Walnut and Courgette cake

Another one of my favourite loaf cakes. This one's another quite healthy cake, as it uses wholemeal flour, sunflower oil and nuts. It came about because in France we always had a glut of courgettes and were finding ways to use them up. The recipe came from a neighbour who had the same problem!
I suppose this is a bit of nostalgia too, as we don't have room to grow courgettes in our small garden, so the ones I used were lurking in the veg drawer.

3 eggs
90g light muscovado sugar

125ml sunflower oil

250g wholewheat flour

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Kitchen

We're having a new kitchen installed starting on the 28th, so today is my last day for using my oven.

Tomorrow, OH and friend are taking out the last part of the old kitchen which I've been hanging on to, the sink unit, dishwasher, cooker and washing machine.

From tomorrow, I'll have a microwave and a slow cooker in the dining room for 2 and a bit weeks.  What fun!

So I decided to have a bit of a Bake In today, last time in my gas cooker, as it will be looking for a new home on Freecyle. I'm having a new electric oven and gas hob. The gas cooker was in the house when we bought it, so we decided not to change it till we changed the kitchen.
The Bake In - I made some chocolate chip muffins, a banana loaf, cheese scones and a very easy Bara Brith - not using Gran's recipe, but one a new friend gave me.


  I made the cheese scones from the Good Food site; here's the recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cheesescones_1287

The banana bread recipe is on  here:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5128909220207442213#editor/target=post;postID=322625739046901167

The choc. chip muffins recipe is also on here, as a variation of the blueberry muffin one:

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5128909220207442213#editor/target=post;postID=4498877915182098045

I'm not going to post photos of these.

You might like to try the easy Bara Brith loaf. It's an 'all in the pan together' sort of recipe.

300g mixed dry fruit
150g light muscovadi sugar
150g butter
200ml strong cold tea
50ml orange juice
275g sr flour
2 tspns mixed spice

preheat oven 180C/gas 4 and grease a 900g loaf tin.

Put all the ingredients except the flour and mixed spice into a big saucepan and heat gently till the sugar's dissolved and the butter has melted. Mix the flour and spice together and mix this into the saucepan. Make sure you mix it thoroughly.
Spoon into the tin and bake for about an hour till golden. Cool in the tin. This teabread will keep for a week if you wrap it in foil. I think it's best eaten a day after it's made, to give the flavours time to mingle, and it's easier to slice too! Serve it buttered, of course.





 It's so quick and easy to make, and it has a good firm texture and a nice lot of dried fruit. I used a tablespoon of mixed spice as we really like it.

So I won't be posting for a couple of weeks, unless I find a great recipe to make in the microwave or the slow cooker!  Promise I won't post microwave meringues or chocolate cake made in a mug!

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Apricot-banana-cranberry teabread

This addition to my teabread recipe collection comes from a book I bought in a charity shop called 'The complete book of baking'. It really is a very quick bread to make, and is very moist. Another recipe with oil instead of butter must be good!

175g plain flour
11/2 tspn baking powder
1/2tspn grated nutmeg
6-g rolled oats
250g light brown sugar
60g dried cranberries
60g dried apricots
2 eggs
120ml sunflower oil
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven 180C/gas 4
Grease a 900g loaf tin

Put flour, baking powder and nutmeg in a bowl and add the oats, sugar and dried fruit. Mix together till blended. make a well in the middle.
In another bowl beat the bananas, eggs, oil and vanilla essence together with an electric mixer.
Add this to the flour mixture and combine together.
Pour into the tin and bake for 45mins- an hour till well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.
Dust the top with icing sugar if you want.

I served this to friends with a compote of cranberries and apricots, which really accentuated the flavours in the teabread. Have the compote recipe if anyone wants it.

There's an awful lot of sugar in the recipe so I'm going to play around with using something else for sweetness, and also going to try just reducing the amount of sugar and see if the recipe still works. I love the combination of flavours.

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Hazelnut loaf cake

 Yet another loaf cake to add to my collection! This is basically a pound cake or Sandkuchen with the addition of ground hazelnuts.



250g unsalted butter at room temperature
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs
250g plain flour
2 tspns baking powder
100g ground hazelnuts


Preheat oven to 180°C/ gas 4
Grease a 900g loaf tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer or 5 with a hand-held.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
 Gradually add the sieved flour and baking powder, a third at a time, until each third is well incorporated. Finally add the ground hazelnuts and mix them in well.
 Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for about 60 minutes until it is well risen and firm to the touch. If it starts to brown too much cover the top with foil. When it's cooked, cool on a wire rack.

You can ring the changes by adding two chopped apples instead for an apple cake, 150g chopped dried apricots for an apricot cake, or two grated carrots and cinnamon for a carrot cake ... the possibilities are endless! So a nice basic recipe to have in your keeper collection for any eventuality.

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Bara Brith

The Welsh name means speckled or mottled bread.  My Gran used to used make it regularly, and we loved it spread with butter.
There are many versions of this recipe, some use yeast and others use baking powder. This is my Gran's recipe which I've tweaked a bit, and it's very easy to make.

450g/1lb dried mixed fruit
250g/9oz brown sugar
300ml/½ pint warm black tea [I used a Breakfast tea]
2 tsp mixed spice
450g/1lb self-raising flour
1 egg beaten.


 In a large bowl soak the fruit and sugar in strained tea and leave overnight.

Next day preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3.
Line a 900g/2lb loaf tin with baking parchment.
Mix the remaining ingredients into the fruit mixture and beat well. The mixture will be soft and runny. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 1½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Serve sliced and buttered.

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Orange teabread

Another teabread to add to my collection - a Scandinavian one, or so I thought when I saw the name of the recipe, but it's more of a loaf cake .This comes from a book on baking I bought from a charity shop a while ago - it doesn't have an author - it's just called 'The Baking manual'.

150g butter
120g sugar
3 eggs
grated rind of 2 lemons
60ml orange juice
250g plain flour + 2 tspns baking powder
breadcrumbs to coat the tin
Fat to grease the cake tin.

You don't preheat the oven for this recipe - you put the cake mixture into a cold oven.
Grease a 900g loaf tin.

Beat the butter and sugar together till pale then add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each one.
Mix in the lemon rind, orange juice and the flour.
You sprinkle the breadcrumbs into the greased tin [ I didn't do this as I didn't want wholemeal crumbs around the cake]. The recipe didn't give an amount and I can't see any crumbs on the cake photo in the book. Seems a strange addition.
Pour the mixture into the tin and put into a cold oven then turn the oven onto 180C/gas 4.  Bake for about 45 mins.
The recipe says to turn the cake out and leave to cool under the upturned tin - not sure why?

It's a light, airy cake with a nice citrus flavour. You could ice it with an orange flavoured icing, but I kept it plain. It's good with a cup of tea, but I think it would make a nice dessert, with the addition of some fruit.

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Walnut, raisin and cheese teabread

I have a friend coming to stay for a few days and have been baking in preparation for her visit. I've made a spice cake, some muffins and wanted something else a bit different to have with a cup of tea.
I decided that a savoury teabread would be unusual, and found this recipe in an old cookery book called 'Cakes, breads and gateaux'.

350g sr flour
1/2tspn salt
pinch cayenne pepper
1 level tspn dry mustard
75g butter or margarine
90g mature Cheddar, grated finely [keep 15g for the topping]
75g raisins
65g chopped walnuts [keep 15g for the topping]
1 beaten egg
250ml milk
Preheat oven 180C/350F.gas4

Grease and line a large loaf tin - 200g.
Sieve the flour, salt, cayenne and mustard together into a bowl, then add the fat and rub it in.
Stir in 75g of the grated cheese, raisins and 50g of the walnuts.
Mix the egg into the milk then add it to the mixture and beat well.
Put into the tin and level the top.
Mix the rest of the walnuts and cheese together and sprinkle over the top of the mixture.
Bake for about 1-11/4 hours till golden.
Cool on a wire rack and serve sliced with some good butter.

The texture and flavour was very good. Not sure if I liked the raisins; maybe I'd use a different fruit next time.
The crunchy topping was a good contrast to the loaf.

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Butternut squash and ginger teabread

I haven't made a teabread for a while, so as I had a butternut squash to use up, I hunted for a recipe in my folders and found this one from 'Good Food' magazine; it's also online and the recipe is here . The recipe is for pumpkin or butternut squash.

I liked the moist texture of the teabread and the flavour of the squash. It's delicious buttered - the slice in the corner of the photo is for my husband who loves butter!

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Fruity teabread

Another one of my favourite recipes for teabreads. It's full of juicy fruit that's been soaked in tea and it's spicy too.

375g mixed dried fruit
125g soft brown sugar
150ml hot tea of choice
1 large egg
1 tbspn milk
50g chopped walnuts
225g sr flour
1 tbspn mixed spice

Preheat oven 150C/gas3

Grease and line a 900g/2lb loaf tin.
Put the fruit, sugar and tea in a large bowl and leave to infuse together for about 4 hours or overnight.
Beat the egg and milk together and add to the bowl with the walnuts.
Sift the flour and spice together and fold into the fruit mixture.
Put into the tin and bake for about 50mins to an hour.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Can be eaten on its own or with butter.

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Sultana and cranberry teabread

We love teabreads and have a slice with a cuppa in the afternoon. Very British!

This one is very moist and moreish. Try it!

225g dried cranberries
225g sultanas
350ml black tea [warm]

preheat oven 160C/gas 3/325F
soak the fruit in the tea for about an hour [I used earl grey tea and it was a lovely flavour]
then add
250g wholemeal flour with 1 tspn baking powder added to it
 2 tbspn brown or muscovado sugar
25g melted butter
1 beaten egg
mix it all together with a spoon
grease a 2lb cake tin and pour in the cake mixture and level the top
bake for about an hour; cover the cake with foil for the first half hour then take it off
test to see if it's cooked and if not, give it another 5-10 mins and then check again
let the cake rest in the tin for 15 mins, then cool on a wire rack
eat it with some nice butter!


you can use any dried fruit that you have; I didn't have enough cranberries, so chopped up a few dried apricots to make up the weight
you can also try experimenting with different teas to see which you like best

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