BREAD, SCONES, MUFFINS AND CAKES

4 oz/125 g cooking or plain chocolate

2 oz/50 g butter

3 tablespoons strong made coffee or water

About 21/2 oz/70 g icing sugar

Decoration

Almonds or chocolate almonds

8 inchl20 em loose�bottomed cake tin

- METHOD -

Pre-heat the oven to 300°F, 150°F, Gas Mark 2. Line the base ofthe tin with a circle ofgreaseproof paper and grease both the paper and the sides of the tin. Melt the chocolate for the cake: break it into squares, put it into a small saucepan with the water, brandy or coffee and set it over very low heat, stirring continuously, until almost melted. Remove from the heat and continue stirring until smooth.

2 Beat the margarine and sugar to a cream. Add and beat in the eggs one by one. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the melted chocolate. Add the flour and ground almonds and mix.

3 The cake can be baked whole but cooks better in two halves. Pour half the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer or knife stuck into the middle comes outclean. Turn upside-down on to a wire rackand leave to cool for 15-20 minutes. Carefully lift off, wash and regrease and reline the tin and bake the second half of the cake as above. (If baked whole, the cake takes 1 hour 10 minutes.)

4 As the filling takes some time to cool and stiffen, make it as soon as the first half of the cake is in the oven. Chop the butter into small pieces and break up the chocolate. Put into a small saucepan over very low heat and stir until the chocolate is nearly Iiquified, then remove from the heat and continue stirring until smooth. Add and stir in the ground almonds. If the filling is not stiff enough to spread by the time both halves of the cake are cold, chill in the refrigerator.

5 Make the iCing. Break up the chocolate and chop the butter.

Put into a small saucepan with the coffee or water and melt as above. Stir in the icing sugar. The mixture should be as firm as dough: if it too liquid to hold its shape, itwill run offthe cake. If necessary, add a little more icing sugar. Fill a mug with very hot water and spread the icing over the cake using a table knife constantly dipped in it (this prevents the icing from sticking to the blade). Smooth the surface with the hot, wet knife and decorate.

- EGGLESS FRUIT CAKE-

That this cake is suitable for vegans is by no means its only recommendation: it is also, in my view, even richer-tasting than the equivalent made in the usual way with eggs. It is, however, slightly softer-textured and more crumbly, so that you need to take it out of the tin carefully and cut it with a sharp knife.

As with other fruit cakes, the fruit and nuts can be varied. Apricots with almonds and orange zest give " a tangy, refreshing taste,whereasapple juice with currants, lemon zestand pecans produce a flavour almost like that of good mincemeat. With these ingredients, especially, it is very suitable fora Christmas or birthday cake: I have therefore included recipes for Eggless Almond Paste and Icing. The addition ofa little brandy notonly enhances the flavour but also ensures that the cake will keep; even without it, however, an iced cake will stay fresh forat least a week in an airtight container.

Allow 1'14-l '12 hours for the All-Bran to soak.

- INGREDIENTS -

3 oz/90 gAll-Bran

'12 pinU300 ml soya milk, apple ;uice or milk

8 oz/250 9 soft margarine or butter

31/2 oz/lOO 9 almonds, pecans or hazelnuts

31/2 ozll00 9 walnut pieces

Bozll25 9 mixed dried fruit

8 oz/250 9 dark soft brown sugar

I tablespoon brandy (optional)

6 oz/190 9 plain wholemeal or white ffour

BREAD, SCONES, MUFFINS AND CAKES

4 ozl125 g no-soak dried apricots, currants or raisins

1 orange or lemon

8 inehl20 em loose-bottomed cake tin about 31/4 inehesl8 em deep

- METHOD-

Leave the All-Bran to soak in the soya milk, apple juice or milk for I 1J4- 1 1J2 hours. If you are using butter, take it out of the refrigerator and chop it into small pieces so that it softens (this makes mixing easier).

2 Roughly chop or crush the nuts (a few sizeable pieces add interest to the cake). Chop the apricots (if using) into small pieces; pick over the other dried fruit to ensure that it is not stuck together.

3 Pre-heat the oven to 300°F, 150°C, Gas Mark 2. Line the bottom of the cake tin with a circle of aluminium foil and generously grease the foil and the sides of the tin. Beat together the fat and sugar. Stir in the soaked All-Brain, nuts, dried fruit and brandy (if you are using it). Wash and dry the orange or lemon and finely grate the zest into the mixture. Stir in the flour. Tum into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Tum down the oven to 250°F, 120°C, Gas Mark 1/2, and bake for a further 30-40 minutes or until a skewer or knife stuck into the centre ofthe cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin to cool. Tum upside-down to remove the sides and bottom of the tin in the usual way (run a knife round the sides of the cake to loosen). Slide on to an upturned plate.

- EGGLESS ALMOND PASTE-

The ready-made almond paste sold in grocers' shops and supermarkets is flavoured with almond essence; this version is flavoured with lemon and tastes quite different- much sharper and less cloying on the palate. A whole lemon gives a fairly pronounced flavour, which I personally like, but if you prefer you can use the juice of only half and add an extra tablespoon of water to make up the quantity.

The quantities given below will produce enough paste for a fairly thin layer all over the cake. For a thicker layer you will need 2-3 oz/50-90 g more almonds and icing sugar, plus a little extra water.

The usual way of sticking the paste to the cake is with apricot jam, but any kind of jam will do provided that the flavour is not too obvious or unsympathetic to that of the cake. Good alternatives are plum or marmalade; the worst I can think of is blackcurrant.

Allow a couple of hours for the paste to dry out before adding the top icing (if you like, leave it overnight).

- INGREDIENTS-

7 oz/200 g ground almonds

8 oz/250 g icing sugar

Juice I smallish lemon

I tablespoon apricot or other iam or marmalade

-METHOD -

Mix together the ground almonds and sugar. Squeeze the lemon juice and add with I dessertspoon water. Gradually add as much more water as is needed to form a firm dough: exactly how much will depend on the juiciness of the lemon, but it will probably take most of another dessertspoonful. It is important that the dough should not be too soft or it will be difficult to mould.

2 Put the jam or marmalade with a few drops of lemon juice into a small saucepan and melt over low heat. When liquid, paint or spread very thinly over the top and sides ofthe cake, avoiding or removing any bits of fruit or peel (strictly speaking, the jam should be strained, but forsuch a small quantity this is hardly worthwhile).

3 Bought almond paste can be rolled out like pastry, but rolling is impracticable with this recipe: moulding the dough and smoothing the surface with a knife will give almost if not quite as good a result. Shape the dough into a f1attish disc, place on the cake and gently mould it over the top and down

BREAD. SCONES. MUFFINS AND CAKES

the sides. Use the flat side ofa blunt knife dipped in hot water to level and smooth it. Make a slight rim round the edge of the cake: this makes it easier to square off the icing. Leave to dry.

• ICING·

Iam glvmg instructions only for the basic coating: I leave decoration to you. If you want to try piping. make some extra icing and cut a small hole in the comer of a plastic foodbag to use as a nozzle. Unless you have done it before. I suggest practising on something other than the cake. or stick to nuts or chocolates as cake decorations (which taste better anyhow).

• INGREDIENTS.

Juice I lemon Decorations

I Ib/SOO g icing sugar

- METHOD -

Squeeze the lemon and add the juice with I dessertspoon cold waterto the sugar. As with the almond paste. you will need morewater: add enough by degrees to make a firm lump (itwill probably take just over 2 teaspoons). If it ends up too soft to hold its shape. you will have to add more icing sugar.

2 Have ready a mug of very hot water and a round-bladed knife. Place the icing on the almond paste and spread into a smooth layer over the top and sides with the blade ofthe knife dipped into the hot water (you will need to keep dipping). Make a tidy rim at the edges. Decorate. The icing will take about 24 hours to dry.