As Strong As Soup

OK, I admit that this recipe isn’t truly Spanish any more. It started out life as a Spanish walnut cake recipe that I came across in the early nineties, but it’s wandered a bit since then. As it happens, I could tell you an interesting story or two about a Spanish nut, but that was more than thirty years ago and I’m sure Carmen will have calmed down by now. I know I have. This cake is great with tea but, I think, goes even better with coffee. Or maybe even a small sherry. It will also work well as a dessert with a little dash or two of something creamy. Although the walnuts and pecans combine well in this cake, you could adjust the ratio and type of nuts as the mood takes you and, if you don’t have any Frangelico, feel free to substitute another liqueur or even a flavoured syrup. This cake is pretty filling so expect to get at least 12 slices unless you’re really hungry. 125 g butter, softened 250 g caster sugar 5 eggs, separated 125 g plain flour, sieved 1½ tsp baking powder ...

The other day, for some strange reason, I thought about Nathaniel Gubbins. I'd read some of his musings many years ago but it was obviously time for a return visit. Nathaniel Gubbins was an alias of Edward Spencer who was writing about food around the end of the 19th century. After a quick search I came up with probably his best known book 'Cakes and Ale'. For this month's Random Recipe challenge Dom of Belleau Kitchen has asked us to select the first or last recipe in a randomly chosen book. It occurred to me that you can't get a much more randomly chosen book than this, so I thought I'd give it a go. 'Cakes and Ale' isn't really a recipe book - it's described by the author as a 'dissertation on banquets interspersed with various recipes'. Sure enough in chapter two I came across the first "real" recipe: 'Gubbins Sauce' This is probably one of the best-known British devilled sauces and I've seen it revived a n...

If you’ve read some of the previous entries in this blog, you may have noticed my interest in French cakes. Some of the recipes for these cakes have been difficult to track down and have needed a bit of research coupled with some trial and error. This is definitely not the case with this recipe. I first saw this recipe on Hervé’s excellent blog Les Ateliers d' Hys earlier this year. Since then I’ve seen the recipe turn up on more blogs than I’ve had hot dates – actually, a lot more. There are many variations on this recipe around now – savoury versions, fruity versions, gluten-free versions and Hervé himself has posted a chocolate version . I really can’t remember seeing any cake recipe have this kind of impact before.  So I had to find out what the fuss was all about and make one for myself. The first thing to say is that it’s really easy and quick to put together – especially if you have a stand mixer. But, more importantly, it’s a superbly light cake with an excellent, t...