pudding

Little blackberry and ginger upside down cakes

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blackberry

Not very seasonal – but very nice. This is basically a pineapple upside down cake, purpled. I do this in ounces not metric, because it makes easy proportions with the egg (2 ounces of everything else for every egg).

Makes 6 muffin sized cakes

2 eggs

4 oz self raising flour

4 oz golden caster sugar

4 oz soft butter

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

A few blackberries

Beat the egg, sugar, butter and flour together (in a food processor for laziness) till whippy. Butter the insides of a muffin tin, pop a layer of blackberries in the bottom of each and top with batter. Cook at 180 or on the grid shelf on the bottom of the Aga roasting oven for 15 minutes.

The creamy gingerness reminds me of the ginger-iced shortbread me and my sisters used to buy on the way home from school.

Storecupboard berry frangipane tart

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frangipane

Should serve 8. Served 3.5. Let’s blame Bert.

75g golden caster sugar

75g soft butter

2 eggs

75g ground almonds

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frozen puff pastry – 500g pack (there will be some leftover)

Frozen berries – enough to cover the pastry

Beat the sugar and butter together in a food processor (or by hand), then beat in the eggs and stir through the almonds and vanilla.

Line a pie dish with the puff pastry, cover with a layer of fruit and then cover the lot with the frangipane filling. Bake at 190 or in the middle of an Aga roasting oven for 30 minutes.

For dinner tonight Bert ate five new potatoes and three slices of tart. He was quite literally begging us for tart. Then he zoomed off in his tractor with John the bunny riding pillion.

Rhubarb, orange and hazelnut crumble

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crumble

Serves just me 2 – 2.5

3 sticks rhubarb

1 orange

4 dessert spoons golden castor sugar

50g butter

85g plain flour

50g golden castor sugar

50g roast, chopped hazelnuts

Cut the rhubarb into chunks and add to a pan with a few peelings of orange rind (use a vegetable peeler), followed by the juice of the orange and the four dessert spoons of sugar. Simmer till the rhubarb is soft.

Throw the flour, butter and sugar into a food processor and pulse till breadcrumby then stir the hazelnuts through.

Pour the fruit mush into an ovenproof dish, top with the crumble and cook at 180 or the middle of an Aga roasting oven for 30 minutes. You probably don’t need this much topping, but I think the topping’s the best bit.

Perfect for a baby who’s spent the day having rides on a ride-on lawnmower, digging in the garden till his tiny fingernails are black and going mountain-climbing up the wooden attic stairs to find treasure*.

*bouncy balls and lego men

Little pineapple upside down cakes

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pineapplecake

Tonight I had a flushed, tired, whinging toddler on my hands and no pudding planned. But sometimes everyone needs something sweet. The whole thing took 20 minutes, 15 of which were oven time. Five of those 15 were taken up with spoon licking.

The quantities are in ounces because the maths, dividing down from four times the quantity, was so much easier.

The quality of the picture is because a toddler soaked my phone in spit and cake batter.

Makes 3 muffin sized cakes

1 egg

2 ounces of self raising flour

2 ounces of soft butter

2 ounces of golden caster sugar

A few chunks of pineapple

Put the egg, flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and mix till smooth and whippy. Butter three holes of a muffin tin, layer a few chunks of pineapple in the bottom and top with batter.

Cook at 180 degrees (or on a grid shelf on the bottom of the Aga roasting oven) for 15 minutes.

I ate 2.5 of the three.

Little raspberry and hazelnut puddings

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hazelnut

Serves 4 – me, Bert, Daddy and Ben

2 tablespoons ground hazelnuts

2 dessert spoons self raising flour

2 tablespoons golden caster sugar

2 eggs

100ml cream

Sprinkling of cinnamon

A handful of fresh or frozen raspberries

Mix all the ingredients except the berries together and grease some small tins with a little butter – I used Yorkshire pudding tins. Put a few raspberries in each then pour in the batter and cook at 180 degrees or in the middle of the Aga roasting oven for 12 minutes. Perfect for babies who’ve worked up an appetite by being pushed round in a wheelbarrow.

Croissant and butter pudding

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breadpudd f

…except there’s no butter.

Serves 1.5 very generously

2 stale croissants

About 80ml double cream and 120ml whole milk – you can fiddle around with the quantities so long as you end up with 200ml of liquid

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 egg

Good pinch of cinnamon

Grating of nutmeg

Handful soft apricots (some supermarkets sell them – they’re darker brown and much softer), cut into smallish pieces

Slice the croissants into thick slices and lie them in an ovenproof dish that they’ll fit in reasonably snugly. I used a 20cm cake tin. Sprinkle over the apricots. Combine the other ingredients and pour over, leaving the croissants to sit in the custard for a good 10 minutes before turning over for another 10 minute soak.

Cook at 180 for 20-25 minutes, till the custard’s set and the pudding’s golden brown.

Little orange and almond cakes

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orangecake

This is a version of a Tom Kerridge recipe. I’ve reduced the sugar and fiddled around with the quantities to make little cakes and to avoid the scales, as cups and tablespoons are a bit less fiddly when a two foot tall person is tapping at your knee. I like a pudding that’s an excuse to get a bit of protein in Bert (egg and almond here), and a lot of the sweetness comes from the orange. In a baby free life, simmering an orange for two hours would be a bit limiting, but if you’re hanging around at home anyway while someone drops small plastic balls into holes, then why not?

Makes 4 small cakes

1 orange

1 cup ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Cover the orange with cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for about one and a half hours till it’s soft. Blend it, skin and all, into a pulp then combine with all the other ingredients. Butter four holes of a muffin tin and fill each nearly to the top. Bake at 160 degrees (or on the grid shelf on the floor of the Aga roasting oven with the cold shelf three rows down from the top) for about 20 minutes, till golden and firm.

I had mine with Greek yoghurt with some honey stirred through. Bert had his naked.

Fruity clafoutis

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clafoutis

Strictly speaking, clafoutis is just the word for the cherry batter pudding, not when it’s made with a different fruit. If your baby is a pedant, call this a flaugnarde. I’ve cut down on the sugar so add a little more if you’ve got a sweet tooth.

Makes 2 mini clafoutis

1 tablespoon ground almonds

1 dessert spoon self raising flour

1 dessert spoon golden caster sugar

1 egg

50 ml whole milk or cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

A handful of fresh or frozen berries

Butter some small, shallow tins – I used two holes of a four hole yorkshire pudding tin. Scatter in the fruit – a few berries in each.

Combine the remaining ingredients – the easiest way is to measure the milk or cream into a measuring jug then stir in everything else – and pour over the fruit. Cook at 180 degrees or in the middle of an Aga roasting oven for around 12 minutes – till golden brown. Don’t leave it in too long – you want it on the soft side of firm.

In theory, it’s one for you, half of the other for the baby and another half for you, but it didn’t work out like that for us. I just got the one.

Old fashioned vanilla rice pudding

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ricepud

You can get away with less sugar because the vanilla’s sweet. Bert loved it. I suppose it’s pretty much 3D formula, but don’t let that put you off.

Serves 1.5 – 2.5 depending on how greedy you are your baby is

60 g short grain rice

400 ml whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1 dessert spoon brown sugar

Grating of nutmeg

Just pop everything in an oven proof dish or pan, bring to the boil on the top of the stove, then put in a low oven (150 degrees or an Aga simmering oven) for about an  hour and a half to two hours till the rice is soft and milk’s absorbed.

Apple lattice tarts

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lattice

Two for me, one for you and one for me to share.

Makes 4 small tarts

About 1/4 sheet shortcrust pastry (the rest of the pastry I used for the pies)

4 teaspoons of apple puree or apple sauce

Sprinkle of cinnamon

A little flour

A little milk or beaten egg

A scant dessert spoon of crunchy brown sugar

Cut 8 small circles from the pastry – I used a tea cup. Put four on a baking tray and put a teaspoon of apple sauce in the middle of each, sprinkling with cinnamon. Brush the edge of the circle with milk or egg wash then press a second circle of pastry onto each. Brush the whole of the top with milk or egg, cut two or three slits across the appley mound and sprinkle with crunchy brown sugar. Bake at 180 degrees for about eight minutes.