Nigel Slater's Beetroot Seed Cake

This is one of those unusual recipes that just screamed out at me to be made.
I mean, honestly, BEETROOT in a cake?!

However, despite the fact that the mixture becomes a worryingly shade of puce before it goes into the oven, it does all turn out well in the end. It becomes a normal cakey colour, so fear not.

And the taste?

Absolutely delicious. Cinnamony, moist, and utterly addictive.
A word of advice: Nigel suggests using lemon juice or orange flower water in the topping - use the orange flower water for something exotic, fragrant and completely memorable.

I had to pick the friends that I could safely try this on. The lucky winners were Dominik and Irina, with Irina expecting their 3rd child any minute now. As you can see Irina has found that her 'bump' can also double as a table

So go on...be daring...try this...you will be so glad you did.

NIGEL SLATER'S BEETROOT SEED CAKE
Enough for 8-10 people

225 g flour
2 1/2 (2.5) teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
180 ml sunflower oil
225 g light muscavado sugar
3 eggs, separated
150 g raw beetroot
Juice 1/2 lemon
75 g sultanas or raisins
75 g mixed seeds (e.g. sunflower, sesame, linseed, pumpkin)

For the icing:
8 tablespoons icing sugar
3 teaspoons lemon juice or orange flower water
Poppy seeds

Set oven to 180 deg C.

Lightly butter a rectangular loaf loaf tin of at least 20 x 9 cm and 7 cm deep, then line the base with baking parchment.

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Beat the oil and sugar in a mixer (I don't have one, so I used an electric whisk) until well creamed, then add the egg yolks one by one.

Grate the beetroot coarsely (I use Marigold gloves otherwise my hands look like I have murdered somebody) and fold it into the mixture.

Add the lemon juice, sultanas or raisins, and the assorted seeds.

Fold the flour mixture into the eggy mixture and beat well.

Beat the egg whites till light and almost stiff. Fold gently but thoroughly into the mixture, using a large metal spoon.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, covering the top with a piece of foil after 30 minutes. Test with a skewer (or blade of a knife) for doneness. The cake should be moist inside but not sticky. Leave the cake to settle for a good 20 minutes bfore turning it out of its tin to cool.

To make the icing: sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add enough lemon juice or orange flower water to achieve a consistency where the icing will run over the top of the cake a nd drizzle gently down the sides. This will be about 3 teaspoons. Stir well to get rid of any lumps.
Drizzle over the cake and scatter with poppy seeds. Leave to set before eating.

Scotch Pancakes

What a great way to start a Sunday - SCOTCH PANCAKES!

For me this is a real trip down memory lane. I used to have them when I was little - from Marks & Spencers as a treat. They came, 8 nestled in a packet, and I'd either eat them as they were, or put some butter on them. In later years, Marks & Sparks also came to do a sultana & lemon version. I didn't stretch quite that far this morning. I wanted to renew my acquaintance with their soft rubbery-ness first before I start doing anything too fanciful with them.

When Sjoerd stumbled sleepy-eyed into the kitchen, I was already glowing with excitement. I could not wait to get started on making breakfast. I started telling him about when I was eight or nine years old that I would go to the pictures with Jane Thompson on a Saturday afternoon . The Lounge Cinema in Headingley. There was a childrens' matinee every week with some feature film, and then a weekly soap-type of adventure series where the children always won over the evil villains...or parents. Then it would be off to either my house or Jane's and we would have Soctch Pancakes, or toast with butter and golden syrup, before heading outside to play. She had some woods near her place, so we'd try to shin trees. Neither us were very lady-like....and one of us still isn't (and I haven't seen Jane for years, so no prizes for guessing who I am referring to!).

But I digress.

These Scotch Pancakes come from my source of all baking Female & Solace-full: Nigella. It is Nigella I turn to when I want some nostalgia. These little bundles of memories caught my eye when I made the Chocolate Chocolate-Chip muffins the other day. They too were located in the Kiddie Feast section of my entertaining Bible of 'Feast'. It is Sunday after all so I can be excused for this form of Biblical Worship :=)

Nigella Lawson's Scotch Pancakes
Made about 16



150ml milk
1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar
110g plain white flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon golden syrup or honey

1. Put the vinegar into the milk and place to one side whilst you measure out the other ingredients. This is just to make the milk sour. It will become a bit thick and lumpy.

2. Put the flour into a large bowl and add the bicarbonate of soda.

3. In another bowl add the egg, oil and with the oily spoon measure the golden syrup (or honey) in and whisk everything together. Add the vinegary milk and give all the liquids a good stir.

4. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry, and mix thoroughly. Try to get it smooth; this is not muffin batter lumps we are after here.

5. Heat a heavy non-stick frying pan (or flat griddle if you are lucky enough to have one) on a medium heat with no oil. Add 1 tablespoon of the batter to make each Scotch pancake. They will spread out a little, so resist the temptation to cram too many in a pan. When the surface becomes full of bubbles, which rise up from underneath, then turn the pancakes over using a wide flat utensil. This makes it much easier to get under the whole pancake than just a spatula.

6. Let this side now cook for a few minutes until golden brown. The first side will be an even brown colour, the second side will be more flecked and speckled. Very rewarding in their prettiness.




7. Pile on a plate. Eat with butter, jam, golden syrup, plain.....or as we did this morning with fruit and yogurt. What a start to the day.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

You really must try these!

They are simple, quick, delicious and are so more-ish you will have problems in not gobbling up the whole lot....

I'd made these in a flick-of-a-wrist on Thursday morning when Sjoerd was going out for the day with brother, Maarten, and two nephews Nick and Max. I was quite surprised to hear that they had arrived, uneaten, at Opa Ed's....I felt like an old fashioned aunt (minus the flowery apron) making cakes for the kids. The house not only smelled great, but it stayed in my hair all day too. If someone had said that I smelled good enough to eat then I would have whole-heartedly agreed with them ;=)

I didn't have any chocolate-chips, but I did have a few bits of chocolate hanging around in the fridge (Milka milk hazelnut, some organic praline milk chocolate, and some squares of dark chocolate). So I chopped those up into small chunks and chucked them into the mix. Delicious.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins
Makes 12










250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
175g sugar
150g chocolate chips (or chopped chunks), plus some extra for sprinkling on top at end
250ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Preaheat the oven to 200 deg C.
2. Fill a muffin tin with 12 paper cases
3. Measure out the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
4. Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug.
5. Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix both together. Remember that it is a lumpy batter you are after not a smooth lump-free mixture. It is lumpy batters that make the best muffins for some reason.
6. Spoon the mixture into the 12 muffin cases.
7. Sprinkle the extra chocolate chips (or chunks) on top and bake at 20 minutes until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.