Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Today is World Baking Day. I don't really understand why, or more importantly who decides, but to me it just sounds like another perfect excuse to get in the kitchen and make something delicious. Like this chocolate cake. When I think of a cake I generally think of something light and crumbly, perhaps sandwiched with buttercream and served with tea. This cake isn't like this at all, so perhaps the name is slightly misleading as it's more of a dessert, but anyway that's sort of irrelevant because whatever you want to call it, it tastes fantastic: rich and dark, with a slightly firmer outer edge giving way to luscious squidgyness at the centre. It's everything you want a chocolate pudding of this kind to be, and although it would be lovely served unadorned, adding a few strawberries and a little softly whipped cream, flecked with black vanilla seeds, can only improve it. 

 This recipe contains no flour or butter, and whilst no-one in my family has an intolerance to these ingredients I'm sure everyone knows someone who does, so it's also a brilliant recipe to have in your repertoire. The only changes I made to the recipe was to leave out the vanilla extract, and use extra virgin olive oil instead of normal olive oil - I was worried that this would make the cake taste 

 strongly of olives, but as it was all we had in the cupboard I used it anyway and it seemed to be fine. The ground almonds gave a sort of graininess to the texture, which I liked, but the recipe also explained how you can substitute the almonds for regular flour if you wanted to. The recipe can be found here. 

Rhubarb Curd

The only curd I've ever made before was the classic lemon flavoured curd: buttery and golden, sweet but sharp, and frankly, even for a someone who doesn't usually like lemony things, irresistible. A curd flavoured with something that I absolutely love should then in theory be twice as delicious. And the method used for making the curd looked interesting too: unlike other recipes I've seen online this one uses raw rhubarb, instead of cooked, which is blended to a pulp and pressed into a sieve to extract the juice, which is bursting with tangy rhubarb flavour. 

The finished product did not disappoint: it was sweet and unctuous but unmistakably rhubarb-flavoured. A little too much cornflour, perhaps, but next time I'll add less and it should be just perfect. 

I was a little disappointed with the dull beige hue of the finished curd, so I tinted it with a little pink gel food colouring - it felt almost sacrilegious but resulted in a pleasing shade of pale rose which didn't quite come out right in the photos. I also discovered that of the many things you could do with this curd - swirl through natural yogurt, layer between sponge cakes in lieu of jam, dollop into sweet pastry cases or eat from jar with spoon- possibly the best way to eat it is smeared thickly across a toasted english muffin with cream cheese. 

Rhubarb Curd

250g rhubarb, washed and sliced

2 eggs

100g butter, diced

85g caster sugar

1.5 tsp cornflour - the recipe says 2 tsp I found it tasted to prominent, so I reduced the quantity slightly

Using a blender or food processor, blitz the rhubarb until it is fine and pulpy. Tip it into a sieve over bowl or jug and use a spoon, or even your (clean!) hands to push as much juice as possible into the bowl or jug beneath. Discard whatever remains in the sieve. 

Put 125ml of the rhubarb juice, along with all the other ingredients into a saucepan over a low heat, whisking constantly whilst the butter melts and the ingredients start to slowly amalgamate. Keep stirring - either with the whisk or a wooden spoon or spatula - until the curd starts to thicken. This will we take about 10 minutes, so be patient and don't be temped to turn up the heat, or the curd will split. 

A good test for the curd is that it is ready when it holds to trails left in it by a fork or whisk - it should be thicker than a custard but not pasty, as it will set a little more as it cools. 

Once it has reached this stage remove the curd from the heat and pass through a sieve again to remove any eggy bits. Stir in 50ml more of the rhubarb juice, or more if you prefer a tangier flavour.

Once cooled, spoon into a jar and store in the fridge for up to a week.

Kittens at 6 weeks old

I honestly don't know how people get those cute photos of kittens that are put on the front of greetings cards etc. A got of patience and a lot of photoshop, I would imagine. Because unless they are sleeping, kittens are constantly on the move: chasing their own tails round in circles, sneaking up on each other, trying to grab anything that moves or looks interesting to them. They have much more refined movement now - instead of a lopsided lumbering they run, hop, and jump everywhere. 

Staring intently at a piece of ribbon

Being licked (eww!)

Rosie, the mother cat

This one is called Freddie

Just hanging out!

A kitten in a basket

Staring intently at the floor

Buttermilk Cookies

Sometimes a food-related idea pops into my head and I just have to make it. That was the case with these cookies - I've never made or even eaten a buttermilk cookie before but once the concept of a buttermilk cookie with a fudge/caramel frosting was in my head, I really wanted to try it. I think it's safe to say that they were a success! The cookies themselves were fluffy and well-risen and the icing was really delicious - it had that faintly grainy, caramel taste of proper homemade fudge. 

The cookies weren't that sweet so a very sweet icing wasn't overpowering - I think they would be a just as tasty topped with other flavours like chocolate or lemon.

This recipe was the one I used for the cookies themselves, and I sort of made up the icing as I went along. (although what I did looked pretty similar to the icing method given the in cookie recipe) I found that this recipe made more cookies than it said, I got about 45 out of the mixture. 

Baked Apples

Apples are the basis for many great desserts, from the classic French tart tatin to the humble crumble. I wanted to make something with apples this weekend, but I also wanted to try something a bit different.  The answer came whilst I was flipping through my recent copy of the Good Food magazine and came across this recipe, which I used as the basis for this dessert.

Baking apples really seems to transform their texture, making them softer but somehow retaining their slight graininess. The custard added creaminess (although we still found we had to serve the apples with cream as the custard-to-topping ratio wasn't perfect) and the crunchy oats on top where for me the best thing about the whole pudding. It's like an apple crumble, but cooked differently.

The oat topping is basically a granola - you don't have to make it, but you might as well. The quantities I've listed make more than you'll use for this dessert, but that's probably a good thing - it's addictive. The custard, again, you could make yourself, although I didn't. 

Baked Apples with Custard and Crunchy Oat Topping
Serves 6

For the oat topping
250g oats
55g olive oil
60g honey
30g brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

6 apples (use a fairly sweet eating variety, and make sure they aren't too large. In fact, I would say the smaller the better)
zest and juice of 1 orange
2 tbsp brown sugar
20g butter
500g custard
100g flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Measure all the topping ingredients into a large bowl. (I prefer to weigh ingredients when possible, rather then measure them out in jugs etc - it creates less washing up!)
Mix them together until well combined - often using your hands is the easiest way to go with this.
Spread the mixture out onto two baking trays and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes. You'll need to turn the mixture with a fish slice or something similar a couple of times just so that it doesn't burn.

The granola topping can be made several days in advance and kept in an air tight container.

For the apples, preheat the the oven to 180°C.

Half the apples through the middle and remove the core using an apple core remover or a sharp knife. Place them cut side up in a baking dish and scatter over the orange zest and juice and the sugar. Dot with the butter and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

Take the baking dish out of the oven and remove the apples. Pour the custard into the dish, put the apples back on top and them sprinkle over half the granola topping and the flaked almonds. Cover the dish with foil and return to oven for a further 10 minutes, until the apples are soft and the custard is heated.

Serve with double cream.

And The Sun Shone

What I did today:

1. Made a banana and oat smoothie

2. Went jogging (Well, sort of - I always forget one tiny detail when I go running, which is that I can't actually run. Sigh) 

3. Went swimming (and walked home - my legs where killing me by this point!)

4 & 5. Tidied my desk

6. I have the same passion for shopping for baking-related items as most teenage girls have for clothes shopping, so I brought some mini cake tins

 Me to my sister when I got home: "I brought some mini tartlet tins!"

Sister: "But you already have a set of those"

Me: "That's not the point. These are slightly bigger. And they were reduced"

It makes sense to me!

7. Made a rather vividly green soup for lunch

8 & 9. I couldn't resist posting some more pictures of the kittens. They are walking now!

10. Enjoyed the sunshine!

Chocolate French Toast

I was in the mood for some indulgent, celebratory food this weekend - after all the horrible weather we've had recently we certainly do need cheering up! I've made french toast before and loved it, and once the thought of a chocolate version was in my brain there was no turning back: I had to make it! (I got the idea, and the recipe for the bread from here)

I did think that serving french toast with cream and strawberries might be a bit over the top and make the whole thing too rich and sweet, but although it was decadent the softness of the cream and slight hint of sharpness from the berries actually complimented and lightened the french toast really well. A drizzle of Maple syrup and a copious dusting of powdered sugar finished it off nicely, and all in all I think this is one of the most successful and tasty things I've made in a while!

I made the bread myself, starting the dough two days before I planned to make the french toast. Of course, you could buy some, but I found that making it was enjoyable and not too complicated, although you obviously have to plan ahead as the no-knead dough has to rise over night. As you can see, the finished loaf is not really a thing of beauty. I think because of its rich chocolaty colour I kept expecting it to taste more cake-like, but it is definitely a bread, bursting with chocolate chips and raisins (I left out the pecans suggested in the recipe and replaced them with raisins)

Chocolate French Toast with Strawberries and Cream

Serves 2

2 thick slices of chocolate chip bread (recipe found here, at the bottom of the post)

1 large egg

4 tbsp milk or single cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp butter

80g strawberries, quartered

100ml double cream, whipped

Maple syrup and icing sugar, to serve

Whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. 

Slice both slices of bread in half, then place them in a shallow baking dish and cover with the egg mixture. Leave the slices to soak for about 5 minutes, turning them over half way through.  

Melt the butter in a large frying pan until the starts to foam, then add the slices of bread. (Depending on the size of the pan you may need to cook the bread in two batches.) Cook over a medium heat for about 2 minutes on each side.

Serve with a spoonful of cream, a handful of strawberries, a drizzle of maple syrup and a generous dusting of icing sugar (Go on, be copious, you know you want to!)