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We believe that the whole experience of reading about food and cooking should be as pleasurable and inspiring as eating it, and we want to help promote the people and places doing that best.
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Bad Girl Bakery – Date, Apple And Walnut Cake
We are over the moon about the publication of Bad Girl Bakery by Jeni Iannetta, which will be in all good book stores in November. Jeni who is based in the Scottish Highlands is an inspirational woman and her baking really is out of this world.
With apple season upon us, we thought this date, apple and walnut cake would give you a wee sneak peek and a taster of what is to come once the Bad Girl Bakery is let loose in your kitchen.
So over to Jeni now. And yes, bad girls do make very, very good cake indeed.
Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Bad Girl Bakery direct from us via our website here and guarantee you’re one of the very first to be cooking up her baking delights in the comfort of your own home for family and friends.
Thank you as always for your support.
Date, Apple & Walnut Cake By Jeni Ianetta (Bad Girl Bakery)
This date, apple and walnut cake started its life as a sticky toffee cake, but we had some apples to spare and set about experimenting and here is the result! It’s a really simple cake to make, but somehow the rows of apple slices on the top make it look much fancier than it really is. The apple jelly glaze intensifies the flavours and gives the apple slices a lovely shine.
SERVES 9–12
32 x 21cm traybake tin, lined
Ingredients:
150g chopped dried dates
150ml apple juice
250g unsalted butter, softened
275g soft light brown sugar
5 medium eggs
280g self-raising flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1⁄2 tsp baking powder
1 small red apple, skin on, cored and grated
To Finish:
3 small red apples, skin on, halved, cored and thinly sliced
4 tbsp apple jelly or apricot jam (optional)
75g walnuts, roughly chopped
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C) fan.
Put the chopped dates and apple juice in a small pan on a medium heat and simmer until the liquid is almost all absorbed. Set aside to cool.
Put the softened butter and sugar in your bowl or stand mixer and beat until it looks lighter in colour and less craggy. Crack your eggs into a jug and weigh the flour, cinnamon and baking powder into another bowl.
Pour one egg into the butter and sugar and add a spoonful of flour. Mix (on low if you’re using a mixer) until fully combined, then repeat with each of the remaining eggs. Add the rest of the flour and mix till it’s just combined. You’ll need to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula after each addition. Stir in the cooled date mixture and the grated apple with a spatula until combined, and spoon into the lined tin, smoothing the batter out with a palette knife or the back of a spoon. Neatly arrange the sliced apples in rows across the top.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 60 to 65 minutes. Test the centre with a skewer after an hour, and if it doesn’t come out clean pop back in the oven for five minutes, then check again. (You may need to do this more than once – every oven is different, so don’t worry if yours takes a bit longer to bake.)
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes or so while you make the glaze (if you’re using it). Pop the apple jelly and two tablespoons of water in a very small pan and put over a low heat until it begins to boil (you can also do it in a microwave on low). Stir until it’s smooth and then glaze the top of the warm cake with it using a pastry brush. Scatter over the chopped walnuts while the glaze is still warm.
Leave to cool a little in the tin before lifting out using the paper and slicing.
YUM! Thank you Jeni for this truly magnificent cake x
Kitchen Quiz Episode 6
Kitchen Quiz with Katerina Nitsou (author of Macedonia – Recipes & Stories From The Balkans)
Katerina Nitsou spent her childhood in the kitchen helping her grandmother, mother and aunts prepare family feasts using fresh herbs and vegetables from the family’s prized garden. Growing up in a large Macedonian-Canadian community in Toronto, she was immersed in Macedonian culture through language, dance and of course, food.
She began writing about traditional Macedonian cuisine long before she completed her training at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. She honed her recipe writing skills in the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen and developed her cooking style working as a food stylist, caterer, and private chef in California. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two young children, whom she is teaching to cook.
Macedonia – The Cookbook; Recipes & Stories from the Balkans is out on Kitchen Press now. It is such a beautiful book and a wonderful culinary journey into this part of the world.
We caught up with Katerina recently and asked her a few questions so we could all get to know this talented, enterprising and creative woman a little better.
Q: Hey Katerina, was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
A: It wasn’t any cookbook in particular that inspired me, it was actually the lack of Macedonian cookbooks in the market that inspired me. I will say however that when you love food and cooking, being surrounded by cookbooks is just a part of daily life and then it makes it hard to pick a favourite.
Q: What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
A: I had this tiny thin spatula with a watermelon print on it that I’ve probably had for 12 years. I had to toss it out recently because it was literally falling apart, and I’ve been trying to find the same one with the same shape and profile and sadly not succeeding.
Q: Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
A: I’m a big Spotify fan, I always have music on at home. These days I’m listening to Michael Kiwanuka and Federico Aubele’s radios, but I also am known to jam some old school 90’s and early 2000’s Hip Hop and R&B.
The podcasts I’ve loved most over the last year are “Second Life” with Hilary Kerr and “More Than One Thing” with Athena Calderone. For those that may not know this is about me, in addition to being a retired chef and cookbook author, after a journey of working in real estate for Sotheby’s and doing our own developments, I now work in interior design and property development as a professional renovator here in Melbourne. These podcasts that focus on featuring women who are not afraid to embark on new experiences and try new business helped me so much in my waves of doubt and transition in my recent move from Los Angeles California to Melbourne Australia this past year and enterprising and creative women are certainly the ones in the world I connect to.
Q: If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose?
A: Macedonia, I would love to spend time traveling around Macedonia, cooking and learning in all the villages and towns.
Q: If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
A: Trust yourself and your senses. Cooking is about sight, touch and smell just as much as taste and don’t over think it… Worst thing that can happen is you’ll have to order in.
Thank you so much for your lovely insights Katerina!
You can purchase the book direct from us here and begin your own journey into Macedonian food culture.
Eat Bike Cook – Sweet Potato Falafels & Tahini Dressing Recipe
Although you may have to make a pitstop to eat them, these falafels taken from a recipe in the up and coming Eat Bike Cook by Kitty Pemberton-Platt and Fi Buchanan are perfect for a cycling lunch, or any other kind of lunch.
This Eat Bike Cook recipe was inspired by the food diary of Sophie Edmondson (a member of the wonderful The 5th Floor Cycling Collective) while taking part in the 200km off-road race the Sussex Mystery Tour and fully illustrated by Kitty for the book.
These falafels are so satisfying without being heavy, and the lemon zest and coriander give them an enjoyable freshness. This recipe also makes more than you need for one pitta so make a batch and then freeze them.
Serves 4
Ingredients for the Eat Bike Cook sweet potato falafels:
About 2 medium sweet potatoes (500g baked flesh)
50g gram flour (chickpea flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp sea salt
handful of coriander, finely chopped
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
50ml olive oil
20g sesame seeds
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200 C/180 C fan. Place the sweet potatoes on the top shelf of the oven and bake for approximately 50 minutes, until soft. When cool enough to handle, cut the sweet potatoes in half, scoop out the flesh and discard the skins.
Mash the cooked sweet potato in a large bowl, then add the rest of the ingredients, except for the olive oil. Using the two tablespoons, arrange 12 evenly sized balls of the mixture on a baking tray and sprinkle the sesame seeds over them. Drizzle the rest of the olive oil over the falafels and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the seeds are brown and the exterior of the falafels is crispy.
Ingredients for the tahini dressing:
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
100g tahini
pinch of salt
pinch of cumin
Method:
To make the tahini dressing, put all the ingredients in a medium bowl along with 6 tablespoons water and whisk well until combined. Serve three falafels in a warmed pitta bread or tortilla wrap, with salad leaves, tomato and cucumber slices and a drizzle of tahini dressing.
To serve:
4 pittas or wraps
4 handfuls of salad leaves
2 vine tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cucumber, sliced
Wrap tightly in greaseproof paper and/or tin foil.
Then enjoy them on the road!
Eat Bike Cook can be pre-ordered here.