Lazy cake posting!

To save time as time has passed... and I hope the organiser does not object - easy to delete if so - I report her report on the CCC that I managed to get to in April when I had missed February and November.  All the cakes contained alcohol but it was difficult to detect!   Various portions of cakes came home for the freezer and are almost gone!  They were delicious. Yum Yum but not good for my tum. Increasingly, I am avoiding wheat and some grains that make diverticulosis unhappy!  One colonoscopy experience is more than enough.  After 40 + years, when I have on about six occasions found myself in hospital, unable to function, I am increasingly aware of my food intake!

It never ceases to amaze me about not only the quality OF the taste of the cake but moreover the shape, design, flavourings, ingredients, decoration and more.   EVEN more fun is the STORY that comes with the cake from its baker.  I really would have liked our club to have collated recipes for the cakes. I think it would have made a very good publishable book...

NOT TOO LATE Jean!

Cakes and ill health but now I am betterererer

The recent E-coli UT infection, which I believe I have had for six months, trying to cure naturally, prevented me from going to the CCC.  Damn it!

My first cake baked in my newly second hand oven was not the "Love is in the air" themed planned recipe. HOWEVER I will make it for the next guest!  That'll be a laugh!!!!!!!! (in-joke!)

My first cake baked in my splendid gifted but paid for oven was a Lemon Drizzle cake without icing to share with my friend who likes low sugar products and hardly eats cakes.  I wanted and needed to bake once that course of antibiotics had given me more energy by hopefully wiping out the infection. I am being monitored!

So... cake it was ... butter, sugar, 4 eggs, ground almonds and hazelnuts, maize flour, (the recipe said cornmeal and I got that wrong thankfully!!!) drenched in lemon zest and juice.. nice with  freshly sliced pear...improving with age whilst kept wrapped in the refrigerator!   I AM VERY HAPPY WITH MY OVEN!!!!!

Since then I have baked a baby chicken, roasted stuffed red peppers with fennel, roasted veg including a new one for me roasted broccoli and made jacket potatoes...I need English potatoes please!!!

July Cake Event from my Perspective

I didn't fancy making a NOVELTY Cake or even a Party Cake when the theme became modified. So I made a pun of it!  The first tea cake I made was a disaster and me thinks I binned the photo. I made a layered sponge with Japanese Green Tea powder.  The oven wasn't on the HOT mode that it usually is and anything on the dial below that is very unreliable, so in actual fact the thin layers of sponge were not baked and when cold were nasty grey, and decidedly rubbery. Ooh and that was a six egg mixture!  Following that disaster, whilst others were in the kitchen sanding down the walls etc and whilst the contents of the room were in my Grand Salon and the only kitchen sink providing accessible cold water was in the outhouse, (laundry room inaccessible due to workmen in the kitchen as aforesaid creating dust!) I attempted to follow an Earl Grey Tea cake internet recipe.   It was OK but very dry... I didn't follow the icing part exactly as I was pressed (an understatement) and did not sandwich the cake with something moist. I noticed it didn't have any yummy factor with the tasters and I took 3/4 of it home!  (it increased its flavour after a few days and made a great scone with jam and cream!)
At the Clandestine Cake Club each cake DOES have to be presented before anyone uses a knife,  so I displayed the NOVEL about Living in France "Bon Courage" ('cos I needed it) with a PLUS symbol followed by the Chocolate and Lavender iced Earl Grey Tea Cake on the stand... and hey ho we had a "NOVEL TEA CAKE!!"  I obviously need to emphasise the pun!!!
Best to go here if you wish to see pics of all the other wonderful Novelty and Party Cakes and to read a very good and funny report of the event!
These are some of my better photos:

I loved the stories behind the makings and designs of  all the cakes: 2CV, Pina Colada Cup Cake as well as the animal cakes (hedgehog, dog, fish, butterfly, caterpillar), not to mention the French themed Honeymoon influenced Eiffel Cake complete with Champagne tops! The speakers, the bakers grow in confidence in telling a tale!

Vintage Cakes at the CCC

I think baking standards rise. The organisation and hosts were again cool, calm and welcoming. Their efforts to make these afternoons such a treat is very much appreciated!  It seems to be more fun and we seem to be less inhibited about our baking efforts - certainly it is not a competition though there may be some light-hearted competitive spirit!  In fact it can be quite fun when someone else makes the same cake and one confers and compares.  Folk gathered round the table sampling and chattering, so no one really sat outside to relax in the afternoon sunshine. All too soon the bell rang to signal the end of the session and so it was time to take a choice of cakes home.
For me: Austrian Sachertorte was fudgyyummy, Brandenburg was exquisitely engineered, Coffee Walnut was excellent.

I loved the 'better than my grandmother's bread and butter pudding' which was always served as a cake, the jammily filled Swiss rolls and Parkin is always such a treat.

N. made a Caraway Seed cake too so we stood and compared the two. His was more orangey with the Cognac. He could taste the butter in mine. Other than that they taste the same to me. Maybe his was more pointy because of the s.r. flour whereas I used plain and added baking powder. I am uncertain.  We each added about the same amount of Carvi (= Caraway).  I also made a completely gluten free version.

Then there was a Strawberry Cake to die for, an Old Grumpy Aunty Fruit Cake, a moist Carrot cake, another cake of which the description I have forgotten, a Pineapple Upside Down Sandwich cake and a Victoria Sandwich.

17 cakes evidently!

It took a long time to get the photos in this format but not the same as the editorial format. I went into HTML to try and space them in the preferred position but methinks I need a tutorial!

Whilst trying to present a decent posting I was wondering why I spend so much time at it when there are other things in life!!! ... and when I am not getting on with essentials!!!
A: I do it for me as I like being a kind of journalist! It is creative. Creativity is important to my happiness.

A cake designed to keep lovers together...

Caraway seeds (not exactly a seed but a fruit comprised of crescent shaped achenes)  are, according to folk lore, designed to keep lovers together, or to prevent the theft of any object, including one supposes that hearts are not stolen and fidelity is guarded!

It is the CCC today.  I missed the April event but realistically was too busy with family visits and imminent travel.

The theme this month is VINTAGE cakes.  My first thought was Caraway Seed cake so didn't bother thinking what else I could make.  I wasn't prepared to fuss about with Brandenburg or Angel Layer Cake which I made many years ago.  I'd made gingerbread but not yet a fruit cake for CCC!

So... this Old Fashioned Lovers Seed Cake would be just the ticket! It would be interesting as I had not made one for maybe thirty or forty years!  Thanks to the wonderful web I learned a great deal, some of which I once knew but had forgotten.  Ah... caraway ... wasn't that in the medication we used to give as a colic treatment to babes in the 1970s?  It certainly had that taste! Caraway belongs to the Umbelliferae family and is related to cumin, fennel and anise.
These are three websites that give
1. good recipes including a gorgeous recipe for Courgette and Caraway Seed cake... very Modern!!!  2. good botanical information....  and 
3. good encyclopaedic info all for caraway seeds.

I think it must be the next superfood as evidently it is rich in

- minerals including magnesium, calcium, potassium, selenium and zinc, 

- vitamins A E C and B 

- anti-oxidants,

They are a rich source of fibre and can bind toxins together to protect (not cure!) colon mucus membranes from cancers and lower cholesterol levels.

They can be used as a cold remedy or for bronchitis,

for bad breath as a mouth wash

and assist digestive problems such as IBS and as an anti flatulent!

So… a good little seed it is….

Here is my recipe for a "Vintage Old Fashioned Lovers Caraway Seed Cake":

Cream 175g margarine or butter with 175g sugar. Whisk 3 eggs separately then mix into the creamed mixture, with 200g flour, 50g ground almonds, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 2 teaspoons caraway seeds.  Bake in oven about 160C for apx an hour.  Ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Yesterday
I had a baking afternoon as I needed a cake for today,  plus a gluten free version for a coeliac and one for me, (lower three in the pic)  a fruit cake to donate to and express my gratitude to the neighbour who mowed my long grass (on the board),  a fruit cake (in foil to be gifted to a friend) and a fruit cake for 'I know a man who can' (on the plate). He is arriving in one week's time to help me renovate the kitchen  which is very 1980s. VINTAGE is not the word!  Yikes company coming!

easy peasy orangey or lemony cake

I have been meaning to post this recipe... adapt it as you wish

375g clementines or 3 citrus fruits!
I also tried it with leftover wintry wrinkling lemons and limes but it was an acquired taste!
6 large eggs
225g sugar
250g ground almonds
1 teaspoonful baking powder

Cook for apx two hours the orange fruit in boiling water.  Drain and cool. Cut each in half and remove the pips. Blitz the fruit to a pulp in a food processor...add to all the other ingredients. Pour into a prepped greased 21cm springform cake tin or whatever cake tins you have.  Bake for apx an hour about 190C... maybe you have to cover it with greaseproof paper or foil to prevent the top from burning or lower the temperature ... you know your oven!....
An inserted skewer comes out clean when you test if it has finished baking.
Leave to cool before eating.
Nice the day after it has been baked.
Can be iced.
Can be served with custard, cream or ice cream!
Can be frozen.

Ah-mund-buns

Last week I baked little cakes for little people with this recipe doubled:
Almond Buns
180g caster sugar and the same of butter beaten together until creamy then 4 eggs whipped in with 80g flour and a sprinkle of baking powder plus 150g ground almonds.  You could do 230g ground almonds for gluten free!  Then mix in more or less 100g marzipan cut into small lumps. Add milk if necessary. Beat well. Spoon into cases and add whatever dried fruits you have. Unfortunately I didn't have any blueberries / bilberries / myrtilles and I wasn't sure if the kiddies liked ginger, so I used expensive dried raspberries and mini-smarties! mmmmmmmmmmmmm but avoided M&Ms a fave of mine! Peanuts!  Bake, 180C,  but my oven is just HOT... one stat without a timer...  hence one batch got double baked as I gave the buns just a few more minutes (ahem) forgetting they were on the bottom shelf!!!!!!!!!!!! Their daddy said,  after I had cut off the paper and we were all enjoying the twice baked cakes, they would be good with custard. I agree! But then they were gone!

Mix up the mixture

Spoon into pretty baking cases

Decorate with crystallised raspberries and smarties

or cranberries

Four of the not baked twice buns gifted to each twin

My-made cards for twins

We played Connect, magnetic shapes, Kerplunk bees in the tree...drank copious cups of tea.

Book Review: The Sea Change

by Elizabeth Jane Howard was tricky to get into as each chapter was divided into the four characters speaking from their own perspective...I very much enjoyed it and romped through the last several chapters. This was an orange Penguin edition number1752.  Towards the end I wondered how much of it was a reflection of the experiences of the author!  The novel explores emotions of those who lose parents when they were small, so feelings of abandonment, rejection and bereavement.

Daily life review: Two consecutive days to attend two funerals... senior residents of the village... one had died immediately on contact with the ground a tragic fall from a height... he shouldn't have been where he was at his age!) another who had been housebound for many years finally succumbed. VERY SAD. She once owned my house.  It was interesting to see into a vault and not as macabre as I suspected... all very automatic with the French as we processed to the daughter and family to offer our sentiments.  I don't wish to be laid in the earth! Scatter me amidst the ocean!  Meanwhile I must "Seize the day for the end will come."

On a happier note it was a delight to see a child aged six who believes he will never have wrinkles  tuck into a Superheroes themed birthday cake.  I didn't see the one he took to school!  I couldn't unravel the licorice spirals, which were bought to make a spider web design, nor did I wish to make red icing with additives. A paper image sufficed for cake decoration!  He was chuffed!  I bought Smarties, surprised at how few red ones there were and how few blue ones.... the most common colours were green, yellow and orange.  Fatal to have Smarties or M&Ms available in my house!  Pure sugar. I prefer 70-80% dark chocolate with my morning coffee! The price of a Superheroes magazine containing small toy in a cellophane packet was another surprise, but a lot less than a packet of superheroes type Lego or other toy!  It all seems so outrageous - more than I try to spend on my weekly wine pleasure!   His face was a picture and impressed that I had made it just for him... though we all ate a slice!

Autumn Clandestine Cake Club

There were some delicious cakes!  Plums, Walnuts, Apples, Hazelnuts, Ginger, Chocolate, Coffee, Coconut, Dried Fruits, Pumpkin...and sponges representing a pumpkin and a coffin for the eve of All Saints day, all beautifully presented and tasting delicious! But no courgette or carrot cakes. It was all  good fun! What would you have made?

But 

Banana, walnut and ground almond cake

made for a friend far away...

th

Walnuts from different roadside trees

then another was made for the Clandestine Cake Club with the addition of pears and ginger but somehow it was not as good as the first! Too dry!