Red Velvet Cupcakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes

After my baking extravaganza this week, I think Anna was keen to show me up.  So she made these crazy cupcakes that don’t just taste awesome, the look awesome too.  I’m pretty gutted about it, since I was fairly pleased with my own efforts until now.  Or at least I would be gutted if I didn’t get to stuff my face on sweet sweet velvety goodness for the next week.

For those that don’t know, “velvet” cakes are basically just ordinary cakes with red food colouring.  But like all things, it’s not that simple.  There is some additional chocolately goodness to pay you back for picking the crazy coloured cake, and I think the consistency has been played with too as the ingredients involving mixing bicarbonate of soda with white wine vinegar! This gives it a very tight, slightly dense texture that does indeed feel velvety on the tongue.  Finally, the topping is cream cheese mixed with icing sugar, a really tasty combination that works really well here.

My only problem with them is that they are very, very rich.  Served in muffin cases, they are an awful lot of cake and a real challenge to get through… The second time we tried these, we had half each and used a fork to eat it which was a much better idea – I felt that I was in charge of the cake and not the other way around.

Who made it: Anna

Recipe: Cake Days: Recipes to make every day special, by the Hummingbird Bakery, page 178.

Vegan Chocolate Traybake with chocolate topping

Another “cake club” recipe, this vegan cake was a lot more challenging than the sultana and orange traybake.  My intention was to make a chocolate traybake, but it came out just a little too crumbly and, well, “cocoa-ey” for my tastes, so I added a cherry jam layer and a sweeter chocolate topping.  I broadly followed this recipe, and this for the topping, but I was afraid of the warnings that the main cake would be too sweet (so reduced the sugar) and too oily (so reduced the oil).  The consistency I ended up with was perfect for a pudding, but not that practical for a working cake session!  Still, I think it tasted pretty good.  Perhaps a little more oil would be wise.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 175g plain flour
• 200g Demerara sugar
• 50g cocoa powder
• 2/3 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 150ml water
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 2/3 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling and topping:

• Cherry jam (for the filling)
• 100g sugar
• 3 tablespoons corn starch
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• pinch salt
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 75ml water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, grease a 9×9 inch (23x23cm)  traybake tin and line with greaseproof paper
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla; mix until well blended.
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer/knife comes out clean.  Wait for the cake to cool.
4. Slice in half, generously smother one half with jam, and place the second half on top of the jam.
5. To make the frosting, Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa in a medium sauce pan, add the water slowly. Heat over medium until it gets thick and starts to boil. Boil for 1-2 minutes.  (“Make sure you don’t boil too long, or it will set like taffy”.) Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla.

Notes:

The frosting was a pain.  I added just a little too much water and had to boil it a little longer; still, it did not set like frosting but was slightly gooey (in a good way!).  Obviously this is a very delicate thing to do, and if you have vegan margarine/vegan buttermilk substitutes there are easier frosting recipes out there!

Who made it: Dan

Recipe: Modified from this recipe, and this for the topping.

Sultana and Orange Traybake

This simple fruity “cake club” recipe was well received, and it is very flavour-filled when fresh. When a little older it loses its charm a little so eat it up! I think it comes recommended by our expert tasters, although you’d be advised to reduce the amount of orange zest as I found it left a tang for quite a while afterwards!

Ingredients:

• 6oz (150g) margarine
• 6oz (150g) caster sugar
• 7.5oz (200g) self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 4oz (100g) sultanas
• 2oz (50g) raisins
• 2oz (50g) dried apricot, finely diced
• grated rind of 2 oranges (try 1 big, or 1 1/2 small?)
• Demerara sugar

method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius, grease a 9×9 inch (23x23cm)  traybake tin and line with greaseproof paper
2. add all ingredients except the sugar to a large bowl and mix well
3. pur into the tin, and bake for 15-20 minutes
4. sprinkle the sugar over the top and return to the heat for 15-20 minutes or until cooked

notes:

I didn’t put the sugar in early enough and it didn’t melt into the mixture but sat on top.  This was OK but I think a crispy sugary layer would’ve been better!  I adapted the recipe from a 12x9in recipe, hence the odd amounts.  the apricot was my own addition as I rather like the subtle flavour it gives the cake when you get a piece.  I found the sultanas sunk a bit – to fix this, you can try sprinkling half of them on top  instead of mixing them in.

Who made it: Dan.

Recipe: Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book, page 79.

Wendy’s Caring Cake

This is a “no added sugar” diabetic recipe for fruitcake.  As I am missing a picture, it is hard to visualise this, but it doesn’t look any different to a normal fruit loaf.  We quite enjoyed it, but at the same time it wasn’t all that thrilling.  It was a lot better as a pudding (served hot with cream) than as a cake.  The texture in particular was odd, presumably the high density of dried fruit – and pineapple! leaves the cake a little rubbery (but not in a bad way!).

I’ll give the ingredients, but not a proper recipe.  You can guess the rest, its pretty obvious!  Cook covered (190 degrees) for an hour or so.

Ingredients: 425g can of crushed pineapple, with juice, 450g mixed dried fruit, 1tsp mixed spice, 4 tbsp vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 225g self raising wholemeal flour.

Who made it: Anna and Dan jointly.

Recipe: “Baking, making and sharing” by Susan Over, page 18.

Angel Fruit Tartlets

Hot little tarts…

With all that fruit it has to be good for you, right?

The tarts are extremely simple: just short crust pastry, with a sweetened mascarpone cheese topping (175g of the cheese, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar, and 1 teaspoon of grated orange zest).  Then a random selection of your favourite fruits sit on top.  Clearly, the only opportunity for excitement here is the topping, but this works really well, being very simple cream cheese with a very intense flavour from the orange.

I can merrily eat 3 of these in a sitting and its only British Social Reserve holding me back from a fourth.  Try them; they are tasty and easy!

Who made it: Anna.

Recipe: Cakes, Bakes, Puddings and Prayers, by Susan Over, page 8.

Potato, Fontina and rosemary tart

This looks pretty tasty.  It’s a shame that it wasn’t very good.

Its not what you can see, but what you can't that matters here.

Alarm bells should have started ringing with the title: potato tart.  Pastry doesn’t really need more starch added to it… still, pasties have potato in and are tasty so it’s not a hopeless idea.

Where this goes very, very wrong is that the potato is not cooked at all before going in the pie: it is just sliced very thinly.  Anyone who cooks knows that this is going to be dangerous, and with an oven like ours is downright silly.  You par boil potatoes.  They need par boiling.

So although the tart above looks really rather tasty, it was basically uncooked.  We then had to microwave it to death to get the potato to cook.  The end result was still OK, but the pastry was a little tough and just not the fresh yumminess it should have been.  I like the idea of a rosemary cheese pie, but I think more varied veg would be better.

Who made it: Anna and Dan jointly.

Recipe: The daily cook book, by Love Food, November 11th.

Tiramasu Cheesecake

This sexy little number was recommended by our friend Ella, who seems to know her cheesecakes.

Death by cheesecake is by far the best way to go...

Correctly baked cheesecake is perhaps the most wonderful thing in the world.  This is up there with the best, though whether it takes the top spot will depend on how much you value purity against intensity: this is like being enveloped by a rum and amaretto hug whilst Tia Maria kisses you smack on the lips.  (Don’t think about the meaning of that in Spanish.  Just don’t.)

An Amaretti biscuit base works amazingly well, adding an almondly overtone that really works.  Trust me – I was an unbeliever too.  Your cheesecake will love you for it.  The second trick is the always amazing mix of coffee, alcohol and chocolate in the marbled cheescake, which is baked into an intense perfection that you will not be able to resist.

Ingredients:

Biscuit base: 275g amaretti biscuits, 75g unsalted butter/margarine

Cheesecake: 700g mascapone/cream cheese, 150g sugar, 3 eggs (separated), 25g plain flour, 3 tbsp dark rum, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 175g plain chocolate, 1tbsp coffee, 3 tbsp Tia Maria

Method:

Crush the biscuits in a bag or food processor, add melted butter and stir until mixed.  Press into a 9inch (23cm) cake tin and chill for 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius.  Beat the cheese until smooth, then add the sugar and re-beat, and then again with the egg yolks. Put half the mixture in a new bowl and add the flour, rum and vanilla.  Melt the chocolate, stir in the coffee and the Tia Maria, and add to the other half of the cheese mixture.

Beat the egg whites until gentle peaks form, then add half to each mixture and mix in gently (without beating).  Then dollop each in on to the base irregularly, using a knife to make marbled swirls on top.

Bake for 45 minutes or until gently soft in the middle.

Actually, we ever so slightly overcooked ours, with the inside perfect but the outside just a little dry.  It is safer to cook “lower in the oven” (or just at a lower temperature) and to keep it covered; it should come out sticky when you poke in a knofe (but not wet, which is how it will start).

Unlike many other cheesecakes, this is actually at its best when hot straight  from the oven.  I think its because the flavours are most intense then.  When chilled, it will taste more like cheesecake and less like alcoholic heaven, which would probably be a good thing for people who don’t like such an intense coffee flavour.

Who made it: Anna, though Dan licked everything clean.

Recipe: Good Housekeeping Cakes and Bakes (probably.. this is from memory…

Butternut Squash Risotto

This is now such a regular feature in our house that we just make it up as we go along.  This qualifies as the “Summer Risotto”, being based mostly around herbs for flavour instead of spices and alcohol.

Summer Risotto with Butternut Squash and white wine

Of course you can do basically anything with risotto.  They key is getting some flavours in, here provided by mint and basil in a white wine and stock.  The next most important thing is making sure it has enough vegetables in  that you like.

Ingredients: 

1/2 Butternut squash, 1 carrot, 1/2 onion, 1/2 leek, 2 garlic cloves, 1/2 pepper, 2 mushrooms, pine seeds, butter, white wine, fresh herbs.

Method (serves 2):

To make the butternut  squash, peel (1/2 a fair sized squash) and chop into chunks, drizzle with oil and balsamic vinegar and bake (evenly spread) at 200 degrees for an hour. (optionally sprinkle on pine seeds after 30 mins).

Meanwhile for the risotto, fry some onion, leek and garlic in a dollop of butter.  Make 500ml of vegetable stock.  When the onion starts to go soft, add 1 small cup of rice (risotto if you have it, but actually most rice types work) and a small amount of stock, and turn down to a simmering heat.  Keep adding stock when it needs it to keep the consistency sticky but not wet.  Add the thinly sliced carrots and simmer for 10 minutes, then add the diced pepper and simmer for a further 15 minutes.  Then add the mushrooms and a good guzzle of white wine, and give it an additional 10 minutes.

When the rice is cooked (which should take about 50 minutes), add a dollop of butter with a handful of two of your favourite chopped herbs (say, basil and mint). Mix and leave to “breath” for a couple of minutes.  Serve the squash on the risotto, with grated cheese on top… and a salad on the side if that floats your boat

Essential Ancient Egyptian Phrase Book

Top: Cake. Bottom: Wine.

The essential guide to Ancient Egyptian.  No more confusing menu blues!

Cheesecake of the heavens

Otherwise known as “Caramel crunch Cheesecake”, this is heavenly in two ways:

1. It tastes like it was made by angels singing hymns to chocolate in the temple of cheese.
2. It will speed your ascent to the next world, to join the ranks of the chorus.

 

A little slice of heaven brings you little closer to it.

 

As discussed here, this cheesecake poses that age-old question, “cake and death?“  to which there is only one answer: “yes please!”.  You will note that the slice above is very, very small, as it leaves you very, very full and very, very happy. Despite this I still had to have another piece… oops.

There isn’t much to say except for the usual disclaimer:

Dan helped with the “cleaning the bowls” (no actual washing up was necessary, strangely…)

Who made it: Anna.

Recipe: Cheesecakes, Pavlovas & Trifles, by the Australian Women’s Weekly (!), page 8.