Lemon drizzle loaf

Sometimes, the simplest things are the best.

Don’t get me wrong, I love experimenting with flavour combinations, icing, cake decorations and way over the top creations, but sometimes simple can be just as delicious.

A perfect example is the classic lemon drizzle loaf.

When I decided I wanted to make one, I looked around a while for a recipe, but then realised that the beauty of a lemon drizzle is in it’s simplicity, and a fancy recipe really wasn’t necessary.

 

I went for a basic egg weight sponge, with plenty of zesty lemon, with lemon juice and sugar for the drizzle – couldn’t be easier!

The texture of the loaf was exactly what I wanted, and the drizzle a nice crisp contrast, which as the pony put it “tastes like pancakes” and the cake off beautifully.

I will definitely be making this again – simple, summery, delicious!

Lemon drizzle loaf

Cuts into about 10 slices

• 3 large eggs
• 190g caster sugar
• 190g butter
• 190g self raising flour
• zest of 2 lemons, juice of 1

For the drizzle

• juice of 1 lemon
• 100g caster sugar

Start by cracking the eggs into a jug and weighing them – the weight of the eggs dictates the weight of all the other ingredients. Mine came to 190g, which is why all the other ingredients are 190g.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then gradually add in the eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice. It’s ok if it looks like it might curdle, just sift in the flour and fold to combine and it will be fine. Pour the mix into a 2lb loaf tin, lined with baking paper, and bake at 180 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cake is cooking, mix together the lemon juice and sugar for the drizzle. As soon as the cake is out of the oven, poke all over with a skewer then pour the drizzle on top. Leave to cool completely, then turn out of the tin and cut into slices to serve.

Mars Bar loaf cake

I am a sucker for a bargain.

I try not to be tempted by offers unless it’s something I needed to get anyway or can genuinely find a good use for; but sometimes my resolve weakens and the brightly coloured reduction stickers win me over.

That’s exactly what happened last week when I saw almost out of date Mars Bars on sale for 20p each. 20p!

Ok, so I don’t actually like Mars Bars and would never want to eat one, but I was sure they could be put to good use in a cake of some sort…

And that’s how this Mars Bar loaf cake came about. After a bit of searching I found Cafe Lula’s recipe which uses the sickly sweet treats in 4 different ways – a quadruple Mars Bar cake if you will.

With 6 Mars Bars, as well as the melted chocolate and brown sugar, this is a cake for the seriously sweet-toothed and not for the faint-hearted. Luckily, I have the friendly pony here, who polished off the best part of this 2lb loaf cake in just 2 days…

Mars Bar loaf cake (recipe from Cafe Lula)

Serves 10

• 6 Mars Bars (I used double chocolate ones but normal would be fine)
• 100g dark chocolate
• 110g butter
• 110g creme fraiche
• 3 eggs
• 125g light brown sugar
• 200g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100ml double cream

Roughly chop one and a half of the Mars Bars and 75g of the chocolate, and melt over a low heat in a saucepan with the butter, stirring until smooth. Pour into a mixing bowl and leave to cool, then beat in the creme fraiche, followed by the eggs. Sift the sugar, flour, baking powder and bicarb into the bowl and fold in to the mixture.

Slice two more of the Mars Bars into roughly 10 pieces each. Pour a third of the cake batter into a 2lb/900g greased and lined loaf tin, then evenly sprinkle half the chopped Mars Bars on top. Cover with another third of the mixture, the remaining Mars Bar pieces, and then the final third of the batter. Bake at 160 degrees for 45 minutes, then turn the temperature up to 170 for another 10-15 minutes. Mine took 55 minutes in total.

To make the icing, roughly chop another one and a half Mars Bars and the leftover 25g dark chocolate, and place in a saucepan with the cream. Heat slowly, stirring until melted and no lumps remain. Leave to chill in the fridge until thick but still pourable. Turn the cake out of the tin, then pour the icing on top, letting it drip down the sides a little. Chop the last Mars Bar into small pieces and sprinkle on top to decorate.

Chocolate orange banana bread

When Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog announced that this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge was orange, I was pretty happy as I already had several bakes in mind using the combination, as it just seems so festive.

I intend to make a chocolate orange cheesecake for Boxing Day, but that will be too late for the WSC deadline, and I was also considering some sort of orange flavoured chocolate truffle as a one of the food gifts I give this year, but again that might be pushing it a bit for time.

What I’m actually submitting came about more by circumstance than design. I had over-ripe bananas that needed to be used, and homemade orange curd that hadn’t quite set thickly enough, so I decided to make a chocolate chip banana bread, throw in some orange curd and hope for the best.

Luckily, it turned out great! I adapted a recipe from The Goddess’s Kitchen, which already included orange zest, and ended up with a moist, dense loaf, with both the banana and orange flavours coming through equally, and the dark chocolate chunks adding a nice texture contrast (and of course essential chocolate deliciousness!)

I’m yet to find a go-to banana bread recipe, and although I don’t think this is it as I don’t normally have orange curd going spare, I might try it again just as plain banana and chocolate because the texture was spot on!

Chocolate orange banana bread (recipe adapted from The Goddess’s Kitchen)

• 4 ripe bananas (this was about 400g for me)
• 250g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 150g caster sugar
• 100g butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp orange curd
• 100g dark chocolate, chopped

Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add in the sugar and butter and rub until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork, then mix in the eggs, vanilla, orange curd and chocolate. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Pour the mixture into a lined 2 lb loaf tin, then bake at 170 degrees for about an hour and 10 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool overnight if possible, then slice and serve!

I look forward to seeing what everyone else does with the chocolate-orange combo, and keep an eye out for more variations on it from me!

Simple fruit loaf

I have a confession to make – I am extremely selfish.

Not generally in life (I hope), but more when it comes to baking. While I love having a reason to bake, like a birthday, what I’m really excited about is having the chance to try baking something new.

My dad’s favourite cake is, and always has been, fruit cake, but every year I bake him something else – because to me, fruitcake is boring. Easy to make, simple looking, no icing, nothing fancy…

But this year, I decided to put my selfishness to one side and bake him an amazing fruit cake. I chose a recipe from the Great British Bake Off – How To Bake book, and got ready to write down my list of ingredients.

It was only when I read through the whole recipe, however, that I noticed the line which said ‘leave to mature for at least a month before finishing’. Oops. This was the day before my dad’s birthday.

As I’d bought the GBBO book especially, I decided to stick with it and go for the ‘quick and simple fruit loaf’, which only needed to be kept for a day before eating.

It was exactly as described – quick, simple, un-fancy – but baked beautifully to a deep golden colour with a huge crack running down the length of it, which in my mind is how a fruit loaf should look.

My dad was happy, as was I – and now I’m really looking forward to baking more recipes from this book as it was so easy to follow with great results.

(PS – In case my gushing about this book is sounding suspicious – I did buy it with my hard earned cash, it wasn’t a freebie for review!)

Simple fruit loaf (from the Great British Bake Off – How To Bake)

• 175g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 400g plain flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 300g luxury dried fruit mix
• 125ml semi-skimmed milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp apricot jam

Grease and line a 900g loaf tin (the book helpfully gives the measurements – 26×12.5×7.5cm). Heat the butter and sugar together in a saucepan until the sugar has completely dissolved, then remove from the heat. Sift together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the dried fruit.

Beat together the eggs and milk, then pour into the dry ingredients. Add the melted butter and sugar, and mix it all together until well combined. Spread the mixture into the prepared tin, then bake at 180 degrees for about an hour, or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

When cooled remove from the tin. Melt the apricot jam with a tbsp water, then brush over the top to glaze.

Banana cake

This cake comes courtesy of Cat from TheCattyLife, who came to my aid when I had two sad looking bananas desperate to be turned into a cake.

I followed her recipe for her mum’s super easy, super delicious banana cake, but reducing the quantities by a third to match the amount of banana I had.

I’ve come to the conclusion that my loaf tin must be enormous, as the original recipe is supposed to fill two, but mine didn’t even come halfway up in one, resulting in a rather flat cake.

Flat, but totally delicious I should add! This is definitely cakey rather than bready, which I think I prefer. The orange juice makes it really moist, and the condensed milk gives an added sweetness.

Will definitely try this again next time I have bananas and condensed milk both waiting to be used!

Banana Cake (adapted from TheCattyLife):

• 2 bananas, mashed (approx 3/4 cup)
• 120g caster sugar
• 160g butter
• 2 eggs
• 180g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp condensed milk
• juice of a small orange (half a cup-ish)

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs one at a time. Fold in the flour, mix until combined, then add in the orange juice, condensed milk and banana and mix again.

Pour the mixture into a grease and lined loaf tin (seriously, don’t ask me how big it should be, just guess) and bake at 170 degrees for 45 mins (mine took an hour, but I realised that was because I hadn’t turned the heat up enough).

Basic granary loaf

After the sugar overload of barbecue cakes, bank holiday monday was definitely a day for some savoury baking.

I wanted to try a basic granary loaf, on the basis that if it turned out nice I would never have to buy bread again.

I think that may have been a bit overly optimistic for my first attempt, and the resulting loaf certainly wasn’t perfect, but I was pleased nonetheless.

I used this recipe, but took the advice of several of the comments and gave it a double rising. Without trying it the original way I can’t really say if it made a difference, but better safe than sorry.

Basic granary loaf (recipe from BBC Good Food):

• 500g granary bread flour
• 7g sachet fast action yeast
• 1tsp salt
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1tbsp honey
• 300ml warm water

Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet. Mix with a spoon to combine, then tip out onto a floured worktop to knead for 5 minutes. I found I had to dust with quite a bit more flour as I was kneading to stop it getting too sticky. Once you’ve finished kneading, put the ball of dough into a clean bowl and cover with oiled clingfilm.

After an hour or so, the dough should have doubled in size.

Tip it back onto the worktop, knock the air out and then give it another quick knead. Transfer the dough into an oiled loaf tin (not totally sure of the size tin I used but I think it may be 2 litre capacity).

Leave to rise again, for another hour, until the dough has risen to fill the tin.

Slash it a few times on top then bake for 30-35 minutes at 200 degrees until risen and golden, and a tap on the bottom sounds hollow.

Leave to cool a little, then slice and enjoy! This was amazing while still slightly warm, but by the next day had gone a bit dense. Still made excellent toast though!

Coconut and raspberry loaf cake

After one of my colleagues bought a delicious banana and raisin loaf into work last week, I’ve found it hard getting loaves off my mind.

I think sometimes they get a bit overlooked in favour of fancier cakes piled high with icing, or cupcakes and bars that come in convenient bite size pieces – but that’s a shame as boring shape doesn’t at all mean boring taste!

I first made this loaf a few months ago, as a thank-you present for my aunt and uncle for letting me stay at their house. Unfortunately I didn’t get to try any then, so I knew I’d make it again at some point.

It’s adapted from a Levi Roots recipe for a simple coconut loaf, but with a handful of raspberrries thrown in to make it even more delicious.

The original is my go-to for a basic coconut sponge, as the addition of lime really makes it taste tropical and delicious, and the texture is perfect.

Make this cake!!

Coconut and raspberry loaf cake (adapted from a Levi Roots recipe):

• 175g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• zest and juice of 2 limes
• 50g desiccated coconut
• 175g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 200g raspberries

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the lime zest and juice. It’ll probably look a bit curdled at this point, but don’t worry. Beat in the desiccated coconut then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold until just combined. Toss the raspberries in a little flour (to stop them sinking) then layer up the cake batter and raspberries into a medium sized greased and lined loaf tin. Bake at 180 degrees for about 50 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean. Slice thickly and enjoy!