Simple Lemon Cake

08-02-2018 Local Black Bookbaking, cake, lemon, lemon cake, recipe1 Comment

When I was in high school, I was a serial baker.

I was the kind of student who put a lot of pressure onto herself and that required a lot of exausting mental work. So I needed to find a way to give myself a break and relax, and baking was just that.

Ensued as many as 6 types of cakes a week being baked, which was really quite a lot for a family of 5 to go through. Thankfully, my siblings’ classmates and mine were always willing to land a hand on the eating front.

From that baking frenzy, I kept the unshakable feeling that cake makes many bad things better, as well as a handful of ‘best in show’ recipes, amongst which this simple lemon cake one.

A simple lemon cake is a baking classic- and this recipe is perfect on all fronts.

Pressed for time? It literally takes minutes to whip up and can happily be made the day before. Plus there’s no need for syrups or any fussing about.

Don’t have any fancy equipment or ingredients / not in the mood for a lot of washing up? All it takes is basic ingredients, one bowl and one baking tin.

Not very comfortable with baking projects? It’s basically impossible to ruin (you could even put all the ingredients in a blender).

Scared it’ll be dry and/or boring? Do you really think I’d still be making this recipe after all those years if it wasn’t the most incredible simple lemon cake ever?

I’m talking big on zesty flavours, moist and absolutely perfect both with a cuppa for afternoon tea or a spoonful of Greek yoghurt for breakfast and brunch!

So, if life gives you lemon… make lemon cake!

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More easy (and delicious!) baking projects

The best carrot cake

Cranberry oatmeal cake

The best bread & butter pudding

The best bread + butter pudding

23-11-2017 Local Black Bookbaking, bread & butter pudding, British, classics, dessert, pudding, recipe5 Comments

As you might have noticed, I’m all about comfort food at the moment.

Soup is still my absolute favourite (with cream of tomato, tomato & lentil & butternut versions featuring heavily in my diet this month), but I’d be lying if I pretended like what I really crave lately is carbs.

Pasta, mash, rice and all sorts of nursery puddings… basically all the beige things!

Best of them all though?

This incredible, festive take on the classic bread & butter pudding.

There’s something so comforting about bread & butter pudding – and this version, made with Karaway Bakery’s delicious cinnamon, walnut and raisin brioche loaf takes this classic British pudding a step further.

Soft and indulgent, with crunchy nuts and moist raisins scattered through and the warm aroma of cinnamon, it’s the sort of food winter is made for.

So make the most of the cold season and pud‘ it on your menu… You can thank me later!

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More comfort food recipes

Italian-style sausage casserole

Butternut squash pasta bake (V)

French apple turnovers (V)

Sticky date porridge (VE, GF)

How to make shortcrust pastry

11-07-2017 Local Black Bookbaking, basics, recipe, shortcrust pastry, vegetarianLeave a comment

I am the laziest of cooks.

If there’s an easier way to do something, I will figure it out; if there’s a shortcut, I will find it.

As long as it’s no compromise on flavours, that is.

And when it comes to tarts and quiches and that sort of thing, Jus-Rol is absolutely not the one.

As this country (or at least, my teeny-tiny local supermarkets) doesn’t seem to have reach the ready-made full-butter pastry stage yet, so I’ve had to come to terms with making my own shortcrust pastry.

The good news is: it’s very easy to do it yourself, takes just a few minutes, requires no weird/unusual/I’ll-have-to-run-to-the-shop-for-this ingredients and results in the most delicious, buttery and crumbly shortcrust pastry I’ve ever had.

Simply fan-tart-stic!

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What to make with your homemade shortcrust pastry

Provencal Tomato Tart (V)

Spring Vegetable Tart (V)

Poppy Seed & Parmesan Cheese Biscuits

03-06-2017 Local Black Bookbaking, biscuits, cheddar, cheese, cookies, parmesan, poppy seed, recipe, snack, vegetarian1 Comment

Cravings are an evil, evil thing.

Picture this. You’re sitting on the coach, minding your own business (read: trying your hardest not to watch the entire season of House of Cards in one go) when, coming from nowhere, the idea of crunchy, crumbly cheese biscuits pops up into your mind.

You try to push it away, but there’s nothing to be done. Before you know it, you find yourself rummaging through your kitchen cupboards, hoping you have all the ingredients to make your craving dreams come true.

If you’re lucky, you’ll avoid the late-night visit to your closest Tesco Express to pick up the missing bits. Otherwise… well, you’ll just have to go, won’t you?

Then it’s time to get measuring, mixing, and baking, peering through the oven door and wishing the time to pass quicker so you can -finally- get your hands on those long anticipated cheese biscuits.

That’s the thing about cravings: they make you do crazy things. Like a supermarket run / baking session in the middle of the night.

But after that first crumbly cheese biscuit bite, you can’t help but think that it was all worth it.

You know what they say… Sweet dreams are made of cheese!

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More snack recipes:

Coconut curry roasted cashews

Chocolate madeleines

Halloween Monster Brookies

28-10-2016 Local Black Bookbaking, brookie, brookies, brownie, brownies, cake, chocolate, cookie, cookies, halloween, recipe2 Comments

Sure you can buy them in the stores, but there’s something special and fun about making your own Halloween treats.

As far as I’m concerned the spookiest day of the year is as good an excuse as any to bake a batch of favourite sweet treats… And everybody knows that brownies are the way to my heart.

Now, I’m a big fan of the traditional recipe, but trust me when I say Brookies, the genius crossing between brownies and cookies, are next level good.

Chewy, crumbly, super chocolate-y and just a tiny bit spooky, these Monster Brookies are the ultimate Halloween-win treat, and you definitely want a batch (or three) of those in your life ASAP!

Halloween Monster Brookies (makes 6 monster-sized cookies)

Ingredients:

120g 70% dark chocolate
15g butter
75g caster sugar
30g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
15g chocolate chips
30g Smarties
a few drops dark food coloring (or, even better, a food-safe black pencil)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until melted and combined, then remove from the heat.

3. In the meantime, combine the sugar, cornflour, baking powder and egg and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the chocolate-butter mixture and mix until well combined.

4. Spoon tablespoons of mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper, making sure you leave enough space inbetween them (they spread A LOT while baking). Dot the top of the cookies with the chocolate chips and Smarties.

5. Bake for 12-13 min in the preheated oven, then set aside to cool before drawing eyes using the black food colouring.

Salted Caramel Brownies

17-08-2016 Local Black Bookbaking, brownie, brownies, cake, chocolate, recipe, salted caramel, salted caramel brownies, world's best brownies10 Comments

So, today’s the day.

The day when I’m officially closer to 30 than I am to 20.

Feeling old much? YOU BET!

Luckily, birthdays are nature’s way of telling you to eat more cake, and god knows that’s something I’m always up for!

Now, birthday brownies are a bit of a tradition in my house (find out why here), but this year’s needed to step it up a notch…

And what’s the best way to make any amazing dessert even better?

You know it: SALTED CARAMEL e’rythiiiiiiiiiiiing!

So here it is. Salted caramel brownies.

Now, I used to be a triple choc’ brownies kind of girl. And then I made those and I’m telling you: TOTAL GAME CHANGER!

100-billion-calories-a-slice game changer, but after all, birthday = ultimate cheat day, right?

(and if it’s not quiiiite your birthday yet, well, you could always celebrate your un-birthday instead! ??)

Salted Caramel Brownies (serves 6-8)

You’ll need:

For the brownies:

120g soft (but NOT MELTED!) salted butter
160g granulated sugar
3 big eggs
70g self-raising flour
200g dark chocolate

For the salted caramel sauce:

150g granulated sugar
40g salted butter
about 100ml pouring or double cream
a generous pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160°C. Butter and flour a brownie pan (I like to use a 21×21 glass roasting tray like this one)

2. Make your caramel sauce: In a medium saucepan, put the sugar and a little bit of water. Cook over a hot stove until it turns a deep-brown colour and doesn’t re-crystalised if taken off the heat for a few seconds. Add in the butter, mix well, then add the cream and mix again. Add the salt, then leave to the side to cool down.

3. Make your brownies batter: In a big mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and the flour. Melt your chocolate over a double-boiler, then add it to the batter and mix until well combined.

4. Pour about half of your brownies batter into the buttered and floured pan, cover with a layer of salted caramel sauce, then top with the remaining brownies batter. Bake for 30-35 min.

5. Let the brownies cool down (they’re even better the following day!) before serving with the remaining salted caramel sauce drizzled on top.

Do you have any birthday traditions? I’d love to hear them in the comments!!

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Apricot + Passion Fruit Scones

11-08-2016 Local Black BookAfternoon Tea, apricot, baking, biscuit, British, classics, dessert, food, passion fruit, recipe, scone, sconesLeave a comment

I’m a bit late to the #afternoonteaweek (totally a thing!)… but no way I was going to miss out entirely on the opportunity to use the best excuse there is to have scones and cake and call it a meal!

Scones are my favourite part of afternoon tea, and having never baked any myself, I thought it was about time I give them a go.

The word on the street is that a good scone is actually more tricky to bake as you’d think, so I wasn’t really sure how it’d end up. Add to that the fact that I’m truly terrible at following recipes and had decided that adding fresh passionfruit to your dough was the way to go and it looks like a recipe for disaster!

Add yet, my Apricot + Passion Fruit Scones worked a charm, so I thought I’d share the step-by-step recipe below.

For 8-12 scones, you’ll need:

30g granulated sugar
60g cold butter, cubed
60ml whole milk
240g plain flour, plus more for dusting
2 eggs
1 package instant yeast
10-12 dried apricots, chopped
seeds from passion fruit

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180-200°C.

Mix together the sugar, flour and yeast. Add in the cold butter and combine until you get a sand-like texture.

2. Add the eggs and mix until roughly combined.

Apricot + Passion Fruit Scones | Cake + Whisky

3. Add the milk and knead lightly until the dough comes together.

4. Add the diced apricots and passion fruit seeds and knead for a few seconds until just incorporated.

5. Using your hands, stretch the dough on a sheet of flour-dusted baking paper.

6. Using a cookie-cutter (or a glass), cut up rounds of dough until you run out. Place the scones on a baking-paper covered baking tray.

7. Glaze each scone with a little bit of milk (or beaten egg), then bake for 10-15 min.

8. Serve immediately the traditional way with clotted cream and your favourite jam.

But then, salted butter and lemon curd isn’t half bad either!

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Candy Cane Brownies

20-01-2016 Local Black Bookbaking, brownies, cake, candy cane, chocolate, chocolate chips, Christmas, dessert, easy, mint, peppermint, recipe5 Comments

Come Christmas, I always buy loads of candy canes. Ridiculous amounts, really.

I use them for literally everything: I hang some in the tree, use a few as gift-toppers, feature them on every holiday-themed Instagram picture…

But I never, ever eat them.

Or rather, I never DID. Until this morning.

When I had candy cane brownies for breakfast #healthgoals

If you like the mint + chocolate combo, you’re in for a treat. Plus it’ll help you use up some of the leftover Christmas sweets. Less food waste, more cake. #winwin

Candy Cane Brownies (serves 2-4)

Ingredients: 70g melted baking chocolate, 70g dark chocolate chips, 1 candy cane, 1 egg, 50g granulated sugar, 40g melted butter, 30g self-raising flour (optional: a few drops of peppermint extract)

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Butter and flour a small cake tin (1 used a small enamel dish).

2. Whisk together the egg, sugar and melted butter. Whisk the flour in, then add the melted chocolate and the chocolate chips (and the peppermint extract if using).

3. Using a mortar & pestle, grind the candy cane down to a coarse powder. Add about 3/4 of it to the batter.

4. Pour your batter into the baking tray and bake for about 15 min. Sprinkle on the rest of your candy cane powder on your brownies as soon as they’re out of the oven.

5. Eat warm or cold (ideally with some mint + choc. chips ice cream on the side).

Sea salt and chocolate chips cookies

09-12-2015 Local Black Bookbaking, cake, chocolate, chocolate chips, cookies, cooking, recipe, treats2 Comments

I recently re-discovered a recipe I used to be kind of addicted to.

Back when I was in my last year of High School, I developped an addiction to baking as a way to release stress. So much so that in the last few weeks before my exams, I baked up to 3 cakes a day. My brother and sister were really happy with this situation, my dad, not so much.

These cookies (or one of their variations) were amongst the usual suspects back then (together with this little wonder) and there wasn’t a week I wouldn’t bake at least one batch.

And then, God knows why, I stopped.

Continue reading “Sea salt and chocolate chips cookies” →

Rustic Peanut Butter Cookies

03-12-2015 Local Black Book12 biscuits of Christmas, advent, baking, Christmas, cookie, cookies, dessert, peanut butter, presents, recipe4 Comments

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas.

There are so many things to love this time of the year it’s hard for me to choose a favourite.

But Christmas cookies are definitely amongst my favourite traditions and I always bake a few of them in case anyone is still hungry after the festive feasts (nobody is but the cookies still get eaten…).

And this year, those rustic but rather wonderful Peanut Butter Cookies will definitely be part of my selection! Continue reading “Rustic Peanut Butter Cookies” →

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