Christmas Shortbread Crumble Bars (or The Easiest Christmas Bake Ever!)

Are you ready for Christmas? Presents bought and wrapped? Tree up? House decorated? Food shopping done? Turkey…..um…..turkeying?

No? Me either!!!

Anyway, don’t despair, because we have the perfect quick, easy bake that will make your house smell festive and give you an energy boost to help you get ready for when the big man in red visits.

Christmas Shortbread Crumble

175gms Plain Flour

100gms Caster Sugar

100gms Butter

350gms Mincemeat

 

Preheat your oven to 130c, 150c fan or gas mark 3

Grease and line a brownie tin with baking parchment.

Place all the ingredients, except the mincemeat, into a bowl and mix with an electric mixer until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.

Put  2 thirds of the mix into the base of your tin. Press down with either your finger tips or the back of a wooden spoon until its looks like a thick shortbread base.

Next smooth the mincemeat evenly over the base. Make sure you use a good mincemeat….the better the taste you put in, the better the taste you get out!

Sprinkle the remainder of the breadcrumb mix over the top of the mincemeat.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the house smells of festive Christmas cheer.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. You can either serve it warm with a big dollop of custard (or brandy butter), or allow to cool fully and cut into bars.

See, didn’t we say it was easy. Ho Ho Ho………Merry Christmas

 

 

 

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Cranberry Flapjacks

Haven’t got much time this winter? Christmas is coming and its all go, go, go…..but you need something home-baked to get you through it all. Take a small break from all that Christmas planning………

Looking for an easy but scrummy recipe to bake? Then this recipe is perfect for you!

Our delicious Cranberry Flapjacks are quick and easy to make and perfect if you haven’t got much time on your hands. They are packed with juicy dried cranberries and baked to perfection.

Cranberry Flapjacks

Ingredients:

110g Brown Sugar

110g Butter

1 Large Tbsp Golden Syrup

285g Porridge Oats

100g Dried Cranberries (or any other dried fruit you fancy – chopped dates are also a great option)

Splash of Milk

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 170c◦/ 150c◦ fan/ Gas Mark 3.  Prepare your tin by greasing with butter and lining with parchment paper.

In a microwaveable bowl measure put your  Brown Sugar and Butter, and place in the microwave for 1 minute (with intervals of 30 seconds) or until the butter has melted and mixed into one mixture.

Into the same bowl, mix in the large table-spoon of Golden Syrup, after having done this pour in your correctly measured out porridge oats and mix thoroughly by hand until all the oats are covered. When finished mixing the oats into the mixture, add your cranberries until you think there is an even spread throughout your flapjack mixture.

Pour your mixture into the pre-lined tin and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the top starts to go slightly golden brown.

Once taken out of the oven allow to cool before you remove from the tin, doing this will allow the flapjack to harden which will make it easier for you to cut. Once fully cooled cut into slices, usually we get 8 slices, but depending on how big or how small you like your slices, cut to your preferred size.

Recipe written by Sammie and Melissa of The Daisy Cake Company

 

Daisy’s Dream Cake

Hello strangers…..how have you all been?!!

Summer had been mad here, Weddings, baking for and running 2 Tea Rooms, Birthday Cakes and Anniversary cakes galore! Now is calmed down there is a bit of time for a recipe or few. So we start today with Dream Cake.

Our Dream Cake is a layered slice consisting of a shortcake base topped with a meringuey top filled with Cranberries, Coconut and Ground Almonds. It’s adapted from a recipe we found in a Women’s Institute Magazine, and seeing as it’s the WI’s Centenary this year we thought it apt that we use this recipe…..and it’s totally scrummy!

 Daisy’s Dream Cake

Ingredients:

110gms Butter

225gms Plain Flour

2tbsp Icing Sugar
Topping

2 Free Range Eggs

200gms Caster Sugar

50gms Plain Flour

1tspn Baking Powder

55gms Desiccated Coconut

55gms Ground Almonds

55gms Dried Cranberriest
Pre-heat your oven to 160c/ 140c fan/ GM3. Prepare a brownie tray by greasing and lining with baking parchment.

In a bowl sieve together the Plain Flour and Icing Sugar.  Add the butter and either rub together with your fingers or if you have a stand mixer use the paddle attachment on medium until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Pour into your prepared tin and press down with your fingertips to make it even biscuit type base.

In the same bowl, beat the eggs and mix with the caster sugar and flour. Beat until it’s light and well combined and mix in the Almonds, Coconut and Cranberries by hand. If you don’t have Cranberries or Almonds, try cherries and walnuts, or sultanas and pecans – either whatever takes your fancy or you have in the cupboard.

Pour the wet mixture over the biscuit base and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is a rich golden colour and crispy to the touch.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut into slices – we get 8 slices from each bake, but you may get more (or less) depending on how your mood takes you.

This Week’s Cakes…..rollerboots, Minion and a few more

So here is a selection of our cakes this week………just a small taster.

Hope you’re all having a great cake week.

Savoury Cream Tea……Romsey’s Original

OK, so we have a cake shop. Which generally means our major food group is sweet, sweet and more sweet. But occasionally, very occasionally, we digress to something a little more savoury.

However, we don’t want to fall too far away from the British ideal, so what we have invented is The Savoury Cream Tea…..oh yes people….Cream Tea with our other favourite food group – cheese – how could we possibly go wrong?!

The Original Daisy Cake Savoury Cream Tea consists of 2 delishly, freshly baked cheese scones, cream cheese and pickle, all washed down with a cuppa straight from the pot! And for dessert you could always have a traditional Sweet Cream Tea, or would that be too much?

So, hands up who wants to make some easy cheese scones? Yup, thought you would…….

Cheese Scones

Makes 12
450gms Self Raising Flour
1tspn Mustard Powder
1tspn Cayenne Pepper
125gms Strong Hard Cheese (we use Lyburn Cooking but mature cheddar is fine)
70gms Rapseed or Sunflower Oil
70gms Cream Cheese
2 Eggs
100ml Milk plus some for brushing the tops

Preheat your oven to 220c (200c fan), 400f or Gas Mark 6.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment

Sieve the flour, mustard and cayenne pepper together into a large mixing bowl

Grate the hard cheese and mix it through the flour

Add all the other ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. It’s best to get your (clean) hands in to make sure is properly mixed into a sticky dough

Dust the work surface with flour and turn out your dough.

Knead very lightly for 30 seconds or so.

Now you can either go for the rustic look or the cut look…..for the rustic look divide your dough into 12, roll into balls and place on your baking sheet. For a cut look, press the dough to about 1 inch thick and with a 6cm Round cutter, cut 12 scones and place on your baking sheet.

Lightly brush with milk, making sure your don’t let it dribble down the side as it impairs the rise.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until well risen, golden brown and making your kitchen smell amaaaaazing!

Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool, or just scoff the lot warm.

We always serve our scones warm…..they just taste so much better. To warm cold scones, pop in the oven, preheated to 170c (150c fan), 325f or gas mark 3 for just 3 to 5 minutes.

The Cake Room

Did you know The Daisy Cake Company has gone retail? It happened a while ago. We moved to Hampshire in January, and then we opened a shop in The town of Romsey in April, and that’s mainly why things have been so quiet around here later. So here are some photos from the last few months, including the grand opening when The Mayor of Romsey came to eat cake with us.

Every week we have a new flavour in the Cake Room, and many, many celebration cakes, so fingers crossed, I will be able to find a few moments to share new recipes, ideas and cake photos with you all.

Thanks for bearing with me, and welcome to the new chapter of The Daisy Cake Company xx

Chocolate Spiced Shortbread

Here’s a quick recipe from my submissions from the Good the Know website.

It’s full of festive flavour and makes your house smell amazing!!

Full recipe can be found here…….