The Best Drizzle Cake EVER!!

The Best Ever Drizzle Cake

This has got to be the best drizzle cake EVER! I came across the recipe a while ago at the Really Nice Recipes website and it has never failed me.

The best thing about it, it gets better with age so you can make it well in advance and just forget about it.

I’ve made several versions of it so far and they’ve all been fabulous...

The classic Lemon Drizzle – always a winner

The St Clements Drizzle using the juice & zest of 1 orange, lemon & 1 lime

The Grapefruit Drizzle using the zest & juice of 1 ½ grapefruits lovely and sharp

And finally The Tropical Drizzle, using the zest & juice of 3 limes, a healthy glug of coconut liqueur and a substituting 50g flour or 50g desiccated coconut

The trick to it is to feed the cake with as much syrup as possible and then leave it for a couple of days to infuse/soak up properly.

Its lovely served as a loaf cake which i've done for Afternoon Tea.....

....or can be split and decorated to make something a little grander, I made one for a friend’s birthday with a layer of lemon curd in the middle and covered with fresh cream and a bit more lemon curd.......

.....I also made one for a baby shower covered with fondant and filled with a lemon marscapone cream. All of which were scrumptious!

Anyway, this is one recipe you will not want to lose so put it in your recipe books NOW!!!

Here is the classic Lemon version recipe (taken from www.reallynicerecipes.com )

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter
• 250g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 100ml milk
• 250g self-raising flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• zest of 3 lemons
• For the drizzle:
• Juice of 3 lemons
• 100ml water
• 170g caster sugar

1. Heat oven to 180°c.
2. Put the eggs, milk and sugar into a large mixing bowl.
3. Thoroughly whisk them together until the mixture becomes well mixed and foamy
   
4. Sift in the flour, salt and baking powder and then stir it into the liquid mixture until there are no lumps left.
5. Stir in the lemon zest. Then heat the butter (either on the hob or in the microwave) until it has completely melted, then pour it in to the batter and stir until it is completely incorporated.
6. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf tin, lined with greaseproof paper.
7. Put the tin into the oven and bake it for 50 minutes.
8. To test if the cake is done, insert a skewer into the middle and if it comes out clean the cake is ready. When it is cooked, remove it from the oven and leave it in its tin.
9. To make the drizzle, squeeze the lemon juice through a sieve into a heat-proof pouring jug.
10. Put the water and sugar into a pan over a medium heat. Bring the mixture up to the boil and boil it for 4 minutes.
11. Pour the sugar mixture into the jug with the lemon juice and mix them together.
12. Pour as much of the lemon drizzle mixture onto the cake as you can and leave the cake to absorb for 20 minutes. If the cake becomes reluctant to absorb any more liquid, stop pouring.
13. Carefully remove the cake from the tin (there may be some of the drizzle left, unabsorbed in the bottom of the tin), transfer it to a wire rack and allow it to completely cool to room temperature
14. When the cake is cold, slice it and serve.

Enjoy!

Orange & Chocolate Mousse Cake

 

Orange & Chocolate Mousse Cake

This dessert is rich, creamy, light & fluffy all at the same time and sits on a crispy chocolatey base what more could you ask for?!.. delicious!

Firstly – put 5 small sheets of gelatine into a bowl of cold water to soften.

For the base whizz up the following in a food processor -10 digestive biscuits, 25g Demerara sugar and a handful of choc chips.

Then add 50g melted butter, 1 sachet of instant chocolate drink – e.g. Options and mix well.

Press into the bottom of a parchment lined spring form tin, just line the bottom, not the sides.

Put in fridge to chill.

Next, mix together, 200g full fat cream cheese, 230ml double cream, 1 tin condensed milk. Then gradually add the zest & juice of 2 oranges, juice of 1 lemon & 2-3tbs orange water/extract to taste.

Then give the whole lot a blooming good whisk until thickened and fluffy.

Drain the gelatine and put into a saucepan with a small amount of water and gently heat until dissolved.

Whisk into the creamy mousse mixture and then pour onto your chilled base.

Set in the fridge for a few hours.

Decorate however you fancy, I went for fresh cream and chocolate orange decorations (can you spot my mistake in the picture?)

To serve run a warm palette knife around the edge of the tin and then release the spring!

Enjoy!

p.s Keep refrigerated

 

 

A KitKat Cake fit for a Queen

There is a long standing joke with a very good friend of mine that has led to her being affectionately being called The Queen, so for her brithday this year I made her a royal kitkat crown....

3 layers of sponge, chocolate & vanilla, soaked with framboise and filled and covered with a fresh raspberry cream topped with fresh raspberries and surrounded by 21, yes, 21 two finger kitkats!

That's a lot of KitKats!

I have to say i was pretty impressed with the outcome!



Ta-dah!!!

And heres the inside....Mmmmm!

Mexican Mississippi Mud Pie

Mexican Mississippi Mud Pie

This chocolate based pie dessert hails from America but this version is given a Mexican twist with the edition of chilli and was made for yet another dear friend, Ms H who is upping sticks and leaving Blighty to start a new career in Mexico City.

It is extremely rich, chocolaty and gooey with a hint of coffee and a slight kick of chilli, it is great served with cream or ice cream…Enjoy!

For the base:

100g crushed digestive biscuits

50 melted butter

25g Demerara sugar

For the filling:

400g plain chocolate (or a mix of milk & plain if you prefer)

225g butter

1tbs instant coffee

2 tablespoons boiling water

½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes (you can increase or decrease depending on your taste. Or leave it out altogether)

300ml single cream

350g dark muscovado sugar

6 eggs

Grease an 8in/20cm loose-bottomed or spring release cake tin.

Pre-heat the oven to 180° (160° fan oven)

To make the base, mix the crushed biscuits, melted butter and sugar together and spoon into the tin, smooth the mixture out evenly and press it down firmly.

To make the filling, mix the instant coffee with the boiling water and put into a pan with the chocolate, butter and chilli and gently heat until melted.

Take off the heat and beat in the sugar, eggs and cream.

Once combined pour the mixture on to the biscuit base.

Bake for 1¼ - 1½ hrs. or until set.

Allow to cool completely in the tin, remove from tin, decorate with whipped cream if using, and serve!

Enjoy!

Giant Cupcakes & Cupcake Camp Bournemouth

The sometimes sunny town where I live is soon to be hosting Cupcake Camp Bournemouth, which I am most excited about and also donating 2 dozen cupcakes to....

I’d never heard about a Cupcake Camp before until I stumbled upon a page on Facebook promoting it, I believe it’s an American concept where bakers donate a ridiculous amount of cupcakes and they are then sold to the public and all of the proceeds are donated to charity, there are also stalls, musicians, cupcake competitions and celebrity judges!

Mags Hitchman of Cake Heaven is the organiser for this event and she has done a fabulous job, the charity our event is supporting is Macmillan Cancer Support, a worthwhile charity that you can find more about here:  http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx

All exciting stuff...... so in homage to the upcoming Cupcake Camp I thought I would share my Giant Cupcake creations with you....my dear friend Mrs H gave me the cupcake mould for Xmas with the hint of ‘I'd really like one of these cakes for my birthday’...so that gave me till March to have a practice run.

In February, surrounded by advertisers thrusting hearts, flowers and smitten lovers in my face a subtle sign that Valentine’s day  was looming, once again I was alone *sigh* (short  version –always kissing frogs, never turning into Princes, just into nasty toads) I decided that I would get the mould out and create a giant Valentines Cupcake for myself and all my other singleton acquaintances at work (for some reason in the company where I work there are many of us) and I have to say I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

I made a vanilla chocolate marble cake and it didn’t look that fabulous when it came out of the mould, but I knew it would taste great and hopefully look good inside (and it did) so I just had to make it look ‘pretty’ on the outside.

Little accident with the very top, but nothing a bit of frosting wouldn't fix!

Mmmmmm! The top, the bottom and the lovely crunchy bit that had to be sliced off (and eaten) so the sat together snugly.

And below, you can see the results, not bad if I do say so myself.

So, when March came around it was time for a repeat performance, originally I had wanted to change the colour scheme to a white chocolate base and lilac cream cheese frosting, but the birthday Queen decided that she liked the classic brown and white so, that what we went for and once again it came out beautifully, reassuring myself that the first time wasn’t a fluke.

(Birthday Queen, Mrs H)

Vanilla Crumble Cupcakes....

Vanilla Crumble Cupcakes

Makes 12

This recipe came about when a quick cake fix was needed, and I have to say it was a triumph.

No fancy ingredients needed, you probably have all of them in your cupboard right now (go on, have a look, I bet you have...)

It was an amalgamation of several recipes which put together makes a light vanilla sponge cake with an oaty crumble topping and finishes with a cinnamon sugar crust and goes as follows....

For the crumble topping

50g plain flour

50g Demerara or caster sugar

50g unsalted butter- diced and chilled

50g porridge oats

·         Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl.

·         Add the butter and rub in until you have the consistency of large, coarse breadcrumbs

·         Mix in oats.

Set aside and crack on with the cake......

For the Vanilla Sponge

175g unsalted butter

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

175 g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

·         Preheat your oven to 180°c

·         Line a 12 hole muffin/cupcake tin with paper liners

·         Put all ingredients in a mixer with a whisk attachment and mix for 2-3 minutes

·         Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.

·         Sprinkle a little of the crumble topping onto each cake.

·         Bake in the over for approx 15-20mins, until golden brown and springy to the touch.

For the cinnamon sugar crust....

Approx 70g hot melted butter

Small bowl of caster sugar with 1tsp of cinnamon mixed in.

While the cakes are still warm, dip the top of each cake in the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar.

Hot melted butter & Cinnamon sugar

 Dipped in butter

Dipped in sugar...mmmmm

Simple as that, job done!

Enjoy!

Note: Any leftover  crumble topping can be frozen and used straight from the freezer to top further cakes or of course, if you make a fruit crumble! Use within a month.

Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée

This has to be one of my favourite desserts ever, there’s something so satisfying about cracking the caramel disk on the top to discover the rich, silk-smooth vanilla cream underneath.

There is a lot of argument over where Crème Brûlée was first discovered with England, Spain & France all vying for the title! I myself being a Brit will claim that it was out discovery and the story goes a little something like this…

England's Part of Crème Brûlée History

Sometime during the 17th century, young college student offered the kitchen a culinary delight: a creamy unsweetened custard with a caramelized topping. However, the college student's creation was spurned by the cooking staff. . .until he became a fellow. It was after his fellowship that the cooking staff suddenly took great interest in his custard creation with the burnt topping. After replicating the recipe, the cooking staff dubbed it "Trinity Burnt Cream" and all the world emulates this delectable dish. Or so the tall tale goes.

(Taken from: http://gourmet.lovetoknow.com/Creme_Brulee_History)

You can also flavour your Brûlée with a variety of things, coffee, lemon, Irish Cream, lavender, chocolate, and coconut (I’ll be trying this one soon – I’m a nut for coconut!) or even put a layer of cooked fruit in the bottom first.

So, now that your mouth is watering, here is the ‘How To’

Ingredients

5 egg yolks

50g Caster Sugar

85ml milk

1 vanilla pod, split and seed scraped out

500ml cold whipping cream

Demerara Sugar for the crunchy topping.

Method

·         Place the egg yolks in a bowl with the sugar and mix together until well combined.

·         Place the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil with the vanilla pod and the seeds.

·         Pour the milk into the bowl with the egg mixture and mix well.

·         Add the cold cream, mix and leave to infuse for 10mins.

·         Preheat the oven to 150°c

·         Remove the vanilla pod and divide the mixture between 6-8 ramekins (depending on their size!)

·         Place the ramekins in a Bain Marie (filled with hot water, and put in the oven for 40-45mins until they are just set and still a little wobbly in the middle.

·         Remove from the Bain Marie and leave to cool.

·         Once cool, sprinkle the top of the Brûlée evenly with Demerara sugar and either heat under a hot grill or with a mini blowtorch until caramelised.

Enjoy!

·         You can actually make a caramel to top the brulee’s with, but this involves a lot of sugar heating and extremely high temperatures and is not for the faint hearted.