Category: cake

mocha cupcakes

Delicious, soft, crumbly muffiny concoctions here, with a splodge of coffee icing. I enjoyed them a lot – more coffee flavour next time though.

Mocha cupcakes (makes about 12):

250ml water

250g caster sugar

125g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 tablespoons instant coffee

225g self-raising flour

2 eggs, beaten

For the icing:

100g icing sugar

50g butter

2 tablespoons instant coffee

Melt the sugar and water together in a saucepan. Stir in the butter, cocoa, bicarb and coffee and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes then allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Beat the flour and eggs into the mixture until smooth. Divide into cupcake cases and bake for 20 minutes until firm. Allow to cool.

Whip the icing ingredients together until smooth and use it to sandwich cut halves of the cupcake together.

cake coffee food lemon

fairy cakes three ways

An unusual post this one: it’s a birthday gift show-off in disguise and I didn’t cook the featured articles!

Recent birthday gifts were: individual silicone cupcake cases (re-usable and easy to remove from the cases you see), a wiry cupcake stand, and my first ever piping bag. As I was about to spring into baking action, my 4 month old daughter fell asleep on my shoulder, so Mrs. Roastpotato stepped in to bake. I can be a nightmare to cook in front of, with my pestering and pointy fingers. Luckily she manage very impressive cakes despite my interference. We felt like baking the same cupcake base, with three toppings: coffee, lemon and vanilla.

We were deciding on which cupcake recipe to go for and went for Delia’s Complete Cookery Course. Out fell a grubby, yellowed piece of paper which was once lined. On it was familiar: my Nan’s tiny, curly handwriting. It was her recipe for ‘Queen Cakes’, which are fairy cakes studded with sultanas. They made the most perfect, golden, light and moist little gems. Luckily the toppings did them justice: a zingy, crisp lemon icing, a dense, sweet coffee rush and oozy, rich vanilla buttercream.

Fairy cakes (measurements and method are presented old school, exactly as per my Nan’s instructions) – makes 23:

8oz butter

8oz sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

A little milk

Cream fat and sugar add eggs beaten well. Fold in sieved dry ingred. little milk if ness to soft dropping consistency. Bake in mod oven 15 – 20 mins.

Coffee icing:

3 tablespoons espresso

2 tablespoons icing sugar

Lemon icing:

Juice of ½ lemon

2 tablespoons icing sugar

Vanilla buttercream:

100g icing sugar

50g butter

Dash of vanilla extract

Tags betty tridgett

cake food

marcus wareing’s chocolate cake

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date April 2, 2010
No Comments on marcus wareing’s chocolate cake

The baking onslaught continues.

I’m a sucker for a chocolate cake, so it was next on my hitlist. I turned to a very underappreciated but well-read book from my shelf, How to Cook the Perfect…by Marcus Wareing. It’s an excellent guide for obvious recipes, but the killer app is the additional flashpoints from Marcus, pointing out where the potential problem areas are. It’s great reference material.

This chocolate cake recipe itself isn’t Marcus’s but his mother-in-law’s. If Marcus says it’s good, it must be! And it is, an excellent cocoa flavour but with moist sponge texture. My only change was to add clotted cream to the chocolate buttercream – I had some knocking about ready to go off. It made for an interesting ‘cheesecake’ style flavour which I really enjoyed.

Marcus Wareing’s chocolate cake:

225g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

250 softened butter

250g caster sugar

4 beaten eggs

To finish:

200g icing sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

100g softened butter

75g clotted cream

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and line 2 x 20cm circular tins.

Cream the butter and sugar together and add the eggs a little at a time. Fold in the sifted flour, cocoa and salt into this mixture.

Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Mix the buttercream ingredients together well and until smooth. Sandwich the cakes together with the buttercream and dust with icing sugar.

Tags marcus wareing

cake food

victoria sponge

Now this is more like it. After last week’s misfire, this Victoria sponge was extremely satisfying. Light and crumby, with rich cream and tart jam, we’re heading in the right direction. There’s still some improvement to be had in the texture, so that’s my next area to work on.

Baking is a very different area for me; I’m so used to the ‘slap dash’ nature of most savoury cooking. You know – taste this, dash of that, more of t’other – but baking requires that chemistry, that alchemy that a well-risen sponge demands. I’m very up for it, and keen to understand what each part of the mix brings to the final cake.

Victoria sponge:

175g butter

175g caster sugar

175g plain flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

Few drops vanilla essence

To finish:

Strawberry jam

50g butter

50g icing sugar

Sifted icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C°. Line and grease two 20cm baking tins.

Combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder and vanilla in a freestanding mixer with a pinch of salt and blend to a smooth batter.

Pour into the sandwich tins and bake for 20 mins or until the batter has risen and springs back to the touch. Remove to a cooling rack.

Beat together the icing sugar and butter to a smooth cream – you may need a splash of milk to let it down. Spread one of the cakes with jam, the other with the buttercream and sandwich together. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.