mixed berry and lemon drizzle cake

A fresh, fruity and zingy cake. Perfect for a sunny, socially distanced summer picnic in my mum and dad's garden a few weeks ago.

It's based on this recipe, another classic from BBC Good Food's website which I've baked before. I actually made the original version (with lime) the previous week and thoroughly enjoyed it but then fancied trying it again with lemon instead.

The recipe states to use an 8" square tin but like the previous times I've made it I used a 9" round tin (it holds the equivalent volume) as I find round cakes easier and more pleasing to slice.

Usually I buy fresh berries for baking but this time I used a bag of frozen mixed berries (a mixture of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and red currants, maybe even blackcurrants?!) as that's what I had to hand. This worked really nicely and was also a lot cheaper. I'll definitely do this again.

And for the first time ever the berries didn't all sink to the bottom. I don't know if this had something to do with using frozen over fresh or the consistency of the batter. Regardless, I did a little happy dance when the cake came out the oven.

As far as I'm concerned this is a complete winner of a cake. It's a decent size too for feeding a family, although no judgement from me if you plan to eat it all yourself. 

carrot, coconut and lime cake

I was flicking through my baking books one sleepless night last month when I came across this recipe and thought it would be a nice cake to bake for Father's Day. My Dad loves carrot cake, coconut and lime flavours, and I'm a fan of trying new carrot cake recipes. Everyone's a winner!

This is the most summery carrot cake I've ever baked or eaten. The coconut and lime make it so light, fresh and zingy; totally different to the more traditional spiced carrot cake with darker sugar and nuts. Although I'm probably still more of a fan of the latter this was a lovely, refreshing change. I particularly enjoyed the lime in the cream cheese icing. I always forget how much I like lime.

It's worth noting that the icing tasted very butter-heavy. Although I didn't mind it I'd feel tempted to change the icing ingredient ratios if making again.

I made a couple of ingredient substitutions due to what I had in the cupboard and what I could get from the local shop. The original recipe uses shredded coconut, which I imagine would add great texture to the cake but I could only get desiccated coconut. As you can see this worked fine too. I toasted some of the desiccated coconut for decoration on top and made way too much so expect to see more coconut on the blog!

Carrot, coconut and lime cake

Recipe very mildly adapted from National Trust "Traditional Teatime Recipes" book by Jane Pettigrew.

cake:
2 large eggs
100g (4oz) soft light brown sugar (I used a mixture of muscovado and caster sugar as that's what I had in the cupboard)
75ml (3fl oz) sunflower oil
175g (6oz) grated carrot
100g (4oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g (2oz) desiccated coconut

icing:
75g (3oz) full fat cream cheese
75g (3oz) slightly salted butter
50g (2oz) icing sugar
grated rind of one lime

topping:
grated rind of one lime and some toasted desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/375F/Gas mark 5. Grease and line a 18cm/7 inch round tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl with an electric whisk beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the oil and mix again well. Fold in the remaining ingredients until everything is combined then pour into the prepared cake tin and level the top. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden, risen and a cake skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. My cake was ready at 33 minutes, so I suggest keeping an eye on it after 30 minutes has passed. Leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar and butter for a few minutes until light and creamy, then add in the cream cheese and lime rind. Mix again until well combined then spread over the fully cooled cake. Decorate the cake with more grated lime and some toasted desiccated coconut.

rhubarb jam and vanilla muffins

I had quite a lot of rhubarb left over after making my almond and rhubarb cake so I thought I'd make some jam. I've only made jam once before and it didn't go well as it over set.

Yet again my inability to make jam struck again as my rhubarb jam over set, but somewhat confusingly my thermometer was nowhere near jam setting temperature. Eventually I took the jam off the heat as I knew it would have burned had I left it longer. The resulting jam is dense and sticky when the recipe said it should have a fairly loose consistency as it uses granulated sugar rather than preserving/jam sugar. I don't understand how I got this so wrong. Perhaps my jam thermometer is faulty?! Any insight gratefully received.

Anyway, the jam still tasted nice despite being solid, so it wasn't a complete write off. I read online that over set jam could be salvaged by heating it up with a small amount of water. I'm so glad I tried this! I've discovered that the reheated jam tastes amazing with plain yoghurt and berries.

Anyway, I digress. Basically I heated up enough jam to dollop teaspoonfuls of it in the middle of my muffin mixture before baking. The muffin recipe is the same as last time, but with a jammy centre instead of blueberries. I also sprinkled some porridge oats on top for a bit of texture and visual interest.

The muffins tasted lovely and more importantly I didn't drop the cake tin this time. If I don't end up eating all my reheated jam with plain yoghurt I think I'll bake these muffins again.