COOKBOOKS GALORE

I bought some plums from a local market. They were very ripe and needed using, so decided to make a plum cake of some sort. I found this recipe in my late mil's notebook, so not sure where it originates. It's a sponge cake with plums on top, then a sort of streusel layer, some of which sank into the cake and made it taste a bit like flapjacks - hence my recipe title! Grease and line a 20cm springform tin. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 It's an easy cake to make: Put 175g soft butter or marg in the bowl of an electric mixer; add 175g soft brown sugar, 2 beaten eggs, 175g sr flour, 1/2 tspn baking powder and 1 tspn cinnamon, and beat together till nice and creamy. You need 450g plums, halved and stoned. [ If they're not really ripe, put them in a dish in the oven sprinkled with 2 tbspn granulated sugar and bake them for about 20 mins till they've softened.] Put the plums, cut side up, on top of the cake batter and make the topping. Melt 50g of butter, add 50g sr...

I recently posted on a friend's blog that I haven't been able to find any gooseberries this year. Sadly we left our gooseberry bushes in our French garden, and haven't room here to plant any. On Sunday we went to Suffolk for our granddaughter's 5th birthday, and my lovely German dil gave me a bagful of gooseberries given to her by a friend - they don't like them. She also gave me this recipe handed on by her grandmother. It's not the prettiest cake, but it is delicious. I had to change a couple of things in the recipe as we can't find them in the UK [maybe you could online?] such as 'Sahnesteif' which helps cream stiffen and packet vanilla sugar. In the German recipe they used single cream, but I used double cream. The German recipe also used a packet meringue mix, but I made my own. Preheat oven 160C/ gas 3 Grease 1 or 2 x 26cm springform cake tin and line the base with parchment paper. Beat 100g of butter and 100g caster sugar toge...

This is a 'healthier' version of my favourite cake! By this I mean that it uses oil instead of butter! I love the combination of coffee and walnuts, and this loaf cake is cut into three layers, which are filled with a cream mixture, and then the top is iced and decorated with walnuts.  Preheat oven 190C/gas5 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin. In a large bowl put 225g light muscovado sugar, 225g sr flour and1/2tpsn salt and mix together. Add 225ml vegetable oil [I used rapeseed], 4 egg yolks, 50ml strong espresso coffee and 50ml milk; beat in until well mixed and smooth. Beat the egg whites till stiff and fold into the batter, half at a time. Stir in 75g of chopped walnuts. Pour the mixture into the tin and tap to level it. Bake for about 50 mins till well risen. leave to cool in the tin for about 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. In a bowl pour 300ml of double cream;  add 1 tspn of strong coffee powder and 1 tbspn of caster sugar and beat well...

I'm back to using up things lurking in my cupboard, and this time it's some Amaretti biscuits. I bought some peaches a while ago and they're just ripe, so decided to use them too as peaches and almonds are a great combination. To reinforce the almond flavour I added some chopped almonds. The cake makes a nice dessert or a nice addition to the afternoon cuppa. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease a 20cm springform cake tin. Skin and remove the stones from 2 peaches  [or you could use tinned]. Chop one into chunks and slice the other. Whisk together 250ml plain yoghurt [not low fat] with 1 tspn bicarbonate of soda. In another bowl sift together 200g plain flour and 11/2 tspn baking powder. Beat together [yes I know it's a lot of bowls!]  115g butter and 200g sugar then add 2 eggs one at a time. Add 1 tspn vanilla extract to the batter. Add half the flour mixture then half the yoghurt mix then the rest of the flour mixture and the yoghurt mix. Carefully fold in the p...

Over the years I've gathered quite a lot of recipes for apple cakes, but I found this one recently in an old magazine cutting. I've made crumble cakes before, but this one has 2 layers of apple, so a bit different. It also has some elderflower cordial in it, which sounded like an interesting addition. The recipe used a 27x25 cake tin, but I only had my Wilton's brownie tin which is 27x17.8 so I made 3/4 of this mixture. Even so, it made a large cake; there was plenty for 6 people and some left over for us. This is the original recipe. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 and grease and line a 27x25xm baking tin. Cream together 200g butter or margarine and 200g caster sugar. Add 4 eggs one at a time and beat together. Add 350g sr flour, 2 tspn mixed spice and 1 tbspn elderflower cordial and fold in. Put half of this batter in the tin. Peel and thinly slice 500g cooking apples [about 2 large ones] and put half over the mixture in the tin. Spoon over the rest of the mixture making ...