raspberry bakewell cake

Not so many cakes coming out of the kitchen lately.  Far too much gardening to do at this time of year but the arrival of the first raspberries and loganberries (apart from the odd ones I've been grazing on) has prompted a cake.  This one is from the BBC Good Food website.  They've got a bit of a thing going with raspberries at the moment so may be more to come.

140g ground almonds
* 140g butter, softened
140g golden caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
** 250g raspberries
2 tbsp flaked almonds
icing sugar, to serve



Pre-heat oven to 160c.  Cream together butter and sugar.  Beat in the eggs one by one then add the ground almonds, flour and vanilla.  Spoon half into a lined and greased 20cm loose-bottomed round tin, top with the raspberries keeping them about 15mm from the edge, then spoon the remainder over.  Sprinkle with flaked almonds and bake (well) for 50 minutes.

Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar.


* I used my trusty Stork once again.  I really should have shares in the company

** only had about 150g of raspberries and loganberries so added a couple of tablespoon of last year's blackcurrant jam to make up the fruitiness.  Seems to have worked out just fine.

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.

orange and raisin scones

This one is for Dad as I know he's partial to scones.  I have rather a lot of whipped cream left over from St George's Day so a good way to use some up.


to make about 8 scones
225g self raising flour
50g butter
2tsp baking powder
25g caster sugar
1 egg
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
*50g raisins


Combine the flour, baking powder and sugar, and rub in the butter.  Beat the egg and make up the amount of liquid to 130ml with the orange juice and a bit of milk if need be.  Add the orange zest,  raisins, egg and juice to the flour mixture and form a soft dough.  Gently roll it out to about 15-20mm thick and cut up using a 60mm cutter - don't mess it about too much as you want them to be light.  Bake in the oven for about 12-15 minutes at 220c.

Serve with too much jam and whipped cream


* I always soak my dried fruit it boiling water (or tea without milk) for at least 10 minutes before using them as it makes them a bit more succulent.


So scones...the fastest cake in the world...

breast-ever birthday cake

Making a birthday cake for a friend who is 60 this week.  What does a 60 year old man like?  Hmmm?  I had a few suggestions from other people but decided to do a boob cake.  This is my first attempt at a novelty cake.

Initially I tried to make the entire cake in a 1lt pudding basin to get the right shape but the sponge wouldn't cook properly all the way through.  I was left with an uncooked centre so the outside was munched on with a cup of tea whilst I thought about what to do next.  Second attempt was still in the pudding basin but cooked in the microwave.  Whilst this cooked properly and had a good shape I'm not so keen on the texture of microwave sponges.  They seem more like steamed sponges and have a tendency to go a bit dry once cooled.  That one is now in the freezer ready to make a trifle.  Third (and final attempt) was a basic Victoria sponge, half in the pudding basin for the round top and the other half in a 7" round sandwich tin.

Per boob (as I only did one at a time)

175g stork cake margarine
175g caster sugar
175 self raising flour
1 1/12 tsp baking powder
3 eggs

Beat together margarine and sugar.  Add eggs.  Beat well, then add flour and baking powder.  Pour equally into a greased pudding basin and lined sandwich tin.  Bake at 180c for about 25-30 minutes.  I found the pudding basin section took a longer than the tin.

Leave to cool and do it all again.

I used butter icing and home-made blackberry jam in the middle.  For the butter icing I used 200g butter and 400g icing sugar.  Beat well and try not to eat too much.

For decorating, (after a bit of googling to get some ideas I found a lovely pair by Little Pickers)  I reserved some of the butter icing and covered the cake completely with a thin layer to ensure the icing stuck.  I also made sure the gaps where the two cakes joined were covered to ensure a smooth finish.  To make the flesh colour I used a tiny bit of red food colouring and an even tinier bit of yellow in a block of white ready made icing.  Smooth it over and then go mad on the bra.  The lace was just thin bits of black icing slightly crumpled.

Note to self: make sure you cut your finger nails quite short before doing icing again!

Very pleased with these.

pineapple upsidedown cake

A seventies special today.  I had a pineapple that was starting to look a bit past its best so pineapple upsidedown cake it is.  Haven't had this for absolutely years and never made it before.

for the pineapple top/bottom
4 thick slices of pineapple
50g light brown sugar
50g butter
glacé cherries

Cream together the butter and sugar and spread over the bottom of a 20cm square lined tin.  Arrange the pineapple in a pretty pattern then put cherries in the centre of the rings and dot some round.  Try not to eat too many cherries!

for the cakey bottom/top
150g stork for cakes
150g self raising flour
150g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
3 tbsp of some liquid*

* use the syrup out of the tin if using tinned pineapple, or honey, or (as I did today) some toffee ice cream sauce left over from the banoffi cupcakes.

Cream together the margarine and sugar.  Beat in the eggs, then the flour, baking powder and liquid.  Pour over the pineapple and bake for about 40minutes at 160c.  Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes to let the syrup set a bit then flip it over and get out the flares.

Easypeasy