weekend :: Whisky, date and walnut cake

Autumn...mmm...

Whisky, date and walnut cake

This is a moist fruit cake that contains dried vine fruits and cherries as well as fudgy chewy medjool dates and has a topping of crunchy walnuts. It's flavoured with treacly muscovado sugar and a splash of whisky or you could use your favourite liqueur.

Ingredients:

• Nineteen ounces of dried fruit, raisins, sultanas, candid peel etc including medjool dates (with the stones removed and chopped into pieces about 1cm cubed)and undyed glace cherries.
• Ten ounces of sifted Self Raising flour
• Five ounces of Muscovado or golden caster sugar or a mixture of both
• Eight ounces of butter or alternative
• A little natural vanilla extract
• A little malt whisky
• Walnuts to decorate the top of the cake
• Eight fluid ounces of water
• Two large eggs, beaten well
• One level tsp of mixed spice
• One level tsp of baking powder
• A little apricot jam to glaze

You will need a heavy bottomed saucepan and a deep eight inch baking pan lined with a double of layer of baking parchment. You can see how to do this here.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150c/300f.
2. Prepare the baking pan by greasing and lining and then put to one side.
3. Place the butter or alternative into the saucepan and melt.
4. Add all the other fruits, water, spices, vanilla extract, alcohol if using and sugar. Cover and simmer for twenty minutes until the fruits have all plumped up and the sugar has dissolved. 
5. Take off the heat and allow to cool. You may speed this up by filling the sink with cold water and standing the pan in it.
6. Once cooled down (not cold or the butter will begin to harden)remove from the sink and add the eggs and flour and mix well.
7. Carefully spoon the mixture into the lined cake pan. Arrange walnuts on the top and then glaze with a little apricot jam. If it's a thick jam thin with a little warm water. Place on a baking tray and cook in the centre of the oven for an hour. Remove the baking parchment and then cook for a further fifteen minutes until a lovely golden brown colour. Test with a skewer to ensure that it's cooked in the middle. 
8. Leave to cool in the tin for five or ten minutes. Carefully remove from the tin and place on a rack to cool further. 

This cake keeps really well in an air tight container. I think that it improves with age as the flavours mature. 

Have a cool week...
debx

in my kitchen :: thrifty finds, comfort food and repurposing an old pine wardrobe

Did you know that potatoes are related to tomatoes? I didn't. I suppose the clue should have been in the name...the 'toes' bit. After our potatoes flowered we noticed two little green fruits that looked just like tomatoes growing on one of the plants...curious. A quick google query 'fruits that look like tomatoes on a potato plant,' revealed that they are the poisonous fruit of the potato plant that carry seeds. Apparently they only produce this fruit when growing conditions are perfect and if you sow the seeds they'll  produce a variety different from the one that you planted and it might be difficult for them to germinate. I think that I'll stick to planting potatoes when they start shooting out little roots in the vegetable basket the same as we do with the onions. 

In case you wondered...also in the kitchen:

• Quick summer crumbles. Lots more, including peach, egg plum and cherry. I think apricot is still the favourite. I have to stop now before I get crumbled out...
• Bay leaves from the garden to stock up kitchen herb supplies. 
• Vintage shopping...I can't resist white pillow cases. Especially if there's a lace border or even a peep of broderie anglaise to be seen. And a cute little stoneware pie funnel. It will hopefully encourage me to move on from crumbles to pies.
• The teeniest, weeniest frog spotted jumping on the kitchen floor. It must have hopped in when the door was opened. I began to think we had a mini plague after we rescued two on subsequent evenings. Now I think it was the same one that just liked our kitchen so much that it popped back in again...
• A solid old pine wardrobe that was a real bargain from a charity shop. I have been scouring the auctions for months since I left a bid on a larder cupboard and lost it for just £2 above my bid. Had I been there I would have gone much higher and still had an amazing bargain. But this one is still very cheap even though more than twice as much as the one in the auction sold for and the money will go to a good cause. With the clothes-rail removed and shelves added it makes the perfect pantry. Hey presto from wardrobe to larder cupboard in an hour. We're not quite sure whether to paint it to blend in with the rest of the kitchen. What do you think?
• Seeds collected from the garden ready for next year. My mission is to avoid buying as many seeds as possible. (Do you like my classification? 'green spiky')
• Comfort food...more risotto. Another green one, this time with spinach and mange tout.
• Haleem, Persian chicken porridge...more comfort.
• Mini omelette made from lovely local free range eggs.
• There's also been lots of sewing but I'll show you that later...

Haleem, Persian chicken porridge

To make enough for three to four people place a teacupful of oats into a saucepan or porringer and a good pinch or twist of sea salt. Poach a chicken breast in salted water until just tender but not dry. (I usually reserve the cooking liquid to make chicken stock.) When cool, shred the chicken with your finger or two forks using the same method used in Chinese restaurants to prepare duck with pancakes. Add this to the oats in the saucepan.  Gradually add  cold water into the oats and cook over a moderate heat, feeding the water in, in the same way that you would a risotto.  This is one of those dishes where you need to stand and stir...a bit of cooking therapy...After a little while you can add milk instead of water to give a much creamier texture. Cook until the oats are broken down into a smooth porridge.  

I like to eat it with the traditional spoonful of butter. It's also served with the addition of a little cinnamon and sugar or clotted cream stirred in but I prefer to keep it savoury.

That's just a bit of my kitchen chaos...I wonder what's going on in yours. 

Oh and about painting the pine cupboard. I really would appreciate your advise...what do you think? To paint or not to paint? 
debx

In my kitchen :: lots of old favourites and up-cycling another little wooden cupboard...

In case you were wondering...

• sunset through the kitchen window
• a batch of chocolate macaroons cooling
• making chicken marinade ready for oven baking
• broth bubbling on the hob
• garden herbs and homemade spelt bread
• baked squash with tangy soft cheese and salad leaves that are still going strong in the veg patch
• porridge...the vehicle for lots of yummy berries and creamy yoghurt or fruit puree with maybe a trickle of fudgy maple syrup or earthy honey (or maybe all four...)
• baked Mediterranean vegetables to serve with pan-fried fish
• seasonal vegetable soup
• persian horesht with rice and yoghurt
• gorgeous old Peugeot shopping bike...an auction win spied through the kitchen window
• wine and pickles the scent in the kitchen fluctuates between a winery and a pickle factory...Currently Ahmad's cherry wine made from local big black Morello cherries...I may not be a fan of the aroma but love the gentle rhythmic plopping sounds as the little air bubbles rise up and explode...Until they get too violent and are banished to the shower. 
• scrumptious rhubarb slowly cooked with honey ready for a flapjack crumble topping...
• lemon drizzle cake, birthday request and lemon poppy seed muffins
• food and garden gifts from a kind neighbour
• sewing. Lots of curtain making, mostly by hand...almost zen like therapy as I work the thread...flowing from right to left like a tiny stream trickling through the woven fabric
• another little up-cycling project 

Up-cycling a small wooden cupboard

This one was a small cupboard that I bought for £8 at a local car-boot sale. It isn't very old. but well made and sturdy. The drawer was constructed with dove tail corners and it run smoothly. The little doors open easily but close just as well, and hang perfectly when closed...See, I'm learning from past mistakes to check things closely before I buy them. As you can see it had been stained dark brown to look like old oak and had antiqued metal handle and fastener. Not my favourite look unless original but I soon freshened it up with a bit of paint. Here's how:

1. Remove any handles using a screwdriver
2. Wash the cupboard inside and out with warm soapy water
3. Rinse and wipe to remove any excess water then leave to dry
4. At this point had the cupboard been highly varnished I would have given it a good sanding with fine sandpaper to help the paint adhere but as the finish was matt, this wasn't necessary.
5. Paint with undercoat or any left over emulsion paint. At the moment we always have a big cheap tub of white emulsion on the go for ceilings and new plaster so I used some of that.
6. Leave to dry.
7. Then the fun bit...the actual painting. A small project like this is perfect for using up any leftover paint or sample match pots. I had four small sample pots of F & B estate emulsion paint. It's has a lovely chalky matt texture and ca been diluted with water if you want a more transparent coating.  With a brush small enough to dip into the pot I used No 270 Calluna for the outside and NO 47 Green Smoke (the same little mini match pot left over from this project) for the inside of the both cupboard and drawer. I love the contrast when it's opened up. 
8. Paint a second coat once the first is completely dry.
9. When completed put the handles back on...unless like me you decide to use something different. I'm looking for something simple.  

We now have a cute little cupboard to hoard all the coffee we stock up with on trips to Ikea...(I know...but we love it...)

...Just need to find some nice simple handles now...any ideas...
dx