One of my favourite magazines to buy (aside from Country Home) when I was bringing up my children was Good Housekeeping. They always had great recipes in them, plus collectible recipes, which yes I always collected, and crafts, useful articles, etc.
I used to clip out the recipes that I thought looked good and save the craft patterns and any articles I thought would be useful. Every Christmas they would have a Gingerbread House on the cover. So lovely . . . I always aspired to make one like theirs, but never quite managed it.
They have Good Housekeeping Magazine over here in the UK as well, although now my family is grown I never really buy it.
I do find it difficult to resist their seasonal and Christmas special magazines however!
This year I have collected their Spring collection and the Summer one and the other day I was in the grocery store and spied the Autumn one.
You know Autumn is truly in the air when the magazines start presenting you with autumnal pleasures! I could not resist this. a quick glance through it and it was destined to land in my grocery cart!
And it has only taken me two days to bake up this lovely Blackberry Bakewell Pudding recipe that graced its pages.
Our blackberry bushes are filled to overflowing with those lovely berries at the moment. Every day my husband goes out into the yard he brings back another plastic tub full of them.
Having a tasty and novel way to use some of them up was exactly what I was looking for! I do freeze a lot, but we like to enjoy some fresh as well.
One of my husband's favourite puddings (desserts) is the Bakewell Pudding, with its jam layer and rich almond frangipane cake topping.
He even likes the Bakewell Tarts you can buy in the shops with that sweet almond icing on top and the glace cherry decoration.
I knew he would absolutely enjoy this Blackerry Bakewell Pudding recipe!
Fresh blackberries are combined with a quantity of blackberry jam and layered on the bottom of your baking dish.
I had just made Apple & Blackberry Jam the other day (tis the season) so this was the perfect excuse to use some of that as well.
Once you have them in the bottom of the dish you make a simple frangipane cake topping to pour over top.
It is said that the name Frangipane comes from a 16th century Italian Marquis named Muzio Frangipani.
I don't know if this is exactly true, but hey ho, it very well could be, especially if he held a certain fondness for the flavour of almonds in his cakes and bakes!
Frangipane is a mixture which is highly flavoured and composed of ground almonds . . . in a cake, or a cookie, or a pudding.
In this instance ground almonds are combined with a small quantity of plain flour, some eggs, butter and sugar and spread over top of the fruit in the bottom of the dish.
This is also an ideal bake for a coeliac as you can easily substitute the small quantity of flour which is used for the equivalent in a gluten free flour and it won't make much of a difference, as the ground almonds (almond flour) make up the majority of this delicious cake-like topping!
I used my La Creuset heart shaped stoneware baking dish as I don't use it near often enough and I was making this for my sweetie-pie, so why not bake it in a heart shaped dish!
Once baked you top it with a sweet lemon drizzle glaze. You can serve it either warm or cold, with lashings of warm custard of cold pouring cream. I dare say vanilla ice cream would also go down a real treat!
Yield: 6
Blackberry Bakewell Pudding
A delicious autumnal twist on an old favourite! A rich almond frangipane, baked over sweet blackberries, with a flaked almond topping and sweet lemon drizzle glaze.
ingredients:
- 225g of fresh blackberries (2 cups)
- 50g of blackberry jam (1/4 cup)
- 175g butter, softened (3/4 cup)
- 75g caster sugar (6 1/2 TBS)
- 3 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 175g ground almonds/almond flour (2 cups)
- 40g plain flour (1/4 cup)
- a handful of flaked almonds
For the glaze:
- 50g icing sugar (generous 1/3 cup)
- the juice of 1/2 lemon
instructions:
How to cook Blackberry Bakewell Pudding
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 4 cup shallow baking dish.
- Fold the berries and jam together. Spread in the bottom of the pan. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs a bit at a time. Fold in the flour and the ground almonds. Spread evenly over top of the berries in the dish. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool for about half an hour, then whisk together the icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a thin drizzle. Drizzle it over top decoratively and serve.
NOTES:
You can bake this ahead and pop, cooled and well wrapped into the freezer. To use, thaw out in the refrigerator over night. You can either serve it warm or cold. If serving warm, reheat in a 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 oven on a middle oven shelf for about 15 to 20 minutes. Drizzle with the glaze and serve. Drizzle with the glaze once it is thawed if you are serving it cold.
I am sorry if I disappointed you by not baking the apple dessert for today, but I had the berries and I needed to use them now. I will save the apple dessert for another time, so you still have that tastiness to look forward to. Oh, and in the original recipe for this, they added the flaked almonds after baking. I added them before, which I thought worked really well as they came out all toasty and nicely nutty!
TASTES TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE WEEK AHEAD
(always subject to change as per our circumstances and life getting in the way)
Monday: Country Style Casserole
Tuesday: Cheddar Chowder
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken with Honey Mustard Glaze
Thursday: Pillsburg Potatoes
Friday: Pan Seared Mahi Mahi with a Honey & Lime Coleslaw
Saturday: Irish Oatmeal Muffins
Sunday: Dutch Gingerbread
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
All the bakes of my childhood were embroidered with the appearance of an old patterned Dundee Cake Tin that my mother had collected somewhere during her travels.
It had Scottish tartan's printed on it, all around the outside, and on the underside I believe there was actually a photo of a Dundee Cake. To me it represented one thing and one thing only.
Deliciousness! Because I knew that inside the tin would be some cookies that my mother had baked or plain cake, or maybe, if we were really lucky . . . date squares!
It wasn't until I got much older that I began to wonder what exactly a Dundee Cake was!
I knew it was a fruit cake of some sort, which was quite apparent from the tin, and I knew it was Scottish in origin, also apparent from the tin . . . but exactly what kind of fruit cake it was escaped me.
When we were in Scotland several years ago, I picked up a recipe book on Scottish Baking, written by Sue Lawrence, entitled simply . . . Scottish Baking.
Above you will see the photo of the Dundee cake in her book. It is so pretty with its rings of blanched almonds decorating the top.
It is a fruit cake, but not as heavy and rich as a traditional Christmas type of fruit cake. This is more of an "Enjoy with a hot cuppa" kind of a fruit cake!
Light in colour and with a nice "citrus" flavour, it is one of my favourite fruit cakes.
Most cakes will include glace cherries of some sort, but a traditional Dundee Fruit Cake will not. You may see it in some, but it's not tradition that any are included.
What sets it apart from other fruit cakes is that, plus the inclusion of Scottish Malt Whiskey and that lovely ring of blanched almonds on the top.
I does include plenty of dried currants and raisins, and candied citrus peels of course! This recipe also includes the finely grated zest of on orange. YUM!
A traditional fruit cake can take up to three hours baking in a slow oven. This is not unusual. Even the full sized Dundee cake will take about 2 1/4 hours altogether, so it is not a quick bake by any means.
What I loved most about Sue's recipe is that it gives you the option of baking muffin sized cup cakes! And they bake in about half an hour! BONUS!
This quick bake time makes them absolutely flippingly perfect for serving up at your tea break with a nice hot cuppa!
Moist and delicious and stogged to the hilt with lovely dried fruits and beautiful citrus flavours . . .
Hot steaming mugs of tea are most pleasurable when enjoyed with cakes such as these.
Just look at all of those lovely currents and raisins studding that sweet buttery batter . . .
I found myself wondering why I hadn't baked these before, especially where they are so quick out of the oven.
We are people who adore a good fruit cake in this house, but I don't often make one as they are so time intensive. Store bought ones are always ALWAYS disappointing. Dry and lacklustre.
This pleases on every level. These smaller cupcakes are quick to bake. Moist. Delicious. In short perfect! I highly recommend!
Yield: Makes one cake or 10 cupcakes
Scottish Dundee Cake & Dundee Cupcakes
A traditional Scottish Fruitcake that is very much beloved. You can either bake it in a 7 inch cake tin or in 10 large muffin tins.
ingredients:
- 175g unsalted butter (3/4 cup + 1 TBS)
- 175g caster sugar (1 cup less 2 TBS)
- the finely grated zest of one large orange (I use my micro plane grater)
- 3 medium free range eggs
- 175g sifted self raising flour (1 cup plus 5 TBS)
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- pinch of salt
- 150g dried currants (scant cup)
- 150g raisins (scant cup)
- 50g chopped mixed peel (6 1/2 TBS)
- 1 TBS whiskey (preferably malt)
- 16 to 20 whole blanched almonds
instructions:
How to cook Scottish Dundee Cake & Dundee Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Butter and line a deep 7-inch round cake tin or line 10 large muffin tins with papers. Set aside.
- Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest thoroughly until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a teaspoon of the measured flour to it with each to help prevent the mixture from curdling. Stir in the mixed spice, salt and flour. Stir in the fruits and mixed peel along with the whiskey to combine well. Spoon into the 7 inch tin, levelling off the top. Alternately divide the mixture between the muffin cups. For muffins, top with the blanched almonds right away and pop into the oven. For the cake, just pop into the oven without the almonds at this point.
- For the cake, bake for 1 1/2 hours, remove from the oven and place the blanched almonds in two concentric circles on top of the cake, then return to the oven and bake for a further 45 minutes. For the muffins, bake for about 35 minutes until done. In either case a toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Remove from the oven for a wire rack and let cool completely before removing from the baking tins.
- Store in an airtight container.
I am very much in love with these little gingham cupcake liners. They were perfect for this and I had actually forgotten that I had them, only discovering them when I was rooting through my baking cupboard. I really hope you will bake these delicious Dundee Cake Muffins, or even the full size cake if that is what you are looking for. If it is even half as good as these smaller ones are, you are in for a real teatime treat!
Up Tomorrow: Apple Mystery Dessert
One thing I really love about life is how every once in a while it kicks you in the pants with a taste of reality. I think this type of thing happens to all of us at one time or another. I am sure you have experienced this exact thing. You are browsing through Pinterest . . . looking at things, pinning things and something catches your eye, so much so that you immediately put it on your list of things you HAVE to make.
(source)
Such it was when I spied this recipe for Bear Paw Cookies on Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons. Aren't they adorable? I thought so too! I had a man and his son coming over to cut down some fruit trees for us and I thought to myself it will bake a batch of these cute cookies to treat them with and they can take the leftovers home to the rest of the children.
We don't get the chocolate chips she required over here in the UK, but I bought two sizes of milk chocolate buttons that I thought would work well. Surely that could not make any difference to the cookie recipe itself as the cookies are baked by the time you put the chocolate chips on. You know that old saying????
The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions. I have heard that saying many times and this is a prime example of that. I don't know what went wrong. My cookies are not puffed. They are flat as pancakes . . . flat, flat, flat . . . they don't even remotely resemble the same cookie.
Just look at how incredibly thin they are . . . which wouldn't be half back if they were at least crisp . . . but they are not. They are chewy . . . maybe a bit crisp around the edges, but that is all.
They are also incredibly sweet. I took a bite of one and almost went into Diabetic Shock, and I really don't think a mother appreciate me feeding these to her babies . . . sigh . . .
I don't know what I did wrong. My soda was fresh. Likewise my eggs, flour, sugar etc.
I normally consider myself to be quite a competent cook and baker . . . but this was an epic fail. I can't fault the original recipe I don't think. Hers look quite wonderful! Although with brown sugar and espresso powder, I do wonder why they are so white. Hmmm . . .
Anyways, sometimes life just hands you those moments where you just have to be able to laugh at yourself. So, no new recipe from me today, just an example of an epic fail, just so you know that sometimes even I mess up at things! But if you are wanting a good cookie to bake, why not bake these ones . . .
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. You can't go wrong with Tried and True. Find the recipe HERE. These always turn out fabulous, and we love them.
Up tomorrow: Its a surprise. I was going to do Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies, but I have used up all of my cookie points today on these failures! Ta da!
As most of you know I am also an author over on Chef's Knives Expert, where I do reviews of the latest knifes, etc. Lately I have also been publishing recipes there. Here are my two latest published recipes!
I am really excited to show you this delicious store cupboard recipe today for a Hearty Tomato & Bean Soup. This makes a lovely, quick supper for those nights when you are rushed off your feet and yet your family is nipping at your heels wanting supper NOW!
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