A cake to make me less narky: Barefoot Contessa's Apple Spice Cake

So, I am justifying the inclusion of this truly wonderful cake into my ‘do things better’ agenda for the following reasons: It has apple in it, so surely must be one of my five a day. It is made with vegetable oil and not butter so that has to make it a ‘better’ cake, whatever that is. It is packed with spices and of course they have oodles of medicinal qualities, and lastly, a bit of what you fancy does you good, and the opportunity to sit down with a slice of this with a cuppa turns a narky Stella into a less narky one. Only one slice mind…

If you want a really really reliable, decadent, frankly scrumptious cake, you open a Barefoot Contessa book and turn to the section marked ‘desserts’. There you will find cake heaven. And it was in her ‘Make it Ahead’ cookery book that I found this. Don’t be put off by the amount of spices; go buy them if you haven’t got them because you will be making this cake more than once. I promise.

I very rarely alter a Barefoot Contessa recipe because they are usually perfect. However, I have made a couple of alterations, mainly due to the fact that I didn’t have any golden raisins, but I did have some pretty jewel like sultanas which did the job just nicely. I also didn’t have the exact size pan as indicated in the recipe, so I split the mixture between two smaller pans.

If you don’t fancy my chosen way of eating this, with a cuppa, then serve some slightly warm with some ice cream. And swoon…

APPLE SPICE CAKE from ‘Make It Ahead’ by Ina Garten

serves 12

An American recipe, so uses cup measurements (which I quite like…)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 cup rum

1 cup golden raisins (I used sultanas)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown (Muscavado) sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp grated orange zest

2 1/2 cup plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

3 (large) to 4 (small) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and 1/4 inch diced

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x13x2 inch baking pan, or a pan(s) that will take the amount of mixture.

Toast the pecans on a baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes. Watch the nuts like a hawk. They burn in the blink of an eye. Set aside.

Add the rum and raisins to a microwave-safe bowl and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap; microwave for 1 minute, then set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, and orange zest on medium speed.

Once combined, add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves; mix until smooth. The batter will be very thick.

Drain the raisins before adding them to the batter. Drink the rum.

Add the apples and pecans too, then use a rubber spatula to fold them all into the batter.

Spread this batter in your prepared pan, smoothing it out.

Bake the cake for 35 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let the cake cool until it’s barely warm or room temperature before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

Tea and cake? Yes please! Masala Chai fruit tea loaf

 

 

Afternoon tea eh? All us Brits do it, Sat around about 4pm, with the best china out, little fancies and crustless sandwiches delicately placed on floral 'cake plates' and all is well with the world...

 

Well, it would be nice if it were like that but most of us are working ourselves into the ground at that point for employers who think it's fine to treat their employees with a shocking amount of disrespect, or else we're arguing with children who have just come home from school and are at once ravenous and rejoicing at slipping out from under the school's thumb for the last six hours. But, it's a great idea in principle. We should make time for cake. And tea. And here we have both, in the shape of a Masala Chai tea loaf which is really simple to make and tastes lovely. And it keeps well if you wrap it. Acually it's that richly fruity that I reckon you could pile a load of marzipan and royal icing on it and call it a Christmas cake if it were the twenty something of December and you had forgotten or couldn't be bothered starting to soak your currants sometime in October.

 

Anyway, this cake grew out of my total adoration of Tamasin Day Lewis' Earl Grey Fruit Tea Loaf which is in her book 'Supper for a Song'. I have made it many times with both Earl Grey (I had a lavender infused Earl Grey Twinings tea which was really nice) and Lapsang Souchong which made it fruity and smoky if that is at all possible. But it was my encounter with Masala Chai in Tesco (Yes, I know. Don't buy the burgers...) that got me thinking that it might be a heady and spicy twist on what was already a really nice cake. So, I tried it, and yes, it's nice! Not overly spicy and heady, but there's enough there to make it warming and different. And I like drinking Masala Chai now, in case you were wondering...

 

This is a very easy cake if you remember to soak your fruit preferably overnight or else for a good few hours before you start to make the cake. I think if you buy the best dried fruit that you can, then it does add to the texture of the cake, mainly because there is more of a selection of dried fruit rather than just currants. Not that I would ever dream of telling you what to do, but I bought 'luxury dried fruit' from Aldi to do this. It was £1.49 and it had alsorts in it, including dried pineapple and glace cherries. Bit of a bargain really, compared to what you could pay.

 

Masala Chai Fruit Tea Loaf, adapted from Tamasin Day Lewis' Earl Grey Fruit Tea Loaf in 'Supper for a Song'.

 

mkes a 900g loaf

Ingredients:

 

400g mixed dried fruit (try to buy the best you can that gives a good variety of fruit)

120g dark muscovado or molasses sugar
300 ml hot strong masala chai tea (I used two tea bags and let it stew for about 10 minutes)
225g self-raising flour
1 large free range egg, beaten

 

 

Method:

 

 

 

Put the dried fruit and sugar in a bowl, pour over the hot tea and leave overnight if you can or for at least 6 hours before you start to make the cake.

Stir before you go to bed and again before you use.

 

Pre-heat the oven to 180c/Gas 4. Grease and line 1 x 900g loaf tin.

 

 

Sift the flour over the fruit in the bowl and add the beaten egg then fold everything in together.

 

 

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour (A BIG NOTE: the first time I made this, I found that the top burnt before the middle was cooked because it was so dense, and the high sugar content might not have helped. My advice is, loosely cover the top with foil for the first 40 minutes of cooking and then take it off to allow the top to brown and cook. Keep checking for doneness but you might find it takes longer than an hour. Just be vigilant).

If the skewer comes out clean the loaf is cooked, though it may take up to another 15 minutes depending on your oven.

 

 

Cool in the tin on a wire rack before turning out. Wrap in greaseproof and foil and store in a sealed container, it keeps well for a couple of weeks. And eat a slice with a cup of tea. Often.

 

 

 

Preparing for St Patrick's Day? Need some cupcakes? Here is the answer: Guinness and Gingerbread cupcakes.

Readers of the recent Guinness and Chocolate Cake post will realise that after adding some of the black stuff to the mix, there is half a can left. Not a catastrophe by any means as all I would do is reach for a glass from the cupboard and voila! Problem solved. However, if drinking in the afternoon isn't your bag and you are still in cake making mode then frankly you could do such much worse than making these lovely little things.

I remember perusing Amazon and seeing this recipe book with the most gorgeous looking cake on the front and thinking that really I would like to have it on my shelf. As I have no semblance of self control I bought the recipe book, which is entitled 'Tea with Bea' and is chock full of lovely things all begging to be made and devoured. I was intrigued by this recipe which Bea describes as being somewhere between Lebkuchen and beer, and she is sort of right. Depth of flavour, moist, with the warmth of ginger = Yum.

The other thing that I like about these is their understated sense of drama. Cupcakes are often about prettiness, a certain girliness which I don't think these possess that much of. I measure this by Phill not looking too odd whilst eating one. If there is a handsome cupcake, here he is!

A note about quantities and frosting here. The recipe says it makes 24; I got 18. The frosting iced 14 of my cupcakes, but I am nowhere near an expert when it comes to decorating cakes and tend to be somewhere between generous and heavy handed. The 4 that were 'un-iced' I see as 'cook's perks'.

So, without further ado, I present:

Gingerbread Guinness Cupcakes, taken from 'Tea with Bea' (Recipes from Bea's of Bloomsbury)

Ingredients:

250ml Guinness

250g black treacle/molasses

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

280g all purpose flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 ground cardamom

1/4 ground cloves

3 eggs

100g caster sugar

100g dark brown (muscavado) sugar

1 tbsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger

200ml sunflower oil

chopped crystallised ginger, to decorate

For the frosting:

225g cream cheese

60g unsalted butter, softened

175g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp golden syrup

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170c/Gas 5 and line a cupcake tin with papers.

Pour the Guinness and the treacle into a saucepan with tall sides (you will see why shortly)

Bring the mixture to a boil (over high heat to allow the treacle to 'melt' into the Guinness. Take off the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. The mixture will fizz up and then dissipate, but be ready for it.

Let this mixture stand until completely cool.

Combine the eggs, both sugars, the grated ginger in a bowl (or in the bowl of a mixer as I did). Gradually add the oil, mix to combine, then add the Guinness mixture and mix until just combined.

Add the flour, baking powder and spices to the mix and stir until well blended but don't over beat.

Spoon the mixture (which is very runny - next time I would probably transfer to a jug and pour it) into the prepared cupcake cases. Fill about 4/5ths full as there is little rise whilst the cakes bake.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 - 25 minutes or so, until they feel springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the frosting: Put the butter and cream cheese on a bowl and mix thoroughly until it looks glossy. At this point add the icing sugar and beat until fluffy. This may take a while. Add the vanilla and the golden syrup and then mix to combine.

I used a large star nozzle to pipe the icing on. I piped reasonably swiftly in a circular motion. To finish, bedeck with a little jewel of crystallised ginger.