Stuff yer bake

I have been a bit overrun in the cake department recently and it doesn’t seem like it is letting up anytime soon. This is the most recent one which was just a simple cake for a party to welcome a new baby boy into the world. I sometimes like simple, although it does draw attention to any ’slight’ mistakes you may have made. Having said that the building blocks were a bit fiddly, my hand was fixed in a claw shape after the piping and I went through about 5 metres of baking paper, making piping bags as I couldn’t quite get the consistency of the icing right. I’ll put it all down to experience and carry on with the next one.

I am enjoying making recipes out the new Bill Granger cook book. One of the most successful recipes I tried this week was a recipe for roasted pumpkin with cumin and cayenne pepper but unfortunately there seemed to be a pumpkin/squash drought and so I plumped for sweet potato instead.The combination of the soft luscious sweet potato, the salty cheese and olives and the sharp shallot dressing was to die for. This is a really quick and simple recipe that I will definitely be doing again.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 packet of washed salad leaves
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 100g feta cheese, crumbled
• couple of handfuls of kalamata olives, pitted

Dressing

• 1 tblsp red wine vinegar
• 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 1 shallot finely sliced

Cut the sweet potato into roughly 2 inch cubes and place in a bowl. Add the cumin, cayenne pepper, a good slug of olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and mix to coat all of the sweet potato. Tip the sweet potato out onto a roasting tray or tin and spread out. Bake at 220 degrees centigrade for about 30 minutes or until slightly golden on the outside and nice and soft in the middle.To make the dressing simply whisk together all the ingredients. Assemble the salad on a plate and drizzle over the dressing. Enjoy!