battenberg

a challenge today to make a Battenberg cake.  Never tried before, probably because I'm not a big fan of marzipan, but once that gauntlet has been thrown down...

Apparently it was made to celebrate the wedding of Queen Victoria's granddaughter - Princess Victoria of Hesse and Prince Louis of Battenberg.

So, once again I turn to Mary Berry for a recipe:

100g marg
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
**50g ground rice
 100g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
a few drops of almond essence
red food colouring
3-4 tbsp apricot jam
225g marzipan

**I used rice flour after Googling it and discovering it's pretty much the same thing.  As far as I can tell, ground rice is slightly more course than rice flour.

Pre-heat oven to 160c and line an 18cm square cake tin with greaseproof paper.  I folded up the centre of the paper and put a piece of foil-covered cardboard in this fold to divide the tin into 2.

Cream together the marg and sugar.  Beat in the eggs then ground rice, flour, baking powder and almond essence.  Put half of the mix into the prepared tin.  Add enough red colouring to the remaining cake mix to turn it pink then put into the other side of the tin.

Bake for about 35 minutes and leave to cool.

Slice each colour into 2 equal pieces...not easy, but I found a bread knife worked best.  Stick the pieces together with warmed jam.  My apricot jam had gone mouldy (nice) so I used strawberry instead.

Leave to stick together properly for a bit then brush the sides with more jam.

Roll out the marzipan, making sure it's big enough.  I was quite anal about this and used a ruler.  Place the cake in the centre and fold the marzipan round and seal at the bottom.

Mary Berry suggests a criss-cross pattern on the top.  I dusted icing sugar onto the top and brushed off the loose sugar so it went into the cuts making them more pronounced.

Trim off the ends to give a neat finish then find someone that likes marzipan and make them eat it.

Quite please with the result but still not keen on marzipan

choc-o-nut cookies

A cold, snowy day requires tea and biscuits after a dog walk, especially when the oven is still hot from baking bread.

makes about 18
90g margarine
110g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp golden syrup
175g self raising flour
75g chocolate
50g whole almonds
1 tsp cocoa powder

Cream together the margarine and sugar.  Beat in the egg and golden syrup.  In a food processor roughly chop up the almonds and chocolate and add to the mixture then beat in the flour and cocoa powder until everything is blended.

Divide and roll into balls around about the size of a greengage or walnut.  Put on a lined baking tray and squish down slightly with a fork.  Bake in a pre-heated oven about 190c for about 15 minutes.  They should be browned but they will still be a bit soft when you take them out.  Try and leave to cool on a wire rack....try anyway.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea and tired dog

lemon cake

This is for my beloved; lemon cake is his favourite.

I always use Mary Berry's recipe (which she calls Crunchy Top Lemon Cake) as she makes the best cakes ever and is my cake-hero!  I have a much-loved copy of her 'Ultimate Cake Book' which is covered in jam, sugar and cake mix... testament to how much I have used it.

The only changes I make to her recipe (sorry Mary) are extra lemon juice and zest in the cake, but I do really like it nice and lemony.

to make a 20cm square cake
100g soft margarine (I use trusty Stork)
175g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
juice of 1 lemon
milk
zest of 2 lemons

Cream together marge and sugar.  Add lemon zest then the eggs one by one.  Beat in flour and baking powder.  Measure the lemon juice, add to the mix and beat in.  Try to remember how much lemon juice there was and make up the amount of liquid to 60ml using milk and beat this in.  I don't like to add the milk directly to the lemon juice as it once went a bit funny (a reaction between the acid and milk).

Put the mix into a lined 20cm square cake tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180c for about 30 minutes.

For the topping
juice of 1 lemon
100g caster sugar

Mix together lemon juice and sugar.  Pour over the cake whilst still hot and in its tin.  Leave to cool then turn out and devour!


Yum yum

happy new year cupcakes

So...what to do with the left over mincemeat and brandy?  Somehow it just seems a bit wrong to make more mince pies once Christmas is over and done with so Happy New Year cupcakes it is then.

to make 24 cupcakes
150g stork for cakes
100g caster sugar
3 eggs
150g self-raising flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
200g mincemeat
1 tsp mixed spice

preheat oven to 170c.  I had it set to 180c for the first batch and a couple caught a little.  I think this is down to the high sugar content of the mincemeat.  Second batch went in at 170c and were just fine.

Cream together butter, sugar and mincemeat.  Add the eggs one by one then the dry ingredients.  Put a spoonful (I find a soup spoon is just right) into paper cases in a bun tin and bake for about 15 minutes.

for the butter icing
250g butter
500g icing sugar
3 tbsp brandy

To finish, I sprinkled a little bit of cinnamon on top for extra decoration.  Now to find some people of New Year's diets!