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Raspberry Bakewell Cake

Story location: Home / food_and_drink /
20/Aug/2014

Despite this recipe being named after Bakewell, this is nothing to do with my A-Z of Cakes since the cake is really named after the Bakewell Tart and not the town itself. The 'genuine article' is the Bakewell Pudding, not the pastry based tart you can get in the shops everywhere else.

We first cooked this cake a few years ago, following a recipe we cut from a newspaper. An almost identical recipe features on the Good Food magazine site but uses more raspberries than the one we followed.

Our main change was to use diced marzipan in the middle layer and also on top instead of flaked almonds.

Raspberry Bakewell Cake

The resulting cake is soft, moist and delicious.



Spaghetti Loaf

Story location: Home / food_and_drink /
17/Aug/2014

This is a recipe we've been thinking about doing for a while, ever since we first read about it. It's a similar idea to the picnic loaves which are a cross between a sandwich and a stuffed loaf.

The first step is to make the pasta sauce. We often do a 'meat sauce' in the pressure cooker, simply putting chopped vegetables (such as onion, pepper, courgette, leek, garlic) in the pan along with a tin or two of tomatoes, some herbs and seasoning and a packet of mince. The lid goes on the pressure cooker and the sauce is cooked for an hour or so.

The next step is to make the dough. For this I used my normal 'mostly white' loaf, using milk instead of water, and making the dough slightly softer than normal.

Spaghetti Loaf: Roll out the dough
Roll out the dough and sprinkle some cornmeal in the centre (this helps stop the bottom going soggy during cooking).

Spaghetti Loaf
Mix the cooked spaghetti with the sauce and spread over the dough.

Spaghetti Loaf
Dot the pasta with diced mozzarella.

Spaghetti Loaf
Cut slits in the dough, going outwards from the pile of pasta. Fold the slits over to approximate a 'plait'. There was spare dough at the edges which we used to make doughballs. Brush the loaf with melted butter and cover with grated cheese (such as parmesan or pecorino).

Spaghetti Loaf
Bake at gas mark 4 (180C) for half an hour. I assembled the loaf on some baking parchment and transferred it to a pizza stone to cook. The loaf came out well, with no sign of a soggy bottom.

I was surprised by how straightforward this was to make. The 'meat sauce' is something we regularly make and often have in the fridge or freezer. The bread dough is quick to make and just needs to be left to prove for a few hours.

This has spurred me on to try other stuffed loaves. A couple of years ago I made a macaroni cheese pie (inspired by a pie we bought while out at a country show) so I think a macaroni loaf would work well. The cheese sauce would have to be quite thick but I can't see why it wouldn't be as good as the spaghetti loaf.



Regional Cakeathon J: Jersey Pudding

Story location: Home / food_and_drink / a_to_z /
14/Aug/2014

I struggled a bit finding a suitable recipe for the letter J but found something called Jersey Pudding. This was a sponge pudding with dark sugar and raisins and sounded a bit like a christmas pudding but with a bit less fruit. Since I'm not a huge christmas pudding fan I used a mixture of dark and white sugar and changed the raisins for apricots.

The inspiration for the recipe came from the Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery book. I scaled it down a bit so I could cook it in the microwave in our smaller pyrex jug. It took about 6-7 minutes on medium in an 800W microwave.

recipe from Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, 1894

It was my first attempt at a sponge pudding (as far as I can remember) and it came out ok. It tasted very rich and buttery but it should, since there was 40g per serving in there.

Jersey Pudding reinterpreted as an Apricot Sponge

My Recipe

My version of the pudding is very different to the original so it shouldn't really be called a Jersey Pudding. Since I didn't have rice flour I whizzed some oats in the food processor.

  • Flour 20g
  • Ground Oats 40g
  • Sugar 40g
  • Pinch of Salt
  • Butter 80g
  • Dried Apricots 40g
  • Lemon Juice 1 tbs
  • Eggs 2
  • Milk, 1 and a bit tbs

Work the dry ingredients into the butter then add fruit and lemon juice followed by egg and milk.

Pour into a buttered dish and cook in the microwave on medium for 6-7 minutes.