The Ordinary Cook

I adore mint, which is good as it is busy taking over our garden.  You wonder how it manages to get quite so far from the original plant. I am always looking for new ways to use it.  Now is a good time to make the concentrated mint sauce ready for winter and if you feel like trying something different in the ice cream department then you could do a lot worse than try making the mint ice cream I used in my arctic roll. Then there is always the Shropshire mint cakes for a twist on the Eccles cake. You see, I adore mint, and mint and chocolate is one of my favourite combinations (oh, ok then, I am a sucker for most things when combined with chocolate).

I wanted to make a mint flavoured chocolate cake but I didn’t want to use peppermint oil to flavour them.  So I thought about making a mint flavoured sugar syrup to add that minty flavour and I have to say it works really well. It doesn’t give the same flavour as peppermint oil or flavouring would, as it gives you a more earthy mint flavour, but it this that I rather like about it. It tastes like proper mint.

I found some little individual loaf tins when I was looking around the kitchen section of TK Maxx a while ago and have been waiting for an opportunity to use them. They are great and the resulting cake is a very generous size. This mixture makes 8 little loaves or 12 muffin sized cakes.

To make the sugar syrup:
100g caster sugar
100ml water
50g chopped mint

Place the water and the sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Don’t stir but you can do the occasional swirl of the pan. Once the sugar has dissolved add the chopped mint and bring to the boil. Simmer for five minutes and then take off the heat and leave the syrup to cool.  Sieve the syrup and discard the chopped mint.

For the cakes:
140g butter at room temperature
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
50 ml mint sugar syrup
225g flour
1 tsp bicarb
50g cocoa
150ml milk

Method

Beat the softened butter and the caster sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the mint syrup and beat well. Sieve together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and the cocoa.  Using the whisk on a low speed alternatively add a quarter of the flour and then the milk and continue until all is added and the mixture is just combined.

If you are using little loaf tins, grease them with softened butter and shake a little flour around the inside and place them on a baking tray.  If you are using a muffin tin, line with paper cases.  Fill the tins or cases to two-thirds full and bake in a preheated oven at 180°c, gas mark 4 or the centre of the baking oven of the Aga for 15-20 minutes.  The top of each cake should be springy to a light touch. Lift the muffin cases onto a wire rack to cool. If using the little loaf tins, leave them to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

To make the icing:

100g icing sugar
50g chocolate
25ml mint syrup
25g butter

Melt the chocolate with the butter and the mint syrup in a pan over a low heat. Be careful that the heat is low as you don’t want to burn the chocolate. Take off the heat once melted. Add the icing sugar and beat until combined. Spread onto the cakes. NB. This icing will be thicker than the one in the picture as I have trialled these cakes a couple of times and this is my preferred icing, but I neglected to take a photo before they were devoured (sorry).

Well, I am not sure what has happened. After many years of happy cooking and baking the last two months has found me making disaster after disaster.

This week, I thought my baking mojo had returned. I had a sudden urge to make ginger biscuits.  So, there I was melting and mixing and placing lovely balls of dough onto the baking tray. I popped said ginger biscuits into the oven. Three minutes later I realised that I had forgotten to add the ginger.  So these ginger biscuits were downgraded to biscuits.  They tasted nice, but still…

Today, I have a sore throat and so made myself a hot, steaming honey and lemon drink with added root ginger. It was delicious and it got me thinking about making a lemon and ginger cake. I set to it straight away.  Hooray, I have it back.

Readers, the cake burned.

I will be back, I will, I will. I’m just not sure when.

Kath x

I know I haven’t been here for ages and for that I am very sorry.  I haven’t dropped off the end of the world or anything even mildly dramatic.  I have been baking and cooking, but whatever it has been it has been posted here already or it has been a disaster.  My baking skills have deserted me, hopefully temporarily.

I have been dressmaking too! I know, who would have thought it? I have wanted to make my own clothes for many a year.  My gran was a wonderful dressmaker and milliner and I have always aspired to be more like her.  So this year I set myself a challenge to make a dress and with a bit of trial and error I will get there.

In the meantime I will try to make time to visit your blogs and try to find where I left my own cooking inspiration.  It is around here somewhere, perhaps under the piles of fabric and dress patterns.

Kath x

Ten days ago my friend Sarah handed me a tupperware box and a sheet of instructions. In the tupperware box was a living and breathing Herman. Let me explain, Herman is a starter for a cake, a bit like a sourdough starter. You sit him on the sideboard in a large bowl and stir him daily, (talking to him is optional), and feed him occasionally.  After ten days of love, care and chatting you add more delicious things to him, pour him into a cake tin, put him in a hot oven and then eat him. Poor old Herman.  There is still some of the original starter though for you and two of your friends, so don’t feel too bad for Herman, he lives on.

I love the concept of Herman and I wonder how old my starter is and where it originated and how many people have lovingly tended to him in their kitchens and enjoyed his cakey loveliness.

My spare Hermans are going to my friend Nichola and my niece (the latter doesn’t know about it yet, so I hope she is ready for some Herman love).

If you would like to start your very own Herman so that you can spread cake happiness this is how:

460g plain white (all purpose flour)
500ml warm milk
230g sugar
90ml warm water
2 tbsp easy bake yeast

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, cover loosely with a clean tea towel (it will need the wild yeasts in the air to stay alive), and place in a warm place.

Once you have your starter, either your own or one from a kind friend then you need to follow these instructions.

Day One
Make sure Herman is in a large bowl, loosely covered with a clean cloth and in a warm place
Day two and three
Give Herman a good stir with a wooden spoon
Day Four
Herman needs feeding.  Add the following ingredients:
1 cup (120g) plain (all purpose) flour
1 cup (225g) caster sugar
1 cup (225ml) milk
Stir Herman well and cover again with his cloth.
Day five, six, seven and eight
Each day give Herman a good stir with a wooden spoon
Day nine
Herman needs to be fed again so repeat the ingredients from day four and give him a good stir.

Divide the mixture into four portions, save one portion for making the cake on Day 10, give two portions away to friends and save one portion so you can make Herman again in ten days time.

Day 10
Make Herman into a delicious cake.

You will need to add:

1 cup (225g) caster sugar
2 cups (240g) plain (all purpose) flour
2 eggs
two-thirds cup (150ml) cooking oil (I used groundnut)
2 heaped tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped

Then you can add any of the following:

2 tsp cinnamon (I did)
2 tsp mixed spice
¼ cup (40g) nuts (I added hazelnuts)
1 cup (150g) raisins or sultanas
½ cup (60g) chopped chocolate (I did but won’t next time, it just isn’t to my taste with the apples and the cinnamon)
pineapple chunks, cherries, or anything else that takes your fancy.

Mix everything together well, pour into a large greased tin (my instructions say a large roasting tin, I used my cake tin that measures 26cm x 26cm)

Sprinkle ¼ cup (80g) melted butter and ¼ cup (3 tbsp) soft brown sugar over the top of the cake and place in a preheated oven at 180°c, gas mark 4 of the middle shelf of the baking oven of the Aga for 35-45 mins until it feels springy to the touch.

Leave to cool in the tin for ten minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.  Taste the love in every bite.

Thank you Sarah for giving me Herman.

I have been handed Herman!

Herman is a friendship cake – well actually it’s the starter for a cake. A bit like a sour dough starter but sweet.

Herman was handed to me at the school gates today by my friend Sarah.  When she sent me a text last week asking if I would like to try doing a Herman Friendship Cake I wondered if she had spent the afternoon drinking and whether I should pick her children up from school for her. But then I googled it and it turns out that this is a cake with its origins in the Amish community when a starter would be handed around the community to feed others (and Sarah hadn’t been drinking).

I love the idea of the starter making its way through the community, friend by friend by friend.

My Herman has been decanted from his lunch box and is sitting in a large bowl covered with a tea towel.  I have to stir him and feed him a couple of times in the next ten days and then I get to make the cake and spread the love that is Herman.

I will keep you posted.

Wishing all my lovely readers a very happy Christmas. I hope that you all get to share some lovely time with friends and family, or some lovely peaceful time, whichever you are lucky enough to get this year.

Merry Christmas,

lots of love,

Kath

(Image of holly from karenswhimsy.com)

This cake was born during a night out with friends.  It was one of those nights when we threw caution to the wind and drank cocktails!  Crazy, I know! (We don’t get out much these days).

I indulged in an Amaretto and Ginger Ale.  Goodness, it was good.  My friend, let’s call her Tallulah, (that’s the name she wanted to be known by if I ever wrote this post) said it would make a good cake.  Ginger topped with a layer of marzipan.

I got to it that very week. The ginger cake topped with marzipan was good but not great.  A couple of weeks later and I felt inspired enough to try again.  Adding the marzipan into the batter makes for a deliciously moist cake and the combination of pieces of chewy, zingy crystallised ginger and soft, comforting marzipan is a winner.

This cake is perfect for this time of year because it just shouts Christmas to you. It’s also a good way to use up your marzipan trimmings from the Christmas cake.   This cake will last at least a week.  So it’s a good cake to have around at Christmas to share with visitors. Thank you Tallulah, for the inspiration (and for a great night out).

150g butter
125g dark muscovado sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
200g black treacle
200g golden syrup
250ml milk
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
300g plain flour
60g crystallised ginger, chopped into small chunks
150g marzipan (made like the recipe here with 1 tbsp Amaretto added in place of the lemon juice and almond extract, or shop bought), chopped into chunks

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°c, gas mark 3 or use the baking oven of the Aga. Line a tray that measures 30cm x 20cm x 5 cm (the Aga half roaster) with foil or silicon liner. If you are using foil, butter well.

Place the butter, sugar, spices, syrup and treacle in a pan and heat until melted.  Take off the heat and stir to combine.  Beat the eggs lightly.  Add the eggs and the milk to the syrup mixture and stir well to combine. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the liquid to the flour. Mix well.  Add the chopped crystallised ginger and the marzipan and pour the mixture into the tin.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to an hour until lightly springy to the touch.  Be careful not to overcook it. Leave to cool in the tin.  Wrap in fresh foil and eat a slice whenever you feel the need to indulge.