Cinnamon Apple Layer Cake- with WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

I don’t know about you, but personally, I love love love baking with fruits in cake. I just think it adds a moisture and texture that you don’t get from other ingredients. Not only did I make this apple cake this week, but I also made a batch of carrot cake squares earlier on for my friends (and it was lactose-free! Big win for my best friend!).

As you can see, I finally got my Kitchen Aid!! She’s named Betsy, and she’s a fabulous baking companion!

When I presented this to the grandparents, I was a bit apprehensive- my grandmother is difficult to please, and has previously told me that she needs to teach me how to make a ‘proper cake’ (like I don’t have the experience or know-how!) but to my surprise, it was given full marks! I even received the comment ‘best cake you’ve made yet’! If that doesn’t push you to give it a go I don’t know what will!

The sweetness of the white chocolate means the icing doesn’t require additional sugar, but the richness perfectly compliments the cinnamon and apple flavour. Sadly, it was so so good, that I neglected to photograph the top before it was all gone! Oops!

INGREDIENTS:

• 150ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing
• 175g dark brown soft sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 250g eating apples (roughly 3 medium- I use braeburns!)  peeled, cored and coarsely grated
• 200g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 25g rolled oats
• 50g ground almonds

for the syrup

• 75g dark brown soft sugar
• juice 1 lemon

for the frosting

• 50g butter
• 100g white chocolate
• 280g tub cream cheese
• 1tsp vanilla

METHOD:

1. Start by making the cakes. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line 2 x 18cm springform cake tins with baking parchment and brush with a little oil. Put the sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk with electric beaters until glossy and pale. Keep the beaters running as you pour in the oil.
2. Stir in the grated apple, then fold in all the other cake ingredients. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
3. Stir the syrup ingredients together in a bowl. When the cakes are cooked, keep them in the tin but prick holes all over the surface with a skewer and drizzle the syrup over. Leave the cakes to cool completely in the tin.
4. While the cakes cool, make the icing. In a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of hot water (I boil the kettle and then leave the water for a couple of minutes- you don’t want it to be too hot with white chocolate), melt the butter and white chocolate together. Once melted and glossy, pour into a large bowl. Add the cream cheese, whisk until smooth, then add the vanilla. When the mixture is cool, chill until needed.
5. When the cake is completely cooled, place the first layer on a plate, then pipe over the white chocolate frosting in swirls. Add the top layer of cake, and dust with icing sugar.

ENJOY

 

Checkerboard Birthday Cake

So a little while back, my mum and sister had a joint party, and I’m only just getting round to sharing with you all this fabulous birthday cake I made for them.

Honestly, I have never attempted a checkerboard cake before, so didn’t have high hopes for myself, but it actually worked really really well- and it’s so easy to make!

However, when decorating it, make sure you buy something big enough to go to the top of the cake, I was going to use kitkats or chocolate fingers, but the cake was too high, oops!

It is so so delicious, and so impressive, you’ll have all your guests with mouths wide, wandering how you did it, but little do they know it’s actually really easy.

INGREDIENTS:

• 450g self-raising flour, sifted
• 150g plain flour, sifted
• 590g caster sugar
• 300g butter, melted
• 440mL milk
• 6 eggs, beaten lightly
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 50g cocoa powder, sifted
• 600g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 250ml double cream

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line four 18cm round cake pans with baking paper.
2. Combine flours, sugar, butter, milk and eggs in large mixing bowl. Using an electric beater; beat on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to high and beat until the mixture is thick and pale.
3. Evenly divide cake mixture into two bowls(I weighed mine to make sure each cake was exactly even); add vanilla bean paste to one bowl and mix well. Add cocoa powder to remaining bowl, mix well. Divide vanilla mixture among two prepared pans, and divide chocolate mixture among remaining two prepared pans; bake 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Using a serrated knife, level cake tops.
4. Meanwhile, to make chocolate ganache, put dark chocolate and cream in heatproof bowl; microwave, uncovered, on medium for 1 minute; stir; repeat in 30 second intervals until melted. Set aside until cool and thick, stirring occasionally.
5. To assemble, print and cut out the template that you can download  here 
   
6. Coat the cut inner sides of a chocolate outer ring with a thin layer chocolate ganache and place a vanilla middle ring inside. Coat the cut inner sides of the vanilla ring with ganache and fill circle with a chocolate center. Repeat this sequence again.
7. Coat the cut inner sides of a vanilla outer ring with chocolate ganache and place a chocolate middle ring inside. Coat the cut inner sides of the chocolate ring with ganache and fill circle with a vanilla center. Repeat this sequence again. You should now have four cakes each alternating in chocolate and vanilla rings.
8. Sandwich the cake layers together with a little chocolate ganache, alternating layers. Spread remaining chocolate ganache over top and sides of cake.
9. Decorate how you wish!

ENJOY AND IMPRESS

DELICIOUS Gluten free, Lactose free brownies

Tomorrow it starts. My exams start. AHHHH. But hey ho, in a month it will all be over, and I cannot wait for that moment!

I decided to whip these up to enjoy after our first exam (ethics- probably my worst subject ever) and my very best friend is lactose intolerant, and another of my friends is a coeliac, so I thought i’d cater to the masses, and honestly they are actually delicious.

I use coconut oil instead of butter, and it adds a little tropical hint in the background, and gluten free flour, and also you need to check that the chocolate chips and cocoa powder are gluten and lactose free too.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup gluten-free flour
• 85g dutch process cocoa powder (check it’s lactose free and gluten free)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 195g coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
• 300g caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 100g dark chocolate chips (again, check it’s gluten and lactose free)

METHOD:

1. preheat oven to 175C and line a 20 x 20 baking tray (or use a silicon one like I do)
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the melted coconut oil, sugar, and vanilla extract. Once combined, add eggs one at a time, and stir just until combined.
4. Add dry mixture to wet and stir just until almost no streaks of flour remain. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes (they may be a bit gooey in the middle- this is good!)
6. Leave to cool completely before cutting- they will firm up a little during this time.

ENJOY

Ginger and Lime Drizzle Cake

As I’ve already mentioned to you, it was my Dad’s birthday yesterday. And I might have also mentioned to you that his FAVOURITE flavour is ginger. In the whole world. He loves it. LOVES IT.

So i only saw it fitting that i make him something extra special using that magical little ingredient- ginger.

Of course, I wanted it to be a surprise, yet he just decides that the only day he is going to come home early from work is the day I don’t want him there. So what can I do? I made it when he went to bed! So i was busy baking until 1 o’clock in the morning, but to be honest, I’m a bit of a night owl, and it suited me just fine.

So I was busy baking away at midnight, and I went to get the ground ginger to sprinkle into the batter, when disaster struck. The pot was…. EMPTY. Seriously, mother, if you use all of an ingredient, you buy a refill, or you throw away the pot. DON’T PUT IT BACK! Luckily, I had stem ginger in ginger syrup, so i chopped that up and just added extra syrup to the batter instead of ground ginger, and my dad thought it was DELICIOUS!

INGREDIENTS:

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• 4 lime
• 3 large eggs
• 200g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 rounded tsp ground ginger
• 50g desiccated coconut
• 3 balls stem ginger, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp stem ginger syrup
• chopped crystallised ginger

METHOD:

1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan. Grease and line a loaf tin. Cream butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Grate zest from 3 of the limes and add to mixture. Gradually add the eggs, mixing well between each addition.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, ground ginger and a pinch of salt. Fold into cake mixture with coconut and chopped stem ginger. Add milk and juice from 2 of the limes and mix until smooth. Spoon mixture into prepared tin and spread level
4. Bake for 1 hr – 1 hr 15 mins until golden brown. Cool the cake in the tin for 10-15 mins.
5. Use wooden skewer to make holes all over top of cake. Meanwhile, mix remaining lime juice with granulated sugar and stem ginger syrup. Slowly spoon syrup mixture over top of warm cake and leave in tin until completely cold. Top with the chopped crystallised ginger and a little lime zest to serve.

ENJOY

 

Moist Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Sooooooo, it’s my dad’s birthday today and he’s 58! Super old! Just kidding, he’s only middle aged, but anyway at his work, you have to take in cake on your birthday. I know, totally unfair, surely other people should bring in cake for you?

Well, no matter, because it just gives me a great excuse to get baking!

This banana bread is so moist and yummy that you won’t be able to stop it from being devoured immediately. Luckily I doubled this recipe to make two loaves!

INGREDIENTS:

• 125 grams butter (room temperature)
• 200 grams sugar
• 2 eggs
• 350 grams bananas (reall ripe, mashed)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 grams flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 80g chocolate chips

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan and grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2. In the bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
3. Beat in bananas (if the mixture has begun to split, sprinkle in some of the flour)
4. Sift together the dry ingredients then stir into the batter. Sprinkle over chocolate chips and fold in.
5. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf tin and place in the oven.
6. Bake for 45 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cover with foil halfway to prevent over browning.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing the banana bread from the tin.

ENJOY

Lemon celebration cake

WOW! My grandma is 90 years old!! Now, i suppose you all realise this is a very very large number and what is the best way to celebrate anything? CAKE. Her favourite flavour is lemon, so i figured i could accommodate to that, since it is her birthday.

It’s pretty simple really, and for the decoration i used one of the easy rose cutter tools which are AMAZING, and i would totally recommend it to any of you who are beginners on flowers, it is so so so easy to use!

INGREDIENTS:

 

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g softened butter
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• juice of half lemon

For the filling:

• 300g butter
• 600g icing sugar
• 50ml lemon juice
• enough lemon curd to spread over in the middle

METHOD:

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C. Grease and line two baking tins. In a large bowl, beat all the cake ingredients together to a smooth, soft batter.
2. Divide the mixture between the tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon, then bake for about 20 mins until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
3. For the buttercream, mix the lemon juice, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until smooth. Chill until needed.
4. When the cake is cool, smooth buttercream over the middle of the cake, and then a layer of lemon curd.
5. Put the second sponge on top, then cover completely in buttercream.
6. Decorate however you would like!

ENJOY

Salted caramel Cupcakes

Brrrrrrrrr!! It seems that winter has come late this year- I mean, did anyone see that freak snowstorm yesterday?! I absolutely loathe the cold, i think i would be better off hibernating for the winter and waking up to enjoy the spring sunshine.

However, i am not a woodland creature, so i think i’ll just have to bake my troubles away!

These salted caramel cupcakes are super simple, thanks to the trusty tesco salted caramel sauce! They are sooooo good, and if you don’t believe me, just give them a go for yourself!

INGREDIENTS:

• 110g butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 110g self-raising flour
• 150g salted caramel sauce
• Icing for the top (i used some left over white chocolate cream cheese icing i had used for a red velvet cake)

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a muffin tin with paper cases.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.

3. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, then stir in the caramel sauce. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, then add a small teaspoon of the salted caramel sauce, and press down into the batter slightly.

4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

5. Once cooled completely, ice with your chosen topping.

ENJOY

Raspberry cinnamon banana bread

Raspberries. Cinnamon. Banana. I don’t know about you, but that’s heaven to my ears… and my taste buds! honestly, this cake just tastes so amazing, it’s moist, sweet, and with just that undertone of spice, it’s absolutely perfect!

Plus, it makes the kitchen smell sooooo good!

I’ve finally finished all my mocks, thank the lord, what a relief. And i’m going to Belgium tomorrow, just me and my mum, which I love, it’s just such a relaxation, and we always go shopping. Always! Every girls’ dream- and since i’m the only one, I guess that means i’m going to have two ladies spending all their money on me, thanks mumma and bonne mami!

INGREDIENTS:

• 255g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 270g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 130g unsalted butter, melted
• 120g raspberries

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 170C/160C fan.
2. Melt the butter and leave to cool to room temperature.
3. Whisk together the sugar and eggs, and then add the mashed bananas.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add this to the egg mixture and carefully fold the mixtures together.
5. Add the cooled butter to the mixture and carefully fold it in, followed by folding in the raspberries.
6. Pour into two greased and lined loaf tins and bake for 45 minutes until golden (you may need to cover them with foil after about 20 minutes). Once baked, allow to cool in the tin until cool enough to handle. Turn it out and allow to cool on a cooling rack. Can be enjoyed both warm and cold.

ENJOY

Blueberry banana cupcakes

I just think that whenever you put banana into cake- it makes it heaven. It gives it such a moistness that I don’t think you can get with most other ingredients, and when you add blueberries…. well, words cannot explain how good it tastes!

I love this recipe, not only because of the flavour and how simple it is, but also because of the way they look with the blueberries at the top.

I just whipped these up quickly as a cool down after revision for exams, because baking is, in my opinion, such a great de-stresser- i really suggest you try it!

INGREDIENTS:

• 125g butter
• 125ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 220g caster sugar
• 1 large (roughly 115g) mashed over-ripe banana
• 225g self raising flour
• 120g frozen blueberries

METHOD:

1. preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.
2. Put the milk and butter in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until it has melted. Leave to cool slightly.
3. Beat eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy, then gradually add sugar, whilst continuing to beat the mixture. Stir in the mashed banana, fold in the sifted flour and the cooled butter mixture, and spoon into the cupcake cases.
4. Bake the cakes for 9 minutes, then remove from the oven and press frozen blueberries (around 5 per cake) into the top of the cupcakes.
5. Return to the oven for 13-15 minutes until golden.
6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

ENJOY

Small Vanilla Birthday Cake

I am always the go-to-girl when it comes to baking for birthdays and christmas etc. It was my grandma’s neighbor’s birthday the other day, so I was commisioned to do my thing, and this was the result.

I like that it’s quite simple, and it was absolutely delicious, which is just perfect because it means you don’t over complicate things for yourself yet it still manages to blow people away.

It’s quite a small cake, for roughly a 15″ pan, but it’s the perfect size for a small party and if there are other desserts then it means everybody can have a small slice with coffee.

INGREDIENTS:

• 175g margarine or softened butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 175g self-raising flour, sifted
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

For the buttercream:

• 200g butter
• 400g icing sugar
• splash of milk, if necessary
• food colouring (or flavour of your choice)

METHOD:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease the tin with a little extra butter or margarine and line with greaseproof paper.
2. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or a hand-held mixer for 1 minute, or until just combined. It’s important not to beat the batter too much – just long enough to make it smooth, otherwise the consistency won’t be as light and airy as it should.
3. Pour or spoon the mixture into the tin, smooth the top and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 45-50 minutes. The cake is cooked when it looks well risen and golden.
4. Let the cake sit in the tin for 5 minutes, then gently run a knife around the edge and turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
5. While it is cooking, mix the butter and icing sugar for the icing in a food processor, and if necessary add a bit of milk to make it to the right consistency. Add a few drops of food colouring of your choice (I chose pink- it’s my favourite :)) or add some lemon or orange juice for a bit of extra flavour. You could also substitute 50g of the icing sugar for cocoa powder for chocolate icing. When the cake has cooled, cut in half and spread the butter cream and a layer of jam across the centre. Place the top half back on, then cover the whole cake in the buttercream. Decorate if you want- I just put candles in.

ENJOY!