Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

It's October which means Halloween! On my recent trip to America, I bought a can of pumpkin puree and assorted Halloween goodies. Yes I know you can buy this in London but it's quite expensive here. Anyway, I was quite excited to bake with it as I've never used it before and I remember seeing this recipe on our recent Secret Recipe Club reveal which I'm also a member of.  It was on So Tasty, So Yummy's blog who in turn got it from Loving Life.

What can I say? Everyone loved it! It was delicious and moist, almost like a carrot cake with the spices but with a different texture. My kitchen smelled amazing when I baked this! I have to make this again even if I have to buy expensive pumpkin puree. Or perhaps they'll go on sale after Halloween? :) 

The other great thing about this recipe is that I can enter it to multiple blog challenges this month. You know how much I love my blog challenges so here goes.... 

We Should cocoa was created by Choclette and Chocolate Teapot and this month is being guest hosted by Nat from Hungry Hinny. The special ingredient this month is pumpkin.

The One Ingredient Challenge is hosted by Nazima from Franglaiskitchen and Laura from How to Cook Good Food. The theme this month is pumpkin and squash. 

As pumpkin is a seasonal ingredient, I'm also entering this to Simple and in Season created by Ren from Fabulicious Food and is being guest hosted this month by Franglaiskitchen. 

As I mentioned earlier, this pumpkin puree came all the way from America and it's also a common American ingredient especially at this time of the year for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm therefore entering it to United Bakes of America hosted by Gem from Cupcake Crazy Gem.

Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes (this month's host) and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes have chosen Halloween as their theme for October. This would be the perfect Halloween treat. 

I bookmarked this recipe as soon as I saw it on reveal day as I knew I wanted to make it one day. I'm so pleased I didn't wait too long to try it out. I'm therefore entering this to Bookmarked recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 My well travelled slightly squashed can of pumpkin puree 

 gorgeous colour! 

 ready to go in the oven 

 fresh from the oven 

Recipe adapted from So Tasty, So Yummy (I reduced the sugar amount and chocolate chips and it turned out beautifully) 

250g plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

225g butter

225g sugar

1 eff

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

300g chocolate chips 

• Preheat oven to 180C. 
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.  
• Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. 
• Add pumpkin puree. 
• The mixture will appear curdled - don't worry! 
• Reduce speed to low and add in dry ingredients. 
• Finally, stir in chocolate chips.
• Spread batter evenly in  a baking tray.
• Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before slicing into squares. 

Dorset Apple Traybake

I've been wanting to bake this for ages ever since I researched Dorset bakes when I mistakenly thought that the August Best of British challenge was Dorset. It was in fact Yorkshire and I ended up making a Real Yorkshire Wensleydale & Cranberries and Apple Cake. Well things have come full circle as this month Karen from Lavender and Lovage is hosting Best of British again and it really is Dorset this month! Yay! 

The Best of British Challenge was created by Fiona from London Unattached and Karen from Lavender and Lovage which will run for 6 months. Each month, a county or region around the UK is selected. To enter, blog about your interpretation of a recipe or dish from that region. The challenge is sponsored by New World Appliances and there is a prize of a £50 Amazon voucher. 

I've entered every challenge since it started except for last month which was London. I am doubly upset as I live in London but unfortunately Sep was a crazy month and I was unable to participate. You can see the round up of amazing London entries here. I'm so excited to join in again this month with this simple and delicious bake from BBC Good Food. I especially like the layer of apples in the middle. The cake was moist, delicious and flavourful - definitely one to bake again and again. 

I'm also sending it to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior who encourages us to bake from scratch.

As apples are in season, I'm also entering this to Simple and in Season created by Ren from Fabulicious Food and guest hosted this month by Nazima from Franglaiskitchen.

 fresh Bramley apples 

 middle layer of apples 

 sprinkle sugar on the top layer 

 fresh from the oven 

 who wants a slice? 

Recipe from BBC Good Food website

Neapolitan Rose Cake

This month's AlphaBakes challenge is "N" which is actually quite a difficult letter. So far, I've only thought of nutella and nuts. I then remembered neapolitan ice cream which was my favourite when I was younger as I could never decide what flavour to have so a neapolitan which has vanilla, strawberry and chocolate was perfect. I saw this gorgeous neapolitan rose cake on I am Baker and knew I had to make it. I've been wanting to try this rose piping decoration for a long time having seen it on various blogs and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's fairly simple and looks stunning! 

I made up my own recipe for the cakes and they turned out really well. The star was the strawberry layer. I made up my usual vanilla sponge recipe then divided the batter into 3. For the strawberry layer, I added pureed fresh strawberries to the batter. For the chocolate layer, I added melted dark chocolate and a little bit of cocoa powder. I also used the same flavourings for the icing and again the strawberry icing was the best. The strawberry layer was quite moist so I would suggest adding more flour to that batter if you want a firmer texture. 

This cake took 2.5 hours from start to finish including cooling time and decorating which is not bad. It's worth all the effort and everyone will think you spent far longer on it than you did! The only downside is the washing up as you need 3 flavours of cake batter and 3 flavours of icing. 

As mentioned, I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and it's co-hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes on alternate months.  The letter this month is N and if you are stuck for ideas, feel free to send in any entry with nuts as long as it's a main ingredient and not just a few sprinkled on top! Deadline is 25th October 2012, please remember to email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com

 blitz fresh strawberries... 

 ... to get fresh strawberry puree 

 adding to vanilla cake batter 

 adding melted chocolate to make the chocolate layer 

 neapolitan cake in progress - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate 

 flavours for the icing - melted chocolate and pureed strawberry 

 first layer is chocolate cake. Spread some strawberry icing on top and then add the strawberry layer 

 spread vanilla icing on top... 

 and add the vanilla cake layer 

 side view - you don't need to ice the sides but you can if you want to give the cake a smoother finish 

 3 flavours of icing - luckily I have 3 star tips in my drawer so no need to wash and change tips 

 start piping the chocolate roses on the bottom - start at the centre and pipe in a circular motion to get the rose effect 

 add a strawberry rose layer on top 

 my cakes were not tall enough for a third layer of roses but I managed half a layer

 continue piping vanilla roses on top until the whole cake is covered 

 neapolitan cake 

For the cake

375g butter
375g caster sugar
375g self-raising flour
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
450g strawberries, washed and hulled
red gel colour (optional)

For the icing

375g butter
750g icing sugar
4-6 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
melted chocolate and strawberry puree from cake batter

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.
• Add in the flour and vanilla extract.
• Divide batter into 3 equal portions (I weighed mine and each portion was approximately 425g).
• Place the vanilla batter into a sandwich tin which has been greased and lined.
• Blitz the fresh strawberries in a food processor until it's pureed. Measure out 1 cup/250mls and add to 1/3 cake batter. You can add a few drops of red food colouring if you wish. 
• Stir in about 100g of the melted chocolate into the final 1/3 cake batter with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and mix well.
• Bake for approximately 18 - 20 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Make the icing by mixing together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract in an electric mixer until smooth. 
• Add the milk one tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you need.
• Beat for at least 5 minutes in an electric mixer until it's light and fluffy. This is important otherwise it will be difficult to pipe the icing. 
• Divide the icing into 3 portions - you need a smaller portion for the chocolate icing or whichever layer you choose to have on the bottom.
• To make the chocolate icing, stir in the remaining 50g of melted chocolate into a small bowl of icing. 
• To make the strawberry icing, stir in the remaining fresh strawberry puree. 
• Decorate as shown above. 

Giant Vanilla Raspberry Cupcake

This is the second big cake I made for my work leaving do along with the Nigella Nutella cake. My giant cupcake pan tends to be used for celebrations and leaving do's and it's been quite a while since it was last used so I decided to give it a go. I chose simple flavours - vanilla sponge with fresh raspberries in the batter and raspberry jam in the middle. I was really excited to use my new duo icing kit from Lakeland but unfortunately all did not go to plan. However, I was still able to present a reasonable looking cake and luckily it tasted great. 

 fresh raspberries and raspberry jam 

 I love the colour fresh raspberries! 

 mistake no 1 - overfilling the cake pan 

 mistake no 2 - my poor attempt at levelling the cake which cause the crack in the middle!  

 cover up no 1 - fill with jam and patch with buttercream! 

 not too bad if you don't look too closely! 

 duo icing kit from Lakeland which is great but mistake no 3 - overfilling piping bag and stiff icing 

 finished product. I wanted to pipe rosettes on top but the icing was too stiff and it was difficult to pipe. I do like the two tone icing and can't wait to try it again. 

For the cake 

375g butter

375g sugar

6 eggs

375g self raising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100 - 150g fresh raspberries

For the icing

500g icing sugar

120g butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4-6 tablespoons of milk 

pink gel paste (optional) 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition.
• Mix in the flour and vanilla extract.
• Finally stir in the fresh raspberries.
• Fill the cupcake mould until 2/3 full - do not overfill!
• Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely.
• Sandwich the top and bottom with raspberry jam.
• Make the icing by beating all the ingredients together until smooth. 
• Decorate as desired.

Nigella Nutella Cake

Huge apologies to all my readers for the lack of blogging recently. I went to America (Florida and Washington which was amazing) then had a very hectic last 10 days at work and changed jobs this week. I've not really had time to bake much less blog even though I have quite a few posts in the draft folder. 

I've decided to share with you the cake I made for my leaving tea party at work. I felt so touched by the kind words and was extremely impressed that my colleagues made the effort to bake cakes for me as I'm always baking for them! Apparently store bought was not going to be good enough for me so there was an email going round asking for homemade cakes and I was treated to a lovely chocolate cake, apple cake, marmalade cake and homemade scones. Thank you so much!! 

Of course I couldn't resist baking one last time even though I was up half the night! I made 2 big cakes and this is one of them - a Nigella Nutella Cake. Nigella says it's one of the easiest cakes to make and the most delicious and that her household is addicted to it. I totally agree as it was delicious and the first cake to be finished amongst all the many delicious cakes on display! 

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co-hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes as the letter this month is N for Nigella Nutella cake. To the AlphaBakers last month - I'm sorry I've not had time to visit your blogs and see your delicious P entries but I promise I will get to them in the next week or so! My mouth was watering from what I've seen on the roundup so I look forward to reading each entry in detail. 

 'nutty' cake 

 roasted hazelnuts 

 fold in egg whites 

 a little burnt but no one will notice after it's covered in ganache and fruits! 

 slightly uneven after the cake cooled. I initially wanted to add smarties on top but decided fresh fruit would balance out the chocolate

 the side view is much better!! 

Recipe available on Nigella's website 

The only changes I made was to omit the rum (as it was for work) and to use roasted chopped hazelnuts instead of ground hazelnuts to increase the nutty taste and texture.