Great Cakes From Great Cooks
Teatime
We asked some of Britain's best cake cooks to give us their tried-and-tested teatime recipes. It's time to put on your apron…
The Womens Institute Modern Christmas Cake
Ingredients
200g (7oz) ready to eat apricots
175g (6oz) ready to eat figs
110g (4oz) ready to eat mango
110g (4oz) ready to eat pineapple
200g (7 oz) glacé cherries
75g (3oz) sweetened dried blueberries
75g (3oz) sweetened dried cranberries
90 ml (6 tbsp) orange juice or brandy
5 ml (1 tsp) cinnamon
250g (9oz) butter
250g (9oz) molasses sugar
4 medium eggs
110g (4oz) almonds, roughly chopped
grated zest of an orange
75g (3oz) ground almonds
225g(8oz) plain flour
10 ml (2 tsp) mixed spice
Method:
Chop the apricots, figs, mango, pineapple and cherries coarsely, place into a large bowl with the blueberries and cranberries, stir in the orange juice or brandy, cover and leave to soak for at least 6 hours.
Beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy and lighter in colour. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the nuts and orange zest. Sift together the flour and spices, add half to the creamed mixture with half the fruit mix well. Add the remaining flour and fruit mix thoroughly.
Place the mixture into a greased and lined 20 cm (8 inch) round deep cake tin and smooth the top. Bake electric oven preheated 150ºC middle shelf; gas oven preheated mark 2 middle shelf or cold fan oven 120ºC for 3 - 3½ hours until the cake is firm to the touch and dark golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap the cake in foil and store in a dry, cool place until required.
Recipe courtesy of The Women's Institute
The Ritz Hotel's Apple and Raisin Scones
Ingredients
500g flour
80g sugar
27g baking powder
130g butter
2 eggs
140ml milk
24g raisins
20g semi-dried apple
Method:
Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder & butter. Then add eggs & milk & mix well
Separate the mix into 2 batches, add in the dried apples in one batch & raisins in the second batch. Roll out to about ½“ thick, cut to size & place on a baking tray. Brush the top with egg and bake in a hot oven at 230oC until golden brown
Recipe courtesy of The Ritz, London
Konditor and Cook's Two-Tone Biscuits
(makes 60 but you can freeze the uncooked dough for later)
Ingredients
Vanilla Sable Pastry:
125 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg yolk
250 g salted butter, cubed
375 g plain flour, sifted
Method:
Put the icing sugar, vanilla essence, egg yolk and butter in a bowl and mix together with a wooden spoon. Add the sifted flour and mix to a firm dough (you mighty want to use your fingers rather than the spoon for this). Try and work as fast as possible, to stop the pastry from going oily. Mould the pastry into a flat slab, wrap and chill for one hour.
Chocolate Sable Pastry
(as above but with 325g of flour and 30g of dark cocoa powder, sifted).
Method:
Put 125 g of vanilla dough on a lightly floured work surface into an oblong shape of approx. 16 x 14 cm. Roll out 125 g of chocolate pastry to the same size.
Dampen a pastry brush with a little water and brush vanilla pastry. Place the chocolate pastry on top, roll the double thickness to a rectangle of about 20 X 16 cm. Brush again with a little water.
Starting from the long sides, roll up the pastry to a log of about 4 cm diameter.
Wrap in film and chill for one hour.
When ready to bake, slice the log into 20 rounds about 8 mm thick. Place 1 cm apart on non stick baking sheets and bake in pre-heated oven at 200C (Gas6) for 12 - 10 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Recipe courtesy of Konditor and Cook
Jane Asher’s American Muffins
INGREDIENTS
A little oil for greasing
225g (8oz) plain flour
100g (4oz) caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
250ml (8fl.oz) milk
120ml (4 fl.oz) sunflower or vegetable oil
METHOD
Heat the oven to 200°C (400F) gas mark 6. Stand double paper cases inside each dip in a bun tin, or use
oiled muffin tins. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a different bowl mix the
egg, milk and oil very well together with a fork. Make a dip in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the
liquid ingredients. Stir it all together until the dry things are mixed in but it’s still all lumpy – this is important
because if you mix it too much the muffins will be tough. Using a spoon or an ice-cream scoop if you have
one, fill the paper cases or muffin tins nearly full (they will rise up when they’re cooked). Put them carefully
in the oven for about 20 minutes. They should look a little brown and feel springy when you press them
gently with your finger. Then let them cool.
Recipe courtesy of www.jane-asher.co.uk
