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

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

A treat for the last day of August....

 August 31st. Already. HOW did we get here so soon?! It's been a golden day....not hot, but warm with the leaves on the ripening tomatoes beginning to yellow and the other plants starting to look a little tired. I found these very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. They spoke to me...and the words they said were 'banana bread'! How could I resist? I made 2 big loaves, but the recipe below has been written for 1...feel free to double up and freeze one, or - as I am doing - give one away to a neighbour!

Sugar Moon Banana Bread - loosely based on a recipe by the inspirational Ina Garten

3 large very ripe bananas
250g/2 cups rye flour (I devised this recipe for my Mum, who is wheat-intolerant although not coeliac. If you prefer, you can use spelt, wholewheat or simply plain white flour. I just love the taste of rye!)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Big pinch of sea salt
50g/ 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional but lovely, I think!)
150g/ 1 & 1/2 cups light soft brown sugar - muscovado if possible
2 large free-range eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla powder or good vanilla extract
120ml/ 1/2 cup sunflower oil
120ml/ 1/2 cup full-fat Greek yoghurt....you could also use sour cream or creme fraiche of that's what you have...but don't use low-fat anything!

Preheat oven to 175c/350f
Line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment or a liner...

 ...comme ca!

 This is the rye flour I use, by the way...available in most supermarkets. I use it a lot because although rye does contain gluten, it has much less and is usually suitable for those with an intolerance to wheat.
Peel the bananas and break into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the brown sugar...

 and mix, using the paddle attachment, until the bananas are properly broken up...they will never be fully smooth, but should be liquidy by now!
Add the vanilla - I use Ndali organic pure vanilla powder because it's Fairtrade and also absolutely gorgeous...

 but any decent extract will do, of course. Then add the oil, yoghurt and eggs to the bowl too...

 Mix again until well combined, then add in the dry ingredients, except the walnuts if using, and mix on the lowest setting just until combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer, add the nuts and stir in using a spatula...

 Pour into the prepared tin....

 it looks and smells divine by this point, with the little specks of cinnamon & vanilla clearly visible...

 Bake for approximately 1 hour...if you have a 'hot' oven, start checking after 45 minutes and rotate the pan if necessary to achieve an even bake. When done, the cake should be well-risen and golden brown...

 Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack....

... although a barely-warm slice is absolutely irresistible....

Well, I certainly found it so! It smells almost alcoholic...probably the ripeness of the bananas...just beautiful. It freezes well for up to a month, or will keep for a couple of days if wrapped well - if it's warm where you are, store in the fridge.

I hope you make it and enjoy it....see you in September!

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 few delights...

My weeks seem to be getting busier and busier...can you believe it's almost March already? Unbelievable to me. It's time to change the tone of my baking a little...not too Spring-like yet, but moving away from the very comforting, heavier cakes...slowly, slowly.
Yesterday, I made a tray of Cardamom Orange Cake with a cream cheese frosting...

Cardamom is a beautiful, warm and underused spice which goes perfectly with fresh orange. This smelt gorgeous.

Next, an Espresso Walnut Cake with Vanilla frosting...I replaced quite a proportion of the flour with ground walnuts to lighten and moisten the mixture and to make sure that there was a really good walnut flavour. Coffee is a natural partner...I used espresso, to make it slightly darker and more sophisticated than my usual Coffee & Walnut Cake. No filling in this one either...just the vanilla buttercream on top, with a sprinkle of espresso and broken walnuts to finish...
Today, as it's half-term here, I wanted a child pleaser for the Coffee Tree. I came up with this creation...

Caramel Peanut Shortbread. Another one that I had to make and deliver VERY quickly before I devoured it! Crisp, buttery polenta shortbread....caramel & peanut butter filling, topped with roasted salty peanuts and, finally, dark chocolate ganache....

oh I'm so glad that it's not still here!

Hoping your Thursday is as lovely as mine...and that you make time for a treat somewhere, somehow xo

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Baking Round-Up!

I'm sorry I've been AWOL for the past couple of days...I've been so busy with work and writing that I haven't found a minute to spare. BUT I did remember to take pictures, so I can now post a mammoth catch up from the end of the week!
Above is the Coffee & Walnut Cake I made...a real English favourite that always sells amazingly well.

The plain cake is made with ground walnuts, which mean that the cake is never dry and has a wonderfully deep flavour. When it had cooled I cut it in half...

and sandwiched it together with coffee buttercream...

making sure that there was plenty left to swirl on top. Then I finished with a generous sprinkle of broken walnut pieces..

I could actually do with a big slice of this right now

as we've just returned from a freezing but beautiful long walk with Alice and I'm having a cup of hot Earl Grey as I write. But, in fact, it's all been sold already...I'm pleased to say!

I also invented a new traybake (I think I invented it, at least I've never seen it before!)

It had a crisp, buttery polenta shortbread base, studded with dried sour cherries and topped with a light vanilla sponge cake baked with fresh cherries. So a sort of soft yet crunchy vanilla double cherry delight!

I did manage to sneak an edge as I cut it up (just to consumer test, you understand) & the sour/sweet tenderness was delicious...it's now going in my book!
Another old favourite were Buttermilk Raisin Scones....first I rubbed the butter into the flour& sugar until it was well mixed and added the raisins...

then I mixed buttermilk & eggs, poured it over the dry ingredients and mixed lightly with a blunt knife to form a soft dough...

patted the dough out and cut into rounds which I glazed with more buttermilk and sprinkled with demerara sugar..

before baking in a hot oven until well risen and golden brown...

at The Coffee Tree they were served warm,with a little dish of softened butter to spread. Yummy!
So that's a round-up of the baking adventures.. I also splashed out and bought two new baking books. One that I've wanted for a long time...

Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It looks wonderful - a real encyclopaedia of cakes, which I sometimes need when I run out of inspiration. The other is one that was recommended to me by my dear friend Kary at My Farmhouse Kitchen who received a copy as a Christmas present

Sarabeth's Bakery, by Sarabeth Levine. I've only had a chance to have a very quick look so far, but it seems just my sort of thing and I can't wait to try some recipes out. Hopefully, Kary & I will ve trying out the same recipe on our blogs soon and comparing results in our posts, which will be so exciting!

So that's the end of another week. I'm looking forward to the next one already. I have my monthly stall on our Farmer's Market on Tuesday, which means a lot of work but is always fun (and cold!) I hope that you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks so much for reading, and for your lovely comments which mean so much to me xo