Showing posts with label Cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cake. Show all posts
Chocolate Chip Snack Cake. This is a lovely 8 X 8 cake that your family is going to fall in love with. The original recipe comes from an old friend of mine called Leona. I have known Leona for many, many years.
I met her the night before my middle son was born and he turns 40 this year, so that is how long Leona and I have been friends. A long, long time. I am so grateful that 40 years later we can still call ourselves friends.
I have to say that every single recipe that Leona shared with me became one of my tried and trues. She was and is an excellent cook, even at the ripe old age of 82!
The only thing I have changed with this through the years is to use butter instead of shortening, and to add a chocolate icing instead of the original vanilla butter cream. It really is a lovely cake. Nice and moist (dare I say) and yes, incredibly delicious.
When it comes to chocolate chip cake, this tasty cake sets the standard for everything else. Trust me on this!
As I said, the original recipe used a vanilla butter cream icing on top. It was really very good. I found that my family always enjoyed it more with a chocolate butter cream frosting, however and that is how we still enjoy it.
And its a no faff kind of a frosting as well. As simple as sifting some cocoa powder into a bowl, adding some butter and vanilla, a bit of milk, and beating it all together.
There is no messing about with melting chocolate or anything like that. Just measure, beat and spread. As they say easy peasy lemon squeezy.
A simple icing as befits a simple cake. Dessert doesn't have to be complicated to be good! That's my motto and I stand by it.
The cake itself mixes all together in one bowl. First you beat some butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. I like my butter to be at room temperature.
Actually I like all of my cake ingredients to be at room temperature. If your eggs are cold from the refrigerator, just fill a bowl with hot water from your sink. (Not boiling)
Add the cold eggs to the water and then leave them for a few minutes. Easy peasy, room temperature eggs.
Once you have that done, you beat the eggs in, one at a time. This helps to prevent the butter mixture from splitting and curdling.
If your mixture curdles, simply stir in a spoonful of the flour. It works a charm to bring it all back together. Just like magic.
I like to whisk all the dry ingredients together separately. Just to make sure that the baking powder and soda are mixed properly into the flour. Its a simple thing to do, and it can make a huge difference in your end result.
This is a really moist cake, due to the fact that it uses sour cream in the batter. This gets added alternately with the dry ingredients. You could also use yogurt if you don't have any sour cream, plain, not flavored.
Once you have done that all you have to do is to add the chocolate chips and chopped nuts. I know you will get tired of hearing me say this, but I always toast my nuts first.
I repeat myself for the benefit of those who are coming here for the first time. I always, always toast my nuts first. And this isn't just for baking either. Toasted nuts just taste . . . nuttier!
I do them a whole bag at a time. Simply spread them out on a rimmed baking sheet. Pop into a hot oven, about 375*F/190*C and toast them for about 5 to 8 minutes. You will know when they are done because they will smell nutty.
Let them cool before using. I store them in a zip lock baggie in the freezer. I can then just take out as many or as few as I need. Toasted nuts are great in any kind of baked good or even in salads.
They are even great to snack on. I love snacking on nuts. They are filled with fiber and vitamins and are quite good for you eaten in moderation.
As you can see the chocolate chips and nuts don't sink to the bottom in this cake, but stay evenly distributed throughout that moist, beautifully crumbed cake.
I baked this cake today in my 8-inch square Laurel pink anchor hocking baking dish. I love these dishes. I have bought a couple of them for my hope chest for when I move into my own place. I bought mine at The Hudson's Bay online store.
They had a good sale on and I purchased this, two pie dishes and a loaf pan. They are so very pretty, and I dare say they will come in very useful!!
I baked this cake for my father. He comes here to my sister's home every day for his supper. He really looks forward to having something a tiny bit sweet at the end of his meal. His eyes light right up when you ask him if he wants something.
Being able to spend time with him is the silver lining in all of this horrible business I have been through during these past six months. I never thought I would be able to see him again, and just think, now I am baking cakes for him!
There is always a bright side to everything! Bake the cake for your family. I am positive they will enjoy it. Its been pleasing mine for 40 years!
Chocolate Chip Snack Cake
Yield: Makes 1 8-inch square cake
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 35 MinTotal time: 45 Min
A simple and delicious cake that is easy to make and delicious!
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups (210g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter, softened
- 1 cup (200g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large free range eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (60g) sour cream
- 1/2 cup (80g) semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (60g) chopped toasted walnuts
For the frosting:
- 3 TBS butter, softened
- 1 1/3 cups (about 170g) sifted icing sugar
- 2 heaped TBS sifted cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- milk (about 3 TBS)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/189*C/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8 inch square baking dish/pan, and dust lightly with flour, shaking out any excess. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and brown sugar together until light. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to the creamed mixture, alternating with the sour cream, until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
- Spread the batter in the prepared baking dish/pan.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Set pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, whisk together all of the ingredients until light and fluffy, adding only enough milk to give you the perfect consistency for spreading. Spread over the top of the cooled cake evenly.
- Cut into squares to serve.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
Thanks so much for visiting! Do come again!!
Irish Apple Cake. Apple Cake has to be one of the most delicious cakes a person can bake. You cannot beat a cake that is filled with sweet tender slices of apple and warm baking spices. Unless you are talking about an "Irish" Apple Cake.
And then the combination becomes absolutely unbeatable. Tender apple slices baked in a cake batter and then topped with a wholesome oat streusel. Add flaked almonds to that streusel and you have one very delicious cake!
Every year I like to bake an Irish Apple Cake for Saint Patrick's Day. The first time I made it, I made a recipe adapted from a recipe I got from a Rachel Allen Cookery Book. If you are not familiar with who she is, she is the daughter in law of Darina Allen, the doyenne of Irish cookery.
They run the Ballymaloe House, Restaurant and Cookery School in Ireland. I had always wanted to go to this cookery school, but never got there.
I am not sure what makes this an Irish Cake. I would say more that it is a cake in the European tradition, in that it is somewhat denser than North American Cakes, and the manner of putting it together is also somewhat different.
It is kind of done in layers. You make a cake batter, which you spread in the pan and top with sliced apple, topping that finally with a streusel layer. This year I added some flaked almonds to the streusel to amp it up. Lovely-icious!
The cake itself is moist and delicious, lightly spiced with cinnamon. You put it together in a way that is very different than North American cakes. You rub the butter into the flour, almost like you would do if you were making scones.
North American cakes are a lot sweeter than European cakes. I have to say, not trying to be rude, but I prefer the lesser sweetness of European styled cakes.
We North Americans make and use far too much sugar I think. Living in the UK, I got used to their way of doing things. Even the bread in North America is too sweet for my taste. I had noticed that the last time I was home with mom.
Most of the sweetness in this cake comes from the apples and the streusel topping. You want to use a nice cooking apple for the filling. Cooking apples are a bit more tart than regular apples. You could use Granny Smith or a Cortland.
These are tossed with some sugar and cinnamon before laying them on top of the cake base in the pan. Sometimes I will add a bit of nutmeg. The warm flavour of nutmeg goes very well with apples and you don't need a lot of it. A little bit always goes a long way.
More sweetness comes from the streusel topping. It is sweet and wholesome and adds a lovely crunch to the top of the cake. Oats make it really wholesome, but adding flaked almonds made it nice and crunchy.
Apple and almond is a very quintessentially moreish combination. But then again, so is apple and oats.
This not too sweet cake goes excellently with a nice hot drink. (Also a European tradition.) Hot cups of tea if you are so inclined or Coffee both go very well. That makes it the perfect cake for a mid morning or mid afternoon treat.
It also makes for a fabulous dessert however. Especially when paired with a custard sauce/creme anglaise in the European fashion. You can find my recipe for the custard sauce here.
Serving this warm with custard sauce is a very British thing to do. I can remember when I first moved to the UK, we were taken out for dinner by the people in our church to celebrate our wedding. At the end of the meal I was asked what I wanted for pudding.
I was thinking pudding . . . hmmm . . . butterscotch, vanilla or chocolate. I like all three, but the word Pudding has a totally different context over there in the UK.
In the UK the term "Pudding" is meant to mean a course, ie. dessert. So when they ask you if you want pudding, what they really mean is do you want dessert?
And then, once you get the dessert, do you want it with lashings of cream or custard, or . . . both! Believe it or not I know people who would choose both.
And the cream is never sweetened, or whipped, just poured. Even the custard is not overly sweet in comparison to our puddings/desserts. And lashings . . . means poured liberally over top.
In restaurants your dessert will often come with its own little jug of each. I do love either one. But the North American in me will always love Ice Cream most of all and with a cake like this is has to be vanilla ice cream.
You don't want to serve it with anything that is going to detract from the lush flavors of the apple and the cinnamon and the streusel. Vanilla works best with all those things.
But its your dessert, so you go ahead and have whatever you want. I am thinking Maple Walnut would be nice, but then I am nuts for Maple Walnut ice cream! But again, not very Irish.
In any case, if you are looking for a fabulous dessert to serve with your Saint Patrick's day dinner on the 17th of March, you can't go far wrong by serving this!
Irish Apple Cake
Yield: 6 - 8
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 50 Mininactive time: 10 MinTotal time: 1 H & 10 M
A delicious version of an apple cake, baked with tasty apple slices sandwiched in the center. Serve warm with or without custard, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups (280g) self raising flour (You may need extra, see note below to make your own)
- 1/2 cup (125g) butter
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar (use caster sugar in the UK)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) milk
For the filling:
- 2 cooking apples, peeled and sliced
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 4 1/2 TBS soft light brown sugar
For the Streusel Topping:
- 3/4 cup (105 g) plain flour
- 1/4 cup (20g) old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar (in the UK use caster sugar)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 6 TBS butter, cut into bits
- 4 TBS flaked almonds
To serve:
- Icing sugar to dust
- Custard sauce or vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Butter a deep flan tin, with a loose bottom, roughly 9 inches in diameter. Set aside.
- Make the Streusel. Measure the flour and oats and sugar into a bowl. Stir in the cinnamon. Drop in the butter. Rub together with your fingers until it clumps together and you have a crumble mixture. Stir in the flaked almonds.
- Place the flour and butter into a large bowl. Rub the butter in with your fingertips to form a breadcrumb texture. Stir in the sugar. Add the beaten egg and milk and mix together with a round bladed knife.
- If the dough seems a bit too sticky add a bit more flour. You want a soft dough.
- Spoon the dough into the prepared pan, making it higher around the edges, about 1 inch into the center with a hollowed out space to put the apples.
- Spread the apple slices evenly over the center of the base. Press them down lightly. Sprinkle with the soft light brown sugar and the cinnamon.
- Sprinkle the streusel over top. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.
- Let stand in the tin for about 10 minutes before removing the sides.
- Place the tin on top of a jar and push the sides of the pan down and remove. Place the cake on a wire rack to cool to warm.
- Dust with icing sugar before cutting into wedges to serve, with or without ice cream or custard.
Notes:
Make Your Own Self Raising Flour:
You can make your own self raising flour by adding 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt to every cup of plain flour.
My sister had printed out a recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction earlier this week for "The Best Banana Cake I've Ever Had." We had some ripe bananas that needed using up.
They were well freckled. I don't know about you, but I am not overly fond of eating really ripe bananas as they are. I am also not fond of under ripe bananas. In order for me to enjoy a raw banana, it has to be just so.
And even then I am not overly fond of eating them raw. I do enjoy them with ice cream, custard or on top of crisp rice cereal. That is pretty much the only way I will eat them.
When I was a child I wouldn't eat them at all. I had heard about big spiders living in them on the banana trees and I had some crazy idea in my head that the little brown specks in their centres were spider eggs. I know! Kids! Crazy!
I decided to bake it on Friday when my sister was at work. She didn't mind. I think she was happy just to have cake in the house!
Her daughter Crystal had baked the cake and recommended it to us. I always admit to being a bit dubious when someone calls their recipe the best ever, but I suppose it is all relative to taste. One man's meat being another man's poison after all.
Her metric measurements were a bit off. I can speak with authority on that, having lived and baked in the UK for 20 years, and only ever baking by weight the whole time I was there.
I have corrected them in the recipe for you below. Those are the only adaptations I made to her recipe, and I pretty much made it exactly as per hers in every other way.
I apologize for the poor photos. Kitchen light, wrong time of day, but I couldn't really cut into it until after supper. I know you will forgive me.
The smell when this was baking was pretty A M A Z I N G! I seriously was drooling the whole time. It smelled sweet and very banana-like! I could hardly wait to dig in.
It uses ground cinnamon in the batter. To be honest I can't really taste it in the finished cake. If you want to taste the cinnamon, I would suggest upping the amount to at least 3/4 tsp if not 1 tsp.
Otherwise I would leave it out altogether. With two teaspoons of vanilla in the batter, it probably overpowers the cinnamon, so you really need to amp it up a bit if you want to taste it.
It has a moist and delicious crumb as you can see. Nice and dense like a good snacking cake should be.
The use of buttermilk helps to insure that it is moist as does the use of brown sugar. She suggested either dark or light soft brown sugar. I used light.
It was baked in a 9 X 13 inch Pyrex baking dish. My sister does not have any metal baking tins. I allowed it to cool entirely in the dish which also enhanced its moist texture.
I cut the quantities for the icing in half as I knew we would only be frosting the top of the cake. This was a smart decision and allowed for plenty of icing. Any more than what I made would have been too much.
I do like frosting on cakes, but I don't like to overdo it. Half a recipe was the right amount for this cake. If you are doing a layer cake (and you can) I would double the amounts below as you will need to fill and frost the sides.
I have also shown you the adapted bake times, etc. in the Notes for the recipe.
You can also bake it as cupcakes or as a Bundt Cake. See notes. I am not sure how to frost it as a Bundt cake. Perhaps just make a drizzle frosting instead of a cream cheese frosting. Or make a drizzle frosting using 1 TBS each softened butter and cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla and then milk to give you the right consistency.
I think this would be lovely with the addition of toasted walnuts or chocolate chips, or both. I was very tempted to sprinkle some toasted walnuts over the top of the finished cake, but it wasn't my cake!
As you can see, it cuts beautifully into nice squares and the texture is spot on. This is everything that you would expect in a good banana cake. It has a lovely texture and a "spot on" banana flavour without having to use any kind of banana extract.
I confess that I am not overly fond of anything using an artificial banana flavour. If you can do it with real flavours, that's perfect to me.
If you are looking for a great family style Banana cake, a wonderful snacking cake, well flavoured, dense and not overly sweet look no further. This is your cake.
Best Banana Cake
Yield: one 9 X 13 cake
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 45 MinTotal time: 55 Min
This banana cake is moist and deliciously filled with plenty of banana flavor! Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature before beginning.
Ingredients
- 3 large ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
- 3 cups (420g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 3/4 cup (180g) lightly salted butter, softened
- 1 cup (195g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tsp pure vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups (360ml) dairy buttermilk
For the frosting:
- 4 ounces (110g) of cream cheese
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- 2 cups (260g) icing sugar, sifted
- pinch of salt
- 1 TBS milk or cream (may or may not be needed)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/gas mark 4. Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking dish with butter and dust the bottom only with flour.
- Sift together all of the dry ingredients for the cake. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter for the cake and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and then the eggs a little at a time until thoroughly incorporated. Beat in the mashed bananas.
- Add the flour mixture, alternately with the buttermilk, making three dry and two wet additions. Try not to overbeat it. A few lumps are quite acceptable.
- Pour into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until well risen and the top springs back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean.
- Allow to cool completely in the pan.
- To make the icing beat together all of the ingredients until smooth and creamy, only adding milk as necessary to give you the proper consistency.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake, swirling the top a bit. Cut into squares to serve.
Notes:
You may bake this as a layer cake if you wish, but double the recipe ingredients. Two 9-inch round pans, 26 to 30 minutes.
You may also bake this in a Bundt tin, 10 to 12 cup tin, 50 to 65 minutes.
Can also be baked as cupcakes. Makes two dozen, bake for 20 - 22 minutes.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Sometime over the Christmas period I purchased a litre of eggnog at the grocery store. I had in mind that I was going to make am Eggnog Cake for us to enjoy. It never got done.
I kept thinking about making it, but other things kept getting in the way. Every time I opened the refrigerator I would spy it sitting there and think to myself I must make that cake. Finally I just grabbed the bull by the horns and made it.
Eggnog was not an ingredient which we had readily available in the UK. You could get it at some American supply companies, but always at a premium price I was not really willing to pay.
I did make it from scratch several times and it was very good. I used to look at recipes for eggnog cake online and think I wanted to make and would love to make one. My dream finally came true.
I do apologize in advance for the poor quality of these photos. I had to take them at night in the kitchen light. I still think they turned out fairly well irrespective of that fact.
My photos have never really been the best anyways. I know you will forgive me if these are less than perfect! Don't let that dissuade you from trying this lovely cake however. You will be missing out on a real gem!
Its a lovely dense cake, very similar to a pound cake. In fact I took my regular pound cake recipe and substituted eggnog for the cream in the cake. They are about the same consistency.
The eggnog of course has a flavor that isn't there in the cream. So if you are in the UK, you can use cream instead of eggnog and just increase the spices in the cake batter. You will still have a very good cake.
Use double or heavy cream. It will work beautifully. But, of course, if you have eggnog, do use that.
Have you ever wondered why it is that you have to beat your eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy when you are making a cake? Its very simple really.
This act of creaming/beating the butter and sugar together actually helps to melt the sugar into the butter. It helps it to dissolve. Have you ever noticed a cake come out of the oven looking somewhat "freckly" on the surface?
This happens when the sugar hasn't melted enough into the butter. If you don't really beat them together and give the sugar a chance to dissolve, you end up with granular sugar which leaves darkish freckles/speckles on the surface of the cake.
Have you ever wondered why it is that you need to beat eggs into a cake one at a time? There is a very good reason for this action.
This is to help prevent the butter/sugar mixture from curdling. Adding them slowly and one at a time prevents this from happening. You don't want your cake batter to curdle. A curdled batter produces a cake with an uneven texture.
This is because the fat hasn't been evenly dispersed throughout the batter. When cake batter is properly emulsified, it traps air into the batter, producing a cake with a lighter, more evenly baked finish.
If your batter starts to curdle when you are beating in the eggs, this can be rectified by beating in a tablespoonful of the flour required for the cake, just until the batter emulsifies again. Generally speaking this will correct it.
For better cakes it is also better if you can have everything at room temperature. I know we are often in a hurry and don't want to wait for this to happen, but if you know you are going to be baking a cake today, it is quite easy to take the refrigerated ingredients out of the fridge and leave them on the counter for about an hour before you start.
These simple steps taken always result in a cake with a better texture and finish.
I have seen quite a few eggnog cake recipes out there that require the use of a cake mix. I am sure they are very good. I didn't want to use a cake mix. I really wanted to make a from scratch cake.
Over in the UK, especially when I first moved over there, cake mixes were not readily available. Even when they became more available they were not really available in many different flavors.
I know that cake mixes are really very convenient to use, and doctored up cake mix cakes can be very nice. Chocolate pound cake for instance, which uses a cake mix and a packet of chocolate pudding mix, is dense and delicious.
Generally speaking however, I prefer to make my cakes from scratch. That way I know how fresh my baking powder is and, well, I just like the finished product better. To me they just taste, feel and look better.
I don't think my grandmother ever used a cake mix in her life. If it was good enough for Grandma, its good enough for me. In any case I hope you will give this cake a go, even if it is well past Christmas, and if you want to wait until next Christmas then I hope you will try it then.
I think you will be very happy with the end results. My sister, who doesn't generally tend to eat a lot when it comes to sweet things, has really enjoyed this cake. That makes me very happy. And like I said, if you don't have any eggnog, you can use cream in its place or even undiluted evaporated milk. Just amp up the cinnamon and eggnog.
Eggnog Bundt Cake
Yield: 8-10
prep time: 10 Mincook time: 45 Mininactive time: 10 Mintotal time: 1 H & 4 M
This wonderfully flavoured cake is dense like a pound cake and incredibly moist. i thought it was quite delicious and a great way to use up some eggnog we had in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter at room temperature
- 1 cup (190g) granulated sugar
- 2 large free range eggs
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
- 1/4 sp salt
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose flour
- 4 tsp. Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 cup (240ml) full fat eggnog
For the glaze:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- milk to thin
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a medium sized bundt pan and dust with flour, shaking out any excess flour.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
- Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and ground nutmeg. Add to the creamed mixture in thirds, alternating with the eggnog. Mix together until well combined and the pour into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and the top spings back when lightly touched.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then tip out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- To make the glaze, whisk together all of the ingredients only adding enough milk to give you an icing thin/thick enough to drizzle decoratively over the cake. Allow to set.
- Cut into wedges to serve.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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