Honey and Spelt Cake

I saw this spelt honey cake on Cake, Crumbs and Cooking. Do check out her blog if you haven't already for some other great recipes :) I bookmarked it immediately and it jumped to the top of my 'to-bake' list (which is growing longer by the minute) as I was really intrigued and wanted to know what it would taste like. Coincidentally, I bought some spelt flour recently for another recipe (which I still haven't baked!) and I always have honey in my cupboard so as I had everything I needed, I thought why not? Added bonus is that it's a really simple, mix everything together type of recipe. 

I'm so glad I did as the cake was really good! I love the texture of the spelt flour and you can really taste the honey. It smelled really good as I was mixing up the batter. It's a moist and light cake with the fine texture of the spelt and the rich aroma of honey.

I'm sending this to bookmarked recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. 

 luckily I had just enough honey for the recipe! 

 delicious! 

Recipe from Cake, Crumbs and Cooking

175g butter, softenend
80g caster sugar
90g honey
100g plain flour
100g wholemeal spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
60g buttermilk *

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add the flours, baking powder, honey, eggs and buttermilk and continue to beat until well combined.
• Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes until well risen and golden and springy to the touch.
• Allow to cool on a wire rack.

* I made my own buttermilk as I didn't have any at home. It's really easy to make and probably cheaper than buying it from the supermarket.
- Place 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or white vinegar) in a measuring jug.
- Add enough milk to bring it up to the 1 cup line.
- Stir and leave for 5 minutes.
- The milk will curdle which is what you want.

Weekly Bake Off: Devil's Food Cake

I'm really excited to participate in my first Weekly Bake off, the brainchild of Amy from Weekly Bake Off.  The premise is simple, to bake her way through Mary Berry's 100 cakes and bakes. A random recipe is selected by Amy every Monday and bakers have a week to bake and post a photo by Sunday evening. I bought this book months ago but due to other commitments was unable to participate at the end of last year. So I was really excited for the first January challenge which is a devil's food cake. However, all did not go to plan and I debated if I should post it or not. I think I'm often too hard on myself and this blog is about sharing my experiences - good or bad. So I present to you the Lopsided Artistic Devils' Food Cake :) 

I made this in a hurry (I never learn my lesson!) which is partly what cause the downfall (no pun intended!) I had a really busy week but really wanted to bake this cake. I had to go to a friend's birthday dinner and drinks and had less than 2 hours to bake, frost and get myself ready for a night out! Could I do it? Well I do like a challenge so I decided yes. I whipped up the cake quickly and it turned out beautifully. I was a little nervous about the icing as it involves a sugar thermometer and the last time I tried making a meringue buttercream, it didn't turn out well. Sadly, I have not perfected the meringue buttercream. Perhaps I should have whisked it longer as it didn't stand in peaks. Remember I was against the clock here so I just put the icing on and left it to set while I had a great night out. When I got back at 1am, the top layer had slid off! :( 

The plus point is the cake is delicious!! It's quite a sweet frosting but it works well with the cake. The sponge was light and moist and you can taste the cocoa in it. I'm dubious about chocolate cake that uses cocoa powder rather than real chocolate but it worked well here. It's a good cake to bake to impress (if you get it right of course) 

A note on the frosting - it really does set very quickly so you have to be quick. I would also half the frosting recipe next time as I had a lot leftover. I think I didn't whisk it long enough to achieve the peaks. Any thoughts on this? 

 cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy - i could just tell the sponge was going to be good :) 

 ready to go in the oven 

 using my sugar thermometer 

 the lopsided cake 

 I like to call this my 'artistic cake' :) 

 Glad I still managed to get a layer slice so really if you didn't see the above pictures, you'd have been none the wiser :) 

Recipe from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes Page 162-163 

For the cake 

55g cocoa powder

280g caster sugar

115g butter

2 eggs, lightly beaten

175g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the American frosting

450g sugar

2 large egg whites 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins.
• Whisk the cocoa powder into 225ml water and set aside. 
• Whisk the sugar and butter in a separate bowl until light and fluffy as shown. 
• Add in the eggs until well combined. 
• Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
• Alternately fold in the flour and the cocoa mixture to the butter mixture.
• Divide the batter evenly between the tins (I usually weigh mine).
• Bake for 30 - 45 minutes until well risen and firm to touch.
• Allow to cool in the tine for a few minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• To make the frosting, heat the sugar with 135ml water gently until the sugar has dissolved.  
• Next, bring it to a boil and boil until it reaches 115C/240F on a sugar thermometer. The mixture will bubble and thicken. 
• Whilst you are heating the sugar, whisk the egg whites until stiff. 
• Once the sugar syrup is ready, allow the bubble to settle then pour slowly into the egg whites, whisking constantly. 
• Continue whisking until the mixture stands in peaks. 
• Sandwich the cakes together with a LITTLE frosting (I used too much which caused the cake slide plus the frosting was not stiff enough).
• Spread the remainder of the frosting over the top and sides. 
• Work quickly as the icing sets rapidly. 

We Should Cocoa - Chocolate and Mocha Cake

I went to visit a friend of mine who has recently given birth to a gorgeous baby boy. I don't have any baby pictures to show you but I do have pictures of cake! My friend offered to cook dinner so naturally I said I'd make dessert. However, she wanted something low fat as she is still trying to loose her baby weight. So I went off in search of some healthy recipes, saving my full fat, triple layer cake for another day. I looked on my 'go-to recipe site' - BBC Good Food and found 2 options that looked reasonable - a light fruity sponge or a chocolate and mocha cake. I asked my friend to choose and she chose the latter which I was secretly pleased about as it fits into the theme for this month's We should Cocoa hosted by Chocolate Teapot which is to make a health conscious chocolate recipe. 

I have to say I am a little disappointed with this recipe. I've not tried a bad recipe from BBC Good Food until now and there were certainly some unfavourable reviews on the website. The picture presented looks really good but sadly what I baked was nothing like the picture shown. Firstly, there was barely enough batter to fill 1 sandwich tin much less two and my sponge did not rise at all.  Secondly, there was barely enough frosting to spread thinly much less oozing as shown.  I followed the recipe exactly and actually debated about doubling it which would have defeated the purpose. I'll just have to use a much, much smaller tin next time. 

Fortunately, it wasn't a complete disaster as the cake actually tasted reasonably good.  It's nowhere near a lovely buttery, chocolatey sponge but it was a good alternative.  The sponge was still light and moist and the icing was slightly sour due to the yoghurt and cream cheese but still palatable. I added some strawberries for extra 'health' factor and presentation. 

 low fat ingredients (apart from the chocolate) 

 whip the eggs and sugar until it looks like this 

 spread the icing on top of (flat) sponge

 place another cake on top and spread chocolate mocha icing on top

 drizzle with some melted chocolate 

 add some strawberries 

Recipe is available from BBC Good Food website. I followed it exactly and added strawberries on top as garnish.

Posh Brownies

It's Jan and almost everyone is on a health diet of some kind. I've never really been good at that - poor, no self control and all but I thought I would make an effort and *try* to make something a little healthier.  I remember reading about brownies made with mayonnaise which is supposed to be healthier.  I happened to have a jar of extra light mayonnaise so I thought I'd give it a go. The recipe is from Hellmann's and they name it posh brownies so how bad can it be? They state that it's 55% less saturated fat than if prepared with butter. 

It's a fairly simple brownie recipe with the usual suspects and the addition of mayonnaise instead of butter. I overbaked mine slightly so they were a little on the chewy side but I have to say I was quite impressed with these brownies. It's not buttery and fudgy but it still tastes like a brownie. It's fairly moist and light and I like the added crunch of the nuts. I'm not sure if it would taste different if I made it with full fat mayonnaise. Has anyone else tried this recipe?

Anyway at least I can feel virtuous eating these brownies....as long as I don't eat the whole tray!! :) 

I am entering these to bake-along brownies over at Bake for Happy Kids 

 star ingredient - mayonnaise 

 adding the mayo

 ready to go in the oven 

 slightly overbaked! oops 

Recipe from Hellmanns website 

40g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
25g cocoa powder
140g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces
3 eggs
225g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
110g mayonnaise
55g walnuts, finely chopped (I didnt have any so used chopped mixed nuts instead)

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Grease and line a 23cm square tin.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar and vanilla essence.
• Add the slightly cooled, melted chocolate into this mixture and mix well.
• Next fold in the flour.
• Add the mayonnaise and chopped nuts.
• Pour into the tin and bake for about 30 - 35 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool in the tin before slicing. 

Citruslove - Lemon Whoopie pies

January is #citruslove month! I'm excited to be co-hosting this fabulous event and I hope you will join in too. I couldn't decide what to make as I love citrus fruits and flavours. I thought about tackling macarons but I've just signed up for a macaron class so I think I'll wait till after.  It was therefore a choice between cakes, cupcakes or cookies.  I was looking through my brand new copy of Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet and when I saw the whoopie pies, the choice was made.  


I know everyone has been raving about this book.  It's the first recipe I'm trying and I have to say I'm impressed. I made whoopie pies once before and thought they were a little too 'cakey' and dense but these are really something else. It's quite light and spongy and even though I'm not a huge fan of marshmallow, I love the marshmallow filling here. I've added in quite a bit of zest and juice as I love the lemon zing. Definitely making this recipe again (Dan has provided recipes for different flavour variations) and trying other recipes from his book. The previous whoopie pie recipes I've seen use shortening but this has sour cream which I'm sure makes the sponge lighter. 

Please join in on the #citruslove fun by linking up *any citrus recipe *from the *month of January 2012*. Don't forget to link back to this post, so  that your readers know to come stop by the #citruslove event! The twitter hashtag is #citruslove. 

Here's a list of all the co-hosts for this event, please visit them if you have time and check out what they've made. 

A little bit of everything - http://www.roxanagreengirl.com/
Astig Vegan - http://astigvegan.com/
Baker Street - http://bakerstreet.tv/
Big Fat Bake - http://bigfatbaker.com/blog/

Cafe Terra Blog - http://www.cafeterrablog.com/

Cake Duchess - http://www.cakeduchess.com/

Cakeballs, cookies and more - http://cakeballscookiesandmore.blogspot.com/

Easily Good Eats - http://easilygoodeats.blogspot.com/

Elephant Eats - http://elephanteats.com/

Georgieacakes - http://georgiecakes.com/

Hobby and More - http://hobbyandmore.blogspot.com/

Mike's Baking - http://www.mikesbaking.co.uk/

Mis Pensamientos - http://juniakk.blogspot.com/

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies - http://tcrumbley.blogspot.com/

Oh Cake - http://cake-o-cake.blogspot.com/

Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives - http://lisamichele.wordpress.com/

Peaches and Donuts - http://peachesanddonuts.blogspot.com/

Savoring Every Bite - http://savoringeverybite.wordpress.com/

Simply Reem - http://www.simplyreem.com/

Smart Food and Fit - http://smartfoodandfit.com/

Soni's Food For Thought - http://sonisfoodforthought.blogspot.com/

That Skinny Chick Can Bake - http://thatskinnychickcanbake.blogspot.com/

The Art of Cooking Real Food - http://theartofcookingrealfood.blogspot.com/

The Spicy RD - http://www.eastewart.com/blog/

The Wimpy Vegetarian - http://thewimpyvegetarian.com/

Vegan Yack Attack - http://veganyackattack.com/

Vegetarian Mamma - http://vegetarianmamma.blogspot.com/

You Made that? - http://www.you-made-that.com/

 adding lots of lemon zest to the batter :) 

 terrible piping! 

 making the marshmallow filling 

 oops... giant whoopie pies! 

Recipe is from Dan Lepard Short and Sweet page 201-203 

Peanut butter and jam muffins and a cupcake maker review

I don't think I need to tell you again how much I love peanut butter. Peanut butter and jam are one of those classic combinations that most people love including me! There's something about the salty nuttiness of peanut butter combined with the sweet jam that makes it wonderful. Why am I talking about peanut butter and jam? Well I was sent this lovely cupcake maker from find-me-a-gift.co.uk to review. It comes in a box with an instruction booklet and recipe. It states that you can make cupcakes or muffins so I chose muffins!  There is 1 recipe for chocolate chip muffins in the booklet but I chose to make these instead.  They were really simple to make (just mix everything together) and the muffins were delicious! A great breakfast or tea time treat. 

 this is what you get in the box

 ready to make my mini muffins

 putting them in to cook 

 ready in 3 - 5  minutes! 

 delicious! 

Disclaimer : I was sent this product free to review but did not receive any other monetary incentive. I was not required to provide a positive review and all opinions are my own.

Pros

- It's simple and easy to use.

- It's non stick and very easy to clean.

- You can have mini cupcakes or muffins in minutes (also see con).

-No extra equipment eg cupcake cases required

- It's a great gift especially for non bakers or for kids but will still require supervision.

-It's great if you are looking for a hands on activity with the kids as you don't have to wait 20-30 minutes for the cupcakes/muffins to cook especially if you want the kids to decorate them. 

-It's good for portion control as they are bite sized. 

-You can still bake even if your oven is not working! 

Cons

- You can only make 7 muffins at one time. 1 recipe makes about 35 mini muffins which is approximately 15-25 minutes total baking time. For me, it would have been quicker to just bake them all at once in the oven as with this I had to remove the cooked muffins every few minutes and put new batter in to cook. 

Recipe adapted from nomandglug

Makes 35 mini muffins as shown (you can make 1/4 recipe which should yield 6-7 mini muffins. Here's a top tip from Andrea about quartering the egg - "Break the egg and whisk it up. Pour it into a measuring cup (usually 1 large egg is about 1/4c). Then use as much as you need (1/4 of 1/4c is 1T)"

250g self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

60mls honey

60mls vegetable oil

180mls milk

1 egg

70g peanut butter (I used crunchy peanut butter)

75g strawberry jam 

• Prepare the cupcake maker according to the instructions given. 
• Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl, mix the honey, milk and egg. 
• Add this to the flour mixture and mix well.
• Add in the peanut butter.
• Finally swirl in the strawberry jam - do not over mix. 
• Cook in the cupcake maker as instructed. 

Happy 2nd Birthday and a Peanut Butter Toblerone Cheesecake

Happy new year everyone, hope you all had a good one. Lots of reasons to celebrate today... it's the new year and it's my blog's 2nd birthday!  I can't believe my blog is 2 years old!! What a year it's been too. I just realised I didn't really celebrate the first birthday of my blog which was an important milestone (sorry blog!) so I definitely had to make something special this year. I planned a special cake and bought a special mould but what happens? My oven dies :(  I can't believe it! I know I've been moaning quite a bit on twitter about my dead oven but it's like a part of me has died. However, oven or no oven, I was determined to make something spectacular for my blog's birthday. When life throws you a curveball you 'keep calm and bake cakes' ... well make a cake in this case :) 

So I present to you a peanut butter toblerone cheesecake. It has my favourite ingredients and tastes absolutely divine!! It is rich and creamy and heart-stoppingly good. So good that my friend Kate came over immediately in her pyjamas at 10pm on a sunday night to try some and her verdict "wow!!! What a treat - love the hidden chunks of toblerone!" 

Thank you everyone who has visited and/or commented on my blog this past year. It has been a really good year and I look forward to even more exciting baking/blogging in 2012 (see baking/blogging resolutions here). Do help yourself to a slice of cake - there's plenty to go round :) 

 oreo cookie base 

 add filling on top and chill in the fridge 

 top with Peanut Butter M&Ms - my favourite :) 

 enjoy! 

Recipe adapted from Kraft

For the crust

2 x 154g packs of Oreo cookies (I wanted a thicker base) 

75g butter, melted

For the filling

500g cream cheese

250g smooth peanut butter

200g caster sugar

250ml double cream

100g toblerone, chopped 

• First make the crust by blitzing the oreo cookies in a food processor and adding the melted butter to it. 
• Press onto the  bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and put in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to set. 
• Pour the double cream into an electric mixer (or use a hnd mixer) and beat until it stiffens. 
• Scoop out the cream and place the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar into the bowl. Beat until well incorporated. 
• Add the cream back to the mixture and continue mixing briefly.
• Finally stir in the chopped toblerone pieces.
• Pour the filling on top of the crust and smooth the top with a spatula. 
• Decorate with peanut butter m&m's.
• Chill for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight.