Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Surimi Cake

Ingredients

175g butter
150g sugar
150g self raising flour
2 eggs
3 tbsps milk
100g ground almonds
16 seafood sticks, chopped
40g grated cheese
pinch salt
pinch pepper
1 tsp almond or vanilla essence


Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C, gas mark 3 and grease and line a 23cm cake tin.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until it has a light, fluffy consistency. Add in the eggs, flour, ground almonds, milk, salt, pepper and essence then mix well. 


3. Stir in the seafood sticks and pour the mixture into the cake tin. Sprinkle the cheese on top.


4. Bake in the preheated oven for about 60 minutes. Use a skewer to pierce the cake to test if it is cooked - if it is clean when removed then the cake is cooked, if not then put the cake back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes and test again.


5. Turn the cake out of the tin onto a cooling rack.



Serves 6-10


Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Mirabelle Plum and Blueberry Pudding

Ingredients



Stork Baking Liquid, for greasing
8 slices of stale bread
700g Mirabelle Plums
100g Blueberries
150g granulated sugar
1.5 litre pudding basin


Instructions

1. Lightly coat the pudding basin with the Stork Baking Liquid. Line with 1 or 2 slices of bread to completely cover the base. Line the sides of the dish with more bread - cut to shape if needed for a close fit.

2. Remove the stones from the Mirabelle plums. Add the plums and blueberries to a saucepan with about 2cm depth of water and sprinkle the sugar over. Bring to the boil on a low heat for about 10 minutes (until the sugar melts and fruit juices are released).

3. Take the pan off the heat and set aside 2-3 tbsp of the juice for later. Transfer the fruit and juice into the the bread lined dish and cover the surface closely with the remaining bread.

4. Place a plate that fits inside the pudding basin on top of the pudding and weight it down with a heavy tin or jar. Put the pudding in the fridge to chill for about 8 hours.

5. Before serving, remove the weight and the plate. Cover the top of the basin with the serving plate and turn upside down to remove the pudding from the basin. Use the fruit juice that was set aside earlier to pour over any parts of the bread that have not been soaked in juice and changed colour. 

Serves 6-8




Thursday, 28 March 2013

Chocolate Nests

Ingredients

150g Dark cooking chocolate
3 Shredded Wheat biscuits
27 Cadbury Mini Eggs

Instructions

1. Melt the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of gently simmering water. When smooth and melted remove from the heat.

2. Crush the Shredded Wheat biscuits and mix into the melted chocolate.

3. Spoon the mixture into paper cake cases, making a slight dip in the centre of each one to form a nest.

4. Add 3 Cadbury Mini Eggs to each nest and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.


Makes 9