Meal Planning Monday - the quiet February week edition!

At least that's what I'm hoping!

Last week felt insanely busy and I ended it feeling meh for lots of reasons. I've got a bit of a cold that comes and goes, and on Saturday, my foot started hurting periodically without doing anything (other than a bit of jogging). So I sat down that afternoon, planned the week and stuck in a grocery order (motivated just a bit by a 10% off code in my email) so I could have a quiet Sunday, mostly child free as they went off to visit the in-laws. I had a morning of doing nothing, putting away said groceries and an afternoon of making a roast and some bread.

I'm hoping the week continues in this calm vein, although it's parents evening this week (for me, afternoon...) and Friday is the end of this half term, which is the halfway point in the school year. Wow. Nothing else special on so I've got some new things to try and one carry over from last week because I gave up and went to find a new chippy.

Monday - Bhaji frittata
Tuesday - Slow cooker Thai coconut chicken soup
Wednesday - Cheesy lentils
Thursday - Slow cooker bacon, smoked cheddar and egg casserole
Friday - Arabian lamb mince
Saturday - Cauliflower and broccoli cheese
Sunday - keeping free for now

That's it. Next week will of course be the half term edition, which will only be half a week as we are away for one night and late back another.

And in the meantime, you go over to Mrs M's and see the other entries in Meal Planning Monday. Click the badge above to enter a world of meal plans.

Coconut & Lime Cake

As you know, I was away last weekend. It's been booked for months, and so felt a bit bad when I realised the school summer fair was on the same day. Never mind, I thought - I'll make some cakes for the cake stall.

Then, I get a note saying that school was having a competition to see which class could make the most cakes. Which meant I needed to make the same number of cakes for each child. Oh, and I promised someone else I'd make a cake for an NCT fundraiser too. My first idea was to make my usual chocolate cake in loaf tins so I could make two cakes in one go. And then I made a coconut sponge cake, my absolute favourite. Having made golden banana cake from Nick's book for the NCT, I still needed to make one more cake so each child had two cakes. Why do I do this to myself?

I realised I still had coconut milk left over. I didn't want to make the same basic cake so I decided to adapt it and add another flavour. I remembered I had some limes lurking in the fridge- and came up with the idea for this. It's based on the original recipe. I kind of made it up as I went along - I decided to add the lime syrup after I'd baked the cake then add the usual buttercream with a bit of lime juice. This is a really easy recipe but the syrup adds another step.

Inside Out Bounty Cake

One of my favourite flavours is coconut and you may have seen on this blog a few weeks back, that I blogged a favourite recipe of mine for coconut cake. Around the same time, I also blogged the recipe for my friend Helen's chocolate cake which I have discovered is both easy and impressive.

I was thinking about cakes - as you do - and I remembered that a favourite dessert I once had on a holiday was coconut ice-cream with a warmish chocolate sauce. And then I thought of Bounty bars - coconut in the middle, chocolate on the outside. It got me thinking - maybe I could make a chocolate coconut cake. So, I set off on a Google search, the results of which were disappointing. Half the recipes stipulated cake mix as an ingredient and I have to be honest, I really don't see the point when I have the basic ingredients to hand.

I therefore set about devising my own cake using both of the above recipes. What I decided on was to have the chocolate cake in the middle, with the addition of some coconut to give it a bit of flavour, and coconut frosting on the outside, kind of like a Bounty inside out, so that's why I've called it Inside Out Bounty Cake! I've never devised my own recipe like this before, so it was fairly ground-breaking for me. I am good at following recipes, not creating them out of nothing.

I set off on this journey on Wednesday after the children went to bed. Unfortunately, after I'd baked the cake, I discovered I had no icing sugar so had to make the icing the next day as I was home alone with the kids and couldn't go to the supermarket. I was a bit dubious at first because I ended up with extra icing with my first piece and it seemed a bit sickly but it has been universally wolfed down and praised by those who have tried it. You only need a small slice so in theory, it lasts ages - unless you have kids who love coconut. Mine do!

Inside Out Bounty Cake

Ingredients
For the cake:
275g/10oz caster sugar
175g/6oz soft tub margarine
3 eggs
175g/6oz natural yogurt
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp coconut cream (try to use the thick part if it's separated a bit)
200g/7oz self raising flour
50g/2oz cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
50g/2oz desiccated coconut

For the icing:
100g/4oz butter, at room temp or slightly softened
300g/10oz icing sugar
4tbsp coconut cream or to taste (NOT creamed coconut - I buy the cream from Waitrose or Booths)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180^oC/350^oF/gas 4. Grease a 32cm (9in) spring form cake tin. Line the base with non-stick baking paper. Dust the inside of the tin with a little flour, then tap out the excess. (An 8in tin will also work although you may need to adjust cooking time.)

2. Beat the caster sugar and margarine in a mixing bowl until smooth (I use an electric mixer). Beat in eggs, vanilla essence, yoghurt and coconut cream. Sift in flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda, tip in the desiccated coconut.  Stir until fully combined. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and level the surface.

3. Bake cake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Put the tin onto a wire rack, and cool for 5 minutes. Turn the cake out onto rack to cool completely.

4. Make the icing once the cake is completely cool. Mix the butter and icing sugar together and stir in the coconut cream. Beat until smooth. You may need to add a little more icing sugar or coconut cream to get a nice spreading consistency. Swirl over the top and sides of the cooled cake.




As you can see, I made the icing a teensy bit runny but it did make it soft and nice to eat. There is only one piece of the cake left now but then I took a big chunk of it round to my friend's today. There were 7 children and 3 mummies - most of the kids had at least one piece, if not more!

What do you think to my experiment then? Leave me a comment if you try the recipe. Happy baking!

(This is an entry to English Mum's Big July Bake Off, for which the prize is a Green & Black's hamper. Entry details are on the post but entries close today - that's 31st July - so if you want to enter, get baking and snapping pretty quick!)

The "art" of baking - a beginner's guide. (Coconut Cake)

If you've been following me on Twitter this week, you'll know I've baked a couple of cakes. These were for the school summer fair for which the PTFA had asked for cake contributions for their "tea room". Mine went down extremely well - by the time I got there, the last piece of one of the cakes was disappearing off the table so I never even got to try them! However, it turned out that a lot of the other cakes were shop-bought, which is always disappointing as they just don't taste the same. It turned out there had been a very poor turnout of cakes this time.

It does seem to me that baking is a bit like maths. People like to say they are rubbish at it and it's cool to be that because it's perceived to be "hard". The thing is that, like maths, it often isn't as bad as people think it is and they really just need to have a go. It's easier to get someone else to do it for you, but ultimately, that's never as satisfying.

I bake cakes. I don't do it all the time or I'd be the size of the house. The cakes I make taste nice. I just can't make them look all that pretty. Don't ask me to make fancy sugarcraft or owt, it'll look a shocker. When I make a nice cake, people tell me "oh, you're so clever" but I always reply that the cakes I make are easy. And it's true. The two cakes I made this week are not technically challenging but they look impressive, even with a klutz like me icing them. I thought I'd share them with you, one at a time. I'm going to start with the easiest of recipes which is basically an all-in-one - otherwise known as "bung it all together and mix". ;)

Before I move onto the recipe, I'll share with you a few simple golden rules of baking. If you remember them, your baking will be more successful and, therefore, more rewarding.

1. Measure your ingredients fairly accurately. Baking is not "bung it in and hope for the best" cookery. It is relying on reactions for success that require reasonably strict proportions to be maintained. So use those scales, even if they are rubbish. At least they will be consistently bad. Cheap digital scales can be bought cheaply if you really want to invest.

2. Try and use the right size and shape of cake tin as specified in the recipe. This is particularly important when you're starting out. If your recipe says use a 9" diameter tin, use it. You can use a smaller tin but it will take longer to cook than stated in the recipe; a square one might take more or less time to cook. Cake tins can be bought fairly cheaply if you don't do a lot of baking - springform ones or those that have a loose base make for getting cakes out of tins far, far easier. And remember to prep your tins. Greasing and lining the tin as per the recipe also helps. A lot.

3. Get all the ingredients out before you start. This helps to get the mixing bit done as quickly as possible, rather than having to root through your cupboards. If you're using butter, it may need to be soft so get it out of the fridge in advance and if it specifies softened and it's midwinter, be prepared to zap in the microwave for a few seconds. It'll save hours of trying to mix in block butter.

4. Don't substitute too wildly. Use the right kind of flour as specified - tho you can convert plain to self-raising if you know how - and be careful with your sugar; there are so many different types. I often use caster sugar where they specify golden caster and that's OK. Using icing sugar or soft dark brown sugar isn't! I am the queen of substitutions normally, but even I try to stick to the right ingredients unless the recipe suggests it.

5. Finally, be a slave to the recipe. Follow it word for word. If something does go wrong, try and scribble on the recipe so you know for next time if it doesn't work properly for you. Ovens are variable, and sometimes recipes do contain errors. If you think it needs more of something, try that next time.

So, here is one of the cakes I made this week. It's a coconut cake. Coconut is a favourite flavour of mine but I know it's one of those things that people either love or hate. If you're the latter, sorry - I'll blog the other recipe soon.

I found this recipe in one of those little booklets you sometimes get with BBC Good Food magazine. It must be some years ago now and I can't find this exact recipe on their website. I have made this cake several times for NCT branch events and when people aren't drawn to the chocolate cake that I'll blog about next, they try this and love it, yet it is ridiculously simple. I even made this for Monkey's first birthday as he was enjoying the flavour of coconut at the time and then of course, he wouldn't touch a piece. Still, I was not unhappy - I was baking another baby already by then.

I have found over the years of making it that you get the best results by getting proper coconut cream. I used to make it with sachets of creamed coconut but the cake was slightly dry and the icing very stiff, which made it hard to ice. I discovered little cans of Waitrose Coconut Cream and it transformed the cake from "good" to "amazing" and the icing is much more easy to put as well as look pretty. Even I can do attractive swirls in it now.

Coconut Cake
(Serves 8 - 12)

Ingredients
For the cake:
175g/6oz self-raising flour
175g/6oz golden caster sugar (ordinary works fine)
175g/6oz butter, softened, plus some extra for greasing
1.5 tsp baking powder
3 eggs (I use free range but that's your decision), beaten (tho I never do beforehand)
50g/2oz desiccated coconut
2 tbsp  coconut cream, or single cream (better with coconut cream)

For the filling and topping:
280g/10oz icing sugar
100g/4oz butter, softened
3 tbsp coconut cream or single cream (again, far better with coconut cream)
5 tbsp raspberry jam (seedless or no bit varieties best but not essential)

You will also need 2 20cm/8in sandwich tins and some greaseproof paper.

1. Heat the oven to 180C/fan160C/gas 4. Butter the two tins and line the bases with the greaseproof paper. Place the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs in a food processor and mix for 2-3 mins until smooth. Add the coconut and cream and mix again briefly. (If you don't have a food processor, a hand mixer will do. If you don't have that either, you could just mix all together with a fork or a hand whisk. Or you could mix the sugar and butter first, then add the eggs, then the flour and baking powder and finally, the coconut and coconut cream, mixing after each addition.)

2. Divide the mixture between the two lined tins and smooth the tops. Bake in the oven for 25 mins until evenly golden and firm (they will spring back when lightly pressed). Loosen the edges of the cakes and leave in their tins for 5 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Peel off the lining paper when cool.

Here are my cakes cooling on the rack:

3. Make the icing  - beat together the icing sugar (I always sift it so you get fewer lumps), butter and coconut cream until smooth. Spread one of the cakes with the jam. Top it with just under half of the icing and place the other sponge on top. Swirl the remaining icing on top of the sponge. Try to resist eating the whole thing right there and then.

Here's my effort from yesterday:

Doesn't it look yum? I can't believe I didn't get to eat any of it, *sob*. It is blooming lovely. The coconut and raspberry are a great combination of flavours and the cake is lovely and moist. It makes your house smell heavenly whilst it is cooking, and I think you can really taste the butter in the cake so it's really worth using that over margarine. I find that I sometimes need a little more than 3 tbsp coconut cream in the icing to get a smooth and spreadable icing and if you use too much, you can always add a little more icing sugar.

So, now, you've not got any excuses - it's not only easy, it doesn't take up lots of time (another reason people give for not baking). This cake takes 5 minutes to mix and get in the oven. You can be doing something else whilst it cooks and cools. It takes another 5 minutes to make the icing, and then, as you can see, only a couple of minutes to "decorate" the cake (well, the way I do it. ;) ). It tastes miles better than anything you'd buy in a shop, you know what's in it and it's probably cheaper too. Cake may not be the healthiest of things but making your own with lovely ingredients has surely got to be the best way to indulge the occasional treat. Hasn't it?

Go on, you know you want to! And if you do, particularly if you are a first-time baker, I'd love you to comment on this post and let me know how you got on and how the cake (and baking) was for you.