The Rose Cottage Recipe Book

Ingredients

200 g	dates, roughly chopped
200 ml	milk (plus an extra splash)
250 g	butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)
280 g	self-raising flour
200 g	light brown soft sugar
½ tsp	baking powder
4	large eggs
1 tbsp	mixed spice
2 tsp	vanilla extract
3	small red apples
a squeeze	lemon juice
handfull	toffees
	icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Heat oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan). Grease and line a 20 x 30cm baking tray with baking parchment.
2. Put the dates and milk in a small pan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and set aside for 15 mins to cool.
3. Whizz the date mixture to a smooth purée in a food processor or blender, then scrape into a large mixing bowl.
4. Tip in the butter, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, eggs, mixed spice and vanilla. Set aside while you prepare the apples.
5. Quarter and core the apples, then slice quite thinly, tossing in a little lemon juice as you go.
6. Quickly beat together the cake ingredients with an electric whisk until smooth, then scrape into the baking tray.
7. Arrange the apple slices, overlapping in rows, on top of the cake - you should be able to get 3 rows lengthways down the tray.
8. Bake for 45-50 mins until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tray.
9. Put the toffees in a small pan with a good splash of milk and gently melt, stirring until runny.
10. To finish, dust the cake with a little icing sugar. Drizzle the sauce all over the cake. Cut into squares or slices to serve.

One of our oldest "family" recipes that we were given by Sandra Davison, many years ago in Plymouth.

Ingredients

110 g	butter
110 g	sugar · for the dough
225 g	self raising flour
1	egg · beaten
450 g	baking apple · peeled, cored and thinly sliced
50 g	raisins or sultanas
2 tbsp	sugar · for the fruit
1 tsp	ground cinnamon
1 tsp	ground ginger

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. Melt the butter and allow to cool a little. Add the sugar for the dough and the beaten egg and mix well. Stir in the flour to make a soft dough.
3. Put half the dough in the bottom of a lined deep cake tin.
4. Mix the sugar for the fruit, cinnamon, ginger & apples together and spread over the dough.
5. Top with the remaining mixture
6. Bake for 40-45 mins at 180°C

• Serve hot with clotted cream, or cold and sliced.
• Goes nice and crispy on the outside.
• Don’t slice the apple too thickly as it needs to cook inside the cake.

You will need

1 sheet	greaseproof paper
1 per person	chicken breast
	barbecue marinade mix

Method

1. Marinade the chicken for at least an hour (or overnight) in the fridge.
2. Cook on the BBQ until white all the way through OR put in a non-stick frying pan with some of the marinade (avoid using a pan that isn’t non-stick as the marinade sticks!).
3. Cook until the marinade evaporates (it doesn’t smell great whilst this happens) and the chicken is white all the way through.

The flavour is much more intense with the pan method.

Good with rice or in bread roll.

You will Need

	meat (steak, chicken, pork, etc.)
1 part	olive oil
2 parts	lemon juice
2 parts	Soy sauce
optional ingredients	garlic

Method

1. Put the marinade ingredients in a plastic bag (in the proportions 1 olive oil to 2 lemon juice to 2 soy sauce).  Include the garlic, if wanted, at this stage.  Vary the quantities (teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.) according to the amount of meat.
   
2. Mix it all up well, add the meat and seal the bag securely.
   
3. Put in the fridge for at least 20 mins (ideally overnight).
   
4. Cook gently over the BBQ, or alternative put in a dry, non-stick frying pan and cook until cooked properly.  The flavour in a pan will be much more intense than on a BBQ.  If in a pan, cook until the liquid turns to a sticky goo.  If there is too much to evaporate, pour some off.