Apple & Blackcurrant Crumble Sponge Cake

Every Friday at work we have 'Cake Friday' which as the name suggests is when we convene for cake! Each week a different person provides the cake and one of the cake club favourites is Waitrose's Seriously Buttery Apple and Blackcurrant Crumble Cake. We discussed at length how it would be good to make this cake at home but none of us has gotten round to trying it! It's a very light cake and the crumble adds interest, as does the blackcurrant as it is not as commonly used in a sponge as strawberry or raspberry.

In general I'm not that brave when it comes to ad-libbing with recipes which is perhaps why it's taken me so long to attempt this...I generally stick to recipes religiously...to the gram! To make this though doesn't deviate too much from the norm. It's a 6 inch Victoria Sandwich recipe to which I added 100 grams of stewed apple. I did contemplate adding grated apple or apple that was finely chopped but was worried that it may sink? Does anyone have any good suggestions about how to add apple to a sponge? The stewed apple melted into the sponge giving a sweet taste but not a discernibly appley taste.

Once the two sponges were ready to go in the oven I sprinkled a crumble topping over one of the sponges and then they were baked as normal. Then once cool I turned the bottom sponge upside down and spread it with blackcurrant jam, although you could make your own blackcurrant compote, and then piped on some Swiss meringue buttercream before placing the crumble sponge on top. The Swiss meringue buttercream is a good choice as it's lighter and much less sweet than regular buttercream; it is also most reminiscent of the Waitrose cake.

The overall cake tasted really nice and it's something a bit different without being too difficult to make. I gave the cake to my mum and dad and they both enjoyed it. It is quite sweet however, so you don't need too big a slice! If I were to make it again I think I might try the small chunks of apple to see if you can get a noticeable taste or texture of apple and I think I'd add a little more of the crumble mixture on the top.

If you'd like to try this recipe then just take your favourite Victoria Sponge recipe and add some stewed apple or diced apple before baking. Also sprinkle the top of one of the sponges with a crumble mix before it goes in the oven. To sandwich the cakes together use blackcurrant jam or homemade blackcurrant compote and Swiss meringue buttercream...et voila!

Waitrose describe their cake as 'A buttery cake with diced apple pieces, sprinkled with butter crumble topping, split and filled with layers of buttercream and blackcurrant jam' and I think this homemade version lives up to that billing!

I'm entering this cake into August's Calendar Cakes which this month is hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and is hosted bi-monthly here at Laura Loves Cakes. The theme this month is Summer Lovin' and as blackcurrants are a seasonal summer fruit this cake fits in nicely. Check out next month's theme here on 1st September.

Apple & Almond Bear Claw Pastries

When I decided to make these bear claw pastries from the Hummingbird Bakery 'Home Sweet Home' cookbook I didn't really check the recipe that closely and just assumed they would be fairly easy to make. However, when it actually came down to it, they were a little more tricky than first anticipated.

When thinking of pastry, I was thinking of the Danish kind but that turned out to be incorrect. The pastry here is made with milk, sugar, butter, salt, yeast, egg and flour. The mixture also had to be left to prove which was not what I was expecting.

When the dough had proved, the recipe requires it to be rolled out into quite precise rectangles. I did have to wrangle with it a bit as the dough kept springing back when I rolled it which I don't think is quite right. I also found it quite difficult to shape and seal the pastries and as a result they were all slightly different sizes. Given all this I was quite expecting a disaster when they came out of the oven but they actually looked rather better than expected, puffing up nicely and browing on top with the egg wash. 

Inside the pastry is a filling of apples, butter, sultanas, light brown sugar, cinnamon and cornflour. On top is a sprinkling of sugar and some flaked almonds which were added before baking. The finishing touch is a drizzle of icing over the top when cool. And how did they taste?...much better than expected! Kind of a bready/pastry outer with a sweet filling. Apparently these are found in traditional bakeries in America and are often eaten for breakfast with coffee. I think I could quite happily consume these for breakfast on a regular basis...but probably only if they didn't take quite so long to make! However, the bear claw finish is very cute and was achieved by cutting into the pastry along a short edge. I used scissors and cut in about a centimetre.

These pastries are my entry into this month's Alpha Bakes, hosted by Ros over at the More than Occassional Baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes. Ros is hosting this month and the letter is 'A', so this is a double whammy with apples and almonds!

Wholemeal Spelt, Carrot, Apple and Pumpkin Seed Muffins

We're well into January now and apparently most people will have given up on their new year's resolutions within the next week. So to keep me on track I made these healthy muffins so I can take one to work tomorrow and hopefully I'll be able to resist the urge to eat other sugary snacks!

There's no denying that these do indeed taste like a 'healthy' muffin...they certainly won't provide the sweetness and sugar hit of a regular muffin but they are still a tasty sweet treat which should stave off cravings for their more calorie-laden counterparts. Nonetheless there is a sweetness from the diced apple and the sprinkling of light brown sugar on the top. There's also a satisfying texture which is enhanced by the pumpkin seeds.

The recipe for these muffins contains wholemeal spelt flour, a little oil instead of butter and reduced sugar. There's also apple, carrot and pumpkin seeds, along with a hint of cinnamon. Along with the reduced fat and sugar content in these muffins, the pumpkin seeds also have many health benefits. Pumpkin seeds contain phytosterols, compounds that that have been shown to reduce levels of LDL cholesterol. Furthermore, its seeds contain very good levels of essential minerals like copper, naganese, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium. So you can feel just a little bit virtuous eating these muffins!

These muffins were extremely easy to make, it is just a case of mixing up all the ingredients and they take no time at all to whip up. They're the perfect thing to make on a Sunday...and then you've got a healthy, tasty treat which you can pop in a lunchbox throughout the week.

I used some tulip muffin cases to give that deli style finish which makes these muffins all the more appealing!

I'm entering these muffins into the January Calendar Cakes challenge which I'm hosting this month. The theme is New Year, New You...so we're looking for your healthy cakes and bakes, so if you happen to be making something that fits the theme then we would love you to add it to our January linky. My co-host is Rachel at Dolly Bakes and you can find out about February's challenge over on her blog on the first of the month.

Ingredients

2 eggs
80g golden caster sugar
3 tbsp vegetable or groundnut oil
150g wholemeal spelt flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small carrot, grated
1 small apple, peeled, cored and diced
2 tsbp pumpkin seeds

Topping

3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
Light soft brown sugar to sprinkle

Makes 6 muffins

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4 and prepare a muffin tin with 6 muffin cases.

Start by mixing the wet ingredients - oil and eggs with the golden caster sugar until they are well combined. Next place the flour, cinnamon and baking powder into a separate bowl and mix. Then add the flour mix to the wet ingredients and combine well using a spoon or spatula (not an electric mixer) and then add the carrot, apple and pumpkin seeds and stir until they are evenly distributed in the bowl.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin cases, each one should be about two-thirds full. Finally, sprinkle the remaining pumpkin seeds over the top along with a little light brown soft sugar. The muffins should be baked for around 25 minutes. Mine took about 20 minutes and I think these muffins don't go particularly brown on top, so don't wait for that otherwise they could end up a bit dry. When ready they should have risen and be springy if you gently press one on top.

These muffins will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.

* Adapted from Easy Cakes and Cookies (Publishers - Ryland, Peters & Small)

Stollen Topped Mince Pies & Clementine and Apple Mince Pies

What is Christmas without a mince pie or two? I thought I'd try out a couple of variations on the traditional mince pie this year.

First up are Stollen topped mince pies. The pastry is a lovely sweet shortcrust which you can either make using your favourite recipe or using shop bought pastry. The BBC has a good recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry here.

Each pastry case is filled with a couple of teaspoons of mincemeat...again if time allows you can make your own mincemeat in advance.

Each mince pie is then topped with a stollen mixture which interestingly has madeira cake in it, along with ground almonds, caster sugar, butter, an egg yolk, candied peel and marzipan.

I took a little ball of the stollen mixture and flattened it into a disc before placing on top and pushing it down into place which made it a little easier. Each mince pie was then finished off with some toasted flaked almonds before going into the oven. Once baked they were dusted with icing sugar. These are a great alternative to traditional mince pies and stollen is another festive favourite. They were light and tasty and the stollen stayed soft when baked.

My second mince pies are Clementine and Apple. The recipe is by Paul Hollywood and they were featured on the Great British Bake Off Christmas special earlier in the week.

You can find the recipe here, Paul used tangerines but any Christmassy orange will do. Again I used sweet shortcrust pastry and for the filling, mincemeat was mixed with clementine zest, diced apple and clementine flesh. Orange pastry might also work quite well with this recipe.

These mince pies are slightly larger as they were made in muffin tins and the cutter was 9cm. They have a lovely fruity taste and will fill your home with the aroma of Christmas.

If you fancy some more variations on mince pies which are less traditional check out these mince pie rings and spiced mincemeat fairy cakes that I made last year.

 

I'm entering my Stollen mince pies into this month's Alpha Bakes as the letter of the month is 'S'. Alpha Bakes is hosted by Ros at the More Than Occasional Baker and she is hosting for December. Her partner in crime and co-host is Caroline of Caroline Makes.

Ingredients

375g sweet shortcrust pastry or follow the recipe from BBC GoodFood
375g mincemeat
50g madeira cake
50g ground almonds
25g caster sugar
50g butter, softened
1 egg yolk
3 tbsp candied peel
100g marzipan, finely diced
25g toasted flaked almonds
Icing sugar for dusting.

Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured board and then cut out 12 8cm rounds using a circle cutter. Re-roll the trimmings if necessary. Press the 8cm circles into the holes of a bun tin. I greased my bun tin beforehand to ensure the mince pies came out.

Put a couple of teaspoons of mincemeat to each pastry case. To create the stollen topping, you can use a food processor or I used a hand mixer which worked just as well. Blitz the madeira cake, ground almonds, caster sugar, egg yolk and butter until it is smooth. Tip into a bowl and then mix in the candied peel and diced marzipan. Divide this mix into 12 roughly even balls, then flatten each one into a disc which is roughly the size of the pastry case top. Place a disc on top of each mince pie and gently press down. Finish by sprinkling toasted flaked almonds over each one.

The mince pies should be baked for 20-25 minutes and should be lightly golden when down. Remove from the oven and dust with icing sugar, when they have cooled a little remove from the tin and place on a cooling wrack. You may want to dust again with icing when they're cold as I find if you do it when hot the icing sugar seems to disappear.

* Adapted from BBC GoodFood magazine

Toffee Apple and Cinnamon Buns

I always admire lovely swirled buns whenever I see them online or in a bakery so I was excited to come across this recipe when I was considering what to make for Calendar Cakes this month as the theme is Bread, Rolls and Buns. I was however a little apprehensive about making them as I thought it might be difficult but it acutally turned out to be a lot easier than I thought!

Toffee and apple is a classic combination and these buns are no exception. They tasted delicious and just as a bun should....they were lovely and soft with a subtle hint of cinnamon. There was also the added bonus of the sticky toffee sauce on the bottom which complemented the apples perfectly. I really enjoyed these buns and would definitely make them again. They look rather unassuming in the photos but I don't think the pictures do them justice!

There were a number of different elements to this recipe but all were simple to do! First up was making the dough which consisted of milk, dried active yeast, golden caster sugar, strong white bread flour and butter. Only 5 minutes of kneading was required.

Whilst the dough was rising I stewed my apples down to a puree (the apples were Braeburns which didn't want to stew down without a fight), made the toffee sauce from butter, golden syrup and soft light brown sugar and finally I mixed up the cinnamon butter (butter, cinnamon and a little golden caster sugar).

The toffee sauce is poured into the bottom of a 23cm tin ready for the buns to be placed on top before baking. I was a little worried about the toffee leaking out of the bottom of the pan so I invested in a Push Pan from Lakeland. I've mentioned Push Pans before and they seem like a really good idea as there is a seal which prevents leakage...and it worked perfectly. The Push Pan would also be great for upside down cakes....I previously had an upside down cake leak and wished then I had one of these!

Once the dough had doubled in size (about an hour and a half) it was gently kneaded for 30 seconds before being rolled/stretched out to 50 x 30cm rectangle...I even had my ruler out! This was then spread with the cinnamon butter followed by the stewed apple before being tightly rolled up starting with the long side. The roll was then cut into 7 and each piece was then placed in the pan on top of the toffee sauce. This was then left to rise again. Finally, the buns were brushed with beaten egg and sprinkled with demerera sugar before baking.

The recipe for these Toffee Apple Buns is from BBC GoodFood and as it's rather long you can follow this link if you'd like to make the buns. The recipe would also be a great starting point for creating your own flavours. If I made these again I might add some sultanas and maybe some sugar nibs on top!

Inspired by Homemade Bread Day on November 17th, these Toffee Apple Cinnamon Buns are my first entry into this month's Calendar Cakes. The theme is Breads, Rolls and Buns. We'd love you take up the challenge, you can find out more here.

 

Nigella's Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

I don't very often make muffins...I'm not sure why as I'm more than happy to eat them! However, when I saw the theme for this month's Forever Nigella was 'Packed Lunch Stars' I leafed through my Nigella cookbooks and came across this recipe for Apple and Cinnamon Muffins. The recipe is from 'Kitchen - Recipes from the heart of the home'.

These muffins are perfect for a packed lunch...they're a little sweet treat but they're also healthier than a regular muffin as they're not laiden with sugar. The apples give them a natural sweetness so they'll be a hit with the kids. Nigella describes them as a 'wholesome treat' which is exactly what you want to find in your packed lunch. These muffins were also made with spelt flour which is a first for me as I've never used it. For those of you like me who aren't very au fait with spelt, it's a non-wheat flour that gives a slightly nutty flavour.

The muffins were really moist and had a lovely hint of cinnamon. The tops were sprinkled with an (unblanched) almond, sugar and cinnamon rubble and there were also almonds in the muffin batter which gave them a contrasting texture. I think the optimal time for eating these is the day after making as the flavour had developed a little...but don't leave it too long to eat them as after a couple of days the apple made them a little too moist! Nigella also suggests they can be eaten warm or if you make a batch and wish to freeze them then they'll last for around 2 months...perfect for busy mums! :-)

As I mentioned this was my first time using spelt, it was also my first time using Tulip muffin cases...I loved the results, the muffins look so pretty and professional...just like you'd see in a cafe!

 

Why not check out this month's Forever Nigella, the theme is 'Packed Lunch Stars'. This month's guest host is Working London Mummy and the creator of Forever Nigella is Sarah over at Maison Cupcake.


Ingredients

2 eating apples
250g spelt flour (or you can use plain flour)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
125g light brown sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
125ml honey
60ml natural yogurt (not set)
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
75g unblanched almonds

Heat your oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6 and choose your muffin wrappers and line the muffin tin, this recipe makes 12.

Peel the apples and then cut into small 1cm cubes. Next weigh out the flour, baking powder and a teaspoon on cinnamon into a bowl. In a seperate bowl measure out the brown sugar, honey, yogurt, vegetable oil and eggs and mix together.

Chop the almonds (I used a mini food processor but it gave quite varying sizes of almond). Add half of the almonds to the flour and pop the other half in another small bowl. Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and 4 teaspoons of sugar to the small bowl of almonds...this is the 'rubble' topping for sprinkling on top of the muffins.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and then fold gently. Next add the chopped apple and combine. Spoon or use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter between the 12 muffin cases and then sprinkle the almond, sugar and cinnamon topping over each one.

Bake for around 20 minutes. The finished product should be risen and golden. Once removed from the oven leave in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring the muffins to a cooling rack.

Apple & Cider Wigwam Cake

If you love camping but would like to try something different or alternatively if camping really isn't your thing and you prefer your home comforts then why not try 'Glamping'. Glamping is 'Glamorous Camping' and it's really taken off in the last few years!

Whether you want to stay in a tipi or cruise around Cornwall in a classic VW camper, glamping offers something for everyone. Kids will see it as a great adventure and for adults it's the ultimate in cool camping. If you're heading to a festival this year, you can also glamp it up with an array of festival accommodation on offer.

To celebrate the great British tradition of camping I made this Apple and Cider Wigwam Cake. It's so cute and perfect for summer. The cake is a lovely moist apple and sultana cake with some tasty cinnamon spice. The apples and cider are both British. The cider was incorporated into the buttercream between the cake layers inside and it was also used as a coating for the cake for the sugarpaste to adhere to. The cake even comes complete with a Matchmaker chocolate campfire and welly boots!



This is yet another bake from 'The Birthday Cake Book' by Fiona Cairns. It would appear I'm working my way through the book as I've already made Alice's Teapot, the Butterscotch Wisp Cake and the Lime and Vodka Russian Doll Cakes. 

Inside the tipi there are actually 3 x 15cm apple cakes stacked on top of each other and sandwiched with buttercream. These were then carved into a cone shape with a large serrated knife. A top tip to give the green sugarpaste on the board a grassy effect is to use a scourer. Once the paste is in place on the board use a scourer and press down on the soft paste and it gives it a great mottled effect which is reminiscent of grass! You can just about see the effect in the picture below.

So if all this talk of 'Glamping' has whet your appetite here are a few suggestions:

1. Vintage Vacations on the Isle of Wight - stay in a classic Airstream trailer/caravan
2. Jolly Days in the North Yorkshire Moors - Tented lodges with four-poster beds!
3. 4 Winds Lakeland Tipis - Hire a tipi in the Lake District
4. Yurt Village Holidays - Stay in a yurt in Dorset. I've stayed here and it was great fun! Why not try llama treking too! :-)
5. Devon Classic Camper Hire - Strap your surfboard to the roof and visit Devon in a VW camper
6. Free Spirit Spheres - For the more adventurous, sleep in the trees on Vancouver Island, Canada. I'm hoping to head here next year. If you go at the right time of year, you can even Kayak with Killer Whales!

As camping in the summertime is a British institution I am entering into this month's Calendar Cakes with the theme being 'British Summertime'. The challenge is alternately hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes, who is hosting this month, and myself. If you'd like to join us you can find more details here.

* Please note - I have not been asked to advertise any of the above 'Glamping' destinations they are simply places I have seen on the internet which I would like to visit. In addition, I cannot vouch for any of the companies or the quality of service they offer as I have only previously visited Yurt Village Holidays in Dorset.