Carrot cake

Ideal with coffee, light and fragrant cake.

Ingredients:

·         200g  self-raising whole meal flour

·         100g  plain flour

·         350g  caster sugar

·         2 table spoons of  cinnamon

·         2 table spoons of  bicarbonate of soda

·         250ml  of butter

·         3 large carrots, peeled and grated

·         4 eggs, medium

Topping:

·         2 lemons, grated

·         250g  icing sugar

·         Icing with green and orange food color

Preparation:

Mix together all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Mix in carrot and gradually beat in butter and eggs. Pour into a greased and bottom lined bread / cake tin.

Bake in preheated oven 180°C, 160°C fan- gas mark 4 for 45–55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Prepare topping by mixing sugar and lemon juice. Make carrot decoration from icing.

Elephant

This was my sister’s birthday cake. She did not want anything too big and she always liked Elephants. The flavors I know she likes were nuts and cinnamon so that is what I used.

Bake two sponges:

200g of sugar

200g of self-rising flour

200g of butter

1 table spoon of baking soda

3 table spoon of water (I used strawberry compote juice)

1 tea spoon of cinnamon

                        3 table spoons of crushed walnuts (or other nuts like almonds or hazel nut)

                        Gas mark 4 up to 40 minutes in bread tin.

Also

                        Ready to roll icing – white

Food coloring – black, green, yellow, red and orange (for flowers but optional, you can do flowers of one color)

Butter cream (75g of butter + 175g of icing sugar +2 table spoon of milk and 1 tea spoons of vanilla essence + lemon zest)

Glue sponges together with butter cream and cut simple 3D body and head of an elephant. Color icing until grey and cover the body. Use leftover icing to make eye lids, ears, trunk and tale. Use white icing to make small square cushion, eyes and tasks.  Make some flowers from colored icing to place behind the elephant ears and around the nose / trunk to make elephant look as he is holding a flower bouquet for a birthday girl. I had a gold color pen for food so I draw some motive on the top of white cushion.  I finished the cake with coloring the butter-cream green and covering cake tray so it looks like an elephant is standing in tall grass. Also I dusted elephant with glitters .

It was very tasty.

Chocolate quick fix

I work funny hours and I don’t always have a time for things I like doing but there is always some way how to get where you want to. I don’t work much with chocolate but it is easy and even if it is not quite right it can always be melted and redone. I bought small cake and did some chocolate decoration - problem solved. 

Melt chocolate above steam and allow cooling enough to be piped. Also use forms, molds and grease proof paper.  Place small colored sweets in molds or 3d pipe. I also tried to put peanut butter in chocolate. Put in fridge and it's all done!

Jim Beam

This one is only small cake but made for a fun. It contains alcohol – not surprisingly. Sponge was fairly simple, baked in bread tin on gas mark 4.

Sponge

200g of sugar

200g of self-rising flour

200g of butter

1 table spoon of baking soda

3 table spoon of water

                             1 tea spoon of vanilla essence

Buttercream

75g of butter

175g of icing sugar

1 or 2 table spoon of Jim Beam – do taste the buttercream so it is just right

Baked sponge is filled by buttercream then cut sponge into bottle shape. Cover cake with yellow icing and white icing for lid. Make a plate for bottle label – I simply printed it out on plain paper. Place cake in a box and all is done.

Blueberry cheesecake - uncooked

Biscuit

200g of plain digestive biscuits

200g of shortbread biscuits

3 table spoons of butter

2 table spoons of caster sugar

Melt the butter. Brake biscuit into small crumbs and mix with sugar. Pour butter in biscuit crumbs and mix until smooth but not too runny. If not smooth enough add more melted butter if too runny break in more biscuits. Allow chilling in fridge.

Cheese cream

200g of cheese spread

200g mascarpone cheese

Juice of 1 lemon

100g of blueberries

Caster sugar 3 spoons or more if you prefer sweeter cream.

Pour cheese/cream over the biscuit base and use the rest of blueberries to decorate the top of the cheesecake. Place in the fridge for cream to stiffen.   

Biscuits - lemon and coco

I was looking for good recipe for biscuits for a while. These are easy to do and won’t take long.
 

 

Ingredients

·         325g plain flour

·         200g chilled salted butter

·         125g/4½oz golden caster sugar

·         2 tea spoon of  good-quality vanilla extract

·         2 large free range egg yolks

·         Lemon zest

·         Coco powder 1 table spoon

All ingredients are mixed in large bowl. Then half the mix and lemon zest into one and coco powder to the other. Once the mixtures are even color place those into food bags and alow chilling for at least two hours.

 

 

Rolling and cutting will be easier if additional flour used . The thickness of rolled out mixture should be 5 to 8 mm. Use cutters and place biscuits on greaseproof paper. They won’t grow but they shouldn’t touch as they go to oven.

If doing animals like I did use coco mix on lemon one and create spots etc.

Oven should be preheated for at least 20 min at gas mark 4. Smaller biscuits will not take long to cook so watch out with your first batch. I left mine in oven for 12/15 min.
 

                            

British / Jubilee cake!

This one was done in British spirit to share with my friends after fantastic BBQ. It is simple but tasty.

 

 

Firstly I baked three sponges - plain, blue and red. To keep it simple cake was glued together with buttercream and jam. Whole cake is later covered with buttercream and white icing.

 

3 x Bake sponges

200g of sugar

200g of self-rising flour

200g of butter

1 table spoon of baking soda

3 table spoon of water

1 tea spoon of vanilla essence

Food coloring (red and blue)

Also

                                Jam – raspberry

                                Ready to roll icing – white

                                Hard boiled sweets – to be melted and shaped in silicone molds 10ps

               

 

 

Buttercream (2x75g of butter + 2x175g of icing sugar +4 table spoon of milk and 1 tea spoons of vanilla essence + lemon zest)

 

Melt hard boiled sweets in silicone forms – stars and hearts - with some food coloring. Allow cooling. Color up some icing in red and blue. Roll it out and cut out the triangle shapes.

Cooled hearts and stars place on the cake.  Cover the board with British flag icing next – slowly cover spaces with white and red stripes then blue fields in between.  Follow up with white and red icing banner around the bottom edge of the cake. At last - take blue and red triangle shapes – flags -  and place them on the top of the cake.

And there ii is! Modest British cake!