Upside-down blueberry and elderflower cake

If you're thinking of celebrating Midsummer Day this weekend here’s a fabulous pudding cake from my friend Scandinavian food writer, Signe Johansen’s Scandilicious Baking.

Signe writes: There is something gloriously nostalgic and retro about fruity upside-down cakes. I adore this blueberry one with its beautiful deep indigo colour, hint of elderflower and light sponge made with Greek yoghurt. This is a real crowd-pleaser, great for celebrations and special occasions. This cake doesn’t keep well as the blueberries lose their fresh intensity relatively quickly after cooking, so be sure to get your friends around to enjoy it on the day of baking!

Serves 8-10

400g fresh or frozen blueberries

50ml elderflower cordial

4 medium eggs

250g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g refined spelt (or plain) flour

125g ground almonds

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp fine sea salt

125g butter, melted

125g Greek yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/gas mark 3-4, and lightly oil a 23cm round cake tin (springform, if you have one). Wrap the outside of the tin in a layer of aluminium foil to create a tight seal, in order to prevent any blueberry juice leaking out. Spread the blueberries evenly over the base of the cake tin, drizzle with elderflower cordial and set aside to macerate.

Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl (or mixer) for 5-8 minutes until pale and fluffy. When you remove the whisk, the trail of mixture it leaves on the surface should remain visible for 2-3 seconds. Combine the flour, almonds, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.

Gradually mix the melted butter, yoghurt and dry ingredients in to the beaten egg mixture in stages, alternating between them, until you have a smooth, thick cake batter.

Pour the batter over the blueberries and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the top looks golden and feels springy and firm to the touch. The sides should be slighty lifting away from the edges of the cake tin. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before releasing the springform (if applicable), carefully flipping the cake upside down on to a plate so that the blueberries are facing upwards and removing the tin.

This cake is wonderful just as it is, or you could try it with a scoop of good vanilla or clotted cream ice cream, or perhaps a dollop of Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche.

Variations:
Try this with raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, mixed summer berries, cherries, cloudberries or thinly sliced or quartered plums, apricots or rhubarb. Apples work really well too, but be sure to cut in thin slices and fan them out on the bottom of the cake tin as this helps to cook them properly (plus it looks pretty!)

What to drink: I'm not sure you really need wine with cake but if you're serving it as a pudding you might fancy a glass. I'd go for a sweet Bordeaux like Sauternes or a wine from one of the Bordeaux satellites like Loupiac, Cadillac or Saussignac or a late harvest Sauvignon. An auslese or other late harvest riesling should work too.

© Signe Johansen 2012. Recipe extracted from Scandilicious Baking by Signe Johansen, published by Saltyard Books, £25 www.signejohansen.com

Walnut meringue cake with buttermilk cream and poached rhubarb

If you're looking for a show-stopping dessert to serve for a summer party try this utterly delicious tiered meringue cake I tasted (correction, 'ate') the other day at The Three Crowns.

I managed to inveigle the chef Lee Urch into giving us the recipe. Do give it a try!

Lee writes: "This 'cake' is a matter of quick assembly so you need your three components ready for use and a large pretty platter or tray to carry it to the table."

For the Walnut Meringues (makes 10)

400g egg whites (about 8 medium eggs)

800g caster sugar

200g walnut pieces (the freshest you can find)

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Then slowly add half of the caster sugar until you have a stiff and glossy meringue (easy in a Kitchen Aid of course). Your mix must be stiff as possible at this point before carefully folding in the remaining sugar and the walnuts.

Taking a large metal spoon - scoop out 10 meringues onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking parchment (a small blob of meringue mix in each corner of the baking sheet will hold it in place)

Place in a preheated 150°C oven. Close the door and immediately turn down to 110°C. Bake for 50 mins. Allow meringues to cool and harden before using.

For the rhubarb

6 sticks (about 800g) of rhubarb (as pink as possible)

100g caster sugar

peel of 1 orange, cut into strips

1 piece of stem ginger, finely grated

Chop the rhubarb into 3cm pieces. Wash this well and place in a single layer in a large ovenproof dish. Sprinkle over the caster sugar, orange peel (this can be discarded once cooked) and the grated ginger. Cover the dish tightly with foil and place in a 150°C oven for 15-20mins until the rhubarb is tender but still holds it shape and you have a lovely pink juice in the bottom of the dish. Let the rhubarb cool in the dish before using. As with most of these things it's best if it doesn't see the fridge!

Buttermilk cream

2 cups of buttermilk

1 cup of double cream

2/3 cup of caster sugar

1 vanilla pod

1pkt gelatine powder or 4 sheets of gelatine

Dissolve the gelatine as per the manufacturer's instructions. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl combine half the double cream and the buttermilk until smooth.

In a small saucepan dissolve the sugar and the other half of the double cream and scrape in your vanilla pod. Let this infuse over a low heat but do not boil. Remove from the heat and stir in your prepared gelatine. Add this to the buttermilk and cream mix. Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

The cream should not set solid and will hardly hold its shape when scooped over your meringues - and be all the better for it!

Now you have all the components ready it's time for the fun part:

Whip a pint of double cream quite stiffly but take care it doesn't go buttery. Pile up your meringues on your platter - using the cream to keep them in place. Try and get as much height as possible for that spectacular look!

Once you have your 'mountain' (see my rather dark and blurry picture taken at the restaurant) you can now tumble over the cooled fruit and pour/scoop over your buttermilk cream. Finish off the whole affair with a dash of extra chopped walnuts and a good dusting of icing sugar. A big spoon is a must so all your guests can get stuck in to the mighty stack....

Note: this pudding contains nuts.

What to drink: I'd go for a Moscato d'Asti with this but you could try an off-dry sparkling rosé

Key Lime Pie

This was the dessert I raved about at Blackfoot in Exmouth market the other day and which I was thrilled to see was in their consultant chef Allegra McEvedy's terrific new book Big Table, Busy Kitchen. I know we're not supposed to be eating puds in January but make an exception for this one.

Allegra writes: "I conducted some fairly extensive research on this American classic to determine what actually defines a key lime pie, and came to the conclusion that really, it can be anything limey, which in any Yank’s book, we most certainly are. Think of this version as a roughly non-cheesy cheesecake, with a top that’s ballsy with lime zest and lighter than angel farts, anchored down by a ginger nutty base.

Will make 8–10 people very happy

120g digestive biscuits

120g ginger nuts

80g butter, melted

3 eggs, separated

zest and juice of 5 limes (see footnote*)

1 x 400ml tin condensed milk

½ tsp cream of tartar

60g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan 140ºC/Gas 3 and butter a 20cm springform tin that’s about 7cm deep.

Bust up your biscuits until fairly well ground, either in a food processor or the old-fashioned way (by bashing them in a bag with a rolling pin). Tip into a bowl and stir in the melted butter, then dump into the tin and use the backs of your curled-up fingers to press it down and make sure it’s well compacted. Stick it in the fridge to firm up.

Meanwhile, put the egg yolks in a mixing bowl and whisk with the lime zest, lime juice and condensed milk to just combine.

Either in another bowl using an electric hand whisk, or in an upright mixer, or by hand, whisk the whites until they start to go frothy. Doing it the old fashioned way with muscle is weirdly satisfying and only takes (me) about 4 minutes. Stir the cream of tartar into the sugar, and gradually add to the whites while they’re still moving until you have a bowlful of stiff meringue. Fold the whites into the limey mix in two batches, then pour this on to your base.

Pop the tin on a baking tray, put in the oven straightaway and bake for about 25–35 minutes, until it’s just set – firm around the outside with the faintest of wobbles in the middle.

Leave to cool completely – the pie is best served totally chilled, so once it’s cooled to room temperature, stick it in the fridge for an hour at least. The top will crack a little as it contracts, but that’s never bothered me, or anyone else that’s ever been wowed by it. The longer you leave it, the limier it gets.

* The only imponderable in the recipe. How juicy are your limes? My guess is that Allegra will use good ones so you'd be looking at 2 tbsp juice per lime so 10 tbsp in all. Use untreated limes if you can get hold of them otherwise scrub them before you zest them. FB

What to drink: With an airy pie like this I'd go for a Moscato d'Asti

Big Table, Busy Kitchen by Allegra McEvedy (Quercus) is out now and is available for £15 from www.quercusbooks.co.uk. Photograph © Chris Terry.

Pumpkin (or butternut squash) muffins for Hallowe'en

"Hallowe'en's always a great excuse to let your imagination run riot and to make some spectacularly spooky food" says cookery writer Signe Johansen.

"I recall once going to a Canadian friend's Hallowe'en party where we were blindfolded, then asked to put our hands into a bowl of cold, glibbery goo which was meant to be brains. The goo was in fact gummi bears floating around in apple juice, but the effect was terrifying for an eight-year old, and I still find the darker element of Hallowe'en creepy. Have no fear though: this recipe, which I've adapted from one in Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie at Home' book, won't freak anyone out.

I used less sugar than Jamie (200g instead of 350g), and, as you can see, went wild with the food colouring. These are essentially spice muffins and whilst the butternut squash adds a nice texture and moistness to the muffin mixture, you could of course use grated carrot or leftover pumpkin from carving your Hallowe'en lantern."

For the muffins
450g butternut squash, grated or blitzed in a food processor (I used about half of a 1kg squash)
300g plain flour
200g light brown soft sugar
3 medium eggs
100ml sour cream
100g melted butter
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp salt

For the icing
180ml sour cream
3-4 tbsp sifted icing sugar (depends how sweet you like your icing)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp yellow food colouring
1/2 tsp red food colouring

You will also need a standard 12 hole muffin tins and some muffin cases or squares of baking parchment

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line the holes in the muffin tins with cases or with scrunched up baking parchment for a more rustic look.

In a large bowl, sieve all the dry ingredients (including the sugar as it's quite lumpy).

In a smaller bow, break up the eggs with a fork, then add the sour cream.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and then add all the liquid ingredients, stirring with a large spoon a few times before adding the grated butternut squash. If the mixture is very thick, add a few tablespoons of milk or water to loosen it. (You want the mixture to be of dropping consistency.)

Using a tablespoon or ice cream scoop, spoon the mixture into the muffin cases then place the tin on the upper-middle shelf of the oven as soon as possible - the raising agents are activated upon contact with liquid, so don't go off and have a cup of tea before putting the muffins into the oven! Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown, feel firm to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

While the muffins are baking, make the icing: simply place the sour cream in a small bowl, add the sifted icing sugar and the vanilla, and finally enough of the two food colourings to get a good shade of orange Refrigerate this while you're waiting for the muffins to finish baking.

Once the muffins are cooked let them cool before decorating with the icing and whatever ghoulish decorations you have.

You can find details of Sig's latest cookery classes and Scandi brunches and suppers on her blog Scandilicious.