Mint Choc Chip Cake

Perfect for summer!

6 oz butter/marg
6 oz sugar
3 eggs
8 oz self-raising flour
8 oz chocolate chips (or chipped chocolate)
a little milk
two teaspoons of peppermint extract
green food colouring

butter
cocoa powder
icing sugar

Line and grease a fairly deep 7 or 8 inch tin. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, fold in flour and add chocolate chips. Add a little milk to make it slightly less stiff (but it needs to be fairly stiff or the choc chips will sink). Add 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract, and some green colouring if you like your cake to be the right colour.

Bake at 160-180 depending on your oven, for about 1hour 15.

When the cake is cool, mix up some chocolate butter icing (butter, cocoa and icing sugar) and spread it over the cake. Or use whatever your favourite choc icing is. Yummy.

Orange Choc Chip Cake

6oz butter or marg
6oz caster sugar
3 eggs
8 oz self-raising flour
8oz chocolate chips (milk or dark)
1 orange
orange oil (optional)

icing sugar
cocoa powder


Line and grease a reasonably deep 7 or 8 inch cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, fold in the flour and choc chips. Zest the orange (quickest way to do this is with a potato peeler) and add the zest to the cake mixture. Then halve the orange and squeeze one half of the orange juice into the cake mixture. For added orangeyness (recommended), add a few drops of orange oil.

Spoon into the tin and bake for 1 hour 15 mins on about 180C (a bit less in a fan oven).

When the cake is cool, mix a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder, several spoons of icing sugar, and the remaining juice from the orange, to make choc-orange icing. Spread over the cake, and leave to set.

Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pudding

Ingredients:

1 oz butter
Soft brown sugar
8 oz self raising flour
1 tsp salt
3 oz suet
1/4 pint water
1 1/2 lbs of young rhubarb
1 oz chopped candied peel
2 oz currants
rind and juice of half a lemon
4 oz sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
3 fl oz water

Method:

1. Choose a very large glass or china pudding basin (2 pint basin is not really big enough for this quantity of stuff).
2. Butter the basin thickly with the butter and shake plenty of brown sugar about in it so that it sticks to the butter (or spread them both together).
3. In a mixing bowl, make suet pastry with the flour, salt, suet and the 1/4 pint of water.
   
4. Form the dough into a ball and cut off one third of the ball to reserve for the lid.
5. Take the larger piece and put it into the pudding basin. Pummel it out thin so that it lines the bottom and sides of the basin up to a bit short of the brim. Make sure there are no holes.
6. Wash and trim the sticks of rhubarb and slice them into 1 inch pieces.
   
7. Put half the pieces of rhubarb into the pudding shell.
   
8. Sprinkle over the peel, currants, lemon rind and juice, half the sugar, and the cinnamon.
9. Add the rest of the rhubarb and the rest of the sugar.
10. Pour in the water.
11. Take the remaining piece of suet pastry and knead it out to make a round lid. Put the lid on the pudding and stick the edges of the pastry together.
12. Cover the pudding with a circle of greaseproof paper as if for steaming, tied on with string.
13. Bake at 350º F, 180ºC, Fan oven 160º, gas mark 4, for 75 minutes.
14. Remove from the oven, take off the paper top, turn out into a dish with sides.
15. Serve piping hot with cream or custard.