NOELENE'S BIRTHDAY CAKE

Yesterday was my friend Noelene’s 50^th birthday party. She had a tea party and I was in charge of the birthday cake. I love baking but I’ve always struggled with presentation so I was looking for something that would look effective but be simple to do. I saw this cake and knew I wanted to try and do a similar icing.

The cake itself is also a mash up of recipes from Sweetapolita’s blog. I’ve used the chocolate cake recipe several times now and it’s one of my favourites because it has an almost brownie-ish texture and because I love telling people it has mayonnaise in it and watching them freak out. For the icing I decided to try her vanilla buttercream. It’s pretty much you’re average buttercream but with the addition of actual cream. It’s a great idea and it definitely makes for a smoother, less sickening icing (as well as a more calorific one!)

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate cake

255g unsalted butter, softened690g packed dark brown sugar

3tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

330g all-purpose flour

135g cocoa powder

2tsp baking soda

1 ½tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp salt

540ml buttermilk

90ml mayonnaise

1.    Preheat oven to 180°c and butter tins and line with greaseproof paper. This recipe is for a large 4 layer cake. If you are like me and don’t have enough tins you will have to bake the cake in batches.

2.    With your whisk of choice beat the butter, brown sugar and vanilla until lighter in color and slightly increased in volume, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until each is fully incorporated.

3.    Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder and salt into a bowl.

4.    Alternate dry ingredients and buttermilk into creamed mixture, Mix until just incorporated, or finish by hand gently. Fold mayonnaise into batter with a whisk, until just blended.

5.     Divide the batter evenly into the tins. Bake for about 30 minutes. The cake is a bit gooey in nature so will stay feeling quite soft to the touch and less springy than a classic sponge cake. If a knife comes out clean, it’s done.

6.    Transfer to wire wrack and leave to cool.

(recipe adapted from Sweetapolita)

Vanilla Icing:

 227g unsalted butter, softened

750g icing sugar

125 ml double cream

3 tsps vanilla extract

1.    With an electric whisk, beat butter and icing sugar together on a low speed until fully combined.

2.    Add cream and vanilla and whisk until fluffy and smooth.

(recipe adapted from: Sweetapolita) 

Anna x

AUTUMN SOCKS

Firstly, apologies for leaving it so long to get round to posting. I promise to do another entry very soon about some of the natural dyeing fun that I got up to a while ago but for now let’s talk socks; specifically these Fair Isle babies that I finished over the summer for my mum’s birthday.

I adapted a pattern that I’d used for some socks that I had made for myself last year sometime. Luckily, mum and I share the same oversized feet (which means it’s all her fault that I struggle to buy shoes) so I didn’t have to worry about getting the length wrong and I could keep it a surprise. I made up the fair isle pattern as I went along, with inspiration from this book. I used Rowan’s Fine Tweed yarn. I completely love the colours, perfect for autumn.

Mum was very happy with them and didn’t seem to mind that they were about a month late!

Anna x

ORANGE, WHITE CHOCOLATE AND ALMOND CAKE

Well it's that time of year again... Granny's birthday! I made a wee cake (yes Anna, it really worked!!!! It didn't flop in the middle, splurge over the sides, be too greasy...).  It was a fairly complex recipe but I took plenty of time and it tasted great! Light and not sickly sweet.  I found the recipe from the BBC Good Food website.  However, due to the fact of only have one 20cm cake tin, this cake took up most of my day and created a lot of mess- but it was well worth it!


Ingredients 

175g butter softened plus extra for greasing
175g caster sugar
finely grated zest 4 oranges and juice of one
4 eggs
100g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
100g flaked almonds

Icing

200g white choc
200ml creme fraiche
100g white choc to decorate

Method can be found here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5524/orange-and-white-chocolate-sponge

Emma!

BAKING MEDITERRANEAN BREAD

Recently had a go at making sundried tomato and olive bread (inspired by the great British Bake-Off), which turned out to be relatively simple and very delicious!

Recipe

650g Strong White Flour
2tsp salt
1tsp sugar
15ml vegetable oil (or I used the oil from the sundried tomato jar to give more flavour)
7g sachet easy bake yeast (I used Allinson's so I only had to prove the dough once)
400ml warm water: 1 part boiling, 2 parts cold.

Method

1. In a bowl mix flour, salt, sugar and yeast.  Stir in oil.

2. Add warm water and mix to form soft dough.  Take out and knead for 10minutes.

3. Prove in a warm place for 45mins

4. Add olives and sundried tomatoes after covering in flour to reduce oiliness.  Knead again briefly.

5. Separate into two loaf tins, and place in oven for about 25-30mins.

6. Remove and allow to cool.

Easy Peasy!

Emma