Fluffy Chocolate Orange Cake

It feels like such a long time since I've made a cake with butter, that I'd forgotten what a difference it makes to the texture. So light and fluffy!

(That makes all my butter-free cakes sound a bit rubbish doesn't it?)

I'm not saying that all butter-free cakes taste heavier - infact, there are some where you can't even tell the difference. There's great satisfaction in serving a cake, hearing the yummy noises, and then seeing the surprise on their face when they hear that it has no butter and/or little sugar.

Obviously then there's also those moments where I serve with a pre-cursor of, 'er, this was a bit more experimental so the texture is a little...different.'

But anyyway. Before I dig myself into a bigger hole, let's get back to the main business of oohing and aahing at this deliciously fluffy chocolate orange cake here...

Fluffy Chocolate Orange Cake

Print-friendly recipe

For an 8” square tin (25 squares):

250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g unsalted butter, softened
125g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
50ml olive oil
Juice and zest of 1 small orange
75g dark chocolate, broken into small chunks

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl.
2.In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Mix in the beaten eggs, oil and orange juice.
3.Melt the chocolate gently in a pan, mixing in the orange zest. Take off the heat.
4.Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and fold in. Carefully stir in the melted zesty chocolate, using a skewer to swirl it around.
5.Transfer the batter to a lined square tin, using a knife to level it out. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until you can pull a skewer out clean.

More Hungry Jenny cakes here.
Other chocolatey recipes you might enjoy. Continue reading this post..

An Ode to Peanut Butter - Kitchen Hero!

One fine day Sainsbury's said to me,
Gee, what do you think a Signature Dish would be?
Hm, I mused, how am I supposed to know?
Ask, they replied, who's your Kitchen Hero?

Look to your cupboard...and rummage around
Your Kitchen Hero is something that can be found...
As a staple product that you can't live without
One that you can never, ever have run out

Why, that's easy, I squealed with glee
Peanut butter is a foodal essential for me
I always have at least two jars in store
If I've only got one left, I run out to buy more

Peanut butter is something I used to hate
But now, every day, I turn to it like a mate
Straight from the jar, or with a trusty bit of toast
I get a daily fix, some days more than most

So back to the important issue at hand
One dish in particular I make that is most grand
My go-to dinner when nothing else will do
A dish to impress friends, it makes them say 'Ooh...'

It's speedy to make, and easy-peasy too
Just get that peanut butter and let me show you
Mix it with Greek yogurt and a little bit of stock
And boom! You got a satay sauce that no-one will dare knock

Read on for the full recipe, I hope you'll try it out
Whether you like it or not, let me know, give me a shout
If not, then this ode I hope you still enjoy
About this Peanut Butter Dinner Dish of Joy!

The Peanut Butter Dinner Dish of Joy!

Print-friendly recipe

Serves 2:

75g By Sainsbury's smooth peanut butter
75ml hot veggie stock
100g Greek yogurt
300g diced chicken breast
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 + 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
75g celery stalks, chopped
50g mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
Handful of roasted peanuts (or cashew nuts)
Some fresh coriander, roughly chopped

150g white rice, uncooked
250ml boiling water

1. First, a bit of prep. In a jug, pour in the veggie stock, then gently stir in the peanut butter and yogurt.
2. Marinate the chicken in the soy sauce, honey and half a tbsp oil. Leave for about 10 minutes.
3. Put the rice in a pan with the boiling water. Bring to the boil, then turn down, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Take off the heat, leaving the lid on.
4. Add the remaining tbsp oil to a hot pan, and gently brown the chicken.
5. Add the celery and mushrooms, cooking for another few minutes of minutes.
6. Gently pour in the peanut butter mixture and stir through. Turn down to a simmer, cover and leave to cook a few more minutes.
7. Finally, stir in the nuts and toss in some fresh coriander. Serve with the steamed rice.

Other peanut butter recipes you might enjoy. Continue reading this post..

Pop Up Mushrooms (and Other Beings) in Chichester

Ooh, whazat yellow dot in the distance?

Is that a...mushroom?


*Bling!*

*Boing! Blick-up! Bling!*

Ok, before you back away from slowly, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

My parents were visiting me in Chichester this weekend, and we were strolling back home in the evening after a nice Thai dinner when...

Eh?

There were a couple of men scurrying away from the scene, packing their stuff into a van. Turns out that this particular work in the making is by a Brazilian street artist called Nunca.

The random mushrooms were made by a South Africian artist Christiaan Nagel. He was a surfer and one day came across some polyurethane material, and thus the colourful mushrooms were born - popping up around the world ever since.

But what are these global artists doing in the sleepy city of Chichester?

Well, a quick search on Twitterland and I quickly realised that this is part of the #ChichesterStreetArtFestival 2013, where a group of international street artists have been brought in to colour up some of the city's walls! There happened to be a tour of the murals yesterday so decided to go and find out more.

The tour was done by Richard from Street Art London, who explained how they work with street and graffiti artists to help bring their work out more, through festivals like this, talks, tours and exhibitions. It was interesting to hear that you only need permission from the building owner (ie not planning permission as well via the council) to do something like this (for unlisted buildings at least).

The murals have been created are going to be permanent (unless it angers a load of people to take them down, which I hope won't happen). Here are just a few of them...

Blue tits by ROA

ROA, as you can see, does alot of big animals. This wall was actually quite a small canvas for him apparently! He always chooses wildlife that matches the environment - hence the blue tits for the countryside of Chichester. (You wouldn't find any armadillos splashed across a wall here!).

Thierry Noir, who painted 18km of the Berlin Wall, muses over the crowned king at the end here

These bright dudes can be found around the perimeter of the Chichester Festival Theatre, which is currently undergoing work. When the theatre reopens, I believe the panels are all going to auctioned off.

Owls by Dscreet

Still in the making at the point this photo was taken. Dscreet shuffled away as we came up - alot of these artists are shy or don't like to talk to people about their work. I guess seeing a bunch of people gawking at their work is not really what they need when they're trying to get on with it!

Stik

These minimalist guys are my favourite! They're on a wall that is right in the centre of town, so probably the most visible one - this spot was given to Stik as his work was considered the 'safest' - no risk of offending anyone here. Stik confines himself to 6 lines with these guys. I love how they have so much expression!

I took photos of them all, but just posted my favourite ones here, otherwise this post will be super long! And this is really something you should go and see with your own eyes. Main sites are at Chichester College, Metro House, Pallant House Gallery...and another couple of spots you'll have to find!

Hopefully it will help to generate more interest to the city, and bring more visitors to Chichester :-) Continue reading this post..

Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: Chocolate Flat-Loaf

Baking is not like learning how to ride a bike, it seems.

This, my friends, is what happens when I attempt to bake after a period of absence...

Not too bad-looking, right? But erm...this was meant to be a Chocolate Loaf.

I seem to be blogging less and less these days. Partly because I honestly just haven't been feeling to experiment in the kitchen as much as I used to, but also partly because I feel so brain-fried from work these days, that the thought of going back onto my laptop in the evenings just makes my eyes scream.

This aint the end of Hungry Jenny yet though by any means. Today's been the first time in ages that I felt like writing, so thought I'd run with it and see what happened. Whoever still reads my edited ramble, I hope you still find some joy in it.

(I was rather hoping though that it wouldn't be about something that had gone wrong!)

It's been so long since I've baked properly that I cannot even begin to work out what happened with this loaf. The batter certainly seemed alright - it filled up the loaf tin in a decent manner and seemed a bakeable consistency too.

Having said that though, there have been times where the cake batter has gone into the oven in an indecent manner, but then come out very nicely baked indeed. So I tend not to judge a cake by its batter.

Ironically, the taste of the cake itself was really quite nice - still moist, sponge-like, and laced with chocolate. Just a third of the height it was meant to be.

So of course, I just cut it up into bars and pretended it was meant to be like that when I shared it out. Only you guys know the truth ;-)

Fancy a laugh at my other Hungry-Jenny-Faux-Pas? Continue reading this post..

Mussels in Brussels

(Sorry, I had to say it!)

I went to Brussels last weekend for a few nights with one of my best friends, Sam. It was for her hen do (though she was after more of a chilled break away rather than a raucous one). So much of the weekend was lazing around exploring the sights, and of course, looking for food.

On the Sunday, we went to visit Bruge. Because of a problem at the hotel that morning (don't ask!), we didn't actually get to Bruge until late afternoon, which meant we kinda skipped getting a proper lunch.

Psst, fear not, for we did stop for waffles to keep us going in the meantime...

After going on a canal boat tour, we decided to find somewhere to eat dinner in the main square (T'Zand) before heading back to Brussels. We ended up in a place called 'La Source' - simply because there were mussels on the menu and offered free wi-fi.

The wi-fi wasn't working properly unfortunately, but what cheered us up was that the mussels were available! Hurrah!

Sam and I both went for mussels a la marinere...
It's a good thing we were hungry because the portions were HUGE. When the pot you're given is large and the mussels are overflowing from it, you know you're faced with a challenge!

As we got stuck in, we found ourselves caught up in a game of Jenga, stacking up the empty shells in the lids. Juvenile I know, and probably a bit dangerous, given that it was distracting us from how full we were getting.

But look, we did it, ha!

(This is just my lid by the way!)

Of course, we then proceeded to transfer half the shells back into the pots, otherwise the poor waiter probably would have ended up dropping them all onto the floor when clearing our dishes. See, we're responsible adults really...


Continue reading this post..

Speedy Hot Cross Buns (Yeast Free)

Ah, it's Easter Sunday..! Ah, the clocks went forward..! Oop, there's no Hot Cross Buns to be seen!

Fear not, for in 30 minutes time, you can whip up a batch with store cupboard ingredients and have your day swinging back in motion again.

I don't know about you, but I'm not one to wait around for food. Baking cakes and pies is a long enough wait for eating anyway, in my mind, and it's probably why I've still never got round to making a full roast yet!

It's also the main reason why bread never features here, because all that hanging around for yeast just isn't my thing. I mean sure, there are special cases like Herman, but those moments are far and few between.

With this Speedy Hot Cross Buns, you basically just use self-raising flour and you don't have to faff around waiting inbetween stages of making them either.

When you've made the dough, you don't need to wait; after you've made them into dough buns, you still don't need to wait. They're even made in a cupcake tray so that you don't have to worry about them spreading into each other weirdly. Sure, they don't have that proper hot cross bun glaze on top, but hey, they are still worthy of their name.

So quit hanging around! Make the dough, get them in the oven and eat 'em now!

Speedy Hot Cross Buns (Yeast Free)

Print-friendly recipe

Makes 12 (cupcake size):

300g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
75g mixed dried fruit
75g softened butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
75ml milk
50g white sugar

50g icing sugar
1/4 tbsp water

1. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Sift the flour into a large bowl with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold in the mixed fruit.
2. Rub in the butter to a breadcrumb consistency.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg with the milk and sugar.
4. Make a well in the flour mixture, then pour in the eggy mixture. Gently start to bring it together into a dough.
5. Put your dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat it out to the thickness of a £1 coin.
6. Use a 2.5” round cutter to stamp out 12 rounds, and transfer them to a cupcake tray. Use a knife to score a cross on the top of each one.
7. Bake for about 15 minutes until risen and lightly golden.
8. Meanwhile, mix together the icing sugar with the water, adding a splash more water if needed to make icing thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Carefully drizzle the icing along the grooved crosses atop the buns.

More Hungry Jenny cakes and cookies! Continue reading this post..

Seedy Baking (with Cherry Flapjack Bites)

I'm not gonna lie to you, I've felt pretty lazy over the last few months and not really feeling the baking, hence the lack of posts lately. Then by golly, inspiration hit in the form of a wodge of butter!

Ok, let me explain - I got a message from the Clover family asking if I wanted to take part in the 'Clover Seedburst Recipe Challenge'.

I wasn't sure at first, because I actually tend to steer clear of using butter in my baking (well, discounting PIES of course) - but what with Seedburst having loads of healthy seeds and wholegrains, and generally being less fatty than normal butter, I jumped at the challenge.

I started off with what I thought would be a relatively easy recipe to create - these Cherry Flapjack Bites...

But even before they reached the oven, I was convinced they weren't going to come out right (that's confidence for you!). Luckily though, I managed to salvage them...

It's hard to say where exactly it started to go wrong, but I only really noticed when I was er, about to pour the mixture into the tin. Hm, yeh a bit late in the day I know. The mixture just seemed quite dry and not meshing well. Solution? Well, at the last minute - I added in more butter into the mixture that was still in the bowl. It still didn't seem quite right, when the mixture was all in the tin though.

So I picked up my knife and spread more butter on top - yes, as if this flapjack was a large piece of toast.

And the result?

Perfectly edible, not-dry-at-all, cherry flapjack bites - phew!

I've worked the extra butter and oil into the recipe below, so you should be able to nicely dodge last minute er, adjustments like this. But I reckon you should just go ahead and do the buttered toast effect on top anyway ;-)

Cherry Flapjack Bites

Print-friendly recipe

Makes around 28 bites (for a 12 x 8" tin):

250g self raising flour
250g rolled oats
125g white sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
200g dark cherries, halved
1 egg, lightly beaten
200g Clover Seedburst butter (or any other soft butter)
75ml olive oil
50g melrose cherry jam

1. Sieve the flour into a large bowl, and mix in the oats, sugar and baking powder.
2. Fold in the dark cherries.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the butter, oil and jam until smooth. Add to the dry mixture and mix well.
4. Pour into a lined 12 x 8" tin, using a knife to smooth out the top.
5. Bake at 180 degrees C for 25-30 minutes until nicely brown.

I've since used Clover Seedburst in other baking recipes, because oddly enough, it feels a bit wasted just spread on plain old bread! It's more fun to bake with instead. So keep your eyes peeled for more recipes I'll share soon ;-)

More Hungry Jenny cakes you might enjoy here! Continue reading this post..