Tag: cake

Speckled dairy free cake with vegan buttercream
01Apr

pistachio and orange cake

The air is filled with hope. This week, after a long lockdown restrictions have start to loosen and we can now meet friends and families outdoors. Our calendars have started to fill up with picnics in the sun, and most exciting is being able to celebrate Easter with out families over the long weekend. If you are in the UK you’ll know how excited people get when Cadbury’s Mini Eggs start appearing. Those little yellow bags full of addictive crunchy, chocolate-y balls. For me they are akin to a class A drug. And this orange and pistachio cake is my second favourite thing right now. I have made this recipe many, many times and tweaked to be now one of my go-to traybakes, delicious with buttercream or just runny icing. This cake mirrors the speckled shell of the mini eggs, and apart from them this cake is totally dairy free. I made the icing using Flora 100% plant base butter and I will go as far as saying that it tasted better than actual buttery buttercream. . Pistachio and orange cake (Serves 8-10 people) 6 oranges 6 medium eggs 375 caster sugar 1 tsp olive oil 250g plain flour 200g
4 mins read
2098 Views
Loaded rocky road with cake and nuts
13Feb

Loaded rocky road

Rocky road is one of my husband’s favourite bakery snacks, he often has a slice with takeaway coffee  when he thinks I am not looking. I thinks it is really important not to be wasteful when it comes to cooking and baking and I love to incorporate leftovers in new recipes, so in this loaded rocky road version I have added leftover cake (vanilla with blueberries) which I had made a couple months ago but it came out of the oven looking a little bit sad with a big sink hole in the middle. I chopped it (whilst still a little frozen so as not to crumble too much) to add a soft texture to the rocky road slices, together with mini marshmallows, which are a must! The crushed biscuits and nuts bring in the crunch – add salted roasted nuts for an explosion of flavour, snicker-y in nature. The beauty of this recipe is that you can add almost anything you have in your cupboard: dried fruits, candy, pretzels, seeds, the list goes on! Just remember to keep the additions proportionate to the amount of chocolate used. Loaded Rocky Road 550g of dark chocolate 70% solids is best 220g
3 mins read
1690 Views
Banana bread trifle with custard and salted caramel
12Aug

Banana cake trifle

Our fridge has buckled during the heatwave, it has slowly given up on us and the amount of food we’ve had to throw away is tragic. We’re big on bananas but we haven’t been able to keep up with how quickly they have gone from green tips to freckled black, the perfect excuse to experiment with banana bread recipes. I have made banana bread with sour cream, yoghurt, buttermilk, black treacle. My work colleagues were sick of it and so was my family, my freezer started to work overtime to keep it all from going to waste. There are no rules when it comes to layering these trifle pots, mix and alternate as much as your glass is tall with banana, cake, custard and salted caramel. Top it with loads of caramelised nuts. Banana cake trifle (serves 3-4) For the custard: 150ml milk 150ml double cream 1 tsp vanilla paste 1 tbsp cornflour 3 egg yolks 50g sugar 1. Add milk, double cream and vanilla paste to pan and bring it to a slow boil, remove from heat and leave it to cool 2. Whisk the yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy, add to milky mixture, return to hob
3 mins read
2077 Views
Apple oat muffin with chai icing
15Feb

Apple oat muffins with chai icing

  I am not the best at picking breakfast. It’s for sure my favourite part of the day, but sometimes I  wake up craving for something sweet and unhealthy to have with my coffee like…chocolate cake. In fact when I was a kid, while everyone was having cake for dessert, I used to save a slice in the fridge just so that I could have it for breakfast the next morning. Many people frown upon this practice, so as an adult I kinda made a connection that bran cereal or poached eggs for breakfast show a certain level of maturity. So here’s my compromise: a small muffin, naturally sweetened with bananas, apples and oats with a healthy (ahem) dollop of sugar and chai on top because…well mornings are tough and you should have something to look forward to on a Monday morning. So when you can spare an hour, whip up this recipe and keep it in an air tight container and it will last you for at least half of your week. Apple oat muffins with chai icing (yields 10 small muffins) 100g oats 100g plain flour 2 eggs 90g softened butter 80g golden caster sugar 1 banana, mashed
3 mins read
22422 Views
06Apr

Orange tray cake

I have been wrapped up in childhood memories and knees deep in oranges over the last week. That and two very different Netflix series. The first was a dark one, which I devoured in about 3 days (you know, I had to pause it to go to work). I then had to cleanse my TV palate with something a little lighter, some mindless comedy thing. Binge watching series helps me get in the zone when I am in the kitchen. The zone to me means I have all my ingredients lined up, my wireless headphones for maximum freedom of movement and my tablet, propped up on top of my coffee jar with a series on. But I had questions after being in the zone this week. People say, word on the street is that binging is not good. We all know extremes can do you harm and moderation is key. I am a binger in all aspects of my life, from food to a new series. I got truly sucked into the fiction and then not only I have to snap myself back to reality after you feel a little lost after that last episode ends but also it completely
3 mins read
1152 Views
29Mar

Sticky stem ginger cake

I have often spent Chilli mornings at the start line of marathons. I’m there to be supportive, not to run. I sit there watching my husband and hundred of others doing their warm up routines and wondering what does it take for people to pump themselves up like that in order to run. I like running, but in a temperature controlled environment, and only like max 5k. My brain does not feel the need to push by body to run non stop for 42k. When it comes to pushing myself the equivalent of a marathon for me is baking cakes. I need to pump myself for it – watching piping videos on YouTube. I tried sticky ginger cake for the first time last year, and since then I have sought for the perfect balance of ingredients to replicate it. Sticky stem ginger cake 115g  flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg 60g butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing 60g dark muscovado sugar 60g black treacle 60g golden syrup 150ml strong chai tea 100ml double cream 70g drained stem ginger, finely grated 1 egg 1. Preheat the oven to
2 mins read
800 Views