The Oxford Freshman of Yesteryear

An invaluable guide to life at Oxford for any new student beginning their studies at the oldest university in the world - taken from Mainly For Children, published by The Sunday Times in 1960. Wish I'd had this to hand when I was a Fresher...

Easy chocolate sandwich cake

This one bowl quick-to-mix chocolate cake is deliciously moist. It takes an hour to bake, but is well worth the wait. The sandwich of the title is the layer of chopped up chocolate hidden in the middle of the cake.

Ingredients:

165g self raising flour
60g cocoa powder
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
150g flavourless oil eg. sunflower
Terrys chocolate orange

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan assisted) and line a deep 8" sandwich tin.

Put all the ingredients - except the chocolate orange - into a mixing bowl.

Mix with electric beaters for 2 minutes until the ingredients are well-incorporated and creamy.

Spoon two thirds of the mix into the lined sandwich tin and spread evenly with a spatula. Don't worry if the cake mix is a little stiff - that is normal. Separate the segments of the chocolate orange and place enough of them to cover the mix in the tin.

Blob the rest of the mix on top of the chocolate orange and spread with a spatula so that it covers the chocolate layer entirely.

Arrange the remainder of the chocolate segments on top of the cake. Bake in the oven for an initial 40 minutes. After this time, cover the top of the cake with foil to stop it scorching and return to the oven for up to another 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

The only difficult decision is how long to let the cake cool - to eat while it is still warm with a layer of molten chocolate in the centre, or to play sensible and let it cool completely. Enjoy!

Puff pastry pizza

Is it a pizza or a pie? Nobody will have time to care, they'll be so busy eating it and asking for seconds. Quick to make, cheap, tasty and a good use of store cupboard ingredients plus whatever is languishing in the bottom of the fridge.

Ingredients:

500g readymade puff pastry

Ball of mozzarella

225g cheddar cheese - or whatever cheese you have in the fridge

Preferred pizza topping - I used passata mixed with dried oregano, basil, sea salt and olive oil

Preferred toppings - I used thinly-sliced courgette, a small red onion and a handful of mushrooms

Preheat oven to 200 degrees fan assisted.

On a floured surface cut the block of pastry into quarters.

Roll out each quarter very thinly into a rough square.

Spread a couple of tablespoons of tomato topping up to the edge of the pastry.

Cover with a scattering of cheese and dot with any other topping of your choice.

Bake in a hot oven 200 fan assisted on a baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes. Do not worry if the pizza puffs up alarmingly in the centre - it will settle back down once removed from the oven.

Slice, eat and enjoy.

Eve's Pudding with Brigette's apples

An afternoon's visit to a friend's house this weekend ended with a foray into her garden to forage for cooking apples in the orchard. I came home with two filled bags and immediately knew what I wanted to make with them.

Eve's pudding is a classic, a simple baked sponge cushioning a bed of chopped and sugared apples. My mother baked something very similar when I was child, but having mislaid the recipe over the years, I found and slightly adapted this one courtesy of Pinterest, and reproduce it below in easy-to-follow steps.

This makes a large pudding that will serve 8-12. Modify according to the number of apples you have to hand.

Ingredients:
12 small cooking apples (or other variety)
juice of one lemon
4 tbsp of demerara sugar
2 tsp of ground cinnamon
200g self-raising flour
200g caster sugar
200g stork margerine (or softened butter)
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan assisted).

Peel, core and chop the apples.

Butter an ovenproof dish - don't do what I did and forget to do this until after the addition of the lemon juice - and add the prepared apples.

Scatter the demerara sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon over the apples and toss thoroughly.

Place the flour, margerine (or butter), caster sugar, eggs and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl.

Mix with an electric whisk until pale and creamy.

Dollop the sponge mix over the apples and level out with a spatula so that all the apples are covered.

Bake for 40 minutes to an hour. (Check after 40 that it is baked under the crust in the middle). This monster pudding needed an hour, but I covered it with foil after 40 minutes to stop the sponge from scorching. If you like, then scatter with a couple of spoons of caster sugar.

Serve while hot with liberal helpings of custard.

I still have a bowl of Bridget's apples left, so more apple recipes to follow.

Charity begins at home

I love a bargain. Even better when that bargain is something individual, attractive and functional - in a house where so many people and items are competing for space, everything has to earn its keep. These favourite items from my kitchen have all been picked up at knock-down prices.

My mother has a Portmeirion Black Phoenix coffee set. I can't recall it ever being used - indeed, I cannot recall my mother ever making a cup of coffee not of the instant variety. Still, the elegant lines of the coffee pot are sufficient to justify its existence in any kitchen and my mother's has been on permanent display in her glass-fronted cupboard for decades. The Black Phoenix pattern was very popular in its day back in the 1970s and is still sought after by collectors.

So when I saw this coffee pot in a second hand shop in North Wales last summer, knew I had to have it. It cost me under £10. I admit to being a little intrigued by it: it is unmarked Portmeirion and not a pattern of theirs that I'm familiar with. I would love to know more about it. It sits on the window sill in my kitchen and brightens my day every time I look at it. One of these days I'll even use it for serving coffee.

This little side plate cost me £4 in my local Oxfam shop three or four years ago. I bought it because I loved the delightful, quirky, retro American farmyard pattern. It has a small chip out of the rim on the underside, but is otherwise in very good condition. It is marked Mcdonalds Farm by Johnson Bros. and a quick bit of online research revealed that it dates from the 1950s and is very collectable. I'm not surprised. We use it as an occasional side plate. For a while it was known as Joseph's snack plate, my son's preferred plate for a portion of cake or a biscuit, but I think it's worth taking good long-term care of - sorry Joseph - so now it only comes out on special occasions.

Beautiful Burleigh. This big serving platter in Burleigh's Blue Calico was a bargain £4.50 from a local charity shop. It is definitely a second, the quality of transfer at one edge looks worn away, but the defect is actually under the glaze. Do I care? No! I use this quite a bit when we have guests over as it is a useful dish for feeding a crowd. I love Burleigh and will add to it if my budget ever allows. In the meantime, I continue to keep my eyes open in charity shops.

I was intrigued by this enormous platter when I saw it a few weeks ago in the window of a charity shop. It caught my eye because it reminds me of a recent Emma Bridgewater pattern, pink lustre.




This plate is not lustre ware, but I thought it very attractive nonetheless. I will use this on the table at Christmas and can see it piled high with dessert, a large, fluffy pavlova surrounded by berries and chocolate brownies - perfect for easy serving. It cost me all of £6. That's a lot of plate for the money! It is Italian by design, marked Ceramica Dipintiamano Stoviglierie.

I have photographed it with the 7" side plate to give a relative idea of its size.

From the same charity shop on a different occasion, I purchased this jug and large serving bowl. I paid £14 for them both. I saw them in the window of the shop walking my girls to Guides one evening and dashed back next morning to get them. Decorated using a traditional spongeware technique, they look like something from Emma Bridgewater, but are actually Royal Winton. The jug is in excellent condition. The bowl is slightly less pristine - it has a hairline crack and small chip on the outside of the rim. Still perfectly usable.

       

I serve couscous and salad in the bowl, and use the jug as a vase or for pouring custard or cream.