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Is it really the end of monday already? I had a busy and productive weekend, mostly at home, which just flew by. The sun came out, tempting me out walking, and in to the garden. A dog walk on one of my most beautiful local beaches yesterday morning. Look at the colour of the sea...no sooner than I took this, than the sea fog rolled in and visibility was down to 5 feet! This beach is on the north coast - a quick hop back to the south coast where I live, and the sun was out all day. The new hazel fence panels arrived, and my neighbour erected them on top of our lovely old cornish wall. I've made some progress clearing the weeds and generally tidying up. I've also got some seeds going, in the shelter of my little conservatory. The extra warmth and protection will help them along before the temperatures are consistently high enough to harden the seedlings off and plant outside. I also spent time baking bread for the freezer, a large batch of tomato sauce, and these delicious cardamon cakes. This is a recipe from Rachel's Favourite Food at Home which I've got from the library. Lots of easy and tasty recipes. The little cakes can also be made as one big cake.....the cardamon is subtle but imparts a wonderful warm sweet spicyness.....here's the recipe:

Cardamon Sour-Cream Cake

200ml tub sour cream or crème fraiche
½ teasp bicarb
1 teasp ground cardamon seeds

125g icing sugar, sifted
1 tblsp sour cream or crème fraiche

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F

Grease the sides of a 20cm/8” round cake tin, and dust with flour, line the base with greaseproof paper

Whisk the egg in a large bowl
Add all but 1 generous tablespoon of the sour cream, and the sugar
Whisk to combine
Add the sifted flour and bicarb, then the salt and ground cardamon
Fold the mixture to combine – don’t over-mix
Transfer to tin and put in oven
Bake for about 35 mins until the top of the cake feels firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean

Cool on a wire rack before removing from the tin

Make the icing by mixing the reserved sour cream with the icing sugar. If the mixture is a little stiff, add a drop of water.
Spread over the top of the cake and allow to drip down the sides

This also works well in bun cases - divide mixture between 12 paper cases, and cook at the same temperature for 18-20 minutes
 Labels: cooking, eating, gardening, home stuff
 justine-anna said...

yummmmm!! was just about to email to ask for the recipe before i scrolled down- they look delicious! incidentally- i've just emailed you so let me know if you haven't recieved it! xxxx

28 April 2008 at 23:41