Sometimes I come across a recipe which is just so simple and so perfect that I have to run straight into the kitchen to try it out.
Last week, this happened twice!
First was Emily’s delicious Wholegrain Double Apple Breakfast Cake. This one demanded immediate action – I was literally pulling the cake out of the oven within an hour and a half of reading the recipe. The batter was baked in a lined roasting pan and Em’s instructions were dead simple (mix the wet stuff together, then add the dry). Best of all, it gave me an opportunity to use up some of the apple butter that we’d made a couple of years ago.
The combination of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and yoghurt caused the batter to honeycomb, giving the finished cake a spongy texture somewhere between a thick pancake and an apple Danish.
Oh, how my boys loved this one! Big Boy took a giant slab to uni for lunch, and I caught Pete nibbling on it all the next day. The recipe and instructions are here, and I substituted apple butter for the applesauce, and plain (AP) flour for the sorghum and wholemeal. Emily suggested that any leftovers would make a great bread and butter pudding!
. . . . .
The second thing that had me charging into the kitchen was this gorgeous shortbread recipe by Dan Lepard. I’ve been calling them Alice in Wonderland cookies, and they were great fun to make, albeit a little fiddly.
I made the two doughs in the food processor, but ended up making the stripes thinner than Dan recommended, which made them a little harder to work. Most of them turned out quite well…
…but I did end up with a couple of “Picasso” cookies…
My darling friend Joanna has done a much neater job with them here.
Thanks to Dan and Emily for such great recipes. I’ll definitely be making both of them again soon!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I didn’t show you the round ones that I made with the layer that was cut crooked did I? If you count my stripes you will see there are only five.. ;) but who’s counting, we’re still eating ours and I sent some by post to a friend too. I think yours look just perfect.
I have just had a peek at that apple cake recipe – looks yummy :D
They were great fun to make, weren’t they? I was astonished that they were baked at such a low temp! Thanks for putting me onto them, Jo! :)
HA! I KNEW you were going to make those checkerboard cookies… I just KNEW IT!
Loved them all, including the Picasso ones, very charming, and I bet as delicious as the well-behaved square brothers and sisters
Awesome job, Celia!
Hehehe…I’m so suggestible, Sally! Turns out I’m predictable as well! :)
Thanks love, are you going to make them as well?
surely, you jest… ;-)
let’s say that me embarking on such a journey would be dangerous for all the individuals living in our household….
I’ll have to just marvel at yours and Joanna’s skills – really, amazing job!
Darling, you’d either end up with Alice in Wonderland cookies, or Picassos! You can’t lose! ;-)
I love those alice in wonderland cookies,I have never seen shortbread like this. they look so cool.. c
C, they were new to me too! Reminded me of millefiori beads! And I agree, they really were very very cool…
Well, it you say the apple cake’s a spongy texture somewhere between a thick pancake and an apple Danish then it is a HAVE TO make and I would gladly eat your “Picasso” cookies.
Have a great day Celia.
:-) Mandy
Mandy, Em’s recipe was everything I love – easy to mix, baked in a roasting pan (I LOVE when I can do that!), and it kept well in the fridge too! I hope you give it a go! :)
Two lovely looking recipes there, Celia. You and Joanna have my deep admiration for those checkerboard cookies!
Much as I love Dan’s recipes, I just don’t have the patience for these at the moment. Life is a bit fraught these days – I even had to buy(!!) cake to replace the total failure of a honey spice cake – about the third time in my whole baking life that something had to be thrown away!
Suelle, I’m sorry you’re so busy! I was thinking of you when I made the apple cake – no butter in the recipe! :) I’m going to make it again for brunch this weekend!
I am so impressed with you and Joanna!
I’ve made candy cane cookies with red and white dough twisted into a cane, then dipped in white chocolate- those are fiddly.
These checkerboard cookies are something else altogether!
Beautiful. just beautiful.
Heidi, I really think you’d have fun with the cookies, and you’re so good with all things dough that I reckon your cookies would show ours up! :)
Hurrah! Thanks for sharing!
Emily, it was one of those recipes that just suited our family and the way I cook so well. We make our own yoghurt, we always have apples, I adore baking in a tray! Thanks for the great addition to my baking list!
The cookies look beautiful Celia As I commented on Joanna’s biscuits, I’m going to have to make these – I’ve bought the 00 flour especially! ;-) Don’t hold your breath though, it might take me a while to get round to them but when I do I want them to come out as well as yours!
C, I think the 00 flour made a difference, the cookies were quite fine without being stodgy. Hope you give them a go! I think I’d like to try and make a round version…maybe.. ;-)
I’ve got a recipe in one of my cookie books for a round two-coloured cookie with a core of one colour, alternate blocks of colours around the edge and a thin border of the second colour around the outside. You need a dough you can roll out thinly as well as form into rolls. Then you make a sausage shape, surround it with thin ropes of alternating colours then wrap in a sheet of dough. Then chill and slice before baking. The recipe gives exact measurements to get everything to work right, if you’re interested!;-)
Suelle, thanks, but sounds too daunting for me! I struggled with the chequerboard ones! I was thinking of putting one dough on top of the other and rolling them up.. ;-)
Both cookie and cake look delicious
Thanks Oz! Hope all is well! xx
Picasso cookies… I love it! They’re all so perfect Celia. I don’t think I’d attempt anything like those cause I’d get too frustrated with it.
I’m glad there are other people who race to the kitchen when they come across a simple recipe and you have the ingredients on hand. I do it regularly even if there’s no one to eat the product!
Claire, I sooo know what you mean – sometimes a recipe is a like a magnet that drags you into the kitchen! :)
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The Apple cake is in the oven now. Yours look delicious and mine smells wonderful!
Suz, isn’t Em’s recipe divine? I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Am loving the Apple Cake recipe Celia and have just about that much left-over apple sauce in the fridge looking for a role! I don’t have any sorghum or spelt flour – do you think just subbing wholemeal will work out as well?
A, I used wholemeal spelt and plain (AP) flour – I left the sorghum out. I think wholemeal would work fine, although do pop onto Emily’s blog and ask her, as she would know best! :)
Both look so great and those biscuits look pretty ( and pretty fiddly!) Alice in Wonderland cookies is a fantastic name for them, and I like the whimsical Picaso ones the most :)
Becca, they were fiddly, but only because I didn’t have a 7″ pan and used an 8″ one instead. That resulted in very thing, crumbly layers. I said some bad words.. ;-)
Oh La La! Sooooooo cool. I’ve gotta get off my butt and try these. :) Love the name for the cookies, very suiting. They are so pretty too. Celia, you are my baking idol, can’t wait to be as great at it as you. :)
Anna love, that’s very kind of you, thank you, especially since some of the things you create make me shake my head in awe!
Haha TOTALLY Alice in Wonderland cookies :) they look so great :) I love it when there’s a couple of ones that dont turn out – great excuse to devour the evidence ;)
Nic, thanks! I served them with chocolate mousse as Dan Lepard recommended, only I used my own mousse recipe, which only has chocolate, eggs and brandy.. :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/02/08/extremely-simple-chocolate-mousse/
love the biscuits – I think my biscuit press can do these for me? I have only just read Alice in Wonderland this year :)
Oooh, Tandy, that’s some biscuit press!! I can’t even figure out how it would work through a press…
Wow. Did the apple cake really take 50 minutes to bake? It’s not a “high-rise”, so I was wondering about the longer baking time. Fascinating that raw apples are used – I always cook and cool my apple first. I’ll have to remember that one, because anything that saves time is always handy.
Your bikkies look yummy. They also want me to take out my chessboard. Have a great weekend Celia.
Mariana, from memory it took about 45 minutes, but then again, my oven runs a little hot. I used to always cook apples for pies etc, now I almost always use them raw! Hope you have a great weekend too! :)
Sign me up for the picasso cookie! These all look yummers.
Maz
Ah, you artists, always sticking together.. ;-)
I noted them all, I am crazy with apples… and how beautifully done these biscuits… To watch them like watching a painting! This is art of kitchen world. Thank you, Have a nice weekend, with my love, nia
Nia, thank you! :) Have a wonderful weekend too!
Those checker board ones are on my to-do list as well. How could I not? They look awesome!
Brydie, you’ll have to pick up some 00 flour when you’re out shopping today! :)
A little bit fiddly…. I think that’s an understatement. You have more patience than me here. I’ll gaze at yours and cook the apple cake instead :)
Sally, I made the apple cake again when we had family over for the weekend, it’s a nice recipe to put on the table when time is short!
A few more of those square and it can also become chessboard cookies and you will have to bake some pawn, king, queen, bishop and knight cookies too! :)
Hehehe…Chopin, I’ve already done that in chocolate! :)
I made the apple cake. It doesn’t look like yours or Emily’s- and I don’t think I did too many substitutions! But- we like it very much and it will make a great addition to lunch bag/box time for the guys!
I’m just waiting for it to cool down completely so I can wrap them individually and freeze them.
Funny how a recipe can turn out so differently depending on who makes it.
Heidi, I’m glad you liked it, even if it did turn out slightly differently! Hope you’ll let Emily know too! :)
i’m in wonderland looking at your biscuits and cake! :)
Jane, you say such sweet things! :)
GoingmKe me someapplecakefo or row foo
Ha! Leaving that line so you can see how strange the auto correction thing is on my iPad! I said – going to make me some apple cake tomorrow too. We ‘ve been making Sarah Raven’s apple, almond and quince cake with our apples but need a change!
Anna, it must be so nice to have your own apples! Our trees don’t seem to be doing so well in the warmer climate, but we’ll see how they go next winter!
There is nothing that says Fall like a nice warm apple pie. I have found a great way to make this all time favorite even better. Personal peices of pie:) All you do is make your pie as normal but instead of it getting put into a pan to bake you simply put the shell and stuffing into a cupcake pan. Only 6 are allowed at a time for spill over. This way there is no cutting and everyone gets just the right size/hand held peice of apple pie:)
Annabell, thanks for stopping by! I used to make individual pies for Small Man to take on camp, and it’s a great idea! Thanks!
I need to get my addled brain around the checkerboard thing.
Cosmo, it can’t be visualised until you actually do it – I couldn’t figure it out from the instructions either, so I just started.. :)
Thank you for your post, I was sad that my family was not able to make it to the apple orchard this year. Instead I ended up buying one of the bags and using that to do some baking. This years apple treat was apple /oatmeal cookies..I think they would have done better if I put in some walnuts though. Either way they were a good treat to add to the pile of recipies:)
I’m devouring some of the checkerboard cookies and mousse right now. This is definitely a recipe going on my Christmas baking list.