Back to being naughty with the recipe of this gorgeous cake, which I made for my book group ladies last night. As mentioned before all the ladies belonging to this reading group are exceptional bakers. Hence it is always a source of stress to have to provide a cake for the evening for fear that what you produce is NOT QUITE UP TO STANDARD. It goes without saying that bringing a ready made cake would be very much frowned upon. If it’s your turn to bake it has to be home made. The one and only time when one of these ladies forgot to make the cake and we had to resort to bought biscuits (the horror of it!) has never been quite forgotten (never mind forgiven).:-) In truth I am not that worried when it’s my turn , as I don’t get worked up that easily, but I know some of the other ladies do. Same when it’s their turn to choose the book. BUT WHY? Why get your knickers in a twist, I ask. It’s not as if they have written the book they are proposing themselves. Even if the book was not to the others’ liking, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Right? Wrong! These ladies start fretting weeks before they are due to choose (we take it in turn, see?). All except me…ha ha. I have had cancer: life is too short to fret about a book. But back to the cake. The reason why I went for this particular one was that a few weeks ago I made some delicious orange marmalade (see recipe here) courtesy of my good friend, and book group member, Janet who donated a bag of Seville oranges to me. So here is the recipe for you all to enjoy. Definitely one to make again…and again. By the way the recipe comes from the Happy foodie blog. Continue reading ‘Sticky orange marmalade cake’
Archive for the 'cakes' Category
D’accordo, il frangipane è territorio di Lucina. Ce ne sono di ricettine frangipane nel nostro sito! Ecco la mia allora. Mi sono ispirata a una vecchia ricetta di Colazione da Jo, cambiandola secondo le mie esigenze e usando questa variante di pasta frolla leggera, con metà dose di burro che io amo molto e mettendoci la mia amata lavanda..
Ecco fatto! Continue reading ‘Crostata lavanda e frangipane profumata all’arancia’
One of my main guests over the Christmas hols was my eldest son, ex vegetarian recently turned vegan. ARGHHHH! I have got to say , much as I respect vegans, they aren’t the easiest people to cater for. Plus, although a vegetarian myself, I simply love eggs and dairy products ( I couldn’t live without my beloved parmigiano) and use them a lot in my everyday cooking. So I sheepishly asked him whether as a Christmas present he might entertain the idea of reverting back to vegetarianism for a few days (just to make my life easier?), but the answer was NO (“nice try, mum!!”). That left me with one of 2 choices: cooking separate meals or going vegan for the duration of his stay. I plumped for the second option as I didn’t fancy cooking two different dishes at every meal. I am not that much of a masochist. Vegan we temporarily became then and you’ll be pleased to hear I survived the eggs and dairy embargo relatively unscathed (not sure about my intestines, but that’s a different story and one you won’t want to hear). Continue reading ‘Vegan chocolate and banana tea loaf’
Welcome back to me! Sorry for the silence but I have been gallivanting around the world…well, Italy in truth, AND Berlin. Wonderful city! While I was in Italy visiting my family we had a reunion where each person had to bring something to share for lunch. I decided to bake these brownies at my dad’s house -which is where I was staying (hence no picture of Tomik the cat )- as my contribution. My Italian family wasn’t familiar with brownies so I happily introduced them to these calorie laden treats for the chocoholics, much to their delight. Brownies originally come from the States and there are many versions of them out there. I chose this one with raspberries as I think the chocolate/raspberry combo is a winning combination. Candi knows that as she had blogged in the past a Swedish cake which is rather similar (click here ). The recipe comes from the BBC online website. My only change was to shed 100 gr of sugar off the original recipe. By the way, the picture doesn’t do it justice. I should have shown you what they look like inside: lovely and gooey. Oh well! Trust me though: you will impress your friends if you make them a batch of these! Continue reading ‘Chocolate and raspberry brownies’
First of all Merry Christmas and a Happy Boxing day to you all! It’s a welcome relief from cooking and eating to write on this blog, if truth be known. Although we didn’t really overdo it in the food department, like some people do, it feels as if I have been stuck in the kitchen for the last couple of days. And I can’t say I have received a lot of help from the men in my life. Both sons when they return home for Christmas revert to the time when they were ten. Incapable of even making a cup of tea for their own mother. The irony is they can cook very well. Ah well! I guess they come home to get spoilt and I must oblige, being an Italian mamma after all. 😉 But enough chit chat. The cake I am about to blog is another classic. It’s basically a fruit cake but much lighter than your traditional Christmas cake (which I find far too heavy and rich). There are many recipes out there but when it comes to classics there is only one master for me: good old Delia. I got the recipe straight out of her web page. I slightly adapted it as I added some cranberries to the dried fruit mixture. The good thing about it is that it keeps well and, in fact, its flavour improves if eaten after a few days. Of course you don’t have to wait for Christmas to make it. In fact I think I will repeat the experiment real soon because even I liked it. Continue reading ‘Dundee cake’
This is another classic recipe which I baked for my brother when he came to visit us last weekend. I hadn’t made it for donkey’s years! He liked it so much he wanted to know how it’s made so here it is. As usual there are loads of different recipes out there but basically an Eve’s pudding (no idea why it is called that) consists of stewed apples at the bottom and a sponge mixture at the top. It’s simple but nice. Ideally it is served hot with either cream or custard. My recipe -slightly adapted- comes from the BBC website. Continue reading ‘Eve’s pudding’
I had been meaning to make a lemon meringue pie for a long LONG while. It is, after all, a classic dessert here in the UK and one I really like. Inspired by one of the episodes in the Great British Bake off , I decided to have a go. Oh dear, oh dear! DISASTER! My creation would have come bottom of the pack in the Bake off competition by a mile and would have raised a few incredulous eyebrows. How Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry would have laughed! To look at it ( see picture at the bottom) it wasn’t all that bad but once you cut into it liquid started oozing out. ARGH! What an almighty mess! I know where I went wrong. I failed to cook the lemony custard that went inside beforehand thinking that it would solidify while cooking in the oven. WRONG! Ironically I used a Mary Berry’s recipe but clearly didn’t follow the instructions properly. Oh well! Back to the drawing board. On the plus side: it actually didn’t taste that bad and the meringue at the top was spot on, despite my reservations. At least it didn’t end up in the bin! Another thing I will do next time round: I will trim the pastry at the top AFTER I have baked it blind. I did notice that that’s what the Bake off contestants were doing but failed to learn by their examples. As a result it shrunk too much. I really didn’t do myself proud with this one. SORRY! But, as the blog demands, I have to share the failures, not just the successes! Continue reading ‘Lemon meringue pie: a misdemeanour’
A very kind friend of mine with an orchard and a surplus of plums donated a few kilos of them to me recently. We ate quite a few of them straight out of the bag as they were so delicious, but I’ve also used some to make this lovely cake. The inspiration came from Nigel Slater , although I slightly adapted his original recipe. I didn’t add any walnuts to the mixture, for example, which he does. What is particularly nice about it is the tanginess of the plums in combination with the sweetness of the almonds. My husband took it to a fellow group of volunteers and it pretty much vanished amongst lip smacking sounds of appreciation. I’d like to add that apparently the store bought butterfly cakes that someone else brought in weren’t even touched. Home made wins every time, it would seem!…:-) Continue reading ‘Plum and almond cake’
Dear friends, I am still reeling after the results of the Brexit referendum. I can’t help feeling extremely sad and disappointed at the result. So to cheer myself up I’ve experimented in the kitchen with a summer version of the classic tiramisu. This dessert couldn’t be more appropriate as “tirami su” in Italian means: pull me up, which is exactly what I need right now! I already blogged the classic recipe over two years ago ( see here). Yes, two years! Incredible how times fly. As strawberries are now in season, and you can hope to buy some that will actually TASTE of strawberries, I recommend you try this recipe. It’s simple, it’s light (albeit not from a calories point of view ), it’s different. I’ve already made it three times in the past few weeks and each time it met with 100% approval from my guests. I found the recipe on line on an Italian blog called Le ricette della nonna (= grandma’s recipes). There are several versions floating in cyberspace, a few involving making some sort of custard. But not this one. What are you waiting for? Get your mascarpone and your savoiardi and have a go! Your friends will thank you for it… Continue reading ‘Strawberry tiramisu’
I’ll start by confessing I didn’t make this cake. Technically my husband made it, although, to be fair, he was largely executing orders with me standing over his shoulder. The reason why we made this cake together was that he had promised his colleagues at work he would bring a cake in made with his own fair hands. We had ricotta in the fridge as well as the most gorgeous Palestinians dates. Bingo! I found this recipe on the Delia Smith’s blog. I wasn’t sure about it at first as it has no eggs in it. Also when it first came out of the oven after the recommended 1 hour and three quarters I thought I had overcooked it. However I needn’t have worried. I really liked it, and so, apparently, did my husband’s colleagues. So success all around. And in truth: how could Delia be wrong? Impossible! This is a cake I’ll definitely make again. Continue reading ‘Polenta and ricotta cake with dates and pecans’
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