Cakes v. dinners

My original intention with this site was to provide easy and inexpensive recipes to provide good wholesome food for students who were possibly away from home cooking for the first time. I hadn't  intended to give recipes for cakes etc  because they weren't totally necessary but hearing this morning from a student who was so in need of a lift, I changed my mind so now I have put on two recipes.  One is for an utterly scrummy chocolate cake and the other is for carrot muffins which are so incredibly quick and easy to make in addition to which they are so light and taste fabulous.   Although the primary purpose of food is to provide the fuel for our bodies it is also a great social tool and as socialising is a huge part of university life I have decided that it is just as important.  I will try to keep the recipes to those which are not hugely expensive because budgets still need to be borne in mind.  You will however need a little extra equipment if you are going to bake as well as cook so I will try to remember to indicate what you may need at the top of each recipe.

Carrot muffins

This recipe couldn't be easier to make and tastes light and delicious.  You will need a 12 hole muffin tin and a pack of paper muffin cases.

Heat the oven to 180c (or 160c if it has a fan) gas reg 4

• 175g dark brown sugar
• 100g wholemeal self raising flour
• 100g self raising flour
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice
• finely grated peel of 1 orange
• 2 eggs
• 150ml sunflower oil
• 200g carrots - grated

• Place one muffin case in each of the holes of the muffin tin
• Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl along with the finely grated orange peel.
• Whisk together the eggs and oil then stir into the dry ingredients along with the grated carrot.
• Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 muffin holes and bake for approximately 20 minutes.  Slide a cocktail stick into a muffin, if it comes out clean they are cooked but if not leave in the over for a couple of minutes then repeat with a different muffin.
• When cooked remove from oven and leave to cool.

To top them, mix together 300g of cream cheese with 100g icing sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla essence, spread thickly on top of the muffins.

For those who are in need of cheering up - the best, richest, most moist Chocolate Cake ever

The title says it all - this chocolate cake, if done right, is incredible.  Scrumptious.
You will need two 7" cake tins or a roasting tin and baking parchment 


Preheat the oven to 180c  350f or gas reg 4

• 2oz cocoa (definitely NOT drinking chocolate)
• ⅓ pint of warm water (around 7fl oz)
• 4½ oz trex or spry or White Flora
• 10½ oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 7 oz self raising flour

• Grease and line (with baking parchment) two 7" sandwich cake tins or an 8"x12" roasting tin.
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•  Mix the cocoa with the water to make a smooth paste, set it aside to cool.
• Put the fat and the sugar into a mixing bowl and cream them together until soft.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Fold in the flour with a metal spoon (do not beat or bang - folding means to stir it in gently with the side of a metal spoon in a figure of 8 pattern.  
• Stir in the cocoa mix until it is just mixed with the rest of the ingredients - don't overwork it.
• Spoon it into the prepared tins 
• Place in the oven for 40 -50 mins or until cooked, then allow to cool in the tin.

To test if a cake is cooked gently press on the surface with the pad of your finger, if it leaves a depression then it isn't done but if it springs back to its former shape it is cooked.


If you have made this cake in two sandwich tins then you need something to sandwich the two halves together.  The simplest solution is whipped cream - yummmm.  Alternatively you could make a butter icing with 

• 3oz icing sugar
• 1oz cocoa
• 1oz butter 
• a tablespoon of chocolate spread
• a drizzle of cold water

• sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl, add the butter and chocolate spread and mix together.  It won't come together very well at first and will be to thick but persevere. 
• Put the cold water into a jug or a cup - don't try to do it from the tap as you could get too much and that would make the icing too thin.  Drizzle a little at a time into the icing mixture and keep mixing until you have the perfect spreadable consistency which is thick enough to stay put on the cake. 

If you have made the cake in a roasting tin it will be to thin to cut in half but you could still spread the gorgeous chocolatey butter icing on the top or if you feel brave there is a very tricky but utterly delicious caramel icing which can go with it.  For this you will need:

• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3oz butter
• 5 tablespoons water 
• 12 oz icing sugar

• Place the sugar in a small thick based pan and heat gently until it melts and turns golden brown.  DO NOT STIR OR ADD WATER AT THIS STAGE.  
• Remove from heat, allow to cool slightly, add butter and water and stir to mix.  Beat in icing sugar and spread it over the cake whilst the icing is still warm then leave to set whilst you scrape out the pan and eat whatever you can dig out.

(Be sure to follow these instructions carefully or you may end up with toffee stuck firmly to the bottom of your pan)

When the icing has set use a long, sharp knife to cut the cake into squares.

Gravy

In response to an SOS I am re-posting the section on making gravy.  This method is for using cornflour, if you don't have any cornflour look out for an amendment at the end.

place some of the cooking liquid into a pan, with a stock cube (or gravy granules if you prefer) if you haven't used one earlier, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring until the stock cube is dissolved. 

If you are using gravy browning add that now 

Put one tablespoon of cornflour into a cup and add a little cold water, stirring to a loose paste, if the cornflour feels resistant to stirring add a little more water until it loosens up.

Remove the pan from the heat and allow any bubbling to subside, then add about half of the cornflour mixture stirring all the time, return to the heat and bring back to the boil.  If the gravy isn't thick enough repeat the process with the rest of the cornflour mixture always remembering to remove the gravy from the heat before adding the cornflour otherwise it will go lumpy.

Remember that gravy is not scary - if it goes lumpy you can either whisk the lumps out or you can put it through a sieve.  If it is too thick, add more water, if it is too thin, make more cornflour paste and add that.

If you don't have cornflour then you need to do things slightly differently.  Place a  tablespoon of cooking liquid into a saucepan, add a tablespoon of flour and stir them into a paste.  Slowly add more stock until the gravy is the required consistency and don't forget to add your stock cube.

If you prefer onion gravy, slice an onion and fry it in a little butter and oil until it is translucent.  Sprinkle the flour/cornflour over the onions, stir it in and then add boiling water stirring all the time.  Add stock cube and browning or gravy granules keep stirring until it is boiling and then reduce heat and simmer. 

Freshers

So it is Freshers time again - depending on your university.  My daughter is returning to university this weekend in time to get settled in her new house before Freshers Week starts.  Although not a Fresher she will be helping out during the week.  Is this a good idea?  Poor confused Freshers will be totally lost by the time they have heard her ranting for any length of time, and rant she will.  The university are not allowing registration until October 4 which means that her student loan will not arrive until around October 7 - rant, rant, rant.
We visited her house on Monday.  She was understandably excited about the prospect of having her own house, and the excitement wasn't dented too much by the state it was in.  Sadly it hadn't been cleaned very well - she was particularly revulsed by the sight of a used cotton bud on the floor of one of the bedrooms.  I cleaned the kitchen and all the existing (and disgusting) kitchen utensils were relegated to the cupboard under the stairs.   Although the kitchen of the house is significantly smaller than the one in the university flat, at least she got the choice of who she shares it with.   Once we finish cleaning the house I am sure the three girls will enjoy living and cooking there.  All the kitchen equipment went over with us on Monday so it is already installed.


I hope these recipes will be of help to the new cohort of students - enjoy cooking and eating them and feel free to pass on the links.

Remember this?   if not have a look at the following link 


http://studentsinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/if-you-dont-have-garlic-press-and-dont.html
I gave you a link for it on Amazon but today I found it in Sainsburys priced at £6.50.  It is also available for online shopping with Sainsburys. 

Basics: How to chop an onion without tears

All the acids which cause your eyes to water are concentrated in the root end of the onion so the way to avoid tears is to avoid the root end of the onion.

Using a strong sharp knife, cut off the stalk end of the onion.

Peel back all the outer layers of the onion, if possible keep the outer layers intact as they make a convenient handle. 

Slice lengthways through the onion but don't go right down to the root, repeat this across the onion,


then turn it around other way and slice through again to produce a criss cross pattern  pictured below

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Lay the onion on its side and slice across the the diameter of the onion and as the pieces fall off you will see that they are diced.




If you want slices  rather than diced onion, stop when you have the criss cross pattern and just cut the root end off.

Now just toss the root end and the outer layers in the bin and you are done - onions chopped and dry eyes in the house.