Honey Sesame Dream Cake

I had a dream about this cake, scented with toasted sesame oil with the crunch of sesame seeds and a touch of citrus, and maybe some spice. I am aware this is totally ridiculous/obsessive but I am pretty sure cake is a good thing to be obsessive about, good cake that is. This is why dream made it into the title - and of course it is dreamy to eat!

This cake is flavoured with toasted sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and then glazed with pure honey, with some spices, and topped with more toasted sesame seeds for crunch and prettiness.

I whisked my eggs to get some air into the batter, and also used yogurt for a creamier softer sponge. I used Yeo Valley Lemon Yogurt, but you could use plain yoghurt with some lemon curd whisked in, or some zest. My chicken eggs were from a local farm so were super yellow, hence the bright sponge!

Honey Sesame Dream Cake
Makes one round 20cm cake

150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar

100g plain or lemon flavoured yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp toasted sesame oil
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 medium eggs
50g toasted sesame seeds

For the topping:
1 -2 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds
5-6 tablespoons of runny honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

Preheat oven to 180c / 160c fan
Cream together butter and sugar til creamy. Then add in the yoghurt, vanilla and oil.
Fold in your flour, baking powder, salt and sesame seeds.
Whisk your eggs in a separate bowl til airy.
Gently fold in the eggs to the cake mixture.
Spoon mixture into a lined/greased 20cm cake tin and bake for 30 - 40 minutes til cooked through.
Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes then remove from the cake tin.

Mix the spices with the honey, if it is a little too thick to spread add a tiny bit of hot water.
Spread over the cake with a pastry brush (silicone ones are best for sticky honey!)
Sprinkle over sesame seeds generously.

Cut it, eat it, be happy, and hopefully dream about it later on. :)

my giraffe socks (great aren't they?) sneaked into the photo, so here is an outtake for you...

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Slow Cooked Chipotle and Ancho Pork

These days my diet is mostly vegetarian, but every now and again I do get cravings of the carnivorous variety that just won't go away. This slow cooked pork is fragrant with cumin and coriander with some gentle heat from chipotles in adobo and powdered ancho chilli, brought together by a thick tomato and onion based sauce. I made various sides to go with this - onions pickled in vinegar, guacamole, grated cheese and also black beans to please the vegetarian in our household - and then piled it on to little tacos.

A word about tacos and tortillas here. I find the majority of tortilla wraps just awful, they are kind of plasticky and don't really taste of anything at all, proper Mexican tortillas they ain't. If you can pick up some better quality tortillas or have time to make your own then everything will taste all the better. I've been using the square wraps Warburtons bought out recently, they are more bready and less plasticky and just taste a bit more real. For the tacos I just used a cookie cutter to make little rounds.

Slow Cooked Chipotle & Ancho Pork
based on a recipe from Food 52, with different chillies.
serves 2  (or one greedy person with leftovers)

1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of coriander seeds
350g of pork shoulder, cubed
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 red chilli, diced
2 cloves of garlic
about 1 inch piece of dried ancho chilli, finely chopped or blitzed in a food processor
1/2 chipotle in adobo plus a bit of adobo sauce
2 tsp of dried oregano
1/2 can of peeled plum tomatoes
1 pint chicken or vegetable stock
oil for frying
fresh coriander

Heat up a large casserole dish on the hob. Toast the cumin and coriander seeds for a few minutes, keep them moving so they don't burn. Transfer to a pestle and mortar and crush the seeds. Heat some groundnut or sunflower oil in the dish and brown the pork on all sides, do this in batches if it doesn't fit. Season the pork whilst it is browning. Put the pork in a bowl and set aside.

Fry the onions next til softened, then add in the chilli and garlic and fry for a minute. Add in your ground spices, dried oregano, ancho and chipotle in adobo. Then add your pork back in and stir everything together, fry for a minute before adding your tomatoes and stock along with salt and pepper. The meat needs to be totally covered with stock, top up with boiling water if it isn't.

Bring to the boil, then cover and reduce to the lowest temperature. Bubble away for at least 2 hours, maximum about 4. When the meat is falling apart and tender it is ready to eat.

Remove the pork from the sauce. Blend up the sauce to help thicken it and then turn the heat up high to reduce the sauce, it should take about 5-10 minutes. Once it is nice and thick add in some fresh coriander and shred the pork and mix into the sauce. I removed the fat when I added the pork back in, I don't like the texture of it when it is cooked like this, and once the pork has slow cooked the fat has done its job to help add flavour to the meat.

Get all your sides ready whilst the sauce is thickening and then pile onto tacos and go!
I'll be having the rest of this pork tomorrow in a burrito and I can't wait.

More and more little delis and farm shops are stocking interesting dried chillies now, and you can find chipotles in adobo in a few places too (Cambridge people - the Cheese Shop sells them). If not you can find all of them at Mex Grocer, including proper tortillas.

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