Mexican Courgettes

A savoury recipe for Sunday...after rooting through my fridge I found a courgette and some Buffalo cheese that I picked up at a farmers’ market yesterday, it has garlic mixed in and has the consistency of feta.

I decided to try this recipe as it looked a bit different, I love most Mexican things and it used up my ingredients. The original recipe served 6 and as inviting 5 friends round for dinner at the last minute wasn’t going to happen I adapted it, and added a couple of extra ingredients – if you want to see the actual recipe, buy the book here.  

Mexican Courgettes

Blueberry Oaties

Warning these biscuits contain fat...now I know what you’re thinking – whatever happened to Roxanne’s no fat/no sugar baking?! Well, while these do contain fat, it comes from avocados, and so is a ‘good’ fat. I got the idea of using avocados from my friend Jess (see her post here), and then I made up the recipe.

This recipe contains no dairy, wheat or refined sugar so is perfect for friends with allergies.

Roxanne's Good-Fat Blueberry Oaties

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.

11-Calorie Cupcakes

If you are a regular reader of my blog you may remember my ‘Week of Cake’, where I ate nothing but cake, and then there was my trip to the US where I ate my own body weight in waffles, cookies and pizza. Needless to say the jeans are feeling a bit snug, and so I’m having a detox which sadly leaves little room for sweet treats.

I developed this recipe with that in mind, instead of sugar I used pear & apple spread (100% fruit with no added sugar) and I left out the butter. It was a real experiment so I made a small amount of mixture to test – and somewhat surprisingly, not only did they cook like normal cakes they also tasted great.

Ingredients

1 egg

25g pear & apple spread

25g wholemeal flour

⅓ tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

(my mixture made 20 mini cupcakes)

Step 1

Separate the eggs into 2 small bowls. Whisk the whites into stiff peaks.

Step 2

Add the fruit spread to the egg yolk and whisk until creamy.

Step 3

Using a metal spoon fold the egg whites and flour mixture (flour, baking powder and cinnamon) alternatively into the yolks.

Step 4

Bake in a preheated 180°C/Gas 4 oven for 8 minutes.

The cakes had a light texture because of the lack of butter and the cinnamon complimented the fruit spread well. Plus, each cake has a mere 11 calories so I can definitely have second helpings...

Cheesy Herbed Potato Cakes

My latest GoodFood magazine arrived at the end of last week, and this weekend I tried out one of the recipes, controversially it's a savoury one...

Cheesy Herbed Potato Cakes

Step 1

Boil or steam 400g  potatoes in slightly salted water until soft (but not mushy). Drain, cool slightly and mash.

Step 2

Add 1 egg, a handful of finely chopped coriander, 5 spring onions, the zest of ½ lemon, 60g cheese and ¼ tsp of very hot chilli sauce (use a fresh chilli instead if you have one, simply deseed and finely chop). Mix all the ingredients well.

Step 3

Shape the mixture into small cakes (I made 11). Put about 50g cornflakes onto a plate, bash them into crumbs with the end of a rolling pin. Roll each cake in the crumbs (both sides). If you have time chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Step 4

Fry the cakes in vegetable oil until brown on both sides. Serve with a summer salad or asparagus.

I was really pleased with these potato cakes, so simple to make (with minimal faffing) and a different way to jazz up potatoes, plus they have coriander which I love!

I adapted the recipe considerably, but you can find the original 'Spicy potato cakes with chilli & coriander' in GoodFood Vegetarian Summer 2011.

Eating in America

So everyone knows America is famed for loving its food, there is no denying that if there is a food you want you can get it there. (Disclaimer: I have only visited 2 states and don’t know if this applies in South Dakota).

I thought I’d share with you some of the treats I tasted on my recent trip, some homemade, some from a restaurant and some straight from a cart. It’s making me wish I was back there just thinking about it!

An ice-cream sandwich from Trader Joe’s

A trip to Little Ethiopia in LA

Cake Monkey (its actual name on the menu...)

Easter breakfast – waffles, blueberries, strawberries and maple syrup

My aunt’s homemade soup (from an Ottolenghi recipe!)

My uncle made these grilled Portobello mushrooms stuffed with goats’ cheese along with grilled halloumi

Breakfast for dinner at a 24-hour diner – I had the Mexican dish ‘Huevos Rancheros’

Final breakfast in LA, homemade pancakes

Dinner in Manhattan, the best sushi I ever had

My friend makes a lot of smoothies, I think this was one of the ones that didn’t have vodka...

Apple Crumb Cake at the Sugar Cafe, a 24-bakery in NYC

Eggplant (aubergine) pizza at 3am. So good!

French toast for brunch on a lazy Sunday in New York

The best black & white cookie

My friend knocked up a chocolate marble cake just before I left for the airport

Red Velvet Cake

I was recently in New York and whilst there I sampled numerous tasty baked goods - black & white cookies, apple crumb cake, pretzels, m&m cookies, rice crispie treats, and French toast. I stayed with a friend who is a fellow baking blogger, you can find her blog here - we previously had a bake-off, but this time joined forces to create this quintessential American cake.

Red Velvet Cake 

Ingredients:

4oz unsalted butter

12oz sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 tbsp cooca powder

few drops red food colouring

9oz cake flour (use plain if you can't get hold of this)

8fl oz buttermilk

1 tsp baking powder

For the cream cheese frosting:

6oz cream cheese
3oz butter

1¼ tsp vanilla extract

11oz icing sugar

Step 1

Cream together the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs, beating the mixture between each addition.

Step 2

Make a paste of the food colouring and cooca and add to the creamed butter mixture.

Step 3

Add to the mixture a quarter of the buttermilk followed by a quarter of the flour and baking powder, alternating until all is added.

Step 4

Pour the mixture into two greased 8-inch round cake tins. Place in a 350°F preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Step 5

When the cake is cooked leave it to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 6

To make the frosting beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth, and add the vanilla. Sift in the icing sugar slowly, beating until smooth. You should get a nice thick consistency that will spread on the cake but not drip over the edges (tip: if the icing is runnier than desired put in the freezer for 5-10 minutes until it has firmed and will be easier to spread).

Step 7

Place one cake onto a plate and spread with the frosting, place the other cake on top and spread more frosting over. (We used one cake tin, and cut it in half to make a sandwich cake, if you do this simply halve the mixture.)

So there you have it, our very traditional American cake, perfect with a cold glass of milk.

Did you know?

Red Velvet Cake was traditionally made red by the reaction caused between light cocoa powder and buttermilk. Today it is rarely done by this, and food colouring is added. It doesn’t stop it tasting delicious though!

Adapted from this recipe.

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.

Lemon and Courgette Cupcakes

Carrot cake is an old favourite, yet when adding other vegetables to cakes people often scoff. It's time to embrace vegetable cakes! Courgettes add moistness, and make cupcakes light and fluffy, and don't have a strong taste. This recipe is a standard cake recipe with courgette added.

Ingredients
6oz butter, softened                                           Makes 18 cupcakes
6oz sugar
3 eggs, beaten
6oz self-raising flour
grated rind of 1½ lemons
6oz raw courgette, peeled and grated
For the butter icing:
4oz butter
8oz icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon
decorations of your choice

Rocky's Rocky Road

In days gone by, when I was a wee lass...one of my nicknames was 'Rocky', and I'm bringing the name out of retirement for one recipe only.

The beauty of rocky road is that you can just put the things you like in it, the main thing is to get the right balance between crunchy bits and bits that set. It's easy to substitute whatever you have in your store-cupboard for what I used in my recipe - and experiment yourselves! Let me know if you come up with any award-winning combinations... The best thing about this recipe is the 3 easy steps to achieve chocolate-y goodness!

Rocky's Rocky Road

250g milk chocolate

100g Cadbury's caramel nibbles

50g butter

3 tbsp golden syrup

1 tube of Smarties, chopped

40g mini marshmallows

100g rich tea biscuits, broken into small pieces

100g Rice Crispies