Recipe: Slow Orange Poppy Seed Cake

Cake is never off the menu at The Simple Things, even post-Christmas. But this gluten-free cake is as healthy as they come – no refined sugar, and you can even pop it in a slow cooker and head out for a walk

Serves: 8
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 3 1⁄2 hours (slow cooker) 1 1⁄4 hours (oven)

200g ground almonds
120g quinoa flour
2 1⁄2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp poppy seeds
finely grated zest and juice of 2 oranges (approx 250ml)
125ml light olive oil
130g Greek yoghurt
185ml honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Candied oranges and syrup
juice of 1 large orange
4 tbsp honey
1 large orange, thinly sliced

In the slow cooker:
1 Grease slow cooker and line with baking paper. Cover the lid of the slow cooker with a clean tea towel, securing corners around the knob with string or an elastic band – this is to prevent condensation dripping onto the cake as it cooks. 
2 Combine ground almonds, flour, baking powder and poppy seeds in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the orange zest and juice, oil, yoghurt, honey, vanilla and eggs, then gradually whisk into the almond mixture to make a batter. 
3 Pour cake batter into the slow cooker and cook on low for 3 hrs until a skewer comes out of it clean. Turn off slow cooker but leave the cake in another 30 mins.
4 For the candied oranges and syrup, put juice and honey in a small, non-reactive pan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat. Add orange slices and cook for 5 mins each side until oranges caramelise.
5 Remove the cake and top with the candied oranges and syrup. 

In the oven:
1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160/350F. Grease and line a 24cm cake tin. Follow step 2, above.
2 Pour batter into tin and bake for 55 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Cover cake with foil if browning too fast. Follow step 4, above.
3 Turn out the cake and top with the candied oranges and syrup.

Recipe from Whole Food Slow Cooked by Olivia Andrews (Murdoch Books)

* This cake was made in a 5.5 litre slow cooker. If yours is larger or smaller than this, the cooking time may vary, so keep an eye on your cake for the last hour or so.

This blog was originally published in January 2016. We still have at least one cake in every issue of the issue. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

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Solstice Tipple: Clementine Cocktails

Great for a midwinter get-together, this vibrant punch fuses the sugary appeal of fizzy orange with grown-up bitters and bourbon

For the ice ring:
Freeze 4 sliced clementines in a Bundt pan with water overnight

For the clementine cocktails:
960ml clementine juice
960ml soda water
240ml bourbon
Angostura bitters

Mix all ingredients in a small punch bowl or large mixing bowl and serve with a ladle. Add the ice ring just as guests arrive. Let guests make their own sugar-rimmed glasses by rubbing the glass edge with a half
clementine, then dipping it in a small dish of raw sugar. Garnish with a straw pushed through the centre of a round clementine slice. Use mandarins if you can’t find clementines.

Recipe and photography from The Forest Feast Gatherings by Erin Gleeson (Abrams)

This recipe was first published in January 2017. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More cocktail recipes:

More things to do with citrus fruit…

Playlist | A bit bookish

DJ: Frances Ambler
Image: Shutterstock

Introducing our January playlist…

To accompany our YARN issue, we’ve compiled a playlist of bookish pleasures. You can take a listen here.

Looking for something to read as you listen? We’ve compiled a selection of recommended reads in our latest issue, on sale in shops and supermarkets from 24 December. Or order yourself a copy through Pics and Ink.

Playlist | Eight days a week

Our latest playlist celebrates the days of the week. Take a listen on Spotify here.
You’ll find it in our January NOOK issue, on sale from 27 December.
For more seasonal listening, you might enjoy our Rest playlist or our Winter songs.
Have a browse of all our playlists here.

Recipe: January dauphinoise

From Mark Diacono’s plot in Devon this month, a recipe to make the most of his favourite blissfully bitter root veg - celeriac

“I’ll eat dauphinoise at any time of year, but this potato/celeriac split in the heart of winter’s cold is probably my favourite. Serve with griddled chicory or sprouting broccoli.”

January dauphinoise

Serves 6
25g unsalted butter, softened 
300g waxy potatoes
300g celeriac
300ml double cream
4 bay leaves
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/325F. Rub a gratin dish liberally with butter.

2 Peel the potatoes and celeriac and slice thinly, either with a sharp knife or a mandoline, submerging the celeriac slices in water with a little lemon juice to prevent them discolouring.

3 Whisk together the cream and garlic and season well. Toss the veg in the mixture and layer them in alternate layers in the gratin dish with the bay leaves, then pour over any remaining cream.

4 Bake for 75 mins, pressing down all over with a fish slice or spatula every 20 mins or so, to stop the spuds from drying out. It is ready when the top is bubbling and golden, and the vegetables soft and yielding when pierced with a knife.

Recipe and photograph by Mark Diacono, a green-fingered foodie who grows, cooks and eats the best of the familiar, forgotten and climate-change foods on his Devon smallholding. His book A Year at Otter Farm (Bloomsbury, £25) has inspiring recipes for every season. His latest book is Spice: A Cook’s Companion (Quadrille, £25). This blog was first published in January 2015.

Playlist | Starry skies

Heaven’s above! We’re getting a little starry eyed with this month’s playlist. You can listen to it on Spotify here.
And have a browse of all our playlists here

Make | Dip dye stationery

While away a crafternoon learning the art of dip dye and emerge with your very own stationery set

September is all about new stationery for us, so we needed no more excuse than that to dig out this weekend project from our issue 67 for making your very own dip dye stationery.

You will need:
A selection of paper, envelopes and postcards
Hand fabric dye powder (we used Dylon)
Warm water
Measuring jug
Vessel for holding your dye (a washing-up bowl, bucket or Tupperware box works well*) 
Length of twine
Clothes pegs
Scissors

1 Before you start, tie a length of twine, washing line-style, nearby, ready for hanging your paper to dry. Cover any surfaces with newspaper. 
2 Make up your dye solution. Start with pouring 1 litre of warm water into your vessel. Add 4 tsp of dye powder and stir until dissolved: the amount you use will determine the strength of your colour, so use a piece of scrap paper to test.
3 Once you’re happy with your dyeing solution, take your piece of paper and – slowly, carefully – insert it into the dye solution, only immersing the amount of paper you’d like coloured. Hold it in the solution for a few seconds and then, slowly and carefully again, draw it out of the solution. Hold the paper over for a moment to catch any drips of dye. You can dip again for a slightly stronger coverage.
4 Peg your dip-dyed stationery to your length of twine to dry. If, once dry, your stationery is a little curled at the edges, place inside a heavy book and leave for 24 hours
 

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From our September issue…

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Leap day thought : try something for the first time

It’s leap year day today. How are you making the most of your ‘extra’ day in the year? Perhaps you’re just taking some time to yourself, to rest, read or enjoy making or doing your favourite thing. But with February 29th landing on a Saturday this year, we’re hoping to use the opportunity to try something for the first time, unencumbered by the daily routine.

A new thing can be as big or as small as you like, from a paddle-boarding lesson or an impromptu trip to a place you’ve never been to making a recipe you’ve never eaten before or picking up a book by an author you’ve not yet read.

If you’re also promising yourself to try something for the first time today, let us know how it went here. Happy extra day!

We first published this chalkboard in January 2016 but we thought it deserved another outing!

From our February issue…

More wisdom from our back page…

Cabbage: a prince among brassica

Greens that are more than just good for you

Beloved of Crackerjack fans and often associated with, at best, peasant stews and, at worst, crash diets with dubious side-effects, cabbage might not strike you as a vegetable with much spark.

But you would be wrong. Cabbage has a long association with magic and mystery. As well as being really incredibly good for us, cabbage has some intriguing healing properties, too.

Apparently Cato himself advised eating cabbage soaked in vinegar ahead of an evening of heavy drinking: “If you wish, at a dinner party, to drink a good deal and to dine freely, before the feast eat as much raw cabbage and vinegar as you wish, and likewise, after you have feasted, eat about five leaves,” he advised. “It will make you as if you had eaten nothing and you shall drink as much as you please.” Sounds like a more risky enterprise than a dose of milk thistle and a Berocca the morning after but if it’s good enough for Roman statesmen it’s good enough for us.

Caesar’s armies allegedly carried cabbage with them on the march to dress wounds. We imagine it doesn’t have the stick of an Elastoplast but it’s much more manly, somehow.

And indeed modern studies bear out this theory with cabbages being shown to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Large savoy cabbage leaves have been used by many a breastfeeding mother to ease the symptoms of engorgement, by placing them in the cup of a brassiere. It’s said the effects are strengthened by putting the leaves in the fridge first, though Caesar never confirmed that to our knowledge.

If that hasn’t convinced you that cabbage is the king of the veg patch, we urge you to read Lia Leendertz’s feature on cabbage in our January issue: Today, Tomorrow, To Keep, in which she shares cabbage recipes for today’s supper, something to look forward to tomorrow and another idea for a cabbagey treat to put away. We’ve tried the sauerkraut and can confirm it is a game changer. The issue is in the shops now.

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Cake facts: treacle tart

In praise of the stickiest, sweetest sweet of all

You’d be hard pushed to find a sweeter ‘sweet’ than a treacle tart. So sweet it’s rhyming slang for ‘sweetheart’ and with the ability to make your molars ache just looking at it and enough sugar in it to fell a cart horse, it’s little wonder it looms large in our collective childhood consciousness (it’s probably still looming large in our collective bloodstreams, too).

So redolent is this pud with memories of cosy, carefree days, and wide-eyed pure childish gluttony, it’s made its way into many a children’s book and film, too.

Treacle Tart is as Enid Blyton as lashings of ginger beer and for many of us Blyton was our first literary encounter with the rib-sticking open-topped tart. What picnic, after all, would be complete without a sweet and impressive centrepiece perched in the middle of a field on a red-checked tablecloth and surrounded by grubby knees and ankle socks?

It also appeared, memorably, as bait for the children The Child Catcher lured to his caged van in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with the cry “Cherry pie, cream puffs, ice cream… and TREACLE TART!” The children swiftly forget all advice administered thus far by Truly Scrumptious. “Treacle tart! Ice cream! And all free!” Jeremy gasps, as they both bowl headlong through the door and into The Child Catcher’s cage. And who can blame them?

But, more recently, treacle tart has become particularly known as the dessert of choice for one very famous fictional boy. It’s Harry Potter’s most loved pudding. Early in the first book we see a medley of desserts magically appear in front of the new pupils and witness Harry quickly snaffling a treacle tart. It’s apparently a favourite in the wizarding world, but Potter is particularly partial. In fact, in a much later book, under a love spell which smells to the bewitched individual of their favourite thing, Harry’s nose detects “treacle tart and the woody scent of broomstick handle”. Mmmmmm…

So if a wizard cannot resist a treacle tart, really what hope have we muggles? It’s certainly a favourite among children but we think adults should indulge themselves more often too.

To that effect, our January issue’s Cake in the House recipe is for a Treacle Tart with Thyme and Orange. The issue is in the shops now, should you care to make it. The recipe is from one of our favourite new cookbooks, Time: A Year and a Day in the Kitchen by Gill Meller (Quadrille). Once you’ve made it, do send us a photo of your tarts in the comments below (once you have made it to a standing position again). Treacle tart should really be eaten, prone, on the sofa, preferably in front of a roaring fire, so there’s really no rush. You just take your time, treacle.

More from our January issue…

More cake in the house recipes…

Recipe: Seville and Blood Orange Marmalade

With Seville oranges in season, it's marmalade time. And this blood orange recipe celebrates all that's flavoursome about the citrus classic.

Seville and blood orange marmalade

Preparation time: 30 minutes 
Cooking time: 90 minutes

500g Seville oranges 
500g blood oranges 
1kg granulated sugar 

You will need:
Muslin cloth
Kitchen string
3 large jam jars (or 6 small ones)
Jam thermometer

1 Clean the oranges well and place whole into a large pan. Cover with 4 pints of water (2.25l) and bring to the boil. Reduce to simmer for 1 hour or until the fruit is soft.
2 Remove the oranges from the pan, without discarding any of the cooking liquid, and set aside to cool. Measure out 3 pints of the cooking liquid, topping up if needed with more water.
3 Halve the cooled oranges and scoop out the flesh and pips into a muslin cloth (or white tea-towel); tie with food-safe string. 
4 Place the muslin package into the pan with the 3 pints of cooking liquid.
5 Slice the orange peel as preferred. Add to the pan. Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until dissolved. Bring to a rolling boil for 15 mins. After this time, keep boiling at a lower temp until the liquid reaches 105C. Take off the heat and let sit for a moment before skimming off any scum from the top of the liquid. Pour into hot, sterilised jam jars and seal. 

This blog was first published in January 2012. Pick up our January 2020 for lots more delicious things to do with oranges and lemons.

From our January issue…

More preserves to make…

Are you being served?

Take a trip down memory lane, and into a shop doorway, with us

Oh we do love a Proper Department Store. They' come into their own in winter. First the excitement of the lights and the window dressings in Advent. Who remembers being taken ‘up town’ to see the lights in Selfridge’s or Harrods? And then the bustle of the January sales as every elbow in the vicinity is sharpened to a lethal point and spectacles cleaned in preparation for stalking the aisles like a ninja. (Albeit a ninja hoping for an electric cake mixer on special offer or a nice well-priced set of Egyptian cotton sheets).

With the arrival of the internet and many Black Fridays, a little of that magic has been lost. But we still love a day out in a department store. The thrill that you can find absolutely anything you want under one roof - as Harrods famously claimed - “from a pin to an elephant”. And posh, heavy doors, and dizzying escalators, and staff who treat you as though you’re in a five-star hotel. Oh and the cafes… they were an outing in themselves!

In our January issue, on sale now, we’ve done a retrospective in our Looking Back slot of the Golden Age of department stores. And we want to know all about yours. The big ones, yes (who can resist a poke round Liberty’s of course?) but also the smaller ones in provincial towns that would mean nothing to someone from another county but which, for anyone who grew up where you did, the name conjures all sorts of happy memories.

We’re big fans of Jarrold’s in Norwich, which is still doing a roaring trade to this day. And several The Simple Thigs staff members still feel a pang of sadness as they walk past Allder’s of Croydon, just round the corner from Simple Things Towers. Once a glorious store that several of us visited as children for sales days or to meet Father Christmas, it’s now closed down and houses a slightly bewildering collection of small discount outlets. But still, there’s a little thrill to be had just pushing open those heavy doors in a lunch hour…

Tell us all about your most loved department stores below…

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More from our January issue…

More from our Looking Back pages…

Bringing light to dark days

How to love your lighting - and perhaps design your very own shade…

Long, january evenings provide us with good reason to celebrate lighting up the dark. Whether it’s spending a quiet hour with a scented candle, or rethinking your entire lighting scheme in your home.

In our January issue’s The Comfort of Things feature, Clare Gogerty waxes lyrical on the positive vibes good lighting can bring to your home: “Coming home and switching on the lights banishes the darkness, replacing it not just with visibility but with emotional reassurance.”

There’s more on why lighting is so important to our homes in the January issue. However, if you’re inspired to really throw yourself at a lighting project you will also not want to miss The Simple Things’ Lampshade Making Workshop on Saturday 23 February in Hove, East Sussex.

The course is run with Lume Lighting’s Joanna Corney, a maker and designer who has run her homeware business for several years and will take place at her lovely working studio by the sea, in Hove.

The workshop is exclusively for The Simple Things readers and is ideal for beginners who want to learn the craft of contemporary lampshade making. You’ll be given all the skills you need to make your very own custom shade, meeting like-minded people and eating some delicious food along the way. You’ll make either a 20cm or 30cm diameter fabric drum lampshade, which can be used on a lamp base or ceiling pendant. At the end of the workshop you will go home with your very own bespoke lampshade – perhaps just the first of many more beautiful customised designs.

COURSE DETAILS

The Simple Things’ Lampshade Making Workshop, which has seven places available, will be held at Joanna’s studio in Hove, East Sussex, on Saturday 23 Feburary 2019. Time: 10.30am–3.30pm. Ticket price: £60, including all tools and materials for the class, plus tea, coffee, cake and lunch. You’ll need to make your own way there and home. The only thing you need to bring is the fabric of your choice to cover your lampshade.  

HOW TO BOOK

Email hello@lumelighting.co.uk. Joanna’s website is lumelighting.co.uk.

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More from the January issue…

More ways to bring light to your home…

New Year’s Resolutions

No need to get out of bed just yet…

New year, new you, right? But just how long will your resolve last? Before you take the plunge, check out the ECT (Estimated Commitment Time) for these top five resolutions.

● ‘I will exercise three times a week.’
Jogging in January. What could be wrong with that plan? 
ECT: two weeks.

● ‘I will only drink alcohol at the weekends.’ 
January again. What other time in the year are you going to need a pint of Malbec more? 
ECT: one week.

● ‘No more chocolate!’ 
Yes, that means no hot chocolate, too. Or the kids’ leftover variety packs. Or mints. We don’t care if they’re only wafer thin! 
ECT: two to three weeks.

●‘I’m giving up swearing.’ 
Your car won’t start in the dark at half six on a freezing morning. What do you say? Exactly. 
ECT: one week.

● ‘I will meditate every morning.’
Yeah, or you could just have an extra ten minutes in bed. 
ECT: four days.

Resolution to read more? Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

From our January issue…

More new year inspiration…

Reader offer | Baking for sharing

Come new year, it can be therapeutic to spend some relaxed time in the kitchen. Perhaps using leftovers to create something simple and hearty like a fruit loaf or bread and butter pudding to share. The word ‘company’ derives from the Latin cum panis, literally ‘with bread’. When we bake, and share the results, we deepen our connection with our companions or ‘with bread ones’. Sharing happens on many levels: at home and in the community. In these days of cake sales and pot-luck dinners, the chance to give and share baking may bring new connections.

It’s a creative process, too, allowing you to identify yourself – you put a bit of yourself into your baking, nurturing friendships from the warm heart of your home.

READER OFFER

Read more in The Art of Mindful Baking: Returning the Heart to the Hearth by Julia Ponsonby (Leaping Hare Press). The Simple Things readers can save 50% on all titles in this series. Use the code SIMPLETHINGS when ordering at leapingharepress.co.uk.

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More from the January issue…

More on mindfulness…

Stars can't shine without darkness

More from the February issue:

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View the sampler here.

Spinach, sausage and orzo soup

This spinach, sausage and orzo soup offers a whole meal and a big dose of comfort in one bowl for those midwinter days when you want dinner on
the sofa and minimal washing up.

Serves 4
6 plump sausages (ideally with lots of onion or garlic)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 stick of celery, diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp tomato purée
A generous pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
A small pinch of dried oregano
800ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
100g orzo or other small pasta
150g spinach, stems removed, roughly chopped
2 tbsp single or double cream 

TO SERVE:
Fresh parsley, chopped
Fresh basil, chopped
Freshly grated parmesan

1 Remove the sausage casings and shape the meat into little meatballs. Place the oil in a heavy-based pan with a lid over a medium-high heat and add the sausage meatballs. Brown them all over, then lift out and set aside. Turn the heat down to medium and to the same pan add the onion, carrot and celery, and season; sauté for 10 mins, until soft and beginning to brown.
2 Add garlic and tomato purée and cook, stirring for 2 mins. Next, add the nutmeg, oregano, stock and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 mins.
3 Add the orzo*, spinach and meatballs and simmer for 4 mins, or until the orzo and meatballs are cooked. Remove from the heat, add the cream and remove the bay leaf and check seasoning.
4 Serve in wide bowls, and garnish with herbs and parmesan.

Recipe from Leon Happy Soups by Rebecca Seal and John Vincent (Conran Octopus).

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Storytelling

Once upon a time...

...we used to tell stories and now we probably don’t so much. It’s National Storytelling Week this month (28 Jan–3 Feb) – a great reason to rediscover the delights of the spoken story

Many of us stop reading aloud or making up stories when we don’t have children to read to, but there’s nothing to stop you from reading to your partner or a friend – it can be a surprisingly bonding experience, great for a winter’s night.

Or, you could offer to read to an elderly relative or neighbour or volunteer in a local care home. To Read Aloud by Francesco Dimitri (Head of Zeus) is a collection of 75 extracts from different writers with time taken to read aloud from just 3 to 15 minutes. Choose from themed chapters (change, love, nature etc).

As you get more confident with reading aloud, try making up your own stories. Base them on your own experiences if you find it easier and visualise (rather than write) the beginning, middle and end, before you start. For inspiration, try going to a storytelling event – there are plenty this month (see sfs.org.uk).

For a bit of fun at home, play a storytelling game, such as Rory’s Story Cubes, where you roll the ‘dice’ and create a tale using all the pictures. Board games such as Tell Tale (for younger families) and The Awkward Story Teller (for adults and teenagers) work well, too.

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View the sampler here.

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Marmite and cheddar welsh rarebit

Winter comfort food doesn’t get much better than this

Serves 2
4 slices sourdough
20g unsalted butter
20g plain flour
200ml amber ale
100g mature cheddar, finely grated, plus extra for sprinkling
1–2 tsp Marmite, to taste

1 Preheat grill to high. Toast the sourdough, either under the grill or in a toaster.
2 Put the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Once the butter has completely melted, add the flour and beat to a thick paste with a wooden spoon.
3 Still on the heat, add a splash of the ale and beat in. The mixture will turn into a very thick paste but just keep beating. Add the ale gradually, beating well after each addition. As the mixture gets looser, switch to a whisk and whisk continuously, while pouring in the ale – it’s easier to get rid of any lumps while the mixture is thicker, so whisk like your life depends on it and add the ale gradually. Allow the sauce to come to
a boil then reduce to a gentle simmer and leave it to cook for about 10 mins,
stirring occasionally.
4 Once the floury taste has cooked out of the sauce – test it to be sure – add a generous pinch of black pepper (I wouldn’t use any salt until the end as Marmite can season this enough). Add the cheese and stir over a low heat until melted. Add the Marmite a little at a time, to taste – you may think more is more, but do go carefully; a little goes a long way. Taste for seasoning, adding more pepper and salt if required.
5 Spoon the sauce onto the slices of toast and sprinkle over a little more grated cheese. Place under the hot grill for a minute or two, until the sauce bubbles up and burnished, blackened little flecks appear.

Recipe from Comfort by John Whaite (Kyle Books). 

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Vietnamese lemongrass tea

A simple, aromatic brew that’s brilliant for taming achy tummies, soothing coughs and helping to prevent colds and flu

Makes 2x250ml servings
4 lemongrass stems
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
1⁄2-1 tbsp coconut sugar or raw honey, to taste
Lime slices to garnish (optional)

1 In a medium saucepan, bring 600ml water to a boil over a high heat. Bash and cut the lemongrass into thin shreds. Peel and julienne the ginger. Add both to the water and boil for 5 mins.
2 Reduce the heat to low and simmer the tea for an additional 5 mins. Sweeten to taste with coconut sugar or honey.
3 Serve warm, or refrigerate and serve over ice, garnished with lime slices.

WHY LEMONGRASS?
With its distinct lemon flavour and citrussy aroma, lemongrass offers an impressive array of medicinal benefits. The main component of the grass is lemonal, a compound that has powerful antiseptic and astringent qualities. It’s widely used in Southeast Asia for its well-reputed health benefits that also include lowering cholesterol, treating insomnia, improving respiratory function and aiding digestion.

Recipe from Tonics & Teas by Rachel de Thample (Kyle Books)

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