Apple and Cinnamon Ring Cake

Apfel und Zimt Kuchen!

It's been a while since I posted about some crumbs! This is because I have moved to the far away land of Berlin-hooray! I have only just managed to scrape together the necessary things for baking a cake. A very simple apple and cinnamon bundt cake. 

Ingredients:

130g unsalted butter, room temp

185g caster sugar

2 medium eggs, room temp, lightly beaten

1 sachet vanilla sugar/tsp of vanilla extract

185g SR flour

185g low fat natural yoghurt
2 medium apples, skins removed, one diced, one sliced
1 tsp cinnamon


Extras: 20g butter, 30g sugar, pinch of cinnamon


4 tblsp icing sugar
1/2tsp cinnamon
drop of water

Method:
-Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180C. Grease a small bundt/ring tin or a deep 18cm round tin.
-Beat the sugar and the butter together until light and creamy. 
-Add the egg little by little, mixing well after each addition.
-Add the vanilla sugar/extract and then fold in the flour and cinnamon.
-Add the yoghurt and the diced apple and stir until smooth.
-Spoon in to the tin and level out. Add the sliced apples on top. Dot the extra butter over the apple then sprinkle on the extra sugar and cinnamon.
-Bake for about an hour, check to see if it's done with a skewer then tip out to cool on a wire rack.
-Mix the icing sugar, cinnamon and water together to make a simple icing, and drizzle over the top.
-Enjoy warm or cold! 

Appley and Tasty!

Spiced Gingery Snappy Biscuits

I've never been very good at biscuits

I've never been very good at making biscuits. I've only really ever attempted them a handful of times, but they always end up either too floppy, or you can taste the floury/doughy yuckiness of undercooked baked goods. Or they burn. or the recipe was plain just tasteless ('cinnamon treats' were not the treat they had promised). This one, however I think worked out pretty well! They were supposed to snap- and they do. Crunchy, tasty, spicy sweet biscuits that were simple to make. I adapted the recipe from the Marks and Spencer's christmas book 2009.

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

165g dark soft brown sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1 clove, smashed pretty finely

150g butter, chopped

1 egg yolk

Method:

-  Put everything except the yolk in to a food processor and blitz until crumbly. Add the yolk and pulse until combined.
- tip out on to a clean surface and bring together until a solid dough is formed (mine was really dry so took a while- be persistent). Once fully combined, knead until smooth: not for too long. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.
- Cut in half and place one half on a sheet of foil or baking paper. Place another sheet on top and roll to a thickness of about 3mm. Repeat with the other half, then put both in the fridge for another 30.
- heat the oven to gas 4/180C. Line 2 baking sheets. Cut out shapes from the dough (I got around 24 by using a 6 cm plain cutter, but you could also use a ginger bread man or any other shape). Bake for 11 minutes then leave to cool on the trays.