Date & Prune Bars - and a timely recipe book review

A new term and a new book to try out. Actually a couple. Just before Christmas, I was sent The Cookiepedia and the Cookie Dough Lovers Cook Book. 

But before I tell you about them, I need to set the scene for today's baking session. So indulge me.

What I wanted to cook today was a cake. I hadn't quite worked it out but what was damn certain was that it was going to have bananas, peanut butter and chocolate in it. This came upon me at lunchtime as I sat there sharing what should have been my first peaceful home alone lunch of 2013 with Blue. The banana/peanut butter combo is what I like to eat when I'm feeling hungover weak, and that was how I was feeling.

I was very ready for the term to start today. I love and adore my children. They are (occasionally) fabulous, funny and engaging. However, after 2 weeks of intense (to the point of fever pitch) excitement over Christmas, culminating in an exceedingly late night on New Year's Eve, followed by a few days of boredom low key R&R as the Husband and I geared back into work last week, I couldn't wait to get them out of the door they were ready and raring to go. 

Except it never quite works out like that does it? As the result of the excesses of Christmas, Blue was suffering a 'blockage' in the bowel department, and whilst not wishing to be indelicate or reveal details in a manner that he might use in future as evidence of parental cruelty, let's say that we were at a critical and, for him, poor lamb, delicate & painful situation which meant that sending him to school this morning was not an option. The dog, on the other hand was, for reasons unknown, suffering at the other end of the spectrum - as the Husband discovered whilst creeping around early morning in the half-dark trying to get out of the house early without waking the rest of us up. Fortunately, he had his shoes on...

For me, a morning at the doctors, at the chemist and trying to work while simultaneously make sure the dog was outside as necessary and the boy was drinking at least a glass of water every hour, meant that I was definitely feeling weak by lunchtime (and not hungover, although I'd nearly reached for the gin bottle on a couple of occasions). I followed my sandwich with banana & peanut butter on toast, just to keep my strength up, you understand, and thoughts of cake flooded into my head.

Now, neither of the books I was sent contain anything like a recipe for a magic mummy rescue peanut butter, banana & chocolate cake - I have decided that I need to formulate one of those in my head if I'm going to meet the precise balance I'd require between the contingent ingredients - but I was flicking through The Cookiepedia, and lo, a recipe for Fig Bars. With thoughts, then, of the boy and his bowels in mind, I decided to selflessly set aside the calorie laden cake thoughts, and devote some time to cookies.

I really like this book. It's American and so the gripe I have about American measurements and insufficient conversion that I raised a couple of weeks ago still applies, but there is a fairly thorough conversion table in the back of this cute, little, ring-bound, hardback handbook. it still doesn't quite go the whole volume to grams thing that I'd like, but I guess you can't have everything.

The Cookiepedia is written by Stacy Adimando with lovely photos taken by Tara Striano. The tag line (if that's what it's called) is 'Mixing Baking and Reinventing The Classics', and there certainly seem to be plenty of classic cookies in here - even as someone who isn't particularly au fait with American baking: chocolate chip cookies, Linzer cookies, shortbread, oatmeal raisin cookies - nearly 50 in all. There are loads of pictures, and I love that each section (there are 6 cookie sections: Buttery, Chocolaty, Fancy, Fruity, Spicy and Nutty & Seedy) has a visual index. 

At the beginning, there's also an 'ABC of Cookie Baking' which is quite interesting to read as a Brit baker because it gives some useful ideas about how to handle the whole US cups issue, and also an insight into US cookie baking, which is not so different from UK biscuit baking, I guess, but I enjoyed reading it.

Look! A 'Notes' section! For guilt-free scribbling

Adimando writes in an informal friendly style, not at all patronising, and with bags of enthusiasm. What I also LOVE is that each recipe has a little section at the end for 'NOTES' - so unlike most of my other tomes which have scribbles all over them, which I always feel slightly guilty about, this one actually invites you to write down things, variations etc. And on the subject of variations, most of the cookies have just that - at least one, sometimes 3 or 4 alternative approaches to the extras or the toppings. Just how most of us bake - and I think this really encourages less confident bakers to be more creative.

Back then to the Fig Bars with Orange Zest. Well, as it's 'austerity January' round here, and I didn't have figs - or as it happened, oranges, after a quick rummage in my (still reasonably well-ordered cupboards) they turned out to be Date & Prune Bars with Lemon Zest. But I think Adimando would approve. I've added the UK measurements I used, checking my conversions against the recipes in Baked in America, and where I substituted ingredients, my substitutions are in italics.

Date & Prune Bars with Lemon Zest

1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (225g) light soft brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange zest grated zest of 1 lemon
2 cups (300g) plus 2 tablespoons all purpose plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda powder
1/4 tsp salt

11/4 cups dried figs approx 200g dates and prunes, chopped
1/4 cup (55g) sugar 2tbsp maple syrup

(Adimando suggests dates and the substitution of maple syrup for the sugar here so I'm not going too far from her original)

Make the cookie dough by creaming together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy, then add in the egg, vanilla and lemon zest ad mix till combined

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt then add gradually to the butter/sugar mix and beat till just combined.

Turn the dough out onto some clingfilm, flatten into a disk, wrap in the clingfilm and put in the fridge for an hour.

Make the filling by heating the chopped dried fruit, the maple syrup and 250ml of water in a small pan till it starts to boil. Reduce the heat and bubble until it starts to look 'jammy'. Set it aside to cool.


Roll half the dough out into a rectangle about 8 by 13 inches, transfer onto a piece of greaseproof paper and trim the edges to form straight lines.

Spread half the fruit mix down the middle of the dough, then fold one side over the filling, then the other side, so that it overlaps. Repeat with the second half of the dough and fruit mixture, then place both 'logs' seam side down on a lined baking tray and put in the fridge for at least 20 mins (I didn't read this bit, and they seemed to turn out OK, but I thought I'd leave the step in).

Pre-heat the oven to 375F (200C).

Bake the logs for 20 minutes or so until golden and firm, then leave to cool on a rack before slicing into 11/2 inch wide slices.

Tasty. Not too dissimilar to a mince pie type thing (and I'm thinking wicked and thigh thickening thoughts as I type about the left over brandy butter that's still in the fridge), but as they cool, I'm also wondering about making a lemon icing and drizzling it over the top too, before feeding them to the boy tomorrow if nothing has, ahem, shifted, by then - all those dates and prunes. Bound to get things moving...


And what of the other book? Well, what can I say. This Cookie Dough Lovers Cook Book is exactly that. It is basically recipes in which you make cookie dough, and then use it in other things - ice cream, brownies, waffles, crispy cakes.

Now I love cookie dough & cake batter as much as the next person with her finger in the mixing bowl, but really? We're talking recipes like Cookie Dough Billionaire Bars  - you know like Millionaire's Shortbread, but with an extra layer - of raw cookie dough - between the caramel layer and the chocolate topping. 

I couldn't go for this. I just couldn't.

The book is presented in a similar way to The Cookiepedia and from that point of view, I enjoyed it. It's attractive to look at and although i didn't make anything out of it, the instructions seem clear and easy to follow. There are invariably long ingredients lists because you are making the cookie dough in addition to whatever cake or confection you are adding it to, but that's inevitable. It's American (of course it is) and there's less in the way of a conversion guide, and introduction generally than in The Cookiepedia, but it's not pretending to be a 'how to' guide, more a show case for "...cookie dough and its many virtues: the rich buttery decadence, the gritty crunch of brown sugar, the exotic aroma of vanilla..." . I know where she's coming from, I really do, but for me it stops with a finger in the bowl, not with Cookie Dough Dessert Pizza.

So there you have it, a hit and a miss for me with these 2 books. I am sure there are people out there who will go for the Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook, but my favourite was definitely The Cookiepedia, which I know I will use again, dodgy conversion issues aside..

I'm also adding this to the Alphabakes Challenge for January 2013 hosted by Caroline Makes
and also Ros at More than the Occasional Baker because the letter this month is D so the Date and Prune bar fits in there just nicely.
 
I was not paid to write these reviews, but I was sent a copy of the books. I was not required to write a positive review and the views are my own.

Pure Vanilla by Shauna Sever - A Review

Pure Vanilla. More than just a recipe book, this celebrates the heritage and flavour of vanilla, with an interesting history of the vanilla bean from the Totonac Indians in Mexico who first discovered it to its use in the food and cosmetic industries today. It also includes a useful description of the different forms you can find vanilla in - pod, paste, extract - and 'tasting notes': I didn't know that there are different types of vanilla with different tastes and tones

I opened it up and read the introduction. I liked the style of the author, Shauna Sever, and having had a quick look at her blog, 'Piece of Cake' , I established that she was the sort of baker who would happily closet herself away with a cake and a spoon for company. In the blurb about the first actual recipe, she says "This...represents something I feel deeply about, that is to say, dessert disguised as breakfast". My kind of woman, I thought.

From breakfast (including a savoury recipe for bacon), we proceed through cake & pies and cookies & bars to candies & confections, custards & creams and finally drinks, including a vanilla mojito. I like vanilla and there are plenty of recipes that make me go "mmmm" from the title alone - Slow Cooked Vanilla Spiced Oatmeal, Cherry Vanilla Shortbread Cake Squares, Lemon Vanilla Dream bars, that mojito I mentioned - All good.

The book itself is very 'pretty' in a pale - I guess, 'vanilla' - type of way. Muted tones of cream, brown and blue. If you flick through it, there's not much that stands out to make you stick your finger in the pages and start to drool. so you do have to pay attention. There's also not as much photography as I'd like - you can go from page to tastefully designed pastel page with not so much as a doodle of a cake or a biscuit cookie. May be it's just me - but I do like to see what I'm aspiring to, but that's not the reason why I'm not leaping up and down with enthusiasm for this book.

No, not that. Here is the 'but' for me about this book: All the recipes are written in American measurements, and use the odd ingredient that doesn't fall easily into the shopping trolley in the UK. That's fair enough, the writer is American, but then the book doesn't have an easy conversion table for the measurements. Nor is there an explanation of the ingredients that might not be as familiar to the UK audience as they are in the US - such as corn syrup - and what a substitute might be. There is a conversion table in the back of the book, but it converts 'cups' and 'spoons' into a volume measurement. Call me picky, but I don't want to measure my butter in ml - I want it in grams, I'm afraid. I do have cups, but after a brief flirtation, I'm back to grams. And I have never been able to work out what a 'stick' of butter is. Even if the conversion table did the job I'd want it to do, flicking back and forward to the table is a little annoying in the first place. In Baked in America, probably my favourite American baking book so far, all the recipes have the ingredients in cups and grams, thus avoiding the need for flicking. It's a much more satisfactory way of approaching things. I'm sorry to say that this did put me off actually baking anything from the book at the weekend, when I had intended to.
 
If you can get over the recipe conversion issue - I'm sure I will at some point - and the lack of photos, it's a lovely book. There is a wealth of recipes to be explored, and fans of American baking won't be disappointed.  

If you're feeling like something a little less challenging to convert, rather than a whole cake or cookie recipe, the book has recipes to make vanilla extract and vanilla sugar, and I thought I'd share those here - they both have the potential to make good last minute Christmas presents for the foodie in your life (or, if that's you, then for your own purposes!)

Both these recipes and the photo are taken directly from the book, and I'm copying them with permission of the publisher.

Homemade Vanilla Sugar

Fill a lidded container with about 2 cups* of granulated sugar. Bury a vanilla bean** (or two, for more intense flavor), split lengthwise, in the sugar. Tighten the lid and shake the container like you’re competing in a dance contest at a dive bar. Store in a cool, dark place for 2 days and then open the container, take a deep whiff, and die a little from the glorious fragrance of homemade vanilla sugar, It’s that easy! You don’t even need a whole unscraped pod-use the empty scraped vanilla beans from recipes that call for just the caviar. Store the empty pods in the sugar; when your supply runs low, replenish by adding more fresh sugar on top.

Use vanilla sugar the same way you use the granulated stuff. It adds a bit more oomph to baked goods and is a delicious addition to coffee and tea. If you’re making vanilla-forward recipes like the ones in this book, vanilla sugar is yet another simple way to add that irresistibly ambrosial flavor.

To turn this recipe into a gift, pack the vanilla sugar in a decorative container-like a vintage Mason jar-topped with a scrap of fabric and festive ribbon. For an even fancier version, use raw turbinado*** sugar instead of granulated sugar.

Homemade Vanilla Extract
 
And it couldn’t be simpler. All you need is a clean jar or bottle with a tight-fitting lid, whole vanilla beans, and a clear neutral-tasting liquor (vodka is my top choice). For an 8-ounce**** jar, 2 split beans should do, but you can add more if you like. Let the sealed jar sit in a cool, dark place for about 2 months before using. I also add scraped seedpods to the extract jar after I’ve used them in recipes, unless they land in my container of Vanilla Sugar first. As you use the extract, top off the jar with more of the same type of liquor for a nearly never-ending supply.

Aside from being a great way to save money on a pricey ingredient, making your own extract is an excellent opportunity to use some of the more exotic flavors of whole beans in liquid form, since store-bought extracts rarely come in such varieties. Magical! You can also combine several different varieties of vanilla in one batch of extract, creating your own special blends. Few things make a more fabulous edible gift than homemade vanilla extract in a vintage bottle decorated with a darling handmade tag. Martha’s got nuthin’ on you. 

 *OK don't say I never do anything for you - 2 cups of sugar is about up to the 500ml mark on a measuring jug. **A vanilla bean is what I would call a pod, and ***'turbinado' sugar appears to be very similar to demerara, but has hints of honey****An 8ounce jar is, I believe, 250ml. 
 
I was asked to provide a review and received a copy of Pure Vanilla for the purposes of carrying out the review. I was not required to provide a positive review. The views expressed are my own

Forever Nigella - No Fuss Fruit Tart

Oh Nigella, it’s been a while.  Once again diverted by other things, a couple of Americans with a cake shop in Chiswick, a particularly good issue of the Good Food magazine...,  I’ve let your cakes and puddings fall out of my repertoire. But no more.

I am massively over-excited, and no, I haven’t been reading 50 Shades of Grey.

The exciting thing(s) that has(ve) happened is that (1) I am making a pudding to take to a BBQ tomorrow evening, (2) the Forever Nigella event this month is ‘Sizzling Summer’ and (3) I have managed to co-ordinate so that I can finally take part.

If you’ve read my blog before, you may have been aware that Nigella is where it all started for me. How to be a Domestic Goddess was myunlikely saviour in times of real crisis. I love her recipes, and her books - which are real books to read as well as great recipe books. I’ve come across the Forever Nigella event before and never managed to get myself organised enough to contribute, so I am very pleased to have got in there this month.

The July event is hosted by Amy at Cooking, Cakes andChildren for Sarah from Maison Cupcake

I know you’re all dying to know what I’m making, so hear it is: No Fuss Fruit tart from Kitchen. Kitchen has been one of my favourite Nigella books. I love Domestic Goddess and I always turn to Feast if I’m thinking of something special, but Kitchen, full of fantastic and easy family food is really a winner. However, until now, I have majored on the main courses (although I’ve made the Blondies several times - try replacing 50g of the oats with dessicated coconut), but I will be investigating the dessert sections more thoroughly in future.

I followed the recipe from the book, and you can find it on the BBC website here. This is the kind of recipe that I LOVE Nigella for – it looks amazingly fabulous, but it is just dead quick and easy, although you do need to make it at least 4 hours in advance.

The tart case is basically butter and digestive biscuits whizzed together into crumbs

and pressed into a tart tin.

The filling is a mixture of lemon curd and Philadelphia (stop drooling now) which you spread into the bottom of the biscuit case:

And you top it all off with a delightful mixture of summer fruits (I used raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries).

 Now the only question is whether it will make it till tomorrow evening.

Blueberry Crumble Cake

One of the lovely things I got for my 40^th a few weeks ago was a set of stainless steel American cup measures. Totally unnecessary, you might think – after all, I have a perfectly serviceable set of scales – but cooking with cups appeals to me, and although I have been experimenting a little just using any old cup, I was keen to own a set of ‘proper’ cups and see what the measures should be. That was 3 weeks ago. My baking since then has been limited mostly to fairy cakes for Pink’s various birthday celebrations, and another bulk lemon drizzle tray bake.

However, when I went to the Co-Op for other sundries this morning, Blueberries were on offer.  It was meant to be.

Blueberry crumble cake

This cake has been on my mind since I read the Crumbs blog post in April - which is where you will find the recipe. It keeps popping into my head, unbidden.

 “Bake me! ...Eat me!” it has whispered through the ether of the internet for the last 3 weeks.

I’m not sure if using the cup measures made any difference, and I found ¼ cup of butter slightly challenging, so I dipped into Baked in America for a quick conversion (they do all their recipes in grams, oz and cups). Other than that, the only change I made was to use sour cream instead of yoghurt – because that’s what I had in the fridge.







The recipe on the Crumbs website offered lemon glaze or just serve dusted with icing sugar.

Really? Not drizzle with lemon glaze? I don't think so...

Bad dogs and Bam Bread

So the day started badly when Fred decided to “do one” while we were on our walk, and ended up in the forbidden ponds. When he finally responded to my best “come here you bad dog” voice, he reappeared with a duck, which I had to prise from his jaws (fortunately it flew away: dead would also have been OK – I was dreading the “limping around clearly fatally injured and needing to be dealt with” option – even if it might have meant duck for tea.). To cap it all, I incurred the restrained and very British wrath (no swearing, ‘please do try to keep your dog out of ‘our woods’...)of the posh lady who lives in the beautiful house above the ponds. This is, of course, all my fault, for foolishly thinking that it would be OK to have a dog that has been bred to work, and keep it as a pet, but let’s leave the recriminations behind. Besides, I have bowed to the inevitable and dug out the number of a dog training school that I have been meaning to call for ages...

I was feeling slightly frazzled by the time I got back – bearing in mind that this was all before 9 a.m. – so it was a good job I had some Bam Bread ready and waiting for me.

This is a super delicious, and definitely healthy, loaf cake, my latest Baked in America triumph. Honestly, they’re not paying me to write this, but the book is just full of great things. (Actually, guys, if you read this, it’s my birthday next week – hint, hint...)

This particular confection ticks all my boxes: it is, as ever, easy to make, it is full of healthy things – mashed banana, apricot, nuts, All Bran – yes All Bran – I never baked with All Bran before, but I wonder why not. It got kind of crunched up so you wouldn’t know it was All Bran unless you’d actually baked the cake and added it to the mixture, and it adds a kind of nuttiness to it. I should hold up my hands and say that I quite like All Bran anyway, but if you don’t it shouldn’t put you off making the cake. Finally, it’s not too sweet. I was feeling that with some of the other cakes I have made from this book that there was perhaps a smidge too much sugar – not that it stopped me, you understand, but the feeling was there. However, this gets loads of sweetness from the apricots, and it’s lovely.

In what must be a first, I actually had ALL the necessary ingredients – no substitution required, and unlike the lemon drizzle loaf, and the oatmeal in a slice, it didn’t sink. It took quite a bit longer to bake than the specified 50-60 mins, so I ended up covering it with foil to stop it burning, but other than that it was great.

So, children dispatched with responsible teenager to the park for the morning while I work, coffee on, cake in hand – and relax. But only for a short while – school shoe shopping this afternoon. Better make sure there’s some left for the recovery from that little expedition too.

Anyone who doesn’t like peanut butter, look away now.

One of the lovely things about the holidays is that I don’t have to worry about what school requires. In particular, I get very het up (what? Me? Get het up?) about how they go about advising us that we have no idea how to feed our children. Any communication that comes out about packed lunches is aimed at the ‘lowest common denominator’. I know this, but I still feel patronised by the exhortations to try and include a piece of fruit, and not to include chocolate. I think I give my kids good lunchboxes, but I do always try and include a piece of cake or a biscuit though, because that’s just being a good mummy as far as I’m concerned. My main constraint in this department, though, is the total ban on nuts in school. I waiver between being totally understanding about this and being totally annoyed by it because my kids love nuts and they are a good source of nutrition for them. But on balance I’d prefer it if I didn’t cause another child to have anaphylactic shock, so I go with it.

All the more reason so have a nut-fest during the hols, then, and I have been itching to bake these peanut butter cookies from Baked in America for ages. No way could I have made then during term time so they could sit around in the biscuit tin, calling to me while everyone else was at school/work. They wouldn’t have sat around for long...

The cookies are very straightforward to make – cream butter, peanut butter and sugar together, eggs, vanilla extract, flour – stir in peanuts. The mixture is scrummy (always a good sign).  

I recently acquired an ice cream scoop so I felt very pleased with myself scooping out as required by the recipe – my scoop is clearly not as big as theirs, but the uncooked cookies were still massive. I don’t know how big their baking trays are but I needed 3, and made 13 cookies (13 is lucky in Italy, and in baking, don’t you know – let’s have none of that superstitious nonsense here).

The unbaked cookies need 4 hours in the fridge. Mine ended up being in there over night, and I forgot the sprinkling of granulated sugar on top before baking, but apparently no harm done. They baked to instruction (no sinking for these babies) the kitchen smelt heavenly and they are totally scrumptious.

Good job the kids are at home to race me to the biscuit tin.

Lemon drizzle and a Husband who knows what it's at...

The Husband clearly knows how things are these days. He’s made a couple of comments recently to the effect that he daren’t say ANYTHING about the food I put on the table for fear that it will be repeated for all of cyberspace to read.

However, he has clearly decided to take pre-emptive action. Today, when I popped onto Facebook for a quick lunchtime schmooze, and before I had begun to consider the angle that I might approach last night’s cake baking session, I saw that he had posted his status as follows:

“before I get too much grief for mentioning the rather dark crust on the lemon drizzle cake...I can confirm that it is delicious.”

Wise man. Not so earlier this morning – as I was standing in my PJs, not yet appropriately tea’d up and tearing my hair out, trying to stretch some fairly stale crusts of bread into 3 lunch boxes, he appeared, cast an eye over the cake and commented as indicated. Cue much unnecessary banging of cereal packets etc while he made a quick exit to let the chickens out.

‘The Cake’ is Baked in America’s Lemon Drizzle. Ignoring the fact that there’s quite a lot of ORANGE in it for a LEMON drizzle cake, I was particularly excited about the inclusion of marzipan.

The Domestic Goddess herself (I mean Nigella, not me) is partial to lemon and almond, as am I. One of my favourite pieces of cookery writing is her recipe for Damp Lemon and Almond Cake in the eponymous book, where she writes “...the citrus element, though intense, just melds with the almonds to give a slab of dense, sharp-toned meltiness... I can’t stop myself murmuring ‘raspberries’ to you, either”. It makes me shiver with delight – not only lemon and almonds, but raspberries too? Utter gorgeousness. I could go on, but back to Baked... and the Lemon Drizzle.

I suddenly realised yesterday that there was no cake in the house and this was a situation that had to be rectified IMMEDIATELY, despite the fact that it was nearly time to banish the kids to bed for the evening. I had half planned to bake this last week but ended up delaying in order to preserve my sanity and also to make sure I could eat some of it. No point baking a cake and then going away, leaving it for someone else to eat, is there?

'The Girls' - French, Saunders, Hornby, Barbie and Pepper

As a result, I knew I had lemons and oranges;  I also knew I had some marzipan stashed away (yes, ok, so WHAT if it was left over from Christmas, I tried it, a couple of times – just to make sure, you understand, and it was fine. More than fine) so I didn’t have to bother myself with making my own ‘almond paste’ as recommended. Sometimes life is too short. I also had plenty of eggs (the recipe requires 5) thanks to the girls’ labours and granulated sugar which I had specifically bought last week, for the purposes of making this cake. I wouldn’t normally have bothered, but in the absence of homemade almond paste, I thought I might as well make the effort – and they are pretty insistent in the recipe that it has to be granulated, in order to make the appropriately crunchy topping.

In an extraordinary display of culinary generosity, I let Pink help me. She is, in fact very good at cracking eggs and keeping an eye on the Kenwood, so she was fairly much an asset, despite the fact that I caught her surreptitiously scraping at the butter. There’s a bit of faff grating lemon and orange peel, but basically, another straightforward loaf cake, so thumbs up on that front. Less satisfying is the fact that although my loaf tin SAYS it’s big enough, actually it wasn’t. Fortunately I’d put a baking tray in the oven on the shelf below, so the spillage was contained, but next time, I will rethink. Actually, next time, I will probably make it in a wider square tin and make a slightly shallower cake – see what happens then. Because my lovely loaf sank in the middle again. And I may have slightly over-cooked it. This leads me to conclude that I may in fact need to invest in an oven thermometer. But I will try a different tin a perhaps a shorter cooking time next.

cooled; crunchy sugar topping...

That said, once drizzled with the lemon/orange juice and sugar at the appointed time, and left to cool, the cake sat in all its gloriousness waiting to be tasted. After the Husband’s remark, I decided that it was only appropriate that I should have a little teeny slice just then. Heavenly. The marzipan (sorry, ‘almond paste’) is genius, and it works well with the orange, I think, but I will be tempted to do it all lemon next time. Watch this space.

Let's ignore the 'slightly darker than normal' crust and marvel at the wondrous middle, shall we?

How baking cake can defeat maternal guilt

Wednesday seems to be turning into baking day in my life. The bread I’ve baked at the weekend usually runs out around now and so if the oven’s going to be on for bread purposes, I can use it as an excuse to save the environment and bake some cake.

I had rather over-ambitiously intended to bake not one but 2 today, to see us well in to next week. My plan was to bake the NYC crumb cake AND the lemon drizzle cake from Baked in America, and freeze at least half of each in lunchbox portions. Partly I couldn’t choose between which cake to bake, and partly I wanted to give myself a bit of a head start on next week because – oh, did I mention? I’m going to Venice for the weekend. Yes, that’s right. VENICE!! Just me and the Husband. I LOVE being nearly 40...

So, seeing as how I’m GOING TO VENICE for the weekend, I thought that if I could get ahead it would make the morning drudgery of the school lunch boxes next week easier. And also, by leaving behind oodles of cake – and a choice of cake no less - it would perhaps soothe the inevitable guilt I feel about leaving the children. Oh yes, I can look past the fact that they are excited beyond belief about another weekend in the charge of Allotment Junkie, the fact that the Husband and I have hardly seen each other for the last few weeks (since half term, in fact) in a  blur of trans-Atlantic junketing (him), Scout meetings (him), book club (me), blogging (me) and general life stuff, and the fact that, dammit all this is my longed for trip to Venice, the birthday treat to end all birthday treats – and feel the weight of maternal guilt. But I’ll do my best to throw it off, I promise...

Where was I anyway? Oh yes. The best place to be. Baking cake. In the end, I saw sense and what with bread, and supper, I decided to just make one cake. The Lemon Drizzle actually looks like something rather special, so I’m going to save that for next week (once I’ve recovered from my weekend. Did I mention I was going to Venice?), so NYC crumb cake it was.

A little fiddly this one – I fear I may have over mixed my crumbs, and there seemed to be an awful lot of butter and sugar disappearing in to it, but who am I to argue, especially when it turn out like this.

Beautifully plain cake, with a scrummy crunchy, thick, cinnamon-sugar crumb layer on top. I have to say I will cut it in to a lot more than 12 pieces, but it really is gorgeous, and none the worse for the fact that the required amount of sour cream turned out to be mostly sour cream topped up with basically all my left over yoghurt (some Greek, some plain and a little vanilla – I reduced the amount of vanilla extract accordingly) and a dollop of crème fraiche.

So I have enough cake in the house to feel that I can leave the children for the weekend, and the smell of the cinnamon topping is lingering delightfully in my kitchen.

Even if I wasn’t going to Venice for the weekend, I’d be a happy woman!

The dog made me do it. Honest. If he hadn’t needed a walk in the rain, I wouldn’t have slipped over in the mud and started to feel old and sorry for myself as well as slightly ‘jaded’ after the over-ambitious consumption (i.e. 3 glasses) of white wine last night.

And if he hadn’t needed a walk as soon as we got back from the kids’ swimming lessons, I might have remembered to take some bread out of the freezer so it would have defrosted in time for lunch. But we got in from the pool, and he looked at me with those big, beseeching, spaniel eyes, and I felt mean for not having got up at 6.30 when it was pouring with rain to take him out before we went swimming. How could I have laid in bed for a whole extra hour when I could have been stomping across the fields with the rain dripping down my neck while he chased pheasant, impervious to the conditions. How selfish could I have been?

In fact, when I did take him out and then came a cropper sliding down a bank and landing on my posterior, did he come and check out what had happened to his mistress? Oh no, no loyal rescue dog he. I clocked him clocking me as I was trying to recover my dignity, taking stock of the situation, and taking the opportunity to leg it for further pheasant follies while I was incapacitated and unable to yell at him to come back. But that’s springers for you.

So feeling in need of comfort, and breadless apart from some drying crusts in the bread bin, I had to make some soda bread (for ‘had’ to, read “used it as an excuse to have a go at the River Cottage Bread Handbook’s version of soda bread”). And if the oven hadn’t been on, I probably wouldn’t have forced myself to do something useful with all that electricity and the extra space in the oven and bake this latest deliciousness that is Baked in America’s Date and Walnut loaf.

I would say that this is the best yet that I’ve baked from this book. I had nearly all the ingredients this time which probably helped, although I had to use half wholemeal plain flour because I didn’t have enough ordinary plain, but I don’t think that’s really made a difference. The recipe uses cream cheese and soft dark brown sugar so it’s beautifully fudgy, and the dates and walnuts managed to distribute themselves throughout the loaf rather than all congregating at the bottom.

The write up in the book refers to it as a favourite after school treat, and I can see why. Just had a slice with a lovely cup of tea. Saturday afternoon heaven.

And I only had the best interests of the environment at heart – “Save electricity – bake more cake”. I think it could catch on.

My top 5 cookbooks - on Friday 16th March 2012 at precisely 22.43

MMMMM a list of my top 5 cook books. Having survived the school discos, (well, 1.5 of them – Blue had to leave half way through the KS2 event due to being over-sweeted, and “...well, it’s been a hard week, Mummy, Friday night, you know...” and half way down a bottle of wine, I thought I couldn’t resist my first linky blog hop...

(1)    How to be a Domestic Goddess

Where Recipe Junkie began: Blue was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was just over 2. I was 6 months pregnant with Pink.  As quick as you could say ‘blood test’, life as we knew it was over. In an attempt to gain a very tiny bit of control back over my life, I began to work my way through Domestic Goddess. I still haven’t baked everything, but I’m working on it.

(2)    Still on the Nigella theme, Kitchen

The woman may be a little annoying occasionally on TV these days, but she knows how to dish up the crowd pleasers. African drumsticks... spaghetti with marmite...South Indian Vegetable curry... not to mention her blondies. I will be cooking out of Kitchen for a long time to come.

3)    Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook

Despite the fact that I have neither a velvet Boden coat to do my gardening in, nor a close personal friendship with Emma Bridgewater, I find that when I am stuck with a glut and looking for inspiration, I will usually find it in here

(4)    River Cottage Veg Everyday/River Cottage Everyday

       Am I allowed to have 2 books as one choice? To be honest, I’d have any of Hugh's books but these 2 in particular have done a huge amount to change the way I cook lately. I’ve totally bought in to the ‘reduce your meat consumption’ ideal, and am having a massive amount of success. Who’d of thought my kids would actually request something like swede and potato pasties....

(5)    Baked in America

I’m so fickle. A couple of months ago it would have been ‘Short and Sweet’ by Dan Lepard, but I had a bad experience with the passion fruit melting moments and my current cake porn is Baked in America. I got a signed copy as an early birthday present, and so far it’s been nothing but deliciousness. Cinammon Loaf anyone? Oh yes please...

I could go on all night... but there are many more cookbooks out there and many more lists. Check out Kate’s blog . Thank you and goodnight.