Cake recipe

This past week for some reason had me wanting to be a really good girlfriend and make my man some cakes (they where for me really, don't tell him). I have no idea where it came from. My mum always bakes and i suppose that is where my love of baking comes from but i go through phases and it also depends on my bank account too, baking isn't cheap.

Anyway the first thing i made was Biscotti biscuits from the Hairy Bikers diet cookbook which will be pictured below in this post. They where so lovely but i didn't have proper spoon measures so alls i could taste was baking powder as i had used too much so i really would like to try them again with the correct measures. It's all in the practising. 

(sorry the photo is dark. Was late at night when i took this photo.)

The next thing i made was this Hairy Bikers tea cake. It was really lovely.

 Mine did not look anything like theres because i did not use the baking tray that they say to use within the recipe. That is only because i simply did not have one. So instead i used two small loaf tins and it was a nightmare. Only because it was not setting in the middle, so i was calling my mum for advice. Basically if you have this book or buy it (which i do reccomend) then i would suggest you use the items they say to :).

So after these i decided cookies.. however i kind of ate them all :/ sorry everyone. no photos. I didn't like the recipe anyway so i will find one i like soon and share it with you all. When i return to work i will be baking everyone cookies anyway so you will get to have a sneaky peek.

Next up.. I know can you believe all this baking and in one week!

Next up was the coffee and walnut cake. 

Oh it was delicious.

So to do this you will need;

• 115g self-raising flour
• 115g caster sugar
• 115g butter (suitable for baking with)
• 2 large free range eggs (i say free range because i won't use any other kind)
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1tbsp of espresso powder (finely ground)
• 50g walnuts

 And for the frosting, you need;

• Mascarpone cheese (one small-medium tub) 
• 1tbsp caster sugar
• 2 tsp espresso powder
• a drop of milk to losen
• 8 walnut halves to decorate

So lets begin..

Firstly wash your hands.

preheat your oven to 170 degrees celsius.

To make the cake all you do its measure out your ingredients and set them to one side. Now before anything else you know those 50g of walnuts, well they need to either be crushed by hand in a pestal and morter (like i did, mine is a mini one and it took me like an hour! no joke), OR and this is what i 100% suggest, blitz them up in a food processor. They need to be quite fine unless you want bigger chunks in your cake. Once that is done you can carry on.

This is really easy. All i did was put all the ingredients except the grounded up walnuts, into a big mixing bowl and mixed them all together until its a lovely thick creamy texture. Then fold in the walnuts, very gently so you do not lose any of the air you have just made when mixing. Once its all been gently mixed then you pour the mixture evenly into your two cake bases.

I used two silicone cases, i'm not certain on the sizes but they worked perfectly.

 bake them in the oven for 25-30 mins. All ovens are different so be sure to check on them towards to 20 min mark. Do not open the oven any less than that as your cake could sink in the middle due to the temp change.

Once they are baked, turn the cakes out and leave to completley cool. 

Make the frosting.

So empty your mascarpone cheese into a mixing bowl, add your sugar and espresso powder and a drop of milk (you can always add more as you need to). and mix together until you have your perfect consistancy. And when your cakes are cool, spread the frosting in the middle and on top of your cake and add your walnut halves to decorate and there you have it. Coffee and walnut cake. 

* I must add that you need to refridgerate this cake because if not your frosting starts to go brown and it isnt at all fresh the next day.

 Next up is the victoria sponge cake..

So to make this cake all you need to do is follow the instructions for the coffee cake except where it has 1tbsp espresso powder you swap that for 1tsp of vanilla extract and you do not need the walnuts. 

so this is what you need.

• 115g self-raising flour
• 115g caster sugar
• 115g butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract

Mix them all together and bake.

for the filling;

You will need a jam of your choice, i used strawberry. You will also need double cream, 1tsp vanilla extract and caster sugar.

So in a mixing bowl pour in your cream (i only bought a small tub), sugar and vanilla and whisk them together to form a stiff peak, you will know when its ready. and you are done. Really is easy. Now spread a thick even layer of jam on one side of the cake and on the other the cream. i sprinkled some icing sugar on the top but that is optional.

The coffee and walnut cake and the victoria sponge cake are not my recipes. I found them on a video on youtube and quickly wrote down the recipes. I will try and find who uploaded them. The victoria sponge was my favourite. It tasted amazing. It should do for all the effort i made. I hand whisked the cream for 32 mins with a fork!! haha.

i baked another victoria sponge but this time i used a heart cookie cutter to cut the sponge cake and made these gorgeous little cakes.

 I gave them to my dad to take home. Mum already had some cake and theres lots of people to eat them at dads so off they went. Look how cute they are!!

I have really enjoyed making these cakes and biscuits and i hope you will try this recipe, if you do please comment below. I will have to stop baking soon or i will end up so big i wont be able to leave the house to buy more ingredients haha. My friend once had a sign in her kitchen saying 'never trust a skinny cook'.

So i kind of use that now haha. I hope you all have had a lovely day. 

Come see me again soon xxxxxx