sour cream coffee cake

A deceptive title as this cake contains no coffee whatsoever. It should actually be called "best ever cinnamon and pecan cake." Seriously, this is one of my favourite cakes I've baked in a long time. And to think I only baked it as I wanted to use up left over sour cream!

Apparently this American classic is called a "coffee cake" as it's the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon cuppa. It certainly is, although in my case my cuppa is always tea.

It's one of those cakes where the flavours and textures wrap around your tongue in a very satisfying fashion.  The topping (and filling) is heavily cinnamon spiced, sweet and crunchy with demerara sugar and chopped pecans. Underneath all that delightful texture is a soft sponge packed with aromatic, sweet vanilla. Sour cream definitely brings something special to the party too. The soft cake crumb seems to absorb the vanilla flavour more than usual... or perhaps I'm just starting to waffling rubbish.

Basically, this cake is full on with flavour and texture. I love it. It completely exceeded my expectations. I'm tempted to buy more sour cream just so I can make this cake again!

On a different note, I noticed that it will be 5 years tomorrow since I started this blog. How time flies when you're having fun!

Sour cream coffee cake/ utterly brilliant cinnamon and pecan cake

Recipe adapted from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook 
(double the quantities and you can bake it in a 2.5L bundt tin)

125g softened butter

200g granulated sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

125g plain flour

150ml sour cream (I didn't quite have enough so substituted 50g with plain yoghurt)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

100g chopped pecans

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

75g demerara (brown) sugar

Preheat the oven to 190C/ 170C Fan/ Gas 5. Grease a deep 18cm/7 inch round cake tin and line with greaseproof paper. Beat together the butter and granulated sugar for a couple of minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well (you can add a tablespoon of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling.) Pour in the sour cream and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. In a separate bowl combine the flour and baking powder then add to the other mixture. Mix until everything is combined.

In another bowl mix the demerara sugar with the chopped pecans and cinnamon. Pour half the cake batter into the tin and spread out evenly, sprinkle half the nut mixture on top, then cover with the remaining cake batter. Level the batter out again before sprinkling the remaining nut mixture on top. (I ended up not using all of the sugar/cinnamon mix, so add as much as you want.) Press the nuts down gently so that they stick to the batter.

Bake for 1 hour in the centre of the oven until firm on top and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. 

blueberry and pecan crumble loaf

This cake was so close to not getting photographed. Each time I came back to the cake tin another slice was missing so I thought I'd better take a few snaps before it disappeared completely.

Admittedly I have baked and documented this cake before, but that was surprisingly a long time ago in my first year of blogging so I thought it was worth sharing again. The cake has a lovely soft crumb, bursts of bright purple blueberries and a satisfyingly spiced, crunchy crust. The blueberries all sink to the bottom, regardless of a light flour coating, but it doesn't spoil the cake.

I was having an absent minded moment when I was measuring out the ingredients so I have a feeling I added 25g/1oz too much butter. I was rushing to get the cake in the oven before last week's episode of the Great British Bake Off so I was probably thinking about how much I loved Matt the fireman. It's a good job I had a freshly baked cake after that episode as I was very sad about the outcome.

The cake took far longer to bake than the 50-60 minutes stated in the recipe but I see I had exactly the same experience the last time I baked this cake.  It easily needed another 20 minutes.

Not much else to add, other than that it's a relatively quick, easy cake to bake and the addition of cinnamon and crumble gives it a comforting autumnal quality. I bet it would be good with custard. Mmmm, custard. Custard on everything.

Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" book, first blogged here.

pastel sprinkle birthday carrot cake

What do you do when you've made a bit of a botched job at smoothing down the icing on the sides of your cake? Cover it in a sugary, pastel rainbow!

Pastel rainbows, however, don't cover up structural problems. I was a bit lazy with levelling my layers so the cake ended up somewhat freeform. Not to matter though, I was fairly confident I was onto a winner flavour wise as the batter tasted good.

The finished cake was very tasty indeed. Hurrah!

I have been wanting to try out the Hummingbird Bakery's carrot cake recipe for years and since my sister in law's only stipulation for her birthday cake this year was "cream cheese icing" I thought now was as good a time as any. 

I'm not sure if I love it quite as much as their Hummingbird layer cake, but that really is just personal preference. It's a very satisfying, well spiced carrot cake and I'd definitely bake it again. My only regret is not having a dusting of cinnamon on top, which is what I usually do with carrot cakes, but I feared it would clash with the sprinkles!

Triple layer carrot cake

Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

300g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

300ml sunflower oil

300g plain flour

1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

300g carrots, peeled and grated

100g walnuts (I used pecans instead) chopped 

cream cheese icing:

600g icing sugar

100g butter, softened (I use slightly salted)

250g full fat cream cheese

I also added 1/2tsp vanilla bean paste for extra flavour

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line 3 round 20cm (8 inch) cake tins. Beat together the sugar, eggs and oil until well combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger and slowly add to the egg mixture until fully combined. Stir in the grated carrots and chopped nuts until evenly dispersed then divide the mixture between the cake tins. Bake for 20-25mins until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

For the icing, combine the butter and icing sugar. I find this easier to start off by hand with a spoon as the mixer just makes massive dust clouds! Once combined, add the cream cheese icing in one go and mix together (by mixer) for 5 minutes until the mixture is light and very fluffy. Use to generously fill and cover the cooled cake. I had enough icing left over to pipe a simple star border around the top of the cake.

For the pastel border I patted the sprinkles into the cake in their colour rows, working from the bottom up. I used my right hand to press them on and held my left hand underneath, with the edge of my palm lightly touching the side of the cake to catch and press in any falling sprinkles. It was quite a messy procedure (and there's probably a better way of doing it!) so I recommend keeping a baking tray underneath where you're working.

apple and cinnamon cake

Spring has arrived! The sun has finally appeared, the daffodils are out.... so I've baked an Autumnal flavoured cake. I'm nothing if not contrary.

This is another one of my classic "use the almost out of date/leftover food" bakes. The fruit basket contained a large pile of wrinkled, questionable looking apples as I've been neglecting to snack on them lately, favouring mini KitKats instead. Oops. Nevermind, I made a cake from my sad fruit. Hurray for unhealthy eating habits. Although I could claim this is healthy as it contains apples, sultanas and dried cranberries. That's 3 of my 5 a day.

Speaking of eating sweet stuff and being healthy, last week the dentist told me that my teeth are in very good condition. YAY! Although she did say that my lower set of wisdom teeth have decided to grow in horizontally. It seems even my teeth are contrary buggers.

The only way to celebrate having healthy teeth is to eat more sweet stuff and this cake is a good way to start. I first baked this cake 3 years ago and I'm horrified that it has taken me so long to bake again.

It truly is a beauty of a cake. The squidgy, spiced apple filling is a real treat, as is the crisp, sugary crust. There's a really satisfying balance of textures and flavours so I definitely won't leave it 3 years before I bake it again.

Apple and Cinnamon cake

Recipe slightly adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.

225g (8oz) margarine

225g (8oz) light muscovado sugar

3 large eggs

100g (4oz) chopped pecans

50g (2oz) sultanas

50g (2oz) dried cranberries

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

400g (14oz) apples, peeled, cored and grated

1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon

To finish:

light muscovado sugar, for sprinkling

chopped walnuts, for sprinkling

icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm (9in) deep round cake tin with baking parchment. Measure the margarine, sugar, eggs, chopped pecans, sultanas, dried cranberries, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat for about 2 minutes until thoroughly blended. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin then spread the grated apple and ground cinnamon in an even layer on top. Spoon the remaining cake mixture on top, level the surface then sprinkle generously with light muscovado sugar and walnuts.

Bake in the oven for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours until the cake is well risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

hummingbird layer cake

Posting two days in a row, what is this madness?!

It was my sister-in-law's birthday on Monday and I baked a triple layer hummingbird cake for the occasion.

I've been meaning to try out some new icing techniques this year so I decided to have a shot at this scalloped effect I've been spying on the cakey interwebz. After crumb coating the cake you pipe on a vertical row of dots and then drag your palette knife through each dot. Repeat this, slightly overlapping each vertical row, until you go full circle and have this funky pattern!   

For a first attempt which was done as quick as possible (I was pushed for time) I was quite impressed with the result. It's definitely a pattern I'll be using again on other cakes.

Did you know that you can ripen bananas quickly by putting them in the oven at a low heat for half an hour? I didn't! My bananas were still far too firm and yellow to bake with on the day so I did a quick online search and bingo - see here! Amazing! This has seriously opened up banana baking opportunities for me. No more waiting around if I have a craving for banana bread.

Back to the hummingbird cake, it was a success! Admittedly I've baked this cake before so I knew it would go down well with the family. It's fruity and juicy with a warm, cinnamon spice and a bit of crunch from the pecans. And who doesn't love a bit of cream cheese icing?! Some may argue it's the best part of a cake. As you can see we more or less demolished this cake in one sitting!

toffee apple pecan pudding

This is what I made for pudding on Christmas day. As we had our main family dinner on Christmas Eve with our traditional trifle I had free reign for pudding ideas on Christmas day. I've had this recipe tucked away for a year or two so I felt it was about time I tried it.

I thought a steamed/boiled pudding was a really good choice as it can be left to simmer away on the hob while you finish attending to/eating your Christmas dinner.

It's a very sweet pudding, toffee obviously being the predominant flavour, so you can make your mind up whether that's a good or bad thing. Personally, I always think it's good. As much as I love cheese, I will never understand people who pick the cheese and biscuit platter as a dessert at restaurants. Really, that's not a dessert!

I really liked the addition of apples to what is essentially a sticky toffee pudding. It added a freshness to an otherwise rich dessert. It was the perfect comforting pudding to tuck into at the end of Christmas day.

So what did you all make for Christmas? Do you tend to make the same thing or try a new pudding each year?

Toffee apple pecan pudding

A Mary Berry recipe. Copied down off the tv whilst watching one of the Great British Bake Off Masterclass episodes last year (I think.)

For the toffee sauce:

300ml pouring cream (I used double cream)

100g light muscovado sugar

75g softened butter

For the pudding:

A 2pt pudding basin, greased with butter

125g light muscovado sugar

125g softened butter

2 beaten eggs

125g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large cooking apple - peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks

75g pecans, chopped

 Put all the toffee sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a low heat for roughly 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Pour 1/2 the toffee sauce into the bottom of the greased pudding basin, followed by half of the chopped pecans.

In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and muscovado sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and self-raising flour and mix until just incorporated. Fold in the chopped apple. Pour the pudding mixture into the pudding basin, on top of the sauce (mine went in as a big lump so don't worry if you can't smooth it out, it didn't seem to affect the finished pudding.) 

Cut out a disc from greaseproof paper and lay it on top of the basin. Lay out a large square of foil and fold a pleat in the centre (to allow steam to escape) and seal the foil around the basin. Fold a rectangular strip of foil to make a cradle for lifting the basin. Place a jam jar lid or a sideplate in the centre of a large saucepan/pot (must be taller than the pudding basin) and place the basin on top. Half fill the pot with boiling water and put the lid on. Leave to simmer for 2 1/2 hours.

When ready to serve, reheat the sauce with the remaining pecans and turn out the pudding on a large dish. The pudding easily serves four people.

Hummingbird birthday cake

It was my Dad's birthday last Wednesday so I thought I'd try the Hummingbird Bakery's Hummingbird cake from their first book. I think this wins the award for fastest disappearing cake as there was none left to snack on the following day!

I loved the flavour of this cake: warm and fruity. Banana, cinnamon, pecan and pineapple make brilliant cake making buddies. It's similar to a carrot cake in terms of texture and spice, but the bananas and pineapple make it extra juicy.

 

And everybody loves a bit of cream cheese icing, you just can't go wrong with it. I must say that Bee whipped up a very smooth batch. She did an excellent job with her first triple layer cake.

 

We decided to really go for it and put 54 candles on the cake (no need to guess Dad's age!) It was an impressive blaze. Thankfully we didn't need to call the fire brigade.

 

This was a really nice sized triple layer cake and easy to cut. Triple layered without being ginormous! With previous layered cakes I've found that they can be unstable to cut and difficult to eat if they're really deep and high. I worried that these sponges hadn't risen enough but on cutting and tasting they were absolutely fine. It's definitely a recipe I'd be happy to use again. I wonder if it would work as a bundt...

 

I'm feeling too lazy to type out the recipe, but you can find it here through Ros, The More Than Occasional Baker. She also has a nut chopper!

Banana, cinnamon and pecan muffins

What kind of baker are you? Are you a follow-the-recipe person or more of an adventurous I'll-do-my-own-thing sort of baker? I'm a follow-the-recipe girl. Sure, I may occasionally substitute an ingredient or two to suit what I have in the cupboard, but I wouldn't describe myself as experimental in the kitchen.

However..... I created these muffins! I had an idea for banana muffins with a streusel type topping but couldn't find anything to suit what I had in mind. After looking at a few recipes I set out into the unknown and created something myself.

This may not be exciting or adventurous to many, but I was super proud of myself (I may have done a small happy dance). The batter tasted good, the muffins rose (always hopeful!) and smelled amazing in the oven, looked pretty and most importantly, tasted good. Hurray!

I could tweak a few things, but overall I was happy with what I made. You can't go too far wrong combining bananas, cinnamon and pecan :)

This is what I did:

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder (I was too scared to add more in case it destroyed the muffins!)

pinch of salt

175g golden caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs

2 sad, brown bananas (mine were quite small)

100ml plain yoghurt

50g pecans, chopped

streusel topping - 25g each of plain flour, light brown soft sugar and chopped pecans. Mix together and rub in 12g of butter. (I didn't use all of it although in hindsight I probably could have used it all)

Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas 7. In a large bowl mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and sugar. Melt the butter in a jug (I did this in the microwave in short bursts) and then once cool add the eggs and yoghurt. Mix together then pour into the flour mixture and combine. Stir in the mashed bananas and chopped pecans. 

Divide the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tray (my mixture filled 10) and add the streusel topping. Pop the tray into the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 180C/Gas 4 (this ensures they rise really high) and bake for roughly 35-40 minutes until firm and golden. Remove from the oven and leave the muffins to cool in the tin for a few minutes before placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.

The muffins taste best when still warm. If you don't have the stamina to eat all 10 muffins in one sitting (I know, but some people can't manage it!) then just pop one in the microwave for 20 seconds to warm up.

Banana, pecan and chocolate loaf

Who loves baking with bananas? I do! After baking the banana yoghurt cake last month I decided to try another banana bake from Ros' archives. This recipe appealed to me as soon as I saw it. In fact, I was the first person to comment on the post! You can find the recipe here.

It's a pretty loaf and slices really well. My only niggle was that I found the 70% cocoa chocolate I used slightly too bitter for my taste, but my Mum and Dad disagreed and really enjoyed it.

I made this cake again when I visited my brother in Glasgow last week (the cake travels well!) but used Cadbury Bourneville chocolate instead and a mixture of walnuts and pecans. The bananas were also much riper so it was a sweeter cake. It's all down to personal preference really. I'm a sweet tooth so I preferred the second cake.

On a separate note, I'm thinking about going through all my old posts (slowly) and reorganising/adding labels as I don't like my current system. If I did this would it completely republish the whole post on everybody's newsfeed? I don't want to clog up all your newsfeeds/google readers so I may not bother if it does.

Hermione the sourdough cake

This is Hermione, a German friendship sourdough cake. On Saturday I received a little tub of gloopy mixture with an accompanying recipe.

In a state of dopeyness I didn't read the instructions properly and broke the chain letter. (Am I now doomed to friendship/baking hell?) Hermione was meant to sit and bubble over 10 days before I was allowed to bake her but because the instructions had been ticked off by the previous person I think my brain thought "oh I just need to bake it then!" (honestly, I was very dopey on Sunday). The baked Hermione has been shared though so she has been passed along in some form.

Although a completely vague recipe, my Hermione turned out very nicely. It suggested walnuts, almonds or raisins to add alongside the apples and cinammon but I opted for pecans. The cake's crust was deliciously crunchy with the liberal sprinkling of demerara sugar and melted butter added before baking. The brown sugar also paired brilliantly with the pecans. I think the cake would taste even better with custard, although it's perfectly moist without.

I also made some banana and chocolate cupcakes last week from the first Hummingbird Bakery book. I made these a couple times last year which worked perfectly, but for some reason they didn't turn out right this time. I made sure all ingredients were room temperature and checked my recipe thoroughly, I even made a second batch (which were slightly better admittedly) but they mostly came out stodgy and mildly anaemic looking. Although the flavour was still lovely, they were nothing like the ones I made last year. Who knows what I did!

On Thursday I bought the Primrose Bakery book after reading favourable blog reviews so I'm going to try their cupcakes this week to compare with the Hummingbird Bakery ones. It's such a pretty book, it was worth buying for the pictures alone. I honestly can't decide which recipe I want to try first.

Blueberry crumble loaf

Another tasty recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book. I was actually going to make the coconut jam sandwich bars this weekend (I'm sure I will get round to it eventually) but noticed we had lots of blueberries in the fridge and instantly felt an urge to do something with them. I love baking with berries.

The cake has a really lovely texture, little chunks of pecans, juicy blueberries and a crumbly topping. The mixture also made a lot of batter, so I got to make a few buns with the excess (any excuse for a bun!)  I would maybe put slightly less cinnamon in next time, but that's just me, Mum loves it as it is. She says I can make it again anytime!

I also have some VERY exciting ebay purchases to share with everybody next week, so watch this space!

Blueberry crumble loaf from Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days"

For the sponge

190g (7oz) unsalted butter, softened, plux extra for greasing

190g (7oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting

190g (7oz) caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

25ml (1fl oz) whole milk

100g (3 1/2 oz) fresh or frozen (and defrosted) blueberries

50g (1 3/4oz) pecans, chopped

For the crumble topping

25g (1oz) plain flour

10g (1/3 oz) unsalted butter

15g (1/2 oz) soft light brown sugar

20g (3/4oz) chopped pecans

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas mark 3 and grease a 8.5 x 17.5cm loaf tin with butter and dust with flour. To make the crumble topping rub together the flour and butter with your fingertips until it has a breadcrumb texture. Add the remaining ingredients and stir together. Set aside.

For the sponge, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and make sure everything is incorporated. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, and add in three stages to the butter and sugar mixture, pouring in the milk after the second batch has been added. Mix well after each addition and mix until the batter is smooth and even. Stir in the blueberries and chopped pecans by hand and pour the batter into the tin. (I had enough excess batter for 5 regular buns.) Scatter the crumble mixture on top and bake in the middle of the oven for 50-60 mins (mine took 1hr 15-20 mins so keep an eye on it). It is ready to take out the oven when a skewer/knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Let the loaf cool a bit before removing from the tin.