SCHOOL CAKE

I do remember having this as a pudding for school dinners - a sponge cake topped with jam and coconut, scooped in chunks from enormous baking trays.  It was served with pink custard usually once a week, maybe every two weeks at the most.  I loved it!  The dinners at my secondary school were excellent, especially the puddings! 

I first made it myself as part of my afternoon tea.  You can read about that here.  I used quite a large traybake tin which made a shallow sponge, easy to cut into tiny squares.

The squares looked the bees knees when topped with a fresh raspberry and tasted divine.  I took a box full of the leftovers to my knitting group where they were very popular.

I made the cake again for another event, cut into larger squares to be served as a dessert.  It was equally popular.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!  You can see the original here.

It's hard to resist such a dainty treat!

One thing I haven't done with it so far is to repeat the whole school experience and actually serve it with pink custard!  There's time yet!  

Ingredients

For the cake

225g baking spread

225g caster sugar

225g self raising flour

4 eggs

a splash of milk if needed

For the topping

a jar of raspberry jam

25g desiccated coconut

a small punnet of fresh raspberries (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 fan / gas mk 4.  Grease and line the base of a traybake tin measuring roughly 30 x 18cm.

Put all the cake ingredients into a large bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until creamy and well combined.  Whisk in a splash of milk if it seems rather stiff.

Pour the mixture into the tin and spread out evenly, levelling the top.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until done.

Take the cake out of the oven.  Put about half of the jar of jam into a small bowl and stir to loosen it.  Spread this over the warm cake, making sure there are no bare patches.

Sprinkle the desiccated coconut over the jam in a thick dusting and leave to cool in the tin.

When cool mark the top into squares to be cut later or cut into squares of the required size straight away.

To decorate, cut a thin sliver from the flat end of each raspberry - this makes sure they stand pointy end up and don't wobble over.  Place one in the middle of each square and gently push it into the jam slightly so that it stays put.

Serves as many as you like, depending on the size of squares you want.

RHUBARB AND RASPBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

 

The last time we had guests - remember those days? - this is what I made for dessert.

 

In the freezer I had some of the beautiful pink rhubarb from our trip to the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival last month.  I decided to make an easy upside down cake with it, using the recipe for the fresh pineapple cake which you can see here.

 

 

The cake was actually meant to be just a rhubarb upside down cake but when I arranged the fruit over the base of the tin it was obvious that there were too many gaps.  Consequently I filled in the gaps with some raspberries, about half a punnet that I already had in the fridge.  (We put raspberries or blueberries on our porridge most mornings so usually have some in.)  Rhubarb and strawberries are a match made in heaven so I imagined that rhubarb and raspberries might be equally good too.

 

 

It was in fact delicious and a combination I will definitely use again.  Apart from anything else, it was a fabulous colour!

FRESH PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

 

It's not that long since I made my first upside down cake, only about forty years since they were fashionable!

More recently I found myself with a fresh pineapple that hadn't been used for its intended purpose so I looked on the internet for suitable cake recipes and stumbled upon this recipe on the Tesco website*.  It looked incredibly straightforward, but see note at the end of the recipe.

 

In fact it could hardly have been easier, simply arranging the sliced pineapple in the tin and spooning the cake mixture on top.  No caramel topping to leak out of the tin and the easiest possible sponge cake mixture which I made even quicker using Stork soft margarine and the all in one method.  I didn't have a 25cm tin as specified in the recipe so used my 23cm tin and it was fine, just the right depth I thought.

 

 

In place of the caramel topping on the fruit you simply drizzle runny honey over the finished cake.  I didn't have any in stock so used golden syrup instead.  It was yummy!

 

 

The sponge was light, tasty and altogether delightful, the pineapple was sharp and delicious, offset by the subtle taste of the golden syrup which was not overly sweet.

 

 

It was such a success that I decided to make it again for this year's alternative to Christmas pudding, decorating the finished cake with a few glacé cherry halves and sprigs of rosemary from the garden for a festive touch.  It was quickly rustled up on Christmas Eve, the longest part of the preparation being to trim and slice the pineapple!  It went down really well, enjoyed with a little cream, custard, or home made brandy butter, or in some cases, all three!

 

Ingredients

1 medium fresh ripe pineapple

175g Stork soft margarine for cakes (or softened butter if you prefer)

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

175g self raising flour

2-3 tblsp milk

1 tblsp runny honey (or a good squirt of squeezy golden syrup)

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 fan / gas mk 4.  Butter a 23 cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper.

 

Prepare the pineapple by removing the top and bottom and slicing off the outer skin and tufts.  Cut in half vertically and remove the woody core with an apple corer or sharp knife Slice into thinnish slices about the thickness of a £1 or 1€ coin.  Arrange the slices in the bottom of the tin, covering as much area as possible.  (You may have some pineapple left over.)

 

To make the sponge beat together all the remaining ingredients except for the golden syrup in a large bowl until smooth and well combined.  Add enough of the milk to loosen the mixture but not make it too soft. 

 

Spoon the mixture carefully over the fruit and level the top.  Bake for about 45 minutes until done.

 

Leave in the tin for 5 minutes then release the clip and leave to cool.  When cool, remove the ring, put a plate or cake stand upside down on top and invert the cake.  Remove the circle of baking paper and drizzle a little honey or golden syrup over the top.

 

Cuts into 10-12 slices.

* Since I first wrote this post Tesco have changed the recipe on their website and it now uses tinned pineapple, which is a shame.

RUM AND DATE CAKE (gluten free)

This is an adaptation of a recipe for a gluten free lemon drizzle cake that I found on the Tesco website.  You can see that recipe here.  I was making a cake for a boozy themed CCC event and it needed to be gluten free.

It’s probably two years since I baked this cake and I made notes at the time about how I had adapted the recipe.  I printed off the recipe and added my slip of paper with the changes tucked into a clear plastic cover for future use.  Then it disappeared.  I have looked for it many times since then and then yesterday, as if by magic, it surfaced, when I was looking for something else, hidden in a folder with a bundle of other forgotten recipes.

I remember that the cake turned out well, nice and moist with a hint of rum and of course anything with dates in it is just my cup of tea.  Now that I have found it I will be able to make it again.  Highly recommended to go with your afternoon cuppa or other beverage of your choice!

Ingredients

170g softened butter or baking spread (I used Flora Buttery)

50g light muscovado sugar

120g caster sugar

2 large eggs

120g gluten free plain flour

50g ground almonds

1 scant tsp GF baking powder

75g chopped dates

2 tblsp rum

Method

First, put the dates into a small bowl with the rum and leave to soak.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4.  Butter and line a 2lb loaf tin or use a liner.

Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Fold in the flour, almonds and baking powder then mix in the soaked dates until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the tin, level the top and bake for 45 minutes or until done.  Remove from the oven then cool in the tin before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cuts into 8-10 slices.