Whiskey Cake

I love making cakes, especially ones for adults that contain or are made with alcohol. So when I was asked if I had a recipe for Whiskey Cake, I knew I had a good one.

So here is my recipe: Whiskey Cake

6oz 170g Chopped Walnuts

3oz 85g Raisins, Chopped

3oz 85g Currants

4oz Plain Flour

1 Teaspoon (5ml) Baking Powder

¼ Teaspoon (1.25ml) Salt

4oz 115g Butter

8oz 225g Caster Sugar

3 Eggs at room temperature, Separated

1½ Teaspoon Love the Diet Mixed Spice

3floz (85ml) Irish Whiskey or Whisky

Icing sugar for dusting optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 325f/170c/Gas Mark 3. And line a 9 x 5 inch (23 x 13 cm) Loaf tin with greaseproof paper, grease the paper and the sides of the tin.

Place the Walnuts, Raisins and Currants in a bowl and sprinkle two Tablespoons (30ml) of the flour, mix and set aside. Sift together the remaining flour with the baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks.

Mix the spices with the Whiskey/Whisky.

Fold the butter into the flour mixture.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold in the Whiskey/Whisky mixture until blended, then fold into the walnut mixture.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for about one hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the tin, dust with icing sugar if using.

Talking Spices

On Saturday I was at the 151st Slaley show. The village fate, in a village in Northumberland. I have my better half to thank for discovering that it was occurring, she spotted signs for the event and while my initial enquiry to see if I could exhibit there were rejected, as all the spaces were gone, after returning from doing another market I had a message asking if I wanted to attend as other people had dropped out. So I went to the village fair at Slaley.

The aspect that I really love about attending shows like these is the real passion for food and cooking. There are many people who are passionate about creating great food, and even the most reluctant cook does use a few herbs and spices. And I love seeing that sparkle you can see in peoples eyes when I make a suggestion of how to enhance the flavour of food by using a particular herb or spice.

One of the aspects that I am pleased to discover, is that many more people seem to want to learn how to use the spices properly. There was a time when if you talked to people about using spices, the folks I was talking to were only interested in adding heat. Thus spicy food was only about the chilli burn to far to many people. Yet having learnt how to use spices from others, I knew that used well, they can enhance the flavours not smother them.

While there are still a few people encountered that want nothing but the chilli burn, the majority are not seeking that macho torture by food, but ways of enhancing the flavours of dishes. Often it is a direct result of travelling to far away places as well as the meeting and mixing of cultures.

There have been three examples of this, that I will deal with in different postings. The first was a woman from Germany who after having had a holiday in Scotland wanted the spices to make a whiskey cake. I will be posting the recipe here soon. Another was a woman from Scotland who had lived in Holland and had wanted to find a particular spice blend that was common there but like hens teeth here. A blend called Shawarma, Shoarma or Shwarma. The different spellings of the name, was half the problem, but I was able to recreate that blend too. I will be posting recipes here soon of how to use this one too.

The next one was a more complex one, as I was being asked to recreate something that was from someone’s memory of a dish that his grandmother cooked. However, he wants it to be very hot, equating spiciness with heat. Therefore, I actually think I may fail to create what he wants, but it has led me to discover the different flavours of a cultures food that I had known little about. So if when my testing of the blend(s) is done, I should have a fragrant Burmese mix too.

I really am excited by all these different flavours that spices can bring.

The Spice of Life

None of us ever knows where life and events will lead us. Having avoided the initial effects of the credit crunch, the collapse of the banks, and I was even predicting it in blog postings elsewhere. The effects still caught up with me.

Therefore, needing to develop other ways of earning my crust, I looked at utilising my skills developed from a life long passion and concern about food. Having previously owned and run a small whole-food shop, I looked at various aspects of my experience there to see if there were skills and previously garnered knowledge that I could use.

When I had the shop, one of the aspects that was profitable and enjoyable was the herbs and spices. I had been lucky, as when younger and lodging with an Indian family, I had learnt how to use many of the spices and utilise them to lift rather bland foods to create something special. Thus, when I started selling the spices, I had some knowledge of how to use them and with good suppliers too, I became well known for my herbs and spices.

However, rents and business rates started to rise and even though the business was paying its way, at that time, I could see it would not last. Therefore I closed it down. At that time it was the right thing to do. But while most supermarkets do now carry an extensive range, they were/are never as fresh as I used to get.

Therefore, I took the chance and started re-contacting my previous suppliers, and while some were no longer trading, enough where so that I could start buying in the stock I needed. As well as selling the herbs and spices I would make my own blends. As I had done previously.

The one important difference between the time I had the shop, and now was the Internet. It was then in its infancy and trying to get to understand how to sell online was not easy. Further, everyone I spoke to had different opinions about how it should be done, and even if it should be done. Most of the business folks that I spoke to and sought advice from, actually told me that the web would disappear in a few years, and I would be wasting my time and money. It was true that the costs I was being quoted then were far more than I could have afforded. Or if I did find enthusiastic people, they would be talking in terms of millions in sales potential, that my small scale ideas would have been lost.

But, the ideas persisted and I have started selling my herbs and spices online, at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/lovethediet It is a small scale operation and I also sell the spices at markets too, but I am pleased about the reaction I am getting thus far.

While I never envisioned this web log as something commercial, with me now selling these spices on line, I can see advantages in providing information that I just don’t have the room on the Ebay site to provide. Further, it enables me to interact with people regarding the way that different herbs and spices can be used.

It was just such an interaction that made me realise this, as I had a question regarding some spices for a Whiskey Cake from a German customer who had just been to Scotland. So over the next few months, I will add a few recipes and ideas of how these spices can be used.