipe is illustrated and all are easy to follow and include storage details as well. Whilst loving the looks of cupcakes and muffins, some tend to be all topping and have little or no flavour when it comes to the cake part, so I was keen to try recipes from the book which were more about the cake and its flavour than the topping. I wasn't disappointed.

I tried the recipe for Banoffee cupcakes which used up some over ripe bananas I had in the kitchen, with the following results.

I also baked the Gingerbread Cupcakes as well

Both recipes gave great results and tasted as good as they looked. The book has a lot to offer both the beginner and the more experienced baker and has in particular a strong section on decoration and one on  basic cake recipes which can be used in a variety of different ways.


I would thoroughly recommend this book and this is seconded by the 5 star ratings it has on Amazon, where you can purchase a copy. It would make a great gift for a girlfriend or the bride to be.


The publisher also has a facebook page and is currently running a competition as well if you would like to enter.

Tomato and Tarragon Soup

As things are turning distinctly autumnal and having picked lots of vegetables from the garden recently, I am inspired to make soup. I am very fussy when it comes to soup, I am not  a fan of anything in a can and only really like homemade or may be New Convent Garden cartons.  I think this is  mainly because I like to know what is in the soup. A quick turn round the garden produced the ingredients for this soup. Credit for the lovely Foccacia has to go to Moreartisan bread.

Ingredients

• Tomatoes, chopped, but still with skins, pips, etc. You could use tinned if you haven't got fresh.
• 1 large onion chopped.
• 2 cloves of garlic - crushed.
• Butter - large knob of.
• Chicken stock.
• Tarragon- fresh or dried.
• Lovage - fresh.
• Salt & pepper to taste.

Method

Melt the butter in a large pan and start by sweating off the onion and garlic, until slighty softened. Now add the tomatoes and herbs, cook these gently for a few minutes, don't allow to colour. Now add the stock, you will need enough to cover the vegetables, simmer gently until all the vegetables are soft and the tomatoes broken down. Now seive into a clean pan, removing all the vegetables, pips and skins, taste for seasoning and add to taste. If the soup is too thin for your liking, then thicken with slaked cornflour. Serve with bread for a delicious treat.

More courgette cake - Courgette & Cinnamon Loaf

Another cake recipe to use up that glut of courgettes from the garden, this one freezes beautifully wrapped in foil, so its a good one to make to store for another day. The recipe originally came from the BBC Vegetarian magazine (no longer published) many years ago. 

Ingredients

• 225g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2tsp bicarb
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs beaten
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 150ml sunflower oil
• 100g light brown sugar
• 225g finely grated courgettes
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Sieve the flour and cinnamon, bicarb, salt and baking powder into a large bowl, then add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour into a oiled and lined 2lb loaf tin. Its a fairly liquid mixture, but don't worry it rises wonderfully. Bake until cooked through when tested with a skewer, this normally takes 45-60 minutes, but depends on your oven. Cool initially in the tin and then remove to cool fully on a wire rack.

The loaf should be served in thick slices , buttered if you like. Delicious and different too. We have had builders in at home recently and this proved very popular.

Little Poppet Cupcakes

Little poppet Cupcakes - lovingly prepared for your special occasion or an everyday treat.

I was recently given the opportunity to review these beautiful handcrafted cupcakes from "Little Poppet Cupcakes" who are based in Bolton, the selection I was given to review were thoughtfully titled "Blooming Lovely ", and they were. 

A delightful selection of dreamy looking cakes are lovingly presented in a special presentation carrier which holds the cupcakes.The decoration was superb and tastefully presented, I particularly liked the Daisy flowers, all were stunning and any recipient of these cakes would feel very special. The buttercream topping was a dream not too sweet, the icing soft and yielding and the cake soft and vanilla flecked. What more do you need in a cupcake? Treat yourself today.

Jamming !

After picking up a bargain of 2 kilos of fresh English strawberries at the market, jam making was in order. I always feel that homemade jam is far superior to shop bought, the flavour sparkles and is delicious on scones or in Victoria sponge.

I experimented with two different recipes, the first one was a "Pam the Jam" from River Cottage, the second off the back of the jam sugar packet. We will have to see which one comes out better, Strawberry jam is particularly problematic and can easily up as strawberry soup, so its all in the set.

Jam is a great addition to the store cupboard and preserves the fruit for those dark winter days.

Pear, cardamon and sultana cake

My lovely friend Jo, delivered a huge carrier bag of pears from her garden this week so I have been scouting about for recipes to use my bounty. Pear chutney is planned but in the meantime I came across a recipe for this cake. Well you know me and cakes, so hear goes.

Ingredients

• 125g butter, soft
• 125g light brown sugar
• 2 eggs free range, lightly beaten
• 250g Self raising flour, sifted
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 4 tbsp milk
• 500g pears, peeled, cored and finely chopped
• 125g sultanas

Method

Beat the butter and sugar together in a food mixer until pale and fluffy, Continue beating in slowly the eggs, add a little of the flour if it looks like it will curdle. Stop the mixer and add the rest of the flour, cardamon and milk, quickly blend and then add the pears and sultanas to give a chunky cake mix. 

Spoon the mixture in a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin, bake in a preheated oven @ 160c for approximately 1 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool initially in the tin and then turn out to cool fully on wire rack.

Store in an airtight tin if it lasts that long. The result is a deliciously moist softly fruity cake. 

Random Bakes Of Kindness

Vanessa Kimbell, has created a quiet revolution across the internet with her #RBOKindness , the idea being to bake a little more of whatever you are baking and gift it to someone who you think deserves it as a gift.

What a lovely idea, I am all for sharing the love and if it makes someone smile even better. Personally I shared my last bake "Agave Cookies" with my lovely elderly neighbour "Jenny", despite being in her late 80's she still gardens and does her own cooking. I love popping in for a chat, sharing recipes and local gossip, correspondingly she is always willing to take in parcels when we are out and keep an eye on things when we are not there.

Check out Vanessa's blog for more details if you are interested in taking part.

Agave nectar baking - cookies

I have an interest in more unusual ingredients (you may have noticed) and also slightly more healthy recipes ( I know how can cake be healthy !), so I thought I would give Agave nectar a go. This a natural sweetner extract from the mexican wild agave cactus. You need to adapt your standard recipes but there are plenty on the internet for you to try.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup spelt, whole wheat flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup raisins
• ¼ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup agave nectar
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ tsp. vanilla paste

Method

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, preheat oven to 180c, place small balls on dough on a oiled baking sheet, press down well, bake for approx 10-15 minutes, cool slightly and then transfer to a wire cooling rack until fully cool.

Star Anise Biscuits

As there is a distinctly autumnal feel in the air and despite it being August, thoughts turn towards spicy baking which warms the soul. This recipe is based on a James Martin Recipe from BBC Good food. Aniseed flavours take me back to my childhood and the dark hard aniseed balls which you used to suck on for hours until they yielded a small anise seed in the middle. This biscuit has all the flavours of those sweets. It would also be ideal to serve with poached seasonal fruit ( apples, plums, blackberries) and cream, ice cream or custard.

Ingredients

• 50g farmhouse butter
• 2 tbsp demerara sugar
• 1 tbsp treacle
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground star anise
• 140g plain flour
• 1/2tsp bicarb
• some oil for the baking tray

Method

Preheat oven to 180c, then melt the butter, syrup, treacle and syrup in a pan until all the sugar is dissolved. Mix this with the sieved dry ingredients, this will result in a sticky paste, remove from bowl and wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins or more.

Gently roll out using a little extra flour until fairly thin, cut in to required shape and place on lightly oiled baking tray, place in oven and bake for approx 5 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool slightly on tray and then transfer to wire rack to cool fully. Store in an airtight tin.

Lancashire Pasty Company

What do you get when with classic flavour combinations are encased in pastry, = "The Lancashire Pasty Company".

The company established by Barry Woods specialises in using local quality ingreduients to create a classic pastie with a twist. I have been fortunate enough to sample the Caramelised onion and Black Pudding Pastie, a delicious combination which could have been heavy and fatty, but it wasn't, amazingly tasty, juicy and with a hint of mustard.

The "fish, chips and mushy peas" is a revelation, just like a classic chippy tea even with the vinegar. And for those of you with a sweet tooth apple, sasparilla and custard". Again a classic, the best that old parish Lancashire has to offer wrapped in pastry.

Genius !

Parsnip , apple and syrup cake

As you have probably noticed I have a thing about vegetable based cake recipes, this weekend's bake uses parsnip as its base. My recipe is based on one I found on bbcgoodfood.com, "Catherine Berwick's parsnip & maple syrup cake". However for economy reasons I swapped the majority of the maple syrup for golden syrup and also used a buttercream filling.

Ingredients

• 175g butter or butter/ quality vegetable margarine
• 250g demerara sugar
• 100ml maple syrup or golden syrup
• 3 eggs - free range
• 250g self raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 250g parsnip, peeled and grated
• 1 medium eating apple, grated, no pips or core
• zest and juice of an orange
• icing sugar for finishing

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease and base line 2 sandwich tins. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan gently, until all melted. Allow to cool slightly, then beat in the eggs, stir in the flour, baking powder and spice. Now add the parsnip, apple and orange. Pour into your prepared tins. Bake for 25-30 mins until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Cool on a wire rack, once cooled slightly take the cakes out of the tins and allow to cool fully.

You could fill with cream, buttercream, soft cheese or mascapone. I mixed up a vanilla buttercream and filled the cake with this.

This is a very light tasty cake, the spicy note is lovely and slightly autumnal.

Delicious !!!

Sticky Gingerbread cake

I normally bake at weekend and was inspired by a friend on facebook who was making Ginger cake so I decided to give a new recipe a try. The recipe proved very easy to make and produced 2 loaves of gingerbread.

Ingredients

• 225g self raising flour
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1tsp bicarb
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 115g butter
• 115g treacle
• 115g syrup
• 115g dark brown sugar
• 275ml milk
• 1 egg - beaten

Grease and line 2 x 2lb loaf tins

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c . Start by sifting the flour, bicarb and spices into a bowl. Add the cubed butter and rub in like you are making pastry, you could use a food processor. Warm the treacle and sugar in a pan or in the microwave, do not boil. Melt the sugar in the milk by gently warming. Allow to cool until lukewarm.

Quickly mix the milk mixture and then the syrup mixture with the flour, then add the egg, mix well and then pour into the prepared tins.

Bake for approx 45 mins until when tested with a skewer and is fully cooked.

Turn out of tin when fully cooled, wrap and leave to go sticky for at least a day if you can resist that long .

Blackberry Crumble cheesecake

Currently we have loads of blackberries ready in the garden, we grow the thornless variety "loch ness" and its great, very reliable. We had friends from Spain visiting so I made this for dessert for our "tea". It was enjoyed by all, left overs went to work the next day and disappeared very quickly.

Ingredients

• 250g digestive biscuits
• 125g butter melted plus a little more to grease the cake tin
• 175g caster sugar
• 300g full fat soft cheese
• 2 eggs separated
• 250ml double cream
• 100g blackberries , halved
• vanilla paste
• Topping
• 100g plain flour
• 50g butter cold
• 50g demerara sugar
• 100g blackberries halved

You will need a deep springform cake tin

Method

Firstly pre heat the oven to 160c. Crush your digestive biscuits to a fine crum, I use a food processor and then add the melted butter, I use the microwave, pulse to mix and the form the base in your cake tin, press it down firmly. Now grease the rest of the tin with the reserved butter. Chill whilst you make the filling.

Whisk half of the caster sugar with the soft cheese, then add the vanilla paste and the egg yolk. Once well mixed add the double cream.

Now whisk the egg whites until at the stiff peak stage, now add your rest of your sugar in 2 stage, whisks well, until shiny and well peaked.. Now mix the meringue mixture to the cheese mixture, don't worry too much about loosing air in the mixture

Now spoon a layer of the cheese mixture on to your base and top with some blackberries, add more cheese mixture and more blackberries until you run out of mixture. Now place this in the oven to bake for approx 20 mins whilst you make the crumble topping.

To make the topping, rub the butter into the flour, once it resembles crumbs add the sugar and the blackberries. After the 20 mins have passed carefully top the cheesecake with the topping and bake for another 40 mins , don't be alarmed if it rises then sinks this is normal. Once golden on top remove to cool fully before springing the cake tin. Keep refrigerated.

Delicious !!!!!

CCC No 1 - Chocolate Beetroot Cake

In honour of the inaugural South Lancashire Clandestine Cake Club, i need a reliable but showy recipe. This cake has already been featured on BBC Radio Lancashire and on BBC North West Tonight, so I thought it fitted the bill.

Ingredients

• 180ml sunflower oil
• 190g self raising flour
• 60g cocoa powder ( i use Green & Blacks)
• 1tsp bicarb
• 250g caster sugar
• 250g cooked beetroot
• 3 eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract or 1/4tsp vanilla paste

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c

Oil and line a round cake tin, approx 23cm in diameter, I use a spring clip one, its easier.

In a large bowl sift the flour, cocoa and bicarb, stir in the sugar.

Puree the beetroot in a processor , until well pureed. Add the dry ingredients, then add the eggs and vanilla and then the oil. Mix well and then pour into your prepared tin.

Bake in the oven for approx 45 - 50 mins, or cooked when tested with a skewer. Remove and cool on a wire tray.

To ice mix 250g icing sugar with a little water and red or pink colouring to make a thick icing, pour over the icing and allow to set. Now you let your artistic side reign free and melt white and dark chocolate separately in the microwave, about 25g of each type and then drizzle all over the cake.

The cake went down very well with the South Lancs Clandestine cake club members.

If you are interested in joining the South Lancs Clandestine cake club check out the link.