Rock Cakes - simple, sweet and quick

 

Thus called because you mound them in craggy peaks to bake and hope they stay that way. My Mum made these a lot when I was growing up in Manchester and I think I also remember being taught how to make them in Domestic Science class at school - they are pretty much a no fail delight - very easy and nigh on impossible to mess up even for a beginner baker. They taste to me how I wished scones tasted - sweeter and more cakey and they cry out for butter and either jam, honey, lemon curd or even Golden Syrup - they are a mish mash blend of biscuit/cookie/cake/scone and are such a nice treat with a cuppa.

The ingredients are simple:

 and the recipe I used is from "A Tale of 12 Kitchens" by Jake Tilson - family cooking in 4 countries, "every aspect has been created by artist and passionate cook Jake Tilson" - a fun and image filled book.

Pre heat the oven to 375F. Have a buttered baking sheet to hand.

THE INGREDIENTS:

As usual I give the ingredients in weights as you get a more reliable result :)

This recipe makes 8 medium sized cakes/buns

8oz white flour, unbleached preferably

5oz sugar preferably white

4oz/1 stick of butter (I always use salted Kate's but you can use whichever you prefer)

4oz sultanas/white raisins - I only had regular raisins so I used those.

1 large egg whisked with 2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

Pinch of salt

THE RECIPE:

1. Put flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl or the bowl of a food processor - chop butter in and either whizz in the machine or as I do because I love the process of baking - gently rub the butter into the flour with your hands until you get a mixture that looks like fine breadcrumbs thus:

 2. Add the raisins and stir to distribute evenly.

3. Stir in the egg/milk mix until the dough comes together.

4. Using a fork pile into craggy heaps onto a buttered baking sheet - 8 piles should do the trick. (You'll see below I only have 4 because I try out the recipe cut in half first in case it doesn't work - plus there are only 2 of us and if I always bake the whole amount we will always eat the whole amount :)

 5. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden brown

Mine spread quite a lot which I was worried about at first because they weren't looking rocky enough for me but they tasted so good I didn't care and I will make them again the very same way.

Do let me know if you make them and feel free to post pics of such on my Facebook page - HERE!!

HAPPY BAKING

Carrington Lane Bakery is open for Business!!

A few short weeks ago my friend Anne got in touch with me and asked me to design a logo for her for her new Etsy online shop "Carrington Lane Bakery" - I was so excited as I have been an ardent admirer of Anne's baked goods since the day I first tasted them about three years ago. Anne wanted a cosy, charming feel for her shop with a bit of European flair as she decided to skew the theme of the shop towards international delights - baked goods from countries near and far made in Maine with wholesome ingredients and as many local ones as possible - sounds just fine to me.

So I got started by creating three different quick sketches to establish a look and colour pallette:

Obviously, as evidenced by the top picture, Anne chose to go with the lower image but decided to go with a red gingham instead of the blue - bless her little cotton socks - she chose one and stuck to it and it was so easy for me to translate her wishes into my happy command, especially so as she plied me with samples of her goods and also baked up some Milanos for me to photograph and illustrate for the 'biscuit' on the saucer. Here is the banner and profile picture for Carrington Lane Bakery on Facebook:

Next I designed a banner for Anne's shop on Etsy:

 ...which co-ordinates and complements her Facebook banner - the Etsy banner is hard to do as it is so shallow and wide - quite the design challenge I'd say!!

 Here are pictures of the first three delicious International Delights Anne is offering from her newly opened store:

Cheerio! Caramelly, oaty Flapjacks from the UK

CIAO!! Delightful Milanos from Italy

Ooh la la - Espresso Hazelnut Macarons from France

As you can see on the cup in the logo I also created a monogram for CLB and I reworked this into a round label for Anne's packages thus:

Best of luck with Carrington Lane Bakery! Friends do visit the shop HERE!

Chocolate Biscuit Cake a la Prince William's Groom Cake....and it's no bake!!

Here is a picture of the finished cake...if you like fudgey, chocolate, flourless cakes then this is the cake for you but with an added crunch of biscuits/cookies. Prince William choose this as his Groom cake for the recent Royal Wedding and the Queen herself is said to be very fond of it and is quite miffed if any slices are missing so the staff has to keep leftovers under lock and key.

First of all you should either buy the McVities Rich Tea Biscuits the cake calls for although I myself prefer  McVities Digestives  - graham crackers will work also and even better yet shortbread - there's a recipe for Earl Grey shortbread on this blog - you'll have to do a search in the box in the column on your right as I can't do a link to a post within this blog - just leave out the tea in that recipe - I baked the biscuits/cookies myself....here's the recipe for Digestive Biscuits:

Biscuits and a glass of milk anyone?

DIGESTIVE BISCUITS:

6oz/3/4 cup 100% wholemeal flour

1 1/2oz/1/2 cup medium oatmeal (I could only find normal size so I whirled it in the coffee grinder for a little bit...that worked)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3oz/3/4 stick butter

2oz/1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons of milk

1. Mix all dry ingredients together.

2. Rub in the butter...

3. Stir in the milk until the dough comes together.

4. Roll out fairly thin on a lightly floured surface.

5. Cut into 3" rounds

6. Bake at 350F until nicely browned...allow to cool.

I have a terrible tendency to overbake my biscuits/cookies so do err on the side of them being lighter rather than darker - mine were a little too dark and therefore a little too hard.

And now for the cake...so easy!!

1 egg whisked

4oz/1 stick butter salted

1 tablespoon sugar

6oz plain/semi sweet chocolate

1 tablespoon of Golden Syrup if you have it otherwise use honey which I did

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2oz/1/2 cup chopped walnuts

8oz digestive biscuits or rich tea if you are using them.

1. Melt 4oz of the chocolate, butter and whisked egg in the top of a double boiler until hot and well blended.

2. Add crushed biscuits, walnuts, sugar, cocoa powder and honey gently until well blended.

3 Line a 7" cake tin with greaseproof paper on the bottom and sides and pour in the choccy mixture...smooth the top and....should look like that below only smoother.

The 'cake' poured into the pan and sitting atop a copy of a new idea I am working on which will be revealed in the next post.

Allow to cool and set in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Remove from the pan and take off the paper, set on a cooling rack.

Melt the remaining 2oz of chocolate and pour over the cake as below...there's little Eleanor in the background observing the goings on! No chocolate for you...it's bad for doggies!!

I think perhaps I over baked my biscuits, which I have a tendency to do with biscuits, and they were little hard for this cake as it was difficult to cut and doesn't look as professional as some of the other versions of this cake I have seen so maybe you should invest the time in procuring yourself some Rich Tea biscuits to make your cake look like this!!

This is a 'cake' that tastes better the longer you wait before eating it  - the longer you wait the softer the biscuits/cookies get which is nice!

I have to be completely honest I have been looking forward to this cake for ever so long but either because I didn't do a good job on the Digestives OR because I am not that big a fan of chocolate (it's true!!) I just wasn't that thrilled with it...glad it didn't take too much effort. The next recipe coming along is FANTASTIC and I was thrilled with the results so do check back or look in the right hand column of this blog and sign up for the posts by e-mail which means each time I post you will get an e-mail that links right to the blog...no checking back anymore....yea!!!

Sedgemoor Easter "Cakes"

CAKES??? Quoi?? Don't know why these are called cakes because they are made like biscuits/cookies and they end up like such!! They are good though, and I can't wait to dunk one in a steaming hot cup of tea.....James said they taste like Christmas in a cookie, which may be because the recipe is the old English standby of various, sundry and seemingly unending combinations of flour, sugar, better, eggs, dried fruit and candied peel. I searched high and low for a more elaborate Easter recipe to do but honestly the only other one I came up with that is traditionally British is Simnel Cake which I did last year...(you can do a search up in the left hand corner for this, I tried to do a link here but it didn't work)....it was LOVELY though and again a combination of the heretofore mentioned ingredients....make them both I say!!! Cookie cakes and a cake!!
Here's todays easy and quick recipe:
"Sedgemoor Easter Cakes" from a recipe in "Good Things in England" by Florence White...a great compendium of wonderful old English recipes...recently republished and available through Persephone Books

White flour 8ozs/2 cups
Butter (salted for me please) 4ozs/1 stick
Fine sugar 4ozs/1/2 cup
4ozs/1/2 cup plus a little more currants/raisins/white raisins/sultanas...whatever you prefer...I prefer sultanas because they are juicier
2ozs candied peel...I made my own and did orange and Meyer lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
(I personally am not that keen on mixed spice and cinnamon so I put in 1 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, my fave!)
1 egg whisked
2 tablespoons of brandy (I didn't have brandy on hand so I used maple syrup so I wasn't missing out on this amount of liquid)
1. Rub the butter into the flour
2 Add sugar, dried fruit, candied peel and spices..and gently mix in
3. Add brandy, or in my case maple syrup!, to the egg, mix and then mix into the dry ingredients.
4. The mix/dough is very sticky so blend as well as you can and then just tip it all onto a well floured board and gently squush together until it is ready to roll out...I actually didn't even use a rolling pin...I just used the flat of my hand and pushed it into the shape I needed...a 1/2" deep round.
5. Cut out circles of about 3" diameter...you should get about 5 or 6...transfer to a cookie sheet.
6. The recipe says bake in a moderate oven which I translated to 325F for about 25 minutes...I actually turned mine over when I could see they were getting quite brown on the bottom and were not done on the top...and I think I overbaked them a little, which I have a tendency to with cookies/biscuits, follow your intuition...they should be nicely golden brown.
7. Ta dah!! Let them cool and munch away!!

The 'cakes' before and after...

The first daffodil.....right on cue!!! Well done little flower and welcome!!

More daffs on the way and some lovely bright crocus...hello!!

And a picture of what we call the enchanted forest next to the house...plenty of daffs here...hooray!!

I'll be with you again on Sunday...just to say "Hi"

Melting moments...please!!!

In a desperate attempt to help the mounds of dirty snow dissipate I decided to make one of my favourite cookies which just happen to be called MELTING Moments, also known as Viennese Swirls (does everything in England have more than one name I ask??) These sublime little cookies/biscuits really, honestly do just wisp away in your mouth, it is quite extradorinary how they do it, AND they are very simple to make.

MELTING MOMENTS: From 'Irish Traditional Food' by Theodora FitzGibbon

10oz butter (as always I like mine salted)

2oz icing sugar/confectioner's sugar

8oz sifted all purpose flour

2oz cornflour/cornstarch (same thing on different sides of the pond:))

(for equivalent US measurements check out Sue Palletts link in my web/blogroll in the right hand column aways down from the masthead...thanks!!)

Lashings of vanilla buttercream...or any flavour really, almond would be good, anything flavoured with almond is good in my book.

1. Cream the butter and sugar 'til very light

2. Sift both flours together and add gradually mixing well after each addition.

3. Either pipe the dough as I did in the pictures above (other wise you can't call them Viennese SWIRLS)...or if you don't do the piping thing drop small spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.

4. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350F until 'set' and very slightly browned.

5. Cool on a baking rack and then snadwick, or even, sandwich together with your lashings of buttercream.

6. Eat and melt!!!

Happy Baking and melting...Patricia