I didn't think I was going to have time to do anything heart shaped this Valentines Day as my days have been so busy, but I did have a chance today to do these little Lemon & Berry Hand Pies for my Todd. He does love a jam tart and he really enjoyed these!
My Todd really loves a spice cake, and this applesauce cake is one of his favourites. He loves apple anything to begin with, but when you combine the flavour of apples in a cake along with the warm baking spices, he is in cake heaven. He would probably rather have an apple pie for sure, but this is a close second on his list of teatime loves.
I had scheduled both the Elders and the Sisters for tea appointments this week, two days in a row and so I set about to do a dessert to serve them that I could actually use two days in a row and decided that a large cake would do the trick. I could cut it into squares and serve it with ice cream both nights. Whatever works, right?
Tuesday is my birthday. I'm not going to tell you how old I am going to be, well . . . you probably know that already, so there's really no point, and for those of you who don't . . . let me just say one word . . . old.
I can't think of any better way to celebrate it than by baking myself a delicious cake. A traditional butter cake is my choice of cakes when it comes to an occasion like this. You just cannot beat an old fashioned butter cake!
They do say that you are only as old as you feel. There are some days I feel sixteen, and there are some days I feel eighty. I aim for somewhere in the middle most of the time!
And sometimes I actually succeed! I do feel somewhere in the middle. Its that first look in the mirror in the morning that knocks me back! haha
You might be tempted to think that my choice of a Birthday Celebration Cake would be something decadently fudgy and chocolatey. I do love chocolate, but you would be wrong.
Ever since I was a little girl my celebratory cakes have never been chocolate cakes . . . I do love them but . . . I have cakes that I love much more than that. When I am wanting a cake I long for something moist and buttery, and flavoured with vanilla.
When I am celebrating I want something simple and delicious, like this traditional butter cake I am showing you here today.
If I am going to have to bake my own Birthday Cake (and I am coz my husband . . . he doesn't bake!), then I don't want it to take me oodles of time and ingredients. Nobody wants to spend hours in the kitchen on their birthday.
By the time you bake a cake that takes oodles of time and ingredients you don't feel like eating cake any more, and that's not my idea of a celebration!
Is it yours??? I'm sorry if it is. I love to bake but that has its limits. I also LOVE to be baked for.
On a day like this, I just want quick, easy, simple and . . . delicious. This cake fits the bill on all of those counts.
No kidding. Would I like to you? I think not!
This has got to be one of the tastiest and simplest cakes ever going. A simple Butter cake.
You just dump everything into the bowl and beat it up. Pop it into a slow oven and . . . *Presto Chango* . . . one hour later . . . Bob's your uncle!
Even the icing isn't complicated. It's just icing sugar and water, or lemon juice, or orange juice . . . you decide.
My husband doesn't like lemon, but I do. It's my birthday, so this time we are going with lemon.
And a bit of ice cream on the side goes down very well too. Enjoy! I know I will!
In the UK they love lashings of custard with any kind of cake or dessert. On a birthday the North American in me longs for ice cream. Plain and simple, vanilla ice cream.
Makes one 8 inch round cake
Variations:
Sift 195g ( 1 1/2 cups) icing sugar into a bowl. Mix through 2 TBS water or 2 TBS lemon juice, plus 1 tsp or lemon zest, or 2 TBS orange juice plus 1 tsp orange zest until you have a smooth mixture. Spoon over cake.
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I love cake. Duh . . . no surprise there right? Well, I don't bake a lot of cakes because usually there is far too much of it for just my husband and myself. . . .
I picked up the latest issue of Good to Know Recipes the other day and I was immediately drawn to the recipe for this Iced Coffee and Walnut Cake.
I do so love a Coffee and Walnut Cake, and this is a fabulous recipe. Very easy, quick and most delicious!
"Take a masterclass in your own kitchen with Mastering the Art of Baking. This comprehensive new volume includes classics such as brioche and pork and fennel sausage rolls, through to contemporary dishes such as strawberry macaron mousse cake and caramelized tomato tart.
I have to confess . . . they did not lie. This is a fabulous book and I am very impressed.
Simple, moist, not too big, not too small and D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!! Stogged to the hilt with tasty walnuts and crowned with a fabulous buttercream icing. It's quite simply fabulous.
End of . . .
*Iced Coffee and Walnut Cake*
Makes 8 to 10 servings
Printable Recipe
This cake is a doddle to mix up and bake. Simple, easy and soooo scrummy!!
125ml of whole milk (1/2 cup plus 1/2 TBS)
75g of butter chopped (1/3 cup)
1 tsp instant coffee granules
110g caster sugar (1/2 cup plus 1 TBS)
60g of chopped toasted walnuts (1/2 cup), plus extra whole walnut halves to decorate
1 medium egg, at room temperature and beaten
150g of self raising flour, sifted (1 1/3 cup plus 1/2 TBS)
Coffee Buttercream Icing:
7 TBs butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g of icing sugar, sifted (1 1/4 cup)
1 tsp instant coffee granules, dissolved in 1 tsp boiling water
spash of milk, if needed
Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Butter an 8 by 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper, allowing it to drape over the sides, for ease of removal.
Put the milk, butter and coffee granules in a large saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until the butter is melted and the coffee granules dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and chopped walnuts with a wooden spoon. Stir in the egg until thoroughly combined. Stir in the flour gradually, until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface over with the back of a metal spoon.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until well risen and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the buttercream, using an electric whisk, beat the butter and vanilla together in a small bowl, until pale and creamy. Gradually beat in the icing sugar, a bit at a time, until well combined. Dissolve the coffee granules in 1 tsp boiling water and then cool. Beat into the butter cream. If the buttercream is too thick, you may beat in a little milk, only adding 1 tsp at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.
Shhh . . . don't tell anyone it's coffee. Well . . . I suppose technically the Word Of Wisdom says nothing about eating anything that is coffee flavoured . . . only drinking it, so I'm probably ok. How many of us have been indulging in some Revels and ended up with the coffee flavoured one. Ugh . . . this cake is much, much better.
Don't you like that little Melamine tray? I got it from Berry Red. It's part of their Greengate Range which I absolutely love, love, LOVE!! (And no . . . I didn't get paid or receive anything free to say that either!)
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