chocolate ginger brownies

Got some eggs that needed using up pronto so decided to give brownies a go.  I only put 50g of the ginger in but next time I think I would increase this as it wasn't gingery enough for my taste.



185g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate
85g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
50g stem ginger
3 large eggs
275g dark muscovado sugar



Pre-heat the oven to 170c. Grease and line a 20cm square deep baking tray.

Melt the chocolate and butter over a low heat in a bain marie.  Leave to cool

Beat the eggs up until thick, creamy and light then beat in the sugar.  Gently stir in the cooled butter and chocolate mixture.  Sift in the flour and cocoa powder taking care not to knock the air out.

Turn into the baking tray and cook for 35-40 minutes

Leave to cool and cut into 16 pieces.  Don't worry that the pieces are small as you really don't need to eat too much of this in one go.  Even I, a hardened cake-eater, couldn't manage more than a couple of chunks at a time!

Feed to hungry office people with tea

Someone did suggest that it might be nice with walnuts or almonds and cherries in.  Not so sure about the walnuts as they are always a bit of a disappointment.  They look so nice but always taste a bit musty.  Might try the almonds and cherries next time though.

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!

chocolate orange cake

Last weekend was spent making a couple of chocolate cakes for other people's Chrimble celebrations so no experiments came out of my kitchen cake-wise.

Christmastime always makes me want to make more cake. It's lovely to be able to give a gift of something you've made yourself and what could be more Christmassy than chocolate orange cake. This one is destined for my aunts and cousins as they are rather partial to a bit of cake... must run in the family.

I was thinking of those scrummy Terry's chocolate oranges that you have to bash really hard to get them apart so it involved a bit of cake mix sampling to ensure the right level of orange. So I started with my very chocolate cake recipe and adapted it with orange juice, zest and marmalade for added the orangeyness.

100g dark chocolate, melted and allowed to cool slightly
250g butter, at room temperature
250g light muscovado sugar
½ tsp salt
50g cocoa powder (I like Green & Blacks)
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 2 oranges (about 150ml)

to fill
2-3 tbsp orange marmalade (the one with the bits in)
100g butter
200g icing sugar

Prepare in the same way as the very chocolate cake but add the orange zest with the butter and sugar at the start. The orange juice goes in at the end instead of the milk until you have a dropping consistency. Bake for 25-30 minutes and allow to cool.

For the filling, cream the butter and gradually add the icing sugar.  Add the marmalade according to how tangy you want it.  I like the bitterness of the marmalade sweetened up by the butter icing so you end up with that sweet and sour creaminess.

Sandwich together the two halves with the butter icing in the middle.  Try to make sure you get the butter icing all the way to the edge so you can run a wet finger round it (don't lick it unless you're going to eat the whole cake yourself!) to make a smooth edge.  Makes it easier for getting the chocolate covering even on the edges.

I intended to add a bit of orange extract in the covering but had run out.

Smother with the chocolate cake covering and leave to set.  I decorated this cake with the orange bits from mixed peel and some more cocoa powder just in case it wasn't chocolatey enough!


Now what to do with all that left over mincemeat and cream?

butterfly cupcakes

Specially for a little girl's birthday party

Had the great honour of making an army of cupcakes for a little girl's birthday party so made 20 each of lemon and strawberry cupcakes decorated with lashings of butter icing and little white butterflies, and filled with jam.


to make just 20 cakes
150g stork for cakes
150g caster sugar
3 eggs (free-rangers of course)
150g self-raising flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon or strawberry flavouring
1/2 jar of lemon curd or strawberry jam (not the lumpy sort though)

preheat oven to 180c.  Put the paper cases into bun tins ready
soften the stork then beat in the caster sugar
add eggs one at a time
mix in the flour, baking powder and flavouring
half fill the paper cases and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch
leave to cool
once cooled inject the cakes with the jam/lemon curd until it squirts out the top a little


for the butter icing topping
250g unsalted butter
500g icing sugar
2 tsp lemon or strawberry flavouring
a few drops of yellow or red colouring

beat the butter until soft
gradually add the icing sugar
add flavouring and colouring
pipe on to cakes in a fancy swirl



                   I topped the cakes with little butterflies made from ready-made icing.  I've got a nifty little cutter that cuts out the shape and prints the butterfly patterns on the icing all in one go.  To give them a bit of shape I hung them on wooden skewers (patterned side down) until firm then stuck them onto the butter icing before that set.



feed to small children and stand well back while they get a sugar rush then a hit of artificial colouring!