Carrot cake

A simple carrot cake recipe always seems hard to find. This one is adapted from three different versions!  It seemed to work, anyway. I thought I'd better write it down as I'm bound to forget it later...
Using a food processor is easiest for grating carrots and beating wet mixture together.

From BBC Good Food:
175g light muscovado sugar or a mix of brown and white sugars
175ml sunflower oil  - perhaps even only 5 fluid ounces
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
140g grated carrots (about 3 medium) or 1 carrot and 2 bananas
100g raisins or 75g marmelade
grated zest of 1 large orange
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

Mix altoether lightly, bake 180 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes.

Ice with butter/icing sugar/lemon or orange juice. OR for a sticky topping: heat 2tbsp thick-cut marmalade and 2tbsp orange juice together. Make small holes all over the top of the cake with a skewer and brush the marmalade mixture all over. Leave to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Also, for a larger cake:

Grate 12 oz/360g carrots.  Beat in 8 oz/225g sugar (any combination of white/brown sugars and honey if wished), 4 fl oz oil and 4 eggs.
Sift together  9oz/ 260g self raising flour, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 - 2 teaspoons mixed spice (I used garam masala, ginger and cinnamon). Mix into wet mixture.
Bake in 8 inch square deep tin for 25 - 35 minutes or in 2 shallower tins for 20 - 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Optional: finely grated rind of half an orange, if you can be bothered.  I couldn't.

Ice with normal orange flavoured butter icing, or a mixture of 240g/8oz low fat soft cheese or mascarpone cheese beaten with 1 - 2 tbspn orange juice and 2 tablespoons icing sugar. However, I've always found this cream cheese icing too runny.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I began to use the slow cooker a lot when we were living in Rugby and my job meant that I didn’t arrive home until 6.30pm, late to start cooking for hungry teenagers. The slow cooker was a gift from my friend Carol, and I bless her for it. It is so useful and the wonderful smell of stew or soup warms and fills the kitchen. This is just normal stew, but the day I made it I had run out of onions. I didn’t miss them but could add if necessary.


Layer 750g thinly sliced carrots, 750g thinly sliced potatoes, 5 crushed garlic cloves and 500g topside or stewing steak in the slow cooker. Add 3 tablespoons tomato puree and 1 tablespoon fruit chutney, mix slightly. Pour in enough water to almost cover the potatoes. Season generously with salt and crushed pepper.

Cook on High for 6 hours.

Mix half a cup of flour with a little water to make a paste. Add a ladleful of liquid from the stew to mix, then add the paste to the stew and stir to mix in. Add 2 cups frozen peas if wished, or serve separately.

Cook on High for a further 2 hours. Serve in wide bowls as the gravy might be quite runny.

Good with French bread and green vegetables.

Joan's cheesecake

This is possibly my newest recipe. Uncooked cheesecake. Joan, who I know from Alpha and its follow-on, produces this wonderful dessert at every social occasion.  I'm not sure I have the recipe exactly right, but it's good enough:


Uncooked ginger cheesecake

Stir 75g butter or hard margarine into 250g crushed ginger biscuits. Press into an 8" tin with removable sides, or onto a plate within a circle of waxed card, which works just as well. Possibly better.

Beat 400g room temperature cream cheese with the zest and juice of a lemon. Stir in 250ml whipped cream until completely mixed. Pour onto biscuit base and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Drizzle with a little chocolate melted with a teaspoon of butter.

Christmas

After a busy term. finally time to sit and update recipes again...but first of all, I want to reference this link from Karen Ehman for turkey leftovers. Great idea.

So...Christmas Cake.  My mother's favourite - and only - recipe for Christmas Cake. She used it to make my wedding cake, too - a magnificent 3 tier, rich dark fruit cake. Amazing.

Here is the recipe: typed out for my mother by my father, distributed to all and sundry.

Line a 8" round or oblong 61/2" x 9" x 3" (meticulously measured, as always) with a double layer of greased greaseproof paper. Tie a double layer of brown paper - I used an A4 envelope cut in half lengthways - securely round the outside with string and staples. This prevents burning.

SIFT 8 oz plain flour, 1 teaspoon mixed spice (I even use garam masala if I don't have mixed spice), a quarter of a nutmeg, grated, and a pinch of salt.
BEAT 8oz butter and 8oz sugar together until well mixed and 'fluffy'. SLOWLY add 5 beaten eggs, adding a little flour if  to prevent curdling.
ADD 12 oz currants, 12 oz sultanas, 4oz raisins, 4 oz glace cherries, 6 oz mixed peel, 3 oz chopped almonds, and grated rind of 1 lemon. Mix well, add flour and spices, juice of 1 lemon and up to 2 1/2 fluid oz brandy or milk. (I have also used any other combination of mixed fruit, dried apricots, cranberries etc as long as the total weight of all the dried fruit comes to 38oz. My mother would be horrified but still, with that much fruit, you can't go wrong.)

Put into tin. Smooth top, Bake in centre of oven at 310 degrees for 2 - 4 hours, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
COOL cake in tin upside down on a wire rack. When cool, put away, still in its tin (or wrap in tinfoil).

Cover with MARZIPAN.  Sieve 1lb icing sugar with 1lb ground almonds,sprinkle in 1 tablespoon lemon juice , ADD 2 eggs beaten together. (The recipe says large eggs but I seem to remember medium will do - can always add more lemon juice to moisten.) Work into a stiff paste and knead well. Roll out to at least 1cm thick (our family likes marzipan so the thicker the better) with icing sugar. Brush the cake with apricot jam or crab apple jelly to enable the marzipan to stick, then cover carefully, smoothing the edges.

Ice with royal icing. Use half the quantity, or there is far too much icing.  Or shop bought ready rolled fondant icing, which gives a smooth surface.

However, a gluten-free version is trickier to produce. I found this one from the Gluten-free Alchemist - adding psyllium husk, which I use for seed crackers, and have also made Nigella's Easy Action Christmas cake. I candied my own orange peel, actually chopping up whole oranges very small before boiling until soft and then adding a little sugar, which gave a lovely citrusy taste.

MINCE PIES

Pastry: 14 oz plain flour, 2 oz self-raising flour, 6oz white vegetable fat ('Kimbo' for us Kenyans), 2 oz hard margarine, 4 oz sugar, crumbled together with one beaten egg and 2 eggshells of cold water.

Mincemeat

A combination mixed together very well of:
1lb peeled, cored and finely chopped cooking apples
4 - 6oz grated suet or cooking margarine/fat
12 oz raisins, 8 oz sultanas, 8 oz currants, 8oz chopped peel, 12 oz soft brown sugar, grated rind and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange, half a teaspoon ground mixed spice, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and (optional) 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves. 5 fluid ounces brandy or whisky OR 2 fluid ounces orange juice.

Keeps 2 weeks without alcohol, up to 1 year WITH.

Microwave Christmas Pudding!

I love Christmas pudding:not an agape selfless, sharing love but an egocentric desire for a large helping, with brandy butter. If I share, then there is less for me... Actually, no, I am not quite so mean. I love what Christmas pudding represents: the rich fruit reminds me of God's lavish generosity towards me, the dark colour symbolising depth of unfathomable meaning, the brandy butter the sweetness of God's love.  I don't often, these days,make Christmas pudding: I used to, in Kenya, including pineapple and mango instead of apple and vine fruits, adding carrot and marmelade. Then, on returning to England, I discovered the microwave pudding. Now I have found a recipe for it. This is what I made today: 

Microwave Christmas pudding ... adapted from Marguerite Patten's recipe

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

50g Butter

50g plain flour

Half a teaspoon of mixed spice

75g white breadcrumbs

100g soft dark brown sugar

150g sultanas

75g Raisins

25g Currants

50g Dates

50g Cherries

125g currants

25g coarsely chopped peel

50g grated carrot

grated rind and juice of half lemon

2 eggs

2 tablespoon treacle

1 tablespoon golden syrup

50ml Orange Juice

(But I used dried mixed fruit instead of the separate fruits, and no grated rind: too lazy.)

Method:

Sieve all the dry ingredients together and mix well. Stir in all remaining ingredients until completely mixed. Lightly grease a half litre (1 pint) pudding basin and fill with the mixture. Cover with cling film and make a slit in the top to allow steam to escape. Cook on microwave high for 10 minutes. Allow to stand for 10 minutes after cooking. Sprinkle with brandy and serve.  (Or cook on medium for 10 minutes, let stand for 10 minutes and then cook again for 10 minutes.)

If made in advance, reheat for 2 - 3 minutes on medium.

The shortcut -which can be made on the day or up to 10 months in advance...

Ingredients

10 oz good mincemeat - if you're organised you can make your own, if not use a good quality make (I use Marks and Spencers).
8 oz brown sugar (molasses style)
8 oz self-raising flour.
3 well-beaten eggs
5 oz marmalade (the fine shred is best)
1 oz glace cherries
4 tbs whisky
4 oz frozen butter which is grated or chopped to fine pieces.

1. Line a pudding basin (2 pt size)with greaseproof paper.

2. Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Spoon the mixture into the greased bowl and cover it with greaseproof paper.
4. Put bowl on plate and cook in microwave on medium power for 20 - 25 minutes.
5. Test it with a skewer of knife - if it is 'done' the skewer will come out clean.
6. Leave to 'rest' for 5 minutes.
7. Carefully turn on to serving plate and decorate with cream and holly.
8. You can serve with other things like Brandy Butter, Rum Sauce, Custard or whatever you prefer.

Or the SLOW COOKER version:

Ingredients
2 oz plain flour, pinch of salt, 2 tsp mixed spice, 4 oz currants, 4 oz sultanas, 4 oz raisins, 4 mixed chopped peel, 4 oz shredded suet, 4 softbrown sugar, 4 oz fine white breadcrumbs, 2 oz chopped blanched almonds, grated rind of 1 lemon, 2 eggs beaten, 2 tbsp black treacle, 1 tbsp brandy, a little stoutale or milk for mixing

Method

sieve together the flour,salt and spice,add all the dry ingredients and stir well. Add the eggs,treacle and brandy
with sufficient liquid to make a soft clinging mixture.
(NB. if the pudding basins are metal or foil, they should be lined with greaseproof paper to prevent the acid in the fruit attaking the metal surface during storage)
divide mixture between the greased containers, leaving about half an inch headspace,cover with a double thickness of greaseproof paper or foil.
pe-heat the slow cooker on high for 15 mins. Stand the container in the slow cooker and then pour a pint of boiling water around it, cook on high,then low, or high continuously. cool the pudding and cover with fresh greaseproof paper or foil for storage.
HIGH for 1 hour,then LOW for12 hours
or
HIGH for 7 hours
TO REHEAT, pre-heat the slow cooker on high for 15 mins,stand container in the cooker then pour hot water around it,
heat on HIGH for 3 hours.

A 3pt/1.8l pudding basin sized pudding needs cooking for 10 hours and a further 2 hours on the day.

Royal Icing

My mother's royal icing, only for Christmas cakes. Yet I know that, without the glycerine, this is a marvellous substitute for cement, holding many a gingerbread house together.
The last house we built lasted 200 gingerbread years before needing repair.

1 lb (500g)  icing sugar
1 dessertspoon (10ml) lemon juice
1 dessertspoon (10ml) glycerine (optional, for a soft icing)
2 egg whites

Put half the sifted icing sugar into the mixing bowl and add the egg whites.
Beat (with a mixer)  at SLOW speed thoroughly until very white and smooth
Add the remaining sugar and lemon juice, and glycerine if used
Continue beating until the mixture looks ‘dull’ and very white and peaks form.

Enough to thickly cover a 9 inch diameter cake.

Banana Bread

This originates from Kenya - yet is an American recipe, from the Wycliffe Bible Translation Society cookbook. Spiral bound, the book has been so well used that it has completely lost its cover. It's there, somewhere on the bookshelf. I think.

I can't remember the first time I made this. I suppose it was in Kenya, though I used the courgette cake recipe more frequently, somehow. Odd, when bananas are so ubiquitous in East Africaq. It was rare, though, that bananas survived long enough to become too soft for eating, as they do here in Europe. Here, the bananas we eat are large, solid, fleshy: brash contenders for the name from the Windward Islands (if they come under the Fairtrade label) or elsewhere in the Caribbean if labelled with the global giant, Fyffes...fee, fi, fo fum.  Kenyan bananas were usually finger-sized, sold at the bus terminals and stops in Kisii land in 'hands' of 20 or so, stacked together in flat baskets carried high on heads by small girls. Small, dry, delicious.

So my banana bread seems more European, to me, than Kenyan. This is not the original recipe. I've adapted it for ease and speed - my trademark in cooking.

Banana Bread
Mash 2 -3 bananas.
Beat in 1/3 cup oil, 1- 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar
Add 1 1/2 - 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate (baking) soda dissolved in 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk or water,
1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg - or 1 teaspoon mixed spices. Even ginger.

Bake at 180/190 C (350/375) for 30 - 40 minutes.

It's a variable bready cakey thing. It all depends on the ripeness and softness of the bananas.