Weekend Baking: Gin and Tonic Cake

This is a genius idea. Make a lemon drizzle, but instead of just drizzling it with lemon, add some gin in there too. A lemon ginzle, if you will. I've run out of tonic (this is a disgrace) so mine is just gin and lemon; I used the slightly unusual Spanish gin Mother Hand brought me back from one of her holidays in the cake, and Gordon's Elderflower Gin for the ginzle. It was that or Sipsmith and I couldn't bear to use that for baking.

It's quite potent. I'm not really sure whether I should be taking it to work, to be honest, but I'm sure the staff will thank me for it.

The ingredients thing is a bit odd. I did rummage around the internet looking for an alternative because who has ever heard of weighing your ingredients to equal the mass of the eggs? In the end, though, I decided it was pretty arrogant not to give it a whirl and it works beautifully. My four eggs handily weighed 250g so it was quite straightforward, especially with the butter.

4 eggs
Butter
Caster Sugar
Plain flour
Baking powder
2 lemons
200ml gin
Dash of tonic (if you've got any in)
150g caster sugar, for the ginzle

Weigh the eggs. Measure out that amount of butter and sugar; beat until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Fold in that weight of flour and baking powder. Grate in the rind of the lemons and fold this in too. Add the juice of one lemon and about half the gin. This will look pretty dodgy, especially to begin with, because it's a lot of liquid, but it's ok.

Turn into a prepared loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees until a skewer comes out clean. Meanwhile combine the remaining gin with the juice of the other lemon and the sugar (you'll see the original uses granulated but I only had caster). When the cake comes out, leave to cool briefly, then skewer all over and pour over most of the ginzle. Leave to cool in the tin. If you don't use lazy silicone bakeware like me, you might want to turn it out, remove the paper and put it back in the tin to ensure it (a) doesn't stick and (b) doesn't dissolve your lining paper into the cake.

When completely cool, turn out onto a serving plate and spoon over the rest of the ginzle.

I think I might try this with limes next time.

Weekend FO: BHP#2 - The Erin

This one took me a week because I am so busy. Also, I made a mistake on a cable row when I split a stitch where I had knitted with old ball and new ball together, so I had to tink back which put me off touching it for a few days.

It is all the same as the first hat, but I did it on a 10mm needle so it is an easier fit. It used the leftover ball from the first one, another whole ball, and about 3m of another one. Gah!

The picture's quite dark but, hey, you know what it looks like by now I think.

Weekend Baking: Danish Pastries

Not this weekend, I hasten to add. I made these whilst it was still the summer holidays; how else could I squeeze in all the rolling, chilling and turning?

I do enjoy something about the process of making this type of pastry. Part of it is being convinced the whole time that it isn't going to work and then it does. This dough did not rise as I expected it to, so I was convinced I was going to have some weird texture going on. While it probably could have been better - my butter was too soft and my timing was not very good - I don't think it was a bad effort for my first try.

I used the recipe from Paul Hollywood's book, the blue one. On the left are pecan and maple Danish. I made a frangipane using pecan nuts instead of almonds. I don't think I really knew what a frangipane was: it was a lot more like a cake than I expected. I glazed these with maple syrup; overall the effect was not overly sweet (good) and not overly pecan-ish (not so good).

On the right are a cheese and tomato effort. I made a very thick, very cheesy white sauce, added a slice of tomato and grated a little more cheese over the top. Although they look messy and the tomato fell off of some of them during baking, I think these were more successful. I was worried the cheese sauce would become thin when it got hot and run off the pastry, but that didn't happen.

I think these would be really good with an almond frangipane and a wedge of pink grapefruit, like those little tea cakes I made earlier in the year. I expect I will have another go although, tbh, the croissants I've made a couple of times now came out nicer. However, I have never yet attempted a creme patisserie so I should make a plan for some using that.

Fave Friday

I gave up wearing a watch when I left uni and went to the US. I reasoned that, as I wasn't working, I didn't need to know the time. Then I found myself struggling to wear one because it felt weird on my wrist.

However, recently I found myself hankering after something in rose gold. I considered requesting it for an anniversary gift, but plumped for something else in the end. Then one of the people I went on holiday with had a lovely Fossil rose gold watch, so when I was in town last month I went to see what they had in this colour. The answer was, something dripping in crystals, or something only sized for children or, as the SA told me, Asian people.

Meanwhile, in Thomas Sabo, the watch I had previously lusted after had disappeared from the window, so I went in to see if it was regular stock and the SA helped me try it on. When I made a slightly awkward comment about having big wrists, she even had the grace to say this was not true. The watch fit beautifully. I sighed, and told her, "Maybe next month."

My resolve lasted three and a half hours.

It is my "Well done on becoming a Head of Department" present to myself. I'm doing a good job of getting used to wearing it, when I remember to put it on.

Weekend WIP

In spite of a very busy work weekend (there is no end in site to the exam board work), I did manage to squeeze in a few rows of the second hat. It's the same pattern as the last one, same yarn (definitely blue and not purple, right?) but on 10mm needles instead of 9mm. I might have to rip the other one back if it's a much better fit on these needles.

I really should have finished it by now. Damn work. Am I nearly retirement age?

Lunch inna Jar

I have been eating lunch like this since last January.

I saw it online, somewhere. You put the dressing in the bottom of the jar and then layer up all the good stuff, so when it is turned out the dressing is on top and the leaves aren't soggy. Some people leave enough room in their jars to shake the dressing through, it seems, but that's just crazy - why leave shaking room when there can be more veggies?

My jars are layered like this -

• Vinegar and oil at the bottom - currently fig and date vinegar from the farm shop, and hemp oil
• Mange tout
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Peppers
• Beetroot salad (the kind with the carrots and onions that comes in a tub from the supermarket)
• Olives
• A chopped up piece of roasted salmon
• Herb salad

Mr Z chops everything for me on a Sunday so I can make them up daily, but since I acquired two more jars I make up four on Sunday and they are good for nearly the whole week. Everything stays fresh and crunchy. And when I turn it out on the plate at work, everyone marvels at my amazing salad - when it only takes about two minutes to do (as long as you have a partner who likes chopping things, anyway). 

Weekend Baking: Coffee and Walnut Cake

Yakob celebrated his 20th wedding anniversary yesterday, with a tea party and a magician and a 20 year quiz, which he had helpfully labelled "10th anniversary quiz". Classic Yakob.

I said I would bake a cake which meant only one thing - a classic coffee and walnut. We have a thing about "Coffee and Pedantic Walnut Cake" which came from a joke on Twitter that neither of us can remember. Then I got my recipe books out to get started and realised that, in-jokes aside, I have never actually made a classic coffee and walnut sponge before; at least, I can';t remember ever doing so. Coffee and Brazil nut, yes; coffee with chocolate coffee ganache, yes; but this was to be baked instead of a cake his wife was baking and I was worried about presenting something other than the traditional, with the buttercream and the walnut decoration.

Thus, I read this article and produced something traditional. I am a bit worried about my oven because it keeps producing cakes that are very thin on one edge and very thick on the other, particularly if they're baked on the top shelf; the oven is not set on a slant, I am sure, or it would be obvious when pouring oil into a pan on the hob. I fear that the fan is blowing a bit heftily and causing cake-batter-drift. Since the oven is approaching its 10th birthday, perhaps it needs a good seeing-to by an engineer.

2tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1tbsp boiling water
125g walnut halves
225g butter, at room temperature
225g soft, light-brown sugar
4 eggs, beaten together
225g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt
Milk, optional

For the icing:
2tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1tbsp boiling water
165g unsalted butter
425g icing sugar
2tbsp milk
2tbsp mascarpone (the recipe called for 4tbsp of double cream but I was Using Stuff Up)

Toast the walnut halves in a dry pan. Don't forget about them and keep thinking, "What is that smell?" Set aside enough for decoration and then chop up the rest.

Heat the oven to 180C and prepare 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. I prepared for this by buying silicone bakeware. Perhaps I should try baking in a real tin again and seeing if this solves the batter-drift problem.

Beat the butter and sugar together until really light and fluffy. Pour in the beaten egg very gradually with the mixer running, scraping down the sides of the mixer as necessary. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt, adding the coffee and chopped walnuts as you go. This should be a soft-drop sort of batter so add some milk if you need to. I probably added about 4tbsp of milk.

Divide between the 2 tins, and bake for about 25 minutes until well risen. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tins, then put on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing, beat the butter until soft and fluffy, then beat in the icing sugar, marvelling as you do at how icing sugar can just get itself over EVERYTHING, even when there is a lid on the mixer. Beat in the rest of the icing ingredients. Continue beating, hoping to get rid of that slightly grainy texture, and wonder why you can never manage it. Think fondly about Swiss meringue buttercream and realise it is too late to go down that road now. Realise icing now very soft and starting to look a bit on-the-turn; place in fridge until cakes are cold.

Assemble the cake with half the buttercream in the middle and the other half on top, decorated with walnuts. You may need more walnuts if you have eaten some of your toasted walnuts as a baking snack.


The coffee flavour was a bit too pronounced for me but it got the big thumbs up from everyone at the party. Unfortunately this meant I didn't get a picture, but you've seen a lot of coffee and walnut cakes in your time, I'm sure.