Chocolate Torte for Liz

At a BBQ recently I made a couple of chocolate tortes for pudding. They didn't turn out as well as they have  in the past  - I couldn't find the recipe, and was using an unfamiliar kitchen - but I have in the past made some really brilliant chocolate torte and here is the recipe.
(This one's for you Liz!)

Chocolate torte - New Years Eve 2012

Start with 200g of good quality melted chocolate (the darker the better in theory but I always use milk chocolate). Add 200g of melted butter/margarine and mix till well combined. Then slowly beat in 4 medium sized eggs.

Mix in 200g of brown sugar  and then add 100g of a plain flour/ground almonds mix (I tend to up the almonds and decrease the flour for a richer torte)

I usually add about 25g of cocoa powder and some vanilla essence too at this point.

Pour into a greased lined cake tin and bake for about 35 mins at gas mark 4. It should be slightly squidgy inside with a nice crisp crust on top. Fab served with chantilly cream and fresh berries!

Lemon yellow butterflies and lemon cake

Spring has finally arrived - heralded by the arrival of the brightest of yellow butterflies, the Brimstone Butterfly. I saw these while out walking the dogs at the Seven Fields Nature reserve and then spotted my first bumblebee of the year too.

Having spent yesterday plumbing in water butts and glazing the small greenhouse, this meant today was the day for cooking rather than gardening.  And, inspired by the dancing yellow flutterbys and the sun, it had to be a lemon cake.

We had some limited edition Yeo Valley Lemon and Poppy Seed Yoghurt in the fridge so I decided to use that in the cake to help it stay really moist - the best lemon cakes are always a bit squidgy.  But I couldn't find a lemon cake recipe anywhere, only one with ricotta cheese in it, so decided to make it up.  I'd put in an extra egg next time to hold it together better, but other than that I think the recipe works perfectly.

I mixed 8oz light brown sugar with 4oz margarine and then added 6oz of the lemon and poppy seed yoghurt. I then added the zest of 2 lemons and the juice of 1 1/2 of those lemons (the juice of the other half lemon is used later in the recipe). At this stage it looks a bit like the mixture had curdled - I think this is the effect of the lemon - best just to ignore it and carry on.  I then mixed in 8oz flour and a teaspoon of baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt, and finally two eggs. After mixing this all up thoroughly I cooked it for about half an hour at gas 5.

Leave the cake halves to cool. I then mixed up some of the yoghurt with icing sugar until it was the consistency of double cream and used that to sandwich the cake together. Mix the juice from the remaining half of the lemon with some icing sugar, until its the consistency of double cream, then pour that all over the cake

I slightly undercooked the cake - still getting to grips with the new oven - and this meant it was really oozey and gooey - lovely!

In case you want to attract lemon yellow butterflies into your garden, the butterflies sip nectar from teasel, knapweed and buddleia.  You can also help out all bees and butterflies by planting lots of wildflowers in your garden - a really easy way to do this is with seedballs which you liberally scatter about whever you want wildflowers.

Chilli and Chocolate Brownie Easter Cake

So its really just chocolate brownie...but in cake format with some added chilli! But chocolate brownies are always moister than a standard chocolate cake so it makes sense to make it in cake form, slather it with icing too - and piling on some mini eggs makes it a bit 'Easter-ish'.

200g chocolate
180g margarine
320g brown sugar
120g self raising flour
20g cocoa powder
1tbsp vanilla essence
3 medium size eggs
chilli oil

Melt the chocolate, then add the margarine and continue to heat until it's all melted. 
Mix in the sugar, then add the vanilla essence.
Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix
Add the eggs one at a time until the mixture is glossy and smooth, then add chilli oil to taste (just a slight hint of it is enough)
Put it into two 8inch baking tins
Cook for about 30 minutes at gas mark 3 - don't overcook as the edges go too hard - chocolate brownie is meant to be a bit gooey in the middle.

When the cake has cooled, sandwich the layers together with chocolate icing and then cover the top and side (I used a mix of margarine, cream cheese, icing sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla essence)

Chocolate and Cherry Roulade

I made this over the Jubilee Bank holiday weekend when the intermittent rain meant everyone was going nuts inside - and clearly needed a sugar fix to send them right over the top! But seriously, it had been lousy weather, chocolate was much needed, and there was a can of cherries leftover in the cupboard from Hannah's cooking classes just begging to be eaten...

I started by whisking 6 egg yolks and 150g of caster sugar together, then adding 50g of cocoa powder and about 25g of plain flour. I then folded in 6 egg whites which had already been whisked (no that's not true - I was not that organised.  I had already mixed the egg yolks, sugar, cocoa and flour when I realised I still had to do the egg whites so had to wash up the whisking blades first which was very annoying - but writing it in the right order might help someone else avoid this mistake. But just in case not: you should start by whisking the egg whites!). This was baked in a square tin on greaseproof paper for about 20 mins on gas mark 4, taken out of the oven and left to cool.

Once it had cooled down enough - and its never fast enough where chocolate cake is concerned - I peeled it off the paper and slathered the 'wrong side' very generously with the canned cherry pie filling. I then chucked a load of whipped cream on top of this for good measure and began to roll it up.

You can see how generous I was with the filling - it oozed out of the end, but I think this makes the cake taste all the better.  I then sprinkled with a little icing sugar.  I would love to try this out with a bit of cherry kirsch or brandy in the mix too - it might cut across the sweetness quite well.

Milkshake Cake

Not really... it's just some smells and tastes transport you very vividly back to certain times in your childhood; when I tasted the raw mix of this cake it was like being a kid again drinking  raspberry-flavoured Crusha milkshake. I'm not even sure Crusha existed back then - but it made me feel like a child.

So we had a packet of those frozen berries you can get in supermarkets - bought to serve with some homemade meringues but as they were a bit of a disaster there was about 300g of fruit and they were steadily going softer and soggier in the fridge. There was also an absolute need for more cake as the weather was so lousy - BUT it needed to be a light(ish) cake as it is supposed to be summer - or at least late spring.

I mixed up (and apologies here but I rarely if ever actually measure out cake recipes nowadays - just bung it in a bowl, mix and hope - so all these weights are estimates) about 150g margarine, with a similar quantity of sugar, then beat in a couple of eggs. I then added the remainder of the fruit and all the juice at the bottom of the container and whisked it until all the fruit bits broke up and the mix went a very vivid bright pink colour.  I then added about 300g flour, baking powder, vanilla essence and a splash of milk so it was a good consistency. That went in the over for about half an hour.

I think I have now finally got the hang of the buttercream icing. This was taken directly from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook - I have previously not managed to get it to go fluffy, but it did this time! I mixed 250g sifted icing sugar with 80g margarine until it resembled breadcrumbs (not that that is in the proper instructions for this) I then added 25ml of milk, but 5ml at a time with lots of whisking between additions, Once all the milk was added I also added a few drops of vanilla essence then whisked the whole lot for about 3 more minutes - it did go a bit fluffier than it previously has.  I then used some of it to sandwich the two halves together and used the rest to cover the top which was finished off with some blueberries.

The finished cake was a delicate pink colour inside.It didn't taste of milkshake at all, but as the raw mix did, and as everyone knows eating the mix is the best bit about making a cake - well it had to be called Milkshake Cake.