Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

poohbear59

I had planned on making Spanish Omelette tonight but I have to go out and DH has to make dinner. He is going to make his enormous veggie spag bol and I will make omelette tomorrow instead. I have 7 eggs from my girls.

HowlinWolf

Lesley - can you please check the timings and heat setting for micro sponge pudding
Weezl - can you supply timings and method for slow cooker sponge pudding

Can someone else check my timing for a stove top sponge pudding

Comments on anything else welcomed.


Cake Baking

Making cakes needs a bit of measuring, ingredients need to be weighed fairly carefully to ensure a good result.

A basic cake mix would be

4oz plain flour
4oz sugar
4oz butter/butter spread/soft margarine
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder (if you use self raising flour instead of plain you can leave this out)

or

6oz plain flour
6oz sugar
6oz butter/butter spread/soft margarine
3 medium eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder

Get the butter/butter substitute out of the fridge an hour or two before you want to start baking. Trust me this will make your life a lot easier.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and mix a bit with a fork.

Add the baking powder to the flour

Get a couple of cake tins out (or an old metal biscuit tin), rub a bit of butter round them and put some baking parchment in the bottom

Turn the oven on to 180C (160 if you have a fan oven)

Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl. Use a wooden spoon (or an electric mixer if you have one) to beat the butter and sugar together. You want to mix until the mixture is soft and pale and fluffy.

Then add a splash of the egg and about a third of the flour. Mix until all of the flour and egg is incorporated into the cake. Repeat until all of your egg and flour are used up. Your mixture should be quite thick and will fall off your spoon in a clump. Adding a bit of flour with each addition of egg will prevent the mixture from curdling and makes it easier to mix.

Before cooking you could flavour your cake mix with a teaspoon of vanilla extract/essence, some grated orange, lemon or lime rind, instant coffee ( about 3 teaspoons mixed with two teaspoons of hot water). You could also add cocoa powder to make a chocolate cake - just substitute 1oz of the flour for 1oz of cocoa powder. Do not be tempted to use hot chocolate powder instead of cocoa it will not make a nice cake.

Bung nicely mixed cake into cake tins - half the mixture in each, you do not need to smooth it out just leave it all in a lump in the middle, it will sort itself our in the oven.

Shove tins into the oven for 25 - 30 minutes (if you are using two tins try to put them on the same oven shelf so that they cook in the same amount of time). When cooked it will be a pale golden colour. If you push the middle gently with a finger it will spring back. Alternatively you can stick a (clean) skewer or a thin knitting needled into the middle of your cake, leave for a couple of seconds and then pull out. If there is no wet cake mix on your knitting needle then your cake is cooked.

Let the cakes cool for a minute or two in the tins and then turn out onto a baking rack to cool fully. You might need to run a butter knife around the edge of the tin to loosen the cakes a bit.

When the cakes are completely cool you can sandwich them together. If you've just made a plain cake or a cake flavoured with vanilla then you could simply spread a little jam onto the top of one of the cakes. Stick the other cake on top and then sprinkle a little bit of icing sugar or caster sugar over the top. You could also put butter cream or whipped cream in the middle if you wanted to. (If you use whipped cream remember to keep the cake in the fridge and eat within 2-3 days).

If you've made a flavoured cake then it needs to be sandwiched together with something which has the same flavour or a complementary flavour. So for a chocolate cake you could use chocolate buttercream or chocolate spread (cherry jam is also nice). For a coffee cake you could use either coffee butter cream or chocolate buttercream. If you make a cake with lemon rind then lemon curd makes a good filling.

If you want to you could also ice your cakes with a simple water icing.


Sponge Pudding.

Use the same recipe and quantities as you did for the sponge cake. Put a few tablespoons of jam or golden syrup in the bottom of a pudding basin. Shove sponge mixture into pudding basin on top of the jam - do not be tempted to mix the two ingredients together. If you are going to cook this in a steamer on top of the stove or in a slow cooker then get a piece of tinfoil. Fold it in half. Put the folded piece of tinfoil down flat on a worksurface with the fold furthest away from you, take hold of the edge of the top half of the foil only. Fold the top sheet of the foil away from you by making a crease about 2 inches from the centre fold. Turn the whole piece of foil over it will now have a pleat in it and this will allow your pudding to rise. put the foil over the top of your pudding basin and secure it around the top of the basin with a rubber band of some clean string. Shove the pudding basin in a steamer for about 2.5 hours.

You can also do this in the microwave. DO NOT USE FOIL. Cover your pudding basin with clingfilm. Shove in the microwave and cook at 750watts for 3 minutes. Allow it to cool slightly before eating.

ariarnia

I've got to leave to get to my interview in about 30 mins, but to report, spoke to MIL this morning and she liked the onion tart, would be happy to have it on a regular basis (we had it with salad and potatoes.) She didn't think onion is a vegtable and so wouldn't like to have it without a big salad or 3 veg - I've assured her that onion is a veg but she still isn't sure.

Having chicken suet pie tonight, cooked in fridge and OH will re-heat if I'm not back from interview with wedges and mixed veg.

weezl74

ariarnia wrote: »

I've assured her that onion is a veg but she still isn't sure.

:rotfl:

does she think it is an animal?

ariarnia

HowlinWolf wrote: »

If you are going to cook this in a steamer on top of the stove or in a slow cooker then get a piece of tinfoil. Fold it in half. Put the folded piece of tinfoil down flat on a worksurface with the fold furthest away from you, take hold of the edge of the top half of the foil only. Fold the top sheet of the foil away from you by making a crease about 2 inches from the centre fold. Turn the whole piece of foil over it will now have a pleat in it and this will allow your pudding to rise. put the foil over the top of your pudding basin and secure it around the top of the basin with a rubber band of some clean string. Shove the pudding basin in a steamer for about 2.5 hours.

Could just me me, but I don't get this bit at all. I want to steam my pudding tomorrow so I might be able to work it out with a bit of foil infront of me.

Other than that, fantastic work.

ariarnia

weezl74 wrote: »

:rotfl:

does she think it is an animal?

Like a potato - doesn't count for 5 a day apparently.

HowlinWolf

ariarnia wrote: »

Could just me me, but I don't get this bit at all. I want to steam my pudding tomorrow so I might be able to work it out with a bit of foil infront of me.

Other than that, fantastic work.

Hmm okay I did wonder if it made sense. Basically the foil needs two folds in it. It needs to be folded in half and then one half needs to be folded back on itself about 2 inches from the original fold. Does that help at all?

If you were looking at it from the side it would look like a Z where the fold is.

Yategirl

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Hmm okay I did wonder if it made sense. Basically the foil needs two folds in it. It needs to be folded in half and then one half needs to be folded back on itself about 2 inches from the original fold. Does that help at all?

If you were looking at it from the side it would look like a Z where the fold is.

it made sense to me but then I have done it before - I think many people will get a piece of foil/baking parchment and work it out easily from what you said in the first comment

Is it worth noting that you can do this pud in the oven (I put fruit or jam in the bottom of the dish and the sponge on top - it takes longer to cook but if you already have the oven on, then that isn't so much of a problem)? or is that confusing matters?!

weezl74

HowlinWolf wrote: »

Weezl - can you supply timings and method for slow cooker sponge pudding

howlin did you mean my jammy sponge?

I didn't think shirley would be able to make it cos she has no jam...

I can rethink that tho if people would like

initial thoughts, I love it :T
what a labour of love.

Also, I'm aware shirley's main/only cake baking is the carrot cake, isthere anything particular to this kind of baking that people think shirl ought to know?

weezl74

ariarnia wrote: »

Could just me me, but I don't get this bit at all. I want to steam my pudding tomorrow so I might be able to work it out with a bit of foil infront of me.

Other than that, fantastic work.

aria, I can include a piccie, howlin would you find that helpful?

they tell 1000 words and all that!