Archive for the 'cakes' Category

Page 5 of 6

Blueberry sourdough pancakes

Published by Lucina, on 10 maggio 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 1 Comment

blueberry sourdough pancakes

Not another sourdough recipe, surely!!! Enough already! I hear you say. Well… I must say it’s addictive stuff this sourdough malarkey! Now that Tomik ( read: my sourdough starter, and sorry if I am beginning to sound like a one trick pony!) ) looks well established, bubbly and happy I have been racking my brains for ways to use the excess. In order to feed hungry Tomik I have to discard half of it every day and replenish it with equal amounts of flour and water. It’s a chore, I tell you! Plus it’s costing me nearly as much as my cats! Anyway, if I don’t use it, I lose it, so to speak, and I hate throwing good food away. So rather than chucking it in the bin I have been forcing the excess on friends and colleagues and also scouring the internet for new cooking ideas (as the number of people interested in adopting a sourdough baby is very thin on the ground). There are loads of recipes out there that use sourdough, not just for making bread. They mainly come from the States, where sourdough is very popular. You can make all sort of things with it. Continue reading ‘Blueberry sourdough pancakes’

Herman is dead! Long live Herman!

Published by Lucina, on 4 maggio 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 5 Comments

Herman the German friendship cake

What an apt title (for those who have followed the story)! I bet you are all curious to see a) whether Herman the German friendship cake was a success and b) what my venerable Italian friends thought of it. If you recall, the day I “gave birth” to Herman was tactical as I wanted his demise (read: the cake making) to coincide with the discussion of the book which took place at my house today. And by the way if you are curious to know what we discussed it was Il fu Mattia Pascal by Pirandello. Wonderful , thought provoking book! Anyway, back to the cake.  I confess I was a bit apprehensive about it. I very nearly baked some scones as a  reserve, JUST IN CASE. The truth is I have a reputation to uphold: I can’t fail in front of an audience!  Anyway in the end I decided to place my faith in Herman and decided not to have a back up. WEEEEELLLLLL…… Continue reading ‘Herman is dead! Long live Herman!’

Another experiment: Herman the German friendship cake

Published by Lucina, on 27 aprile 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 7 Comments

the ingredients for Herman

Now that I have successfully achieved my sourdough ( and tomorrow I will blog the evidence of my first creation using it) let me tell you (and please don’t laugh) about ANOTHER experiment I have embarked on: Herman the German friendship cake. And what on earth is THAT, I hear you ask. Basically it’s something very similar to a sourdough , only it is sweet and the end result is  a cake. The idea is that you make a starter dough using flour, yeast, sugar, milk and water (see exact quantities below). You then nurture it and feed it every 4 days and stir it on the other days. At the end of the ten days your  dough (you end up with something similar to sourdough: a yeasty, bubbly mixture) can be used to make a cake (recipe will follow in time). But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no! It would be too easy if it did! Continue reading ‘Another experiment: Herman the German friendship cake’

Dutch apple cake

Published by Lucina, on 5 aprile 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 7 Comments

dutch apple cake

Stefi, this is for you! I have been promising to put this recipe on line for ages but kept on blogging other things instead. Sorry! Anyway, here it is at long last! I don’t know why I haven’t thought of blogging this before as I’ve made it many times in the past and always with excellent results. Definitely one to be shared, then!  One of the things I LOVED about Amsterdam when I went there was……no! Not the Van Gogh’s paintings but indeed the apple cakes I had the pleasure of eating in its various cafes. Amongst the best I have ever had! Apple cakes are one of my favourites, particularly if they have a high content of fruit in them, like in this case. What I also like about this recipe is its streuseul and nutty topping. Crunchy and delicious! When I got back from Holland I tried to recreate the best one I had eaten over there by getting inspiration from different recipes found on line. There are so many versions out there! By the way this cake is great eaten warm accompanied by some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Or both. Throroughly indulgent! Continue reading ‘Dutch apple cake’

Hot cross buns

Published by Lucina, on 31 marzo 2013 in bread, cakes and English Recipes. 4 Comments

hot cross buns

I went on my second bread making course yesterday (the first one was back in November. See here) courtesy of my husband, who gave it to me as a Christmas present. (The clever man that he is! Although I suspect a bit of self interest here :-)) This time the level was advanced -I’ll have you know- and one of the things we made was hot cross buns. These are spiced sweet buns, made with dried fruit , which are traditionally eaten at Easter time here in England (hence the cross over the top, referring to the death of Jesus). They are finished off with a nice sweet, sticky glaze. You find them in all supermarkets at this time of the year but of course the home made ones are by far superior. And contain none of the rubbish (such as colourings, preservatives, etc.) of the bought variety. Continue reading ‘Hot cross buns’

The legendary Italian “chiacchiere”

Published by Lucina, on 15 febbraio 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 5 Comments

chiacchiere

I have been wanting to make these chiacchiere for a long LOOOOONG time. In fact ever since I moved to England all those years ago. Well,  I finally succeeded! These fried sweets are traditionally eaten in Italy during the Carnevale season (that’s to say the period just before Lent). My mother always made them without fail when I was a child so for me it has been a  trip to memory lane. Ok, technically I shouldn’t have made them as Lent started two days ago, so I’m way out of time. Still, I reckon making these chiacchiere two days too late is not going to speed my descent into hell by too much. And anyway there is always confession, I guess..:-) Continue reading ‘The legendary Italian “chiacchiere”’

A profiteroles misdemeanour

Published by Lucina, on 10 febbraio 2013 in cakes, Chiacchiere/Chatting and English Recipes. 4 Comments

profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce

Well..you wouldn’t think that judging from the picture, would you? The profiteroles in the photo seem perfectly fine, I hear you say. Right shape and all. You are not wrong my friends: these lovely profiteroles with hot chocolate sauce I served last night to a couple of friends (Mark and Anne, to be precise, who had come to do a walk with us. Only I had double booked myself and had to go to my Italian book group instead. AWWW! So no walk for me. Anyway I said I would mention them personally as Anne has been following my blog for a while) were rather good BUT they were my second attempt. The first batch, done at 8.30 in the morning, was a DISASTER (see picture below) as they came out of the oven flat as pancakes. I followed DElia Smith recipe (click here) , which I had done successfully once previously, but something went VERY wrong during the procedure. I now know what. Namely: the mixture was far too liquidy. I knew when I spooned it on the tray and it spread straight away that something hadn’t quite  worked but I tried all the same JUST IN CASE. I should have followed my instinct and chucked the lot in the bin at the early stage (hadn’t I watched enough Great British Bake off programmes to know?) but NO! Continue reading ‘A profiteroles misdemeanour’

Fig, apricot and prune cake

Published by Lucina, on 5 gennaio 2013 in cakes and English Recipes. 2 Comments

                      fig, apricot and prune cake

Happy new year everyone! I hope the year 2013 will be a healthy, peaceful one for all! Can you believe that I received MORE cookery books for Christmas? I haven’t counted how many I already have but the number is embarassingly high. I have had to take a few in the loft to make space for the new ones. Even more embarassing is the fact that I usually end up cooking from a handful of them. I reckon I could make something new every day of my life and still not manage to go through all the recipe books I have got. This won’t do! My new year resolution is going to be: cook ONE recipe from at least each of the books I have on my kitchen shelf this year.  And of course, if they work out you’ll be the first ones to know! Anyway let me blog this lovely moist cake which I have successfully made a few times already, the last one being during the Christmas holidays. I don’t particularly like the traditional English Christmas cake. I find it a bit too sweet and too rich. Same goes for the Christmas pudding. This particular  fruit cake, however, is a bit different as it contains figs, apricots and prunes instead of the usual raisins and sultanas. It is soft and moist without being sickeningly sweet. It’s absolutely lovely with a cup of tea or coffee so I advice all those cake fans out there to make it for their friends. They will be thankful! By the way it is by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Surprise surprise HIS cookery books are getting properly thumbed in my house. But what can I say? His recipes are brilliant! Continue reading ‘Fig, apricot and prune cake’

Frangipane mince pies

Published by Lucina, on 23 dicembre 2012 in cakes and English Recipes. 0 Comments

frangipane mince pies

Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Here I am with a seasonal Christmas recipe typically English to match Candida’s cinnamon buns: mince pies! For the Italians reading this blog they are mini pies, filled with a mixture called mincemeat which is made of chopped dried fruit, apples, sugar, spices, etc. You can buy this ready made in all supermarkets at this time of the year. I bought mine at Marks and Spencer, treating myself to the luxury variety which has brandy inside. Obviously the better cooks would make their own and next year I plan to have a go, I promise. Ironically  I’m not the greatest fan of  mince pies. I find them a bit too stodgy and far too sweet for my taste. However my husband absolutely adores them so in a fit of generosity I promised that this year I would make him some as he had had a particular bad experience with a couple of them. But instead of the traditional ones which have pastry on the top as well as the bottom I decided to make these ones which are topped with frangipane. Well, do you know what? I thought they were fabulous. Much lighter than the normal variety. I would definitely recommend them. And by the way, they are by the mighty Nigella Lowson. Who else? Continue reading ‘Frangipane mince pies’

Carrot cake

Published by Lucina, on 5 novembre 2012 in cakes, Dolci and English Recipes. 3 Comments Tags: , .

carrot cake

Who doesn’t like a good carrot cake? Not me! I LOVE them and this particular one is a winner, especially when you consider that it doesn’t contain any evil dairy (read: butter). It’s by Rachel Allen, whose recipes I really like. I’ve made this particular cake many times and it has always been a success. It’s lovely with a good cup of tea. In the original recipe there is an orange cheese cream icing as a topping but , to be perfectly honest, I find those type of toppings far too sweet and a bit sickly. Hence I didn’t put any on mine. Not much point putting icing on only to scrape it off before you eat the cake, is there? PLUS it’s a lot healthier (all in relative terms, of course) without it. Certainly it doesn’t have as many calories….And who wants to go to an extra class of zumba to burn off the extra 200 calories?:-) Continue reading ‘Carrot cake’