Raspberry and Lemon Cake

This cake is one I made in my 'Week of Cake' - I brought it into work, where it was met with much appreciation! I've made a cake like this a couple of times now, once with blueberries and once with raspberries. The first one I made didn't have crumbled almonds, and I definitely think it is a nice touch to add them. The cake ends up quite moist so best to eat with a fork!

Raspberry and Lemon Tray Cake

Ingredients

6oz butter

6oz caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

2oz flaked almonds

grated zest of 1 lemon

4oz ground almonds

4oz self-raising flour

2 tbsp milk

200g raspberries, fresh or frozen (tip: if you are using frozen allow them to defrost for a while, otherwise the cake will be too soggy)

Easy-Peasy Triple Chocolate Cookies

This cookies are a chocolate-lovers heaven. Make sure the chocolate chunks are nice and big to give maximum chunkiness...

Begin by creaming together 250g butter with 140g caster sugar. When it is light and creamy add 1 egg yolk and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Sieve in 300g plain flour with 2 tbsp cocoa. Finally mix in 150g chocolate, chopped into chunks (a mixture of white and milk).
Stir until combined, and then bring the mixture together with your hands and roll into small balls. Place spaced out on a greased baking tray, and press down lightly with a fork. Bake in a 180°C preheated oven for 12-15 minutes. (Tip: don't cook for longer than 15 mins, they want to be soft when taken out as they firm up when cooled.)
Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Adapted from recipes in the BBC Baking magazine.

Orange Shortbread Biscuits

Wednesday evening saw a friend come round for dinner and some baking! 4 different types of baked goods in all (recipes for Peanut Chip and Chocolate Cookies, Triple-Chocolate Cookies and Nutty White Chocolate Brownies coming soon).

 Orange Shortbread Biscuits

Pre-heat your oven to 190°C/gas 5 and grease and line a baking tray. Cream together 100g butter with 50g caster sugar. Stir in the grated zest of 1 orange. Add 175g plain flour and ½ tsp baking powder. Stir until combined and then bring together with your hands. Divide the mixture into 10 balls and place spread apart on your baking tray (you may need 2 as you don't want them too close together). Bake in the oven for 12–15 minutes until golden, leave to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Simple as that, for citrus yummy-ness!

Adapted from 'Crisp Orange Shortbread' in the BBC Baking magazine (Spring 2011).

Hello World

Just a quick post to say THANK YOU for reading my blog! I have readers from all around the world including...Australia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam!!
I hope you are all enjoying my baking successes and failures. Get in touch if there is anything you would like to see on my blog :)

Roxanne's Chocolate Brownie Bites

As I am officially 'off cake' for Lent (I'm going to have to make an exception for birthday cake), I decided brownies didn't count and so set about making some. I couldn't find a recipe that I really liked, but I very loosely used 'Fifteen Chocolate Brownies' from Cook with Jamie, I used almost the same ingredients but altered the measurements significantly. Although brownies should be a treat, his were a heart attack waiting to happen...these ones are wheat-free so perfect for anyone intolerant.

Roxanne's Chocolate Brownie Bites

Ingredients
250g butter

150g Green & Black's milk chocolate

1 Mars bar (you can use an extra 50g of normal chocolate if you don't have a mars bar)

30g cocoa powder

100g plain spelt flour (normal wheat flour would be fine)
1 tsp wheat-free baking powder (again, normal is fine)
250g sugar

4 organic eggs, beaten

75g mixed nuts, roughly chopped (optional)

2 packs Smarties

Red Nose Day Dodgers

Now I’ll be the first to say I do love a jammy dodger, the tasty shortbread with the yummy jam inside. So when I was researching a recipe to make for Red Nose Day I came across the perfect thing Red Nose Day raspberry cookies which I adapted to make my own jammy dodgers.
 

Red Nose Day Dodgers

3 of Your 5-a-Day Cake

This cake helped me get some of my much-needed fruit and vegetables in my 'week of cake'!

3 of Your 5-a-Day Cake

Ingredients:

10oz self-raising flour

½oz ground almonds

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

5 tbsp sunflower oil

4 tbsp orange juice

1 egg

2oz light brown sugar

2oz molasses sugar

150g carrot, grated

1 eating apple, peeled, cored and grated

1 orange, zest grated

3oz raisins

2oz mixed seeds

My Week of Cake - The Verdict

First off...apologies for the delay in posting about the result of my cake week. A nasty bout of food poisoning (not brought on by my cake, might I add) rendered my little head incapable of blogging for a couple of days.

I managed 5 days of eating nothing-but-cake. I was persuaded by my mother, and various friends that it would not be sensible to continue onto the 6th and 7th days. I had a difficult day 5 where a couple of glasses of wine the night before, added onto no real food all week led to me feeling significantly worse for wear.

Therefore, I have concluded it is IMPOSSIBLE to exist on nothing but cake, and if you disagree, I challenge you to try it! 3 guesses as to what I am giving up for Lent...

A Week of Cake - DAY 5 - Blueberry Cupcakes

Now then...day 4 passed in a blur, all I know is I ate a breakfast cupcake, a Welsh cake, a slice of nutty chocolate cake, a slice of nutty apple cake, a slice of apple and carrot cake, a blueberry cupcake, more nutty chocolate cake and chocolate beetroot cake (a girl at work gave it to me, so tasty!)

This morning was a real struggle, no proper dinner and a glass or two of red wine left me feeling more than a little delicate. A slice of chocolate cake and custard for my breakfast didn't help matters, all I wanted was wholemeal toast with lashings of butter, but alas the cake challenge continued...

Blueberry Cupcakes

This recipe is a really good one, I often find blueberry cupcakes to be too sweet, but I think this one gets it just right. The zest of the orange gives them that added edge.

A Week of Cake - DAY 4 - Roxanne's Nutty Chocolate Cake

This cake came about from an unfortunate green banana situation where I had measured out the dry ingredients for a banana cake, and then discovered my bananas were too green to use! A quick brainstorm later and I came up with this nutty cake. I used this cake to get one of my 5-a-day, and luckily I get all of my vegetables free from Ripple Farm Organics, you can check out their new recipe blog here.

Roxanne's Nutty Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

4oz rye flour

4oz white self-raising flour

2 level tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 heaped tbsp Green & Black cocoa
4oz caster sugar

3oz butter, melted
4fl oz buttermilk
5oz grated squash (preferably Butternut, but I used Hokkaido which worked fine)

2 eggs, beaten

1oz hazelnuts, chopped

DAY 3 - Verdict (+ Pancakes & Molten Chocolate Babycakes!)

I had friends round for dinner this evening, and far be it for me to inflict pure cake for dinner on them, so I decided to whip up some pancakes. Delia's recipe is best, you can find it here. I made 2 sauces to go with the pancakes.
The first a creamy mushroom sauce - fry a sliced onion and a crushed garlic clove in some sunflower oil, add about 75g of sliced button mushrooms, 100g soft cheese and 2 tbsp milk. Cook over a gentle heat until the mushrooms and onion are softened.
I also made a tomato-y sauce - fry a sliced red onion and a crushed garlic clove in some sunflower oil, add 1 punnet of quartered cherry tomatoes, ½ tin of peeled plum tomatoes, a tsp of brown sugar and a tbsp tomato purée. Cook gently until the cherry tomatoes have softened, and then add a handful of torn spinach leaves before serving.

A Week of Cake - DAY 3 - Nutty Apple Loaf Cake

Day 3 and I'm getting into the swing of this cake eating. I still gaze mournfully at my fruit bowl as I walk past, but I must soldier on and eat cake and more cake!

At a recent family gathering my aunt (of guest post My Aunt's Peanut Butter Cookies fame) brought along an apple and peanut butter chip cake that tasted delicious, I decided to do what she had done and make a recipe up.

Roxanne's Nutty Apple Loaf Cake

Ingredients

4oz caster sugar

4oz butter, softened

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and grated

2 eggs, beaten

3oz wholemeal flour

2oz self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g peanut butter chips (I used Reese's)

DAY 2 - Verdict

Today was marginally easy than day one, although cravings for toast and pasta are coming in thick and strong.  

Today I ate..

Breakfast

1 Welsh cake (they tasted better when cooled. Low sugar so good start to the day)

1 blueberry cupcake

A Week of Cake - DAY 2 - Chilli and Feta Cake

After a small meltdown last night when I wondered what on earth I was doing, I was slightly dreading breakfast this morning. However, after a tasty blueberry muffin and a small Welsh cake (they taste better, and don't fall apart when cooled) I was ready to start the day. 

One of the things that has kept me going so far is a feta cheese and chilli cake which I adapted from a savoury cake on the BBC Good Food website.

Chilli and Feta Cake

Ingredients

200g white flour (I used gluten-free as the original recipe suggests, but any plain flour would be fine)

1 tsp salt

3 level tsp baking powder

300ml buttermilk or milk with a squeeze of lemon juice (I used about 100ml buttermilk with 200ml semi-skimmed milk and 1 squeeze of lemon juice)

3 eggs

1 tbsp tomato pureé

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

100g feta cheese, chopped into cubes

50g mixed seeds