Blogtoberfest 2014 - Day 30 - Throwback Thursday

I made my first batch of mince pies this week and that got me thinking about the couple of layouts that I have done in the past about my mince pies.  I have always called them Cheat's Mince Pies as I use frozen pastry and for the mincemeat I buy the cheapest available and zoosch it up with the addition of cranberries, glace cherries and a generous glug of Cointreau!!

These are the ones that I made on Tuesday and they have passed the Mr P taste test!!

They first featured in my 2009 Journal your Christmas book -

 

And in 2010 I did a full size layout about them for Scrap Like You Mean It

 I used a Sarah's Cards kit - I think the papers might be Cosmo Cricket

Dundee Cake

Not a lot of time for crafting at the moment as I am really busy doing lots of baking for a weekend away with a load of crafting friends and then a weekend in The Netherlands at the Marillion convention.  One of my favourite cakes to take away is a Dundee cake as it keeps really well in the freezer and it travels well - it is also Mr P's favourite cake.

The recipe I use is one that I cut out of Prima magazine many years ago and have just slightly tweaked it by the addition of dried cranberries and soaking the fruit in whisky.

3oz, each of currant, raisins, sultanas and dried cranberries, add 2 oz of candied peel and soak in whisky overnight - I generally add a generous glug of blended whisky (or cooking whisky as Mr P calls it LOL!!)

Next day - preheat oven to 240 C and line an 8" round tin with greaseproof paper.

Cream together 6 oz butter and 6 oz caster sugar, until they are light and fluffy.

Slowly add 4 beaten eggs with 2 oz ground almonds - I always add a large spoonful of the almonds and one egg at a time.  Mix well.

Then add 10 oz plain flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder and mix well.

Add the dried fruit and peel mixture and mix well.

Put the mixture in the greased/lined tin and smooth top, decorate the top with blanched whole almonds.

Put in the centre of the oven and reduce the heat immediately to 160 C - bake for 1 1/2  - 2 hours.  After first 40 minutes of cooking, cover the top of the cake with foil to prevent burning and continue to cook.  Test the cake is done by inserting a skewer into the centre of the cake - it will come out clean when cooked.  Remove from cake tin and cool on a wire rack.

I also make a mini version of this cake to give as gifts.

My friend Wendy gave me a tip about using empty tuna cans as mini cake tins (don't worry they were thoroughly washed out and went for a spin in a dishwasher too, to get rid of any trace of fish).  If you line the bottom of the tin with greaseproof paper and coat the sides of the tins with Cake Release, the cakes come out really easily.  You can get 9 mini cakes from the recipe and they take about an hour to cook - I usually cover them with foil after the first 30 minutes.

American Pie - Blogtoberfest #22

I picked up this recipe back in 1994 when I was off sick from work with a back injury and had to resort to daytime TV for entertainment.  Jane Asher use to host an afternoon TV show called Good Living and one day featured this lovely, tasty alternative to a shepherds pie.  I only grabbed the basic details of how to make it, but it is one of those recipes where the quantities really aren't that important - you can just develop the recipe to suit yourself.

Ingredients

500g (approx) pack of turkey mince
1 onion
1 jar or can BBQ sauce - I usually use the Homepride can
Lea & Perrins (optional)
Brown Sauce (optional)
1 x 420g tin baked beans
Grated cheese
Potatoes and assortment of root vegetables

Peel and chop potatoes and root vegetables - I usually use ordinary potatoes, sweet pots, carrots, parsnip and swede. Cook in boiling water until soft enough to mash with a little milk and butter - put to one side.  Quantities of potatoes and root vegetables depend on how thick a layer of mash you like on your pie.  Preheat oven to 190 c.

Chop the onion into small pieces and gently cook until soft in a little oil.  Add mince and cook until all the mince is browned - strain off excess liquid that has cooked out.  Add jar of BBQ sauce and other sauces to your personal taste - I always put a good dollop of L&P and brown sauce in but you could leave these out.  Gently simmer for 10 mins.  Stir in one tin baked beans and simmer for a further 5 mins.  Put meat mixture into a deep ovenproof dish and add rustic mash to the top and sprinkle some grated cheese on top.  Bake in the oven for about one hour.

 I always double up the ingredients and bake two large ones and a couple of small ones for Mr P to take to work - they freeze really well.

Serve up with vegetables for a lovely winter warmer meal - the weather must be getting cold enough for American Pie here as Mr P has been dropping lots of hints about the lack of American Pie for the last couple of days LOL!!!

Lemon Overload Cake - Blogtoberfest #7

I have recently added Lemon Drizzle (or Dribble as it is known at Chez Parkhurst) Cake to my repertoire after tasting the delicious one that Fiona made at Meadow Barn earlier this year.  She uses this recipe from Yummy Mummy.  I hadn't got any square or rectangle baking tins of the right size to make the recipe so I used two 7" round tins instead and that got me to thinking about making a supersized lemon cake sandwiched together with a lemony filling.

For my lemon filling I creamed 3oz unsalted butter with 6oz sifted icing sugar and added 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of lemon zest.  I added the butter icing to one side of the cake and lemon marmalade to the other side (you could use lemon curd but I hate the stuff LOL!!) and then sandwiched the two halves together.

I wasn't sure what to call it but my Mum solved that one - as she declared it to be an overload of lemons!!  It definitely has the thumbs up from Mr P, he is very strange and doesn't love my coffee cake, so he would much rather I bake lemon overload cake!!

Gran's Cookie Recipe

My gran was always baking and one of my favourite recipes was her cookie one - they are really easy to make and always a big favourite at craft days.

I made this little book a couple of years ago to keep the recipe safe -

The Recipe -

4 oz marg
3 oz caster sugar
1 teaspoon golden syrup
3 teaspoons boiling water
2 oz porridge oats
4 oz self raising flour
1/2 level teaspoon baking powder
few drops vanilla essence
optional - chopped glace cherries, dried fruit, dried cranberries, flaked almonds

Cream together the marg and sugar, then add the golden syrup and boiling water.

Work into the mixture the porridge oats, self raising flour and baking powder

Add a few drops of vanilla essence

Add any optional ingredients now if you want fruity or nutty cookies

Take a large teaspoon of the mixture and roll into a ball, place on a greased baking tray - continue until all the mixture has been used.  Do not place the cookie balls too close together as they do spread out.  Bake 180 C/350 F/Gas mark 3 for about 10 minutes until pale brown - they will still be soft but will quickly firm up on the outside as they cool.  Do not overbake as they will go solid and will only be suitable for dunking!!

I often double up the recipe to make a nice large batch.  The uncooked dough also freezes well so I often freeze half the dough so that when I am short on time for baking I can just grab some dough from the freezer.