I was going to start this post with a reference to how long we’ve been in lockdown, but as I keep losing track of time and never seem to know what day of the week it is I’d probably get it wrong if I tried. So I’ll just make do with saying that I hope everyone is ok and still hanging in there.
When this strange period started I thought that it might herald a time of being super productive. The hope was that being forced to stay in would leave me with no option but to get on with all those tasks I’d been putting off, making inroads on my ‘to read’ book list, writing and posting on here more often. Unfortunately none of that seems to be happening as the longer this goes on the harder I seem to find it to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. Books get picked up and put down after just a few pages and writing for this blog doesn’t seem to be happening very easily at the moment.
All I can say is thank goodness for baking. There aren’t many days that don’t find me in the kitchen producing something and that is proving a much needed central point to my lockdown routine. Thankfully I was well stocked with flour when this started and as long as supplies last I’ll be making most of the bread that we eat in this house. I’m also making cakes on a regular basis as somehow a sweet treat at some point during the day feels more important than ever right now.
Normally at Easter I like to make the traditional Simnel_cake but a lack of marzipan in the house put paid to that idea. We did have a glut of apples though and that gave me the chance to make a wonderful apple upside down. It may sound relatively plain, but with the sliced apples that formed the top of the cake sitting in homemade caramel it proved suitably indulgent for the long weekend and I’ll share the recipe in a later post.
The recipe I want to share here today is for the baking I did earlier this afternoon. Baking which has left the wonderful scents of cardamom and cinnamon in my kitchen. Like many of the recipes I’ve shared recently it’s quite a quick bake and also one that makes limited demands on the store cupboard.
The recipe makes a dozen generous sized cakes so half it if you don’t want that many at one go.
Ingredients for the cakes
- 150g unsalted butter..melted
- 255g plain flour
- 135g sugar
- 2.5 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 240ml milk
Ingredients for the topping
- 65g sugar
- 1tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp ground cardamom
- Pinch of salt
- 30g unsalted butter.. melted
Method
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and grease a 12 hole muffin tin. Just grease the bottom of each hole.
- In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom and salt
- In another bowl mix the egg, milk and melted butter.
- Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until mixed.
- Scoop the mixture into the muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes.
- While the tea cakes are baking mix the topping ingredients together.
- Once the tea cakes are out of the oven leave them to cool in the tin for about five minutes. Then take them out and brush each with the topping mixture.
These cakes keep for a few days in an air tight container but it’s a bake that tastes even better if you have one while they are still warm
David in the kitchen. 