The cake, the sauce and the walnuts!

The cake

200g pitted dates, roughly chopped

1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

200ml boiling water

80g unsalted butter, softened

150g soft brown sugar

2 large eggs

180g self-raising flour

Pre-heat your oven 160fan/180c/Gas 4. You'll need a loaf tin – 24x10cms/9½x5¼” approximately - you can grease the tin or use a loaf liner – much more convenient!

Place the chopped dates in a mixing bowl, sprinkle over the bicarb and then the boiling water. Leave to stand for 10 minutes then blitz in a food processor to a rough purée.

Using a hand mixer or elbow grease if you prefer, cream the butter and sugar until thick and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and then follow gradually with the flour, finally add the date mixture. Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool.

Toffee Sauce

100g soft brown sugar

200ml double cream

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

40g unsalted butter

Mix the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring over a medium heat until thickened – 2 minutes.

Both the cake and the sauce can be frozen.

The Walnuts

100g walnuts, chopped roughly

pinch of sea salt flakes

knob of unsalted butter

Melt the butter in a medium frying pan until it foams. Tip in the walnuts and add the sea salt flakes. Stir them for 3-4 minutes until toasted. Tip the nuts into a bowl and leave to cool.

How to segment an orange …

I really do need to get out more!

In my defence I love oranges – what I don't love is the pith and tough outer membrane around each segment.

There is only one way I can describe this procedure and that is with a photo guide!

An Easter treat?

Here's my antedote to trifle! For me it's up there with sago and semolina – horrid! I appreciate that trifle has “grown up” since the 1950s – back then it was tinned fruit immersed in jelly from a box, the inevitable Birds Custard topped off with synthetic cream – and decorated with hundreds and thousands – sprinkles I think they are called these days.

If you're of a like mind then this could be the answer :

Sticky Toffee Orange Trifle

Make a cake – a cake that will freeze well – a sticky toffee loaf cake

Use as a cake or slice (1.5cm) and cut into small cubes –

place in a sundae dish – warm the cake if you wish

Make a toffee sauce – one that will freeze

Use the sauce warmed to drizzle over the cake or over ice cream

Chop walnuts, add a knob of butter to a frying

pan, sprinkle with sea salt flakes

Use to sprinkle over the cake and toffee sauce or

add to the sauce poured over ice cream

Segment a large navel orange and reserve the juice too

Stand by for the recipes and the photos!

The extra mile – the ice cream!

I always seem to plan my menus with ideas for desserts first!

There's nothing that will serve you better than a home-made ice cream and all my recipes are of the “no-churn” variety. I use the standard vanilla ice-cream base recipe to begin :

Vanilla ice cream

Prep – 5 minutes

Total time – 5 minutes

plus freezing at least 6-8 hours

or until firm

Gives you 1.6 litres of ice cream is equal

to 18 scoops

1 x 397g tin sweetened condensed milk

1 x 600ml double cream

2tsp vanilla bean paste

Put the condensed milk, cream and vanilla into a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until the mixture is quite thick and stiff, then decant into smallish containers.

To serve – remove from the freezer and allow to soften.

Serve with the cake, drizzle and a scoop of ice cream – a great idea for Mother's Day!

Orange drizzle ...

This cake is moist – moist is good but, to use the northern vernacular, it can be “claggy”. I would, and do, make extra “drizzle” to serve with a lemon drizzle cake – here's an orange version that is perfect to serve with the Gateau a l'Orange.

Orange Drizzle

200g icing sugar

250ml orange juice – no bits

Put the sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.

Hey presto, a syrupy drizzle to dress your cake and you've turned a cake into a supper or dinner party dessert – serve with a spoonful of clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.

P.s. I've only ever heard the word “claggy” in the North West of the UK. To set the record straight it means “sticky” and apparently is Scandinavian in origin – you live and learn!

Photo guide up next ...

Orange drizzle to go with the cake

This is so easy and delicious - as I said previously it turns a cake into a supper or dinner party dessert.

Here's the drizzle cooling:

and again with the cake

or, if you'd prefer to give your guests a choice, serve the drizzle in small jugs

I've frozen the syrup and it's great.

I served the cake with the drizzle and vanilla ice cream – another perfect freezer dessert of your own making!

Finally, the ice cream ...

Another “extra” idea - chocolate sauce anyone?

You've made the orange ripple ice cream and it's in the freezer. The following chocolate and orange sauce can be made in minutes. The ingredients are in your fridge and your pantry and it takes only minutes to bring the cream and milk to the boil, add the sugar until dissolved and then tip over the chocolate and orange zest.

Chocolate and orange sauce

120ml double cream

80ml milk

50g caster sugar

225g dark chocolate (70%) broken into small pieces in a large bowl

zest of 1 orange

Put the cream and milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Remove pan from heat and pour over the chocolate, stir until melted. Add the orange zest, then set aside to cool in serving jug or if you'd prefer it warm, pour over a portion of ice cream.

I'd suggest serving the ice cream and sauce with fresh orange segments. You could add an extra element and crush amaretti biscuits and sprinkle over the top – another excellent store cupboard stand by.

Here it is :

Perfect!

Orange Ripple ice cream

What about an orange ripple ice cream, adding the vanilla ice cream recipe as the base?

I made a double batch of orange syrup that we used for the drizzle – why double? I divided it into half – popped half into the freezer for another day and fridged the other half, ready to turn my basic vanilla ice cream into an orange ripple.

Orange Syrup

400g icing sugar

500ml orange juice (no bits)

Put the sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes.

You'll achieve approximately 600ml of syrup – divide into two boxes and freeze one of them. Fridge the other, ready to complete your ice cream.

Here's a few photos …

Whisk your ice cream to a stiffer consistency

– thicker ribbons - you're adding syrup which will loosen

the batch

here's the syrup, ready to go

tip the syrup into the ice cream and fold through

gently

here's the orange drizzle ice cream, ready for

the freezer – you can see the vanilla flecks and the

trail of orange syrup running through

What's not to love – a treat in the freezer, ready when you are!

The really useful cake – a photo guide!

Take it from someone who doesn't “do cake” - this is the exception.

The final bonus – it freezes – it's a win win!

Now for the extra bits ...

The really useful cake!

This is the first of a series of recipes ad ideas using oranges – I hope you like!

This is my favourite cake, tried and tested and another flourless recipe – it stands wonderfully on it's own and is equally a perfect celebration cake with extra bits!

Gateau a l'Orange

(Orange Cake)

Serves 12

2 oranges

6 large eggs

250g sugar

2 tbsp orange blossom water

1 tsp baking powder

250g ground almonds

Wash the oranges and boil them whole for 1 – 1½ hours or until they are very soft.

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the orange blossom water, baking powder and almonds and mix well. *Cut open the oranges, remove the pips and purée in a food processor. Mix thoroughly with the egg and almond mixture and pour into a 23cm cake tin – lined with baking parchment, preferably non-stick and with a removable base. Bake in a pre-heated oven 170fan/190c/Gas 5 for an hour. Let it cool before turning out.

Believe me when I say that I stared at this recipe for years. What put me off baking this cake was the boiling of the oranges for the time allotted, an hour and a half is too long for me watching oranges and it's so easy to become distracted - before you know it you have a burnt saucepan and the rest, as they say, is history.

To bring it up to date - instead of boiling the oranges, microwave them for 8 minutes on high.

Pierce the oranges with a paring knife – carefully and microwave for 4 minutes then turn and repeat. Make sure your fruits are in a covered vented microwave container. Continue with the recipe marked *.

A useful tip. Microwave the oranges ahead of making the cake so that they can cool, it will be much easier and safer to prep them, ready to pulverise.

This cake is so moist – enjoy!

Next up a photo guide ...

Slow cooked pork with Calvados and

… Parmesan Dumplings

Use a combination of roasted veggies as a base for this dish – parsnips, carrots, potatoes – whatever your favourites are! Prepare root vegetables of a similar size so that they roast at the same time.

This is perfect for a supper party!

Slow cooked pork loin steaks with

Calvados cream sauce

600g/1lb 5oz pork loin steaks – 6 steaks, trimmed

glug of rapeseed/Canola oil

salt and black pepper

generous sprinkle of dried herbs – sage or

thyme

2 tsps of garlic paste – optional

500ml/1 pint approx vegetable stock – use a stock pot if you're

not using your own stock

Heat the oil in a large frying pan until hot. Seal the loin steaks on both sides, add salt and black pepper, garlic and herbs. Set aside the steaks in the slow cooker then add your stock to the residual juices in the frying pan, bring to the boil and slow cook for 3 hours.

Before you begin to make your sauce, time for the leftover veggies – try and make sure they are of a similar size. Place in a foil tray and drizzle with rapeseed or similar oil and season with salt and black pepper. Pop into a pre-heated oven 200c/180fan/Gas 6 for 25 minutes to allow them to finish roasting and become crisp.

For the sauce, you'll need approximately 200ml of stock from the cooked pork steaks - strain, cover and fridge until cold and ready for use. Freeze the remainder of the stock.

Calvados cream sauce

15g/¾ oz unsalted butter

15g/¾ oz plain flour

1 tsp garlic paste or 1 clove, crushed

glug of Calvados

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

200ml/7 fl oz stock

300ml/½ pint/10 fl oz double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour for 2/3 mins, stirring continuously – add the garlic paste and mustard and then, on a high heat, add the Calvados and cook for 1-2 mins. Add the cold stock straight into the sauce and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve in large bowls, veggies first then the pork and drizzle with sauce and for the crowning glory pop a dumpling on top – yum!

Enjoy!

Good, old fashioned Stew and Dumplings

… actually it's slow cooked shin beef steaks with Parmesan dumplings.

Shin beef used to be considered an old fashioned cut of meat – it has become more fashionable of late. It is perfect for slow cooking – it has connective tissue which is broken down over a long cooking time resulting in tender meat, full of flavour.

What follows is the penultimate “comfort” recipe :

Steak, Gravy and Parmesan Dumplings

Serves 4

1kg shin beef – cut into thick steaks

glug of rapeseed oil

2 cloves of roasted garlic

500g Passata

1 tbsp tomato paste

2tsps soft light brown sugar

2 tbsps soy sauce

250ml red wine – I used Chianti

300ml water

2 beef stock pots

salt and black pepper

Using a large frying pan heat the rapeseed oil and seal the steaks on both sides, seasoning with salt and black pepper. Set the steaks aside in the slow cooker.

Add the garlic, tomato paste, sugar, soy and stock pots and fry gently so that the tomato paste is cooked out and the stock pots melted combining all the ingredients. Add the red wine and bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer, add the water and the passata bring back to the boil then tip over the steaks in the slow cooker. Cook for 4-6 hours on low.

You don't have to do anything with the steak and gravy, if you leave it overnight – covered of course - in a cool place all that will happen is that the flavours have time to develop and it'll taste even better.

If you leave it overnight then re-heat in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 and for 15 minutes then add the parmesan dumplings and cook for 30 minutes. (The Parmesan Dumplings recipe is on the blog - “The dumplings … continued”)

The perfect supper to make ahead!