It's cool to eat cake
There was always 'something' in the tin to share with either expected or unexpected guests who dropped in for tea I still love that tradition and feel uneasy if 'there's nothing in the tin'. I adore baking cakes, biscuits, pastries, buns I love them all and feel so saddened that so many people have stopped baking simply because they can't resist the temptation if there's 'something in the tin'. Well look how gorgeous the domestic goddess Nigella Lawson is voluptuous, curvy and a wizard in the kitchen, she's made it so cool to make cup cakes again! Speaking of which, its ages since there has been a book on cakes, but a really serious tome of regional and traditional cakes has just been published by Grub Street Publishing. The author Julie Duff has been baking since she was a child.
She became hooked in her grandmother's kitchen where she spent many happy hours mixing, stirring and no doubt licking the wooden spoon as we did when we were children. Julie now runs an award winning cake business from her farmhouse in the Vale of Belvoir. She supplies cakes to some of the poshest addresses in the UK Fortnum and Mason, St Paul's Cathedral, Selfridges, as well as Henrietta Green's Food Lovers Fairs.
Many of the cakes are made with the recipes her grandmother gave her. So if your Gran or Mum have a super recipe make sure to record it.
For those who are guarding secret recipes remember 'sharing is fun'. Here are a few of the more than 200 tempting and intriguing recipes from Julie Duff's Cakes published by Grub Street at 35.80.
Seed cake
Serves 8
Now that I am 'a little older' I absolutely adore Caraway Seed Cake. I hated it with a passion as a child, so maybe its an adult flavour as Julie suggests in her book, for many people it's a forgotten flavour which they might like to try again.
175g (6oz) butter
175g (6oz) soft pale brown sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
50g (2oz) ground almonds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
50g (2oz) sultanas
Preheat the oven to 160C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, folding in the eggs and flour a little at a time until well mixed together. Stir in the ground almonds, caraway seeds and the sultanas and spoon the mixture into an 18cm (7 inch) round cake tin.
Place the cake in the centre of the oven and bake for about one hour or until the cake is golden brown and feels firm when pressed lightly. A skewer inserted into the centre will come out cleanly when the cake is cooked.
Turn onto a wire rack to cool before serving.
