Treacle Sponge Pudding

Ok, I know this isn't strictly cake, but it is really tasty, and really quick and easy to make. Also it was suggested by a certain Miss Lies that I put it on here. It is from one of my mum's cookbooks, and I can't remember which one, but it's quite an old recipe. I've converted the oz measurements, but I always make it using oz s rather than grams. If I had the inclination, I'd server this with custard or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. So here goes:

Treacle Sponge Pudding - makes 4 portions or 3 large portions (but easily manageable)

100g (4oz) self raising flour
50g (2oz) caster sugar
50g (2oz) margarine
1 egg
45-60ml milk (you don't want it a little more runny that golden syrup, about 50ml). Also, I made it with skimmed milk recently, and it seemed to make it more airy and 'fluffy'
0.5 tsp vanilla essence
3tbsp golden syrup

1. Mix all the ingredients other than the golden syrup with electric beaters until smooth and creamy, a bit like cake batter, though slightly more liquid.
2. Spoon the golden syrup into the bottom of a steep sided, microwaveable bowl. Spread up the sides just under an inch from the bottom. Pour 1. in ontop, ensuring it seals around the edges (i.e. no golden syrup escaping!)
3. Microwave on high for 6-6.5 minutes, or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
4. Serve, spooning the HOT golden syrup out from the bottom onto the top of the sponge. Add ice cream if you like.

My record for having this prepared is in about 12 minutes from starting with ingredients in the tubs etc. Like I said, it is very quick, and very easy. You can vary it too - add a bit of cocoa to make a chocolate one. I quite like to add a bit of odd food colouring to make it seem REALLY odd e.g. green :D

Hope you enjoy it, sorry there isn't a photo, it all got eaten long before I got told to put it on here!

On a side note, apparently the cake survived the journey to France, and was, as ever, excellent. Though of course she might have just been saying that to get more... I'm going to make some more cakes soon, but my dissertation is absorbing my life currently, as after this week I'll have no time whatsoever to do it! :(


MMFC

Chocolate Fudge Cakes

These are possibly some of the nicest chocolate cakes I have ever made. They were so rich and moist, and the icing was delicious, even if it did make me feel sick when I ate too much.. woops. I also managed to post one to my friend who has gone to France for a year on exchange.. I have yet to hear from her as to its condition/taste, though if the French postal system is anything like the UK, it might be rather stale. They were also really easy to make - no fiddly chopping up mango or stupid whisking egg whites till my arm falls off (fortunately have a new blender that has a whisk attachment, very handy).

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes - makes 12

125g (4oz) butter

150g (5oz) light muscovado sugar
2 eggs
100g (3.5oz) self raising flour
50g (2oz) cocoa powder

0.5 tsp baking powder

Icing

  

100g (3.5oz) plain or milk chocolate, chopped

2 tbsp milk

50g (2oz) butter

75g (3oz) icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C. Mix all the ingredients together with an electric beater until light and creamy. Divide into the 12 cases (though be careful not to overfill - could make 13/14 safely).
2. Bake for 20 minutes, or until just firm to touch.
3. Icing - Put the chocolate, butter and milk in a small saucepan and melt gently until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat.
4. Sift in the icing sugar and stir until smooth. Leave to cool a little bit (be warned it goes rock-hard if cooled too much) so it is more solid but spreadable, then spread onto the cakes, best done while they are still warm.

The icing is tasty... so either be scant and get sick eating the leftovers, or pile it on. If you let it cool too much before putting it on, it won't spread well, and might go lumpy. I found doing it straight off the stove was bad (sort of) because it all dribbled down the side and onto the baking tray. So I had to eat all the drippings, shame to waste!

Next ones should be Chocolate and Strawberry cupcakes... mmmmmmmm

MMFC

Ginger and Mango

I tried these cakes a few weeks ago when my Godmother had some to visit, but forgot to take any photos. So as much as it pains me, I had to go and make them again, just to show them to you all... how unfortunate. It also co-incided with me going away from home, so 'twas a nice leaving present for my parents.

Now the recipe isn't that clear as to whether the mango is supposed to go in or not, but I think it is quite tasty adding it in.

Iced Fresh Ginger Cupcakes - makes 12

125g (4oz) soft butter
125g (4oz) caster sugar
150g (5oz) self raising flour
50g (2oz) fresh ginger

2 eggs
0.5 tsp baking powder
125g (4oz) dried mango, chopped finely (0.5cm roughly)


Icing

75g (3oz) Icing sugar
Lemon juice
Ginger juice (if any)

1. Preheat oven to 180*C. Finely grate the fresh ginger, catching as much juice as possible for later. Mix the sugar, ginger, eggs, butter, flour and baking powder in a bowl with an electric mixer for about a minute (until light and creamy).
2. Stir in the dried mango, and divide into the cake cases.
3. Bake for 20 minutes or until risen and just firm to the touch.
4. Icing Once the cakes are cool, mix the icing sugar with the ginger juice and add lemon juice until it makes a thin-ish glacé (though i preferred it a bit thicker). Then decorate the tops of the cakes with it. I like icing, so I just spread it all over, but if you want to go a bit more 'classy' a drizzle effect might be good.

 

These are overall, very tasty. If you keep the ginger quite large (but obviously not as big as the mango) it is a nice little ginger kick when you find a lump in the cake.

So now my next post will definitely be in Durham, I'm going to be baking tomorrow, but I haven't decided what yet.


MMFC

Gin and Tonic cupcakes, mmmmm!

So I've been looking forward to making these for quite some time (well pretty much as long as I've known where the recipe was) as have certain other people (not mentioning any names, Sarah at EADS Astrium). I got the recipe off www.yumsugar.com (link - originally from Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell). Unfortunately, it's all american in measurement (cups.. EUGH), and I personally felt some of it needed altering... e.g. the icing - who wants cheese in cake icing?!.

Now this recipe is for a 'white cake' or more commonly referred to as 'Angel food cake' or 'Foam cake'. This means it has little, or no, fat in it, and uses egg whites (or similar) to provide the shape; like a meringue. Having never tried to make white cake before, I decided to do some test runs, to make sure I could make it perfect for when my dad took some to work for his beleagured colleages. Firstly, heres the recipe (with some conversions into proper measurements!):

Cake - makes 12
2 Medium Egg whites
pinch salt
0.25 tsp Cream of Tartar
0.5 cup Icing sugar (roughly 64g - I used 65g, get me!), sifted
0.25 cup Plain flour (32g, use 35g if you can't measure that accurately), sifted
1.5 tbsp Tonic water (I used Tonic water 'with a twist of Lime/Lemon' which added a good bit of lime/lemon flavour)


Icing - Original
0.5 cup Mascarpone (120g)
1 tbsp Gin (add more!!)
2 tbsp Glucose syrup
Green food colouring
Lime slices covered in sugar or Jellied lime


Icing - Mine
Enough Icing sugar to make a not-too-runny paste
25ml Gin (1 shot or 1 tbsp, 2 tsp)
roughyl 5ml (1 tsp) Lime Juice (or Lemon)

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 160*C. With an electric beater (essential, unless you like lots of hard work) beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until they are risen.
2. Beat in the sugar a few tbsp at a time, sprinkling it over the egg whites and beating for 20 sec after each addition (give it a quick stir first, so the sugar doesn't go everywhere! - also sifting not essential here)
3. FOLD in the flour (sifting important) with a metal spoon in 3 stages, then stir in the tonic water in the same way.
4. Bake for 15 mins or until lightly golden and still springy to the touch 
5. Remove and cool
6. Icing - Original Spoon the mascarpone into a bowl and beat in the gin, then syrup and tint the palest colour green. Pipe onto the cool cakes.
7. Decorate with jellied limes or lime slices covered in sugar; with a cocktail stick through them. Lime slices covered in sugar should be added just before serving otherwise the lime juice goes everywhere
8. Icing - Mine Put some icing sugar in a bowl (few oz), add the gin and mix until combined (paste, liquid or lumpy).
9. Add the lime juice to taste, and then add icing sugar and mix until it forms a spreadable paste. This should be just enough icing to cover 12 cakes.

First attempt - the cake was really really flat and chewy :(. I originally thought this was because i'd used the wrong type of flour, as the original recipe isn't particularly clear, hence why I tried again using Self Raising flour - Attempt 2. What it actually meant is that I'd cooked it too long (and as i discovered on attempt no. 3, had destroyed the egg white foam). I made the icing this time round too. I doubled the amount of gin in the mix (I like gin if you hadn't already realised). It did make the icing pretty runny, so I had to add icing sugar to compensate. It was ok as an icing, but the mild cheesiness wasn't for me, even if it was rather overpowered by gin.


Second attempt - this time I used self raising flour. Although the cakes were a bit lighter, and less chewy, they still didn't rise properly. They tasted nice though, here's a picture of what your cakes shouldn't look like.

So on my third attempt, my mother deigned to inform me that when making foam cake, as she called it, you needed to just fold in the flour, rather than whisk it in - you learn something new everyday! If you do whisk it in, it breaks down the egg white structure so the cakes just flatten. Hence these cakes came out brilliantly - they rose and everything! I decided to ice them with my own, home-designed icing annd lime slices. Here is the finished product:

(yes the icing is very pale green, I think my camera killed the colour!)

I hope you enjoy making these too, after all the kerfuffle I went through, they weren't particularly refreshing; but next time, they will be perfect! My next post should be from Durham :)


MMFC

Beehive Cupcakes

When I first saw these cakes in my recipe book, they literally jumped out at me. They look so nice with the yellow frosting (mine is white cos i neglected to buy any food colouring... error) and the chocolate bee ontop. They also taste delicious.

I've decided on reading other blogs, that I might as well put the recipes on here so you can try them too! Here goes:
  
Cake - makes 16

200g (7oz) unsalted butter, soft
185g (6.5oz) soft brown sugar
3 eggs
115g (4oz) warm Honey
280g (10z) Self-raising Flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C, and line 16 muffin holes with cases. (I made 24 normal-size cupcakes instead of muffins).
2. Beat the sugar and butter together until light and creamy.
3. Fold in the eggs one at a time, then the honey and flour until combined.
4. Divide into the cases, and bake for 18-20 mins. Cool on a wire rack immeadiately after baking.

Icing - This stuff is really really tasty, just like marshmallows :) the recipe i provide below did make rather alot of icing, though it might just be that I piped it on really sparingly!


Icing

3 Egg whites
330g (11.75oz)
2 tsp glucose syrup
pinch of cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
yellow food colouring
Toothpicks
Chocolate bees (see previous post)

1. Combine the egg whites, sugar, glucose syrup and cream of tater and 100ml of water in a heatproof bowl.
2. Sit the bowl over a pan of simmering saucepan and beat with electric beatiers until light and fluffy.
3. Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract and beat until it forms stiff peaks (seriously use electric beaters, I tried this by hand - it took FOREVER).
4. Add the food colouring drop by drop.

Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a 1cm round nozzle (very messy - stupidly i forgot to take photos of this.. but it was nice to lick it off my hands afterward :) ) and pipe in circles onto the cake to resemble a beehive, push the toothpick into the bottom of the bee and insert into each cake. I personally think these cakes could do without the icing, as nice as it is, but I can't decide what to put on top instead.


I had loads of leftover icing (because I didn't pipe it on in huge quantities like the recipe says to), so i used it to make little meringue-style pieces of marshmallow on a sheet of baking parchment. They haven't exactly hardened as I'd have liked, but are still very tasty. Tomorrow I'm going to see what heating them up a bit does :D even if it does fail miserably, at least i'll have a nice sticky sweet mess to eat, and no one that I'd have to share it with!


MMFC