Christmas cranberry cookies

Can you believe it's the day after next? I had great intentions of doing a lot of baking this year, but instead I only got around to making these cookies from the Jamie Oliver Christmas magazine. They're pretty unique, in that they use fresh cranberries, instead of dried. I'm not entirely sure they were a total success, but they're something different at least.

The dough doesn't come together all that well, so you have to try your best to get it into log form. Luckily, after some time in the fridge, it hardens up nicely and manages to hold together.

Then you slice them up and pop them in the oven. They're quite pretty, aren't they?

And here's how they look after 12 minutes in a 350 oven. They spread out a bit, and the cranberries burst, causing some burning on the bottom. But overall they have a pretty delicate texture, and a nice flavour, if a little sweet.

Merry Christmas! And a special mention to the holiday elf who dropped off a much better selection of cookies to my house this week. Thanks, Ann!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies

From Jamie Magazine, Christmas 2010 edition

100g butter
85g icing sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped
100g self-raising flour
30g cornflour
4 tablespoons rolled oats
50g white chocolate, roughly chopped
50 g cranberries, fresh or rehydrated*

Beat the butter and icing until pale. Add the vanilla.

Combine the flour, cornflour and oats. Add to the butter.

Mix in the chocolate and berries.

The mixture will appear quite dry but all you need to do is mold it together into a large ball. Cover it in clingfilm. Shape the dough into a roll about an inch and a half wide. Keep in the fridge for at least one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4.

Take the dough out of the fridge and remove the clingfilm. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1cm rounds. Place them on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 12-15 mins. They should be golden brown but soft to touch.

Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool and crisp a little before devouring!

*To rehydrate dried cranberries, soak them in a little hot water until they are soft.

Gnocched out!

Gnocchi is something I've never made before. To be honest, I've really only ever eaten gnocchi a handful of times, but have always enjoyed it. And I've seen enough folks on the Food Network make it to convince myself I could pull it off.

Let's just say I need some more practice.

Gnocchi dough was much more fragile than I ever imagined, and it's fiddly too. I think you need a very delicate hand to work the dough, and then the cooking takes some work too. Too long in the boiling water and the little parcels fall apart, destroying all your hard work.

Well, hard work is maybe a bit much. There's really not much effort involved -- just time.

Start by ricing your baked potatoes. I don't have a ricer, so I pushed them through an ordinary sieve with the back of a spoon. Worked okay.

You're left with really light, fluffy potatoes.

See why it's called riced? Looks similar, huh?

Then you add in the egg and flour, which is basically all gnocchi is. The recipe stresses as little flour as possible to keep the dough light, and I think I heeded this advice too closely. I'm sure a bit more flour would have resulted in a more stable gnocchi at the end.

I cut up the log and tried my best to roll them into classic gnocchi shapes, complete with fork tine marks. But the dough was really, really delicate, so they didn't roll very well.

Into the boiling water they go. They gnocchi are done when they float to the top, usually in just a minute or so.

I ruined my first batch because I left them too long after they rose. They completely fell apart in the water (note the cloudy appearence in the pot). You have to watch gnocchi like a hawk!

I served them with some browned butter and sage sauce. A pretty hearty meal, if a little disappointing. (One thing I didn't particularly like about this recipe is that it called for the gnocchi to be refrigerated before boiling, which I did. Problem was, because the gnocchi actually cook so fast, they rose to the top but weren't hot all the way through. Next time I will probably take them out of fridge a bit early to warm up first.)

Jamie Oliver's Potato Gnocchi
Makes a whole batch for 2-3 people (but adapted for just me)

6 medium potatoes
Olive oil
Nutmeg, grated
1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt
Good grind of pepper
1 egg yolk
1-2 handfuls of plain flour
Cornmeal or semolina flour

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 deg C.

2. Rub the cleaned potatoes with olive oil, prick them all over with a fork and lay them on a roasting tray. Place in the oven for 1 hour until they are crispy on the outside and cooked (fluffy, soft) on the inside.

3. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then cut them in half, scoop out the fluffy inside and place it in a sieve (or a mouli or ricer if you have one of those - I don't!).

4. Press the potato through the sieve into a large bowl so that it looks like 'grated' potato. Don't be fooled -this is the start of wonderful dry mash

5. Add the nutmeg, salt, pepper and egg yolk to the sieved potato. Add enough flour to bind the mixture. Mix together and knead with your hands until you have a dry, doughy consistency. Add more flour if too wet, and water if too dry.

6. Divide the dough into three pieces and roll each piece out on a floured surface into long tubes the thickness of a sausage.

7. Cut each of the tubes into 2.5 cm pieces, then press the tines of a fork into both sides of the gnocchi to give the characteristic ribbed marking.

8. Place them on a a plate or tray sprinkled liberally with semolina or cornmeal, and allow to sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes to set.

9. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water - how many you can fit in the pan depends on the size of the pan, because you don't want them sticking together. I used 10 in my pan.

10. The gnocchi are done when they rise to the surface of the boiling water.

11. Drain gently and carefully....otherwise they will end up as mashed potato! You can either use a slotted spoon, or gently drain in a colander.

12. Serve with whichever sauce you fancy - a tomato sauce, or grated cheese, or just tossed in butter and sage.

Red cabbage, blue cheese and walnut slaw

I know all this cold weather would usually mean a slate of hot recipes, but I've been wanting to post this recipe for a winter salad for some time now. It's what I've been regularly eating for lunch for, oh, several weeks if I'm honest. It's truly one of the best salads I've ever eaten, or made for that matter. I won't lie that the blue cheese and walnuts are probably what really makes it special, but it's so good that you shouldn't let those toppings blind you to what lies beneath.

Start by slicing up about a quarter of a red cabbage. Or half a small one. Cabbages are so cheap and they keep well in your fridge for a very long time.

Next, slice up about half a fennel. Cut off the green tops first and get rid of the core.

The original recipe calls for a Russet apple, which is what's here. But I've made successful substitutions with Empires and Suncrisp too. I'm sure any variety would work.

Here it is all mixed up and dressed. It does require a bit of chopping time, but once you've got that out of the way, I find the salad keeps really well for a few days. The dressing doesn't make anything soggy, and the colour of the cabbage somehow never bleeds into the other veggies.

Top it off with some crumbled blue cheese and some walnuts and you've got a really great side or starter. Add some leftover chicken or steak and you've got a truly yummy lunch or dinner.

Red cabbage, blue cheese and walnut slaw
From Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. 1

A salad for a light lunch or maybe a first course.

Per person

red cabbage - ¼

fennel - ½ medium-sized bulb

russet apple - 1

lemon juice - a little

medium carrot - 1

blue cheese such as harborne, cashel or beenleigh - 150g

walnuts - a handful

celery - a rib

for the dressing:

mild red wine vinegar - 2 tbs

smooth Dijon mustard - 2 tsp

groundnut oil - 3 tbs *I use a combination of olive and walnut oils
walnut oil - 2 tbs

caster sugar - a pinch

Shred the cabbage and fennel. Core the apple, slice finely and toss in a little lemon juice. Shred the carrot into matchsticks (or grate it very coarsely). Slice the cheese thinly. Toast the walnuts in a non-stick pan till they smell warm and nutty. Thinly slice the celery.

Make the dressing by mixing the vinegar and mustard with a little salt and black pepper. Beat in the groundnut and walnut oils, then taste, and add a little sugar if necessary. Toss the salad ingredients together, gently, so you don't break up the cheese too much. Divide between plates and drizzle over the dressing.

Paperwhites and procrastination

See these? I grew them. Yep, I forced them in their little pots of coco husks, covered them with some moss dug up from my backyard, and up they sprung. Notice that they're in flower? That would be a full two weeks before Christmas, right? And they've already been in bloom for about two weeks already. So that would be a full month before the holidays. In other words, an entire month earlier than what was promised on the box. I planted them so they would bloom for Christmas, but instead of eight weeks, these guys needed only four.

Paperwhite FAIL!

Oh, and these will probably be the last paperwhites I ever plant. Why? Because they STINK. I'm serious. Think about a wet diaper, about four hours past changing. Then imagine that scent filling your whole house, and greeting when you come home from work. Festive, huh?

I would include a photo of the amaryllis I also planted, but nothing has happened with it, so I think it's a bit of a dud too. I must have bad bulb luck.

In other news, I haven't really been procrastinating with this blog per se, but I've been busy wrapping up my class, and my camera was MIA in Lakefield for two weeks. So there's that.

But I have been somewhat productive. I wrote this, and this. It's sciencey news about cell phones and water you can use!

Too bad science didn't have a solution for my bulb breakdown.

Back to cooking next time. I promise!

Pumpkin and bacon soup

You may already know about my crazy allergic reaction to pumpkin. (I've written about it before, but in a nutshell, pumpkin flesh causes my skin to peel off. Gross, right? Needless to say, my house was jack-o-lantern-less this year). And you may be asking why would I attempt this recipe?

Well first, the title is a bit of a misnomer, because what's actually called for is squash, and not pumpkin. Second, it requires slab bacon, which is something I've never before bought, but have always been curious about. I was able to source some from a woman who sells organic and heritage pork products at the Ottawa Lansdowne Farmers Market. Slab bacon is not cured, meaning it won't keep like traditinal bacon. Apparently you can slice it thinly, sprinkle it with salt, and cook in a frying pan to make your own crispy bacon. I didn't try that technique, but I still have half my slab in the freezer, so a future experiment might be called for. Plus, when I was buying this, there were many other customers at the stand who said they have sworn off regular style bacon because this method is so much better.

Here's what the slad (or side) bacon looks like. As you can see, it's pretty fatty, as I suppose all bacon is. I froze it briefly so that it was pretty easy to slice thickly and cut into lardons. By the way, this bacon came from a heritage Tamworth piggy.

And this is what it looks like after it has been cooked with the veggies. I won't lie, it is basically just a bunch of fatty bits. You'll probably be pretty scared at this point -- I know I was -- but try to think of that bacon as flavour. And it all gets blended in the end anyway, so you won't actually end up chewing one of those nuggets.

So while the bacon's cooking away, you get started on the pumpkin/squash. This one's a hubbard, and it was a beast to chop. You need your biggest chef's knife and a lot of strength. I opted for the fantastically safe method of stabbing it with my knife, and then flinging it against the counter until it broke in half. Hey, I still have both eyes, and all my fingers, so it worked out okay.

See? All chopped up and nary a fingertip in sight. (That's because all my flesh had worn away by this point.)

And this is the soup avec stock and simmering squash. Those white bits are still bacon (yep, may look like gnocchi, but it's not).

And here's the final product, all blended up. I have to say that I was skeptical about the outcome, but it turned out all right. The soup has a pretty rich, creamy flavour, mostly from the bacon. Because the slab bacon wasn't smoked, you don't get that smoky, bacony flavour in the soup, but instead there's a kind of earthy layer that offsets the sweetness of the squash.

I'm not sure if I would heartily recommend this recipe, but if you're looking for a bit of a twist on a traditional squash soup concoction, you might give this a try. Plus, a pork farmer will thank you!

Pumpkin and Bacon Soup
(Published in the Ottawa Citizen, but orginally from Fat by Jennifer McLagan)

Makes 3L

8 ounces (225g) side (slab) bacon
1 large onion, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 large sprig fresh sage
1 hubbard squash, or other firm, dry pumpkin or winter squash, about 3 1/3 pounds (1.5 kg)
8 cups water
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1.Remove rind and any hard, dry skin from the bacon. Cut the bacon into ¼ inch dice.
2.Place a large saucepan over low head. Add bacon pieces and cook gently so they render their fat. When most of the fat is rendered, add onion, celery, sage, stirring to coat with the fat. Cook until vegetables soften slightly, about 7 minutes.
3.Cut squash into quarters and remove seeds. Peel squash and coarsely chop into smaller, even-sized pieces. Set aside.
4.Pour 1 cup of the water into the pan with vegetables, increase heat to high and using a wooden spoon, deglaze the pan, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add the remaining water, squash, 1 tbsp of salt and pepper to taste. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered until squash is very soft, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove sage and let soup cool slightly.
5.Puree soup in batches, in a blender or food processor and pour into a clean saucepan. Taste and adjust seasoning, then reheat to serve.

Carrot cake with walnuts and marscapone icing

Have you ever had a craving for cake, and desperately want to give in, but talk yourself out of it because there are healthier things to eat, and all that sugar's not good for your teeth? And then there's the bother of finding the right cake pans at the back of the cupboard, and they'll likely need a wash, and you'll have to let the butter soften first, and bring the eggs to room temperature...and oh, it's all a lot of bother isn't it?

But then, if you're like me, your mind goes to carrot cake, because that's quite healthy, isn't it? I mean, it's bloody well got vegetables right inside it, so that's like eating a cake that's full of all kinds of goodness, not to mention being a boon for your eyesight. And it's chock full of walnuts too, and aren't they like cancer fighting nuts or something? I mean how could I not make this cake for the sake of my future well -being and ocular soundess!

Actually, the real impetus for making this cake is because I read about it in another food blog, written by the wife of Giles Coren. He's a well-known restaurant critic in the UK, but I like him best for his work on a show called Supersizers, which looks at cuisine in different eras of history. If you can find it on the Food Netwwork or online, I urge you to give it a look. It's really one of the cleverest shows ever, thanks to the witty banter between the two hosts. (And not to take away any credit from Coren's wife, who herself is a very good, and quite funny, writer as well.)

So the blog find spurred me into action, not only because it was cleverly written, but because I also adore Nigel Slater, the cake's creator, his writing and his recipes. This recipe is from his book Tender, which is full of mouth-watering vegetable-based treats. I think I would like for Nigel to live in my house and turn my backyard into a lovely vegetable garden like the one he cooks from year round in England. Er, I suppose that might be a bit of a challenge living in Ottawa, but he could try.

Anyway, on to the cake.....

Start by separating out three eggs.

I had to buy some sunflower oil especially for this recipe. I've never bought it before and had to seek it out at a Birkenstock-wearing-hippy-frequented-incense-smelling natural food store.

Grate your carrots and weigh them. British recipes are fun because you have to use kitchen scales and do math (okay, so the math bit's not that much fun).

Measure the walnuts too. You can see my measurements aren't exact, but I don't think a gram or two difference matters all that much.

Beat everything together until it turns this appetizing brown-ish barf colour.

And fold in the egg whites.

Place in a pan. The recipe calls for two 8-inch cake pans, but I couldnt' find/don't have any, so I made do with one 9-inch springform pan.

I ended up cutting my 9-inch cake in half to form layers, between which I spread the cream cheese/marscapone icing. This was my first time ever making cream cheese icing and I have to say it is a dangerous thing. I could eat marscapone straight from the tub. But I didn't. Well maybe just a spoonful, but that's it. I swear.

And this is the cake's top view. I omitted the orange zest from the icing, and it was still very tasty.

Overall, this cake wasn't quite as moist as I'd hoped it would be, but it is quite good. I'm sure you'll like it, especially if you're a fan of walnuts, as they make a plentiful appearance in this cake.

A carrot cake with a frosting of mascarpone and orange by Nigel Slater

For the cake

3 eggs
250g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch salt
200 ml sunflower oil
25og light muscovado sugar
150g carrots
juice of half a lemon
150g walnuts, roughly chopped

For the frosting

250g mascarpone cheese
200g Philadelphia
150g icing sugar
grated zest of half an orange
some whole walnut halves

1 Set the oven to 180C. Butter 2 x 22cm cake tins and line each bottom with a disc of baking parchment

2 Separate the eggs. Sift together the flour, bicarb of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3 Beat the oil and sugar in a food mixer until well-creamed then introduce the egg yolks one by one. Grate the carrots into the mixture, add the lemon juice and walnuts and stir. At this point, the sunflower oil will float to the top of the mixture and look gross. Don't worry, this is normal.

4 Fold the flour into this mixture. I did this by hand, but Nige says do it in the mixer.

5 Beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold into the mixture with a metal spoon.

6 Divide the mixture between your tins and bake for 45 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean-ish ... because this is supposed to be quite a sticky cake, except it didn't turn out that way for me.

7 To make the frosting, beat the mascarpone, Philly and icing sugar together in a mixer until smooth and creamy. You stand a better chance of this happening if the cheeses are at room temperature when you start. Stir in the orange zest. Splash some in between your cakes to sandwich together and the rest on the top and on the sides. Decorate with walnut halves.

Eat a large slice and your optometrist will thank you.

Flashback....

..... to the summer. This is a recipe I made on a hot day in August when zucchinis were plentiful and the humidty was high. I forgot all about it until I found the pictures on my camera. Kinda tells you what an impression the recipe had, huh?

I won't lie and say this recipe will be a knockout, but if you're looking for something to do with a fridge full of zucchini (or heck, even two) then this is one suggestion. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out to be the crisp, crunchy bites I was hoping for, but maybe I'm used to the ones served in restaurants that are basically deep fried and full of oil. These babies will be healthier for you, no doubt, but you still might crave the fuller-fat version. Each to her own, right?

Anyway, now that I've done a stellar sales job, keen to see how it all comes together? Let's go!



Start with two zucchinis and gets to gratin'.

Next you need to drain the grated zucchini in order to extract the water. I place it all in a colander lined with cheesecloth and wrung it out. It's amazing how much liquid comes out.

Once everything is as dry as possible, add to a bowl, along with a grated carrot, some chopped mint, corriander seed, a bit of onion, a clove of chopped garlic, and some lemon zest. Toss in few spoonfuls of flour too, and season with salt and pepper.

Beat two eggs lightly and mix into the batter.

Fry them up in a shallow bit of olive oil until crispy and brown on both sides.

And then they'll look like this. Chop some more mint and mix with some yoghurt to make a dipping sauce. Best eaten hot, but I had several cold the next day and they were pretty passable.

Recipe confession time: I originally thought I used a Nigel Slater recipe for these, but I've just tried to find something online and came up empty. So, could be Nigel Slater, or some other source, but really, the basics are listed above, and you can substitute to your likes and tastes (I think a bit of aged cheddar would go nicely!).

*serves me right for posting this three months after I made it :(

Blue cheese pizza with pears and arugula

Who says pizza has to include tomato sauce and mozzarella? Not me. Besides, if you go that route, you're stuck with the leftover can of pizza sauce that will just grow mould as it sits in your fridge. Much better to stock up on some pears and blue cheese and get at it!

This recipe comes from Chatelaine which has undergone a bit of a makeover of late (or should I say the latest makeover in the past five years). Now it resembles the old Wish magazine -- which I loved -- and which isn't a coincidence, as the former Wish editor is now at the helm of Chatelaine. Anyway, if you haven't picked up a copy in a while, it's worth a look.

But back to the pizza....

Start with your pears and slice 'em up. Actually, you start a few hours earlier by making the crust, which will have suitably risen by this point...

...until it looks like this. At which point you spread with olive oil and sprinkle with cayenne.

Then comes the assembly. A layer of arugula, followed by the pears and blue cheese. More olive oil to make it shiny.

And into the oven it goes until it looks like this. This is really tasty, and while the crust is a bit of a bother compared to my usual recipe, it was really good.

Blue cheese pizza with pears and arugula
From Chatelaine, October 2010 edition

Ingredients

3 tbsp whipping cream (35%)
4 tsp grainy Dijon mustard
2 tsp regular Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp honey
2 firm but ripe Bosc pears
extra virgin olive oil
1 recipe pizza dough
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3 cups argula, plus more for garnish
114 g blue cheese, crumbled

1.Preheat oven to 500F. Place a large baking sheet in the oven and heat for 45 min.

2.Whisk cream with mustards, lemon juice and honey in a medium bowl. Reserve. Cut pears into 1/4-in. slices and toss with 1 tsp olive oil to coat.

3.Cut dough into 2 portions. Roll 1 out into an oval and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Trim parchment so it’s just wider than dough. Brush dough with olive oil. Sprinkle with cayenne. Top with half of arugula and drizzle with more olive oil. Top with half of pear slices and half of blue cheese.

4.Remove hot baking sheet from oven and quickly transfer pizza and parchment paper onto it. Bake until edges are golden and crisp, 12 to 15 min. Transfer to a platter and garnish with additional arugula if you wish. Repeat with remaining pizza. Serve with mustard sauce.

Andalusian chicken-noodle soup with chickpeas

You wouldn't know it from the past couple of balmy days, but fall really is here, and that means soup weather!

This soup is the very definition of a meal in a bowl, and it would be the perfect thing to warm you up after a few hours of leaf raking, which is what I forsee in my future this weekend. I've made this soup twice now, and neither time did I have the required sherry. I think the first time I tried to cheat a bit with some red wine vinegar, but it was a poor substitute I'm sure. So go on and splurge for some sherry if you give this a try.

Start by poaching your chicken in the stock and herbs. I used bone on chicken breasts both time, because I think they have more flavour. I did remove the skin prior to poaching though.

Then cook your sausage and add in the veggies. One time I used a fresh chiorizo sausgage, which I removed from the casing and cooked just like ground meat. The second attempt at this soup used some of the chopped chured sausage. Can't say I had a preference, as both were pretty good.

While the vegetables are softening, you shred your chicken. This recipe yields a lot of meat, which helps to make it hearty.

Then add the broth back to the pot, cook your noodles, and toss in the meat, chickpeas and parsley. Almost ready to serve!

Serve in a warm bowl alongside some homemade biscuits and you've got yourself a pretty satisfying dinner.

Andalusian chicken-noodle soup with chickpeas (From Food & Drink Autumn 2010)

8 cups homemade or low sodium chicken stock
2 bone in chicken breasts, skin removed
2 bay leaves
1 leafy spring of flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp olive oil
4 oz (125g) cooked sweet or hot chorizo sausage, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
½ c dry sherry
2 oz spaghetti, broken into 2-inch pieces
½ tsp each salt and freshly ground pepper
1 can (540 ml) chickpeas drained and rinsed
½ c finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1. In large saucepan, combine stock, chicken breasts, bay leaves and parsley sprig. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until chicken breasts are no longer pink inside. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken breasts from stock and set aside to cool slightly.

2. When chicken breasts are cool enough to handle, remove meat from bones and shred meat finely. Set aside.

3. In large Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add chorizo and cook stirring for 3 to 5 minutes or until chorizo starts to brown and renders some of its fat. Add onion, carrot and potato. Cook, stirring for 5 to 7 minutes or until onion is softened but not brown. Add garlic and paprika. Cook stirring for one minute or until fragrant.

4. Add sherry. Bring to a boil, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from bottom of pot. Boil for 2 minutes or until sherry has almost evaporated.

5. Strain stock into Dutch oven, bring to a boil over high heat. Add spaghetti, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer partially covered for 8 to 10 minutes or until potato and spaghetti are tender.

6. Stir in reserved chicken meat and chickpeas. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-high heat for 2 minutes for flavours to blend; stir in parsley. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Ladle into warm soup bowls.

Serves 6 to 8

Chocolate Guinness birthday cake

I like birthday cakes. I like making them and I like getting them. I can still remember a butterfly cake my mum made for one of my birthdays years ago (I don’t remember the age, but I’m sure we’re talking single digits). It may have required a special pan, or just some fancy cutting, but the cake was complete with butterfly body and wings, which were colourfully decorated in candy and icing. I think there were licorice antennae too. It may not have won any Martha Stewart awards for finesse, but it was pretty fancy for Lakefield in the seventies. And hey, that was the era before Martha Stewart, so her opinion didn’t matter anyway.

There’s something cheering about a homemade birthday cake, even if it has a sloping top and the icing isn’t quite perfectly spread. Cakes made from scratch don’t look as pretty as their bakery-shop cousins, but that’s kind of the point, right? When someone goes to the trouble to mix up carefully selected ingredients, gently pours batter into pans, then frets as the cake rises and the edges brown, it means they’ve thought about you, and they’ve put time and effort into creating something that’s essentially meant to celebrate you.

That’s why I was happy to be able to make a birthday cake for my dad in September. I chose a Guinness chocolate cake for the occasion. The cake is a nice combination of chocolate — and yes beer — that results in a dense and damp concoction. This is not your light and fluffy Duncan Hines cake. And best of all, it’s remarkably simple to make. Or is the best part the leftover Guinness? Either way, win win.

Crack open a can and get started...

Melt the beer and butter in a pan.

And measure out your cocoa.

Mix up the eggs and sour cream (or yoghurt as I substituted).

Mix all together until you get this gooey mess.

And here's the baked cake. It's really moist -- and quite heavy too!

And here's the birthday guy enjoying the cake, with the world's most pathetic candle ever on top!

But this slice is looking a bit better with some raspberries and cream. Bake one for your next birthday!

Chocolate Guinness cake
from Nigella Lawson's Feast

•250ml Guinness
•250g unsalted butter
•75g cocoa
•400g caster sugar
•1 x 142ml pot sour cream
•2 eggs
•1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
•275g plain flour
•2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1.Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.

2.Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.

3.Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.