Caramel Crumble Cinnamon Loaf Cake

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Sounds like a good cake, doesn't it? But I should call it Looks Like It's Been Dropped Cake or Caramel Crumble Car Crash Cake. Nevertheless, I thought that I can't always just write about the successes in my kitchen and cover up the near misses, disasters and casualties. And actually there isn't really anything wrong with the flavour of cake, it's just the fact that half of it stuck in the pan and a bit of the caramel crumble top broke off as well.

That all would have also been only half as bad if the cake had been for me. As some of you will know I'm the resident birthday cake baker at work though, and this was the cake I made for A's birthday. As I didn't have enough ingredients, time or patience to start all over again, I just patched it up and stuck a candle in it. After all, it's the thought that counts, isn't it?!

I have to say that all of us did enjoy it despite it's wonky appearance. The flavours are good and it's nice and moist. I'll probably make it again, I'll just make sure that I'll line the pan next time and don't just rely on greasing it. Next time I'll also take a picture with a proper camera, not just with my phone and I will post the recipe with my own instructions that will hopefully be a little easier to understand. For now you can find the recipe here.

Summer Berry Lemon Drizzle Cake

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Another occasion, another cake.

My friend N. retired a few weeks ago and since the leaving dos at work are usually quite a stiff affair, he decided he much rather wanted to have a picnic on a beach in Wales with all his friends. So yesterday we filled up quite a few cars with people and food and headed for Anglesey.

I think I can safely say that a wonderful time was had by all. What else is to be expected from a day full of sun, sand, sea, food and friends! Even though generally sand and food don't always mix that well, but only a few slices of smoked salmon and a couple of sausage rolls fell victim as far as I know.

I took a Summer Berry Lemon Drizzle Cake along for the picnic. The recipe comes from my Avoca Tea Time cookbook. I bought the book last year whilst on holiday in Ireland after sampling some of the fantastic cakes in the Avoca Cafes. Just like everything I had tried in the tea rooms, this cake was delicious and went down really well with everyone who tried it.

Summer Berry Lemon Drizzle Cake

225gr unsalted butter, softened
225gr caster sugar
4 medium eggs, beaten
225gr self-raising flour
1/2tsp baking powder
35gr ground almonds
juice of and finely grated zest of 1 lemon
225gr mixed summer berries

juice of and finely grated zest of 3 lemons
175gr caster sugar

200gr summer berries (optional)

Preheat your oven to 150C/Gas 2.

Grease and line a 23cm springform pan. (Mine is 25cm and worked fine.)

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until it becomes pale in colour.

Then slowly add the eggs bit by bit and continue to beat until well combined.

With a wooden spoon gradually fold in the flour, ground almonds and baking powder.

Fold in the juice and zest of 1 lemon and finally half of the berries.

Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan and spread it out evenly.

Top with the other half of the berries and bake for about an hour in your preheated oven. Mine took about an hour and ten minutes until the inserted wooden skewer came out clean.

Remove from the pan and place on a wire rack.

While the cake is still hot, warm the sugar with the zest and juice of three lemons in a sauce pan, stirring until the sugar disolves.

Prick the cake in several places with a wooden skewer and pour the hot sugar/lemon syrup over the warm cake. Don't forget to put some tin foil underneath your wire rack when you do this. It makes the cleaning up much easier as otherwise you'll have loads of sticky syrup on your table or worktop.

When the cake is cool top it with some extra summer berries (optional) and serve.

Marmorkuchen for Lucy (Marble Cake)

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Things have been pretty quiet again here, which is partly because I've been away and have just got back from a four day study trip, taking our students to Berlin. It was very cold and pretty tiring, but well worth it. Even though I am German I had never before been to Berlin, but now that I have I definitely want to return again.

It's a fantastic place with so much going on and so much history to it. We just didn't have anywhere near enough time to do all the things we wanted to do and see all the things we wanted to see, despite our days being absolutely packed.

My friend J. and I stole an hour or two away from everybody else and visited the delicatessen floor in the famous KaDeWe, which is one of Europe's largest department store, second only to Harrod's in London.



Well, if you are a foodie and find yourself in Berlin I can only urge you to go. They sell regional foods from all over Germany and of course imported foods from all over the world. As can be expected it is pricey and some of the things can easily be found in a normal German supermarket for quite a bit less, but a place that sells Norwegian Brunost (Brown Cheese) has to be good in my books. The meat, fish, cheese and bread counters are unbelievable and the same can be said for the selection of coffees, teas, spices, chocolates and alcohol.



Well, now that I have finally caught up on some much needed sleep, I've been baking cake. My friend Lucy is leaving for a month' artist residency in the Shetland Islands tomorrow and her housemates have arranged a little tea party so we can all say our farewells. As I am still in a somewhat German mode I thought I'll bake Marmorkuchen or Marble Cake, because even though it probably isn't exclusively or typically German, it still is the first cake that I ever made by myself as a teenager and it is very popular over there. The recipe is from what is probably the best selling baking book in Germany, Dr. Oetker's Backen Macht Freude (link to the English version) and works every time.



Marmorkuchen (Marbel Cake)

250gr butter or margarine
250gr caster sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (or a splash of vanilla essence)
3-4 eggs
a pinch of salt
1 vial of rum-aroma (I can't get this here in the UK and just left it out)
500gr flour
2 tsp baking powder
about 125ml milk
30gr cocoa powder
25gr sugar
2-3 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 180C/ Gas 4/ 350F.

Using and electric whisk or a food processor, whisk the butter until frothy.

Add the sugar, vanilla sugar (essence), eggs and rum aroma (if using) little by little.

Start adding the flour and milk alternately and continue to mix. Only use enough milk to make a dough that drops of a spoon heavily.

Spoon 2/3 of the dough into a greased and floured Kugelhopf or loaf pan. (You could also use an angel cake pan or a springform pan with a fluted tube insert.)

Add the cocoa powder and sugar to the remaining doug and mix until well combined. Add enough milk to once again achieve a dough that heavily drops of a spoon.

Spoon the dark dough over the light dough. Using a fork, marble the two doughs, by spirally dragging it through both.

Bale for 50-65 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a wooden skwere into the middle. If it comes out clean the cake is done, if there is still dough sticking to the skewer it needs a little longer.

Leave to rest for 5-10 minutes, before carefully turning out onto a cake rack to cool completely.

Dust with icing sugar, before serving.

Chocolate Mud Cake

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As I said in my last post I baked two cakes last weekend, but I've been so busy all week that I'm only just getting around to writing about the second one. Last Saturday I was invited to an informal dinner party and I promised to bring the dessert, so the night before I went through quite a few of my cook books to decide on what to make. In the end I decided to go with a tried and tested recipe for a wonderful chocolate cake, because I was pretty sure that most people do love chocolate cake and I wasn't wrong.



The coffee and dark chocolate in the cake means it is not overly sweet and thanks to the orange juice it is also wonderfully moist. Of course using all that butter and sugar means it is not the kind of cake you want to eat while on a diet (if there is such a cake at all), but it definitely makes for an indulgent chocolate cake, which is worth forgetting the calorie count for once in a while. Don't let the childish name of the cake fool you, it's without doubt a cake that will also please the grown-ups!



Chocolate Mud Cake

1 1/4 cup strong coffee
1/4 cup orange juice
175gr good quality chocolate, 70% cocoa solids (I use Green & Blacks or Lindt)
250gr unsalted butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla essence

In a sauce pan bring the coffee and orange juice to a simmer and add the butter and broken up chocolate. Stir until both have melted.

Add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Remove from heat, set aside and allow to cool.

Sift the flour and baking soda into a large bowl and make a well in the middle.

Beat the eggs and vanilla essence and stir into the cooled chocolate mix.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the well you have made in the flour and using a wooden spoon stir until combined.

Pour into a well greased and floured 24cm springform pan and bake in a preheated oven at 140C/275F/Gas 1 for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 20 minutes, before removing the springform pan's ring.

Tana Ramsey's Lemon Drizzle Cake

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I used to bake quite a lot, but since moving and living on my own it doesn't seem to make that much sense to bake a cake. Either I'd have to eat it all, in which case even cycling to work and everywhere else would not stop me from piling on the pounds, or alternatively a lot of it would go to waste, and that just doesn't go with the whole love food, hate waste philosophy. This weekend I've baked two cakes though, one which I took to a dinner party yesterday and which I'll post about later this week and a Lemon Drizzle Cake, just because I fancied some and I figured that even if nobody comes round to visit to today, I'll just have a slice or two by myself and take the rest to work and make my colleagues happy tomorrow.



A couple of months ago Tana Ramsey's Lemon Drizzle cake made an appearance on quite a number of food blogs and I've been meaning to try it ever since. So, I finally did. It's a good cake, easy to make, moist and lemony and I'm sure it'll still be good and not dried out after a couple of days, but for me it's not quite lemony enough and my other recipe remains my favourite.

Here's the recipe as it appears on the BBC Good Food website for you, so you can try it for yourself and see if you like it better than your favourite Lemon Drizzle Cake.



Tana Ramsey's Lemon Drizzle Cake

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
225g self-raising flour

juice of 11⁄2 lemon
85g caster sugar

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then add the eggs, one at a time, slowly mixing through.

Sift in the flour, then add the lemon zest and mix until well combined.

Line a loaf tin (8 x 21cm) with greaseproof paper, then spoon in the mixture and level the top with a spoon.

Bake for 45-50 mins until a thin skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. (Mine took 60 minutes.)

While the cake is cooling in its tin, mix together the lemon juice and sugar to make the drizzle.

Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer or fork, then pour over the drizzle - the juice will sink in and the sugar will form a lovely, crisp topping.

Leave in the tin until completely cool, then remove and serve. Will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days, or freeze for up to 1 month.

British Food Fortnight - Yorkshire Parkin

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I'm a little ahead of myself as Parkin is traditionally served for Bonfire Night on the 5th November, but I thought I'd blog about Parkin now as it fits perfectly into the British Food Fortnight Challenge and Competition, hosted by Amanda at Food, Glorious Food. Also, I like Parkin at any time during autumn and winter and think it'd be a shame to just limit it to Bonfie Night.

Parkin is a ginger cake that comes from the North of England, and is especially associated with Yorkshire. Often it is moist and sticky, but there are also drier variations. Another great thing about it is that it keeps really well, and some people even prefer eating it after it's sat for a few days.

Yorkshire Parkin (makes 1 cake)

125 g butter or lard
125 g golden syrup
125 g black treacle
125 g sugar
250 g plain flour
250 g medium oatmeal
1 pinch salt
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 150°C/Gas 2/300°F and grease an oven proof dish, approx 10x10 or equivalent.

Place the butter, golden syrup, treacle and sugar in a pan and place it over a very low heat, stirring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved.

In a bowl sift together flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter mixture, beat until everything is comkbined.

When combined add the egg and mix until you have a smooth soft batter.

If the batter seems to be stiff add 1tbsp of milk.

Pour into the greased oven dish and bake 50-60 minutes in the top half of your oven.

Allow to cool before removing and cut into squares.

The Parkin will last a a couple of weeks if you store it in an airtight cake tin.

It's all peachy - Peaches and Cream Pie

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I'm still busy packing and sorting things out with not much happening in the kitchen. I never knew I had that much stuff. It always amazes me how much things I manage to accumulate over time and I'm not even a horder, well not that much of a horder anyways.

All my baking pans and trays are already in the bottom of one of my kitchen boxes and I have got other things than baking cake on my mind, but luckily I can just say: 'Here's one that I did earlier.....'



Peaches and Cream Pie

1 pie crust (shop bought or made using a basic shortcrust pastry)
3 cups peeled and chopped peaches (fresh are best, but tinned work well, too)
1 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup butter

Preheat oven to 180C/ Gas 4.

Place the peaches into pie crust.

Mix 1 cup caster sugar, 1/3 cup flour with the salt in a bowl.

Add the beaten eggs and sour cream and mix well.

Pour the mixture over peaches.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour and the butter until you get a crumbly mixture and sprinkle it over the pie.

Bake for about one hour, until golden on top.

This can be eaten warm, but I think it's even better when it has been in the fridge for a good few hours or overnight.

Yet Another Cake - Guinness Cake

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I promise there'll be something else for the next post!

Now, you don't usually find me drinking on my own, in my kitchen, in the middle of the day, but today was different because I was baking Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake from her Feast - Food that Celebrates Life cookbook.



The recipe calls for 250ml (1cup) of Guinness, but unable to buy a single can of the stuff in the supermarket and not wanting to buy a four pack, I bought a bottle of Williams Bros Brewing Co's Midnight Sun instead. Of course there was still half a bottle left, so I couldn't let it go to waste and that's why I was drinking on my own in the middle of the day.

Midnight Sun is described on the bottle as a rich, dark & spicy Porter style beer and there was a mention of chocolate malt and a hint of root ginger, so I guessed it'd make a perfect substitute. The beer on its own was a bit too strong and bitter for me, but than I'm not a serious beer drinker and maybe some of it was down to it being the middle of the day. It did have a nice malty sweetness to it as well though, and I'm sure that if you like Stout you'd really enjoy this!

Well, the cake is for my colleagues birthday tomorrow, so I haven't been able to try it yet, but it was fun and easy to make (I have never before made a cake in a saucepan and of course I got to have a drink in the afternoon.) , the 'dough' tasted great (Yes, I did lick the whisk when I was finished.) and it smells and looks great. I'll let you know what it tastes like next time, as I'll make sure I'll get a slice at work tomorrow. As far as I can tell from the few crumbs that stuck to the springform, it's a great cake though, really dark and chocolaty but not too sweet.

Happy Birthday A.!



Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake

Cake:
250ml Guinness (I used Midnight Sun Porter)
250gr butter, unsalted and cut into slices
75gr cocoa powder
400gr caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1tbsp vanilla essence
275gr plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frosting:
300gr cream cheese
150gr icing sugar
125ml double cream

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas 4.

Butter and line a 23cm springform pan (mine is 25cm and worked fine).

In a large, wide saucepan heat the Guinness and butter, until melted.

Add the sugar and cocoa and whisk until the sugar has melted.

Remove from heat.



Beat together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla essence and pour into the pan, whisk until well combined.

Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and whisk until smooth.

Pour into the prepared springform pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 45-60 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Don't remove from the pan until the cake is completely cool.

Once cool the cake can be iced.

For the frosting, whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve in the confectioners sugar and continue to whip until combined.

Add the double cream and whip again until the frosting is spreadable.

Spread over the top of the cake. I only made 2/3 of the icing and thought it was plenty.

Enjoy!

German Cake II

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I promised two cake recipes after getting back from my last trip home to visit my family in Germany, and here's the second one. I forgot to write down the recipe when I was at my brother's place, but my lovely niece has e-mailed it to me today (Danke, N.).

This cake couldn't be much more different from the Gooseberry Meringue Cake. It's much less effort, no need to bake to separate layers, stew fruit or whip some cream (even though it's great with cream served on the side, but it's not essential). This is an easy-peasy cake, which is really moist and very tasty. Even if you haven't got any cake pans, you can make this one, just use the tray that came with your oven.



Mandarinenkuchen or Mandarin Tray Cake

375 gr plain flour
275 g sugar
2 tsp baking powder
4tsp vanilla sugar or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
6 eggs
300 gr melted butter
4 x 300gr cans of mandarin segments in juice, drained but keeping the juice from 3 of the cans

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas 4.

Cream the eggs and sugar, add the butter and mix in the flour, sugar, baking powder and vanilla sugar (essence). Mix until smooth.

Pour onto a large, greased baking tray (the one that came with your oven is perfect in size).

Top with the drained mandarin segments.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Pour the juice that you have kept from three of the cans over the cake straight away while it's still hot, coming from the oven. It will seem like a lot f liquid and you'll think you'll end up with a soggy mess, but just go for it and you'll have a wonderful cake that's still moist after three days, not that it'll last that long.

Finally as my niece put it in her e-mail: Bon appetit!

German Cake as promised

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I had a really nice e-mail from one of my blog readers, Alison, today that made me think that maybe my blog should be called 'A Cup of Coffee and a Slice of Cake', as that would be the German equivalent to 'A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit'. Yes, I know Germans also drink tea and eat biscuits, and elsewhere in the world you can get coffee and cake, but coffee and cake is quite an institution in Germany.

If I may so myself, we Germans do coffee and cake well and when I got back from my last trip I promised I'd share two cake recipes that I picked up. Well, here's the first one, Stachelbeer Baisertorte or Gooseberry Meringue Cake. It's one of my dad's favourite cakes even though him and cream are on a bit of a war path.



My mother has made it for years, it looks great and tastes even better. I didn't use to like it when I was younger as I was convinced that I would suffer terribly if I had to eat gooseberries, but I have wised up (there might hope for me yet, to become a wise old woman maybe) and now love the combination of the sweet meringue and the tart gooseberries. I have also had this cake with sour cherries and with strawberries instead of the gooseberries. I really like the cherry version, but for me the strawberries were not quite enough of a contrast to the meringue and I found it a little sweet. Still pretty good though and as we were tucking into this cake at my nephew's First Communion, my mum and I talked about trying to make it with stewed rhubarb (just briefly stewed so it's still chunky).

Well, and this is also where this recipe becomes a little difficult to 'translate' as in Germany you'll find canned gooseberries in every supermarket, but I have never seen them anywhere here, so I have altered the recipe slightly and include a way of stewing fresh gooseberries in the hope that you can at least find fresh ones where you are later this year. If you use strawberries it's simpler, you just cut them into quarters and layer them with the cream in between the two cake layers, no stewing involved.



Stachelbeer-Baisertorte or Gooseberry Meringue Cake

For the dough:
100gr butter, soft
100gr caster sugar
4 egg yolks
125gr plain flour
1tsp baking powder

For the meringue:
4 egg whites
200gr caster sugar
80gr flaked almonds

For the filling:
600ml single cream
4tsp vanilla sugar
2tsp caster sugar
2 pkts 'Sahnesteif' (this is optional and unavailable here in the UK, it's something that helps the cream stiffen when whisked)
2 tbsp butter
1 lemon, zest and juice only
100ml water or apple juice
75gr caster sugar
300gr gooseberries
1 sheet of gelatin

Preheat your oven to 160C/Gas3.

In a bowl beat the butter and sugar until well combined and 'frothy', using an electric mixer.

In a separate, clean bowl beat the eggs whites and sugar until completely stiff and you are able to turn the bowl upside down without it falling out. Make sure you have cleaned the beaters of your mixer well, otherwise the egg whites won't stiffen.

Line the bottom of a 26cm springform pan with baking paper and pour half of the batter into a the pan. Spread out evenly and top with half of the meringue mixture and sprinkle with half of the almond flakes.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in the middle of the oven, until golden.

Remove from oven and allow to cool for five minutes, before removing from the pan (this is where the baking paper is essential, as you can lift it off) and repeat with the other half. You can of course do this all at once if you own two of the springform pans and have a fan assisted oven.

While the cake layers are cooling whip your cream with the sugar and vanilla sugar until stiff.

When the cake layers are completely cooled, stew your gooseberries.

Melt the butter in a pan and add lemon juice, zest and water and gooseberries.

Bring to a simmer and cook for about five minutes, until the gooseberries soften but don't fall apart.

Remove the gooseberries with a slotted spoon and thicken the juices with gelatin (see packet for instructions) or the quick gel, return the gooseberries, allow to cool a little.

Now place one cooled cake layer on a serving plate, top with the gooseberries and allow to cool completely.

Top with the stiff whipped cream and finally place the other cake layer on top carefully.

Should you have any left over, it freezes quite well.

Enjoy!

There are loads of other versions on the net, that suggest using peaches, raspberries, mixed berries or red currants. As I said I'd always choose a tart fruit over a sweet one to contrast the sweet meringue. Any of those could be used without stewing.

You'll need a really sharp knife to cut it, or alternatively you can pre-slice the top layer and place it on top in 'ready-made' slices, otherwise you have to be careful that the cream doesn't push out to the sides when you cut it.