Loosen your belts and break out the cake forks, because this week I am presenting an unabashed bake-fest. I've been hunkering down in the kitchen with my favourite old cookbooks, my Constance Spry andmy Katie Stewart, poring over batter-splattered recipes for much-loved cakes, biscuits, scones and tarts. Myfancy is turning to light-as-air Genoese sponges topped with lavish amounts of whipped cream and fresh, sugared raspberries; to sticky-sweet florentines, thick with almonds and fruit, glued with chocolate and caramel; and to sugar-dredged shortbread, which comes out of the oven almost as pale as it went in. There's a whole spread of super savouries begging to be baked, too, from cheesy puff pastry palmiers to good old sausage rolls.
And while I take pleasure in knocking out such iconic items just as they should be, there is also great satisfaction to be had in tweaking atried-and-tested favourite. I love aVictoria sponge with the de rigueur raspberry jam filling, but while I'm waiting for those raspberries to ripen into jammable fruit, I sandwich the cake with whipped cream and serveit with a tartly aromatic gooseberry and elderflower compote. Meringues do not have to be pure and snowy white; they can be marbled with coffee, chocolate, evena tangy fruit puree. And a simple butter biscuit recipe is ripe for tinkering: spike shortbread with caraway seeds, or chopped lavender, or lemon and orange zest.
Such treats are practical as well asindulgent. Summery puddings, delectable as they are – all soft cream and custard and juice-leaking fruit – fall down a little in the portability stakes, but you can take a cake anywhere. Whether you bear them as gifts or hold them close as a picnic treat for your nearest and dearest, home-baked goodies such as these will survive the journey, even if they disappear pretty quickly on arrival.
Cheddar, onion and herb wholemeal scones
Irresistible slathered with butter and served for tea. They also make a great partner to soup. Makes eight.
1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 tsp finely chopped thyme (orrosemary)
75g mature cheddar, plus extra tofinish
250g light brown plain flour
3½ level tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp mustard powder
50g cold butter, cubed
100ml milk, plus extra to finish
100ml yoghurt
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Grease a baking tray or line it with nonstick baking parchment.
Heat the oil in a frying pan over amedium heat, add the onion and fry gently for about 10 minutes, until soft and lightly coloured. Stir in the thyme and set aside to cool.
Cut the cheddar into 3-4mm dice – you can just grate it, but this way the tiny cubes give you melty, cheesy pockets in the finished scone. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and mustard powder in a large bowl, and whisk to aerate and combine. Rub in the butter until there are no large chunks left and the mix looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the diced cheese and the cooled onion.
Combine the milk and yoghurt, and stir into the flour to form a rough dough. Tip on to a lightly floured surface and work gently into a ball – it's important not to knead or overwork it. Pat out into a rough circle about 3cm thick and cut into eight wedges. Transfer to the baking tray, brush with a little milk and grate more cheddar on top. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Transfer to a rack. Eat just warm with lots of butter, or keep in an airtight container and eat within 48 hours – warm them through for five minutes in a hot oven before serving. They freeze well, too.
Bakewell traybake
I love a classic bakewell tart. This slightly different version, which has a shortbread base and is studded with fresh raspberries, is particularly easy to transport. Makes 12-16 pieces.
For the base
100g soft, unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
100g plain flour
Pinch of salt
For the filling
150g ground almonds
50g plain flour
150g soft, unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
A few drops of almond extract (optional)
½ jar (or more) good raspberry jam
150g fresh raspberries
15-20g flaked almonds
Icing sugar, to serve
Heat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3 and lightly grease an 18cm x 25cm rectangular baking tin.
To make the base, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, sift in the flour and salt, and work to acrumbly mixture. Press into the base of the tin (don't worry if there are a few gaps: it will spread as it cooks) and bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove and turn the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
For the filling, combine the ground almonds and flour, and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoon of almond mix with each egg. Fold in the remaining almond mixture and almond extract, if using.
Spread the jam thickly over the cooled base and spread the almond mix evenly on top. Stud with the raspberries, pressing them in gently, and scatter with flaked almonds. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown. Leave to cool, then dust with icing sugar and cut into squares.
Coffee mocha cake
How can you beat a good coffee cake? Add chocolate. Theresult, pictured overleaf, is adivine, bittersweet treat. Serves 10.
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
200g soft, unsalted butter, plusextra for greasing
200g light soft brown sugar
3 medium eggs
2 tbsp strong espresso (or 1tbsp instant coffee granules dissolved in2 tbsp boiling water)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
A little milk
For the buttercream
125g soft, unsalted butter
250g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp strong espresso (or 1 tbsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water)
To finish
50g dark chocolate
Icing sugar
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and grease and line two 18cm sandwich tins. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Put the butter in a bowl and beat for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until really pale, light and creamy – the lighter and fluffier your butter and sugar mix is, the lighter and fluffier your cake will be, so beat for at least three minutes with an electric whisk or in a mixer.
Add the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the flour mix with each one, and beat in thoroughly before adding the next. Lightly fold in the remaining flour. Transfer half the mix to a second bowl.
Gently fold the coffee into one half of the mix. Sift the cocoa into the other and fold in gently, along with a splash of milk to give a soft dropping consistency. Drop dessertspoonfuls of the two mixes into the two tins, and use a knife to swirl them together, to give a marbled effect. Level the tops, then bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes shrink away from the sides of the tins and spring back when gently prodded. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack.
If you want to top the cake with chocolate curls (if not, just grate the chocolate orshave it with a potato peeler), break the chocolate into small pieces and put in a heatproof bowl. Put this inside a larger bowl half-full of just-boiled water and leave until melted, stirring once or twice. Put a sheet of foil over a small board or other flat object, pour on the chocolate and leave to set. Drag the edge of a sharp knife over the set chocolate to form curls (refrigerate ifnot using straight away).
When the cakes are cold, make thebuttercream. Beat the butter andicing sugar until light and creamy, then beat in the coffee. Use half the buttercream to sandwich the cakes together and spread the rest on top. Scatter chocolate curls or shavings on top, and finish with adusting of icing sugar.
Digestive biscuits
By altering the amount of sugar here, you can make a nicely sweet biscuit for tea-dunking or a more savoury one to serve with cheese.
125g porridge oats
125g wholemeal flour
125g cold, unsalted butter, diced
35g-75g soft light brown sugar
Generous pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
50-75ml milk
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.
Put the oats in a food processor and blitz briefly to break them down a bit. Add the flour, butter, sugar (more or less, depending on how sweet you want your biscuits), salt and baking powder, and blitz until the mixture forms crumbs. With the processor still running, trickle in just enough milk to bring the dough together. Tip out on to a lightly floured surface and shape into athick disc. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 3-4mm thick (it's a slightly crumbly dough, so you may find it easier to roll it between two sheets of clingfilm or baking parchment). Cut out with whatever shape cutter you like, transfer to the baking sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, until brown around the edges and golden in the middle. Cool on a wire rack.
