Carrot cake - with no nuts

This week it has been my boyfriends birthday. I had been asking him for weeks what cake he wanted and he finally decided on a carrot cake. I was a little worried as I have never made a carrot cake before. Even though I love carrot cake I have always put off baking it, im not too sure why, I think it is all the grating of the carrots that put me off and it wasnt even that bad! The cake was actually lovely and I will be making it more often, much to the delight of my boyfriend and my mum.


Because I needed this cake for a birthday I wanted it to be perfect, so I reached for my trusted hummingbird bakery cookbook. I adjusted the recipe slightly as my boyfriend wanted a cake with no nuts, and his wish was my command on his birthday! the recipe was also for a 3 layer cake but I wanted a more traditional two layer cake, so I just had slightly larger sponges.

I filled the cake and covered it with cream cheese frosting. It covered really well and there was enough buttercream left to add some piped detail. For the writing I used melted milk chocolate. So far the cake has lasted 3 days and is still really moist.

Carrot Cake  

Sponge

300g soft light brown sugar
3 eggs
300ml oil
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g grated carrots

preheat the oven to 170'c

Mix the sugar, eggs and oil until well incorporated. Slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla extract and continue to beat until well mixed.

Stir in the grated carrots until evenly dispersed.

Pour the mixture into 20cm (8") cake tins lined with grease proof paper. Bake for 20-25 minutes untill golden brown.

leave to cool and cover with creamcheese buttercream. I used a double quantity so I could cover and fill the cake

Cream cheese buttercream (single quantity)

300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold

Beat icing sugar and butter untill the mixture comes together and is well mixed, add the cream cheese in one go and beat untill it is completely incorporated. Then mix on a high speed untill light and fluffy.

do not overbeat, as it can become runny.

I think this recipe would also work well as cupcakes, I will try them and post the results soon.

Ameretto and Cherry Cupcakes with amaretti biscuits

My work friend Lina has just retured from Italy and retured with two packets of Amaretti biscuits for me to use in my baking, this prompted me to bake my current favourite cupcakes. I call these my "grown up cupcakes" as they are quite rich and contain a good glug of ameretto, cherries and chunks of amaretti. biscuits.

Look how pretty the biscuits are!

I think these work really well in normal cupcake size as an indulgent treat, but for occasions such as partys or work, when people don't have time to sit down and eat, the bite sized ones are perfect.

Little bite size cupcakes.

Ameretto and Cherry Cupcakes with amaretti biscuits

Cupcake Ingredient's

125g Margarine

125g Caster Sugar

3 eggs

80g Self raising flour

45g Ground almonds

Splash of milk

Teaspoon Almond essence

Cherries cut into small pieces

Broken up amaretti biscuits

Method

Pre heat oven to 170oC

Cream the margarine and caster sugar untill light and fluffy, I do this for at least 5 minutes until it has almost doubled in size. Add the eggs, with a little flour and mix untill combined. Sieve the flour and fold this in. Add a splash of milk, ground almonds, almond essence, cherries and amaretti biscuits. Fold untill combined, be careful to not over mix. Spoon the cake mixture into cupcake cases. Bake for appox 20mins, untill they are light golden and the sponge springs back when touched. leave to cool for a few minuets in the cupcake tray, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

For ease and to obtain even sized cupcakes, I use an icecream scoop, like so!

I love how pretty the mixture looks with the cherries showing through like glowing red gems.

Buttercream Ingredients

250g Icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml milk

5ml Ameretto or 2.5ml Almond essence if not wanting to use alcohol

Method

Beat the icing sugar and butter together using an electric mixer on medium speed untill the mixture comes together. Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and add the milk and ameretto, once incorporated, turn the mixer up to a high speed and beat until light and fluffy, at least 5 minuets. It is now ready to pipe on top of the cupcakes.

The buttercream, before adding the milk and Ameretto.

I am very lucky to own a kitchen aid, it was a gift from my Nanna a few years ago and is my favourite thing I own! Altough it makes the biggest cloud of icing smoke when making buttercream, if anyone has any ideas how I can stop this please leave commets below, I have tried everything I can think of. 

The finished cupcake, with its lovely light buttercream.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Chocolate chunk cookies

I made these cookies for a night shift at work. Food always vanishes in seconds at work so I made loads, thinking they would last for some time. I could not have been more worng, they were finished in all of about 10 minuets!

They were soft, chewy and full of lovely large chocolate chunks, just what you need during a night shift. I have made these may times, using all different kinds of chocolate. I like to use a mixture of milk, dark and white chocolate and I use thick chocolate bars so that I end up with large pockets of chocolate. These also work well with chocolate orange, nuts and rasins.

I use the hummingbird bakery recipe, I find it to be perfect everytime.

Ingredients

225g unsalted butter
350g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
225g chocolate

Makes 24 cookies

Method

Preheat oven to 170'c.

Mix butter and sugar untill light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. Continue mixing adding the vanilla extract. Add the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and mix untill a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate.

Arrange small balls of cookie dough on greased baking sheets, making sure that they are well spaced out as they do spread while baking. Bake in the preheated oven for 10minuets, or untill flat and the edges are golden brown. This will give you a soft chewy centre, if you prefer a crisper cookie, cook for a few minutes longer. Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet as they will be quite soft and bendy untill cooled, finally transfer onto a cooling rack untill completly cold.

I hope you enjoy them as much as my work colleagues!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

My first Blog, well here goes!

Like all family occations I bake a cake. And a visit to my sisters for pizza and games night was no different. I asked her and her boyfriend if they had any requests and they did, for some lemon meringue cupcakes. I had first made these for my sisters baby shower and they were a big hit.

A moist lemon sponge topped with Meringue. My two favouite things, cake and Meringue in one yummy cupcake. The sponge is quite lemony but more or less lemon juice can be added dependent on you own taste. I love the tartness of lemon and this stopped these large cupcakes from being too sweet. They were the perfect size to have as a pudding or as an afternoon cake fix. I have made these before as bite sized cupcakes made in mini sized cakes cases and they worked equally as well.

 This is the cupcake without its paper case. I like there being a good balance between cake and topping. The Lemon curd in these cakes sank towards the bottom of the cake making the sponge very moist. I thought it might be better to cut a small pocket into the cooked cake and then add the lemon curd, but was assured by all that ate them that they liked them just the way they are!

I hope you enjoy them as much as we all did!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

The Sponge
160g Caster Sugar
160g Margarine
160g Self Raising Flour
4 Medium free range eggs
1 Lemon - juice and zest
Good quality or homemade Lemon Curd

The Meringue Topping
4 Free Range Egg Whites
125g Caster Sugar
125g Icing Sugar

Pre heat the over to 170oC. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin case's. Cream the margarine and sugar untill very pale, I do this for at least 5-10 minuets. Add the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour to stop it form curdling. Then gently fold in the flour. Add the zest of the lemon and all the juice mix until this is evenly combined. Place a scoop of cake batter into all cake cases untill half full. Place a small teasoon of Lemon Curd into the centre of each one and the top with cake batter until the cases are 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for 10 minuets until the tops are just firm. Meanwhile make the Meringue topping. Place the 4 Egg Whites into a mixer, or mix by hand untill you have soft peaks. Now add the caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whilst still mixing. Once this is combined add the sieved icing sugar and fold in gently by hand. Pipe or spoon the meringue on top of each cake. Return to the oven for about 10 minuets, untill the meringue is crisp and starting to colour. Mine took 8 minuets, leave for longer if you prefer a crisper , darker meringue.