4th Birthday: Stegosaurus Cake

Little s turned 4! Emphatically (emphasis all his) not little any more…

It was the first of his birthdays where he had plans / expectations - we’ve been working on a birthday list since about March. Also the first one with no limit on allowing him to have cake any more, really. So I wanted to do a good cake. Last year was a truck, he was into cars. This year I decided it should be a dinosaur… which sounded like a big challenge! But then I hit on the idea of making a stegosaurus with biscuits as plates, and all of a sudden a plan came together and I felt like it was on… So I made a stegosaurus cake. 

The cake is the chocolate marble Bundt from my German baking book (Luisa Weiss - Classic German Baking). I’d been wanting to try the marble cake for ages so I could use the Bundt tin again, but then for this purpose I actually baked it in a loaf tin and springform tin to give more sculptable pieces. I added a bit of green gel colouring to the white parts, otherwise followed the recipe.

I think it might be a good idea to use Bundt cake recipes for 3D sculpted cakes - Bundt recipes tend to be quite dense and good at holding shape. I've not easily found tasty-sounding recipes that I’m confident would hold their shape before - weirdly most cake recipes don't mention whether they are good for sculpting.

The biscuits are chocolate gingerbread from here. I made the full quantity of dough but it was too much so I froze half. Even a half quantity was too much - a quarter would have been enough to make the stegosaurus-plates! But I was glad to have spares / different ones to choose from.

The icing was my favourite cream cheese icing, which has featured on every s birthday cake so far!

For the biscuits:

(make these in advance - they need to be baked and cooled before cake assembly, and will keep for a good few weeks in an airtight box)

 

150 g plain flour

25 g cocoa

1/2 tbsp ground ginger

60 g butter, cubed

60 g brown sugar

70 g golden syrup

 

Prepare paper templates for the stegosaurus-plates - I did five different sizes, at least six of each size, to have several of each kind to choose from when assembly / spares in case of accidents - and remember they come in pairs on the dinosaur, so a good idea to aim for even numbers. I made them pointy on both ends, thinking a point should help them to stick in the cake.

Heat oven to 180C. Beat together flour, cocoa, ginger, butter and sugar until you can’t see any lumps of butter. Dribble in the syrup and beat to a smooth dough.

Take about half of the dough at a time and roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper to the thickness of a £1 coin. Peel away the top layer of paper and cut shapes, using a small knife to cut around your paper templates. Peel away the trimmings and lift the shapes onto baking paper on a baking tray. Roll some shapes for the spikes as well - again, remember you are aiming for 2 matching pairs. When you have used all the dough and have plenty of shapes, put in the oven and bake for 12-13 min until firm (they catch easily because of the syrup and it's hard to spot because of the cocoa - be careful!). Take out and let cool for 10 min, then move to a rack to finish cooling, before storing in an airtight box until needed.

For the cake:

(do the day before or earlier the same day - needs to cool before assembly)

100 g dark chocolate (c.70%), chopped

100 g white chocolate, chopped

250 g butter, softened

250 g sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 eggs

250 g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

c. 1 tsp green gel food colouring 

2 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp milk

Heat oven to 180C. Butter and flour the cake tins (I used one round springform and one loaf tin).

Put the chocolates in two separate bowls and heat in the microwave in 30 sec bursts, stirring every so often, until melted. I found the white chocolate took much longer to melt, but we got there eventually. Set aside til needed.

Beat the butter in a large bowl with the sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, until well combined. 

In a separate, medium bowl, mix the flour and baking powder with a fork. Then beat the flour into the egg mixture. Scrape one third of the batter back into the flour bowl. Add the white chocolate to the larger portion of batter, along with green food colouring, and mix until no streaks remain. Add the melted dark chocolate, cocoa and milk to the remaining one-third of batter and mix until no streaks remain.

Scrape half the white batter into the bottoms of the prepared cake tins. Then put in all the dark batter. Then put the rest of the white batter on top. Swirl with the blade of a knife to marble, and flatten the tops. Bake for 30-45 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Start checking at 30 min. My round cake took 30 min, and my loaf cake took about 40 min.

Place the tins on a rack and let cool for 10 min before unmolding and letting it cool upside down. Let cool completely. Keep in the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm, until needed - good for a few days.

For the icing:

1/2 pack butter, softened

1 1/2 packs cream cheese, at room temp, drained

3-4 tbsp vanilla sugar

1/2 tsp green gel food colouring

Beat the butter on its own first, until smooth. Add the cream cheese and beat some more. Add the sugar to taste, and the green food colouring until you like the colour. Chill until needed (should be OK in the fridge for a day or so) / until the texture is good for decorating.

Assembly and decoration:

Two dark-green mini M+M type sweets

Cocoa powder

Build the dinosaur shape: I used the middle part of a round cake (baked in springform pan) for the bottom part of the body. Then made the top part of the body from most of the loaf cake (loaf pan). Most of the rest of the loaf cake became the head, and the edges of the round cake were good for the tail (naturally curved) and legs (matching pairs). A few gaps needed filling with offcuts, but in general it's good to stick to as few pieces as possible to avoid crumbs that get in the icing, and bits falling off. It worked surprisingly well.

When the shape looks OK, put a layer of icing all over to fill in small gaps. I prefer a relatively thin layer of icing so there were a few escaped chocolate crumbs in it, but I figured for a dinosaur's skin that was OK. And then I also sprinkled on some cocoa powder to add some more dinosaur-y texture / dirt anyway.

I used a couple of mini m+m type sweets for the eyes, and cut small holes in the icing through to the dark cake inside for nostrils. Finally, I stuck in the biscuit plates and spikes.

Wait til as close to serving as possible to decorate, especially to stick in the biscuits - I did it all the night before and the biscuits softened overnight, and a couple of them flopped over and had to be rescued with extra icing. Although actually I quite liked the taste of the softer biscuits.

Walnut bread

So many walnuts, so little bread...

Tried this recipe. Halved it - four loaves seemed too much. And cut the raisins and replaced almonds with more walnuts.

(makes 2 medium loaves)

500 g plain flour

125 g fine wholewheat flour

125 g coarse wholewheat flour

3/4 tbsp dry yeast

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp salt

500 ml lukewarm water

1 1/2 cups walnuts, roughly chopped

Knead all ingredients except nuts together on a floured surface. Keep kneading until elastic - about 15 min. Shape into a rough square. Sprinkle nuts on top and roll up. Knead and twist to distribute the nuts. Make into a ball, put in a greased bowl, cover with a tea towel, and leave to rise for c. 3 hours in a warm place.

When risen, split in two and roll into flattened ovals. Put on a baking tray lined with paper, leaving space to allow doubling in size. Sprinkle the tops with plain flour and leave uncovered for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 240C. Put the baking tray on the bottom rack and drop to 200C. Bake for 40 min, on bottom rack. Let cool before eating.

To freeze, wrap well. Thaw before unwrapping. Put in 180C oven for a few min.

I thought it was way too many nuts when I first added them, but it came out quite good. Bit dense maybe, but acceptable. s helped me with the kneading. I'm not great at making bread.

Cranberry oat coconut biscuits

These are probably my favourite biscuits at the moment. They remind me a bit of the 'National Trust' biscuits my mum used to make (the bicarb, and oats). And I love that the only sweetener (apart from the cranberries) is honey - I am always looking for good things to do with my jars on jars of honey... 

(makes about 12 small ones - double for a more normal number of biscuits is in brackets)

50 g wholemeal flour (100 g)

1 tsp cinnamon (optional) (2 tsp) 

45 g oats (90 g)

43 g desiccated coconut (86 g)

23 g sunflower seeds (46 g)

15 g dried cranberries (30 g)

56 g honey (112 g)

38 g melted butter (or coconut oil) (72 g)

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda (1/2 tsp)

1 tbsp warm water (2 tbsp)

Heat oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with paper. 

Mix flour, cinnamon if using, oats, coconut, cranberries and sunflower seeds in a large bowl. Melt butter and honey together in a small bowl in the microwave until just melted. Mix bicarb and water together in a cup and then add to the butter/honey mix. Add the butter/honey/bicarb mix to the flour mix, and mix well.

Put tbsp sized balls on the tray and flatten as much as you can without breaking (nb one time we squished the mix into dinosaur cutters to make dinosaur shapes and it worked OK). Bake 12-15 min until golden. Take out of the oven, let sit on the tray for c. 10 min, then remove to a wire rack and let cool.

The toasted oat / cranberry / sunflower seed / coconut mixture is delicious. Could easily be vegan (with coconut oil instead of butter). Raisins instead of cranberries and chopped walnuts instead of sunflower seeds could be good - or other such substitutions.

Potato, green bean, white bean and tomato salad

Little s and I went for dinner at his best pal n's house the other day. It's really lucky: they are totally best pals, and happen to live just across the road. Also, his mum has the same birthday as me! It was nice to eat at someone else's house, food made by someone else - one of the things I missed most during the whole lockdown thing. Other people do things different, and even small things can be so refreshing and inspiring. 

We ate this at n's house. s seemed to like it, and I did too. We had basically all the ingredients in the fridge or freezer, so I made our version yesterday.

Boiled cooled potatoes, roughly chopped

Cooked green beans

Cooked white beans

cherry tomatoes, halved

red onion or chives, finely chopped

dressing: capers, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper

Mix potatoes, green beans, white beans, cherry tomatoes, and onion in a bowl. In a separate, small bowl mix chopped capers, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad, toss and serve.

Blackberry and apple cake

Everything is open now, and time has started to fly. We've had a beautiful patch of warm, sunny weather lately, but it feels like the prelude to autumn nonetheless - a touch of chill underneath. We made a couple of blackberry picking forays while still on holidays a few weeks ago... I realized now the season was drawing to a close already... I dreamed of blackberry and apple cake, and this one fitted my dream perfectly. So I went blackberry picking once more. 

 

I joined a new bee group, and there is a patch of brambles around the beehives, and you need a key to access where they are, so it's a good picking spot. The key wasn't where it was supposed to be, so I had to sneak in the back way - and the brambles were almost done. But I picked half a box. Turned out when I got back, I'd picked almost exactly the right amount for the cake. I'd also picked up the apples from a box outside someone's house.

 

for the cake: 

2 small dessert apples 

half a lemon 

150 g blackberries 

150 g butter 

150 g golden caster sugar (or half caster, half muscovado) 

3 eggs 

85 g plain flour 

1.5 tsp baking powder 

100 g ground hazelnuts (whole ones, ground)

 

for the crumble: 

50 g butter

50 g plain flour 

60 g golden caster sugar 

2 heaped tbsp rolled oats 

pinch of cinnamon (optional)

 

Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a big loaf tin. 

 

Peel and quarter the apples, core them and then slice them thinly. Squeeze lemon juice over them, and then mix with the blackberries. 

 

Beat the sugar and butter together until light and smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. 

 

Put the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl, add the ground hazelnuts, and mix well with a fork. Stir in to the mixture in two or three lots. 

 

Transfer the batter to the tin, smooth, and scatter the apple and blackberry mixture over the top, pushing some of the fruit lightly down into it. 

 

Make the crumble by rubbing the flour and butter together, and stirring in the sugar, oats and cinnamon. 

 

Scatter the crumble on top of the cake and bake for about an hour until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out moist but fairly clean.  Check after 30 and 45 min, and if the crumble browns on top too quickly, then cover with a piece of foil while the cake finishes cooking through.

 

Remove from the oven when done and let cool completely on a baking rack before removing from the tin and taking off the paper.

Mine took about 65 min to bake. The fruit dripped a little bit over the edge (my loaf tin was rather full) - might be worth lining the oven shelf underneath to catch sugary drips.

 

It was really really good though. The hazelnuts in the base are genius - they add so much depth of flavour and texture, and go really well with the blackberry and apple. I made a similar cake not long ago without the blackberries and hazelnuts - this one is superior (and didn't overflow my loaf tin quite as much).

Bean and carrot burgers

We started eating 'burgers' often. This means burger buns filled with all sorts of tasty things: fried or baked halloumi, marinated tofu slices, mushrooms, peppers, onions; fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers; chutney or ketchup etc etc. Sometimes also some kind of veggie burger. But bought ones are rarely delicious, and homemade a little bit faffy, and I hadn't really figured out a good recipe. This one caught my eye, just after I cooked a somewhat excessive amount of white beans, so I gave it a try. 

olive oil 

1/2 cup breadcrumbs 

1 small onion, finely chopped 

1 tbsp tomato puree 

1 1/2 tsp sea salt 

1 cup packed grated carrot (from 2 medium carrots) 

1 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar 

3 1/2 cups cooked beans (white or haricot - should be quite squishy) 

1 large egg, beaten pepper 

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the breadcrumbs and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned and crisp, 3 to 5 min. Put crumbs in a large bowl, then return the pan to the heat.

Add 2 tbsp olive oil to the pan, followed by the onion. Cook until softened and lightly golden, 8 to 10 min. Stir in the tomato puree, salt, and carrots and stir frequently until the carrots are soft and a bit blistered, another 8 to 10 min. Add the vinegar, scraping up all the browned bits until the pan is dry. Remove from heat and add the bowl with the toasted breadcrumbs. Add beans and use a wooden spoon or spatula to very coarsely mash the mixture until a bit pasty and sticking together - there should still be plenty of beans intact. Add pepper, and more salt if needed, to taste. Stir in the egg. Shape into 6-8 burgers.

To cook the veggie burgers, heat a thin layer of olive oil in the frying pan over medium heat and carefully cook until browned and slightly firm to the touch, 3 to 4 min per side. Serve hot or at room temperature, with whatever you like on or with veggie burgers.

 

The first time I tried these they fell apart. The second time I used squishier beans (haricot not white), and they were great - tasty and texturally interesting and good for fitting in a bun. So make sure the beans are on the squishy side.

Rugbrød chips

rugbrød (slightly stale is fine, perhaps even ideal)

olive oil

sea salt

Slice the rugbrød and cut into small pieces - approximate squares about 5 cm across and 2 mm deep are ideal. Spread them on a baking tray lined with baking paper in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake in 180C oven for approx. 20 min, checking after 10 and 15 to make sure they don't burn. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Way better than normal chips. S and s both love these, and they are easy to make (if you have rugbrød!).

Summer fruit compote

Lots of fruit in the house - cherries, currants, raspberries and strawberries from the garden, needing eating. Remembered Delia's recipe, which I used to love so much. Figured it should work with all kinds of fruit. Made a version with 1 plum, lots of cherries, pink currants, blueberries, strawberries. And then another with apple, cherries, pink currants, and a few bluebs and strawbs. Both were great, I should make this more.

3 peaches
6 apricots
6 large plums
225 g / 8 oz blueberries (half = 112.5g)
175 g / 6 oz raspberries (half = 87.5g)
50 g / 2 oz sugar (half = 25g)

Slice peaches, apricots and plums and put in an oven dish with the blueberries. Add sugar. Mix. Bake uncovered for 25-30 min at 180C, until tender. Remove from the oven and stir in the raspberries.  Check the sweetness and add more sugar if it needs it.

Made a half quantity in our smaller baking dish. Was plenty. Used coconut sugar. Tempted to try with no sugar - there is a lot of sweetness in the fruit itself, perhaps it was a little too sweet? Still love it. Ate some with rice pudding, was yum.

Plain stovetop rice pudding

It was the last day of børnehave in s's normal place on Friday, before they move to the summer situation next week. I think everyone had picked up early - he was the only kid left when I got there. As we were leaving, one of the teachers came running after us with two full cartons of milk - she gave them to us, saying we should take them, otherwise they go in the bin. So we did. We don't usually have normal milk in the house (oat milk and powered milk), and milk doesn't keep well, so we've been on a mission to use up all the milk ever since... We're doing quite well! I have been making s lots of milkshakes (milk blended up with banana and other fruit)... and then S had the idea of making rice pudding... Which, the more I thought about it, seemed like a good idea! I roughly followed this recipe, adding more spices but otherwise keeping it quite plain. 

120 g pudding rice

800 ml milk

200 ml water

2 tbsp maple syrup

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Put all ingredients in a big pan, mix, then heat gently, stirring occasionally, for c. 45 min - until thick and creamy but still with a tiny bit of bite in the rice. 

We ate it with the options of (1) chopped fresh mango (the great pakistani honey mango season is still upon us!); or (2) summer fruit compote with mainly cherries, apple, blueberries and pink currants. It was surprisingly good - although s refused to eat it.

 

Rhubarb and ginger chutney

Our rhubarb plants are huge this year - it's amazing. Took them a few years to get going but now they have settled in and I'm impressed with them! Enough to make chutney (although this was combined with some from our veg bag). I wanted something savoury and rhubarb-y. Perhaps I should try some kind of sweet pickle as well? Anyway, here is rhubarb chutney - from this recipe, which sounded like exactly what I wanted to try.

 2 lb / 907 g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into chunks

1 lb / 454 g onions, roughly chopped

4 oz / 113 g chopped dates (or raisins or sultanas)

2/5 pint / 227 ml white wine vinegar

2/5 pint / 227 ml water

1 lb / 454 g turbinado sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

Combine all ingredients in a big pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and jammy (wooden spoon should leave a trail). Put into sterile jars and store 6-8 weeks before using.

Ice lollies: (1) mango; (2) acai

I got some ice lolly molds in my little lifts box when I was sick. 2 years later, s is into ice cream and I thought it might be fun to try them. We started with (1) mango lassi, a recipe from the box. And then (2) popped into my head - I'd bought acai powder a while back thinking we could make acai bowls, which has not yet happened... I thought ice lollies could be like little bitesize premade acai bowls (the molds are quite small)?

 Option 1:

 2 ripe mangoes, peeled, de-stoned and cut into chunks (defrosted if using frozen)

1 banana, peeled and cut into chunks

1 cup skyr

Blend mango and banana together til smooth. Mix in skyr. Freeze in lolly molds.

 

Option 2:

1 banana, peeled and cut into chunks

3/4 cup blueberries (defrosted if using frozen) 

3/4 cup skyr

c. 3 tbsp acai powder

1-2 tbsp almond meal

Blend all together, pour into lolly molds, freeze.

These are ace! s loves them, we can share them with his friend who doesn't eat sugar in the garden. And I don't feel guilty about letting s eat multiple ice lollies in a day, as they are (a) rather small, and (b) full of nothing but fruit and yoghurt! And they are so quick and easy to make, with no cooking - great for summer. Many more variations to come!

Raspberry coconut rhino biscuits

An idea from little s. I more-or-less used this recipe, except I switched out a little bit (75 g?) of flour for desiccated coconut. And didn't have quite enough freeze dried raspberries so used a little acai powder as well. s helped me make them - he cut out almost all the shapes! And we used almost all the different biscuit cutters we have - rhinos were a favourite, but also moose, bear, squirrel, snail, pterodactyl, t-rex, stegosaurus, triceratops, flower, heart, egg, dinosaur footprint, stars... 

(makes quite a lot - maybe 30 biscuits of various sizes and shapes)

15 g / 1/2 oz freeze-dried raspberries (used about 12 g rasps plus 3 g acai powder)

114 g / 4 oz sugar

227 g / 8 oz butter at room temperature

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp vanilla powder

1 egg at room temperature

340 g / 12 oz plain flour (subbed c. 75 g for desiccated coconut)

Crush raspberries a little - not to a powder, just until they are broken down to individual drupelets and a wee bit powdery - I used a pestle and mortar. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and salt together in a large bowl until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add flour, beat until mixed. Add raspberries and mix until just mixed.

Split the mix into two balls. Roll out the first on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes and put them on prepared baking sheets. Chill on the sheets for 20 min.

In the meantime, heat the oven to 150 C (300 F). Bake for 20-30 min - until the edges start to turn golden. Take out and let cool for 5 min before transferring to a cooling rack.

 

These are good! Buttery and raspberry-y. Hold their shape really well, without being tough. It is quite a lot though, and you can't halve the recipe without halving an egg... If making again, I might try increasing the proportion of coconut. Could also be good with all acai - or matcha powder.

Microwave popcorn

I always before made popcorn either in a popcorn maker (my sister had one when we were teenagers, it was awesome - but a one-purpose kitchen gadget), or in a pan with oil. The other day s and me had a play date with his little mate n, and n’s mum had made popcorn... I asked her how she made it and she confirmed just in the microwave... so it was time to give that a try! This is the general idea..

Put c 1/3 cup popcorn kernels in a large microwave proof bowl with a lid (or plate that covers the top) that fits in the microwave. Cover with the plate, and put in the microwave. I found 800 watts for c. 7 min was about right - but keep an eye / ear on it and when the popping slows right down take it out. The bowl and plate will be hot when you remove them so be careful and use an oven glove. Transfer to a normal-temp bowl and sprinkle with table salt to taste. 

I made this to watch s’s first movie with him! It was shrek- I’d thought a while ago he might like it, and we just saw it came onto Netflix, and this was a weird snowy afternoon... since cinemas are not an option just now it seemed right to maximise the experience at home as much as poss.

I also recently realised you can do poppadoms in the microwave - getting to be quite a microwave fan!

S birthday cake 2021: Dulce de leche chocoflan

Another birthday! All our birthdays are in the winter, within a couple months. S's is the last of the winter, or the first of the year, and is well positioned to liven up February.

I'd had my eye on this recipe for ages. I basically usually make 2 cakes a year, for S and s birthdays... I bought a bundt tin specially, and had to buy dulce de leche and evaporated milk from an online peruvian / latin food store (evap seemingly especially hard to find round here?), but it was worth it - it was a fun recipe!

Little s helped me make it, and especially helped with the decoration. This is the only photo I have of the cake, but it worked! The inversion of the batters and the layers on slicing are so cool! And it was tasty - we like flan! Ours turned out more uniformly dark brown on the outside than the photo in the original recipe - perhaps because I decided to dust the tin with cocoa powder (I was so paranoid it wouldn't come out of the tin... although not enough to actually buy a specialist cooking spray) - but it was ok, it just made the layers more surprising when we sliced it!

For the flan:

380 g dulce de leche (i used 'la havana' from a jar)

354 ml evaporated milk (I bought it online as evap, then realized it was labelled condensed when just about to use it... but then noticed it was not sweetened, so I decided it was really evaporated - so confusing!)

115 g cream cheese, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla powder

pinch fine sea salt

5 large eggs

For the cake:

160 g plain flour

200 g sugar

50 g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

85 g butter, cubed, at room temp

120 ml coffee, cooled

120 ml buttermilk

1 large egg

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

Heat oven to 180C. Prepare bundt tin by buttering the inside all over, being careful to get into all the nooks and crannies, and then dusting with cocoa powder.

To make the flan mix, blend up together the dulce de leche, evaporated milk, cream cheese, vanilla, and salt (I used a large bowl and a wand blender). Add in the eggs and blend until smooth.

To make the cake mix, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon with a fork. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles wet sand. In a jug, beat together the coffee, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla, then mix it into the flour-butter mix gradually. Beat as fast as you can for a full minute.

Pour the CAKE mix into the bundt tin, smoothing out the top with a spoon. Carefully ladle in the FLAN mix so you disturb the cake mix as little as possible. Put the filled bundt tin pan in a roasting tin large enough to fit it. Grease a piece of foil and place it greased side down onto the bundt tin, folding it over the edges to loosely seal it. Transfer to the oven, then pour cold water into the roasting tin to come up 2 to 3 inches.

Bake for 2 hours to 2 hours 15 min, checking for doneness after 1 hour 45 min, using a skewer inserted into the cake to make sure it’s baked through, with little to no crumbs sticking to the skewer when you pull it out. (mine was pretty much done at 1 h 45 - I gave it an extra 5-10 min but I don't think it needed it).

Take out of the oven very carefully. Remove the bundt tin carefully from the roasting tin and let it cool to room temperature (which took several hours) before placing it in the fridge to cool completely, at least a couple of hours.

When ready to serve, carefully run a knife around any edges that are sticking, invert onto a serving plate, and shake up and down gently until it comes out!

 

It took a long time to cool and chill so definitely make the day before you want to eat it. And remember to brew the coffee and get cream cheese and butter to room temp ahead of time as well.

I was so relieved it came out - suddenly realized when shaking up and down the fifth time or so that turning out a bundt is a wee bit stressful (it was the first time I'd used a bundt tin) - there is no hiding issues - no icing or anything - the decoration is all in the shape of the tin... But we made it, phew! s and me had fun decorating it...

Realized it had an insane variety of different dairy products in it: dulce de leche, evap, cream cheese, butter, buttermilk... Also realized I like buttermilk - had never bought it pure before, always imagined it would taste like butter because of the name, but it is more like a runny yoghurt. 

The chocoflan was beautiful and quite tasty: maybe I should make more flans. And will have to think of more things to do with that bundt tin now!

Polenta paprika parsnips

Parsnips... I like them, but I only really like them roasted... or perhaps in soup? We got them in the veg bag a couple times recently so tried a couple of different roasting methods:

1) Delia mustard and maple syrup

2) Polenta and paprika  

In the end, I think we liked the polenta version better - the process was a bit simpler, and parsnips are already sweet so adding maple syrup seems a bit overkill. So here it is:

 

2 kg parsnips, peeled, trimmed and cut into halves or quarters lengthways

100ml rapeseed or sunflower oil 

5 tbsp polenta

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp paprika

Prepare the parsnips and put them in water if doing ahead. Heat the oven to 220C. Blanch the parsnips in boiling water for 4-5 mins until slightly soft. Drain, leave to steam-dry, then tip into a large bowl. Drizzle over the oil and toss to coat all the parsnips.

Mix the polenta, salt, pepper and paprika, and sprinkle over the parsnips. Toss well, then lay the parsnips out on one large baking tray (or two small ones), with lots of space between them. Roast for 15 mins, turn them over, then roast for another 15-25 mins until golden and crunchy. (mine didn't take that long - perhaps the pieces were on the small side)

Baked potatoes

I rediscovered baked potatoes this autumn-winter. I loved them as a kid, but had got out of the habit of them. But with being home so much, things like this that take a while in the oven but little involvement seemed like a good idea. If I do 180C for 2 hours I can put them in the oven before I go get s and they'll be done in time for dinner.

A few large potatoes, ideally a good baking variety

olive oil

salt

Heat the oven to 180C (for cooking time approx. 2 hours), or 200C (for cooking time approx. 1 hour) - if you have time I think they taste better with lower for longer. Scrub the potatoes and pat dry. Put them directly on a big baking sheet. Stab them all over with a fork. Rub with olive oil and salt. Bake until done - they should have a thick brown skin, and be squeezable.

Good with bean chili. Or cheese. Or hummus. Or loads of other things.

Chocolate cake

I bought a kilo of ceremonial grade (100%) chocolate to support a covid fundraiser for a permaculture cacao farm in Guatemala. It arrived a few months later and it’s a significant brick of slightly powdery, almost smoky chocolate. I don’t find it awesome for just snacking, but it makes a great hot beverage - the smokiness really comes through. The restaurant that organised the chocolate fundraiser sent this recipe through with the chocolate info and I thought it sounded worth a try - although the original was with 77% choc so I had to adapt...

106 g sugar

80 g butter

54 g 100% chocolate

2 eggs

Melt butter, sugar and chocolate in a double boiler. 

Meanwhile, set oven to 150C and butter a baking tin (I used a loaf tin for this amount - cake ended up about 1 in deep). Also break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly.

When all is melted, add the eggs to the chocolate bowl and whisk. It may split but keep whisking - it will come together. When smooth, pour into prepared tin and bake for approx. 25 min (35 min for 5 egg version). Done when a sharp knife comes out clean. Take out and let rest in the tin until cool.

This was adapted from a version with 5 eggs, 200g butter, 200g sugar, and 200g 77% choc - that’s why the numbers are a bit weird. I also worked out for 3 eggs, which might have fit a little better in the tin: 120g butter, 159.6 g sugar, 80.4g 100% choc. Or for 5 eggs and 100% choc do 266g sugar and 134g choc. 

I wasn’t sure if it’d work with subbing 100% choc for 77% - had a feeling 100% wouldn’t be good for melting / cooking - but it worked really well!

Puff pastry tarts (parsley and tomato / red onion and goats cheese)

I got into making tarts using bought puff pastry sheets. I've never tried making my own puff pastry, I probably never will. But those rolls of pastry in the fridge can be quite useful. I've tried following the package instructions, but find I like the results best when I just roll out the pastry, dump stuff on top, and bake. Which is lucky, since it makes it so very easy. I often seem to end up with allium-based toppings. 

(1)

Lots of red onions, sliced and cooked until soft with some balsamic vinegar and thyme leaves. Let cool, then spread over the unrolled pastry. Sprinkle with lumps of goat's cheese (the soft kind that comes in a roll) and walnuts. Bake at 200C for about 20 min, until it looks golden and done.

(2)

I thought this recipe might be a more fancy way to eat some of our garden tomatoes from the summer. Fresh tomatoes and herbs - should be perfect. It was good but not awesome.

3 large very ripe tomatoes (about 1.5 lb), sliced 1/4-inch thick

sea salt 

1 small garlic clove, peeled

1 cup (15 g) basil leaves, loosely packed

2 cups (25 g) parsley leaves, loosely packed

2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil, plus more for brushing

2 oz (55 g) hard cheese, thinly sliced or coarsely grated (e.g. cheddar)

pepper 

Place tomato slices on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Put garlic, parsley, basil, 1/2 tsp salt in a blender and pulse until finely chopped, mix in olive oil to make a paste. Blot tomatoes with kitchen roll to remove excess liquid. Spread pesto over the tart base, sprinkle with cheese, then cover with overlapping scales of tomatoes. Brush tomatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with ground black pepper. Bake 190C for c. 40 min (check after 30) - until tomatoes are well roasted.

Date and oat balls

I got really behind on writing up recipes... I made these ages ago, they were good, s liked them too (and I took some to the park and shared them with C and little m and gave an untrue impression of being an organized mum). Could have included a bit more cocoa? Every time I make date balls I wish for a proper blender. I think I nearly ended up buying a Vitamix as a result of these.

1 cup dates (normal dried ones not fresh or medjool)

2 cups rolled oats 

3/4 cup desiccated coconut 

1 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 tbsp almond butter

 

Cover dates with water in a pan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and drain, setting the liquid aside. Put drained dates, oats, coconut, cocoa and almond butter in a blender or food processor. Add about 1/4 of the date liquid to the mix and blend (aiming for a good rolling texture - add slowly). Roll mixture into approx. 12 balls. Roll in extra coconut if desired. Keep in the fridge or freezer.

Baked feta

We ate quite a bit of baked feta when on holiday in Crete a few years ago. For some reason we only just thought of making it. It's really easy and simple and delicious.

1 block feta, drained

1 small tomato (ideally yellow), sliced thinly

1/2 a red pepper, sliced thinly

a few olives, destoned and sliced

black pepper

dried oregano 

olive oil

Heat oven to 220C or get the fire going. Put block of feta on a piece of foil big enough to wrap it. Arrange slices of tomato and pepper on top; and olives. Sprinkle with black pepper and oregano. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap up and bake at 220C for about 20 min. Also good (better?) cooked on fire embers. Eat with crusty good bread.

Guacamole

Guacamole is kind of too simple for a recipe, but there are lots of different schools of thought on it, and I do have a favourite way of making it...

c. 2 ripe avocados, peeled and destoned

1 small tomato, finely chopped

c. 1 tsp finely chopped onion

juice of one lime

1-2 tsp coriander, finely chopped (optional) 

few drops of hot sauce (optional)

pinch of salt

Mush it all together with a fork. Nice if the avocados are still a little bit chunky.

Updated muhammara

I hadn't made muhammara for a while, but S bought some in the supermarket and it was really sweet and didn't have any walnuts in it and just made me pine for the real thing. And then I remembered it was an excellent use for walnuts - am always looking for excellent uses for walnuts, since we have a big old walnut tree in the garden. I have been testing out a few different combinations and textures for muhammara, here is my old version, and here is my latest:

3 red peppers
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
1 clove garlic
1 tsp dried red chilli flakes
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon)
1 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Roast red peppers at high heat, c. 220C, until collapsed and with blackened spots. Cover and let cool, then remove peel and seeds. Can be kept in the fridge for a day or so until ready to make the muhammara.

When ready to make the muhammara, first toast the walnuts. Then put the peppers, breadcrumbs, garlic, chilli, pomegranate molasses, citrus juice, cumin and olive oil in a blender and blend until smooth. Crush the walnuts with a pestle and mortar, and then mix in a bowl with the pepper mixture. Check consistency and taste for seasoning.

Baked donuts with raspberry icing

This morning, little s suddenly started talking about donuts. I have no idea why - I am pretty sure he has never eaten and probably never even seen a donut.

I'm not a donut fan, but we ended up agreeing that we would make some. I looked for a recipe while he napped. No way was I going to deep fry anything (it's so stinky), so I looked for a baked donut. Went with this one, but halved it. And did a raspberry-cream cheese glaze with desiccated coconut sprinkles.

Improvised a donut tin by molding little squares of foil around my finger and then pressing them into a muffin tin so the finger stuck up in the middle.

(makes 12 small ones)

For the donuts:

26 g butter

25 g veg oil

48 g sugar

35 g brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla powder

159 g flour

113 g milk 

 

For the decoration:

c. 6 frozen raspberries, microwaved for 20 sec to defrost and smushed with a fork

c. 4 tbsp icing sugar with vanilla

c 2 tbsp cream cheese

2-3 tbsp desiccated coconut

 

Heat oven to 220C (425F). Grease the 'donut tin' lightly with oil. In a medium bowl, beat together butter, oil, sugars until smooth. Add egg, beat to combine. Stir in baking powder, bicarb, nutmeg, salt and vanilla. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk (start and end with flour). Batter will be thick - wooden spoon should leave a furrow. Spoon batter into the tin, leaving about 1/4 inch of the finger sticking up. Bake for 10 min. Take out of the oven and wait c. 5 min before turning out, peeling / pulling off/out the foil.

While the donuts bake, prepare the icing. Make sure there are no lumps in the icing sugar, then put it in a small bowl and beat in the raspberries. Beat in the cream cheese. Check the consistency and colour is as you want it. This only made a little - enough to ice about the top third of each donut.

After removing the foil, check the holes are still intact. I iced the bottoms of the 'donuts' because they looked neater. Ice the donuts while still warm, right after turning them out. I spread it out with a teaspoon. When the icing is on, sprinkle with desiccated coconut (toasted if you wish). Let cool or eat while still warm.

These are very cute. They didn't look great when I took them out the oven as the batter rose too much and engulfed the fingers (ideally make them stick up higher than the tin!), but I cut the holes back into the side they were missing, and the donuts survived the operation pretty good, and then the icing and sprinkles and holes made them look quite legit (if tiny). 

 

They aren't all that much like donuts, although they looked the part - not yeasted or deep fried. But that's fine with me; and they taste pretty good - the spices and brown sugar make for a tasty batter, and the raspberry goes pretty well with that. Wonder how well they will keep (we ate about half for dessert but the rest are kept til tomorrow).

Krautsalat (German cabbage salad)

Krautsalat is one of the things S always buys and eats loads of when he visits Germany. I’d never tried to make it for him before but we had an excess of cabbage and it seemed like a good idea. He’d been into caraway recently so I though it should be the kind with caraway in it. This recipe seemed like just the thing.

We had a hyper German dinner, with this and some boil in the bag knoedel from Aldi - surprisingly good boiled, cooked, then fried in slices with onion and mushrooms. S was v enthusiastic about both, I should make krautsalat again... maybe I should even try making knoedel from scratch?!

1 kg white cabbage 

1 tbsp salt 

2 tbsp sugar 

3 onions 

1 tbsp caraway seeds 

140 ml sunflower oil 

150 ml white wine vinegar 

1 tbsp mustard (I used whole grain)

Clean the cabbage and remove the stem. Slice thinly and place in a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar and mix with hands for 5-10 min, until the cabbage goes a bit floppy. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for approx. 24 hours.

The next day, peel and thinly slice the onions. Heat a medium saucepan over high heat and toast the caraway seeds briefly. Add oil, vinegar and onions to the pan and let cook gently until onions are soft. Add the mustard and mix to combine. Remove from the heat and let cool a bit.

Take the cabbage out of the fridge, add the onion mixture, and it is ready to eat. Keeps in the fridge well for a few days.

This is totally perfect, an excellent use of cabbage. It's quite quick and easy even though you have to remember to start it the day before you want to eat it. I did try making knoedel at some point, they were ok, need practice!

Chocolate tofu pudding

I have made chocolate tofu many many times since I first tried it (here). But realized when I was looking for the recipe recently that actually my noted recipe was a bit inadequate. So here is an updated version, adapted to use one whole typical 349g Mori-Nu type silken tofu package.

175 g chocolate

75 g sugar

120 ml hot water

349 g pack of silken tofu (preferably the kind in a tetra pak, not floating in liquid)

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

pinch cayenne

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Dissolve the sugar in the hot water. Put the tofu and spices in a blender cup. Scrape the melted chocolate into the blender, and pour in the sugar syrup (let it cool slightly first). Blend until smooth. Transfer to glasses, ramekins or other containers (I like to use jars for easy storage), and refrigerate for at least 30 min before eating - preferably at least 2 hours for ideal texture, although it'll taste good right away. Keeps fine in the fridge for a few days.

Tostones (fried green plantains)

There used to be a Colombian vegan food stall in the now-long-gone Papirøen, which was always S's top pick when we went there, mainly because of their yummy plantain chips (tostones). 

I bought some very green, fairly small plantains from our super weird local Indian shop the other day. Only two, because I wasn't sure what to do with totally green ones (or if ones this green would ever ripen). S and I were sitting on the sofa early evening, somehow the question of what to do with the plantains arose, he suggested tostones, I had a quick Google and discovered they call for very green plantains, and was sold. They also seemed to be pretty simple. Off I went...

(makes about 20 tostones)

2 very green plantains

refined coconut oil (or other flavourless high-temp frying oil) for frying

coarse salt for sprinkling

lime, avocado, coriander also nice if you have them

Peel one plantain (they don't peel easily - had to slice to some extent). Cut into rounds 2-3 cm deep. Melt 2-3 mm depth of coconut oil in a high-sides frying pan. Fry plantain rounds a few minutes on each side, until yellow and just starting to brown. Remove from heat onto a plate. Repeat with the other plantain (peel and slice one at a time so it doesn't go brown - alternatively you could peel and slice them all and keep the slices in salted water until ready to fry).

Take the first slice of lightly fried plantain, put it on a flat plate, and squash with the (clean) underside of a tin (e.g. of coconut milk). The tin has a rim which means you can't flatten too much so press firmly. Repeat for all the slices from the first plantain, then put them back in the frying pan (add more oil if needed). Fry a few minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy-crunchy. Remove to a plate lined with kitchen paper and sprinkle with coarse salt. Repeat for the rest of the slices.

Nice with a dip - guacamole would be ideal. Or just a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lime. Or ketchup if you are little s. S and s both loved them - they deffo turned out way better than I dreamed when I bought the green plantains, and were pretty similar to the colombian vegan ones - perhaps not quite as crunchy but no complaints.

Easter 2020: Hot Cross Buns and Egg Hunting

Lockdown Easter. We decorated eggs all the ways we could think of, and then put them in the garden for s and M-E to find and play with. Also, I made hot cross buns (this recipe), and they were the best I ever made (nb i think i've only made them 3-4 times - bit of a faff but not that bad, and you can't buy them here so worth it. i do like them! so did s...).
 

Onion marmalade

We had part of a bottle of red wine left after a visitor left (our last visitor from the UK before lockdown!). Clearly we weren’t going to drink it, we never do, but we also had quite a lot of onions so I decided it should become onion marmalade. I am pretty sure I have made this onion marmalade before, many moons ago. It’s easy and tasty, goes great with cheese, and keeps for a while in the fridge. I think this is the recipe I used before - and it was also the one I used this time.

2 kg red onions or regular onions 

4 garlic cloves 

140 g butter 

4 tbsp olive oil 

140 g golden caster sugar 

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaf 

pinch of chilli flakes (did not use) 

75 cl bottle red wine 

350 ml sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar 

200 ml port (used extra wine / wine vinegar instead)

Halve and thinly slice the onions, then thinly slice the garlic. Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and give them a good stir so they are glossed with butter. Sprinkle over the sugar, thyme leaves, chilli flakes if using and some salt and pepper. Give everything another really good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for 40-50 min, stirring occasionally. The onions are ready when all their juices have evaporated, they’re really soft and sticky and smell of sugar caramelising. They should be so soft that they break when pressed against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Slow cooking is the secret of really soft and sticky onions, so don't rush this part. 

Pour in the wine, vinegar and port and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 min, stirring every so often until the onions are a deep mahogany colour and the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds. It’s done when drawing a spoon across the bottom of the pan clears a path that fills rapidly with syrupy juice. Leave the onions to cool in the pan, then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Baked coconut rice pudding with mango

I liked the idea of rice pudding made with coconut milk instead of normal milk, and eaten with fresh mango. Right??? I approximately followed this recipe.

I also used coconut sugar, and tonka bean instead of vanilla. I bought the tonka bean a while ago but don't really know what to do with it. I was super curious about it because I first tried to buy it when we lived in the USA but couldn't, as it is illegal there! So when I saw it in the supermarket a spontaneous purchase happened... The internet suggests you grate it like nutmeg, and use it in places where you might use vanilla.

80 g coconut sugar (or normal sugar - golden caster)

800 ml coconut milk

1 strip lemon zest (optional)

about 1 tsp grated tonka bean (equivalent to seeds from 1 vanilla pod?)

160 g pudding rice

1-2 fresh mangoes, peeled and chopped or sliced, to serve

Heat oven to 150C. In large oven dish, combine sugar, coconut milk and lemon zest. Grate in tonka bean. Add pudding rice (rinsed), and mix to combine. Place in the oven and cook c. 2 hours, stirring halfway through, until rice is tender and liquid absorbed. Serve hot or warm with fresh mango.

Snobrød

I don't even know the name for this in English: 'bread twisted onto a stick and cooked on a fire' is rather long winded. So, snobrød (literally translates to 'twisted bread') is something that it seems to me every Danish person has been making since kindergarten (børnehave), like building supercool ground-level treehouses out of sticks in the woods or making awesome morning rolls. But I had never made or eaten it. So it had become one of my dream-Denmark-goals - my American one was to see a skunk (realized just weeks before leaving after 5 years). We had been talking with our neighbours about making a fire in the garden together and making some snobrød, and finally got around to it a couple days before New Year's Eve, on a non-rainy afternoon after S+T had been cutting down some tree pieces. T had bought some special sticks (metal with wooden handles), and I made the dough using this recipe.

300 ml water

25 g fresh yeast (used c. 1.5 tbsp dried)

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

500 g plain flour

Mix yeast and water in a large bowl. Add sugar, flour and salt and mix to a smooth dough. Add more flour if needed. Let rise approx. 45 min (or a bit longer). Take pieces of dough approx the size of a snooker ball, and roll into long thin sausage shapes before twisting around the end of a stick and squishing a bit into shape. Bake by holding over hot embers. Like marshmallow toasting, different techniques and tastes apply, but I think it best to be patient and go for browned on the outside / cooked on the inside. 

This was about the right amount for 4 adults and 2 three year olds, as a sort of afternoon snack. They were quite special - the crispy outside and soft inside is different from any other bread I've eaten. Next time it might be nice with seeds in the dough - sesame?