Almond Pound Cake with Maple-Roasted Apricots

I remember years ago when I lived with other students in a share house that one of the lads would throw together a pound cake most weekends.  He wasn't really into measurements so would just chuck what he thought was the right amount into the bowl - and he was pretty good at it!  A pound cake is just equal amounts of butter, sugar, flour and eggs, so pretty easy to get right, I reckon.

This brilliant fella also taught me how to fillet fish, and make bread - and then he went off to England to get his PhD.  Told you he was clever!  Anyways, I made this cake for our cookbook club hosted by Amanda from Lambs Ears and Honey, using this recipe from Emelia Jackson's beaut book You Had Me at Cake.  "So many cakes, so little time" - to paraphrase that famous rockstar ...  

  

the texture is delightful, said Mr P., the smooth talker :)

Makes 1 x 20cm./8 inch cake:

ingredients for the cake:

190g./6.75 oz almond meal (or nut meal of your choice)

140g./5 oz plain flour

2.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

225g./8 oz butter, softened (at room temp. basically), cubed

225g./8 oz caster sugar

4 large eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla paste or extract

180 mL/6 oz milk or buttermilk  see Notes

Crème frâiche, or thick cream, to serve with big slices of cake :=)

Maple-roasted apricots (or fruit of your choice):

6-8 ripe apricots, halved and pitted   see Notes

2 Tbs maple syrup or honey

1 Tbs brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbs butter  (Emelia says to melt it first, but why?  It's going into the oven!  So just dice it, I say)

apricots

Method:

Turn on your oven to 180C/350F to heat up, and line a 20cm/8 in cake tin with baking paper (or use an air fryer liner like I do!)

Grab a large mixing bowl, and whisk together the nut meal, the flour, the baking powder and salt with either your electric hand beaters or a stand mixer if you have one (I don't, so I use my hand beaters)

Then add the softened, cubed butter till you have a sandy mixture with no large lumps of butter - I didn't worry too much; I still had small lumps and it turned out just fine!

Now add the sugar, eggs, vanilla and (butter) milk, and mix till combined (but don't go crazy! - no gluten wanted here, my friends) 

Pour the batter into the tin (never mind if it's a wee bit lumpy), and bake for 45-50 minutes till golden and a skewer pushed into its almond-y heart comes out clean

And as for the apricots: about 15 minutes before the cake is due to come out of the oven, grab yourself a small-ish baking dish, chuck in the fruity ingredients, giving it a good mix together, and place in the oven till the cake finishes baking

Take the cake and fruit out of the oven when they're ready, let the cake cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a a wire rack to cool completely

Serve a big slice with some of the syrupy fruit (fruity syrup?) and a dollop of cream, crème frâiche or plain yoghurt

one guess :=)

Notes:

As per, I didn't have any buttermilk lurking around, so I squeezed a small lemon to get juice (prob. 2 Tbs), which I stirred into the milk, and left to get thick and curdled-looking

Nor did I have any fresh apricots, 'cos it's winter here!  So I grabbed a 700g. jar of Australian apricots in juice (which juice?  A mystery, my friends); also no nett weight on the jar - grrrrrr!  Anyways, I weighed out 270g./9.5 oz of the fruit, as Mr Google says the average weight of an apricot (with the pit) is 35g.-50g.  Hoping that this was a suitable conversion; and yep, it worked out okay, but you could go for extra apricots, I reckon

I'm gonna have to buy some more of this very soon!

ingredients gathered

sandy with a few wee lumpy bits :=) - no worries!

in go the wet ingredients

looking glorious as it goes into the air fryer paper-lined tin!

fruit etc going into my fave '60s enamel dish, with my cute new Japanese spoon)

cake done, syrup done!

looking so pretty

everyone loved this cake - great flavour and texture

Our neighbour came over for a piece after work.  She said it was a fabulous cake, and asked for the recipe.  Always a good sign :=)  And it still tastes great after 2 days!

texture still gorgeous after 2 days

Huckleberry Scones - kind of!

International Scone Week again?  How can this be?  You mean a whole year has gone by already?  Okay, I give in, I've had another birthday and here we are.  I am joining in with Tandy from Lavender and Lime for the annual scone festival, which has been ongoing since 2011.  The years have really flown by ...  

This recipe is from Baking across America by B. Dylan Hollis - my fave cooking YouTuber!  He is such a delight.  It's amazing that social media has given so many people a career and a decent wage too.  Our Historical Society has just received its first Facebook payment due to a lot of engagement.  Millions of views, and a few measly (tho' very welcome) dollars.  Here's to future happy $!

add some homemade jam to the middle!

Makes 1 dozen scones:

ingredients:

280g./10 oz plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

100g./3.5 oz sugar (I used caster)

zest of 1 lemon  see Notes

115g./4 oz butter, cold and diced

120 mL/4 oz buttermilk   see Notes

150g./5.3 oz huckleberries!   see Notes

2-3 tsp demerara sugar  (my addition)

raspberries

Method:

Turn on your oven to 200C/400F to heat up, and grab a baking tray which you then line with baking paper

Grab yourself a large mixing bowl, and add in the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and lemon zest

Give it a good whisking, then rub in the butter with a knife then your fingers so you end up with a sandy mixture (and not too many chunks of butter)

In go the buttermilk and the berries; mix till just combined.  My mixture was incredibly damp so I chucked in a bit more flour to make it more pliable

Dylan says to divide the dough in half (weighing each half with a kitchen scale!), and form them into balls - gently!   see Notes

He then says to press the balls out to make a disc 4cm/1.5 inches high, and cut each disc into 6 wedges, separated just a wee bit on the tray so you end up with 12 small-ish wedges

I say phooey to all this!  What a lot of unnecessary faffing!  Don't bother to divvy up the dough; just flatten it out a bit (you probably won't get it to be 4cm high), cut into 12 pieces and shove 'em in the oven for 12-15 minutes till golden  

Oops!  Don't forget to sprinkle on the demerara sugar before baking!

and a lemon

Notes:

Google says 1 medium lemon gives you 1 (U.S.) Tbs of zest; I used 1.5 lemons as they were small! (and this is an American recipe so the tablespoons are smaller than ours)

I made my own buttermilk - I just added a bit of yoghurt and ricotta ('cos it was in the fridge), and lemon juice to some milk.  Stirred it, and left it to sit for 10 minutes to go thick(er)

Like me, you may not be able to get yourself some huckleberries, so I used 100g./3.5 oz raspberries and 50g./1.8 oz chocolate chips

My dough made 375g./13 oz x 2 halves = 750g./26.5 oz all up

Flour!  Plain (all-purpose)

ingredients gathered

ready to rub butter in

buttermilk going in

and the berries and choc chips

a kinda damp dough

sugar sprinkled on, and ready for baking

why do they look green? hehehe (and a bit crab-like)

I think that's a bit of ricotta on top

great with cream and some homemade apricot jam!

#ISW2026

Blueberry Soup with Caramelised Nut Clusters

Aka: Blabarsoppa med karamelliserade notter!  Swedish, don't you know? :=)  Blueberry soup has me intrigued, as the influencers say.  Or as Cherry the English YouTuber often says - "Colour me intrigued!"  I've made an Israeli fruit soup many years ago which was pretty tasty: made with fresh cherries, which took me forever to de-pit with just a knife and fingers.  But blueberry soup is new to me, and possibly you.  And no need for a cherry and olive (de-)pitter gadget.  

This dish is from Rachel Khoo's The Little Swedish Kitchen.  You know that lovely English lass from the TV show (and book) The Little Paris Kitchen, who married a Swede and moved to Sweden.  Let's cut to the chase - I tried making another recipe from this book - a poached chicken breast with pickled strawberry salad.  My dears, it was not good!  The chicken is poached in milk and stock; sadly it turned out like old boots!  The crows ended up with that. The salad was just ... odd, and the flavours didn't go well together.  Abandon ship!

Phase 2: I made this soup!  Not quite sure if it's meant to be a dessert or a breakfast, or a starter to a meal, as the Israeli cherry soup was.  There were oddities in the recipe (bits left out), and I am feeling a bit antsy about Rachel's recipes now.  The nut clusters are not sweet (a good thing in my opinion), and the soup is very fruity, and for me, best served chilled.  But not sure I'd ever feel the need to make this one again, to be honest.  (But it's worth a try - honest!!)  With a bit more sweetener, and a bit of spice, this could be great for breakfast!

      

crunchy, a bit savoury, and very fruity!

Serves 4:

ingredients:

For the nut clusters:

100g./3.5 oz walnuts

100g./3.5 oz pecans

50g./1.8 oz almond or hazelnut meal (aka ground almonds, or hazelnuts)

50g./1.8 oz golden syrup     see Notes

a pinch of sea salt flakes

For the soup:

500g./18 oz frozen blueberries

1 banana, sliced

2 Tbs water

a pinch of sea salt

sugar or honey (optional)

4 heaped Tbs plain yoghurt, to serve -  Greek-style is great here!

yep, blueberries!

walnuts

one guess!  Yep, a bananaaa

Method:

On goes your oven to 200C/390F to get toasty, while you roughly chop your nuts, and toss with the nut meal, golden syrup and salt

Line a baking sheet with baking paper, and spread the nuts over

Bake for around 20 minutes till toasty and golden (or kinda dark in this case), stirring every so often

Now for the soup - the blueberries and sliced banana go into a saucepan with the water and salt

Whack on the saucepan lid, and let the fruit simmer on a medium heat for a few minutes, giving it a stir here and there

When the berries have softened (Rachel says melted), and it's starting to bubble, let it simmer for another 2 minutes

Cool for a few minutes, then zap in the food processor - you can add a bit of water if you want it a bit looser in consistency - I ended up adding 12 Tbs of water (12 x 15 mL=180 mL)!

And throw in a bit more sweetener, if you fancy (and maybe a tiny bit of cinnamon?)

Rachel says you can serve this warm or chilled, with a swirl of yoghurt and some nut clusters on the top of your bowl or mug

Notes:

I reckon you could use other berries or fruits of your choice, like the afore-mentioned cherries

Just FYI: 1 banana weighs on average 118g./4 oz; the ladyfinger I used weighed 170g., and after peeling was 90g.

If you don't have golden syrup, use honey or maple syrup - and I reckon you could add a wee bit more than 50g.!

I made this recipe for BKD Cookbook Club, hosted by Jo each month.  We are doing Scandi recipes this month, from a cookbook of your choosing.  I do actually have a massive tome of Nordic cooking, but grabbed Rachel's as it was close to hand.  

pecans

nutty clusters ingredients

and baked till golden (brown)

fruit ready for "melting"

mm, well, looking kinda weird but ...

blitzed in the food processor

spoon on the yoghurt and throw on your nuts! :=)

Jaboticaba Jam

So, our jaboticaba tree fruited like a maniac on steroids the other week.  It is a Brazilian rainforest tree, happily for us planted by the previous owner of our house.  It fruits twice a year (though a friend said they knew someone who had a tree that fruits four times a year).  The fruit grows all over the trunk and branches directly, so it looks really weird!  (As you may have seen in my most recent post.) 

I invited a friend over to pick some fruit, as he is a keen jam-maker, and a very keen forager.  He came over with a large bucket and picked heaps, but it made little difference to the fruits on the tree.  Soooo many fruits!  And the bats and possums must have been having a feast.  Mr P. and I did some house painting just near the tree and were nearly overwhelmed by the fermenting fumes.  I imagine incredibly alcoholic!  So drunken, crazy bats flying over!

here it is before the fruit ripened in the next couple of days!

The whole thing was done and dusted in about five days; it flowered, it fruited and they fell off!  There might be another harvest at Christmas time.  I have bags of fruit in the freezer for more jam-making in the future, anyway.

Original Recipe by Sherry:

ingredients:

420g./15 oz of apples and/or strawberries – strawberries lightly mashed, and apples grated or blitzed in the processor    see Notes

80g.-100g./3-3.5 oz or so of whole jaboticaba fruits – skin on (‘cos that’s where the pectin lies)

400g./14 oz caster sugar – half raw and half white caster – or use all white or all raw sugar

Juice from one lemon – maybe 2 Tbs?

1-2 big tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp rosewater

Big splash of spiced rum - optional, but delicious!

Method:

Put the fruit and sugar into a large saucepan and under a low heat, and bring to the boil while stirring, till sugar dissolves

Then turn up the heat, add the other ingredients, and boil rapidly for up to 10 minutes (watch out for splashes) – no more than ten, stirring often.  This stuff sets like concrete if you boil it too long!

Check for set from 8 minutes on!   i.e. – put a saucer in your freezer for ten minutes, spoon a small amount of the jam onto it, and if you can run your finger thru it after a few seconds, it is ready to go

Let it cool down a wee bit, so you are able to safely spoon out all the skins and seeds – tedious but necessary

Then spoon/pour the jam into sterilised jars (I put my jars in the dishwasher to get super clean!)

Keeps in the fridge – well, for ages!  Unless you eat it all first :=)

Notes:

I peeled my apples but you don't have to.  I used red apples 'cos they were lurking in my crisper, but you can use your fave apple!

If you have a lot of fruit still on the tree (and you will!), place them into a plastic freezer bag in a single layer (and you can freeze them for a couple of months, maybe more), and then when next making jam, let them thaw out and make the jam as above

tip the fruits and sugar into the saucepan

and let it boil! but only for 10 mins.! And stir it often

ooh it's so shiny and beautiful!

so delicious!

so enchanting! so mysterious! so pretty!

c. Sherry M.

Raspberry Vinegar

I love raspberries and most other berries, maybe not so much with the blueberries, but blackberries are my very fave.  So yes, feel free to use your fave berry here; I just was not able to get blackberries when I made this.

I've told my blackberry tale previously; how my sister and I would go hunting for wild blackberries to sell to the local jam factory.  Still amazed that our parents let two little girls go into the bush on their own!  And fairly amazed that the local jam factory accepted any old buckets of berries that the local children had picked.  So if you have ever lived in Victoria and eaten Monbulk jam, just be aware that the berries were wild and free before being hunted down :=)

that's me in the middle!

My sister and I weren't much older than this when we went a-blackberry hunting!  Look at those splendid haircuts!  This was at the front of our grandparents' house up in the hills.  Yep, we were hillbillies :=)

Makes about 700mL/24 oz:

ingredients:

500mL/17 oz white wine vinegar

80g.-120g./3- 4 ounces caster sugar

375g./13 oz berries of your choice - I used raspberries  see Notes

Method:

Pour the vinegar into a medium saucepan, stir in the sugar and bring this just to a gentle boil, then immediately turn to a low heat

Let it simmer gently for a few minutes, cool for about 5 minutes, then pour it over the raspberries, which you have already placed in a large jar (which has a lid)

Give the mixture a good stir with a wooden spoon, seal the jar with the lid, and let it sit for up to 1 week (I let it sit and ruminate for 6 days)

Then grab yourself a colander that you have lined with muslin or a super-clean Chux; place the colander over a large bowl, tip in the berry mixture and allow the fruity liquid to drip thru for an hour or 2 - if you squeeze it out, the vinegar will become cloudy, but if that doesn't worry you, go ahead and squeeze, my dears!

Then pour into jars or bottles with lids, seal and store in the fridge for up to 6 months, tho to be honest I have kept it for longer!

Notes:

You can even use frozen berries in a pinch; just let them thaw out on a baking-paper-lined tray first

If you want to make a smaller amount, just use 350mL of vinegar, 250g. of fruit and 80g. caster sugar

And yes I did get a wee bit impatient towards the end of the dripping thru muslin, and gave the fruit a good squeeze

This is great in salad dressings, or even as a refreshing drink with sparkling water (tho if you use the lesser amount of sugar, it won't be as palatable)

(3) ingredients gathered

stir the sugar into the vinegar and bring to the boil - just!

pour the hot liquid over the berries

let it do its thing for up to a week!

and let it drip thru the muslin for an hour or so

You caught me out! I pushed it thru with a spoon at the end

you end up with several bottles of delicious raspberry vinegar

c. Sherry M.