Pete Fred

They were good out of hand. I took about 5 kg (10 lbs) so I’ll probably munch a few and give the rest to friends. 👍

I still have a lot to learn about French plums. The yellow ones a few posts back were not mirabelles as I thought, just, errrrrr, yellow plums. I now know this because my neighbour let me raid her mirabelle tree... I thought I'd have a crack at tarte aux mirabelles... It did not turn out as I had hoped. The basic recipe: line a ring with pastry, fill with plums, bake for an hour. Simple. I expected the plums would release a fair amount of juice so threw in some ground almonds on the bottom as insurance. But that didn't make any difference, it was just a soggy mush underneath. All the recipes I looked at didn't bother blind baking the pastry, and many also included a light custard, adding even more moisture, so I'm a little puzzled how it could turn out any different. But all was not lost. I scraped off the roasted plums and enjoyed them on their own...

The Whipped Cream Cake from King Arthur was not what I had hoped for... The filling layer largely sank and settled on the bottom... I often have problems with American recipes, presumably down to subtle ingredient differences, so no harm, no foul. My main issue was that the flavour profile was mostly just sweet, with the filling and topping not bringing much to the party. I already have a recipe for Drømmekage, so this one won't be elbowing it aside. Having said all that, the main reason for making this was the intriguing use of whipped cream in place of butter or oil. And in this aspect I thought it was quite successful. The cake had a light, fluffy texture that I really liked. King Arthur say that traditionally this cake is served plain with just a dusting of icing sugar. You can mark me a traditionalist, then. The plum trees that I thought were going to deliver Reine Claude (greengage) actually turned out to be mirabelles. Like the last lot they weren't particularly great as eating plums but it seemed a waste to let them wither so I filled a tub anyway... ...and cooked down a few into a compote with a hint of tonka, my current spice du jour... I was pleasantly surprised; it was nice. I'll give away that box of mirabelles, but I might go back for more and fill a few freezer bags with some of that compote. But, hands down, the best thing I made this weekend was David Lebovitz's Chocolate Sorbet... Perhaps not the most Instagram-perfect thing you'll see today but, Oh Lordy, great texture and flavour. Highly recommended.

Simple Sesame Cake by Yossy Arefi... Along with the tahini glaze to make it a 'Super Sesame Cake"... The texture of the cake was quite crumbly and a little 'claggy' in the mouth. Not necessarily a negative, but I'm glad I added the glaze which helped to lubricate things. Plus it really upped the tahini/halva element. Another successful bake from 'Snacking Cakes'.

There were some pretty decent, locally grown blueberries at the market today so that was excuse enough to make a Blueberry Poppy Seed Cake... It was good. Winner of the 1990 Pillsbury Bake-Off, don'tcha know. (Some reflections here. And a NYT article for those who have access.) It was a touch underbaked in the centre, but a couple of tweaks to the shaping of the batter and the amount of filling should improve things on that front. And I'm not sure I'll bother with the icing next time.

Even though my plums weren't that great it seemed a shame to let the season pass without making the cake at least once... The ridiculously large amount of small plums meant that the cake didn't really rise up around the fruit, hence the flatter than normal appearance. I had it with a scoop of my new favourite thing, fig leaf ice cream... Last year my fig tree/plant yielded precisely one fig. But it was a great fig. So great, in fact, I was compelled to take a photo. I still dream of that fig.... There's a few more this year, so hopefully I won't be trading quality for quantity... But even if the figs themselves disappoint, there's still plenty of leaves to put to good use. Their flavour was a revelation. (More info here.)

Yes! I made one last year... Such a good, no-fuss cake. I think there are at least three growing nearby. I believe they're called Reine Claude here. Hopefully I'll have more luck with them. 🤞 Well, I gave it a go, hoping for some kind of transformative alchemy to rescue things... It elevated them a bit, but not enough to justify firing up the oven again and making more batches. Having said that, if there'd been any ice cream within arm's reach, I'd happily have dolloped some on top. 👍

I didn’t realise it was passing nearby. I’ve just checked and it was about a 20 min drive from me (or an hour’s bike!). I’ve been keeping half an eye on the results, hoping that Cav might break the record for stage wins, so it’s a shame he seems to have crashed and broken his collar bone just up the road. Could’ve offered some cake and sympathy. 🙄

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake (National Trust Version) from Ottolenghi "Sweet"... It sank a fraction, so that irked me somewhat. But looking at others' attempts online it seems to be a common occurrence. In fact the official photo that accompanies the recipe is sneakily framed in an attempt to disguise the sinkage. But they can't fool me. Fix the recipe! 😠 It was a pleasant cake nevertheless. A selection of macarons (salted butter caramel, lemon, chocolate, coffee)... ...was payback for a neighbour who's been giving me a lot of shit recently... He seemed happy with the swap. 👍 And one of the plum trees growing wild nearby is heaving with fruit... I picked nearly 6 kg (13 lbs)... But don't hold your breath for any plummy delights. They were a bit 'meh', so I won't be bothering to make anything with them. However, there is a lady I know who makes lots of jam, so maybe she can turn them into sweet gold. There's still ten times as much again left on there so I'll check back to see if I was just a week or two early, but I think they're just not particularly great plums. C'est la vie!

Chocolate eclairs... I'm not sure that choosing a 32C/90F day to make pâte à choux by hand was the wisest move on my part, though. 🥵

Made some choux buns... Filled 'em with a tonka pastry cream... And with the leftover choux paste I finally got round to opening the pearl sugar that's been languishing at the back of the cupboard for the last 18 months...

I made the lemon pudding again, this time paying a bit more attention to the depth of the bain-marie and the cooking time... I left this one to chill overnight in the fridge. The sauce was like a lemon curd, and the cake less souffle and more spongey. Henderson says to serve warm or chilled. I'd say chilled is the way to go. The cake texture is better and the lemon sauce is mouth-puckeringly intense when cold.

Double Lemon Pudding by Margot Henderson... I guess it's otherwise known as a self-saucing pudding or a Lemon Surprise/Magic Pudding. It was quite pleasant and very light. I was a little too cautious with my first attempt and cooked too long. She says it will "leave three layers of texture, moving from a gooey bottom to a spongey top". This one had not enough goo and too much sponge (although I'd say it's more soufflé than sponge). The shape of the dish didn't do me any favours either, resulting in the ends being even less saucy than the middle... Next time I'll make a few minor tweaks: use a round dish, bake it with a more pronounced jiggle underneath, and not bother with her pointless suggestion of the cream accompaniment.

Yes. Let the oranges cool to handle then remove. The purée can be made ahead and stored. A similar weight of clementines (400g) is quite nice, but oranges punch more. 👍

I took Claudia Roden's Orange and Almond Cake round to a neighbour's... For anyone who's never come across it before, you boil whole oranges for a couple of hours, blitz to a purée, then mix with eggs, sugar, baking powder and ground almonds. Such a great cake. Light, moist and orangey. Gluten-free, too. Buckwheat is pretty popular here in France. I've never really succumbed to it's charms, but every now and then I give in and have another go. Hence this buckwheat cake... It was OK. One way to make a dent in the bag of flour, I suppose. The addition of some stewed apple and rhubarb, or sour cherries certainly livened things up... One buckwheat dessert that did win me over, though, is a take on rice pudding where the rice is swapped for roasted buckwheat seeds (kasha). I made Sarrasin au Lait last year and was pleasantly surprised... Not the world's most exciting image, admittedly, but it was good. The buckwheat seeds maintain a little more bite than a traditional rice pudding. Must set a reminder to make this again. I also made some Welsh cakes... For anyone not familiar, they are griddle cakes, and often called bakestones in their native Wales. (King Arthur helpfully describe them as "a cross between a pancake and a baking powder biscuit, with elements of cookies and muffins thrown in for good measure". Seems about right.) Another gâteau Breton, this time without a filling... A raid on the cherry tree yielded a tubful just before they were past their best... So I took the opportunity to dial-in the bake for the Cherry Coconut Almond Cake that I had problems with the other week... Yay! No sinking fruit. And one last cherry clafoutis... This time I drizzed the macerating juices over the top, so it didn't pool on the bottom. Weirdly, I preferred it the other way. There must be some magical alchemy from boozy cherry juice bubbling away on the bottom of the dish.

For version two, I pitted and macerated the cherries for a couple of hours in some sugar and kirsch... Not having to worry about the pits meant this was so much more pleasurable to eat, and the slick of boozy cherry juice on the bottom was a total winner.

I checked on one of my cherry trees yesterday and it was absolutely bulging with fruit... Amazingly, the birds don't seem to be taking much of an interest, so half an hour later... 1.8kg (4 lbs) of perfectly ripe cherries. And that was just a fraction of what was left on the tree. Winning! (The fuzzy black dot hovering in the sky, by the way, is not a UFO, just a bit of dirt on the lens. I think.) So today, being in the right part of the world for a clafoutis, I figured it woud be rude not to... The great thing about having a super-abundance of cherries is that you can really load up the dish with them. I used a Guy Savoy recipe and, as is traditional, left the cherries unpitted. It is often claimed that this results in a better flavour, but I'm not convinced. Any potential benefit is far outweighed by the convenience of not having to spit out the stones. I think I'll make another one tomorrow with pitted cherries just to confirm.

I made the cake again using Greek yoghurt... The batter was noticably thicker and did a better job of supporting the fruit. What was a little weird was that the cherries mostly either stayed close to the surface or sank to the bottom; there wasn't much of a middle ground. And it seemed to be a cake of two halves with regard to the distribution... I'm not sure what caused that. My oven is not particularly good; I have to try all kinds of shenanigans to get an even bake. Maybe it runs hotter front-to-back or side-to-side and the batter firms up unequally. The cake was also baked on the lowest shelf. Puzzling. But the cake itself was no different texture-wise to the buttermilk version so that's duly noted for future bakes. (Several reliable online sources advised thinning the Greek yoghurt with milk but that didn't seem a wise move in this instance.) I would also increase the amount of ground almonds for extra insurance. Ahhhh, I got the recipe after writing to a Michelin-starred chef who was generous enough to share it with me. I've had a look around but it doesn't seem to have been published anywhere, so it's not really mine to post here. Apols.

Sticky Ginger Cake... This is an excellent ginger cake, with a real kick from blitzing more than half a pound of stem ginger plus its syrup into a purée. Very moist and, errrr, sticky.

Yes. Love chocolate and cherry. Is Black Forest Cake not a thing in North America? In 1970s Britain, a Sara Lee Black Forest Gateau was the height of decadence and sophistication. I would be handing over my two pounds at this very moment for a blast of nostalgia if I was back home. I've only seen a Forêt Noire in a patisserie once here in France, which is a little surprising. I'll be sure to have a peek in the freezer cabinets next time I go shopping.

I found another jar of cherries lurking at the back of the cupboard so took a run at the Cherry Coconut Almond Cake from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi.... It was ok. The coconut didn't really come through. I've just tasted a spoonful and it could just be second-rate coconut, so maybe that's it. More annoying was that the cherries sank. I knew immediately they would as the batter clearly wasn't thick enough. Buttermilk isn't available in France so I used lait fermenté (fermented milk) instead. (I would ordinarily use kefir as a substitute but that's also rare as hens-teeth.) From what I understand, cartons of buttermilk in the US are just fermented milk, but perhaps it's different enough to account for the sinkage. I've also made the doughnut cake from this book and I like the texture of the cake itself, but until I manage to solve this I won't be adding anything that weighs more than a feather. So, I'll be sticking with the Cherry, Pistachio and Coconut Cake by Honey & Co.... This is an excellent cake. Similar ingredients to the Arefi one but with butter and much more ground almonds, resulting in a moist, dense texture. I made it on New Year's Day and I'll be surprised if I make a better cake this year.

I liked the look of the Mara des Bois strawberries at the market today... They turned out to be pretty much the Platonic ideal of a strawberry, so perfectly ripe that I didn't need to sweeten either them or the accompanying whipped cream. I microplaned a hint of tonka and snipped over some wild mint growing at the side of the track for a memorably simple lunch... On the recommendation of@Darienne and@Kim Shook (notorious shills for Big Tahini, I believe) I finally got round to making the Tahini and Almond Cookies by Natalie Levin... They had a nice sandy texture and good tahini flavour... Perfect for le goûter (afternoon snack). Next time I might sprinkle over a few (toasted) sesame seeds since I liked them so much on the tahini and poppy seed cake from a couple of weeks back. Finally, there was still the matter of half a barquette of strawberries to polish off. So purely to jazz up a quiet afternoon, I macerated them in a little sugar and lime juice, whipped up a vanilla mascarpone chantilly, and plundered the cupboard for the last of my amarena cherries... I'll be honest, I only threw in the cherries for the sake of a nice photo. But I was pleasantly surprised; they worked as a nice contrast to the strawberries. Might have to do that again.

I use Andrew Pern's recipe. (But I omit the milk and double the quantity of egg as it has a tendency to sink.) You'll find discussion of other varieties in this article. (Edit: Oops. Meant as a reply to @TdeV)

Parkin is a type of gingerbread from the north of England whose texture can range from cakey to bready, depending on regional variations. I prefer the more dense, slightly chewy type... Traditionally it's made with oatmeal (groats) but I'm not a fan so use regular rolled oats instead. It looks dry in the photo but is actually very moist due to all the sugar (muscovado, golden syrup, and black treacle). It keeps for weeks in a tin; in fact it gets better. Sadly it rarely lasts that long due to constantly dipping in for one more bite.

How strange. Doesn’t work for me now, either. But this does. 👍