Sweet Potato Bread

Oops, a little bit late with this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays! I actually baked it on Friday evening but there's a whole heap on our plates right now - going to have to be a bit cryptic about it for the time being but needless to say if only it were just the wedding invitations keeping us busy!!! We have FINALLY gotten around to planting some seeds so (if we don't suffer the terrorism of the local wildlife again) we should have some homegrown veg this summer. Which might be the best thing if the UK can no longer transport produce to our shores via plane! The volcanic ash cloud is such a surreal phenomenon but one which really drives home just how dependant the UK is on imports. I'm sure my favorite local produce suppliers will be seeing a huge surge in business though so definitely not all bad news.

Back to Sweet Melissa and her sweet potato bread! I've never used sweet potatoes in a sweet treat before, only ever as a side to a main meal, so I was keen to try it out. Being the huge fan that I am of carrot cake, I figured this would be right up my street. And it was! Wonderfully moist, great spice flavours and impossibly easy to make. And in a bundt tin! I heart my bundt tin. It would've been even easier had I been able to source canned sweet potatoes. Instead, I just threw a few large sweet potatoes in the oven whilst I was cooking dinner and let them roast in their own skins. Once nice and soft, I simply pulled the skins away to reveal the super soft, sweet flesh to use in the recipe. Got to say, a whole lot easier than my attempt at making pumpkin puree!!! Yeah, that didn't go so well...

Anyway, this tasted great and it's still gorgeous several days later! A few things I think I might change next time... I think I'll use at least some brown sugar to add a little depth to the sweetness and I also might try using less sugar as the cake was quite sweet. Also, I'd probably add some raisins and maybe miss the glaze but add cream cheese frosting. This would work so well with cream cheese frosting! Granted, cream cheese frosting makes rocks taste good, but it really would take this cake to a whole new level. Or of course, just use loaf tins for portability.

Thank you so much to Lorelei of Mermaid Sweets for a fantastic pick and head on over to her site for the recipe (and some great news!!). And, as always, have a look see over here at the other bakers' posts.

Rosy xx

Pecan Shortbread Cookies

I've been a little rubbish with posting Sweet Melissa Sundays for a few weeks now but wow, I definitely couldn't miss pecan shortbread cookies! I love shortbread and I love love LOVE pecans. And these were wonderful - not a typical shortbread texture but buttery and much much lighter. Delish!

Thank you to Lara from The Lab for hosting this week. And, as usual, don't forget to check out the other bakers' cookies.

Rosy xx

Hummingbird Cake

I promised you a super yummy cake and here it is! Does anyone else find that choosing a birthday cake is beyond difficult?? Probably due to my love of all things cake! Jon’s was sooooooo amazing this year that I had a whole lot to live up to. Bearing in mind this competition is just with myself, I should probably go ahead and get a life right about now…

Ahem, anyway, so I finally decided that I wanted something rich, moist and above all, layered. I do like cupcakes, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something just so majestic about a layer cake. And nothing says birthday like slicing into a mile high pile of sweet, soft cake. Not the same impact with cupcakes (although they’re a lot more portable; something I should’ve considered when making Jon’s cake as that was not easy to carry around London from pub to pub whilst becoming increasingly tipsy!).

Having spent a solid 4 days searching through my vast array of cookbooks, I happened upon a Hummingbird cake. Whilst I did find it in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, it’s not named after the store - it’s origins come from the Southern states of the US. Beyond that, I’m not sure but at a guess, I’d say the name stems from a hummingbird’s love of sweet things. This cake is along the lines of a banana cake but has the added bonus of pineapple thrown in! The one thing I did find was that the pineapple added greatly to the texture (like carrots in a carrot cake) but I couldn’t really taste it. I’d be tempted to up the quantity slightly when I make this again – and oh my, will I be making this again!!

I actually had to be physically restrained from polishing off this whole cake by myself. You know when you just take a sliver to straighten up the side of a cake? But it’s still wonky so you take off another little sliver?? Yeah, I did that. About 10 times a night for a week… So addictive! It also stores beautifully – I’d probably say it improves after a day or two as the flavours really develop (if you can resist not scoffing the lot instantly).

You know what, I’ll bet this would make a great loaf cake too – halve the recipe though as this makes one big cake!

Rosy xx

Hummingbird Cake
Adapted, barely, from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook

300g caster sugar
3 eggs
300ml sunflower oil
270g peeled bananas, mashed (this was about 3 I think – the riper the better)
1 tsp cinnamon, plus a little extra for decoration
300 plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla
100g tinned pineapple, chopped into small pieces (I’d imagine crushed would work well too)
100g pecans, chopped, plus extra for decorating

Cream Cheese Icing
600g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g full fat cream cheese, cold

Grease and line 3 20cm round tins. I only have 2 but they’re nice and deep and it worked fine, they just need longer to bake.

Preheat oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.

In a mixer with a paddle attachment (or a hand held mixer), beat the caster sugar, eggs, sunflower oil, bananas and cinnamon until incorporated.- don’t worry if it looks a little split, it’ll be fine.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add this slowly to the wet mixture, followed by the vanilla, and mix until incorporated.

Stir in the pineapple and pecans by hand. Split this between the tins, smooth down the tops and bake for 20-25 mins until springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean.

To make the icing:

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the icing sugar and butter until well mixed. It’s not going to come together yet and you do need to mix for quite a while to make sure the butter is fully incorporated.

Add the cream cheese all in one go and beat on high for 5 mins until light and fluffy. Be careful not to overbeat though.

To ice the cake:

If the cakes have domes (mine did, probably because I only used 2 rather than 3 tins) it’s best to level the tops off with a sharp knife. I didn’t and you can tell by the amount of icing used to patch up the gap!

Place little squares of parchment all around your serving plate and place one layer on top. Spread with icing, place the second layer on, spread with icing and top with the third layer. Cover the whole cake with a thin layer of icing – this doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s to catch the crumbs so that the top layer won’t have stray crumbs floating in it. Pop the cake in the fridge for 15 mins to set.

Once cool, ice the whole thing neatly with a final layer and decorate with pecans and a dusting of cinnamon. Carefully remove the parchment paper and serve!

Carrot Apple Pecan Muffins

One major US export to the UK has to be muffins. When I was a girl, muffin translated as a flat-ish buttery, rich bread, fairly plain, that went equally wonderfully with lashings of jam (I'm trying to live up to the British stereotype and use words like lashings. Makes me feel all Swallows and Amazons. Love it) as with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce. Absolutely delicious – neither sweet nor savory and I shall forever have fond memories of Sunday supper with the family, sitting in the living room with a pot of tea, a stack of toasted muffins and watching the BBC adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia.

American muffins could not bring to mind a more different picture. I always think of blueberry muffins, maple syrup, brunch and a typical US dinner, full of booths and shiny metal. American muffins are rarely basic. They come in a huge variety of flavours – the only limit to what hasn’t been included in a muffin is the kitchen sink. Not to do them a disservice, for I very much enjoy the American muffin, but often times home made versions have lots of flavour but the underlying texture is just not right at all. Too heavy or dry or just a bit cloyingly sweet.

These are those muffins which stopped one step short of said kitchen sink, but dry or cloyingly sweet they are not. They’re packed with yummy ingredients and flavours, plus you don’t feel horribly unhealthy eating them as the bulk of the mix is made up of grated carrots and apples. Must count for at least a couple of your 5 a day, right??! The crumble element does add a fair amount of sweetness though, so depending on how you like your muffins, omit or include as you see fit. Works well either way!

Carrot Apple Pecan Muffins

Adapted from The Ottolenghi Cookbook
Makes about 12 muffins (very generously!)

Ingredients:
300g Plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
4 eggs
160ml Sunflower oil (or other flavourless oil)
280g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla
220g peeled carrot, grated
200g bramley apple, grated (or Granny Smiths - any tart apple)
100g Pecans, roughly chopped
100g Sultanas
50g flaked coconut (the recipe calls for flaked, I used desiccated)

Crumble Topping:
50g Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
75g Plain flour
25g brown sugar
50g rolled oats
15g sunflower seeds
25g pumpkin seeds
1 tsp water
1 tsp sunflower oil
1 1/2 tbsp honey

First, make the crumble topping. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar with your fingertips until its in nice small pieces, like breadcrumbs. Then mix in the oats and seeds and then the water, oil and honey. It should resemble wet sand in texture. Pop to one side while you make the muffins.

Preheat the oven  to 170C/340F/Gas Mark 3. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.

The method for making the muffins is the classic mix the wet together and the dry together and then very carefully fold the dry into the wet. So...

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla essence together. Stir in the apples and carrots, then mix in the pecans, sultanas and coconut. Then gently fold the flour into the wet ingredients, only mixing JUST enough. Gluten, which makes the muffins chewy, is developed through over working of the batter. So mix as little as possible and they'll be just yummy!

Spoon them into the paper cases, filling to the top so you get the classic muffin tops. Crumble over the topping generously and bake for 25 mins. They're ready when they're springy on top and a skewer comes out clean. I made them a week or so ago so I can't remember exactly how long mine took to cook, but I have a feeling that they took a touch more than 25 minutes... Anyway, they actually taste better when they're left to sit for a couple of hours to let the flavours develop.

Normally, the WORST thing about home baked American muffins is their shelf life – I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a muffin which lasted beyond a day. But these are oh so different. I think it must be the carrots and apples again because they improve in flavour after a few hours of sitting and were just delicious several days after baking. Would be perfect for a brunch as they're wholesome, hearty, and taste just as great the next day.

Rosy xx