Oooooh new tins!
I’m so excited about using my new little bundt tins, a rare purchase for me as my vast collection of cake tins usually holds something I can use, usually found at the bottom of the pile, harbouring a few cobwebs. I saw these yesterday on a reduced counter and couldn’t resist as I am a fan of bundt cakes but I haven’t got any of these mini ones. These are nice and heavy and feel as though they will last for years. I can certainly say I am very pleased so far, these little cranberry cakes, light and buttery and full of flavour, turned out perfectly on being turned upside-down with no need for any help at all.
Having been a baker for a living and I think rather older than the average blogger, most of my tins are various shades of brown, tarnished with age, with just a few more modern tart tins still showing signs of youth, not worn and battered like us oldies.
The tins in the photo are only a small part of a collection of cake tins (a clattering may be?) that are clogging up my kitchen cupboard arteries, I have piles of celebration cake tins in the loft, under the bed and in the shed. The big party tins get little, if any, use these days but I can’t bare to part with them, I just might need that horseshoe shaped tin one day or if I’m feeling particularly greedy I could make a heart shape birthday cake for my husband that would feed thirty.
My mother was an avid baker and home cook and there was never a time that the cake tin didn’t hold some lovely moreish treasures for our little and not so little fingers to find. We always had the luxury of a dessert, of course something that wasn’t truly appreciated until much older in life. I remember various times being invited to my first boyfriend’s parents’ house and finding it strange that the dessert was always tinned peaches and evaporated milk.
Typing that has bought back a memory, I actually remember quite liking tinned peaches and ‘evap’, a vintage combination I haven’t eaten for years and years, it was the tinned fruit cocktail that I couldn’t stand, with those funny little grapes and soggy pear squares. But his mother never produced a crumble or apple pie or bread pudding or anything with custard whatsoever. And never cake. I had entered the real world and soon realised that not everyone’s mum liked cooking or had the talent for it like like my mum, since which time I have been eternally grateful.
Like all children, as we grow up we usually think our families are the norm and are shocked when we get older to realise that all families are not the same and some things we have thought as normal, other people may find slightly peculiar. After countless Christmases together, my husband still thinks it’s really weird that I save my Christmas presents to open after lunch. But I can’t understand why he doesn’t eat apple sauce with roast pork. And why does he always eat his vegetables first? And come to think of it why does he insist that porridge has to be so thick the spoon will stand up on its own. And have salt in. He won’t eat mine, he says its like gruel, although I’m quite sure he has never eaten gruel, unless he’s thinking of slop and there’s something he hasn’t told me.
I digress. The tins came in a pack of four and as there was enough mixture for six, I made two large cup cakes as well. I felt like making something with a festive edge but fancied something not too heavy or rich and as my nine year insisted on making a chocolate cake today I steered away from the sweeter end and went for cranberries which I love this time of the year, their tartness balanced by the simple orange icing. I made this up as I went along and am really pleased with the result. The little bit of grated orange zest really lifted the flavours and the addition of pecans just made them a little more Christmassy. The mixture could be used to make one loaf cake.
- 200g unsalted butter
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 200g flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 60ml greek yoghurt (plain will do)
- 120g cranberries (I used frozen)
- Icing sugar
- Grated zest and juice of one orange
- Handful of roughly chopped pecans
- Preheat oven to 170c (fan)
- Grease and dust with flour 6 mini bundt tins or one loaf tin (about 8ins)
- Cream butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Add flour and baking powder.
- Add yoghurt and mix until incorporated.
- Fold in cranberries by hand.The mixture will be quite stiff.
- Distribute between tins and smooth tops.
- Bake in oven for approx 30 mins until skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Leave for about 5 minutes then turn out to cool on a rack.
- When cool make some icing using about 8 heaped Tbs icing sugar and the juice of an orange.
- Drizzle over the cakes and add some roughly chopped pecans and a little grated orange zest.
What a trip down memory lane, tinned peaches & evap were nice but not tinned manadrarins & evap when the combination made the milk curdle! My mum didn’t really cook at all much except at Christmas but she was always one for presentation & the evap or sometimes tinned cream was served in a beautiful glass jug. Mum was time poor & embraced the convenience food revolution of the 60’s which I buck against now & my daughter also likes to cook so we’ve had a change in direction in the family cooking history thank goodness.
My tin collection is more like a cupboard of doom like the plastic box drawer ! Both get an annual sort out when I can’t find anything anymore.
Will try this recipe when my oven gets sorted it’s in the middle of the kitchen at the moment
I might actually buy a tin of peaches next week and see if I can get that moment in time. Don’t get me wrong we certainly had tinned peaches at home and we were quite partial to Angel Delight, I still keep a packet of Butterscotch Angel Delight in the cupboard for Michael as it is was his favourite childhood dessert and when he’s feeling a bit gloomy I whip him up a bowl to surprise him. I dread to think what’s in it but it’s worth the expression on his face. Do try these cranberry cakes when you have an oven, they are really good. Don’t skip the little bit of orange zest, it adds a lovely zing. Thank you for the comment Andrea.
Wonderful memories! My grandmother did the tinned peaches and evaporated milk thing for Sunday tea, alongside celery sticks with salt and Cos lettuce with vinegar and sugar and white bread. My mother was a good cook but rarely baked. My mother in law always seemed to be covered in flour. Her repertoire was extremely limited (welsh cakes, bara brith, shortcrust pastry) but she made these so often that when I stayed at her house, there was always a bit of dried pastry or cake mixture on the sheets and towels where she had pegged them out to dry in the midst of baking.
Oh bara brith with thick butter! Do you still make it? These old fashioned recipes are so delicious and tend to get forgotten which is such a shame. I had rice pudding last night with clotted cream and jam. Certainly remember the celery sticks but I have never had the lettuce with vinegar and sugar. I have a lovely vision of the washing blowing in the wind with the cake bits stuck on and the house smelling of delicious baking smells. Thank you for you lovely comment.