Lemon Bundt

As the sun in London still fails to appear, and everyone holds their breath for it to come along just in time for the Olympics, as they did for the jubilee (I was standing in the rain by the side of the river getting soaked and failing to catch a glimpse of the queen), what better for the grey clouds than a nice cup of tea and a slice of lemon cake ^^ A simple easy recipe, and what’s best it keeps for awhile as the syrup keeps it moist, perfect to take to work and have a slice with tea for an afternoon break.

Whats in it:

4 eggs, All these to the same weight as the eggs (still in shell)  Self raising flour, Demerara sugar , butter. 2 large unwaxed lemons,

Syrup: 50ml water, 4 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 lemon juice and rind

What to do: Cream butter and sugar, crack in eggs and mix well. Sift the flour in and mix. Add lemon juice and rinds of 2 lemons, whip up well, trying to capture the air. Add to bundt tin evenly and bake at gas mark 5 for 40 mins. Once done and golden, take out and cool in tin. Whilst cooling make syrup, add all ingredients and  boil for 5 mins, cool until thickens, pour over turned out cake.

Enjoy.

Simple: White Loaf

Inspired by The Skint Foodie (one of my new favourite blogs), i decide to tackle a simple loaf of bread… actually I had reservations about how good the bread would turn out, as baking bread.. I am pretty out of practice… but wow did my expectations exceed me!

I adapted a classic recipe from Delia for my loaf, I hunted high and low for my bread tin, but nowhere to be found so instead I decided to go rustic and shape mine in to an oval folding the corners in underneath to create my shape. For my recipe I substituted the sugar for honey and used much less salt than advised

new post coming soon! its been too long….

crumbs…

Don’t worry my fellow readers, i will be back soon and will have a new cake for you next week, a very special cake indeed!

Michael  (^-^)

Happy Birthday

Sorry i have been absent for a while. I have moved house to a new city and started a new job… so things have been busy! Also it was my birthday. So i thought i would share my Birthday cake my Mum made.

My Mum used a tried and tested recipe for success from Mrs Beeton, her chocolate cake sponge. It was so light and yummy! On the top she iced and decorated with chocolate eggs which spelt out my name.

Yum!

Apple Cake

I wanted to make a nice simple afternoon cake, so i decided to go for a fresh and light tasting apple cake, using Greek yoghurt to add to the lightness of the sponge, a perfect accompaniment for Mothering Sunday.

What  You Need:

3 Large Granny Smith Apples peeled and chopped into cubes, 25ml  Apricot Brandy, 300g Greek yoghurt (I used Total), 4 eggs, 1 and a quarter teasp of baking powder, 225g caster sugar, 400g plain flour, 125ml olive oil.

Preheat the oven to 180c.

First add the eggs and sugar to a bowl and whisk until combined, then add in the yoghurt, brandy and oil until you have a lovely runny batter. To the mixture then add the sieved flour and baking powder, mixing to form a thick luscious cake mixture. Finally fold in the the chopped apple, place in a greased 9” cake tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes. When done leave to cool, i drizzled over some left over cream cheese frosting.

Yum.

Blueberry Bundt Cake

Today is my dad’s birthday, so i decided to try out another cake recipe in The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. All the recipes look delicious but the blueberry cake really caught my eye and I had never used a bundt pan before.

The recipe was really easy to follow, and it produces a big cake! 6 eggs are used in total and the shiny purple blueberries drift around the cake bursting and soaking the light sponge. To decorate it is dripped in cream cheese frosting, blueberries and lightly dusted with icing sugar.

The recipe:

What You Need: 350 g unsalted butter, 350 g caster sugar, 6 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 450g plain flour, 2 tbsp & 2 tsp baking powder, 280 ml soured cream, 250 g fresh blueberries, plus extra to dust.

Cream cheese frosting: 300 g icing sugar, sifted, 50 g unsalted butter, 125 g cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 170°C .

Grease and dust a 25 cm ring mould. Mix sugar and butter and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time while mixing well, be sure to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla extract, flour and baking powder until well mixed. Add the soured cream and mix well until everything is combined and the mixture is light and fluffy. Gently stir in the blueberries by hand until evenly dispersed. Pour the mixture into the ring mould and smooth over with a palette knife or a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Leave the cake to cool slightly in the mould before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. When the cake is cold, cover the top and sides with Cream Cheese Frosting and decorate with more blueberries. Yum (^-^)