Cakes
So recently I have been attempting to bake some proper cakes. When I say 'proper' cakes, I mean cakes that aren't cupcakes.
The first one was Nigella Lawson's lemon polenta cake from her fab book, Kitchen. This one turned out really well, despite my initial reservations about the amount of syrup I'd poured onto it and how soggy it seemed to be. Once it had cooled down completely, the sogginess vanished and it was delicious.
Next up was Beetroot and Chocolate. Adrian wonders why I attempt these weird combinations, but I thought it would be a good one for the kids. This was the most timeconsuming cake - turns out grating beetroot and chocolate takes forever. It was also disgusting and the whole lot ended up in the bin. I like beetroot, but the beetroot/chocolate combination didn't work for me, or the kids. The recipe did call for 400g of beetroot - I got about three quarters of the way through grating it and was starting the think that I had a hell of a lot of beetroot so I stopped grating. Even so, with only three quarters of the amount suggested in the recipe I found it way too beetrooty. I also had oven issues with this one. Our oven is crap and even giving it half an hour longer than the hour suggested in the recipe, the cake wasn't cooked in the middle. I won't be repeating this one, even with less beetroot I don't think I'll like the flavour. But it hasn't put me off trying a courgette cake. And I will now have a go at a straightfoward chocolate cake, something I'm always felt a bit nervous of attempting before.
Finally I made a Victoria Sponge. Yum, one of my favourites, and mine turned out really well, for a first attempt. I used the recipe from my new Peyton and Byrne British Baking Book (really beautiful book with great recipes), which uses fresh cream and strawberries. My cake tin was a little too big, so the end result is wider and thinner than it should be. And I did have oven issues again and have probably ended up over cooking the cake a bit - having found that the middle wasn't cooked at the end of the alloted time. But it is still delicious. I've had a big slice for my dinner.
The first one was Nigella Lawson's lemon polenta cake from her fab book, Kitchen. This one turned out really well, despite my initial reservations about the amount of syrup I'd poured onto it and how soggy it seemed to be. Once it had cooled down completely, the sogginess vanished and it was delicious.
Next up was Beetroot and Chocolate. Adrian wonders why I attempt these weird combinations, but I thought it would be a good one for the kids. This was the most timeconsuming cake - turns out grating beetroot and chocolate takes forever. It was also disgusting and the whole lot ended up in the bin. I like beetroot, but the beetroot/chocolate combination didn't work for me, or the kids. The recipe did call for 400g of beetroot - I got about three quarters of the way through grating it and was starting the think that I had a hell of a lot of beetroot so I stopped grating. Even so, with only three quarters of the amount suggested in the recipe I found it way too beetrooty. I also had oven issues with this one. Our oven is crap and even giving it half an hour longer than the hour suggested in the recipe, the cake wasn't cooked in the middle. I won't be repeating this one, even with less beetroot I don't think I'll like the flavour. But it hasn't put me off trying a courgette cake. And I will now have a go at a straightfoward chocolate cake, something I'm always felt a bit nervous of attempting before.
Finally I made a Victoria Sponge. Yum, one of my favourites, and mine turned out really well, for a first attempt. I used the recipe from my new Peyton and Byrne British Baking Book (really beautiful book with great recipes), which uses fresh cream and strawberries. My cake tin was a little too big, so the end result is wider and thinner than it should be. And I did have oven issues again and have probably ended up over cooking the cake a bit - having found that the middle wasn't cooked at the end of the alloted time. But it is still delicious. I've had a big slice for my dinner.
posted by solveig at
7:12 pm
5 Comments:
always make sure you've got the right size sandwich tin :) or you end up having to up the quantities of ingredients in the appropriate ratio and that can be a pain.
if you want a good chocolate cake recipe, there's one on Forkd.com in my recipe list (too lazy to go and get the url) - V Moist chocolate cake. It has a liquid batter and you don't have to worry about it rising, like you do with a basic sponge cake.
Splendid, on the train on my way home to cake! :)
We also a) have a crap oven and b) made a rubbish beetroot and chocolate cake which we had to throw away. Maybe it's a combination that was never meant to be.
Courgette cake on the other hand - YUM!
Hey, nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!
Combi Ovens
Hey, nice site you have here! Keep up the excellent work!
Combi Ovens
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