Lancashire apple cake

To further my mission to establish a cake club in my new office I took in a Lancashire apple cake today.

Cheese with cake is a classic Northern thing to do and this cake take it one step further by actually putting the cheese in the cake.

This cake is a batter-type cake and has that distinctive texture. It was incredibly apply (quelle surprise!), probably because I'd added so much grated Bramley to the batter. The cheese layer didn't stand out as a particularly prominent flavour. It added more of a subtle note and added some structure to the centre of cake. I'm glad I added a sprinkle of demerara to the top which added a much needed crunch. I think some cheese on the top of the cake could be another welcome addition.

This cake went down very well. That's two from two so far. I just need to find a way of manifesting the enthusiasm for cake eating as cake production.

Lancashire apple cake (taken from The Great British Kitchen)

Ingredients:
½oz butter
7oz plain flour
2tsp baking powder
30z caster sugar
1 lb 10 oz made up of Bramley apples, grated and eating apples cored, peeled and chopped
4½oz raisins
1tsp nutmeg
2 eggs, beaten
4floz sunflower oil
5oz Lancashire cheese
1oz demerara sugar

Method:
1. Sift flour and baking powder together. Add sugar, apples, raisins and nutmeg.
2. Beat eggs into oil and stir into the mix.
3. Spoon half into a 9" cake tin . Add cheese and top with the remaining apple mix.
4. Bake for 1 hour at 170°C until golden. Cool in the tin for 30 minutes.

Lemon cake

Although I have left the joys of the ICCHFC behind, I am hopeful that I can rouse my new troops to a regular celebration of cake.

My first attempt to bring the joy of cake to my new office was a lemon sponge "birthday cake" (as office tradition demands).

The lemon sponges were sandwiched with lemon curd and whipped cream and topped with a lemon icing. I decorated it with lemon icing and meringues (attached with lemon curd).

It turns out that there is a strong under-current of cake appreciation and this went down far better than I could ever have hoped. Maybe there is hope for a new cake club...

ICCHFC - Week 70: Strike cake(!)

In protest of not having been saved a cookie last week, Sara had threatened not to bring in cake. Thankfully she did: a delightful chocolate chip sponge with a Nutella filling.

It was a fitting last cake for me. Next Monday I will be starting a new job, so the Cakers will carry on without me and my Monday's will be poorer for it. I've really enjoyed cake club and can't believe we've been doing it for 70 weeks. The start to each week has been made a little more bearable with the sweet elevenses. I really look forward to the break and banter.

I wonder, when is it appropriate to bring in cake for the first time at a new job?

ICCHFC - Week 69: White chocolate and cherry cookies

Mazza needed a quick and easy recipe this week so using the power of Google found a recipe for these white chocolate and cherry cookies.


Very tasty they were too and perfect with a cuppa.

ICCHFC - Week 68

No home baked cake this week but we did have a rather extravagant Fleur de Lys chocolate tart from Paul. I'll leave it to John to exlplin why in his own words:

Hi Cakers,
I do have a delicious cake but because of diy kitchen refurbishment antics, I don’t have an oven so had to buy it.
I promise to make chocolate bourbon biscuits as soon as my new oven is commissioned and hope the inferior shop bought cake will suffice until I’m back in action.
Caker John

I cannot wait for home made bourbons.

ICCHFC - Week 67: Banana and walnut loaf

Michael produced another lovely loaf this week (so much for the biscuit season!): banana and walnut.Amazingly, there was a piece saved for me on Tuesday and I'm glad there was. The moist, crumbly, light loaf was a lovely pick-me-up for elevenses.

Not overwhelmingly bananary but it didn't take away from the overall experience.

ICCHFC - Week 66: Oat and cranberry cookies

Laura kept up (my unintentionally introduced) theme of biscuits and cookies with some rather good oat and cranberry cookies.

Some of the ICCHFC claimed that these were healthy as they had oats for slow energy release, fruit (dried cranberries) and were made with olive oil. I'm not entirely convinced of this but if it help people with their conscience...

No photo I'm afraid as I forgot my camera and by the time I brought it in the next day they'd all gone!

ICCHFC - Week 65: Jammy dodgers

Back to work and first day back I was on cake duty. I had an absolute dilemma trying to decide what to make, as I didn't want to go over-board as I thought nobody would be up for a luxurious gateau given the festive excesses.

With moderation in mind I went for a biscuit: a small(ish) bite which could be had with a cup of tea and still perk up the morning. Biscuit of choice was the jammy dodger.

These were very satisfying to make and I felt a very good use of a bank holiday evening. By all accounts they were worth the effort too. Only John and Hannah were in and I'm not sure if the others will be around to sample these delight. Luckily I've got the blog so they can see what they missed!

The recipe (see below) apparently makes 32. I say apparently because there is no way that you could make 32 unless you made small mean biscuits. And nobody like a mean biscuit. I made a dozen of these jam-filled-shortcake-sandwiches-of-joy.

The shortbread was delicious, even on it's own. Not that I had any of the leftovers or anything...

Jammy dodgers (recipe taken from The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden)

Ingredients:
4oz ground almonds
6oz plain flour
6oz butter, softened
4oz caster sugar
Rind of 1 lemon, grated
1tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white
Pinch salt
2oz flaked almonds, chopped
2tbsp raspberry jam
1dsp lemon juice

Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
2. Beat in the lemon rind and vanilla extract.
3. Add the ground almonds and sift in the flour. Mix thoroughly to a dough (it will probably be quite sticky, but don't worry).
4. Gather the dough into a slab, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30mins to firm the dough.
5. Remove the dough from the fridge and allow to warm slightly for 5mins.
6. Divide the dough into four. Roll the dough until approximately 3mm thick. Then cut out circles and place on a greaseproof paper. Repeat with the remaining three portions of dough.
Note: Beware. The dough will be very sticky so be liberal with the flour.
7. Cut a circle out from the centre of half of the pastry discs.
8. Whisk the egg white with the salt until just frothy.
9. Brush the egg white over the pastry rings and douse with the chopped almonds.
10. Bake at 160°C for 12mins or until the biscuit are lightly golden.
11. Leave to cool in the tray for 5mins then move to a rack and allow to cool completely.
12. For the filling, heat the jam and lemon juice in a pan until just bubbling. Take off the heat and brush the bottom biscuits with jam and then top each with a biscuit ring.

ICCHFC - Week 64: Charity bake

Today the ICCHFC put on another charity cake bake, as is customary at this time of year. However, for some reason, there was not as much enthusiasm as usual (this may have been due to the effect of pretty much everyone in the office being more interested in extra-curricula activities other than work so that there was a glut of cake and sweets throughout the whole of December.)

By ICCHFC standards it was a pretty poor affair:

Fruit loaf, flapjacks, carrot cake, Victoria sponge, muffins and rocky road were available.

I was quite pleased to hear that my classic Victoria sponge (with oodles of cream and raspberry jam) sold out first. I'd liberally coated the top with icing sugar and used a hot skewer to decorate the top. It turned out pretty well, but I was a bit over-enthusiastic with the first stripe and almost went through the top layer of the cake!

ICCHFC - Weeks 62 and 63

No cake action for the last two weeks:

Week 62 John forgot to bring it in on the Monday and so promised it for Friday. For what happened next, I will turn to John

“So, I will bring a home-baked cake in on Friday J” – so the cake is at home. I forgot. What a plonka! Sorry folks :-(

As for week 63 Marianne succumbed to a baking disaster...

Next week is charity cake bake week

ICCHFC - Week 61: Nutty apple loaf

Everyone was curious this week as to how Michael was going to maintain the level of his excellent pear and almond muffin début. He certainly managed it with this brilliant nutty apple loaf.

(Picture care of the Iron Chef Shellie blog).

The cake was full of generously filled with lumps of chocolate, nuts and apple making each and every bite different. Incredibly easy to eat; our first slices were demolished in seconds, hence having to track down a picture.

It would appear that the Hummingbird Bakery's cookbook is Michael's best friend.

Michael's Nutty Apple loaf (recipe from Iron Chef Shellie blog again!)

Ingredients:
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
140g soft light brown sugar
2 tablespoons strawberry jam
2 eggs
140g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
100g shelled mixed nuts, chopped
50g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
2 eating apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

Method:
1. Put the butter, sugar and strawberry jam in an electric mixer and cream together until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a separate bowl, then beat into the butter mixture. Stir in the nuts, chocolate and apples into the mixture by hand until evenly dispersed. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight if possible.
4. Pour the mixture into a 23x13cm loaf tin, greased and dusted with flour, and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake at 170°C for 50-60 minutes or until brown and the sponge feels firm to the touch. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean, but for a little melted chocolate. Leave the cake to cook slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

ICCHFC - Week 60: Lemon and rosemary cake

Laura did remarkably well this week and pulled a massive surprise out of the bag.

I was the last of the cakers to try a slice of the very sticky cake. It was obvious there was a herb involved but the challenge was to identify what. My taste buds told me that it was rosemary but the flecks of green just didn't look like rosemary so like a complete chump I didn't guess rosemary! I'd been fooled by finely chopped rosemary and I was looking for whole leaves. What a plonker.

I don't think I've had a fruit and herb combo before in any type of scenario and it worked really well in this cake. The lemon was very sharp and the rosemary added a great foil to the citrus. It was in that weird place between sweet and savoury. And yet incredibly moreish.

Laura's Lemon and Rosemary cake (adapted from The Times Online)

Ingredients:

200g ground almonds
200g white sugar

200ml olive oil

4 eggs

Grated zest of 1 large lemon

4 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped

For the syrup:

Juice of 2 large lemons

Same amount of water

3 tbsp sugar

4 sprigs of rosemary

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. In a large bowl, beat together all the cake ingredients and pour into 8 oiled ramekins.
3. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden.
4. To make the syrup, simmer all the ingredients over a low heat, until thickened.
5. Turn out the cakes, prick them all over with a skewer and pour syrup over them.
6. Decorate with Greek yoghurt sweetened with icing sugar, a sprig of rosemary and wedges of orange.

ICCHFC - Week 59: Red velvet cake

I really didn't know what to make this time round for cake club. I just wasn't particularly inspired. I had a vague idea to do something with caramel but it didn't really grab me and I couldn't find an appealing recipe that really made me want to make it.

I was flicking through my recipe books trying to find inspiration and I was thinking about the cakes I'd done in the past and what I'd really enjoyed making. Then the angel food cake came to mind; clearly a cake I would never make other than for cake club. So, what about its counter-part a devil food cake?

It wasn't quite that simple, however. Recently there's been an air of mystery about the weekly cakes. Sara has instigated a season of "baker's choice" which has been accompanied by a guessing of the cake prior to the unveiling at elevenses.

With this in mind a devil food cake would be pretty easy to guess. It's basically a massive chocolate cake that looks like a massive chocolate cake. So what about a red velvet cake? A red vanilla chocolate cake coated in a white cream cheese frosting. Surely no-one would ever guess that, would they?

After a pleasant afternoon of baking and icing I had a cake ready for the ICCHFC. Thing is I had no idea how red the cake would be until we cut it open. I forgot to take pictures at the batter and baked stages (d'oh). I was pretty pleased nonetheless.

The cake was an unqualified success. No-one guessed what it was and everyone seemed very impressed by its size, colour and flavour.

Cake club gold baby, yeah!

This picture doesn't do justice to the deep red colour of the cake (too much reflection from the icing). Fortunately John took a better one:


This cake is a favourite in the deepest south of the US of A. Apparently the red colour was originally due to the reaction between the acids in the vinegar and buttermilk with the red anthocyanin in the cocoa and giving it the red colour. However, this was before cocoa was "Dutch processed", so now the red colour comes from a shed-load of food colouring.

After plenty of trawling of the t'interweb for suitable recipes I came up with the recipe below which is a combination of the many many that I found (Just how sweet do Americans like their icing? I frequently saw recipes using more than 1lb of icing sugar!)

Amongst all the recipe trawling I'd also come across the concept of a crumb layer of icing. Effectively a thin layer of icing put on to hold crumbs then left to set before applying the final layer of decorative icing, ensuring a perfect finish. If only I'd known about this when I was making the wedding cake. How much easier would things have been?

My red velvet cake recipe (sorry for the American cups):

Ingredients:
2½ cup plain flour
1½ cup caster sugar
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp baking powder
¼ cup cocoa
1tsp salt
2eggs
1½cup vegetable oil
1cup butter milk (or as an alternative 1tbsp red wine vinegar topped up with milk to make 1cup and left for 10mins)
1tsp red wine vinegar
1tsp vanilla extract
1 bottle of red food colouring ~38ml
For the frosting:
12oz cream cheese
60z butter, very soft
~6oz icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Sift together all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, bicarb) and stir in the sugar.
2. Beat all the wet ingredients together (buttermilk (or substitute), oil, eggs, vinegar, colouring, vanilla).
3. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the wet to create a smooth scarlet batter.
4. Divide the batter equally between three 8" cake tins and bake for about 25min at 180°C. (The cakes are ready when the top springs back from a gentle prod, the sides have started to come away from the tin and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean).
5. Leave the cakes to cool in the pans for about 5mins before turning out to a cake rack and leaving to cool completely.
6. Meanwhile make the frosting. Firstly beat the butter so it is very soft and smooth. Slowly beat in the cream cheese and vanilla and then the icing sugar. Add icing sugar until you get the flavour you are after bu I'd recommend a minimum of 6oz. Leave in the fridge for at least 10mins to firm up.
7. Layer the cakes with a generous amount of frosting (about 2tsbp). Then cover the cake with a thin crumb layer of frosting and leave to chill for 30mins (or longer).
8 Use the remaining icing to give a perfect white casing to your deep velvet cake.

ICCHFC - Week 58: Chocolate, chilli and orange cake

Seb was back on the case this week and made a chocolate, chilli and orange cake.

Seb's made quite a few adjustments to the original recipe (see below) and wasn't quite sure how it had turned out so was insistent that a photograph should be taken before it was cut, so hear it is:

Seb needn't have worried. Look at that amazing marbled texture:

This was certainly a substantial cake. Despite having changed the recipe it was pretty tasty, although I think the chilli and orange subtleties were lost on me.

Seb's Chocolate, chilli and orange cake (aka Simon Rimmer's original recipe on Something for the Weekend)

Ingredients:
For the chocolate syrup:
200ml/7fl oz water
125g/4½oz butter
1¾oz honey
1lb 2oz dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
For the sponge:
9oz butter, plus extra for greasing
9oz caster sugar
5 free-range eggs
1 vanilla pod, seeds only
14oz flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 orange, zest and juice
For the glaze:
1 orange, juice only
4½oz icing sugar
1 tbsp orange liqueur

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease a 25cm/10in bundt cake tin.
2. For the chocolate syrup, heat the water, butter, honey and chocolate in a saucepan, stirring regularly, until the mixture is smooth.
3. For the sponge, cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined. Fold in the flour and baking powder. Spoon half of the mixture into a separate bowl.
4. Stir half of the chocolate syrup and all of the chilli into one half of the mixture. Add the orange zest and juice to the other half of the mixture.
5. Spoon the orange mixture into the cake tin and spread the mixture out until it is level. Spoon the chocolate chilli mixture on top. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool.
6. Meanwhile, for the glaze, mix the orange juice, icing sugar and orange liqueur together in a bowl until well combined.
7. Carefully remove the cake from the tin and brush with the glaze. Pour over the remaining chocolate syrup.

ICCHFC - Week 57: Pecan blondies

I'd completely forgotten that Hannah wasn't in on Monday so her box of pecan blondies was greeted with much desire!

I've wanted to make blondies for ages, so I was intrigued as to what they were like. Far less rich than brownies the nuts were a welcome addition (I prefer brownies without nuts) as the white chocolate flavour was not particularly dominant (although I'm not sure any white chocolate cake ever really has a very strong flavour of white chocolate). Nevertheless the blondies were incredibly moreish the whole box got finished off in double time and there was almost a rumpus over the last bits.

Hannah's pecan blondies (care of the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook)

Ingredients:
5oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1½tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups plain flour
Pinch salt
1 cup pecans, chopped

Method:
1. Line a baking pan (46 by 23 cm/18 by 9 inch) with parchment paper and preheat oven to 160°C.
2. In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, place chocolate and butter (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Leave until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
3. Add sugar and stir until well incorporated. Add eggs and vanilla, stirring briskly so that you don’t allow the eggs to scramble. (Don’t worry if the mixture looks as if it is starting to split.)
4. Add flour, salt and pecans and stir until well combined and the nuts are evenly dispersed.
5. Spoon mixture into prepared baking pan and bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and the centre is still soft.
6. Let cool completely and cut into squares.

ICCHFC leftovers - orange crème caramel cheesecakes

Sara wasn't a fan of the orange frosting she made for her pumpkin cake this week. Consequently I volunteered to use up the orange, sugar and cheese mix (far better than throwing it away).

I found this recipe for orange crème caramel cheesecakes which I duly made. The one I had at home turned out pretty well:

It had a very subtle flavour and a lovely texture, smoother that a traditional cheesecake. The caramel delivered a very strong flavour hit and I could happily have had more (I would have done had I not made 8 smaller ones rather than the 6 in the recipe). The biscuit was über crunchy and gave an excellent textural contrast.

The ones I took into work had to stay in the ramekin moulds and had the biscuit "base" on top. Nonetheless everyone was still rather complementary about them despite the presentation.

All in all a good result for some left overs. Although I did use rather a lot of energy and extra ingredients to prevent something being put in the bin. I do wonder what the best option would be had I done some sort of carbon analysis of either landfilling the leftover frosting or making a the puds...

Here's the full recipe, just in case you don't have any leftovers to use up!

Orange crème caramel cheesecakes recipe

Ingredients:
300ml double cream
peel from 1 orange
8oz caster sugar
4tbsp orange liqueur
200g tub cream cheese
4 eggs
For the biscuit base:
250g digestive biscuits
85g butter, melted

Method:
1. Heat oven to 150°C. In a small pan, bring the cream to the boil with the orange peel, then set aside to infuse.
2. Tip 5oz sugar into another saucepan with just enough water to make it sludgy. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer and boil to make a darkish caramel. Add 2 tbsp of the orange liqueur (watch out as it will splutter). Leave it to settle slightly, then pour the caramel over the base of 6 x 250ml ramekins and set aside.
3. Beat the cream cheese and the remaining 3oz sugar together in a large bowl, then beat in the eggs and the remaining orange liqueur. Strain in the infused cream, then beat everything together to make a custard. Skim off any froth and set aside.
4. Place the ramekins in a deep roasting tin. Divide the custard between them - it will only come to halfway. Then bring the tin to the oven and fill with boiling water so it comes halfway up the outside of the ramekin dishes.
5. Bake the cheesecakes for 40 mins or until just set, then remove from the oven and the tin. Leave to cool, then chill at least overnight. These can be made up to 2 days ahead and left to chill.
6. For the bases, crumble the biscuits into a food processor, then blitz to fine crumbs. Add the melted butter and pulse until everything is mixed.
7. Divide the biscuit mix between 6 ring moulds on the serving plates. Pack the base firmly into the moulds and chill.
8. To serve, unmould the cheesecakes, saving the caramel sauce in the ramekin. Top the bases with the crème caramels, drizzle the sauce over and around the plates.

ICCHFC - Week 56: Pumpkin cake

Sara was baking duty this week and went very seasonal with a pumpkin cake.

It was very carrot cake-esque, with a similar texture and flavour. I'd need to have a slice of each side by side in order to tell the difference (that's not a slight on Sara's cake rather a comment on my rubbishness). I was the only person to have the orange cream cheese frosting and I thought it added a lovely piquancy. Definitely better with than without.

However, now the remaining frosting has been donated to me to do something with (or else it would have been chucked). I think a baked cheesecake may be in order.

Sara's pumpkin cake (taken from Good Food)

Ingredients:
300g self-raising flour
300g light muscovado sugar
3tsp mixed spice
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g sultanas
½tsp salt
4 eggs, beaten
200g butter, melted
zest 1 orange
1tbsp orange juice
500g (peeled weight) pumpkin or butternut squash flesh, grated
For drenching and frosting:
200g pack soft cheese
85g butter , softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
zest 1 orange and juice of half

Method:
1. Heat oven to 180°C. Butter and line a 30 x 20cm baking or small roasting tin with baking parchment.
2. Put the flour, sugar, spice, bicarbonate of soda, sultanas and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine.
3. Beat the eggs into the melted butter, stir in the orange zest and juice, then mix with the dry ingredients till combined. Stir in the pumpkin.
4. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30 mins, or until golden and springy to the touch.
5. To make the frosting, beat together the cheese, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and 1 tsp of the juice till smooth and creamy, then set aside in the fridge.
6. When the cake is done, cool for 5 mins then turn it onto a cooling rack. Prick it all over with a skewer and drizzle with the rest of the orange juice while still warm. Leave to cool completely.
7. If you like, trim the edges of the cake. Give the frosting a quick beat to loosen, then, using a palette knife, spread over the top of the cake in peaks and swirls.

TIP: Pumpkins can vary dramatically in water content, so keep an eye on the cake towards the end of cooking - yours may take less or more time to cook through. Butternut squash works brilliantly, too.

ICCHFC - Week 55: Coconut, lemon and blueberry cake

Week 55 was back to Marianne and despite all her protestation, she still manages to produce one good cake after another.

This time she made a coconut, lemon and blueberry cake to use up the lemon curd she had in her fridge.

This cake had an amazing texture profile. The top section was slightly crisp and chewy because of the coconut. This gave way to a light sponge. Hidden at the bottom of the cake was a gloriously rich combination of just cooked blueberries and lemon. It didn't taste too bad either!

ICCHFC - Week 54: Plum cake

Despite being off on Monday, there was some of Johnny's plum cake left for me to have some and the rest of the ICCHFC to have seconds.

John made a rather scrummy plum cake care of this Nigel Slater recipe.


There were loads of beautiful ruby plums in this cake surrounded by a soft lightly almondy sponge.

We decided that this was not only a good cake but would be great served warm with lashings of custard.

John's version of Nigel Slater's plum cake

Ingredients:
150g butter
150g unrefined golden caster sugar
16 plums
3 large eggs
75g plain flour
tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds

Method:
1. Set the oven at 175°C. Line the base of a 20-22cm cake tin with baking parchment.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until it is pale and fluffy. Stop when the mixture is light, soft and the colour of vanilla ice cream.
3. Meanwhile, halve the plums, remove the stones, then cut each half in two.
4. Break the eggs, beat lightly with a fork, then add them bit by bit to the butter and sugar.
5. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold them gently into the mixture. Fold in the ground almonds too.
6. Scrape the mixture into the cake tin. Place the quartered plums on the cake mixture. Bake for 40-45 minutes, then test with a skewer. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready.
7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes before turning out.

ICCHFC - Week 53: Pear and almond muffins

Things took a bit of an interesting turn this week. It was the first time we have had a guest baker. In return for providing a cake the guest baker is being allowed a slice from each cake for an entire round.

So, this week MM treated us to a round of pear and almond muffins.

I'm not quite sure I believe it was MM rather than Mrs. MM who did the baking, nevertheless these were wicked: soft muffins just how I like them.

A rich almond sponge that had a heart of soft pear. Incredibly moorish, it was difficult not to immediately reach for another.

12/10/10 Update:
It was confirmed today that it was MM that baked not the missus. We can expect plenty more muffins to follow as they are "simple".