Cooking and Pondering ..

I was baking cakes this afternoon. One for the cake tin and 3 for the freezer. I stopped baking a few months ago. I thought it would help me and my man lose weight. It didn't. Rather the opposite in fact. Extra fruit and/or choc biscuits have been eaten instead. So back to the baking - a slice of homemade wholewheat fruit cake will do us far more good. As it is I must cut back on the fruit. I have over indulged on fruit to the point last week I felt as if I had a bad case of fruit poisoning.
Today I have made the easy boiled cake - for recipe click here (trawl down to page8). I have few old, favourite, well tested recipes that I can make with my eyes shut. While the fruit was simmering away on the hob I nipped online to catch up on recent blog postings. I found Mopsa's on food glorious food . And from there to Flowerpot's article on eating out while people watching. Then I had to leave to go back to the kitchen to finish the cakes and get them into the oven. While I was stirring in the flour I remembered my school days. Domestic Science classes. We only did 2 years before we had to turn our young minds to study for the GCE O level's instead of practical lessons. We had 2 Domestic Science teachers; Mrs Russell and Mrs Nicholls. The first a homely, gentle warm cook - pink cheeked and plump. The second small, thin, sharp tongued and a bit peevish. We had the demonstration and explanation first and then we'd get on and make our own. I remember during 'How to Bake a Victoria Sandwich' us 30 girls being told that when stirring flour into our creamed egg, sugar and butter mixture ALWAYS to stir in a clockwise direction - then the flour will slowly fall from the side of the bowl and be incorporated into the mixture. To stir the wrong way and the flour would fail to fall gently into the mixture. I remember being much struck by this gem of information. I pondered why not anti-clockwise; could it be the way the spoon was shaped? what if you were left handed? and held the spoon in a different way? I must have opened my mouth to frame a question - took a deep breath and was told "Don't ask Penelope - I don't know why it is it just is!" So even at the age of 12 years I must have been wondering on the Why's and How's of Life. I do it still and some people join in and chew things over with me - some people just say "I never think of things that way". Just think, if my old school had been different I might have grown up with the answer to the question on Life, the Universe and Everything.

Healthy Cake

This is an old favourite of mine which I have adapted over the years. It makes a really impressive cake that improves for leaving a day before consuming. It also freezes very well. I'm inclined to batch bake and cut the cakes in half before freezing. I usually keep them in the fridge asIthink the texture improves when it is kept cold. I find the non-stick cake tin liners from Lakeland plastic the easiest to use.

Use empty yoghurt carton (125g) as a measure for the ingredients.
List of ingredients
1 carton of low fat natural yoghurt
1 carton sunflower oil
2 cartons caster sugar
3 cartons of SR four
2 teaspoons Almond extract
2 large eggs

large tub of natural colour glace cherries (chopped or at least halved - a sticky task - don't need to wash them)

Method
Put all ingredients (bar the cherries) into a large bowl and beat until smooth. Then stir in the cherries. pour into a lined 2lb (1 kg) loaf tin. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon caster sugar on top.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 160C/325F/Gas mark 2-3 or Fan oven 150C. Cook for approx 1.5 hours. The cake should be well risen, golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 -30 mins. Then turn out and allow to cool on wire rack.

Variations to basic mix.
You can add 2 teaspoons of a quality lemon oil then drizzle fresh lemon juice over the top while it is cooling. You can make a good coffee and walnut cake by mixing in some really strong coffee and 4 oz or more chopped walnuts. Good quality chocolate and some cocoa for a chocolate cake.

I have even made huge versions for the local fete by exchanging a 3/4 or 1 cup measure for the 125 g pot. If you do scale up then 2 eggs are still enough - if it looks too dry I usually add another splodge of yoghurt.. .. It is very flexible mixture. Experiment. It is a very forgiving mixture. But whatever you do - don't taste it until it is COLD otherwise you may be disappointed.

How Do They Do That?

All that blogging I mean. The more blog sites I get into I'm wondering just how do people manage to fit it in to their lives? I've made [ruined] a cake this afternoon. All because Iwas trying to get my blog sorted and a bit more interesting. What happened to the cake? Well, first of all I almost overcooked it. Then when I turned it out of the tin, being impatient to get back to this compulsive new habit - I mean hobby - I dislodged it far to quickly and almost dropped it on the floor. After juggling it like a hot potato I saved it from the dog's slavering mouth but it is a broken wreck of a thing. A poor specimen. My easiest recipe - 85% ruined. It's not good enough to put out as centre piece of the tea table for visitors so will have to provide a Waitrose version instead. As I was clearing up the mess of hot broken fruit cake crumbs I started to ponder on how other people manage to write their pages uninterrupted. I forever have dogs, people who need seeing to in one way or another. Or even when the dog and the master of the house are having an afternoon rest I get unexpected phone calls or visitors [salesmen] at the door. I'll have to think of devoting a couple of hours nearer to midnight to blogging and see how I get on then.