Spiced Pumpkin and Walnut Cake

In the UK we waste 18,000 tonnes of edible pumpkin at Halloween! That’s awful, this Pumpkin and Walnut Cake is a very quick, easy and tasty recipe. The hardest part is getting the pumpkin flesh out of the pumpkin.

Gas Mark 4 180°c fan 160°c
Bake 30 mins

Ingredients

150g wholemeal self raising flour
150g self raising flour
300g light muscovado sugar
100g broken walnuts
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
11/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
200g melted butter/ Pure margarine
500g pumpkin purée
4 beaten eggs
1 tbsp orange juice

50g icing sugar
orange food colouring
1 tsp water or orange juice to mix, add a little at a time to keep it quite thick

Method

Simmer pumpkin till soft, about 20 mins. Blitz till puréed, leave to cool.
Mix dry ingredients including nuts
Mix wet ingredients
Pour wet ingredients into dry & evenly combine
Pour into greased & floured tin or lined tin with grease proof paper
Bake for 30 mins

Notes

You could use this recipe to make individual muffins, a tray bake or bake in a loaf tin. You can also sprinkle with chocolate chips prior to baking.
I have adapted this recipe from Halloween Pumpkin Cake recipe

All photography credit: copywrite ©2015 Sara J Orme
Permission must be requested to reproduce any photography from Cooks and Captures ©Sara J Orme 2015
Instagram: sarajorme
Twitter: @sarajorme
Facebook: Sara J Orme Photography
Contact: sarajorme@cooksandcaptures.co.uk

Apple and Cinnamon Cakes

Yay…. the holidays have finally arrived, clocks an hour forward, plenty of sunshine and lighter evenings to enjoy.

My lovely daughter, home from London for a well deserved break, makes a change for me not to be at hers. First on our list of home indulgences is to bake, both lovers of anything cinnamon we decided on apple & cinnamon cakes.

They’re full of flavour, a light sponge, the apple adds a texture as well as moisture & is complemented by the hint of almond from the Amaretto, also a favourite of ours..

As friends with restricted diets were coming over our cakes had to be dairy & gluten free. This recipe works very well whether you chose to use dairy & gluten free ingredients or not, you can also leave out the Amaretto to make alcohol free, just add 10 ml more milk.

Makes 9, easily doubled
Gas Mark 5, fan 180º
9 – 12 hole muffin tin and cases
10/15 mins prep, 20 mins bake

Ingredients
50g dairy free marg/ butter
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs beaten
100g self raising flour/ gluten free
1 tsp baking powder/ gluten free
1/4 tsp cinnamon
20ml almond milk/ semi skimmed milk
10ml Amaretto
100g cubed desert apple
2 Amaretti biscuits, blitzed to powder ( do not use for dairy and gluten free option)

Method
Cream butter & sugar
Gradually beat in egg, adding a sprinkling of flour
Fold in flour, baking powder & cinnamon
Stir milk & Amaretto
Add apple & mix thoroughly

Put 2 heaped tsp’s into paper case
Bake centre to top of oven 20mins

When cool, sprinkle with Amaretti powder or icing sugar for dairy and gluten free.

Notes for dairy & gluten free: if your mixture looks grainy, don’t panic it will cook even & be fine.

I used the following brands;
Pure Soya Margarine
Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour
Dr Oetker Baking Powder
Alpro Almond unsweetened milk

Recipe adapted from Tessa Kiros, Falling Cloudberries

All photography credit: copywrite ©2015 Sara J Orme

Individual Simnel Cakes

Individual Simnel Cakes

Rich Christmas Cake long gone, a distant memory, around the corner yellow daffodils, forsythia, bird song and spring. Time for baking Simnel Cakes.

Traditionally Simnel Cake is one big cake with 11 little marzipan eggs on top signifying 11 of the disciples, minus Judas. It’s believed that Simnel Cake is eaten post-Lent, an indulgent reward with plenty of rich sweet ingredients that you’re denied during the fasting period. However, originally Simnel Cake was made by daughters to give to their mothers on Mothering Sunday.

Thinking Easter, everyone looks forward to receiving their irresistible chocolate Easter Egg. I decided to add an element of rich dark chocolate to these little Easter delights.

Makes 10
Fan Gas 3 / 160ºC
45 – 50 mins
Lined individual tins
Or lined muffin tray

Ingredients
225 g light muscovado sugar
225 g softened butter
4 large eggs, beaten
225 g self-raising flour
50g ground almond
2 level tsp ground mixed spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
100 g glacé cherries
225 g sultanas
100 g currants
grated rind of 2 lemons
Filling and topping
450 g golden marzipan
2 tbsp apricot jam
100g dark chocolate

Method
Cream butter & sugar
Beat in eggs adding a little flour
Mix spices into the flour
Fold in the rest of the flour
Fold fruit into the mixture

Roll marzipan to 3mm depth
Cut 20 disks, to fit into & on top of your tins
Put 2 heaped tsp of mixture into lined tin
Place 1 disk of marzipan onto mixture
Put another 2 heaped tsp’s on top of marzipan
Level top, bake in centre of oven till rich brown – not burnt
Leave to cool in tin for 20 mins before removing from tin

Slice the top off the cake to give a flat surface for marzipan disc
Melt chocolate
Cover half marzipan disk, I used a bread dough cutter/ scraper, spread melted chocolate on the other half
Allow chocolate to set
Melt apricot jam & brush on flat surface of cake
Place marzipan disk on top
Tie ribbon, lace, string, your choice around the middle

Make 10 small marzipan eggs
Blister the marzipan surface till golden
Place on top of marzipan disc

Tips
Individual tins: a while ago I recycled some sweetcorn tins to make individual dauphinois potatoes so I used these as my muffin tins weren’t as deep as I wanted.
If recycling sweetcorn tins as I did, make sure you cut out both ends of the tin to make a cylinder that you can push your cake out through when cooked.
To prevent the mixture curdling causing an uneven bake, add a small amount of flour with the eggs.
Don’t skewer your cake to check if it’s cooked, the moist marzipan will stick to your skewer making you think it isn’t cooked.
Marzipan disks, I used the sweetcorn tin to cut disc
To smooth the chocolate, dip a flat bladed knife into hot water then lightly glide over the chocolate.
To blister the marzipan pan till golden use a kitchen blow torch, try to get a yellow flame not to use a blue as blue will burn. If you don’t have a kitchen blow torch you can blister under a grill.

Recipe adapted from Mary Berry, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour September 2012

Photo credit: copywrite ©2015 Sara J Orme

Chocolate Brownie

This, the most deliciously rich chocolate brownie, thin crispness on the outside & fudgy through to the middle, our week 1 photo shoot task at Leiths. Baked by the lovely Jess and eaten by us all for lunch before photographing in the afternoon.

I’m so pleased Jess had baked brownies for our dessert, I’m sure we’d have all struggled to concentrate on lighting, f stops and shutter speeds with the aroma of the chocolate brownie had we not of sampled it first. Can you just imagine our pain, torturous; look, shoot and no, you can’t eat!!

Ingredients
200g good quality dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids
140g butter
225g caster sugar
85g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, plus 1 extra yolk

Gas mark 4/ 180°C
Line a 20cm square shallow baking tin with baking parchment

Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a large heatproof bowl.
Cut butter into small cubes and add to the chocolate.
Stand the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl does not come in contact with the water, to melt the chocolate, stir occasionally.
Set aside to cool for 2-3 mins, then whisk in the sugar using an electric whisk.
Beat the eggs and extra yolk in another bowl with the vanilla extract, just to combine.
Gradually whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture and beat until smoothly combined.
Sift the flour and stir in until evenly combined, using a spatula.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 25/35 minuets, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs (not a wet batter) clinging to it. It’s better to slightly undercook than overcook brownies, as they should still be fudgy in the middle and will become less moist as they cool.
Leave to cool in the tin for 2 minuets before lifting carefully from the tin and transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Remove the paper before the brownie is completely cold.
Cut into 20 squares using a sharp knife.

Sprinkle with raspberries, blackberries, nuts, your choice. They are devine cold or warmed through and served with ice cream as a dessert.

Recipe taken from Leiths How to Cook

Photo Credit: copywrite 2015 sarajorme

Afternoon Tea

Friday night saw the first of my three consecutive weekends in London, where I’ll stay with my beautiful daughter. This, the first weekend, took an unexpected, surprising and extremely welcoming turn.Amuse Bouche

Simplistic, yet extravagant. Contemporary, unpretentious styling, yet elegant!

 My daughter met me at the Duchess of Cambridge where, over a bottle of chilled Sauvignon, I delighted in sharing with her the wealth of my days experience. I’d spent the day in my element – taking food photos under the wing of William Reavell, known as Bill, at the renown Leiths Cookery School, I was on cloud nine. My daughter met me at the Duchess of Cambridge where, over a bottle of chilled Sauvignon, I delighted in sharing with her the wealth of my days experience.

 When I finally shut up she produced 4 envelopes, each titled with an Afternoon Tea at a named hotel at various locations around Central London “An early Mother’s Day treat for us, for tomorrow” she said. Whoa, how taken a  back was I – speechless for once! What lengths she had gone to to source this delightful selection of Afternoon Teas. How to make a decision when the menus all read so well? Extremely difficult, the process of elimination began! This just had to be the winner: 24 Karat Gold Afternoon Tea in the Kona, St James’ Court, A Taj Hotel (round the corner from Buckingham Palace!)

The beautifully illustrated menu

Just one of the many speciality tea – was no limit to how many teas you chose

Mediterranean Vegetable, Pesto & Black Olive Tapenade

Our waitress, for whom nothing was ever to much trouble

Delightful, fresh simplicity

Tasting portions that allow you to try the variety of cooking styles & flavours

Savoury Platter

Golden Quail Egg with Free Range Egg Mayonaise

Amuse Bouche

Smoked Salmon, Caviar & Mascarpone on Rye Bread

Beetroot Bread & Minted Cucumber Pinwheel

So delicate & pretty

Golden Quail egg with Free Range Egg Mayonaise

Champagne Jelly with Gold Leaf & a White Chocolate Flower

Desert Selection Including Plain, fruit & Chocolate Scone. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. in 1960 sent this scone recipe in a hand written letter to the US President Dwight Eisenhower

Gold Leaf Opera Cake

Strawberry Tart with Gold Flakes

White Chocolate Delight with Golden Balls – a bit of a surprise hiding in this one

Fresh Fruits, Strawberry Preserve & Clotted Cream

Cherry Cake, way to full to eat these

We actually didn’t sample these

24 Karat Gold Afternoon Tea Menu

Chef Thomas Cruise created a successful balance of luxurious indulgence, replicated in the opulence of A Taj Hotel Group, with a strong interpretation of colour, flavour & a vibrancy of contemporary Europe.

The hidden gem of St James’ Courtyard Westminster

A huge thank you to my  wonderful daughter, we shared a very special and extremely memorable Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea.

When in London, St James’ Court, Westminster is a must! http://www.stjamescourthotel.co.uk

All Photo Credit: copywrite 2015 Sara J Orme

Chocolate Peppermint Slice

When a celebration is in order, as it was here this weekend, a cake I just have to bake – well, it’d be rude not to & it goes without saying that the fizz was already on ice!!

image: 55.0 mm /60 sec; f/5.6; ISO 200

Cake
86g self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
65g caster sugar
30g butter
1 beaten egg
80ml water
Peppermint Cream
280g icing sugar
2 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp milk, approx
peppermint essence, to taste
Chocolate Topping
125g dark chocolate, chopped
90g butter
Prep
Heat oven for 10mins Gas 4 or 180
Swiss roll tin, 25cm x 30cm – line with greaseproof paper
Cake
Sift flour, cocoa & bicarb
Add sugar & butter
Beat elecric mixer for 2 mins – 5 mins (ish) by hand
Beat egg into mixture
Spread mixture evenly into prepped tin
Bake in center of oven 18 to 20 mins
Cool in the pan
Peppermint
Sift icing sugar into a heatproof bowl
Add oil
Gradually add milk to make a stiff paste
Add essence a drop at a time till required taste
Stir over a pan of hot water till spreadable
Chocolate Topping
Melt butter & chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water
Assemble
Spread peppermint over cake, fridge till set
Spread chocolate over mint, fridge till set
Cut into slices
Decorate
Get creative, chocolate buttercream swirl, siftted icing sugar stencil, fruit……….

• Recipe adapted from Australian Women’s Weekly, Cakes & Slices Cookbook
• Photo Credit: copywrite ©Sara J Orme