More cakey goodness, this time with blueberries

I've always been one for ODing on something until I'm sick of it, and clearly, I'm attempting to do that with cake. As yet, I haven't tired of this 'a new cake every week' kick.

The lemon and almond cake last week was fab, but it's a new week, so I need a new fruit. Not in the mood for apples or pears. But blueberries I could get behind. And not the water-plumped flavourless ones "on offer" this week in Sainsbury's, shipped in from Mexico. Nope. Frozen ones which I like to believe were born on a lovely summer's day and so will be the perfect blend of tarty sweet goodness.

Right, so what cake to make? I did a lot of trawling: tea cakes, coffee cakes, almond cakes, with nothing quite taking my fancy. But this recipe seemed ripe for adaptation: frozen blueberries were fine; the use of oats makes me feel like I'm being healthy; using fat-free yogurt is an interesting change to the norm; and no butter/oil necessary. Oh, and cinnamon. Me likey cinnamon.

I've made a few tweaks (namely, not using extra cinnamon sugar on top - it doesn't need it and converting it to metric as all the units are volume-based, so confusing for those who aren't Stateside.) See below for the recipe. The results are very yummy - a cross between a cake and a flapjack, thanks to those oats. It's filling, so the pieces are smaller - you'll get about 16 slices. The combo of blueberry, vanilla and cinnamon's a great one - it reminds me of Southern breakfasts (and incidentally, I had a slice for breakfast this morning - couldn't resist.)

Blueberry Oat Cake (adapted from Diana Rattray's recipe)

Serves 16

175 g frozen blueberries

275 g wholemeal self-raising flour

40 g rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

110 g soft brown sugar

175 g vanilla fat-free yogurt (or plain yogurt with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)

juice of 1 lemon

60 ml milk

2 medium eggs

Preheat the oven to 165 C/ 325 F. Line a square springform tin (8 x 8 in) with greaseproof paper. Mix blueberries, flour, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk the yogurt with the lemon juice and then the milk and eggs.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold in until it's fully mixed.

Add the mixture to the tin and make sure it's relatively smooth on top. Bake for 45 minutes (check with a toothpick before taking it out - if it's wet, then cook for another 5-10 minutes).

Calories: I dunno yet, I didn't add them up! But I will update that once I know. In the meantime, enjoy - it's obviously not THAT bad for you...

New cake alert: lemon and almond

Apple cake, pear cake, apple cake, pear cake. I love 'em, but I'm getting tired of them. So this morning I went trawling for a new cake to make. I felt like having something fruity, which isn't easy given it's the middle of winter.

I considered upside-down peach cake, but using tinned peaches just didn't grab me. Then I considered coffee and walnut cake, but the coffee it calls for tends to be instant, and I don't have instant. (Cos I'm fancy.)

Finally I settled on lemon and almond cake. This one excited me for several reasons:

1) it's fruity, and I don't feel guilty buying lemons in winter. it uses the entire lemon, so no waste.
2) it's healthy - low-calorie (comparatively) and doesn't use any fats from butter/oil
3) it uses ground almonds almost entirely in place of flour, which I've been wanting to try because I'm close to overdosing on flour what with constant breadmaking.
4) it uses fructose instead of regular sugar, so it's not quite as likely to give you sugar shock
5) because I'm a sad sad lady and cakes make me happy, so there.

The recipe (here, if you missed it above) is very simple to follow, and I quite like it for the short list of ingredients (eggs, ground almonds, fruit sugar, lemons, flour, baking powder). The one thing to be careful about here, as it says on the website, is that fruit sugar burns more easily, so you need to watch it about 45 minutes in to make sure it doesn't blacken.

The recipe says 12-16 servings, but if that's true, the serving-size is for tiny little elves. And a tiny little elf I'm not. It serves 9, to my mind, bringing the calories to approximately 285 per slice, which is respectable enough to be tasty, yet low enough not to be overly indulgent. And it's so good with a cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon. I've officially added a new cake to the rotation.

A wholesome pear cake recipe

I've been getting very ornery when passing the cake/biscuit/etc aisles at the supermarket lately. We generally have a sweet snack at home for us to munch on, but the options are just so horrid! Choose from:

A) awful corporate brand name sweet
B) cheap basic option stuffed full of hydrogenates
C) enticing friendly option that's twice the price

Well, I'm going for D) none of the above. I'm going to make our sweets at home from now on. Yes, it's a bit of extra work, and yes, I'm no baker. But it will be a new challenge that's relatively cheap to take on.

Seeing as Waitrose had some "essential" pears (yes, I'm still a sucker for SOME marketing gimmicks) on offer, I decided to scoop them up and make an upside down pear cake.

Now obviously most cake recipes call for fat, eggs, sugar and flour - all in varying amounts and using various versions of the four. I'm keen to keep these cakes as clean as possible and have opted for olive oil, free-range eggs, unrefined caster sugar and wholemeal flour as my ingredients of choice, though none of the items are organic.

As I didn't want to duff up the cake, I went for traditional ratios - though I may tweak in future.

Upside-down pear cake
(serves 8)

4 pears, peeled, cored and halved
1 square springform tin
a dab of olive oil and a dusting of flour for the tin
175 g unrefined caster sugar
175 g wholemeal flour, sifted
2 eggs
8 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ground ginger (though use whichever spice you like - cinnamon would be lovely too)
45 ml skimmed milk

Preheat the oven to 230 C.

Oil and dust the springform tin. Place the pears, cut side down, in a circular pattern in the middle of the tin.

In a large bowl, use a hand blender to combine the sugar and olive oil until as fluffy as possible. Blend in each egg individually, adding the next one only when the mixture is consistent.

Fold the flour and the ginger into the mixture and mix until consistent again, and then pour in milk. Stir until consistent one last time, then pour the mixture evenly over the pears.

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes before popping the cake out of the tin. Serve immediately, or wrap in foil once fully cool. Will keep for 3-4 days in a cool-ish environment.

Calories per serving: 339.

That's higher than I'd ideally like for a snack, so might work on tweaking the sugar content in future. But there's 3.5 g of fibre in each serving as well, so I'm thinking this would make a great snack an hour before a workout.

As for the husband test: had him try it BEFORE telling him about the wholemeal flour (he doesn't mind these things, but if he knows it will impair his enjoyment...) and he was really pleased with it. (Though who isn't pleased when someone makes them a cake, I'd like to know.)

So will continue my cake journey and keep you updated. Do feel free to recommend any other cake ideas and I'll give them a go.

Roasted plums with vanilla ice cream

When our friends Marcella and Grant came over for the weekend, I wanted to prepare a light dessert to follow our Sunday roast – something refreshing, but not just plain fruit (lovely though it is).

I love poached pears, but it’s not the right season. It is, however, the beginning of soft fruit season, and plums, nectarines and peaches are beginning to line the shelves in the supermarket. Since they’re not quite at their best, a quick turn in the oven should bring out the best of their sweet tartness.

I decided to go with plums this time around, mainly because they are smaller. It’s really easy – and turned out to be absolutely perfect. This recipe serves four, but it’s easily halved.

Roasted plums with cinnamon and honey
(serves 4)

8 plums
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp cinnamon

600 g light vanilla pod ice cream

Halve and stone the plums and arrange, cut side up, on a baking dish. Drizzle the honey over and sprinkle the cinnamon on top of that. Roast for 35 minutes at 170 C.

Serve on top of the ice cream.

Calories per serving: 275. And soooooo yummy.

Valentine's Day dinner: the dessert

This one I’ll have to be a bit cagey on, as it’s a friend’s recipe and I won't broadcast it without her permission.

I was a bit stumped as to what could follow rabbit, so eagerly started soliciting advice via email. “Got any good dessert recipes that aren’t too lardy?” was my question of choice.

My friend Marcella came to the rescue with her baked lemon and poppy seed cheesecake. Relatively low-fat, it uses cottage cheese, low fat cream cheese, and sour cream, in addition to your average cake ingredients of eggs and sugar.

The difference with this cheesecake is that there’s no graham crust – and I have to admit, after the two previous courses, I didn’t need it at all.

Here are a couple of similar recipes – just nix the crust:

http://cookery.newarchaeology.com/baked_lemon_cheesecake.php
http://www.cuisinedumonde.com/lem_cheesecake.html

It was gorgeous - and lasted about three days, which made for lovely desserts on Sunday and Monday too. Marcella’s recipe makes about 6 generous servings – all for about 315 calories each! Not bad at all… I'll definitely be making this one again.

bristol apple cider cake

I think I’m catching a baking bug – but it’s a fruit-inspired baking bug, so that’s okay, right? RIGHT?? I hope so anyway.

Now that apples from this side of the world are available (i.e. not South Africa), I’m ready to jump on the apple bandwagon, especially since a friend of mine brought some apples back from her family's garden in Bristol. Not pies, not crumble, not cobbler – I’m into cake. A spiced cake, I thought, and one with cider. So I took to the internet and found some potential starting points:

-This Epi recipe sounded really good, until I realised that I’d forgotten that when American recipes say cider, they mean non-alcoholic cider. Well, I’d already bought the “hard” cider in, so I headed across the internet pond back to the BBC website…

-where I found this recipe from Simon Rimmer, the sweet little bald Mancunian chef who now’s on Something from the Weekend. I liked this one a lot – though I have no need for the cinnamon mascarpone (though it does sound lovely). Actually, as I’ve gotten older I’ve increasingly steered away from icings in favour of the cake, though I remember the days of being six when I’d only eat the icing…

Anyway, I reduced the amount of flour, sugar and butter by 1/6 (not quite confident yet at baking to mess with measurements too much), cut the amount of sultanas/raisins by 3/4 (not so keen) and dropped pecans from the recipe completely (unnecessary, in my opinion).

The result? A yummy, delicately spiced cake with loads of flavour. The whole cake (8 in x 8 in) makes about 9 pieces of cake, which are about 300 calories each.

wild blackberries and the inevitable crumble

Yummy - and free! This past weekend I went blackberry picking in the English countryside, returning with a kilo (nearly 2 pounds) worth of the dark purple lovelies.

I could have been healthy I suppose - and eaten them as is, like I did while I was picking them. But I couldn't resist the urge to make a blackberry crumble. Not the healthiest choice, really - after all, you need butter, flour and sugar for the topping - and more sugar for the stewing.

But I can recommend this little tip for not overdoing it at dessert time: make the crumble in ramekins. It ensures you don't help yourself to that oversized piece - and means greedy people can't take your crumble topping "accidentally".

Haven't made a crumble before? Try this recipe, which is about as simple as it gets.

hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way...

The tower of chocolate eggs is likely growing ever taller, and come Sunday, the chocolate-eating will be stopped only by a roast dinner. There’s no hope of escaping Easter Sunday without a belly-ache or the belly growing ever wider.

Wait, don't despair - I think there is a chance.

I’m happy to indulge in a bit of Easter chocolate fun, and it’s easier than ever to get higher-quality chocolate eggs, like Green & Blacks among others, but actually, I prefer to skip the packaging and go straight to the bar. You get more for your money anyway!

On to the dinner: the goal of Easter dinner in my opinion, is to serve an excellent main course along with veggies infused with lots of spring flavours. That may not be so easy this year, with Easter arriving so early (though it’s not expected to come this early again until 2160, so don’t worry).

Basically, there will be no asparagus or strawberries at the dinner table this year, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be a spring in your bite. Lemon, mint, parsley and dill will grace the flavours of my table. I'm doing a roast chicken this year (I actually fancied lamb, but it’s that bit too early for spring lamb; then I wanted ham, but it was a no-go from the husband; salmon would have been nice too), with roast sweet potatoes, creamy leeks, minted peas, dilled carrots (the Easter bunny’s favourite) and purple sprouting broccoli.

For dessert, if you’re not gorging on chocolate, my choice would be a carrot cake, though I don’t fancy making one myself, and the store-bought versions often can’t be trusted.

But if you fancy something a bit different, there are lots of “healthy” Easter recipes floating around, and I thought these sounded quite nice:

Herbed yogurt cheese
This would make a great snack if you're having many people to dinner. The recipe calls for 'yogurt cheese' but natural yogurt, allowed to drain, would work fine, as would Quark.

Ham, Gruyere and spinach bread pudding
This is a good alternative should you not want to have roast meat or fish as your main course. It depends on what time of day you're eating, but I like this for an Easter brunch. Plenty of healthy ingredients, and it makes use of egg whites and skim milk where possible.

Minted peas and rice with feta
I've never thought of serving rice of Easter, but why not? I think it would work well as a cold salad too. I've been thinking about making a warm rice salad for awhile now, so you may see something similar to this pop up here later this week.

Smoked salmon tartare
Love, love, love this. And radishes are coming into season as well. And - and! - smoked salmon is reduced in price at all major supermarkets lately, so there must be a glut of salmon coming in. This would work as a fabulous canape or pre-dinner munchie.

Walnut cake with a hint of rosemary
Call me crazy, but I think these cakes are far more preferable to endless handfuls of chocolate. Rosemary is such a wonderfully inspired idea! I imagine biting into the cake and receiving that amazing aroma in my nose.

Carrot cake
In honour of the Easter bunny itself. I adore carrot cake. (I say that now, but I never did as a child. Perhaps this is my mother's influence - she's not a dessert-lover, but has always been partial to a bit of carrot cake.) The recipe doesn't look that simple though, I'm afraid...

In any case, happy Easter to everyone - I look forward to hearing what delights you ate on the day!

fabulous figs

From the outside, they don't look likemuch. Figs really are a fruit where the beauty lies within. Cut one open to find a sensuously rich mauve colour full of deep intense flavour.

There are plenty of ways to cook figs, though I confess I have not done so myself. From what I have read, figs work well in salads and as an accompaniment to darker meats. As a dessert, figs are used in tarts and taste extremely nicely roasted.

For now, I have kept it simple: ripe, fleshy figs, cut in half and served with creme fraiche and honey. The light, sweet flvours mellow the intensity of this decadent fruit.

dessert without guilt (and with strawberries!)

A low-fat option for dessert

I love going to new supermarkets. They may have exactly the same products on the shelves, but, for some reason, having them situated differently always inspires me with hope that I will find something new, exciting, amazing, life-altering…

Well, perhaps that’s going a bit far. But when I walked into the Sainsbury’s in Beckton (obviously newly built by the looks of things) I had hopes beyond those that I keep when I enter my local Sainsbury’s in Whitechapel.

I was rewarded handsomely. Whilst trawling the frozen section to top up the foundations of my own freezer - frozen fish and prawns, frozen green beans (until they finally, finally come into season later this summer), frozen tropical fruits – I noticed a product I hadn’t seen until yet. Yeo Valley’s Strawberry Frozen Yogurt.

Frozen yogurt is everywhere in the US, but, when I moved over here, I couldn’t find this equally tasty, yet healthier alternative to ice cream. I suppose it’s not surprising, as Brits still prefer cream and custard as accompiaments to their desserts.

But frozen yogurt, in my mind, stands all on its own. I only lament there weren’t more flavours to try.

1 serving (100 grams): 140 calories, 23.5 g carbohydrates (mostly sugars), 4.3 g protein, 3.0 g fat.

That’s not much more than it’s humble workhouse cousin, the average snack yogurt.

While I don’t normally like eating things with so much sugar, I’m beginning to come around to the fact that sometimes a little bit of sugar is better than a lot of sweetener. (However, I’m still not able to let go of my Diet Cokes.)

Yeo Valley’s Organic Strawberry Frozen Yogurt has inspired me. Thus, my summertime quest for the best frozen yogurt begins.