N is for... Naughty Chocolate Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday I turned the grand old age of 25, no longer can I claim to be 'early-twenties'...that being said I don't feel any different - I still love cake for starters! Many people might find it sad to make their own birthday cake, however not me. The treat of having a day off work meant I had time to bake - a nice leisurely bake (unlike the high pressure Great British Bake-off - I could not cope there!)

Although it's a special day, I'm afraid the low-carb diet stops for nothing and no one. I found a recipe in GoodFood 101 Cakes & Bakes for 'Seriously Rich Chocolate Cake' and I low-carbed it up while keeping it delicious, hence the naughty - it's full of full-fat butter and chocolate!

You don't have to be 25 to enjoy this cake

They didn't have any '1's left

Ingredients
50g butter
75g good quality, very dark chocolate (I used 85% cocoa solids)
3 eggs, separated
70g ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
40g xylitol

Banana Pudding Cake

I was all set to make a plum cake for dessert yesterday when I remembered I can't eat plums. Or apples, or pears, or any of the fruit in the fruit bowl (it's a long story). I did have a banana though so decided to experiment with that. I made a plum cake for everyone else, it had halved plums cut side down on the bottom and sponge mixture on top. I'm told it tasted nice...

For myself, meanwhile, I made a kind-of upside-down banana cake/pudding thing!

Potato and Lemon Drizzle Cake

It was my sister's birthday last weekend, and I cooked up a delicious chocolate cake, unfortunately it didn't cook properly, so my mum had to make a second one, but the less said about that the better. I, meanwhile, was living a gluten-free nightmare. Jelly babies and chocolate buttons on her cake were calling to me. There was only one thing for it, I made a rival cake.

Unfortuntely I didn't have any flour, after a bit of web searching I came across a gluten-free lemon drizzle cake, and its secret ingredient? MASHED POTATO!!

Here's how I made it:

Victoria Sponge Cake

This is the second of the two birthday cakes I made, a traditional Victoria Sponge cake. They key is to have a really light sponge so don't over mix, and a good quality jam (homemade is best).

Ingredients:

175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

175g self-raising flour

½ tsp vanilla extract

 3 eggs

150ml double cream

4 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam

Chocolate Fudge Birthday Cake

A couple of weeks ago I went to a joint birthday party for two of my friends. I decided I would bake them a cake, and set about 'subtly' finding out their favourite. Basically I told them I was doing a 'straw poll for my blog' and asked what their favouite cake was. This is where my plan fell down Rowan said Chocolate Fudge and Dave said Victoria Sponge - so I ended up making two! Here's the first one:

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Rhubarb and Custard Cake

I LOVE custard, not just a little bit,  like those people who have it with crumble or spotted dick, I actually love it. If I could eat just one food for the rest of my life it would be custard (don't worry I won't challenge myself to a week of just eating custard...) 

If I've got time I'll make it from scratch, but bought custard is pretty tasty. And at aged 20 I discovered you could buy it in cans - a miracle! 

Anyway I digress, I had some rhubarb that my mum had given me from her garden. After some internet research I found this recipe, it originally served 16 so I scaled it down, decreased the sugar and added more CUSTARD.

Ingredients (to serve 4)
200g rhubarb, ends cut off and any stringy bits removed
20g soft brown sugar
60g butter, softened
50g caster sugar
100g ready-made custard (I used Ambrosia, you can use custard made from scratch if you have lots of time)
70g self-raising flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 large egg
few drops vanilla extract
icing sugar, for dusting

All Bran Cake

Today's guest post comes from my Gran. This looks like the perfect recipe to make when you open your cupboards and all you find is cereal and dried fruit! 

Here is the recipe for All Bran Cake - it is sooooo easy to make and tastes very delicious! 

Proper Parkin

And on the third day of guest post week my friend Kate gave to me...

Proper Parkin

I love Parkin.  It’s not very well-known outside of Yorkshire (where I grew up) and Lancashire, and my London chums are really missing out on what is a quality cake! It’s a sticky, gingery delight which is incredibly filling to boot due to its oaty base.

It’s traditionally eaten on Bonfire night, but this recipe was such a hit I’ve been getting requests for it all year round!  This is a recipe I adapted from Margaret Pritchard’s recipe in the Guardian - it’s a one-cup wonder which even I can follow..

Makes 2 loaves:

You’ll need:

2 cups fine oatmeal (or whole rolled oats and a blender)

2 cups self-raising flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

6 rounded tsp ground ginger

225g margarine at room temperature

2½ tbsps black treacle

2 cups hot milk

One cool apron* 

Red Velvet Cake

I was recently in New York and whilst there I sampled numerous tasty baked goods - black & white cookies, apple crumb cake, pretzels, m&m cookies, rice crispie treats, and French toast. I stayed with a friend who is a fellow baking blogger, you can find her blog here - we previously had a bake-off, but this time joined forces to create this quintessential American cake.

Red Velvet Cake 

Ingredients:

4oz unsalted butter

12oz sugar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 tbsp cooca powder

few drops red food colouring

9oz cake flour (use plain if you can't get hold of this)

8fl oz buttermilk

1 tsp baking powder

For the cream cheese frosting:

6oz cream cheese
3oz butter

1¼ tsp vanilla extract

11oz icing sugar

Step 1

Cream together the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs, beating the mixture between each addition.

Step 2

Make a paste of the food colouring and cooca and add to the creamed butter mixture.

Step 3

Add to the mixture a quarter of the buttermilk followed by a quarter of the flour and baking powder, alternating until all is added.

Step 4

Pour the mixture into two greased 8-inch round cake tins. Place in a 350°F preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Step 5

When the cake is cooked leave it to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Step 6

To make the frosting beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth, and add the vanilla. Sift in the icing sugar slowly, beating until smooth. You should get a nice thick consistency that will spread on the cake but not drip over the edges (tip: if the icing is runnier than desired put in the freezer for 5-10 minutes until it has firmed and will be easier to spread).

Step 7

Place one cake onto a plate and spread with the frosting, place the other cake on top and spread more frosting over. (We used one cake tin, and cut it in half to make a sandwich cake, if you do this simply halve the mixture.)

So there you have it, our very traditional American cake, perfect with a cold glass of milk.

Did you know?

Red Velvet Cake was traditionally made red by the reaction caused between light cocoa powder and buttermilk. Today it is rarely done by this, and food colouring is added. It doesn’t stop it tasting delicious though!

Adapted from this recipe.

Strawberry Crumb Cake

Greetings from Los Angeles! I can see why the word 'stressed' doesn't exist out here in California, I am so relaxed and loving my escape in the sun.

Being on holiday definitely hasn't stopped me baking though. Easter Sunday started with my uncle's home-made waffles drizzled with maple syrup and scattered with blueberries. Then came our BBQ dinner (they call it grilled here, which confused me at first...) Ottolenghi's herb soup, followed by grilled halloumi and Portobello mushrooms stuffed with spinach and goats' cheese. What could top that? Well, a certain strawberry crumb cake gave its best shot...

After I familarised myself with cups - made harder by two-thirds-ing the recipe - I cracked on. The recipe here however is for the whole quantity as my little brain can't do any calculations right now (I might have tasted 30 wines yesterday...) Now, for the recipe!

Strawberry Crumb Cake

Step 1
Hull and halve 3lb of strawberries (they are in season here so we picked up big, red, juicy ones from the farmers' market). Toss them with ½ cup sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2½ tbsp corn flour (dissolved in 2½ tbsp water) and the seeds of 1 vanilla pod. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Step 2
Meanwhile put into a bowl ½ cup light brown sugar, ½ cup & 2 tbsp plain flour, and a pinch of salt, add 4 tbsp of unsalted butter (must be cold) and rub in until it resembles breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Step 3
Mix together (I used a fancy electric mixer!) 1 stick of unsalted butter, softened, and 1¼ cups sugar until light and creamy. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well between each additon, then beat in 1½ tsp vanilla extract. Next alternate adding ¾ cup buttermilk with the dry ingredients (2¼ cups plain flour, 1 tbsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt).

Step 4
To assemble. Pour the strawberries into a 9 x 11 in glass bowl (you can use ceramic, but glass lets you see all the layers). Spoon the cake batter over the strawberries, cover evenly and spead to the edge. Finally sprinkle over the crumb topping.

Step 5
Bake in a 350°F preheated oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the fruit is bubbling, the crumb topping is golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with just a few crumbs.

Step 6
Serve the cake warm from the oven (or later at room temperature).

This cake was so delicious, the perfect end to our Easter feast. It also works well with damaged strawberries as you can cut off the unslightly parts!


Here are the imperial/metric conversions:
Filling
8 cups / 3lb / 1.3kg strawberries
½ cup / 3½ oz / 100g sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2½ tbsp / ¾oz / 25g corn flour
2½ tbsp water
1 vanilla pod
Crumb topping
½ cup / 3½oz / 100g brown sugar
½ cup & 2 tbsp / 2¼oz / 65g plain flour
pinch of salt
4 tbsp / 2oz / 60g unsalted butter
Cake

1 stick / 4oz / 115g butter

1¼ cups / 8½oz / 250g sugar

3 large eggs

1½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup / 6fl oz / 175ml buttermilk
2¼ cup / 8oz / 225g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

The original recipe can be found here.

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)

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

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

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

DAY 1 - Verdict

I'm feeling a little queasy, and desperately craving something savoury, or crunchy or hot...and it's not even the end of day 1!
Here's a run-down of today's diet...

Breakfast
Breakfast cupcake (fairly healthy, contains apricots, muesli, orange juice and marmalade)
Mid-morning snack
Slice of apple and peanut-butter chip loaf cake (contains apple, but sugaryness of peanut butter discounts that)
Lunch
2 slices of feta and chilli loaf cake (no sugar, tasted a bit crumpty...healthy enough but didn't leave me feeling full)
Slice of ginger Parkin cake (kindly donated to me by a girl at work)
Mid-afternoon snack
2 (big...) slices of raspberry and lemon cake (contains real fruit...but sugar too)
Pre-dinner snack (told you I'd be honest!)
Slice of apple and peanut-butter chip loaf cake
Dinner
1 Welsh cake (They fell apart, and weren't very fulfilling so I won't be recommending that recipe!)

After 1 day I've realised this is going to be a LOT harder than I thought. However, I will rise to the challenge and drink red wine as one of my 5-a-day if I need to...

The Great British/American Bake Off

A good friend of mine is a fellow baking blogger (see Baking-in-Brooklyn), and we have often shared and compared recipes. We decided to cook the same cake and compare, hence the 'bake off'.


After much deliberation we chose lemon drizzle cake - in any form we wanted - and the baking commenced!

I found a recipe for a 'Lemon Drizzle Traybake', and as usual adjusted it to fit my ingredients/equipment. I enlisted the boyfriend to be my official taste tester as he is a particular fan of the lemon drizzle cake.

Lavender Cake

Happy New Year readers!
This Christmas I was lucky enough to get quite a few cooking-themed presents. One of which was a jar of lavender sugar. I looked through my cookbooks (mostly Jamie Oliver) and browsed the web, but I didn't find any recipes that I was enamoured with so I decided to experiment. The advice I did take was not to totally replace regular sugar with lavender sugar as it is quite strong

Roxanne's Lavender and Lemon Cake

Ingredients
6oz butter
1oz lavender sugar
4½oz caster sugar
3 eggs
1½oz ground almonds
4½oz plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder

2 tbsp icing sugar
grated lemon zest


Step 1
Cream together the butter with the 2 types of sugar, until smooth and creamy.

Step 2
Beat 3 eggs and add gradually to the butter and sugar. Sift in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder and mix well.

Step 3
Spoon the mixture into a standard cake tin and bake in the oven at Gas Mark 5 for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. (Or a 'Cake Tester' like the one I got for Christmas!)

Step 4

Lift the cake out of the tin and leave to cool. Meanwhile mix the icing sugar with the lemon zest and enough water to make a smooth icing. Spread the icing over the cake and sprinkle with a little of the lavender sugar.

The verdict

Bizarrely the cake didn't rise much (if anyone has any suggestions as to why this might have been please let me know). However, the lavender was just right, not too strong and complimented the lemon icing well. The overall texture reminded me of a lemon drizzle cake, moist and quite light.

My Mum's Christmas Cake

I have made several Christmas cakes but still didn’t have a favourite recipe so I searched for a new one, with ‘easy’ as one of the keywords. I used one called 'Simmer-and-Stir Christmas Cake' and it is now the one I will use in future years (although next year I will remember to buy some nuts!).

I made a round cake and a very small taster cake in a loaf tin with the spare mixture, so I already knew it was going to be a good one. I made my own almond marzipan (and chocolate coated marzipan sweets with the spare) and topped it with a soft royal icing as I don’t like the stuff that breaks teeth! Then, knowing the limits of my artistic icing skills, I just decorated it with 4 chocolate stars and a ribbon.

Very Quick Chocolate Cake

I'm not sure about you, but I sometimes have a craving for chocolate cake that almost sends me out to the local shop at 10pm at night in the cold and rain. This recipes is perfect for those moments, as all of the ingredients are standard store-cupboard staples. This recipes has been a real life-saver on those dark cake-craved evenings...

A standard Starbucks mug is the perfect size for this recipe, but any large coffee cup will do.
Simply mix 2 tbsp plain flour with 2 tbsp caster sugar and 1 tbsp cocoa powder. Add 1½ tbsp milk, 1½ tbsp sunflower oil, a small egg and a splash of vanilla essence.

Pour into a large mug and put in the microwave for 3 minutes. And that's it, instant cake!! Don't be alarmed if the cake rises over the top of the mug, it just give is a slightly top-hat look.

It's not the moistest cake so I usually eat it with my favourite food in the world – custard.