Red velvet cake

My grandmother's birthday was on Valentine's Day and we ate this cake with her every year - often made in the shape of a heart. I hear it has now gotten quite trendy. They even eat it over this side of the pond.

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. red food color
2 Tbsp. cocoa
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 inch round cake pans. Cut two circles of wax paper and set one in bottom of each pan. Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Add vanilla. In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa into a paste and blend into to butter/sugar/egg mixture.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour and salt. Alternating between the two, add the buttermilk and the flour/salt mixture to the batter a little bit at a time. Quickly mix together baking soda and vinegar and gently fold into the batter with economic strokes. Pour batter into pans. Bake 30 minutes at 350F. (For standard cupcakes: 20-25 minutes; for mini cupcakes: approx. 10 minutes)

Cool cake. Frost with whipped cream frosting.


Whipped cream frosting

2 tbsp. flour
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Cook flour and milk over medium heat (stirring constantly with a wire whisk) until it turns thick like pudding. Cool. Beat sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy (about 8-10 minutes). Cream in flour and milk mixture. Beat until sugar is not grainy.

Simple white bread

I've been playing around with a very simple white bread recipe which I mix and knead (mostly) in the food processor. It's so easy I've actually made it several times in the past two weeks.

Next: Play around with adding wholemeal, wholegrain and rye flours, and with using quick-rise yeast.

300 ml warm water
2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar

1 lb flour (strong white bread flour is best)
2 tsp salt
1.5 Tbsp butter (or vegetable oil)

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water. Let stand for 15 minutes, until bubbly and frothy.

Meanwhile mix flour, salt and butter in food processor, until butter is crumbly. Once the yeast is ready, put food processor on low speed, and pour the yeast mixture through the funnel. Let it go until the dough clumps up into a big ball.

Remove dough from food processor bowl and put in a largeish bowl with about 1 Tablespoon of flour. Knead for a few minutes. Lift dough and oil bowl, spreading oil on both sides of the dough. Cover bowl with cling film and let rise in a warm place until it's doubled in size, about an hour.

Grease a standard loaf pan. Punch down dough. Knead lightly and roll into an oblong shape. Place in loaf pan. Cover with cling film and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Bake at 200C (fan oven) for 25 minutes. Remove from loaf pan. Let cool on wire rack.

Pork loin

We've switched to a Delia recipe for crispier crackling and moister meat. Here are the basics...


pork loin joint
onion
sea salt
pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 240C/475F. Score the skin of the pork. Peel and cut onion in half. Now place the pork in a tin, skin-side up, and wedge onion underneath it. Take about 1 tbsp of crushed salt crystals and sprinkle it evenly over the skin, pressing it in as much as you can.

Place the pork on a high shelf in the oven and roast it for 25 minutes. Turn the heat down to 190C/375F, and calculate the total cooking time allowing 35 minutes to the pound.

The way to tell if the meat is cooked is to insert a skewer in the thickest part and the juices that run out should be absolutely clear without any trace of pinkness.

When the pork is cooked remove it from the oven and give it at least 30 minutes resting time before carving.

Now you can make a gravy with the charred onion and fat left in the pan.

Whole wheat bread I

I've become dissatisfied with the price and quality of bread in our neighborhood, so am trying to come up with a quick, easy, good bread recipe which I might actually have time to make a few times a week. The first mistake I've made (sort of) is to by active dry yeast - quick or ready bake yeasts tend to be, well, quicker.

This one was nice - moist, slightly sweet, not too dense.

Next up: using the food processor to knead.

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tablespoon honey
1 2/3 cups white flour
1 tablespoon canola oil
2 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
need in another 2/3 to 1 1/3 cup tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons butter, melted

Mix warm water with yeast, 2 T honey and 1 2/3 cup white flour. Wait 30 mins, until big and bubbly. Mix in oil, 2 T honey and salt. Mix in 2/3 cup whole wheat flour. Then start mixing/kneading in another 2/3 to 1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour. Knead for a while, until the dough is soft and elastic. Put in greased bowl, cover with cling film. Let rise overnight in fridge. Punch down in morning. Put in greased 9x5 bread pan. Let rise about 1 hour in tin, until it rises over the top of the pan. Bake for about 30 mins at 160C (fan oven).

The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym

Another pleasurable read by Ms Pym. Gobbled it up in two days. Saw one more at the library - can't wait!