COOKBOOKS GALORE

I love carrot cake, and the other day I was out with a friend and spotted another vegetable cake, this time with parsnip in it, so I wanted to make one. I have a friend who has a lovely little tea room, and she gave me this recipe - it's very popular in her shop. For the cake you need - 175g butter or margarine, 200g demerara sugar, 100ml maple syrup, 3 eggs, 250g sr flour and 2 tspn baking powder, 2 tspn mixed spice, 250g parsnip, peeled and grated,1 medium eating apple, grated, zest and juice of an orange, icing sugar to dust the top. Preheat oven 180C                     Grease and line the bottoms of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup gently in a pan. Allow to cool a bit then beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour and baking powder and the spice. Add the parsnip, apple and orange. Pour into the tins and bake for 25-30 mins. Cook in tins for 5 mins then take cakes out and cool on a wire rack. Sandwich th...

I love recipes using apples, and I made this tart for dessert when my children came last weekend. It's unlike the usual French apple tart, as it has cream in the filling with the apples. It comes from a leaflet I picked up somewhere, several years ago, when we were in Alsace, and I've made it many times since. Preheat oven 190C/gas5               You need a large fluted and greased flan tin [preferably with a loose bottom] - 24-26cm. For the pastry : 170g flour, 1 tbspn caster sugar, pinch salt, 125g cold butter cut into cubes and 2 tbspn cold water. Rub the butter into the flour to which the sugar and salt have been added. Add the water and make into a ball. Cover in clingfilm and put into the fridge for about an hour. Roll into a circle, and use the rolling pin to fit the pastry into the flan tin. For the filling: You need 4 apples  - I used Granny Smith, but you could use Golden Delicious or Braeburn, but not Bramleys, as they don't ...

This is a lovely big sharing cake. It's very moist and uses a lot of apples- great for windfalls! I used Gala Apples, but you could use Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or an apple of your choice. My friend gave me the recipe, and it's really easy to make. You can never have too many apple cake recipes! You need: 1kg sliced apples, 400g caster sugar, 2-3tspn cinnamon, 190ml vegetable oil - I used sunflower, 3 eggs, 250ml orange juice, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 375g plain flour with 2 tspn baking powder and 1/4 tspn salt. Preheat oven 180C/gas 4                Grease a 23cm round cake tin well and line base. My dil had my round tin on loan, so I used a 23x30cm cake tin, and it worked out fine. Toss the apples with 100g of the sugar and the cinnamon. Blend the rest of the sugar with the oil, then add the eggs, orange juice and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour mixture and beat to make a batter. Put half the batter into the cake tin and t...

As Autumn is nearly upon us, I thought I'd make an apple cake. I seem to have collected a file full of cakes using apples in various ways, but I haven't made this cake before. It's from a leaflet that came with a French magazine a few years ago. I love cinnamon, and cinnamon and apple are made for each other. You need: 4-5 apples , 180g butter, 1 heaped tspn cinnamon, 150g golden caster sugar, 50g flaked almonds, 3 eggs, 160g sr flour and 90g crème fraîche Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a 20cm cake tin Peel the apples and cut up into dice. Melt 120g of the butter in a pan and add the diced apple. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and leave on a low heat for a few minutes. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the bottom of the cake tin. Spoon the apples on top. Beat together the eggs and the sugar then fold in the flour and add the cream. Spoon this onto the apples. Bake for about 25 mins. Leave in tin to cool then turn out upside down. ...

"The Lumberjack Cake is so-called by Canadian lumberjacks because it helps keep the hunger pangs at bay till lunch." This is one of the reasons I found on the internet for the name of this cake. It's also claimed as an Australian and New Zealand recipe - so who knows? I wanted something to fill some hungry men who'd helped me by putting up my new side gate. They all love sweet cakes and pudds, so this recipe seemed just the thing. It's more of a dessert than a cake to have with with a cuppa - too sticky. 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, and finely chopped - about 400g 200g chopped dates 1 tspn bicarb 250ml boiling water 125g butter 1 tspn vanilla extract 210g caster sugar 1 large egg 180g plain flour Topping: 60g Butter 8 tbspn milk 110g soft brown sugar 60g dessicated coconut Preheat the oven to 180C /gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm spring form cake tin. Mix together the apple, dates, bicarb and boiling water. Cover with cling film and le...

I love spicy cakes, so I've been trying a few recipes and liked this one the best. The recipe uses 'speculoos' or 'speculaas' biscuits, the spicy biscuits the Dutch eat on St Nicholas Day, December 6th. These were easy to find in France, but not here. I used 'Biscoff' brand, which have almost the same taste [and you can also get in a jar and is delicious as a cake filling]. Aldi and Lidl both have spicy biscuits which would work just as well. You also need some apples and vanilla yoghurt. Preheat oven 200C/gas6  Grease a 20cm square cake tin. Using a food processor [or a plastic bag and a rolling pin!] blitz 50g of biscuits into fine crumbs. In a bowl break 2 eggs and whisk, then add 2 tbspn of runny honey and beat. Stir in 1 small pot of vanilla yoghurt and the biscuit crumbs. Add 200g of plain flour to which you've added a tspn of baking powder. Mix together then add 3 tbspn of vegetable oil and mix well. Peel and core 2 eating apples and chop in...

It's always good to have a new apple recipe to try, and this one was given to me recently by a friend. It was given to her by her American mil and has been changed from cups. It's a nice easy cake which doesn't need a mixer. You mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another, add the fruit and nuts and mix. It's made in a tube pan, one of the reasons I decided to make it, as I've just bought one. The cake has a lovely brown-sugar glaze, the same idea as the topping on a lemon drizzle. Preheat oven 160C/gas3 Grease a 25cm tube tin. Put 420g plain flour, 1 tspn  bicarbonate of soda and 1 tspn salt in a bowl and mix together. In another bowl put 350g granulated sugar and 320ml vegetable oil and beat together. Then add 3 large eggs and 2 tspns vanilla extract and beat together till well mixed. Add the flour mixture and mix together carefully until just combined, as you do with muffins.Stir in 250g chopped pecan nuts and 3 medium apples which have b...

I recently bought myself a Patisserie book, by Murielle Vallette. Among other things, I wanted to have a try at making my own puff pastry. This is an excellent book, as it has photos showing you all the steps. This time I didn't fancy making any of the suggestions in the book with my puff pastry, so made these easy turnovers. I adapted the ingredients from an idea I saw on Pinterest, which were turnovers using pear and walnuts. I had a search through my cupboard and found some cranberries lurking in the back. When I'd cooked the apples they were rather too mushy to put in the pastry, so I thickened them with some cornflour. I used Braeburn apples as they were in the fruit bowl, but you could use any apples. I decided to ice them with some simple glace icing. 2 apples peeled, cored and chopped into small dice sheet of butter puff pastry 50g brown sugar ¼ tspn cinnamon 30g dried cranberries 250ml water thickening: 30ml cold water ½ tbspn cornflour Cinnamon Icing: 6...

These day, I only make puddings when we have friends or family for a meal - they seem to expect it! I wanted to make something tasty, but not stodgy.  Hunting through my cookery books, I found one I'd bought a few years ago from the famous 'Pudding Club' in 'Three Ways House' in Chipping Camden. If you've nor heard of this club, it was founded in 1985 to save our great British puddings. At the time, puddings were looked on with horror - much too fattening. So the club meets, eat their main course and then 7 different puddings are brought out and devoured. At the end of the evening, they vote for the best one. Looking through the book, many of the pudds are very filling ,but I found one that was marked as 'healthy', and it does contain fruit, nuts and honey and very little fat. I suppose with the latest bad press for sugar, 120g would be classed as a lot, so perhaps it wouldn't be classed as 'healthy'! Many of the puddings are steamed, but...

Our computer has had gremlins, so haven't been able to post. Hopefully this is now sorted! I'm always happy to find a new recipe for an apple cake, and this one comes from a French friend. It's nice and easy to make, is different from the usual apple cake, and is a nice change from the heavy Christmas pudds and cakes. I've translated it from French, hence the odd looking recipe with tbpns and grams! 200g of plain flour 10 tbspns of caster sugar + 100 g 2 eggs + 1 extra 6 tbspns of milk 2 tspns of baking powder 4 tbspns of sunflower or rapeseed oil 4 apples [I used Braeburns] 100g of butter 1 tbspn of vanilla sugar [or 1 packet] Icing sugar for the top Preheat oven 190C/gas5 Grease and bottom line a 23cm springform tin. Beat the 2 eggs with the 10 tbspns of sugar; add the flour, baking powder, milk and oil. Peel and slice the apples thinly, then add to the mixture and mix in. Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 mins. Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat t...

I went to a farmer's market yesterday and couldn't resist buying yet more apples. It's the time of the year for them, for pies, cakes, chutney, jam. What could I do with them that would be something different? I remembered some apple recipes I'd cut out of a magazines ages ago, so I looked through them and found this one. I'm sure there are many recipes for regional Harvest Cakes, but my being Welsh, this recipe seemed very appropriate, and it's not long since we had Harvest.The countryside around us has been buzzing with combines and tractors. It's an unusual cake because the fruit is put in in middle like a sandwich filling, and it seems as if there's much too much fruit for the batter. But have faith, all will be well! Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 18cm cake tin Melt 175g butter with 175g soft brown sugar - don't worry if it's not all dissolved, but stir it. Cool for a bit then add 2 beaten eggs. Sift 225g sr flour together...

Another simple but delicious apple cake. Many years ago I entered a competition in a small magazine called 'Home and Freezer Digest'. You had to send in your favourite apple recipe, and the best 100 would be published. I did get a recipe [called 'Nutty Apples'] in the book, and I won a copy of the book [100 Best Apple Recipes] and a year's worth of the magazine. Why am I saying all this, well I found the rather tatty book in the loft recently, and it has some great apple recipes in it. I still had a few of the windfall apples left so decided top make an apple and ginger cake from the book. It's a small cake, so perfect for the 2 of us. It's unusual because the apple puree is mixed into the cake mixture rather than being a layer in the middle of the cake. This gives the cake a good flavour. It could be used as a pudding with some custard - ideal for this colder weather. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 20cm cake tin. You need: 225g of app...

This is my kind of cake - a nice simple apple loaf cake - just right for using up some apple windfalls which a friend gave me. Have been busy making chutney and trying apple butter [delicious]. I made some apple muffins and scones for my children to take, and this loaf for us. It's also nice as a dessert. You preheat oven 170C/gas3 and line a 900g loaf tin with some baking parchment. Using an electric mixer, beat 175g caster sugar and  175g butter together till nice and fluffy then add 3 eggs, one at a time. Add a tspn of vanilla extract and mix in. In another bowl mix 225g of plain flour together with a tspn of baking powder, a tspn of ginger and a tspn of cinnamon. Add this to the batter and fold in. Then add about 25ml milk to make a soft batter. Peel and core about 3 small apples - chop most of it into small pieces, but leave a few pieces to slice for the top of the loaf. Mix the apple pieces into the batter. Spoon the batter into the tin and arrange the slices along...

We love tea breads and loaf cakes, or anything with fruit in really. I found this recipe in my cuttings folder, and I think it originally came from 'Woman's Weekly' magazine a few years ago. I adapted it to suit our tastes, as the original recipe used prunes, apple and pecans. It also used wholemeal flour, but I'd run out, so used white. I added some cinnamon, which is always good with apples, imho, and I didn't toast the pecans, as suggested. So here's my adapted recipe: 1 apple [about 175g - I used a granny Smith with its skin on] 175g dried apricots 175g pecans 11/2 tspns baking powder 220g plain flour 110g butter or margarine 175g light demerara sugar 2 beaten eggs 3 tbspn milk Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease and bottom line a 900g loaf tin. Add the baking powder and cinnamon to the flour and sieve into a bowl. Then add the other ingredients, except the fruit and nuts, and beat together with an electric hand mixer. If the mixture seems to thic...

I love apple cakes, and this is a recipe from my lovely German dil. It's an unusual apple cake as it has 3 layers. It's not the prettiest of cakes, but the flavour's really good. It's not a huge cake, but it's nice eaten warm as a pudd., or you could eat it cold as a cake with your afternoon cuppa. 100g butter 100g caster sugar 200g sr flour 1 large egg pinch salt 500g cooking apples 55g sultanas 1 tspn cinnamon 55g demerara sugar Preheat oven 190C/gas 5. Grease and line a 20cm springform tin. Melt butter in microwave or pan. Remove and add the sugar, flour, egg and salt. Mix to a stiff dough. Put 2/3 of the dough in the bootom of the cake tin, pressing it to cover the base. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and then put on top of the dough. Put the 1/3 of the dough on top in pieces, tearing it and gently pressing it down. It won't cover the apple mixture. Bake for about 50 mins till golden, but cover with some foil for about the last...

Another recipe to use up some fruit. The original recipe used blueberries with the apples, but I love cranberries and wanted to try this combination. The method used to make the cake is a bit unusual, whizzing the flour and butter first. The dough is quite firm; more like a cookie dough. You can bake it, as I did, in a 20cm cake tin, or as a loaf in a 900g loaf tin. 125g butter 225g sr flour 175g caster sugar 2 large eggs, beaten 2 large eating apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced 125g cranberries [or blueberries] 2 tsbpn apricot jam Preheat oven 190C/gas 5 Grease and line a 20cm cake tin or a 900g loaf tin. Sieve flour into a food processor and add the butter. Whizz till it becomes like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and eggs and whizz again to make a smooth mixture. Spoon half of the mixture into the tin, then scatter over half the apple and cranberries. Spoon over the rest of the mixture then scatter the rest of the fruit on top. Bake for about 45 mins till ...

One of out favourite desserts is a crumble, so thought I'd try out this recipe as it's a crumble pie. 175g oats 150g plain flour 125g brown sugar 1/2tspn bicarbonate of soda 175g butter or margarine, melted 2 large cooking apples, peeles, cored and sliced 75g dried cranberries 1 tspn cinnamon 1 tbspn lemon juice Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5 Grease a 20cm springform cake tin or metal pie dish. Mix together the oats, flour, sugar and bicarb. in a bowl then stir in the melted fat. Mix together well. Press 2/3 of this mix into the bottom and sides of the tin or dish. Mix the rest of the ingredients together - the apples, cranberries lemon juice and cinnamon. Spoon this into the crumble base keeping away from the sides of the tin or dish. Starting at the edge and working into the middle, cover with the rest of the crumble. Then firm around the edges to seal the top to the sides. Bake for 30 mins till golden. What a great idea this is! I love a crumble topp...

I have some apples to use up, so decided to hunt through my collection of apple recipes to find something different. This recipe is from a booklet I had many years ago in a magazine called 'Home and freezer Digest' which sadly no longer exists. I thought I'd also use this as my offering to Ruth's [of 'Pink Whisk'] October challenge -  to use apples in a recipe - which you'll find here Pastry: 75g butter 175g plain flour 25g ground almonds 1 egg yolk 15ml cold water 1/4 tspn almond essence Topping: 115g plain flour 1/2 tspn mixed spice 50g butter in cubes 50g light demerara sugar 50g flaked almonds Filling: 675g cooking apples 25g sultanas Preheat oven 190C/375F/gas5 I used a food processor to blend the flour and butter for the pastry, then stirred in the sugar and ground almonds. Whisk the egg yolk, water and almond essence together, then add them to the mixture and make into a nice soft dough. Put into the...

I'm a great fan of apple cakes and have posted several recipes on here. This one sounded good, especially as I had some raisins to use up, and a few apples getting soft in the fruit bowl. It comes from my collection of magazine recipes, which one day I WILL organise! The recipe added peel [which I dislike] and the grated rind of an orange, but I didn't add these as I wanted the spices to come through. I used more spice than the recipe stated as I love them! A nice, easy cake which we ate warm, as a pudding, last night, with some creme fraiche. The cooking smell was MMMMMMMM! 75g butter or margarine 175g soft brown sugar 110g plain flour 110g wholemeal flour 2 tspns baking powder 1 tspn mixed spice 1 tspn cinnamon 2 eggs 3 or 4 apples - cooking or eating - about 550g 120g raisins milk Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas4 In a bowl, mix together the flours, spices and baking powder. Peel, core and chop the apples into little cu...

Yesterday I made some creme anglaise to have with our rhubarb crumble. There was a little left over, so this recipe was just perfect. It makes 12 muffins 90g melted butter 300g sr flour 150g plain flour 1 tspn cinnamon [ I love it so used 2 tspns] 165g caster sugar 1 egg, beaten 250ml milk 60ml creme anglaise 150g cooked apples [I used cox and chopped them up before cooking] 2 tbspn demerara sugar preheat oven 200C/gas 6/400F Grease a 12-holed muffin tin or use 12 muffin cases. Mix together the butter, flours, 1/2 the cinnamon, caster sugar, egg and milk till just mixed. Fill the cases or holes half full of the batter, then make a deepish dent in the middle and add 1 tspn creme anglaise and 2 tspns apple. Add more batter on top. Mix the brown sugar with the rest of the cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the muffins. Cook for about 25 mins till golden. Leave the muffins to rest in the tin, and then put onto a wire rack. I like the texture of the muffins with th...