Lemon and Raspberry Loaf

The sun is shining, and my garden is filled with daffodils, so I wanted to make something light and delicious to celebrate the start of Spring: a lemon and raspberry tea loaf. The cake is light and fluffy with a subtle lemon flavour, topped with juicy, zingy raspberries. Perfect for a sunny afternoon tea!

Based on this recipe I found on Pinterest. I love Pinterest far too much. It has ALL the things.

Ingredients:
135ml sunflower oil
135ml milk
1 tsp vanilla exract
75ml lemon juice
2 eggs
250g self-raising flour
200g caster sugar
50g raspberries

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Serves: 10

1.  Preheat the oven to 160 and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2. Pop all of the ingredients except the raspberries into a large mixing bowl and whisk until they come together to form a smooth batter.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and pop into the oven, make sure to set a timer for 15 minutes. 
4. After 15 minutes, quickly open the oven door and sprinkle the raspberries of the top of the loaf. This should mean that they don't sink too far into the cake, but instead rest nicely on the top where they will go soft and leave lots of yummy juices.
5. Bake for a further 45 minutes, until golden brown on top (between the raspberries) and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. Once cooled, cut into slices and serve with a cup of tea! (You could also serve with a dollop of clotted cream, if you're after a really indulgent spring-time treat!)

Happy Thoughts
x

I Was Saved by a Flying Wild Man in a Loincloth

Disney Classic # 37 - Tarzan

Tarzan was one of the later films I came up with an idea for, and it was again kind of clutching at straws. I decided early on that I could do a banana based dish, but that I'd try to come up with something a little more original. Except I didn't manage to come up with anything more original, and I do so love banana cake... so banana cake it was! (I literally screeched with joy when this scene came up in the film:)

Bananas!!! I decided to make the banana and walnut loaf cake out of my trusty Good Food's 101 Cakes and Bakes, with a couple of tweaks here and there. The cake was amazingly delicious, and really didn't last us very long at all! ^_^

Prep time: 10-15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour
Serves: 12 (or at least it makes 12 slices :-P)
Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas
100g chopped walnuts
25g banana flakes (optional)

25g demerera sugar
100g margarine
140g light brown sugar
2 medium eggs
2 tbsp milk
225g self raising flour

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and grease and line a loaf tin.
2. Mash the bananas with a fork. In a separate bowl, mix together 25g of the walnuts with the banana flakes and demerera sugar.
3. In a large bowl cream the butter and the sugar, then beat in the eggs.
4. Fold the remaining 75g walnuts, the mashed banana and the milk into the mixture, then sift in the flour and continue to fold until all combined.
5. Spoon the mixture into the tin and then sprinkle the walnut, banana flake and sugar mixture over the top.
6. Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to rest in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Cut into slices and serve with a cup of tea ^_^

Next time we're watching Fantasia 2000, which will be the last Disney Night for a while as I'm having major surgery the following week! Eeeep! To make up for it, I'm going to make a super-special musical celebration cake ^_^

Happy Thoughts
x

Twitterpated

Disney Classic # 5 - Bambi

Whereas last week with Dumbo I had a million ideas for cakes I could make, I'd have to say the opposite happened with Bambi. I couldn't think of anything. My friend Collins came up with the fantastic suggestion of making an "Oh deer" cake - a cake that made people say "oh dear" when they looked upon it. But even then I had no idea what to do!

So I'm clutching at straws with this weeks lavender tea cake... How did I figure that lavender cake is Bambi themed, you ask? Well, I'll have you know that a *very* significant event in this movie just so happens to take place on a MEADOW. Wild flowers grow on meadows, and lavender is a wild flower. So there.

See those purple flowers in the bottom left corner there - definitely lavender

I used a recipe I found here, which I followed pretty much to the letter as I've never tried a recipe like this before. I served each slice with a tasty dollop of strawberry infused whipped cream - yummy!

This cake (and the cream served with it) takes a long time to prepare and cook - so I think it would make a good Sunday tea cake. Plus it makes your house smell lovely!

Note: I used 3 tablespoons of lavender as that is what the recipe asked for, however, I thought that the lavender flavour was too strong on this cake, so next time I make it I'll probably only use 1.5 tablespoons of lavender. Although, it seems to be an acquired taste, as there were varying opinions from my friends, a couple of them even went back for seconds!! What I would suggest is that if you're not too keep on strong flavours, or if you're unsure, then start off only using less lavender, you can always add more each time you make the cake until you have the perfect flavour! I'll update this post the next time I try lavender cake and let you know how I got on with 1.5 tablespoons. ^_^

180ml milk
3tbsp finely chopped edible lavender
85g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
250g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Prep time: 15 mins           Cook time: 50 mins         Serves: 12

For the strawberry infused cream:

175ml double cream
2tbsp icing sugar
5 or 6 strawberries
2tbsp caster sugar
2tsp lemon juice

Prep time: overnight       Cook time: 5 minutes, plus 2 hours to cool       Serves: 12

1. Prepare the strawberries the evening before making the cake. Hull and then quarter the strawberries and pop them into a small glass bowl. Sprinkle the caster sugar over them and mix with your hands until all of the strawberries are covered with the sugar. Cover the bowl with cling film, and leave in the fridge overnight.
2. To make the cake: preheat the oven to gas mark 3, and grease and flour a loaf tin.
3. Finely chop the lavender and put this into a small saucepan with the milk. On a low heat, bring the lavender and milk to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and leave to cool whilst you prepare the batter.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter and the sugar together until smooth. Add the eggs, and beat well until the mixture reaches a light and creamy consistency.
5. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
6. Fold around a quarter of the flour mixture into the butter mixture, followed by around a third of the milk and lavender mixture. Continue to alternate the flour and the lavender until all of the ingredients are combined, being sure to start and end with the flour mixture.
7. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for around 50 minutes, until a skewer entered into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin on a wire rack.
8. Whilst the cake is baking, prepare your strawberry coulis. Pour the strawberries and their juice into a small pan and add the lemon juice. Over a medium heat, bring the strawberry mixture to the boil, stirring continuously. Place the strawberry mixture back into the bowl and allow to cool slightly before re-covering with clingfilm and placing back into the fridge to cool and thicken for at least 2 hours.
9. Once the cake and strawberry mixture have cooled, prepare them cream. Place the cream and the icing sugar in a large mixing bowl, and whisk until the cream is thick and stands in stiff peaks. Blob about a teaspoon of the strawberry mixture around various places in the bowl of cream, and then carefully fold the strawberry into the cream to create a marbled effect. (Don't mix the cream and strawberry too much - you don't want to combine them completely!)
10. Slice the cake and serve with a generous dollop of the strawberry cream!

Next time - it's a Disney double-feature!! We're going to skip a week due to the birthday of a very close friend, so it will be two weeks before my next post. In order to make up for lost time (and for various other reasons) we'll be watching Saludos Amigo and The Three Caballeros in one evening, and I'll be serving a Tres Leches Cake. Can't wait!!

Happy thoughts.

x