Cherry chocolate cake

It was my sil's 65th birthday and I was asked to make her a special cake. She loves chocolate and cherries so I found this recipe in my magazine recipe folder.I think it came from 'Woman and Home' many years ago.
 It's a big cake and enough for about 8 people to have a generous slice. I bought jars of cherries from a Polish shop in town.

I'm going to use this post as my 11th hour offering for the August 'We Should Cocoa' challenge.
 'We Should Cocoa' is guest hosted this month by Farmer's Girl Kitchen; her ingredient is cherries. 'We Should Cocoa' is a monthly chocolate challenge hosted by Choclette and Chele.

675g caster sugar
250g butter, chopped
40g cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
450g self-raising flour
4 eggs, beaten
500ml  double cream, lightly whipped
500g jars pitted cherries, drained
topping:
400g  dark chocolate, chopped
350g  butter, softened




Preheat oven to 180°C (gas mark 4). Grease and line three 20cm sandwich tins .

Put the sugar, butter, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and 500ml of boiling water into a large saucepan. Put over a low heat and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Leave to cool for 20 minutes.
Pour the mixture to a large bowl and beat in the flour and the eggs till smooth. Divide the mixture between the three tins and bake for 30-40 minutes, or till firm to touch.
Allow to cool in tins for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack.

 Topping - Melt the chocolate over hot water or in the microwave. Beat the butter in a bowl till creamy, then add to the melted chocolate, beating till glossy and smooth.

Put one cake on a serving plate and top with half the whipped cream and half of the cherries. Layer the next cake with the rest of the cream and cherries, and finish with the last cake on top. Spread the chocolate over the sides and top of the cake using a flat-bladed knife. Decorate with a chocolate covered cherry if you want.

When putting the cake together, gently press each layer down to help keep it steady.  I put the chocolate over the sides of the cake, but I think I'd just put it on top next time. It was very filling.The cake has a lovely moist texture and there's a nice contrast from the cherries and cream. It's like a Black Forest Gateau without the traditional topping.

Toffee shortbread biscuits

A tin of Carnation caramel was lurking in the back of the cupboard, and carrying on with my biscuit theme, thought I could use it as a filling in a double biscuit.

I have an easy shortbread recipe given to me many years ago when I was a student, by my Scottish landlady, and this would go really well with the caramel. You must use butter for these to get the lovely flavour.

Shortbread:
350g plain flour
110g cornflour
110g caster sugar
225g butter

Filling:
tin caramel

100g dessicated coconut -optional

Preheat oven 180C/gas4

Cream the butter and sugar either by hand or with electric mixer on a low speed till nice and smooth. Sift the flours together and add to the mixture. Work the flours in by hand. Knead the dough till it's smooth then wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 30 mins.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 5mm and cut out rounds with a cutter, the size depending on how big you want your biscuits!
Put the biscuits on baking sheets and bake for 10-12 mins till lightly coloured.
Cool on a wire rack.
When cold, spread one shortbread with some caramel right to the edges and top with another one. Press together very gently, as they break easily.

My duaghter was here when I made them, and as she's a coconut fan, suggested I roll the sides in some coconut, which I duly did. They are really delicious, melt in the mouth,but rather messy;  I'm not sure if I'd prefer them without the coconut - will have to make them again to decide! Should have done some with coconut and some without.

Hadn't thought about using shortbread to make double biscuits, but will now think of some other filling ideas to try.

Salmon, Mustard and Rocket Tart

We had some friends for a meal last weekend and I wanted to make something different to eat with a salad. I'd bought some salmon on special offer in the supermarket, so this recipe was just right. It comes from a book I bought in France called simply 'Les Tartes', which has a great selection of tarts, sweet and savoury. The pastry is very unusual in that you add lemon zest and crushed black peppercorns to it, which gives the tart a zing, as does the rocket. It's a great combination of flavours.

This month's challenge from Tea Time Treats is to make a Picnic Pie or Tart and this fits the bill nicely. It's also going to be my offering for the AlphaBakes challenge, which this month begins with the letter T.

Tea Time Treats is a monthly challenge hosted alternately by Kate of What Kate Baked and Karen of Lavender and Lovage. The August challenge is hosted by Kate.

AlphaBakes is also a monthly challenge and it's hosted alternately by Ros of The more than occasional baker and Caroline of Caroline Makes . A letter is selected randomly and this month it's T; Ros is the host for August.

pastry:
225g plain flour
100g butter
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbspn crushed balck peppercorns
4 tbspns cold water

filling:
300g fresh salmon [skin and bones removed]
25cl milk
50g rocket and a few leaves for decoration
3 eggs beaten
3 tbspn grainy mustard
5 spring onions finely chopped

Preheat oven 200C/gas6
You need a 20cm tart tin

Add the lemon zest and peppercorns to the flour then rub into the butter till you've got breadcrumbs.
Add the water and mix to a smooth dough. Cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge for an hour.
Roll the pastry out and line the tin. Chill for 30 mins, then line with greaseproof and beans and bake blind for 15mins; remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 5 mins.
Poach the salmon in the milk for 5 mins. Let it cool.
Chop the rocket and lay it on the pastry. Strain the salmon, keeping the liquid. break it into pieces and put on top of the rocket.
In a bowl, beat together the eggs, mustard, onions and the cooking liquid. Pour this over the salmon.
Cook for 25-30 mins till nice and golden.
Decorate with a few rocket leaves.
The tart gives 4 good servings.

Pistachio and pear cookies

This is another variation of my basic cookie recipe.  We love pears and finding some dried ones, I had to make some cookies. You could use other nuts if you prefer, other dried fruit too - I've used dried cranberries and cherries and these are good.

Here's the basic recipe again:

:Oven 190C/375F/gas5. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchent paper or a silicone sheet.


Basic recipe:
225g soft butter
140g caster sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
2 tspn vanilla extract
280g plain flour
pinch salt
Beat butter and sugar together in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then beat in egg yolk and vanilla essence. Stir in the flour and salt. Mix together to make a ball of dough.

Additional ingredients:
55g ready to eat dried pears, chopped finely
55g pistachio nuts, chopped
some whole pistachio nuts to decorate

This time, add the nuts and pears after the flour and mix it all together into a ball of dough.
Take spoonfuls and roll into balls, put on baking sheets and space well. Flatten a bit and put a whole pistachio into the centre of each cookie.
Bake 10-15 mins till golden. leave to cool on sheet, and then put on a wire rack.

Not a very inspiring photo, but I didn't have a chance to take another one as all the cookies were whisked off to Luton Airport! The cookies have a crunch from the pistachios and I really like the flavour of the pear.

Swedish rhubarb cake

The other day I found a Scandinavian cookery book in a local charity shop, and this recipe was in it.
We have one lone rhubarb plant in the garden, and there was just enough ready to pick to use in this cake.
I've adapted the recipe to the kind of cake I wanted, so I'm claiming it as mine now! It makes a small amount of rhubarb into a delicious dessert, tho' it's not a big cake if you have a family to feed.

2eggs
150g caster sugar
90g plain flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
about 250g rhubarb
50g cold butter
1 tspn cinnamon
2 tbspn pearl sugar

Preheat oven 175C/gas 3/4
Grease and line a 20cm springform tin [make sure you grease the tin well or the cake will stick like glue!]

Cut the rhubarb into about 1cm pieces.
Beat the eggs and sugar with a mixer till it's pale and nice and fluffy. Then fold in the flour and baking powder.
Pour this batter into the tin and put the rhubarb on top, pushing it into the batter.
Then cut the butter into thin slices - it needs to be very cold [straight from the freezer cold as suggested by Phil] and very quickly becomes difficult to slice. I used a potato peeler then changed to a small sharp knife. Put the butter on top of the batter and sprinkle the pearl sugar over.

Bake for about 40 mins till golden - the original recipe says 25mins, but my cake wasn't anywhere near cooked, so gave it another 15 mins. Leave in the tin to cool and then turn onto a wire rack.

The pearl sugar disappeared with the butter, and gives a lovely crunchy layer on top of the cake, and the rhubarb was moist underneath. I sprinkled a bit of icing sugar on top.