Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

A fabulously 'retro' cake, if you were at school in the '70's then you probably made one of these in Home Economics! To make the cake all sticky and moist, spread the lining paper for your tin with soft butter and sprinkle on a good layer of caster sugar, arrange the pineapple rings and glace cherries, I added a few drops of coconut extract once the fruit was arranged in the tin, it adds a lovely fragrant element to the cake.

I'll pop the recipe here soon...

Eccles Cakes

Usually when I offer Eccles Cakes to visitors they are met with a grimace, it's a shame that these gorgeous little gems from Lancashire have got such a bad reputation, no wonder really, mass manufacturing is to blame for producing lardy and tasteless lumps of nothingness.

Now these are a different experience indeed, I use flaky pastry and fill the cakes with a mixture made with melted butter, soft, light brown sugar, currants, freshly chopped preserved peel, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg. The top of the cake is brushed with milk and sprinkled with caster sugar before being baked in a hot oven for 15 minutes.

Eccles Cakes are absolutely delicious served with some Lancashire cheese, believe me, it really does work!

I'll pop the recipe here very soon.

Bramley Apple & Cinnamon Crumble Cake

As autumn approaches, windy days come along causing fat and juicy fruits to fall off heavily laden trees, little gifts from nature which are then turned into tasty and satisfying little treats. Here, I have made a light and moist cake flavoured with ground cinnamon and stirred in some cooked apples then layered some atop the cake mixture and finished it off with a layer of buttery crumble with the addition of ground almonds then sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar as it left the oven for a little more aromatic sweetness.

Absolutely delicious, the best of two worlds, cake and crumble, no more having to choose one or the other! You still need to decide... Ice cream, custard or cream? 

All three, why not!