September CCC - A Year of Cake Book Launch at Ebb and Flo, Chorley

September saw the launch of the second Clandestine Cake Club Recipe book and proudly yours truly has a recipe featured in the new book. To celebrate the publication of the new book which made a return visit to the small but perfectly formed Ebb and Flo in Chorley, an independent book shop owned by the brilliant Dianne, who is supportive of all things local and cake loving.

The bookshop is situated down a side street just off the high street and is an Aladdin's cave of all things bookish, we held our celebration upstairs and shared cake with all visitors to the book shop and also with our loyal bakers and cake clubbers. 

                            

Here we are perusing the stock and enjoying coffee and cake

For the launch, I baked my Buckwheat, carrot and sultana cake which is gluten free and very moreish and is featured in the book.

Kate baked a delicious blueberry, pecan and buttermilk cake

Mr Lancashire Food baked a Chocolate Yogurt cake with a sticky decadent chocolate ganache on top

Carla baked a scrummy Date and Walnut cake

We had a great time as always and the cakes was wonderful, massive thanks go to Dianne at Ebb and Flo

Banana and honey loaf cake - gluten free and no artificial sugars

Here at Lancashire Food we don't like to waste food and also where possible create recipes which not only taste good but do you good. This recipe ticks all the boxes for us, using ripe bananas for the majority of the sweetness for this cake and just a touch of honey its free from artificial sugars and being full of all things that are good for you it a "super" bake.  A great debate currently ranges in the food community about the amount of sugar in our diets and home cooking and baking gives you the control to adjust the amount of sugar added to your recipes. We like that, we use buckwheat flour here for its nutritional value but a basic plain gluten free flour would also work.

Please don't expect this to taste exactly like a normal banana loaf as it doesn't, but it still has some sweetness and as we are using honey you can adjust the sweetness level to your taste, I would suggest starting at 1/2 cup and reducing down from there as your taste buds acclimatise to less sweetness.

A couple of months ago we started hosting a local beekeepers hive in our garden and hopefully very shortly we might just (fingers crossed) get to taste some honey from our bees, its a fascinating process and has been very interesting watching the development of a new hive with all its trails and tribulations. In just a short couple of months we have had issues with wasps ( nasty things that attack hives ), the birth of a new queen and the balancing act of when to collect the honey. I have been stung twice once by a bee (yes a honey bee) and also by a wasp ( very painful and much worse than a bee sting).

So hopefully next time I bake this loaf we might be using our own honey .........

What you need

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour (check gluten free if necessary as not all are)
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cardamon
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 eggs - free range
• 1/4 cup - coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of milk (any type nut, cows, goat)
• 1 tsp cider or wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup of local honey
• 3 ripe bananas

2lb loaf tin, oiled and base lined.
If you don't have all the spices to hand sweet mixed spice or lebuken spice can be substituted

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Mash the banana roughly in the bowl of your mixer
• Add all other ingredients
• Mix thoroughly and pour into prepared tin
• Place in the oven and bake for approx 45 minutes
• Cool in tin
• Delicious served slavered with butter

We are linking up to Bake of the Week over on Casa Costello

                                                             

Also to Recipe of the Week with Emily over on A Mummy Too

                                                            

Love Cake - Back to Basics over on Jibberjabber, as this is good basic banana loaf recipe at heart.

                                   

Simply Eggcellent - Theme being Cakes this month over with Dom at Belleau Kitchen (Happy Birthday !) which celebrates all thing egg.

                                                               

Credit Crunch Munch over at Fuss Free Flavours as once again we are using up manky bananas. A blog challenged created by Fuss Free Flavours and Fab Food for all.

                                                 

And finally No Waste Food Challenge blog hop over at Foodie Quine this month. This challenge was created by Elizabeths Kitchen Diary.

                                                             

Booths - New Lytham St Annes store to open

Booths, the North West based food and wine retailer, will open a new store in Lytham St Annes on September the 9^th. The new Booths is over 36,000 square feet and will feature a café, butchery, fishmonger and state of the art deli counters.  The store has created 90 new jobs.

Ian Jacques has been appointed as the new store manager, and has 31 years of experience of working at Booths. Ian started working at Booths Fulwood at the age of 14, while still at school—with the ambition of joining the Management Trainee Programme.  Following several years managing other Booths stores, in 2011 he was appointed manager of Booths in Knutsford, Cheshire, one of Booths’ largest stores.

“My team and I cannot wait for the new store to open,” commented Ian. “Lancashire producers are making and growing some of the finest food Britain has to offer, and our store is looking fantastic. I think customers will be excited about our new offer. What sets Booth apart is our close link to producers and exceptional produce.”

Booths is renowned for quality food and drink and sourcing fresh, local produce in season.  The vast majority of their fresh food is sourced within this region due to their commitment to working with suppliers in the four counties Booths operate in; Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria and Yorkshire.

Chairman Edwin Booths says “Booths is a supermarket retailer like no other—proudly Northern, family run and independent. Our regional roots and relative small size help to forge close relationships with our farmers & producers. We’re able to source exceptional food and drink from small scale producers who would normally avoid supplying the supermarkets. We’re committed to giving our producers a fair price and offering our shoppers great food and we’re very excited to open in St Annes.”

A year of cake - The new Clandestine cake club recipe book

Proud to say that we have a recipe in the new Clandestine Cake Club recipe book. A Year of Cake - features 100 new recipes from the club including my recipe for a scrummy gluten free treat of Buckwheat, carrot and sultana cake, with a fresh orange buttercream.

A delicious recipe if I do say so myself , I will be baking this cake for the celebration book launch we are holding at Ebb and Flo Books in Chorley on Saturday 12th September 2015, at 2pm.

The book is also currently on special offer on Amazon for the bargain price of £10 and apparently is already on reprint due to the volume of pre orders.

Cooking with Herbs - September 2015

Its with great excitment that this month we are hosting this month's Cooking with Herbs, whilst the lovely Karen is away travelling in Canada (lucky lady), hopefully she has left it in safe hands whilst she is away

As the new series of Great British Bake Off for this year is well underway and as always the bakers are being ccreative with their flavour choices. I thought it would be fun to theme this months linky to baking, cooking with herbs in Breads, biscuits and cakes. Please join in the fun as I am looking forward to seeing all your lovely baking creations, as I know we have lots of talented bakers out there.

You find the roundup if last months linky here - the theme being Herbal Flowers

So if you fancy joining the baking fun just follow the instructions below

September Cooking with Herbs

Bread, Biscuits & Cakes

Guidelines how to enter:

1. Post your recipe url to the Linky at the bottom of the appropriate month’s challenge, including your email and the title of your recipe or post.

2. Display the Cooking with Herbs badge (as shown above and below) to the relevant recipe post, with a link back to the monthly challenge post.

3. Add as many recipe links as you like, there is NO limit!

4. If you tweet your post, please mention #cookingwithherbs and @KarenBurnsBooth in your tweet – I will retweet all that I see. If a guest blogger is hosting, please add them into the tweet too! So for this month please tweet @LancashireFood 

5. The recipe can be one of your own or one you’ve seen elsewhere. You are welcome to republish old recipes/posts but please add the information about this challenge as listed above with the Cooking with Herbs badge.

6. If using a recipe from another person, book, website, chef or blog, you must link back to the original recipe and not reproduce the recipe in full in your post. You must also use your OWN images for the recipe and not the original images, unless you have permission to do so, with appropriate links and any other information requested by the photo’s owner added to the image.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

September 2015 - Tim Proctor - Proctors Cheeses

Hi everyone, this month's choosen foodie is non other than Tim Procter of Procters Cheeses, also the man behind that amazing cheese brand Kick Ass Cheddar,  the cheese with a tasty cheddar twang yet a still creamy cheese.

The Kick Ass range includes several different varieties the newest been a Rioja with red onion chutney which I must say is absolutely delicious toasted, which I got to taste at the most recent Clitheroe Food Festival.

You can get in touch with Kick Ass on facebook, Twitter and even order via Amazon, plus its stocked by quality local cheesemongers as well. Procters Cheeses are based in Chipping right at the heart of Lancashire Cheese Country.

Myself and Tim Procter at Clitheroe Food Festival

What is your favourite cookery or food book or publication ?

Anything from Padstow chef Rick Stein.  I like his no-nonsense approach to cooking and the sourcing of ingredients

What sentence sums up Lancashire Food to you ?

Just like our world famous Lancashire cheese that is unique, in that it has 3 distinctly different varieties in one type of cheese – I think that sums up the county as a whole…hugely diverse and yet offering the best of everything.

If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you like to be ?

If I hadn’t become a cheese factor, I am sure I would have joined the British Military.  My secondary school days were spent as a boarder at Bentham Grammar School in North Yorkshire.  A lot of my friends were children whose parents were in the military and always took a keen interest in where they were stationed and the roles they had.

Which piece of kit could you not do without ?

The TV remote…I live in a house with 4 females, and I need to feel that I’M IN CHARGE

Who would join you at your ultimate dinner party and why?

MALE: Robert De Niro as he’d definitely give the evening a bit of an edge.  

FEMALE: Cameron Diaz…nuff said really.

What advice would you give to your younger self ?

Make the very most of every opportunity that comes your way.  You WILL get the chances….TAKE THEM

Describe your style in three words

DETERMINED – POSITIVE – EASY GOING

What was your latest foodie gadget purchase ?

A new kitchen for wife Sue

What is your greatest achievement to date ?

Being married to the lovely Sue for the last 22 years and raising two beautiful daughters (Georgina 17 / Emma 15)

What is the worst mistake you have made ?

Sometimes being too soft with people that I actually don’t know that well, allowing them to mistake my generosity and good nature for weakness

Tell us a secret about yourself ? may be something we wouldn’t expect !

I have been known to sulk if I don’t get my own way ;-)