Egg free chocolate cake

An absolute delight this one, its rich, dark and very chocolaty. You would never guess that its egg free and dairy free! Just a bit more washing up to do, but always worth it…

ingredients
650ml (22fl oz) boiling water
115g (4oz) creamed coconut
50g (2oz) cocoa powder
400g (14oz) self-raising flour
1 x tsp baking powder
large pinch of salt
225g (8oz) light soft brown sugar
200ml (7 fl oz) sunflower oil
a couple of handfuls of desiccated coconut (optional)
dark chocolate broken into chunks (optional)


method
Pour the boiling water over the coconut and stir until it dissolves. Cool
Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix with the sugar. Make a well in the middle, then pour the oil and coconut mix. Beat everything together to make a smooth batter. Add a handful of desiccated coconut if you like it, and break up a handful of dark chocolate and add chunks. mix.

Pour the mix into a greased and lined 3 pint loaf tin, and if you like coconut, sprinkle another handful of desiccated coconut over the top.. and bake at 180o/350oF/gas mark 4 for 1 and a quarter hours (unless you have a really knackered oven like me, in which case it maybe half an hour longer!) You will know its ready when its well risen and just firm to the touch. (the first time I baked this it was slightly underdone, and was more like a hot pudding, it was delicious with custard/cream/icecream!) Leave to cool in the tin, for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

An ancient illustration, found in an old sketch book © Lois Blackburn www.loisblackburn.co.uk

Rice pudding

A taste of childhood… but actually better than I remember! It’s so easy to make, lovely with cows milk or soya milk. Try different flavourings and extra’s such as adding raisons, or almonds, or using it as a bed for poached fruit. There are many variations on the rice pudding recipes, but this is a great one to start with…

Ingredients

200g (7oz) Italian risotto or pudding rice or sticky rice
350ml (12oz) water
up to 1 litre (1 three quarter pints) milk (or soya)
175g (6oz) sugar or to taste
zest of half a lemon (optional)
vanilla essence (optional)

method

put the rice in a large pot with the water. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered for about 5-6mins, or until the water is absorbed. Keep an eye on it, and stir so that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add half to three quarters of the milk, bring to the boil and simmer on a very low heat for 30-40 mins, or until the rice is very soft and the milk almost absorbed (if this happens to quickly add the rest of the milk) stirring occasionally so the rice doesn’t stick. Stir in the sugar and the lemon zest and a vanilla essence to taste. Cook for a few mins longer. Serve hot or cold.

Illustration © Lois Blackburn please visit www.loisblackburn.co.uk for more.

Fruit pie

Pies = a little bit of heaven


And at this time of the year, can cost next to nothing. With blackberries to pick and apples in season to scrumpy (or ask nicely for from a friendly neighbour)
Here’s a recipe for you to play with what ever fruit is in session… blackberry and apple like me, or apple, raisins and cinnamon or rhubarb and lemon…. The list goes on..

Ingredients

6oz short crust pastry (make your own for economy, or cheat like me and get it out of the freezer)
1 and half lb of fresh fruit
4 oz sugar

method

place the fruit in a pie dish with sugar spread on each layer, finish with a layer of fruit piled high in the middle, add a little water, cover with pastry.
Bake just above centre in a hot oven (425o-450oF) gas mark 6-7 for 15 mins, then lower the temp a little for about 20mins until the fruit is cooked. Dredge with sugar and serve hot or cold… with custard, with icecream, with cream, with a cup of tea, the choose is yours.

Today’s illustration © Lois Blackburn. www.loisblackburn.co.uk for more.

Flapjack

Flapjacks are so easy, tasty, filling and of course economical..Here’s a good basic recipe for you to try. If you fancy you can add extra’s, and loose the orange rind..I like a few spoons on mince meat (if you have any lurking at the back of the fridge like me- left over from last Christmas! Its still in date I promise) or dried fruit, such as apricots or dates, just cook them lightly in a bit of water or fruit juice, then add in a layer or just mix with the rest of the ingredients.. don’t be tempted to overcook flapjacks, they’ll turn crisp and dry and loose their chewy texture.

Ingredients for around 18
1 cup of unsalted butter (or marg)
Finely grated rind of large orange
Two thirds cup of golden syrup
Half a cup of light muscovado sugar (brown)
3 and quarter cups of oats

method

1.preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/gas mark 4. Line the base and sides of a 28 x 20cm /11 x 8inc shallow baking tin, with baking parchment
2. put the butter, orange rind, syrup and sugar in a large pan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
3. add the oats to the pan and stir thoroughly, tip the mixture into the tin and spread to an even layer
4. bake for 15-20 mins, until colouring at the edges, it will be soft in the tin, but hardens when cool. Leave in tin to cool
5. lift the flapjack out of the tin in one piece and cut into your choice of shape.

Today’s illustration ‘Tala measuring jug’ © Lois Blackburn, www.loisblackburn.co.uk for more

Bread and Butter Pudding

And while we’re on bread puddings, I thought I better add my old favourite (sadly not anymore, with all those eggs and milk and butter) here’s the basic to play around with to your hearts content. Leave it as it is, or add marmalade, or apricot jam, or slides of orange, or pieces of chocolate, or……

Ingredients:
5 or 6 thin slices of bread and butter
1 pint of milk
2 eggs
1 dessert spoon of sugar
sultanas, currents, or candied lemon

method:
cut of the crusts and divide each slice into 4 squares, arrange them in layers in a well-greased pie dish and sprinkle each layer with sultanas or whatever is being used. Beat the eggs, and the add the sugar, stir until dissolved, then mix in the milk and pour gently over the bread, which should only half fill the dish. Let it stand at least an hour for the bread to soak, then bake in a moderately cool oven for nearly 1 hour.
Sufficient for 4 or 5 people

Today’s illustration ‘toast’ © Lois Blackburn, please visit www.loisblackburn.co.uk to see more work.

Bread pudding

A friend of mine just asked if I have a recipe for bread pudding, although I have made lots of bread and butter puddings in my life, I’ve never made a bread pudding. Curious to find out more, I turned to my trusty “Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cookery’ (an absolute gem of a cookery book and the basis for many an economical delicious dish) and here follows the recipe…. A great way of using up any remnants of bread..

Bread pudding, baked.

Ingredients:
8oz of stale bread
4oz of raisins or currents
2oz of finely shredded suet (you can get vegi versions of suet, or I’m guessing you could use butter)
2oz of sugar
1 egg
a little milk
a good pinch of nutmeg

Method:

Break the bread into small pieces, cover them with cold water, soak for half an hour, then strain and squeeze dry. Beat out all the lumps with a fork, and stir in the sugar, suet, raisins, nutmeg and mix well. Add the egg, previously beaten, and as much milk as necessary to make the mixture moist enough to drop readily from the spoon. Pour into a greased pie-dish and bake gently for about 1 hour. When done, turn out on to a dish, and dredge well with sugar. Sufficient for about 5 or 6 people.

Today’s illustration ‘toast’ © Lois Blackburn, please visit www.loisblackburn.co.uk to see more work.

whinberry, (whinberry, bilberry) muffins

Oh what beauties we found on our walk today. Dark blue/purple plump little berries, also known as Black Whortleberry, Burren Myrtle, Dyeberry, Huckleberry, Whortleberry...free food, great fun to pick, all the children helped, eat and dyed their fingers pinky purple. Here's a recipe to show them off..

makes 8

115g/4oz/1 cup plain flour
15ml/1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
65g/2half oz/half cup of soft light brown sugar
1 egg
175ml/6fl oz/3quarter cup milk
45ml/3 tbsp veg oil
10ml/2tsp ground cinnamon
150g/5oz/1 and quarter cups whinberries

1. Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas mark 5. Grease eight (or more) muffin tins.
2. with an electric mixer, beat together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, egg, milk, veg oil and cinnamon until smooth.
3. fold the whinberries into the flour mix
4. spoon the mixture into the prepared tins, filling them about two thirds full. Bake for 25 mins, or till golden brown
5. leave to cool in the tins for 10 mins, then transfer the buns to wire rack to cool completely.

Todays illustration is 'whinberry'© Lois Blackburn, www.loisblackburn.co.uk

Meringue

Its got to be one of the sweetist, cheapest pudding bases....For that Eton Mess, or for Pavlova, or with icecream, or.....

2 egg whites
100grams golden caster sugar
quarter teaspoon of baking powder

Preheat the oven to gas mark 2/150 degrees C
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
Whisk the egg whites until they reach soft peaks.
Beat into the egg whites the sugar a tbs at a time, whisking for 30sec between each spoonful.
Add the baking powder, whisk until consistency of shaving foam.
Spoon, pipe or use a spatula to spread the meringue mix onto the baking sheet.
Bob the meringue mix into the oven and immediately turn the oven down to gas mark 1 or 140 degrees C.
Bake for 2 hours, don’t be tempted to open the oven after the 2 hours, but instead turn the oven off and leave the meringue inside it, until the oven and it are completely cool. (easiest just to leave it overnight)
You should end up with a delicious, sweet meringue, crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle.

raspberry Eaton Mess

I made those fantastic raspberries that I gathered on the local walk into a delicious Eaton Mess. It’s traditionally made with strawberries, but if you love raspberries like me, you’ll love this version. Oh and its economical to! Home made meringue simple and very cheap to make, there's a recipe for them in the next posting.. and those raspberries didn’t cost me a shilling…

1. make your meringue the night before
2. Whip up some cream, to a light peak
3. lightly fold the fruit and the meringue into the cream
4. serve

a lovely addition is raspberry puree poured over or around the finished mess:
about 450g of raspberries to 50g of icing sugar. Throw the raspberries and icing sugar in a blender, blitz. Then push through a sieve.

free raspberries

I'm very excited, on my walk yesterday I found a hord of wild raspberries! bushes and bushes of them. When we moved into the area, a local man explained that the raspberries where originally planted by the railway men at strategic points along the train track (now turned into walking/cycling/horse trail.)

Not only that but the winberries (Bilberry, whinberry) are out (more about them another day) so with a carton of the raspberry beautys, just got to decide whether its going to be Eaton Mess, Raspberry Fool, raspberry pavlova, or raspberry icecream...

The best chocolate cake

I’ve had to think long and hard whether to share this one, as its one of those precious family recipes. My sister Nicky brought it back from school many years ago, since then its been made (and adapted) by every member of the family for every occasion whether: birthdays, celebrations, commiserations or family get together. So I hope I don’t ruffle to many family feathers…

Sieve together 7oz self raising flour, 8oz caster sugar, and 4 tbs coco powder.
Mix with 4oz marg, mix it up in the air to make light mix.
Beat 2 eggs with 5tbs evaporated milk, add to the mixture.
Mix 5tbs water (or less, see the texture of the mixture- you want it quite loose)
Cook in two cake tins, in a medium oven for 35 mins.

Then my favourite bit of the cake, the icing:
Sieve together 3 and a half tbs coco powder with 8oz of icing powder. Mix with 2 and half oz marg. Mix with a little milk that’s been boiled and cooled. (or a little left over evaporated milk) Use the mix immediately otherwise it will set. Expect a fight over whose going to lick the spoon and bowl.

Today’s illustration is a silk painting ‘cocoa’ © Lois Blackburn. Please visit http://www.loisblackburn.co.uk for more images.