Sticky date pudding with caramel rum sauce

My darling partner often has to watch as I whip up some baking and trot off somewhere with it (usually work), only to return with crumbs. So when I was musing about what I could bake on a relaxing Sunday afternoon and he suggested sticky date pudding, I couldn't disagree. I had a craving for caramel and wanted to experiment with making rum caramel. And what goes more perfectly with sticky date pudding than caramel sauce!

I have a gorgeous sticky date pudding recipe, it really is the best. Never fail, deliciously moist and moreish. It's one of those fantastic recipes that I have cut out of a newspaper many years ago and sellotaped into a recipe notebook. I return to it time and again.

I like making them as little individual cakes - using a giant muffin tin.

1 cup of pitted dates, chopped
1 cup hot water
50g butter
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs

Pop the dates and water into a microwave bowl and microwave for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the butter and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking soda and spices into a bowl and stir in the brown sugar.

Add the eggs to the cooled date mixture and mix well. Fold in the dry mixture.

Pour into muffin tins or a 23cm cake tin and bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes for the muffins or 30 minutes for the cake. Leave them to stand for 5 minutes or so before you turn them out - this helps them keep their shape. They are best served warm - they will heat beautifully in the microwave.

This time I made it as a cake, just cos.

I smothered it in rum caramel sauce, mmmm. I just made a simple caramel (a cheat's caramel, not a melt sugar and make sure you don't burn it caramel) and added a good slosh of rum. I love rum. There are tons of recipes online for easy caramel sauce, I would recommend on like this.

You could add sultanas to this recipe if they are your thing, just use a few less dates and make sure you soak them or you will end up with a dry cake.

Yummo

Caramel apple pie

I did some more experimenting this afternoon. My workmate made the most delicious bannoffee pie on Friday, and it got me thinking whether the same could be done with all my excess apples. I decided to give it a go.

I made caramel using sweetened condensed milk, butter and brown sugar. I blind baked store-bought sweet shortcrust pastry in my flan tin. (I rarely make my own pastry, it is one of the few things I prefer to buy ready-made. I find that the time and effort to make my own far exceeds the convenience of having ready-to-go pastry in my freezer).

I sliced up my apples and mixed them with sugar and flour. I spread the slightly cooled caramel on the pre-cooked pastry and then spread the apple on top. I baked it in the oven for about half an hour.

The end result was a sticky, sweet, delicious pie-like dish. I was so pleased. We had a slice for dessert, however I could only eat a small sliver, as it's very sweet. I think I would like to try it again and put the apple under the caramel, to see what happens.

Apple pie

I stayed with a friend last weekend and as we were wandering around her yard, I noticed two wonderful apples trees groaning with apples leaning from the yard next door into hers. Her two excitable dogs were having a great time eating them and chasing them around the yard, but I saw an opportunity.

We loaded up a bag with as many apples as we could reach, leaping up to grab branches to pull the apples closer (she is about as tall as me, so we only scratched the bottom!) One of the trees had green apples and the other red apples. They really were wonderful trees; beautiful big fruit with a bright shine and a gorgeous colour.

I got them home and cooked up a yummy apple pie. I can't take credit for the wonderful lattice decoration on the top of the pie (thanks Rodney!), but I did make the pastry and filling. It's so simple. Make some basic pastry, chop up your apples (peeled or unpeeled) and toss the apple with some sugar and melted butter and whatever spices you like. I used ground cinnamon and cloves. I love cloves with apple. Not much of either, just enough to have a slight hint. Cook it until golden. Sometimes I add custard powder to the apples, this gives a lovely thick consistency. I brushed the pastry with milk before cooking to give it a lovely shine.

I also stewed up some of the apples and they turned into the most wonderful jammy consistency, I was so pleased. As I have a giant bag full, I am going to have lots of fun making all sorts of wonderful apple recipes. I had an idea the other day for a apple pie made with a layer of caramel, I might give that a go tomorrow (also gives me an excuse to buy a flan dish).

The best chocolate mousse

I have the best chocolate mousse recipe. It's by Nigella Lawson, and I found it in a newspaper in the UK, such a great find. This is a perfect dinner-party dessert - it's super easy to make, but everyone thinks you have gone to such trouble. You can make it as fancy as you like by serving it in dainty glasses (you only need a very small portion as it's very rich) and dusting with grated chocolate. (In the photo, I grated over while chocolate).

I am not a fan of raw eggs, and every mousse seems to have raw eggs. Not this one. It also has the added advantage that it's so super easy to make. Bung almost everything in a pot, melt it gently, stir in some whipped cream and you're done.

If you don't watch the pot when everything is melting, you can get little bits of hardened chocolate mixture. I have learnt that this is not the end of the world, it just adds some texture and you can pretend that it was supposed to be like that all along.

One day I made this using Crunchie chocolate and it worked a treat. It had a lovely subtle hokey pokey flavour with little bits of hokey pokey mixed through. Yum. I think you could add almost any flavour you like; rum, orange, coffee etc. Just adjust the mixture a bit - add some grated orange zest, substitute the vanilla for rum, the hot water for coffee. It's such a versatile recipe.

Click here for the recipe. Enjoy!

Easy, delicious white chocolate cheesecake

Sticking with the white chocolate theme, this is simply the best cheesecake! It's so easy to make (well, relatively easy), and is certainly a favourite of mine. I found it by accident, in a newspaper or magazine one day several years ago. It's a great special occasion, or dinner party dessert. But really, you don't need an excuse!

The recipe says it will keep for up to a week in the fridge, though you would be doing well to resist for that long! However, you do need to make it the day before so it's well chilled when you want to eat it. I top with whatever I have: chopped fruit; tinned fruit; chocolate shavings; passionfruit syrup is particularly delicious.

Due to popular demand, I will start posting recipes as well, so here goes for the cheesecake:

450g cream cheese
1/4 cup caster sugar
3 t cornflour
3 eggs
1 t vanilla essence
3 t finely grated lemon zest
1 1/2 T lemon juice
2 cups sour cream
1 cup cream
220g white chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Wrap the outside tightly in a double layer of foil.

Whiz cheese and sugar in a food processor for 30 seconds until smooth. (I don't have a food processor, so I use my hand beater and just make sure it's really well mixed). Keep the motor or beater going, and add the cornflour, then eggs one at a time, stopping every now and again to scrape down the sides. Add vanilla, zest, juice, creams and 1/4 t salt, and process until just combined scraping down the sides. Add chocolate and pulse until smooth. Pour into tin and sit in a large baking dish. Pour hot water into the dish to come halfway up the sides of the tin. Bake for 45 minutes and then leave in the switched-off oven (door closed) for 1 hour. Remove the tin from the dish, remove the foil and cool the cake in the tin on a rack. Cover and chill overnight.

To turn it out, sit the tin on a hot damp towel to loosen the base. Run a palette knife around the edge of the tin, then invert onto a serving plate. Decorate and slice with a hot knife.

Enjoy!!!