Cranberry and citrus cookies and an 80th birthday cake.

Recently at my weekly yoga class we held an informal 80th birthday party for a lady who attend regularly and is a great advert for the benefits of yoga, amazingly enough she had just returned from a month long tour of New Zealand too, so I for one will be carrying out practising yoga as long as I can.

As part of the birthday celebration my contribution was a lemon meringue birthday, which I was pretty proud of (the base recipe being a Fiona Cairns recipe from The Birthday Cake Book), as our yoga class is a quaint country church hall I couldn't adore the cake with candles through fear of setting off the fire alarm, so I resorted to raiding the garden for suitable edible greenery and flowers. I plumped for the fragrant yellow day lily and freshly picked lemon balm leaves.

As the birthday cake was topped with blousey meringues I had a couple of egg yolks left over so I came up with this recipe which is takes it inspiration from several sources, a Gino D'Acampo recipe for sultana cookies from Italian Baking and a lemon drizzle biscuit from Biscuit by Miranda Gore Brown.

What you need

• 85g butter - softened (needs to be very soft)
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks - left over from the meringue making
• Couple of drops of Fiori di Silica essence (from Bakery Bits)
• 175g plain flour - I used gluten free
• 50g fine cornmeal
• 85g dried cranberries - drained after being soaked in warm water for 20 minutes or so

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Mix all the ingredients except the cranberries in a mixer , until you have a course dough
• Add the cranberries to the mix and just incorporate until the mix comes together
• Take walnut sized lumps of dough and roll into balls, place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and flatten slightly
• The mixture makes approximately 18 - 20 cookies
• Bake for 15 -20 minutes until golden 
• Cool on tray for a few minutes before carefully removing o a wire rack to cool fully
• Store in an airtight tin

We are linking up this month to Simply Eggcellent , the theme this month being anything goes created and hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen. As this is recipe that uses egg yolks after making meringues.

                                              

We are linking up to Treat Petite this month - the theme being Lets Get Fruity ! created and hosted by Cakeyboi , as the resultant cookie is very fresh and fruity.

                                  

                                 

And also to Bake of the Week over at Casa Costello , which is a challenge for all things baking....

                                                

Fresh Cranberry and Almond Slices

It's always around about this time of year that I start craving fruit. It must be something to do with the change in the weather; possibly also due to the fact that more and more chocolate and festive treats are becoming part of my daily diet.

I love the colour of cranberries, so bright and cheerful. They are relatively undiscovered in this country other than the ubiquitous cranberry sauce. Our friends over the Pond however, use this beautiful berry in a  range of bakes, both fresh and dried.

Since discovering this recipe I have already made it a couple of times, once for a birthday cake for a close friend and  again for my work colleagues who loved the bake as a tasty contrast to all the mince pies and chocolates at this time of year.

Once baked, the berries keep their lovely bright pinky-red colour and the almonds provide a crunchy contrast to the soft almondy sponge.

If you want to serve this for a special occasion, just cut it into dinky little squares and serve on an attractive platter dusted with icing sugar. If you can find some suitable "kitsch" decorations, why not accessorize accordingly. 

What you need

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup softened butter 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs - free range (whisked together with the milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup milk ( I used skimmed)
• 1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries (chopped in half)
• Flaked almonds

You will need a non stick baking tray about 9" by 5" and approx 1" deep, sprayed with oil or cake release

What you do

• On a plate or a shallow dish, sieve the flour and baking powder to remove any lumps
• In your mixer cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Add the vanilla paste, almond extract to the mixer and the egg/milk mixture and the flour, whisk briskly until you have a smooth mixture
• Gently fold in the chopped cranberries by hand
• Tip into your prepared tin and smooth the top
• Sprinkle with flaked almonds
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c (160c fan) for approx 35 minutes until golden, well risen and cooked through
• Cool in the tin
• Cut into slices or squares

I am linking up this post to Blue Kitchen Bakes - Fresh Cranberry Recipe Linky