SRC: Moist Chocolate Cake

Welcome to another Secret Recipe Club Group D reveal day. Each month we are assigned a blog in secret and we then choose 1 recipe to make and blog about on the same reveal day which is today. I try and get my assignment done earlier in the month and it often feels like forever waiting to share it with everyone especially when it's a really good recipe like this. 

This month, I was assigned to Troyer's Loving Life written by Kirstin. She was born in England, lived in Florida and Ohio before finally settling in Washington. She has 2 daughters that she home schools and spends a lot of time with soccer, golf, church and working around their house and property.  Her blog is a journal of their everyday lives and has everything from recipes to life stories to pictures of their gorgeous dog, Benelli. Do visit her site and I promise you won't be disappointed. 

As usual it was difficult to pick just one recipe and initially I planned to make this sour cream coffee cake but when I spotted this recipe for moist chocolate cake, I just couldn't resist.  It's a simple mix all in one recipe and it was incredibly moist as the name suggests and absolutely delicious. There wasn't a crumb left by the end of the day! This is a great recipe for when you have unexpected guests as it's mostly store cupboard ingredients (you can make your own buttermilk with milk and lemon juice) or for when you are really pushed for time and need something quick and delicious. I also bookmarked her best butter cookie cut out, blueberry zucchini bread and banana chiffon cake. 

 ready to go in the oven 

dust with lots of icing sugar 

 moist crumb 

Recipe adapted slightly from Troyer' Loving Life - I reduced the sugar amount and omitted the brewed coffee 

350g sugar

220g all purpose flour

95g cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs 

250mls  buttermilk

125mls  vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing sugar to dust 

• In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. 
• Add eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. 
• Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes (batter will be thin). 
• Pour into greased and floured bundt tin.  
• Bake at 175C for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. 
• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• Dust with icing sugar.

Coffee and Apple muffins

I'd never have thought to pair coffee and apples together but they work! I still had a bunch of apples from my colleague's garden and didn't want to make another apple crumble or crumble cake so I had a look through my recipe collection and stumbled across these muffins. The recipe called for grated apples but I chopped them instead as I like the crunch of apples. I was intrigued by the use of coffee granules (at least I hope I read the recipe correctly) and it gave a lovely aroma and taste to the muffin. I had 2 for breakfast the next day after baking these. They are juicy and moist and I like the little chunks of apple in them. The coffee taste is quite strong and it smells delicious. The crumble topping is my favourite bit.

I'm entering them to AlphaBakes which I'm hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is C for coffee.

 add coffee filling in centre

 top with more muffin mixture

 finally add the crumble mixture

Makes 12 muffins

Coffee filling
2 tablespoons ground coffee
4 tablespoons ground almonds
4 tablespoons brown sugar

Crumble topping
20g butter, softened
2 tablespoons plain flour
4 tablespoons brown sugar

Dry ingredients
240g plain flour
75g rolled oats
3 teaspoons baking powder
85g caster sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients
150ml milk
110ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
260g (approximately 3 apples) peeled, cored and grated apples (I chopped mine into small pieces)

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the coffee filling and set aside. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the crumble topping and add 1 tablespoon of coffee filling and set aside. 
• Mix all the dry ingredients together.
• Mix all the wet ingredients together except the apples. 
• Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. 
• Finally add in the apples but be careful not to overmix. 
• Fill the muffin cups halfway. 
• Add 2 teaspoons of coffee filling then add more batter on top. 
• Fill the moulds to the top with the crumble topping.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Carrot and Walnut Cake

It's birthday month again and as Kim's favourite cake is carrot cake, it was an easy choice. I used my tried and tested carrot cake recipe but added in some walnuts for flavour and texture. I also used them to decorate the sides and edges of the cake. Needless to say, the birthday girl was very happy and I've had a request to make this for someone else who tried it for next year! 

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is C for carrot cake. 

I'm also entering this to the One Ingredient Challenge hosted by Laura from How to Cook Good Food and co-hosted by Nazima from Franglais Kitchen. The ingredient this month is walnuts which influenced my choice of nuts as I usually prefer pecans in carrot cake but I have to say it was very tasty with the walnuts! 

And finally to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior who asks us to make recipes from scratch. 

For the carrot cake
150ml olive oil
150g muscovado sugar
3 eggs
220g wholemeal flour
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
zest of 1 orange
100g raisins
250g carrots, peeled and grated
100g walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped plus extra to decorate (about 80g)

For the orange cream cheese frosting
300g cream cheese
50g butter
150g icing sugar
zest of 1 orange
1-2 tablespoons fresh orange juice (depending on consistency of icing requred)

• Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 x 18cm sandwich tins. 
• In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil, sugar and eggs until the sugar has dissolved and the eggs are slightly fluffy. 
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, bicabonate of soda and spices and add to the egg mixture.
• Add in the remaining ingredients and mix well. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between 2 tins (I usually weigh them to get even sized cakes)
• Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until the cake springs back from the edge and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• Meanwhile make the frosting by beating all the ingredients in an electric mixer until smooth.
• Sandwich the cakes with frosting and spread a thick layer on top of the cake.
• Decorate with toasted, chopped walnuts on the outside and edge of cake. 

Cinnamon and Pumpkin Spice Thumbprint Cookies

Someone I know is having a bit of a rough time in her personal life so I wanted to make something comforting. I thought about what would equate to a hug in cookie form and I think this is it! It's a warming and comforting cinnamon spice cookie topped with a Hershey's pumpkin spice kiss! She absolutely loved it and I hope it helped to make her feel better.

I saw these Hershey's kisses on my recent trip to America and couldn't resist trying them. They really do taste of pumpkin spice and complements the cookie perfectly. 

I'm entering them to Alphabakes which I am hosting this month and co host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is C for cinnamon and cookie. Each month we generate a random letter and ask for entries with that letter as the main ingredient or name of bake.

I'm also sending it to Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes. The theme is Halloween and I think these would be perfect for a Halloween party.

And to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer.  They are asking for any bite sized treats with a Halloween theme.

Addendum 31/10/13
I'm also sending this to Let's Celebrate Halloween on Just Not the Cakes which is hosted by Shey who asks us to link up any Halloween related recipe.

 

indent cooking dough before baking

 place a Hershey's kiss in the centre once out of the oven

 

 Jar of cookies 

Makes ~ 42 cookies

225g butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
pinch of salt
42 Hershey's pumpkin spice kisses

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add in egg and vanilla extract.
• Sift flour, cinnamon and mixed spice and add to the mixture. 
• Scoop small balls of dough on to the baking tray spaced apart.
• Make an indentation in the centre with your thumb. 
• Bake for 9 - 10 minutes until lightly browned but still soft to touch. 
• Remove from the oven and place a Hershey's pumpkin spice kiss on top of each cookie and bake for a further 1-2 minutes. 
• Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Candy Corn Oreo Brownies

This is the first of my planned Halloween bakes this month. I love Halloween and try and bake something different each year. On my recent trip to America, I came across these limited edition candy corn oreos and decided to incorporate them into a brownie. I used my favourite fudgy brownie recipe and it worked a treat. The brownies have a crisp edge with a fudgy, gooey centre and the candy corn oreos add colour and crunch. These were given away as a gift and were very well received.

I'm entering this to several challenges this month. Firstly to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is C for Candy Corn Oreo.

I'm also sending this to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Halloween.

And to Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes. The theme this month is also Halloween.

And to another new challenge this month called Flavors of USA hosted by Emma from Souperior and Nayna of Simply Food. These candy corn oreos came from America so I think this is quite fitting.

Addendum 31/10/13
I'm also sending this to Let's Celebrate Halloween on Just Not the Cakes which is hosted by Shey who asks us to link up any Halloween related recipe.

Addendum 22/11/13 - I've been awarded the best recipe award for the event "Let's Celebrate Halloween" - thank you!

 candy corn oreos 

 stir in sugar to melted chocolate and butter 

 whisk in the eggs 

 adding the candy corn oreos 

 ready to go in the oven

 freshly baked 

 yum! 

200g butter, chopped into smallish cubes
375g sugar
170g chocolate, roughly chopped
165g flour
80g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
approximately 17 Candy Corn oreo cookies (plus extra to munch on whilst baking), roughly chopped.

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a medium sized pan, melt the butter and chocolate.
• Then whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. 
• Continue mixing until you get a smooth mixture then remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.
• Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then the flour and cocoa powder until you get a fudgy mixture as shown. 
• Stir in 12 of the chopped candy corn oreos, reserving the rest to sprinkle on top.
• Pour the mixture into a square baking pan and sprinkle the remaining 5 chopped candy corn oreos on top. 
• Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until the top is crisp and the edges are cooked. 
• Allow to cool in the pan. 
• Slice and enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Crumble Cake

There's a definite autumnal feel in the air which means crumble time! My colleague brought in bags of apples from her garden for us to enjoy. I decided to make an apple cinnamon custard crumble cake mainly because it contains a lot of  'C' s which is the letter for this month's AlphaBakes. Unfortunately, my custard split and I didn't have anymore milk to make a second batch so I had to leave it out. It would have tasted much better with a custard layer but it was extremely good on its own. The cake smelt amazing whilst baking mainly due to the cinnamon. The apples in the cake made it lovely and moist but my favourite part was the crunchy crumble topping. This is the first time I've used wholemeal flour for the crumble and it worked. Definitely a recipe to make again and again.

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter as mentioned is C for cinnamon and crumble.

 

I'm also sending this to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the idea is to make everything from scratch. It's been a while since I've entered anything so I'm pleased to join in this week.

And to a new blogging challenge called Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. These apples came from my colleagues garden so it was definitely locally sourced - not many carbon miles there :)

 I used a food processor to make my crumble 

 apples tossed in cinnamon and brown sugar 

 adding to the sponge batter 

 I placed some slices of apple on top - if you are using custard, add a layer here before adding the crumble mix 

 ready to go in the oven 

 freshly baked 

 yum! 

An original recipe by bakingaddict
Makes 1 x 23cm cake

For the sponge cake
225g butter
225g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
3 apples - peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
(+1 apple cut into slices to arrange on top of the cake - optional)
4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon brown sugar (or to taste)

For the cumble topping
120g butter
80g wholemeal flour
120g brown sugar
80g jumbo rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Make the crumble topping first by blitzing butter and flour in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can also do this by hand.
• Next add in the sugar, oats and cinnamon and pulse gently until mixed. 
• Place in the fridge whilst you make the cake. 
• To make the sponge, start by preparing the apples. Peel, core and cut them and then toss in cinnamon and brown sugar. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time
• Mix in the flour and baking powder.
• Finally stir in  the apples. 
• Pour the cake batter into a 23cm springform tin and level it off.
• Arrange slices of apples on top.
• If you want to add a custard layer - either homemade or shop bought then add it now.
• Pour the crumble mix on top. 
• Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes until golden brown and well risen. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.