A week of cake.....

Such a busy week...the last before the schools go back, and I think it could be that parents are taking their children out for last treats and stopping for coffee & cake during 'back to school' shopping trips. Whatever it is, a lot of cake was made (and eaten!) in the past few days...
First, this coconut cake. A white and beautiful thing, made with real coconut milk and frosted with a coconut cream icing and shredded strands of sweetened coconut too...

It always sells very well....

as does this, milk chocolate Flake Cake! It was very early morning when I took this picture, hence the flash...

and these were delivered the same morning...Toasted Hazelnut & Blackberry Swirl Muffins. Hazelnuts seem to divide people...I'm not sure why, but sometimes they sell really well and sometimes not. As they are one of my favourite nuts, I don't really understand this - but it's the way it is, so I've given up trying to analyse too much!

These were little Banana Loaf Cakes, iced with passionfruit....a delightful little hit of tropical sweetness in the last few grey days of August!

My favourite of the week was probably this Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake. I left out the 'Coffee' bit on the label, though. In the US, it means a cake to accompany coffee...in the UK, it means that it contains coffee. And this one doesn't, but as I prefer a plainer cake this would be perfect for me!

Thursday was the first day of September...to celebrate I made this Apple, Walnut & Raisin Cake with Maple Frosting. Of course, it turned out to be the warmest day for weeks, so it wasn't very seasonal in the end! But I still think it was a good way to welcome the new season!

This one I was particularly proud of....golden Butter Cake with a fresh Raspberry Buttercream. I had to note on the label that no artificial colouring was used - the pink was so bright! But it really did all come from lots & lots of fresh raspberries...

Pretty!

Finally, a personal one....it was my darling Mum's birthday on Tuesday and I went over to the farm in the afternoon to join my sister and nephew in a small tea party for her. Of course,I took a cake! She, like me, prefers a plainer cake with no creamy frosting - she also has a wheat intolerance. So I made a very zesty Gluten-Free Lemon Drizzle Cake, drenched in zippy syrup and sprinkled with edible glitter. I finished it with a nasturtium flower...a particularly beautiful one freshly picked from my garden.
But  that wasn't enough - there had to be candles. As she is an - ahem - mature lady, I thought my choice particularly appropriate...

And it made her laugh, which is the most important thing!

I hope you've had a good  week too....it's raining softly as I write, but still very warm. I'm planning what to bake for Monday now...my mind buzzing as always. I'll let you know what emerges from the oven!

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post - still plenty of time to enter my Roald Dahl giveaway if you haven't already. I'll count any new commenters on this post too. xoxo

Mmmmmonday!

I often experiment with different brownie flavours...I try and devise a new one each month for the Farmer's Market to keep things interesting! This was my latest creation...Caramel Popcorn Brownies.  They sold very well...the popcorn is in the mixture as well as on top. One thing I found while playing with the recipe was that it works best to sprinkle the popcorn that decorates the top of the brownie after it comes out of the oven, but while the cake is still hot. This prevents the caramel from scorching...and the warmth of the chocolate means that the popcorn sticks beautifully to the top too...

So, that's one that will be repeated sometime...
Other delights this week included...

Double Almond Tarts...

Fresh Raspberry Shortcakes...the filling was a vanilla mascarpone one...I delivered these in the wind & rain of Saturday morning. They reminded everyone that it is, in fact, Summer!

Also, some old fashioned favourites. My little sister, Lucy, always used to request a Marble Cake for her birthday. I haven't made one for ages...making this one made me wonder why!

It was, as you see, chocolate & vanilla....so pretty...

I filled it with vanilla buttercream...

with more for the top and crumbled milk chocolate flake to decorate. Delish!
The other 'retro' cake I made was really popular about 150 years ago....but rarely seen today. Seed Cake was usually eaten mid morning, with a glass of sherry or madeira wine. In fact, if you visit St John restaurant in London, it still is! The few times I've eaten this cake, I've loved it. So I thought that it was a good time to resurrect it for The Coffee Tree. Mine had a lemon glaze...

and it turned out so beautifully that I thought I should share the recipe with you. It's adapted from the Three-Seed Cake in Sarabeth Levine's beautiful bakery book - so it has US measurements..

Old-Fashioned Caraway Seed Cake

Grease & line a 10" round tin with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 350f/170c

3 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tsp caraway seeds                       } stir together in a bowl and set aside
1 tbsp baking powder

10 tbsp/1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups superfine (caster) sugar            } Beat at high speed in a stand mixer until light & fluffy in texture
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Separate 4 large, room temperature eggs. Beat the yolks into the butter/sugar mixture one by one, beating well after each addition.

Reducing mixer speed to low, add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg yolks in thirds, alternating additions with 1 cup whole milk. Scrape down bowl to make sure all is fully incorporated.

In a large, grease-free bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form (I use a hand held electric whisk for this) and fold into the cake mixture using a large metal spoon. Scrape into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake approx 1 hour until top springs back. I also insert a thin metal skewer into the centre of the cake - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked! Turn cake out onto a wire cooling rack and invert so that it's the right way up.

For the glaze (best poured on while the cake is still warm/hot as it sets better): combine 2 cups confectioners (icing) sugar in a small bowl with 3 tbsps fresh lemon juice and stir until smooth. Pour over cake and, with a knife, gently smooth over the top...a little dripping down the sides looks beautiful too!

Leave until completely cold, transfer to a plate and EAT!! It keeps  really well for 3/4 days in an airtight tin or container.

Have a wonderful Monday! xx

Easter Week Creations...

Fresh Raspberry Shortcakes....delivered this morning & two were ordered before I left the shop! Looked so pretty...

I use mascarpone instead of cream inside...it holds it's shape better and keeps a little longer too...I'll be making these again in a month or so, when English strawberries arrive at the market...

Peach & Apricot Shortbread...buttery polenta shortbread top and bottom, sandwiched with fresh ripe peaches and tart apricot preserves...

Lemon Curd Layer Cake....I have a real weakness for anything lemon...so  I make sure there is lots of zest in the sponge and juice in the frosting so it's really sparkly & zingy in your mouth...

Malted Coffee Cake....in the UK, coffee cake means that it's coffee flavoured! I know my friend Nancy will be curling her lip at that...as she doesn't like it at all - so apologies to you sweetie & I hope you enjoy some of the other treats in this post instead!! I use malted milk powder in the sponge, and real espresso...but it's quite a subtle coffee rather than a caffeine smack in the mouth!

And with the Malteser decoration, it looks so yummy doesn't it?

Monday is ANZAC Day....more on my Mozart's Girl blog later in the weekend about that. But the traditional biscuits/cookies to commemorate the day are called....Anzacs! They are actually incredibly popular all year round at The Coffee Tree...so I make plenty...

oaty, coconutty, syrupy & crunchy. I'm giving you the recipe in case you want to make some...they keep really well in an airtight tin. Apologies for the metric measurements...

Anzacs (makes 16)

Preheat oven to 180c/375f

Line a large baking sheet with non-stick parchment

85g oats
85g coconut
100g plain flour
100g sugar
100g butter
1tbsp golden syrup/dark corn syrup
1tsp baking soda
2tbsp boiling water

Place oats, coconut, flour & sugar in a bowl and mix well. Melt butter in a small pan with the syrup and set aside. Dissolve soda in boiling water in a small cup. Add soda mixture to butter & syrup...it will foam up! Quickly add liquid to dry ingredients and mix well. Take small balls of the mixture (I find it easier to have wet hands for this) and place, spaced about an inch apart, on baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the heel of your hand & bake for 8-12 minutes, turning pan halfway through baking time. They will be dark golden brown when ready. Remove from baking sheet with a palette knife and cool on a wire rack - they will firm up as they cool down. Store in an airtight tin.

Enjoy - with love from me! xoxo

Puddings & other stories...

Busy is not the word at the Bakery right now...this is the first chance I've had to post in almost a week. I keep forgetting to take pictures! Every time I have left a delivery recently I've smacked my forehead as I remember that I forgot (!) to snap my creations! Anyway, here I am. It's mainly brownies, brownies, brownies right now. Charlie, my biggest customer, is well into his new season on the equestrian eventing circuit. Each weekend (and during the week too) he tows his wonderful trailer, complete with Italian coffee machine, all over the South West supplying tired and hungry competitors...and excited spectators...with coffee & cakes to sustain them! So I am kept busy at my kitchen unit, producing trays by the dozen ready for pick up. There's only so many pictures of brownies you can take!

Still, there are my other customers too of course. It's a big weekend for the catering industry here in the UK. Mother's Day is one of the most popular 'going out' days in the calendar, so the pubs and restaurants I supply are ordering extra.

Bread & Butter Pudding is a huge seller on the menu. A traditional British dessert that most people love (I say most because I can't stand it....!) I make these with brioche instead of regular white bread, for extra richness. And I flavour them with real orange zest, as well as plenty of raisins. The liquid is cream too...to make them luscious.

They are eaten hot with either custard or more cream. Yum!

The Coffee Tree, too, will be busy this weekend...

These 'Charlie Bars' are my own creation...crunchy, crumbly peanutty shortbread (there are some chopped Reeses Pieces in there too) with a middle of peanut butter & chocolate. Perfect with coffee.

It was Fresh Raspberries & Cream Muffins this morning....made with cream, studded with ruby raspberries and dusted with icing sugar...

and an Almond Tosca Cake too. Based on a Swedish recipe, it's very, very moist & almondy with a lemon glaze & toasted flaked almonds too. This is one that I would love! I may make it at the weekend too, as we have some dear friends from Italy visiting...and Roberto adores CAKE!!

Happy Thursday....can you believe that it's April tomorrow? Have a wonderful day xoxo

Monday Bakes...

After a lovely weekend of eating and exploring in London, it was good to get back into the warm fug of the kitchen this morning and start creating. I've just got back from my second bake of the day...16 trays of Double Chocolate & Walnut Brownies, Apricot & Ginger Flapjacks, Rocky Road...so it feels good to have those made and stacked for delivery and now I can relax a bit with a cup of tea!

Early this morning was considerably less frantic. The Coffee Tree's order was one of my favourites because they're easy to make but taste and smell so good! Raspberry Jam Doughnut Muffins....mmm!

Vanilla-speckled muffins with a ruby red raspberry jam centre. Sounds good enough?

Well, I'm sure they would be...but the finishing touch comes when they are removed from the oven but still hot...

while the cakes are still in the tin, I brush them twice with hot melted butter and the pop them out and dip the tops in sparkling white sugar crystals before leaving on a wire rack to cool slightly.

It's this process that lifts them from the good to the sublime..
They looked lovely and were greeted with a big 'oohh' when I got to the coffeeshop which is just what I like to hear!

I hope you're enjoying your Monday. Welcome to the week xo

Everyone's an individual...

and I find that individual - or mini - cakes are what sell best at the coffee shop. Scones, muffins, slices, brownies, squares...something that doesn't have to be cut in front of you, but feels like it was made just for your plate, to accompany your cup of tea...

So today, I made the ultimate in single serving sized cakes...

mini Victoria Sponges...ooh, I was so proud of these! Don't they look cute?

here's a close up. I made the vanilla butter sponge cake as a sheet and cut out the rounds with a biscuit cutter...then sandwiched them with home made raspberry jam and cream cheese vanilla frosting before dusting them with a little icing sugar.
The beautiful paper cups they rest in are from a lovely, bright & pretty store in Marylebone, Central London, called Totally Swedish. They have a wonderful, though expensive, range of beautiful baking cups that I can't resist even though they're actually too big for the tins I have! These are printed with violets.....

and these with an array of coloured flowers on a black ground...gorgeous and they make good holders for these cakes, I think!

So, there you have it...a little Victoria Sponge, made just for YOU!!

I'm having a different kind of day tomorrow - so looking forward to it and I'll let you know all about it soon. There will be a baking post though, of course....

Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you're enjoying the Year of Blue Angel Baking so far....

xo

Friands for Friday...

As I write, it's not yet completely light (at 9.50am!) and the rain is tumbling from the dark and stormy skies...a great morning for grabbing an apron and embarking on some baking!

Today's delivery to The Coffee Tree was a box of Raspberry Almond Friands...

these little cakes are really popular in Australia (which is where I first found them!) and are on just about every cafe menu...but hardly anyone has heard of them here! The beauty of them is that they are as easy to make as a muffin,are easily adapted to a gluten-free version and, most importantly...they taste wonderful!
I brought a special (heavy!) friand pan back with me to make them authentic...

but you can make them just as easily in a regular muffin pan. If you do, then I'd line 12 of the holes instead of 9 as I did, as the pan that I have is very deep.

This recipe is from a fabulous book that Esther (my sister) gave me one year called '1000 Best Ever Recipes from Australian Women's Weekly' which is a great manual full of well-tested recipes that never fail! I adapted it from the recipe for Pear & Almond Friands, as obviously yesterday's cake was pear..

First, heat the oven to 200c. Line tin with paper liners (or grease incredibly well - but I'd really recommend those liners! I had to bring those back too...)

Raspberry Almond Friands (makes 9 deep cakes or approx 12 regular muffins)

6 free-range egg whites
185g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted
120g (1 cup) ground almonds (almond meal)
240g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
110g (3/4 cup) plain flour (all-purpose flour) - you can use a gluten-free flour if you need to, like rice flour.
A large handful fresh or frozen raspberries (if you're using frozen,  no need to defrost first)
20g (1/4 cup) flaked almonds

Whisk egg whites in a medium bowl until frothy (you can do this with a fork or a balloon whisk. They don't need to be whisked like for a meringue...just well broken up and bubbly!) Add sugar, ground almonds, sifted flour, and butter, then raspberries and stir until combined. The mixture will be fairly wet... more like a batter

spoon into the prepared tin, filling each liner almost to the top (you may find it easier to pour the mixture into a jug and spoon it out of that) Put a few of the flaked almonds onto each.

Bake for about 20 minutes - again, I rotate the pan halfway through for even cooking. They should be well risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Leave for a few minutes before removing from the pan and cooling on a wire rack..

Sprinkle with a little icing sugar if you like (I wouldn't if these were for home, but it finishes them off nicely for the shop.)

They are, as always, best served warm...but they do keep fairly well until the next day too, in a sealed tin in a cool place. Don't keep them any longer though, because of the fresh fruit content...

So that was Friday - oh, except that I also made this luscious creature for them....

She's a Chocolate Praline Cake....dark, rich chocolate sponge layered with a hazelnut praline frosting...one of my very favourite flavour combinations. So this cake was made, finished, packed & delivered quickly...before I was tempted! I suppose I could always wander down to the shop when I have a minute and buy a slice to have for tea...or would that be taking things too far?!

Mmmmm! Have a wonderful Friday...thanks for all your comments which are so appreciated...I hope that you can join me tomorrow for Saturday's delivery - and my first Foodie Giveaway!
xx