A plague of Mondays and a walnut cake

That is what they feel like, all those dreary little jobs to do on a Monday, letters to write, offices to call, grrrrrr - at least there was some respite to be had playing with my new chickens.

Three Orpingtons joined my flock on Sunday and very pretty they are too, they just need to settle in with my current girls and their man. To introduce new chickens which I tend to do every year because we always have a few that are destined to be for the freezer, I have a so far reliable method.

The first afternoon the new girls stay in the large dog cage where they can be seen by all the other birds, they get grain scattered in and around them so that they all have to eat together. They sleep separated for the first night. The second day they spend half the day still in the cage, but learning that the sound of grain rattling in a tin can brings them food - as well as a greedy audience to dine with them. They sleep separated for the second night. The third day the new girls are fed first so that they are not starving hungry and likely to fight for food, then the remainder of the birds are released to a mountain of grain so as to cut down on any fighting for food. And that's it....(touch wood) it has not failed me yet.

Now that Monday and the deluge of horrid little jobs is over, I can relax and get back to baking and sewing and other fun things.

Started today by edging my aida ready to start my cross stitch project for the winter, I usually edge with masking tape but have a cronic lack of it at the moment and it is just not on the shopping list so good old sticky tape (remember how hard Blue Peter presenters would have to work not to say the dreaded Sellotpe word?) will do.

And today's comfort food is Maple Walnut Tart.

pastry:     70g plain flour

70g wholewheat flour

pinch salt

100g cold butter cubed

1 egg yolk

2-3 tablespoons iced water to bind together

Rub the flour and butter together to form breadcrumbs then cut in the salt and the egg yolk, bind together with the water until you have a solid dough ball, then refridgerate for at least 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 220°C.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, work it as little as possible so that it stays very short, mine cracked apart when rolling and I just put in the dish and pressed the edges together so as not to warm it up too much. Prick the base all over and bake blind for 10 minutes, finish with a couple of minutes without the baking paper and baking beans to crisp the bottom up.

filling:     3 eggs

pinch salt

55g caster sugar

55g melted butter

250ml maple syrup or just use golden

115g chopped walnuts

Whisk together the eggs, salt and sugar, stir in the butter and the syrup.

Pour the filling into the case and sprinkle over the nuts. Bake on a tray for about 35 minutes until the filling has set.

I admit freely this cake is moreish - it is not the healthiest breakfast to have but the sugar hit with coffee is just the best start to a cold winter's morning I can think of. Probably a good job a good friend did not manage to convince to join an on line slimming club - I think that alone would be all my points for the day used up in one meal.

Vegetable cakes - Chocolate Beetroot Brownie takes on Green Tomato Cake

Carrot cake is of course a given, but this year with my domestic goddess cap pulled firmly down on my forehead I am experimenting with other exciting sweet veggie cake options.

In the blue corner, the defending title holder, - Chocolate Beetroot Brownie, and the new contender for the title, in the red corner - Green Tomato Cake.

Chocolate Beetroot Brownie

Preheat the oven to 180°C, and in an oven dish place 250g of quality cooking chocolate, I use a mix of milk and dark patissiere chocolate, and 250g of unsalted diced butter.  Put the dish in the oven to melt the chocolate and butter rather than wasting energy using a double boiler on the hob.


Whisk together 3 eggs and 250g of sugar, add a teaspoon of vanilla extract then the melted gooey chocolate and stir together.

Add 300g of cooked beetroots after whizzing them into a puree in a food processor - you could grate them but it depends on how keen you are on pink fingers for days afterwards.

Into the mixture sift 100g of self raising flour, a pinch of salt and 25g of cocoa powder, fold a few times but don't over work as this can make your brownies a bit tough.

Then bake for 20 minutes, checking with a skewer before taking out of the oven (insert a skewer and it should come out clean without chocolatey goo on it when the cake is cooked).

Leave in the tin to cool fully before turning out onto a wire rack.

TOP TIP - leave the chocolatey mess lying around and little fingers come and clean it for you.

Green Tomato Cake

In a large mixing bowl beat together until smooth:

2 1/4 cups of sugar

1 cup veg oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Into the mixture sift:

3 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg (optional - I detest it so I don't use it but it was part of the original recipe)

Beat the mixture together creating a stiff cake dough.

Add:

1 cup of pecans or walnuts (I actually used almonds because the walnuts are not ready for picking yet)
1 cup raisins
2 1/2 cups of chopped green tomatoes

Pour the mixture into a greased cake tin - springform if you have one.

Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut, and bake at 180°C for 1 hour.

Righto - off to tend to my green tomato and ham soup - recipe to follow......

Standing on ladders in jammies and wellies

Early morning mist after the first real frost of the autumnal season found me clambering up a ladder precariously balanced against the ivy covered trunk of the plum tree in a last attempt to get the few fruit left right on the edges of the thinest highest branches.

Of course the neighbour drove past at that point and of course he stopped to offer his advice.

I mean honestly, clad in my Mickey Mouse jammies, half way up a ladder, in Thea's wellies - did I look like I needed advice?

Plum Cake (with some added blackberries because they were there)


90g softened butter
90g sugar
pinch of salt
teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder/levure chimique
750g soft fruit

Preheat the oven to 200°C and grease and flour a pie dish.

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the vanilla, salt and eggs, then sift in the flour and baking powder gradually, whisking continuously.

Spoon out the thick cake mixture into the dish and press your fruit of choice gently into the top, aprictos, cherries and halved peaches all work really well in this, just use whatever fruit you have to hand and in season.

Bake in the oven until golden on top for about 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool, or alternatively - once again, drive like mad to the place you have been invited to with the hot cake on the back seat of the car and present to your hosts still in its dish, then hope that they will be so entranced with the flavour that they won't notice the unorthodox presentation.

I am a domestic goddes I am - no really I am. I AM!

I made a cake to prove it too!

Not that anyone actually wants to eat it (altogether now "ahhhhhhhhhhhh").

Why don't they want to eat it I hear you proclaim, it looks all lovely and risen and moist and yummy and scrummy and all things nice?

Well I'll tell you why no-one wants to eat it (the ungrateful so and so's), it's because it is a courgette cake.

Yes that's right - the scourge of the glut harvest, courgettes rear their ugly heads again.  The courgette bread my family could cope with but they seem to feel that cake is taking it one step beyond.

In fact Brendan went to extremes to declare that courgette cake was just 'wrong' 'wrong' 'wrong' and thrice 'wrong'.

But just in case you feel differently, here's the recipe anyway.

Chocolate and Courgette Cake

350g self raising flour

175g melted cooking chocolate

1 teaspoon mixed spice or cinnamon if you don't have mixed spice

175ml olive oil

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

150g chopped mixed nuts

Melt the chocolate in a pan, grate the courgettes and whisk the eggs and oil together  - obviously if you are a domestic goddess like me you can do all three simultaneously.

Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl with a spatula - no need for electric gadgetry for this if you are a domestic goddess like me.

Grease a springform cake tin or a large loaf tin, pour in the mixture and cook at 180°c for about 40 to 50 minutes - if you are a domestic goddess like me you will know automatically when the cake is ready to take out of the oven, if you are not a domestic goddess like me, stick a metal skewer in it and if it comes out clean the cake is ready.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep (and a fat free cake recipe)

A bunch of new arrivals, 10 lovely little yellow chicks.

Yum yum for my tum - new arrivals means a cull of the older birds - the current count is 6 rabbits, 4 ducks, 4 chickens due to go in the freezer - just waiting for the rain to ease off.

With an early start this morning, I though I would get ahead of the game and have another go at making a cake for us to munch for elevenses.

This time I managed to remember not to try to turn it out before it had cooled and so managed to successfully keep the centre in the cake.

Citrus Fat Free Cake

150g of natural yoghurt
2 beaten eggs
225g caster sugar
orange zest and freshly squeezed juice from one half - or lemon or satsuma or grapefruit or whatever you have - a squeeze of prepared lemon juice in one of those plastic things will do at a push
225g self raising flour - if baking in France I use the Farine Fluide with a sachet of baking powder (leveur chimique - I don't use the Gateaux flour as I find this makes a heavier cake albeit that it is more crumbly)

As I make mine in the bread machine and mine has a cake setting it is very easy, throw in the wet ingredients, then the dry with the raising agent if using it last of all, then let it bake for the preset time.

If making in a conventional oven preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, butter then flour a bread tin, combine the wet ingredients with sifted flour until you have a wet runny lump free mix, pour into the tin and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.

Just what we needed with a cup of coffee when we got back in this morning.