Chocolate and Beetroot Cake

"Chocolate and beetroot? Crazy!"

That's basically what I thought when I first heard of this recipe a few years ago, but I've seen lots of other food bloggers and tv chefs making this cake, as well as one show doing a test to see who could guess which cake had the beetroot in it to which most got it wrong! I decided I had to do it and in fact last summer grew some beets in our veggie patch with this recipe in mind!

I have to admit I'm not a fan of beetroot as my memories of tasting beetroot was the pickled variety and I've since discovered I'm not a fan of most pickled things. Trying this recipe forced me to try some unpickled beetroot and while I discovered I'm not a fan of it on it's own, it's awesome in chocolate cake!!!!!

I took this cake to my youth group for a test and they loved it! Gurned their noses up when they discovered there was beetroot in it but some went back for seconds anyways!



Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
(Sourced from Nigella's Website)

Serves 8-12
Ingredients
175g Plain Flour
10g Baking Powder
75g Cocoa Powder
225g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
225g Raw, roasted, peeled and finely blended beetroot.
200ml Corn Oil

For the Chocolate ganache:
250g Dark Chocolate
250ml Double Cream

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C and grease a 9" baking tin.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cocoa and sugar).
3. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the corn oil and blended beetroot.
4. Bake for 40 minutes.
5. Gently melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Once melted stir in the cream until the ganache is smooth.
6. Once the cake has cooled, top with the ganache.
7. EAT!

Ice Cream Cake

When asked to bring a dessert to a gathering I often stress trying to pick something that the majority of people will like, this becomes even more stressful when you factor my picky husband in. This dessert is a winner for all ages and will be loved by 99.9%.... an almost perfect dessert for serving others but absolutely perfectly delicious.

I've adapted this recipe from Nigella's Ice Cream Cake found in Nigella Express, but really you can adapt this as you like and add whatever you want to it!

This is an incredibly easy recipe but is rather impressive too!

Ice Cream Cake
Serves 8
Ingredients
Chocolate sauce
Dulce de leche sauce
2L vanilla ice cream
3 bars of Cadbury's Crunchie
300g Maltesers

NB You will need a container to let this cake set in that will hold 2 litres.


Recipe
1. Drizzle come chocolate and dulce de leche sauce in your container for setting the cake.

2. In a large bowl leave your ice cream to soften, meanwhile pour half the maltesers into a ziplock bag and crush them. Also crush 3 of the crunchie bars.
3. Once the ice cream has softened, mix in the crushed maltesers, whole maltesers and crushed crunchie.
4. Pour the ice cream into your container, wrap in cling film (ceran wrap) and place in the freezer to set.
5. Remove from the freezer and set your container upside down on a serving plate 30 minutes before serving. The ice cream cake will separate from the container ready for you to add the last crushed  crunchie bar for final decoration... and more chocolate sauce if desired ;o)

Lemony cupcakes

It's been such a loooong winter here, which seems to have disappeared like a flick of a switch when we moved from February to March. I made these last week when I was longing for a little sunshine again and they did the trick. I love citrusy flavours for sunny days but I'll have to remember to enjoy citrusy things to encourage the sun to come back too now!

I've based this on a recipe here from Deeba at Passionate about Baking who got it from CoffeeGrounded who got it from the Martha Stewart website. So thanks Martha!

Lemony cupcakes

Makes about 12-18 cupcakes or 6-9 muffins

Ingredients
Cupcakes
100g unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk (room temp)
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used the insides of a vanilla bean)
Zest of one lemon, finely grated, plus juice
1 cup granulated sugar

Icing
1 cup icing sugar
a drop of yellow food colouring
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp water

Recipe
1. Preheat your oven to 170˚C and prepare your bun/muffin cases on your baking tray.
2. In one bowl mix together the four, baking powder and salt. In another bowl whisk together the butermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.
3. Beat the butter until smooth, then beat in the sugar.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time
5. Mix in a third of the flour mix, then half the buttermilk mix, another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and the last of the flour mix.
6. Divide the batter amongst the bun/muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.
7. Leave to cool on a rack before frosting.



8. Mix together the icing sugar and food colouring , then gradually beat in a little lemon juice at a time until all the sugar is mixed in and the mixture is thick (not too runny). Use to decorate your cupcakes.

Polo Shaped Rolo Cake

I love going through my rss reader and coming across a new recipe that makes me want to go make it immediately - this cake was one of them. Scottish food blogger, Jacqueline, of Tinned tomatoes fame posted this recipe for rolo cake topped with gooey snowballs who found it on The Caked Crusader's blog. I knew I had all the ingredients in my kitchen so it seemed to be my destiny to make this one.

I had recently bought a new bundt tin and decided immediately to use it for this one thus resulting in polo shaped rolo cake! Really tasty cake with the occasional surprise of crispy chewy caramel throughout. This is one you should bookmark and try out.



Rolo Cake

Ingredients
Cake:
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1⁄3 cup caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 ½ cup self raising flour
2⁄3 cup cocoa powder
100g Rolos, halved
Buttercream:
1 cup icing sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Grease a deep 20cm diameter bundt tin.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then mix in the eggs one at a time.
4. Gently stir in the flour and cocoa, before stirring in the chopped rolos.
5. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. The cake will settle on cooling but this is because it’s so rich and squidgy.
6. Leave to cool in the tin, on a wire rack.

Buttercream Frosting
1. When cool make the buttercream by creaming the butter until soft and smooth, then cream in the icing sugar a little at a time.
2. Beat in the vanilla extract and cocoa powder.
3. If the mix is a bit solid, add a dash of milk to soften and slacken.
4. Spread over the cake and decorate as required .


For another fun recipe using rolos check out these caramel filled chocolate cookies

Malteser Cheesecake

There's an amazing woman in my church who is one of the most amazing cooks I have ever met! She's an absolute star and cooks a nice hot lunch for about 20 of the older members of the church every other week and once went out of her way to make a special dinner for our youth group one Sunday.

She once made this cheesecake and when I asked for the recipe she confessed it was from a charity cookbook the local High School produced a few years ago. It turned out I had this cookbook!!!! Delicious cheesecake recipe was right under my nose and I didn't even know it!

This was so simple to make, had a fantastic thick biscuity base and lovely light fluffy cheesecakey goodness on top... not to mention the chocolatey maltesers!!!!!

Malteser Cheesecake



Ingredients
Biscuit Base
14 Digestive biscuits/Graham Crackers, crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
Cheesecake mix
3oz (85g) icing sugar
8oz(225g) cream cheese
1/2 pint (230ml) whipping cream
135g bag of maltesers, crush most but hold a few over for decoration.

Recipe
1. Mix together the biscuits and butter until the mixture starts to stick together. If it is too dry add more melted butter. Press this mixture into the base of a 15cm cake tin. Put this in the fridge for half an hour while you work on the rest.
2. Whip the cream in a bowl until thick and put in the fridge.
3. Cream the icing sugar and cream cheese together and fold in the maltesers.
4. Take the cream out of the fridge and fold into the mixture.
5. Spread the cream cheese mix over the biscuit base and refrigerate until set.

Chocolate Bundt Pudding

We were at friends' house for dinner a few Saturdays ago and it's become a pattern for me to bring dessert to people's houses now when we're having meals... sometimes if we're not having meals! This time I had seen Patsy's blog post on a Choclate Bundt Cake recipe and was keen to try it, especially seeing as it was a "healthier" one. Plus who doesn't love chocolate cake? Well my husband but that's neither here nor there!

I halved the recipe below and used a smaller bundt tin and served it warm with warm chocolate ganache (recipe below too)

Chocolate Bundt Pudding

Ingredients
Non-stick cooking spray with flour
3 ounces dark chocolate, fiinely chopped
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon instant espresso
1 cup boiling water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Spray the inside of you bundt pan with cooking spray in preparation.
2. Mix together the chocolate and boiling water in a bowl and cover. Set to the side for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
3. In separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda.
4. Using a mixer, mix the chocolate together with the sugar, oil and vanilla. Then gradually mix in the flour mixture until well combined and smooth.
5. Pour the batter into your oiled bundt tine and bake for 50 minutes, leave to cool a little but not completely.
6. Slice and serve with ganache

Ganache

Ingredients
170g dark chocolate
3/4 cup single cream

Recipe
1. Melt the chocolate in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Stir in the cream until smooth.

5 minute microwave chocolate cake

Ever need a quick chocolate cake fix? Then this is it!

I had heard about this little beauty years ago but it slipped my mind until a colleague in the world of youth and children's work reminded me about it because she had used it as part of a children's talk and in planning our Christmas family service I remembered it again. After all that it just seemed right to make it and I did a couple of times in practice and also as a practice for my own cookery show by making it during the church service! Nigella better watch out!



5 minute microwave chocolate cake

Serves 3-4, but I made it stretch to about 20 -30 that Sunday with all the kids wanting a little piece.

Ingredients
1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional)
a splash of vanilla extract

Recipe
1. Mix together dry ingredients
2. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract, and mix again.
4. Pour the mixture into a 10cm diameter cake tin and cook for 4 minutes at 1000 watts
5. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired and decorate with icing, or for an even quicker option chocolate spread!

Happy New Year!!!!!!!

Creole Christmas Cake

I know I'm in a minority these days but I am a big fan of Christmas cake. When I was younger Mum would have bought slabs of "iced fruit cake" through the year for me, not just at Christmas. Last year I made my first ever Christmas Cake using Mum's Christmas Cake recipe. I watched Delia's Christmas Special a few weeks ago and loved the look of her Creole Christmas Cake and decided I just had to try it. It takes a good bit of time seeing as the dried fruits are to steep in the alcohol for a week! Then the baking takes 3 hours and after that there's the extra "feeding" but that's only if you want more alcohol in it!



It's a truly delicious cake - I was excited to try it from the moment it came out of the oven but I was good and waited to steal a few crumbs when it was taken out of the tin!

Creole Christmas Cake

Ingredients

For the pre-soaking
3 tbsp dark rum
3 tbsp brandy
3 tbsp port
3 tbsp cherry brandy I added an extra tbsp of rum, brandy and port instead
1½ tsp Angostura bitters Left this out - couldn't find it!
½ level tsp ground cinnamon
½ level tsp ground nutmeg
½ level tsp ground cloves
½ level tsp salt
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1 level tbsp molasses sugar
2 oz (50 g) glacé cherries, chopped
1 lb (450 g) raisins
4 oz (110 g) pitted no-soak prunes, chopped I used sultanas instead
8 oz (225 g) currants
4 oz (110 g) mixed candied peel
2 oz (50 g) mixed chopped nuts

For the cake:
9 oz (250 g) self-raising flour
9 oz (250 g) demerara sugar
9 oz (250 g) butter, at room temperature
5 large eggs

Recipe
1. Mix together the fruits, spices, salt, vanilla, molasses and alcohol and store in a container for a week. Give the container a shake every now and again during this time.



2. Preheat the oven to 275˚F (140˚C) when you're ready to bake.
3. Measure out the flour, sugar and butter into a very large bowl and mix together.
4. Add and mix in the eggs one at a time.
5. Gradually stir in the dried fruit mixture until all is combined.
6. Pour into a greased and lined 9" round tin, then bake in the oven for 3 hours.
7. Leave to cool for 45mins in the tin then once cool wrap in greaseproof paper and foil and in an airtight container.
8. If you're wanting to "feed" the cake pierce a few holes in the cake and pour a little brandy into each one, repeat once a week for 4 weeks.


If you're decorating the traditional way, spread apricot glaze over the cake then cover with marzipan, dampen the marzipan a little and cover with white icing.



For more Christmas recipes see
Jamie's Mince Pies
Traditional Mince Pies
Ginger Glazed Gammon/Ham
Sage, Sausage and Apricot Stuffing
Christmas Roast veggies

Daring Bakers 17:Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.


This was an exciting challenge and a delicious one too. I made this and took it to youth group, which resulted in a request for me to make it again for someone's birthday cake!!!!

So, what is the Dobos Torta (or Torte)?

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

Equipment
2 baking sheets
9” (23cm) springform tin and 8” cake tin, for templates
mixing bowls (1 medium, 1 large)
a sieve
a double boiler (a large saucepan plus a large heat-proof mixing bowl which fits snugly over the top of the pan)
a small saucepan
a whisk (you could use a balloon whisk for the entire cake, but an electric hand whisk or stand mixer will make life much easier)
metal offset spatula
sharp knife
a 7 1/2” cardboard cake round, or just build cake on the base of a sprinfrom tin.
piping bag and tip, optional

Prep times
Sponge layers 20 mins prep, 40 mins cooking total if baking each layer individually.
Buttercream: 20 mins cooking. Cooling time for buttercream: about 1 hour plus 10 minutes after this to beat and divide.
Caramel layer: 10-15 minutes.
Assembly of whole cake: 20 minutes

Finishing touches
a 7” cardboard round
12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted (optional)
½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts (optional)




Sponge cake layers
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
pinch of salt

Directions for the sponge layers:
NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).
2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)
3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)
4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8" springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

Chocolate Buttercream
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:
NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.
2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.
3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.
4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.
5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Caramel topping
1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Directions for the caramel topping:
1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.
2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.
3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn't just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.



Assembling the Dobos
1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.
4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.


Storage
If you do decide to chill it, then I would advise also using a glass dome if you have done. I should also note that the cake will cut more cleanly when chilled.

Oopsy Cakesy.

Today we had a "Fun Day" at church and I had bought a High School Musical box of cake mix for the group to make to go with lunch. The girls got into making it while I got o with sorting other lunchy bits out, so they emptied the box and got on with it. Apparently Katie asked me if both the bags of stuff had to go into the mixture and apparently I said "Yes" but I can't recall this conversation. So she chucked it all together, mixed in the butter, water and eggs and poured into the tray then put it all in the oven to bake. While I was clearing up the rubbish I wondered where the icing had gone to and discovered that the icing had been put into the cake mixture and was now in the oven. We worried it all may turn out a little too sweet but left it to bake and we got on with lunch and playing with HSM stickers.



When it came to eating the cake it looked good, smelled good and had a slight glaze on the top from all the sugar in it! It was real good, even with the icing IN it not ON it. So an experiment gone wrong but that turned out good and we had fun decorating it with the HSM rice paper decorations and sugary stars.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I had a craving yesterday as I was making a roast dinner for some pudding so I had a look through the crazy amount of recipes I have bookmarked online and came across Sticky Toffee Pudding by The Daily Spud (one very talented blogger who beat me to win the much coveted Irish Blog Award for the Best Food/Drink Blog in 2009!). I had all the ingredients to had/good substitutes for ones I didn't have so I had to make it!

However I was struck instantly with a problem - in fact a problem with pretty much every sticky toffee pudding recipe in the world! ........ Rob doesn't like dates, no scrub that, Rob doesn't like fruit, but occasionally likes raisins if they're in the right dish so I figured I would use raisins instead of dates. Then remembered a time when we had sticky toffee pudding before and there was fruit in it which he didn't like, drastic measures needed to be taken, I was determined to make this pudding! So out came the blender and I puréed the raisins into a paste and used as an alternative to dates - rather successfully because he didn't even notice! Score!!!!!!!!

The other substitution I made in this recipe was dark brown sugar for the muscovado sugar which worked fine too.

The result - one very tasty, quick and easy pudding! Thanks Spud!!!!!
Not the best photo in the world but it sure is one tasty pud!



Sticky Toffee Pudding

Serves 8

Ingredients
For the cakey bit:
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
150g pitted dates puréed raisins
250ml water
2 tblsp golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g unsalted butter
125g light muscovado sugar dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract


For the sauce bit:
125g dark mucovado sugar dark brown sugar
125g unsalted butter
180ml double cream
pinch of salt
50 ml kahlúa (optional but lovely)

You’ll also need:
Baking tin - Daily Spud used 26cm x 18cm x 3cm. I halved the recipe and used 12cm diameter x 5cm depth

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease the baking tin.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together and set to the side.
3. Bring the raisins and water to a boil over a medium-high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Remove from the heat and add the golden syrup. Stir well to combine.
5. Add the bicarbonate of soda - the mixture will froth up.
6. Cream the butter until light and fluffy, then add the light muscovado sugar dark brown sugar and cream together until light and fluffy.
7. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well to combine, then stir in the vanilla.
8. Add half the flour and mix to combine.
9. Add the date raisin mixture in 2 lots, stir to combine and finally mix in the rest of the flour until just combined.
10. Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out fairly clean.
11. To make the sauce, melt the butter and sugar together in a small saucepan over a medium heat, stirring often as the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
12. Add the cream and (if using) kahlua, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously and allowing the sauce to reduce and thicken.
13. Serve warm slices of the pudding, spooned over with the warm toffee sauce.

Daring Bakers 16: Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Yum yum yum yum yummmmmmmmmm this was a delicious challenge! I love bakewell tart but never made one so I was rather excited. However I had a problem and do most months with the challenge because there's usually an element of "play with the flavours" and in the past I just ended up going with the flavours in the original recipe but I wanted to do something different this time so I went and stood in the jams and conserves for at least half an hour taking in all the various types and struggling to decide which one to get. 'Strawberry..... Lemon...... Blackberry..... Plum..... Raspberry...... Orange...... Rhubarb...... Apricot, mmmmm yes apricot, and I could throw in some peaches, ooooh yes, let's do that!' So it became a Peach and Apricot Bakewell Tart!

I had another problem though. I put it in to bake I went upstairs to make some phone calls and took my egg timer with me but forgot to go take the tart out of the oven when the buzzer went during my phone call so when I did go down it ended up looking like this.....



.... oops. So I ended up carving the carcinogen off....



..... and tucking in!



A yummy tart/pudding. I'm sure I'll do this again.

Peach and Apricot Bakewell Tart

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional) (I used vanilla extract)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (leave no longer than one day)

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (I used vanilla extract)
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds (I used 100g)
30g (1oz) all purpose flour (I used 55g)

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy.
Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine.
After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Assembling the tart

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane
One handful blanched, flaked almonds (I left this out)

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base (I added a layer of peach slices over the top of my apricot jam layer)



Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Taste and Create: Orange Cake

I'm slightly late in posting this (and like a million other things!!!!!!!) but life has been rather busy the last few months and I've not had time for blogging, but have been baking and cooking when I get the chance.

So this is my post for this month's Taste and Create hosted this month by Min and Shell at The Bad Girls' Kitchen.

I was paired with Tasty Treats by Poornima - a blog I hadn't come across and one I enjoyed having a sift through deciding what to make. I love orange flavours at the minute and I love baking so I had to make this....

Orange Cake
Source: Tasty Treats

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp orange essence (you could add a few drops more according to your taste)
a little orange colour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
Candied orange peel
Chopped mixed nuts for topping
Orange Flavoured Chocolate shavings (My addition to the recipe(



Recipe
Grease and line a 9"x5" loaf tin bundt tin.
Preheat the oven to 350F/ 180C.
Sieve the flour and baking powder together and keep aside.
Beat the eggs and sugar together in a for 5mins on high.
Add the oil, orange and lemon juice, essence and colour and beat for about 2mins till well combined.
Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until combined.
Spread the chocolate shavings and some candied peel around the tin
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 25mins or til done.
Unmould and cool on a wire rack.

Daring Bakers 15: Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.



I'm a little late posting this despite having made the challenge the day after it was announced! I need to get more organised.

When I read that this month's challenge was to be baked cheesecake I have to admit I was a little sad - I'm not a big fan of baked cheesecake. However I was excited by the ability to use whatever flavours etc you wanted, I had been in the mood for some banoffee at the time and thought why not combine the 2? so I did.



I looked back to the caramel cake recipe the Daring Bakers made a while ago and made the caramel syrup. I added some of this to the cheesecake batter and poured a little layer between the biscuit base and the cheesecake. After it had all been baked I topped with some dulce de leche, sliced banana and pecans.

I just made a third of this recipe because it would only have been me eating and I didn't want to turn into a banoffee cheesecake myself so I divided it all out into 3 ramekins to make baby cheesecakes.

The Daring Bakers recipe went as follows:

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

Ingredients
crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.



3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.



5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!



Don't forget to check out the new Daring Kitchen website

Rainbow Cake from Scratch.

I'm often unsure whether or not to be complimented when you serve something and people ask "where did you buy this from?" which has happened at least 5 times recently. Do you take it positively because they think what you've offered is so good they think it has to be done by a professional? Or do you take it as an insult because the person doesn't think you're capable of making something so nice?

Either way, I was asked this about this cake when I remade it for youth group, but most of them were just in awe of the colours.

I decided to redo this recipe only without the boxed cake and icing mixes, so here's a "from scratch" version for you - and it's just as fun the second time making this. I was also in shock at how many comments and links and emails I got about the Rainbow Cake I made for Taste and Create I just felt I needed to do it again.



Rainbow Cake from Scratch

Ingredients
175g butter or margarine
175g caster sugar
3 eggs
250g self raising flour
little milk (optional)

Butter Icing
75g butter or margarine
225 g icing sugar, sieved
2 tbsp milk
food colouring (optional)
sweets/hundreds and thousands to decorate (optional)

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C and grease two 17cm cake tins
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
3. Mix in eggs one at a time, then fold in the flour. If the mixture seems dry add a little milk.
4. Split the batter into 6 and add the different food colourings.
5. Pour half of the first batter into each tin in the centre and tap it out to spread. Repeat with every other colour.
4. Bake for 25 minutes until form to touch and golden.

5. To prepare the icing, beat all the ingredients together until fluffy and light.
6. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack, then ice and decorate.

Marmalade cake

About a month ago I was away for the weekend with the youth group. Heading out my car was loaded with food, most of which was devoured, but often there's things left over like some biscuits, milk, bread, crisps, cereals and marmalade. We end up dividing the leftovers among the group because there's no way I could use it all up on my own. When it came to sharing it out this time though nobody wanted the marmalade!!!!! What's wrong with marmalade? So I took it and decided to make a marmalade cake for them as well as enjoying it on some lovely golden toast.

I hunted through all my bookmarks and remembered the lovely Rosie blogged on her old blog about Marmalade Cake. (You can catch Rosie over on Baking Cakes Galore now). How could I resist?

I made mine in 2 victoria sandwich tins and put them one on top of the other with about 2-3 tbsp marmalade in between then topped off with the icing (which turned out a little too orange when I added too much red colouring the the yellow).



Marmalade Cake

Ingredients
Cake
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour, sifted
175g (6 oz) softened butter
175g (6 oz) soft brown sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 orange
Juice ½ orange
2 tbsp thin-cut marmalade
Icing
200g (7 oz) icing sugar, sifted
Juice of 1 orange
Orange edible food colouring (optional)
A few sprinkles (optional)

Recipe
1. Grease two victoria sandwich tins. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add a little of the egg at a time until it's all mixed through. Then mix in the marmalade, OJ and zest.
4. Fold in the sifted flour gently folding.
5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins and level the surface off.
6. Place into the preheated oven to bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool for 5 – 10 minutes in the tin before removing to cool on a wire rack.
7. To make the icing; add the sifted icing sugar a little edible orange food colour (optional), and enough orange juice to make a spreadable icing for coating the top of the cake. Spread over the top of the cake and add sprinkles if using.

Post 300! Chocolate puddings

(Photo by Shawn Cunning)

This is my 300th post!!! Isn't that mad? I need to mark the occasion with something special and what better than chocolate right?

This is another recipe from Nigella Express. You know the more I make from this book the more I want to make from it because everything I've made from it has been delicious so far!

I've made these chocolate puddings a few times now and love them more and more each time. The spongy chocolate, the gooey chocolate sauce and then the honeycomb on top to finish it off - perfect!



"Glitzy" Chocolate Puddings
Source: Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson, p221
Serves 8

Ingredients
PUDDINGS
100g dark chocolate (70%) (I used 50%)
100g soft unsalted butter
200g sugar
4 large eggs
50g plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
GLAZE
150g dark chocolate (70%) (Again I used 50%)
45g unsalted butter
2 "Crunchie" chocolate bars or honeycomb broken up into crumbs

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C.
2. Break up 100g chocolate and place in a bowl with the 100g butter. Melt together either in a microwave or double boiler. Once melted, leave to cool a little.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until thick, moussy and pale. Then fold in the flour, soda and salt.
4. Gently fold in the slightly cooled chocolate, then divide the mix between 8 ramekins. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
5. Prepare the glaze by melting to chocolate and butter together and whisk to make a glossy mixture for spooning over the puddings, then top them with some crunchie.

Taste and Create: Rainbow Cake

It's Taste and Create time again. This month I was paired up with Tara from Eat, Be and See who is a woman after my own heart being a Harry Potter Fan and by having this cake on her blog that I have made for this month.

Rainbow Cake!!!! Check out Tara's (on her funky Harry Potter plate -


How could you not be excited by that?

So the recipe calls for a box of cake mix. I haven't used cake mix in ages and ages so I'm in the shop trying to figure out what might be best and I forget that plan when I spot that the Barbie cupcake mix includes pink frosting and a strawberry decorating tube so just have to buy that!!!!! It makes 12 small cupcakes worth of batter but that's fine because it'll only be me eating this cake anyways.

I loved this challenge, the smells of the cake mix reminded me of birthday parties when I was little and the white icing mix turning pink entertained me

Rainbow Cake
Source: Eat, Be and See

Ingredients
1 box of Green's Barbie cupcake mix
A mix of food colourings

Recipe
1. Make up cake mix according to packet instructions and split into 6.
2. Mix in the colourings to the 6 cake mixes.



3. Pour the batter into the centre of your greased cake tin one colour at a time.



4. Bake according to packet instructions - however mine had to bake a little longer because I obviously didn't make the Barbie cupcakes.



A slightly thin cake but good seeing as only I will be eating it.

5. Make icing according to packet instructions.



6. Decorate cake.



7. Slice in and taste the rainbow.

Monthly Triplet: Raspberry cottage cheese cake

This is the third part of February's monthly triplet of recipes from magazines and next week I'll get into March's triplet.

I was caught by the photo of this recipe in the magazine, it was a blueberry cottage cheese cake but I had a bag of frozen raspberries I was dying to use so I subbed out the blueberries, but I think I may just try this sometime with blueberry because it was a great cake and fun to make. I also halved the recipe and baked in a sandwich tin instead of the 9.5" tin. I think this would be perfect with some afternoon tea sitting out in the beautiful sunshine we've been having here over the past week.



Heres the recipe using my halved measurements

Raspberry cottage cheese cake
Source: Easy Food magazine February 2009, p65

Ingredients
butter, for greasing
2 eggs, separated
70 g brown sugar
125g cottage cheese, beaten until smooth
75g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
100g semolina
1/2 tsp lemon rind
2-3 handfuls of frozen raspberries
2 tbsp caster sugar
25g flaked almonds (I thought I had some when I started making this but it turns out I didn't)

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 180˚C and grease your cake tin.
2. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, add the sugar and whisk until the mixture is light and creamy.
3. Mix in the cottage cheese.
4. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl then stir into the cheese mixture. Fold the semolina and lemon rind in.
5. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff, then fold into the cake mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and sprinkle the raspberries over the top along with the caster sugar and almond flakes.
7. Bake in the oven for 1 hour (because mine was smaller it took 40 minutes)


I twittered about how I've been blogging too much cake lately and worried that you all think I ONLY eat cake so I'm going to blog a few non cakey things this week to try and convince you!

Whole Orange Cake

In January I made a little "vow" to make at least 3 recipes a month from the food magazines I have bought that month. Well February's mags weren't too great for me so I ended up making some recipes I have bookmarked in cookbooks instead and this is one of them - Whole Orange Cake.



Really simple to make and very tasty - especially seeing as it was topped off with chocolate ganache.

Whole Orange Cake
Source: Simply Essentials: Fruit by Donna Hay

Ingredients
2 oranges
175g butter
1.5 cups caster sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup ground almonds
1.5 cups plain flour
2 tsps baking powder

Recipe
1. Preheat oven to 160˚C
2. Wash oranges and place in saucepan of water on a medium heat. Bring the water to the boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Leave for 30 minutes or until soft.
3. Take the oranges out of the water and leave to cool a little. Chop coarsely.
4. Process the oranges in a food processor until finely chopped.
5. Add the butter, sugar, eggs, ground almond, flour and baking powder and process until smooth and mixed through.
6. Pour into a greased 9" cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until cooked through.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients
3/4 cups single cream
100g dark chocolate, finely chopped
70g milk chocolate, finely chopped

Recipe
1. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate.
3. Leae to melt slightly and then stir until the mixture is glossy and smooth.