A car, tacos and a hummingbird

I'm back with this year's birthday cake offerings for the nephews: a car for the 17 year old learner driver, jumbo sized tacos for the food-obsessed middle nephew and a fruity hummingbird cake for the youngest. 

I was particularly pleased with the taco cake. It was so effective and surprisingly simple to construct: four round sponges (two plain, two chocolate) cut in half and stacked on their sides. The outer sponges were covered in fondant whereas the chocolate ones were covered with chocolate butter icing with blitzed bourbon (chocolate) biscuits pressed on top to resemble a beef mince filling. Green butter icing was piped on top for lettuce, red fondant cut into cubes for diced tomatoes/chillies, grated orange fondant for cheese and plain butter icing piped for a blob of sour cream.

I was a bit concerned that a grey Toyota Yaris (what eldest nephew is learning to drive in) would look ridiculously boring as a cake but I think it had sufficient charm. Incorporating the L plate in his name made a fun touch.

I was really surprised youngest nephew requested a "normal" cake this year as opposed to the usual fun, fondant affair but he wanted the same cake I had baked for his mum's birthday (same cake I made for her last year.) It certainly made my life a lot easier as fondant work takes ages and can feel stressful but I couldn't help but feel a little sad that this potentially marks the end of the fun, birthday cake-making era for the boys.

However I didn't let youngest nephew go completely fondant free as I had recently bought fondant alphabet cutters and was determined to use them. I should have bought these years ago! I thought the pack only contained letters so hand cut the "13" but noticed afterwards that there were numbers at the bottom of the box. DOH! I'll know for next time.

Jamana bread

Homemade jam + rotting bananas = jammy banana bread. Or as I've decided to call it, jamana bread.

It's nothing ground breaking, just a basic banana bread recipe with a few dollops of strawberry jam swirled through the batter before baking, but tasty nonetheless. 

I used Mary Berry's banana bread recipe from her Baking Bible (previously blogged here) as it's a firm favourite for versatility. I've made countless variations over the years but I think this is the first time I've added jam. I just wish I had left it to bake another couple of minutes in the oven as it's marginally under baked. It was difficult to judge whether the stickiness on the skewer was unbaked cake batter or a pocket of jam!

Carrot and ginger layer cake

I let Man pick a cake from my recipe books for his birthday last week and he chose the carrot and ginger cake from Hummingbird Bakery's "Cake days" book.

Although I have baked many recipes from this book I haven't made this one before which is surprising considering how much I love trying different carrot cake recipes. I can now happily report that this is another winner of a carrot cake recipe which I can add to my repertoire. 

Admittedly it is a gigantic beast of a cake (even my Kitchenaid struggled with containing the batter!) so it's definitely more of a celebration cake. However there's no reason why it can't be scaled down for a more everyday sized cake. I've done this before with Hummingbird Bakery cake recipes and it has worked well.

This was also my first time using root ginger in a cake. I fully expected the ginger to be really fiery and dominant in flavour, but it thankfully wasn't overpowering. It produced a lovely, warmly spiced carrot cake. 

Another first was roasting the pecans before adding to the cake batter. Sometimes I can find pecans a bit chewy(?) but roasting them first gives them a lovely, toasty crunch. Normally walnuts are my nut of choice for a carrot cake but this has potentially converted me to pecans.

And I can't finish this post without waxing lyrical about the orange cream cheese icing. My goodness it is tasty and perfectly compliments a carrot cake. I don't know why it took me until last year to try adding orange zest to cream cheese icing but it has fast become my favourite flavoured icing. I did my own thing when it came to icing quantities as I generally find Hummingbird Bakery icing quantities to be excessive. I also prefer a higher ratio of cream cheese to icing sugar. Cream cheese icing needs to be cream cheese-y!

Ginger and carrot cake

450g peeled and grated carrots

2 tbsp peeled and grated root ginger

80ml buttermilk

3 eggs (large)

1tsp vanilla extract

350ml sunflower oil

420g caster sugar

500g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp ground ginger 

80g pecans, roasted and chopped

Icing:

Admittedly I didn't accurately weigh things out, but it's roughly the following:

300g icing sugar

125g butter (softened)

445g Cream cheese (1 bigger pack + standard size pack of Philadelphia)

Zest of 1 orange.

Preheat the oven to 170c / 150c fan/ 325f/ gas mark 3. Grease and line 4 8" round cake tins.

Roast the nuts first. Tip them into a non stick saucepan and toss them over a medium-high heat for a few minutes until they smell toasty. Leave to cool them chop into small chunks.

In a large bowl combine the carrots, root ginger, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, oil and sugar. In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices. Add the dry mix to the wet mix in 3 batches, mixing well after each addition. Once fully incorporated, stir in the chopped pecans.

Divide the batter between 4 tins (or divide and portion into quarters if you only have 2 tins and need to bake the cakes in 2 batches like me.) Bake for approximately 30 minutes until risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack before icing.

For the icing, mix together the butter and the icing sugar. Add the cream cheese and orange zest and mix for a few minutes until fully combined, light and fluffy.

Level the cakes if needed. Spread the icing on top of each sponge and stack them. Crumb coat the outside of the layered cakes (if you can be bothered) or just use the remaining icing to smooth round the outside and top of the cake. Decorate with extra pecans on top.

Apricot and orange marmalade cake

Two weekends ago I made my first batch of marmalade. And what do you do once you've made a big batch of jam or marmalade? Use it in a cake, of course!

The resulting marmalade cake (with a handful of chopped dried apricots) had a lovely tart, citrus flavour from the Seville orange and marmalade. However the texture was a bit dense. I don't think my mixing was at fault, it was more likely due to the amount of liquid in the cake batter (orange juice, apricots and the marmalade which was slightly underset.) I left the cake in the oven a bit longer than stated as the centre was still liquid when I inserted a skewer into the middle. By the time the centre finally cooked I think the rest of the cake dried out a bit despite covering the top with greaseproof paper for the last 15 minutes.

Not a failure of a cake by any means, but mildly disappointing due to the bake. I have plenty of marmalade though so I can easily try again.

Apricot and orange marmalade cake

Recipe very mildly adapted from Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket

175g baking margarine/ softened butter

175g light soft brown sugar 

3 large eggs

Grated zest of 1 orange (plus the juice from half the orange). I used a Seville orange, the same as I used for my marmalade.

75g chopped dried apricots 

2 rounded tablespoons of orange marmalade 

200g self raising flour 

Icing: 

150g icing sugar 

Juice of 1 orange. Orange zest for decoration.

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160 Fan/ gas mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm round deep cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Mix together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the orange zest, juice and marmalade and mix. Add the flour and mix gently until everything is fully combined. Finally stir in the chopped dried apricots.

Pour the cake batter into the tin then bake in the centre of the oven for approx. 1 hour, checking on it after about 45 minutes. You may need to add a layer of greaseproof paper as a "hat" on top of the cake to stop the top from burning but allow the centre of the cake to continue cooking. The cake is ready when a skewer or knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack before icing. Turn out of the tin after 5-10 minutes.

For the icing, mix together the icing with enough orange juice to create a thick, smooth, pouring consistency. Spread over the cooled cake. For extra flourish grate orange zest to sprinkle on top.

Apple, cranberry and cinnamon cake

Whenever I spot fresh cranberries for sale in the run up to Christmas I excitably buy a pack to make this cake and/or these muffins.

However whenever I look for the recipe in my recipe file I remember I haven't written it down so I have to check my blog archive. . . only to remember I've never given the cake its own blog post either. My only mention of it is in a 2015 festive bakes round up.

I baked this cake again recently and felt it was time to rectify the lack of dedicated blog post. It's only taken close to 10 years. My yellow-tinged, night time photography with zero styling does not do the cake justice but the recipe is documented and should be easier to find in the future.

A used teabag for classy background decor. 

The original recipe was from a lovely old blog called Honey and Dough but I've tweaked it to suit myself over the years. If you still have festive cranberries hiding in your fridge or freezer this is a lovely way to use them up. 

Christmas 2022/New Year when I baked both the cake and the muffins. These were my first bakes in our new home. I still can't quite believe we moved house 2 days before Christmas that year. Madness.

Apple, cranberry and cinnamon cake

Recipe adapted from Honey and Dough blog

125g softened butter/margarine

125g soft light brown sugar 

2 eggs (large)

125g self raising flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tblsp milk

1 cooking apple (peeled, cored and sliced)

Approx. 100g fresh cranberries (chopped in half if they're big)

1 tblsp Demerara sugar for sprinkling on top before baking.

Preheat the oven to 160C fan / 180C/ gas mark 4 and grease and line a 7" deep round cake tin.

Beat together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with a food mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the flour, cinnamon, vanilla and milk and mix until everything is fully combined. Stir in around half of the cranberries.

Pour the cake batter into the tin and arrange the apple slices on top in a circular fan shape. Scatter the remaining cranberries on top along with a tbsp of demerara sugar.

Bake for approx. 1 hour until golden, well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. I check on mine after 50 minutes and add a layer of greaseproof paper to the top if it looks well coloured but the inside isn't fully baked yet.

Serve with a dusting of icing sugar. Eat warm or cold, both ways are delicious.

Banana and rhubarb streuselcake

Yes, I know, it's another rhubarb cake, but damn this is a good one!

It's another recipe from the "Rhubarbaria" I received last Christmas from the Man. I had never come across the pairing of rhubarb and banana so naturally it piqued my interest. I love banana cake, streusel topping and rhubarb so it had to be a winner.

As was the case with the last recipe I baked from this book elements of the recipe were on the vague side, which you can either be infuriated by or view as a fun challenge. I'm in the latter camp.

The recipe mentioned a 9" tin but didn't specify round or square - I guessed round and feel I made the correct choice. The ingredients were also listed as a mixture of ounces and cups. As many recipes from the book are from old UK newspaper clippings or WRI type groups I wasn't sure whether it was referring to standard American cup measures or more an old fashioned "use a drinking cup" type expression similar to my granny's handwritten recipes. In the latter case, capacity of cups vary wildly so you have to use a bit of common sense.

In the end I decided to use my American cup measures but weighed those quantities out in ounces to help gauge the quantities of the ingredients against others. My biggest alteration to the recipe was not adding all of the milk, instead stopping when I felt I had achieved a good consistency with the cake batter.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I put the cake in the oven but what a glorious cake came out. It rose beautifully and smelled amazing. Look at the depth of those slices!

The recipe recommends eating the cake warm like a pudding but it is equally lovely cold. It has a beautiful, soft texture with pockets of squidgy rhubarb and banana contrasted with a spiced and sweet crunchy nut topping. There's also a subtle hint of lemon which is lovely. 

It might all sound a bit random but it absolutely works. I'm ridiculously pleased with this cake and can't wait to make it again. 

Banana and rhubarb streusel cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Rhubarbaria by Mary Prior

For the cake:

5oz softened butter/baking margarine (I used Stork)

7oz soft light brown sugar 

2 large eggs

10oz plain flour

Pinch of salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 

1 cup milk (I used most but not all of it, I think about 1/4 pint - a bit of baking experience required here to gauge it)

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 cup of rhubarb, chopped into small chunks (I used 2 smallish stalks and forgot to weigh them in ounces here)

1 banana, chopped into small chunks/slices

For the streusel topping:

2oz walnuts, chopped

2oz granulated sugar 

1 tsp melted butter

1tsp ground cinnamon 

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas mark 4. Grease and line a 9" round cake tin with greaseproof paper. 

In a large bowl cream together the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition. 

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Add this mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, one third at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Add the chopped rhubarb, banana, vanilla and lemon juice and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.

Before putting the cake in the oven, combine the streusel toppings in a separate bowl then scatter it on top of the cake mixture.

Bake the cake on the middle shelf of the oven for 50-60 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. I put a layer of greaseproof paper on top of the cake after 50 minutes to stop the top from burning but allow the inside of the cake to continue cooking for another 5-10 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin for at least 30 minutes before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire cooling rack.

Rhubarb and custard kisses

Years ago (here, actually) I made delicious custard biscuits which incorporated custard powder into the dough. The other week in one of my baking related ponderings I wondered if I could substitute the cornflour for custard powder in my Granny's recipe for kisses. . . So I tried it.

The custard powder gave the kisses (a shortbread sandwich biscuit) a lovely, golden yellow colour which the camera on my phone mostly decided to capture as a radioactive glow. The powder also gave the biscuits a sweet, vanilla-y, custard flavour.

For the filling I used a vanilla butter icing and some of last year's never-ending supply of rhubarb based jam. (I made more rhubarb jam than you can shake a stalk stick at.)

Basically I'm trying to find ways to use up the multiple jars of rhubarb jam I made last year. Despite giving away a large amount as Christmas presents (or just to any accepting friend or family member) I still have at least 10 jars left. 

Admittedly very little jam was used in this bake but the idea of rhubarb and custard kisses appealed to me and I'm happy my baking pondering was successful.

Granny's kisses with a rhubarb and custard twist

6oz margarine

2 1/2 oz Icing sugar

2oz Custard powder

6oz Self-raising flour

2oz Butter, softened 

4oz Icing sugar

A few drops of vanilla extract 

A few drops of boiling water

(Optional) A drop of pink food colouring 

A jar of rhubarb jam

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6/ 200C/ 180C Fan. Line two large baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Cream together the softened butter and icing sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the custard powder and self raising flour and mix together until it forms a dough.

Form the dough into 24 small balls and set onto the baking sheets, spacing them apart. Slightly flatten them with a fork. Bake in the oven for approx. 12 minutes or until the edges start looking slightly golden. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

For the icing mix together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract until fluffy. If it needs softening slightly add a few drops of boiling water. Admittedly I rarely weigh out my butter or icing sugar for making icing so my written quantities here are a rough guess.

Once the biscuits are cool, sandwich them together with a dollop of butter icing and a smaller dollop of jam. A little jam goes a long way. You should end up with 12 kisses.