Cones and Cakes

Over many years I’ve collected cones from places we’ve lived or visited. Not only are they lovely things but they stir many memories.

We have two gigantic conifers but strangely they have very small cones. I find tiny new conifers growing around the garden wherever the cones have been spread by the wind or dropped by the birds. Bluetits and sparrows nibble the seeds the cones contain. In spring clouds of pollen blow out from the trees. Quite a dramatic sight.

It’s not just the birds who are enjoying what the garden offers. We’re enjoying nutritious fruit and vegetables.

The pears are dropping from the trees and I’m trying to keep up with them. Usually I bottle some but I still have some left from last year so the other day I prepared some and put them in my dehydrator. Dried pear pieces are a deliciously sweet but healthy snack. All the natural sugar is concentrated as they dry. Here’s what I did.

Sliced the pears into salted water. Rinsed and patted them dry with kitchen paper before arranging them, spaced out, on the dehydrator trays. Took a few hours with the heat on. It’s important to dry them well and allowing to cool before storing in an airtight jar.

The beans are good now too. I grow yellow French beans and runner beans. Both are really tender if you eat them while they’re not too big. If I miss a few and they are too big and stringy I open the pod and cook the beans from inside. Different but equally tasty. Kidney beans are just beans allowed to grow inside the pods.

The cooking apples are falling as well. I gathered some windfalls and made a new cake recipe. So good I would like to share it with you.

Apple and Cinnamon Squares

You will need a roasting tin approximately 25x30cm/10x12". Needs a vitreous enamel surface to prevent the apples reacting with the metal. Most roasters have this. Stainless steel would be fine too.

Cooking Apples
200g Caster Sugar
4 large Eggs
200g Self-raising Flour
2 rounded teaspoons Baking Powder
30g Bran
200g Sunflower Oil
3 tablespoons Sugar for sprinkling
2-3 teaspoons ground Cinnamon

Grease the roasting tin.
Have a bowl of salted water ready and prepare the apples.
Slice peeled and cored apples into the salted water.
Make sure all slices are coated by the water to prevent browning.
Beat 200g sugar and eggs together. Add flour, baking powder, bran and oil. Mix well.
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan oven or gas equivalent.
Rinse apples and drain, then place in roasting tin.
Sprinkle the 3 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon over the apples.
Put the cake mixture, evenly, over the apples.
The mixture will feel a little stiff but the juice from the apples will moisten it while it cooks.
Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.
Lift with a palette knife and either use or freeze.These are even better after a day or two and make a really good pudding with cream. Sticky, so best eaten with a fork.
Really easy to do and has a wonderful texture and taste.

A busy time of year but very satisfying. Lovely in the garden on good-weather days and snug in the kitchen on wet days.

Meanwhile the garden is mellowing and has that little hint of autumn. The flowers are still attracting lots of interest but I haven’t seen the little Gatekeeper butterflies which usually visit the marjoram blossom. Sad evidence of the decline. The rudbeckias were still busy though with other flying creatures, a grasshopper was basking in the sun and the bees were gathering pollen.

A few late roses are looking pretty and sunlit leaves form pleasing shadows on the fence.

So another week has passed. I hope you have had a good one. With you again next time.