Lemon Drizzle Cake

A cake with a crunchy, zingy top; perfect with a cup of tea.

100g Butter

175g Caster sugar

175g Self Raising Flour

5ml Baking powder

5ml Vanilla extract

2 eggs

30ml Milk

1 Lemon rind & juice

Topping:

1 Lemon juice

100g Granulated sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160C.

2. Grease & line an 18cm/7" deep round tin.

3. Beat all the ingredients for the cake together for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer.

4. Pour into your prepared tin & level the top.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

6. Whilst the cake is baking, mix together the lemon juice and sugar for the topping.

7. As soon at the cake comes out of the oven, spread the topping mixture evenly over it whilst it's still hot.

8. Leave the cake in the tin to cool completely.

9. Turn out on to a serving plate.

Carrot Cake with lime & walnuts with an orange & mascarpone frosting

It’s is a cake recipe that I’ve made many a time, but tonight I decided to make it with a bit of a twist on the method & a couple of the ingredients, (just because I can & I wanted to see how it turned out). It’s a belated (3week late) birthday cake for my hubby, who I might add thought it tasted devine (as did the kids).

200ml Farringtons Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil
250g Light soft brown sugar
3 eggs, separated
150g Carrots, grated
10ml (2tbs) Lime juice
100g Walnuts, chopped, plus a few halves for decoration
250g Self Raising flour
2.5ml (1/2 tsp) Bicarbonate of Soda
5ml (1tsp) Baking powder
5ml (1tsp) Ground Cinnamon
5ml (1tsp) Ground Nutmeg
250g Mascarpone cheese
200g Philadelphia cheese
150g Icing sugar
1 Orange, zested

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
2. Grease & line the base of 2 x 20cm (8″) round tins.
3. Whisk the oil sugar & egg yolks together until smooth.
4. Add the grated carrot, lime juice & chopped walnuts. Mix thoroughly.
5. Sieve the flour, bi-carbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon & nutmeg together.
6. Fold the flour mix into the oil & egg mix until thoroughly combined.
7. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
8. GENTLY fold the egg whites into the flour & oil mixture, being careful not to knock the air out of it.
9. Divide between your two tins.
10. Place on the centre shelf of your oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean & the cake has started to come away from the sides of the tin.
11. Leave to cool in the tins before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.
12. Whisk together the mascarpone cheese, Philadelphia cheese, icing sugar and orange zest until thoroughly combined.
13. When the cakes are cool sandwich together with 1/3 of the frosting.
14. Smooth the remaining 2/3 of the frosting over the top & sides of the cake.
15. Decorate with halved walnuts as desired.
16. Keep cool due to the cheese frosting.

By separating the eggs and folding in the whisked egg whites, it will give you a lighter, larger variation on a normal carrot cake.
The Farrington cold pressed rapeseed oil is produced locally to me in Northamptonshire & adds the most amazing taste, as well as being healthy (NOTE: I was not sponsored by, or provided with a sample of Farrington Cold Pressed Oil. The opinion stated is purely my own and is totally unbiased towards them).
The lime juice can be changed to lemon juice if you wish.
Walnuts are optional, both in the cake and also as decoration.

Gingery ginger muffins

I threw a couple of batches of muffins together this evening.  The beauty of muffins is in the speed of preparation for me. They can be whipped up and baking within 5 or so minutes.  This recipe was adapted from one that was in an American community church recipe book that I received years ago, and which I've turned into muffins.

280g (10oz) plain flour
10ml (2tsp) baking powder
2.5ml (1/2tsp) bicarbonate of soda
2.5ml (1/2tsp) salt
5ml (1tsp) ground ginger
5ml (1tsp) ground cinnamon
85g (3oz) Demerara sugar
1 egg
90ml (3floz) corn oil
90ml (3floz) black treacle
30ml (2tbs) honey
180ml (6floz) milk

1. Preheat the oven to 190 Celsius / gas mark 5.
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 foil cases (foil cases keep the cakes more moist).
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bi-carb, salt, ginger & cinnamon. Stir in the sugar.
4. In a separate bowl/large jug, beat the egg then mix in the oil, black treacle, honey & milk.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine, making sure there are no pockets of flour left at the bottom of the bowl.  Do not beat, but stop mixing when fully combined.
6. Immediately spoon the mixture (or pour into a jug and then pour it from there) into the cases.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a cocktail stick comes out clean when inserted into the centre muffins.

You can eat them plain, when still warm from the oven.
Alternatively, why not mix some lemon juice / ginger syrup with some icing sugar and drizzle this over the top of the cakes?
You can also add some chopped, crystallised ginger to the mix before baking.

Jubilee cakes for school

My daughter had a Jubilee party at school recently, like many children around the UK I think. The previous morning the request was made for mum's cupcakes to take into school so I dutifully fulfilled her wish. She's not a 'young' 11 year old (indeed she has a rather mature and sensible head her shoulders) so I didn't want to go childish or gaudy as she wouldn't have wanted them to be like that.

Some simple vanilla and chocolate cupcakes were made (18 of each). I striped the piping bag with red & white butter icing and, using my trusty Wilton 1M piping nozzle, I piped some roses onto the vanilla cakes. The chocolate cakes had a simple 'squiggle' of vibrant red icing (not a lot, you understand, because if you've ever seen the colour your tongue goes after eating "red extra" food paste you'll know why less is more!) each cake was topped with a simple blue or white flower to match the theme.

So, 36 cupcakes were decorated, 4 given as gifts to each of 2 neighbours, which left 28 cakes. Plenty for school, work and home.

The morning of the Jubilee Party comes around and how many did she want to take into school? Oh yes! 6!!!!!!!! 6 came to work with me and didn't survive past 10am which was dutifully declared cake o'clock. 4 were set aside for my parents but hubby forgot to give them to them. It turns out that she didn't even get one of my cakes at school because the teachers bagged them first! This means that she then went away on holiday with my parents for a week and hadn't had a single one of the cakes that I made for her.

How come then that, out of the 36 cakes, 20 were given away or shared, which leaves 16 cakes, there are only 11 left? Wonder whether that had anything to do with the hubby and the 16 year old both being at home!! At least they won't be going to waste though, eh?

Chocolate Brownie

A well stocked store cupboard should contain all of the ingredients needed for this recipe.  Walnuts are optional, and can easily be excluded without affecting the recipe if you like.  So, let's get started...

100g (4oz) Plain flour

4 eggs

225g (8oz) Caster sugar

225g (8oz) Butter

50g (2oz) Cocoa Powder

2.5ml (½tsp) Baking Powder

7.5ml (1½tsp) Vanilla Extract

100g (4oz) Chocolate, chopped/Chocolate drops

16 walnut halves (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4.

2. Grease a 9" square tin and line the base with baking parchment.  I've found the best performing baking parchment is this one from Lakeland Limited.  I've used it loads and, so far, it's never stuck on me.

3. In your bowl place your flour, eggs, sugar, butter, cocoa powder, baking powder, and vanilla.  Mix together for several minutes until thoroughly combined.  I used my Kenwood Major on high speed for 4 minutes to incorporate as much air as possible.

4. Add the chocolate drops and stir until just mixed.

5. Pour into  your prepared tin, smooth the top and place 16 walnut halves on top to mark out each of the 16 pieces your brownie will be cut into.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes.  You will notice that the top of a brownie sometimes 'bursts' through as it cooks.  This is normal; don't worry.

7. Test the brownie in the centre with a cocktail stick.  If it comes out fairly clean (a little bit of 'goo' is ok, but not lots!) then your brownie is cooked. If the cocktail stick is still very wet, then place the brownie back into the oven for 5 minutes and test again.  If the top is browning too much, then place a sheet of foil loosely over the tin for the last 10 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven.  Leave to rest for 2-3 minutes in the tin, then make sure that the edges aren't stuck to your tin (use a plastic spatula if you're using a non-stick metal tin.  Turn out onto your wire cooking rack.

Can be served either warm - with custard, cream or ice cream - or left to go cold and enjoyed with a nice cuppa while you put your feet up!

Enjoy!

Rosie
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