Easter Treat - Marbled banana and chocolate hazelnut loaf, gluten free too !

We are hosting We should cocoa this month, so we just had to join in the fun. This month's theme is eggs and this recipe using eggs in two formats, the traditional hens type and liberal quantities of Crispy chocolate eggs. I am really happy as well as this post gave me the opportunity to utilise this beautiful Emma Bridgewater plate in the photography, which appropriately enough features both feathers and eggs in its design, I just love it....

The bake is a perfect Mothers Day or Easter treat and is a lovely easy recipe even though its gluten free, better the day after baking so the banana flavour is more prominent. Loosely based on a Good Housekeeping recipe but made gluten free.

Eggs are a celebration of Spring and new life so have a go and bake yourself a celebration of the new season.

You will need

• 50ml Sunflower oil
• 3 medium eggs - free range - beaten
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 ripe bananas -mashed
• 225g plain Greek yogurt
• 300g plain flour - gluten free
• 1tsp bicarb
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp xanthum gum *
• 150g chocolate hazelnut spread (check gluten free, most are)

To make topping

• 2tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread
• 1tbsp milk - skimmed
• 1 - 2  bags of chocolate crispy eggs - smashed (check gluten free)

2 * 2lb loaf tins - lined

What you do

• Pre heat oven to 160c
• Line your loaf tins - I use the prepared liners from the £ shop, but greaseproof paper will work fine too.
• Whisk the oil, eggs and sugar in a stand mixer bowl until pale, light and fluffy
• Add the banana, yogurt and flour, bicarb and baking powder and quickly mix, until you have an incorporated batter.
• Divide the mixture into two, into one half mix in the chocolate hazelnut spread
• Dollop (great word) blobs of each mixture into the prepared tins and then swirl with a knife to create the marbling.
• Place in the oven and bake for approximately 1 hour and 10 - 20 minutes, until you cakes are well risen and test cooked with a skewer.
• Cool in the tins on a wire rack
• To decorate when cool, mix the chocolate hazelnut spread with the milk and drizzle on to the top of your loaves, sprinkle with the smashed crispy chocolate eggs.
• Serve in decadent slices, store in the fridge covered with foil for a couple of days if it lasts that long.

We are also linking up to Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simply Eggcellent

                                                         
To Caroles Chatter - Food on Friday - Easter Foods

                                                           


Bake of the Week - Over at Casa Costello and new co host Maison Cupcake


                                                           

Yuletide Gingerbread - dairy and gluten free

Who doesn't like sticky gingerbread, the prefect accompainment to present wrapping and one sure fire way of putting in the festive mood. 

This gingerbread is the sticky cakey kind and not the crunchy gingerbread man type of gingerbread, again not a beauty and a recipe that practically always sinks slightly in the middle but it has a beautiful spicy warmth with just the right amount of cloves. Easily made dairy and gluten free if required so its a recipe for all. 

A tip for you - lightly oil the container you measure the treacle in otherwise it will make a very sticky mess.

What you need

• 50g soft brown sugar
• 50g granulated sugar
• 120g quality vegetable margarine (dairy free) - I use Pure
• 1 large free range egg
• 150ml treacle
• 300g Self raising flour ( I have made this gluten free and it works fine, you may need to a little more water)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 heaped tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 heaped tablespoon ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 60ml of warm water

2lb loaf tin - oil sprayed and lined

What you do

• Prepare the baking tin
• Preheat the oven to 175c
• Cream the sugars and margarine in a mixer , until well mixed, fluffy and lighter in colour
• Add the rest of the ingredients to the mixer
• Mix quickly until you have a smooth mixture
• Scoop into the prepared tin and place in the pre heated oven
• Bake for 50 - 55 minutes
• Cool initially in the tin
• Remove from tin to a wire rack to cool fully
• Wrap and store in an airtight tin, if you can leave it for a few days its starts to go delightfully sticky.
• Delicious served with a cup of tea 

We are linking up to Love Cake over on JibberJabberUk , theme this month is "Festive Fun"

                                                        

Simply Eggcellent - with Dom at Belleau Kitchen, theme this month "Anything Goes"

                                                           

And finally Recipe of the Week with A Mummy Too.

                                                           

Fig, yogurt and rosemary loaf cake - gluten free

I just can't resist beautiful fresh figs and at the moment they are at their peak, I have always had a thing for them even as a child, mainly in the form of a fig roll (newton) I might add. High in fibre and with a sticky sweetness whether fresh or dried they make a great addition to many dishes, my favourite memory is of picking a perfectly ripe specimen off a huge tree outside my apartment window whilst staying in Calvi, Corsica. Still warm from the Mediterranean sun and so juicy, a great food memory.

Inspired by a bake I spotted whilst wandering on the internet this recipe, my version is gluten free and uses rapeseed oil rather than olive and has the subtle addition of almond extract also. Don't worry about the rosemary in this sweet bake its barely noticeable and just provides a slight herbyness to the sponge, the cake is moist and very moreish.

                                      

What you need

• 175g caster sugar
• 2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary - finely chopped
• 125g ground almonds
• 50g plain gluten free flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 180g Greek yogurt
• 120 ml Extra Virgin rapeseed oil
• 2 large eggs - free range of course
• 4 fresh figs - halved
• 2tbsp - soft brown sugar
• 2lb loaf tin, lined

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Whisk the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy and tripled in volume
• In another bowl or jug, whisk together the yogurt, oil and almond essence
• Add to the egg and sugar mixture, the ground almonds, flour, salt, baking powder and rosemary, fold them in gently and try not to loose to much air.
• Quickly whisk in the oil and yogurt mixture until incorporated, then pour into a prepared 2lb loaf tin
• Carefully place the halved figs on the top, place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes
• Sprinkle the brown sugar on to the figs and bake for another 20 - 40 minutes until tested cooked with a skewer, if the cake is browning too much cover with foil
• Remove when bake and cool initially in the tin, cool full on a wire cooling rack.
• Serve as it is or with a little additional yogurt

A delicious moist cake with an exotic twist.

This last few weeks my blogging mojo has been a little absent and life generally has taken over, hopefully normal service is now resumed.

We are linking up to a few of our favourite linky's

Bake of the Week from Casa Costello, fellow WI member and all round lovely person.

                                                       

Emily over at A Mummy Too for Recipe of the Week

                                                             

Karen over at Lavender and Lovage for Cooking with Herbs - them this month Herbs for Autumn ( Bay, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme)

                                       

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simply Eggcellent - them this month Anything Goes as long it contains free range eggs.

                                                          

Adapted from a recipe by blog.plentyofzest.com

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.

                                                             

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....

                                                

Spring Lemon and lime drizzle cake - gluten free

Despite it still being fairly cool, there is definitely signs of spring in our Lancashire garden, the snowdrops are blooming well and there are even a few early daffodils poking through the soil. We have even heard the deep throaty calls of a few early frogs coming from our garden pond. So last weekend in celebration of spring and also for our last cake club I made a beautiful lemon and lime drizzle cake with zingy citrus flavours.

This gluten free cake has a beautiful crumb structure and is complemented with fresh sharp tasting icing drizzled on top.

To get the best results you need to firstly pay a visit to your local market or greengrocer (if you still have one - lucky you) to stock up on fresh juicy lemons and limes. Ideally unwaxed if you can get them, not to worry if you can't as a quick scrub under a running tap removes most of the wax used to help preserve the fruit.

To achieve the beautiful texture and crumb structure I used a mixture of very finely ground cornmeal (polenta), cornflour and white rice flour with a little xanthum gum.

What you need

• 175g White rice flour
• 105g Finely ground cornmeal (its golden yellow, I got mine from Holland and Barrett)
• 70g Cornflour
• 1 tsp xanthum gum
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 4 eggs - free range
• 200ml sunflower oil or vegetable oil
• 400ml skimmed milk
• 3 lemons - zested and juiced
• 4 limes - zested and juiced
• Oil spray for oiling tins
• 2 tbsp of granulated sugar
• About 100g of icing sugar

You will also need an approximately 20cm round loose bottom or springform cake tin, base lined and oils sprayed on the sides.

What you do

• Preheat the oven to 180c
• Whisk the eggs and caster sugar until light and fluffy and tripled in volume 
• Sift in the flours, baking powder and xanthum gum, whisk this in along with the milk, oil and the zest of one of the lemons
• Pour the mixture into your prepared tin and place in the oven
• Bake for approx 60 minutes until firm and tests cooked with a skewer.
• Once ready, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack in the tin.
• To make your drizzle, melt the granulated sugar and the juice of 2 lemons in a small pan until all dissolved.
• Prick the cake all over and gentle pour on the warm syrup whilst the cake remains in the tin
• Once fully cool remove the cake from the tin

To make the icing take the juice from the limes and mix with the icing sugar until you have a smooth drizzleable paste, pour over the icing and once starting to set decorate with lime and lemon zest.

Serve once the icing has set, the cake stores well in an airtight tin.

We are linking up to a new linky with this post, Belleau Kitchen's - Simply Eggcellent challenge where you link up recipes containing lovely free range eggs.

                                             

Also to Family Foodies - whose theme this month is  Lets Get Baking . Hosted by Eat your Veg and Bangers and Mash.

                                               
Bake of the Week over at Casa Costello - a weekly baking linky