COOKBOOKS GALORE

 I thought I'd have a change from cakes and make a savoury recipe. There's a new greengrocer in town that sells fruit and veg in bowls. I don't know why, but I bought a bowl of courgettes. Have made this recipe many times before, but my son and my neighbour love it. It's a bit of a faff having to grate the courgettes, but my food processor does it for me. Don't grate them too fine or they'll end up like water! Past experience! You need: 300g goat's cheese, 5 medium courgettes, 3 eggs, 150g flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 2 tbspn vegetable oil, 120ml milk, 100g grated Gruyère cheese, 2 pinches salt. Preheat oven 200C/gas6                         Grease a 900g loaf tin.  cheeses, flour and baking powder, oil and milk. Add the courgettes and salt. Mix well and spoon into the tin.  Bake for about 40 mins then cool on a wire rack. Sorry, photo is a bit blurred. There's a nice flavour from the goat's cheese and the l...

I went to tea with a friend recently and she'd made this loaf cake. If you're on a diet, look away now! It involves chocolate, peanut butter and courgettes, but you wouldn't guess about the courgettes as they add moisture but no flavour. The negative bit is that you use several bowls, but the end result is well worth it! So for the loaf you need:  2 small courgettes grated [leave the skin on], 2 eggs, 80ml honey, 120ml vegetable oil, 100g soft brown sugar, 2 tspn vanilla extract, 1/2 tspn bicarb, 1 tspn baking powder, 200g plain flour, 75g smooth peanut butter, 1/2 tspn instant coffee, 25g cocoa, 50g chocolate cut into pieces and 25g chocolate melted with 25g smooth peanut butter. Preheat oven 170C           Line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper In bowl A mix together the courgettes, eggs, honey, oil, sugar and vanilla extract. In another bowl B sieve the flour, baking powder and bicarb together, then add to the batter. In yet anoth...

I love loaf cakes. They’re easy to make, easy to cut and so useful. A few very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl was my inspiration for this loaf cake. I added some pecans, and used the buttermilk left over in the fridge from making scones. Cake : 3 ripe bananas, 100g pecan nuts broken into small pieces, 100g soft butter, 175g soft brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 250g plain flour, 1 tspn bicarb, 1 tspn mixed spice, 100 ml buttermilk Topping: 1 small banana, sliced, Preheat oven 180C/gas4.        Grease and line base of 200g loaf tin Beat the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, a bit at a time. Mash the bananas and add to the batter then add  flour, bicarbonate and mixed spice and fold in. Stir in the buttermilk then most of the nuts, saving a few bits for the top. Pour into the loaf tin, then put the sliced bananas on top and sprinkle over the rest of the nuts. Bake for about 45-50 mins. If...

Sometimes you just want a simple piece of cake with your cuppa, and this loaf cake is just what you need. I had a medium sized tin of peaches reaching its 'Use by' date, so decided to add them to a basic loaf cake mixture. Preheat oven 180C/gas4                      Grease a 900g loaf tin Beat together 150g butter and 150g caster sugar. Beat in 3 eggs, one at a time. Fold in 150g flour with 1 tspn baking powder. Drain the syrup from the tin of peaches and cut them into dice. Add to the batter and stir in. Spoon into cake tin and bake for about 40 mins. This is my attempt and prettying up my photo of the cake! I kept back a couple of peach slices and added some flowers that were hanging round in the cupboard! The cake was nice and moist, with a soft crumb. Good contrast between the soft cake and the fruit. I'll certainly make it again, but with a different fruit, such as pears or pineapple or raspberries. Maybe add a ...

A quick post. It's the usual story - what to do with 3 very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. I also had a tin of Carnation Caramel coming to its 'use by' date, so decided to make a cake combining both of them. The Caramel is very sweet so there's only a small amount of sugar in the cake. I wanted an easy cake to cut, so made it in a loaf tin, Preheat oven 180C/gas4                     Grease a 900g/2 lb loaf tin Cream together 75g butter and 25g soft brown sugar till fluffy. Beat in 1 egg then add the caramel and mix well. Sift together 225g plain flour and 2 tspn baking powder then fold these into the mixture. Stir in 3 ripe and mashed bananas. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for an hour. I covered the top with foil for the last 15mins as it was getting very brown. Cool in tin for a few mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool. I really expected it to be very sweet, but it isn't. The crumb is soft and I liked the bits o...

I haven't made a loaf cake for a while, but having a sort out of my baking cupboard, I found some wholemeal flour, stem ginger and a bag of dried apricots that needed using. Thought they'd make a good combination in a loaf cake. I find using just wholemeal flour make cakes too heavy for my taste, so I always do half wholemeal and half white. It's a quick loaf to make - preheat your oven to 180C/gas 4 and grease a 900g loaf tin. Put 115g wholemeal flour and 115g plain flour in a bowl with 11/2 tspns of baking powder. Add 150g soft light brown sugar, 115g butter, 2 eggs, zest of a lemon and 2 tbspn of milk. Beat together using an electric mixer for about 2 mins then fold in 175g of dried apricots [not the ones you have to soak] which have been chopped. Finely chop 3 pieces of stem ginger and you need 4 tbspns of the syrup from the jar, Add these to the cake mixture. Thinly slice 1 more piece of stem ginger. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and level the top, then arra...

Yet another of our favourite loaf cakes. There were some very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl just asking to be used up. The recipe comes from 'Cakes, Breads and Gateaux', a book published in 1979 by 'Living' magazine - anyone remember it? This one is made by the 'rubbing in' method, and is supposed to keep well, for up to a week, if wrapped in foil. The recipe says that it cuts into 12 slices - depends on your appetite! 175g sr flour 50g wholemeal flour 1/2 level tspn baking powder 1 tspn cinnamon 125g butter of margarine 75g demerara sugar 175g raisins 450g bananas, peeled and mashed 2 eggs, beaten finely grated rind of a lemon Preheat oven 180C/gas 4. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin. Sift the flours, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Rub in the fat till the mixture is like breadcrumbs. Mix in the rest of the ingredients - the sugar, bananas, eggs and lemon rind. Beat it together lightly then spoon into the tin. Bake for 45-55 mins till...

Yes, another easy loaf! I'm now trying to use up the contents of my food cupboard. There were a few dried apricots, sultanas and walnuts left, so this was the perfect recipe. 300g plain flour 21/2 tspn baking powder 11/2 tspn mixed spice 90g diced butter 90g soft brown sugar 200g dried apricots 125g sultanas 90g chopped walnuts 210 ml milk 1 beaten egg Preheat ovem 180C/350F/gas4 Grease a 900g [2lb] loaf tin Sift flour, spice and baking powder into a bowl and rub in the butter. Add the sugar, fruit and walnuts and mix together. Add the milk and egg and mix well. Put into tin and bake for 45-50 mins till golden. Cool on a wire rack.                                     I didn't have enough apricots so I also added some dried apple.