Cake for landscape photographers

Sometimes I just need a treat when I'm out photographing. Sat waiting in the cold and rain can be quite tiring, so a bit of good cake cheers me up and adds in some much needed fuel to keep my body warm. A flask of hot tea goes very nicely too.

Here are a couple of my favourite recipes, easy to make, super tasty and packed full of energy.

Flake and banana loaf

I adapted this from Green & Blacks Chocolate Recipes for my own tastes. It's also a good way to save wasting those brown bananas that no-one eats.

• 125g unsalted butter, melted
• 175g plain flour, sieved
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2-4 brown bananas
• 100g chocolate, I used Flake but anything will do
• 60g nuts, optional, but good for you and full of calories
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 5. Grease and line a loaf tin.

Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl. In a seperate bowl mix the melted butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar. Mix it all together and add in the mashed up banana, mix some more. Add in your broken/cut up chocolate of choice and nuts if you are using them. Give it a gentle stir to avoid breaking the chocolate up too much.

Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 1-1 1/4 hours. I prefer to cover the top with tin foil for about 45mins to stop the top burning.

Leave to cool then devour.

Malt Loaf

I love Soreen Malt Loaf, but it is pretty easy to make my own that is even tastier and packed full of extra energy to keep me warm. The original recipe came from The Dairy Book of British Food: Over Four Hundred Recipes for Every Occasion which is now sadly out of print. However, I modified a recipe from Fast Cakes which is also really tasty. Go easy on the treacle if you don't like too strong a taste.

• 225g self raising flour
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, demerara will do
• 175g mixed dried fruit, I like to soak it in cold tea for a few hours, or brandy!
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 2 tablespoons of malt extract, I use treacle
• 150ml of fresh milk, plus a bit more as needed to soften up the cake mix
• nuts, optional to give a bit of bite and more energy 

Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 4.

Grease and line a loaf tin.

Warm the milk, syrup and malt/treacle in a pan. 

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add in the warm milk mixture. Add nuts if you like. The mix should be soft, so add a bit more milk if the mixture needs it.

Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 1-1 1/4 hours. I prefer to cover the top with tin foil for about 45mins to stop the top burning. I use skewer to check the cake is cooked in the middle, an extra 15 mins is often necessary with this recipe.

Leave to cool and ideally leave it wrapped in foil for a few days before starting. I seldom have this amount of willpower.

 

Enjoy.

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