Cake House

Milk Chocolate Cake Another winner taken from the old Be-Ro booklet. Every recipe in it is a gem and when I started to make this, I was sure of a good result. Just delicious and foolproof, milky and rich, although the method is quite different from today’s usual sponges. Pre heat your fan oven to 160C [old 350F] and butter 2 deep 7” sponge tins. In a bowl place: 7 oz Self Raising flour 8 oz caster sugar pinch salt,  2 tablespoons cocoa Mix well, then rub in, until it resembles very fine breadcrumbs: 4 oz butter Stir in: 2 beaten eggs, mixed with 5 tablespoons evaporated milk 5 tablespoons water 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or bean paste Divide equally between your tins. I am a saddo and generally weigh to ensure I get the same size. Level the tops [ish] and bake for about 35 mins then cool on a wire rack. Make your topping: Melt together: 2 ½  oz butter 4 tablespoons cocoa [Green and Black’s is brilliant] Stir in: 8 oz icing sugar 3 tablespoons hot scalded milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

EID MUBARAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I t is EID!!!!! It marks the end of Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Like every year, this year also got ready and went to the mosque for the Eid prayers. Came back and the first thing I did was to boil to milk for sheer khurma. Every time I used to make this sheer khurma using milkmaid. This time I didn’t want to add that and to make it simpler and richer, we have to reduce the milk till it becomes thick. So the first thing I did before making the breakfast was to heat the milk and I reduced it to half. No need of standing there and stirring, once you simmer the milk, just stir in between your other work. It won’t take much longer. This special dish is made on the morning of Eid. This exotic rich dessert is prepared using milk, vermicelli along with dry fruits. Long back I have posted sheer khurma using milkmaid. Vermicelli is fried in clarified butter. Reduced milk is added

Blueberry Scones I love Blueberries and eat them every day, especially with my morning cereal. So iI thought it would be a good idea to add fresh berries to other things, like Scones!!! I have also added some ginger as that is my favourite spice and they go so well together.  So easy, made in minutes and when still warm, split and spread with some clotted cream. Heaven on a plate. Butter a baking sheet and pre heat your fan oven to 200C. Scones love to be in a very hot oven! This quantity makes about a 12-14 small ish scones. Very easily doubled or make them larger. 12 oz self raising flour ½ teaspoonful baking powder 1 - 2 heaped teaspoonfuls ground ginger 3 oz caster sugar 2 oz softened butter 4 oz fresh blueberries [a little more if you can squeeze them in!] 90 ml buttermilk 90 ml whole milk In a large mixing bowl, place your dry ingredients, then rub in the softened butter. Add the fruit then stir in the buttermilk, adding whole milk until you have a soft dough - the softer the dou

T hese days during fasting, I am so much into cooking that I will be searching each and every website or youtube video for a different variety of dishes during iftar. One such recipe is this afghan dish which can be prepared using chicken or with vegetables. But I used both chicken and potatoes to make the filling for bolani, which tasted yumm along with carrot raita. Bolani is a traditional Afghani flatbread stuffed and baked. Bolani is low in carbohydrates, calories and rich in protein, fiber, and vitamins. We can have a choice of fillings like the chicken, potatoes, spinach and so on. Here I used chicken along with potatoes which were amazingly delectable. In this the dough is stuffed with chicken- potato filling and then shallow fried to crispy golden brown. In these spring onions are used instead of onions, but I used regular onions. These can be shaped in semi-circle or triangle like I did. These taste good along with curd or any raita. I made carrot raita, which was appetizing.

BOIL AND BAKE Cake Another lovely boiled cake recipe, this time from Gemma, who has kindly sent me her Gran, Peggy Davey’s old recipe. Peggy hailed from the Camborne area although neither Gemma or her Mum can recall where Peggy got the recipe from. Thank you Gemma, I hope I did your Gran’s recipe proud. It is just lovely. There are several small differences from the boiled cakes that I posted a few weeks ago. I rarely, if ever use margarine these days, but thought I would follow the recipe exactly, which uses Stork. Grease and line the base of an 8 inch spring form tin. Pre heat your fan oven to 150C  In a large saucepan, place: A block of Stork [hard block] 8 oz caster sugar 1 tsp mixed spice 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda half a pint of water 12 oz sultanas or mixed fruit [I used sultanas] Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins. Allow to go cold. Then add and stir in: 2 beaten eggs 12 oz self raising flour Mix well, but do not beat. Tip into your prepared tin and bake for about 1 and a h

                                                               Happy Father’s day T oday is father’s day and today’s post is one of my dad’s all-time favorite. Whenever my dad goes out for some grocery shopping, if he sees this marmalade, he will grab this one just like kids grab candies. He likes to spread this marmalade on toast and have it along with his morning tea. Whenever I call them, it will be morning tea time there and my mom and dad leisurely while drinking tea they will be talking to me. In between, he will be telling about this marmalade, which he loves a lot and insists me to buy and try one. One day I thought of surprising him and this is the outcome, a golden yellow colored delicious marmalade is ready. When I showed him, he thought I bought it from the store. When I told him that it’s homemade, he was surprised and the next thing he told was “when you come here w

MEAT AND VEGETABLE PUFFS When I saw this in the Modern Cookery Book of 1917 I just knew I had to make them! I love the inventive ways our forebears used up leftovers. Rough Puff Pastry: 8 oz plain flour, Salt and pepper [a little dried mustard powder too if you wish] 2 oz butter, 2 oz lard and a little very cold water to mix. Rub the fats in half way ish then bind with the cold water. Mix and lightly knead then place in a poly bag and chill for a bit. Pre heat your fan oven to 200C You will need a muffin tin or deep ish tart tin. This quantity makes ten large muffin size puffs [why did they call them puffs, I wonder?] 4-6 oz any cooked meats - beef and ham? Pork and something? Whatever. I had some roast beef left over from Sunday and some ham in the fridge. 2 medium sized potatoes [after peeling they weighed just over 5 oz] 1 medium carrot  1 onion [I used red] Seasoning a spring each of parsley and thyme Pastry left over gravy Chop the herbs finely. Peel and grate the veggies. Put the