COOKBOOKS GALORE

As I mentioned is a previous post, my grandson has decided he'd like to bake, so I was looking through some old chiIdren's cookery books and found this recipe . I think it's a strange way to make a cake, but decided to try it anyway. It make 12 squares. For the bottom of the squares: 175g butter 75g icing sugar 225g plain flour Topping: 75g butter 2 tbspns golden syrup [or maple syrup] 2 tbspns milk 1 tspn vanilla essence 50g soft brown sugar 2 eggs 100g pecan nuts Grease and line a tin 18x27 cm. Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 To make the base : Put the butter into a bowl, add the sugar and beat till fluffy. Fold in the flour. Bring the mixture into a ball. Flour the worktop and knead the ball a few times to make it smooth. Then press the dough into the tin - using the back of a spoon helps. Bake this for about 15 mins till it's golden. Let the base cool. Put the butter in a pan and melt over a low heat, then stir in the sugar, syrup and vanilla e...

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...

This was going to be my offering to the 1st birthday challenge, but in my hurry to bake something, I left out the chocolate! Having arrived back from our French holiday last night, I went over to see my grandsons this morning. Tom, who's 10, and I have started baking together, and I'd promised we could make something. We hunted through his children's baking book and found these. He loves ginger and bananas so they seemed perfect. Here's the recipe. 125g butter 150g golden syrup 100g light muscovado sugar 2 bananas 2 eggs 2 tbspns milk 250g sr flour 2 tspns ground ginger 1/2 tspn bicarb. of soda Topping 200g icing sugar 5-6 tspns water hundreds and thousands/sugar strands [or anything else you fancy] to sprinkle on top Grease and line a 18x28cm roasting tin. Preheat oven 180C/350F/gas4 Put the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently till melted. Take off the heat. Peel and mash the bananas with a fork. Beat the eggs and mi...