Key Lime Cake - recipe

Not an advertisement, I just love this road sign, and I want to prove something, that it is true, cake has health giving benefits in bucket loads...honestly...it really does...read on...

Last weekend was our March South Lancashire Clandestine Cake Club 'do', it was a Spring themed affair and my creative juices thoughts were flowing thick and fast...
...hhhmmmmm...Spring...fresh...green...fruits...tangy...citrusy...lemons...LIMES...LIMES!!!

So I came up with this cake, nothing special really, just another take on a basic Victoria sponge, but I wanted to make it as zingy, zesty and sharp as I could, and I wanted a fresh tasting lime hit in each mouthful of the cake; so to get this lime hit I used 5 limes in this cake.

It was so worth all the squeezing and grating, as this cake was zesty, fresh, so delicious and really was quite a light cake too! AND best of all none of the bakers or guests at last weeks South Lancashire's Clandestine Cake Club will be getting scurvy anytime soon...fabulous!

Tender pork ribs - (random) recipe

Here is my contribution to Random Recipes, which is so very well hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen (yes its that bloke off the telly/radio and frequent penner of articles re le food); the challenge this month is to choose recipe book number 17 from your collection (counting left to right) and to randomly select a recipe from chosen book number 17. My (ever so lucky, I can't believe I actually got to choose this one) choice was 'Comfort and Spice' by Niamh Shields, a book I have reviewed on this blog in the past and one from which I have made quite a few recipes already (her Blahs recipe (bread rolls) is truly amazing and a firm favourite here, we love them!).

So a quick flick through Comfort and Spice and...STOP...we have...taaaa...daaaaaa! Baby back pork ribs recipe! (luckily we are not vegetarians here so it was a good choice). 

Sweet potato scones - recipe

Another post and yet another bloggers challenge dear readers...this time its from 'Tea time Treats' hosted this month by the very lovely Karen at Lavender and Lovage...and its SCONES!

I must be honest, scones are not my thing as a rule, I have never made a very well risen scone, and goodness knows I have tried (having had the most success with Ruth Clemens recipe). Yes I can make pastry, yes I can make cakes, but scones? No! I'm never sure why my scones are not too good either; my grandmother was a great scone maker (she always made them in rounds with a cross on the top, for cutting/ quartering purposes), mind you its just as well, she never baked anything else only scones!

Molten Mint Meringues - recipe

These might look a little strange but that's because its a strange challenge we are tackling here...Chele (in charge this month) over at the 'we should cocoa' camp, has come up with a green theme...(thanks Chele!) and that means to come up with something edible with chocolate AND green...together!!!

Therefore, I have been trying to dream up all kinds of concoctions, (some fairly inedible I'm sure) but eventually...that EUREKA moment!!! The Molten Mint Meringue is born...its the long lost triplet of M and M, a devilish delight, appearing pale and uninteresting on the outside but bursting with gooey, minty, chocolatey, marshmallowy, sweet lushness on the inside. Don't believe me? Check out the interior! Green enough for you Chele?

Little Simnel cakes - recipe - giveaway

Here's a confession, NO not one of those type of confessions(!), I have never made simnel cake before until now, this is my first time! Simnel cakes are traditionally made at Easter, and have been made since medieval times, its a fruit based, sweet spiced round cake (usually) containing marzipan in the middle and is traditionally decorated on the top with more marzipan and rolled balls of marzipan; to finish off the top is usually toasted. The inside of the cake is a much lighter than a Christmas cake in appearance and texture.

This version is a tray bake simnel cake and to make this I followed a recipe from the Easter baking section on the Baking Mad website, click here to see the original recipe. I amended this slightly as I didn't have all the ingredients to hand when I made this cake. I used raisins, dried cranberries and cherries for the dried fruit and ordinary self raising flour not wholemeal flour. This tray bake version worked really well and produced a delicious light cake, I gave some cakes to my mum (who loves simnel cake) on Mothering Sunday.

It has also been a Mothering Sunday tradition in days gone by that young girls 'in service' would bake a simnel cake to take home to their mothers and they were allowed to go home to visit mother on that day.

This recipe is the easiest thing ever to do, it takes no time at all. This is how simple it is.
Ingredients: (cake)

Cajun (blackened) coley - recipe

An easy and low fat recipe for cajun (blackened) coley. If you have never eaten coley before it is part of the cod family (but the flesh may appear pinker), its a lovely meaty fish (reminds me of swordfish or monkfish).

There are various recipe around for cajun spice mixes which you can use on fish/chicken/meats/veggies to give a big flavour and a hit! Cajun spices are often referred to as 'blackened' in recipes as they do just that, in that they blacken the outside of whatever has been coated and then cooked. You can put your spices on quite thickly as I have here, or sprinkle more thinly if you want a more subtle cajun flavour.

Calvados, raisin and cranberry ice cream - recipe

At Christmas I was really lucky and Santa left me an ice cream maker, I have wanted one for ages because I just love ice cream, but I only like really nice ice cream, the posh full of cream kind. So I was delighted to get my own machine and since Christmas I have been trialling various kinds of home made ice creams. I've mostly been making up my own recipes as I go along. So far so good, and none of the ice creams I have tried to make (Malteser, spiced plum, blueberry, vanilla) have turned out too badly at all. I don't have many recipes for ice creams or books to follow, so a quick look on Google to check my own thinking with some recipes and away you go.

'Posh' homemade fish finger sandwich - recipe

Sometimes the simplest of things make a lovely supper and this is one of them, what we call a 'posh fish finger sandwich', its a delicious fish dish that's full of goodness with the right ingredients...and by right I mean 'fresh'. Buy the freshest fish you can find to make this, and use a reliable source everything else you need for this recipe you'll probably have in your cupboards.

The fish fingers are coated in a beer batter and this is my all time favorite batter, its easy to make and its light, its great for making onion rings too!

Of course you don't have to make a sandwich with these homemade fish fingers, children love them dipped in ketchup and with fries, but please have a go at making these, homemade fish fingers are so much more tasty than the frozen orange coated sticks you reach for from the freezer.