I'm actually feeling quite rubbish at the moment with a sinus infection (it's reeeealy painful!), hence me not posting for a couple of days, so as M is having a little nap at the moment I thought I'd ignore the housework and try to catch up a little. I've got a few recipes to post today, so hopefully I'll get this done before she wakes...
First up, I did some baking for yesterday's mini-concert. I actually baked two recipes, however one was a disaster so didn't get served! Had a 'discussion' with K last night about the oven - he has no idea how frustrating it is! Of course, I am obviously using it wrong (according to him). I demonstrated how, after pre-heating the oven to 200c, I could comfortably stick my (wet) hand inside. He's starting to believe me, I think. Anyway, I'm rambling. Cakes!
Chocolate-marmalade Cake
125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g marmalade
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
Gently melt the butter in a pan then add the chocolate and remove from the heat, stirring until smooth and melted. Add the marmalade, sugar, salt and eggs and give it a good mix before beating in the flour. Pour into a prepared 20cm round tin, and bake at 180c for about 50 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack.
I was warned that this cake looks rather plain, and it really did (and that's why there's no photo). If your making it for guests it definately needs a bit of sprucing up, serve with a dollop of cream and sprinkle with icing sugar perhaps. As it was, I ended up baking this cake for 80 minutes (trying to get it to cook through) and even then it was stodgy in the middle, grrrr. Naturally I tested it to see how it tasted, and it was good enough for me to keep and eat myself, but I wasn't happy to serve it to friends. I will definately make this again once we've got the oven sorted!
Coca-Cola Cupcakes (again, a Nigella recipe taken from How to be a Domestic Goddess)
200g plain flour
250g golden caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
125ml buttermilk (I used 30g yoghurt mixed with 100ml milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
175ml Coca-Cola
Icing:
225g icing sugar, sieved
30g butter
3 tablespoons Coca-Cola
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cola Bottle gummy sweets
Combine the flour, sugar, bicarb and salt in a bowl. Gently heat the butter, Coco-Cola and cocoa in a pan until the butter has melted. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix well. Beat the egg, buttermilk and vanilla together in a jug, and then beat it into the mixture. Pour into paper cases in a bun tray and bake at 180c for about 15 minutes. Prepare the icing by combining the butter, Coca-Cola and cocoa in a pan and gently heating it until the butter melts. Beat in the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Spoon the icing over the cakes as soon as they come out of the oven, and let them cool in the tray. Top each cake with a sweet before the icing cools.
The recipe said this would make 12, but it made more than double that. Unfortunately, as I only have one bun tray, I had to take them out before they could cool and this spoiled the smooth icing with cracks. But I have to say, these were just amazing! Really, really, delicious with a velvety texture - what a surprise! Wasted on children...
Oh no, the baby awakes! The rest will have to wait for another time!
