Cherry Chocolate Brownie Cake

This is one of those cakes that doesn't look like much, but is deliciously moorish once you start eating it. It's fairly straightforward to make, and can be made in advance and stored in the freezer until you need it. The recipe is taken from the Swedish TV programme 'Go' Kvall'

For the cake

150g butter

150g caster sugar

150g dark chocolate

4 eggs

For the glaze

150g butter

90g icing sugar

150g dark chocolate

4 eggs

30g icing sugar

For decoration

a handful of cherries 

some chocolate sticks

100ml whipping cream

Pre heat your oven to 150 C.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the sugar. Remove from the heat. Finely chop the chocolate, and add this to the melted butter. Mix until it is smooth and all the chocolate has melted. Split the eggs, and add the egg yolks to the mixture. Leave the mixture to cool a little bit. 

Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff and carefully fold into the chocolate mix. It's a good idea to add a little egg white at a time, as that makes it easier not to beat out all the air you have worked to get into them. 

Grease a 24 cm cake tin and pour the mixture into it. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes until baked. Take the cake out of the tin and leave it to cool down. It will sink a little bit in the middle. 

Make the chocolate glazing while the cake cools down. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add 90g icing sugar. Finely chop the chocolate and add to the melted sugar mix. Remove from the heat, and mix well until all the chocolate has melted. Split the eggs, and add the egg yolks to the chocolate mixture. Stir well. Leave the mixture to cool for a little while, then whisk the egg whites and add the remaining icing sugar into them when they are starting to get stiff. This should turn into a soft meringue, and it should hold soft peaks when you hold the whisk up. Carefully fold the meringue into the chocolate mixture.  

To decorate; whip the cream and place in the middle of the cake. Add a handful of putted cherries, and finally add the chocolate decorations. 

Pour the chocolate glazing over the cake, and place in the freezer until you need it. It will keep for 8 weeks in the freezer and 4 to 5 days in the fridge after you have defrosted it. Allow 4 hour to defrost after removing from the freezer. Decorate while it is defrosting. 

Strawberry Jam Fairycakes

I made these fairycakes a little while ago when some friends requested cake to feed their helpers when moving house. The only specification was that it should be gluten and nut free, and also fruity. So I did some thinking, and came up with the idea for these. And from the comments I got they seemed to work.

Makes about 20 small fairycakes

For the cake
130g butter
150g granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 pear
1 apple
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon glycerine
200g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g strawberry jam

For the icing
125g butter
150g cream cheese
500g icing sugar
2 tablespoons strawberry jam

Chocolate pieces for decoration


Preheat the oven to 180^oC.

Whisk the butter and sugar until it's white and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well. Grate the pear and apple and add to the mixture, and also add the vanilla extract and glycerine. Sift in the flour and baking powder and carefully mix until you've got an even mixture. Finally add the strawberry jam. Stir until you have a marbled effect.
Place muffin cases in a cupcake baking tray and scoop the mixture into the cases. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until done. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

For the icing; mix the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar until you have an even mixture. Split the mixture in 2, and add strawberry jam to one half. Use piping bags to add to the top of the fairycakes. Add chocolate buttons for decoration.

Filled breadbuns

I was inspired to make this by watching the Great British Bakeoff Masterclass on TV, and so I dug out my ‘How to bake’ cookbook by Paul Hollywood and gave it a go. Of course I didn’t follow the recipe to the letter – I never do. But they are a pretty good approximation, I think. It was certainly popular when served as a birthday breakfast, with tzatziki and a mixed leaf salad.

I have written it here to be made in one go, but I actually made the vegetable filling and the dough the night before, and then made the buns in the morning, because I wanted a quickly made breakfast.

Makes 9 breadbuns

For the dough

500g gluten free flour mix

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

14g dried yeast

30g butter (at room temperature)

1 egg

350ml water

For the filling

1 tablespoon butter

1 escallion shallot (or any other type shallot)

1 clove of garlic

10 cherry tomatoes

1 yellow pepper

½ small courgette

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a few leaves of fresh basil

50g cheese (I used a mixture of Boursin & Applewood smoked cheese)

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and use your hands to crumble in the butter. Add the egg, and carefully mix it in with your hands. Finally add the water a little at a time, using your hand to stir it in. You may need to adjust the amount of water, but you should end up with a sticky dough. Use your hands to press it together into a ball, and place it back in the bowl. Cover it with clingfilm and place somewhere nice and warm, like next to a radiator or in an airing cupboard. Leave it to rise for about 2 hours, or overnight if you are making the buns for breakfast. If you are leaving the dough overnight; take it away from the heat source after the 2 hours and leave it to rest at room temperature.  

To make the filling; finely chop the shallot and sweat it in a little butter.  Crush and finely chop the garlic, and add to the onion. Leave it to sweat for a few minutes until the shallot is soft. Meanwhile, chop the remaining vegetables, and add them to the pan. Remove the thyme leaves from the stalk, and chop the basil leaves. Add these to the mixture. Leave to cook gently until all ingredients are soft. Take away from the heat and let the mixture cool for a little while.

Chop or grate the cheese into small pieces.

Divide the dough into 9 pieces. Roll them each into a ball, and press flat into the shape of a disc. Place some of the filling in the middle of the disc, add some cheese, and gently fold the sides of the dough-disc over the filling so that you have a ball-shaped bun. Press it slightly flat, so that it will be easier to bake.

Once you have made all the buns, get a frying pan out, butter it, and bake them on gentle heat - about 4 minutes on each side (just like making pancakes). 

Serve with a dip or a light salad. 

Raspberry Cake with Buttercream

When I needed to make a cake for my friend's birthday this weekend, I wasn't quite sure what to make. I knew I wanted to make something a bit special, but that was as far as I'd got in my planning a few days before the party. The it suddenly struck me that since it is autumn, and fruit and berries are in season, I could make something seasonal. And it would work well because not everyone who would be at the party have a sweet tooth. So off I went searching through my recipe books for inspiration. I found several tasty-sounding recipes, and what I ended up with was a great success, very tasty and not too sweet. 

Serves up to 12 people

Pre-heat the oven to 180oC and grease a 20cm diameter round baking tin.

For the cake
350g caster sugar
125g butter
3 eggs
300ml crème fraiche
500g flour (I used Dove's Farm gluten free white bread flour)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum - but only if your flour does not already contain this
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon glycerine
1 tablespoon red food colouring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g raspberries

For the buttercream and decoration
450g cream cheese (full fat)
180g butter
1.1kg icing sugar
125g raspberries

Whisk the sugar and butter until they are light and fluffy, and then add the eggs one at a time, stirring well between adding each egg. Add the crème fraiche, and again stir well.

Measure out the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and sift these into the mixture. Stir well and add the glycerine, colour and vanilla extract. Finally add the raspberries and stir well. 

Pour the mixture into the cake tin, and bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when you do the skewer test. 

Take the cake out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack. After a few minutes; remove it from the baking tin. Leave the cake to cool.

Slice the cake into four layers, using a sharp bread-knife.

To make the buttercream, mix the ingredients and mix well until you have a smooth mixture without any lumps. Using a palette knife, spread some of the buttercream on the bottom layer. Place another layer on top, and repeat until all four layers are stacked. Use the remainder of the mixture to cover the cake in cream. Decorate with the raspberries.

Chocolate, Banana & Maple Syrup Cake

Yet again I found myself with a bunch of over-ripe bananas that really needed using sooner rather than later. Sadly there was no flour or any other useful ingredients in the house, so my friend and I headed towards the local shop to hunt for provisions. Unfortunately their stock was rather limited, so some improvisation was needed. We secured a handful of ingredients, and set off for home. Once there I set to work, and soon we had cake to enjoy.

100g butter

40g corn-flour

100g ground almonds

60g cocoa powder

50g sugar

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas (about 250g)

50ml maple syrup

Grease and line with baking paper a 22cm round baking tin.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Leave it to cool down while you sift the corn-flour, almonds, cocoa powder, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir carefully with a spatula. Add the butter and stir slowly until the mixture is even. Add the eggs and stir again.

Mash the bananas with a fork, and add to the mixture. Finally add the maple syrup.

Pour the mixture into the tin, and place in the middle of the oven on 180^oC. Bake for about 30minutes until a skewer comes out clean when you perform the skewer test.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then serve. It is delicious with some custard or vanilla ice cream. 

Marsbar Crispies

The cafes at work make these lovely and slightly addictive sweet things, and I thought since it’s a long weekend I’d try to make a treat. They’re really really simple to make, the hardest part is being patient while the chocolates melt, so it doesn’t burn.

These things are ideal snacks for kids’ parties and at other times when non-sticky snacks are a good thing. They’re much more caramelly than the original chocolates, and yummily chewy.

Makes 9 squares

 

200g mars-bars

40g crisped rice

Scrunch up some grease-proof paper, and line a tin with it. Scrunching the paper makes it more cooperative and easier to use. It doesn't matter if your tin is a bit too big, as the mixture won’t run.

Slowly melt the mars-bars in a thick-bottomed saucepan, over low heat. Stir occasionally to make sure it isn’t sticking or getting burned. When the chocolates have transformed themselves into sticky glup, add the crisped rice and stir well with a metal spoon.

Pour the mixture onto the lined tin, and pat it flat with a spatula. Leave to cool for about 30 minutes. Cut into squares, and enjoy.

Can be stored for a few days in an airtight container. 

Banana Brownies

When some friends went off on a two-week holiday, they left behind not only two cats to be looked after, but also a kitchen full of fruit and veg to be eaten. Most food was quickly consumed, but for some reason there were more bananas than could be coped with. After looking at said bananas for a few days, watching then go browner and browner (I do love bananas, but there are only so many you can eat in a week) I decided to do something about them – and so I got out my recipe books and investigated banana related recipes for inspiration. The one that took my fancy was a chocolate brownie recipe I got from a baking course at Betty’s Cookery School in Harrogate. However, it did not contain any bananas, so some modifications had to be done.

125g butter

4 medium sized eggs

300g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

125g gluten free flour mix

80g cocoa powder

6 ripe bananas (medium sized)

Icing sugar for dusting

Pre-heat your oven to 175^oC.

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. You do not want the butter to go brown, so keep an eye on it. Leave it to cool down for a little while.

Whisk the egg and sugar together in a large bowl, until the mixture is lump free. Slowly stir in the butter while stirring. If the butter is too hot or you pour it in too quickly you could end up with scrambled eggs, so take your time with this step.

Sift in the vanilla sugar, flour and cocoa powder and gently stir it in until the mixture is smooth.

Crush the bananas with a fork in a separate bowl, and when they are soft like baby-food, add to the rest of the mix.

Prepare a medium sized baking tray (I used one that is 22cm x 22cm). It can be useful to line the bottom of the tray with baking parchment, so that the brownies don’t get stuck.

Pour the mixture into the tray, and bake for about 45 minutes. The cake should be soft but firm, and springy to the touch. The ripeness of the bananas will determine the baking time, as the more liquid you add the longer the baking time.

Leave to cool, and cut into pieces. Sieve some icing sugar over the top and serve. 

Wild Garlic and Cheese Oat Biscuits

Oatcakes are a brilliant snack, either on their own, or with some cheese or a dip. They're quite expensive when bought in the shop, especially if you're buying gluten free ones. So making your own can save quite a bit of money, and also they are rather nice. You can use all sorts of added ingredients to make different flavours. 

Makes about 25 biscuits

150g rice flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

¼ teaspoon salt

50g butter

20ml (4 teaspoons) caster sugar

150g gluten free oats 

100ml whole milk

50g cheddar cheese

25g wild garlic leaves

Pre-heat your oven to 200^oC. 

Use a sieve to mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, xanthan gum and salt into a large bowl. Add the butter, and use your hands to crumble the butter into the flour mixture. Once these are combined, add the caster sugar and oats, and stir well. Add the milk, the grated cheddar cheese, and finally the finely chopped wild garlic leaves. Stir well, and then use your hands to knead the ingredients into a biscuit dough. It should be a little dry, but will stick together as a lump. 

You can use a rolling pin to make a thin (about 5mm) sheet, and then use a glass or biscuit mould to cut out the biscuits, or you could make little balls and press them flat. The first option gives more identical biscuits, but I find the second option easier, although the biscuits will have a more 'rustic' look. 

Place the biscuits onto a baking tray, and bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Leave them to cool on a cooling rack. 

Baked Chocolate Cheesecake

I made this cake recently, for a friend’s birthday, and it was a bit hit. We managed to make it stretch to feed 20 people, but we could easily have devoured it between 10 of us. I found the recipe in a Norwegian magazine last year, and have been dying to make it since I saw its photo. It takes a while to make, because of the long baking time it requires, and because it needs to cool down completely before the glazing is added. But it is definitely worth the wait.

Serves 10 to 12

300g biscuits (I used gluten free bourbon biscuits)

70g butter

800g cream cheese

200g sugar

6 eggs

500g dark chocolate

150ml double cream

100g white chocolate (I used Green & Black's)

1 tablespoon butter

chocolate buttons for decoration

Crush the biscuits in a food processor, melt 70g butter and add this to the biscuits. Press the biscuit mixture into a 20cm cake ring, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mix sugar and cheese until you have a smooth mixture. Whisk in the eggs, but don’t whisk to heavily at this point.

Break up the dark chocolate and melt it slowly with 100ml cream in a thick-bottomed saucepan. When it is fully melted, add it to the cream cheese mixture. Mix well until it is smooth and even, and pour it onto the base which you have retrieved from the freezer.

Bake the cake in the oven on 130^oC for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 120^oC for 30 minutes, and then finally bake it on 100^oC for 90 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door. Leave the cake to cool in the oven until it is at room temperature.

Break the white chocolate and melt it slowly with 50ml cream and a tablespoon of butter in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Stir until it is even and smooth. Pour it over the cheesecake, and leave the cake somewhere cool for a couple of hours.

Remove the cake ring, and decorate with chocolate buttons. 

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread is one of things that show off the small differences between otherwise quite similar countries and cultures. While I (being Norwegian) get excited about gingerbread houses around Christmas time, my English friends wonder what all the fuss is about – after all you can buy the stuff in the shops all year round. But there is, at least for me, something special about making gingerbread houses for Christmas; it’s the smell, the fun of the decoration, and not least smashing and eating it in the end.

150ml sugar

100ml golden syrup

150ml whole milk

50g butter

½ tablespoon cinnamon

½ tablespoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon baking powder

500g flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

icing sugar, fruit gums and chocolates for decorating

sugar for assembling the house

The dough should rest in the fridge for 24 hours before being used, but will last for about 4 weeks if wrapped well in cling film.

Warm the sugar, golden syrup, butter and spices over low heat in a pan, until the sugar has dissolved. Stir continually to prevent it from sticking and getting burnt. Remove from the heat, and add the milk gradually while stirring. Leave the mixture to cool.

Mix the baking powder, xanthan gum and four together, and sift these little by little into the mixture. You should be left with quite a firm dough.

Cover the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for about 24 hours. This allows the flavours to develop.

Roll the dough out on a smooth surface lightly dusted with flour. You want to roll it until it’s about 1cm thick. You can now cut out shapes for gingerbread men, or walls and roofs for a house. There are several web sites that offer free patterns for houses, or you could make your own if you are adventurous.

Bake on 200^OC for about 15 minutes, depending on the size of the shapes.

Leave the shapes on a wire rack to cool. Once they are cool you can decorate with icing and sweets. It’s easier to do this before assembling the pieces into a house. For sticking house-parts together, either use icing, or melted sugar. Be aware that melted sugar is extremely hot, so it is very easy to burn yourself – if you go for this option please be careful.

Soft Chocolate Brownies

I was looking for something yummy to make the other day, when came across this recipe in Stéphan Lagorce’s  book “Chocolat”. I reversed the amounts of almonds and flour, and the flour I used was gluten free, but apart from that I was fairly true to the original recipe.

As it turned out, these brownies were just as delicious as I had imagined, it was very hard not to eat them all at once.  

200g dark chocolate

3 eggs

120g caster sugar

130g butter

50g ground almonds

1 ½ tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon

120g walnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 180^OC, and grease a small baking tin.

Break up the chocolate into small pieces and melt gently over low heat in a saucepan. Make sure you don’t overheat the chocolate.

Break the eggs into a bowl and stir in the sugar. Mix with an electric mixer until fluffy. Fold in the butter using the electric mixer, it helps if this is soft and at room temperature. Add the almonds, flour and cinnamon and stir. Pour in the melted chocolate and stir until the colour is uniform. Finally chop the walnuts and fold them into the dough.

Pour the dough into the greased tin, place in the oven, and bake for about 25 minutes. The cake will be a bit sticky when coming out of the oven, so allow an hour or two before cutting into pieces and serving. 

English Christmas Cake

This is a recipe I have used several times now, and it has worked every time. It comes from Delia Smith, and is very simple to make. I have omitted the almonds that she adds to the cake, and I’ve used gluten free flour for the first time this year, which has worked very well.

English Christmas Cakes should be made in good time before Christmas, so that they have plenty of time to be soaked in brandy before being eaten. They should be ‘fed’ once a week for up to three months, I like to do this for about a month and a half to two months, so I was a little bit late making Christmas cake this year. My cake is now resting, waiting to be fed more brandy every week until I decorate it just before it is eaten.

425g currants

250g sultanas

250g raisins

250g glace cherries

75g mixed candid peel

4 tablespoons brandy +extra for soaking

300g plain flour (I used Dove’s Farm Gluten Free Plain White Flour Blend)

1 tablespoon ground mixed spice

½ tablespoon grated nutmeg

300g butter + extra for greasing the tin

300g dark muscovado sugar

5 eggs

1 tablespoon black treacle

zest of 1 orange

zest of 1 lemon

apricot jam
marzipan

icing

You’ll need a 23cm round tin or 20cm square tin.

Combine the fruit and candid peel in a bowl, and add brandy. Stir well, cover, and leave over night.

Place the remaining ingredients in a large bowl, and mix gently in a food processor or with an electric mixer. Add the soaked fruit to this mix and stir well.

Grease the cake tin with butter, and line the bottom and side with a double layer of grease proof paper. Spoon the cake mixture into the tin. Level the surface, and cover with greaseproof paper.

Bake the cake at 140^oC for 4 ¾ to 5 hours, until the cake is firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the middle of it comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin.

When the cake is cool, pierce it in several places, and pour a little brandy into the holes. Remove the cake from the tin, but leave the grease proof paper on. Wrap the cake in more paper, and also wrap it in kitchen foil.

Add more brandy (about a tablespoon or two) each week until Christmas by gently pouring it over the top. Keep the cake in a cool place until eating.

Decorate the cake with a thin layer of marzipan and icing sugar. You can use ready-made icing to get a smooth surface. The easiest way to make the marzipan stick to the cake is by gently warming some apricot jam and brushing this onto the cake. The icing will stick to the marzipan quite well. 

A good trick for rolling marzipan and icing is to roll them on a silicone rolling mat or any other sturdy soft plastic surface. You can then lift the whole thing onto the cake and peel off the plastic once the marzipan/icing is in place. It makes it easier to transfer thin layers of icing withouth breaking it, and you get a very smooth surface. 


You can use coloured icing, or ribbons, or dried fruit, or anything else that you can think of, to decorate the cake. I've split mine into three this year, and used two of the parts as presents. This also meant I got to decorate three cakes, which was fun. 

Saffron and Courgette Cupcakes

I’ve had a small container of saffron hanging about in my kitchen for quite a while, and I’ve never really known what to do with it. So I was excited to find this recipe which sounded lovely. It is taken from Phil Vickery’s book ‘Gluten-Free Baking’. I’ve stuck to the recipe almost all the way, which is quite unusual for me, but it looked so tasty I thought I’d give it a go. And I’m glad I did, as it is very nice indeed.

Makes 12 cupcakes

1 pinch saffron threads

2 tablespoons boiling water

2 medium sized eggs

180g caster sugar

200g flour (I used Doves Farm Gluten Free White Bread Mix)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon honey

250g courgette

icing sugar and water to decorate

Pre-heat the oven to 180^OC.

Place the saffron threads in a small cup and add the boiling water. Cover and leave it to cool.

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a food mixer until they are thick and creamy. This will take about 5 minutes. Add the saffron water when the mixture is has thickened. Then add the honey and mix well.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and xanthan gum together in a separate bowl. Slowly add the flour mix to the egg mix, taking care not to over-whisk, as the dough will get rubbery.  Grate the courgette and add to the mix, fold well until you have a smooth and quite soft mix.

Spoon the mixture into paper muffin cases that are placed in a muffin tray, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the cupcakes have risen and are golden. When you insert a skewer this should come out clean.

Leave the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack before glazing them with the icing.

To make the icing; sieve the icing sugar into a small bowl, and add a few drops water until you have a smooth but not too runny paste. Use a butter knife to place a dollop of icing on each cupcake. 

Lemon Halloween Biscuits

Normally I don’t really like Halloween, probably because I didn’t grow up with it, but I have come to realise that it is a good excuse for baking something nice. And if you have ‘trick or treaters’ coming to your door, it is a good and cheap way to keep them happy. I made these for a party at a friend’s house, and they proved to be very popular. The recipe is based on one found in Phil Vickery’s ‘Gluten-Free Baking’.

Makes about 50 small biscuits

220g flour (I used Doves Farm gluten free white bread flour)

¼ teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

75g granulated sugar

80g butter

1 medium sized egg

zest of 1 lemon

50ml water

icing sugar and lemon juice for decoration

Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together into a bowl, and then place it with the butter in a food processor and blitz until it has the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Pour the mixture back into your bowl, and add the egg, lemon zest and water. Carefully mix together, first with a spoon and then using your hands. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to cool down.

Preheat your oven to 190^OC.

Lightly dust your work surface with flour, then use a rolling pin to make a flat dough. Use cookie cutters to make shapes from the dough. Place these on a non-stick baking tray, and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the biscuits are lightly browned. Remove them from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Sieve some icing sugar into a bowl, and add a little bit of lemon juice. The amount of icing you need depends on how much icing you want on your biscuits. You can make several batches if you find that you didn’t make enough first time around. Be careful when adding the lemon juice, it very quickly becomes too runny. You can also add food colouring if wanted.

Pour the icing into a piping bag and decorate your biscuits. If you don’t have a fancy ready-made piping bag, you can do what I did, use a sandwich bag and cut a tiny hole in one corner. 

Chocolate Halloween Cupcakes

The recipe for these cupcakes comes from Phil Vickery’s cookbook ‘Gluten-Free Baking’. He makes one large cake with this dough, but I fancied making cupcakes for a Halloween party, and decided it would probably work. And it did. The cupcakes were deliciously moist and rich, and I could quite happily have eaten them all.

Makes 12 cupcakes

225g flour (I used Doves Farm gluten free white bread flour)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

50g cocoa powder

100g butter

250g dark muscovado sugar

3 medium sized eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon heather honey

200ml full fat milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180^OC.

Sieve the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and cocoa powder together.

Use a food processor to cream the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. This may take some time, so don’t give up just because it doesn’t do anything straight away. Gradually beat in one egg at a time, and then add the vanilla and honey.

Reduce the speed on the food processor, and then gradually add the flour mix and milk alternately.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases that are placed in muffin trays. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until they are raised and a skewer comes out clean. 

Courgette and Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries Cupcakes

I was inspired to make these after reading Kate Shirazi’s ‘cupcake magic’. It was a cold, rainy and windy day, so my plans to go outside were quickly put away. I was at a bit of a loss for what to do, since I hadn’t really planned for staying at home in gloomy weather. After pottering about for a while, feeling bored, I randomly picked up Kate Shirazi’s cookbook, and decided some cupcakes might make me feel better. So I turned up the music, and headed for the kitchen.

Makes 12 large or 18 smaller cupcakes

200g flour (I used Dove’s Farm Plain White flour blend)

1 teaspoon xantham gum

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon herbal salt (or ordinary sea salt)

150g courgette

150g wensleydale cheese with cranberries (or any other semi-firm cheese with fruit)

60ml whole milk

2 large eggs

110g butter

Pre-heat your oven to 200^OC.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, xantham gum, baking powder, sugar and salt.

In another bowl, grate your courgette, and add the cheese. The cheese should first be chopped into small cubes. Add the milk and eggs, and stir. Melt the butter and add to the mixture. Give the whole mixture a little whisk, and pour it into the dry ingredients. With a spoon, carefully fold the mixture together into a firm batter. You don’t want to stir the flour too much, as gluten free flour tends to go a bit rubbery if worked too hard.

Place cupcake cases into a 12-hole muffin tin and use two spoons to spoon the batter into the cases. Depending on how large cupcakes you would like, you’ll get 12 or maybe even 18 cupcakes from this mix. Place the tin in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cupcakes are firm to the touch and golden brown. 

Lemon & Lime Fairycakes

Fairy cakes are really good for those occasions when a cake may be too formal, or when finger food is more convenient. These ones are sweet but fruity, and very quick to make - perfect if a friend is coming over to yours without much warning.

Makes 12 fairycakes

100g butter
50ml agave nectar
2 medium size eggs
250g flour (I used Doves Farm plain whte flour blend)

½ teaspoon xantham gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
150ml whole milk
zest of 1 large lime
50ml lemon curd


a knob of butter
granulated sugar


Pre-heat your oven to 190°C.


The butter should be room tempered and soft. Add it to a bowl and mix it with the agave nectar and eggs. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and sift them into the butter mixture. Mix well, and add the milk. When you have combined the milk with the rest of teh ingredients and have a smooth dough, add teh zest of your lime, stir, and finally add the lemon curd. Carefully fold the lemon curd into the dough, but don't mix it in comletely, leave it so the there are streaks of it and it makes a marbled effect. This makes the cakes more moist.


Spoon the dough into muffin cases (it's helpful if these are placed in a muffin baking tray, but this is not essential). Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until they are golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.


Leave the cakes in the tin for 5 minutes, and place them on a cooling rack. While the cakes are still warm, use a pastry brush to paint them with butter, and sprinkle some granulated sugar over them. 

Orange and Carrot Cake

Some cakes are very easy to make, this is one of them. I brought this over to a friend’s the other day, and although the instructions had been to bring chocolates it seemed to go down very well.

You could easily use cinnamon instead of cardamom, and ordinary white sugar instead of golden.

2 eggs

180g golden sugar

60g butter

120g flour (I used Dove’s Farm gluten free white flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon xantham gum

⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom

180g peeled carrots

zest of 1 orange

butter for greasing the tin

7 tablespoons icing sugar

1 tablespoon orange juice

Pre-heat your oven to 200^oC, and grease a 20cm round baking tin.

Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whisk with an electric mixer. Melt the butter, and leave it to cool for a couple of minutes. Add the butter to the eggs and sugar, and whisk well. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, and sift these into the wet mix. Use the electric mixer again until you have a smooth dough.

Grate your carrots and zest the orange, and add these to the dough. Once all the ingredients are well mixed, pour the dough into a greased baking tin. Bake on 200^oC for about 30 minutes, until the cake is baked and a skewer comes out clean when you do the skewer test.

Remove the cake from the oven, and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Leave the cake to cool completely.

When the cake is cool you can add the icing. Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Add the orange juice, a little bit at a time, and stir well. You may not need all the liquid, which is why it is useful to add a little at a time. It’s always easier to add more liquid than to rescue the icing when it has become too wet.

Pour the icing over the cake, and use a palette knife to spread it evenly over the cake. Leave it to set before serving.

Sticky Triple Chocolate Cake

When I was asked to make a cake for a friend’s parents’ ruby wedding I was both honoured and terrified. Honoured because they actually wanted me (me!) to make a cake for such a special day. Terrified because it would have to be a very special cake for such a special day.

I sat down and looked through my cookbooks for inspiration, and after a lot of reading eventually decided to make a triple cake with a dark, a milk, and a white chocolate cake layer. It would be a tall cake, and wide enough that the bride’s original cake decoration would fit onto it. Once I had decided on the cake I started getting quite excited about the project, and couldn’t wait for the day of baking to come along. Finally the day arrived, and I baked cake after cake in my tiny little kitchen, before sitting down to decorate it.

The cake was handed over to my friend the evening before the party, and it was with great trepidation that I awaited comments. Thankfully the cake was a success, and the feedback I got was: 

“Just thought I'd let you know that the cake was a big hit and looked and tasted fantastic. Mum was thrilled.”

I’m giving the recipes here separately so you can chose if you want to make one, two or all three. The recipe for the glazing is for all three cakes, so if making only one or two cakes, you’ll need to reduce the amount. 

Serves 20 people

The dark chocolate cake

500g dark chocolate

6 eggs

30ml strong coffee

150g flour (I used Dove’s farm plain bread flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon xantham gum

250ml whipping cream

Pre-heat your oven to 190^oC. Grease a 25cm round baking tin.

Melt the chocolate over low heat in a thick-bottomed saucepan. When most of the chocolate has melted, take it off the heat and stir until it is smooth and fully melted.

Whisk the eggs until they are light and fluffy, and add the coffee. Mix the dry ingredients into a bowl, sift them into the eggs, and whish until well mixed. Whisk the cream in a separate bowl and fold into the eggs. Finally add the melted chocolate to the mixture and stir well.

Pour into a greased baking tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes until the cake is done and a skewer comes out clean when doing the skewer test.

The milk chocolate cake

200g butter

200g milk chocolate

150g caster sugar

4 eggs

150g flour (I used Dove’s farm plain bread flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon xantham gum

Pre-heat your oven to 190^oC. Grease a 25cm round baking tin.

Melt the butter and chocolate over low heat in a thick-bottomed saucepan. When most of the chocolate has melted, take it off the heat and stir until it is smooth and fully melted.

Whisk the sugar and eggs until they are light yellow and fluffy. Mix the flour, baking powder and xantham gum and sift into the eggs. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix well.

Pour into a greased baking tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes until the cake is done and a skewer comes out clean when doing the skewer test.

The white chocolate cake

200g white chocolate

100 g butter

4 eggs

150g caster sugar

50g flour (I used Dove’s farm plain bread flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon vanilla sugar

Pre-heat your oven to 190^oC. Grease a 25cm round baking tin.

Melt the chocolate and butter over low heat in a thick-bottomed saucepan. When most of the chocolate has melted, take it off the heat and stir until it is smooth and fully melted.

Whisk the egg yolks and half the sugar. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and the other half of the sugar. Mix the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar, and sift this into the egg yolks. Mix well, and add the melted chocolate to the egg yolk mixture. Fold the egg whites into the mixture, and carefully stir well.

Pour into a greased baking tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is done and a skewer comes out clean when doing the skewer test.

The glazing

500g dark chocolate

300g milk chocolate

8 tablespoons double cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon coffee

Melt all the ingredients over low heat in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Stir carefully, and when it is all melted, take it off the heat.

Frosting

2 egg whites

450g caster sugar

200ml water

Place the egg whites in a heat resistant glass bowl over a pan of boiling water, and whisk until stiff. Heat the water and sugar and boil for 1 ½ minutes until melted and stringy. Pour this slowly into the eggs while whisking. Keep whisking until the mixture is a glossy white colour. This frosting has to be used at once before it sets, and you have to spread it on the cake very quickly, or it will set before you get an even layer.

Icing

A packet of white ready to roll icing

Red ready to roll icing for the decoration (or any other colour that you may prefer)

Assembly of the cake

Slice the dark and the milk chocolate cakes in two horizontally. Place one of the dark cake layers on a serving plate, and spread a layer of glazing on top. Add the other layer of dark cake, and repeat. Then do the same with the two layers of milk chocolate cake and then finally place the white chocolate cake on top. The top layer should not have glazing on it.

Roll the icing to a thin sheet that is big enough to cover the cake. Put this to one side ready to use after you have frosted the cake.

Add the frosting to the assembled cake, both on top and the sides. You have to work quickly to spread it all evenly before the frosting sets.  

Carefully place the icing on the cake, smooth the edges and cut off any leftover bits along the bottom of the sides.

Make shapes out of the coloured icing and place on the cake. 

Banana & Cinnamon Fairy Cakes

I recently wanted to make some fairy cakes to bring to a picnic, and while I was looking in cookbooks to find inspiration I came across this recipe. It was in “the hummingbird bakery cookbook” by Tarek Malouf & The Hummingbird Bakers. As always happens when I intend to follow a recipe I change it slightly as I go along, this time to make it gluten free.

Makes 18 fairy cakes

For the cake:

350g plain flour (I used Doves farm plain gluten free white bread flour)

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

160g caster sugar

250ml natural yogurt

125ml whole milk

1 medium size egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

70g butter

400g peeled banana

For the icing:

4 tablespoons icing sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons water

3 drops banana flavouring

sugar pearls for decorating

Pre-heat your oven to 170^oC.

Sift and mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the yogurt, milk and vanilla extract, add the egg and mix well, and add this mixture to the dry ingredients. Melt the butter and gradually add to the dough while stirring. Finally mash the bananas and add these to the dough. Stir well until you have an even mixture, and then spoon into paper muffin cases until they are two thirds full.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave the fairy cakes to cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl. Add the banana flavouring, and carefully add the water a little at a time until you get the right consistency, you may not need all of it. The icing should be runny like a thick sauce, but thick enough that it will stay on the fairy cakes without falling off at the sides.

Use a teaspoon to pour the icing over the fairy cakes, one at a time. Finally sprinkle some sugar pearls over the cakes for decoration.