Category: Cake

Fig Placek

  • Did you know that figs were one of the first cultivated plants?
  • They were grown over 11,000 years ago in what was then called Mesopotamia.

INGREDIENTS

150g butter

140g granulated sugar

2 tablespoons of runny honey

2 eggs

230g dried figs (soft version used)

225g plain flour

1 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of mixed spice

Pinch of salt

Large pinch of bicarbonate of soda

3-4 tablespoons of milk to mix

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven to GM3 – 160°C.

Grease and line – 3 sides of a 26 x 20cm baking tin.

*

Chop the figs into small pieces.

*

Mix the flour, spices, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together,

*

Cream the butter and sugar

Add the honey and cream some more

Add the eggs and mix together.

*

Stir in the flour mixture.

Stir in the chopped figs.

Stir in the milk to make a soft mixture.

Spoon the cake mixture into the tin and smooth the top.

Bake for 35 – 40 minutes

Check earlier and cover if necessary to prevent burning the top.

Royal Worchester Evesham Vale tea plates.

Cake with Pears

INGREDIENTS

  • 100g of butter – softened.
  • 95g of granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon of vanilla essence
  • 4 tablespoons of soured cream
  • 100g of cream cheese (or yoghurt cheese)
  • 3 eggs
  • *
  • 150g plain flour
  • 50g potato flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt
  • *
  • Butter to grease the tin
  • *
  • 3 large fairy ripe pears – such as Conference or 6 small ones
  • ½ tablespoon of granulated sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger (or cinnamon)

METHOD

  • Brush a 26cm in diameter loose bottomed tin with the melted butter.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
  • Cream the butter with the 95g of sugar.
  • Add the cream cheese, soured cream and eggs and whisk well together.
  • Mix the plain flour, potato flour, salt and baking powder together.
  • Add the flour mixture gently to the other ingredients and mix well together.
  • Leave in the bowl whilst you prepare the pears.
  • *
  • Mix the ½ tablespoon of sugar with the ground ginger.
  • Peel and core the pears and cut then in quarters (or halves if small pears)
  • Criss-cross the domed end of the pears with a sharp knife.
  • Put them into the sugar mixture.
  • *
  • Put the cake batter into the tin and smooth flat.
  • Put the pear quarters (or halves) around the top of the batter.
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Chocolate Orange Cake – 3

  • This is based on my Chocolate Orange Cake – 2 with the addition of small chunks of chocolate to the cake mixture.
  • Sunflower oil and Greek style yoghurt help to make this a moist cake with a great texture.

INGREDIENTS

  • 200g of plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • Zest of 1 large orange
  • 190ml of Greek style yoghurt
  • 3 eggs
  • 125ml of sunflower oil
  • 100g of dark chocolate
  • Large pinch of salt

METHOD

  • Add the zest to the sugar and leave for about 30 minutes.
  • Chop the chocolate into small chunks.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
  • Use a loaf liner to line a 2lb loaf tin.
  • Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
  • Add the yoghurt, eggs and oil to the sugar mixture.
  • Gradually add the flour mixture and mix well.
  • Stir in the chopped chocolate.
  • Pour the batter into the loaf tin and smooth the top.
  • Bake for around 45 minutes.
  • Check a little earlier and cover with greaseproof paper if it is starting to burn.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.

Chocolate Orange Icing – Ingredients

  • 50g dark or milk chocolate
  • Grated rind of 1 orange
  • 25g butter
  • 2 tablespoons of icing sugar

Method

  • Put the chocolate into a bowl over a pan of hot water.
  • Add the orange rind and butter.
  • Stir whilst the chocolate melts.
  • Add the icing sugar until you have a thick icing.
  • Use this to cover the top of the cake.

Colclough Stardust tea plate

Apple Cake – a different way

This is my 600th post!

  • For this apple cake use eating apples.
  • You can use Gala or Braeburn – I think the Braeburn were the better ones.
  • It is made in quite a different way to my usual Polish apple cake.

INGREDIENTS

  • 100g of butter – softened.
  • 95g of granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon of vanilla essence 
  • 150g plain flour
  • 50g potato flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt
  • 4 tablespoons of soured cream
  • 100g of cream cheese (or yoghurt cheese)
  • 3 eggs
  • *
  • Butter to grease the tin
  • *
  • 5 or 6 eating apples – such as gala
  • 20g granulated sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • Royal Doulton Carnation Tea Plate

METHOD

  • Brush a 26cm in diameter loose bottomed tin with the melted butter.

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.

  • Cream the butter with the 95g of sugar.
  • Add the cream cheese, soured cream and eggs and whisk well together.
  • Mix the plain flour, potato flour, salt and baking powder.
  • Add the flour mixture gently to the other ingredients and mix well together.
  • Leave in the bowl whilst you prepare the apples.
  • *
  • Mix the 20g of sugar with the cinnamon.
  • Peel and core the apples and cut then in halves.
  • Criss-cross the domed tops of the apples with a sharp knife.
  • Put then into the sugar mixture.
  • *
  • Put the cake batter into the tin and smooth flat.
  • Put the apple halves cut side down on top of the batter.
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Skubaniec

  • Skubaniec comes from the word skubać – to pinch or to pluck.
  • This is because the cake dough is pinched into little pieces and then assembled.
  • It could be said this cake is related to pleśniak – a very recent discovery of mine.
  • There is a recipe in the Christmas pamphlet, which I bought but I have adapted it after looking at other recipes. 
  • As in pleśniak there is plain and cocoa cake dough, sour fruits and meringue.
  • Baking powder is used in this dough.
  • Some recipes pinch all the dough including the base, others roll out the base.
  • The next is a meringue layer, then the fruits, followed by a pinched dough topping of plain and cocoa dough.
  • Sour cherries, blackcurrants, gooseberries are the most used fruits but I have seen recipes for apples and for rhubarb.
  • You can use 2 or more fruits – I used fresh blackberries in 1 third and bottled sour cherries in the rest.
  • Bottled fruit, drained, can be used as was here.
  • Frozen fruits can be used and the cake made out of season.
  • Defrost frozen fruit and dry the water away.
  • Egg yolks are used in the dough and then the whites in the meringue.

Ingredients – Dough

  • 420g plain flour
  • 120g icing sugar
  • 120g butter
  • 1¼ teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon of cocoa
  • 4 yolks
  • Cold water to bind the dough

Ingredients – Meringue 

  • 4 egg whites
  • 1 tablespoon of icing sugar

Ingredients – Fruit

  • 200g bottled cherries

Putting the cake together

  • Line 3 sides of a 26 x 23cm rectangular tin.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
  • Rub the butter into the flour until it is like breadcrumbs.
  • Mix in the icing sugar and the baking powder.
  • Divide the dough into three parts.
  • Take 2 parts, add 3 yolks and water to make a soft dough.
  • Add the cocoa to the other dry mixture.
  • Add 1 egg yolk and water to make a cocoa dough.
  • Take 1 half of the plain dough and roll it into a rectangle to fit the base of the tin.
  • *
  • Drain the fruit from the liquid in the jar (keep the liquid for other things).
  • *
  • Whisk the egg white till stiff.
  • Add the icing sugar, whisk again till stiff.
  • *
  • Spread the egg white mixture over the dough base.
  • *
  • Put the fruit evenly over the egg white.
  • *
  • Pinch small pieces of each colour of dough.
  • Place them on top of the fruit alternating between plain and cocoa.
  •  Bake for around 40 minutes.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.
  • NOTE
  • I did find that the cake went stale quite quickly.
  • Next time I will try using 210g of butter.

Poppy Seed – Tort

  • Today is 31 December 2023 and this will be my 590th post.
  • Thank you to everyone who reads any of them.
  • *
  • Poppy seed cakes are a very Christmas time thing in Polish cookery.
  • But of course can be found all through out the year as well.
  • This could be called a makowiec – but it is light and more a tort (sponge layer cake).
  • I got a packet of ground poppy seeds (for the first time) and this recipe was on the back.
  • I tried it out and it is light, fluffy and delicious.
  • It is good just on its own but the suggestion is to add butter cream.
  • I used a rum flavoured butter cream but think, vanilla, rum or lemon rind would also work well.
  • You can cut the cake in half and sandwich it together or put the butter cream on the top.
  • The cake takes 6 eggs and was baked in a 24cm diameter round tin.
  • It is left to cool in the tin and does sink slightly in the middle.
  • I think next time using 2 sandwich type tins would be better or
  • Make ½ the quantity.

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 eggs separated.
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 200g ground poppy seeds (a whole packet)
  • 3 tablespoons of semolina 
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • pinch of salt

Method

  • Grease and line the base of a 24 cm round tin.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
  • Mix together the poppy seeds, semolina and baking powder.
  • Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar till thick and creamy.
  • Fold in the poppy seed mixture.
  • Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk till stiff.
  • Fold the whites into the rest of the cake mixture.
  • Put into the cake tin and smooth over the top.
  • Bake for 40 – 45 minutes.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.
  • The cake may drop slightly in the middle.
  • *
  • Serve dusted with icing sugar or
  • Cut in half and sandwich with a butter cream of your choice – vanilla, rum or brandy or lemon rind.

Duchess & Meakin poppy tea plates.

Pleśniak

  • I first tasted pleśniak on my recent trip to Gdańsk.
  • I had never heard of it before although some of my cakes are similar.
  • It does not appear in any of my older Polish cookery books.
  • Having done a little more research I found it was in some people’s list of their top 10 favourite Polish cakes.
  • *
  • The name is intriguing in that the word means  – mildew or mouldy!
  • It consists of 3 or 4 layers, usually baked in a square or rectangle:
  • –
  • Shortcrust/chocolate shortcrust 
  • Sour fruits
  • Meringue
  • *
  • Maybe the mildew reference is to the look of the meringue layer?
  • *
  • The sour fruits are usually sour cherries, blackcurrants or gooseberries.
  • Jam or a mixture of jam and fresh or frozen fruits can be used.
  • The fruit layer should be on the sour side – so if you jam is sweet – heat it up with the addition of the juice of a lemon or two.
  • Sometimes rhubarb, cooked first, is used.
  • My placek with rhubarb & meringue could be adapted with the addition of cocoa to the pastry or the fruit.
  • *
  • I tried this out in a 26 x 21 rectangular tin.
  • * 
  • I have seen several versions – sometimes with the egg whites/meringue under a layer of pastry – I think the meringue on top is easier.

Shortcrust layers

  • Start to make a rich buttery shortcrust using 250g of plain flour.
  • Do not add any sugar to the pastry.
  • Divide the crumbs part into two.
  • Use the first half to make pastry with 2 egg yolks.
  • To the second half add 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder and continue with 2 egg yolks as normal.
  • Wrap each dough separately. 
  • Leave to chill for around 30 minutes.
  • Egg whites will be used in the meringue.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM6 – 200°C.
  • Grease and line the baking tin with one long piece of baking paper.
  • Roll out the plain shortcrust to fit into the tin.
  • Roll out the chocolate shortcrust and place this on top.
  • Prick with a fork all over.
  • Bake for around 20 – 25 minutes.
  • Leave to cool completely.

Sour Fruit Layer

  • Spread jam (sour cherry, blackcurrant or gooseberry) over the pastry.
  • If you jam is sweet – heat it up with the addition of the juice of a lemon or two first.
  • Leave to cool.
  • Add some fresh or frozen fruits if you have them.

Meringue Layer

  • Pre-heat oven to GM3 – 160°C.
  • Use 3-4 egg whites & 50g icing sugar per white.
  • Place the whites into a grease free bowl.
  • Whisk till stiff.
  • Add icing sugar and whisk again till stiff.
  • *
  • Spread meringue over the top of the fruits.
  • Bake for 30 – 35  minutes.
  • Can be longer or shorter depending on if you want the meringue crisp or soft.
  • *
  • Leave to cool.
  • Cut into squares when serving.

Royal Standard – Lyndale tea plate.

Iced Orange Yoghurt Cake 2 – variation

  • This cake is made with yoghurt and sunflower oil and is very easy to make.
  • I have made this cake before in a loaf tin but decided to try it out in a rectangular in.
  • It worked well.

Ingredients

  • 200g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • Zest of 1 large orange
  • 185ml of Greek style yoghurt
  • 3 eggs
  • 120ml sunflower oil
  • Large pinch of salt

Method

  • Add the zest to the sugar and leave for about 30 minutes.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180ºC.
  • Line a 26 x 21cm line on 3 sides with 1 sheet of greaseproof paper.
  • Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
  • Add the yoghurt and eggs to the sugar mixture.
  • Gradually add the flour mixture and mix well.
  • Add the oil and mix well again.
  • Pour the batter into the loaf tin and smooth the top.
  • Bake for around 30 to 35 minutes.
  • Check a little earlier and cover with greaseproof  paper if it is starting to burn.
  • Leave to cool in the tin.
  • *
  • Remove from the tin and greaseproof paper before icing.

Orange Icing – Ingredients

  • 100g icing sugar – approx
  • 1½ tablespoon of  orange juice
  • Zest of half a large orange (optional)

Orange Icing – Method

  • Mix the icing sugar with the orange juice and zest.
  • Adjust sugar or juice to make a thin pouring icing.
  • Once the cake is cold, pour this over the cake.
  • Smooth down with a warm spatula.
  • Colclough – Stardust  tea plate

Cakes from Poland

  • I am back from a short trip to Gdańsk on which I bought a couple of Recipe books.
  • One of these was was a book about cakes – ciasta – and small cakes – ciasteczka -(or buns or biscuits).
  • I got a book by the same author on my last trip, which was to Wrocław in February, – Wioleta Wójcik.
  • I am really looking forward to trying some of these out.
  • Whilst in Gdańsk I had a piece of cake called pleśniak – which was super – the name means mildew or mouldy! – there is a recipe for this and I will be trying it out soon.

Gdańskie brukowce

  • Gdańskie brukowce – means cobblestones from Gdańsk.
  • These are a form or pierniki  – honey spice cakes – that I have not come across before.
  • There are soft bits and crunchy bits.
  • They have been baked by the Pellowski bakery, established in 1922, to a secret recipe but the ingredients are stated on the packaging – including:
  • rye flour
  • sugar
  • golden syrup
  • vegetable fats
  • Polish plum jam
  • cocoa
  • spices – (inc – cinnamon and cloves) 
  • lemon juice.

They are rather like piernik – chopped up, mixed with cocoa or chocolate and Polish plum jam – powidło – and coated with a sugar glaze.

If you get the chance to try them do so – they are delicious.

I do not think I can recreate this recipe but  here below are links to my previous piernik recipes.

They were originally baked for the St Dominic’s fair – Jarmark Dominika – which takes place at the end of July and the beginning of August.