Mulled Wine apple cake, featuring Holy Lama Spice Drops

A few weeks ago one of my fellow bloggers was tweeting about some amazing new spice drops she had been sent by Holy Lama Spice drops, so I was pleased and really intrigued when I was also sent a couple of flavours to have a play with.

The spice drops are essentially contracted extracts of natural spices, ethically sourced and simple to use.You just add as much as you need to your recipe using the dropper,They also have a 3 year shelf life so no more fusty musty stale jars of spices.

Holy Lama also have several blends as well as single spices in their range so you can understand why the range is popular with chefs and home cooks alike., in fact you have 27 to choose from. The drops retail at 3.49 a bottle so good value in my eyes as they last well and have a great just ground flavour and aroma.

Inspired by my samples I decided to use the "mulled wine" drops in a classic rustic style apple cake, this also enable me to use some of crop of apples from the trees in the garden. The resultant cake produced a wonderful aroma whilst baking and is delicious served warm or cold.  Please don't worry if you don't have any spice drops to hand as you can produce excellent results by using cinnamon or apple pie spices in your bake instead.

                                       

The bake is one that works both gluten free (with slight adaptions) or with wheat flour as this is a recipe that I have made many times over the years, another recipe why I like the recipe is that it makes two round cakes so giving you one to freeze or gift to a friend.

What you need

• 5 or 6 eating apples , peeled cored and cut in thin slices
• 2 eggs -free range (use 3 if using Gluten Free flour)
• 350g granulated sugar
• 2 droppers of Mulled Wine Spice drops or 2 tsp of cinnamon or apple pie spice
• 120ml Sunflower oil
• 300g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 x 9" baking tins - oil sprayed and base lined 

                              

What you do

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Measure all the ingredients except the apples, eggs and oil into a large baking bowl, once you have sliced the apples toss in the flour mixture to prevent them oxidising.
• Once all the apples are in the bowl, add the eggs and oil , mix together thoroughly. This will be hard work as the mixture is quite dry but all will be fine.
• Split the mixture between the two prepared baking tins and smooth the top with a spatula
• Place in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 50 -55 minutes until golden and well risen.
• Cool on a wire rack, serve warm or cold with custard, cream or yogurt

The spice drops add a beautiful warm spicy fragrance to this bake.

Spanish Paprika chicken using Schwartz flavour shots ! - recipe mix in oil

You've seen the TV advert, which is very cool and very colourful so I was intrigued to try Schwartz newest kid on the block. Flavour shots are essentially a recipe herb and spice mix in oil, ready for you to cook with. Most of the shots are gluten free (do contain maltodextrin but this is considered safe for most coeliacs) (not all) and vegetarian friendly ( not all), the website has various recipes for you to try the shots with plus videos of others as well. The package also has a suggested recipe for you to follow.

Flavour shots are available in most supermarkets and in eight tasty flavours (not all supermarkets are carrying the full range) and retail for around £1.

I plumped for the Spanish smoked paprika chicken shot, which is a pretty easy recipe to follow and I had the necessary ingredients to hand.

What you need

• Flavour shot
• 1 onion - chopped finely
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup 
• 1 pepper - finely diced
• 2 large chicken breasts - chopped into bite sized pieces
• 75g chorizo - chopped (optional I didn't use)

What you do 

• Mix up the flavour shot with a spoon and pour into large frying pan
• Heat over a medium heat, add the chopped onion and stir and cook for about 5 minutes until softened
• Now add the chicken pieces (and chorizo if using) and fry another 4-5 minutes
• Next add the chopped pepper, tomatoes and ketchup
• Stir and simmer over a low heat, covered for approximately 10 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through.
• Remove the lid and simmer to reduce sauce to desired consistency.

Serve with rice, roast baby potatoes or whatever takes your fancy, a pretty tasty dish a little too tomatoey for me which I felt dominated the chicken a little. 

This is a featured post for Schwartz for which I have received compensation, all views are my own. 

          

Spicy sweet potato cake loaf

Another unusual bake using sweet potatoes to give the cake moisture and a soft tender crumb, the resultant cake is delicious, spicy and lovely served to accompany a coffee or tea. You could guild the lily by frosting or topping with a cream cheese topping but I love it just the way it is.  The other nice thing is the mixture actually makes 2 loaves so you have one to freeze / share or gift.This is based on a bake by the fabulous Averiecooks who has some amazing recipes, check out her blog !

 

Ingredients

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, chopped and microwaved until soft, then drain and allow to cool
• 2 free range eggs 
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil ( I like to use sunflower)
• 2 tbsp plain yoghurt
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cups soft light brown sugar
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (level)
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon 
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp approx freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves

Method

• Preheat oven to 180c /325F 
• Oil spray a 2 x 2lb loaf tins or alternatively use a tin liner ( I get mine from the pound shop)
• Combine all the fry ingredients in a large bowl
• In another bowl combine all the wet ingredients
• Now combine the two bowls, gently combining fully ensuring everything is fully mixed
• Pour the batter into the two prepared tins, smoothing the tops level if necessary
• Place in the oven
• Bake for 60 - 70 minutes , until tested cooked with a skewer
• Its as simple as that !
• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so and then cool fully on a wire rack
• The loaf freezes wrapped and also keeps well wrapped in foil in a tin for up to a week if it lasts that long.

I took one of these loaves along to my regular Womens Institute meeting and it was very popular, so much so that I didn't get a slice :-(

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 !!!