Za Recipes

It doesn’t take much to encourage me to make cakes.  Currently, the market is flooded with baking books, some written by professional bakers and others by well known ‘professional’ home bakers like Mary Berry.  And then there is a whole shelf of baking books written by Great British Bake Off finalists like Jo Wheatley, Edd Kimber and Ruth Clemens.  I already have a lot of baking books but I wasnt going pass on the chance to review another book about cakes.

Jane Brocket, the author of Vintage Cakes, is also the successful author of The Gentle Art of Domesticity and Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer.  Both books include recipes for favourite family treats and old fashioned cakes. 

The book starts with some essential chapters. Essential ingredients; this provides a comprehensive guide to the most common ingredients used in baking.  This is followed by an equally comprehensive chapter about Essential equipment.  This isn’t a huge list of expensive kit, it’s a useful checklist with a caveat that you can ‘use what you have’ and adapt! In Essential techniques the author covers everything from oven temperature, through sifting, and testing for doneness.  These are a real boon for new or inexperienced bakers and even experienced bakers can learn from the information in these three chapters.

The chapters are organised by the type of cake, I think this is really useful as most bakers have a purpose in mind when they want to bake.  There is an index at the back if you are looking for something in particular.

cake-tin cakes includes Marmalade Cake, Sticky Date Cake, Parkin, Gingerbread, Plum Streusel

everyday cakes  includes Victoria Sandwich, Welsh Cakes, Sour Cherry Muffins, Genoa Cake, Swedish Tosca Cake

little cakes includes Lamingtons, Fat Rascals, Eccles Cakes, Maids of Honour, Orange Teacakes

posh cakes includes Lemon Chiffon Cake, Sacher Torte, Coconut Cake, Marble Bundt Cake, Black Forest Gateau

fancies and frivolitiesincludes Fondant Fancies, French Madeleines and English Madeleines, Sponge Kisses

celebration cakes includes Simnel cake, Jewelled Christmas Cake, Buche de Noel, Stollen, Red Velvet Cake

This is a book for home bakers who want recipes that have been perfected over time.  All the recipes can all be made with basic baking skills, so it is ideal for someone who is new to baking or for someone who has a little experience and wants to make a range of homely comforting bakes.

The introductory chapters are well written and full of useful information.

Each recipe starts with a short descriptive paragraph including information about the history of the cake

The recipes are well organised and clearly written with excellent photographs

There are cook’s tips throughout the book and each recipe has information about how to store the cake and how long it is likely to keep.

There are enough ‘different’ recipes to keep an experienced baker interested.

Experienced bakers are likely to have recipes for about two thirds of the recipes in the book

Makes 1 medium – large cake (serves 8-10)

For the cake

Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (unwaxed or well washed)

Juice of ½ a lemon

225g soft butter, plus extra for greasing

225g caster sugar

3 eggs

200g ground almonds

110g polenta

1 level teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

You will need

A 23cm springform tin or round loose-bottomed cake tin, greased with butter and base lined with baking parchment.

Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.  With a wooden spoon or an electric whisk, cream them together until they are pale and fluffy.  Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.

Add the ground almonds, polenta, baking powder, salt and lemon juice and zest.  With a large metal spoon or flexible spatula, mix well until all the ingredients are combined.  Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface with the back of the spoon or spatula.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until the cake is golden brown and pulling away from the sides of the tin and a metal skewer or sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the tin.  Serve with creamy yogurt or mascarpone, and a glass of something nice and chilled.  Polenta cake is also delicious with a light tea such as Darjeeling.

STORAGE: Polenta cake keeps well for up to 3 days if wrapped in aluminium foil and stored in an airtight tin in a cool place.

 Im entering the Polenta Cake for the October Random Recipe Challenge.  Dom at Belleau Kitchen challenged us to put our hands in the cupboard and pull out something we hadnt used, then look through some cookbooks till we found one which had a recipe for that ingredient and to make it.