| Page 4

Blogmas Day Seventeen: Ginger Cakes in Jars

honeyanddough

December 17, 2015

I refreshed this post from my old blog. Mainly because it’s a brilliant, lazy and easy way to make, store and transport cakes. You don’t even need to wash up your cake tins and the batter is made in a saucepan.

Ingredients
125gr butter
125gr soft brown sugar
125gr black treacle
150ml milk
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp mixed spice
190gr self raising flour

Method
1, Preheat your oven to 160 o/c. Get two clean 1 pint canning jars and spread a thin layer of cake release around each one. Place them on a baking sheet so they are ready for the batter.
2, In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter, sugar and treacle together. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a couple of minutes.
3, Add in the milk, egg and vanilla extract and beat well. Sift in the rest of the ingredients and then fold it all in until you have a smooth, lump free batter.
4, Divide this equally between the prepared jars, it should fill just about half way in each.

5, Bake for 35-45minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
6, The cakes will stay hot for a long time after coming out of the oven. I like to pour a little homemade ginger syrup over them and cap them with a sterilised canning lid. Or you can leave them until they are just warm, scoop on ice cream, grab a spoon and go to town. I won’t judge you. Ever.

Blogmas Day Fifteen: Cranberry Soda

honeyanddough

4 comments

December 15, 2015

I stopped drinking Diet Coke. It was a pretty brutal detox. I miss fizzy drinks though and full sugar drinks are just way too sweet. This is my compromise at the moment.

Ingredients
150gr fresh cranberries
250ml water
40gr caster sugar

Method
1, Put the cranberries in a small saucepan with the water and simmer, very gently until the cranberries are soft.
2, Transfer into a blender and blitz until smooth.
3, Pass this through a sieve to get rid of the skins and seeds and transfer back into a clean saucepan. Add in the sugar and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
4, Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely before mixing with soda water. Serve with ice.

Blogmas Day Fourteen: Stilton & Cocoa Nib Scones

honeyanddough

1 comment

December 14, 2015

I love that part of Christmas where you just start eating food at weird times of the day. I’m talking about the mince pie, cheese and champagne breakfasts. The perfect acceptable piece of Christmas cake at 3pm, despite the fact you’ve just hoovered up a leftovers sandwich. Midnight bubble and squeak sessions that inevitably happen because you’re probably a bit squiffy from stating your day drinking.

Stilton isn’t typically a breakfast thing but if we put it in scones then maybe we could pass it off as brunch?

Cocoa nibs add that nutty and slightly bitter aspect to fend off some of that stilton richness.

Ingredients
250gr self raising flour
Pinch of salt and coarsely ground black pepper
50gr butter
125gr blue stilton
2 level tbsp of cocoa nibs
150ml milk

Method
1, Preheat your oven to 200 o/c and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
2, Place the flour and butter into a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and mix until you have a fine breadcrumb consistency. This is a lazy way of rubbing butter into flour.
3, Add in the stilton and cocoa nibs, and turn the mixer onto the slowest setting. Slowly pour in the milk until it starts to form a ball. You don;t want the dough to be sticky so might not need all of the milk, add it in slowly.
4, Form the dough into a flat disc, around 6 inches round. Cut into six even segments and place them onto your prepared baking sheet, leaving a gap between each one.
5, Bake for 20-25minutes until golden brown.