Recipes - Maria Runs

Stir up Sunday success!

So as I mentioned in my last post I spent some of Sunday making a Christmas cake.

Sainsbury’s sent me the ingredients and the recipe (which is also here if you want to have a go)- soaking the fruits overnight is optional but I prefer that as they plump up so well. I used cherries in place of the dried cranberries, as I prefer that, but you could use any dried fruit you like.

Looks like a lot of butter but it made two good sized cakes

The first step was to melt the butter and sugar together with orange juice and zest, brandy and dried fruits. I always use this technique when making brownies- I much prefer it to creaming butter, so for me this wins hands down and I think I will use it with other fruit cake recipes from now on. Plus you just have one pan to wash up after.

Then you let it simmer for ten minutes- the raisins swelled up so much and the smell was just wonderful.

Then you add in the flour, ground almonds, nuts, spices and eggs. I was worried it would not all fit in my pan but luckily it did.

Instead of making one large cake I have made two smaller ones- I baked them for about 1 hour 40 (the recipe suggests 2 hours for one large cake)- until the skewer comes out clean.

The tops of the cakes are so shiny and they look lovely and rich.

This evening I covered them both in marzipan, and will add some icing decoration later in the week once the marzipan has dried.

I must say this is the easiest fruit cake recipe- melting it all in the pan was just so simple- it does the hard work for you- plus it filled the house with the smell of Christmas. Using a pack of mixed dried fruits adds to the ease- I had to chop up the figs but if you wanted to use just small fruits then it would work just as well. As you all know I love making things anyway, so would always choose this over a shop bought one, but I think that if you were making a hamper for someone you could make smaller ones of these (just reduce the time slightly- The Pink Whisk blog has some great tips for cooking times for different tins) and I promise that the recipe is suitable for the beginner baker.

Have I tempted you to make one yet?

*Sainsbury’s provided me with the ingredients to make the cake, but all opinions are my own.

Back running!

Hey peeps, I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. After a chilled out Friday listening to the film podcast and watching a film, I was up bright and early to pick up my Dad and brother on the way to Parkrun.

I wasn’t sure how I would go seeing as the last time I had run was last Sunday- I thought I would just see how I felt. I did have a quick google to see what my pace should be to beat my pb, but when I saw it was 8 something I decided to ignore that.

It was a frosty morning- the car park was a little slippery in places, and I kept on a long sleeved top over my t-shirt, and gloves. The sun was so low and at the start we were running right towards it; the park looked beautiful in the sunshine.

The run starts off on a path, but a lot of people start on the grass as it narrows later on, past a fenced off park. My Dad and brother were ahead of me right at the start as I felt quite unsteady on the grass as the mud was thick (and the people ahead had sort of broken the light frost so it was not stiff) but I kept on overtaking people. I glanced at my watch a few times and always saw 8 something, but didn’t want to think about it too much. I felt like I was pushing hard, but seeing as I had rested pretty much all week and had no ache in my hip I kept on pushing. With the finish in sight I saw that my watch said 25 something- then I was trying to judge if I could get there in a minute so just started counting in my head and went for it. It was a fast finish and I felt a bit sick (but by now I know I won’t be, it is just that feeling of really pushing hard that I am starting to get used to)- my Dad and brother were waiting for me so we quickly queued up for scanning before we got too cold (especially my Dad who finished about 6 minutes ahead of me).

I remembered to stop my watch on the finish chute, so I had an inkling that I had a new pb, and was so pleased when the text came- 26.29! 20 seconds off my last pb! Despite being number 145 I was only the 21st female, and third in my age group- the highest ever I think!

I popped in to see my Mum when dropping my Dad and brother off (my brother also got a pb) and she made me some tea and insisted on giving me the last slice of her homemade ginger cake- a lovely breakfast.

After a shower at home I had some vanilla scented rooibos tea (more from Teaple)- to warm up again, before rushing about to get ready as we were going for lunch at The Grove with Andy’s family. I have never been before but it was amazing (and so pretty with pumpkins decorating the room)- the lunch was a buffet and we took our time- I enjoyed so much delicious food; chickpea and roasted pepper salad, gorgeous fresh hummus with crispy flatbread, char-grilled vegetables, tomato basil and mozzarella salad, sweet potatoes with chilli (not too spicy), pumpkin cake, blackberry and apple crumble and apple cinnamon popcorn. Late in the afternoon we headed back, the brothers picked up their dogs and we put on wellies and coats and had a lovely hours walk through some field, before heading back for hot tea and an evening of games. It felt like an early Christmas.

This morning I was not that hungry, despite not having dinner, so I had a few dates and then headed out on a run. In the end I did 6.7 miles- I didn’t look at my Garmin at all so I have no idea how long it took, but I felt good

On Friday night I soaked some fruit in brandy and spices, as I was sent some ingredients from Sainsbury’s, for Stir up Sunday. So today I have been baking some cakes using their recipe- smelling good so far.

Coconom baking

So ages ago I won some coconut sugar on a competition on Tamzin’s blog.

I love coconut sugar- if I make pancakes and cook an apple to go alongside them I always cook it with a little coconut sugar- it is so delicious.

We were going to see my parents on Friday so I decided to use it in a fruit cake as they (especially my Dad) love fruit cake.

I used a “light fruit cake” recipe (with added spices) as I didn’t want it to be too similar to Christmas cake, and swapped all the sugar for the coconut sugar.

I didn’t ice it, so instead I glazed it with apricot jam (just heat up a small amount and then brush over) and topped with flaked almonds and orange peel. It was really good even if I say so myself! And I still have some left 🙂

Over the weekend I also received a couple of lovely parcels:

Some popchips– yummy! I have already had the salt and vinegar ones as they are my favourite. They also emailed the other week to say that they are going to release the sweet potato flavour in the UK- not sure I should be so excited by this, but anything sweet potato is a winner. Although when I was in Sainsbury’s the other day I saw two weird things. One- cinnamon flavoured pringles. Which might be OK I suppose. But then next to them were chocolate mint flavour pringles. I mean, am I the only person who thinks crisps need to be savoury? It wasn’t even April Fools…

I also received some gorgeous tea from Teaple. They are basically full leaf tea but without the need to use infusers or strainers, as they are in lovely pyramid bags.

I could not resist trying the Earl Grey- called Lord Grey’s Tweed Trousers (love the quirky names)- and will be working my way through the rest of them pretty soon.

On the running front, I had Monday as a rest day, although we did have a short walk in the drizzle after dinner yesterday evening. Today I went out in my new trainers again- they seem fine now I am lacing them up a bit better. I have kept a plaster on my toe as the skin is sore, but it does not seem to be getting any worse, so hopefully I can keep them.

Lemon, orange and passionfruit fairy cakes (recipe)

Hey peeps! I hope you are all good. We are off to Kent for the weekend (making the most of the last weekend of National Trust gardens being open) so I have a few random posts for you while I am gone.

The other day I fancied doing some baking for work, and this coincided with having lemon curd left over from macaroons, and receiving a little parcel of oil from Wharfe Valley Farm, including some lemon infused rapeseed oil which I thought would be perfect for baking with.

I also had some passionfruit curd which needed using up as it has been open a while now.

I found a recipe for lemon and poppyseed muffins which needed oil, in Muffins and Small Cakes, which apparently made 6 large muffins. I adapted it a bit, using more ground almonds and less flour, adding in orange juice, and putting curd in the centre before baking. It made 24 fairy cakes.

Ingredients:

180g ground almonds

130g plain flour

250g caster sugar

1 tbs baking powder

2 medium eggs

60g melted butter

60ml rapeseed oil (I used Wharfe Valley lemon infused oil)

100ml milk

Juice of one orange

Juice and zest of one lemon

Lemon / passionfruit curd (about half a jar)

1 tsp Lemon extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C, and line cupcake tray with paper cases.

Put the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl and mix together.

Melt the butter, and then in a seperate bowl mix together the butter, oil, milk, eggs, orange juice, lemon juice, zest and extract.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir gently to incorporate.

Put a large spoonful of mixture into each cake case (use about 2/3 of your cake mixture). Then put a tsp of lemon/ passionfruit curd in the centre of each cake, before topping with the remaining mixture.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden.

Leave to cool.

Optional- top with lemon drizzle icing.

The cases with a spoonful of mixture in each one.

I made 12 with passionfruit curd, and 12 with lemon curd.

I baked them in my top oven, as I was making Christmas cakes at the same time, so my normal oven was full. They came out pretty flat- looking more like fairy cakes than mini muffins- ideal for topping with a swirl of butter icing, if you are that way inclined. You could make them in muffin tins and I am sure you would end up with 12 big muffins.

Obviously in this recipe I added lemon juice and zest too, but the lemon oil does smell really lovely, so I am sure this added to the recipe.

On the Wharfe valley website they have a recipe for lemon hummus. I keep meaning to make my own so perhaps I should give this one a go using the oil.

I used the normal rapeseed oil in some pumpkin spiced gingerbread cakes. I made these gluten free, and even though I did add a little more liquid (the Dove’s Farm g-f flour suggests using more liquid) I think I need to add a bit more next time as they were not as moist as usual.

We have also used it in “normal” cooking too, as it is safe for frying with.

They have some lovely looking oils on their website too- perfect if you were making up a hamper for somebody.

Are you a fan of infused / flavoured oils? I have some lovely basil infused olive oil which is amazing for avocado pasta, and that lemon oil really is lovely too. My parents like chilli oil but it is normally too spicy for me!

*I was sent the oil in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Melting chocolate

I love any recipe where I have to melt chocolate. There is a fantastic cookie recipe in the Hummingbird book where you melt dark chocolate and then stir in the rest of the ingredients, and I love making caramel shortcake as just melting the chocolate for the topping is so satisfying.

I was recently sent some goodies from Thorntons to use in my baking:

Some milk chocolate buttons (ideal for melting as they had extra cocoa butter in them), 85% dark chocolate, milk chocolate with orange and cardamom, and some chocolate marzipan (although I have just been eating this and not using it in anything!).

I used the milk chocolate buttons to make these caramel shortbreads. The chocolate melted so well- I think small buttons melt easier than big chunks anyway, but it did go really smooth.

Earlier in the week I made some fudge (as a thank you to the people who helped me raise money for The British Heart Foundation). I went for my peanut butter fudge recipe, with some almond extract, swapped dark chocolate chunks for the white chocolate, and topped with a few cocoa nibs for extra crunch.

The dark chocolate was quite bitter (in a good way), so it went with the sweet fudge really well. I have not used the orange and cardamom chocolate yet, but I can imagine that the flavours so well together, so maybe some sort of spiced orange loaf cake? I was impressed with the range of chocolates from Thorntons, I have not looked at their chocolate for ages, but they have some more unusual flavours now (they do one with salted pistachios, and dark chocolate with salted macadamias which I think sounds amazing) . You can see the dark chocolate available from Thorntons here.

What is your favourite chocolate recipe?

* In conjunction with Thorntons.