AlphaBakes "G" Roundup

Welcome to the August round up of AlphaBakes. The letter was 'G' and as expected there were a lot of ginger entries but quite a few interesting and unusual recipes too. I am always impressed with everyone's creativity and this month is no different. Make yourself comfortable and enjoy the delicious selection of G entries.

First up is Jacqueline with two different ginger cakes. The first is a sticky honey and ginger loaf and the second is a plain ginger cake.

Next up is my own entry with crystallised ginger biscuits with a square of chocolate on top. The biscuits were very gingery and crunchy on the outside but soft in the middle. 

Moving away from ginger for a minute is this gorgeous looking wild strawberry, rose and purple gooseberry jam from Dom from Belleau Kitchen. The ingredients are fresh from his own garden and I'm sure they won't last long in my kitchen as it looks too good to resist!

Following on with the gooseberry theme is Jean from Baking in Franglais with a gooseberry and almond streusel cake. It's a cross between a pudding and a cake and reminded her of school dinners. These are perfect served warm with custard or served cold in squares.

Next a lovely double G entry by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary with a red kidney bean burger which contains ginger and garam masala.  This lovely homemade vegetarian burger is made with canned kidney beans and supermarket own brand mature cheddar which makes it a very economical meal for the family.

Mich from Piece of Cake delights us with some breakfast granola bars.  This is a Nigella recipe using oats, nuts, dried fruits and condensed milk. It's crunchy and flavourful and was not overly sweet despite the use of condensed milk.

My co-host Caroline from Caroline Makes made some sticky ginger cake to take along on a car journey to a car show. She wanted to make something that was easy, not messy to eat and contained ingredients that she already had in her cupboard and this recipe ticked all the boxes.

Jen from Blue Kitchen Bakes made frangipane tarts for the first time and I have to say they look perfect. She found some reduced price plums and cheap nectarines hence the flavours of the plum & nectarine frangipane tart with a plum compote and nectarine topping. In case you're wondering, the G is from ground almonds in the tart.

Back to ginger with these delicious gingersnaps by Elizabeth from Lawstudentscookbook. She had some store bought gingersnaps in her cabinet which were too gingery to eat so she decided to make her own and came up with these - gingery but edible. 

Next we have an unusual G entry, certainly one that I've not heard of before called Goosnargh Cake made by Eira from Cookbooks Galore. This is a traditional English cake or rather a biscuit made with caraway seeds that was traditionally sold at Easter and Whitsun.  They come from the Lancashire village of Goosnargh near Preston hence the name. 

Suelle from Mainly Baking sent in a rhubarb and ginger dessert. It has a ginger biscuit base and a rhubarb mousse with chopped stem ginger inside. She served it with roast rhubarb, leftover ginger crumbs and cream which was optional. I love the presentation of the dessert which looks restaurant worthy. 

Another entry from my co-host Caroline with these sex on the beach cupcakes which uses grenadine. The inspiration for these cupcakes comes from the cocktail named sex on the beach which contains vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice and grenadine. Love the little fondant decorations and cocktail umbrellas which are the perfect finishing touch. 

Yet another unusual G entry comes from Stuart from Cakeyboi with squashed smurf s'mores. S'mores are a campfire favourite made with toasting marshmallows and sandwiching them between graham crackers with some chocolate.  Graham crackers are not readily available in the UK but Stuart found some in his local Chinese supermarket.  He also had some smurf shaped marshmallows from a Haribo factory. 

Grace from Life can be simple made Chocolate Guinness Cake - one of my favourite cakes which I've not made for a long time. I usually use a Nigella recipe but this recipe is from Tish Boyle and contains chopped pecans. Grace says that the chopped pecans were crunchy and nutty and went well with the cake. 

Jennifer from What Jenny Baked made some healthy spiced banana nut muffins to take to a barbeque. It contains no butter, very little sugar and yoghurt which definitely sounds healthy to me! 

Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog hosted a six course chocolate themed party a few months ago. One of the courses was spinach, goat's cheese and chocolate filo pastry.  Choclette learnt how to make filo triangles on a Middle Eastern Mezze course at the Vegetarian Cookery School in Bath a couple of years ago which has been invaluable. As always she manages to incorporate chocolate and it worked really well with the other ingredients here. 

My co-host Caroline is back again with Ginger Peach Crisp. She wanted to use up some peaches which were going soft and made this crumble like dessert which was delicious. It's perfect served with cream or ice cream or even a splash of milk if that's all you have. 

Another entry from Jaqueline with this gooseberry fool.  It's made with stewed gooseberries, fresh cream and greek yoghurt all mixed together.

Next we have an Oaty Ginger and Plum Crumble by Shaheen from Allotment 2 Kitchen.  She had some plums from her father's plum tree and initially thought of making an almond, plum and thyme tart but decided on this lovely crumble instead as she wanted something homely. 

Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... delights us with this gorgeous Chocolate and Ginger Pecan Pie. She has been trying to cope with change and has been making improvements to her blog. The first time she made a pecan pie a few years ago was a disaster as it would not set so this is a vast improvement on that as it looks and tastes good and definitely got her mum's seal of approval. 

The next 2 entries are from my mum. The first is gingernut cookies which contains homemade stem ginger, ground ginger and walnuts. The second is a giant oreo cookie cake - it's a chocolate cake made to look like a giant oreo cookie with a vanilla buttercream filling. 

Moving on to a savoury dish for a change, we have oven baked gnocchi with tomato sauce from Folasayo from Delectable Eats & Treats. It's one of her favourite things to make and it's always a big hit whenever it's served. The sauce contains sausage, cayenne pepper and passata. 

When I selected the letter G for this month's AlphaBakes, I hoped that someone would make gingerbreadmen and am really pleased that Olivia from Liv a Little Bakery made some for us. As she says, they are not just for Christmas as they are perfect all year round. I love how these have been decorated - they look too cute to eat! 

Sneaking in with a late entry is Laura from How to Cook Good Food with her Allotment Berry Galette with Spelt Cinnamon Pastry. She used fruits from her allotment including gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, red currants, blackcurrants and tayberries and baked them in a delicious sounding spelt cinnamon pastry. She replaced the sugar content with date syrup to make this a very virtuous treat! 

That's the end of the "G" round up.  Make sure you check out Caroline's blog on 1st September to find out which letter we are baking with then. There's not many left and we've already done most of the easy ones so be prepared to think outside the box!