Wholewheat Banana Nut Loaf

It has been a busy few weeks in the Little Birdie household. We moved three weeks ago and have been without the Internet until today. Upon moving in, we found the oven in our new house was possibly the worst oven in existence! A horrible, electric thing which took forever to cook anything and if it was cooked the bottom was burnt. Luckily Mr Birdie managed to find us a shiny new one for £50 (thanks to the wonders of Ebay!) My Dad visited us last weekend to help us tackle the garden (thanks Dad!) so I whipped up a banoffee pie last weekend but this cake is the first proper cake I have made in our new home. Hopefully many more baking adventures will follow.

I used to make this cake a lot a few years ago as it is super easy to make and a great way to use up ripe bananas. It doesn't look that amazing from the outside but it's what inside that counts. It is always well received (as proved today by the speed at which is disappeared in the staffroom at school) and it has never failed to produce a moist, banana-ery loaf that surely must be good for you as it contains fruit, nuts and wholemeal flour! The recipe is from Best Ever Baking by Carole Clements.

Ingredients:

115g butter (at room temperature)
115g caster sugar
2 eggs (at room temperature)
115g plain flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
55g wholemeal flour
3 large ripe bananas
1tsp vanilla extract
55g walnuts (chopped)

Method:
1) Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 9 x 5 in loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
2) With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4) Sift the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cinnamon over the butter mixture and stir to blend.

5) Stir in the wholemeal flour.

6) With a fork, mash the banana to a purée, then stir into the mixture. Stir in the vanilla and nuts.

7) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and spread level.

8) Bake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (50-60 minutes). Let the cake stand for 10 minutes before transferring to a rack.

Happy baking!
Dil :-)

Blackberry and apple crumble

Autumn has well and truly arrived. The weather on Sunday was horrible and it was decided in the Little Birdie household that it was most definitely crumble weather.

It was a proud day as it was the first time we picked apples from our apple tree to use in the crumble. It has been in the garden for just over a year and was only a cheap tree from Aldi so we have been impressed that anything has grown. The blackberries were also freshly picked from just behind our house so the filling came from less than 20 metres from our kitchen - an impressive feat!  We are disappointed that we will have to leave it when we move house this week.

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe from his 'The Naked Chef' book. It is my go to crumble recipe that always goes down well. You can use any fruit or combination of fruit that you want. Apples, pears, berries, plums, peaches, rhubarb - the possibilities are endless. 

Ingredients:

Crumble

225g plain flour

115g butter

90g sugar

pinch of salt ( I quite often forget this!)

Fruit

455g fruit (washed and prepared)

3 tablespoons sugar

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Put the crumble ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs (You can do this by hand - just rub the mixture between your hands). 

2) Put the fruit into a shallow ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar. 

3) Spread the crumble mixture over the prepared fruit and give the dish a shake. 

4) Bake in the oven for about half an hour or until the top is evenly golden. (If it starts to go darker around the edge, turn the oven down a little.

5) Enjoy! (With cream, custard or ice cream - mmmm!) 

Mixed Berry Plaited Pie

I will start today's post with a confession. I am a hoarder. I find it difficult to throw things away. In the process of moving I have had to address this (well I like to think I have addressed it!) Whilst packing I have had to sort through many food magazines. At various points over the last few years I have had subscriptions to Delicious, Good Food and Olive and had kept them all. My husband was not going to let me pack up and move boxes of magazines but I didn't want to throw them away. The solution to my reluctance to throw these away - to rip out all the recipes I liked the look of or thought I might like to make one day in the future. I now have a lever arch folder fit to burst with recipes. It was when I was ripping and filing that I spotted this recipe. I am a bit obsessed with blackberry recipes at the moment and this not only contained blackberries but also looked pretty impressive.

This is an Olive recipe that you can find on the BBC Good Food website here. It is a cross between a pie (it has a pastry base and pastry twists on top) and a cake. It is very easy to prepare as you make both the base and filling in a food processor (I didn't even bother washing it out!)

Ingredients:

100g butter (softened)
2 tablespoons golden caster sugar (plus extra for dusting)
200g plain flour
1 egg (beaten)
1 x 375g pack ready-rolled shortcrust pastry
plain flour (for dusting)

Filling:
150g butter (softened)
150g golden caster sugar
50g ground almonds
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
250g mixed berries (I used raspberries, blueberries and blackberries)

Method:
1) Heat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line the base of a brownie tin approximately 20cm x 30cm (I used a roasting tin slightly larger than this and it was fine). In a food processor whizz together the butter, sugar and flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the egg and whizz until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

Tip into the tin and press firmly to make an even layer (I struggled at this point - so much so my husband said I would never survive on the Great British Bake Off! It was difficult to press the pastry so I had to take the paper out of the tin and roll the pastry using a rolling pin to roughly the right size before putting the paper back in the tin.)

Chill the pastry base while you make the filling.
2)  Whizz the butter and sugar in a food processor until combined.

Add the ground almonds, eggs and flour until smooth. Pour over the base and spread with the back of a spoon.
3) Scatter over the mixed berries to cover the top.

4) On a lightly dusted surface unroll the pastry and cut into 18 lengths (short strips rather than long).

Arrange half, spaced out on top of the fruit, twisting each strand on the diagonal. Then repeat with the remaining lengths but in the opposite direction. Trim the overhanging pastry. Sprinkle with extra sugar, about 2 tablespoons.

5) Bake for 40 minutes until light golden. Cool a little before removing from the tin. Serve warm.

White chocolate and raspberry melting cake

This cake was meant to be an entry for a John Whaite Book Club competition (and also dessert for a gathering with some of my teacher friends) but as you will discover if you read on, it ended up in no fit state to be photographed...

There were many lessons I learnt when making this cake...
1) Always use the correct size cake tins - if it says 20cm it means 20cm! Sadly I don't own any 20cm tins. I own 18.5cm tins and 23cm tins. I opted for the 23cm tins thinking this would be better but sadly not! I ended up with large almost flat sponges.
2) Check your self-raising flour is in date Mine was best before June which I think may have contributed towards my flat sponges.
3) If it says the ganache filling will take a long time to thicken it means it will take a long time to thicken.
4) If your judgement is telling you not to try to assemble the cake don't do it! I thought about taking the sponges and ganache separately and assembling it when needed but stupidly thought it would be ok. It wasn't - the ganache wasn't thick enough and spilled out everywhere. The cake started to slip and slide around in my car and due to some unexpected breaking ended up in pieces. It was essentially a cake jigsaw puzzle that I had to arrange into something resembling a cake when I arrived at my friends house. Luckily I have some lovely friends who said it still looked delicious :-)

I wasn't going to post this but actually it was a big hit and when it was sliced into pieces it didn't actually look too bad (if you looked at it in a creative way!) and a blog post was requested by my friends. Sadly I only had my phone with me so the pictures of the end result aren't great. If you are brave enough to attempt this (and not as silly as me and don't make the same mistakes I did) you can find the recipe here on John Whaite's Facebook page.

Ingredients

For the sponge
200g unsalted butter (At room temperature, cut into cubes)
100g white chocolate (Broken into pieces)
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
175g fresh raspberries
Icing sugar (For dusting)

For the ganache filling 
200g white chocolate (Broken into pieces)
250ml double cream

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease and base-line two 20cm (8in) round loose-bottomed cake tins.
2) Put the butter and chocolate in a large heatproof mixing bowl above a pan of barely simemring water and allow them to melt and meld together slowly, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool for a minute or so (the mixture will look a bit strange as the second photo shows but don't worry).

3) When the melted butter and chocolate have cooled, add the eggs and sugar and beat with an electric mixer until you have a smooth and consistent batter (This takes a minute or two. To begin with you will think it is never going to create a smooth batter but have faith - it will come together!) Sift the flour over the bowl and fold that in, along with the fresh raspberries.

4) Gently pour into the prepared cake tins, dividing equally between them.
5) Bake for 20-25 minutes (or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean). Remember to switch the tins halfway through baking if you are not baking them on the same shelf. Allow to cool completely.

6) To make the ganache, put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl with 100ml of the cream. Set over a pan of barely simmering water and stir until the chocolate has melted into the cream and you are left with a smooth, glossy ganache. Leave to cool to room temperature, then beat in the rest of the cream. It takes a long time for the ganache to cool and thicken, so you will need to be patient! (Something like several hours...)

7) When the cakes have cooled, sandwich them together - the lower one base-side down, the upper one inverted, so that you have a smooth top and bottom - with the white chocolate ganache. Dust with icing sugar, just before serving. 

Happy baking (and good luck!)

Double Chocolate Shortbreads

Now these are supposedly meant to be shortbreads...however I would disagree. The texture is more of a crumbly biscuit rather than a buttery, moreish shortbread. They are perfectly tasty (although perhaps lacking in depth of flavour) and the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee while catching up with a friend (as I discovered today when I managed to scoff three of them - oops!) but do not embark upon making them thinking that you will create traditional shortbread.

I made these as I was visiting one of my friends who is allergic to egg - shortbread seemed to be the perfect option. I considered lemon, chocolate chip and espresso choc chip but found this BBC Good Food recipe which seemed easy enough to whip up quickly this morning. I managed to make 20 biscuits from the mixture.

Ingredients

175g butter (softened)
85g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
100g chocolate chips (milk or dark - I used 100g of dark chocolate that I chopped into small bits)

Method
1) Mix the butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon. Stir in the flour and cocoa, followed by the chocolate chips (you might need to mix it together with your hands at this stage - I didn't).

2) Halve the dough and roll each piece into a log about 5cm thick. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1 hour or for several days (It can be frozen for up to 1 month).

3) Heat the oven to 180C/160C/Gas 4. Slice the logs into 1cm-thick rounds, transfer to a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on the tray.

Happy baking!

Chocolate brownie meringue cake

Today was a special day. You might have seen 'The Big Reunion' on the TV (lots of pop bands from the late nineties and early noughties reuniting) - well today was the proper big reunion. It is ten years this summer since I and my very special friends graduated from university. In honour of this special occasion we had a get together to reminisce, laugh over photos (what were we wearing?!?) and partake in a game of petanque. I of course offered to make dessert. I'd had my eye on this recipe for a while and recently had a similar cake at 'The Tenth Hole Tea Rooms' in Southsea (they are legendary in Hampshire for their amazing cakes!) so decided now was the time. I am now a little bit obsessed with the idea of making meringue cakes and have my eye on a Nigella Lawson lemon meringue cake, a BBC Good Food blackberry and almond meringue cake and a mocha meringue cake I have found on a blog. Oh the possibilities!

As you will see from the photos I have yet again failed in my attempts to make a meringue that does not crack! I am obviously just doomed. However despite appearances the cake went down well. It is a Miranda Gore-Brown recipe from the Great British Bake Off. You can find it on lots of different websites but I used the version from the BBC website that you can find here. It is very tricky to slice and serve and does not look pretty but makes up for it in taste. The combination of meringue and brownie works well and the raspberry cream adds some freshness. There was a debate over the hazelnuts in the meringue but the end decision was that they add texture. The recipe is meant to use two 23cm sandwich tins which I don't possess so I used springform tins instead which still works.

Ingredients:
For the brownie base
200g good-quality dark chocolate (roughly chopped)
200g unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)
250g icing sugar
3 eggs
110g plain flour

For the meringue topping
4 egg whites
200g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
100g hazelnuts (roasted and chopped)

For the filling
300ml whipping cream
100g icing sugar
200g raspberries

Method:
1) Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line two 23cm sandwich tins.
2) For the brownie base, melt 180g of the chocolate in a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Chop the remaining chocolate and set aside.

Melt 180g of chocolate 

Roughly chop the remaining chocolate

3) Meanwhile, cream the butter and icing sugar together in a separate bowl until light, creamy and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined (the mixture will look a little bit odd at this point but don't worry!)

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and creamy

Add the eggs one at a time

4) Gradually beat in the flour until the mixture is very smooth. Slowly pour in the melted chocolate and fold it into the mixture, then fold in the chopped chocolate.

5) Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared sandwich tins and bake for 10-12 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

6) Meanwhile for the meringue topping, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed (I think I probably stopped whisking a little bit too early and should have carried on a little longer). Slowly which the sugar until smooth and glossy, then fold in the chopped hazelnuts with a metal spoon.

7) Spoon the meringue topping onto the cooked brownie base. Use a palette knife to smooth the meringue mixture in one sandwich tin and use a skewer to make peaks in the meringue mixture in the other tin (I failed here as I don't think I whisked my meringue enough for the peaks to hold).

8) Return the sandwich tins to the overn for a further 30 minutes, or until the meringue is golden-brown (I check mine just after 20 minutes and they were ready then.) Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Carefully remove the cakes from the tin and set aside to cool completely on a wire rack.
9) For the filling, whip the cream and icing sugar together in a bowl until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed (again I think I failed in my whisking here!) Fold in the raspberries.

Whisk the cream and icing sugar until stiff peaks form

10) To assemble, place the flat meringue brownie, meringue-side down onto a cake stand or large plate, spoon over the raspberry cream and top with the remaining cake, brownie-side down (this is tricky - this is where my cracking took place). As an optional extra you can sprinkle over chopped hazelnuts and pistachios.

Happy baking!