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

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...

A Week of Cake - DAY 1 - Breakfast Cupcakes

Yesterday was spent in preparation for my week of cake-eating, in total I baked EIGHT batches of cakes. During the next week I will be sharing those recipes on my blog everyday. I will also keep you updated on my daily diet (admitting to the world how much I eat!), and I’m sure my numerous cravings for fresh fruit and vegetables. I will keep a tally of ingredients used and how many different types of cake I eat each day. I have decided to modify my rules ever so slightly…as a girl should never say no to cake…if anyone happens to offer me homemade cake I will simply have to accept. I have taken my weights and measurements (a girl never tells), and I will reveal whether I have managed to maintain my healthy weight whilst only eating cake…

I’d love to read your comments about my efforts, and feel free to get your friends to head over to my blog too.

Monday morning began with…

 

Breakfast Cupcakes

These cupcakes contain muesli, orange juice and marmalade - all you could ever need from a breakfast!

A Week of Cake

Over a slice of orange and almond cake at the weekend, I confessed “I wish I could eat nothing but cake”.  As I thought about it I wondered if it would be possible. After all there are all sorts of foods, sweet and savoury that could be classed as cake, potato cakes, oatcakes apparently even turnip cake…

Therefore, on Monday 28^th February 2011 I will begin my challenge of eating nothing but cake for one entire week. Not only that, all of the cake will be homemade by myself.

I will spend this Sunday in preparation cooking up such delights as muesli cake, fruit and nut cake and carrot cake. I intend to keep my diet as balanced as possible, and ensure that all the food groups are covered – getting my 5-a-day will be a struggle but I will do my best.

If anyone has any ideas for cakes that they think I should include send me ideas or recipes to roxannebm@hotmail.com.

I will be blogging my daily diet of nothing but cake and include recipes for every meal of the day. Watch this space for A Week of Cake.

Bakewell Tart

After promising to make a Bakewell Tart all week it was today I finally found the time. There was a great recipe in a book called The Great British Book of Baking. I followed the exact recipe (for once), and unusually it worked perfectly!

Suggestions and comments

I'm looking for requests of what to make in the next few weeks to feature on my blog. Let me know what you want to see, and if they are post-able/you live near me I will send/give you a taster!

I enjoy reading all of your comments :)

Mixed Grain Rolls

 I'm not one for using packet mixes, I made some Barbie cupcakes from one once and that was quite enough. However, I fancied making some bread and rather than go through the palava of deciding which flour and which grains, and then finding the yeast I found a handy little bread mix.

I chose a mixed grain wholemeal mix, emptied the packet into a large bowl with 290ml lukewarm water. After mixing, 5 minutes of kneading, and 30 minutes of rising, it was into the oven for 15 minutes. And seconds later I was eating warm freshly baked bread with melted butter...yum.