No bobbing about for Toffee Apple Cake

Toffee Apple Cake

With the nights drawing in, I've been thinking about Autumn recipes. What about a Toffee Apple Cake? I created this easy recipe based on Grandma’s recipes. It's a great treat for Halloween or Bonfire Night and a scrumptious cake for Apple Day on 21 October.

Toffee Apple Cake

175g/6 oz caster sugar

2 tbs water

2 large or 3 small apples (peeled, cored and thinly sliced)

1 orange (zest and juice)

2 tsps cinnamon

225g/8oz butter

300g/11 oz soft brown sugar

3 eggs (beaten)

175g/6oz self raising flour (sifted)

½ tsp baking powder

Line a 20cms/8 inch cake tin with a cake liner or greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan)/350F/Mark 4. Place the caster sugar and water in a pan over a high heat and cook until the sugar has melted and is turning light brown – do not stir. Pour the mixture into the cake tin to cover the base. 

Arrange the apple slices on top of this and sprinkle with the cinnamon and half of the orange zest. 

Cream 175g/6oz butter, 175g/6oz soft brown sugar in a bowl and add the eggs gradually. Then stir in the flour and baking powder, orange juice of half the orange and remaining orange zest. Spread this mixture over the apples and bake for around 45 -50 minutes. 

Turn the cake out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.  Melt the remaining butter and soft brown sugar in a pan, and whisk in the remaining orange juice.  Pour the mixture over the top of the apples and allow to cool.

Meryl's tip :  Serve with crème fraiche, cream, ice cream or custard. 

I hope you like my Toffee Apple Cake. 

Let me know what you think? 

Grandma’s healthy baking options

Mens sana in corpore sano

There’s no way that I would claim to be a healthy eating expert but Grandma did leave us sound advice about eating healthily.  I did a talk the other week for a Patients’ Participation group at a local GPs practice. Since using less sugar is the advice today, it’s worth remembering that Grandma often enhanced the flavour of her baking with natural spices. She would use much less sugar than many modern recipes. Here’s a recipe where you could leave the sugar out altogether as the dried fruit and spices create a tasty cake.

Wholemeal Farmhouse Loaf

4 oz/110g self raising flour

4 oz/110g wholemeal flour

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

2 oz/50g soft brown sugar (optional)

4 oz/110g butter

2 eggs

5 tbsps milk

12 oz/340g mixed dried fruit (e.g. sultanas, raisins, currants)

Sift the flours into a bowl with the spices.  Add the sugar (optional). Rub in the fat until the mixture has a crumbly consistency. You can do this in a food mixer. Beat the eggs and milk together, add to the bowl and mix well. Then add the dried fruit, using a little more milk if necessary to give a fairly soft consistency. Put into a well greased 1lb/450g loaf tin. Bake in a preheated moderate oven at 180C (Fan Oven 160C), Mark 4, 350F for approximately 1 to 1¼ hours.

Meryl’s tip : This is a very easy recipe which can be served on its own or as a teabread with butter. It makes a great snack and keeps well.

Back at the  Patients’ group, I talked about how Grandma had baked in times of shortage. I showed them food charts from times of rationing and the poster campaigns to Dig for Victory when foods were often hard to come by. Grandma always used gluts of fruit and vegetables in season to make succulent jams and chutneys as well as fruit pies (no added sugar) and puddings. 

I’ve been trying out more recipes for cakes and biscuits with reduced sugar content. Here are some ideas :

 Kathleen's Apple and Nut Tealoaf

Spiced Lemon and WalnutBake

 Home made mincemeat

Be sweetwithout the sugar

And, as the Latin poet Juvenal said ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ – sharing a cup of tea and a piece of homemade cake is therapy itself. The group agreed we should enjoy a homemade treat now and again - it's the portion size which matters! What do you think?

My favourite Apricot Jam

Out of all the jams I’ve ever made, my favourite is homemade Apricot Jam. It’s such a useful jam as a glaze or seal between layers of cakes. Now we get apricots on the local market in summer, I can’t resist buying enough to make a few pots. Here’s Grandma’s easy recipe and it sets well. I made this batch in under an hour.  

Apricot Jam

 Approximately 1 lb (450g) (caster or jam) sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice 

¼ pint water for each 1lb (450g) of fruit.

 Wash the fruit, remove the stones and cut into quarters. Crack open about 3-4 of the stones to remove the kernels. Blanch these in a small pan of boiling water for about 2 minutes. Place the fruit, blanched kernels, lemon juice and water in a jam pan or a large heavy saucepan. Simmer for approximately 20 minutes, or until the apricots are softening. Remove the kernels with a slotted spoon, once they have risen to the surface. Add the sugar and continue to heat gently, stirring until it has dissolved. Add a knob of butter and boil for about 15 minutes. Test for setting. Leave to cool for around 30 minutes then pot into sterilised jars and cover.

I’m always inspired by the vast array of jams which my friend Laurent at Mille et une confitures in Chinon makes. His family have a long tradition of jam making for over 40 years.  Have you got a family favourite jam recipe to share?

Summertime with Apricot and Almond Flan

Apricot and Almond Flan

I’m always on the lookout for recipes to make the most of summer fruits in our local market. Here’s a recipe for a summer dessert which Jeannette gave me after a talk I did at her Local History group. The ground almond filling reminds me of Grandma’s Bakewell Pudding. 

Apricot and Almond Flan

Shortcrust Pastry case

4 oz (110g) butter

8 oz (225g) plain flour 

1 egg

A little water (or a little milk and water)

Rub the butter into the flour and salt. When the mixture is like breadcrumbs, make a well and add the egg. Add the water to make a dough. Let it stand for ½ hour in a cool place before rolling out. 

Filling

3oz /75g butter

2 oz/50g sugar

2 eggs (well beaten)

½ oz/10g self raising flour

3oz/75g ground almonds

1lb/450g fresh apricots

Make up the pastry and leave to ‘relax’ in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then roll out the pastry and line a 9 inch/23 cm flan dish. Then make the filling. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and add the beaten eggs. Fold in the flour and ground almonds. Turn the mixture into the pastry case.  Cut the apricots in half and remove the stones. Arrange the apricots on top of the almond filling and bake in a preheated moderate oven 190C (Fan 170C), Mark 5, 375C for about 25 minutes until the top is well brown. Remove from the oven. 

Apricot glaze

2 - 3 tbs Apricot Jam

1 tbsp hot water

Heat the Apricot Jam in the hot water until thick and just boiling.  Then brush over the top of the flan. This is a dish which can be served hot or cold and can be served the next day.

Meryl’s tip : You can use dried apricots. Soak in water for 15 minutes. Apricots are my top summer fruit. What are your favourites? 

Cameras rolling …….

 The Great Kitchen Doncaster Mansion House

‘Hello, I'm Meryl and I'm going to show you how to make…’ This is how I started filming some of Grandma’s classic recipes. To be honest, I was scared stiff about being in front of three cameras despite the fact that I'm fully at ease demonstrating Grandma’s recipes and talking about her life and baking. So just like Grandma would, I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in. 

The film crew comprised a team of final year Media students from the University of Huddersfield. They are a great bunch of people to work with; they even did the washing up between shoots and of course tasted the finished products. The production will count towards their final project. We were filming in The Great Kitchen in The Mansion House in Doncaster. 

This is an amazing venue with an old cast iron range not unlike the one Grandma worked with when she was 'in service'. I chose four classic recipes from Grandma's repertoire to show different baking techniques. 

mouth watering Shortcrust Pastry for a delicious Apple Pie.

yummy Marmalade Spice Cake, 

scrumptious Scones 

and a traditional Victoria Sandwich. 

This cake was named after Queen Victoria who died in 1901. Grandma was 14 years old by then and was already 'in service'. Later, Grandma won prizes for her light and fluffy version of this classic sponge cake, which she finished with homemade raspberry jam and butter cream - and we love it just like that today. Here's the recipe: 

Victoria's Sandwich

3 eggs and their weight in each of 

caster sugar

 self raising flour 

margarine or butter

Milk to mix. 

Raspberry Jam 

(Meryl's Tip : If you buy jam, get the better quality, sometimes called ‘Conserve’)

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the eggs and add to the creamed mixture. Fold in the flour. Add the milk and mix in gently. Put into 2 x 7 inch (18cms) greased tins. Bake for 20 minutes in a quick oven.  (375F, Mark 5, 190 C). Then make the Butter Cream.

Butter Cream

2 oz butter

4 oz icing sugar

Few drops vanilla essence

1-2 tbsps tepid water or milk

Icing Sugar (for dusting the top)

Cream the butter and icing sugar. Add the vanilla essence and water or milk.

When cold, spread the butter cream and raspberry jam on the top of one cake and place the other on top. Sprinkle icing sugar on the top cake. 

Where’s the mic gone?

We've just a couple of sequences still to film then, it’ll be final edits and credits. Thanks to everyone who helped me set this up. Let me know if there are other recipes you’d like to see me bake – I think I've quite got the taste for this filming lark.

On Yer Bike avec Grandma’s Yorkshire Lemon Cake

It's on Yer Bike for a summer of cycling festivities here in Yorkshire with Le Grand Départ Tour de France 2014. The greatest cycle race in the world begins its first stage in Yorkshire on 5 July and, with an audience of 3.5 billion across 188 countries and an expected 3 million visitors to our region, we’ll be showing off our Yorkshire grit.  

Here’s Grandma Abson’s Lemon Sandwich Cake - just the thing for a summer’s day and what could be better than homemade Lemon Curd in the filling.

Lemon Sandwich Cake

3 eggs and their weight in each of butter, caster sugar, self raising flour 

(This is usually around 6 oz or 175g of each ingredient)

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp baking powder

Milk to mix (usually around 2 tbsps)

Preheat the oven to 180°C, Mark 4, 350F. Line the base of a 2 x 20 cms/8 inch cake tins with non-stick baking or greaseproof paper. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. You can use a food mixer or processor to do this. Beat the eggs and add a little at a time, adding a tablespoonful of flour if the mixture shows signs of curdling. Sieve the remaining flour and fold into the mixture with the lemon zest and enough milk to make a dropping consistency. This means the mixture is soft enough to fall from a spoon in a couple of seconds. Put the mixture into the 2 cake tins and bake for about 25 minutes until the cakes start to shrink from the sides and a cake skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean. Place the tins onto a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then turn the cakes out onto the wire cooling rack and leave until cool. Then make the Butter Cream.

Butter cream filling

2 oz/50g butter

4 oz/110g icing sugar + icing sugar for dusting

4 tbsps lemon curd

2 tbsps (approx 1 fl oz/25ml) milk

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Cream the butter and icing sugar. Add the lemon curd and milk and mix well. Spread the butter cream on the top of one cake and place the other on top.  Dust with icing sugar on the top cake and then sprinkle the lemon zest.

My own links to France go back to the Yorkshire-Lille Exchange when I was aged 14.  It was a mammoth feat of organisation, before the days of social media, when hundreds of Yorkshire school children welcomed French pen friends into their homes for 3 weeks every July. The intrepid Yorkshire youngsters then made the long journey by train with their pen pals to Lille where the French families were waiting to take them all over the Nord and Pas de Calais. It was my first introduction to la cuisine française and the first time that I’d ever ridden a bike and so my love of France began.

It's formidable being a Tourmaker on Stage 2 Sector 20.  These special mini Tour de France cakes will keep us going! 

Bon appétit! Vive le vélo! 

Not just Scones, we've got Fat Rascals in Yorkshire

Fabulous Fat Rascals

We like to think we know a thing or two about food in God’s own country Yorkshire and of course, top of the list is our own Yorkshire Pudding. 

But we don’t stop there. Where else could you find not just Scones but Fat Rascals, which have been around here in Yorkshire since Elizabethan times?  Fat Rascals are like Scones  but usually dome shaped with lots of variations with the dried fruit such as sultanas, raisins, currants, cranberries, apricots – whatever you like best! Here’s Grandma Abson’s recipe.

Fat Rascals

8 oz/225g (or 8 heaped tbsps) self raising flour

4 oz/110g butter

2 oz/50g caster sugar

4 oz/110g of a combination of raisins, sultanas, currants and glace cherries

1 oz/25g flaked almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

Zest of 1 lemon or orange

7 tbsps milk or milk/water

2 eggs

1 oz/25g demerara sugar

Sieve the flour and salt and rub in the butter. Add the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon or orange zest and dried fruit/glace cherries. Beat the eggs and milk and add to the mixture to make a soft dough. Roll out to ½ - ¾ inch thick and cut into rounds with a pastry cutter. This makes around 10 to 12. Place on baking tray and sprinkle a little demerara sugar on the top of each one. Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes (425F, Mark 7, 220C).

Once you’ve baked Fat Rascals I'm sure you'll agree they deserve to be on the podium for a top prize! Tell me what you think of this recipe. 

Mrs W’s Dairy free Chocolate Cake

Inspired by Grandma’s baking, Mrs W. writes to me after I did a baking talk at her Ladies' Club, and sends her Dairy free Chocolate Cake recipe. 

She writes : Dear Meryl    I’ve made this recipe dozens of times without a failure. V. good for people who eat dairy free cake without eggs. Hope you enjoy it. All the best. EW  P.S. Really enjoyed the talk.

Dairy free Chocolate Cake

8oz/225g self raising flour

½ level tsp salt

3 level tbsps cocoa

4oz/110g sugar

1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda

¼ pint/150ml water

¼ pt/150ml corn or vegetable oil

3 level tbsps golden syrup

½ tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C/Mark 4/350F. Sift the flour, salt, cocoa and sugar into a mixing bowl. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in a little water. Add to the flour mixture with the rest of the water, golden syrup, oil and vanilla extract. Mix well. Pour into 2 lined 8inch/20cms cake tins. Bake for approximately 40 minutes. When cool sandwich together with dairy free butter cream filling and decorate with melted (dairy free) chocolate or dust with icing sugar. 

 Dairy free Butter Cream Filling

3 oz (75g)  sunflower or dairy free margarine

6 oz (150g) icing sugar
few drops of vanilla extract

water to mix

Cream the margarine and icing sugar until soft. Add the vanilla extract and then the water. Mix well. You could replace the water with orange juice. 

Chocolate Topping
Chocolate (dairy free) for decoration

Finish off by melting a block of Dairy Free Chocolate and spreading over the top of the cake. 

For more Chocolate Cake recipes, check out the Recipes page on Grandma Abson’s Blog - there's one for everyone. Which is your favourite? 

And don't forget to keep sending me your family recipes - we're building a baking legacy here!

Make time for Dorset Apple Cake

 Dorset Apple Cake

One of the great things about doing talks about Grandma Abson’s Traditional Baking legacy is meeting people and picking up more traditional family recipes. Barbara from Bournemouth passed on her Great Aunt Madge’s recipe for Dorset Apple Cake. The recipe has been in the family for generations.

Dorset Apple Cake

12oz/340g self raising flour

6oz/175g butter

4oz/110g soft brown sugar

 3 cooking apples (preferably Bramley)

3 eggs

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp mixed peel or zest of a lemon or orange

Milk to mix

1 tbsp caster or demerara sugar for topping

Rub the butter into the flour. Peel, core and chop the add the apples into chunky pieces and add these and the soft brown sugar to the mixture. Add the beaten egg, spices and mixed peel. Put into a 9 inch/23 cms cake tin and sprinkle the sugar on top. Bake in a moderate oven 180C/350F/Mark 4 for approximately 1hour.

Meryl’s tip : Double the quantities and bake as a tray bake then cut into squares. For a fruity decoration, thinly slice another apple and layer the slices on the top of the cake.

Barbara told me that many Dorset Teashops used to serve this recipe warm with butter or clotted cream as part of an afternoon tea time treat. That’s sounds delicious!

There are more of Grandma’s recipes with apples in the Recipes page. What’s the apple of your eye recipe?