Buttercream – The Pudding Queen

Another Birthday-Another Cake

March 19, 2023March 19, 2023 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

Lemon Raspberry Drip Cake

I think that I mentioned that I was trying to improve my icing techniques and, believe me, they can take some improving. I’ve always liked the look of those ‘drip’ cakes, with the perfect ring of drips running down the length of the cake, and this seemed like a good chance to have a go. Also I’d decided that it wasn’t going to be a chocolate cake for this birthday, and I’d collected a recipe some time ago that used evaporated milk in the sponge-weird but interesting. In the end, as is my wont, I used a variety of things from different places to make my own individual slant on a cake. Also Youtube videos on cake icing helped a lot, too!

The recipe called for 2 x 9″ cake tins-I only have one, a springform tin. I didn’t want to wait to bake the second layer, nor to have to buy a second tin, but I do have three identical 8″ loose-bottomed tins. A 9″ tin is actually 25% larger than an 8″ tin (it surprised me to know that!) so I reckoned that three 8″ tins would make three slightly thinner layers to the two 9″ cakes. As the 9″ cakes were supposed to be torted (apparently the posh way of saying ‘cut in half, horizontally’!’), I thought that I could end up with a 3-layer cake instead of the 4-layer cake in the recipe. It was a plan.

Cake

1 cup/250 g/8 oz/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp (plus extra to grease the pan)

3¾ cup/312 g/11 oz self-raising flour

3 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Zest of 1 large lemon

2 cups/500 g/16 oz granulated sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1¼ cups/310 ml/10 fl oz evaporated milk

Heat the oven to 325˚F/160˚C/Gas 3

Grease and line 2 x 9” or 3 x 8” cake tins. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Use a balloon whisk to ensure well-mixed. Set aside.

Zest the lemon, set aside.

Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium and then add eggs, one at a time, beating to ensure each is fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla extract. Fold in the lemon zest.

Fold in the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the evaporated milk.

Transfer to the prepared tins. Bake until a skewer comes out clean 35-40 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool, in the tin on a rack, for 10 minutes, then invert onto the rack to cool completely.

I was making the cakes well in advance of the birthday itself, actually 5 days beforehand, so as to not be rushed. My research on-line suggested that freezing the cakes would be beneficial to the outcome of the frosting procedure, not to mention meaning that I wouldn’t need to crack on and ice them, so I decided to try it out. The secret, it seems, is to wrap the cakes and freeze them whilst they are still warm from the oven, i.e. just as they are tipped out of the tins. A good layer of plastic wrap was applied to each cake and they were placed, individually, on the shelves of the freezer. It’s important not to stack the cakes until they are frozen, though.

The cakes would be filled with a raspberry compote and with lemon buttercream, which would also be used to ice the outside. I made these up on the day before I intended to do the icing.

Raspberry Compote

1 pkt/300 g/10.6 oz frozen

⅓-½ cup/85-125 g/2.6-4 oz granulated sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch (cornflour)

A small amount of cold water

Place the frozen berries and sugar into a small saucepan and slowly simmer over low heat until soft.
Mix the cornstarch with a little water until smooth.
If you do not mind seeds in your compote, then add the cornstarch/water mix to the berry mixture and stir well until thickened.

I’m not fond of seeds in my cakes, so I decided to sieve the softened fruit through a sieve, pushing the puree through with a wooden spoon and thus catching most of the seeds. I rinsed out the pan, to ensure that any residual seeds were removed, before returning the compote to simmer, then added the cornstarch to thicken it, as above. The finished compote was stored in the fridge until needed.

Lemon American Buttercream

Apparently, what I’ve always just thought of as buttercream, made with butter and icing sugar, is also known as American buttercream. It seems a bit bigheaded of the Americans to lay claim to something that everyone else uses as well. I can’t see anything particularly American about it!

340 g/12 oz/ roughly 2½ sticks unsalted butter at room temperature

567 g/20 oz icing (powdered/confectioner’s) sugar

142 g/5 oz whipping (heavy, double) cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract (optional)

1 tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp salt

Few drops yellow food colouring (optional)

Beat the butter until smooth and light.Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, whilst mixing on low speed. Add the salt, vanilla, lemon extract (if using), lemon juice and cream. Beat on high speed, 2-3 minutes, until smooth and fluffy. If liked, add a few drops of yellow food colouring.

Beat on low for an additional 15 minutes to remove air bubbles.

I made my buttercream on the day before I was going to use it, so stored it, covered, in the fridge. Before using it I brought it to room temperature and beat it, for 2-3 minutes, with my hand electric mixer. I found it to be still a little stiff, so zapped it in the microwave for 10 seconds, which loosened it perfectly for beating and spreading, without melting it.

American buttercream is stable at room temperature for a few hours. It can be stored refrigerated, covered, for a week of so, or will freeze in an airtight container for several months.

Assembling the Cake

If frozen, remove the cakes from the freezer, keep them in the plastic film and allow to defrost on wire racks until room temperature, about 3 hours. remove the film.

If using 9” cakes, torte each cake (i.e. cut horizontally through the centre) to end up with four layers. If using 8” cakes, this will not be necessary. If preferred/needed, trim the cakes to remove domes or the caramelized outer layer (I didn’t).

If liked, spray the top and bottom surface of the bottom layer with sugar syrup (a 1:1 solution of sugar in water) to ensure moistness. Glue the cake layer to a cake board or place using a blob of buttercream.

Place a thin layer of buttercream on the cake layer. Using an icing bag fitted with a large nozzle, pipe a ‘dam’ of buttercream around the edge of the layer, Fill the dam with raspberry puree. Spray the next layer with sugar syrup, if using, then place this on the lower level, ensuring that the cake is centred correctly. Continue to fill and add layers, finishing with the top layer. A 9” cake will have 4 thinner layers, the 8” cake will have 3 thicker layers.

Using an offset spatula, add a thin layer of buttercream to the sides and top of the cake, to seal the layers and act as a crumb coat. Place the cake in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to settle the cake and set the crumb coat.

When set, remove the cold cake from the refrigerator and ice the sides and top of the cake with buttercream icing, smoothing as much as possible. Replace the cake in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes for the icing to set, before adding the drip coat.

I probably could have done with just a bit more icing for this cake, and if doing a 9″ cake I’d recommend 1.5 times the amount, as a minimum, even double quantities if you like a thick frosting. In this case I wasn’t too worried about the ‘bare’ edges to the top as I was planning a ganache drip that would cover this.

Chocolate Ganache Drip

Ideally, white chocolate ganache should be at a ratio of at least 3:1 chocolate to cream.

100g bar good quality white chocolate (I used Lindt)

About 35 ml whipping cream (heavy cream, double cream) at least 30% fat content

Food colouring (if liked)

Break the chocolate into very small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl.

Heat the cream to simmer but do not boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and allow to sit a minute or so, then stir. If needed, microwave the chocolate cream mix in 10 second bursts until a smooth thick liquid is obtained. Add colouring, if wanted. Allow to cool to almost room temperature.

Take the cake from the fridge. The icing needs to be cold for the drip to work.

Ideally, use a disposable icing bag or a ziplock bag. Fill the bag with the ganache and then clip a tiny hole in the point (you can use a small icing nozzle if preferred). Add ganache around the top edge of the cake, allowing drips to form and run down at random intervals. When the edge if complete, use the remainder to pipe over the top surface of the cake. If needed, use an icing spatula to completely smooth out the ganache top. Decorate as liked if using sprinkles or similar, or allow to set in the refrigerator if using piped decorations, etc. The ganache does not harden completely so items can be embedded after the setting period.

I was pretty pleased with my first effort. I’d chosen to colour my white chocolate ganache with a little red food colouring, to suggest the raspberry filling and to contrast with the yellow buttercream. I think my ganache could have been just a tad more liquid to drip more elegantly but, not surprisingly, I probably chose the harder of the ganaches to get right: ones made with dark chocolate are apparently easier to work with. If available, a little additional cocoa butter can help the fluidity of white chocolate ganache. So far as final decorations were concerned, I decided to just add a sprinkling of some bright red sugar crystals to the ganache whilst it was still quite liquid. If I’d had remaining buttercream, I’d have piped a border around the base of the cake and maybe some other piped decorations, too.

It’s a very filling cake but a pretty tasty one too. It’s best removed from the fridge for a couple of hours before serving, to allow the buttercream to come to room temperature.

Easy Fruitcake, with Custard Buttercream

February 7, 2023 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

I was looking for more fruitcake recipes, ones not including banana for preference. Not that I dislike banana breads, far from it, but a change is as good as a rest. Anyhow, when I came across a recipe for ‘easy’ fruitcake, that made me look twice. It was made with oil, rather than butter, which was a good thing as I don’t currently have much in the fridge. It was also made as a layer cake rather than a loaf, so the cooking time was considerably reduced on the 1 hr-long bakings of recent experience. It wanted a layer of apricot jam in the centre, which I didn’t have, but I knew that I had several jams or other preserves that I though would do the job instead. It sounded like a plan.

Now this was an on-line recipe and I generally take a look at the comments, jus to see if there are any hints, etc., that would be useful. The comments were about 50-50 split between ‘lovely cake, very flavoursome’ and ‘yuck-tasted of oil’; that was worrying, but it seemed that everyone commenting ‘yuck’ had used olive oil. I’d never use olive oil in a cake mixture (unless very specifically stated in the recipe), it has far too heavy a taste (although I do use it for savoury cooking ), and this recipe stated ‘flavourless oil’, so I reckoned that the ‘yuck’ crowd got what they deserved. I’d give it a go using my other standard cooking oil, Becel, a mixture of sunflower and canola that generally works well in baking applications.

It’s a UK recipe, so I used the metric measurements. I have tried to convert to imperial, but not to cups.

Easy Fruitcake

175 ml (approx. 5½ fl oz) flavourless oil (not olive oil)*

100 g/ 3.5 oz soft brown sugar**

2 eggs, beaten

225 g/ 7.9 oz plain (all-purpose) flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp mixed spice***

Juice of 1 orange****

Juice of 1 lemon****

200 g/7 oz mixed dried fruits*****

*I used Becel, a mixture of sunflower and canola oils

**Recipe specifies light brown muscovado sugar

***Recipe states allspice

**** Recipe states juice of ½ orange and ½ lemon

*****I used a mixture of sultana raisins, dried sweetened cranberries, finely chopped dried dates and halved glace cherries.

Preheat the oven to 325˚F/310 ˚F convection/160˚C/140 ˚C fan/Gas 3

Grease and line the bases of two 8”/20 cm springform or loose-bottom cake tins. Set aside.

I prepared all of the ingredients in separate bowls, ready for the mixing. When it came to allspice, I could not put my hand on it. I’m pretty sure I have some, somewhere, but instead I chose to use mixed spice. Its not the same as allspice though. Pumpkin spice might also make an alternative.

My orange and lemon were getting a little elderly, so it was good to use them up for this recipe, but I think that they didn’t give as much juice as fresher fruit. Although the recipe stated juice from only half of each fruit, I juiced both halves of both and decided to add what I thought was needed to make a soft batter. In the end, I used it all.

Place the oil and sugar into a bowl and mix well.

Add the eggs and stir to combine.

Place the flour, baking powder and spices into a separate bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk to make sure they are well-combined. Introduce the flour mixture to the oil/sugar/eggs mixture. Add the fruit juices and mix thoroughly, with a wooden spoon, until a soft batter is formed.

Fold in the fruit mixture. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared tins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave in the tins, lying on a wire rack, to cool completely. Remove from the tins for filling.

The original recipe suggests filling with apricot jam, followed by dusting the top with icing sugar. I thought that the cakes looked a little dry (although the proof of that pudding will be in the eating!) so I thought I’d sub in some buttercream. Not just any old buttercream, but a recipe for ‘custard buttercream’ that I’d recently found and which intrigued me. Anyway, fruitcake and custard, what’s not to like! I always have a tin of custard powder in the cupboard-you never know when the custard urge will hit, and I did have sufficient butter for this.

Custard Buttercream

Makes sufficient to fill a 7-8” sandwich cake

75 g /2½ oz unsalted butter, softened.

150 g/ 5½ oz icing sugar (confectioner’s or powdered sugar)

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp custard powder

2 tbsp milk or cream*

*I used 18% (single) cream (coffee cream)

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and set it beating.

Add the sugar, custard powder, vanilla and cream to the mixer and beat until smooth, light and fluffy.

This was a very quick buttercream and came together very well. it didn’t make huge amounts, more a UK sandwich fill than a North American one, so I’d suggest 1½ or 2 times the amount if you like a really thick filling. It did have a ‘custardy’ taste. I used the buttercream to sandwich together the two thin fruitcakes and finished the whole thing off with a dredge of icing sugar. It doesn’t look bad!

It’s quite a spicy cake and a little on the dry side, just now, but I expect it will be quite a lot moister tomorrow, in keeping with most oil-based sponges. The custard buttercream worked well with the spicy cake. Goes down nice with a cup of tea. Oh, and it didn’t taste of oil, either!

Banana Coffee Cake

May 20, 2022 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

Bananas are going overripe quicker now that the year is heating up. I do keep them in another room, that tends cooler than the kitchen, but it’s inevitable so I might have to start keeping them in the fridge. As a result, I tend to buy only 3 or 4 at a time since I’m really the only one who eats them; Mark may have the odd one but there will be weeks between each one. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention this to him when he did the shopping last week, so he came back with a hand of about 9. With the best will in the world I can’t eat that many and today they were looking (and smelling) very, very ripe. I thought I’d be making banana bread again. Then I thought, I wonder if there’s something else I could make? I’d take a look on line.

I found a recipe for a coffee cake, in both senses of the word. That is, a cake to eat with a cup of coffee and one with coffee flavouring-in this case a coffee buttercream. It was an intriguing combination and, with a little substitution, I had everything I needed.

The cake recipe called for butter, but I was a bit short of it so I substituted soft margarine. It also wanted sour cream, which I don’t keep in. However, greek yoghurt is apparently a suitable alternative and this I do have since I routinely add it to my breakfasts (along with bananas). It was 0% fat yoghurt, but I thought it would work. Finally it wanted a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. My largest one, a pyrex dish, was 8.5 by 11 inch, but I thought it would be ok, although the cake might take a few minutes longer to bake.

The Recipe (for cake):

½ cup/125 g /4 oz soft margarine, or butter, softened*

1 cup/250 g/8 oz granulated sugar**

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp/5 ml vanilla extract/essence

2 cups/250 g/8 oz all-purpose (plain) flour

2 tsp/ 10 ml baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

½ tsp salt

1½ cups mashed banana (about 3 ripe bananas)

1 cup/ 250 ml/ 8 fl oz greek yogurt or sour cream***

* I used soft margarine

**caster sugar would work better if not in North America

***I used 0% greek yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4. Grease a suitable baking dish and set aside.

Measure out all of the ingredients, as follows. Note that I used the cup measures for this cake. When measuring flours in cups, it’s important not to scoop up the flour with the cup, since this will lead to a packed cup and be too much flour. Instead, fill the cup measure using a spoon and level off.

Measure the flour, baking soda and salt and sift into a bowl, set aside.

Measure 1 cup of yoghurt or sour cream and set aside.

Place the bananas into a bowl and mash well with a fork. Set aside.

Measure the margarine or butter, and sugar into a large bowl.

Cream the margarine/butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Start to add the flour mixture, yoghurt/cream and bananas in aliquots one after the other, beating well between each addition. The result with be a batter with a nice dropping consistency; there will be some small lumps of banana, that’s fine. Transfer to the greased dish and level the top.

Bake. The recipe, with the 9 x 13 inch tin, suggests 35-40 minutes. Mine took slightly longer, maybe 45 minutes. The cake is done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the dish, on a wire rack.

I turned mine out onto the rack after about 30 minutes, to cool completely.

The recipe suggested a coffee-flavoured buttercream to frost the cake. It seemed an unusual combination but I was willing to give it a try.

The Buttercream:

⅓ cup/85 g/2.5 oz butter, softened

2½ cups/390 g/12.5 oz icing sugar (powdered sugar/confectioner’s sugar)

1 tsp (5 ml) espresso powder, dissolved in 1 tbsp (15 ml) hot water, and cooled*

1 tbsp (15 ml) milk

* the recipe suggests 2 tsp instant coffee powder, dissolved in milk. if using instant coffee, not espresso, use a total of 2 tbsp milk in this mixture.

I realised that I’d forgotten to buy some more icing sugar, and I wasn’t going to have enough for this topping. What to do? Well, I thought I’d try to make some, using my blender. I added some granulated sugar and tried to grind to a fine powder. It did it, too, but not as fine as the commercial stuff, so my icing ended up being slightly gritty.

Add the butter (and I do recommend butter here, not margarine) to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until fluffy.

Make up the espresso with 1 tbsp of hot water, and leave to cool. Note that strong coffee lovers might want to increase the coffee to 2 tsp espresso powder.

When the butter is fluffy start to add the icing sugar. If it becomes too dry, add in the espresso solution. Add 1 tbsp milk (additional may be added if the mix remains too stiff). beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until light and fluffy.

When the cake is cool, layer the buttercream over to top. Slice and serve.

The cake has a light, spongy texture, actually quite ‘muffin-y’, I think. I expect that the mixture could easily be baked in muffin cases to make banana muffins (with a reduced baking time). Some people have baked it in a swiss roll tin, and then rolled it up with the coffee buttercream as a filling, which sound like fun. It has a light, banana flavour, not too strong, and a hint of spice might make a good addition. The coffee buttercream went with it very well, I thought rather surprisingly, although I think I would go a little stronger with the coffee flavouring on another occasion. All-in-all, it was a nice alternative to the problem of what to do with overripe bananas. I shall have to freeze some of it, though because its awfully big for two!

Cinnamon Honey Cake

May 14, 2022 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

I thought I’d move slightly out of my comfort zone today, taste-wise that is. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not all that keen on cinnamon. I guess I don’t mind a little, but that goes a long way in my book. One of the things I really noticed, when moving to North America, was the number of cinnamon-flavoured items, and that the cinnamon-flavouring was usually very strong-too strong for me. Therefore I have shied away for ‘cinnamon’ in a cake. Time, maybe, to remedy that.

I was leafing through one of my old recipe books that I brought with me from the UK a few days ago. Now, I might have bought this book in the UK but it is actually Australian. It’s been very useful over the years for the tables of conversions in the back-cups to weights, Fahrenheit to Celsius, names of ingredients, etc. What I haven’t done is bake many of the recipes. Well, I came across a simple-looking cake, called Cinnamon Honey Cake- a single layer cake, topped with lemon buttercream. Now that sounded not too bad, especially as it specified only 1 tsp of cinnamon in the mix.

The Recipe:

Cake

50 g/¼ cup soft brown sugar

4 tbsp/60 ml honey

1 egg

125 g/1 cup self-raising flour, sifted

60 g butter, softened

1 tsp cinnamon

80 ml/⅓ cup milk

Note that this makes one layer. For a two-layer cake, double the recipe or make it twice.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F /180˚C/Gas 4. Grease and line a 20 cm/8 in cake tin

Now the recipe suggests just putting all of the ingredients into a bowl and mixing it up, so I did.

I had helped the butter soften by trying a trick I’d found on line. I filled a jug with boiling water, left it for a minute or so then decanted the water and popped in my stick of butter, and it worked!

However, even with this trick it took forever for the butter to be incorporated into the batter. Maybe it would be better to cream the butter and sugar first.

The batter is quite sloppy. Transfer to the prepared tin, smooth the top and place in the oven for approximately 30 minutes.

I checked my cake after about 25 minutes and was glad I did because it looked done. A skewer inserted into the centre came out clean. It had risen, but not greatly so. The 8 in tin I used was a little larger than the 20 cm tin specified, so maybe that is why. This might work better as a single layer cake if baked in a 7 in tin.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin, on a wire rack, for 5-10 minutes, before turning out onto the rack to cool completely.

It looked a bit sorry, turned out, not really deep enough to be a single layer cake. What to do? Well, I’d make another one and turn this into a sandwich cake. This time I creamed together the butter and sugar first, before adding the other ingredients. It was quicker to prepare, but it made no difference to the colour, texture or the baking time of the layer, so it clearly could be mixed either way.

Lemon Frosting

50 g butter, softened

310 g/ 2 cups icing sugar (powdered or confectioner’s sugar)

20 ml/ 1 tbsp +1 tsp (or to taste) lemon juice

Splash of milk, as needed

I had prepared the lemon frosting, intending this to be the topping of the single layer cake. I used the remainder of the stick of butter (about 50 g) and placed this in the bowl of my stand mixer. I beat the butter until fluffy then started to add the sugar, alternating with some of the lemon juice, until it was all incorporated. I actually added a dribble more lemon juice, as the mix was very thick and slightly granular. Because of this I also added a splash of milk, and this loosened up the buttercream enough to make a nice spreading consistency. Luckily, it was not too soft as it would now be serving as a filling, not a frosting.

Once cool, sandwich together the two cakes with the lemon buttercream. A dusting of icing sugar finishes off the cake.

The cake has a nice light crumb and a pleasant ‘stickiness’, caused by the honey. It does have quite a pronounced cinnamon taste, and warmth-well at least to my tastebuds; real cinnamon-lovers might find it a bit bland. I suppose it could be livened up by adding more cinnamon. It might also work rather nicely as a ginger honey cake; in fact, I think that might be a better combination for me. Still, I’m not turning my nose up at this one, and it makes a nice change from the more regular flavourings.

Christmas Spice-Applesauce Spice Cake

December 26, 2021 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

I’ve been on a bit of a cake hiatus-well, the trouble with baking is that we eat the results and regular cake blogging was doing nothing for our waistlines. So the ‘occasional baker’ decided to hang up her cake tins and keep the cake baking for special occasions only, the first of which would be Christmas.

Now I wanted to try something new. No-one round here really goes for the traditional dark fruitcake, and I’d have had to start that a month or so ago to get the requisite amount of soaking in alcohol done. No, it would be something fairly quick. Spices might feel quite seasonal, and I had a recipe in one of my books that I’d jotted down a while ago but never made, for Applesauce Spice Cake. It also used a bundt pan, and I had one that I’d never actually used yet. It sounded like a plan.

It used two types of sugar, three spices I already had in and some applesauce that I bought in a jar from the local supermarket. Seemed simple enough.

A pristine bundt pan. I guess you could probably use a standard cake tin, or a larger tin with a ramekin placed upside down in the centre, as I have done previously, if you don’t have one. Anyway, the first job was to liberally grease and flour the tin, or which I used a soft margarine (Imperial). I was concerned that all those ridges and swirls might hold onto my cake!

2 cups/250 g/ 8 oz all-purpose (plain) flour

1½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

2½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 rounded tsp ground ginger

½ rounded tsp ground cloves

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup/250 g/8 oz granulated sugar

½ cup/ 90 g/ 3 oz packed brown sugar

1½ cups/ 375 ml applesauce

⅔ cup/ 170 ml canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

Set oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4

Put the flour, spices, salt and baking powder into a large bowl and whisk until well mixed and free from lumps. Set aside.

*Whisking the dry ingredients makes sure that they are well mixed and removes any lumps.*

Put both sugars into a bowl with the eggs, beat until light in colour.

Add the applesauce, canola oil and vanilla extract, and mix until smooth.

Fold in the dry ingredients, using a spatula. Do not overmix.

Pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Well, what do you know, the cake came out of the bundt pan perfectly! There really was a nice spicy, christmassy smell in the kitchen, too.

The cake needs a glaze, and a caramel glaze sounded perfect.

Glaze

4 tbsp/½ stick salted butter, cubed

½ cup/ 90 g/ 3 oz packed brown sugar

⅓ cup/ 85 ml whipping or double cream

¼ tsp salt

¾ to 1 cup/155 g/5 oz icing sugar (confectioner’s or powdered)

Wait until the cake is cool to start the glaze.

Place the butter in a saucepan with the brown sugar, cream and salt. Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute then remove from the heat.

Leave the pan to cool for a couple of minutes, then start to slowly whisk in the sifted icing sugar, using a balloon whisk, until the glaze is thick but pourable (or thicker if you prefer). If it goes too thick, thin with a splash of cream or milk.

Pour or layer the glaze on the cake and allow it to set. I probably did mine too thick but, extra-thick butter caramel glaze, who’s complaining! I finished my cake off with a sprinkle of icing sugar snow to add to the christmassy vibe.

The cake is moist and tastes a little like gingerbread, so spicy, certainly.

It’s nice served with whipped cream or, for even more sugar, I made a salted caramel sauce.

1 cup/250 g/ 8 oz granulated sugar

6 tbsp salted butter RT, cut into pieces

½ cup/ 125 ml heavy, double or whipping cream

1 tsp salt

Heat the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. the sugar will satrt to form lumps and will eventually melt into a thick amber coloured liquid. be careful not to burn it and continue to stir.

When completely melted, add the butter, The caramel will bubble rapidly. Stir until completely melted, using a balloon whisk if the butter starts to separate (2-3 minutes).

Slowly drizzle in the cream, whilst stirring. It will bubble and/or splatter. Allow to boil for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat, stir in the salt and transfer to a storage vessel. This sauce is a thick one that will store refrigerated for 2 weeks. I added additional milk or cream (to taste) to bring it to a pouring consistency.

*Salted caramel sauce, before adding additional milk.*

So the spice cake is very nice when eaten with additional caramel sauce on the side-who knew!

Applesauce Spice Cake, Caramel Glaze and Salted Caramel Sauce

Merry Christmas!

Just for Fun-Chocolate Cupcakes

June 18, 2021June 11, 2021 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

Sometimes I just get the urge to make something, something of a ‘cakey’ nature. I didn’t want to go over the top, because we end up eating what I make, and it’s not doing the waistline any good at all. I thought that a little batch of cupcakes might hit the spot, not too many that we’d be overwhelmed, but enough of a challenge to be worth making.

I call it a challenge because I don’t make them often and I’ve had some issues in the past with sunken tops and dried out middles. Could I improve? Also, the only thing I had in for flavouring would be cocoa, would it be moist enough?

So I found a recipe offering super-moist cupcakes, using oil in place of butter or margarine. I’ve had lots of luck with full-sized ‘sticky’ chocolate cake using this method, so that was encouraging. It made only 14 cupcakes, so not over-facing. Sounded like a plan.

The recipe (makes 14 or so cup cakes):

¾ cup/94 g all-purpose (plain) flour spooned and flattened

½ cup/41 g unsweetened cocoa powder*

¾ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

¼ tsp salt

2 large eggs at room temperature

½ cup /100 g granulated sugar

½ cup /100 g packed light brown sugar

⅓ cup /80 ml vegetable, sunflower or canola oil**

2 tsp vanilla extract (essence)

½ cup/125 ml buttermilk *** at room temperature

* the recipe specifies not to use Dutch-process cocoa, a nice surprise as this seems to be the default cocoa in most North American recipes, although I have never seen it in our shops. I used Fry’s.
** I used sunflower oil
*** as usual, I don’t keep buttermilk in, but 1 tsp of lemon juice in a measuring jug, made up to half a cup with milk and left to stand after mixing did the trick. The recipe suggests whole milk but I used 2% (semi-skimmed) and it worked fine.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4. Note that this has a very short baking time so I chose not to use convection (fan). Line muffin tins with cupcake liners and set aside.

Place the flour, cocoa, salt. baking powder and soda into a large bowl-it can help to sift the cocoa powder into the bowl. Whisk together to mix well.

In a second bowl, place the eggs, both sugars, oil and vanilla extract. whisk until combined.

Pour half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Add half of the buttercream. Whisk for a few seconds. It will be very thick.

Add the remainder of the egg mixture and the rest of the buttermilk. Whisk until just combined, but do not overstir. The batter will be quite runny.

Pour or spoon the batter into the liners. Only fill to half-way to prevent spilling over the sides, or the centres sinking. I found a ladle useful for this part.

Transfer the muffin trays to the oven for 18-21 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins. Once the tins can be handled safely, remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the icing:

American cupcakes are usually presented with a mound of buttercream icing, piled as high as the depth of the cake. It looks nice but, I think, can be a little sickly. Certainly the cupcakes I remember from children’s parties back in my childhood never had so much icing. I remember the height of sophistication was the ‘butterfly cake’ or the ‘top hat’, where a small circle of cake was cut out of the top of the cupcake, the resulting hole filled with buttercream and the removed cake piece either plonked back on top of the icing (top hat) or cut into half and set like wings into the icing (butterfly). I actually considered doing this, but in the end opted for just putting it on top. I think I have mentioned that icing is not my strong point, and I don’t own any icing nozzles or a bag.

I chose therefore to make half the amount of icing suggested by the original recipe. It’s almost a diet cupcake!

½ cup/125 g/1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

¼ cup/20 g unsweetened cocoa powder*

1¾ cup/272 g icing sugar (powdered sugar, confectioner’s sugar)

1½ tbsp milk or cream (or as required)

Pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla extract (essence)

* this time it can be either standard or Dutch-process cocoa

This called for the stand mixer and the hand mixer, as previously, unless you really don’t mind standing there for 5 minutes or more, mixing buttercream.

Beat the butter until soft and fluffy. In the meantime combine the sugar, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

Add the cocoa mixture, vanilla and milk to the butter and mix on low speed. Note that, as usual, I had to swap to the hand mixer for this part as it is very stiff. Add a little more milk if necessary.

Using the stand mixer, continue to beat on medium speed for 5 minutes or more. Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure that everything is combined. This makes a very light buttercream. Note that if you want to do the ‘big’ frosting, using an icing bag, double the above recipe.

Ice the cupcakes. I did this by placing a blob of buttercream on each one and then spreading it using a palette knife. Decorate as liked (vermicelli, choc chips, a cherry, whatever takes your fancy or you have in).

The cake is certainly nice and moist, the buttercream is chocolately and light, and the amount, I think, is enough without being overfacing. A nice, simple recipe with a good result-can’t beat that!

Celebration Time-All-in-one Lemon Cake

May 29, 2021 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

Mark and I have a number of special dates to celebrate. Of course there are the usual ones, like birthdays and our wedding anniversary, but we also like to celebrate the day we first arrived in Canada, back in 2003; the day we became Canadian citizens in 2010; and the day we arrived in Nova Scotia (after a 23-hour drive) and moved into our new house. Amazingly, that was 29 May 2015 so today marks 6 years in the province (how time does fly!).

I thought that it deserved a cake, but I hadn’t thought it through in advance, so it would be limited to whatever we had in the fridge/pantry. Luckily, I do keep in a fairly comprehensive array of baking materials, although no chocolate. We eat it, even the baking chocolate chips, so I’ve decided not to keep it in. I’ve also been limiting the baking, it’s not doing the waistline any good at all. So, a legitimate reason for a celebration (and a cake) is very welcome. Anyhow, a spring day deserves a light, fruity cake (even if it is pouring down with temperatures in single digits), so I decided on a lemon cake.

I have a nice lemon cake recipe that was passed to me by a good friend at my last employment, and it’s a good one, although more of a ‘pound cake’ type, with a heavy crumb. I fancied a lighter sponge, so decided to explore t’internet and see what came up. I found a UK recipe for an all-in-one sponge that looked the part. Baked in two tins, I decided it would be nice sandwiched together with lemon spread and lemon buttercream, and with a light lemon glace icing on top. What could be nicer?

Simple enough?

The Recipe:

225 g /1¼ cups +2 tbsp/8 oz self-raising flour*

2 tsp baking powder

4 medium eggs**

225 g/1 cup/8 oz butter or soft margarine***

225 g/1 cup + 2 tbsp/8 oz caster sugar ****

Zest of 2 lemons *****

2 tsp milk

It’s a British recipe so the metric amounts are the most accurate, but the lady who had provided the recipe was kind enough to also translate to cups and imperial measures. Note that tbsp = 15 ml and tsp = 5 ml, as is standard in the UK and North America.

* Self-raising (or self-rising) flour is mostly findable in North America but, if not available it can be ‘made’ by mixing plain/all-purpose flour with baking powder at a ratio of 2 tsp baking powder to 150g/6 oz/ 1 cup flour. Whisk or sieve the two together, to make sure that the baking powder is evenly distributed through the flour, before measuring out the amount needed for the recipe.
** Medium eggs are specified. I never have medium eggs, just large, and was concerned that 4 large eggs might be a bit ‘eggy’. The lady with the recipe had also considered this issue and had spent quite a bit of time weighing eggs to work out an equivalency (what a hero!). Her 4 medium eggs worked out to be 3.4 large eggs, or 200 g of egg (excluding shells. I decided it would be easier to weigh my eggs and I was surprised to find that 4 of my large eggs (free-range) actually weighed 200 g, although I have always thought that the ‘large’ free-range eggs are a tad smaller than the battery farm eggs (they taste much better, though!).
***I used soft margarine. If using butter, make sure that it is soft and at room temperature.
****Superfine sugar in North America, although NA standard granulated is finer than UK granulated and I find it can generally be used in place of caster sugar.
*****the only thing I was missing. I added 1 tbsp of lemon juice into the mix, instead.

Preheat the oven to 325˚C/300˚F convection/160˚C/140˚C fan/Gas 3. Grease and line 2 x 8 inch/20 cm sandwich tins. I always use a loose-bottom tin and line both walls and base with parchment paper.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add all other ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer on slow speed until combined, ensuring that there are no lumps of butter or margarine left in the batter.

Divide the mixture equally into the two prepared tins. Spread the mixture in each tin using a palette knife or the back of a spoon.

Bake approx. 30 minutes. The cakes are done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the tins, for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling completely on a wire rack.

Buttercream

I decided to use a variant on the buttercream recipe I’d used on my marmalade cake (see Orangy Bright-Marmalade Cake) as that was very nice and smooth. That recipe made enough to cover the entire cake, but I only wanted some to go between the sandwich, so I made 3/5ths of the original amount, i.e.

75 g unsalted butter (room temp)

120 g icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar)

1 tbsp (or to taste) lemon juice

I actually think I could have used maybe a little more, so I’d choose 4/5ths (100g butter/160 g sugar) if I was to make it again.

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar a little at a time. Note that this is a very stiff mixture. Add in the lemon juice and beat to mix. Continue beating for 3-4 minutes (note that I used the hand mixer for the sugar incorporation and the stand mixer for the long beating).

I also made a light lemon glace icing for the top of my cake by mixing icing sugar with lemon juice to a fairly runny consistency.

To assemble:

Place one cake onto a plate. I chose to add a layer of lemon spread. Lemon curd would work very nicely but, in the absence of such a thing here, I used this:

Add the lemon buttercream and then the top layer of cake. Spread the top with the glace isng.

Very nice with a cup of tea but you need a fork to eat it.

Quick but Impressive-Caramel Cake

April 5, 2021March 18, 2021 Sandra Dennis1 Comment

Another birthday, another cake. This time it was my own birthday and so I wanted a tasty cake, but not something too complicated. Also I wanted to try something new, and something a bit different. When I came across a caramel cake recipe that was described as ‘easy’, I thought that would hit the spot.

It is a British recipe, so it uses things like “self-raising flour’, which we can get here but it seems a bit of a mystery to most. Also ‘golden caster sugar’ and ‘golden icing sugar’, which definitely wouldn’t be available. Lastly, the ingredients are in grams, not cups. I’ve tried to convert to imperial, for those who prefer it, but I dare not convert to cups, I’d be bound to get it wrong.

The recipe gave a option for a chocolate sponge, which I thought might be nice with the caramel, so I followed that, although I have no doubt that the original sponge would also be nice.

The Recipe:
Cake
225 g/8 oz softened salted butter (additional for greasing tins)
125 g/4 oz golden caster/superfine sugar *
100 g/3.5 oz light soft brown sugar
5 ml/ 1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
4 large eggs
225 g/8 oz self-raising flour
OPTIONAL 3 tbsp cocoa powder**
30 ml/2 tbsp milk

Frosting
200 g/7 oz softened salted butter
400 g/14 oz golden icing (powdered/confectioners) sugar***
70 g/2.5 oz caramel sauce, Dulce de Leche or caramel spread****, plus extra to serve
A drop of milk, cream, or boiling water, if needed

To decorate
Toffee, chocolate or caramel pieces and caramel sauce

* golden caster sugar would impart additional caramel flavour. I have never found caster or superfine sugar of any variety here. Normal American granulated would work. I decided to try golden yellow sugar, which is closer in texture to soft brown sugar. It worked ok but maybe the sponge was a little drier than ideal.
** if choosing to make a chocolate sponge, as I did, incorporate the cocoa powder with the flour.
*** golden icing sugar would again add additional caramel flavour. If not available (definitely wasn’t here) use standard icing sugar
**** of the three options, I only found caramel spread.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/325˚F convection/180˚C/160˚C fan/gas 4. Grease and line 2 loose-bottom or springform 8* cake tins.

Beat together the butter and the two sugars, until lighter in colour and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time. Add a spoonful of the flour after each egg and beat in, before adding the next egg. Add the remaining flour, the cocoa powder (if using) and the milk. Spoon into the prepared tins.

Bake, 25-30 minutes, until the cakes spring back when pressed and a skewer/cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, put the butter and icing sugar into a bowl and beat until smooth. Add in the caramel. I found this got very stiff, so add a dribble of milk, cream or boiling water to loosen it, as needed. Set aside until the cakes are cool.

To assemble the cakes, place one layer on a plate, put about half of the buttercream on the top. At this stage I also dribbled on some of the remaining caramel spread. This had later seeped out onto the sides of the cake and into the upper sponge, making it pleasantly sticky. Place the top layer on the cake and then the remainder of the buttercream on top, roughly smoothed. No need to be too fastidious with this!

To decorate, I used some mini Skor pieces, chocolate-covered butter toffee, roughly crushed and pushed into the buttercream topping and then drizzled over warmed caramel spread, allowing it to dribble over the edges of the cake.

It certainly lived up to being easy to bake. I’d say that the sponge was maybe a little on the dry side, which might have been a function of using the golden yellow sugar or of adding in the cocoa powder, but it was pleasant, irrespective of that. The buttercream icing, after being left to stand in a cool place whilst awaiting the cooling of the cake, became very stiff and difficult to spread. A little more liquid, in the form of additional milk, cream or boiling water, might have helped with that. It certainly stood up to being spread, though, and tasted very nice. I think I’d consider this cake again, when looking for a simple but effective celebration cake, and it disappears fast enough, too!

Celebration Time-Double Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake

January 30, 2021 Sandra Dennis2 Comments

Birthday time again. I think I’ve mentioned before how a birthday cake, in this house, usually means chocolate! Well, that was the request, but I wanted to try something new. So I went on an internet search for ‘birthday cake’, and came up with a modified Devil’s Food Cake recipe.

This intrigued me. ‘Devil’s Food Cake’ is such an evocative name and not one that I am used to, particularly coming from the UK. I wasn’t really sure what the difference would be, but I was keen to find out. Anyhow, a chocolate cake with buttercream icing would definitely fit the bill. The original recipe called for three different colours of buttercream icing; vanilla (white), chocolate, and strawberry (pink). I decided to stick with two, dark chocolate and white chocolate. Can’t overdo the chocolate in this house.

So, the cake required buttermilk. I’ve come across this before but have failed miserably to ever find such a thing in my local supermarket (if it’s there, I don’t know where to look!), so I’ve tended to shy away from recipes needing this. This time, I really wanted to make the cake, so I thought I’d see if there is a substitute. Well, it turns out that you can make a substitute by adding lemon juice, or white vinegar, to ordinary milk and letting it stand for a while-who knew? I suppose some people must have, but not me! That solved a big problem, anyway.

It also asked for Dutch-process cocoa. I don’t have that, either, and have never seen it in the baking section. It’s maybe a bit sophisticated for rural Nova Scotia. Reading up, it seems that standard cocoa powder (in my case, Fry’s) can be substituted, 1 for 1. It might taste slightly different, apparently, but being used to this type of cocoa, I doubted we would notice.

Finally, it needed dark brown sugar. I knew I had this in the pantry, but when I came to use it, I found it had hardened. I could regenerate it, but not in time for my baking. Instead I substituted some light brown sugar and some yellow sugar (I bought the later by mistake, meaning to replenish my light brown sugar supply!). The resulting cake might not be as dark as it could be, but it seemed to work. Amazingly, I found out later that I could have ‘made’ my own dark brown sugar, by mixing 1 cup of white sugar with two tablespoons of molasses, and mixing well in a food processor or blender. I was learning all sorts of new things with this bake.

Cake ingredients. Yes, it does include mayonnaise!

The Recipe:
Cake

170 g/ ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
460 g/ 2 cups packed dark brown sugar*
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, at room temperature
220 g/ 1 ¾ cups plain (all-purpose) flour
90 g/ ¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder**
1 ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
360 ml/ 1 ½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature ***
59 ml/ ¼ cup mayonnaise

*I used a mixture of light soft brown sugar and yellow sugar, due to a dark brown sugar disaster.

**I used standard cocoa powder

*** I made my buttermilk by adding 1 tbsp lemon juice to 1 cup of 2% milk and letting it stand for 10 minutes or so. Apparently distilled white vinegar, the same volume, would also work.

Preheat the oven to 350F/325 F convection/180 C/160 C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line 3 x 8 inch cake tins.

Beat the brown sugar, butter and vanilla together for about 5 minutes, until lighter and slightly increased in volume. A stand mixer, if you have one, can be really helpful for this recipe, but be sure to keep the sides of the bowl well scraped down.

Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each one is incorporated before adding the next.

1 egg added

3 eggs added

Sift all of the dry ingredients into a separate bowl. Whisk to mix well.

Add dry ingredients and buttermilk to the creamed mixture in alternate aliquots, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated.

Fold the mayonnaise into the mixture using a whisk.

Divide equally between the three prepared tins, smooth the tops and place in the oven. Bake until a skewer comes out barely clean.

Time in oven should be around 30 minutes or so. If not using a convection (fan) oven, rotate the tins after about 20 minutes to ensure an even bake. When ready, remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the tins, for about 20 minutes.

Turn out of the tins, remove the baking parchment and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Well, the cakes looked pretty dark, despite not using the right sugar or the right cocoa powder. They smelled pretty good, too. Now for the icing.

I’d always thought that buttercream was buttercream, but apparently I was wrong. There are lots of different buttercreams, and this recipe was for a swiss meringue buttercream, apparently smoother and maybe a tad less sweet than the normal kind. It uses egg whites (hence meringue), but they are heated so it is pretty safe and keeps well. It would be a new experience. It also called for superfine (or caster) sugar, rather than granulated or icing sugar. Again, I was out of luck in the supermarket for this ingredient.

I’ve always said that North American granulated sugar is closer in texture to caster sugar than the sort of granulated sugar we used to get in the UK, but it isn’t quite there. Apparently, for this recipe, it is important to use the right sugar type, as it dissolves quicker than standard granulated, making a smoother icing. Oh well, back to the do-it-yourself! A couple of cups of standard granulated sugar in my blender, on the ‘grind’ setting, and 30 seconds later I had my superfine sugar.

Icing

5 large fresh egg whites
250 g/ 1 ¼ cup superfine (caster) sugar
340 g/1 ½ cups/3 sticks unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt
200 g/ 7 oz good quality dark chocolate (70%)
100 g/ 3.5 oz good quality white chocolate

Wipe out the mixing bowl (use the one from your stand mixer, if you have one) with kitchen towel wetted with a little lemon juice, to remove any grease. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (not boiling). Add the egg whites and sugar and whisk, constantly and gently, until the sugar completely dissolves and the egg whites are hot. If you have a thermometer, the temperature can reach 160 F/ 71 C.

Take the bowl from the heat and whip, using a whisk attachment to your hand mixer or stand mixer, until the meringue is thick, glossy and the bowl feels neutral to the touch. A stand mixer is best as this can take 10 minutes or longer.

Whipping the meringue

Swap to the beater attachments, set the mixer to low speed and start to add the cubed butter, a little at a time. Mix until fully incorporated and silky smooth in texture. If the mixture curdles, keep beating and it will become smooth. Add the vanilla and salt and keep beating until well combined.

Melt the two chocolates, separately, over simmering water. Allow to cool.

Separate the icing into 1/3 and 2/3. Add the cooled, melted white chocolate to the smaller portion and the dark chocolate to the larger portion, mix until fully combined.

Wrap the cake layers in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 15 minutes. When chilled, remove from the freezer, unwrap and place the bottom layer on a cake board or serving plate (n.b., the cake can be ‘stuck’ to the platter with a little dob of icing, if needed.) Spread a layer of dark chocolate icing over the cake and place the next layer on top. Cover this layer with all of the white chocolate icing. Top with the final cake layer.

Bottom layer

Middle layer

Top layer

Cover the sides and top with the remainder of the dark chocolate icing, smoothing to taste (I’m no fancy icer, as you can see by my effort!).

I placed my cake in the fridge to ensure it all set, but it will keep well at room temperature, in an air-tight container, for a few days. It sliced really well, too, keeping its form nicely. I can happily say, this one was a hit!

It’s a big cake, though. Good for a party (when we can have them again), big appetites or, in our case, slicing and freezing. It’s the best way to stop eating the whole lot at once!

Coffee Cake-Coffee & Walnut (without the walnuts!)

December 13, 2020December 13, 2020 Sandra DennisLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I last posted. The real issue with baking is that we eat the results, with consequent effects on waistlines, so I put the baking on the back burner for a while. However, I was getting the itch to bake something, but what? It would need to be a comforting sort of cake, not fancy, the sort of thing that would be made to enjoy with coffee or tea. Over on this side of the pond, that would be called a ‘coffee cake’, something that caught me out several times when we first moved to Canada because they aren’t, generally, flavoured with coffee. Instead, they are meant to be eaten with coffee and can be any flavour, but are generally substantial sponges, or pound-type cakes. I’ve never found any that were actually coffee-flavoured!

In the UK, a coffee cake would be coffee-flavoured and the most commonly-found one is Coffee and Walnut. In fact it is a stalwart of the National Trust Tea Room or local fete cake stall; indeed a survey found that it is the third most-favoured cake at National Trust properties, that is some serious kudos!

One of the issues is that Mark isn’t very fond of nuts, so I tend to steer clear of overly nutty baking. I don’t tend to keep them in my baking supplies. However, the last time we were in the UK we visited a nature reserve in North Nottinghamshire, which had a tea room and was serving, of course, Coffee and Walnut Cake. However, as we were ordering a slice each, the girl behind the counter said ‘it’s Coffee and Walnut, but we forgot to put the walnuts in!’. Either way, it was very good and proved that Coffee and Walnut cake works very nicely when walnut-less. So, I thought I’d have a go.

I found a recipe, on line, but made a number of changes. I’ll give my version of course. As it’s an English recipe, the ingredients are in metric measures. I’ve tried to convert to imperial but I’m definitely not going to try for cups, I’m sure I’d get that wrong.

The Recipe:

225 g/ 7.9 oz butter or soft margarine, plus extra for greasing the tins
225 g/ 7.9 oz soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp/ 30 ml instant coffee granules, dissolved in 1 tbsp/15 ml boiling water, cooled
4 eggs, beaten together
225 g/ 7.9 oz plain (all-purpose) flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt (if required)
Milk (optional)
100 g/3.5 oz walnut halves (if using)
For filling:
1 tbsp instant coffee granules and 1 tbsp cocoa powder, mixed with 1 tbsp boiling water, cooled
115 g/ 4 oz/ 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
250 g/ 8 oz caster sugar (granulated in North America)
Drop of milk or cream
For glaze:
100-150 g/3.5-5.3 oz icing sugar (powdered, or confectioner’s sugar)
2 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling milk, and cooled slightly

Preheat the oven to 180 C/160 C fan/ 350 F/ 325 F convection/Gas 4.
Grease and line two 8 inch/20 cm round loose-bottomed sandwich tins.

For the cake:

Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water and leave to cool. Note that I found that I had to microwave mine for 30 seconds to ensure that the granules all dissolved.

If using, toast walnut halves in a dry pan until they smell toasted and nutty. Set one quarter of them aside and roughly chop the remainder.

Place butter or margarine (I used soft margarine) into a bowl with the soft brown sugar, cream until light and fluffy. I used my stand mixer, it doesn’t get that much use. As the mixer is still going, add the beaten eggs in small aliquots, beating between each addition. remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl regularly to make sure everything is incorporated.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, if using. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the flour mixture, then add in the coffee and the walnuts, if using. The final mixture should be a soft dropping consistency, so add a little milk if needed. I find that using soft margarine instead of butter usually means that the milk isn’t required.

Creaming the butter and sugar

Dropping consistency

Divide the mixture between two prepared sandwich tins, roughly level the tops, then bake for 25-30 minutes. The cakes are ready when the tops spring back when touched, or a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

The traditional filling and topping is coffee-flavoured buttercream, and I considered doing this, but it required 425 g of icing sugar and 165 g of butter- a bit heavy, I thought, and I didn’t have that much icing sugar available. Instead, I decided to make a smaller volume of buttercream, just for the centre of the cake, and I would use granulated sugar. This makes for a grittier buttercream but it’s still nice. Note that North American granulated sugar equates well to caster sugar elsewhere.

Mix together 1 tbsp instant coffee granules and 1 tbsp cocoa powder with 1 tbsp boiling water. Allow to cool.

Using an electric mixer (I used the stand mixer again) beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add in the coffee/cocoa mixture and mix well. Add a little milk or cream to make a smooth, spreading consistency.

When cool, sandwich the two cakes together with the mocha buttercream.

To glaze the top, make a coffee-flavoured glace icing by dissolving 2 tsp instant coffee granules in boiling milk and then mixing this into sifted icing sugar until a nice icing consistency is obtained. Pour over the cake, using a palette knife to smooth the top and allowing drips down the side. If required, place the cake in the fridge to set the icing. if using, set the remaining walnut halves on the top for decoration.

This was a darker cake than I expected, I think that the use of the brown sugar was unusual, mostly this is probably made with white sugar. However, it certainly produced a nice, moist, fluffy cake. If you want a sugar boost and a caffeine hit in one, you surely can’t beat this one!

Fluffy and Moist