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.

Background

Banoffee Pie on Wikipedia. Ian Dowding on how he invented Banoffee Pie in 1971.

Ingredients

200 g	Digestive biscuits, fairly finely crushed
50 g	soft brown sugar
100 g	butter
2 tins	condensed milk
	bananas
	cream
	chocolate Flake, crushed

Method

1. Crush the biscuits either in a plastic bag with a rolling pin or in a food processor.
2. In a small pan, melt together the butter and sugar. When bubbling nicely, take off the heat and stir in the biscuit crumbs.
3. Line a cake tin with foil and press the biscuit mixture into it to form a base. Chill in the fridge to set.
4. Put the tins of condensed milk (unopened) into a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 2 hours. Keep an eye on the pan and ensure that the tins are aways covered by water. Top up with boiling water, as required.
5. Allow the tins to cool for just 5 minutes. Open very carefully (the hot filling may ooze or explode out and is very hot). Spread over the base. Allow to cool.
6. Slice the bananas and layer over the toffee.
7. Whip the cream until thick and spread over the banana. (Uncovered banana will turn black to make sure to cover it all.)
8. Crush the Flake in the packet then spread the crumbs over the top of the cream.
9. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 tbsp	brown sugar
1 tbsp	soy sauce
1 tbsp	malt vinegar
1 tbsp	corn flour
	tomato purée
450g tin	chopped tomatoes
1 pinch	chilli
250 ml	water
	large onion, chopped

Method

1. Fry the onion, until soft and golden.
2. Mix the corn flour with a little of the water to make a paste.
3. Add all the ingredients to the pan, with the onions.
4. Bring to the boil and simmer until the flavours are nicely mixed.

Ingredients

175 g	light muscovado or soft brown sugar
175 ml	sunflower oil
3	large eggs, lightly beaten
140 g	grated carrots (about 3 medium)
100 g	raisins
1	large orange grated zest of
175 g	self-raising flour
1 tsp	bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp	ground cinnamon
½ tsp	grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)
Frosting
125 g	unsalted butter at room temperature
50 g	icing sugar
250 g	cream cheese

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃ (fan 160℃).
2. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18 cm square cake tin with baking parchment.
   
3. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs.  Lightly mix with a wooden spoon.
   
4. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
   
5. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl.  Lightly mix all the ingredients until evenly amalgamated.  The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
6. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy.
   
7. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack.
   (You can freeze the cake at this point.)
   
8. Cream cheese frosting:  For the frosting, beat the butter and icing sugar together until soft and then beat in the cream cheese. Spread a thick layer on top of the cake.
   

Notes

• Ingredient amounts don’t need to be exact.
  
• May need to bake longer and at a lower temp in a loaf tin.  Two small loaf tins cook for same amount as a large square tin.
  
• Tested successfully with gluten free flour