Toad in the Hole & Gin & Lime Cake: Great British Dishes with Waitrose

I was set the challenge by Waitrose to recreate some good old Great British Dishes recently. I like to think that my cooking repertoire is fairly full of traditional British dishes that I will pass onto my girls as they grow older. There’s plenty of time in life for the fancy food but a family of 5 needs good solid meals to function on. These are the sort of dishes that take hardly any time to prepare and can be waiting for us when we get home from dancing/swimming/brownies/gymnastics …

Both of the recipes that I have come up with below started life off as quite normal recipes – I can never leave well along though, and constantly have to meddle with recipes.

I used Waitrose’s own ingredients for each and was really happy with the outcome – Even better, the kids loved both!

I love Toad in the Hole but have to admit, its sometimes not that interesting – I added some onion chutney painted onto each sausage and suddenly the dish was so much exciting. It takes mere seconds to do and you will think the chutney will slide off but somehow it doesn’t. If it was a weekend, I may have made my own chutney but this was a Wacky Wednesday and Waitrose’s Red Onion Chutney was just perfect.

Onion Chutney Toad in the Hole

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Serves	5
Prep time	15 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	45 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish
Misc	Child Friendly, Serve Hot

Wholesome family food Toad in the Hole made more interesting with the addition of onion chutney

Ingredients

• 12 Waitrose Pork & Herb Sausages
• 4 Medium Eggs
• 8fl oz Milk
• 8oz Plain Flour
• 8 teaspoons Waitrose Onion Chutney

Directions

1.
Grill the sausages until they are just about cooked - They will continue cooking as the Toad in the Hole cooks so you don't want them charred to start off with
2.
Remove from the grill and leave to one side - Make sure the oven is preheated to 230C. Place an oven dish in the oven to heat up.
3.
Whisk the eggs and slowly add the milk and S&P whilst continuing to whisk
4.
Add the flour, a tablespoon at a time and whisk until all the lumps have gone and you have a smooth batter
5.
Spread 1 teaspoon of onion chutney over the top of each sausage - doesn't have to be too tidy
6.
Remove the oven dish from the oven and place the sausages at the bottom straightaway.
7.
Pour the batter over the top and place straight back into the oven.
8.
Bake for 30-40 minutes - I'm still constantly amazed that it rises and works every time but it does!
9.
I serve with corn on the cob and onion gravy - I have to admit to the lazy way of making gravy on a weeknight: Chop 2 shallots finely, sauté in a small pan then add a pot of onion gravy and top up with boiling water. Tastes delicious and a lot less faff than making gravy from scratch!

I know that there isn’t much Gin in the Gin & Lime cake but wasn’t going to chance turning my girls into zombies so baked them a simple Lime Drizzle cake – More Gin cake for me & Mr C! They were very content with their very own cake too.

Gin & Lime Drizzle Cake

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Serves	10+
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	40 minutes
Meal type	Dessert, Snack
Misc	Serve Cold
Occasion	Birthday Party, Casual Party

Light fluffy lime sponge cake with a crunchy gin & lime topping

Ingredients

• 8oz Butter (Leave at room temp for 15 minutes before using)
• 8oz Caster Sugar
• 4 Medium Eggs
• 3 Limes (Zest & Juice)
• 10oz Self Raising Flour
• 3 tablespoons Milk
• 25ml Gin (I used Tanqueray from Waitrose as it was on offer)
• 2oz Granulated White Sugar

Directions

1.
Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 10" square cake tin (or 1x8" and 1x6" if you are wanting to do a gin-free cake for the kids)
2.
Using an electric whisk, mix together the caster sugar and the butter until light and fluffy
3.
Whisk the eggs and add, one at a time whilst still whisking on a medium speed. Then add the milk until combined.
4.
Add the juice of 1 time and the grated zest of 2 limes
5.
Turn the mixer down to a slow setting and add 1 tbsp flour at a time until just combined
6.
Pour into the cake tin(s) - Divide if using 2 by putting 1/3 in the smaller tin and the remainder in the large tin and bake for approx 30 mins, until golden
7.
Meanwhile, mix together the remaining lime juice, granulated sugar and gin (take 1/3 of the mixture away before adding the gin if doing a child friendly version)
8.
As soon as the cake is out of the oven pour the sugar/gin mixture over and leave to cool in the tin.

Disclosure: I was asked to recreate Great British Dishes by Waitrose and sent vouchers to cover the cost of any ingredients bought. I have never used Waitrose home delivery service before but found their customer service exceptional. Our delivery driver was super polite and friendly. I found that there were some excellent offers on food and that the quality of the products we used was excellent.

Linking up with Lucy at SuperGoldenBakes for her Cook, Blog, Share linky