Cakes & Bakes: Dundee cake

Regular readers will know that we love an afternoon fruit cake Chez H is for Home; so the turn of Dundee cake was always going to come around.

There are lots out there to choose from, but Delia is often the one I turn to for ‘guaranteed success’ cake recipes. This one was adapted from one I found in her Delia’s Cakes cook book.

I don’t like orange or candied peel and am indifferent to glacé cherries (fussy, I know). Instead, I’ve used a dried fruit mixture of currants, raisins and sultanas.

It looked delicious when it came out of the oven and tasted delicious too – eaten ‘as is’ or with a thin spread of butter. As suspected, a cup of tea was the perfect accompaniment.

Pin the recipe to Pinterest for a later date.

Dundee cake

2018-07-04 06:37:18

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

1 hr 45 min

Total Time

1 hr 55 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

1 hr 45 min

Total Time

1 hr 55 min

Ingredients

225g/8oz plain flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground mixed spice
150g/5¼oz spreadable butter
150g/5¼oz golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
450g/1lb mixed dried fruit (you could use currants, raisins, sultanas, glacé cherries, candied peel and even dried apricots)
2 level tbsp ground almonds
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp whisky (purists will insist it must be Scottish)
60g/2oz whole, blanched almonds

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 325ºF/Gas mark 3
Grease an 18cm/7" round cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper
Sift the flour, baking powder and mixed spice into the bowl of a stand mixer
Add the butter, caster sugar and eggs and combine
Add the whiskey and mix into the batter
Fold in the dried fruit, ground almonds and lemon zest
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, spreading it out evenly with the back of the spoon. Arrange the whole almonds in concentric circles over the top. Only press them down very lightly otherwise they'll sink during cooking
Put the cake into the centre of the oven and bake for 1¾ hours or until the centre is firm and springy to touch
Allow it to cool on a wire rack before removing it from the tin

Notes

Store in cool place, in an air-tight container - it should keep for a week or longer

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Prune tea loaf

We’ve been having a busy first few days of 2018. I’ve been a bit tardy again this year with preparing & filing our tax returns so I wanted this week’s Cakes & Bakes to be quick and simple. This prune tea loaf is just the ticket!

Armagnac is the perfect pairing for prunes. However, if you prefer, you can swap this out for an equal quantity of freshly-brewed, strong black tea.

Serve warm, cut into thick slices, buttered generously accompanied by a cup of tea. After my little break, it’s back to doing the accounts!

Click here to save my recipe to Pinterest for a later date!

Prune tea loaf

2018-01-03 17:45:39

Serves 8

Cook Time

45 min

Cook Time

45 min

Ingredients

200g/7oz prunes (Agen ones are best)
2-4 tbsp Armagnac
2 eggs
100g/3½oz brown soft sugar
250g/9oz self raising flour
75ml/2⅔fl oz milk

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/Gas mark 3
Grease & line a 900g/2lb loaf tin
De-stone and roughly chop the prunes and put them into a medium-sized mixing bowl
Pour the Armagnac over the prunes - it should just about cover all the fruit
Cover with a reusable food cover for about half an hour to allow the fruit to absorb the liquid
In a measuring jug, lightly beat the eggs before adding them to the soaked prunes and any un-absorbed liquid
Add the sugar and flour and combine well
Mix in the milk to loosen the batter
Spoon evenly into the lined loaf tin and sprinkle a little granulated sugar evenly over the top
Bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes away clean
Leave the loaf in its tin to cool for 5 minutes before turning it out on to a wire rack

Notes

The loaf will keep for a couple of weeks (if it lasts that long!) if wrapped in baking parchment and kept in an airtight container in a cool place

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Prune and almond fruitcake

The first bag of Agen prunes I bought didn’t last me very long at all. I ate three a day, every day, from the day they arrived. I also used a handful or so of them in a prune and Armagnac tart. I’ve reordered the prunes from Amazon and this week and have made a prune and almond fruitcake; something a bit different to the traditional ones made using raisins, currants, sultanas and candied peel.

Justin, once again, requested an afternoon fruitcake to accompany a cup of tea. He likes to stop work for a short break about 3pm before charging back into his daily chores!

I had about 100 grams of marzipan leftover from my recent batch of simnel cupcakes, so I sliced it into little cubes and spooned it through the cake mixture; a deliciously successful addition!

As with most fruitcakes, if you can resist the temptation of slicing and eating it straight-away, the texture and flavour improves if left for a day or two.

Click here to pin the recipe for later!

Prune and almond fruitcake

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Cook Time 1 30

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings 8 slices

Ingredients

115 g butter softened
115 g soft brown sugar
2 eggs whisked slightly
175 g self-raising flour
¼ tsp almond extract
200 g pitted prunes
1 tbsp flaked almonds

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3
Grease a deep 18cm/7" spring-form or loose-bottomed round cake tin and line base & sides with baking parchment
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
Pour the eggs over the mixture, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoonful of the flour between each addition to help prevent the mixture curdling
Mix in the almond extract
Fold in the rest of the self-raising flour and combine well
Gently fold the prunes, stirring with a wooden spoon until well distributed through the mixture
Spoon the mixture into the tin and level off the top with the back of the spoon
Sprinkle the top with the flaked almonds
Bake for 1&frac;12 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
Once done, remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in its tin

Store in an airtight lidded cake tin or plastic container

Keyword almond, cake, fruitcake, prunes

Cakes & Bakes: Simnel cupcakes

Each Easter I like to make a dish that’s traditional for the celebration. Last year, I made a hot cross loaf; the year before that, a crescia and this year I’ve made simnel cupcakes.

A simnel cake is a fruit cake with a middle layer of marzipan and another layer on the top. Since Victorian times, the cake has been decorated with 11 or 12 little balls of marzipan. It was traditionally eaten on the middle Sunday of Lent – the 12 balls representing Christ and his 11 apostles (minus the 12th, Judas).

I have a confession to make, I’d never actually eaten a simnel cake until I made these. What have I been waiting for? They’re easy to make from scratch and are delicious! The idea of cooking them in used food tins is ingenious. A word of caution, however, try not to use ring-pull tins. They have a lip at the top that makes it difficult to ease the cake out after baking. I had to open the other end of the tin to get them out!

Even though I used small tins (150g Morrison’s own brand sweetcorn… around the size of small Heinz baked beans ones), we shared half a cake each.

Click here to pin this recipe for later!

Simnel cupcakes

2017-04-05 09:13:41

Yields 4

For the marzipan

150g/5oz ground almonds
200g/7oz icing sugar + extra for rolling
2tsp almond extract
1 egg white

For the cake mixture

115g/4oz butter, softened
115g/4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
125g/4½oz self-raising flour
300g/10½oz mixed dried fruit ( any of currants, raisins, sultanas, mixed peel, glacé cherries)
1tsp mixed spice (I didn't have any, so I made my own mixture)
4tbsp apricot jam (I used some home-made plum jam)
cocoa powder, for dusting

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For the marzipan

Put the ground almonds, icing sugar, almond extract and egg white into a food processor and combine until a thick ball of dough is formed
Turn the paste out onto a work surface and knead it a few times. Roll it into a log and wrap in cling film until the cake mixture has been made
Any unused marzipan will keep for a month in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer

For the cake

Pre-heat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2. Line the base and sides of each tin with baking parchment
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy
Add one of the eggs and combine until well mixed. Add the other egg with 1 tbsp of flour and mix again
Stir in the rest of the four and all of the dried fruit
Liberally sprinkle some icing sugar on a work surface and roll out the marzipan. Cut out 8 circles about ½cm thick and the same diameter as the tins
Divide half the cake mixture between the tins and level the tops. Put a marzipan rounds on top of each and cover with the rest of the cake mixture
Bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes away clean
Allow the cakes to cool in their for 15 minutes before remove them to cool completely on a wire rack
Trim the top of each cake with a sharp knife to make them flat
Heat the jam and brush on the top of each cakes before cover each with the remaining marzipan rounds
Make 36 mini balls with the remaining marzipan. Put 9 balls around the edge of each cake, using a little brush of jam to stick them in place
Lightly sprinkle with cocoa powder

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/