This post was inspired by a recent trip to Rye in East Sussex. The weather that day was absolutely bitter – they type of cold that really gets into your bones, so a hot mug of tea and a decent piece of cake are pretty much essential. I stopped in a lovely little cafe but I was in such a rush to get the train back that I didn’t pay much attention to the name – whoops!

Anyway, when I got home I had a urge to bake an enormous batch of rock cakes, loaded with cinnamon and stuffed full of juicy sultanas. Just the thing to accompany a bit of weekend crafting.

I followed this recipe by the fabulous Dan Lepard, with my own addition of three teaspoons of cinnamon and 175g of sultanas. I didn’t go for the chocolate drizzle – just didn’t seem right on a rock cake!

All photography © Heather Elizabeth Wilkinson 2013

Have I mentioned that I moved house recently? Well that’s why things have been a bit quiet on the blog recently. It’s well-known that moving house is one of the most stressful things you can do, and I can confirm this is very much the case.

You never realise how much ‘stuff’ you have until it comes to packing it all up in boxes. I harbour a desire to be a minimalist but quite frankly I’m really kidding myself here. I’m a complete hoarder and the majority of my hobbies involve having physical ‘stuff’. Photography, craft, art, cooking, books – you get the picture. If I were to list the amount of handbags I have any minimalists out there would probably break into a panic-induced sweat.

So anyway, moving house has meant getting used to a new oven. My old house had a fan-assisted gas oven, which would cook most things a lot quicker than any recipe suggested. It also seemed to be hotter on the right of the oven, which meant you had to turn sponge cakes at regular intervals or they’d be lopsided.  And no one wants a lopsided sponge cake.

The new place has a slick electric oven, which, as I’ve found, provides a nice even heat. It’s taken a bit of getting used to, making sure I don’t undercook things, but so far cooking with electric has made me a very happy camper.

I had an abundance of carrots in the cupboard this week so I decided to use them in a quick fruity loaf cake. What’s nice about this recipe is that it doesn’t contain any butter – all the moisture comes from the carrots and sultanas. And it’s light and fluffy because you fold in whipped egg whites. A very yummy moist cake and I always feel a bit less guilty eating it because it contains carrots.

You will need:

Butter or sunflower oil for greasing your tin
200g golden caster sugar
4 large eggs, separated
200g finely grated raw carrot
Finely grated zest and juice of half lemon
Finely grated zest of an orange and half its juice 
100g of raisins or sultanas
100g ground almonds
200g of self-raising flour
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

1. ) Preheat the oven to 170oC/Gas Mark 3. Lightly grease a loaf tin, about 20 x 10 cm, and line with baking paper.

2.) Beat the sugar and egg yolks with a whisk for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is pale and creamy. Lightly stir in the grated carrot, lemon and orange zest and juice, raisins and ground almonds. Sift the flour, salt and spices together over the mixture and then fold them in, using a large metal spoon.

3.) In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Stir a heaped teaspoonful of the egg white into the cake mixture to loosen it a little, and then fold in the rest as lightly as you can.

4.) Pour the mixture into your loaf tin and gently tap the tin on the worksurface to level the mixture.

5.) Bake for about an 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6.) Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

All photography © Heather Elizabeth Wilkinson 2013

For me, the perfect chocolate brownie should be rich (but not sickly), dense (but not too heavy) and, without doubt, moist in the middle.

Today is Bastille Day. I could tell you that’s why I decided to bake madeleines but it would be a big fib – it was actually pure coincidence.

I’d managed to get myself a couple of vintage Madeleine tins a few months ago and, despite my best intentions, they’ve just sat gathering dust in my kitchen. That is until today when I decided to ‘get my bake on’.

I based my recipe on this one from my beloved Little Paris Kitchen book by Rachel Khoo.

In her recipe, Rachel uses raspberries and lemon curd, but I’m not one for sickly cakes so I decided to keep things simple with the addition of some roasted flaked almonds, scattered on the top just prior to baking.

You need to allow a bit of time to prepare the mixture, because the batter has to chill for a few hours before baking. Once the mixture is chilled, the madeleines bake really quickly.

Perfect for lazy Sunday mornings, served warm from the oven with a fresh cup of coffee.

All photographs copyright © Heather Wilkinson 2012