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Our recipes this month come from the Good Food Magazine and the BBC Good Food Guide. If you think you can do better, let us know, and we'll share your recipe suggestions with other Blooming Marvellous readers.
cinnamon and orange hot cross buns
Preparation time - 30 mins to 1 hour
Cooking time - 10 to 30 minutes
ingredients
For the batter:
7g sachet easy-blend dried yeast
1 tsp light muscovado sugar
100g/4oz white bread flour
200ml/7fl oz hand-hot milk
For the dough:
300g/10oz white bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
grated rind of 1 orange
50g/2oz butter, cut into small pieces
50g/2oz light muscovado sugar
175g/6oz mixed dried fruit
1 egg, lightly beaten
For the crosses:
2 tbsp plain flour
For the glaze:
1 orange
50g/2oz caster sugar
500g minced beef (lean) or chicken
150g sausage meat
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon chopped parsley or sage
2 tablespoons tomato purée or ketchup
75g breadcrumbs
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Paprika to taste
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method
- Make the batter: grease a baking sheet. Mix together the yeast, sugar and flour in a large bowl. Stir in the milk and mix to a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 25-30 minutes until the surface is covered with large bubbles.
- Make the dough: sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in the orange rind, add the butter and rub into the flour, then stir in the sugar and dried fruit.
- Add the dry mix and the beaten egg to the batter, and mix to a soft dough; a large salad serving fork is perfect for this. Tip the dough on to a lightly-floured surface; knead for five minutes until smooth and no longer sticky. Knead in more flour if still sticky after five minutes.
- Divide the dough into nine equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Put on the baking sheet, a little apart, in a three-by-three formation. Oil the inside of a large polythene bag and put the buns and baking sheet inside it, loosely tied. Leave to rise for 1 ½ hours until the buns have doubled in size and spring back when prodded.
- Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7/fan oven 200C. To make the crosses, blend the flour with two tbsp of cold water to make a paste. Put the paste in a small food bag and snip off one corner. Pipe a cross on the top of each bun.
- Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden brown. Make the glaze: pare the orange rind, then cut into fine strips. Put the rind and sugar in a pan with three tbsp of water. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then boil rapidly to make a light syrup (1½-2 minutes). Transfer the buns to a rack, brush immediately with the glaze, then leave to cool.
simnel cake
This recipe for Simnel Cake comes from the BBC Good Food guide. Before it became an Easter tradition, children used to make it for their Mums on Mothers day. The eleven eggs that grace the top of the cake represent Jesus's disciples; the twelfth disciple Judas is left off due to his treachery.
Preparation time - 30 mins
Cooking time - 2 hours
ingredients
500g / 1 lb 4 oz mixed dried fruit
200g / 8 oz plain flour
Pinch of salt
Level teaspoonful cinnamon
Level teaspoonful ground nutmeg
150g / 6 oz margarine
150g / 6 oz brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp apricot jam
400g / 1 lb marzipan
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method
- Grease and line a deep 18 cm cake tin.
- Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 3 (325F / 160C).
- Divide the marzipan into three, making one piece slightly smaller than the other two.
- Cream margarine and sugar together and gradually add the eggs. Add the dried fruit, and then sift in the flour and spice.
- Roll out one third of the marzipan to roughly the shape of the tin. Place half of the cake mixture into the tin, put in the marzipan and cover with the remaining mixture.
- Bake for 2 - 2.5 hours, until the sound of bubbling has stopped (don't test the cake with a skewer because of the layer of marzipan!). Leave the cake to cool in the tin.
- Roll out the second large piece of marzipan to the shape of the cake. Brush the cake top with apricot jam and press the marzipan in place.
- Remove the cake from the tin.
- With the rest of the marzipan, make 11 egg-shaped pieces. Brush the top of the marzipan with apricot jam, and put the eggs around the edge.
- Place the cake under the grill until golden.
Have your say:
If you've got any family recipes you'd like to share with other Baby Matters readers, send in your suggestions. Simply email your recipe to feedback@bloomingmarvellous.co.uk and you could be featured in our next ezine!
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