Blackberry Cinnamon Tray Bake Cake

This is a adapted recipe from an old Good Food magazine. The original recipe used cherries and I also found the mix quantities were a bit out.

There have been so many cherry cakes of various descriptions on food blogs of late, that I decided to avoid joining the masses and used some blackberries instead.

BIG. FAT. JUICY. BLACKBERRIES. It's a sign that the seasons are starting to change and summer is passing it's peak. Autumnal fruits are already starting to arrive.

This recipe fits in an 8" square silicone bakeware mould or cake tin. If using silicone, do grease the base with this cake. If using a non stick tin, grease and line or grease and flour it. It's a really simple and easy recipe.

Recipe

140g self raising flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

50g caster sugar

1 egg

5 tbsp of milk

85g melted butter

350g blackberries

Topping

35g plain flour

25g  caster sugar

25g butter

Grease mould or grease and line tin.

Sift cake dry ingredients together. Beat in melted butter and egg until a smooth batter forms.

Spread batter out into bottom of a prepared 8"square cake mould or tin. I'm sure round would work just as well too. Be prepared - this is a tiny volume of mix and it simply doesn't look right !

Put the blackberries on top of the cake batter. There is a lot of fruit and the top of the mix will be almost all covered.

Now rub the chilled butter, sugar and flour together for the topping. It needs to come together to form pea / bead sized blobs. Scatter over the blackberries. Again - it's a tiny amount.

Bake at 180deg C / 160 deg fan for approx 25mins until skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin or mould for a while until just warm before turning out. I use two trays and sandwich the mould inbetween. The cake can be then be inverted again on to a rack or plate.

The fruit makes this quite a sharp cake. It is not overly sweet. Lovely on it's own with icing sugar or served warm with ice cream.

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - 8" square silicone cake pan - July 2010

Salted Cashew & Caramel Bars

These are lots of things - especially things you wouldn't expect. They are bursting with flavours and textures.

Crunchy, chewy, sweet, salty and nutty. One will NEVER be enough !

I made these last week.... and there are none left ! In my defense, I was very good and did only have one... but several people had rather more. You know who you are ..... :-P

This recipe originated from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book - but I've changed it somewhat to make it mine. It's a tray bake and very easy. Ideal for cake sales or charity events as not only is it seriously tasty - but you can prepare a batch and chop it into portions. It still looks lovely.

My original portions as per photo above were too big - I'd recommend halving them. One lasagne / tray bake silicone mould cut into 12 squares - but this would have been far better as 24 finger sized bars. It also yeilded 4 x mini loaf mould sized bars (each of which I cut into two squares to match the size of the other ones)

The only thing I can fault it on is that my base was too thick. Next time, I'd use 2 x lasagne / tray bake moulds and up the topping by 25%.

Recipe

Base :

250g salted butter
1/2 cup dark brown soft
1/2 cup caster sugar

2.1/2 cups plain flour

cream butter and sugars. Add in flour until a soft dough has just formed. Press into your tins / trays and prick all over with a fork. If using silicone trays - no need to oil or grease at all. If traditional tins, line with greaseproof paper and grease.

Cook at 180deg C for about 30mins if using 2 x silicone lasagne tins - or 40 mins if using one and 4 x mini loaf moulds as I did. The base should just be starting to colour when it's ready.

Topping

200g milk chocolate

1 cup golden syrup

6 princess (or other brand) marshmallows

6 tablespoons of double cream

2.1/2 of salted cashews - I used Sainsbury's budget range (all 1/2's)

Add all the items except the nuts to a saucepan on a low heat. Melt the ingreditents together, stirring all the time. 

 As soon as it gets to simmering point, take it off the heat and pour into the prepared trays on top of the hot base. Scatter the nuts on top.

Return to the oven for approx 5 mins.

Allow to cool in the tin or tray before turning out and chopping into bars. ( I made mine in the evening and popped in the fridge when cool to do the chopping up in the morning !)

Sarah-Jane Nash, http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - May 2010