Saturday 1 December 2012

Bake of the Month - November - Carrot Cake


Carrot cake is my husband’s favourite cake and his birthday is in November so it seemed appropriate to have this as my monthly blog recipe this month. I think this is the best carrot cake I’ve ever made. It’s tasty, moist and it’s easy too, I managed to make this with new six week old baby Hector strapped in his sling. The original recipe came from the Hairy Bikers but as usual I’ve adapted and simplified it slightly. As usual the best cakes use the best ingredients so get good quality flour (I always use Doves Farm) and the freshest of free range eggs.

Ingredients:

7oz self raising flour
3oz sultanas
3oz walnuts (broken up)
Zest of ½ an orange
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarb
Pinch salt
3 eggs
6fl oz sunflower oil
6oz soft, light brown sugar
7 oz carrots, grated
For the icing:
5oz icing sugar
5oz butter
6 oz cream cheese
1tsp orange juice
Zest of ½ an orange

Method:

Line and grease two cake tins and preheat oven to 160C/Gas Mark 4

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb into a bowl. Add sultanas, walnuts, orange zest and cinnamon and mix.

Put eggs, oil and sugar into another bowl or jug and whisk until smooth.

Make a well in your dry mixture and pour in the egg mixture and grated carrots. Mix well, making sure there’s no lumps of flour. Pour into your tins and bake for about 35/40 mins.

When you take out the oven leave to cool in tins for five minutes before you remove them onto a cooling rack.

I make my icing in the food processor. It’s less messy and much quicker. Whiz the butter and icing sugar together first then add the orange juice, zest and cream cheese. Decorate the cake when it’s completely cooled. Sprinkle some chopped walnuts on the top. I would have taken a picture of the finished cake to show you but most it got scoffed before I got a chance!


Thursday 1 November 2012

Bake of the Month - October - Millionaires Shortbread



I absolutely LOVE millionaires shortbread. Problem is it’s the most calorific thing you can eat and has no ‘goodness’ in whatsoever. So, as a breastfeeding mother I have the perfect excuse. I need around an extra 500 calories a day and, as my son is a big old baby (8lb 7oz at birth, weighing in at 10lb at just over three weeks old) I say ‘bring on the tasty treats’.  Oh, and they’re still good for those of you who aren’t breastfeeding, you just might have to substitute a piece for say, an entire meal.

Ingredients:

For the base:
200g butter
200g digestive biscuits

For the caramel:
150g butter
150g light soft brown sugar
1 tin (397g) of condensed milk

For the topping:
Either 2 or 3 100g bars of chocolate (depending on how much chocolate topping you want!) one or two of dark and one of milk

Method:
Line a square tin with baking parchment. It’s a good idea to have the parchment coming up over the sides so you can lift it all out and cut into pieces when it’s done.
Melt the butter and whiz the biscuits in a food processor. Add melted butter and whisk again. Press evenly into your tin and set aside.

To make the caramel melt the butter and add the sugar, stir to combine making sure the sugar has melted into the butter. Add the condensed milk and bring to the boil, then simmer for 6-7 minutes, stirring all the time until thickened. If you get those horrid brown flecks from the bottom of the pan just sieve them out when your pour the caramel over the biscuit base. Chill for an hour.

Melt the chocolate together and pour over your caramel layer and chill again until set (about 4-5 hours). You can decorate how you please. I used gold lustre, dusting it on with a pastry brush. Or you could sprinkle with nuts while the chocolate is still soft, or melt white chocolate separately and pour on after the milk and dark, swirling it around to make a pattern. Or don’t do anything at all. It will still taste incredibly good, and will still be very bad for you!


Thursday 20 September 2012

Bake of the Month September - Lunchbox 'Flapjack'


It’s been a while since my last blog entry. August turned out to be a very busy month, starting with the pop up shop. I also went away to visit family, had a lot of tea parties to cater for and I am also very pregnant so everything takes twice as long as usual! Anyway, this bake, even though it’s a little late may have actually come about at the right time. The kids have been back to school for a couple of weeks now, but I’m already hearing parents complaining that they’re fresh out of ideas when it comes to lunch boxes. This recipe comes for Annabel Karmel’s ‘You Can Cook’, which shows you step by step ways to cook with your kids. I haven’t followed her recipe to the letter (I seem to have an inability to follow any recipe in this way) and adapted it to what the kids like and what was in the cupboard at the time. To be honest, I think this is what any parent does right? These ‘flapjacks’ last long enough in the fridge and they’re more likely to eat them if they’ve helped to make them themselves. I had two helpers with mine, my daughter Molly and her best friend Xavvi. Needless to say, the flapjacks didn’t last the week.
Ingredients:
3oz butter
3 oz brown sugar
3 tablespoons of syrup, maple or golden, it doesn’t matter
½ tsp salt
2 ½ oz dried fruit, we used apricots and blueberries.
4oz oats
1oz rice crispies
1 oz desiccated coconut
1 oz sultanas (we didn’t put these in, we don’t like them, we just added more coconut instead)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170C / Gas Mark 3. Line an 8 inch square tin with baking parchment, and make sure that the paper comes up the sides of the tin so you can lift it out at the end.

Put the butter, sugar, syrup and salt into a saucepan. Heat gently and stir until it’s all melted and mixed in, then leave to cool while you do the other stuff

Chop the dried fruit into little bits and put into a bowl with oat, rice crispies, coconut and sultanas. Then pour over the butter mixture.

Stir well to combine and then spoon into your tin. Press down evenly. We used a potato masher to do this. Bake for about 30 minutes making sure it’s golden around the edges; wait till it’s cooled before slicing up. It has a tendency to fall apart if you don’t!


Wednesday 25 July 2012

Bake of the Month - July - Lavender Biscuits



Finally! Summer’s here. We can use our overgrown gardens and take stock of our losses to the slugs (a whole row of celeriac which I nurtured from seed and were eaten within days of planting out). The lavender flowers in my garden have almost gone already so I had to get in quick to bake a batch of my favourite biscuits. This recipe comes from Alys Fowlers ‘The Edible Garden’ a truly inspiring book which is easy to read and follow for novice gardeners like myself. The back of the book contains several recipes showing you how to make the most of your labours (including sloe gin – Christmas sorted) and this is the most used recipe in the book. The lavender flavour comes from the leaves and so is very delicate.  You can also keep half the mixture in the fridge for a few days, this way your biscuits are always fresh. Makes 10-12 biscuits.

Ingredients:
5oz butter
3 ½ oz caster sugar
8oz plain flour
1 eggs yolk
1 tablespoon of fresh lavender leaves, chopped
Some lavender flowers (about three per biscuit)

Method:
Preheat oven to 160C / Gas mark 3
Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Sift in the flour, then put in egg yolk and lavender leaves. Mix well.
If you’re using a large bowl you can mix together in the bowl with your hands. If not turn it out onto a floured surface and knead into a smooth ball. Shape into a cylinder about 3-4 inches in diameter and cut into 10-12 sections.
Lay these out onto greased baking trays (remember to leave enough space between them as biscuits spread) and press about three lavender flowers into each.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, they should be firm but not brown. Leave on the tray once they come out of the oven for about 5 mins. If you try to move them straight away they’ll crumble. Transfer to a baking tray to cool completely. Eat in the garden with a cup of tea in between tackling the weeds.

Friday 20 July 2012

Shop till you Pop



 I’ve been banging on about this for months now, but in just over two weeks time I’ll be opening a pop up shop. A great space filled with locally made and sourced goods, and you can have yourself some tea and cake whilst you browse!  A full list of what’s available is on the website. http://www.teancake.co.uk/index.php/events/pop-up-paul-st/ If you’re thinking of popping over to Frome for a look then please, spend the day here. There are a whole load of first - class, independent shops in this quirky little town and a plethora of places to eat. 


Let me walk you through it. When you arrive in Frome start at the Cheese and Grain (if you’re driving then you can park here). If it’s Wednesday, pop in and check out the Antique and Collectors market and the peoples market in the car park. The cheese stall, as you’d expect for a Somerset town, is excellent. If it’s Thursday, get here early and visit the country market for the cheapest and best quality cut flowers around.  The Black Swan close by has a great cafe, which is worth coming back to for lunch (they do a mean burger!) and some artists’ workshops including Little Studio Red and Rachel Anne Bird’s jewellery workshop. 


Walking through town you cannot miss Cheap St. This little lane has a stream running down the middle of it. Up here you will find a deli, a health food shop, a traditional bookshop, Raves from the Grave selling lots of vinyl, an old style sweet shop, a tea room and right at the top is Cafe La Strada. If you like ice cream you have to stop here. They get in different flavours all the time. If you’re lucky they might just have the gin and tonic one. 


Back down Cheap St and across the road is where the St Catherine’s area starts, on Stony St. From here all the way up the hill you’ll find amazing shops. Truly Sopel makes and sells her fabulous clothing range here, not to mention Truly Knickers which are handmade, British and beautiful. Assembly does a great range of men’s clothing and accessories that you won’t find on every High St. Make and Mend, Poot and Nova are great vintage boutiques selling everything from furniture to handbags. Not to mention our little pop up shop, a short trip up the steps across from Make and Mend. If you fancy a cup of tea and slice of cake at this point we can offer you that too! After visiting us, keep going up the Hill and be inspired by Millie Moon. The most dazzling and delightful haberdashery you’ve ever seen. They not only sell the fabric they run a whole myriad of courses to help you decide and learn what to do with it all. See http://milliemoonshop.co.uk  for more info. Soon after this you’ll reach Bramble and Wild, the ‘Alice in Wonderland ‘of Florists. But there’s more, keep going for the best coffee in Frome at the Little Red Cafe. If you’re looking for super glam then keep going till you find Deadly is the Female. Their scarily high heels and vintage inspired dresses are drop dead gorgeous! If by this time you’re not full of tea, cake and ice cream and fancy a spot of lunch then do try the Garden Cafe (all vegetarian and organic) or the Archangel (great gourmet food. Actually, there’s so much on offer, you may as well stay for dinner too!








Saturday 14 July 2012

Favourite Bakes - Nigel Slater


After asking people what their favourite bakes were I’ve had more than one request for coffee and walnut cake. I couldn’t understand the fuss. Every time I’ve ordered this cake in a tea room or cafe it has tasted of absolutely nothing. Coffee and walnut aren’t exactly the most tasteless of foods so how could the combination in a cake be so boring? Needless to say I wasn’t feeling too inspired. But when looking at different recipes for this I found that this is also the favourite cake of one of my foodie heros Nigel Slater. He is quite simply, the best food writer. So, I decided not to mess with his recipe (well, not too much). When Nigel says instant coffee is best for this cake I am not going to argue. He does however, stress the importance of good quality ingredients which I have found makes a huge difference in baking. Always use the best flour and the freshest eggs. So here is Nigel Slater’s coffee and walnut cake, a cake he has stated he would choose for his ‘last supper’.

Ingredients:
6oz butter (left out of the fridge till soft)
6oz unrefined golden caster sugar
65g walnut pieces
3 large eggs
6oz self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2tsp coffee granules

For the filling:
150g butter
300g icing sugar
2 tsp coffee granules
50g walnut pieces
 You will also need two loose bottom case tins, lined.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4
Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Use an electric mixer  if you have one.
Crack the eggs into a bowl, break them up and add a little at a time into the butter and sugar, beating well.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and then add into sugar gently, Nigel says to use the electric mixer on a slow speed.
Dissolve the coffee granules with a tablespoon of boiling water and stir into the cake mixture along with the chopped walnuts
Pour into the two tins and bake for 20-25 mins. Take out and cool on a rack.
To make the butter cream beat butter till soft and pale, then add sugar a little at a time till smooth and creamy. Again, stir in a tablespoon of hot water to dissolve the coffee and stir into the butter cream with the walnut pieces.
You can either put half in between the cakes and half on top or whack it all in between. Nigel’s recipe has more butter cream and he slathers it all over the cake as well, but that’s too much for me. So I put the cream in the middle (in fact there was still some left over, I couldn’t handle all that butter!) and dusted the top with icing sugar. Other than that I stuck to Nigel’s recipe throughout. He is the cookery God after all.

I am now a coffee and walnut convert.  If you haven’t made this before, do it, it’s seriously good.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Favourite Bakes – Pippa Goldfinger


Frome recently got itself a new WI, the sort that has a Facebook page and an average member age that is about half of the usual 70. I went along to a meeting to see if I’d be interested and somehow found myself on the committee.  As part of my duties I volunteered to interview our new mayor, Pippa Goldfinger, for the WI blog: http://fromewi.blogspot.co.uk/ . She’s a friend and lives next door but one, so it wasn’t exactly a chore. The questions asked by our members were mostly political but we are the WI after all, so I had to ask her about her favourite cake. Her answer was a Tarte De Naraja, a Spanish Almond and Orange Cake. I’d never heard of it before but it sounded good and it got me thinking. What are other people’s favourite cakes? I put this question to my twitter and facebook followers and got some great answers. I am going to choose a few to include on the blog over the next few weeks and am starting of course with the Tarte De Naranja. Expect to also see Coffee and Walnut Cake and Banana Cupcakes with Peanut butter frosting in the near future. If you want to see your favourite on the blog, please email me with your cake (and recipe if it’s a really specific one!) info@teancake.co.uk
This cake is another easy one. It has very few ingredients and is gluten free and so makes even more people happy! You could even call it healthy. Almonds are VERY good for you and it contains one of you five a day.
Ingredients

For the cake:
Four eggs, separated
5 ½ oz ground almonds
5 ½ oz caster sugar
Zest of two oranges

For the syrup:
Four oranges, juiced
½ lemon, juiced
½ cinnamon stick
Caster sugar - to taste

You will also need a springform tin, lined with a circle of greaseproof paper.

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4
  • Put one tablespoon of the sugar in with the egg whites and tip the rest in with the yolks. Beat the yolks and sugar until pale.
  • Add the almonds and zest, mix together
  • Beat the egg whites (with the sugar in) until stiff, then fold into the cake mixture very gently, keeping as much air as possible
  • Gently pour into the tin and bake on middle shelf of the oven for about an hour (give another ten minutes if your oven isn’t too powerful). The cake is ready when it is golden and feels firm
  • Whilst the cake is baking make your syrup. Tip all ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for about five minutes and pour into a jug. Leave to cool and then put in the fridge.
  • When the cake is done, leave on the side in the tin until totally cooled. Take out of the tin and place onto serving plate, pierce with a skewer several times then pour over as much of the syrup as you like (you can save some for serving with). Don’t pour all on at once, do it a little at a time.
  • Mayor Goldfinger likes to eat hers with crème fraiche.


Sunday 3 June 2012

My First Bakeoff


Even though I’ve been confident to turn my baking skills into part of my business I’ve never entered a competition. When I booked a stall at the Great Box Bakeoff however, I was faced with this option for the first time. How could I not enter? The pressure was on and it was a truly nerve wrecking experience. The idea of not winning makes me break out in a cold sweat. I chose to make a cake I know tastes and looks good and is a bit different as well as being reliable too. But that doesn’t stop the last minute panic, the reading and rereading of the ‘rules’ and of course the mad crazy decision at six o clock on the morning of the bake off to make another entry. So in addition to my Rose and Pistachio Cake and preparing for my stall I decided to enter a savoury bake of wholemeal cheese scones. Oh, and did I mention that I’m 23 weeks pregnant?
Despite all that I made it there with my mother (who couldn’t help as she’d hurt her back) and my three year old and got both my cakes and stall set up with time enough for a little bit of lunch before the fun began.
It truly was a special occasion. The cakes were amazing and the stalls looked beautiful. Mine fit particularly well with the vintage theme but my personal favourites were Rockadoo http://www.rockadoo.co.uk/ a lovely lady who makes great denim aprons for both kids and adults and upcycled bags made from old jeans. Also, Lionheart Designs http://www.lionheartdesigns.co.uk who make the most beautiful jewellery using vintage pictures and photographs.

The best part of the day however was the atmosphere. The organisers from Toast http://www.lovetoast.co.uk/  put in a huge amount of effort, making sure the place was wonderfully decorated, included a live action Mad Hatters Tea Party and great singers (20th Century Foxes http://www.gavinlazarusmusic.com/cabaret/) and dance teachers (Hopping Mad Swing Duo) . Everyone made the effort, dressing in red white and blue and dancing enthusiastically.

But the cherry on the cake for me was winning first prize in my category! The rose and pistachio cake did it! I wore my rosette with pride. Phew! It would have felt a little shameful to come home without a prize. As for my cheese scones? No mention I’m afraid, but this was my first competition and I’m just happy to have received any prize!


So, a big thanks to Toast, the judges and to the people of Box who made this part of the Jubilee weekend a thoroughly enjoyable one!

Sunday 15 April 2012

Bake of the Month - April - Picnic Pie

This month’s bake is in celebration of our new summer picnic hamper hire at Tea ‘n’ Cake. It includes either homemade scotch eggs or these great pies, take a peek at http://www.teancake.co.uk/index.php/summer-picnic-hamper/ They can be eaten warm but I think they taste better cold. Even better, they freeze too, so you can make enough for one picnic and freeze the rest for another. This recipe makes four individual pies.

Ingredients:
  •          Half a block of puff pastry
  •          200g sausage meat
  •          apples peeled, cored and grated
  •       onions grated
  •          thyme leaves
  •          cooked ham, sliced
  •          wholegrain mustard
  •          1 beaten egg, to glaze

Method:
Heat oven to 180C or gas 5. Mix the sausage meat with the apples, onions and thyme and season.

Roll out your pastry and cut four circles, big enough to fit a large, non stick muffin tin and line the tins.

At the bottom of each pie please some of the sliced ham and slather on some mustard. Then put on a layer of the sausage meat. Repeat this process.

Roll out the rest of the pastry again and cut out tops for the pies. Use the beaten egg to help stick the lids and then glaze them. With a knife stick a couple of holes in the top of each pie and put in the oven for about 25/30 mins.

Take the pies out of the muffin tins and place on a baking sheet. Put back in the oven for 5-10mins to make sure the pastry is evenly cooked and then take out to cool.  Tastes great with Piccalilli! 

Thursday 5 April 2012

Nests are made with twigs!


Every Easter I make chocolate nests for friends, family and neighbours. They’re easy, tasty and they look good. My mum used to make them when I was a kid and in more recent years they’ve been appearing in the shops. What I cannot understand is why they are always made using cornflakes. Cornflakes do not look like twigs! Now admittedly, it’s not that big a deal. But I’m ginger, so it doesn’t take much to make me cross. So here’s my plea. If you plan to make nests this Easter (cheaper than Easter eggs and a lot less packaging), then use Shredded Wheat! Cornflakes taste good with milk on and trust me, Shredded Wheat tastes a lot better covered in chocolate (not like twigs) . Have a happy Easter!

Friday 23 March 2012

Make and Cake




The weather's great and what better way to spend it than with friends having afternoon tea in the caravan? My very creative friend and neighbour Frome Maid (who has her own lovely blog by the way www.fromemaid.com/) came over with three great new tea cosies for us to photograph. We are planning to run a workshop with the brilliant Millie Moon milliemoonshop.co.uk/ giving customers the chance to make their very own vintage style tea cosy, eat as much cake and drink as much tea as they like! Frome Maid will be on hand to demonstrate how to make these lovely creations whilst you eat lovely treats on fine vintage china. You'll then be given access to the machines to make your very own cosy. Victoria will be on hand all evening to assist with the sewing and I'll be around to ensure there's plenty tea flowing. All materials needed for the tea cosies are of course included in the price. Full details can be found at http://www.teancake.co.uk/index.php/events/make-and-cake/  These tea cosies are perfect for 2012. How much more British can you get? I have already bagged a London one for my Jubilee party! Why not come along and make your own? Once you've got the pattern and the know how, you can make a whole bunch of them. Perfect presents!

Thursday 15 March 2012

Bake of the Month - March - Mother's Day Cake



This month’s bake is one for Dads. Well, Dads and their kids. It’s got everything a mum wants for Mother’s Day (cake and chocolate) and it appeals to kids too (cake and chocolate). The idea is that dad and the kids make this while mum has a well deserved rest. Most of all it looks good, tastes good and is easy to make. Please bear in mind this is about a two hour job start to finish. A lot of that is ‘waiting’ time which can of course be filled with cleaning the house, and /or foot rubs. Hmmm, I wonder if my husband will read this.

Ingredients:
  •          Caster Sugar: 150g
  •          Butter (softened): 100g
  •          Vanilla Pod
  •          Eggs: 2
  •          Plain flour: 200g
  •          Baking Powder: 3 teaspoons
  •          Vanilla Extract: 1 teaspoon
  •          Desiccated Coconut: 100g
  •          Double Cream: 100ml
  •          White Chocolate: 200g
  •          Raspberries: 1 punnet
  •          Dark Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: 50g

Method:
Make sure the butter is out of the fridge for a while beforehand so it’s soft. Put butter and sugar together in a bowl. Take vanilla pod and cut in half. Cut in half again, lengthways this time and put the rest away for another time. Scrape out the seeds into the butter and sugar.

Cream the butter and sugar together, use an electric whisk if you have one. Kids love to use them and it makes life easier. Crack in one egg at a time and beat into the mixture. Sift in the flour and baking powder and put in your teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat in again. Give the kids a beater to lick and put the mixture in your choice of tin. I always use a loaf tin as it’s one of those silicon ones that make it really easy to get the cake 
out.
 
Put in the oven for about 45 mins of 180C or gas 6. If you’ve got a fan oven it’ll take about 5 mins less. Meanwhile make the white chocolate ganache

Break up the white chocolate into small pieces and boil the cream in a pan. As soon as it boils take off the heat and chuck in all the chocolate. Mix it like mad till all the chocolate has melted and put in the fridge.
Once the cake is out, put on a cooling rack and leave to completely cool. Your ganache should be OK by then, pourable but very thick and sticky. Pour all over the cake and then put the raspberries on the top. If loads of ganache has run off then spoon it over again. It’s meant to look messy! Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over some hot water and drizzle over the top of the cake.
 
Make sure you (or the kids) do the washing up too. Voila. One happy Mum.





Sunday 4 March 2012

Time for Tea?


I have always wanted to own my own successful business. This last month has been spent launching Tea 'n' Cake as a 'proper' business. At the end of last year I had enough stock to start selling online with Etsy to expand my audience http://www.etsy.com/shop/TNCake When doing markets people often asked if I hired out the china and at Christmas my husband suggested that I offer bespoke tea parties. I have all the china and can bake bloody good cakes so why not? But how should I market myself? How do you sell something like a tea party delivery business? I had made a decision at the beginning of the year that if I was going to expand the idea of Tea 'n' Cake I would have to do some real branding and marketing, and spend some money. I committed all my takings from Christmas to promoting the new Tea ‘n’ Cake. First thing was a website. I have a friend who is able to build websites. This is very lucky and also very cheap. I wanted to do it right, a site with great images of the services on offer. Luckily Ben has a great camera too. The photo shoot was a lot of fun and Ben did a fab job on the website    www.teancake.co.uk But having a website doesn’t drum up business on its own. I was recommended a local designer, Jade at BlackInk www.blackinkcomm.co.uk  who took Ben’s pictures and created a fantastic design for some leaflets. These have just been printed and distributed around Frome. I also contacted a popular local directory called TheLIST www.thelistfrome.co.uk and spoke to editor Faye. She was very friendly and full of good advice and ideas. She has supported me with some lovely editorial and I have booked some advertising, the first lot is just out. I have also written a press release (not fun) and this has now gone off to two local papers. I’ll be targeting some glossies next week. That was supposed to be the hard bit. But it was actually a lot of fun. People have been very supportive and given me lots of positive feedback on the idea and the branding. But now it’s done I feel very nervous. It’s only been days but what do I do next? Wait for the phone to ring? That feels wrong. Being busy is good even if you’re not making money (as long as you’re not spending it) but the waiting game is not fun. Perhaps I need some inspiration to market myself further. If anyone has some good advice I’m listening!

Sunday 5 February 2012

Bake of the Month - February - Red Velvet Cake

This months post is in early so you can bake this for your 'true love' on Valentines day. This is a win/win cake. If your partner gets you the required card, and if your really pushing it, present, you can wow them with this fancy cake. Or if they forgot the card, you can just eat it all yourself. Better still, share it with someone else! The cake earns it's name clearly by it's colour, a deep, dark red which used to be achieved through beetroot and is now done with colour paste (not liquid).

Ingredients:
For the cake: 
200g (7oz) unsalted, softened butter
250g (9oz) plain flour
40g (11/2 oz) cocoa powder
11/2 tsp baking powder
225g (8oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
250ml sour cream
1tbsp white wine vinegar
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp red food colouring paste

For the icing:
400g (14oz) cream cheese
125g (4oz) unsalted, softened butter
125g icing sugar
Red sugar sprinkles to decorate

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C or Gas mark 4

Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl. In a separate bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy and beat in the eggs.
Alternately beat in the dry mixture and the sour cream into the butter mixture. Then beat in the vinegar, soda and colouring. The vinegar and soda fizz up to create bubbles in the mixture, it's this that gives the cake it's velvety texture.
Spoon the mixture into two cake tins with spring form bottoms or two lined tins and put on the middle shelf of the oven. Bake for 1hr - 1hr and 10mins.
Once out of the oven and tins leave to on a rack until completely cool.
To make the icing beat butter and add the icing sugar a bit at a time until you have butter icing, then beat in the cream cheese. Other recipes tell you to beat the butter and cream cheese together first but when I do this I get lumps of butter in my icing.
Make a sandwich with the cakes with the icing in the middle and on the top. Sprinkle with the red sugar.


Sunday 29 January 2012

Say Cheese!



I have this friend Ben who knows about the internet and is handy with a camera, so obviously I've roped him into designing me a website! I also got him round yesterday with the promise of feeding both him and his family on sandwiches and cake in exchange for him taking photos on his snazzy camera. I am very pleased with the results. Here's a few (there's 216 in total). These will feature on the new website and in the leaflets we're having printed this month. It's all becoming rather real and a bit scary!


  

Monday 23 January 2012

Bake of the Month - January - Chocolate Afternoon Tea



It's January. It started well, you joined some kind of slimming club, took regular exercise and around about the 20th of the month (or earlier) you fell off the wagon. This knowledge, of course, has been gained from bitter personal experience. Having said that, I gave up on January diets a while back. I tend to wait until I get truly massive, around spring time. Therefore, I have been able to spend this month perfecting and of course, testing, this recipe. It was inspired by the Lifebuoy Cafe in Fowey, Cornwall, who have a Chocolate Afternoon Tea on their menu (http://www.thelifebuoycafe.co.uk/) and the basic scone recipe was taken from good old Delia, the queen of cooking.

So, scones, with chocolate chips, served with clotted cream and . . . . Chocolate spread, no jam in sight. You could always leave out the chocolate chips if you want to maintain some pretence of healthy eating. Bit in my opinion, if you're going to spoil your diet, do it properly. Traditional scones with jam and clotted cream invoke memories of summer’s days. This is winter. In winter we eat chocolate.

Recipe (makes about 8 generous scones):

8oz (225g) self raising flour
11/2 oz (40g) caster sugar
Pinch of salt
Half teaspoon of baking powder
3oz (75g) butter (at room temp)
2oz (50g) chocolate, chopped up. Use whatever you prefer, I used Green and Blacks dark chocolate.
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons milk

Method:
Pre-heat oven to gas mark 7 - 220 degrees C

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and sprinkle over the sugar. Then rub in the butter until you have a crumbly mixture. Then sprinkle in your chocolate, pour in the egg and 3 tablespoons of milk. Mix with your hands and make a ball. Remember not to work too much! Roll out so the dough is at least ½ inch thick and then brush with the remaining tablespoon of milk. Fold the dough in half and press down slightly. Then cut into rounds with a scone cutter. The point of folding the dough in half is so that they break easily when applying lashings of chocolate and cream. Put onto a greased baking sheet and into the oven for 10-12 minutes. Leave to cool on a rack and eat as soon as possible. Scones are always best eaten fresh and, let’s face it after nearly a month of dieting; you’re going to eat them all in one afternoon anyway.