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LittlekItty - I've made the Nigella lemon cheesecake and its gorgeous and I don't even particularly like cheesecake but DH loves it. So simple to make.

Raven, what size tin do you have, I think I have a recipe from a 9 inch up?

It's a pretty moist cake, and the amount of whiskey you add will depend on the eggs, basically you're looking for a dropping mixture. I have the Mary Berry Christmas cake recipe (I'm not sure if that's the one I posted because up to last year I used a different more traditional one) and I can post that with exact measurements; the previous one was more of a guesstimate with regard to the whiskey.

The difference between Mary Berry and most other recipes is that she uses "all-in-one" recipes which means that you put everything into a food processor (or a bowl) and just mix it together. Normally if you were doing a cake you'd add the butter and sugar and beat it until it was creamy, and then add the eggs gradually before folding in the flour. With Mary Berry's recipes you chuck everything into a bowl, beat the living daylights out of it and it's done. Much simpler and the results are just as good.

riam i'l be trying out your banana cake this weekend..i love baking but can never get it right so will report back how i got on

When is the new receipe?

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I have a 9" once, it doesn't look very deep though. It's 2 3/4" deep ... is that too shallow?

Edited to say I just got a deeper one, 3 1/2"

I have just baked another of Riam's loaves, sultana scones, fairy cakes and a coffee cake. Not sure how coffee cake will taste as it is my first time (well 2nd but the other went in the bin) making it.
But have just burnt the mouth off myself eeating a fairy cake and yummmyyy.

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I'll do a new recipe this weekend - probably tomorrow. Have to figure out what to do that's still pretty basic (I think it makes sense to make things gradually a bit harder and do different types of basic techniques - after a few weeks you'll all be able for anything!).

Maybe pavlova? Or muffins? Or small meringues? Chocolate chip cookies? What do you think?

choc chip cookies please

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dd born Nov '06

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Okay, tune in tomorrow!

cookies or pavlova or anything.
DH and DDd very impressed with all my baking todya.

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Love the look of that cake Riam, will do that tomorrow as have all that here
Would love a nice muffin recipe as bought mini muffin tray and cases in Lakeland at the w/e and dying to try them out, have never made muffins before.
I make a to die for lemon maderia, really moist and sit down and eat in one go if anyone wants the recipe

me please , LOVE anything with lemon

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dd born Nov '06

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Lemon Maderia
4 oz soft stork (I use butter though)
6 oz castor sugar
2 large free range eggs
6 oz SR flour sifted
4 tbs milk
grated rind and juice of a large lemon
icing sugar

Cream butter and marg together, add beated eggs gradually and then fold in flour - or you can cheat and just bung the lot in together and whizz with the mixer like I do
Put into a 2lb lined loaf tin and cook at 180c/gas 4 for 40-45 mins.
Stir juice of lemon with enough icing sugar to make a runny mix - about 3 heaped tbs, when the cake comes out of the oven, stab it with a skewer all over and pour the mix over it while still hot, leave in the tin to cool.

Question ....

I bought new weighing scales a few weeks ago, but there in kg and pounds and all the recipes are in oz's and ml
eg: 6oz / 175g so how do i weigh that or should i get new scales

Raim i aslo bought Mary Berry simple cakes the other week lovely cakes.

but just weighing the flour etc bothers me ........

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Nuts nuts nuts. I'd everything typed up and lost it.

Jacqs, not sure if I'm following you but if your scales weighs in both pounds and ounces, and in kilos and grams, then stick with one measurement. Don't weigh your flour in ounces and then your sugar in grams for the same recipe.

If you just have pound markings (ounces aren't marked out individually) then just use maths - there should be a big stick marking the 1 lb weight. There should be a smaller stick in the middle and that will mark out 8 oz. Then you'll probably have three small sticks on either side of the 8 oz - each of those will be a further 2 oz. I don't know if this makes sense, you'd want to be looking at the scales. So you'll have 0, then a small stick (2oz), a second small stick (4 oz), a third small stick (6 oz), a medium stick (8oz), and so on up to 1lb.

Same principle for kilos - the midpoint between the kilos will be 500 g.

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

You'll need:

8 oz butter (don't use marge, not for this recipe, seriously).
4 oz brown sugar (use caster sugar if you don't have brown)
Grated rind of 2 oranges (grate off the skin but try not to go down as far as the pith or white bit)
10 oz self raising flour
3 oz plain chocolate, roughly chopped up.

Equipment:

Baking tin (anything flat)
Food processor or a spoon, a bowl and a strong arm!

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees or Gas 5.

Cream your butter, sugar and orange rind together. That means put the butter (which should be out of the fridge and as soft as possible) and the sugar into the food processor with the orange rind and beat the crap out of it until it goes pale in colour. This is buttercream and is the crap they put inside those gicky cakes you buy in the shops. It should be sort of creamy in texture.

Add in the flour. Sift it in if you have time and a sieve but don't worry if you don't. Mix it all well and you'll get a firm dough. Add the chocolate and mix it through.

Pick up a dollop of dough - trying to figure out what the quantity would be like. Less than a mandarin, more than a grape?! Put it in the flat of your hand, roll it into a ball, and use your other hand to squish it flat. Put it onto your baking tray which you've already greased with a bit of butter and put a little dusting of flour on top.

Don't be tempted to put the ball of dough straight onto the baking tin and squish it onto that. It'll squish easier, but it'll stick.

If they're sticking to your hands while you're squishing them, either wet your hands, or rub them with flour; one or the other.

Bake for 15 minutes.


Variation: Lime and Coconut Cookies (these are gorgeous).

Use the rind of 2 limes and the juice of 1 lime instead of the orange rind. Don't add the juice until after you've added the flour. Add 3 oz coconut and 3 oz sultanas instead of the chocolate.

(So just in case I'm confusing anyone, you cream 8 oz butter and 4 oz sugar with the rind of 2 limes. Sift in the flour and mix to a dough. Add the juice of 1 lime, 3 oz coconut and 3 oz sultanas, mix well. Roll into balls and flatten, bake).

You should get about a dozen biscuits out of each recipe but you can make bigger or smaller as you want. Kids absolutely love the squishing bit by the way!

Raim maybe iam being a dizzy lizzy ( me thinks iam)

these are the ones i got


http://www.salterhousewares.com/salter_ ... scale.html

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Okay, see te way you have 0 kg at the top? Then further around on the top line there's 500. That's 500 grams. The next big 1 is 1 kilo. If you look halfway between the 0 and the 500 you've got a slightly longer stick - this would be 250 g. I can't really see from the picture but I would presume all of the other smaller sticks would be 50 g - so if you wanted 300 g you would weigh to the 250 g and to the next small stick after that.

The ring underneath is pounds and ounces. Again, the 1 is one pound. There's a medium stick in the middle between the 0 and the 1 and that's 8 oz. So if it's a pound and a half, you go to the 1 which is a pound, and then go to the medium stick between the 1 and the 2, and that's 1 1/2 lbs.

If you wanted 6 oz, you find the 8 oz (halfway between the 0 and the 1). Again it's hard to see from the picture but it looks like it might be individual ounces so if you wanted to find 6, go to the 0, and count forward 6 sticks (which should be two before the 8, if you know what I mean).

I hope that's okay - it's hard to explain by writing (especially this late at night!) and it'd be a doddle to show you.

So basically have a look at your scales, look at the bottom ring which is the imperial measurement (pounds and ounces) and see if there are 16 sticks altogether between the 0 and 1 (the 1 being the 16th stick). If so then each stick denotes an ounce.

HTH and sorry I made it more complicated than someone with a better command of the English language might have!

cheers girls! chocolate chip cookies and lemon cake it is for breakfast this week then, perfect with my cappucino

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dd born Nov '06

http://italianfoodies.ie

http://twitter.com/italianfoodie

http://www.facebook.com/lacucina

Riam I love a fail proof muffin recipe. I've tried one or two and they never come out right. They're always too sugary or something.

Nessa that lemon cake recipe looks yummy. A girl at work made one last week for a coffee morning we had and I'm hounding her for the recipe since. I might try this at the weekend to see if it's as nice.

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The Boy Wonder - Nov 2002
The Bruiser - July 2005
Missy Moo - April 2009

Great thread.. will def give some of these recipes a go. For those of you interested in bread, I've discovered a v easy white yeast bread recipe and it's been a huge hit with everyone in our house. Yummy with some butter and strawberry jam.. and it smells divine!

Ingredients
1lb strong white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 oz butter
7g packet fast action yeast
1/2 pint lukewarm water

Rub the butter into the flour, sugar and salt. Add the yeast and work through. Add the water and mix to a sticky dough, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 mins (until it springs back when you press it with your finger). Put back in the bowl and cover with cling film, leaving to rise for 1 hour. Then take out of the bowl, get your loaf tin ready and stretch the dough to twice the length of the tin. Then fold over in half and put in the tin. If you have time, leave to rise (prove) a bit more and then put in an oven at 200 deg for 25 mins or until hollow when you tap the base of the loaf. Turn over in the tin and put back in for 5 mins.

It's dead easy when you've done it once or twice and it's delicious.

Anyone have a nice easy brown bread recipe without egg? (ds is allergic, which can have an impact on baking in our house!) I tried a treacle bread recently and it was lovely, but a bit heavy.

I agree with the post about the Victoria sponge.. so easy and delicious. The hardest part is trying to stop myself from eating all of the mixture.. Thankfully dd can eat egg, so she's my excuse for making cakes these days.

Looking forward to more recipes on here...

C.

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Ds 10
Dd 6

Great topic, I'm all for easy recipes.
And to add my bit in on the mixing issue....for those without a food mixer, my tried and tested method is a potato masher......mixes everything up brilliantly!!!

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So - what's it to be this week, pavlova or meringues? Did anyone chance the cookies - how did it go?

Actually just realised I had already posted a recipe for muffins in a different post so I'm going to copy it here:

Double Berry Muffins


Ingredients:

10 oz plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder (that's level teaspoons rather than heaped)
4 oz caster sugar
2 oz butter
3 eggs
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence
5 oz natural yoghurt
7 oz berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc., any combination).

Heat oven to 200C/Gas 6.

Mix the flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a bowl.

Melt butter. Add into the flour mixture.

Mix together eggs, sunflower oil, vanilla essence, natural yoghurt. Add into flour mixture. Mix with fork until just holding together (don't over mix).

Stir in berries. Bake 15 minutes. Eat the same day or freeze.