Cobnut blackberry cake and my John Lewis gift guide

I am painfully aware of my tendency to wax lyrical about how much I love autumn. What can I say? This season of changing hues, dappled light and cold sunshine is just so special. I'm a creature of habit and September marks the start of the school year (a ridiculous justification I know, given that I am now 25 and my school days are little more than an increasingly foggy blur of anxiety and bad hair days). I'm an October baby and - despite nursing a futile fear of getting older - the child within me does still rather look forward to all the excitement and attention that birthdays bring.

Autumn also sees the hedgerows weigh heavy with produce, which ignites new ideas and brings new recipes to my kitchen every year. I can wear my favourite thick jumpers and cashmere socks without bursting into flames and, at the risk of losing readers for jumping the gun a little here, the C word starts to slip into day-to-day dialogue which fills me with that wonderfully warm feeling of the familiar and the delicious. Yes, I went there - I can only apologise.

On the subject of Christmas, I often get asked for gift recommendations for bakers. I am quite picky about baking-ware. I only want to have things in my kitchen which I like to look at. As I've grown older, I've consciously moved away from the pastel pinks, polka dots and bunting prints that you so often see used in baking designs. Instead, I am slowly building up a selection of ceramic tableware and good quality, beautifully designed cookware. Neither of these things come cheap, but I think it's worth playing the long game. And so, let me present my gift guide for bakers, which I'm delighted to be partnering with John Lewis to bring you!

John Lewis is where my Mum bought our school shoes. It's where my granny bought my sewing machine, and the dress patterns which she used to teach me to sew. It's where I have bought all of my kitchenware, and where I seem to find myself when I've had a tough day and just want to feel happier. I can't put my finger on it, but John Lewis seems to do just that.

John Lewis have an extensive baking range (take a look here), so are a good place to start when buying for bakers. I find that most shops seem to either have style or substance - John Lewis really does have both.

John Lewis Craft Collection
Copper has certainly had a renaissance in the kitchen. Copper and rose gold are two of my favourite tones in kitchenware - I love the peachy, warm notes they bring without being overly girly. These Craft Collection measuring spoons and measuring cups make a great practical present - and look picture perfect hanging from display rails or pegs in the kitchen.

Meri Meri for Liberty 
Perfect for stylish cake bakers. I am obsessed with the gorgeous range of cupcake cases, toppers and flags by Meri Meri. They are cute without being cutesy, which I find a delicate line to walk and one that few brands quite get right. The party pick toppers are playful yet stylish, the neon tones keep the palette current and the limited edition Liberty range is - let's be honest - to die for.

Robert Welch Radford 'Time For Tea' Collection
Essential kitchenware for everyone: a cake slicer and a set of cake forks. And I mean essential. These stainless steel sets are worth the investment for the perfect tea time spread.

And on that note - cake! This cake is so easy to whip up and is perfect for teatime. Cobnuts are one of my favourite autumnal ingredients. They have a wonderfully intense flavour which works beautifully in sweet and savoury recipes alike. Swap the blackberries for raspberries, currants or slices of mirabelles, greengages or early season pears.

THE INGREDIENTS

100g cobnuts, dehusked

120g unsalted butter

60g caster sugar

60g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

120g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp fine salt

100g blackberries

THE RECIPE

Heat the oven to 170°C and line the base of a 7" cake tin with a disc of baking paper. Butter the sides of the tin. 

Roughly chop the cobnuts, then set aside. Place the butter, caster sugar and dark brown sugar in a bowl and cream together until pale a fluffy. Beat in the eggs, mixing well after each addition. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and salt, and fold to combine. Add the blackberries and stir through.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and level with the palette knife. Top with the cobnuts, then baking in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

This post was written in affiliation with John Lewis, but all views are - as always - entirely my own.

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Blackberry and Star Anise Friands {from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh}

I've written before on Pudding Lane about my love for all things Ottolenghi. By 'all things', I mean of course that Ottolenghi is synonymous with much more than just Yotam Ottolenghi himself - he is restaurants, he is cookbooks, he is piles of cloud-like pastel meringues and tray upon tray of perfectly sweet morsels, almost too pretty to eat.

But eat them we do, because Ottolenghi's creations are more than a little bit magic. They inspire joy and indulgence while perfectly balancing the natural acidity and bitterness of seasonal produce with a lightness of touch that - in my humble opinion - very few can muster. Four years a Londoner, and I still know of few joys more special than leaving Ottolenghi on Upper Street with a weighty white box of sweet treats dangling from my wrist. And as for the man himself? Well, my mind was made up when I listened to Yotam's Desert Island Discs and he chose a lemon tree as his one luxury on a desert island. A man after my own heart, it would seem.

And so you can imagine my delight when Yotam and Helen's team sent me a copy of their gorgeous new creation, SWEET. This is the book which, I suspect, many Ottolenghi fans have been waiting for - finally, it's time for dessert.

Written in collaboration with the venerable Helen Goh, SWEET has over 100 gorgeous recipes which I cannot wait to try. For now, I bring you Yotam and Helen's recipe for sweet little blackberry and star anise friands. A quintessentially Ottolenghi treat, perfect for Autumn.

THE INGREDIENTS 

180g unsalted butter, plus an extra 10g, melted, for brushing

60g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

200g icing sugar

120g ground almonds

1½ tsp ground star anise

1/8 tsp salt

150g egg whites (from 4 large eggs)

finely grated zest of 1 small orange (1 tsp)

18 whole blackberries (about 120g), cut in half lengthways

for the icing

60g blackberries, plus an extra 24 small blackberries, to garnish

¾ tbsp water

1 tsp lemon juice

165g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C Fan/Gas Mark 7. Brush the 12 holes of a regular muffin tin with the melted butter and sprinkle all over with flour. Tap the tray gently to ensure an even coating of the flour, then turn upside down to remove the excess. Place in the fridge to chill while you make the batter.

To brown the butter, place in a small saucepan and cook over a medium heat until melted. Continue to cook until the butter is foaming, gently swirling the pan from time to time, to allow the solids to brown more evenly. You will see dark brown sediments begin to form on the sides and bottom of the pan. Continue to allow the butter to bubble away until it turns a rich golden brown and smells of toasted nuts and caramel. Remove the pan from the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes, to allow the burnt solids to collect at the bottom of the pan. Strain through a fine-mesh  (or muslin- lined) sieve, discarding the solids. Allow the browned butter to cool slightly before using. It should still be warm when folding into the mix later: if it is too hot, it will ‘cook’ the egg whites; if it is too cool, it will be difficult to incorporate into the mix.

While the butter is cooling, sift the flour, icing sugar, ground almonds, star anise and salt into a bowl. Place the egg whites in a small bowl and use a whisk or fork to froth them up for a few seconds – you do not need to whisk them completely.

Pour the egg whites into the sifted dry ingredients and stir until they are incorporated. Add the orange zest and browned butter and mix until the batter is smooth.

Remove the muffin tin from the fridge and fill the moulds just over two-thirds of the way up the sides. Place three halved blackberries on top, cut side down, and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 210°C/190°C Fan/Gas Mark 6 – starting with a high oven temperature and then bringing it down is the way to achieve the lovely brown crust you want – turn the tray around in the oven for even cooking, and continue to cook for another 8 minutes, until the edges of the friands are golden brown and the centres have a slight peak and spring back when gently prodded. Set aside to cool before removing them from their moulds: you might need to use a small knife to help you release the sides.

If you are icing the cakes, place 60g of blackberries in a small bowl with the water and lemon juice. Use a fork to mash them together, then pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to extract as much fruit juice as possible: you should get about 60ml. Sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl, pour in the blackberry juice and combine to make a light purple runny icing: it should just be thick enough to form a thin glaze on the tops of the cakes. Spoon the icing over the cakes, spreading it to the edges so that it runs down the sides. Do this on a rack, if you can, as icing them on a plate or sheet of paper means that the icing will pool at the bottom. Place 2 small blackberries on each friand, set aside for 20 or 30 minutes to set, then serve.

Recipe taken from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh (Ebury Press, £27) Photography by Peden + Munk. I was lucky enough to recipe a press copy of this book but all views are - as always - entirely my own. Buy your copy HERE!

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APPLE BLACKBERRY BIRCHER POTS

I first blogged my recipe for bircher museli last summer, and the return of lighter mornings has brought back my enthusiasm for wholesome and summery breakfasts on the go.

I love the idea of starting the working day with fruit and a newspaper, but my best hope of that is crammed on a packed tube along with the rest of London. That's why I've been won over by breakfast jars - a blogging cliché they may well be, but they're also practical and ecologically friendly. And is a pretty breakfast such a bad thing?

Now that I'm trying my best to go {dairy free}, I've adapted my recipe so that it's perfect for everyone, and hopefully still tastes delicious. I've also snuck in an extra portion of your 5 a day, which will do much more for your brain power than a heavy dose of caffeine.

Perfect for the time pressed - a quick assembly job of the soaked oats before you go to bed, then load up your jar in the time it takes to make your morning brew. I've used blackberries, but sub in any fruit you've got to hand. Fresh berries are delicious, or stewed peaches, apricots and plums would be just the ticket too.

You can of course use milk instead of the fruit juice, but this is a great substitute if you are looking to cut down on the lactose in your life. If you're using juice, it's worth investing in a not-from-concentrate press such as Bensons if you possibly can. These quantities make two breakfast pots.

 THE INGREDIENTS

150g rolled oats

250ml Bensons apple juice 

1 apple

100ml vanilla soya yoghurt 

150g blackberries

1 lemon

1 tbsp caster sugar

THE RECIPE

For the soaked oats, grate the apple into a large bowl. Add the oats and juice and stir to combine. Cover with cling-film and leave in the fridge overnight.

To make the blackberry purée, put 100g of the blackberries into a saucepan with 1 tbsp of sugar, and the zest and juice of the lemon. Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes, then leave to cool. Push through a sieve and discard the seeds. 

When you're ready to assemble the jars, layer the blackberry purée, soaked oats and vanilla yoghurt, and top with a few fresh berries.

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CHOCOLATE AND BLACKBERRY MADELEINES

Since I started writing Pudding Lane, people often ask me where the passion for baking comes from. I can see that a lot of people that meet me or read me mentally file me into the girly cupcake bracket and, as a 5"4" blonde 22 year old that works in PR, I have to forgive a little stereotyping.

In my last post, I mused on my first year of life as a grown up in the big city. While it's certainly been an eventful and significant year, London remains a pretty new part of my life. Baking, on the other hand, weaves all the way back to my very earliest childhood memories. I'm descended from a long line of feisty women and, while I've only known two generations to learn from, cooking and baking is absolutely in the blood.

Of course, baking is a warm and nostalgic testament to a very lovely family and childhood. But to answer the opening question, it is so much more than that. It's a way for me to express the things that are most important to me - sharing, creativity - but it's also a process that brings routine and structure to an otherwise haphazard and fast-paced time of my life.

A lot of people conjure tiger-mothers and WI grandmothers when they think of home-bakers. Of course they're right, but I'd like to suggest that the thing that unites bakers lies a little deeper than that. Baking keeps me sane, strokes my creative ego and makes the people I love happy. And that, quite simply, is why I think that everyone should try it.

These madeleines are rich with cocoa and spiked with beautiful seasonal blackberries. Whip 'em up and you'll feel like you've created a masterpiece.

 THE INGREDIENTS

2 eggs

100g caster sugar

75g plain flour

25g cocoa powder

1tsp baking powder

100g butter, plus a little extra for greasing

100g blackberries 

THE RECIPE

Melt a little butter, then brush a clean madeleine tin with it. Dust with flour, shake away any excess then put the tin in the freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 200C.

Melt 100g butter, then set aside to cool a little. Seperately, whisk your eggs and sugar together for 3-4 minutes, until pale, fluffy and thick. When you drag the whisk across the surface, ribbons should form. Pour in the cooled butter, and fold to mix. Sieve in the flour, cocoa and baking powder, folding once more to combine. Leave the batter to stand for 20 minutes.

Spoon 2 tsp of mixture into the frozen moulds, ensuring they are no more than half-full. Press a blackberry into each madeleine. Bake for 9-11 minutes - the madeleines need to rise a little in the middle, and be golden around the edges. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack to cool. 

Finally, you can fill these beauties up with fruit curd or caramel, if you have any to hand. I used my very own dulce de leche, which I'd really recommend if you have any. 

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BLACKBERRY AND ELDERFLOWER FRIANDS

Over the past few weeks, I have experienced my first ever heatwave in the city. Now I love the summer, I really do - but commuting and high summer do not a marriage make. The tube is my purgatory these days, and life as a working girl dictates that the closest I get to the midday sun is through an open office window. Gone are the days of mad dogs and englishmen.

The hazy heat has tweaked my roots, and I've found myself daydreaming about summers gone by deep in the Rutland countryside. Hedgerows speckled with glossy berries and beautiful elderflower must have been playing on my mind, as these little friands are as British as they come (aside from their continental origins, that is). Homegrown produce isn't quite as easy to come across in London, but do try and get your blackberries fresh - they're juicy little bursts of summer that you can't buy in the supermarket for love or money.

Friands are the teeniest and lightest of morsels, and make the perfect hot weather treat. A note on the technicalities - apparently these are not to be confused with the Financier which, despite appearing and tasting very similar, requires a brown-butter base. You say to-may-to, I say to-mar-to.

 THE INGREDIENTS

50g plain flour

120g icing sugar

40g ground almonds

4 egg whites

65g butter

100g blackberries

50ml elderflower cordial

THE RECIPE

Preheat your oven to 170C, and carefully grease a small cupcake tray (you can use cases, but baking straight in the tin will give you a nicer finish). In a clean bowl, sieve and mix the flour, sugar and almonds. Add the egg whites and elderflower cordial and whisk for 1-2 minutes, until well combined, smooth and glossy.

Seperately gently heat the butter to melt it, then continue to heat until the residual solids have coloured slightly. While whisking, pour the butter into the mixture through a sieve. Leave it to rest for 15-30 minutes, then spoon into the moulds. You should fill them to no more than 3/4 up the sides. Place a whole blackberry on top of each cake, then bake in the preheated oven for 10-20 minutes. The cooking time will depend upon the strength of your oven - they are done when they are golden brown and firm to the touch.

Cool in the tins for 10-15 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar, and eat them as soon as possible - these little babies won't be quite as beautiful the next day.

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BLACKBERRY YOGURT CAKE

It's a regrettable truth that a love of cake and a teeny waistline do not a marriage make. All of the best baking ingredients - soft butter, vanilla rich sugar and thick fresh cream - become beacons of fear as bikini season approaches and we kiss goodbye to our roomy winter gear.

Summer may be just around the corner, but Pudding Lane is not prepared to give up baking for love or money. For anyone looking for something a little healthier, this yoghurt cake should be right up your alley. The butter and flour and replaced with yogurt and almonds, and the sponge is spiked with rich juicy blackberries making this, well, almost breakfast worthy. Nice try Luce.

I am saying my prayers for a sunny bank holiday weekend, so that I can sit on our roof terrace and basque in vitamin D and yogurtey-blackberry goodness. What do you have planned?

THE INGREDIENTS

2 eggs

225g yogurt

225g caster sugar

150g ground almonds

100g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 lemon

100g blackberries

100g icing sugar

THE RECIPE

Preheat your oven to 170C, and line a 1kg loaf tin with baking parchment. Weigh your sugar and eggs into a mixing bowl, then whisk for 4-5 minutes until the mixture is pale, airy and forms ribbons when you drag the whisk across the surface.

Add the yogurt, the zest of the lemon and a pinch of salt, and fold together to mix. Sieve in the almonds, flour and baking powder, and fold until the mixture is combined. Add the blackberries, then pour into your prepared tin and place in the centre of the oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the cake is cooked and passes the knife test. If it is browning too much, cover with foil for the final 15 minutes.

Cool the cake on a wire rack. While it's cooling, mix the icing sugar with the juice from the lemon, and poor over the cake to glaze.

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