Weekly Bake Off - Apricot loaf cake

After several weeks of not participating in the Weekly Bake Off, I was raring to go with this week's bake : Apricot loaf cake. The only ingredient I needed to buy were the dried apricots, and so after picking them up on the way home on Thursday I threw this together after dinner on Thursday night. It is a very simple recipe - everything get put into 1 bowl, mixed and then poured into the loaf tin, so it is very low-stress. It smelt lovely while baking, and we dived straight into it almost as soon as it was out of the oven. 

Mr Soup loves fruit loaf, and this didn't disappoint, being full of apricots, cherries and raisins. I don't think that the icing added much, though it was a nice touch to be able to sprinkle some more apricots on top. I probably wouldn't make this again, but only because I have other recipes for darker fruitloafs, but probably will be adding dried apricots to other fruit cakes in the future.

Rosie's Lardy Cake

This is a few weeks late now, but I've been rather too busy baking, working and holidaying to manage to write about it all as well! However, I have some lovely cakes to share with you...

The beautiful cakes at the Pudsey 50's themed Clandestine Cake Club event. (Mine is the rather less attractive offering front left...)

Last weekend I attended another of the wonderful Clandestine Cake Club meetings run by the Pudsey branch. The theme for this meeting was 50's cake, and I was a little stumped. Inspiration struck when I decided to ask someone who had been a child in the 50's (Mr Soup's mum - I might be in trouble for that statement!) what they remembered their mum making, and the resounding answer was Lardy cake (a true Yorkshire staple it turns out, although it's not originally from Yorkshire, before you write in like angry Points of View viewers...). A bit of research later, and I'd dug a recipe out of a 50's cookbook, made a couple of changes to convert it into a cake-format and modernise it a little (mostly the addition of a few more spices), and prepared to make it.

Essentially a lardy cake is a bit like a shortcrusty pastry (made with lard - there's no non-pig-fat surprise to this - it is what it says on the tin!) wrapped around some currants, and then baked. I started by making the pastry, then rolled it out into a long strip, put a row of spice/sugar/dried fruit mix down the middle, then rolled the pastry around the mix to make a tube. I then twirled this into the cake tin, sprinked a bit more fruit mix on top and baked it. When it came out of the oven I prepared some syrup using the leftover fruit/sugar/spice mix, and glazed the cake with it.

I was very pleased with the result - though it was a bit heavy the cake was tasty, and definitely hearkened back to a time when rationing was still in force, and sugar was a luxury to be used very sparingly - it is so easy to take for granted the well-stocked shelves in the supermarket. The fruit in the middle is a nice surprise and looks good when the cake is cut.

Rosie's Lardy Cake :

350g flour
pinch salt
2tsp baking powder
75g lard
1 egg, beaten
100g mixed dried fruit
100g sugar
2tsp cinnamon (and/or mixed spice - adjust quantities to your taste)

Make the dough by rubbing the lard into the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the egg and mix to a soft dough adding a little milk if needed.

Make the filling using the mixed dried fruit (you could just use raisins, but I had some mixed fruit and so used that instead), brown sugar and cinnamon.

Roll out the dough into a long thin strip, about 5 - 7.5cm / 2inches wide.
Melt ~25g lard and brush the dough with it.

 Put a line of filling down the middle of the strip, and fold the dough over the filling to make a long tube, filled with spiced, sugary fruit. (You will have a little filling left - put it into a small saucepan and add a little water. Heat gently till the sugar dissolves, and boil for a little while to thicken slightly. This is the glaze.)

Twirl the tube into a small cake tin - mine is a 20cm diameter tin, brush with a little more melted lard and bake at 220ºC for about half an hour. When you take it out of the oven, brush with the glaze, pouring any remaining fruit over the top.

Warning - this is not a cake for the faint-hearted - it is dense and heavy, but if you like fruity, pastryish treats, this will go well with a nice cup of tea.

Weekly Bake Off - Hot Cross Buns

With Easter rapidly approaching I've shown great restraint (mostly inspired by the huge amount of cake there has been in the house) in not buying any hot cross buns yet. Mr Soup and I are big fans, and quite capable of eating a pack together in the space of a day, so it's better not to have the temptation there...
But after this week's Weekly Bake Off challenge, I suspect that while Hot Cross Buns will remain on the menu, shop-bought ones won't, as they simply don't measure up to this tasty recipe.

 Having seen everyone else's pictures start to go up through the week, I was rather keen on having some Hot Cross Buns for breakfast on Saturday morning. In order to get the timings right, I made the mix, and left it to rise for the first time overnight in a warmed oven (reasoning that the oven would cool after an hour or so, and the yeast would not get completely out of control). This strategy worked, and on Saturday morning I woke to a big bowl full of risen dough. This was kneaded for a few minutes, and then I made the buns and put them to rise for a second time. Abking was only about 15 minutes, so about an hour after getting up, we had hot, fresh Hot Cross Buns - pure indulgence.

About the only thing I will change when making these again is to add a bit more spice.