cake Archives - Page 2 of 2 - All That I'm Eating

Redcurrant and White Chocolate Muffins (or Cupcakes)

August 18, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 22 Comments

Redcurrant and White Chocolate Muffins - on plate

I was terribly excited about making muffins. If you had asked me how much I was looking forward to making muffins I would have responded so enthusiastically that you might have thought you’d asked me the wrong question. The reason for my eagerness was twofold; firstly I had never made muffins before and secondly I had some succulent redcurrants at my disposal.

It was all going so well until I realised I had no muffin cases. Not to worry though as I had cupcake cases coming out of my ears. I was under the impression that the two weren’t too dissimilar but the sides of the cupcake cases would not come up high enough in the muffin tin. I could have gone out to get some muffin cases but frankly I couldn’t be bothered and I wanted to sink my teeth into freshly baked cake as soon as possible. Fortunately I had some silicone cases I could use.

You will need:
1 punnet redcurrants
50g white chocolate
2 eggs, beaten
75g caster sugar
225ml milk
100g butter, melted
275g self raising flour
(muffin cases) read more

Miniature Elderflower Cakes made with Elderflower Sugar

June 12, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 39 Comments

I had grand visions of picking great swarms of elderflowers and returning home to concoct some floral cordial. My imaginings were interrupted with the first (and now unrelenting) rain and my great plan was no more. I had heard that elderflower is not to be picked on a rainy day and I wasn’t about to don my wellingtons and test that theory. So instead of making gallons of cordial I baked some elderflower in to my life.

These little cakes I suppose pay homage to the great elder tree; a plant that doesn’t look like much until it is burgeoning with white flowers and then, if you manage to resist the flowers, festoons itself with beautiful berries. I needed both fresh elderflowers and some cordial for these cakes but try as I might I could not get hold of local elderflower cordial. The elderflowers were relatively easily obtainable, once you’ve negotiated your way through the many cobwebs that is.

You will need:
1 egg
Butter
Elderflower Sugar (see below)
Self raising flour
Elderflower cordial
Icing Sugar read more

Victoria Sponge with Balsamic Strawberry Jam

June 8, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 28 Comments

I love a good cake and they don’t get much better than a classic Victoria sponge. It’s got all you need in a cake; light, sweet, buttery sponge with fruity, slightly sharp jam sticking it all together. It is debated which jam is the best; strawberry, raspberry or even blackcurrant. Strawberry would always win for me and when I saw a lonely punnet of English strawberries at the greengrocer’s I had to buy it. After debating what to make with my edible purchase I set about putting a twist on this traditional cake.

It goes without saying that your sponge must be magnificent but I think the jam is just as important as both the literal and metaphorical glue that holds this cake together. As much as I like the fruitiness and sweetness of strawberry jam I enjoy the faint acidity that comes with it. To increase the tang in my jam I wanted to incorporate some balsamic vinegar.

You will need:
3 eggs, beaten
Butter, at room temperature
Sugar
Self raising flour
Vanilla extract
1 punnet of ripe strawberries
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Strawberry jam read more

Lemon Drizzle Cake

September 9, 2011 By All That I'm Eating 19 Comments

There have been cakes in my past which I tried either when I was too young to appreciate them or they were a mass produced poor version of what is actually a beautiful cake. An example of this is carrot cake. What I thought carrot cake tasted like was nothing compared to when I made one for myself; it wasn’t dry it was moist, it wasn’t boring it was luscious and the icing is by far my favourite of all icing. Another cake I had always ignored was lemon drizzle cake. Ones that I had tried were too sticky, not lemony or had so much icing you could have waded through it. This was my unshakable opinion and I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, until I made it myself.

This turned out to be one of my favourite cakes to bake as it makes your kitchen smell so good. The classic cake baking aromas are wafting around with a bit of lemon thrown in for good measure. This is another recipe from my Granny. Some recipes make the cake in two tins and put lemon curd or butter icing between the cakes, I made one cake for optimum drizzle potential.

To make the sponge, butter and line a nice deep cake tin. Beat together 175g each of butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Part of the reason I like making cakes is because I feel the beating, whisking and subsequent reduction in circumference of my arms more than compensates for the rather large slice I’ll help myself to once complete.
Gradually add in three beaten eggs. Sift 175g self raising flour and a teeny bit of baking powder and fold this into the mixture. Grate in the zest of two lemons and mix. Place in a preheated oven at 180C for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Mine took about 55 minutes in the end. read more

Carrot Cake

August 17, 2010 By All That I'm Eating 11 Comments

After spending my Sunday trying to resist everything I clapped my searching eyes on at my local farmers market, I ended up buying hundreds of carrots. How could I say no to a bunch just picked and two for £1 purple cauliflower? Either way I am now inundated with these sweet orange roots and so I consulted several recipe books and decided a carrot cake was the order of the day. They all asked for different things so I picked out what I thought were the best bits and tried it out.

Ingredients

What you will need:
3 eggs
275g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
200ml mild olive oil
75g dark muscavado sugar
175g light muscavado sugar
150g carrots
juice of one small orange read more