Blackberry bakewell cake

The recipe for this cake actually calls for raspberries, but after last week's unfortunate raspberry incident I was in no hurry to revisit them. In fact I went as far as glaring at the raspberries in the supermarket and bought blackberries instead. Much more seasonal not to mention bug free, hurray!

I toyed with the idea of replacing the vanilla extract with almond extract to ramp up the bakewell flavour (and I see I had the same thought when I baked this cake last year) but I came to the conclusion that the sweetness of vanilla would compliment and balance the super tart blackberries.

I also see from last year's post that I mentioned this cake would be good served warm with custard. I can now testify this as that's exactly how we ate it at the weekend and the waft of vanilla from the reheated cake is amazing. 

Custard snobs will throw their hands up in horror because we made custard from the powder. Quite frankly I don't care, I love custard made from powder!

This is definitely a cake I can recommend to almond fans. My mum was delighted that I revisited this recipe as she loved it the first time round. The recipe can be found on BBC Good Food. and the only change I made was my choice of berry. As my blackberries were quite large I cut them in half to spread them evenly through the mixture. I also found my cake took an extra 15 minutes to bake.

Lemon drizzle cake and bad raspberries

I didn't actually intend to bake a lemon drizzle cake at the weekend. The original plan was to bake lemon and raspberry cupcakes but on the day cupcakes no longer appealed to me. That's when I thought I'd bake a drizzle cake with some raspberries thrown on top.

When I'm baking with berries I always have to eat at least one before adding them to the batter and this was no exception.

However when I tipped the raspberries into a bowl to coat in flour (to stop them sinking in the mixture) I noticed a little bug inside one of the raspberries...... and another..... and another.... and in the packaging. Basically the raspberries were crawling with tiny bugs.

Ewwwwwww I ate a bug!!!!

Needless to say I put the raspberries in the bin. And I cleaned the fridge.

So it's just a plain old lemon drizzle cake. Perhaps not exactly what I had planned, but always reliable and delicious in its simplicity.

I also noticed that my cake and plate matched my outfit. It's nice when that happens.

new pyrex

My sister-in-law found these fantastic pyrex glass tumblers for me last week. They remind me of something I may have found at my Granny and Grandad's (on Dad's side) kitchen cupboards when I was little.

I might employ my sister-in-law to become my own professional pyrex finder as she also found a sugar bowl and gravy boat for me this summer. She's definitely got an eye for it.

Cherries, blackberries and strawberries. I don't think I own any tumblers other than a Pirates of the Caribbean one I bought in the Disney Store when I started uni, so these are a welcome addition to the crockery collection.

Naturally I had to rearrange the dresser to show off more of my pyrex pieces. I think the tumblers look great against the green :)

Has anyone else been given anything special or had a good find recently?

red velvet cake

On Saturday night I went into town, just like all the other cool, young people. Except I went to the supermarket. To buy cake ingredients. Then I visited my brother's family and told my nephews bedtime stories about Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft (I don't understand Minecraft.) Later on I baked this red velvet cake.

Living life on the edge, people.

I've never baked a red velvet cake before although I baked red velvet cupcakes way back in my early days of blogging. Although my cake is more dark pink than deep red I was very pleased with it. The sponge is very light and soft in texture due to the buttermilk, and lightly flavoured with cocoa and vanilla. The vanilla cream cheese icing adds to the overall indulgent, creamy flavour.

The cake also gave me an opportunity to try out my new icing pen kindly gifted from British bakeware company, Tala. As the cake wasn't for anybody in particular, I doodled the word "yum" and some love hearts around the border. I drew it all freehand but I think the direct, unmeasured approach adds charm. It makes a fun change from my usual "throw on a pile of sprinkles" approach to cake decorating.

I already own a larger icing syringe but for smaller, linear details such as handwriting the pen is perfect. Plus it's pink and packaged in a pretty tin which is a lovely stylish touch. I suspect it'll come in very handy for decorating gingerbread men at Christmas. Thanks Tala!

Red velvet cake
Recipe from "Vintage Cakes" by  Jane Brocket.

120g softened butter
300g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
10g cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
220g buttermilk
1-2 tsp red food colouring gel/paste (I recommend buying good quality)
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 heaped tsp of bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3 and grease and line two 20cm round cake tins. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt. Mix then carefully add to the other mixture in batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Add the red colouring and gently fold the mixture until it's a solid deep red colour. In another bowl, mix together the bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar before folding into the cake batter. 

Once mixed, divide the batter between two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are firm and springy to touch (or a cake skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean). Leave to cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

icing:
110g softened butter
400g icing sugar
220g soft cream cheese (full fat)
a few drops of vanilla extract

Beat together the icing sugar and butter. Once combined add the cream cheese (I added mine cold from the fridge) and the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly until smooth. If needed, level the cakes before icing. There's easily enough icing to sandwich the cake and cover the top and sides. For the writing I mixed up a small amount of icing sugar, water and red food colouring to pipe using the icing pen.

Disclaimer: I was kindly sent a product to use/review by Tala. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.