Month: September 2016

Apricot, Almond and Marmalade Loaf

~ louisehad ~ Leave a comment

sliced-apricot-and-almond-loaf

A very good friend of mine makes excellent marmalade. It takes me ages to get through a jar, even though I love marmalade on toast for breakfast. This marmalade is just way too good to be left at the back of the fridge so I thought I’d give this recipe a go. I was so pleased with the results, just the thing for that mid-afternoon dip in energy. It’s so moist and the flavours really come through. It’s perfect for autumn. I’ve also tried this with a ginger and orange marmalade that I bought at a village fete and it worked extremely well! This recipe can be found on realfood.tesco.com.

apricot-and-almond-loaf

 

 

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter

150g light muscovado sugar

 1 orange, zested

3 large eggs, beaten

225g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

200g dried apricots, roughly chopped

25g flaked almonds

•     Preheat oven to 180 degrees

•     Line a 1kg loaf tin with baking paper

•     In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

•     Beat in the orange zest and eggs until combined then stir in 50g of the marmalade

•     Fold in the flour and ground almonds, then stir in three quarters of the apricots

•     Transfer the mixture into the lined tin

•     In a bowl combine the remaining apricots and flaked almonds and spoon over the cake.

•     Bake for 20 minutes, then cover the top with foil to prevent topping from burning and bake for a further 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

•     Leave to cool in the tin, then transfer to a serving plate.

•     To make the glaze, gently heat the remaining marmalade in a small saucepan with 2 teaspoons of water. Brush the glaze over the cake and leave to set.

apricot-and-almond-loaf-for-tea

Fig and Yoghurt Cake

~ louisehad ~ Leave a comment

Fig and Yoghurt Cake (2)

My fig tree is the tree that just keeps on giving, as a result, I have an abundance of figs. I found this recipe on http://www.hungrycouplenyc.com. I’ve made yoghurt cakes before and they always make me feel that I’m being ‘healthy’. The loaf shape also helps with this fantasy, as I feel like I’m eating bread rather than cake. This cake is so moist and so fragrant it goes down a treat for afternoon tea.

Fig and Yoghurt Cake

Ingredients (Makes 8-10 servings)
2 large eggs
200g caster sugar
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g Greek style yoghurt
Zest of 1 lemon
240g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of ground ginger
3 fresh figs, quartered

 

•       Using either a stand or hand mixer, add the eggs and sugar to a large bowl and beat together until fully combined. 

•       Beat in the butter, vanilla, lemon zest and yoghurt until all the ingredients are combined.

•       In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon.

•       Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet until all the flour is incorporated.

•       Butter and flour a loaf tin (add baking parchment for easy removal) and pour in the batter.

•       Place the quartered figs along the top of the batter and press in slightly until only the tops are showing. 

•       Bake in a pre-heated oven 180°C fan/ 200°C/ Gas 6 for approximately 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

•       Allow to cool and then dust with icing sugar before serving (optional).