Lorna's Pecan Cake

For our Cake 'n' Bake charity picnic/tea party i decided to make a pecan cake, with fudge icing, decorated with lovely glittery butterflies! 

So shiny!

Anyway, too the  recipe;

Ingredients:

Cake:

150g margarine, softened

120g caster sugar

3 eggs

270g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 heaped tbsp golden syrup

45ml milk

50g pecans, chopped

Icing:

30g butter

15ml milk

20g brown sugar

2 tsp golden syrup

200g icing sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C, and line a deep 8" round tin (a 7" would also be fine but you'll get a tall cake).

Cream together  the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. If you want, add a squirt of vanilla extract but it's not necessary if you don't have any in - the cake will still be super tasty! Beat in the golden syrup, then stir in half the flour along with all the baking powder. Mix in the milk, then the remainder of the  flour. Finally stir in the pecans until well distributed. Bake for 40-45 minutes (if you're using a 7" tin then increase the cooking time by 10-15 minutes).

For the fudge icing, melt together the butter, syrup and brown sugar (i blasted them in the microwave for 30 seconds). Then stir in the icing sugar and milk. Beat until smooth. It will be a little runny while it's still warm, but will solidify as it cools.

When the cake is cooked, take it out of the tine and let cool completely. Cut in half and spread your icing in the middle, then sandwich back together.

I finished my cake with some melted dark chocolate, and glittery butterflies (made from white chocolate modelling paste). You could alternatively top with more fudge icing, or just a simple glace icing.

Lorna's Devil's Food Cake

Been a little while since i last made a meeting due to the utter chaos of life around the holiday period, but it was lovely to be back and see everyone again! For the occasion i made a Devil's Food Loaf Cake. Nom.

Ingredients:

50g cocoa powder
230ml water
100g butter, softened
200g sugar
2 eggs
175g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarb of soda
1tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160C, and grease and line a large loaf tin.

In one bowl mix the coca with the water to a "smooth" paste (it looks a bit frothy and weird, but just do the best you can), and in another bowl beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the half the flour, the bicarb and the baking powder to the butter mix, then half the cocoa paste. Mix well, then mix in the rest of the flour and cocoa paste, stir until just combined.

Pour into your loaf tin, and bake for about 40 minutes. Leave it in the tin until completely cool, then turn out.

Lorna's Sprinkles Cupcakes!

For our first birthday, i decided to go with a good ol' classic of sprinkles cupcakes, and to make it even more "1st birthday" i put dinosaurs on the top ^_^

Ingredients:

100g margarine
150g plain flour
1.5tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
3tbsp milk
2 medium eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sprinkles (equiv. 62ml volume)

Icing sugar
Lemon juice
Orange chocolate

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Measure all ingredients except the sprinkles into a bowl, and mix with an electric mixer (i used a hand held one, although a big mixer would be equally as good). Stir in the sprinkles until well distributed, and divide the mix between each case.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and slightly golden on top. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

I made my decorations by melting orange coloured orange-flavoured chocolate and pouring into a dinosaur shaped silicone mould (so cute!!). Leave to cool in the fridge for about half an hour and the chocolates pop right out.

Mix icing sugar with a little water and lemon juice, pop a little on top of each cake, and attach a dinosaur.

Lorna's Carrot Cake Bars

For our "Not the Olympics" theme, i decided to go with; not 5 (4), not round (rectangular), raaaaandomly coloured (red, blue, yellow and green) cake bars. And because i haven't made a carrot cake in a while i chose that. I was also inspired by the fact that i spent a good 30 minutes aww-ing over some mini loaf tins in a shop and my boyfriend finally gave in and bought them; i had them for about 3 months still in the shrink wrap. Oops. Anyway, on with the show.

Ingredients:

150g plain flour/wholewheat flour mix

2 eggs, separated

175g caster sugar

85ml rapeseed oil (or vegetable oil)

125ml buttermilk

1tsp baking powder

1tsp baking soda

2tsp cinnamon

2 medium carrots, grated

Method:

Preheat the oven to 175C and grease 4 mini loaf tins.

Beat the egg whites until fluffy. Add 75g of the sugar and beat to stiff peaks. In a separate bowl beat the buttermilk, egg yolks, oil and remaining sugar together. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir in the carrot and then finally fold in the egg whites. Don't be scared of folding; the carrot will weight the batter down a fair bit so you'll lose some air. Try to be gentle but thorough until the mix is well combined.

Spoon into the individual tins and bake for 30 minutes until well risen and a toothpick comes out clean. Let them cool in the tins then tip them out. I cut each loaf in half and put a layer of maple buttercream in the middle (each of a different colour).

Jen's Icelandic Iced Prune Jam Sponge Cake

I got Iceland as my country, and during research, the one cake kept popping up. It was a layered sponge cake sandwiched with prune jam. I wasn't confident about making a cake with so many layers, so I thought I would compromise by making a basic sponge cake with prune jam added to it. Bit of a cop out, but it was my first club meet.... ;)) 


So, this recipe is based on Sticky Orange Marmalade Cake from 'The Great British Bake-off' book, which I love, and a traditional Icelandic Vinaterta Prune Cake.

For the prune jam:

500 g dried ready-to-eat prunes

250 g sugar

juice of one small lemon

1 tsp dried cinnamon

Chop the prunes in to small pieces. I didn't, and found the prunes congealed together in the saucepan as one sticky mass; this made it difficult to spread the finished jam on to the cake, but produced a pretty cool effect with the icing!

Heat the prunes for 15 minutes on a low heat in a saucepan. Add the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. Cook for approximately 1 hour, stirring frequently, and then transfer to sterilised jam jars (these quantities fill 1.5 jars).

For the sponge:

175g unsalted butter, softened

175g of caster sugar

3 large free range eggs, at room temperature and beaten

175g self raising flour, sifted.

¼ tsp baking powder

3 tbsp prune jam

2 tbsp semi skimmed milk

To finish:

3 tbsp dried prune jam

100g icing sugar, sifted (1/2 cup)

2 tbsp warm water

Cream butter and sugar, gradually add the eggs and the prune jam. Fold in the flour and baking powder then add the milk. Spoon mixture in a 20 cm springform cake tin (base lined with baking paper) and bake at 175 degrees for 45 mins - this time is shorter than stated in the original recipe but any longer I find the edges get too brown. I also cover with foil for the last 10 mins of cooking time so that the top stays a nice golden colour and doesn't get too dark.

When just out of the oven, cover the top of the cake with the prune jam and leave to cool completely. Then make the icing and pour over the cake randomly. I found dripping from a height works pretty well!

The finished cake!

Lorna's Lithuanian Napolean Torte

So i was given Lithuania as my country for May's Cake 'n' Bake meet so after some internet scouring i found this torte, which i edited slightly from the original although would edit more in the future... The cream recipe for the filling wasn't really a custard or pastry cream because it didn't have enough egg yolks, which may have been a typo on the site i got it from or just a bizarre cream filling... Either way, i'd advise making a buttercream or proper pasty cream (probably the latter) for the filling.

Ingredients;

200ml cup yogurt

60g. soft butter
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 medium eggs, beaten

250g plain flour

Method:

Cream the butter with the sugar, and beat in the yogurt. Don't worry if it splits a bit - add a dash of flour to get it back together.Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the flour, baking power and baking soda. You should add enough flour to make a soft dough, that's kneadable. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for  minutes. Wrap in clingfilm and fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight. 

Take out of the fridge, roll out thinly (~1mm thick if possible; you will have to be able to transfer them to a baking tray!). Cut into rounds of whatever size you like. I did mini ones, you could do one 7" cake. Aim for each cake to have 6 layers. Once you've cut out your rounds... get them back in the fridge for at least an hour. Then cook in a preheated oven (170C) for about 10 minutes until lightly golden on top. Cool on a cooling rack.

Make a filling (your favourite pastry cream recipe) and sandwich the layers into towers of 6 layers each. Fridge (if using pastry cream rather than buttercream) to firm up for a few more hours.

Best of luck!

Tom's (Mum's) Simnel Cake

This Simnel cake recipe is from my Mum's recipe book, looked like it was cut out of a magazine decades ago.

6oz softened butter
6oz soft brown sugar
5oz white self-raising flour
5oz wholemeal self-raising flour
3 medium eggs
A little milk
8oz dried fruit
2oz candied peel
2oz chopped glace cherries
Zest of half a lemon or orange and 2 tblspns of the juice
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp Cinnamon
1lb - 1½lb marzipan (depending on how elaborate your planned decorations are)

Beat together butter & sugar.  Sift flour and spices, beat eggs.  Mix both into the beaten butter a little at a time.  Add the dried fruit, peel, glace cherries, zest and juice, and enough milk to make a dropping consistency.

Grease and line an 8" round tin.  Put in half the mixture and level off.  Roll out about 8oz of the marzipan to cover, then add the rest of the mixture - so you end up with a layer of marzipan sandwiched in the middle of the cake.  Make the top of the cake slightly concave so that it rises flat.

Bake at ~170°C for ~2½ hours.  If your oven is vicious try tying some greaseproof paper over the top of the cake to stop it drying out too much.  Leave to cool for a while in the tin before turning out or the marzipan will still be liquidy and ooze out of the edge of the cake.

Once cooled roll out another ~8oz of marzipan to cover the top of the cake.  Glue it in place with a little jam spread on the cake first (apricot jam is traditional).  Roll out some more marzipan and cut into birds or other eastery shapes and stick around the side of the cake with more jam.  Now you can go crazy with whatever decoration you want on the top of the cake; 12 eggs (representing the disciples) is traditional.

Enjoy!

Lorna's Gluten Free Orange and Coconut Cake

I've got a couple of friends who are gluten-free. One out of choice which really doesnt make sense; choosing to give up cake! But anyway, every now and then i send cake to their work via my fella to keep them happy. This is the latest to make the trip

Ingredients:
100g ground almonds
70g shredded coconut
150g fine cornmeal/polenta
2tsp baking powder
juice and zest of 2 oranges
270g butter
270g caster sugar
4 medium eggs


Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease an 8" round deep cake tin, lining with greaseproof as well if you want. In a large bowl, mix together the almonds, coconut, polenta and baking powder. In a separate bowl beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffly, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Don't worry too much if it splits a bit - a tablespoon on polenta should bring it back together as with a regular cake. Beat in the orange zest.
Pour the dry mix into the buttery mix and add in the orange juice. Mix until well combined. Pour into the tin and bake for about an hour. I baked for 45mins then covered the tin with foil so the top didnt go too brown and baked for another 25 minutes. Poke with a skewer to check if its done. Pop out of the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack.
When he's nice and cool you can cut him in half and ice with any icing you want. I had a packet of Polish Dr Oetker icing in the cupboard (for reasons i fail to remember) which, from my apt skills on Google Translation, i made up as instructed. I did confirm it was gluten free first. Tasted a bit like hot chocolate, but not so hot...