Delicious Savoury Cakes

We love savoury cakes in our house so made a batch with three different fillings, a couple of which we hadn't had before. I start off with a base recipe and then add different fillings, you are pretty much limited by your imagination/availability of ingredients. They are also good for using up fairly small amount of left overs.

I like making them in small tins so I can have them as a snack or part of a lunch.

Ingredients - base mixture

3 Eggs
180g (1 1/2 cups) plain/all-purpose flour
100ml (1/2 cup) olive oil
100ml (3/8 cup) semi skimmed milk
100g (3 1/2 oz) cheddar cheese (grated fine)
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 fahrenheit)
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the rest of ingredients
Mix together in a mixer or by hand until the mixture is generally smooth
Split the mixture into three equal amounts

Ingredients - Goats cheese and chorizo

50g (1 3/4 oz) hard goats cheese
30g (1 oz) chorizo
1 clove of garlic
1/2 tsp of dried habanero chilli flakes (quite spicy!)

Method

Chop the goats cheese and chorizo into small regular squares
Remove the skin of the garlic and chop into small pieces. Fry off the garlic for a minute to mellow the flavour.
Add the cheese, chorizo, garlic and the chilli flakes into one of the base mixtures and mix in so everything is evenly distributed.

Ingredients - Olive and caramelised onion

8 olives
40g (1 1/2 oz) pecorino cheese
1/2 onion
1 tsp Oregano

Method

Grate the Pecorino cheese with a fine grater and chop the olives into small pieces.
Chop the onion into medium sized slices and fry in a pan on low heat, with a tablespoon of oil, until the onions are caramelised.
Add all the ingredients into the base mix and stir in.

Ingredients - Smoked paprika and pistachio

50g (1 3/4 oz) pistachio nuts (weight is with shell)
1 tsp smoked paprika

Method

Shell and chop the pistachio nuts into smaller pieces.
Add to the base mix together with the smoked paprika and combine thoroughly.

I used 8 mini loaf tins and 8 cylindrical cake rings to make the cakes

To stop the mixture from sticking too much I buttered the edges of the loaf tins and added a piece of parchment paper to the base. The cake rings were a little more tricky as I had to make a bottom with parchment paper which was held in place with a ring of foil. The sides were then buttered.

I then put them all into the hot oven and baked for around 20 minutes.

Once they are out of the oven they go on a cooling rack for as long as you can before starting to nibble on them!!!

They were all delicious, although the goats cheese did melt out and created holes where the chunks used to be. You could still taste the goats cheese but they weren't in pieces as I wanted them to be.

The cylindrical ones didn't turn out as cleanly as the others but that didn't spoil the flavour in any way.

If you try these or come up with any other amazing fillings feel free to post below! I'm thinking of Jerk Chicken and Sweetcorn....nom nom.

Cheers