Chocolate and whisky tartlets

 We should have been on holiday in Scotland, but my OH had to go into hospital and have tests. Thinking of what we've missed, I decided whisky will be my inspiration for this month's challenge from We Should Cocoa. This is a monthly challenge by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot . It's the challenge's second birthday - congratulations - so Choclette has asked us to make something with chocolate inspired by a cocktail.


I decided that I'd make some small tartlets. These have layers - the pastry, whisky chocolate and cream just as  cocktails do.

250g self raising flour.
55g cocoa powder.
15ml Scotch whisky.
juice of 1/2 an orange.
125g caster sugar.
125g butter
2 eggs
300ml double cream
sprigs of mint for decoration
1 pack of shortcrust pastry or make your own using 250g flour etc. I like Mary Berry's recipe.

Preheat oven 200C/gas 6
Grease a deep 12 hole bun or muffin tin

Roll out your pastry and cut out 12 circles with a cutter and line the holes of the bun or muffin tin.
Bake these blind for about 10 mins till pale golden.

Filling:
Cream the butter and caster sugar together .
Beat the eggs and add these to the mixture then add the flour and cocoa powder slowly and mix together.
Add the whisky and orange juice and mix again.
Spoon this mixture into the pastry cases and bake for about 20 mins till the mixture is cooked.
Beat the double cream and spoon some onto the tartlet. Add a sprig of mint to decorate.

                           The whisky isn't overpowering and the tartlets still have a nice smooth chocolatey taste.

Seed cake

For this month's Tea Time Treats challenge, Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked have joined up with Dom of Belleau Kitchen. The challenge is to randomly select a book of teatime recipes, let the book fall open and bake whatever's on the page. My book was 'Tea Time' by Jane Pettigrew from 1988.

On page 61, were recipes for a pound cake and a seed cake so decided to do the seed cake.
I love traditional English cakes, and this is certainly one of those. It was very popular in Victorian times, but seems to have fallen out of favour. It's really a Madeira cake mixture with the flavour and texture of caraway seeds. I must admit to not having made or tasted one before. In his recipe in the Guardian, Nigel Slater says you must be careful not to use too many caraway seeds as they'll give a 'musty quality to your baking'. I thought 25g didn't look very much, but now I know why.

175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g plain flour
2 tspn baking powder
pinch of salt
pinch of bicarbonate of soda
25g caraway seeds
1/2 tspm cinnamon
15ml milk

extra ingredient I used - icing sugar

Preheat oven 180C/gas4
Grease a 18cm round cake tin or a 900g loaf tin

Cream the fat and sugar till nice and fluffy
Put the eggs in a bowl over some simmering water and beat them well till they're thick and pale.
Beat the eggs into the this mixture.
Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb salt, cinnamon and caraway seeds together and fold into the mixture with a wooden spoon. Add the milk and mix carefully.
Pour into your prepared tin andbake for 1-11/4 hours till golden.
Cool in the tin for a while then put onto a wire rack.
I'm not sure if it's allowed [as this is my first challenge with Dom], but I deviated from the recipe by icing the cake with some glace icing.

I've made Madeira cake before and not had to beat the eggs over water. Perhaps someone could tell me the benefit of doing this?  I liked the texture of the caraway seeds, but didn't realise they had an aniseed flavour. I made it in a loaf tin as I find it easier to cut. Would I make it again, well it's not my favourite cake, as I don't really like aniseed!

I have to say a big thank you to my daughter for the loan of her spare camera to take the photo. Our poor camera died while we were on our recent holiday in Scotland!

Blueberry and plum upside down cake

I love upside down cakes and the flavours in this one are delicious. Two of my favourite fruits in one cake.
The original recipe came from a recipe card from Sainsbury's I think. Using dark brown sugar gives it a nice caramel flavour and the method for the topping is unusual.

150g plain flour
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
50g butter
50g dark brown soft sugar
75g butter
200g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tspn vanilla essence
175ml milk
4 plums stones removed and thinly sliced
125g blueberries - I used frozen ones

Preheat oven 180 C / Gas 4.
 Grease a 23cm round springform tin.

Mix  the flour, baking powder and salt togetherin.
In the prepared cake tin, mix the 50g of butter and brown sugar. Put tin into the preheated oven till the butter melts and begins to bubble. Take out of the oven and leave.
In a big bowl, cream together the 75g butter and caster sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk till well mixed.
Arrange plums around the edges of the cake tin [on top of the butter and brown sugar] overlapping slightly. Put the blueberries in the middle. Pour batter into tin, covering fruit completely. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
Cool  for about 15 minutes before turning out carefully and serving.

This cake is going to be my offering to the September challenge from AlphaBakes. This is a monthly challenge hosted alternatlely  by Caroline of Caroline Makes and Ros of The More than Occasional Baker and this month it's Caroline's turn to host it. The randomly chosen letter is P.

Apricot-banana-cranberry teabread

This addition to my teabread recipe collection comes from a book I bought in a charity shop called 'The complete book of baking'. It really is a very quick bread to make, and is very moist. Another recipe with oil instead of butter must be good!

175g plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
1/2tspn grated nutmeg
6-g rolled oats
250g light brown sugar
60g dried cranberries
60g dried apricots
2 eggs
120ml sunflower oil
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven 180C/gas 4
Grease a 900g loaf tin

Put flour, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl and add the oats, sugar and dried fruit. Mix together till blended. make a well in the middle.
In another bowl beat the bananas, eggs, oil and vanilla essence together with an electric mixer.
Add this to the flour mixture and combine together.
Pour into the tin and bake for 45mins- an hour till well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Dust the top with icing sugar if you want.

I served this to friends with a compote of cranberries and apricots, which really accentuated the flavours in the teabread. Have the compote recipe if anyone wants it.

There's an awful lot of sugar in the recipe so I'm going to play around with using something else for sweetness, and also going to try just reducing the amount of sugar and see if the recipe still works. I love the combination of flavours.

German apple cake

I love apple cakes, and this is a recipe from my lovely German dil. She makes really delicious cakes; when she married our son, she, her Mother and Grandmother made over 40 cakes to have with a glass of wine or beer after the ceremony. The variety was awe inspiring. I have to say that she's a qualified pastry chef and now works for Suffolk school dinners!

This is an unusual apple cake as it has 3 layers. It's not the prettiest of cakes, but the flavour's really good. It's not a huge cake, but it's nice eaten warm as a pudd. or cold as a cake with your afternoon cuppa.

100g butter
100g caster sugar
200g sr flour
1 large egg
pinch salt
500g cooking apples
55g sultanas
1 tspn cinnamon
55g demerara sugar

Preheat oven 190C/gas 5.
Grease and line a 20cm springform tin.

Melt butter in microwave or pan. Remove and add the sugar, flour, egg and salt. Mix to a stiff dough.
Put 2/3 of the dough in the bootom of the cake tin, pressing it to cover the base.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together and then put on top of the dough.
Put the 1/3 of the dough on top in pieces, tearing it and gently pressing it down. It won't cover the apple mixture.
Bake for about 50 mins till golden, but cover with some foil for about the last 10 mins to stop the top burning.
Cool in the tin then put on a plate and serve warm or cold.

It's not burnt! I used dark demerara sugar mixed with the cinnamon and apple.

I love the apple layer with the sultanas, sugar and cinnamon. It's a nice mixture of textures - the cake bottom, the apple layer and the almost cobbler topping.