Granola Bars

Firstly, I want to say a MASSIVE thanks to all those who contributed a guest post. I loved reading what other people have been making, and it has filled me with inspiration! It feels good to be back in the hot-seat though!


When I'm at work and need a snack I often turn to cereal bars, I have found a few healthy ones (where I can pronounce all of the ingredients, and sugar isn't the number one ingredient), but they are expensive and tend not to be very filling. 


My recipe does contain sugar, but considerably less than a lot of the granola bar recipes I found.  Although they aren't particularly low in calories or fat (175 calories and 6.7g per bar) they give good slow-releasing carbs from the oats and fruits and have good fat from the seeds and nuts. The great thing about these granola bars is you can substitute whatever you have in your cupboard for the ingredients below, as long as you keep the ratio of wet and dry ingredients more or less the same. For example you could try pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds, hazelnuts instead of walnuts and apricots instead of figs.

Roxanne's Granola Bars

Strawberry & Raspberry Ginger Crunch Yoghurt

Controversially, no baking was involved in this recipe. Before you take off the 'bakes' part of my name, wait for a second - this recipe includes gingernuts, which are baked (and you could make them yourself), therefore, technically it passes. Phew! This posts comes from my friend Rowan.


A few weeks ago our lovely host Roxanne dared to let me cook her dinner. After a pleasant-but-not-exciting veggie stir fry, I wanted something a little unusual for dessert. A combination of drunken Eurovision madness and stolen health-kick ideas seemed to deliver the goods, and so Roxanne asked me to tell you about it...

Strawberry & Raspberry Ginger Crunch Yoghurt

All Bran Cake

Today's guest post comes from my Gran. This looks like the perfect recipe to make when you open your cupboards and all you find is cereal and dried fruit! 

Here is the recipe for All Bran Cake - it is sooooo easy to make and tastes very delicious! 

Chocapple Cakes

Yes I made the name up, but they do have cocoa and apple in, and I wrote the recipe so I get to call them what I like.

This is the second recipe in my no-sugar, no-butter baking crusade/experiment.

Strawberry Crumb Cake

Greetings from Los Angeles! I can see why the word 'stressed' doesn't exist out here in California, I am so relaxed and loving my escape in the sun.

Being on holiday definitely hasn't stopped me baking though. Easter Sunday started with my uncle's home-made waffles drizzled with maple syrup and scattered with blueberries. Then came our BBQ dinner (they call it grilled here, which confused me at first...) Ottolenghi's herb soup, followed by grilled halloumi and Portobello mushrooms stuffed with spinach and goats' cheese. What could top that? Well, a certain strawberry crumb cake gave its best shot...

After I familarised myself with cups - made harder by two-thirds-ing the recipe - I cracked on. The recipe here however is for the whole quantity as my little brain can't do any calculations right now (I might have tasted 30 wines yesterday...) Now, for the recipe!

Strawberry Crumb Cake

Step 1
Hull and halve 3lb of strawberries (they are in season here so we picked up big, red, juicy ones from the farmers' market). Toss them with ½ cup sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2½ tbsp corn flour (dissolved in 2½ tbsp water) and the seeds of 1 vanilla pod. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Step 2
Meanwhile put into a bowl ½ cup light brown sugar, ½ cup & 2 tbsp plain flour, and a pinch of salt, add 4 tbsp of unsalted butter (must be cold) and rub in until it resembles breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Step 3
Mix together (I used a fancy electric mixer!) 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened, and 1¼ cups sugar until light and creamy. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well between each additon, then beat in 1½ tsp vanilla extract. Next alternate adding ¾ cup buttermilk with the dry ingredients (2¼ cups plain flour, 1 tbsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt).

Step 4
To assemble. Pour the strawberries into a 9 x 11 in glass bowl (you can use ceramic, but glass lets you see all the layers). Spoon the cake batter over the strawberries, cover evenly and spead to the edge. Finally sprinkle over the crumb topping.

Step 5
Bake in a 350°F preheated oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling, the crumb topping is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with just a few crumbs.

Step 6
Serve the cake warm from the oven (or later at room temperature).

This cake was so delicious, the perfect end to our Easter feast. It also works well with damaged strawberries as you can cut off the unslightly parts!


Here are the imperial/metric conversions:
Filling
8 cups / 3lb / 1.3kg strawberries
½ cup / 3½ oz / 100g sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2½ tbsp / ¾oz / 25g corn flour
2½ tbsp water
1 vanilla pod
Crumb topping
½ cup / 3½oz / 100g brown sugar
½ cup & 2 tbsp / 2¼oz / 65g plain flour
pinch of salt
4 tbsp / 2oz / 60g unsalted butter
Cake

1 stick / 4oz / 115g butter

1¼ cups / 8½oz / 250g sugar

3 large eggs

1½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup / 6fl oz / 175ml buttermilk
2¼ cup / 8oz / 225g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

The original recipe can be found here.

My Mum's Christmas Cake

I have made several Christmas cakes but still didn’t have a favourite recipe so I searched for a new one, with ‘easy’ as one of the keywords. I used one called 'Simmer-and-Stir Christmas Cake' and it is now the one I will use in future years (although next year I will remember to buy some nuts!).

I made a round cake and a very small taster cake in a loaf tin with the spare mixture, so I already knew it was going to be a good one. I made my own almond marzipan (and chocolate coated marzipan sweets with the spare) and topped it with a soft royal icing as I don’t like the stuff that breaks teeth! Then, knowing the limits of my artistic icing skills, I just decorated it with 4 chocolate stars and a ribbon.