Recipe: Emily's banana loaf

Ingredients
7oz self raising flour (sift)
4oz caster sugar
2oz margerine
1-2 eggs
2 bananas
6 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven 180 degrees - mine is a fan oven.
2. Grease (with a butter wrapper) and line a loaf tin with grease proof paper.
3. Sift the self raising flour
4. Combine butter cubes and caster sugar in a large bowl - I don't like getting my fingers greasy, so I used a whisk for this but carefull not to get it everywhere.
4. Add the other cake ingredients to the butter sugar mix and whisk until smooth
5. Pour mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes.
6. Check the cake regularly, cover with tin foil if the top is brown before the baking time. (approx. 15 mins)
7. You can tell that the cake is cooked by poking it with a mental/wooden stick, it should come out clean without any dough stuck to it.
8. Cool the cake in the tin to keep the moisture in.

Recipe: Chinese beef stew with star anise 蘿蔔牛腩

Serves 4-6
Cooking Time 2hrs - 2hrs 30mins

Ingredients
3-4 tbsp olive oil
6 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1 piece fresh root ginger (thumb size) peeled
1 bunch spring onions sliced 1 red chilli thinly sliced
1.5kg beef (shine, shoulder, ox cheek) cut into large pieces
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
2 star anise
2 tsp sugar (light muscovado preferred)
3 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
500ml beef stock
1 carrot chunks
1 mooli chunks

1. Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a large, shallow casserole. Fry the garlic, ginger, onions and chilli for 3 mins until soft and fragrant. Tip onto a plate.

2. Toss the beef in the flour, add 1 tbsp more oil to the pan, then brown the meat in batches, adding the final 1 tbsp oil if you need to. It should take about 5 mins to brown each batch properly. Heat oven to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2.

3. Add the five-spice and star anise to the pan, tip in the gingery mix, then fry for 1 min until the spices are fragrant. Add the sugar, then the beef and stir until combined. Keep the heat high, then splash in the wine or sherry, scraping up any meaty bits.

4. Pour in the soy and stock (It won't cover the meat completely), bring to a simmer, then tightly cover, transfer to the oven and cook for 1.5-2hrs, add the carrot and mooli halfway through and stir the meat.

5. The meat should be very soft, and any sinewy bits should have melted away. Season with more soy. This can now be chilled and frozen for up to 1 month or serve immediately with jasmine rice or rice noddles.

Moist lemon chiffon cake (Baking Fridays)

Found some sorry looking shrinking lemons in the fridge, what's better than turning them into a yummy dessert. I have tried this receipe twice and it seems to be consistently delicious, would think it works with limes as well, so enjoy!

Ingredients:
Lemon cake:
125g/4oz butter cubes (softened in room temperature)
175g/6oz caster sugar
175g/6oz self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking powder)
2 large eggs
1-2 lemons
65ml milk
Lemon sauce:
3 tbsp caster sugar
Juice from lemons 

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven 180 degrees - mine is a fan oven.
2. Grease (with a butter wrapper) and line a loaf tin with grease proof paper.
3. Sift the self raising flour - love my new Habitat sift for lazy people.

4. Combine butter cubes and caster sugar in a large bowl - as you can tell I don't like getting my fingers greasy, so I used a whisk for this but carefull not to get it everywhere.
4. Add the other cake ingredients to the butter sugar mix and whisk until smooth - it'll be quite runny.
5. Pour mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. You can tell that the cake is cooked by poking it with a mental/wooden stick, it should come out clean without any dough stuck to it.
6. Make the lemon sauce by dissolving the lemon juice with the caster sugar.
7. When the cake is cooked, don't remove the tin. Slice the top and pour on the lemon sauce to add flavour. 

8. Cool the cake in the tin to keep the moisture in.

Plum & hazelnut upsidedown cake recipe

This was featured in this week's "Waitrose Weekend" guide. I was impressed that even for someone who's rubbish at baking or following recipes properly, it turned out perfectly moist and spongy. So I decided to share it here. I couldn't find the recipe on the www.waitrose.com/recipe website, so even typed up the whole thing here, happy baking!

Prepare 20minutes
Cook 45minutes
Serves 8 (or a greedy couple over the weekend :-p)

Ingredients
125g butter
50g light muscovado sugar (I accidentally used brown granulated sugar, but seems to work)
50g roasted chopped hazelnuts (couldn't find them so used flaked almonds instead)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 Plums, stoned and quartered (make sure they are ripen, some of mine were a bit sour...)
75g golden caster sugar
Grated zest of 1 orange
1 large free range egg, beaten
150g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml Soured Cream

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4. Butter and base line a 20cm round deep cake tin. Melt 50g of the butter and mix with the muscovado sugar, hazelnuts and cinnamon. Scatter over the base of the cake tin and press the quartered plums into the base.

2. Beat the remaining butter with the caster sugar and orange zest until pale and creamy (is it me or should this specifically say melt the butter first?), then beat in the egg a little at a time (again, shouldn't it say beat the egg first, THEN add a bit at a time?). Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and fold into the creamed mixture with the soured cream to give a soft consistency. Spoon on top of the plums and level the surface.

3. Bake for 45-50 minutes until well-risen, golden and firm to touch. Cool in the tin for 15minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Serve warm with cream or cold. Store in an airtight container.

Nutrition: 245kcals / 4.3g protein / 35.7g carbohydrate / 21.3g sugars / 20.6g fat / 10.3g saturated fat / 1.7g fibre / 0.7g salt per serving

See what I mean by not being able to follow recipes, now?