First of the offerings from our get together at the beach is a delicious chocolate fudge cake.
We had such a laugh; it was one of those days that leaves you smiling for ages afterwards, I keep giggling at the memory. Just perfect.
So, to the cake. This is very loosely ( hardly at all) adapted from a favourite book of mine – ‘Diner Desserts’ by Tish Boyle.

The usual gig. Preheat your oven to GM4/180C/350F and grease and line 2 x 8″ cake pans.

* I should add here a quick note about cups. The US cup measures 250ml – you can get them pretty much anywhere, including Sainsburys. It’s worth getting a set because the online cups to grams/oz calculators don’t always give you the correct proportions. Having said that, using cups is always going to be inaccurate compared with weighing ingredients.

When measuring dry ingredients, like flour, spoon the flour into the cup until it overflows, then scrape the excess off with a knife. Ingredients like brown sugar will be ‘lightly’ or ‘firmly packed’ – firmly packed is just that – spoon it in and press down firmly, so when you empty the cup into the bowl you have a sugar sand castle. It’s a bit like cooking with yeast, the more you use cups, the more you get used to them and can start to estimate how many grams of something you need to buy to get ‘a cup’ of it. Remember 1 cup is 250ml. that induces some impressive maths at the sour cream carton section. Just a heads up. *

More prep. You’ll feel like you rule the world with this lot prepared in front of you. You could pretend to be Ina Garten – Auntie Ina as Alex calls her. Why not do the accent too? We do. Frequently. Especially when something is unexpectedly easy.
In a medium bowl, sift together 2 2/3 cups plain flour, 1 1/2 cups caster sugar, 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda.

Melt 6oz unsalted butter and leave it to cool.

In another bowl, using a hand whisk, blend together 3 eggs, 2/3 cup sour cream (at room temperature) and 1 tblsp vanilla extract.

Now, you may begin. in the bowl of a food mixer (or do it using an electric hand mixer),blend on low speed the melted, cooled butter with 1/2 cup vegetable oil. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. No Alex, you may not have the spatula now.

Fling the dry ingredients in to the bowl in one go and mix on low speed until pretty much incorporated. Scrape down the bowl.  No Alex, you may not have the spatula now.

Pour the egg mixture in and mix until blended in.  No Alex, you may not have the spatula now.

Pour evenly into the 2 pans.  Yes Alex, you may have the spatula now.

Bake for about 50 mins or until an unused toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  I said ‘unused’ to make you feel bilious.

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 mins, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

The icing. Sugar coma anyone? This way.

Prep first. Melt and leave to cool 6 oz dark chocolate. I have some spankingly gorgeous French stuff that’s about 50% cocoa solids. I think this is perfect – milk chocolate would be too sickly and you don’t need the bitterness of a darker chocolate here.

Put 8 oz unsalted butter (softened) in the bowl of the mixer and beat for about a minute until it’s creamy.
Add 2 cups icing sugar, that you have then sifted, to the butter and mix for a couple of minuted until it’s creamy and incorporated. Scrape the bowl down.

Pour in a tblsp of vanilla extract, beat that in and then add your melted chocolate.

Beat that for another couple of minutes until looking gorgeous.

Now, Ms Boyle (who calls ‘the Brits’ ‘not so culinary’. Seriously, I could pull her hair for that. Hard.) suggests that you cut the domed tops off the cakes and reduced the scraps to crumbs, using it to pat around the sides of the cake once iced. I didn’t have any domes, so I skipped this part…obviously.
I used about 1/4 of the icing to sandwich the two together and slapped the rest of the icing all over the cake.

You can take more time and effort than me.

But if you are also schlepping it to the beach, then frankly, I wouldn’t bother too much.

Never knowingly pass up the chance to strew chocolate stars over something.

See? It was so moist and delicious that it made Hollie squeal with laughter…as we sheltered under the Pier from the rain.
Don’t worry, it brightened up! The magic super powers of Chocolate Fudge cake can do that, you know. Try it. You’ll see.

Chocolate Fudge Cake
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(Not very adapted from Diner Desserts by Tish Boyle)

2 2/3 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 large eggs (room temp – I don’t refrigerate mine, but you might)
2/3 cup sour cream (room temp)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
6 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups iced water

Icing

6 oz dark chocolate (I used 50% cocoa solids, any darker might be a bit much)
8 oz unsalted butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar, sieved
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F
2 x 8″ cake pans, greased and lined

Cake.
In a medium bowl, sift together the sugars, flour, cocoa, baking powder,bicarb and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla to blend.

In the bowl of a food mixer, or using an electric hand whisk, beat the melted butter and oil on a low speed to combine. Beat in the ice water.

Add the dry ingredients in one go and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Scrape down the bowl.
Add the egg, vanilla and sour cream mix and mix until blended.

Pour evenly into the two pans.
Bake for about 50 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
Cool in the pans for 15 mins, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Icing.
Melt the chocolate and leave to cool.
Beat the butter on a medium high speed in a food mixer, until creamy.
Add the icing sugar and beat for about 2 mins, until blended and lightened. Scrape the bowl.
Add the vanilla extract and beat in.
Add the cooled, melted chocolate, beat in, then increse the speed and beat until perfectly smooth and glossy – another minute or so.

Put together.
The original recipe instructs you to cut the domed top off each cake and use the scraps as decoration for the sides of the cake by reducing them to crumbs and patting them round. I didn’t have a dome on my cake, but if you do, you could consider that.
I used about a quarter of the icing to sandwich the two together, then used the rest to ice the cake on top and around the edges. Pretty the top as you wish.

It got very melty at the beach, and it was NOT a very hot day, so I would keep it in the fridge, but return it to room temperature before serving. If it’s Winter, then that’s different. This is a nice cake. Very nice.

This recipe from ‘GoodFood 101 teatimes treats’ has been nagging at me for a while. It felt like a cursed recipe, because every time I thought, yeah, I’ll make it, I couldn’t get any limes or they only had one left. Or worse, someone would say, ‘can’t you make … instead?’. Mostly, however, I had trouble with the limes.

If this was the 1980s, this would have been ideal for ‘Murder, she wrote’.  I would have contacted Aunt Jessica and I’m confident that when she began her investigation, there would be a sudden murder of a mutual friend of ours whom neither of us had ever mentioned.

And the solitary lime sat on the shelf would have been involved. At the end, we would be in the freeze-frame as we sipped mojitos with the cursed lime adorning our glasses as we grinned our blinding white teeth at each other for the beginning of the music. Oh how we laughed as we recovered from the grisly death of the mutual friend with startling speed.

Anyway, this is not the 1980s and I do not have an Aunt Jessica (and that’s a shame, because frankly, most of her ‘nieces’ were pretty well-heeled) but there you go. I acquired some limes. Game on.

As always, preheat your oven to GM4/180C/350F, butter and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Get this lot ready:

Into a large bowl, put 100g unsalted butter and 175g caster sugar with the zest of 2 cursed limes. Creeeeeeeeeeam until fluffy! (high five!)

Add 2 eggs, beat them in and add 175g self-raising flour and 1 tsp baking powder. As you blend that in, add 200ml of coconut milk (half the tin).

Pour into your prepared tin and bake for around 40 mins, until golden and firm. I ended up putting it back for another 5 minutes because I wasn’t convinced the middle was cooked as much as it could be and bearing in mind how much syrup goes on top, that could all get a bit grim.

Whilst the cake is cooking, make the sugar topping;  put 3 tblsp sugar and the zest of the third cursed lime into a bowl and squish them together – sort of rub the zest into the sugar with the back of a spoon.

From this:

to this:

Then prepare the ‘icing’. You need a pan for this. I have a new child – it’s a kitchenaid milk pan and I cannot tell you the joy that looking at this pan has brought me. In retrospect, I would have been far, far wiser to have used my large saucepan, but admire this little beauty first and then I’ll elaborate.

So into the pan goes the remaining half of the tin of coconut milk (that is 200ml of milk there) and 5.5oz sugar. Confidently simmer this mixture for 5 mins until it goes syrupy.

I did this, but after 5 mins, it wasn’t particularly syrupy but was colouring a little. I reasoned with myself that I have never reduced the ‘drizzle’ of a drizzle cake to a syrup before, so watery would be fine. Also, there was no way I was going to scorch my new pan. As I said, a larger pan would have increased the rate of evaporation, so a syrup – that is, being able to see the bottom of the pan when you stir it -  would have been easier to achieve. Lesson learned, but love for new milk pan intact.

Once the cake is cooked, leave it in the tin and begin to offer the icing to it. I always gently prick the cake with a toothpick/skewer-y thing all over. The law of gravity dictates that the sides of the cake get most lucky, but at least you’re confident that the centre will get some action.

Pour the icing over the hot cake. Slowly and patiently. You cannot do this whilst getting ready to walk out of the door. It will destroy the moment. If it takes to long to soak in, poke it again with your skewer-y thing. You shouldn’t have to have the patience of a Saint.

Now, remembering that I didn’t sufficiently reduce the syrup, I had a LOT of ‘icing’ so i didn’t use it all. I suspect that if I had reduced it more, it would have been just right..

…but it doesn’t exactly look unpleasant hmm?

Leave it on a wire rack, in the tin to cool completely. Once it has got to ‘finger cool’ on top, go ahead and sprinkle the lime zesty-sugar over it.

Then you must leave it alone to cool completely. Sorry.

Alex took a plate back to the kitchen and was there rather a long time. I caught him just before the index finger made contact with the zesty sugar. So let it cool somewhere away from other mammals.

Once cooled, slice and enjoy. Send Angela Lansbury a slice, but I doubt she’ll remember me. Probably because she doesn’t know me. Maybe she knows you?

Yum

Coconut and Lime Drizzle Cake

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The cake:
100g unsalted butter, softened
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
200ml coconut cake (half a tin)
grated zest of 2 limes (you’ll need 3 in total)

The drizzle icing:
200ml coconut milk
150g caster sugar
juice of 3 limes

The sugar:
3 tblsp caster sugar
zest of 1 (the 3rd and final) lime

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F
Grease and line a 2lb/1kg loaf tin.

Cream the butter, sugar and zest until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat in well. Add the flour, baking powder and coconut milk, folding in gently but firmly.
Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for around 40 mins until golden and firm to the touch.

For icing, pour coconut milk and sugar into a saucepan and simmer/boil for 5 mins or so until the mixture is syrupy (you can see the bottom of the pan as you stir it). Don’t worry if, like me, you lose your bottle, just don’t use all the syrup.
Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Set aside.

For the sugar, put the 3 tblsp sugar and lime zest into a bowl and press together with the back of a spoon to get all the lime oil in the zest into the sugar. Set aside.

Remove cake from oven, lightly pierce with a fine skewer all over. Gently and slowly drizzle the icing over the top – let each addition soak in before adding more.
Leave cake in tin on a wire rack to cool, but once the top is cool to the touch, go ahead and sprinkle the lime sugar over the top. Put a little on, if it melts, stop and do it later.
Cool completely in the tin, then once cold, remove from tin and carefully remove the paper. Slice and serve.

recipe adapted from Good Food 101 teatime treats.

Mmmmmmmm.We have lunch with Mum and Dad on Sundays, and the afternoon is ‘try a new cake’ day.This cake was yesterday’s offering and is a delightful recipe from a dear little book called  ‘Good Food’s 101 Teatime Treats’.

I felt sure I would want to tweak it, but in fact it needed little altering – brilliant recipe.

Butter and line two 20cm/8″ sandwich tins and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Put 6oz softened butter, 6oz caster sugar and the zest of 3 oranges into a large bowl.

Cream until fluffy (high five!)

Beat in 4 egg yolks, then sift in 4oz self-raising flour, 1tsp baking powder and 4oz ground almonds and gently fold in.

Fold in the juice of 1 orange.

Whisk the 4 egg whites until they are just holding their shape (the shape of a lady’s legs, in this case)

and gently fold this in too, in 3 lots.

Divide the batter between the two tins …

and bake for 30 mins, or until golden and, erm, cooked. Cool in the tin for 5 mins, then remove from tins and cool completely on a wire rack.

The icing now. Melt 8oz white chocolate very gently in a bowl resting over a saucepan of hot water. Take the bowl off the saucepan and allow the chocolate  to cool.

With a handwhisk, whip a 200ml carton of creme fraiche until thickened. (It says on the side of the carton that it can’t be whipped, but apparently you can).

Add the cooled, melted chocolate and blend the two together.

Now. At this point, you need to put it in the fridge to firm up. The instructions don’t tell you to do this, but if you don’t, you go from this:

to this:

No panic. Stick the top layer on and ice the top and sides of the cake, poke a wooden skewer through to the bottom to make sure the top doesn’t slide off, then stick it in the fridge to firm it up. Smooth the whole thing around with some more icing once it’s looking less sloppy.

Then 4 yr old Alex asks if he can decorate it with sprinkles. So you say ‘yes’.

I was going to tastefully top it with white chocolate scrolls or something along these lines, but this was more fun to watch.

“Chefs don’t lick their fingers when they’re cooking”. He said this phrase a lot. He so very desperately wanted to lick his fingers, but I was hovering like a bird of prey, so he just talked himself down.

Anyway. It’s a moist, flavourful cake and the icing is reminiscient of cheesecake. Just delicious.

Yeah, you might want to go a bit more formal with your decoration…

but however you decorate it; do make it.

Here’s the recipe.

Orange and White Chocolate cake

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6oz unsalted butter, softened
6oz caster sugar
zest of 3 oranges and juice of 1 orange
4 eggs, separated
4oz self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4oz ground almonds

Icing
8oz white chocolate
200ml carton creme fraiche

Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F
Grease and line two 20cm/8″ sandwich tins

Cream the butter, sugar and zest until fluffy.
Beat in the egg yolks.
Add the flour, baking powder and ground almonds and fold in.
Add the orange juice and gently fold in.
Whisk the egg whites until just holding their shape and gently fold in in 3 additions.
Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 30 mins.
Cool in the tins for 5 mins then turn out and cool on a wire rack completely.

For the icing, put the chocolate in a bowl on top of a saucepan of barely simmering water. Be very careful it doesn’t overheat.
Take the bowl off the saucepan and set to one side to cool to room temperature.
Using a hand whisk, beat the creme fraiche until it thickens and holds its shape.
Blend the chocolate into it.
Put the icing in the fridge to firm up a little then use to sandwich the two cakes together and ice on top. Alternatively, ice between the cakes and all over.
Decorate as you wish – sprinkles, chocolate scrolls, more orange zest, whatever tickles your fancy.