Still Licking the Spoon

Best EVER Cake

2008-04-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

recipe coming soon.....

Ripon Spice Cake

2008-01-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

This recipe comes from a rather lovely book, Cakes, regional & traditional by Julie Duff.

I bought it last year with my Christmas book tokens.
Julie Duff knows her cakes and writes in a very easy manner giving tips when necessary and the history around the recipes. There are some beautiful photographs that guarantee to make your mouth water and make you want to don your piny and start baking:)
Fruit cakes are a real favourite in the Gigibird household – my husband loves them and I am not fussed by them which is good because it means they don’t ‘worry’ me in the same way as a sponge or coffee cake will.
This recipe makes 2, 2 lb loaf cakes.

Preheat oven to 160oc/325of/Gas Mark 3
Equipment: Large mixing bowl (remember you are making double quantity) 2, 2 lb loaf tins, lined (I use the Lakekand cake liners which make lining effortless) electric mixer, spatula, sieve, 2 additional bowls to put your dry ingredients and another for your fruit.

8oz/225g butter
8oz/225g soft brown sugar
1 lb/450g self raising flour
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground mace
2oz/50g ground almonds
3 eggs, lightly beaten
6oz/175g currants
6oz/175g sultanas
6oz/175g raisins
2oz/75g glace cherries, halved
2oz/75g chopped citrus peel
Zest of one lemon
¼ pint of milk/150ml

Cream the butter & sugar until light and fluffy.Sift the flour ans spices into a bowl, adding the ground almonds. Gently beat the flour and eggs alternately into the butter and sugar until wellmixed. Then gently fold in the fruits and lemon zest,adding enough milk to give a dropping consistency.
Spoon the mixture into two greased and lined 2lb/900g loaf tins, smoothing the surface lightly. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until well risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin before turning onto a wire rack.
This cake keeps well if stored in an airtight tin.

Stawberries and Cream

2007-08-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

What could be better on a hot sunny afternoon than a slice of fresh sponge with strawberries and cream?

Cup Cakes

2007-07-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Marshmallow Rice Pudding

2007-02-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

Now this is a recipe that I unearthed quite by chance a few weeks ago thinking it would be worth a go - WOW it's fantastic.

I don't think there will be anyone who will turn their nose up at this - unless they don't do puddings in which case leave the building NOW you are not my sort of person!

As is my way I have tinkered slightly from the original; here is my recipe, but before you try this I need to explain that apart from baking which you need to be precise anything else in my opinion has a degree of fexibility, so say if you put a little bit less or a little bit more it won't make the difference beween success and failure - if any of my recipes fail it's because something major has gone wrong - oven temppreture/size of dish etc it won't be because you used one current too many.
Butter a oven proof dish(that can hold about a pint and a half) and place 2 0z of pudding rice, 1 0z of caster sugar and about 1 pint of milk. Give it a stir and pop it into the oven 140 - 150oc. After about half an hour give it a stir and then you can forget about it for an hour. Get it out again and stir it, this time there will be a bit of a skin on top - lovely, just stir it in, don't worry about the skin forming and reforming as it is quite delectable. After about 2 hours when most of the liquid has been soaked up that is time to scatter marshmallows on top. As you can see from my photos I didn't over do them, but if you want a real sugary fix put as many as you like on.
Return to the oven and increase the temperature to about 180oc for 10 minutes or until the marshmallows are melted and slightly burnt - the smell is wonderful. The original recipe suggested it be served with thick cream, but I that is over doing it a bit.....but never say never.