Rhubarb Cake Traybake

Well that was a bit of a typically rubbish bank holiday with the weather. It's May but we spent much of the weekend wrapped up in winter coats watching football. Where we should've been sitting on blankets in the sunshine, we instead had the blankets over our knees to keep warm!

Thankfully the sun came out on Monday afternoon allowing us to spend a couple of hours in the pub garden, catching up with friends who we somehow only seem to see when the sun comes out and we bump into each other over a pint. The best kind of friends!

I hear the sun is shining in Portugal, and as that's where I'm heading next week for a break with old friends I'm happy that I will be able to wear my flip flops at long last.

This weekend did mark the arrival of our rhubarb though, which does make me happy, as I bloomin' love rhubarb, firstly because it doesn't require me to have any green fingers to grow it, and secondly because it makes a mean crumble. On Sunday I cooked a roast dinner (which is a bit of a rarity here), and followed it with a home made crumble  and a rhubarb cake. I started to panic when I checked the baking cupboard & realised that the girl teen had used up all the caster sugar making her speciality chocolate mug cakes, but had thankfully left me 3 eggs, which was enough for the cake. I used soft brown sugar instead of caster, but it would work equally well with caster, albeit a little paler in colour.

Rhubarb Cake Traybake by Helen Jessup on Scribd

It's a lovely moist cake, and it can be served warm or cold, on its own or with custard or vanilla ice cream. It's also great for packed lunches and picnics, and keeps well for a few days in an airtight container.

Sweet and Salty Marshmallow Squares

For many of us we're halfway through the school holidays already, and boredom may be starting to set in for some of you. Getting the kids into the kitchen to make some sweet treats may be a good way to keep them occupied for a morning or afternoon. This recipe is a nice easy one to start toddlers off, as it has some weighing and measuring, and lots of mixing - both of which the little ones can help with. I used to give my youngest a large bowl of rice krispies to mix whilst I was doing the hot stuff, like melting the marshmallows.

If you're looking for simple recipes to cook with toddlers and pre-schoolers I have plenty more on this blog.

Just like toddlers, these are very sweet, a little bit salty, and very very sticky.

Sweet and Salty Marshmallow Squares

300g marshmallows

100g puffed rice cereal (Rice Krispies)

150g toffee popcorn

150g salted pretzels, roughly broken 

• melt the marshmallows slowly in a saucepan over a low heat, or in the microwave
• stir in the cereal, popcorn and pretzels (reserving a handful of popcorn and pretzels for the top)
• press into a 13"x 9" baking tin, lightly greased with oil, and leave in a cool place (not the fridge) to set
• cut into squares
• eat them quickly, before they go soft!

Cheese & Rosemary Traybake

Last weekend I wanted to bake, however I didn't have a great deal of time on my hands so I wanted it to be quick. I fancied making something simple like a traybake cake but wanted it to be savoury so experimented using a standard cake recipe, omitting the sugar and replacing with cheese.

The resulting traybake was a success, a kind of cakey, bready cheesy loaf, perfect for snacking on or as a side with soup, salad or pasta.

Cheese & Rosemary Traybake

200g Stork

pinch of salt

2 tsp dried Rosemary

100g cheese, grated

200g Self raising flour

100ml milk

• Beat the Stork, salt, rosemary & cheese together
• Stir in the flour & milk and combine well
• Pour mixture into a greased baking tray (I used a disposable foil one)
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approximately 20 minutes

Serve warm or cold

I was provided with Mexicana sweet chilli cheese which I used in this bake.

The Great Bloggers Bake Off - week 5 - Cinnamon & Orange Traybake

It's that time of the week again for Great British bake Off and this week saw the bakers making their signature traybakes, technical Tuiles and biscuit towers.

Traybakes - these could take the form of Brownies, Blondies, Rocky Road...and can be biscuits, cake or pastry - in a square or rectangular tin, and all cut into equal pieces (hmm that's the tricky part!). I must say I did love the sound of Frances' Millionaire's Banoffee Bonus, yummy!

Tuiles - something that I've never made, apparently named after a French roof tile and is a very thin biscuit which is crisp and delicate.

Biscuit towers - at least 30cm high and take any form...but importantly it needs to be look good and stand securely (Frances take note.....).

I opted to make a cake, baked in a tray, with some frosting slapped on the top..job done.

This recipe was adapted from a delicious courgette, thyme & lemon drizzle cake recipe from Katie at Feeding boys and a firefighter. I first tried out the recipe last week after being given some rather large yellow courgettes by a friend. I left out the thyme and topped the cake with a lemon mascarpone frosting and it was absolutely delicious.

This time I thought I would mix the flavours up a bit and used orange and cinnamon in the place of the lemon. I also tripled the quantity as I was using a larger baking tin.

Cinnamon & Orange Traybake

600g yellow courgette, grated
450g caster sugar
3 eggs
375ml vegetable oil
juice of 1 orange & zest of 3
600g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
4 tsp cinnamon

juice of 2 oranges
75g caster sugar
250g mascarpone
1 tsp cinnamon

• Mix the courgette, sugar, eggs, oil, all the orange zest & juice of 1 orange together until well combined
• Mix together the flour, salt bicarbonate of soda, baking powder & cinnamon
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet & mix well
• Pour mixture into a large shallow baking tin (I used a 13" x 9" Baking tin)
• Bake in a 170C oven for approx 45 minutes
• Leave to cool in the tin
• Meanwhile make a syrup with the juice of the remaining 2 oranges and the caster sugar
• Bring to the boil & simmer for 5 minutes
• Once the cake is cool prick holes in it all over with a fork
• Drizzle the cake with half of the orange syrup & mix the remainder with the mascarpone and cinnamon
• Spread the mascarpone over the cake 

So to recap on the themes for the week :

Traybakes
Tuiles
Biscuit towers 

Now go forth and bake.......

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