COOKBOOKS GALORE

On my friend Phil's lovely blog, As Strong as Soup, [ http://asstrongassoup.blogspot.com ]   he writes about Nonnettes and using honey. I haven't tried his recipe yet, but my Polish dil also gave me her  recipe for a Polish Honey cake. Every time I visit a farmer's market I always buy a jar of local honey, so have plenty to use in both recipes. I decided that I needed a large cake to take to a meeting yesterday, so made the Polish honey cake. It's called Piernik in Polish. There seem to be many varying recipes for this cake, but they all contain a mixture of ground spices. The recipe said to use a 22cm tin, but I don't have one this size, so used a 23 cm tin and it turned out fine. 500g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 1/2 tspn ginger, 1/2 tspn cinnamon, 1/2 tspn cloves. 1/2 tspn allspice, grated zest of 1/2 orange, 25g chopped walnuts, 25g seedless raisins, 25g chopped figs, 300g honey, 90g caster sugar, 90g butter, 4 egg yolks, 2 tspn instant coffee dissol...

I love carrot cake, and the other day I was out with a friend and spotted another vegetable cake, this time with parsnip in it, so I wanted to make one. I have a friend who has a lovely little tea room, and she gave me this recipe - it's very popular in her shop. For the cake you need - 175g butter or margarine, 200g demerara sugar, 100ml maple syrup, 3 eggs, 250g sr flour and 2 tspn baking powder, 2 tspn mixed spice, 250g parsnip, peeled and grated,1 medium eating apple, grated, zest and juice of an orange, icing sugar to dust the top. Preheat oven 180C                     Grease and line the bottoms of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup gently in a pan. Allow to cool a bit then beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour and baking powder and the spice. Add the parsnip, apple and orange. Pour into the tins and bake for 25-30 mins. Cook in tins for 5 mins then take cakes out and cool on a wire rack. Sandwich th...

This is another cake that came about because I was having a sort out in my cupboard, seeing if anything was out of date.  I found a packet of polenta that needed using up, and had saved this recipe ages ago from the side of a polenta packet. It's easy to make, and using the polenta makes a lovely light cake. Preheat oven 160C/gas3              Grease a 23cm springform cake tin. Grate the zest from 3 medium sized oranges and keep it to put in the batter. Put 1 lemon aside to use later. In a bowl, mix together 210g plain flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 120g polenta and a tspn salt. In another bowl of a stand mixer or using a hand beater, beat together 4 large eggs and 200g caster sugar till it's pale and fluffy and tripled in size. Beat in the orange zest. You need 175ml olive oil, and you add this to the batter alternating with the flour mixture, scraping the bowl down occasionally; just beat gently until incorporated into batter. Spoon...

My lovely German dil gave me a pretty Bundt cake tin for my birthday, but it stayed in the cupboard until I found it yesterday. I needed to make a cake, as my son and family are moving to my town today. [It will be so good to have some family nearby.] I have a bit of a 'thing' about cardamom at the moment, so wanted to use it as one of the flavours. I think orange goes well with it, so decided to make a cake with these two flavours. It's another recipe I was given by my friend, who runs her own tea shop, and is a good cake to make for a celebration. 220g Philadelphia cream cheese 220 g butter 250g caster sugar 6 eggs 350g sr flour 1 tspn baking powder Zest of 1 large orange 1 tspn ground cardamom Icing sugar Preheat oven 170°C. Grease or spray the Bundt tin/mould with Cake Release Whisk the butter and Philly together,  then add the sugar and beat it in. Whisk the eggs in one by one, then add the finely grated zest and the cardamom and mix together. Add t...

I wanted a chocolate recipe for an Easter cake, but wanted to try something a bit different. I love the flavour of orange with chocolate [yes, I did get a Chocolate Orange Easter Egg!!] so this French recipe seemed just the thing. It's made in a Bundt mould, which makes it look a little bit more special for an occasion. For the cake you need - 150g sr flour,1 tspn baking powder, 100g ground almonds, 220g caster sugar, 150g butter [melted], 4 eggs, grated zest of 1 orange. For the syrup you need - 220g caster sugar, 250ml orange juice, peeled zest of 4 oranges. For the icing - 150g dark chocolate Preheat oven 160C/gas3 Grease a Bundt tin or mould well or spray with a Cake Release spray. To make the cake - grate the zest of the orange. Beat the eggs with the caster sugar till white and fluffy. Fold in the flour and baking powder. Melt the butter in a microwave then add to the mixture with the ground almonds and orange zest. Mix well. Bake for 45-50 mins. 5 mins befo...

I love Simnel cake at Easter and always made one for my husband and me, but the rest of my family either don't like marzipan or dried fruit, so I thought I'd try making small cakes with almost the same ingredients, then I could freeze some for me and give a few to friends. I didn't put the marzipan layer in the middle of the little cakes, but put a layer on top, and to make it more springlike, I cut it out with a flower shaped cutter. The final decoration was a sugar flower  - I'd bought a packet a while ago and they needed using! Preheat oven 180C/gas4                  You need a greased 12 hole silicone or metal muffin tin. 125g butter, 125g soft brown sugar, 2 eggs, 125g sr flour, 1 tspn mixed spice, 1 tspn cinnamon, 1-2 tbspn milk, 125g dried fruit and zests of 1 orange and 1 lemon [I didn't have any good mixed peel, hadn't got any home made, and I hate the cheap stuff, so decided to use zest instead], 100g marzipan, 2 tbspn apr...