Another carrot cake

It's birthday season at the moment which means a constant layer of icing sugar dust in my kitchen. Yay?

For last week's birthday I tried another new-to-me carrot cake recipe as there's no point in having a shelf full of baking books if I always default to the same handful of recipes. This one is from Vintage Cakes, one of my favourite books to flick through as it's full of pictures of homely bakes on pretty vintage china. To be honest I'm surprised I haven't baked this recipe before.

I think I preferred this cake to the one I made for the Man's birthday. The texture felt less wet and I've come to the conclusion I prefer the flavour of a carrot cake made with dark muscovado sugar as opposed to light brown sugar. I think it brings out the spices more.

Sadly I only have one picture of this cake so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was a winner and looked very satisfying when cut.

Carrot layer cake

Recipe (once again, slightly adapted to suit what I had available) from Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket. I also did my own thing with the icing.

Sponges:

250g self raising flour

2tsp baking powder 

In all honesty I can't remember how much spice I added, but probably 1tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp mixed spice

100g pecans, chopped 

250g dark soft brown sugar 

220ml sunflower oil

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

250g carrots, grated 

Icing:

300g icing sugar

Approx. 75g softened butter ( I used slightly salted)

Approx. 250g cream cheese (that's all I had at the time)

Zest of half an orange

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line 3 20cm/ 8" round cake tins with baking parchment.

Combine the dry ingredients into a bowl: flour, baking powder and spices. Stir in the chopped pecans.

In a large bowl mix together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs and whisk again until smooth.

Add the grated carrots and the dry mix (flour and nuts) to the wet mix (eggs, sugar, oil) and mix everything together until well combined.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake in the oven for approx. 25 minutes, until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool for a few minutes before removing from their tins and leaving to cool fully on a wire cooling rack.

For the icing mix together the butter, orange zest and icing sugar then add the cream cheese and mix until everything is smooth and fully combined. (Tip: if you have a stand mixer and find your icing goes lumpy try swapping the paddle attachment for the whisk attachment. I usually find the whisk helps to incorporate the stubborn butter lumps.)

Once the cakes are cool, spread the icing onto each sponge and stack into a layer cake. Optional: add chopped pecans on top for decoration.

Carrot and orange cake

Surprisingly, I'm not returning with another variation of mini tarts (although I still really want to bake a lemon curd version) but with a carrot cake I baked for the Man's birthday last week.

Last year I baked the carrot and ginger cake from the Hummingbird Bakery's "Cake Days" book for his birthday. Hummingbird Bakery sure do know how to make an excellent carrot cake. I often default to the carrot cake recipe from their first book for family birthdays, however I fancied making something different and a bit smaller on this occasion.

After flicking through my recipe books I landed on a carrot cake from The Great British Book of Baking, the baking book which accompanied the very first series of The Great British Bake Off. It's a lovely book yet somehow I've baked very little from it over the years. The recipes and accompanying pictures make me feel nostalgic for the early series which were very much centred around traditional (dare I say old fashioned?) wholesome home baking. 

I love orange in a carrot cake. It gives it such a sunshine-y, fresh lift in flavour which feels appropriate for a Spring birthday. I also think orange zest makes the best addition to cream cheese icing (which also attracted me to this recipe.) For the last few years I've found it difficult to make a cream cheese icing without it.

It was only when I was typing up the recipe for the blog that I discovered that I had added the zest of a whole orange when I was only meant to add half to the sponge mix. Oops! Luckily we're both big fans of orange flavour.

My only criticism regarding the cake was that I found it a touch too heavy/wet in texture, but my eaters thought I was being overly picky. I don't think this recipe will replace my love for the Hummingbird Bakery's carrot cake but it was fun to try something different and dip into a baking book I haven't used in a long time.

Carrot and orange cake

Recipe very mildly adapted (because I dislike nutmeg and misread orange quantities) from The Great British Book of Baking 

Sponges:

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder 

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground mixed spice

225g soft light brown muscovado sugar

Zest of an orange (or half, if you read the recipe accurately. . . )

100g chopped walnut pieces

3 medium size eggs

150ml sunflower oil

250g grated carrots (Squeeze out excess moisture if they feel really wet.)

Icing:

200g full fat cream cheese

50g softened butter (I use slightly salted)

150g icing sugar

Zest of 1/2 an orange 

2 tsp orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan 160C/ 350F/ Gas 4. Grease two 20cm/ 8" round cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment. 

Combine the flour, baking powder and spices in a large bowl. Next mix in the sugar, orange zest and nuts followed by the eggs, oil and carrots. Mix everything together until well incorporated then divide equally between the prepared cake tins.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 25 minutes, until risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Turn the cakes out of their tins and leave to fully cool on wire cooling racks.

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar, orange zest and butter until smooth before adding the cream cheese and mixing until well incorporated and smooth. 

Divide the icing between the two sponges and stack as a sandwich (layer) cake. Decorate with more orange zest or walnuts if desired. 

Carrot and ginger layer cake

I let Man pick a cake from my recipe books for his birthday last week and he chose the carrot and ginger cake from Hummingbird Bakery's "Cake days" book.

Although I have baked many recipes from this book I haven't made this one before which is surprising considering how much I love trying different carrot cake recipes. I can now happily report that this is another winner of a carrot cake recipe which I can add to my repertoire. 

Admittedly it is a gigantic beast of a cake (even my Kitchenaid struggled with containing the batter!) so it's definitely more of a celebration cake. However there's no reason why it can't be scaled down for a more everyday sized cake. I've done this before with Hummingbird Bakery cake recipes and it has worked well.

This was also my first time using root ginger in a cake. I fully expected the ginger to be really fiery and dominant in flavour, but it thankfully wasn't overpowering. It produced a lovely, warmly spiced carrot cake. 

Another first was roasting the pecans before adding to the cake batter. Sometimes I can find pecans a bit chewy(?) but roasting them first gives them a lovely, toasty crunch. Normally walnuts are my nut of choice for a carrot cake but this has potentially converted me to pecans.

And I can't finish this post without waxing lyrical about the orange cream cheese icing. My goodness it is tasty and perfectly compliments a carrot cake. I don't know why it took me until last year to try adding orange zest to cream cheese icing but it has fast become my favourite flavoured icing. I did my own thing when it came to icing quantities as I generally find Hummingbird Bakery icing quantities to be excessive. I also prefer a higher ratio of cream cheese to icing sugar. Cream cheese icing needs to be cream cheese-y!

Ginger and carrot cake

450g peeled and grated carrots

2 tbsp peeled and grated root ginger

80ml buttermilk

3 eggs (large)

1tsp vanilla extract

350ml sunflower oil

420g caster sugar

500g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp ground ginger 

80g pecans, roasted and chopped

Icing:

Admittedly I didn't accurately weigh things out, but it's roughly the following:

300g icing sugar

125g butter (softened)

445g Cream cheese (1 bigger pack + standard size pack of Philadelphia)

Zest of 1 orange.

Preheat the oven to 170c / 150c fan/ 325f/ gas mark 3. Grease and line 4 8" round cake tins.

Roast the nuts first. Tip them into a non stick saucepan and toss them over a medium-high heat for a few minutes until they smell toasty. Leave to cool them chop into small chunks.

In a large bowl combine the carrots, root ginger, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar. In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices. Add the dry mix to the wet mix in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition. Once fully incorporated, stir in the chopped pecans.

Divide the batter between 4 tins (or divide and portion into quarters if you only have 2 tins and need to bake the cakes in 2 batches like me.) Bake for approximately 30 minutes until risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack before icing.

For the icing, mix together the butter and the icing sugar. Add the cream cheese and orange zest and mix for a few minutes until fully combined, light and fluffy.

Level the cakes if needed. Spread the icing on top of each sponge and stack them. Crumb coat the outside of the layered cakes (if you can be bothered) or just use the remaining icing to smooth round the outside and top of the cake. Decorate with extra pecans on top.

Apple, cranberry and cinnamon cake

Whenever I spot fresh cranberries for sale in the run up to Christmas I excitably buy a pack to make this cake and/or these muffins.

However whenever I look for the recipe in my recipe file I remember I haven't written it down so I have to check my blog archive. . . only to remember I've never given the cake its own blog post either. My only mention of it is in a 2015 festive bakes round up.

I baked this cake again recently and felt it was time to rectify the lack of dedicated blog post. It's only taken close to 10 years. My yellow-tinged, night time photography with zero styling does not do the cake justice but the recipe is documented and should be easier to find in the future.

A used teabag for classy background decor. 

The original recipe was from a lovely old blog called Honey and Dough but I've tweaked it to suit myself over the years. If you still have festive cranberries hiding in your fridge or freezer this is a lovely way to use them up. 

Christmas 2022/New Year when I baked both the cake and the muffins. These were my first bakes in our new home. I still can't quite believe we moved house 2 days before Christmas that year. Madness.

Apple, cranberry and cinnamon cake

Recipe adapted from Honey and Dough blog

125g softened butter/margarine

125g soft light brown sugar 

2 eggs (large)

125g self raising flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tblsp milk

1 cooking apple (peeled, cored and sliced)

Approx. 100g fresh cranberries (chopped in half if they're big)

1 tblsp Demerara sugar for sprinkling on top before baking.

Preheat the oven to 160C fan / 180C/ gas mark 4 and grease and line a 7" deep round cake tin.

Beat together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with a food mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the flour, cinnamon, vanilla and milk and mix until everything is fully combined. Stir in around half of the cranberries.

Pour the cake batter into the tin and arrange the apple slices on top in a circular fan shape. Scatter the remaining cranberries on top along with a tbsp of demerara sugar.

Bake for approx. 1 hour until golden, well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. I check on mine after 50 minutes and add a layer of greaseproof paper to the top if it looks well coloured but the inside isn't fully baked yet.

Serve with a dusting of icing sugar. Eat warm or cold, both ways are delicious.

Banana and rhubarb streuselcake

Yes, I know, it's another rhubarb cake, but damn this is a good one!

It's another recipe from the "Rhubarbaria" I received last Christmas from the Man. I had never come across the pairing of rhubarb and banana so naturally it piqued my interest. I love banana cake, streusel topping and rhubarb so it had to be a winner.

As was the case with the last recipe I baked from this book elements of the recipe were on the vague side, which you can either be infuriated by or view as a fun challenge. I'm in the latter camp.

The recipe mentioned a 9" tin but didn't specify round or square - I guessed round and feel I made the correct choice. The ingredients were also listed as a mixture of ounces and cups. As many recipes from the book are from old UK newspaper clippings or WRI type groups I wasn't sure whether it was referring to standard American cup measures or more an old fashioned "use a drinking cup" type expression similar to my granny's handwritten recipes. In the latter case, capacity of cups vary wildly so you have to use a bit of common sense.

In the end I decided to use my American cup measures but weighed those quantities out in ounces to help gauge the quantities of the ingredients against others. My biggest alteration to the recipe was not adding all of the milk, instead stopping when I felt I had achieved a good consistency with the cake batter.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I put the cake in the oven but what a glorious cake came out. It rose beautifully and smelled amazing. Look at the depth of those slices!

The recipe recommends eating the cake warm like a pudding but it is equally lovely cold. It has a beautiful, soft texture with pockets of squidgy rhubarb and banana contrasted with a spiced and sweet crunchy nut topping. There's also a subtle hint of lemon which is lovely. 

It might all sound a bit random but it absolutely works. I'm ridiculously pleased with this cake and can't wait to make it again. 

Banana and rhubarb streusel cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Rhubarbaria by Mary Prior

For the cake:

5oz softened butter/baking margarine (I used Stork)

7oz soft light brown sugar 

2 large eggs

10oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 cup milk (I used most but not all of it, I think about 1/4 pint - a bit of baking experience required here to gauge it)

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup of rhubarb, chopped into small chunks (I used 2 smallish stalks and forgot to weigh them in ounces here)

1 banana, chopped into small chunks/slices

For the streusel topping:

2oz walnuts, chopped

2oz granulated sugar 

1 tsp melted butter

1tsp ground cinnamon 

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9" round cake tin with greaseproof paper. 

In a large bowl cream together the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Add this mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, one third at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Add the chopped rhubarb, banana, vanilla and lemon juice and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.

Before putting the cake in the oven, combine the streusel toppings in a separate bowl then scatter it on top of the cake mixture.

Bake the cake on the middle shelf of the oven for 50-60 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. I put a layer of greaseproof paper on top of the cake after 50 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the inside of the cake to continue cooking for another 5-10 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire cooling rack.

hummingbird cake with orange cream cheese icing

I remember "semi-naked" cakes being all the rage online about 10 years ago and the term felt too "hipster" for my liking. I'm a contrary sod so needless to say I did not jump on the bandwagon. Until last month, purely because I didn't make enough icing and couldn't be arsed to make more. I wonder if this is how the style started?

I've posted this hummingbird cake before (originally here) numerous times as it's a firm favourite for family birthdays but for a change I tried an orange and honey cream cheese icing. It was absolutely delicious; the orange complemented the spiced banana and pineapple flavours really nicely. I definitely want to use it again so have written it down below for reference.

Orange and honey cream cheese icing:

2oz softened butter

4oz icing sugar

6oz full fat cream cheese

Grated zest of an orange

1tsp runny honey 

Beat together the butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, orange zest and honey and mix until fully combined.

Enough for a standard sandwich cake but recommend doubling the quantities for filling and fully covering a triple layer cake.

Gingerbread isn't just for Christmas

Every Christmas for at least the last 5 years I've declared "this is the year I'll finally make a gingerbread house" and it never happens. Last year was no exception.

However I was determined not to let the occasion slip past yet another year, especially since I had bought all the ingredients and decorations. Instead I rescheduled the bake for Easter. Why should Christmas have all the fun? Stick some mini eggs on it and you've got yourself an Easter gingerbread house.

The recipe and house template are from BBC Good Food. It's easily the largest quantity of dough I have ever handled. It barely fitted in my massive and deep ceramic kitchenaid mixing bowl; no other bowl I owned could contain the dough beast. Goodness knows what you do if you don't own a big stand mixer.

The dough is divided into quarters once you've completed the Olympic task of bringing it all together. Out of curiosity I weighed each quarter and they were roughly 500g each, so that's 2kg of gingerbread dough in total!

I made a few deviations from the recipe including subbing out some of the mixed spice in favour of cinnamon, using a mixture of brown sugars (I fancied adding some dark sugar), resting the dough in the fridge for half an hour before rolling out my shapes, rolling out the dough between sheets of grease proof paper and using a boiled sugar/caramel to stick the house together as it sets quicker than royal icing.

I also didn't fancy cutting out gingerbread tiles for the roof as I wanted to use white chocolate buttons (which, coincidentally and impressively, I had exactly the right number of for sticking to the roof.) This left me with a lot of left over dough which I turned into biscuits using my Spring themed cutters: flowers, hearts, bunnies and chicks. The bunnies are my favourite, they looked adorable.

The finished house is perhaps a bit rough and ready and my piping could certainly be a lot neater but I'm really pleased with my first attempt. I think piping/decorating the sections before assembly would result in neater piping, so that's something to bear in mind if/when I make another one. I would also reduce the quantities for just making a house which would make the dough a more manageable size. As you can below, my left overs created a big tin full of biscuits.

However I doubt I'll ever recreate this at Christmas time as it was so labour and time intensive. It was good fun but basically took up a whole weekend: one afternoon baking, one afternoon decorating. In a funny way I think it was actually a better idea to make in Spring, more chilled as I had less other obligations. Maybe I'll do a gingerbread summer house next!

Almost forgot to mention that the gingerbread tasted lovely - a classic soft gingerbread, rather than a crisp biscuit. Thank goodness it tasted good after all that effort!

Courgette and walnut cake

One would be forgiven for thinking I no longer baked judging by the rolling tumble weed on this blog, but look! Here's a cake I baked recently and remembered to photograph. 

Also, check out my beautiful ceramic kitchenaid mixer bowl which Santa gave me for Christmas (after some not so subtle hinting.) I love that it has a pouring spout and matches my 1950s pastel kitchen.

The cake is an adaption of the courgette and walnut layer cake from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book, scaled down to a more manageable 2 layer cake. Three layer cakes look spectacular but I always feel they're more of an "occasion" cake to feed lots of people so I often admire but skim past those recipes. I'm far more likely to bake a standard 2 layer cake.

Over the past year I've been really into baking with greens. A strange statement admittedly but bear with me. I've had brilliant success baking with avocados in chocolate based recipes such as brownies and cookies. I've also made a lovely courgette and chocolate loaf and this courgette, coconut and lime cake which I've already documented here from a couple of years ago. I doubt I'm going to start putting broccoli or kale in cakes though, that may be a step too far.

Basically if you love carrot cake then you will also enjoy this courgette and walnut cake. It's the same textures and flavours but with the carrot swapped for courgette.

The big difference with this cake is the icing which is a cinnamon flavoured butter icing with Greek yoghurt as opposed to a cream cheese icing. I've never used yoghurt in icing before so was intrigued to try it out. It adds a slight tang, similar to using cream cheese and the finished icing had a beautiful, mousse-like texture. However, I don't think it has replaced my love for cream cheese icing. I think most of my cake eaters also preferred a cream cheese icing to this one but it was fun to try something different.

Courgette and walnut cake

Recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book 

Sponge:

2 large eggs

200ml sunflower oil

200g soft light brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour 

Heaped 1/2 tsp baking powder (to work out roughly as 2/3 tsp for recipe ratio)

Heaped 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (same as above.)

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of ground mixed spice 

200g grated courgette (with excess moisture squeezed out.)

66g walnuts, chopped into small chunks

Icing: (I can't remember exactly, but this is roughly what I did)

175g butter

1 tsp ground cinnamon

250g -300g icing sugar

50g - 75g plain Greek yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 170C/ 150C fan/ 325F/ gas Mark 3. Grease and line 2 round 20cm/ 8 inch sandwich tins with baking parchment.

Whisk together the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl for a couple of minutes until well combined.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and ground spices. Add this dry mixture to the wet egg mixture in two batches, mixing well after each addition. Mix until fully combined.

Stir in the grated courgettes and chopped walnuts then divide the cake batter into the two prepared cake tins.

Bake for 35 - 40 minutes in the centre of the oven until risen, golden on top and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on cooling racks.

To make the icing mix the butter, icing sugar and cinnamon together. Once fully combined add the yoghurt and keep mixing for around 5 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.

Fill and top the cooled cakes with the icing and decorate with more walnut pieces.

Sticky ginger and orange cake

I take all my blog photos with my phone these days. In fact all my blogging is now done from my phone since my laptop barely functions anymore. It's something I wasn't comfortable with for a long time as I know I don't put much effort into photography if I'm just using my phone, whereas I generally used to make an attractive set up when I used my proper camera.

However this year I decided to embrace my laidback approach. After all my blog is a casual baking journal, not an aspiring professional food blog, so any form of documentation will do, whether it's (vaguely) styled or just a very quick snap before the cake ends up in my mouth.

This cake is falls into the latter category. It's unfair to judge it on its unassuming appearance and uninspired photography as it is genuinely a really lovely, comforting hug of a cake. 

As with most ginger cakes this cake improved with age. It tasted so much better on the second and third day (photo above is day 2 and below is day 3.) It developed the glorious, soft, stickiness associated with a great ginger cake and the spices became more intense. I've never added orange to a ginger cake before and found it was a lovely addition. It lifted the ginger and added a fresh zing to the cake. Although I ate the cake plain, I bet it would taste amazing served with custard as a cosy, winter pudding.

Needless to say this cake smelled gorgeous in the oven. I baked it whilst watching some terrible Christmas films on tv last weekend and it made my house feel a little bit festive. Bring on all the festive, spiced bakes!

Sticky ginger and orange cake

Recipe from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.

The cake:

100g (4oz) golden syrup

100g (4oz) black treacle

250ml (9 fl oz) water

100g (4oz) softened butter (I used Stork baking margarine)

100g (4oz) caster sugar

Grated zest of 1 orange

1 large egg, beaten

275g (10oz) plain flour

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger (I made it a heaped teaspoon for more kick)

The icing:

100g (4oz) icing sugar

Juice of 1 orange (I used less than one half)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C /fan 160C/ gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm (9") deep round tin with greaseproof paper.

Pour the syrup, treacle and water into a small pan and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, put all the remaining cake ingredients into a large bowl and mix with a stand or hand mixer until well combined. Add the syrup mixture and beat again until smooth (it'll look lumpy as hell initially, but honestly it'll smooth out!)

Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 50 minutes or until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (I took mine out at 40 minutes as it was definitely ready, so keep an eye on it.)

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the paper and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar with enough orange juice to make a smooth, fairly thick pouring consistency. Pour onto the cooled cake over a wire rack to any catch drips (or be like me and disregard this step and enjoy the icing puddles which develop around the plate. It's all good!) Decorate with sprinkles if you want to pimp it up or just leave the icing to set for 1 hour.

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.

cinnamon sour cream loaf

Festive baking is in full swing on blogs at the moment and here I am posting a cake I made almost two months ago. Oh well.

However, I think this could easily be considered a festive bake since cinnamon is a warm, seasonal flavour. Just display the cake with a different tablecloth. 😄

Fun fact: I've had this fun, floral tablecloth since my first year at art school in Edinburgh (shockingly, over 10 years ago now.) My Mum found it in a second hand/vintage shop in the Grassmarket and it's by Mary Quant! 

Although the flavour of the cake was great I was disappointed by the texture. I wouldn't necessarily describe it as dense but it did have quite a tight crumb. I'm unsure whether this is correct for the recipe or if I was at fault. The mixture split slightly after I added the second egg so I likely lost some air in the batter when I combined everything. The raw cake batter tasted AMAZING though, so it may be worth trying again sometime.

The cinnamon-spiced cream cheese is also worthy of capital letters as it's FANTASTIC! Oh my, so good. Not necessarily a complaint, but the recipe produced rather a lot of icing. I'd say more than necessary for this size of loaf and you can see from my photos that I put on a good, thick layer. I used about half the quantity for this cake and the rest was used a few days later on a banana bread.

I also found the quantity of cinnamon sugar in the recipe somewhat excessive. However, it keeps well in a sealed container and it has added some festive flair to my morning porridge.

So is anybody actually prepared for Christmas because I'm certainly not. I've only bought two presents and have organised zero baking or handmade gifts which is unheard of for me. I've also only watched about three corny Christmas films so far. Disaster. I've been so wrapped up with trying to finish renovating my house that Christmas hasn't really entered my head. In the past few weeks the heating has been installed, floors have been laid, doors have been hung, all walls, ceilings and woodwork have been painted and curtain poles have gone up. Just the plumbing and rewiring to finish and the kitchen units to install. It's close!

Cinnamon sour cream loaf
Recipe from Primrose Bakery "Everyday" book by Martha Swift  

for the cake:
165g self-raising flour
1 1/2tsp ground cinnamon
150g softened butter, slightly salted
180g golden caster sugar
2 eggs, large
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
120ml sour cream

cinnamon cream cheese icing:
50g butter, softened
100g cream cheese
225g icing sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

cinnamon sugar:
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/180c/fan 160c and line a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl sift together the flour and cinnamon, stir together and set aside. In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the first egg and beat well before adding the second egg and the vanilla extract. Mix again. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on a slow speed until everything is combined, then add half of the sour cream and mix until just combined. Repeat the previous step so all the flour and sour cream is incorporated. 

Pour the mixture into the lined tin and spread out evenly. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer/knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.

For the icing, put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix until well combined. I start by mixing with a spoon before swapping to an electric mixer as it helps to minimise the icing sugar dust cloud. Beat the icing for about 1 minute until smooth. For the cinnamon sugar simply stir together the caster sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Spread the icing on top of the cooled sponge and sprinkle the cinnamon sponge on top.

Betty's rhubarb - a crumble and a tart

Dare I say it, but I think I can almost see a glimpse of light at the end of the house renovating tunnel. The demolishing stage felt neverending, but things are finally going back in. Plumbing  is underway, the rewiring is nearly finished and new insulation and plasterboard are going up. Plasterboard automatically makes the space look cleaner and brighter which is exciting.

There have been a few "oh my god, WHAT?!" discoveries and eyebrow raising moments in my six months of house-ownership, but thankfully they have been manageable and fixable without too much cost rather than devastating.

One of the more pleasant discoveries was finding rhubarb growing in the overgrown garden. I didn't expect to find anything edible growing there so it felt like a real treat. Thanks, Betty!

*Betty was the elderly lady who owned the house before me. We found a *lot* of her stockings tied round bits of trees when we were excavating the garden a couple of weeks ago. An elderly neighbour also told me she used to keep clothes in her microwave?! She sounds like quite a character!

As there wasn't a huge amount of rhubarb to use I baked a crumble and bulked it out with two eating apples. I also added a sprinkling of ginger and cinnamon since they pair well with rhubarb. The resulting crumble was incredibly tasty although perhaps a touch on the sweet side. I guessed the sugar quantity and underestimated how much sweetness the eating apples would add to the filling.

Lovely red filling! 

A few weeks ago I trimmed off more rhubarb with the intentions of making another crumble, but my Mum suggested a tart instead. After a raid of the fruit bowl I ended up making an apple, nectarine and rhubarb frangipane tart.

It was a very spur-of-the-moment decision to make a tart, so I used a roll of shop-bought shortcrust pastry from the freezer rather than make my own. Some may frown, but I am absolutely ok with the occasional baking shortcut, particularly when it comes to pastry... and custard powder. I have no shame.

Speaking of custard powder, this tart tasted even better the following day served with custard. Custard made from powder *and* shop bought pastry in one photo/pudding. Told you, no shame.

I definitely felt I achieved a better balance with the sweetness in this tart. I also liked the more fragrant, summery addition of vanilla and nectarine compared to my more autumnal flavoured crumble. My only disappointment with this tart was that it could have done with a few more minutes in the oven as I think there was a slightly underbaked bit of frangipane right next to the fruit layer. At least my pastry wasn't soggy. No soggy bottoms here!

On the whole though, as a spontaneous bake I was pretty pleased with my effort. It's also the first tart I've made in quite a few years. (Holy moly, last time was in 2012 if I don't count mini tarts I made in 2014. Seriously?!) Next time I'll have to be more organised and make my own pastry.

Rhubarb and apple crumble 
I recommend reducing the sugar quantity if you prefer a sharp rhubarb flavour.

fruit filling: 15oz (425g) red rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
3oz (85g)  caster sugar
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into similar sized chunks
sprinkling of ground cinnamon and ginger

crumble:
4oz (115g) butter (I use slightly salted)
6oz (175g) plain flour
2oz (55g) porridge oats
3oz (85g) soft brown sugar

Preheat oven to 190C/ Fan 170C/ Gas 5 and grease a pie dish with butter. Chop up the fruit for the filling and put into a saucepan along with the sugar and spices. Gently simmer on the hob for a few minutes until soft, but not pulpy. Pour the mixture into the pie dish.

For the crumble topping, rub together the butter and flour in a mixing bowl then mix in the porridge oats and sugar. Spoon the mixture on top of the fruit filling in the dish. Bake for 30 - 40 mins. Serve warm with custard or ice cream. Or both if you're feeling decadent!


Rhubarb, nectarine and apple frangipane tart.

fruit filling:
7oz (200g) rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch chunks
3 nectarines, chopped into similar sized chunks
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into similar sized chunks
a sprinkling of cinnamon (under 1/4tsp)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

one pack of ready roll shortcrust pastry (or make more own)

frangipane topping:
4oz (115g) caster sugar
4oz (115g) softened butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4oz (115g) ground almonds
1oz (28g) plain flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a handful on flaked almonds for the topping

Requires an 8 inch (20cm) tart/flan tin.

If you're making your own shortcrust pastry, prepare that first. If you're using shop-bought, roll it out big enough to cover the base and sides of the tin. Press it into the tin (using a left over scrap of pastry to push it into the grooves/sides of the tin) and prick the base with a fork. Cover with tin foil and weigh down with baking beans to stop the pastry from puffing up in the oven. I also leave the edges hanging over the tin and trim them back after the tart comes out the oven. 

Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6, until you can see the pastry turning golden, then remove the foil and beans and put back in the oven for a further 2 minutes to help dry the pastry out. 

Whilst your pastry case is in the oven make the fruit filling. Chop all the fruit in similar sized chunks and put into a large saucepan along with the cinnamon and vanilla. Gently simmer on the hob for a few minutes until everything has softened. Leave to cool whilst you make the frangipane topping.

Turn the oven temperature down to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4. For the frangipane, beat together the sugar and butter with a mixer for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add in the ground almonds, flour and vanilla extract and mix until everything is fully combined.

Pour the cooled fruit filling in the base of the tart case, followed by the frangipane mixture, which may need a bit of coaxing over the fruit filling with a palette knife as it's a stiffer mixture. Make sure the frangipane fully covers the fruit filling. Sprinkle a handful of flaked almonds over the top. 

Bake in the oven for at around 35 minutes until golden on top and the frangipane is firm to touch. (I forgot to write down how long it was in the oven for, but it was definitely over 30 minutes so keep an eye on it after half an hour),  Serve warm, but not hot, or completely cool. Both are delicious. Cream, ice-cream or custard make lovely accompaniments.

a fruity carrot cake

A few months ago I had a craving for carrot cake and wanted to celebrate having survived my first block of beginner adult ballet classes. Instead of defaulting to my usual favourite recipes I flicked through my baking books to find something slightly different.

Perhaps a controversial statement but I enjoy dried fruit in carrot cakes so this fruitier carrot cake recipe from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook appealed to me. I've always meant to try adding raisins or sultanas to my carrot cakes yet somehow this is the first time I've done it.

The resulting cake was well spiced, dark and had satisfying bursts of orange juice-soaked raisins and chunks of walnuts. My only gripe was that it took an eternity to bake in the oven. There's no way the recommended temperature and timing in the book are correct. My gut instinct thought the temperature looked too high and it was right. When I opened the oven door after the recommended 45 minutes the top was borderline burnt yet the inside of the cake was still raw so I turned the temperature down and laid a folded sheet of greaseproof paper on top of the tin to stop the top from burning further.

As I made this a couple of months ago I can't remember how much longer it took, I'm guessing an extra 20-30 minutes. I know that when I baked this cake again a week later I baked it at a lower temperature for at least an hour and it turned out much better.

I also found the cream cheese icing from the recipe slightly too sweet so I added more cream cheese. There's no point in cream cheese icing if you can't taste the tang of the cream cheese! It's almost the best thing about carrot cake, surely?

I think this recipe has the potential to become a favourite with a little bit of tinkering. I just need to write down my changes next time since I have the memory of a goldfish. If/when I do make this cake again I'll update my recipe at the bottom of the post.

As mentioned at the beginning of the post, I baked this cake to celebrate having survived my first block of adult ballet classes without my dodgy back or leg going into sciatic spasm. Yay! Progress, people! I've now finished my second block of classes and making small steps of progress. I can see a difference in my flexibility and I'm feeling slightly less uncoordinated. My core strength is still pants though and I really struggle with stability in pirouttes and turns. I just wobble and fall to the side EVERY DAMN TIME.

I'm also the proud owner of a pair of ballet slippers. My first pair! I was so happy when I put these on my feet for the first time. Childhood dream fulfilled! Darcey Bussel better watch her back. HA!

Carrot cake

Recipe adapted from Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook (Published 2013)

cake:

100g raisins (or sultanas, whichever you prefer)

juice from 1 large orange

175g self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

175g soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs

125ml sunflower oil

175g grated carrots

50g chopped walnuts

cream cheese icing:

100g cream cheese (possibly more, sorry I can't remember. Add to taste!)

50g softened butter

225g icing sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

First, soak the sultanas in orange juice in a bowl. You can either leave them to soak overnight, or if like me you forget to do that, set the sultanas and juice in a pan and place on the hob over a low heat for about 5 minutes or until the sultanas have soaked up some of the juice.

Grease and line a 20cm round, springform cake tin and preheat the oven. The original recipe says to preheat to 200C/Fan 180C/Gas 6 however I think this is way too high. I would recommend 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4. I think that's what I went with the second time I made this cake and it turned out better.

Sift together the flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix. Whisk the eggs in a separate small bowl and add them to the sunflower oil. Pour the egg mix into the flour mixture and mix well. Add the grated carrot, chopped walnuts and soaked sultanas and fold the mixture until fully combined.

Pour the cake batter into the tin and spread it out evenly. The original recipe says to bake for 40-45 minutes but as mentioned earlier I found that to be way off the mark. Baked at the lower temperature I recommend, it should take about an hour. Keep an eye on it after about 50 minutes and if it looks cooked on top but is still raw in the middle when you stick a knife/skewer into the centre of the cake, then put a greaseproof paper hat on it until the cake is fully baked. Once baked, turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar and butter then add the cream cheese and vanilla extract. Whisk for a few minutes until very smooth. Spread the icing on top of the cake once the cake is completely cool and decorate with more chopped walnuts and a dusting of cinnamon.

caramelised apple and cinnamon cake

How on earth are we in September already?! Crazy. Anyway, here's a cake I made for my sister-in-law's birthday back in April. It has an autumnal feel so I guess it's appropriate that I'm sharing it later in the year. Sis-in-law is a fan of cream cheese icing so I generally plan my cake choices for her around that. After a flick through my recipe books I felt most tempted by the apple pie cake in Edd Kimber's first baking book, "The Boy Who Bakes."

I've actually baked that cake before for my brother's birthday years ago, but it is a *huuuuge* cake and the sponges involve some time consuming elements. To make things quicker and easier for myself I baked a standard victoria sponge cake but added some warming spice.

For the cinnamon cream cheese icing and caramelised apple topping and filling I followed the original recipe but scaled down the quantities. The overall flavour was tasty although from what I remember I thought I was a little heavy handed with the cinnamon in the sponges. I also slightly overbaked them which was annoying, especially since I was baking for someone else, but sometimes these things happen. Luckily the incredibly tasty cinnamon cream cheese icing and juicy, spiced apples provided enough moisture to stop it feeling like a sad, dry cake.

On the subject of cake, is anyone else watching the new Great British Bake Off series since it moved to Channel 4? Although the programme hasn't particularly changed, the absence of Mary Berry makes me sad. I also find Sandy Toksvig intensely annoying. Thoughts?

Sticky apple and cinnamon cake
Recipe adapted from Apple Pie Cake in "The Boy Who Bakes" by Edd Kimber
(I think this is what I did...)

cinnamon sponges:
I used the classic method of weighing out my softened butter/margarine, caster sugar and self-raising flour to the same weight as my eggs (each, not their combined total weight, if that makes sense.) I used 3 large eggs for this recipe which weighed around 6oz (about 170g?)
1tsp ground cinnamon (perhaps use less though, I'd go for 1/2 tsp)

cinnamon cream cheese icing:
75g softened butter
175g icing sugar
125g cream cheese (full fat)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

caramelised apples:
3 apples (I used Braeburn or Cox)
55g butter
55g light brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C/ Fan 160C. Grease two 18cm/7 inch round cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment. In a large bowl beat together the margarine and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from splitting. Add the cinnamon and flour and mix everything together until fully combined.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 30 minutes until well risen, golden and spring back when touched. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy, for about 5 minutes, then beat in the cream cheese, vanilla extract and cinnamon.

For the caramelised apples core, quarter and slice into wedges. Add to a pan with the butter, sugar and ginger. Put the pan on the hob over a medium heat and cook until the apples have softened and are coated in caramel. Drain the apples and leave to cool but keep the caramel juice. Pour the juice back into the pan and cook again over a medium heat until it has reduced and thickened slightly.

To serve, spread half of the icing on top of one sponge along with a layer of apples and half of the caramel juice. Pop the other sponge on top and repeat. Enjoy!