Fifty years of cake!

 Almost mid-October and the evenings are drawing in so quickly...where has the year gone? I sat in our kitchen at home yesterday afternoon, thinking up the recipe for a suitably autumnal cake to post here...but my mind kept wandering as I looked out of the glazed doors that lead to the garden and watched as the first little yellow leaves from the silver birch next door swirled before they landed on the deck. Although often it's still bright and sunny, the wind carries a real chill now and the shadows fall differently in the garden...it's a time of year I adore. New beginnings, new possibilities. Abundance. Harvest. Spices. All good things.

 I devised this recipe for a Plum & Walnut Cake - at least, that's what I used here. But it is easy to adapt to what you have, or prefer. Perhaps apples and hazelnuts? Or pears and almonds? As long as the properties are the same, it should work...so do experiment.
I adore walnuts. Of all the gorgeous Sugar Moon brownies flavours,theWalnut Fudge are my absolute favourite. We make sure there are lots of them inside and out, as I can't bear alleged 'walnut cakes' that just have a measly few nuts inside them...or, worse, sprinkled only on top!

So, for this cake you'll need:

200g butter - slightly softened if possible, but don't worry too much
200g light soft brown sugar or golden caster sugar (or just regular sugar if that's all you have - the golden versions add more caramelly undertones which are delicious, but all sugars will sweeten the same!)
3 free-range eggs
100g shelled walnuts
150g self-raising flour
50g wholewheat rye flour (if you have none, don't buy it specially....make up the difference in weight with an extra 50g self-raising flour instead. I just love the nuttiness of rye, so it's lovely if you have some handy!)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground allspice (or cinnamon if you prefer)
good pinch of sea salt

About 4 firm but ripe plums, de-stoned, quartered and then very thinly sliced to make crescents
About 1 dessertspoon of unrefined demerara sugar, for sprinkling.

Grease and line a 23cm/10" cake tin (I used a loose-bottomed one for ease of removal)

Preheat oven to 175c/350f

Put all the ingredients except the plums & demerara sugar into the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth...there will, of course, be little lumps of walnut visible...but otherwise the mixture should look silky...

 ...like this!

Scrape into the prepared tin...

 ...and arrange the crescents of plum in concentric circles, filling in any gaps as artistically as you can! It's important to lay the slices on the batter, rather than pushing them in...otherwise they may sink during baking.

 Sprinkle with the demerara sugar and then bake for around 1& 1/4 hours until well risen and golden brown...you can test for doneness with a metal skewer or special cake tester if you like. There should be a few crumbs clinging to it, but no obvious 'wetness' or sign of uncooked dough.

 Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling properly....

 ...or you could, of course, serve it with cream or ice-cream for pudding while still a bit warm.

It's a delicious cake...not too sweet, a tender crumb and full of Autumn!

There's another reason I love October so much - it's my birthday month. And this year is a big one. I can hardly believe it, but I'll be 50 in a few days. I've just been going through photos on the computer, and it's a bit like whizzing through my life! Lots of fabulous memories of people and places and times...some long gone. My grandparents...my Dad....schoolfriends whose names I can't quite remember now...boyfriends...pets...houses we've lived in. Such a journey!

And now, time to reflect, to take stock and also to look ahead and make plans.

Sugar Moon will be taking a short break to celebrate and re-calibrate from Monday 17th -Sunday 23rd October. Last orders will be 10am on Friday 13th through the website and normal service will resume on Monday 24th. You can still order while the kitchen is closed - but please do be aware that no orders will be baked and sent until Monday 24th.

Here I am (on the left in the white socks and the stylish plaid mini dress) about 45 years ago playing tug-of-war with my little sister, cousins and two uncles...it's all gone so fast! Here's to the next half century!

Thanks so much for your continued support and great custom xx

Welcome to 2016!

Happy 2016! How has January been for you? We started very differently this year. Took a longish break to visit family in Australia, which was incredible. A great way to see in the New Year...hot, sunny and surrounded by amazing food. Australia has some really exciting restaurants and food destinations...fabulous produce...and influences from near-neighbours in the Far East as well as so much that is grown in the vast country itself. I always leave feeling inspired and excited to get back to the Sugar Moon kitchen for some experimentation!

One of our brilliant wholesale customers, the Egg House Butchery likes to be surprised from time to time...so we introduced this Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies to them recently and it's flying off the shelves. Full of roasted peanuts, with a peanut butter and dark chocolate chip swirl to finish, it's one that I have to bake and get OUT of the kitchen as the temptation is so great!

If you love this combination, then you can find it there currently...but for how long?! Another surprise flavour may replace it before too much time has passed....

While you are visiting this really special shop in Haddenham, pick up some of the free-range meats on offer too. I bought this beautiful spare-rib joint for a family lunch last week...

and everybody raved about it. Ricky and his team make their own amazing sausages too...with guest flavours including the really popular MyMate version (guess what they contain?!) A highly recommended 'proper' butcher...some of the guys even sport handlebar moustaches (although sadly not straw boaters yet...I wouldn't put it past them soon though!)

Another of our wholesale customers is the independent and hugely popular ice-cream/waffle & crepe land of dreams that is The Works. They make all their Italian-style ice cream on-site, as well as the waffles and crepes (sweet and savoury) of course. Their sundaes have to be seen to be believed...my 7 year old nephew's eyes were literally popping when he saw his! They are launching a new Brunch menu in early February, and Sugar Moon has developed a couple of cakes to add to their list..the first is a Sour Cream Espresso Cake...

It has a swirl of espresso & cinnamon sugar running through it....

...and is finished with chocolate espresso beans....

Just the smell wafting through our kitchen is addictive!

As for the other cake, watch this space for the recipe in the next blog post.....

Over the NewYear period, while the kitchen was closed, we took the opportunity to update our beautiful Sugar Moon website . You'll find that it's now been redesigned to be completely compatible with your phone and tablet, making ordering a much better experience. You can also now choose a guaranteed delivery date....although we still retain our non-guaranteed free postage option as well. And there will be some exciting new additions throughout the year as well.

 Don't forget that Valentine's Day is creeping up on us now too...and Sugar Moon Brownies are the perfect way to say 'I love you'...either to someone else, or to yourself!

Thanks for visiting Sugar Moon !

And the winner is...

....after a later surge of entries (thanks to all of you, I truly wish you could all have won!) I have just pulled a name from all the comments...not very scientific, I put them all into a bowl and picked one with my eyes shut! The winner of the fabulous Honey & Co - The Baking Book is:



GEORGIE!!!! Many congratulations, Georgie. I must admit that my heart did a little loop of joy when I opened the scrap of paper to find your name, as I know after recent events and traumas you are definitely due a piece of good luck! I will get it sent off to you and I really hope you enjoy it. Let us all know when it arrives!

Thanks to everyone who entered. Georgie, along with everyone else who owns this beautiful book, will now be able to recreate the cake above...which is a larger version (I doubled the quantities) of the Peach, Fennel Seed & Vanilla Mini Loaf Cakes in the book. This, along with many other delights, will be on the stall tomorrow at Aylesbury Farmer's Market. The forecast isn't great from lunchtime on, but the morning looks ok...so if you are in the vicinity, do pop down to see me and my fellow stallholders! We really love to see you! 9am - 2pm in the lower Market Square.

Hoping you have a wonderful week....x

Recipe for an August afternoon...& a giveaway!

 My newest acquisition in the vast library of cookbooks that threaten to take over our home is 'The Baking Book' from the fabulous Honey & Co . You may remember that I wrote about their first book 'Food from the Middle East'...and gave a copy away here too! Well, this one is just as good...it contains some wonderful recipes - not all sweet - and I've been having such fun with it in my (not too copious) free time! I wanted to share the cake I made yesterday with you. As usual, I tweaked the original recipe. NOT because there was anything at all wrong with it - but just because I was giving it away to my family, and I know what they like! The 'real' recipe for Coffee, Cardamom & Walnut Cake has a rich coffee cream icing as a filling and on top. Delightful as that sounds, I knew that this wouldn't go down too well with 'my lot' as they prefer things less creamy and more fruity. So I followed the recipe for the cake, but added fresh apricots and finished it simply with the syrup from the original and a sprinkle of toasted walnuts after baking. The perfect marriage of flavours for a sultry August afternoon.

The cake itself is not difficult to make and has no weird ingredients...the only technique that may be new to you is making the 'burnt butter' that adds a deep, nutty note to the batter. This isn't difficult either...you simply melt the butter over a low heat and then increase it slightly, 'cooking' the butter until it turns a rich brown. It will smell delicious...sort of caramelly & hazelnutty...and you'll notice little brown specks at the bottom of the pan. These are good! Don't leave it, though...or it WILL burn, and black is not the colour you need....
                                     
 ...it should look like the photo above, in fact! It will be really hot to start with, so it may help to make it first and then set it aside while you get the rest of the ingredients together.

Coffee, Cardamom & Walnut Cake with Fresh Apricots
Inspired by an original recipe from Itamar Srulovich & Sarit Packer from their book Honey & Co - The Baking Book 

For the cake batter:

330g icing sugar
120g ground almonds
130g self-raising flour
80g roasted walnuts (plus a few extra to garnish)
1 tsp ground coffee (I used ground espresso beans)
1/2 tsp freshly ground cardamom
3 whole eggs
150g egg whites (from about 4 eggs)
140g burnt butter (see above!)
Approx 4-5 ripe apricots 

For the syrup:
2 tbsp honey (I used runny orange flower honey)
60g/ml water
50g caster sugar
a double espresso (or 60g/ml strong black coffee)

Preheat oven to 190c/170cfan/gas mark 5
Line a 9"/23cm square pan with baking parchment (or circular if you prefer!)

Stir the dry ingredients and nuts together in a large bowl, 


then add the eggs and egg whites and mix really well until smooth (I used my Kitchenaid for this) Pour in the warm melted butter (scrape in all the nutty brown bits too!) and stir carefully, then transfer to the prepared tin...

...break the apricots apart gently using your fingers, remove the stones and arrange in rough pieces lightly over the surface of the cake batter. Don't push them down, just lay them on top...

 Let the batter rest in the tin for about 10 minutes, then bake for about 35 minutes until set and golden brown...this may take a little longer depending on your oven. Meanwhile, bring the syrup ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan and remove from the heat. Once the cake comes out of the oven, brush the top generously with the syrup while still hot and let it absorb...

 ...sprinkle with the remaining toasted walnuts and allow to cool in the tin...

...before you dive in...(although it's lovely slightly warm, too...I'd eat it like that, with a big spoonful of labneh or creme fraiche...)

 Totally divine!

To celebrate this beautiful book, I'm giving away a copy to one of you loyal readers of this blog! 

All you need to do is leave me a comment on this post to qualify. I'll send it anywhere in the world, so don't worry that you'll miss out if you don't live in the UK. I'll make the draw two weeks from today, on Monday 24th August...good luck...and thanks for reading! Have a great week x

The End of our first Sugar Moon Year - and a Giveaway for 2015!

 Christmas in the world of commercial baking needs time. Time to plan...time to bake...time to mature! These Christmas cakes were made in September...the fruit macerated in brandy, rum & port for 10 days....

 ...and after baking, were fed with more rum for the months leading up to the celebrations. The decorations were completed in late November, when many of them were sold at the last Farmer's Market of the year. Others were packaged up as gifts to be bought nearer to the time...they are all, hopefully, merely crumbs and happy memories by now! Festive brownie packaging takes a bit of thought and planning too...

 At Sugar Moon we like things to look beautiful and inviting...

 

 ...with a few quirky touches! I think we succeeded. Love these stickers from Moo, a company I highly recommend for their quality and service.

 Mince pies were baked and consumed in quantity also...we receive orders from family and friends for these, usually all delivered on Christmas Eve...so it's a hectic time. But we wouldn't want it any other way...
In early December, I went up to Nottingham with my great friend Charlie Massey (one half of the fabulous Grumpy Bakers, who bake a brilliant range of 'real' breads from their base at Twyford Community Stores near Buckingham) to the School of Artisan Food ....

 ...where we took a two-day intensive course in baking laminated breads and pastries with french master baker extraordinaire Mickael Jahan.

 Here I am, glazing some of our beauteous baguettes...

 ..and pointing out (helpfully) a special decoration!

 The sense of achievement was amazing...this is a field in which I was fairly inexperienced, although I used to bake croissants and viennoiserie many years ago...

 Michael's teaching was brilliant - and the course was great fun too....we shaped and baked all manner of breakfast goods - croissants, of course...

 danish pastries ( these were pains aux raisins mainly, but some with chocolate creme patissiere too...)

 and pains aux chocolate too. The dough needed much resting and folding and an initial overnight prove..

 But the results were stunning and definitely worth the wait!

 We also made much brioche in different forms...orange & lemon plaits...

 traditional brioche loaves...

 and some containing hazelnuts and chocolate chips, or rum-soaked fruits....

 ...these had a macaronade topping, made from ground almonds, egg white and sugar...which gives a beautiful cracked appearance and extra texture.

 We got to pack up and take home all our produce at the end, too...over 300 items managed to squeeze into Charlie's little white Skoda...

 ...the fragrance on our long drive home was fabulous!

 There are many courses available at the school...for professionals or novices...and we'd highly recommend them!

So...a new year is almost upon us. I thought you might like a beautiful cake recipe to brighten these dark winter days (or add a deeper glow to your summer ones, if you're in the southern hemisphere!)

Probably my favourite new cookbook of 2014 has been Honey & Co by Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer. I've written about it in greater depth in a previous post, but this cake is a fabulously easy and delicious one...

 In the book (and this recipe) Sarit uses only lemons...but in mine (and the pictures) I often use oranges too...or a mixture!

Saffron & Lemon Syrup Cake 

For the cake:

200g butter
270g sugar (I use golden caster)
4 eggs
200g ground almonds
a pinch of turmeric
140g semolina (I use polenta to make the cake gluten-free...either is fine!)
2 tbsp plain flour (or GF flour)
1 lemon, juice & zest
1/2 tsp baking powder (GF if applicable)

For the syrup & topping:

2 lemons, really thinly sliced
enough water to cover x 2, plus 400ml
250g caster sugar
a pinch each of turmeric & saffron (or just use turmeric if saffron is unavailable or too pricey for you)

Grease & line a 23cm cake tin with baking parchment (I use a loose-bottomed one)

Place the lemon slices for the syrup & topping in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil over a high heat.

 Drain the slices, re-cover with water and bring to the boil again. Drain for a second time (this process removes any bitterness), then cover with the 400ml water. Add the saffron, turmeric and sugar & bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 6-8 minutes until the peel is soft & the syrup has thickened.

Remove from the heat.
Use a fork to lift the lemon slices out of the syrup and layer them, just slightly overlapping, all over the base and a little up the sides of the lined baking tin....

                                     
Pour over 2 tbsp of the syrup and reserve the rest for later.

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas Mark 4

Cream the butter and sugar together (I use a stand mixer)....

 ...until they are well combined but not fluffy, as you don't want to aerate this mixture. Stir in the eggs, ground almonds and turmeric, then fold in the semolina, flour, lemon juice & zest, salt & baking powder. Mix well and scrape into the cake tin.

 Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes, then turn the cake tin round to ensure even baking and bake for a further 10-15 minutes (I find that my oven needs a little more time...up to 30 sometimes!) The cake should be golden and firm. Remove from the oven and pour over the remaining syrup to soak in. Allow to rest for 20 minutes before turning out. Place a plate over the top of the tin and invert, then gently remove the tin and paper....

 As Sarit says..."Now,turn off the lights and watch it glow...."

 Stunning! And so, to celebrate the beginning of a sparkly New Year...we're giving away a copy of this fabulous book to one lucky reader!

We'll send a copy anywhere in the world. To enter, just leave a comment on this post. That's it!
Good luck....the winning name will be drawn on January 15th.

Until then....thanks so much for reading, and for supporting Sugar Moon this year. Hoping that 2015 is filled with good things for all of us! x