Yet another rugby cake

Youngest nephew also requested a rugby themed birthday cake this year. My nerves still felt frazzled after the gravity defying rugby ball cake I created for his brother in March so I went down an easier route: a rectangular Victoria sponge cake with a fondant man on top. Simple yet still effective.

Why is it when you go into town for fondant icing in a particular colour you cannot find any for love nor money? In the end I painted white fondant green (with edible food colouring) for the pitch however I think this actually played in my favour. It looks more like a wet, muddy pitch than if it was just a flat, green block of fondant. 

The crushed bourbon biscuits for the mud were the finishing touch. Up until that point I was concerned my fondant man looked like he had been run over by a bus rather than a player diving to score a try. Adding the goals (made from thick card) helped bring the cake to life too.

Once again, it was important the rugby ball was a Scottish ball. I'm glad I still had some writing icing pens in the baking cupboard for that fiddly job!

Birthday boy was delighted with his cake. I was amused that he gave the cake slice with the player's "butt" to his friend to eat. Charming!

rhubarb gingerbread pudding

"And so it begins...", said King Théoden (R.I.P. Bernard Hill.)

Also myself upon looking at my garden. Rhubarb season has begun and the "rhubarb empire" is growing larger with each passing day...

...resembling an exotic jungle for cats.

The Man gave me a Rhubarb cooking/baking book for Christmas so I've been eagerly awaiting rhubarb season to arrive to try out recipes. It's a quirky, little book called Rhubarbaria and it's full of sweet and savoury dishes the author has gathered from people all around the world along with a bit of rhubarb history and anecdotes. It's not a glossy, instagrammable book as it has no pictures but I think it's a gem. I'm especially looking forward to trying the jam recipes.

The rhubarb gingerbread pudding immediately appealed to me and became my first rhubarb experiment of 2024. Despite knowing rhubarb and ginger pair well together I hadn't ever considered rhubarb with a gingerbread cake. I also loved that the recipe originally came from a lady called Mavis from New Zealand. How could I be steared wrong by a Mavis?

Well, Mavis. Your pudding, especially after 2 days, is delicious. However, your timings are shocking. What was meant to be a 35-40 minute bake was actually at least 60 minutes. That's a fair old difference, Mavis.

But as I said, 2 days later served warm with custard it was exceptionally tasty. As with all gingerbread cakes the flavour and texture benefitted from maturing. This goes against the nature of hot puddings for me, which are always served fresh from the oven, but I guess this makes this pudding an excellent one to make in advance for an occasion.

What I liked most is that the rhubarb is left as its natural, tart self; no extra sugar before adding the cake mix. The cake is the sweet element, although that didn't feel overly sweet either. However I would say if you're using a particularly tart or green rhubarb you may want to add additional sugar. My rhubarb is naturally on the sweet side as it's very pink so it was perfect for me.

I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Mavis.

Rhubarb gingerbread cake 

Mildly adapted from "Rhubarbaria" by Mary Prior

450g/ 1lb rhubarb

25g/ 1oz muscovado sugar 

25g/ 1oz soft dark brown sugar

100g/ 4oz Stork margarine (or softened butter)

50g/ 2oz golden syrup

1 large egg 

150g/ 6oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1tsp ground ginger 

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda 

2 tbsp hot milk

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/375F and grease a baking dish with butter. My dish measured 16cm wide x 24cm long x 6cm deep and I found it was a suitable size.

Wash and dry your rhubarb stalks then chop up into 1" chunks. Arrange in the bottom of the baking dish. Add a sprinkling of extra sugar if you want a sweeter flavour.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes) then mix in the syrup. Add the egg and mix again until combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, salt and spices then add to the egg mixture and mix until combined. Finally, in a cup or small bowl dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the hot milk then add this to the cake mixture and mix again.

Spread the cake mixture over the rhubarb in the dish. It's quite a thin spread so don't be alarmed if it doesn't cover well.

Bake in the oven for approx. 1 hour. I put a layer of greaseproof paper over the top of the dish after 40 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the middle to continue baking.

Serve warm with cream, ice cream or custard. Alternatively leave it to cool fully, store in the fridge (with a cover on top) for at least a day then reheat and serve. This will enhance the gingerbread flavour.

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.

lemon and blueberry layer cake

Man turned 40 a few weeks ago so a grand cake was required. Like myself he is a lemon cake fan and after running ideas past him we decided on a lemon and blueberry cake sandwiched with with lemon curd and a cream cheese icing. Also a trifle, because all celebratory occasions in life require trifle.

 

The cake is a slight variation on this one I made many years ago, back when I used to put effort into my photography, ha! I think it used to be the most popular post on this blog (also back when I used to check stats.) It's a cute, little cake and I'm surprised it has taken me so long to bake something similar again.

The main change I made is the size as I scaled it up to an 8" layer cake. I think I used a 5 or 6 egg Victoria sponge mix with the zest of two lemons. In hindsight I wish I had added more blueberries to the batter (or not made such a huge cake batter?) but I was concerned about them adding too much moisture to the cake. Looking back at my original recipe I think I had a better ratio.

For my lemon curd filling I used my reliable Delia Smith recipe (documented here), although for whatever reason it didn't seem as punchy as usual which was a bit disappointing.

For the icing I used my personal perfected ratio for cream cheese icing: 2oz butter, 4oz icing sugar, 6oz full fat cream cheese (doubled to cover this size of layer cake.) Beat the icing sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy before adding the cream cheese, then mix until fully incorporated.

I probably added lemon zest as well, but I can't remember. It is a tasty icing with or without adding extra flavours to it.

We also hosted a sausage roll bake off for Man's birthday with our families. It was quite a spread with at least 8 different types of flavours/fillings. I've never seen so many sausage rolls on a (horrible yet practical) breakfast bar.

Although we didn't declare a winner I was pleased to see my sausage rolls were popular. Mine were filled with chorizo, sun dried tomatoes and pork sausage meat. If you haven't tried this combination I can recommend it!

rugby ball birthday cake

I'm back with the next installment of "weird things I end up making as cakes for my nephews' birthdays." Last year for middle nephew it was rolling individual grains of rice from fondant for a curry themed cake and this year it was defying the laws of gravity with a rugby ball cake standing on its end. As you do.

After my usual Google images research I made the lower half of the "ball" as a marshmallow rice Krispies no bake for a solid lower structure. I'm still new to this common baking technique so didn't have full faith it would support the cake, but it did the job brilliantly.

For the cake I used a standard Victoria sponge mix baked in 6" round cake pans. Once sandwiched together with butter icing and jam (rhubarb jam, obviously courtesy of my rhubarb empire) I carved it into a dome. I even made a bonus mini "14" cake with the spare sponges I ended up not needing for the main cake. 

For the rice krispie lower half I pressed the mixture into a cereal bowl for a mould as the diameter more or less matched the cake tins. I also pressed some of the mix into one of the tins for a layer of extra height as I wasn't convinced the bowl was deep enough. This is the bake mid construction:

I have no idea why this photo uploaded sideways, sorry!

The flat bottom of the bowl created a solid base for the structure and I figured as I was intending to present the ball cake sitting on a kicking tee (also made from the rice Krispies mixture) it would look like it was sitting in the tee rather than a ball with a chopped off bottom.

I have to admit that despite my best efforts the kicking tee was not completely level and immediately after I finished taking my photos the cake toppled off the "tee", rolled off the worktop and onto the floor! It was one of those dramatic, slow motion, "noooooo" moments as I couldn't get to it in time to catch it. . . 

Somewhat miraculously the cake landed with a thud, unharmed?! How it stayed in one piece is beyond me, it barely even marked the fondant. I am both stunned and grateful that it didn't splat onto the floor in pieces minutes before leaving the house for the birthday party.

The fondant isn't my finest work as it tore as soon as I draped it over the cake but I patched it up the best I could and moved on with my life. In hindsight I probably should have applied the fondant in sections (like a rugby ball skin, I guess!) as the joins would have been covered by the coloured bands but I'm happy with the overall look I achieved.

The birthday boy was suitably impressed, mostly that it was a Scottish ball (which was an important detail) and the cake tasted good. It's definitely one of the most interesting cake cross section photos I've taken.

In the interest of not excluding eldest nephew's cake from earlier in the year, I made a UFC belt birthday cake. He was thoroughly delighted with it too. 

It amuses me that even at 14 and 16 they still want to continue the tradition of silly birthday cakes from their daft aunty. They're not too cool for me yet!

lemon and blackcurrant cake

I've had the lemon and blackcurrant cake from the Clandestine Cake Club book bookmarked since it came out 10 years ago but have always been unable to make it as I couldn't get my hands on any blackcurrants. 

Not anymore! In addition to the "rhubarb empire" we inherited an established blackcurrant and gooseberry bush in our new garden so my lemon and blackcurrant cake dream finally became a reality! (More on the gooseberries another time.)

This cake did not disappoint, it was well worth the wait. Good job, as I had baked it for a family birthday. The sponge itself is almost pudding-like: slightly heavier and juicier in texture compared to a Victoria sponge due to the addition of blackcurrants and ground almonds and also a lemon drizzle soak. 

The blackcurrant coulis/quick jam was also outstanding. What a flavour and colour! I will admit to not quite having enough blackcurrants for it (guilty of eating too many blackcurrants through the week) so I subbed in some fruit from a bag of mixed frozen summer fruits, picking out the blueberries, blackberries and blackcurrants to keep the dark purple colour.

I can see myself making this cake every year which is a lovely thing to look forward to each summer. If you have blackcurrants or can get access to any then I highly recommend trying this recipe. I also recommend serving the cake with fresh berries and cream!

Lemon and blackcurrant(ish) cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Clandestine Cake Club by Lynn Hill

Sponges:

250g Softened butter (I used Stork baking margarine)

250g Caster sugar

4 large eggs

250g Self raising flour

50g Ground almonds

Zest of 1 lemon

100g Blackcurrants 

Lemon soaking syrup:

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp caster sugar

Coulis/jam filling

500g Blackcurrants (I only had 350g of fresh blackcurrants left so topped up the amount with a bag of frozen berries)

Approx. 100g Caster sugar (sweeten to taste)

Preheat the oven to 190C/ 170C Fan/gas mark 5 and grease and line x3 8" (20cm) round cake tins with baking parchment.

Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour along with the lemon zest and ground almonds and mix until fully combined. Gently fold in the blackcurrants. 

Divide the cake batter between the 3 tins and smooth the tops evenly. Bake for approx. 20 minutes or until pale golden, well risen and firm to touch.

While the cake is in the oven, make the lemon syrup. Heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan on the hob until the sugar has dissolved and the mix becomes syrup-y. Remove from the hob and leave to cool then drizzle over/brush onto the cakes a few minutes after they have come out the oven.

For the berry filling, put the blackcurrants and caster sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook until the mixture turns into a thicker, jam-like consistency, roughly 5 minutes. Take off the hob and leave to cool.

Once both the sponges and filling are cool, assemble together by spreading the jam over two sponges then stack them on top of each other, then top with the remaining sponge. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar if you fancy extra flourish.

Strawberry and rhubarb trifle

Yes, I am still wading my way through all the rhubarb in my garden. I might as well rename the blog "what do you make of my rhubarb?"

In my effort to find more ways to use rhubarb I stumbled across a raspberry and rhubarb trifle recipe online by Phil Vickery. Having never tried rhubarb in a trifle before I was suitably intrigued and decided to make it for a little family gathering to celebrate my first wedding anniversary with the Man. If anniversary trifle isn't a thing then I'm totally making it a thing.

I made some tweaks to the recipe according to taste and also what I had in the kitchen. The most obvious swap was strawberry instead of raspberry as I had two packets of strawberry jelly and two tins of strawberries in syrup in the cupboard left over from Christmas (as trifle is a Christmas necessity) so it made sense to use them.

My only other significant change was using less sugar in the stewed rhubarb and omitting the vanilla as I prefer a more tart flavour. I think the original quantities would be far too sweet as mine was sweet enough. I guess it'll vary depending on your rhubarb though.

Although not necessarily a change, I also didn't follow the recipe for the custard. I used the same ingredients but measured by eye and went by taste. It was roughly the same quantity.

Usually for trifle I make a plain Victoria sponge, however I decided to go for a Swiss roll like the Phil Vickery recipe. I used my trusty Mary Berry recipe from her "Baking Bible", once again swapping the raspberry for strawberry jam. It's been a few years since I last made a Swiss roll (9 years ago, apparently?!) so that was a fun change.

The resulting trifle was fantastic! The lemon in the rhubarb gave a lovely zingy flavour in contrast to the sweeter strawberry flavour and Swiss roll. 

Everybody thought this trifle was immensely tasty. I have to admit, the rhubarb in our garden is the nicest rhubarb I've ever encountered; it is so red and sweet. This trifle is definitely one to add to the rhubarb repertoire.

Strawberry and rhubarb trifle

Recipe based on Phil Vickery's mum's trifle

X1 Swiss roll filled with strawberry jam. I used this Mary Berry recipe but without lemon. Same method but I used the following quantities in a larger tin measuring 33 x 23cm:

4 large eggs

100g caster sugar 

100g self raising flour

At least 4 spoonfuls of jam for the filling.

X2 135g packet strawberry jelly, made according to instructions. Admittedly I didn't end up using all the jelly, but I felt it needed more than one packet.

X2 tins of strawberries in syrup (drain the syrup) or fresh, chopped strawberries

Stewed rhubarb:

350g rhubarb, chopped into small chunks

Juice of 1 large lemon

100g sugar

Approx. 1 pint of custard, fresh/homemade, shop bought or made up with Bird's custard powder.

300ml double cream, lightly whipped.

Method: 

Make the Swiss roll, cut it into slices, then cut each slice in half. Place into the bottom of the trifle bowl and around the sides. Layer the fresh, chopped or drained, tinned strawberries into the centre.

Make up the jelly according to instructions. Top tip: if using tinned strawberries, use the fruit syrup for your jelly. Add enough boiling water to melt the jelly blocks then top up the rest of the liquid with the fruit syrup.

Once cool, pour the jelly into the trifle bowl until it fully covers the sponge and fruit. Put in the fridge to set, ideally overnight.

Put all ingredients for the stewed rhubarb in a pan and simmer over a low heat until the rhubarb has softened. Set aside to cool. Once cool, add on top of the set jelly.

Make up the custard, either using the powdered variety, make from scratch or buy ready made. If you're making it though, it's best to make it on the thick side to give it a firmer set. Let the custard cool before adding to the trifle, on top of the rhubarb layer.

Lightly whip the double cream and add as a final layer on top of the trifle. Re-chill and serve, with a flourish of sprinkles for decoration.