SPICED PUMPKIN AND MINCEMEAT CAKE

My birthday is in December and the weather is usually grim.  This is in sharp contrast to my OH's birthday which is in November when the weather is nearly always much nicer.  Usually good enough to enjoy a walk in the countryside or, like this year, a barbecue in the sunshine.  On his birthday we barbecued salmon fillets and veg skewers for a late lunch and sat outside in the evening to enjoy a glass of fizz until the sun went down.  Just four weeks and two days later, on my birthday, it was grey, misty and miserable outside and definitely not sitting out weather.

In the year of my 70th birthday we had a 69¾ garden party three months early, in September, when it was still warm and sunny.  I'm thinking of permanently adopting an official birthday in September every year from now on!

So, what do you do when it's a grim and miserable day outside but you want to do SOMETHING nice to celebrate?  (Other than join the crowds and mayhem and go shopping.)  You bake a birthday cake!

I've owned this Nordic Ware tin for a few years but so far shied away from actually using it, thinking that the cake would be bound to stick with all those tiny little nooks and crannies.  It took as long to brush it with cake release paste as it did to make the cake mixture but when the cake plopped out of the tin as clean as a whistle it was definitely worth the effort!  The design of the tin would make a good alternative Christmas cake.  Nordic Ware now make something similar in a loaf shape as well as the traditional ring.

I adapted a recipe I have used many times before, one that always turns out well.  I used my last tin of pumpkin purée from the larder and the two spoonfuls of the home made mincemeat left over from making mince pies.  It’s a while since I baked a Bundt cake and I forgot the golden rule of only filling the tin to about three quarters full.  I merrily spooned in all the mixture and it volcanoed up almost over the top.  This can make it harder to turn out but on this occasion I got away with it!  It’s better to under fill the tin and use the excess mixture for a few muffins or fairy cakes.

This time the cake looked spectacular, was beautifully moist and spiced and tasted divine.  The sprinkling of icing sugar "snow" topped it off perfectly.  Our guests were sceptical about pumpkin but I just said "think carrot cake" and they all loved it, even taking away slices for later.  A true endorsement of a delicious cake.

All ready for a Christmas gathering chez nous.

Did you know that the term "Bundt" comes from the German word for a gathering of people, a bund?  The hole in the middle of the tin allows for even baking of a large cake to serve a lot of people at a gathering or party.  Nordic Ware and other manufacturers produce dozens of different designs of Bundt tin to suit every occasion and, although they are not cheap, they are very strong and high quality.  I'm lucky enough to have a small collection of them acquired over many years.  

Ingredients

200g plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

250g soft dark brown sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

190ml sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 400g tin pumpkin purée

2 tblsp mincemeat

Method

Carefully brush cake release paste into all the crevices of a Bundt tin*.  (See recipe here.)  Preheat the oven to 175°C / 155° fan.

Sift the flour into a bowl, add the baking powder, bicarb, salt and cinnamon and mix well.

In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla and pumpkin until well mixed.  Stir in the mincemeat.

Tip the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix well, making sure everything is well incorporated.  

Spoon the mixture into the Bundt tin, level the top and tap on the worktop a few times to dispel any air bubbles.   

Bake for 40-45 minutes until done.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Transfer to a cake plate or stand and dust lightly with icing sugar.

Cuts into 12-16 slices.

*If you prefer, use a 25cm round springform tin, greased and base lined with baking paper. 

EMERGENCY MINCEMEAT

I had an urge to bake some mince pies, something you never see here in France except amongst the British ex-pats.  The French don't understand them, you certainly never see them in the shops and jars of mincemeat are virtually impossible to find unless very occasionally on the "English shelf" in some supermarkets (at an outrageous price).  Another ingredient hard to find is suet, or at least not in the form that we know it.  You can get lumps of fat to grate yourself from the butcher if you ask in advance!  (Or do what most ex-pats do and bring it back from visits to the UK!)

The urgent need was spurred on by the discovery of a set of Christmas cake decoration cutters in the bottom of a drawer, a rogue purchase from many years ago that had never been used.  Perfect for the pastry tops of mince pies as well as fondant icing!

So I looked for a recipe that I could adapt using what I had in stock.  You can buy delicious candied peel here but all of mine had gone into the Christmas cake so I used the zest of two clementines instead.  For the alcohol content I used Armagnac which we had bought to "water" the Christmas cake, not being brandy drinkers ourselves.

I adapted Mary Berry's recipe which you can see here which neatly makes four regular sized jam jars of mincemeat which will keep for several months.  It improves with keeping but some went into the pies straight away which were delicious and satisfied the urgent need for them!

Ingredients 

175g each of

    currants

    raisins

    sultanas

    dried cranberries

100g mixed peel or the zest of 1 small orange/2 clementines instead 

1 small apple peeled and finely chopped

50g chopped almonds

225g light muscovado sugar (or other brown sugar)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

zest and juice of 1 lemon

125g butter, cubed or sliced

200ml brandy, rum, sherry or Armagnac

Method 

Put all of the ingredients except for the alcohol into a large saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.  Simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before stirring in the alcohol.

While the mincemeat is cooking then cooling sterilise your jars.  Wash the jars and lids then rinse well in hot water, shaking off the water rather than using a tea towel.  Place onto a baking sheet then into the oven  set to 160°C and leave for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and fill with the mincemeat while the jars are still warm.

Makes 4 jars of mincemeat which will keep for several months.

CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE and a tale of more haste, less speed

More haste, less speed, is a saying my mum used often.  What it means is that doing something in a rush will take you longer in the end because things go wrong and you have to re-do them.  I have found it to be very true!

On a beautiful, warm and sunny autumn day I had baking to do.  I thought that if I got a move on there would still be time to do some gardening or sit out in the sunshine but then things went wrong……

The first thing to go wrong was a simple chocolate cake; wrong size tin and wrong flour.  (French flours do not work the same as British flours.)  The sponges were flat and sad looking.  Had it been just for us I would have used them but it had been requested as a birthday gift so I remade it using Mary Berry's recipe for a chocolate sandwich cake and some of my stash of Homepride flour.  (The first set of sponges now resides in my freezer and will be used in future for something like a chocolate trifle.)

The second was in making some Parkin which I had also promised to someone else.  With a double batch in the oven and finally sitting out in the sunshine with my mug of tea I had one of those nagging doubts and went back inside to consult the recipe.  I had forgotten to put in the bicarbonate of soda. By now the Parkin had been in the oven for ten minutes and was just beginning to set.

I hesitated for a second but realised I could end up with two trays of flapjack if I didn't do something about it.  So quick as a flash, between us we scraped the mixture out of the tins and into a bowl.  I sprinkled two teaspoons of bicarb over the top and Nick used my biggest wooden spoon and a lot of muscle to beat like hell and mix it in.  We dolloped it back into the tins and put it back in the oven for the rest of the baking time.  It turned out fine!  You can see the Parkin recipe here.

As we finally sat outside in the last of the afternoon sunshine with a glass of something to calm my nerves I could hear my mum whispering "more haste, less speed!" in my ear and see her cheeky smile.  It’s almost twenty three years since she died and I miss her and her little sayings every day!

The cake went down well with the birthday girl.  Having made one before I knew it would be a lovely soft sponge and I decorated it with my standard chocolate buttercream recipe and a few girly sprinkles.

Curiously, when I looked for the recipe online I stumbled across a peculiar page on the Silver Spoon (sugar manufacturers) website comparing Mary Berry's recipe with Nigella's.  They reckon Nigella's was best!  You can see it here. What a very odd thing to have on a product website. I wonder what Mary would make of that!

Ingredients

For the cake

2 tblsp cocoa powder

3 tblsp boiling water

225g each of

    self raising flour

    caster sugar

    baking spread

1 level tsp baking powder

4 large eggs

For the icing

50g butter

150g icing sugar

1 tblsp cocoa powder

1 tblsp warm water

Method

To make the cake, grease and line the base of two deep 20cm sandwich tins.  Preheat the oven to 180c / 160 fan / gas mk4.

Blend the cocoa powder with the water in a large bowl and allow to cool slightly.  Add all the other cake ingredients and beat well with an electric whisk until nice and smooth.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake for 25 minutes until done.  Leave in the tins for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat the butter until soft then sift in the icing sugar a spoonful at a time and beat until smooth.  Mix the cocoa powder to a smooth paste with the water and beat into the mixture.

Use half of the icing to sandwich the sponges together and swirl the other half over the top.  

Decorate with your favourite sprinkles and candles.

Cuts into 10-12 slices.