COOKBOOKS GALORE

                 There was a special offer on British blueberries at my local supermarket, so I bought several punnets.  I love them for breakfast, in muffins and in one of my favourite cakes, blueberry lemon yoghurt cake. Watching Monty last week, he said to pick any lemons that were ripe, so this gave me the lemon for  my cake. It's an easy cake to make too.   Preheat oven 180C/gas4                     Grease and line 20cm springform tin you need: 125g softened butter,150g caster sugar, 175g sr flour, 100g Greek yoghurt, 3 eggs, grated zest of 1  large lemon,  130g blueberries For the icing: 100g icing sugar, juice of the lemon   Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy. Add the flour, yoghurt and eggs and beat together. Stir in the lemon zest. Spoon half of the batter into the tin. Mix most of the blueberries into t...

There are lots of blueberries around at the moment and I love them. I've been eating some every morning with my cereal, but decided I wanted to make a cake. This is one of our favourite loaf cakes, but with a streusel topping. The original recipe was from an American website so has been converted from cups - hence the odd amounts. I've tweaked the recipe because it had way too much sugar in the cake. I like making cakes with oil - makes me think they're healthier! So, preheat oven 190C/gas5 Grease a 900g loaf tin. Put 80g granulated sugar in a bowl with 60ml sunflower oil. Mix together with an electric mixer, then add 1 egg, 250ml milk and 1 tspn vanilla extract and beat till smooth and creamy. Fold in 280g plain flour which has been sieved with 3 tspns baking powder. Mix to a batter without lumps.  Put 220g blueberries in a bowl and add 1 tbspn flour and coat the berries with it. Then gently fold the blueberries into the batter. Pour into the tin and smo...

I don't really do much baking now that I'm on my own, but sometimes I have a need to make a cake! I bought some blueberries from our local market. They're one of my favourites fruits, and I used to have a bush in my garden. Sadly the winter before last killed it. I love them on porridge, but I had an urge to make a cake with them. I decided on a streusel cake - I love these cakes with the crumbly topping. So you need: For the topping 25g caster sugar, 2 tbspn flour and 55g soft butter For the cake 3 eggs, 200g caster sugar, 220g melted butter, 1 tbspn vanilla extract, 250ml buttermilk, 320g flour, 1 tbspn baking powder, pinch salt,  400g blueberries [washed and dried] Preheat oven 180C/gas4         Grease and flour a 9"x13"  [23x33cm] cake tin For the topping - mix the sugar, butter and flour together till like crumbs. For the cake - In a large bowl beat together the eggs then gradually whisk in the sugar till the batter is nic...

One of my favourite fruits is a blueberry, and I love blueberry muffins. I thought I'd try to use one of my usual recipes, but instead of individual muffins, make a muffin cake. I've added a topping to give it more crunch. There used to be a prolific blueberry bush in the garden, but sadly this year it decided it had had enough! Preheat oven 190C/gas5                                    Grease a 900g loaf tin. In a bowl mix together 280g plain flour, 1/2 tpsn salt, 1/2 tspn bicarb and 1 tspn cinnamon. In another bowl beat together 2 eggs, 100g caster sugar and 85g light brown sugar,then mix in 125ml sunflower oil, 125ml sour cream and 1 tspn vanilla extract. Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet one, but don't overmix Stir in 290g blueberries dusted in 1 tbspn flour to stop them sinking in the cake. Topping: 100g caster sugar, 50g plain flour, 50g butter cubed and 1/2 tspn cinn...

I like making cakes with vegetables, and have made a few different ones, but this is the first time I've tried making one with vegetables and fruit. I defrosted the big freezer and found a lot of blueberries I needed to use up, so this cake seemed a good way of using some of them. I found the recipe in an old pull-out for Woman's Weekly magazine, but have changed several things to suit my taste. I also halved the recipe as the original one made 2 cakes. Preheat oven 180C/gas4 Grease a 20cm springform cake tin. Beat together 2 medium eggs, 125ml sunflower oil, 2 tspn vanilla extract and 225g caster sugar till nice and fluffy. Stir in 125g of grated courgette. Sift together 185g plain flour with 1/2 tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn salt, 1/8 tspn bicarb and 2 tspn cinnamon then fold into the wet mixture. Gently stir in 165g fresh blueberries and mix. Spoon into the tin and bake for about 35-45 mins. Cool in the tin for 20 mins then turn onto a wire rack. The...

I try and buy seasonally, but I have to admit to having a passion for blueberries. They were on offer last week in my usual supermarket, so had to buy some. I know they don't taste anything like the ones I grow in my pot in the garden, and that they'd been shipped half way round the world, but I still love them.  I've been eating some every morning with my porridge, but decided I wanted to make a cake. This is one of our favourite loaf cakes, but with a streusel topping. The original recipe was from an American website so has been converted from cups - hence the odd amounts. I've tweaked the recipe because it had way too much sugar in the cake. I like making cakes with oil - makes me think they're healthier! So, preheat oven 190C/gas5 Grease a 900g loaf tin. Put 80g granulated sugar in a bowl with 60ml sunflower oil. Mix together with an electric mixer, then add 1 egg, 250ml milk and 1 tspn vanilla extract and beat till smooth and creamy. Fold in 280...

Our little blueberry bush, in its tub in the garden, has given us nearly 3kg of fruit this year. I've frozen some, but wanted to make something quick to offer my friend when she comes round for a cuppa this afternoon. I found this recipe in an old American baking magazine and it really is quick and easy. 260g plain flour    200g caster sugar   120g butter, cubed 1 teaspoon baking powder 250ml milk 2 eggs, separated 150g fresh or frozen blueberries Preheat oven 180C/gas4 grease and line a 20cm square cake tin Put the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl then rub in the butter till you have crumbs. Put 1/4 of the mixture aside to use as a topping. Add the milk and egg yolks and beat together. Whisk the whites into soft peaks then add to the mixture gently. Spoon into the tin, sprinkle with the blueberries and top with the remaining crumbs. Bake for about 30 mins till golden. I Nice soft crumb from the cake and lots of juicy blueberri...

Have had a silicone bundt mould for ages, but haven't used it. It's a friend's birthday today so I decided to make her a bundt birthday cake. Her favourite fruits are blueberries, and they were on offer in my local supermarket - perfect. I decided to add some lemon flavour with the blueberries. I also had a pot of  natural yoghurt to use up, so added some to the mixture to make the cake nice and moist. I finished it off with some lemon glace icing drizzled over the top. I love Ina Garten's lemon yoghurt cake link is here   which Smitten Kitten made into a lovely lemon and blueberry one -   link is here  . The cake mixture is really a sandwich mix, or pound cake or quatre quarts - most countries seem to have their own version. I bought one of the Cake Release sprays so the cake would come out of the mould [my dil had problems getting her cakes out of bundt tins, so advised me to buy some]. So, it's a simple cake made to look more interesting by using a fancy...

Have been trying to unravel the difference between various American words used in desserts - slump, grunt, cobbler and buckle. I've made a cobbler a few times, cutting out scone-like cobbles to put on top of the fruit but what's a grunt or a slump? Great words, and what  pictures they conjure up. I found a recipe in an American book I bought from 'The Works' years ago, for a Blueberry Buckle. This sounded intriguing so I had to make one. What is it? It's a cake mixture with the fruit added which is put into the bottom of the cake tin, and a streusel type mixture is spooned on top. The name Buckle is supposed to have been used because the top of the baked dessert looks like it's buckled under the heat  - it does, so maybe there's some truth in this idea. I altered some of the amounts in the recipe, as there seemed to be too much flour in the cake part. I'll certainly make the recipe again, but I'd use less sugar in the topping as it was way to...

There seem to be a lot of blueberries on offer in the supermarkets, so decided to buy some to try out a recipe given to me by my friend. She says it's a cross between a blueberry muffin and an old fashioned cheesecake with a cream cheese filling. Sounds interesting. I think the original recipe must be American, as it's called a coffeecake. Topping : 120g butter, softened 150g sugar 30g brown sugar 60g chopped nuts 11/2 tspn cinnamon 1/2tspn nutmeg Cream cheese filling : 375g cream cheese 90g sugar 1 egg grated rind of a lemon 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tspn almond essence Cake : 500g plain flour 4 tspn baking powder 1 tspn salt 120g butter, softened 300g sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1 tspn almond essence 300ml milk 750g fresh blueberries Preheat oven 375F/190C/gas 5 Generously butter a 32x22cm [13x9"] glass baking dish Topping - rub all the ingredients together till large crumbs. Filling - soften cheese and beat with the sugar using an electric mixer t...

This is a recipe from my friend Annick. I bought some frozen blueberries last week and made some muffins with them, but had half a bag left. What to do with them? This cake was the answer. You can serve it warm, with creme fraiche or cream as a dessert, or cold with a cuppa. Here's the recipe: 225g sr flour 1/2 spn salt 125g butter or margarine 175g granulated sugar 2 large eggs, beaten 2 large eating apples, cored and sliced 125g blueberries icing sugar Preheat oven 190C/170C fan/gas5 Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Put the flour in a bowl with the salt; add the butter or marg and rub it in. Add 125g of the sugar and the eggs and mix together. Spread half of this mixture into your tin - I found this very difficult until I used a flat spatula. Layer the apples and blueberries on top and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar. Spoon in the rest of the mixture. Bake for about 45 mins [ my oven isn't very reliable and it took 40 mins] Coo...