Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

Were two words ever more perfectly suited than 'breakfast' and 'cake'? Anna made this for me yesterday during a little holiday at her house in Harrogate, from a recipe her mum gave her, and I have to share it with you here. It's essentially a tray-bake cake/pastry hybrid. You make the cake batter and sprinkle it with sugar, then you melt a load of butter with cinnamon and pour it over the batter, creating seams of glorious spicy/sugary goo. This recipe uses the American cup system, but I have put the conversions you'll need for this recipe below:

1 cup flour = 150g
1 cup sugar = 225g
1 cup butter = 175g
1 cup milk = 240ml

And don't thank me, thank Anna's mum!

CINNAMON BREAKFAST CAKE

Heat your oven to approx Gas Mark 6. Line a smallish deepish roasting tin with parchment- or a deep cake tin.

Cake Ingredients:

1 egg
3 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar (white not brown for the cake)
1 and a half cups milk

For the Topping:

Lots of cinnamon
1 and a half cups brown sugar- demerara works best
Half a cup melted butter

Method:

Melt your butter.
Mix all the cake ingredients together and pour into your lined tin.
Sift over the cake surface all the sugar- add a bit more if you like it extra gooey.
Sift a generous amount of cinnamon all over the sugar.
Drizzle all the butter all over the sugar topping.
Bake for 35 minutes or until it looks done on top, but not too brown.
The butter and sugar sink through the top to make streaks of goo throughout the cake.

Eat warm if you can wait that long, and it reheats quite well.

It should look like this once it's cooked:

*EDIT*

I just made this. I used caster sugar for the cake, because I'd run out of granulated, and it was fine. I also used extra butter, and the cake was REALLY gooey on the bottom, but I like it that way.

Rainy days and sick days

I'm currently recovering from a nasty bout of milk-based food poisoning. I'm not longer vomiting every three minutes but I'm still a bit nervous of leaving the house. I can't bake, because of all the food touching involved, and the TV is getting SOOOO boring. But I've hit upon an ingenious plan - jam making. I don't have to touch it, and I can eat it on toast when I am better. I've trawled the web for recipes, and have created this one, which takes into account the ingredients that I already have in my cupboard, and what I like the taste of.

MissGembles's Plum Jam

700-750g plums halved and stoned, then quartered
600g granulated or jam sugar
175ml water
2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla pod with seeds scraped out)

Sterilising jars:


To sterilise jam jars and lids, wash, rinse and dry them (remove any traces of old labels if you’re recycling) and put into the oven for 10 minutes at 150 degrees C/gas 2.

Put the plums, and 175ml of water into a pan.

Bring to a simmer and cook gently until the fruit is tender and the skin soft. May take 20 minutes depends on the size and variety of the plums.

Add the sugar and vanilla and stir until dissolved. Bring to boiling point and boil rapidly until setting point is reached, usually 10 – 12 minutes. If you have a sugar thermometer you can check, setting point is 105C or 220F.

Take off the heat. If the fruit is bobbing about at the top of the pan then it may not be cooked enough. If this happens, cook for a few more minutes, about 3 – 4.

*You should always pour the jam directly into the hot, sterilised jars after it has reached setting point, and you need to seal the jars up straight away. Pop them in the fridge when they have cooled. The jam lasts about 2 months.

Purists amongst you might have noticed the omission of gelatine, or pectin. That's because the cooking process I have used above SHOULD bring out the pectin that is already contained in the fruit. I'll let you know how it goes.

So I don't forget...

The bereavement counsellor has just left. It was good, I cried and laughed and cried some more. And now I am eating Mini Eggs.

I thought I'd share another recipe, cos I'm all Mastercheffy, like...

Chicken and Chorizo Stew

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 chorizo ring - sliced
2 sticks celery - chopped
1 medium onion - chopped
1/2 can chick peas - drained
3 garlic cloves - crushed
Handful parsley - chopped
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 tiny bottle red wine
Salt, pepper, smoked paprika

1. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of smoked paprika over 2 chicken breasts and seal for 5 mins over a hot griddle.

2. Slice the chorizo into slices no thicker than 5mm and use them to line a casserole dish.

3. Chop onion, parsley and celery sticks and drain chickpeas.

4. Crush garlic.

5. Place sealed chicken breasts over chorizo. Cover with chopped vegetables and garlic.

6. Pour over chopped tomatoes and wine.

7. Season according to taste and cook in oven (gas mark 5) for approx 90 mins.

8. Garnish with leftover parsley and serve with crusty bread.

**Not about being miserable**

It is a truth, locally acknowledged that I am rather a dab hand in the kitchen. If I had my way I'd bake and roast food all day, but then I wouldn't earn any money. I often borrow recipes from Gordon or Nigella, but very occasionally I compose my own, based on something I have tried and never found the recipe for. The recipe I am sharing with you in this post doesn't exist anywhere else online. I should know, I've searched for it often enough!

So there's a woman at the Alexandra Palace farmer's market that makes the most amazing fridge cake I have ever tasted. She calls it 'white chocolate slab cake' but, to the cake connoisseur, that is a very different thing indeed (an American brownie type cake, baked in a tray). See, she is not as good a baker as I, she hasn't done her homework. Despite her inability to correctly name her creations, I dream about this woman's fridge cake, and I actually drool. I needed the recipe. I had to have it. Obviously Ally Pally lady hasn't shared her recipe with me, it's the only thing that keeps me going to her stall, so I have devised my own (slightly better) recipe, and have rendered her useless! Hooray for ingenuity! Enjoy!

Gemma's White Chocolate Fridge Cake

300g good quality white chocolate, broken into pieces
175g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 tbsp golden syrup
150g digestive biscuits
150g dried apricots, cut into pieces
100g sultanas
50g mixed fruit peel

1. Line a 23cm square or 22 x 25cm tray with clingfilm or baking parchment. Place the white chocolate in a large heatproof bowl with the butter and syrup and allow to melt over a pan of barely simmering water for about 6-7 minutes, taking care not to let the bowl touch the water.

2. Meanwhile, break the biscuits into small pieces with a rolling pin. Stir all the remaining ingredients into the melted chocolate mixture until evenly coated. Pour into the prepared tray and level with the back of a spoon.

3. Chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours, or overnight. Cut into 16 squares using a large sharp knife dipped into hot water. The pieces will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.