First things first, happy [belated] birthday Jolene!! Her birthday was actually last Thursday, but alas work commitments took her away to far flung and desperate lands so we had to postpone the day until Saturday. As is now traditional in the house Jo was allowed to choose what sort of cake she wanted and I must say I was delighted when she chose this rather simple Cinnamon and Hazelnut Cake … it’s been a long weekend, but that’s another story, or indeed another post!
This is an easy one, what you’ll NEED:
- 175g/6oz butter
- 175g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 200g/8oz self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3tsp cinnamon
- 4tbsp milk
- 4 rounded tbsp chocolate spread
- 50g/2oz hazelnuts, roughly chopped
What you need to DO:
- Whack your oven on to around 180c/Gas 4/fan 160c … I actually set my oven about 20c below this although whether that’s because it works better or simply because my oven doesn’t heat up right is a mystery, certainly a lower temperature avoids any nasty charring!
- Line the base of a 20cm/8in tin and grease the side and base … you’ll want a spring-form tin or one with a base that pops out.
- Pop all of your ingredients (excepting the hazelnuts and choc spread) in a mixer and whizz until fluffy … if you don’t have a mixer or a processor, pop them in a bowl and develop some of those under-used muscles in your fore arm!
- Tip 3/4 of your mixture into the pan and add four separate dollops of choc spread, top off with remaining mixture.
- Using the side of a spoon/skewer/butter-knife/some-such swirl the mixture around a bit … don’t go nuts though …
- … speaking of nuts, sprinkle the hazelnuts over the top.
- Cover the tin with foil.
- Place in oven for an hour, before checking, if it looks ready check it with a knife (push the knife in the middle, if it comes out clean it’s ready), if it’s not ready leave for another 15 minutes and check again.
- Let the baked cake cool for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Although we’ve not tried it I do reckon this cake would be great with a drop of custard on it … enjoy!
I made this cake at the request of my wee boy who wanted it for his seventh birthday, no doubt he wanted it due to the large quantities of chocolate involved and the extremely pretty picture in the recipe book which was all swirls and twirls of chocolate … not a finish I was able to achieve, although not for lack of trying!
We decorated the cake in the only way kids generally know how, with a range of sprinkles and a mismatch of candles, as things stand I’ve been referring to this, and I apologise for the crudity, but it’s ‘the cow-pat cake’!? Not that it tastes like one you understand … not that I know what one tastes like! Definitely one for the chocoholics out there though.
What you’ll need:
- 6 egg whites
- 220g caster sugar
- 140g slivered almonds
- 95g dried fruit
- 200g dark chocolate, grated
- 300g ricotta cheese
- 180g single cream
- 80ml Tia Maria
- 200g white chocolate melts
- 200g milk chocolate melts
- 200g dark chocolate melts
What you need to do:
- Preheat your oven to 150C.
- Grease a 24cm spring-form tin lining the base
- Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl – if you are intending on eating the cake yourself you should probably do it by hand to burn off some of the calories you’re going to be consuming later – until soft peaks form
- Gradually add the sugar beating it in every time you add some.
- Fold in the nuts, fruit and half the grated chocolate.
- Deposit mix in the greased tin.
- Bake in the oven for around 1 1/4 hours until it’s firm, cool meringue in the oven leaving the door ajar
- Meanwhile, beat the cheese and the cream in a medium bowl until there are no lumps, stir in liqueur and remaining chocolate, place to one side, in the fridge is good.
- Melt the chocolate melts (in 200g gram batches) adding each batch to the cream mixture.
- Mix the topping together well, as it cools it will begin to thicken.
- Liberally spread the topping over the meringue centre.
- Decorate as you wish, or not at all, and serve.
I made and decorated this as a birthday cake, although it’s probably best described as a ‘cafe cake’. It seems we have developed something of a family tradition over the last few years, namely that the birthday person chooses a cake from the cake book and I make it for them. This time around it was the lass’ turn and, given that she was turning 4, she obviously wanted the BIGGEST chocolatey-ist cake available … turns out that this isn’t it!
I should’ve paid attention when she was choosing, this ones a bit more involved than I would generally bother with and used multiple (2) cake tins in a size (20cm) that I only had one of … ho-hum, such is life though!
What this cake is, is the BIGGEST coffee-ist cake that there is. It’s big, it’s rich, it serves 10, and … it’s too much for us! If you’re not a fan of coffee then I would suggest substituting the coffee in the icing for cocoa, or simply reducing the amount of coffee in the icing by about half.
What you’ll be needing:
The Icing
- 175g plain chocolate + extra (for grating)
- 50g unsalted butter
- 150ml double espresso or cocoa
- 1tsp vanilla extract / flavouring
- 300g icing sugar + extra
For the Sponge
- 300g plain flour
- 2tsp baking powder
- 2tsp vanilla extract / flavouring
- 3 eggs, seperated
- 3 tbsp coffee granules
- 85g unsalted butter
- 280g caster sugar
- 85g plain chocolate + extra (for eating … yum!)
- 125ml soured cream
- 125ml milk
What you’ll be doing:
- Chuck all your icing ingredients in a pan and heat gently whilst stirring until all the chocolate and butter is melted and everything is combined. Do not boil, do not burn.
- Take all your icing ingredients and chill for a few hours - I left mine in the fridge overnight.
- Heat your oven to about 160C or 150C if it’s a fan oven.
- Line and butter two 20cm cake tins – or if you’re like me, panic momentarily because you didn’t read the recipe first and then decide that you’ll just have to cook the sponge in two batches!
- Gently heat half your milk, or thereabouts, until warm but not boiling. Then add your coffee granules. Mix back in with the rest of the milk and leave aside to cool.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and place aside.
- Mix the 1tsp vanilla into the egg yolks and 1tsp vanilla into the egg whites – it’s easier this way, it means you don’t need to worry about getting mixed up and accidentally adding it to the wrong one - put these aside for the moment too.
- Cream the butter and 200g of the sugar together – just chuck it in your food processor - add the egg yolks and mix these in too before transferring to a bowl.
- Melt your chocolate and mix this in too.
- Fold in your sifted ingredients, the cooled coffee-milk and the soured cream. Place the bowl aside – and curse the flour that’s spilt all over the place!?
- Whisk your egg whites until stiff – curse the too small bowl you put them in earlier and transfer to a larger bowl, whisk again.
- Whisk in the remaining 80g of sugar until it forms stiff peaks – stick your finger in and revel in it’s meringuey goodness.
- Fold the egg whites into the sponge mixture and divide between your tins – or put half of it in your only tin and bake in two batches. Bake the sponge for about 25 minutes before checking with a skewer or knife (stab it into your cake, it should come out clean), return to the oven for another five minutes if it’s not ready.
- Cool each sponge on a wire rack.
- Check your chilled icing mix, hopefully it should be a workable consistency, if it’s not add more icing sugar – mixing vigourously - until it’s thick enough to set on the cake.
- Split each sponge in two and layer with the icing, ice the cake outers too.
- Grate some of the extra chocolate and sprinkle over - this might have been nice through the layers too.
- Decorate as you see fit.
- Consume.
Of course, birthday’s aren’t just about cake, there’s also fun and laughter and generally enjoying each others company. With that in mind we headed out to Mabie Farm Park in the blazing sun and had a whale-of-a-time.
Those that know me will realise that I enjoy my politics, what they may not realise is that every time there is a major election (Westminster or Holyrood) I enjoy sitting up through the night watching the results coming in and waiting to see if any of the most irritating politicians will be losing their seat. This time around I am hoping against hopes that the rather inept and infuriatingly patronising Scottish Secretary, Jim Murphy will lose his seat – how happy that would make me.
Anyway, this political marathon is not for the faint-hearted and supplies are required to ensure that one makes it through the night, on this front I envisage copious quantities of tea and high energy drinks as well as maybe a few beers too. One cannot survive on such things alone though, we also require high energy food, so what better than this cappuccino cake?!
On this occassion I wasn’t overly concerned with how the cake looked and I was quite happy for the topping to simply slop over the edges before it set … yum! If you want to recreate this to aid you through the night then you’ll need to follow this rather simple recipe.
Ingredients
The Sponge
- 1tsp cocoa powder – I like Green and Black’s because I’m a snob, but other varieties are available!
- 2 rounded tbsp coffee granules – Anything but nescafe or shop own brand, again because I’m a snob!
- 225g / 8oz butter
- 225g / 8oz caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 225g / 8oz self raising flour – I used plain with a tsp of bicarb of soda which gave spectacular results!
- 1tsp baking powder
The Topping
- 100g / 4oz milk chocolate
- 50g butter
- 3tbsp milk
- 175g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
What to do
- Whack your oven on at about 180 degrees C, 160 if it’s a Fan oven.
- Butter and line the base of a tin or dish that measures around 28cm x 11cm.
- Mix your cocoa and coffee granules into a couple of tablespoons of water to make a smooth paste.
- Mix the rest of your sponge ingredients together as best you can and add the cocoa-coffee mixture before blitzing in a mixer of whatever description is available to you.
- Tip your mix into your prepared dish and level out, cover your mix with a layer of grease proof paper and bake for c.30 mins – remove the greaseproof paper at this point and return to oven if necessary. The sponge is ready if you can insert a skewer or knife and have it come out clean.
- Leave to cool in tin/dish for ten minutes before turning out onto wire rack where it should be left to cool completely.
- Trim off any unsightly edges and eat with freshly made custard, actually no, get a tin.
- Over a v.low heat melt your chocolate and butter and milk. Do not allow to boil, do not allow to burn … pay attention!
- Sieve the icing sugar and beat into your chocolate mixture, allow this to cool a bit (it should begin to thicken) before liberally slopping over the top of your sponge. You might want to put the sponge on a plate or something first.
- Dust with icing sugar.
- Consume with great glee whilst watching election night coverage.
I’m not really allowed politics on here, but I think I may have got away with it :~0
I’m going to shoe-horn this post in here by labelling it “culinary art” … although that may be tenuous at best. In fairness it is ‘Stuff’ and it has been ‘made’!
For those that don’t know, macaroon is a traditional Scottish sweet incorporating those well known native scottish ingredients chocolate, coconut, sugar?! It’s final ingredient is potato … don’t let this put you off though it’s super sweet and super tasty!
What you’ll need:
- c. 4 oz cooled mashed-up potato
- c. 16 oz icing sugar (have extra on hand)
- c. 8 oz plain chocolate (have extra on hand)
- c. 4 oz desiccated coconut. (have extra on hand)
- some grease proof paper
- a large baking tray
- a freezer
Optional and recommended additional ingredients:
- a pinch of patience
- an iron will
- a blase attitude to getting covered in chocolate and coconut
- little concern for exact measurements
What you’ll need to do:
- boil your potatoes until they’re soft.
- mash up your potatoes and leave to cool a bit in a large bowl.
- start adding your icing sugar and mixing it in, it’ll all go a bit sloppy sticky and just a little bit icky.
- continue adding the icing sugar until it forms a vaguely dough like substance that’s only a little sticky, or if you’re lucky, not sticky at all.
- tear off a sheet of grease proof paper and line your tray with it.
- roll some of your dough-ish tattie and icing sugar stuff into short fat sausages, placing these on your baking tray. Try not to over work the dough, warmth with make it go icky and sticky again!
- find some room in your freezer and stick the tray in there … you may need to shift your frozen veg/meat/highly indulgent ice cream that you’ve been hiding from th kids to another shelf.
- leave in the freezer for 20-30 minutes … exercise some patience. If you can’t exercise anymore patience eat the ice cream, that should take a wee while (and free up some valuable freezer space) ;)
- meanwhile gently toast about a quarter of your coconut in the oven, a low temperature for about 5 mins should do … take care not to burn it.
- mix all your coconut together, toasted and un-toasted.
- just before removing ’sausages’ from the freezer melt your chocolate.
- line up your ’sausages’, chocolate, coconut and another sheet of grease-proof paper on your worktop.
- use one hand to coat your sausage in the chocolate, drop it in the coconut and use the other hand to cover it in coconut and place on grease proof paper … don’t do as I do and get your hand mixed up, it makes things unnecessarily difficult and messy!!
- you’ll need to work fast as the warmth of the chocolate makes the ’sausages’ revert to their icky, sticky state.
- now leave your macaroons to set, I generally stick them in the fridge while I clean up.
- enjoy with friends … you deserve it!
recipe based on: Lees Macaroon recipe @ Recipe Zaar
6 September, 2010 6:11 pm | 
