COOKBOOKS GALORE

Am still doing my weekly bake for my kind neighbours, so decided to make something different this week, muffins. There’s been a lot of hype on Facebook about Muffnuts or Donkins! They’re a doughnut muffin. I just had to try them. Decided also to make one of my favourite muffins, using some rosemary from the garden and walnuts . So 2 for the price of 1 today!                                                         Muffnuts It makes 6.            Preheat oven 180C/gas 4 200g sr flour, 100g caster sugar, 125ml milk, 85ml sunflower oil, 1egg and 1 tspn vanilla extract Jam, Nutella or other filling of choice Topping : 75g melted butter and 100g granulated sugar Mix milk, oil, egg and vanilla together in a bowl. In another bowl mix flour and sugar.  Add the milk mixture to the flour, gently. No problem if ther...

I haven't done much baking lately. Been too hot, and not much fun baking for one! Friends coming for tea so decided to make something my friend in France used to make - a raspberry moelleux. The word moelleux means smooth or creamy, but it's used as a type of dessert too. You need: 180g sr flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 400g raspberries, 160g caster sugar, 1 small pot natural yoghurt ,3 eggs, 100ml vegetable oil, icing sugar Preheat oven 180C/gas4                  Grease a 20cm square tin well and line base. Beat the eggs and sugar together till fluffy. Add the yoghurt and oil and mix in. Fold in the flour and baking powder gently. Spoon into the tin and cover with the raspberries. Press them down gently with the back of a spoon. Bake for 25 mins. Mark the cake into slices then cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar. The 'cake' is lovely and soft; the centre is smooth and a good contrast to the raspberries. Makes a good dessert w...

Bought some 'Wonky' rhubarb from Morrisons and decided to make this for a family get together last weekend. It's a French recipe and uses a yoghurt pot as a measure. Very easy to make. you need a 125g yoghurt pot So:  1pot natural yoghurt, 3 pots sugar, 3 pots flour, 1 tspn baking powder, 3/4 pot vegetable oil, 1/4 pot milk, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 2 eggs, 250g rhubarb Preheat oven 200C/gas6                        Grease and flour a 20cm cake tin. Put all the ingredients except the rhubarb into a bowl and beat together. Chop the rhubarb into chunks and add to the mixture. Mix in with a spatula. Bake for 30-35 mins till golden. It has a lovely moist crumb, and a good contrast between the fruit and the sponge. It makes a good cake with a cuppa or a dessert with cream or ice cream. I've made it with apple, but plums or pears would be good too.

I'm sorting out my food cupboards, checking on use by dates etc. and I came across a some tinned peaches that needed to be used up. I'm not a great fan of peaches, but quite like them in cakes, so decided to make one from a recipe I made ages ago at a cookery class. It uses semolina as well as flour, and also yoghurt, so a bit different. I used a 200g loaf tin greased and lined with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180C/gas5 To make the cake you need 50g butter, 100g caster sugar, 1 tspn vanilla extract, 2 eggs - separated. Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and egg yolks together till nice and white and fluffy. Add 250g plain yoghurt and mix in. Mix together 125g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder and 125g semolina and add to the batter. Whisk the 2 egg whites till stiff then fold carefully into the cake mixture.  Put half of the mixture into the cake tin. Chop up 200g peaches halves or slices into dice and add half to the cake tin on top of the batter. Put the rest o...

This is another variation on the French yoghurt cake, but as I have rhubarb to use I thought it would be a change from a crumble or meringue. It's very easy  - you use the yoghurt pot as a measure. 250g rhubarb cut into smallish pieces plus  1 tspn cinnamon [or more if you like it] 1 small pot natural yoghurt [the pot is then the measure] 3 pots caster sugar 3 pots plain flour 3/4 pot of veg oil [I used sunflower] 1/4 pot milk 2 eggs 2 tspn baking powder pinch salt Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Grease and base line a 20cm round tin. Put all the ingredients except the rhubarb into a bowl and beat together. When it's all mixed, add the rhubarb and stir in. Spoon into the tin and bake for 30 mins till golden. Nice moist cake, so easy and quick to make. The rhubarb gives it a nice texture and some sharpness. I like these yoghurt cakes as they're simple to make and you can use so many different ingredients. You can change the yoghurt for a ...

This is another bake which came about because I wanted to use up something lurking in the back of the cupboard. This time it's a packet of semolina, getting very close to it's 'use by' date. This recipe is a variation on Nigella's semolina cake which I've made a few times. You need to make a syrup first - 250g granulated sugar. 150ml water and juice of a lemon. put sugar and water in a pan on low heat till sugar's dissolved then add the lemon juice and bring to boil and boil for 5 mins. Cool, then chill in fridge. The cake - preheat oven 180C/gas 4 and grease a 24cm square tin. It's an easy to cake to make as you use the all in one method, except for the whole almonds. So, put 300g semolina, 150g caster sugar, 125g butter, 1 tspn baking powder, 2 eggs, 2 heaped tbspn natural yoghurt, 1/2 tspn cinnamon, 1/2 tspn almond extract in a bowl and beat together. Spoon into the cake tin and level the top. Put 25 whole blanched almonds in 5 rows of 5 on t...

  This is the second easy rhubarb recipe I made with my sil's rhubarb. It's just a variation on the yoghurt cake all French families seem to make. You use the yoghurt pot as a measure.  1 small pot natural yoghurt - use this pot to measure 3 pots of caster sugar, 3 pots of sr flour, 3/4 pot of sunflower oil,  1/4 pot milk 2 eggs 1 tspn baking powder 1 tspn vanilla extract pinch salt 250g rhubarb cut into chunks Preheat oven 200C/gas6 Grease and base line a 20cm round cake tin. Beat all the ingredients together except the rhubarb, then stir the chunks in. Spoon into the tin and bake for 30 mins till golden. A good moist cake, not too sweet. Love the texture of the rhubarb. A simple cake to have with a cuppa, or as a dessert with some crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream. Am away for a week, so next week's post will be later than usual.

And now for something completely different! I love Lebanese food; I knew little about it till we lived in France and made friends with a Lebanese couple. I love their use of spices, sumac, z'atar, dried mint, 7 spices etc, and I love falafel, houmous [sp?] and tabbouleh.  I've long had a love-hate relationship with tahina or tahini, sesame seed paste, but was given this recipe for using it in a cake by our Lebanese friend, and I really liked the result. You could use peanut butter instead, and I think it would work really well, but the tahini makes a really rich, flavoursome cake. Preheat oven 180C/gas 4. Grease a 24cm cake tin well and sprinkle with 3 tbspn sesame seeds. Beat 250ml tahini in a large bowl with 165g caster sugar, 40g light brown sugar and grated zest of 2 oranges till mixture is thick and creamy. Add the juice from the 2 oranges and 200g thick plain yoghurt and mix well. Fold in 375g sr flour, 1/2 tspn salt, 1 tspn mixed spice, 100g chopped pistachio nut...

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...