Golden Syrup Sponge Cake

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

This cake was loved by everyone and it has gone down really quickly! It was so nice when it was still warm from the oven! But even the next day it was lovely, just zapped in the microwave for 10-15 seconds. Steve’s Mum said it was just as good as the Chewy Cocoa Brownie Cupcakes I make, which is high praise indeed as their one of her favourites!

It’s great to have with just a cup of tea, but Steve’s Mum had it with strawberries and cream! You could also drizzle some extra golden syrup on top and drown it in custard. Heaven!

• Makes: 24 squares
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C
• Oven shelf: upper-middle
• You will need: a saucepan, a large mixing bowl, a 32cm x 23cm x 2cm Swiss Roll tin

Ingredients:

• 200g (8oz) butter
• 200g (8oz) golden syrup
• 300g (10oz) self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 200g (8oz) light muscovado sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Butter and line the base of your Swiss Roll tin.
2. Gently melt the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan, stirring to combine. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 3/325°F/170°C.
4. Sift the flour with the salt and stir in the sugar. Beat in the cooled syrup mixture.
5. Beat in the eggs and milk, then combine with the flour mixture until smooth.
6. Pour into the tin and level out.
7. Bake for 40-50 minutes until it has risen and is firm in the centre – test with a skewer and it should come out clean.
8. Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
9. Allow to cool for another 10 minutes before cutting into 24 squares – then devour.

Grow your own Onions 2009

• ONION SETS: ‘Centurion’
• PLANTED OUTSIDE: 22 May
• WATERING: Water if the weather is dry (not otherwise). Stop watering once the onions have swollen.
• FEEDING: Feed occasionally
• LOOKING AFTER THE CROP: Break off any flower stems which appear. When swollen, pull back the covering soil to expose the bulb surface to the sun.
• HARVESTING: When the bulb is mature the foliage turns yellow and topples over. Leave them for 2 weeks and then carefully lift with a fork to a dry day. They should be dried if not used immediately.

The photos below were taken on 22 May:

Steve’s sister gave me some onion sets as she had some leftover. This one has started to sprout already, so it was one of three that I planted in the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need to plant them 10cm apart and with their tips showing. You can see the tip of this set at the bottom of the photo below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo below was taken on 1 June:

Although we’ve had a lot of rain and sun lately, I’m still quite shocked how quickly the onions have shot up in just over a week! Steve’s sister said that some of the onions she planted rotted because they got too much rain, so I’m watching out that they don’t get too much water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photo below was taken on 13 June:

The tops of the onions look like spring onions now! So I’m waiting for them to turn yellow and topple over and then I think I can remove some of the soil to expose the bulb to the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update 25 June:

I haven’t bothered to take a photo of the onions as it’s not very interesting! The tops of the onions are just really, really long at 26 inches long and that’s all there is to say really!

The photo below was taken on 25 July:

The foliage has fallen over and the bulb has just started to poke through the soil. They’ve got a while to go yet before they’re ready though.

 

 

 

 

 

The photos below were taken on 21 August:

I lost the foliage on one of the onions and on the others it had fallen down weeks ago. They weren’t growing so I decided to pull them up as I thought they were a lost cause. Steve’s sister said her onions didn’t grow very well either. As she gave me the onion sets, I wasn’t upset that they didn’t grow. She said she bought them from Wilkinsons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, only 1 onion set actually started to grow any bigger. So that’s the end of the onions!

 

I have now used the space that the onions were taking up for my butternut squash as the plants are trailing so much!

New and improved pizza!

MUNCH RATING: 4/5
 
I used a different recipe for the dough and I think it tasted much better than the recipe I tried from BBC Good Food. It’s just as easy to make and I made it quicker by cheating and using a ready made tomato sauce. I also used a different brand of yeast, so the pizza didn’t have the funny aftertaste that I got when I used Tesco’s Fast Action Dried Yeast. I used Doves Farm Quick Yeast, which comes in a packet so you can easily measure out the amount you want, rather than have half used little sachets everywhere.

Although it was much better than my other attempt at pizza, there is still room for improvement! It was crispy around the outside but still a bit stodgy underneath and in the middle, but Steve likes it like that!

I used my new Prestige Baking Sheet, which was the perfect size and it was so easy to clean – even the tomato sauce that got burned onto it. I didn’t bother putting it onto another tray that had heated in the oven (as the BBC Good Food recipe suggests) and I got exactly the same results.

• Makes: 1 large pizza
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• You will need: a large bowl, 1 large baking sheets
• Prep Time: 15 mins plus 30 mins to let the dough rise
• Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:
FOR THE DOUGH

• 175g (6oz) strong white flour
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast
• pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 120ml (4 fl.oz) lukewarm water
• 2 Tablespoon oil

FOR THE TOPPINGS

• Tomato Sauce (I used half a 350g jar of Lloyd Grossman’s Sweet Red Pepper Sauce)
• 125g mozzarella, roughly torn into pieces
• 2 mushrooms, finely sliced
• 1 sweet orange pepper, finely sliced
• 2 slices of bacon, roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed or grated
• small handful of mature cheddar cheese or parmesan, grated
• fresh basil leaves

Directions:

1. Sift the flour, dried yeast, salt and sugar into a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre and add the water and the oil.
3. Use a round-bladed knife to mix into a ball of dough and then tip out onto a lightly floured board.
4. Knead well for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and will spring back when lightly pressed.
5. Place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and put in a warm place to prove for about 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size (I put mine in the cupboard next to the tumble dryer whilst it was on!)
6. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
7. Take the proved dough out of the bowl and carefully place on a lightly greased baking tray. Spread your fingers and gently press the dough down to flatten it (this is knocking back the dough) and create either a circle or square shaped pizza. I made mine into a 10x10 inch square pizza and it was quite thin.
8. Spread the tomato sauce over the pizza, leaving a space around the edge.
9. Carefully arrange your toppings over the tomato sauce – I like to overlap the mushrooms and peppers with the mozzarella cheese and then have the bacon and garlic on top to get crispy. I then finish with the grated cheese and some black pepper.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. I added some fresh basil leaves in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

You might also be interested in:

• Homemade Pizza
• Calzone and Dough Balls