Sticky Ginger Cake with Ginger Wine Butter Icing

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If you've stayed with us at Hopton House you'll know that there is a whole cake waiting in your room on arrival. This is normally a homemade lemon drizzle. It's a fairly safe bet as it seems to be most people's favourite! However I'm always happy to make something different on request.

 

This week I was asked for a sticky ginger cake with butter icing. I'm glad I'm not asked to make this that often because it is one of my favourites, and I would end up eating far too much of it! It is so sticky & light all at the same time.



My favourite butter icing has a teaspoon of vanilla extract in it. Since my homemade vanilla extract is just rum with vanilla pods steeped in it I decided to switch it for a teaspoon of ginger wine and it works very well.

I've done this recipe in imperial measures as it's so easy to remember that way. It's easily halved if you don't want to make 4 cakes.

I bake it in 4 1lb loaf tins, lined with loaf liners. This means I have 1 cake for the guest room and the others I put in bags, seal and put in the freezer for up to a month. The cake keeps well and gets stickier over a few days.

The icing is enough to generously cover 1 cake

Cake Ingredients
8oz treacle
8oz golden syrup
8oz dark muscovado sugar
8oz butter
16oz white self raising flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon of mixed spice
2 large eggs
1/2 pint milk

Icing Ingredients ( for one cake )
2 oz very soft butter
7 oz icing sugar
1tsp ginger wine

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius Fan oven, 170 degrees Celsius non fan.
Put the flour, ginger and mixed spice in a large bowl and mix well.
Put the treacle, syrup, sugar and butter in a large saucepan and heat gently until it all melts. Mix it well together.
Beat together the eggs and milk.
Pour the contents of the saucepan and then the eggs & milk into the flour and spices and beat well till it's all well combined.
Divide the mixture between the 4 loaf tins and baked for about 40 minutes until a knife comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely then make the icing by beating together the butter, sugar and ginger wine. Spread it over one cooled cake.

Raspberry, Banana, Honey & Oat Smoothie

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Like many people I find it a bit of a struggle to eat healthily at this time of the year. It's made worse as I'm constantly baking for guests - mince pies and shortbread straight from the oven are so very hard to resist.

It's also difficult to find seasonal fruit to eat. I love clementines but there are only so many I can eat in a day!

So I try and at least start the day fairly healthily. This is my standard smoothie but by adding in the oats I make it a bit more substantial. Oats, of course, are great for lowering the cholesterol. The raspberries are frozen but you could use fresh.

This smoothie gives you almost 3 of your 5 fruit & veg. It's not particularly low calorie but I find it does keep me going till lunch and stops me raiding the leftover guest croissants. These ingredients make 1 big smoothie!

80g frozen raspberries
1 small banana
100ml apple juice
40g porridge oats
150 ml ( 1 standard small pot ) of natural yoghurt
1 tablespoon local honey

Put into blender and whiz for at least a minute.

Enjoy!

Mince Pies

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I'm not a keen pastry cook and, every year, have always searched in vain for a decent mince pie pastry recipe. However a couple of years I was recommended a recipe by Darren ( @urdygurdy on Twitter ) and chef at the Minfford Hotel near Tal-y-llyn in North Wales ( a stunning part of the country if you've never visited ).

The ingredients are from Darren but I can't blame him for the recipe. Also the orange zest is my own addition.

I couldn't decide whether to put the mince pies or the lemon drizzle in the guest rooms so I've put both in in the run up to Christmas.

5oz cold butter, cut into cubes
8oz plain flour
1oz sugar
zest of half an orange
1 egg
1 jar of mincemeat
a little water
1 small beaten egg

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C or Fan oven to 180 degrees C.

Rub the butter into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs ( I use the food mixer ), add the sugar and orange zest and mix well. Add the egg and mix well until it forms a stiff dough. You made need a few drops of water but not a lot.

I put the pastry wrapped in clingfilm for at least 30 mins.

Cut the pastry into 2 then roll out quite thinly on a floured surface. I use a large and medium pastry cutter to cut out 16 large and 16 medium sized circles. You'll probably need to pull together the trimmings of pastry and reroll them a few times.

Take a mincepie tin and line with the large circles. ( My mincepie tin only has 12 holes so I do it in 2 batches ). Put about a teaspoon of mincemeat in each ( be careful not to overfill ). Brush the edges with water and then put the smaller circles of pastry on top. Crimp the edges together. Brush with beaten egg and put in the oven for 20 minutes. My oven isn't very even so I time for 10 minutes then turn round the tin and cook for another 10 minutes..

Put on a cooling tray and dust with icing sugar.

Spiced Plums

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This dish is very popular on the breakfast buffet table. The plums go very well with granola and yoghurt, bircher muesli and even porridge.

It improves in taste overnight and will last a couple of days in the fridge. It's great for using up a surplus of plums and is also good with those rock hard plums you buy in the supermarket to "ripen at home"

It's been a bad year for plums here but, when I do have a glut, I cut the plums in half and freeze on a tray before putting into a bag in the freezer. I then cook them straight from the freezer.

It's also good as a base for a plum crumble or with rice pudding.

I've used ground cinnamon here but you could use a cinnamon stick instead and put in a star anise.

7 or 8 plums cut in half with stone removed
3 tbs soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
water

Preheat oven to 200 degrees ( 180 for fan oven ) or use the top oven in the AGA. Take a medium sized baking dish and pour in about 1/2 cm water. Add the sugar and cinnamon and stir around. Add the plums, cut side up.

Put in the oven for about 30 minutes. You need the plums soft but, preferably, not falling apart.

Apricot Almond Mini Cakes

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I have another lovely virtual Twitter friend, Deanna Morauski, who runs the Old Hen B&B in Snoqualmie Valley in Washington. Deanna and her husband have recently been featured on the Live Well Network in the USA ( details below ). I watched the video of it the other evening and it was great to see her in "real life"

Here Deanna shares her recipe for Apricot Almond Mini Cakes Recipe.

Apricot Almond Mini Cakes Recipe

Preheat oven to 350F.

CAKE INGREDIENTS:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cup apricot jelly (for topping)
• 1 cup sliced almonds (for topping)
• 2 cups (or 16 ounces) high quality semi-sweet chocolate (for dipping)

Place eggs in mixing bowl. Add sugar and beat on high setting for about 3 minutes or until well combined and frothy. Lower setting on mixer and add flour slowly. Add butter. Mix until butter is completely mixed into batter. Add almond extract, baking powder and salt. Place cake in two 9X13 baking pans that have been sprayed with non-stick baking spray. Bake until fork poked into center of each cake comes out clean - start checking at about 20 minutes.

When cake done baking, remove from oven and allow to cool. Heat apricot jam for about 45 seconds in microwave (not necessary but helpful for spreading). Spread jelly evenly on top of cakes. Chill cakes in fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up jelly and make cake easier to dip into chocolate. Make mini cakes but cutting with a 1 1/2 inch circle cookie cutter. Push the cookie cutter into the apricot topped cake and gently push the cake up through the top to remove from cookie cutter so that the jelly topping stays nice. Place on a parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Dip each mini cake into chocolate up to jelly (coating bottom and sides) using a fork or a chocolate dipping tool. Place dipped cakes back onto the tray covered with parchment paper to cool. When finished will all the cakes, place tray in fridge to set for about a half an hour.

Place in mini cupcake liners or candy liners on a pretty platter to serve.

This recipe makes about 60-70 mini cakes.

About Deanna:

You can see Deanna on Joey Fatone's new show "My Family Recipe Rocks" on the Live Well Network this month on October 27th. You can watch her episode here: http://livewellnetwork.com/My-Family-Recipe-Rocks/8432939 She will be making four scrumptious recipes throughout an entire episode filmed at her B&B, The Old Hen. Follow along on her Facebook page or on Twitter for updates .

Deanna’s love for baking and cooking began as she sat upon a baker’s stool as a little girl. Her love for people grew in the midst of church potlucks. She expresses her loves today creatively through speaking, writing for her foodie blog, television appearances as well as hosting guests, including celebrities, at her award-winning inn, The Old Hen Bed & Breakfast http://theoldhen.com in Snoqualmie Valley, Washington.

Gluten Free Banana Bread

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I often have guests with specific dietary requirements staying & am always looking for suitable alternatives to dish up for breakfast.

I've learned a bit about a gluten free diet from various guests over the years. Catering specifically for a coeliac diet can be a bit tricky as you can't let any wheat flour contaminate the food you're preparing.

Gluten free bread has to be toasted separately & you have to ensure that items like butter, jams etc haven't accidently got bread crumbs in them.

I buy brand new bags of gluten free, flour, sugar etc when I have to bake gluten free.

I made this banana bread for breakfast this morning - it worked very well and was almost indistinguishable from that which I make with normal flour.

I would have added a tablespoon of honey & 1 teaspoon of cinnamon instead of the mixed spice but both were open & I couldn't guarantee no random flour particles!

( BTW I forgot to take a photo of the bread so this is picture of my normal banana bread - looked exactly the same ;0)

50g softened butter
90g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 ripe banana
110g gluten free self raising flour
1 level tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp milk

Put all the ingredients in a mixer and beat for 2 minutes.
Put into a 1lb loaf tin lined with a paper liner and baked at 180 degrees ( fan oven ) for about 40 minutes until golden & firm.
Leave to cool a bit before slicing.

Three Fruit Marmalade

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It's about this time of the year that I start to run low on the Seville Orange Marmalade I made back in January. I do have some frozen seville oranges in the freezer for this but last last week I decided to make three fruit marmalade as it does seem very popular with the guests.

I need to confess that I don't like marmalade so I have no idea if it's good or not. I put the first pot on the breakfast buffet table this weekend and have just had a request to buy some so it must be OK :)

1 Large Orange
1 Red Grapefruit
1 large lemon
1 Kg sugar ( not Jam sugar, granulated, preserving or caster sugar is fine )
1.5 litres water
1 knob of butter
1 muslin bag
1 large pan
6 x 454g jam jars with lids

Scrub the fruit well. Halve the fruit and juice, retaining all the bits of flesh & pips that accumulate in the juicer. Scrape out all of the flesh from the fruit & put into the muslin bag along with the rest of the flesh & pips. Tie the top of the muslin bag securely.

Cut the peel as finely as possible and put in the large pan with the juice,water and the muslin bag. Bring to the boil then simmer very gently for 2 hours ( if you have an AGA the ideal place to do this is in the simmering oven ). You need to reduce the liquid by half so I use my Maslin pan that has a scale on it.

Put a couple of saucers in the freezer.

Whilst you're doing this put the jam jars and lids through the dishwasher on a hot cycle to sterilise them. Take them out and ensure they are completely dry then put the jars on a tray in a low oven to keep warm.

On a low heat, add the sugar to the pan. Wait for it to dissolve completely, stiring whilst you do this.
When the sugar is dissolved then increase the heat until you get a fast rolling boil ( one you can't stir down with a wooden spoon ). Boil for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and test for set - put the marmalade on a saucer from the freezer and draw your finger across it - if it wrinkles it's ready. If not boil for another 5 minutes. Repeat this process until you get a set.

Once it's ready take off the heat and add a knob of butter to remove the accumulated scum. Stir.
Leave for 15 minutes, then pour into the hot jam jars. Screw on the lids - hey presto-marmalade :0)