This is my Mum's really great recipe for a classic flapjack. It's so easy to bake a batch of these and chances are you will have all of the ingredients in your store cupboard. Perfect with a cup of tea when the rain is pouring like it is today!
Ingredients:
200g soft brown sugar
200g butter
400g oats
2 tbsp golden syrup
Recipe:
Melt together all of the ingredients aside from the oats. Add the oats and spoon into a greased Swiss Roll tin, pressing the mix down firmly. Bake in an oven set to 190c for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into fingers.
This is really great crumbled over vanilla ice cream with some poached rhubarb. Or, if you have any extra dried fruit and seeds in, you could add these and turn your flapjack into a breakfast bar (see picture below).
I know it may seem a little early but Christmas planning has begun in earnest at the Cakery! As always, I'll be making my award winning Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas Puddings and Magically Magnificent Christmas Puddings as well as some very seasonal 'Cakes of the Week' like Mincemeat Crumble Cake and Chocolate and Chesnut Cake. I'm also going to be baking some classic Christmas cakes which will be presented in retro red and white spotty cake tins and tied with lots of ribbon -so they'll make a fantastic present! I'm getting quite excited about it all already!
I often get asked what my favourite baking book is and this is actually a pretty difficult question to answer as I have so many. I seem to have a bit of an addiction to buying all the new ones when they come out and I also have all my Mum's and Gran's old ones too! There's nothing like a cup of tea and a flick through your favourite cook book to make you feel better (and I can claim it's for 'work'!).
So, I would say that one of my favourite all time is the classic Be-Ro book. I have used this book when I first learnt to bake when I was tiny and it's still the book I turn to when I'm making a Victoria sandwich cake or some shortbread. If you don't have it in your collection, I seriously recommend it-retro and great! In terms of more modern books, I think anything by the fantastic Rachel Allen is superb. In particular, her 'Bake' and (just out last month) her 'Cake' books are inspirational and the recipes always work. Happy Baking!
I love the flavours of a classic Bakewell tart, but I sometimes find the combination of pastry and cake a bit too much. So, I have devised this cake recipe which has the gorgeous combination of almonds and raspberry, but without the stodge of a pastry case. If you've got some home made jam stashed away, that will really give your cake the edge. I've used 4 eggs for this recipe, as our hens think it is summer again because of the warm weather and have started laying again like mad!
Ingredients
Cake:
200g soft butter
200g caster sugar
150g SR flour
4 eggs, beaten
50g ground almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract
a handful of flaked almonds
Icing:
100g soft butter
200g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Raspberry jam
Method
Cream butter and sugar till light and soft.
Add the beaten egg slowly, mixing well between each addition. Once all the egg mix is incorporated, give everything a really good mix together. Add the almond extract and stir again to combine.
Next fold in the sifted flour and ground almonds.
Dollop the mix into two 8cm diameter cake tins which you have base lined with baking parchment and greased the sides (I like to use the butter wrapper to smear around the edges). Level the mixture and sprinkle the flaked almonds over one tin (this will be the top of your cake).
Bake at 180c until the sponges are risen and spring back when you touch them lightly with your finger.
When the cakes are cool, remove them from their tins (run a blunt knife around the edge of the tins to loosen first).
To make the icing, beat the butter until smooth and very soft. Add the icing sugar and almond extract together with a tablespoon of water from a recently boiled kettle. Beat together vigorously until the icing is soft and whipped. You can add a little more water if the icing feels like it won't spread easily and beat again.
Spread one half of the cake with the icing, followed by a layer of jam and then sandwich it together with the other half (making sure you leave the half of the cake with the almonds on top as you're 'top'). Dust with icing sugar and get the kettle on!
