New books, new cakes...& an old favourite too!

I baked this good old Coffee & Walnut Cake last week...baking usually cheers me up no end...but I  was feeling especially blue. You can read why here, on my other blog...

As most women will agree, a little retail therapy in these situations works wonders. But I'm not really a shoe-&-handbag type of gal. It's cookbooks that do it for me...and I succumbed to a bit of an indulgent splurge!

Dan Lepard is a bit of a star in the food writing world, & my kind of baker. Innovative and verging on the healthy, his recipes are inspirational. I made the delightfully named Marrakesh Express loaf cake (although I called it Middle Eastern Date Cake for The Coffee Tree...and mine wasn't a loaf cake!) which tasted absolutely gorgeous...and also created these Sour Cream Cupcakes with Banana Caramel -

which were received very well and are a hybrid of several different recipes in the book! I shall be using 'Short & Sweet' a lot!
Jamie is Jamie...a national (& becoming international) institution. He writes a book, I buy it. I always will. Love him!
Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey (not absolutely enthralled by the title...) by Jill O' Connor jumped out at me, partly because it's published by one of my very favourite US publishers, Chronicle Books (their publications are just so beautiful...) and the recipes are really good and interesting too. I made (but forgot to photograph, doh) the Chewy Lemon-Pistachio Financiers last week...gorgeous! Another one I'll be using a lot, I know.
Australian Women's Weekly (confusingly published monthly...!) is to Australia what Good Housekeeping is here in the UK. You know that the recipes will work as they're all triple-tested and totally reliable. And this book, The Cake Stall, has some great ideas...it also looks beautiful and is no-nonesense, which can be really useful when I just need a quick jolt of inspiration for the next day.
So, that was my cheer-up...and it worked!
I produced these creations of my own too...

Blackberry, Apple & Cinnamon Muffins....perfect for the autumn weather we're now having...and a new recipe I devised for my forthcoming baking book (I don't talk a lot about it - too scared! - but it's on it's way...more soon!)

Fresh Rhubarb Macaroon Cake...with a chewy toasty top. Delish!
Now time to plan next week's orders...
I hope you're having a wonderful weekend....x

A week of cake.....

Such a busy week...the last before the schools go back, and I think it could be that parents are taking their children out for last treats and stopping for coffee & cake during 'back to school' shopping trips. Whatever it is, a lot of cake was made (and eaten!) in the past few days...
First, this coconut cake. A white and beautiful thing, made with real coconut milk and frosted with a coconut cream icing and shredded strands of sweetened coconut too...

It always sells very well....

as does this, milk chocolate Flake Cake! It was very early morning when I took this picture, hence the flash...

and these were delivered the same morning...Toasted Hazelnut & Blackberry Swirl Muffins. Hazelnuts seem to divide people...I'm not sure why, but sometimes they sell really well and sometimes not. As they are one of my favourite nuts, I don't really understand this - but it's the way it is, so I've given up trying to analyse too much!

These were little Banana Loaf Cakes, iced with passionfruit....a delightful little hit of tropical sweetness in the last few grey days of August!

My favourite of the week was probably this Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake. I left out the 'Coffee' bit on the label, though. In the US, it means a cake to accompany coffee...in the UK, it means that it contains coffee. And this one doesn't, but as I prefer a plainer cake this would be perfect for me!

Thursday was the first day of September...to celebrate I made this Apple, Walnut & Raisin Cake with Maple Frosting. Of course, it turned out to be the warmest day for weeks, so it wasn't very seasonal in the end! But I still think it was a good way to welcome the new season!

This one I was particularly proud of....golden Butter Cake with a fresh Raspberry Buttercream. I had to note on the label that no artificial colouring was used - the pink was so bright! But it really did all come from lots & lots of fresh raspberries...

Pretty!

Finally, a personal one....it was my darling Mum's birthday on Tuesday and I went over to the farm in the afternoon to join my sister and nephew in a small tea party for her. Of course,I took a cake! She, like me, prefers a plainer cake with no creamy frosting - she also has a wheat intolerance. So I made a very zesty Gluten-Free Lemon Drizzle Cake, drenched in zippy syrup and sprinkled with edible glitter. I finished it with a nasturtium flower...a particularly beautiful one freshly picked from my garden.
But  that wasn't enough - there had to be candles. As she is an - ahem - mature lady, I thought my choice particularly appropriate...

And it made her laugh, which is the most important thing!

I hope you've had a good  week too....it's raining softly as I write, but still very warm. I'm planning what to bake for Monday now...my mind buzzing as always. I'll let you know what emerges from the oven!

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post - still plenty of time to enter my Roald Dahl giveaway if you haven't already. I'll count any new commenters on this post too. xoxo

Presents from a friend...

There are many bad people in this world...the events of this week have highlighted that yet again...and it's a depressing thought, of course. BUT I'm so happy that there are many, many more good, kind and generous souls around!

A  few weeks ago I mentioned that in the UK we don't have flaked, sweetened coconut. The moist & delicious kind. We get desiccated coconut...shaved, dried coconut...and of course we can buy fresh ones, milk & cream. But I love the strands of white deliciousness that are so great to bake with, and I find mentioned so often in my American recipe books. I always bring some back from my trips to Australia...but it never lasts long.

So how thrilled and touched I was to receive in the mail this week four - yes, FOUR! - packs of gorgeous flaked coconut from my dear Canadian friend Rosinda . She's just started a beautiful new food & family blog...you can go to it by clicking on her name & I'd highly recommend it. Anyway, I was so delighted by her kindness that I decided to create a new bar for the Coffee Tree in her honour. You can see it above - and it'll be in my book too! I've called it a 'Double A Bar' as she has two beautiful young daughters whose names both start with an 'A'! The bar is chewy, coconutty, oaty with a touch of lemon...there's a filling of lemon curd...and a lemon frosting with more coconut pressed into the top. Beautiful! Just like the thought.

Two were sold before I even left the shop after delivering yesterday...a new classic?

Thanks again Rosinda....xo

Happy weekend everyone...it's going to be a hot one here...xx

The weekend arrives...

and with it comes my last Coffee Tree delivery of the week...beginning with these Corn & Cheddar Muffins. I love savoury muffins, still warm and crusted with cheese...but I'm not sure how they'll go down with the customers. We British are a funny race. Muffins = Sweet. So, I caught them out...I called them Popovers! Now, for my American readers...I know that these aren't popovers at all. But as we don't have those here, I thought it a suitably flabbergasting word to describe these without using the 'M' word! I hope that it worked, because I was really pleased with the way they turned out...

I used both corn kernels and polenta/cornmeal...plus LOTS of extra matured, sharp cheddar. Yum.

Next were these Toffee Bars.Another recipe from my new Fat Witch Bakery cookbook. Again, I twiddled the recipe...this time doubling the topping ingredients as I didn't think that the brown sugar cream layer would be deep enough. I'm glad I did. I sprinkled with powdered sugar too for added contrast...
And lastly, I made a Coconut Cake with Passionfruit Glaze...

The cake is 1 and 1/2 times the recipe for Coconut Tea Cake from the wonderful Dorie Greenspan's book 'Baking -from my home to yours' which has given me so much inspiration that I should hate to be without it! It's a beautiful white and intensely coconutty cake which doesn't need filling (I think this would detract from it's subtle flavour) but I like to make a glaze from powdered sugar and fresh passionfruit pulp as I think it sets the tropical themes off nicely and gives a beautifully fragrant 'tang' too.

It does drip a little down the sides...but that's part of it's authentic homemade charm (as I like to tell myself!)

I'd love to share a slice with you now, over a cup of hot Earl Grey tea. You'd be so welcome in my cosy kitchen this blustery but fairly warm afternoon!

Enjoy your weekend xo

Cakes, Bakes & new Brownies for a friend...

A friend of mine has an exciting new venture on the near horizon...and I wanted to create a new brownie to wish him good luck and offer some sweet respite from the stress and confusion that always abound when a big creative project is coming together. These were what I came up with....TA DA! Toasted Pecan Salted Caramel Brownies....luckily, they're also quite beautifully photogenic...

they were packed absolutely full with chocolate chunks and pecans...but I think that too much is never enough, which is why I added the extra dimension of the salted caramel, one of my current favourite, favourite ingredients.
I wrapped them in black tissue, in a glossy black box tied with satin ribbon (my friend is very chic!) and they were well received and very much enjoyed...which was really the point! I'll squeeze the recipe into the book (120 and counting now...maybe 2 books is more sensible!) Very proud of them.

Back to the Coffee Tree...and I also made a new creation for them on Saturday. Based on a Dream Bar, but with added coconut, dried cranberries for some sourness...I can never leave things alone!

This is the tray before cutting...

and here's a slice in closeup. I wanted to have crispness mixed with chew, which I think was achieved. Very sweet, which made them perfect with a cup of strong coffee...anyway, they sold out so mission accomplished!

And this morning, I made Seville Orange & Almond Tarts...a sweet, shortcrust pastry tartlet with a layer of thick cute homemade marmalade (from a jar our friend Steve made last year...dark, bitter, perfect!) all topped with an almond frangipane to which I added some seville orange zest.

there's Steve's marmalade in the background too!

I made an extra one so I could show you inside...and as I'm a complete pushover for anything almond-y, I had to eat it later! Lovely, especially a little bit warm...

I've decided not to afflict a daily post on you...except sometimes...I read a very good article which said that one can blog too frequently & put people off! I'd hate to do that, so I thought I'd make it every couple of days instead...I wouldn't want you to get sick of me. But I'll still take the pictures daily so that I can post the deliveries then....

I'll leave you with a last picture of those brownies...I feel like a new mother!

Thanks so much for reading...have a great day xo

Citrus Celebration

In this, the coldest season of the year, it's fairly hard to find inexpensive and plentiful fruit. Bananas. Pineapples. Actually, anything tropical is good. And the citrus fruits are at their peak now...just what's required for a zingy, zesty tang to cut through the murk & gloom of January!

That's why these were perfect for today. Lemon Passionfruit Bars.

The base was a biscuit one (crushed graham crackers) with added coconut....then I made a thick, buttery, voluptuous fresh lemon & lime curd and added the ripe pulp from 3 passionfruit...a quick blast in a low oven just to set the filling to a gentle wobble...

a sprinkle of sweet, flaked coconut and then a night in the fridge to set and mingle the flavours.
This morning, I cut them into 16 bars. I kept 2, cut into miniatures....to keep in the fridge, tightly wrapped, for when we need a quick hit of sunshine!
But the rest I delivered to The Coffee Tree. Fairly simple to make, sparkling fresh. Tastes like Spring is on the way...and with the beautiful, clear sunny day we had, it feels like it too!

Happy Tuesday xoxo

One of those nights...

Last night, I went to bed at a reasonable hour. My body was tired, but my brain was still buzzing....I'm writing a lot at the moment and I find it so hard to switch off the flow of ideas and words. As the church clock struck midnight, I gave up & came downstairs for a hot cup of Earl Grey tea. Still no luck. So I decided to be productive and bake The Coffee Tree's morning order while I waited!

It was time well spent, as it meant that I could do something a little more involved than the recipe I'd originally planned, as there was plenty of time for it to cool and settle down (I find that everything except muffins, scones & other breakfast breads needs a 'settling' period!)

Even at 2.30am, this White Coconut Cake with Fresh Lime Coconut Cream Frosting smelt very good....it's a close textured and very (hated word) moist cake that keeps well as long as it's well wrapped or stored in an airtight tin.

I kept a small slice back (they only request 9 portions of everything - I gave them 11, so I figured it was ok!) and have just eaten it after a long, cold, blustery walk across the hills with Alice...it was, though I say so myself, totally delicious!
But tonight, I think I'll sleep instead and save the baking for the morning! I was thankful to my sweet Twitter friend, Rosinda, for keeping me company last night while I waited for the cake to cook...it can feel very lonely & dark in the wee small hours, but I had her cheerful words for company & knowing she was out there really helped!

Wishing you a wonderful Monday....and a very good and restful night's sleep! xo