Chocolate Chunk Cherry Cake

It is a little early to be talking about cherries in the UK… a few months early… but it is exciting to see cherries ready on the trees. We might even get some this year instead of the birds. They have already done an excellent job of eating the cherry and plum tree leaves – I had no idea they were that tasty…

We were given a bag of cherries from a friend who takes the left overs from a market for her chickens and gives us a huge portion of it to feed little piggy and chooks. Some were on the turn, queue cherry baking time.

I’ve got a favourite cherry cake recipe (find it here Cherries) but I was lacking in some ingredients and, to be honest, I wanted chocolate cake 😛

So I trawled the internet to find a chocolate one that had the ingredients we had in the house. I had just enough to make one from https://www.kitchensanctuary.com

It is most definitely not my own creation even though I would love to take credit for it, but it is so delicious that I think the word should be spread. It is a new favourite chocolate cake.

Flourless with ground almonds, fresh cherries, chocolate chunks in a chocolate cake, lovely gooey texture – what is not to like?!

Chocolate Chunk Cherry Cake

(Serves 10)

-225g butter, softened -200g granulated sugar -1tsp vanilla extract -4 eggs -200g ground almonds -50g cocoa powder -1tsp baking powder -100g dark chocolate -100g dark or milk chocolate cut into chunks -200g fresh cherries

1. Preheat oven to 170C. Line a 20cm/9inch deep cake tin with baking parchment.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the softened butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time until well incorporated into the mixture.
4. Stir in the ground almonds, cocoa powder and baking powder, mixing well to combine.
5. Melt 100g of dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over the hob or in a microwave. Mix into the cake mixture followed by the chunks of unmelted chocolate.
6. Scrape the contents of the bowl into the prepared baking tin.
7. Remove the stems from the cherries and cut them open, removing the stones from the centre. Scatter the cherries over the top of the cake’s surface.
8. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before transferring to the wire rack to cool completely. It is also delicious served warm.
9. When completely cold, store in an airtight container for up to three days.

Blueberry Oats

Some nice little berry biscuit treats. Very simple, only uses three ingredients, vegetarian/gluten/vegan friendly. Cooked blueberries are surprisingly delicious…

Blueberry Oats

-4 medium sized ripe bananas -1-3cups of porridge oats -1 cup of blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a square tray with baking parchment.
2. Mash the bananas in a bowl.
3. Stir in the oats with a fork, a cup at a time, until the oats seem to have absorbed the banana. The mixture should cling together, like a biscuit mixture, and be a little sticky. Be careful not to overdo it with the oats so that it is too dry.
4. Stir in the blueberries.
5. Scrape the contents of the bowl onto the prepared tray. Using the fork, press down onto the mixture, smoothing it out over the surface of the tray. You want it to be thinnish and flat. Think flapjacks.
6. Cut the flattened mixture into squares before placing in the centre of the oven and cooking for about 10-15 minutes, or until the oats are golden brown and the blueberries are cooked.
7. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Blueberry Lemon Cake

Come on summer…

Blueberry Lemon Cake

-225g granulated sugar -2tbsp lemon juice -180g plain flour -2tsp baking powder -Pinch of salt – 1/2 cup of milk -1/2tsp vanilla essence -3 large eggs -1tbsp lemon juice -1/2 cup vegetable oil -300g blueberries -1/4tsp plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 20cm/9inch deep circular baking tin with baking parchment.
2. Mix the sugar and the lemon juice together. Mix in the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Mix in the milk along with the vanilla essence. Then mix in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice and the vegetable oil.
4. When it has mixed well, add the blueberries with the 1/4tsp of plain flour and gently mix in.
5. Scrape into the baking tin and bake in the centre of the oven for approximately 1hr or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Leave on a wire rack to cool in the tin before turning out the cake onto the wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Mum’s Baked Apples

Happy New year everyone!

Here is a little winter/autumn warming treat to see you through January and February, and a great way of using apples left over in storage from the harvest of 2018.

Mum’s Baked Apples

Serves 6

-6 large baking apples -3/4 cup dark brown sugar -1/2 cup raisins -1/2tsp ground cinnamon -1/4tsp grated nutmeg -1tbsp butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Wash and core apples, then remove a 1-inch strip of peel around the middle of each. Arrange the apples in a baking dish, 2-quart shallow.
3. Combine the brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Carefully fill the center of each apple and dot with 1/2tsp of butter.
4. Add just enough water to the baking dish to cover the bottom. Bake, uncovered, for 45-60 minutes, or until the apples are tender (larger ones will take longer). Baste the apples with the juices occasionally.
5. Serve the apples warm. Left-overs can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Christmas from the garden

Christmas is one of the busiest times in the kitchen, but it doesn’t mean you can’t pop out to the garden too… especially to harvest things.

Christmas cooking can be like the climax of the harvested year. You can give your jams away as presents, eat redcurrant and cranberry jelly and sauce with your Christmas meal. Harvested chestnuts or other nuts can be used in desserts. Dried cranberries or raisins are great for puds. And of course, anything that is still green at this time of year can be added to your wreath or house for festive cheer.

Dried Cranberry Chocolate Cake anyone?

But you don’t have to stop there… what about the main Christmas meal?

What about growing and cooking your own Christmas dinner?

For future thinking, here are some traditional Christmas dinner things you could plan to grow for next Christmas:

• Potatoes – we always plant so many we still have plenty in the ground come Christmas day. As long as they are well buried and not planted in too damp a place, potato tubers will be fine against the frosts.
• Brussel Sprouts or Brukale (Brussel sprout crossed with kale).
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Carrots – yes, you can still be harvesting carrots from the ground at Christmas, if you cover them with fleece.
• Parsnips
• Cabbages
• Beetroot – why not add some to your roasted roots?
• Celeriac – ditto, or a celeriac mash? Or just boiled?
• Celery – homemade stuffing anyone? And in that case how about freezing some pears or storing some apple too?
• Onions
• Runner- beans or peas – store them in your freezers all year round from the first harvest onwards.
• Pumpkin or squash – usually USA’s Thanksgiving, I know, but how about roasting some and creating a vegetarian/vegan replacement for the usual meat?

Homegrown Brussels and Brukale

Christmas is a holiday, a time of celebration and of having fun with loved ones. To me, it is also a time to be creative and original, to do what I love by going back and cooking from scratch, a way of tying up my year of cooking and growing. This year we will be having our own cabbage, beans, pumpkin, celeriac, beetroot, carrots, potatoes and Brussel Sprouts, not to forget homegrown redcurrant jelly and homemade cranberry sauce… What a way to celebrate an end to 2018!

RIP David Austin Sr. 

What do you grow/dream of growing for Christmas time? Let us know.

For Christmas baking recipes, check out Beagle Baking (https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/home/)

Just type ‘Christmas’ into the search bar and it will show you some festive treats.

And then, after all that food, just follow Rainbow’s advice:

Bed.

Summery of 2018 in the Veg Garden

It is time to do the annual check list of how this year when in the vegetable garden.

It was an unusually cold, uneventful spring this year – we basically skipped it and went straight from winter to summer. But boy, what a summer it was! Major heatwave and no rain for weeks on end. It was glorious, even if it did mean a lot of watering all day long…

But how did this all impact on the plants?

Lettuce – started off really good but struggled with the hot weather in the heatwave and bolted. We bought loose leaf lettuce plants from Sainsbury’s and planted them out and they did pretty well despite the weather. When they bolted, the ducks and chickens loved them.

Spinach – bad year for spinach, not a lot germinating, probably because my seeds were too old. I bought some new ones at the end of the season and got a few to grow, but it was too late by then. Oh well, next year!

Rocket – very good rocket growth this year. Planted some at the beginning of the season and at the end and both batches lasted ages – the last batch has only just gone thanks to Jack Frost.

Radishes – they love sun and were whopping sizes.

Carrots – started off very badly. I sowed them in early March and they did not germinate at all. Sowed some in June/July, thinking it wouldn’t work, and we got a beautiful crop. Some really big ones too!

Celery – I wasn’t going to grow celery this year but a neighbour gave us some spare plug-plants so I used them. They grew pretty well, but were not very tasty. I think they needed more watering a care.

Celeriac – again, wasn’t planning on growing more, but were given plug plants. They seem to be surviving, along with last years crop I never got out of the ground… at least the pigs will be happy…

Cauliflower – didn’t come to anything, as usual!

Peas – had some really good crops but the pea plants themselves died off really quickly. I think it was too dry and they needed more care and watering. Mixed bag with the germination rates.

Beetroot – did fantastically well. I only planted one batch and we still have three buried in the ground to get through. Bolthardy is amazing.

Cabbages – I was too late to sow brassicas so we bought some plug plants from the garden centre. The savoys and spring cabbages did not do very well and ended up going to the poultry, but the red cabbages… I am now converted. Beautiful, huge, delicious and a few more left to get through…

Brussel Sprouts – ran out of time to sow seeds but were given plug plants. They are huge and delicious. Producing really well despite my lack of feeding and weeding this year.

Sweetcorn -OMG. Best sweetcorn harvest ever. So big, yellow and yum. Really big cobs! So exciting.

Pumpkins – amazing crop, some big and small ones, each plant produced lots.

Courgettes – really good. Mixture of types of courgettes grown this year, including Defender, Golden Zucchini, Grisdella etc. All produced lots, really yummy. Cucurbits do love sun.

Cucumbers – didn’t do great, but did fine. Needed more watering and care. Only got a few Passandras and Femspot varieties, I think.

Tomatoes: did pretty well, but again needed more care. Got a few outdoors and indoors this year thanks to the sunshine.

Broccoli – ran out of time to sow so bought plug plants. Did pretty well – lots of small florets rather than big ones. Probably more water needed?

Aubergines – plug plant bought as my seeds did not germinate. I think harvested one? A few grew but did not develop into edible stage.

Sweet Pepper – plug plant as seeds did not germinate. Got quite a few small but delicious ones.

Runner-beans – very good harvest. So many grew after my fears none would germinate due to the hot weather. Roots left in ground from previous years grew again. Got an amazing supply and was still harvesting in November!

Chickpeas – only one plant survived out of the billions of seeds planted. Didn’t develop anything. Will have to try again another year.

Onions – did not do great. Not very big. Needed more water probably.

Garlic – as good as always!

Potatoes – amazing as always! Bought some early Charlottes and Red Duke of York and a main crop Kingsman. Planted some old ones we chitted out from previous batches. Lots of growth and some incredible sizes.

Parsley – good supply from previous year’s sowing.

Chervil – ”

Chicory – ”

Strawberries – great year. Lots of lovely delicious red gems. Made lots of strawberry jam.

Raspberries – very good year. There were some to be picked in late November still. Lots of raspberry jam.

Pears – didn’t get any because fox ate them all.

Grapes – only got one batch because birds ate them all.

Cherries – birds ate them all but the Morello was laden.

Damsons – good supply from one tree. Made one pot of damson jam which was delish.

Apples – very good harvest from all trees. First Bramley harvest, was yummy.

Quince – diseased so didn’t produce anything.

Mulberry – no produce.

Medlar – produced but did not develop and then eaten by birds.

Blueberries – good crop.

Redcurrants – very good crop.

Jostaberries – a lot stolen but birds but good crop.

Blackcurrants – ”

Gooseberries – no crop.

Chives – very good crop as always.

Parsnips – no actual parsnips but great flowers growing.

Plums – lots of Victorias and Green Gages. Made some good plum crumbles.

Sweet Potatoes – disaster. Didn’t cut off vines so no root growth.

I think that is all…. thanks for the year 2018. It was busy, juggling with university, heatwaves, water leak fears, drought fears, and now freezing weather, but what a lovely time we had! Looking forward to another summer of playing in the sun in the garden.

Merry Christmas everyone from the Kitchen Garden in advance. And just to finish it off, what a good year for space2grow – one year ago it was established and it has so far one 3 Bloom awards, has been given sponsorship and its volunteers and supporters are rocketing, including santa…

 

Apple and Cinnamon Ice-Cream

Sorry this is so late – I promised it ages ago when the apples were in high season, but uni essays had to take priority!

So, apple and cinnamon – a good mix.

This is a little autumnal treat. Eat it on its own or serve with a nice hot pudding. What about a winter crumble with apple and cinnamon ice cream on the side?

Enjoy!

Apple and Cinnamon Ice Cream 

(1L ice cream container)

-1 cup whole milk -3/4 cup granulated sugar -2 cups double cream -6 egg yolks -2tsp ground cinnamon

-2tbsp butter -2 large apples, cored and diced into chunks -1/4 cup dark brown sugar -1tsp ground cinnamon -1/4tsp ground nutmeg

1. To make the ice cream base: in a large pan, add the milk, 1/4 of the sugar and the cream. Bring just to the boil.
2. In a large bowl, mix the rest of the sugar and the egg yolks together. Carefully pour in the heated milk mixture and start to whisk it in.
3. Once combined, mix in the ground cinnamon thoroughly.
4. To make the apple compote: melt the butter in a non-stick pan. In a bowl, toss the apple with the brown sugar and spices. Tip into the pan and heat, stirring often, until the apple is tender and the sugar has melted. This should take a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
5. If using an ice cream machine, follow the manufacturers instructions. If making it by hand, pour the ice cream base into a large ice cream container. Scrape in the cooled apple mixture and stir in, using figure of eight movements. Seal and place in the freezer. Every half an hour, remove and repeat the same figure of eight swirls. Continue until the ice cream has set. Serve.

Red Apples

Feeling like Snow White when you eat a perfectly homegrown red apple from your tree…

Collected a whole bucket of apples from the garden the other day. This is a beautiful Braeburn.

Other than eating them as delicious snacks, what else can you do with apples? Well, here are some ideas…

Apple Cake

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

Apple jelly

Apple sauce

Apple juice

Dried apple pieces in a dehydrator

Straight apple and cheddar cheese is yummy. My brother melts cheese and then puts it over the top of sliced apple.

Apple pie

Stewed apple and chocolate ice cream – so good

Cut up apple and serve alongside a pudding

Add apple and cheese to a homemade loaf of bread

Apple and cinnamon ice cream (coming soon…)

Add apple to your coleslaw or Waldorf salad

Grate up and add to your River Cottage Carrot Walnut Cake adapted for moist yumminess.

Victoria Plum Crumble

We had a lot of plums this year, all from one Victoria tree (this is the tree I’ve nearly killed plenty of times).

We’ve made lots of plum jam but we quickly had to get a move on as they were rotting in the fridge so I made a plum crumble. It seems to have been a hit and here is the recipe if it tickles your tastebuds…

Victoria Plum Crumble

(Serves 6)

For the fruit: -1kg Victoria plums, de-stoned -3tbsp granulated sugar

For the crumble: -110g plain flour -55g granulated sugar -170g salted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Place the fruit at the base of an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the sugar generously over the top, and mix it in.
3. In a bowl, using your fingers, rub the flour, sugar and butter together, so that the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Scatter the crumble over the top of the fruit.
4. Place the dish in the oven and cook for about half an hour, until the fruit is hot and bubbling and the crumble is golden brown.
5. Serve warm. Keep in the fridge for up to three days.

Red Cabbage

Just look at that red cabbage… homegrown and harvested from the plot yesterday.

It was the first time I have ever grown red cabbages before and I thought it was so beautiful, I decided to eat some. I went from cabbage hater, to ‘green cabbages are ok’ to ‘wow, red cabbages are good cooked too!’

Why should we eat cabbages?

89g of raw cabbage contains –

• Protein: 1g
• Fibre: 2g
• Vitamin K: 85% of the RDI
• Vitamin C: 54% of the RDI
• Folate: 10% of the RDI
• Manganese: 7% of the RDI
• Vitamin B6: 6% of the RDI
• Calcium: 4% of the RDI
• Potassium: 4% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 3% of the RDI

Vitamin B6 and folate are essential for many important processes in the body, including energy metabolism and the normal functioning of the nervous system. Cabbage is especially high in vitamin C, a potent antioxidant that may protect against heart disease, certain cancers and vision loss. While both green and red cabbage are excellent sources vic C, red cabbage contains about 30% more. One cup (89 grams) of chopped red cabbage packs in 85% of the recommended intake for vitamin C, which is the same amount found in a small orange. So I might avoid Fresher’s flu…

Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage contain many different antioxidants that have been shown to reduce chronic inflammation. Sulforaphane, kaempferol and other antioxidants found in brassicas are likely responsible for their anti-inflammatory effect.

Cabbage is full of gut friendly insoluble fibre, a type of carbohydrate that cannot be broken down in the intestines. Insoluble fiber helps keep the digestive system healthy by adding bulk to stools and promoting regular bowel movements. Cabbage is also rich in soluble fibre which has been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria in the gut. These bacteria perform important functions like protecting the immune system and producing critical nutrients like vitamins K2 and B12. Eating cabbage keeps your digestive system happy.

Red cabbage contains powerful compounds called anthocyanins. They give this vegetable its vibrant purple colour. Anthocyanins are plant pigments that belong to the flavonoid family. Many studies have found a link between eating foods rich in this pigment and a reduced risk of heart disease. Cabbage contains more than 36 different kinds of anthocyanins…

How to eat it?

Raw is probably best as most of the nutrients will be withheld that can sometimes leave during the cooking process. But I find raw cabbage icky. Steamed is the next best, followed by boiled, roasted, fried.

We boiled it and ate our red cabbage with lots of other homegrown produce for dinner – potatoes, sweetcorn, green Savoy cabbage, carrots, runner beans and courgette. It was beautiful and yummy and helped to ease my sore gut that had been suffering all day. See – homegrown produce is so good for you!

Update: one more pumpkin left to harvest… the other plants have all turned brown and died from powdery mildew so I cut their fruits off and took them inside to cure (more information here for those who are interested: Curing pumpkins). I’m leaving the last one on to make sure it ripens more and will take it away when the plant finally has to go.

Blight has hit the veg garden and the potatoes are starting to go – thank goodness it came so late this year as the main crop potatoes have managed to grow properly before the disease came. The tomatoes are going to suffer and I am expecting a lot of green ones to fall off soon but we did pretty well with the red tomatoes being grown outside this year in this once in a lifetime heatwave.

The autumn harvest of raspberries is being as wonderful as always. We had them last night for dessert along with homemade chocolate brownie ice cream and cookies and cream ice cream (recipes can be found on my Beagle Baking blog:

Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream

https://bellasbakingsite.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/cookies-and-cream-ice-cream/  ).