SMALL VEGAN CHRISTMAS CAKE

Small vegan Xmas cake

Fruit and sugar soaking in rum

Only himself and myself eat Christmas Cake, so I no longer make the lovely large one I used to make. This one does instead; it's a souped-up version of my Rum Brack. A non-vegan version can be made of course - substitutes in receipe.

Oven-ready

RECIPE

150ml tea
50ml dark rum or brandy
225g mixed luxury dried fruit
75g glacé cherries, halved
75g pitted dates, halved
75g brown sugar
1 tsp of NoEgg made up as per pack OR 1 beaten egg
60g melted vegan marg
125g wholegrain spelt flour
125g self raising rice flour
1tsp bread soda
1 tsp mixed spice

METHOD

- Soak the fruit, sugar, rum/whiskey and tea in a bowl - leave until cold
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Grease and line the bottom of an 8" round tin (I used a 2lb loaf tin, this time)
- Add the melted marg to the fruit mix. Stir through.
- Add the beaten egg. Stir through.
- Sieve flour, then fold in the flour, bread soda and spice
- Scrape/pour mixture into the lined tin
- Bake for 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean
- Cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack.
- Peel off paper when cool
- Wrap cake in greaseproof and store in a tin
- Prick cake with a cocktail stick and feed with a more rum/brandy once a week (if the cake lasts that long!)
- We're not marzipan or icing fans but vegan versions of both are available :)

Nollaig shona! Hapy Christmas!

RUM HALLOWE'EN BRACK

High days and holy days, it seems, are the only times I drop by here. Despite the fact I bake EVERY Tuesday for The Great British Bake Off. Too much to do, too little time, my friends. Anyway, the new twist on my brack is rum. And it's yum! It came about because the heroine of my next novel, Becoming Belle (out Aug. 2018) eats rum cake with her father and I wanted to make it for Christmas. Hallowe'en seemed as good a time as any to try it.

I'm reducing wheat at the mo due to that stomach thing I picked up in China last year, so I've used a mixture of rice and spelt flour, but you can use any flour.

A bench, by night, on the grounds of Belle's Galway home,
Garbally Park, Ballinasloe

IRISH HALLOWE'EN BARMBRACK

RECIPE

150ml tea
50ml dark rum
225g mixed dried fruit
75g brown sugar
1 beaten egg
60g melted marg
125g wholegrain spelt flour
125g self raising rice flour
1tsp bread soda
1 tsp mixed spice

METHOD

- Soak the fruit, sugar, rum and tea in a bowl - leave until cold
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Grease and line the bottom of an 8" round tin (I used a 2lb loaf tin, this time)
- Add the melted marg to the fruit mix. Stir through.
- Add the beaten egg. Stir through.
- Sieve then fold in the flour, bread soda and spice
- Pour into the lined tin (insert wrapped coin or ring at this point, if using)
- Bake for 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean
- Cool in the tin for 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack.

Eat plain or buttered with a cup of tea. Delish!

PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOC CHIP BUNS

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

I only had one egg left when I went to make buns today, so I had to find a recipe that needed just one egg. I flicked through my books and found a Snickers and Peanut Butter Mufffins recipe in Nigella's Domestic Goddess. I don't keep Snickers bars about my person, but I always have dark choc chips to hand for baking, hence the change. I also halved Nigella's recipe, to make buns rather than muffins, but it only yielded nine buns. Anyway! Here we go:

I used my Orla Kiely bowl for the day that's in it

Peanut butter & choc chip buns

INGREDIENTS

125g plain flour

3 tablespoons caster sugar

3/4 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons peanut butter

30g butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

90ml milk

50g dark choc chips

METHOD

·         Preheat oven to 200˚C

·         Line a 12-space bun tin (my mix made 9 buns)

·         Throw all the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix

·         Add the peanut butter and mix until you have a breadcrumby texture

·         Add the melted butter and egg to the milk and stir gently into the bowl

·         Mix in the chocolate chips

·         Plop the mixture into the bun cases using two spoons

·         Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden on top and firm to the (light) touch

·         Cool on a wire rack