Every once in a while my whife asks, nae demands, that I bake her a cake. At times like this it is usually a tea loaf or something else that’s dry and needs some butter or something else to give it a bit of life alongside a cup of tea. Last night she asked me to bake a cake she found on Livejournal.

Ingredients:
150g butter
115g brown sugar
180g golden syrup
200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons nutmeg
2 beaten eggs
400g icing sugar
1 tablespoon water

1. Start by preheating your oven to gas mark 4. In my case it was about gas mark 4.5 as our oven just doesn’t seem to hit the temperatures it’s supposed to.
2. Put the butter, sugar, syrup and water into a saucepan and heat gently until everything has melted of dissolved. Once that’s done remove from the heat and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
3. Grease and/or line a tin. I used a large diameter tin as yet again cooking times can vary considerable due to our oven if I use smaller/higher tins.
4. Sift the flour and spices into a bowl and then add the cooled liquid. Using an electric whisk mix this together and them add the eggs. Continue mixing until smooth.
5. Pour the mixture into a greased or lined cake tin.
6. Bake for around 45 minutes to an hour. Or until a knife in the centre comes out clean.
7. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

This is where I stopped following the recipe. We never bothered to ice our sponge as we’ve been getting bored recently of sweet sweet icing but it did allow us to realise that if you let this cake cool enough to be able to cut it cleanly but it still warm and steaming on the inside it fantastic. The next day once it’s cooled down completely though it could probably do with some icing or even some hot custard poured over the top of it.

750g Chicken
2 Carrots
2 Onions
2 Tins Chopped Tomatoes
9 Pitted Dates
Handful Dried Apricots
1 Tsp Turmuric
1 Tsp Cumin
1 Tsp Garam Masala
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
Tiny bit of Ground Cloves
2 Cloves of Garlic

Fry the onion with the spices and add the chopped chicken after a few minutes. Once the chicken starts to cook add the carrots, fruit and tinned chopped tomatos. Mix it all together and transfer to the slow cooker and cook on med for 4 hours. Stick on low until ready to serve.

Serve with couscous and enjoy.

Hopefully it’ll taste nice otherwise I’ll put this one down to experience and call in pizza :p

Ingredients
225g Gingernut biscuits, crushed
125g butter, melted
350g cottage cheese
1 tsp ground allspice
125g clear honey
2 eggs
2 tsps. ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Cooking Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 325F, Gas Mark 3, 170C
Grease a 9 inch (23 cm.) flan tin
Mix together the biscuits, butter and allspice
Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the flan tin
Chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes
Mix all the remaining ingredients, apart from the cinnamon, together
Spoon the mixture into the biscuit crust and dust with the cinnamon
Put into the pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes, or until filling is set

Not entirely sure if the allspice will be needed with the gingernut base.

Number 1
Serves 4 and takes 15 minutes to prepare and cook.

350g of dried pasta
300g broccoli cut into florets
3 large skinless chicken breasts cut into small chunks
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 large orange
25g pine nuts

1. Cook pasta according to packet instructions. Two or three minutes from before its cooked throw in the broccoli.
2. While this is cooking fry the chicken in some olive oil until cooked and golden. For the last 2 minutes add the garlic.
3. Take the juice from the orange and mix it with the mustard. Pour it over the chicken and simmer for a couple of minutes. Drain the pasta but keep a couple of tablespoons of the water. Put the pasta and broccoli in with the chicken and toss it about so its all covered by the sauce. Stir in the pasta water and the pine nuts and serve.

*I didnt use the pine nuts and it was great without them. You could also use toasted almonds*

6-7 Decent sized potatoes
Grated Cheese
Tin of cooked ham (use half and chop it up)
Chopped medium onion
knob of butter

Boil the potatoes in water until cooked.
Melt the butter in a frying pan on a low heat and cook teh chopped onion for a few minutes before adding the ham. Season with lots of pepper (and salt if the ham isnt salty)
Mash the potatoes

Layer into a ovenproof dish as follows
Potato
Ham and onions
Cheese
Potato
Ham and onions
Cheese
Potato

Is also nice if you sprinkle crushed smokey bacon crisps on top and then stick it in the oven for 30 mins at 180-200oC.

Finely chop up a medium onion and saute it in the olive oil in a pan.
Throw in a normal sized can of whole/chopped Italian plum tomatoes and bring it to the boil.
Give the tomatoes and onions a quick stir and add 2 teaspoons of tomato puree, salt/pepper to taste, 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar (or balsamic vinegar) and 3 teaspoons of sugar to liven the tomatoes up a bit.
Simmer for up to an 30-40 minutes stirring often to break up the tomatoes.
Sieve the sauce back into the pan and add a 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano and a wee bit of dried basil if you like and simmer for another 10 mins or so until the consistancy is about right.

3 bananas
460 ml flour
230 ml sugar
200 ml chopped soft butter
1 egg, whisked

Mash the bananas up in a bowl and add the suger and butter.
Mix up with a fork until its all roughly mixed.
Add half the flour and fold it in.
Add the egg and give it a quik mix.
Add the rest of the flour and fold in again.
Pour into a greased and floured tin and cook at about 200oC for 30-40 mins until golden brown on top.

So I’ll post them up here where they are easy to find