Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 06:00 
nigel slater’s moist plum cake remains a firm favourite of mine, not least becase of its adaptability. i’ve blogged about a cherry and almond version (this post includes the recipe) and a blackberry and apple version. this week i made a plum and nectarine version.
Monday, May 31, 2010 at 20:43 
cooking for others is one of the things i love doing most. thinking about what flavours people like and how to create an experience that makes people feel loved and indulged is an absolute favourite thing for me to do.
last week we had friends round – some who i see all the time, some very rarely and some who i barely know – and everything worked so well.
pudding was my favourite part of the meal – this lemon and prosecco cake which i served with stewed rhubarb and crème fraiche. it’s made with prosecco which instantly makes it feel celebratory and gives it an incredibly light texture. which is just as well, given what else we ate – more of which later…
Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 16:56 
i used my cobnuts to make an apple and cinnamon cake. the recipe i used was a nigel slater one for moist plum cake (see here for a cherry & almond version, including the recipe which you can adapt if you fancy giving this a try) which uses a mix of flour and ground almonds.
i blitzed the cobnuts in my food processor and used this in the place of the almonds. a teaspoon of cinnamon into the mix and pieces of apples on top of the cake mix and that’s it. the cobnuts added an extra depth of flavour, similar to hazelnut. because i used the nuts fresh they were quite coarse which added a really nice crunch to the cake texture.
Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 06:11 
i’m still craving cake, cake and more cake! after last week’s chocolate fudge cake and given the beautiful sunshine we’ve intermittently been enjoying, i decided that something lighter was needed. a friend recommended diana henry’s rose-drenched lime and yoghurt cake.
this has similar flavours to my much-loved pistachio and orange cake with lemon rosewater icing but is much more delicate, both in flavour and texture, and i was glad that i’d upped the lime zest content of the cake itself. it’s incredibly moist, both because of the yoghurt and the lime and rosewater syrup which is poured over the still-warm cake and would be a lovely cake to serve after meal.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 19:50 
i’ve been having really strong cake cravings for the past few weeks. it’s probably because despite many of my friends having birthdays in the first quarter of the year, there has been a real dearth of cakes, so any expectations i have had for a sneaky slice have been dashed with surprising regularity. the other factor has been the jar of caramel syrup which has been sitting in my kitchen since i made the november daring bakers caramel cake with caramelised butter icing. this was a great cake and i’ve wanted to make it again but haven’t managed to as people have requested different cakes (this pistachio and orange cake with lemon and rosewater icing has been particularly popular recently).
anyway, the long and short of it is that i have finally got round to making a cake which i knew would tick my cravings box. sweet icing and a not-too-sweet cake to balance it out. chocolatey but with a nod in the direction of caramel and fudge. the cake was very easy to pull together and is definitely best eaten on the day it is made.
the icing tasted lovely (be warned, it is very sweet) but didn’t look as good as i’d hoped – despite sieving the icing sugar into the melted chocolate/butter mix i still ended up with very tiny white specks in the icing. perhaps i should have creamed the butter and icing sugar together and then added the melted chocolate? any tips or ideas welcome.
