lime, ginger and coconut cake

We went to Staithes (on the North Yorkshire coast) on Saturday, and had a cup of tea and a slice of this delicious cake (or one very like it). It was so delicious that I came home determined to try and make one, and after a bit of googling and adjustment, here’s what I came up with. I actually made two, because it’s hardly worth putting the oven on for just one cake, and have put one in the freezer. It was gorgeous. These ingredients make one.

100g butter or marge
120g caster sugar
2 large eggs
140g desiccated coconut
100g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder (or use self-raising flour, but I never keep it in)
70ml natural yoghurt
1 lime, juice and zest
2 tsp grated ginger

Put everything in a food mixer and combine. Yes, really. That’s it.

I baked mine in a loaf tin lined with a greaseproof liner. The recipe I cannibalised said 45 mins at gas 3, which it had, then it had another 5 mins at gas 4, then another 5 mins at gas 5, so I reckon 40-45 minutes at gas 4 would do it.

Should you be minded, you could make a syrup of, say, 100g caster sugar and the juice of another lime, but I didn’t bother. If you do this, make some holes in the cake while it is warm, and drizzle the syrup over it.

The cafe served it with cream, which worked rather well. I think I might try some grated lemongrass next time, for that authentic Thai taste.

Mirrored from Reactive Cooking.

taking your appliances for a ride

We are about to embark upon a kitchen refit; the prospect fills me with horror, but the end result will be worth it. Tell me it will.
Another thing that horrifies me is the cost of decent appliances – we have a standalone combi microwave (so it is a little oven and grill, as well as a microwave); we paid about £90 for it last year, but built in ones seem to start at the thick end of £600 and just keep going. I’ve been haunting eBay, and finally snared a Neff combi, plus oven, plus cooker hood, for £350 – result.

So yesterday morning we set off for Northallerton, on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, to collect them. We stopped at a Little Thief for an Olympic Breakfast en route, and it really was olympic – neither of us could quite finish it.

We met the chap (who is renovating a really beautiful house, including “just pushing the back wall out 3 ft” – lord knows what that’ll cost him!), and stowed the stuff in the German Barge; the oven went in the boot, and the microwave and hood fitted on the back seat. We wrapped them tenderly in old sheets, and set off for Staithes, a lovely fishing village on the North Yorkshire coast. It’s very steep, but we trolled up and down the hill and little stepped lanes and had a lovely time, finishing with a cuppa and a piece of really very nice coconut, lime and ginger cake in a local cafe. I had a bash at reproducing it yesterday, and my recipe is here.

After Staithes, we drove home across the moor, stopping in Malton en route. Malton is a nice country town, which apparently closes at 4 on a Saturday, but thankfully the nice butcher was still going. They had a BOGOF on pasties and pies, so we bought a couple of each, and some decent bacon. Came home and ate (home cooked) Indian fud.

We think the Neff appliances enjoyed their day out; we thought it a nice idea to give them a treat, as they will shortly be entombed in cabinetry, and set to work for their living.

Yesterday, I made cake, made soup from last week’s lamb bones and a stack of veg, cleaned the new cooker hood, cooked bagels with scrambly egg and bacon for breakfast, had meat and potato pie with cabbage and broccoli for supper, watched Raising Arizona and the BAFTAs … must have done more, but can’t remember.

And now it’s bloody Monday again.

Mirrored from kestrel.org.

Valentine cards

I don’t much care for Valentine’s Day; to me, it seems horrible, commercialised schmaltz, and can be horribly painful for those on their own. I don’t really like “Hallmark Holidays”, and 14 Feb seems the worst, when people spend an extra 50%+ on a bunch of roses, or book a restaurant with an inflated menu, but I guess I’m just an old curmudgeon.

However, I enjoy a good laugh as much as the next person, particularly if I’m on the right end of it, and I’m reminded of a stunt I pulled many years ago – probably getting on for ten years now. A friend of mine was living in North Wales, and complained that he wouldn’t get any Valentine cards. So I bought about a dozen, mailed them off to a number of female friends living all over the UK, who filled them in, and posted them to him in Wales, all anonymously.

Readers, he was thrilled. He really was. No scent of a rat was detected. I actually can’t remember if I ever told him, but I certainly didn’t at the time. It brightened up his day considerably :)

Mirrored from kestrel.org.