Banana and yoghurt loaf

This week I felt like baking a different banana loaf to my usual go-to recipe. After discovering I didn't have enough bananas for other recipes in my baking books I consulted the queen of banana related bakes, Ros, The More Than Occasional Baker.

If you have sad looking bananas and have no idea what to do with them, visit her blog. She has loads of lovely banana related recipes. I decided to make the banana and yoghurt loaf, although there are definitely more I want to try out.

I had to tweak a couple of ingredients to suit what I had, but I was very impressed with this cake. Definitely a banana loaf to bake again. I love the smooth texture you get with adding yoghurt to a cake.

The only problem I encountered was that half of the cake had been eaten by the time I got round to photographing it! It's more of a compliment than a problem though.

Since I tweaked some ingredients I'll rewrite the recipe, although Ros' original can be found here.

Banana and yoghurt loaf

120ml sunflower oil
150g light muscovado sugar
75g light soft brown sugar
3 duck eggs
225g self raising flour
1 teaspoon of ground mixed spice
2 ripe bananas
150ml low fat natural yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin. Pour the oil into a large bowl, add the sugar and whisk for a few minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking as you go, then stir in the flour and mixed spice. Peel and mash the bananas in a separate bowl and add them to the mixture along with the yoghurt. Mix well with a spoon and then pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for 1 hour until well risen and golden (or check by sticking a skewer/knife into the centre of the cake. The cake is ready if the skewer comes out clean). I think my cake took an extra 10 minutes in the oven. Leave in the tin to cool then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Strawberry and cream scones

Wimbledon has started, get the strawberries and cream out! How are you eating yours? I put mine in some scones.

I have a confession though, I didn't bake these. My Mum is chief scone maker in this household. Mine never turn out as lovely so I just leave her to it and enjoy eating them.

I really enjoy eating them. Perhaps too much. They're quite dinky so it's very easy to eat multiples!

Anyone else excited about Wimbledon? Who are you supporting? I'm a bit of a Federer fan myself :)

Meakin plates and pastel loving

Two weeks ago I came across three Meakin Glamour Celeste dinner plates for 20p each. I was very excited for two reasons: they are the first Meakin Glamour pieces I have come across on my charity shop travels and secondly, they're dinner plates!

I now own four dinner plates including the Jasmine Woodsware plate I found in April. Woohoo! Who would have thought I'd become so excited over dinner plates?

I set my new plates in a pile with other plates from my utility china collection and I must admit that I got quite excited by all the pastel shades and frilly edges.

Oooh, isn't that lovely? A pastel feast for your eyes.

Where do I store all this china when I currently live at home I hear you ask?

A fair amount of my china is stored on a bookcase which I blogged about here and my cake stands sit on my chest of drawers as they're too pretty to have hidden away. A few favourite utility china pieces are kept in the kitchen to use but the rest is stored in a big box. It has got to a stage that I need another box as the lid no longer fits on!

Although it's a shame not to see it displayed properly, I love the massive jumble of pastel china goodness in my box.

I also get a little thrill looking through it every so often, knowing that one day it will be used regularly in my own house.

Would it be worth unpacking it all for a massive group photo? I must admit I feel tempted.

Marshmallow jam surprise cake

I needed a quick cake to bake last week and preferably girly. You can't get much girlier than marshmallows, jam and pink sprinkles can you?

The cake was actually baked for group of men. Does anyone else take great delight out of making something ridiculously girly for manly men?

A teacup full of mini marshmallows is a wonderful sight.

I used to avoid eating marshmallows. I could eat a couple but wouldn't go out of my way to eat them as they made me feel a bit funny. Then my mum told me that when I was 3 I ate so many marshmallows after my Grandad's funeral that I was sick! Suddenly it all made sense. They don't bother me now.

This is pretty much a bog standard sponge cake with some strawberry jam yet somehow the mixture was quite stiff when I turned it into the tin to bake. It's possible that I accidently put in too much flour as I wasn't paying full attention (that'll teach me to do "easy baking" whilst watching Once Upon A Time) but I couldn't be bothered to tip it back out to alter. It still produced a tasty cake, even though the jam dollops sunk to the bottom. The marshmallows and icing were insanely sweet but I think that's part of the cake's charm.

Marshmallow jam surprise cake

Recipe from Cakes Galore by Valerie Barett

125g soft margarine (I used unsalted butter as I didn't have margarine

125g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

2 eggs, beaten

2-3 tablespoons black cherry jam or any red jam of your choice

100g large marshmallows (I used mini marshmallows as that's what I had in the cupboard but large ones would probably look prettier on the cake.)

175g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and base line a deep 18cm round cake tin. Put the margarine, sugar, flour and eggs into a bowl and beat together until smooth and mixed. Spread half the mixture into the base of the prepared tin. Dot with the jam. Spread the remaining cake mixture evenly over the top. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.

While the cake is cooking, cut the marshmallows in half horizontally, using wetted scissors. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool the cake for about 15 minutes, then arrange the marshmallows, cut-side down, over the top of the warm cake (the cake needs to be warm enough for the cut sides of the marshmallows to melt slightly so that they stick to the cake.) Leave the cake until quite cold. Mix together the icing sugar and enough water in a bowl to marke a thick pouring consistency. Pour the icing over the cake and allow to run slightly down the sides. Serve in slices.

Perfectly peach

I came across a little stash of Grindley Peach Petalware last month in the charity shop. It was one of those situations where I was browsing the shop, thinking there was nothing, but then caught sight of a little cardboard box underneath a table.

It was a cardboard box of pink utility china wonders!

Pretty peach.

I really love the shape of the handle. It fits my finger perfectly making the cup really nice to drink from.

Five teacups and saucers, two large side plates (or twiffler plates?) a milk jug and a sugar bowl. For how much?

60p!

I have more new china to share soon so keep your eyes peeled fellow utility china fans!

Chocolate and vanilla marble cake and some cupcakes

Last Friday was spent baking with my two best friends. (How on earth did a week pass so quickly?!)Our bake-athons don't happen very often anymore, due to us being boring adults living in different places, but they are still fun when they do happen.

Apologies for the photo quality. These were all taken with my phone.

This is a classic compromise cake. Chocolate or vanilla? Both! Pink or chocolate icing? Both! Marshmallows, chocolate stars or Barbie sprinkles for decoration? CHUCK IT ALL ON!

We also baked some marshmallow cupcakes from the first Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. The melted marshmallow for the cupcake centre is the most unruly thing I've ever worked with. It was near impossible to put it inside the cupcake so we gave up after a four and put jam in the rest. Half the batch were finished with pink vanilla butter icing and marshmallows and the rest were covered with a layer of marzipan.

I love how it looks like a plain chocolate cake, but all is revealed when you cut into it.

There's always something exciting about a marble cake because you can never really predict how the marbled effect will turn out. Well, I find it exciting. Maybe I don't get out enough?(!)

We enjoyed a slice of cake each after dinner with a cuppa.

I enjoyed our marble cake so much that I made another one this week at home. Unfortunately it got devoured before my camera got anywhere near it.

Chocolate and vanilla marble cake

We used the one-weight method for our cake where the weight of the eggs are equal to the weight of the butter, sugar and self-raising flour . We used three eggs which weighed roughly 175g/6oz so that was our weight for everything else.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line two 7 inch tins. Creamed the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then gradually added the eggs and fold in the flour. Divide the mixture into two bowls, adding cocoa powder (to taste) to one half and a few drops of vanilla extract to the other half. Add a small amount of milk to the chocolate mixture to slacken it after adding the cocoa powder.  Haphazardly dollop the mixtures alternately into the two tins and bake them in the centre of the oven for roughly 20-25 minutes until springy to touch. Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Once cool, sandwich the sponges together with vanilla butter icing and ice the top layer with chocolate butter icing. Decorate with marshmallows, sprinkles or whatever you fancy!

Apple and raspberry cake

This cake came out the oven looking beautiful, but when I came back to it half an hour later the whole cake had deflated, the sides had almost buckled under themselves. This puzzled me as I had given it an extra 15-20 minutes baking time. It definitely wasn't under baked.

Despite the flatter than expected appearance, the cake had a lovely flavour and looked perfectly presentable with a dusting of icing sugar. The apples and raspberries gave a summery, juicy flavour and the yoghurt added a lovely smoothness. Everybody thought it was delicious and very fresh. I just wish it wasn't so.... soggy.

Although the recipe does say that it's a super moist cake, I can't help but wonder whether there's too much liquid in this cake. Perhaps it depends on the apples as they can ooze a lot of liquid? I shouldn't complain too much though, it did taste great.

On a separate topic, I bought new summer shoes from Tesco today. Check out my classy combination of coral flowery shoes, turquoise elephant socks and dusky pink trousers.

Surely the weather will warm up again so I can wear these without socks? I'm not too bothered though, I do love my Topshop socks :)

Apple and raspberry cake

Recipe from Cakes Galore, p.47, byValerie Barrett

150g unsalted butter, chopped

200g caster sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla essence (I use extract)

185g self-raising flour, sifted

185g vanilla-flavoured yoghurt (I used plain)

1 large apple, peeled, cored and grated

100g raspberries

Sifted icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line a 20cm deep, round cake tin. Beat the sugar and butter together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla essence. Add the flour, then the yoghurt, grated apple and raspberries and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the oven for 1 hour, or until golden and the centre of the cake springs back when lightly pressed (mine took an extra 15 minutes.) Leave in the tin for 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Lemon drizzle cake

I could wax lyrical about my love for lemon, but I'll refrain and show photographs instead.

I used duck eggs in this recipe and it produced the most amazingly yellow sponge. I loved the colour against the blue crockery; yellow and blue look so fresh together.

I didn't particularly intend to bake with lemons this week, but I had a slice of lemon curd cake in town last Saturday and soon found myself picking up a couple of lemons in the supermarket before heading home.

It's not a very flashy cake, but there is something very attractive about the humble lemon drizzle.

Crunchy top lemon cake (lemon drizzle)

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, page 72. Oh how I love that book.

100g (4oz) softened butter
175g (6oz) caster sugar
175g (6oz) self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
2 large eggs, beaten
4 tbsp milk
finely grated rind of 1 lemon

For the topping:
juice of 1 lemon
100g (4oz) caster or granulated sugar (I used granulated)

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. Grease an 18cm (7 in) deep round cake tin then line the base with baking parchment. Measure all the ingredients for the cake into a large bowl and beat for about 2 minutes until smooth and well blended (Hurray! The best kind of recipes!) Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface. Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the cake has shrunk slightly from the sides of the tin and springs back when lightly pressed with a finger (I think my cake took closer to 50 minutes.)

While the cake is baking make the crunchy topping. Measure the lemon juice and sugar into a bowl and stir until blended. When the cake comes out the oven, spread the lemon paste over the top while the cake is still hot (although I'm sure I read somewhere that it was best to leave the cake to cool slightly before adding the topping, so I waited 10 minutes before adding it.) Leave to cool completely in the tin, then turn out and peel off the parchment.