bye bye banana cake

My last Monday in the office so it had to be banana cake didn't it!

I started with a standard Victoria sponge

100g stork
40g golden syrup
60g caster sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

Normal method, cream together margarine, golden syrup and caster sugar.  Beat in eggs, then flour and baking powder.  If it looks a little thick, add a splash of milk.

Pour the mixture into 2 greased and lined 6" (15cm) sandwich tins and bake at 180c for about 20 minutes until nicely done.

Now to make it bananary and tasty.  Firstly I made a toffee sauce

* 100ml double cream
100g light muscavado sugar
50g butter

Put everything in a saucepan and melt together.  Boil for about 8-10 minutes until it thickens and stops frothing.  Don't be tempted to lick the spoon as it's really, really hot (but delicious)

* I actually had whipped double in the freezer so I used this and it worked the same as double cream when it melted

Once the toffee sauce had cooled I poured it over the insides of the cake and let it soak in a bit.  I had about 200ml of whipped cream left so smoothed this over on top of the toffee sauce then added sliced banana to one side.  Sandwich the two halves together carefully.

To finish off I melted about 40g of dark chocolate in a bain marie and drizzled over the top of the cake making sure it dripped down the sides a bit.

This was just enough for 8 ladies!

happy birthday Julia

A cake inspired by gardening for Julia's birthday.  It's a bit of a wild garden with unkempt grass, daisies and buttercups and not a reflection on Julia's lovely garden.






I used my trusty Very Chocolate Cake recipe and went over the top with the decoration.  For the filling I had some ganache made up in the freezer (more cream left over from St George's Day) and some homemade blackberry jam.  Never tried freezing ganache before but it works well.  Whipped it up before freezing and it came out ready to use.

grass/hair nozzle

To decorate I smoothed some reserved ganache over the sides and decorated with ivy leaves made from ready-made icing with a bit of green colouring in.

The top was green butter icing using a grass and hair nozzle.  Never used this before and it took a bit of getting used to.  You need to squeeze the piping bag and pull up sharply.  I got better as I went along so some of the lawn was a bit uneven but whose isn't?





Daisies, buttercups and butterflies were made using some more of the ready-made icing again in varying colours.








So there you have it, way too much chocolate, sugar and artificial colourings.
Yum!

Pretty pleased with the results and had a great time making it. 

Right, what next?

happy Friday cake

Thursday afternoon was a bit quiet in the office so the ladies decided I really should make a cake for Friday.  Still jam and cream left over from St George's Day scones (cream ready whipped in the freezer) so chocolate cake with cream and strawberry jam it is....

I recently bought a heart-shaped silicon baking mould but haven't had an opportunity to use it so this seemed like the right time.  It's about 20cm across on the widest point and 4cm deep. 

So, for each layer I used

35g melted plain chocolate
85g stork marg
85g light muscavado sugar
20g cocoa
85g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
50ml milk

The usual method - cream together the marg and sugar.  Beat in the egg.  Put the dry ingredients together and add half to the marg/sugar/egg mix.  Stir in the melted chocolate.  Add the other half of the dry ingredients.  Pour in enough milk to make it just right and beat until everything is well mixed in. 

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

Rinse and repeat!  (I only have the one heart shaped mould)

Once cooled sandwich together the two halves with copious amounts of strawberry jam and whipped cream.  I reckon I used about 2 tablespoons of jam and 100ml of double cream whipped up.  I tend to mix the jam and cream together before putting it in the cake as it just makes it easier.

OK so the ganache is a bit rough but it was iced at about 5.30 on Friday morning!

To finish I melted the rest of the chocolate I had (I'd bought 2 100g bars so that would have left about 130g less the couple of squares I ate whilst waiting for the cakes to bake) and made a quick ganache* using around 100ml cream and smothered the cake in chocolately yumminess.  Topped it off with pink fairy sprinkles and ta da!  Happy Friday cake

Love you!






* to make ganache, melt the chocolate in a bain marie.  Whilst it's melting, bring the cream to the boil then gradually beat the cream into the melted chocolate a bit at a time.  Once cooled it can be whipped for a lighter texture.