Almost Angel cake

Almost Angel cake

Angel cake, the layered pink and white loaf cake similar to Battenberg is popular with my kids. This is a alternative version, a marbled sponge cake, layered with jam and as I don't 'do' marzipan a almond butter icing.


This cake was so simple to make, it is a rubbed-in cake which saves on washing up the mixer, basically you rub the flour, butter and sugar together then mix in the wet ingredients, split the mixture in half and dye one half with a little food colouring paste. Then get creative marbling your cake mixes. If this was a true Angel cake / Battenberg it would be finished with a layer of marzipan, sticking with the almond flavour marzipan would give I substituted it for a almond butter cream. The cake is filled with plum jam as plum works very well with almonds, a match made in heaven.

Almost Angel cake:

225g S/R Flour

225g caster sugar

125g butter, softened

2 eggs

150ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

few drops food colouring paste

4 tbsp plum jam, to sandwiching sponges

Frosting:

100g butter, very soft

100g icing sugar

150g ground almonds

Grease and line two 20cm cake tins,

Preheat oven to 180c.

In a bowl sieve the flour, add caster sugar and butter rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs.

In another bowl whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Add to flour mixture and mix together until it is smooth. Remove half the batter to another bowl, add a few drops of food colouring paste to one bowl and mix well.

Place alternate spoonfuls of each mix into the cake tins. To create the marbling affect drag a skewer / cake tester through the cake mix to swirl the colours together. Bake for 25 minutes.

To make the frosting place the butter, icing sugar and ground almonds in a blender and mix until smooth, taste and add more sugar or almonds depending on your tastes. Firm up in the fridge. When the cakes are cooked and cooled sandwich together with the plum jam and cover with the butter cream.

This cake was delicious, the rubbed-in method made it a moist and tender sponge, the plum jam and almond icing work well together and the marbled pink and white cake looked very pretty. Proved very popular with my daughter...but anything pink is popular with her.

Another tag

I have been tagged, this time by the lovely Amy from The new Nigella / Cooking for Chris , this tag was started by Anna
The challenge was to show your top ten pics from your blog.
As I have only been blogging for about a month I'm not sure if I have 10 pictures, let alone a top 10, so I have picked my favourite pictures of the food I enjoyed blogging about the most.

I am not a natural photographer, in fact I am one of those people who can take something of beauty and make it a thing of sheer ugliness in one click of the camera :) I am eager to learn though and have a new camera on the way woohoo!

• Home cured bacon

Chicken from the Venetian ghetto

• Meringue cupcakes
  
  

• Oaty shortbread

• Dulce de leche chocolate cake
  
  

• Chocolate brownie with hot blonde sauce
  

• Easter bonnets
  
  
  
  I have to tag 5 other bloggers, most of the blogs I was planning to tag have already been tagged, so instead I shall just put the links to blogs up (all with fabulous foodie photos) please do visit them, they are well worth a look.



• Brenda - http://www.teandwheatenbread.blogspot.com/


• George - http://www.culinarytravelsofakitchengoddess.wordpress.com/



• Rosie - http://www.rosiebakesapeaceofcake.blogspot.com/


• Violets - http://violets-homecooking.blogspot.com/


• Kellyjane - http://www.cookbookqueen.blogspot.com/

Bringing home the bacon

You can buy bacon just about anywhere nowadays, in desperate times the key ingredients for a bacon sandwich i.e bacon and white bread can be bought in any corner shop. I prefer my bacon to come from my butcher, not just because I care about where my meat comes from but the fact that mass produced shop bought bacon just doesn't compare to butchers bacon.

First of all no white gunk leaking out the meat into the frying pan and second of all it actually tastes like bacon.

So if my butchers bacon is so good and easy to get a hold of, why on earth am I planning on curing my own bacon, in fact I thought it was such a strange idea that it has took me best part of a year to get round to it, and I am only doing so now out of amused interest.

It could be a complete waste of time, then again it could change my bacon eating life for ever.

This recipe comes from Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstall's 'The River cottage family cookbook'
I halved the quantities in this recipe.

Free range piece of pork such as loin (I used organic), about 1.5kg
for the dry cure mix:
bay leaves,
2 juniper berries, 10
Coarse salt, 500g
Soft brown sugar, 100g
Coarsely ground black pepper

First prepare the dry cure.

Finely chop the bay leaves, lightly crush the juniper berries and add both to a non-metallic bowl along with the salt, sugar and pepper. Mix thoroughly together.

Rub a handful of the salt mix into the pork, when all the surfaces are covered put it in a Tupperware box, cover and put in the fridge.

After 24 hours drain any water that the salt has drawn out of the meat and rub another handful or two of the salt cure into the pork. Return to the fridge.

Repeat this process everyday, after 4 days the bacon will be 'lightly' cured (ready to use as bacon sandwiches) although you could cure it for up to a week, this will make it too salty for bacon rashers though so more suited to using in cooking such as soups.

When you've finished curing your bacon, rinse off the excess salt and pat the meat dry with kitchen paper.

Ideally the meat should be hung for 24 hours.

Wrap the finished bacon in greaseproof paper, to let it breathe, and slice as needed.







The 'cure' mix, rubbed into the pork.

So was it worth it, 4 days wait for a bacon sandwich, well, yes it was.

I sliced lovely rashers and fried them (a treat in itself) and served them on fluffy homemade white bread with chunky oven chips.

It was the most delicious bacon, I was quite unsure how it would taste actually, especially as I have such a soft spot for smoked bacon, and while I am not yet ready to attempt smoking bacon just yet as I was surprised at how 'bacon-ey' it tasted.

And while it produced no white gunk in the frying bacon it did produce lovely juices perfect for dipping my bread into.

The only down side I can see to this is that the bacon was slightly over salty for my liking, next time I might cure it for a day less, although the salty bacon will be perfect as a flavour base in many meals.

A long wait but well worth it.

I've been tagged!

The lovely George and Vi from Violets pantry have tagged me, this is for a challenge set on Violets pantry to get bloggers to get to know each other a little better, basically I have to describe my self in 5 words and then tag 5 other bloggers.


I would describe myself as:
trustworthy
loyal
quiet (yes, really!!!)
greedy (where cake is concerned)
fun
that was quite hard actually.
I am tagging:



Tina - http://tina-cookerybookchallenge.blogspot.com/

Teresa- http://www.teresagskitchen.blogspot.com/

Amy- http://www.cookingforchris.blogspot.com/

Laura -http://www.hungryandfrozen.blogspot.com/

Gayle- http://theovenison.blogspot.com/

please have a nosey at some of the above mentioned blogs, they are all fantastic.