Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: noshed on January 08, 2010, 12:19

Title: Your favourite cake
Post by: noshed on January 08, 2010, 12:19
It's my birthday next week so I'll have to bring cakes into the office. Any ideas for a nice cake to bake over the weekend? (Bearing in mind it will be cooked by a boffoon and eaten my professional munchers.)
Thanks
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: stompy on January 08, 2010, 12:36
A basic Victoroa sponge is very nice, but my favourite has to be Carrot cake. mmm mmm mmm.  :happy:
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: stompy on January 08, 2010, 12:38
P.S. Happy Birthday for next week   :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Val H on January 08, 2010, 12:43
I rarely make cakes but this was one of John's firm favourites (must make him one again!). http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/1417/date-orange-loaf-recipe/
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: arugula on January 08, 2010, 13:07
White chocolate and blueberry muffins? They're even easy enough for me to make and I don't do baking!  :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: mumofstig on January 08, 2010, 13:09
definitely muffins, I love banana and chocolate chip, or double chocolate muffins.
As Argyllie says they are so easy to make :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Lewjam on January 08, 2010, 13:16
every one in my office knows i don’t do cake - so on my birthday i take in stew and dumplings with jacket pots, or just a savoury mix

or one year a big cheese board  :happy:

hehe breaks up the week a little!


(although if i were to take in cake its goto be carrot cake (as its closer to savoury!)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: noshed on January 08, 2010, 16:01
Thanks - some good suggestions there
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Poolfield2 on January 08, 2010, 17:20
I can send you a "melt and mix" type recipe for a banana and chocolate tray bake, less skilled than a creaming recipe.
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Aunt Sally on January 08, 2010, 17:29
ALL cakes are fabulous and don't forget to send Aunty a slice.

Carrot
Victoria
Date & Walnut
Coffe & Walnut
Lemon Drizzel


Need I go on  8)

PS. Aunty's not keen on chocolate cakes.
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: joyfull on January 08, 2010, 18:14
I can send you a "melt and mix" type recipe for a banana and chocolate tray bake, less skilled than a creaming recipe.

Could you post that recipe on here for me as well please  :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: IMOmimey on January 08, 2010, 18:30
White chocolate and blueberry muffins? They're even easy enough for me to make and I don't do baking!  :)
can u pm me the recipe. :closedeyes:. I find so few recipes with white choc, and milk/dark choc gives me migraine >:(
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: IMOmimey on January 08, 2010, 18:34
i make white chocolate cheesecake, and buy in little pastry tartlet cases, so I can fill each tart with the mix, and it is easier to share out at work, everyone just takes a tart or 2. Extra special, put a half a strawberry on each one. If you are good at baking stuff, make biscuit base and do a straightforward cheesecake.  Mega easy

Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Poolfield2 on January 08, 2010, 19:07
Banana Chocolate Tray Bake

2 large ripe bananas
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz butter
8 oz granulated sugar
10 oz self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs
4 oz chopped up chocolate (or posh cooking choc drops)

Melt butter, stir in sugar. Mash bananas and add to mixture along with eggs and vanilla. Stir well. Add in rest of ingredients.

Put in lined tray bake tin, mine is 20cm x 30 cm (8" x 12")

Bake on 160C (unfortunately I didn't write down how long I cooked it for but when it browns it's done - hopefully that works for you)

This recipe can be used with rice flour, extra 1/2 tsp bicarb and 2 Tbs water, if you are avoiding wheat. It can also have walnut instead of chocolate or as well as.
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: arugula on January 08, 2010, 19:44
White chocolate and blueberry muffins? They're even easy enough for me to make and I don't do baking!  :)
can u pm me the recipe. :closedeyes:. I find so few recipes with white choc, and milk/dark choc gives me migraine >:(

Hi IMOmimey,

Thought I'd post it, if that's OK..... Its this recipe (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4159/blueberry-and-white-chocolate-muffins) from BBC Good Food. Its tasty made without the chocolate too, just a little less sweet.

:)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: matilda duck on January 08, 2010, 21:08
Boil in the pan fruit cake everytime!!! Just so moist and yummy ...I really want some now :wub:
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Janeymiddlewife on January 08, 2010, 23:24
Jam crumblies (shortbread base, cooked, spread with loads of jam, then crumble mix on top & back in the oven), or if you want a cake to cut, toffee apple crumble cake,
make a large quantity of crumble divide in 2; add an egg to one half and press into an 8 inch round tin, top with sliced cooking apple, the remaining crumble, dot with butter & demerarar sugar and cook in a moderate oven until it looks done (45 minutes to an hour) cover with brown paper if it starts to burn before you thin it's doen - have really got into crumble based cake lately!!
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: New shoot on January 09, 2010, 12:47
I'm no cake maker but this is an easy peasy one for making in a bread machine. I used to work in a nursery where we had a small cafe and I used to make this for customers. It always went down a treat.

Mixed fruit teabread

9 1/2 oz/255g dried fruit of your choice
4oz/115g soft light brown sugar
7 fl oz/200ml orange juice
1 lightly beaten egg
3 1/2 oz/90g each of plain white & plain wholemeal flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Soak fruit in sugar and orange juice overnight
Add the rest of the ingredients next day and mix well
Take the paddle out of the bread machine and butter the bread pan well - you can cut a nifty non-stick liner out of that reusable baking sheet if you want to avoid the extra fat
Pour in mix and set to bake only for 55-60 mins
Once cooked, take the bread pan out of the machine and leave the cake in there for 2 -3 mins before turning out onto a rack to cool
Slice and serve on it's own or with butter as you prefer
Get next lot of fruit on to soak cos you will want more  ;)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: suziet88 on January 09, 2010, 21:18
Banana Chocolate Tray Bake

2 large ripe bananas
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz butter
8 oz granulated sugar
10 oz self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs
4 oz chopped up chocolate (or posh cooking choc drops)

Melt butter, stir in sugar. Mash bananas and add to mixture along with eggs and vanilla. Stir well. Add in rest of ingredients.

Put in lined tray bake tin, mine is 20cm x 30 cm (8" x 12")

Bake on 160C (unfortunately I didn't write down how long I cooked it for but when it browns it's done - hopefully that works for you)

This recipe can be used with rice flour, extra 1/2 tsp bicarb and 2 Tbs water, if you are avoiding wheat. It can also have walnut instead of chocolate or as well as.


Made this today - its yummy, yummy, yummy :) :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Poolfield2 on January 09, 2010, 22:23
Glad you like it, if there is any left tomorrow, it gets more moist and bananary :D
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: digalotty on January 11, 2010, 22:45
carrot cake or ginger cake or a bit of both :D
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: janed6 on January 11, 2010, 23:32

I havent had much time for years to do much baking as I've been busy looking after a large family, just cooking family meals . They are leaving me now one by one with the baby just moving out now, only one left, so I would like to do some more baking and trying something new. The muffins with the blue berries sound lovely so might give it a go.
not sure how to get on this forum as the computer tends to do crazy things somedays (or is it me).
Need some chats and some company on these cold days, with no chance of getting near the garden.
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Elaine G on January 11, 2010, 23:37
A word of warning janed6.
If you start baking cakes and other tasty goodies, they will come back - and bring other halves with them!
Its amazing how often they appear. They can smell a muffin for miles :lol:

Elaine
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: arugula on January 12, 2010, 07:20

I havent had much time for years to do much baking as I've been busy looking after a large family, just cooking family meals . They are leaving me now one by one with the baby just moving out now, only one left, so I would like to do some more baking and trying something new. The muffins with the blue berries sound lovely so might give it a go.
not sure how to get on this forum as the computer tends to do crazy things somedays (or is it me).
Need some chats and some company on these cold days, with no chance of getting near the garden.


They are lovely and soooo easy. :) Go on, give them a go!
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: mumofstig on January 12, 2010, 14:20
Another word of warning, when there are fewer of you at home, it means you get to eat more of the cakes you bake.
Beware of the weight gain involved :lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: MoreWhisky on January 12, 2010, 14:47
MY wife follows this recipe for a carrot cake its fantastic! it actually costs about £7.50 in ingredients but worth it for a treat once a month.

http://www.cakebaker.co.uk/MakingThePerfectCarrotCake.html
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: noshed on January 12, 2010, 16:04
Well the troops have just wolfed down two of Val's date loaves - I added apricots because I didn't have enough dates. It was yummy.
I also did a Delia ginger maple syrup gateau - a cheat really but also yummy.
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: lisa80 on January 14, 2010, 10:02
if you like chocolate cake this is the best and very east too!
8oz self raising flour
3tbsp cocoa
2tsp baking powder
8oz margarine
4 eggs beaten
8oz caster sugar
10tbsp milk
mix all together until it goes like a mousse (sieve cocoa and flour before adding,electric mixers get better results)put into 2 well greased 8" tins and cook at160 0c for 50 mins .tho keep an eye on it if you have a fan assisted oven ,they cook much quicker.i always put a little extra cocoa and fill it with jam and butter icing.beware your house will smell of chocolate for days and it wont last long :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: wighty on January 14, 2010, 10:09
Toss in Fruitcake recipe

Toss into bowl  8oz S.R. flour
                        4 oz Demerara sugar
                      12oz mixed fruit
                        2 eggs
                        4oz melted marg.
                        tsp mixed spice
                        Tbsp black treacle
                        cup of milk

Beat all ingredients together and then cook 2 hrs at no.2.  Makes a really moist fruit cake that keeps well.
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Elcie on January 17, 2010, 10:31
Not in time for your birthday noshed (hope it went well) but this has got to be one of the most unhealthy cakes going, but it is very, very easy to make (no baking) and tastes delicious and like you have been baking for hours.

You will need:
chocolate chip cookies
sherry (you can substitute for orange juice I hear but never tried it)
whipped double cream
flakes

Pour the sherry in a bowl, take one cookie, dip it into the sherry for a second and then put on a plate on it's side.  Put small amount of cream on one of the round surfaces of the biscuit.  Repeat and stick the next biscuit to the cream on the first one.  You can make it into a ring around the outside of the plate, which is what I have done, or you can put them in a straight line for a smaller cake. 

Once you have your required shape, cover with the rest of the whipped cream, sprinkle with flakes, leave overnight in the fridge and in the morning you will have the most amazing cake.  No one would ever know that they were biscuits and will wonder at what an amazing cook you are  :)
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: Poolfield2 on January 17, 2010, 17:26
Works well with gingernuts too!
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: soaplady on January 18, 2010, 09:53
Does anybody have a recipe for a white fruit cake using the rubbing in method. It comes out a little like Mr Kiplings Farmhouse cake. I used to have the recipe years ago, but it has disappeared now, and I loved it.  I have found countless others using the melting, and creaming and beating methods, but not the rubbing in, and it really made a difference to the texture. Would be so grateful if anybody could help me.

Soaplady
Title: Re: Your favourite cake
Post by: diggerjoe on February 01, 2010, 16:05
second the gingernuts Poolfield2 - they are just magic