Weave a Thousand Flavors

Traditional Scottish Dundee Cake

Dundee Cake is a famous traditional Scottish fruit cake which is intensely flavorful and though popular throughout the year as a tea cake is especially popular come Christmas time.  

Ever since I began reading the English writer, Hazel Holt in her novels featuring Mrs. Mallory in which she'd always find time to bake Dundee cakes in the middle of solving village crimes, I've been baking Dundee cakes and loving them ever since.

The cake is often made with a variety of dried fruits such as currants, golden raisins and almonds as well as candied fruit peels.

The cake originated in 19th century Scotland and was mass produced by the marmalade company, Keiller's and they have since claimed to be the originators of the term "Dundee Cake".

The top of the cake is typically decorated with concentric circles of blanched almonds.

Like all fruit cakes, it is important to bake the cake at a low temperature, no higher than 325 degrees and preferably much lower - I prefer a slow bake at about 300 deg F.

It is so very important to line the pans with parchment paper to prevent the cakes from burning during the long baking time which usually ranges for 2 to 2-1/2 hours.

Unlike regular cakes, simply baking for an hour or so as soon as a skewer comes out clean will not do. The cake needs to be rid of excess moisture in a slow long bake since these cakes are meant to keep over long periods of time in a process called ripening.

In fact, fruitcakes taste better with age! 

So never serve the cake straight our of the oven. Keep for a few days so they taste their best which in itself takes all the stress out of it!

An Excellent Sort of Mistake ~ Buttermilk Apple Crumb Cake

Ever baked a cake by fluke?

Well, I have. This Christmas in fact.

My dear friend Saloni and I were hard at work in her very urban kitchen overlooking Lake Shore drive in Chicago. The counter top was cluttered with butter, sugar, meats and sauces as we were hard at work for Christmas dinner the next day.

I had butter softening on the counter top for the brioche dough. Completely unaware, I reach out and cream the butter with the sugar. It was only when Saloni asked me, what I was doing that I exclaimed, Oh gosh! I think I began a cake, by reflex!

That's when you know there's such a thing as holiday baking overload! When you live in a world where butter and sugar can't but go together.

Anyway, I doubt she's going to let me live this one down because she couldn't stop laughing as she said, "You're the only one I know who'd end up baking a cake by mistake!"

And what a good mistake it was!

A quick addition of some chopped apples, a basic crumb topping with some butter, flour and sugar and the result was an incredibly moist & delicious apple crumb cake for tea.

So this one is for Saloni, who has been patiently awaiting this blog post so she can make it for her adorable son who asks for it all the time and for good friends, who never let us live down our foibles!

The Sunday Baker ~ Wholegrain, Banana, Pumpkin Hazelnut Maple Loaf

 

I'm feeling quite discombobulated this first week of the New Year, not quite in the groove yet after the long winter break.

And so there is only one thing left to do - bake!

It perhaps has something to do with the oh! so brown bananas that forever seem to stare at me out of the fruit bowl. In fact, it seems that most of my baking involves rescuing bananas. That and half eaten cans of pureed pumpkin.

Now I know that decorum suggests that I shelve all pumpkin related eats with the advent of winter but since when have I ever tried to color in the lines!

So as long as cold weather persists and thank goodness, I have at least a good two months offering such a window of opportunity, I intend to pumpkin away as and when my heart desires.

And quite honestly, though this would be wonderful in autumn, why deny oneself the pleasure of banana, pumpkin, hazelnuts and maple all rolled into one delish loaf this winter's day?

Simply Apple Tea Cake

I once had a Professor who said that everything every choice is a political decision. By design. I didn't know what he meant until I did. I was in my 20's then and so I must be forgiven.

Things can be as simple or as complicated as we make it. Often we think that that we're on a runaway train and that we have no choice, no free will but that is nearly never true when you really truly think about it.

I choose simple. In my opinion a good night's sleep is severely underestimated.

And therefore by the extension of that thought, I tend to favor old world cakes. Honest, simple, uncomplicated and tend to stay away from fondant and other such culinary disguises.

And so this cake fits the bill. I used the same cake base I've used so many times in the past like here and tweaked it for cool weather and apples.

The apples are the very same that we gathered by the bushel-ful from our recent trip to the Apple Harvest Festival. A lovely combination of sweet and crispy tart - Golden Delicious & York, they make for a lovely afternoon cake.

So perhaps everything in this world is a political decision, by design. I choose simple, what do you choose?

Sneaky Molasses, Zucchini & Chocolate Bread

 
 
This one is oh so for the love of chocolate with the goodness of zucchini, whole wheat & molasses thrown in.

Make no mistake, it's a bread.

One that inherits it's ever so light hint of sweetness from chocolate morsels and earthy molasses but everything about this shouts B.R.E.A.D.

wonderful. decadent. breakfast. after-school. whenever. bread.

Like I said, sneaky.

As it stands, I am back to Sunday baking. With the kids back to school, the need for healthful after-school snacks with that cold glass of milk, five days a week means that Mum (I speak of moi) is forced to shake off the shackles of procrastination and get a line-up together of yummy healthful baked goods.

Mind you, it's not just for the kids benefiting from this endeavor considering Mr. Hubby & I both sneak in a slice or two before the whole lot is polished off. But it has been a startling revelation that left to my own devices, I would probably drift into a wayward slump of fried eggs and toast, meal after meal as long as I'm left alone buried in my books.

So thank goodness, I have growing boys (and one other fully grown variety) in the house that need feeding & watering to keep me on my toes or there's a very good chance that this blog might have never seen the light of day! 

Which of course begs the next question - whatever will we do when they're off to college?

To which my devious mind who is currently far more interested in Jack Reacher of the Lee Child novels, whispers back, "cross that bridge when you come to it".

Amen to that.

A Good and Proper Victoria Sponge Cake

Most days are spent frantically watching ones waistline. Not to mention being caught in the everyday whirlwind of work & chores, so it comes as no surprise that lovely afternoon tea cakes are a bit of a vanished species.

But fortunately, not altogether!

Because nothing makes a cheat-day special than a real, proper home-made sponge cake. It's just the thing for a sunny weekend or a summer afternoon tea.

In fact it is the very reason I long awaited the arrival of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. And when it did arrive, I got right down to making a sponge cake. But you see, a perfect sponge cake can be rather elusive and it's taken several trial and errors perfecting a recipe. If there's one thing I'm learning is that a sponge cake is small on ingredient list and big on technique. But by jove, we've got it!

As it were, I am not at all surprised that my final salvation was found at the hands of Delia Smith. If it weren't for her, Keith Floyd and Mary Berry - all pillars in the British culinary world, I would have been forever lost during my formative years, pottering around in the kitchen.

This wonderful Victoria sponge cake, was named after Queen Victoria, who favoured a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea. A typical Victoria sponge consists of raspberry jam and whipped cream.

Here, fresh whipped cream and sun ripened strawberries sandwiched between feather light sponges makes one delicious teatime treat. Flavor per calorie count? Off the charts, my dearies!

Three B's to a Loaf ~ Buttermilk, Banana & Blueberry

When the tin box in the kitchen, housing weekly baked goodies runs scant, I have no choice but to get baking.

Because if you've got growing boys around you, you know that hunger seems to be their constant companion. Not withstanding the times when I am sure they are feigning.

For example, right after they've been fed breakfast and we are doing weekend errands. As the scent of grilled meat from a near by restaurant wafts through the the air,

" I am soooo hungry Mom"

"How can that be? We just ate breakfast"

" Mother, are you seriously going to starve your first born son?"

"What did you say?"

I am chuckling now and my 10 year son repeats himself to which he adds,

" Mother, you do know that it is perfectly normal for me to be hungry all the time, since I am going through puberty".

"And were we not going through puberty an hour ago, when you only ate one french toast?"

So you see my dilemma, a near empty box of goodies will only mean more such conversations and so this is a perfect time as any to make a fruit filled loaf.

And since one can never ever have enough recipes featuring brown, overripe bananas, I consider it serendipitous that  I have three such specimens on my counter top as we speak.

As far as I'm concerned, banana bread is a treat either way - becoming all the more special when served with a dollop of lemon curd or marmalade and just heavenly when studded with sweet, purple blueberries.

Between that, mushy bananas and puberty, what chance does a mother stand!

Darling 'coz You're 10! Chocolate Hazelnut Pave Cake to Celebrate

February is invariably chocolate month in our home. This, for two main reasons - our oldest munchkin's birthday and Valentine's Day.

This month our little, not so little one anymore boy turned 10! Two-digits and that is scary for me as a mum. Because now everything that was in his future - the-far-away - one-day-future doesn't feel so far away anymore.

All of a sudden I can't help thinking that before the decade's out, he'll have a bobbing adam's apple, and hair - loads of hair - all over, and there'll be loaded looks between him and girls and that's not all - no longer the "ewww she's a girl", not to mention in a heart beat he's about to be taller then me which mind you is no great achievement considering I'm all of 5 ft, 2 inches. But nevertheless, how do you discipline a kid who is a ft taller than you? Oh I know, I'll definitely be putting than step ladder to good use. This by the way, is already the butt of family jokes - mom on a step ladder flaying her arms all around - snigger, snigger....

Not to mention - the driving. He'll be driving and I'll be sitting in the passenger seat. I need to take up crocheting or knitting just so I can keep my hands in my lap and have them do something other than clench. Not to mention him off to college and then into the world. You hear me, into the world.

And all I can think while all this is banging around in my head is that he isn't ready for the world. There is so much he has to learn, so much he doesn't know, so much I don't want him to know so soon. So I am holding on to the snippets of what will be  some of our best memories and I relish the meals I cook for him and the joy on his face when he sees me baking his birthday cake. The cake he says I must bake because "Oh mum, you bake the best cakes in the world"!

I hold on to these beautiful precious moments and bake this cake, because before long he won't just be my little munchkin but a young man and then, a man. And I think of him stumbling upon this post decades later, and reading my words, seeing the snapshot of this cake and hopefully just for a moment he'll bask in the sunny memory of the day - the day he was 10.

A time when life was simple and uncomplicated.

I hope. I love.

Revoke some Holiday Spirit - Cherry Raisin cake

The months after the holidays, after a plethora of cookies and gingerbread and the celebrations of the New Year, I can't help feeling the need to revoke some of the festive spirit. Have you noticed how the cold also brings about a stillness in the air? It's as though the air is pregnant with possibilities.

I love winters for this reason and also because I simply love crisp cold days more than hot, sweaty,  days  - and it makes me want to cook hearty stews and bake warm breads and roast meats. It also reminds of  our early years when we had just arrived in the US. Every holiday season, our dear friend Michael's mother, who lives in Australia would mail us a traditional boiled Christmas pudding (with instructions for the flambe and brandy butter)

One of these holidays, I am determined to make us a traditional pudding (suet and all) but for now,  I'll make do with a similar albeit simpler, delicious cherry raisin cake.

My first experience making this cake, resulted in what I'd  like to simply call - 'the incident'. An unforgettable one nevertheless, since my forgetting to use parchment paper during the baking process resulted in a beautiful brown,  perfect cake, tearing apart as I tried to nudge it out of the loaf pan. Not pretty - and pretty much heartbreaking!

Any how, now that I have recovered, I simply must share this lovely recipe with you. I have sent a loaf of this delightful creation to my good friend Shearer and she assures that me that it was a roaring success not just with the grown-ups but also the kids. As far as I'm concerned if the kids love it, its got to be good stuff!

This recipe is adapted from the original as published in the Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook.

A note about the ingredients, first of all I had quite a run around getting the right kind of cherries.

The cherries we need are not the canned, fresh or frozen variety nor are they the maraschino cherries but rather the red glazed ones - the ones I finally found them in a 4 oz container simply labeled red cherries though I know them as glazed cherries (not cheap at $4.50 for 4 oz).

Secondly the raisins should be sultanas or 'golden raisins ' and not the 'Thompson' raisins.  

 

Most importantly, set aside 3 hours for the preparation and baking of this cake and bake 3-4 days before serving for flavors to mature beautifully.

Preheat the oven to 300 deg F

 

 
 

 

Place softened butter in a bowl & add the powdered sugar.

 

Cream with a hand held electric blender till light and fluffy (I am sure you can also use your esteemed kitchen aid  mixer  if you've got it!)

I used my handy Braun handled that's been with me forever and I love it!

 

 

 

Onto the next step -

 

Add beaten eggs and blend well. Freshly squeeze the oranges (my 7 year old son was so excited to do this for me :) and add the juice to the egg mixture.

 

Once the orange juice is added and blended together with the electric hand blender, it looks as though the butter and juice is congealed. No worries!

Put the flour into a separate large mixing bowl and add baking powder to it. Stir with clean hands or rubber spatula. Take away 2.5 oz of the flour into a small bowl and set aside.

 

Halve the cherries. Mix together the glazed cherries and the golden raisins in a bowl. Add the 2.5 oz reserved flour and mix together till all the cherries and raisins are thoroughly coated with the flour.

Cook's Note - Isn't it the darnedest thing, that coating with flour prevents them from settling to the bottom when added to the batter!

 

Add the egg mixture to the flour. With a rubber spatula, fold the flour and egg mixture together, scraping the sides of the bowl and turning  the batter over and over till completely blended.

 

Add the cherries and raisins and mix with the rubber spatula till completely blended. Line a 9 x 5 loaf pan with parchment paper. Important!

To line the pan, I cut 2 large rectangles of parchment paper - one the width of the length & the other the width of the other side. Place both the rectangles into the pan & they will overlap with the excess paper hanging off the sides. This is fine because it allows easy removal of the cake (use like handles)

Cook's Note -  I learned the hard way that non-stick cooking spray simply doesn't stand a chance when baking for 2  hours. So the parchment paper is a must.

 

  

Bake for 2 hours until it reaches a beautiful golden brown color. Pierce with a thin skewer and it if comes out clean then the cake is done. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

Wrap in foil and set aside for 3-4 days for the favors to mature and it is ready to serve.

I sprinkled some powdered sugar when I served the cake - the favors of the butter, orange juice and dry fruits complement each other beautifully.

I realized that though many recipes call for  soaking the dry fruits in brandy (and can be substituted for the orange juice) I didn't miss it at all and actually preferred this lighter version. Also, I didn't have to worry about the kids turning their noses up!

 

 

 

Recipe for

CHERRY RAISIN CAKE

 Serves 6

Shopping list

1/2 lb all-purpose flour

1/2 lb butter

1/2 lb powdered sugar

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

4 oz freshly squeezed orange juice

3/4 lb golden raisins

1/2 lb glazed cherries

 

Preparation - 

Butter and sugar mixture - In a large bowl cream the  softened butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

 

Eggs - Break into a bowl and lightly beat

Oranges - Squeeze fresh oranges and reserve juice

Flour - In a large bowl place together the all purpose flour and baking powder. Reserve 2.5 oz flour separately.

Cherries and raisins - Halve the cherries.  Toss in the 2.5 oz reserved flour till thoroughly coated.

 

 

 

    

  

Cooking method-

Preheat the oven to 300 deg F .

Cut pieces of parchment paper & line a 9 x 5 loaf pan. To line the pan, I cut 2 large rectangles - one the width of the length & the other the width of the other side. Place both the rectangles into the pan & they will overlap with the excess paper hanging off the sides. This is fine because it allows easy removal of the cake (use like handles)

To the creamed butter and sugar, add beaten eggs and blend. Add the orange juice and blend till well mixed. To the flour, add this egg mixture. With a rubber spatula, fold the flour and egg mixture together, scraping the sides of the bowl and turning  the batter over and over till completely blended.

 

Add the flour coated cherries and raisins and mix with the rubber spatula till completely mixed.

 

 

 

Bake for 2 hours in the preheated oven till the cake is a beautiful golden brown. Pierce with a thin skewer and it if comes out clean then it is ready. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

Wrap in foil and set aside for 3-4 days for the favors to mature and it is ready to serve. Cut into slices to serve.

Enjoy!