Banana and guava jam cake

Just after Christmas I won a couple of food prizes on Instagram and Twitter. The Insta prize of a food hamper from Tropical Sun, including a lovely book of Caribbean recipes arrived promptly.
The Twitter prize from Cirio has never materialised, and after several attempts at communication I gave up. The excuses were rather unconvincing, and I still see them tweeting comps regularly. It doesn't put me off buying Cirio products, but I don't think I would bother with their giveaways any longer.

One of the exotic products from Tropical Sun was a jar of guava jam. It's a thick jam, which reminds me of the quince paste in flavour and texture. My guys are more of a strawberry/raspberry/black currant jam type of eaters, and were not enthusiastic about the guava jam.

Then I remembered that years ago we used to bake a sponge with jam mixed into the cake batter, with lots of soured cream.

This is a variation on the theme of the Russian jam cake, which I used to bake as a student, with soured cream (Smetana), 1 egg, flour, oil and any jam that was available (strawberry, raspberry or black currant).
Yet again, I had bananas going over-ripe, and a single pot of yogurt that nobody wanted to eat. I didn't include oil in the photo, but I did add it.

Rum adds a bit of a tropical flavour too. It has been suggested by my Twitter friend and queen of baking Antonia, who mentioned adding rum to the banana bread a couple of times.

Banana and guava jam cake
Ingredients:
2 bananas, mashed
100g demerara sugar
2 medium eggs
3 heaped tbsp guava jam
1 small pot of yogurt
juice of 1 orange
1tsp ground cinnamon
2tbsp spiced rum
50ml mild olive oil
250g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder

Mash two peeled bananas with sugar, using a fork in a medium sized mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and guava jam. Add a small pot of yogurt, orange juice and spices, rum, olive oil, flour and baking powder.
Mix all the ingredients together, and pour the cake batter in a well oiled bundt cake tin.

Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C and bake for about 45 minutes (check if it's ready with a wooden toothpick).
Remove from the oven, leave in the tin for  several minutes before removing it out of the tin and letting it cool on the cooling rack.

What have you been baking recently?

New York-style cheesecake with blood orange

A few weeks ago my Twitter friend Antonia posted the photos of her latest dessert, which happened to be a luscious-looking cheesecake. I haven't baked a cheesecake in ages, and really fancied a slice. So last week I baked a New York-style cheesecake for my birthday.
Our Internet connection was almost non-existent for over a week (thank you, BT, for the so called upgrade!), and I wasn't able to do any blogging.

This is not an authentic New York cheesecake, but more of a variation. It's quite a rich cake, and probably not for people on a diet, but it's very-very tasty.

New York-style cheesecake
Ingredients:
For the crust:
140g digestive biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs
90g butter, melted
For the cheesecake layer:
2 x 340g tubs of Philadelphia cheese (I used a mix of Original and Light)
1 x 250g tub of mascarpone
180g caster sugar
140ml soured cream
3tbsp cornflour
zest of 1 blood orange
 juice of 1/2 blood orange
3 medium eggs
For the soured cream layer:
120ml soured cream
3tbsp caster sugar
1tsp lemon juice

First crush the digestive biscuits in a plastic bag with a rolling pin (or use a blender) to make fine crumbs. Melt the butter, and mix the crumbs with butter.
Line the base of a springform cake tin with a parchment circle, and oil the sides and the paper (I use an oil spray).
Spread the buttered crumbs in the tin, and press them evenly. I do not pre-bake the crust at this stage, but some cook books suggest doing that for 10 minutes.
Prepare the cheesecake layer by mixing the cream cheese with mascarpone, caster sugar and soured cream in a deep mixing bowl. Add the cornflour, and zest and juice of the blood orange, and beat in the eggs, one at a time.
You might want to use a blender for the cheesecake layer to be smooth and well mixed.
Pour the contents of the mixing bowl over the crumb layer.
Place the cake tin in the oven preheated to 200C.
Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 110C, and bake for another 50 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of baking pour the soured cream mixed with lemon juice and caster sugar on top of the cake.
Please keep in mind, that the cheesecake will be very wobbly at this stage.
Switch off the heat, and leave the cake in the oven to cool.
Later take the cake tin out of the oven and let the cake cool completely before covering the tin with a foil and putting in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight.
It's totally worth waiting, trust me.
The next day, run a thin knife around the sides of the cake and carefully remove it out of the tin.
Enjoy!

The blood orange gives a gentle blush to the overall colour. If you prefer a sharper taste, swap the blood orange for lemon.

You might still find blood oranges at the fruit markets (I bought a bag of 10 just yesterday). Ocado sells them too, not sure about Waitrose, our local one doesn't sell them this year.

Lemon and orange drizzle cake

As mentioned many times, when I'm stressed, I bake to let off steam.
Today I had to deal with the clinic, which has lost my prescription request, submitted 12 days ago. It's for my son's meds, which is available only on prescription, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with them.
It's not the first time they did it, and as our supply at home is running very low, I'm upset about their cavalier approach.
I was fuming after an exchange of phone calls, and went to the kitchen to bake. I baked a passion fruit drizzle cake last week, and decided I'd make another drizzle cake, this time a more traditional one, with citrus fruit.
You can make it with either lemons or oranges, or a mix of both.
Gorgeously moist, this cake is a lovely dessert for any tea party.

Lemon and orange drizzle cake
Ingredients:
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange
180g caster sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 orange
3 medium eggs
20g polenta (optional)
200g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2tbsp orange gin (optional)
120g butter, melted
for the icing:
5 heaped tbsp icing sugar mixed with orange juice

In a medium sized bowl zest a lemon and an orange. Add the caster sugar and juice of half a lemon and half an orange, mix together. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add polenta and sift in the flour. Add a teaspoon of baking powder, orange gin and melted (but not hot) butter. Mix well.

Oil a cake tin and pour in the cake batter. Place the cake tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 50+ minutes. Check with a wooden toothpick if it's ready, once it comes clean, the cake is baked.

Let the cake cool a bit before taking it out of the tin.
Mix the icing sugar with enough freshly squeezed orange juice to make a runny icing, and drizzle over the cake.
Decorate with jelly diamonds or any other sweets.

The polenta is optional in this recipe, it just adds a nice texture. The gin is also optional, it adds a more concentrated flavour.
I have a bottle of Tanqueray orange gin which I got as a present for my birthday back in February, but I rarely have a gin and tonic, and the bottle is almost full. If you don't have the orange gin, a limoncello could be a nice substitute. Or skip the alcohol altogether. You can't actually taste the alcohol, as it evaporates during the baking, yet it gives a more intense flavour.

Semolina Coconut cake

As Sundays go, ours is not the most exciting, but not the worst either. Eddie is feeling better, and we even did a foray into town to do a quick grocery shopping. We also visited Waterstones to get a booster pack of Unbroken Bonds for Eddie.
In the late afternoon we had tea with cake. My husband is watching What/If on Netflix and complaining about how bad it is. Why do you keep watching it then?

I've recently baked an apple semolina cake, and still had plenty of semolina left in the packet. As my guys were wandering in and out of the kitchen earlier today, looking for something sweet for tea, I said I'd bake a cake, but that they'd have to wait for an hour.

Semolina Orange cake
Ingredients:
100g dry semolina
zest and juice of 1 big orange
3 medium eggs
40g dessicated coconut
120g caster sugar
110g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
90ml mild olive oil
ground vanilla
for icing: 3 heaped tbsp of icing sugar mixed with orange juice
Midget gems for decoration (optional)

First mix the semolina with orange zest and juice  in a mixing bowl.
Beat in the eggs, coconut and sugar, and combine well. Sift in the flour, baking powder, add oil, mix well.
Grind a bit of vanilla if you have a vanilla pod grinder (or add a teaspoon of vanilla essence).

Oil the cake tin with the oil spray of your choice. I like to use the avocado oil spray, as it has a neutral taste.
Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for 35+ minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick, if it comes out clean, the cake is ready.

You could also do a light orange icing drizzle over the top, just mix 3 heaped tbsp of icing sugar with enough orange juice to make a runny icing. Decorate with sweets of your choice.

I used Bravura Foods Free From Fellows Vegan Midget Gems from the latest Degustabox as a decoration for this cake. Any other midget gems or chewy sweets would work.
These sweets are made without sugar, gluten, gelatine and dairy, and thus are vegan friendly. They are also egg free, soy free, GMO free, nut free and free from artificial flavours and colours.
The vegan aspect of these sweets is of no importance to us as a family, as we are not vegans.
They taste very much like the original midget gems, if I remember correctly, as I haven't bought them recently. My sons both liked the vegan midget gems.

How is your Sunday going? Are you having a relaxing day or enjoying outdoors?

Choc chip orange muffins

I've been looking at my blog posts for the last year, checking out which have been most popular. Eddie was watching the one zillion-th episode of Yu-Gi-Oh, while Sash was doing what I call a I'm-feeling-peckish-dance around my table, and pointing at some of the cake photos.
Looks like we need to bake some sweet treats. Muffins are probably the easiest option for an afternoon tea.
I had a quick look around the kitchen, what do I have, what needs to be used? OK, I've got one last orange, and a handful of chocolate buttons, and all the usual cakey-bakey ingredients.

Choc chip orange muffins it is then. I know there are probably one million recipes for choc chip muffins, as it's a classic recipe.

Choc chip orange muffins (makes 12)
Ingredients:
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1/2 orange
90g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 medium eggs
300g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
150ml milk
70g butter, melted
60g chocolate buttons

In a big mixing bowl zest 1 orange. Add the orange juice, caster sugar, salt, and beat in 2 eggs. Sift in the flour. Mix in the remaining ingredients, including the melted butter.
Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases, inserted into the muffin baking tray. Cook the muffins for 18+ minutes at 180C, until they are golden and firm. Check they are cooked with a wooden toothpick; if it comes out clean, they are done.

Eat warm or cold, with tea, coffee or milk.

Now that Eddie is a proud owner of the Hedwig mug, he claims that tea tastes better in it. One of our friends gave him a book shop gift card for Christmas, and he has chosen this mug.
Who am I to argue? I am convinced that tea tastes better, when I drink it from my favourite mug as well.

The Teacher's Secret by Suzanne Leal & Raisin, walnut and orange cake

We all make mistakes, and some of our blunders come to haunt us years later.
Terry Pritchard who is affectionately known at Brindle Public school as Mr P, is a warm-hearted teacher who loves his job. He has been teaching several generations of children - some of his current students are children of his former students. He is a well-known and much-loved figure in town.

Then a new principal arrives to school, and school life changes dramatically. Immediately her and Terry's personalities clash, and Ms Matthews takes it upon herself to make Terry comply with her new rules or perish. She is a very unpleasant, uncompromising (in a negative way) character, without redeeming features. She seems to be power-obsessed.

This brought back memories of working in school many years ago. While some of my colleagues were genuinely wonderful and kind people, there were also some colleagues who would be ready to stab you in the back and walk over dead bodies just to achieve their ambitions. Ms Matthews epitomises the abhorrent zeal and schemes of certain teaching professionals. I imagine we've all met "a Ms Matthews" in our lives, whether as a colleague or as a teacher of our children. This is the kind of person you mentally want to strangle.

Mr P is not as faultless as he appears at the beginning of the novel, and once Ms Matthews uncovers his past secret and decides that his behaviour is inappropriate, he is dismissed from the job he loves so passionately. Terry is forced into an early retirement, and the whole school community is shocked and devastated.

A new teacher, Nina, comes to replace him. Obviously, as Terry's replacement, she is not the flavour of the month. And she truly struggles to fit in and find her place. The pupils confront her and resent her for taking Terry's place. You feel sorry for Nina, as anyone in her position would struggle.

There are several smaller personal stories and subplots going on. The story is a bit scattered, and there are too many characters. The feel of a small town is rendered truthfully and authentically.
It is a thought-provoking book which tackles modern day issues.

Thank you to Legend Press for sending me an e-copy of the book for reviewing.

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As it often happens, when I read novels, I take notice of what the characters cook and eat.

One of the characters, Joan, is very curious about a new family next door, She decides to bake a cake to welcome them to the neighbourhood. She hesitates, and imagines her late mother talking to her:
"Or, she hears her mother whisper, you could make them a cake, Joanie.
A tray of biscuits she can manage, but baking cakes has never been her forte and Joan shakes her head at the idea.
Come on, Joanie, her mother insists. Nothing fancy, just a little something.
As she washes up the breakfast dishes, she manages to talk herself into it. A sultana cake, she decides, that's what she will make. So she takes out her mother's cookbook and gets started. She measures out the sultanas, whips up the butter and the sugar, adds the eggs and the flour and she's done. Carefully, she pours the mixture into a loaf pan.
To her surprise and delight, when she pulls it out of the oven it looks absolutely beautiful.
Just a little something to welcome you to the street. That's what she'll say".

This short passage just makes your heart melt, doesn't it?! It brings back some lovely memories of the times when we moved to a college house in Williamstown, MA, when our elder son was just a few months old. We had most wonderful neighbours, and still keep in touch. They left a big basket of food (including some baked goodies) for us on the porch with a card, and it was such an unexpected warm gesture.

I love browsing bookshelves in charity shops, and I've recently spotted an old edition of The Australian Women's Weekly Cakes & Slices Cookbook. I just had to buy it. I looked up if there are any sultana cake recipes in the book, and indeed there is a brandied sultana cake recipe. But I was more inspired by Raisin, Walnut and Orange Syrup Cake recipe. It's quite easy, and I think even Joan who's not a confident cake baker would master it.

And here it is, a recipe for Raisin, walnut and orange syrup cake, which I have adapted to suit our tastes. I have reduced the sugar content and have changed some of the steps too.

Raisin, walnut and orange cake
Ingredients:
zest of 1 orange
180g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
60g walnuts, finely chopped
180g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
100g chopped raisins
125g butter, melted
50ml orange juice
for topping:
3-4 heaped tbsp icing sugar mixed with orange juice to make thick icing.
sliced orange (optional)

In a big mixing bowl mix caster sugar with orange zest. Beat in the eggs. Add chopped walnuts and most of the flour (minus 1tbsp) and baking powder. Chop raisins, then sprinkle them with 1tbsp of flour to coat them, this will help raisins to be spread inside the cake evenly rather than go to the bottom.
Add melted and cooled butter and orange juice, and mix well.
Spoon the cake dough in a well-oiled loaf tin. Put the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for about 35+ minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.
Once cooked, let the cake cool a bit before taking it out of the tin.
Slice the orange into crescents, and cook for a couple of minutes in a mix of sugar and orange juice.
Decorate the cake first with the icing made from the icing sugar and orange juice, then put the slices of orange on top, and pour the remains of the syrup over.

The cake will keep for up to 3 days.

It's a tasty, moist cake, quite dark in colour. It will most likely be lighter in colour, if you swap raisins for sultanas.

Blood orange drizzle polenta cake

I love blood oranges. It's a pity the season when they're available here is pretty short. At the moment you can buy them in Waitrose and Sainsbury's. They have such a beautiful colour and an intense sweet taste. They are wonderful in fruit salads, or juiced, and also as an ingredient in cakes and bakes.

I bake an excellent orange polenta cake, and have been baking it for years. My family loves it.
Last week I spotted a recipe for Blood orange drizzle cake on Sainsbury's website. It was different from my usual bakes because it had a blood orange curd in it.

Last Friday I baked the cake and made the curd.
Sadly, the curd looked like something already eaten and regurgitated. My elder son looked at it with such distaste, that I didn't dare adding it to the cake. I hasten to add, that the blood orange curd tastes lovely, it's just the looks we find slightly repulsive. The colour of blood orange is diluted by the addition of eggs and cornflour, and it acquires a pale pink colour with unpleasant associations. For some reason the colour of curd on Sainsbury's site is nothing like what I made.

blood orange curd

I have adapted the recipe for the cake, baking it more or less following my own old recipe, but the curd I have made, exactly as suggested online, so if you fancy making some of your own, follow the link above, as I won't be reproducing it here.

Blood orange drizzle polenta cake
Ingredients:
zest of 2 blood oranges and 1 lemon
180g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
50g polenta
juice of 1 blood orange and 1/2 lemon
185g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
150g butter, melted

juice of 1/2 lemon + icing sugar, enough to make a thick icing
1 blood orange, peeled and sliced, for decoration

In a big mixing bowl grate the zest of blood oranges and lemon. Add the caster sugar, and beat in the eggs, one by one. Add the polenta and orange and lemon juice, mix well. Sift on flour and baking powder, add melted butter and mix well together.
Pour in the cake batter into a spring cake tin, lined with parchment and oiled. Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C, and bake for about 35-40 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and the wooden toothpick comes clean.
Take the cake out of the oven, let it cool a bit before taking out of the tin and cooling it on the wire rack.
Mix thick icing with lemon juice and icing sugar, and spread over the top of the cake. Decorated with slices of blood orange.
If you're using the curd, you'll need to slice the cake, and spread the curd.

If you don't have polenta, just use the same amount of flour, but polenta adds a lovely grainy texture to the cake. You could probably use ground almonds as a substitute as well, they'll give a nice texture to the cake too.

Last week's cake didn't last more than two days. Today's bake will probably be eaten quickly as well. It is very tasty, with a cup of tea or coffee.

Pistachio orange cake

Last week my husband's book Mafia Life was officially out. I have already spotted it in the local Waterstone's. To mark the occasion, Eddie drew a card for his Daddy with the words "Best book ever!" (if you are going to flatter, slather it liberally!) and I baked a cake.
I wanted to do something with pistachios and a punnet of blackberries from the market.

I couldn't find any chopped pistachios, so I blitzed a bag of pistachios with a hand blender. I put the nuts in a mixing bowl inside a plastic bag, which I tied around the hand blender, then blitzed the nuts, so they all stayed inside rather than flied around the kitchen (lesson learnt from the previous experience when the nuts ended up everywhere around, including my hair).

Pistachio Orange Cake
Ingredients:
150g pistachios, unsalted and shelled
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
4 medium eggs
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1 orange
150g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
icing sugar, for dusting over
for the compote:
a punnet of blackberries (150g)
50g caster sugar
50ml damson gin
juice of 1/2 orange

First blitz the pistachios in a deep bowl (see the method above).
In a big mixing bowl beat the softened butter with caster sugar until creamy pale, add the eggs one at a time, then mix in the zest and juice of orange. Sift in the flour and baking powder, mix well.

Cut out a circle out of the parchment paper or foil to fit inside the spring cake tin and place inside. Oil the tin. Pour in the cake batter.

Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for 40+ minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick, if it comes clean, the cake is ready.
Take the tin out of the oven, and let the cake cool on the cooling rack.
Sift a bit of icing sugar on top.

The cake is lovely just as it is, but if you want it to be more special, make a fresh berry compote.
I used a punnet of blackberries. Raspberries would be a good idea as well.
Heat up the mix of orange juice, gin and caster sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the berries, and cook on low for a couple of minutes.
This compote could be eaten warm or cold.

Curd cheese & orange zest cookies and Sainsbury's Taste Dictionary

These days when you eat out, you won't bat an eyelid, when someone takes photos of their food. In many cases those images go straight on the social media, shared with friends and followers. I've, ahem, done that, though in my defense I usually do it with a blog post in mind. My husband who was first embarrassed by my behaviour, now takes it easy. And I do try to do it as discreetly as I can (meaning that I don't stand on the chair over the table to take a better photo).
Recent research revealed some fascinating data about our obsession with food. Apparently we think and talk about food about 16 hours a week on average, which is almost six years of our adult lives. Like many foodie bloggers, I probably spend even more time reading about food on food blogs, in magazines and books, writing recipe posts and food reviews etc.
While we spend a considerable amount of time on food culture in general, our food vocabulary is not varied, with "delicious, tasty and nice" being our top three food adjectives. If anything, Britons use only six different words to describe meals each week.
To remedy this situation, Sainsbury's has created a Taste Dictionary to help us expand our foodie vocabulary.
The dictionary was written by wordsmith Susie Dent and illustrated by Rebecca Ohta.
Sainsbury's Taste Dictionary: 101 ways to describe each mouthful is a useful resource and a splendid compilation of words, ranging from quite common "bittersweet, succulent, luscious, candied and gooey" to such gems like amarine (bitter and sour in taste, when talking about cooking apples, grapefruit, pomegranate molasses and gooseberries), angular (i.e. highly acidic when describing lemon, vinegar, pickles and kimchi) and medulline (relating to the soft pulp or pitch of a fruit, for example, oranges, persimmon, lemons and lime).

There are some words that I personally never used in my blog posts like
- uliginous (creamy, soft and smooth to taste, e.g, poached eggs, avocado, creme caramel and chocolate mousse);
- suaveolent (deliciously scented and sweet-smelling- tarte tatin, passion fruit and hot chocolate)
- piscose (fishy in taste, e.g. Thai fish sauce, tiger prawns and anchovy essence)
and my new favourite -
mordacious i.e. sharp and possessing a real bite, for example, Worcestershire sauce, Granny Smith apples, gooseberries and mustard.

This little book is a useful source of information on how to improve your foodie vocabulary.
Sainsbury's Taste Dictionary has been created as a limited run of books and is available to download as a PDF (<--- visit the page for the PDF download, if you fancy to learn new ways to describe food). If you're lucky to see it in the supermarkets, grab one for future reference or to give as a gift to your foodie friends.

Today I baked curd cheese and orange zest cookies. They are aromatic, indulgent and toothsome.

Curd cheese and orange zest cookies (makes about 34 cookies)
Ingredients:
zest of 2 oranges
100g curd cheese
100g margarine (Flora light)
180g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1tsp vanilla bean paste
325g self-raising flour
60g oats

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the foil or greaseproof paper on two baking trays.
In a big mixing bowl mix together the orange zest, curd cheese, margarine, caster sugar and egg. Add one egg, vanilla bean paste, flour and oats and mix well until you have a soft dough.
Divide into walnut-sized pieces, roll into balls, then flatten them and place on the trays. Using a fork, make a slight indentation on top of each cookie.
Bake for 15+ minutes until lightly golden. Cool on the wire rack.
Eat warm, or cold. They will keep well in a tin for a couple of days.

Disclosure: I received Sainsbury's Taste Dictionary and a supermarket voucher to buy the ingredients. All opinions are my own.