Cakes for Japan Part Two

So the 23rd April quickly came around and Cakes for Japan Huddersfield was about to happen! I was tired, been baking for hours the day before, but was really looking forward to the day.

Everything had been set up by 9.30am and I was amazed by how great it all looked. Marie-Claire (@NouveauCakes) had done a great job with promotion, getting the bakers to bring their wares and getting the demonstration area in the market set up. Now all we had to do was get selling!

I think we were all concerned that people might not turn up and buy...the weather was glorious and we were in an indoor market! However, we needn't have worried. The people of Huddersfield came and bought cake - lots of it! Scones, flapjack, brownies, biscuits and cupcakes were flying out of the shop. Children came to have their faces painted and decorate biscuits too....

So how much did we raise? £892! an amazing result and I felt so pleased after finding out the final total. As I've mentioned in previous posts, all proceeds have gone to the British Red Cross Tsunami Appeal.

For more photos of the day, please see The Husband's Flickr album - he took some lovely shots of the day.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make 3 different types of cupcake:

Creme Egg

Red Velvet

And because of the event, I really wanted to make a Japanese inspired cupcake, so I made chocolate, ginger and wasabi cupcakes. I wasn't sure whether Huddersfield would be ready for this combination, they were a slow burner, but they did sell! Recipe will follow in the next couple of days. It was a brilliant day with an even more brilliant result!



Chocolate, ginger and wasabi cupcakes



Please Support Cakes for Japan!

Just a quick post to big up the Cakes for Japan Huddersfield event which is happening on Saturday 23rd April!

Background info on how the events started can be seen in my Cakes for Japan Part One post, but please come along and show your support for the Red Cross and their efforts to help the earthquake victims.

The event has been brilliantly organised by Marie-Claire of Nouveau Cakes. She's rounded up a band of eager bakers through the power of Twitter and Facebook to provide an array of sweet treats for Huddersfield shoppers to buy.

Aside from bake sale itself, there will also be face painting Easter biscuit decorating for kids (and maybe adults if you fancy it!) and also raffles for some great prizes, so it's quite a family affair.

I'll be making an array of cupcakes. Flavours will be...

• Red Velvet
• My Ironcupcake winning Creme Egg Cupcake

And a bit of an experiment, in which I am incorporating some Japanese ingredients.... details of which I will leave off here now, but if you want to try / know what it is, then come along on Saturday and buy some!

Other treats include:

• Oaty and ginger biscuits
• Japanese flag Fondant Fancies
• Banana cake mini loaves with chocolate chips
• Mini chocolate tarts
• Madeleines
• Simnel buns
• Easter ginger biscuits
• Macarons

Marie-Claire will also be utilising the demonstration kitchen and making up fresh scones one site! Please come along and support if you can. We'll be there from 10am, at the demonstration zone in Queensgate Market!

A full blog update on the event will follow this weekend!

The First Rule about Cake Club....

Last Thursday marked my second trip to the Leeds Clandestine Cake Club, and what a treat it was! This time the event was held in the 4th floor cafe in Harvey Nichols. Again, another wonderful venue.

The theme for this month was "Vivaciously Victorian" and if I'm honest, I did struggle somewhat with deciding on a cake to make. So, in the vein of Heston Blumenthal, I decided to look to literary influences for inspiration, specifically Alice in Wonderland and the "Drink me Potion" which is said to have tasted of  a


"Mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast"


So for me, I definitely wanted to create a cake incorporating the combination of cherries and custard! I settled on the recipe, one where custard is baked into the middle of the cake. I was all set to bring a magnificent cake of gold and cherry red hues, wibbling and wobbling with with thick set custard... Only, I couldn't find any cherries. None, nada. I searched high and low, supermarkets, farm shops to no avail.

So I went for apple instead. Hey ho...but when I do get me some cherries I WILL make this cake again!!

There was an amazing plethora of cake, ranging from Helen's sandcastle cake (a feart of engineering!), Jini's Empire Cake, Charlotte's Battenberg, ginger cakes and a number of variations on the Victoria sponge - all delicious! Needless to say it took me a few days to get over the sugar high! Again, eveyone who I got chatting to at the event were lovely, and I can't wait until the May event, which has a fruity, sweet or savoury theme.

The CCC also featured in an article in the Times the very same day, detailing how underground baking clubs and baking in general are gaining momentum in the UK. I have to say Lynn does an amazing job at organising these events and finding great venues to host them in!

I think my only quibble with the article was how it kind of pitched bake clubs as "anti cupcake" - yes, the CCC is all about "proper" cakes, but as someone who also loves cupcakes and attends Ironcupcake Leeds, I just think that there is a place for all types of baked goodies!! Let's just share the love for home baking!

Apple and Custard Cake

Ingredients

For the custard
280ml milk
3 large egg yolks
55g caster sugar
30g plain flour
2 tsp vanilla extract

For the cake:
200g soft butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
225g self raising flour, sifted
2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used Braeburn as I wanted the apples to keep their shape)

To top
1 tbsp butter, melted
2 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

For the custard

In a saucepan and bring the milk to a simmer to a simmer over medium heat. Take off the heat.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl until thick, add the flour and whisk until smooth.

Pour hot milk onto egg yolk mixture and stir until smooth. Return the contents to saucepan and stir over low heat until mixture comes to the boil.

Stir for 1-2 minutes until it becomes thick then remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and then cover with cling film and leave to cool in the fridge.

For the cake
Pre-heat the oven oven to 180C.


Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Fold in flour.

Spread half the mixture into a springform 20cm greased and base-lined cake tin, be patient with this, the batter is very thick - it needs to be to encase the custard. It will take some effort to spread it evenly over the base of the tin.

Then add the cooled custard and smooth out evenly. Be sure to leave a of centimetre around the circumference of the cake uncovered by custard, as you want to seal the custard into the middle of the cake.

Add spoonfuls of remaining cake mix and spread carefully with a spatula to cover custard


Arrange apples on top of cake mixture and brush with melted butter. Sprinkle over the caster sugar and cinnamon.

Bake for about 60mins until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in pan before turning out.


Eat with extra cream if you like, but I think the custard adds enough moisture!

Butternut Squash Cake

Last Thursday I finally managed to make it to this month's Clandestine Cake Club event. The club is run by Lynn, who also runs the Secret Tea Room.

The Clandestine Cake Club is not a competition, it's an opportunity to meet at a "secret" location to eat and discuss cake. Cake being the word - it's not about cupcakes, whoopies, muffins or macarons, it's all about the good old fashioned cake! Think of it as an extension of social networking...most of the people in attendance are on Twitter or write their own blogs, so it was good to meet in person and chat about cake! I met some really lovely people and am really looking forward to the next event.

This month it was held at Primos in the Leeds Corn Exchange. The theme for this event was "Saucy Sweet or Sensual Savoury" In total I think there were 20 cakes, all of the ones I managed to try I thought were delicious. There was a good split between savoury and sweet cakes. I have to say the savoury ones were delicious! In particular I liked the pistachio and chorizo, the savoury semolina cake and also the pesto and courgette loaf. A couple of these recipes can be found on the CCC Site.

I decided to go down the sweet route, but use a savoury ingredient - butternut squash. I find that vegetables in cakes tend to give a really moist crumb and this one didn't disappoint! The butternut squash can be substituted for the more traditional carrot, but I also think that it would be really good using courgette and a lime frosting to give it some zing. (Must give this a try...)

I received some really lovely comments about my cake and I think it turned out really well, because there was so much cake, there was enough to take back home and share the people at work (along with slices of some of the other cakes I didn't get to try!)

The recipe is based on a Jamie Oliver Squash muffin recipe, but I have tweaked it slightly, adding extra spices and using my method for cream cheese frosting.

Spiced Butternut Squash Cake with Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting

For the cake
400g butternut squash, skin on, deseeded
350g light soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
300g plain flour, unsifted
2 tsp baking powder
100g walnuts
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg, grated
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Grated zest of 1 orange
175ml extra virgin olive oil (I didn't have much EV left, so just used standard olive oil)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting
500g icing sugar
125g cream cheese
125g soft unsalted butter
Grated zest of 1 orange
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to to Gas Mark 4 / 160C (fan) / 180C. Line and grease 2 x 20cm cake tins.


Either grate or whizz up the butternut squash in a food processor - set to one side.

Beat the sugar and oil until light and frothy, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one in before the next. Then add the vanilla, the squash, walnuts and the orange zest. Beat gently

In another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Fold into the Butternut squash mix.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake for approx 25 - 30 mins, but do check after 20 mins as it will depend on your oven. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack and leave until completely cold.

The quantities above actually made the 2 layers for the cake but I also got 24 mini cupcakes out of it too.

To make the frosting, combine all the ingredients in a mixer until smooth.

To decorate, sandwich a few spoonfuls of the frosting between the layers, and then using a pallate knife, spread the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. If you find that the frosting is getting a bit runny, then place the cake / frosting in the fridge for ten minutes or so and then continue.

I decorated the cake with a few walnuts.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea and a chat!

I'm really looking forward to the next meet up, the theme is Vivaciously Victorian...lets get the thinking cap on then!

Birthday Treats

Friday was my brother in law's 21st birthday and I offered to make some birthday treats. Treats being a birthday cake and also some cupcakes.

Please excuse the bad writing!

Seeing as the salted caramel cakes went down so well last weekend at the murder mystery, I decided to whip up a batch alongside a chocolate cake and I also decided to make a batch of chocolate orange cupcakes too (Post on those to follow...)

For the chocolate cake used the same recipe as I used for the chocolate and raspberry cake I made a few weeks ago, but minus the raspberries. Instead I just used the chocolate ganache as a filling as well as to cover the cake. I also used some of the left over salted caramel frosting to pipe on the edges and the base of the cake. For this I used a medium sized star tip.

I also attempted to pipe on "happy birthday" which although didn't look too bad, I think need a little bit more practice!

We didn't end up eating the cake on the night, I think this was because I went a bit overkill with the cupcakes, but we did have it for dessert after Sunday dinner... Quote of the evening from my brother in law was "Did you make to cake too? I thought it had been bought..." not sure if that's a good or bad thing!


The cake itself was still moist after 2 days - this was probably down to the ton of ganache that was covering it.


The diet has already started!

Death by Cake

I am conscious that I haven’t posted for a while and that so far I haven’t blogged about baking. So much so it is going me nightmares. The truth is that I have just been really lazy this week and rather just get on and write, I have taken the option of drinking wine… (Speaking of which, Morrison’s have a lovely St Chinian red on offer for £4.99, it is usually £9.99, V. good!) For those who know me well, they will know that my first passion in the kitchen is baking.

It was my Father in Laws birthday last weekend and rather than make cupcakes (blog post on those to follow!) I decided to make a good old fashioned chocolate cake, with a bit of a fruity twist.

The idea of raspberries with chocolate is a very common combination and I think that the inclusion of a raspberry cream as the cake filling really helps to cut through the richness of the cake. The cake consists of a rich chocolate sponge, the raspberry cream and the whole thing is then covered in a beautiful, thick chocolate ganache icing.

The different elements of the cake are an amalgamation of 3 different Nigella Lawson recipes, who I think is pretty reliable when it comes to cake. (Although I have to say I don’t ever take cake decorating tips from her, she’s a bit scruffy for my liking and she’d probably agree with me).

Raspberry Chocolate Cake

For the cake

50g/2oz best-quality cocoa powder, sifted

100g/4oz dark muscovado sugar

250ml/8fl oz boiling water

125g/4½oz soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing

150g/5oz caster sugar

225g/8oz plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 free-range eggs

For the raspberry cream

1 punnet raspberries

300ml extra thick double cream

For the icing

75g unsalted butter

175g best quality dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

300g icing sugar

1 tablespoon golden syrup

125ml sour cream

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

1 punnet of raspberries, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line the bottoms of two 20cm/8in sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.

Sift the cocoa into a large bowl and mix in the dark muscovado sugar. Pour in the boiling water and mix. Se to one side to cool slightly

Cream the butter and caster sugar together in a separate bowl, well until pale and fluffy

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together in another bowl and set aside for a moment.

Dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and, then crack in one egg, quickly followed by a spoonful of the flour mixture (this stops it from curdling), then the second egg. Keep mixing after each addition. Incorporate the rest of the flour mixture little by little, then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture.

Divide the batter between the two cake tins and put in the oven for about 30 minutes. (Mine cooked in about 20, so be aware! If a cake tester comes out clean, it’s done!)

Leave the tins on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then turn the cakes out and set aside to cool. It took a good hour and a half – 2 hours.

For the filling, simply fork through the raspberries into the cream. If you haven’t bought thick double cream, you will need to whip it beforehand until it is soft and voluminous, but not too stiff.

To make the icing, melt the butter and chocolate in a good-sized bowl, set to one side.

While the chocolate and butter are cooling a little, sieve the icing sugar into another bowl.

Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla and then when all this is combined whisk in the sieved icing sugar.

When you've done, you may need to add a little boiling water or more icing sugar depending if you need it to be thicker or runnier. It should be liquid enough to coat the cake easily, but thick enough not to drip off. In any case, the icing will dry off quite firm.

Assembling and decorating the cake

On your cake stand / plate cut out four strips of baking parchment to form a square outline on it (this stops the icing running on to the plate). Then sit one of the cakes, with the domed side down.

Spread the raspberry cream into the cake half evenly and smoothly with a palette knife / spatula. Sit the other cake on top, normal way up, pressing gently to sandwich the two together.

Spoon half of the icing on to the top of the cake and spread it over evenly. Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining icing and leave a few minutes till set, then carefully pull away the paper strips.

Decorate with raspberries. To keep them in place, I dipped the bottom ends into the icing to stick.

Try and not to devour it all at once.