Luscious lemon drizzle

My luscious lemon drizzle is really one of my easiest cakes to make, yet its just as delicious. The sponge itself is light and fluffy, amd made even lighter with the optinal addition of buttermilk.

I decided to add in buttermilk on this occasion to  coincide with dairy week on GBBO. You can leave it out if you wish to as it will still be just as delicious.

 To make an 8 inch round of my luscious lemon drizzle you will need

8 inch round cake tin

225g self raising flour

225g caster sugar

225g margarine - at room temp 

5 meduim eggs - at room temp

Zest of 2 lemons 

50ml buttermilk ( optional)

For the drizzle

Juice of 2 lemons

100g caster sugar

For the drip icing 

200g icing sugar

4-5 tbsp water

Zest of 1 lemon

• Preheat your oven to 160c (fan assisted) lightly grease and line your tin and set aside.
• Cream your sugar and margarine,using an electric whisk or in your free standing mixer, until pale and fluffy
• Add in one egg at a time ensuring each egg is fully combined.
• Fold in the flour, buttermilk and zest with a spatula or metal spoon
• Pour the prepared batter into the tin, bake for 40-45 mimutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, set the cake aside still in its tin.
• To make the drizzle , put the lemon juice and caster sugar into a saucepan and heat very gently and stir together until the sugar melts - and remove from the heat immediately. You don't need to boil it at all, just warm enough so the sugar melts
• Take a tooth pick anc poke holes all over the top of the still warm cake, then pour the dizzle all over the top so the drizzle seeps into the cake - I used a small jug to make the pouring easier. Leave the cake in the tin to completley cool, as it will most likely fall apart if you try to remove it at this point
• Once the sponge has completely cooled, place onto your choice of serving plate.
• Make the topping by adding the water a little at a time to the icing sugar, mixing together to form a semi thick paste - you want it to be spreadable without being runny.
• Spread the preapared icing straight on to the top of the cake with a palette knife or butter knife. If you want to have it drip over the edge, spread the icing all the way to the edge and give it a gentle push so it falls down the sides of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkling of lemon zest and serve 

Bread week

It's bread week on bake off which for me means having a go at something bread related or even making something from the episode itself as bread and I started off as definite frenemies when I first dived into the world of bread. 

Slowly over the past year or so I have gotten much more confident and relaxed thankfully, and am not filled with sheer dread at just the thought of bread. With that in mind i decided rather last minute, to recreate Michael Chakraverty's Keralan star bread. 

Because the decison was so last minute, at 8.30pm i had to improvise a little and make do with  what i had in the cupboards for the fillimg and I'm super pleased to say it was a hit.

My filling ended up consisting of caramelised red onions with roasted red peppers & a little bit of heat with the additon of chilli flakes & cayenne pepper

To make my tear and sheare star bread you will need:

For the dough

500g strong bread flour

3tsp dry active yeast

2 tsp salt

2 tsp paprika

300ml room temp water 

3tbsp olive oil

For the filling 

2 meduim red onions - chopped

280g roasted peppers - chopped (jarred in olive oil)

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp chilli flakes

1/2tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp salt

To garnish

2 tsp nigella seeds 

• Start by making the filling. Take the oil from the jar of roasted peppers & add to your frying pan. Add to the oil, cook them on a medium heat until soft & beginning to caramelised.
• When the onions are almost cooked, add in the the rest of the ingredients and cook the spices for a couple of minutes on a low heat- This will stop the spices from burning. Once cooked, set aside and leave to cool 
• Whilst the filling cools, prepare the dough. Place the flour in a bowl, add in the paprika and stir through ensuring its mixed in well with tne flour.
• Add the yeast to one side, salt to the other, and olive oil into the middle.
• Slowly pour in the water, mixing the flour to form a soft dough.
• Drizzle a little olive oil onto your work surface, and then knead your dough on your work suface until smooth and elastic- this will take about 6-8 minutes. If you prefer you can use a freestanding mixer using the dough hook - this should take 3-4 minutes
• Place your dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove till doubled in size- about an hour
• When the dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface, knock the dough back and divide into 4 equal portions and leave for a couple of minutes - this helps the gluten to relax and makes rolling the dough easier.
• Take one ball of dough, and roll out to the size of a dinner plate, and place onto a baking tray lined with greasproof paper.
• Mark the centre of the rolled out dough using a small cookie cutter, then take one third of the filling and spread all over the rolled out dough being careful to avoid the centre, and to not go too close to the edge as you dont want the filling spilling out.
• Take the second ball of dough, again roll out the same size as the first ball, carefully place ontop of the filling and again mark the centre with the cookie cutter. Take another 3rd of the mixture and again spread all around the second circle avoiding the middle as befrore
• Repeat this process with the remaining 2 balls of dough. The 4th layer of dough should be plain - no filling should be used.
• Carefully seal the layers together by going around the edge and pressing together with your fingers and finally mark the centre of the circle again 
• Cut the circle into quarters ( as if you were cutting a pizza) nut do not go over or through the middle of the circle - cut from the centre down to the edge.
• Cut the 4 quarters into half, to make 8ths, then cut the 8ths in half to make a total of 16 pieces
• Take 2 strands of dough, 1 in each hand,  and twist 3 times away from each other and pinch the ends together to seal them
• Repeat this with all the remaining strands, carefully brush the top with water then sprinkle over the nigella seeds and leave to prove for 35-40 minutes.
• Preaheat the oven to 200c fan and bake for 20-25 minutes
• 
  

Gingerbread men

Ginger bread men are something I have never (yes never.. you read that right) ever made in my entire time since discovering a love of baking, but I thought an attempt was well overdue and now I have attempted them I know they will be appearing in my kitchen quite possibly all year round.


I decorated mine simply with an outline of royal icing and added a simple smile, and three dots for buttons. You can go as detailed as you wish, let the kids go all out with colours or go classic and keep them totally plain.

To make about 6-9 gingerbread men you will need:

75g soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp treacle
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp  ground ginger
1/4 tsp all spice
95g butter
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
235g plain flour

• Place the butter, both syrups, sugar, soda bicarb and water into a saucepan and melt on a low heat, stirring together to ensure the mixture doesn't stick or start to burn. Once melted remove from the heat and leave to cool 
• In a bowl, add the flour and all the spices and stir together. Slowly add the cooled syrup mixture and stir together with a wooden spoon. Once all the syrup mixture has been added, use your hands to bring the dough together and ensure there are no bits of flour that haven't been mixed in properly
• Leave the dough to completely cool, trying to roll it out and handle it will be difficult whilst it is warm and it will just tear. I left mine for about 25- 30 minutes, alternatively you can place the the dough in the fridge to cool it quicker, for about 15 minutes. Ensure you wrap it in cling film if you're placing it in the fridge.
• Once the dough is cool enough to handle, flour your work top and rolling pin as this is a dough that will easily stick and you want to try and handle it as less as possible so that you're not over working the dough.
• Roll your dough out to 3-4mm thick if you want biscuits that are thin and snappy or for softer and thicker gingerbread roll out to 4-6mm thick. Use gingerbread cookie cutters to cut out your gingerbread men, or whatever shapes you fancy.
• Bake them on a greaseproof lined tray, in a preheated oven at 160c (fan) for 10-12 minutes or until the edges just slightly colour.
• Leave to slightly cool once removed from the oven, then place onto a wire rack to completely cool before decorating as desired

Sticky ginger cake

When it's cold and dark outside and we are well and truly into the swing of winter I love nothing more in the evenings than curling on the sofa with a blanket, a good book & a wedge of cake to make me all warm and fuzzy inside

My sticky ginger cake is perfect for this time of year as it's definitely sticky, moist and with the addition of both stem & ground ginger it's packed full of flavour & sure to warm you up from the inside .

To make an 8 inch round you will need :

8oz self raising flour
8 oz soft dark brown sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
4 medium eggs
8oz butter
4 -6 peices stem ginger chopped up
2 tsp ground ginger 
Stem ginger syrup ( from the jar that the stem ginger is in )

• Start by melting the sugar, butter, golden syrup and treacle in a pan on a low heat. You don't want to simmer or boil it at all. As soon as everything has melted take it off the heat and set aside to cool.

•Grease and line a loose bottom 8 inch round tin, and set aside. Separate the syrup from the jar of stem ginger and reserve for later.

•Preheat your oven to 160c, ( fan )Chop up the stem ginger and add into a bowl with the flour, eggs, ground ginger and all spice

• Add in the cooled butter mixture and whisk everything together for a minute or two until the mixture is light and fluffy & everything has combined evenly.

• Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in for 40-45 minutes. To check the cake is cooked use a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake to check- it should come our clean. Another way of ensuring it's cooked is the cake edges coming slightly away from the tin.

•Leave the cake to slightly cool, leaving it in the tin. When the cake is just warm to to the touch, carefully poke holes over the top of the cake and pour over the reserved ginger syrup.

• Let the cake cool completely and remove from the tin. If you can ( I couldn't) leave the cake in an airtight container over night or a whole day if you can as this will help the flavours develop further and result in a richer & stickier cake .. Serve with hot custard or just on it's own.. Either way it is scrumptious

Chilli & cumin plait loaf

I think it's safe for me to say now that bread and I are friends and I'm finally getting a bit more confident in experimenting with flavours and ingredients. After making my simple bloomer loaf   I thought I'd be a bit brave and experiment with some Asian flavours added into it and try a plaited version.

With my first attempt I used just white bread flour but thought it could with a bit more depth so i switched half of the white flour for wholemeal. The wholemeal definitely improved the flavour but i think it also along with the addition of the cheese slowed down the proving time - maybe any of you that are more experienced in bread making could shed light on this.

After a couple of attempts to get the amount right with the spices, I finally got a version i was happy with and it went really well with some roasted red pepper soup, and it tasted even better the next day with just a little hummus as a snack

So here is my recipe for my chilli and cumin 3 strand plaited loaf:

250g white bread flour
250g wholemeal bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried yeast
3 tbsp olive oil
11/2 tsp red chilli flakes
2 tsp cumin seeds
A good handful of extra mature cheddar cheese
2 tsp black onion seeds
315-320 ml cold water

• Start by adding the flour to a bowl, add the yeast to one side, and the salt opposite to the yeast - this stops them from interacting and activating the yeast before the dough is formed. Add the chilli flakes, grated cheese and the cumin seeds into the bowl
• Pour the oil into the middle of the flour. Slowly add in the water and mix all the ingredients together using your hands - you may not need all the water.
• Keep adding the water until you get a soft and slightly sticky - but not wet dough.
• Lightly oil your work surface - i used 2 tablespoons. Turn out the dough and use both hands to knead the dough till it's smooth. It may take a little longer than the dough for the simple bloomer due to the cheese and cumin seeds.
• Place the dough back into a clean bowl, and cover with lightly oiled cling film, (this helps the dough to stop sticking to the cling film if it touches)
  and leave it to rise till doubled in size - it took almost 2 hours which was possibly due to my kitchen being quite cold at the time and the extra ingredients adding a bit more weight to the dough
• Once the dough has doubled in size, knock the dough back by gently punching the dough to knock the air out.
• Lightly flour your work surface and knead the dough again for a couple of minutes, then divide into 3 equal pieces
• Roll each piece into a sausage shape about 30cm long. Line the 3 together, onto a grease proof lined baking tray, each with about a finger space gap. Gently bring the top of all 3 together and press them together so that they all stick together
• To make the plait, take the right strand and diagonally place it over the middle strand. Then take the left strand and again diagonally place over the middle strand. Repeat with the right strand and again with the left and keep on doing so until you reach the bottom of the strands. Pinch the 3 strands together at the bottom and tuck the end of the plait underneath.
• Brush the top of the plait with a little water and sprinkle the black onion seeds all over the loaf. Leave the loaf to prove again till doubled in size.
• Preheat your oven to 200c, and bake for 25 minutes then lower the temperature to 180c and bake for a final 15 minutes. Once cooked it sound hollow when you tap the base, leave to cool on a wire rack and serve with soup or as desired.