Al Fresco Birthday Cake

"Oh" said Mr E, coming into the kitchen "I didn't realise you were planning on making birthday cake"

"Well, I wasn't" I said "But the grapes in the fruit dish were needing used up"

There was a moment of silence, then Mr E said "You do know that most normal people would just eat the grapes, right, and not try to bake with them"

"Yes" I replied "And your point is...?"

So we had some grapes that were starting to look a little bit sad. Grapes are fairly near the top of the fruit pedestal in our house, and are generally reserved for Mini-M, so there was no chance of them being allowed to continue on their journey to past it wrinklyness. And yes, I know, we could have just eaten them, but where's the fun in that!

I'd seen grape cake recipes before, but most seemed to be for black grapes. One I found online claimed to be easy, then contained 17 ingredients (and I'm not exaggerating). So I went recipe off-roading on my own... and it turned out really well.

So if eating your bashy grapes seems too boring then I strongly encourage you to give this recipe a go!

Grape Cake (Serves 10)

• 225g Self Raising Flour
• 100g Rapadura (or sugar)
• 50ml Ginger Cordial
• 50g Ground Almonds
• 175g Green Seedless Grapes
• 200ml Oil (I used rapeseed)
• Zest of 1 Orange

Preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan).
Grease and base line an 8 inch loose bottomed cake tin.
Wash and half the grapes.
Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl, and stir in the ground almonds and rapadura.
Beat together the oil, eggs, orange zest and ginger cordial until well combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry.
Mix well and then stir in the grapes.
Tap to level and then bake for about 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling, then dust with icing sugar.

This is a robust cake - it survived being transported at a 45 degree angle under Mini-M's buggy around the Botanic Gardens and emerged unscathed to be enjoyed with a hot cup of tea in one of the first 'picnics' of the year. Shame it was a little too windy for the kitsch dinosaur candles to light - thank you Poundland!

It went down well all round. Mini-M in particular was a fan. In fact as soon as cake was being handed around, she literally launched herself at a piece, then wolfed it down at top speed - she tends not to get 'real' cake and clearly was making the most of the opportunity! Since then, she's asked hopefully on several occasions about 'moar cick' (excuse my attempt at writing her pronunciation. Just imagine that more has 2 syllables, and cake has no vowels and you'll pretty much be there) but she'll have to wait until there's another birthday to celebrate!

A Tale of Two Mueslis

Last weekend we all got together to celebrate Uncle P and Auntie L's birthdays.

Mini-M spent a happy half hour sprinkling the kitchen floor with oats and raisins helping me rustle up some birthday muesli mix.

I used a mix of gluten free oat flakes and rolled quinoa flakes as the base for both, then added some polar opposite extras...

To one jar I added dried dates, apricots, raisins, goji berries, prunes, cashews, almonds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. To the other I added mini marshmallows and crushed Oreos.

They may be twins, but they have different approaches to breakfast...

Mini-M Makes... Tropical Pirate Muffins

Right now Mini-M is into mixing, so I thought some muffin making might prove popular. It did, and it also lead to the discovery of possibly an even more fun kitchen job... sprinkling. It's on a par with mixing in terms of mess. Mini M's sprinkling is more enthusiastic than accurate, and her mixing has sudden catapulting tendencies when quite a lot of the contents which were up until that moment in the bowl end up very quickly out of the bowl. Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners!

Incidentally, we're now calling the vacuum the hoover, after she spent quite a long time standing shouting 'vacuum', just that it didn't quite sound like that! And I don't want to the the parent in charge some day when she randomly starts shouting it in her buggy as we're walking along the street. "Hoofer, hoofer, Mummy hoofer!" is slightly less embarrassing than the alternative! The usual "Broccoli" "Tortoise" "No Doggy" "Seagull" repertoire of buggy shouting gets us enough funny looks...

Anyway... back to the muffins!

Tropical Pirate Muffins (makes 12 small muffins)

• 150g Self Raising Flour
• 75g Plain Flour
• 1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1/2 cup Coconut Sugar
• 1 egg
• 180ml Coconut Water
• 90ml Oil (I used rapeseed)
• Desiccated Coconut for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases.
Sieve the dry ingredients into a bowl (I have to confess I didn't sieve). If you have a little kitchen pixie helping you, then it is essential to stir it after every addition, including the first one. Vigorously. With a lot of spoon waving and many cries of 'keep the spoon in the bowl!'.
Add the wet ingredients and beat well to mix.
Spoon into the prepared cases - it worked out at about 1 tablespoon in each.
Sprinkle with the desiccated coconut.
Bake for about 20 minutes - waving good bye to them before putting them in the oven is also optional...

Walk away from the mess...

These tasted really lovely, which was a bonus! It's always a bit hit or miss with a 'fling some things together in a bowl' recipe, but there's generally not much time for anything more considered or careful when Mini-M is helping.

And the proof of the muffin is in the...

...sprinkling, of crumbs from on high!

Daring Cooks' Challenge March 2012: Brave the Braise

The March, 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Carol a/k/a Poisonive - and she challenged us all to learn the art of Braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman's technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book "Ruhlman's Twenty".
My braising recipe choice was dictated by the veg box, and what needed using up: potatoes! After some searching, I came across a recipe for braised sausages and potatoes on the BBC website, by Rick Stein and originally from the Mediterranean Escapes Series, titled "Fennel Sausages Braised with Lemony Potatoes and Bay Leaves". I did have some sausages in the freezer, so it seemed like a winner!

After digging out the sausages, I discovered they were of the spicy pepper chorizo style variety, with no fennel in sight - oh, and as usual I didn't have a lemon!

So I went with what I had and used the same method, reducing the quantities a bit too, so that there weren't too many leftovers for tomorrow.

Braised Spicy Sausage and Potatoes (Serves 3)

• 6 pork 'chorizo style' sausages (about 350-400g in total) - mine had a lot of red pepper and garlic in them, as well as spices
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 500-600g waxy potatoes
• 150ml water
• 4 dried bay leaves
• 1 tbsp bottled lemon juice
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C
In an oven and hob proof casserole dish with a lid, heat the oil and then brown the sausages for a few minutes.
Finely slice the onion and add it to the sausages and cook until translucent.
Peel and chunk the potatoes - mine we fairly small, so I left most in quarters. Don't cut them too small or they will get overcooked and soupy.
Add the potatoes, water, lemon juice and bay leaves.
Cover with the lid and pop in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.
Remove the lid and return to the oven for another 5 minutes to colour.
Stir through the fresh parsley just before serving.
Delicious! We ate ours with coleslaw.

Would I make it again - yes! It's a lower hassle variation on Bangers and Mash! If your sausages aren't garlicky, then add a clove of garlic along with the onion. You could chuck in some other veg too - turnip, swede, carrot, parsnip - they'd all be lovely.

Whilst searching for the sausage recipe, I stumbled across another one that took my fancy on the BBC website - this time a sweet braise - Aromatic Braised Apricots by Jane Sen. I was intrigued and had everything to hand, so we had a doubly braised dinner tonight - main course and dessert!

I had hoped that Mini-M would eat this - she absolutely adores dried apricots - but the melt down over main course meant that pudding didn't happen - so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

I've scaled back Jane's recipe to serve 2-3 and tweaked it a little to incorporate more of a braising element, rather than just simmering.

Spiced Braised Apricots with Cashew Cream (Serves 2-3)

• 150gm dried apricots
• 2 cardamom pods
• a generous pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1 heaped tsp of dairy free margarine
• Water
• 80g cashew nuts
• 100ml apple juice

Melt the margarine in a small saucepan then add the apricots, cardamom and cinnamon and stir for a few minutes until they are just starting to colour.
Add boiling water to cover and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes until the apricots are plump and the water has thickened into syrup. Add a little more water from time to time if necessary.
To make the cream, put the cashews in a food processor and blitz until finely ground. The smaller you can get the meal the smoother your cream will be. Mine was still fairly 'bitty' but it didn't bother us!
Scrape down the sides of the processor bowl, then put it back on at a low speed and gradually pour in the apple juice. Once it is all incorporated, whizz it up for another minute then chill until you're ready.

This is a dessert that is sweet, creamy, delicious, and has no added sugar! I am a convert to cashew cream too - so easy and so tasty.

Thanks Carol for adding two new recipes to my arsenal!

Fruity Clafoutis

Here's another creation that is normally fairly dairy intense, which I've de-dairied. I was going to type 'so that we could enjoy it' but that's not strictly true... so that I could enjoy it! I'm sure Mr E would have enjoyed the regular version more, and even the lure of blueberries couldn't encourage Mini-M to try some.

It was lovely though - and a very good way to use up some fruit that was looking slightly worse for the wear after spending the day travelling around in a Tupperware box in the car for Mini-M's snacks!

Fruity Clafoutis (Serves 4-6)

• Fruit of your choosing - I used about 100g blueberries, 6 strawberries and half a tin of crushed pineapple, minus the juice
• 1tbsp dairy free margarine
• 25g sugar

For the batter

• 30g plain flour
• 10g coconut flour
• (Or 65g plain flour and no coconut flour)
• 2 eggs
• 25g sugar
• 180ml chocolate oat milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the tbsp margarine in a small frying pan, then add the sugar an allow to melt. Chop the strawberries into chunks, and stir them and the blueberries into the melted butter an sugar. Allow to gently sauté for a few minutes, on a low heat, but don't stir too much otherwise the blueberries will break up. Take off the heat and stir in the pineapple.
Preheat the oven to 200C and lightly grease a flan dish.
Put the fruit in the bottom of the dish
Beat together the batter ingredients until smooth and pour over the fruit.
Bake for 20 minutes until it is lightly puffed up, set to the touch and golden.
Allow to cool slightly before serving otherwise you'll burn your mouth with boiling blueberries!

We also ate this cold the next day - and although that's not a conventional way to eat clafoutis, it was still delicious.

Chicken and Broccoli Bake - Tastes like being 8 again!

If there is one dish that reminds me of my childhood, it is this Chicken and Broccoli Bake. It's not that we had it that often, probably more the fact that we didn't, but I really liked it, so the times when we did stood out. And that sometimes Mum made it when we were having a house full of visitors, so it has a whole caboodle of associated happy memories of gaggles of children running riot around the house and garden, doing summersaults onto piles of sofa cushions over the chin-up bar which was fixed up at waist height, dressing up, performing 'plays', treasure hunts and general chaos.

Times that we were lucky to enjoy in abundance growing up (thanks Mum and Dad!!!). Which is why I thought I would submit it into The Pink Whisk Save the Children Recipe Challenge. Ruth at the Pink Whisk is creating a digital recipe book of 'family favourites' which will later be sold to raise money and awareness for the Name A Day campaign which urges the PM "to lead a big push to end hunger by naming a day when he'll host a global hunger summit".

Save the Children want to see changes made to the global food system so that it can be a positive force in ending the daily hunger that affects millions of children (and adults) worldwide every day.

I think the recipe came originally from an old St Michael Christmas recipe book, where it went under the title of "Turkey Hollandaise" but to me it has always been Chicken and Broccoli Bake. Made with that 1980s kitchen staple... a tin of condensed chicken soup. Which is most definitely not dairy free. But not to worry, I made some substitutions and there was actually no observable taste difference to what I remember growing up. But if you fancy making it, and are able to eat dairy, then I'd just go with the tin - it's a lot less hassle!

Chicken and Broccoli Bake (Serves 4)

• 8oz Broccoli
• 4 large cooked chicken drumsticks (or thighs)
• 250ml dairy free 'condensed chicken soup' (see recipe below) or a 10oz can of actual condensed chicken soup
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2-3 tbsp white wine
• 4 tbsp mayonnaise
• pepper
• 1oz fresh breadcrumbs
• a splash of olive oil (mine was infused with lemon - you don't need this if you're using cheese)
• 1oz cheese (optional, if you're not trying to be dairy free)

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Take the meat off the cooked chicken drumsticks.
Cut the broccoli into florets and microwave it for a couple of minutes to soften it slightly, then place the pieces evenly over the bottom of a casserole dish.

Fill the gaps left by the broccoli with the chicken pieces.
In a bowl, whisk together the soup, mayo, lemon juice, wine and pepper, then pour it over the chicken and broccoli.
Mix the breadcrumbs with the oil (or cheese) and sprinkle over the top.
Bake for 30 minutes until the breadcrumbs turn golden and crispy.
Enjoy with salad and potatoes.

And if you're cooking the dairy free version, then you'll also need to make this recipe up first...

Dairy Free 'Condensed Chicken Soup' substitute (makes 500ml)

• 2 tbsp oil (I used rapeseed)
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 500ml chicken stock

Heat the oil in a saucepan, then add the flours and stir until well combined, then cook over a low heat for a few minutes.
Add the stock a little by little, whisking after each addition, then simmer until it thickens to the desired consistency - it took me about 5 mins, bearing in mind it thickens more when it cools.

This makes twice as much as you need for the recipe, but was the amount of stock I had - if you're just needing it for this recipe, feel free to half it!

So there you go - a taste of my childhood!

Creamy... but dairy free!

Chocolate Brownies - Almost one of your five a day!

So on me great dairy free baking adventure I have learned lots about substitutions (oh dear, I actually typed substations instead. Glad I spotted it - that would have been odd!).

One thing that I have learned is that substituting for butter can be tricky. Because sometimes it's not just the fat content that is needed to make the recipe work, but also the fact that butter is solid at room temperature. Which means oil is out in these instances, and margarine can be borderline.

Well I have a solution. Admittedly it's not fool proof and would be very odd in lots of situations, but for chocolate brownies it works really well.

Drum roll please... ... ... ... Kidney Beans!

When you blitz them up and bake them, they help keep the dense solidity of the brownies, and don't taste beany. And after a rough calculation, I reckon a slice will then count as half of one of your five a day. Not many chocolate brownies can make that claim!

Kidney Bean Brownies (Makes an 8x13 inch tin)

• 1 tin kidney beans (in water, not salted water)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/3 cup of plain flour
• 2 tbsp self raising flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup oil (I used rapeseed)
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cashew nuts, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and base line your baking tin.
Drain, rinse and puree the kidney beans (I blitzed them using a hand blender)
Combine all the ingredients bar the nuts and stir well until mixed. You could do this in a food processor or mixer if you wanted.
Stir in the nuts.
Pour into the prepared tin, and bake for about 25 minutes until just firm to the touch.
Cool in the tin, then cut, serve, allow people to enjoy, then surprise them with the secret ingredient!

We let Mini-M eat some, since despite the sugar, it was a vessel to get some kidney beans and nuts in, as a variety from bananas, tomato soup and spaghetti hoops. She was not a big nut fan - well that's not true. She seemed to get great enjoyment out of very studiously picking all the nuts out, giving them a little experimental chew, then spitting them out. All over the floor.

So we had a little chat about the floor not being the right place to put food you didn't want to eat. All was peaceful and quiet for five minutes and I got on with making tea... then turned round to catch out of the corner of my eye Mini-M taking the rejected cashew nut pieces and posting them down the inside of her vest.

Then we had another little chat - and a nappy and vest change to remove the bits of posted cashew. Now when she doesn't want something, she gifts it to me or Mr E, earnestly saying 'bin!'. Which is an improvement on floor scattering or posting. And she ate some kidney beans.

I'll definitely make these again - they provide a dense, fudgy, sweet brownie hit, with a little bit less of the guilt and none of the dairy, which makes them a winner in my eyes. Mr E enjoyed them too - he's my barometer of 'normalness' when it comes to dairy free food!