Tag Archives: Baking

Back to School with Scrumptious Lunchbox Muffins

Back to school with Scrumptious Lunchbox Muffins by Dairy Diary

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Back to School with Scrumptious Lunchbox Muffins

Those brand new shoes are shiny and there’s that familiar scent of new stationery with a perfectly organised pencil case nestling in a pristine (for one day only!) school bag.

It must be back to school time!

Make their first day back at school even more memorable with a scrummy homemade muffin.

With fresh blackberries it should pass muster with even the most vehement lunchbox police.

 

Lunchbox Blackberry Muffins - a Dairy Diary recipes

Lunchbox Blackberry Muffins

Makes 12–14
Time 30 mins
Calories 225 Fat 9g of which 5.5g is saturated
Suitable for vegetarians
Suitable for freezing

Self-raising flour 300g (11oz)
Baking powder 1 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp
Ground mixed spice ½ tsp, optional
Demerara sugar 200g (7oz)
Fresh blackberries 250g (9oz), very large ones halved
Full fat milk 300ml (½ pint)
Butter, 125g (4½oz), melted
Eggs 2 large, beaten

1 Preheat oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and line a 12 or 14 hole muffin tin with paper cases. Stir together dry ingredients and sugar in a bowl, then add blackberries and mix.

2 Whisk together milk, melted butter and eggs. Gently fold liquid into dry ingredients, taking care not to over-mix.

3 Divide batter between muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until well risen and golden. Serve warm or cold.

A Dairy Diary recipe.

 

 

Read the blog on www.dairydiary.co.uk/

Bramley Apple Week | Recipe: Spiced Apple Cake

Spiced apple cake recipe

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Bramley Apple Week

The Most Requested Dairy Diary Apple Recipe

Ever since childhood, when summer seemed sunnier, the grass seemed greener and those apples plucked from the boughs of my Grandad’s tree tasted like the most delicious fruit in the world, I’ve loved apples.

Needless to say, I don’t need much encouragement to eat or cook with them. And as it’s Bramley Apple Week this week I am using it as an excuse to bake a recipe that’s been requested on numerous occasions by customers who have lost the original.

Printed decades ago in a very eighties Dairy Diary, the original photograph of this apple cake doesn’t really make you want to dash in the kitchen and don your apron. However, after so many requests, it must be a good ‘un, so I’m going to give it a go.

Recipe: Spiced Apple Cake

Spiced apple cake recipeServes 12
Suitable for freezing
Suitable for vegetarians

Self-raising flour 350g (12oz)
Mixed spice 2 tsp
Butter 175g (6oz)
Soft brown sugar 175g (6oz)
Raisins 225g (8oz)
Egg 1, beaten
Milk 200ml (7fl oz)
Bramley apples 2, peeled and sliced
Demerara sugar 25g (1oz)
Clear honey to glaze

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Spiced apple cake recipe

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1 Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Lightly grease and line a 20.5cm (8in) diameter deep cake tin.

2 Sift the flour and spice into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the soft brown sugar and raisins, than add the beaten egg and milk and mix to a soft consistency.

Spiced apple cake recipe3 Spoon half the mixture into the tin, cover with half the apples and then top with the remaining mixture. Decorate with the rest of the apple slices and sprinkle with demerara.

4 Bake for 1¾ hours (cover with foil if the apples are browning too much) until browned and firm to touch.

5 Cool in the tin for 15 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Remove lining paper and glaze with warmed honey.

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Spiced apple cake recipe

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The Romance of Steam Trains

Llangollen Steam Railway

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It’s all getting a little steamy

Steam trains have a certain romantic allure, especially if you sit in a carriage like this one depicted by one of my favourite artists, Eric Ravilious.

Eric ravilious trainI love to sit and watch the scenery go by whilst wondering what it would be like to go back in time and ride by steam during its heyday.

This year saw the 75th anniversary of the Mallard breaking the world speed record for steam on Stoke Bank just south of Grantham, Lincolnshire. And next year it is 100 years since the Flying Scotsman began its infamous Edinburgh to London route, clocking 100 mph – the first ever to achieve this speed. To commemorate this we have a feature on the joy of steam travel in the 2014 Dairy Diary, giving a brief history and lots of info on railway-related places to visit.

Llangollen in North Wales gets a mention
and quite rightly so, it’s fabulous!

Thomas-The-Tank-Engine-Llanglloen

I took the whole family to Llangollen railway last weekend for the fantastic Day Out with Thomas. The children got to ride on Daisy, Thomas and Douglas and well as enjoy Thomas-related crafts and face painting.

Face-Painting-with-Thomas-The-Tank-Engine

I’m not sure who was most excited, the children or their dad and grandad! It was a truly lovely family day out and we even got to enjoy the spectacle of a double rainbow sweeping over the river Dee.

Llangollen-Steam-Railway-Rainbow

For more information on where to ride a steam train visit www.heritagerailways.com or buy the 2014 Dairy Diary. It’s available now!

buy bow

Cherry Biscuits recipe

Cherry Biscuits recipe

Our picnic aboard Daisy include these scrummy Cherry Biscuits from the Dairy Diary.

Dainty Floral Cupcake

Dainty Floral Cupcake

Dainty-Floral-CupcakesMakes 9
Time 45 mins
Calories 485
Fat 27g of which 16.9g is saturated
Suitable for vegetarians
Suitable for freezing

Butter, at room temperature and very soft 110g (4oz)
Caster sugar 110g (4oz)
Lemon extract 1 tsp
Eggs 2 large, beaten
Self-raising flour 110g (4oz)
Baking powder 1 tsp
Milk 1 tbsp

For the topping
Butter, softened 175g (6oz)
Icing sugar 300g (11oz), sifted
Lemon extract 1 tsp
Sugar flowers and sugar sprinkles (glimmer) to decorate

1 Preheat oven to 180ºC/Gas 4 and place cupcake cases in a muffin tin. Put butter and sugar in an electric mixer. Add lemon extract with eggs, flour, baking powder and milk. Using beater attachment, mix batter well until you have a smooth pale cake mixture.

2 Divide mixture between cupcake cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and firm to touch. Leave in the tin to cool.

3 Beat butter, using an electric whisk, until pale then add icing sugar and mix on lowest setting until blended. Then blend on full speed for a minute. Add lemon extract and beat again. Spoon buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe swirls onto cupcakes. Decorate with sugar flowers and glimmer.

A Dairy Diary 2014 recipe.

 

Mini Carrot Cakes

Mini Carrot Cakes recipe

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Mini Carrot Cakes

Makes 12 cakes Time required 45 mins plus cooling. Per portion: 466 Kcal, 22g fat (6.5g saturated)

Bananas 2
Carrots 175g (6oz), peeled and finely grated
Self-raising flour 275g (10oz)
Baking powder 1 tsp
Ground mixed spice 1 tsp
Soft light brown sugar 175g (6oz)
Eggs 3, beaten
Sunflower oil 175ml (6fl oz)

for the topping
Butter 50g (2oz), softened
Icing sugar 300g (11oz), sifted
Full fat soft cheese 125g (4½oz)
Ready-made chocolate carrot decorations 1 packet with 12 carrots

 

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and thoroughly oil a 12-hole non-stick muffin tin.

2 Mash the bananas in a large bowl, then stir in the carrots followed by the remaining ingredients. Beat well with a wooden spoon.

3 Pour the mixture into the muffin tins, filling each hole to the top. Bake for 20–30 minutes until golden and well risen, then remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4 For the icing, using a wooden spoon beat together the butter and sugar until the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs. Then beat in the soft cheese and continue beating until the icing is soft and fluffy. Generously swirl the icing on top of each cake and decorate with a ready-made carrot.

 

Recipe taken from Clever One Pot.

Celebrate St George’s Day

Celebrate St George's Day with this marvellous bread pudding recipe.

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Celebrate St George’s Day with this

clever Bread Pudding Recipe

When I commission a home economist to write recipes for the Dairy Diary they first supply me with a recipe ideas list. And oh what a treat!

This is one of my favourite elements of my job – choosing a final recipe selection from this list.

It’s never a good idea to read
through it before lunch though,
as it makes me ravenous.

I plan the recipes according to the season and to reflect any special events. That is why St George’s Day Bread Pudding caught my eye. I thought it would be perfect for this week in 2014.

However, I also felt a little baffled by its title. How was a bread pud related to St George’s Day? Obviously bread pudding is a very traditional recipe and it does originate here but that was the only link to St George I could discern. That is until I saw the pic (above).

How clever is that? It looks like lots of little St George’s Cross flags. And you won’t believe just how divine it tastes too. It’s actually ended up more like a bread and butter pudding, but who cares about that…..just enjoy it. I have and I will be enjoying it again this week to celebrate St George’s Day.

St George’s Day Bread Pudding

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