cobnut, apple & cinnamon cake

i used my cobnuts to make an apple and cinnamon cake. the recipe i used was a nigel slater one for moist plum cake (see here for a cherry & almond version, including the recipe which you can adapt if you fancy giving this a try) which uses a mix of flour and ground almonds.

i blitzed the cobnuts in my food processor and used this in the place of the almonds. a teaspoon of cinnamon into the mix and pieces of apples on top of the cake mix and that’s it. the cobnuts added an extra depth of flavour, similar to hazelnut. because i used the nuts fresh they were quite coarse which added a really nice crunch to the cake texture.

blackberry and apple cake

 

i’m sorry things have slowed down on the blog over the past few weeks. i’ve been having a stressful time at work and have had a few bugs which have really hit my energy levels – yesterday i was desperate to go to bed at 6:30pm but managed to hold out until just after 8!

as a result my cooking has not been particularly inspired as i’ve relied heavily on old favourites. not that that’s a bad thing, particularly when it comes to nigel slater’s moist plum cake, adapted above as a blackberry and apple cake and previously as a cherry and almond cake.

apple and lemon curd

over the past few months we've been very lucky and have been given several bags of fruit from friends whose gardens are more bountiful than ours.

apples have been particularly welcome as we use one or two each day in our morning smoothie. however, two carrier bags of donated apples (which means i am sharing this with the crispy cook who is hosting grow your own) plus an online supermarket order cock-up which resulted in me being provided with 20 lemons rather than the few thought i had ordered, led me to try this river cottage recipe for apple and lemon curd.

lemon curd is a favourite from my childhood and i love eating it spread on thickly buttered white bread. this lemon and apple curd is very similar to lemon curd (unsurprisingly) but has a lighter texture and more fragrant flavour. sadly it is similar to lemon curd in that it contains large amounts of butter and needs eating within 4-6 weeks of making.

however, three weeks on from having made the curd, we’re on our last jar.

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trotsky’s treat

the gorgeous pooch pictured above (and below, if you keep reading) is trotsky who is owned by my friend dom. dom is a great person to know as not only has she got a trotsky, but she is a superb and prolific jam, marmalade and chutney maker.

whenever we visit, david and i always end up peering into her preserves cupboard and then have to make the difficult decision about which jars to request.

i asked dom if she’d let me have details of one of her creations for this blog and the result is below. it’s also in the jar that trotsky is so excited about!

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