Cake #29 - "Smiley"

Friends First Friday Cake - "Smiley", Almond Cake with Vanilla Creme and Fresh Berries

A computer scientist called Scott Fahlman invented the :-) emoticon 19 September, 1982. In social media emoticons seem to be equally loved <3 and hated >:(. They can be used in a funny :D way, or, you know, in a funny ;) way... An emoticon in a wrong place at a wrong time can lead into a disaster :(. And at this point I am not even talking about emails -  business ;) or pleasure :p. 

I would love ;) to see people showing their feelings more openly - which is not easy because one has to be tactful, too, how to express their feelings.

I would love to see people showing their feelings more openly - which is not easy because one has to be tactful, too, how to express their feelings.

Feelings can never be accurate and exact but there is one thing for sure. If you are hungry, eat first and then reconsider. How much they try to convince us that wifi is nowadays the most important human need, you would not even be able to type a smiley on Facebook without a good piece of cake! :D

Almond Cake with Vanilla Creme and Fresh Berries

Base

2 eggs

100 ml caster sugar

80 g ground almonds

50 ml cornflour

1 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 175C / 350F and grease and flour a Ø 23 cm springform cake pan.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and fluffy.

3. Fold in dry ingredients.

4. Pour into pan and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

5. Let cool completely before decorating.

Topping

Vanilla Creme

400 ml milk

3 tbsp sugar

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp corn flour

3 tsp vanilla sugar or 2 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg whites, whipped until stiff

400 g fresh berries

1 gelatine leaf

100 ml raspberry juice

1. Mix all ingredients together except vanilla in a saucepan.

2. Heat over medium heat until the mixture thickens but does not boil.

3. Let cool down and add vanilla sugar/extract.

4. When the creme is cool, fold in the whipped egg whites.

5. Soak the gelatine leaf and melt in hot raspberry juice. Put in fridge to set a little - not too much as you need to be able to brush it on top of the berries.

To compile the cake

1. Place the base inside the springform frame straight on your serving plate.

2. Pour the vanilla creme on the base.

3. Place the berries on top  - you don't have to ;) make a smiley of them.

4. Brush the berries with the juice and gelatine leaf mixture and let set in the fridge for an hour.

5. Send all your friends a message with lots of  :)'s  and <3's, We all deserve some true emoti(c)ons every now and then.

Cake #28 - Black Cat

Thursday Cat Theme Cake - Black Cat.

Volevo un gatto nero [I wanted a black cat] is originally an Italian childrens' tango and, sung in Finnish, it was one of my favourite songs when I was a child. The first Finnish recorded version is from 1971 so nearly my age. As I believe there are no English recordings of the song let me share a more recent Finnish one with you. Goes well as baking music, too - how about a little tango with your spatula?

For me, black cats do not represent anything superstitious. Nor do I believe in any myths related to baking. So, on this rainy day I bake a black cat cake. If it fails, it is me and myself to blame. If it turns out great, I may give myself a little reward like get a kitten praise.

Black Cat Cake

Sponge

4 eggs

200 ml sugar

150 ml plain flour
2 tbsp potato or corn flour
3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Filling

200 g cream cheese

50 ml sugar

100 g black cherry jam 

Icing

300 g icing sugar

28 ml bottle of black food colouring

(water)

1. Preheat oven to 225C and line an oven tray with baking paper.

2. Beat eggs and sugar until white and airy.

3. Mix flours, cocoa and baking powder and add to the egg-sugar mix.

4. Spoon evenly on the baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool.

5. When the base is cool cut it carefully into cat shapes - as many as you can get (depends on the shape of the cat and the size of the tray).

6. Mix together cream cheese and sugar.

7. Spread a layer of jam and then a layer of cream cheese on each cat when compiling the cake.

8. See that the cats are placed evenly on top of each other and press firmly on each side.

9. Mix the icing and spread on top. Let set before serving.

PS If you happen to have any kittens I would love to have one. Any colour.

Cake #27 - Pear and Oatmeal Cake

Wednesday Natural Ingredient / Healthy Cake - Pear and Oatmeal Cake.

I got a 1 kg bag of pears for 49 cents. Gotta love these offers:  Aldi "Super 6" and similar promotions in Dunnes Stores and Tesco. And now even in my local Londis they have (bags of) fruit and veggies for 49 or 69 cents. With these prices we never run out of vitamins! Plenty of carrots to be put in the sons' lunchboxes, bags of spinach and kale for smoothies to be made by the daughters, apples to take to the teachers and potatoes for the rainy day.

Apples and oats go well together so why not combine pears and oats to make a cake. This time I simply googled for a recipe and found this Pear Oatmeal Cake from The Australian Women's Weekly website. I followed the recipe with a few exceptions:

- I used 4 fresh pears instead of canned ones.

- As I did not have syrup from canned pears I added 100 ml of apple juice to the dough. I did not heat the juice with the oats but added the oats simply together with the flour and soda.

- Also, I only used white self-raising flour.

And it worked great! This is definitely one of the tastiest cakes I have made during the past month. The ginger makes it sophisticated in a way and pouring some dark baking syrup on top just before serving gave the cake some extra moist. Maybe it would have been more moist with the canned pears - but, again, why to use canned fruit when you have fresh ones.

When I had got the cake fresh from the oven and poured some syrup on top I suddenly smelled a wet dog in my kitchen. Now that I finally got used to the smell of my herb pots and have stopped blaming the cats, another pet episode comes up? - We do not have a dog but there is one or two daughters in the family who would love to have a dog. So it was time to get suspicious again. Any little wet dogs smuggled into the house? Wardrobes, check. Toilets, check... No barking, it was my healthy cake and the combination of its earthy aromas this time... 

Cake #26 - Haggis

Tuesday Humour Cake - Haggis.



On the eve of the Scottish independence referendum I am sitting at my dining room table in Ireland and enjoying a piece of Haggis. Which is actually this ugly cake I made of sweet bun dough, Nutella and nuts. 

I have enjoyed real Haggis in Edinburgh some years ago and it was delicious. At a restaurant on the Royal Mile the Haggis, together with neeps and tatties - turnip and potato - was neatly put on my plate and probably had never been even close to a sheep's stomach. A tourist version, clearly, but still delicious.

Whatever the voting result in Scotland is, something will change in the United Kingdom as a nation and in people's minds. Chain reactions expected? Will Northern Ireland be the next?

I am not taking sides in this but I can easily visualise a map in my mind. On that map the independent Scotland has cast off the rest of Britain and is floating on the Atlantic Ocean. The winds will then decide where it will end up...

Haggis Cake

300 ml lukewarm milk

25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)

100 ml sugar

½ tsp salt

1 egg

100 g melted butter

about 800 ml plain flour

200 g Nutella

100 g chopped nuts

1 egg

1 egg for glazing

(silver food colouring)

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.

2. Add sugar,salt and egg and mix well.

3. Start adding flour gradually.

4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.

5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense as the cake will be too dry and hard after baking.

6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.

7. Preheat the oven to 200C / 390F.
8. Mix together Nutella, nuts and egg.
9. Roll dough into an oval shape, about 10 mm thick.
10. Spread the Nutella filling in the middle.
11. Roll the cake carefully into a sausage shape and make "knots" in boths ends.
12. Let the cake rise for about half an hour.
13. When risen, cut a hole in the middle of the cake so that part of the filling can be seen.
14. Glaze the "Haggis" with egg and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
15. When cooled down, brush the "knots" with silver food colouring.
16. Listen to bagpipe music and have a slice of Haggis with your Scottish Blend (tea, that is)!

My Haggis Cake turned up too flat. I expected it to rise more in the oven but it didn't. The shape should have been more like a ball than a flat tyre. (Maybe somebody ate all the delicious liver and other intestines when I was not watching and that is why I got such a flat Haggis?) 

- Flat or not, I do recommend this recipe, especially if you are a Nutella fan! Just leave out the Scottish flag.

Cake #25 - Battenberg Cake

Monday Mood Cake - "Girly" Battenberg Cake.

After a nice weekend with a friend, girl friend, I still felt girly on Monday. Seeing and touching numerous princess dresses in numerous shops (like in the Disney Store in Dublin where my friend looked for a dress for her 5-year-old daughter) made me feel a little sad, too (in a good way, though - you know what I mean), because my younger princess just turned 12 and has a good while been interested in teenage stuff rather than princess dresses. At her age I still played with my Barbies.

Inside we can still be princesses. As long as we like. And what the best, we can always bake and eat as many pink and glittery cakes as we like. Even when I am in an old folks home I would love to eat pink cake - mashed, maybe, but still pink and glittery. 

Darn, now that I write this, I remember recently buying some edible gold dust and I could have sprinkled some on this cake! Better save it in case they run out of glitter in the old folks home as the golden olden years may come sooner than I ever can imagine.

Battenberg Cake

250 g butter

300 ml granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3 eggs

500 ml plain flour

1,5 tsp baking powder

100 ml cream

1 tsp red food colouring

Raspberry jam

300 ml icing sugar + 2 tbps water

Red food colouring (or red and blue to make the icing purple)

Marshmallows, sprinkles, gold and silver pearls, gold dust...

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 F) and grease and flour (I use dried and ground breadcrumbs) two loaf pans.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients.

3. Cream together butter and sugar.

4. Add eggs and mix well.

5. Add the dry ingredients and cream.

6. Divide the dough in half and colour the other half with red food colouring to make it pink.

7. Pour the dough into the loaf pans.

8. Bake in the oven for 35-30 minutes until solid in the middle.

9. Let cool completely on a rack.

10. Remove the loafs from the pans and cut off the crust except leave on the ones to be the bottom of the cake.
11. Cut the loafs into long rectangles of equal size. I was able to get 9 to make it a 3 x 3 cake.
12. Take 2 tbsp of raspberry jam, add 2 tbsp of water and heat up in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, then mix well. This will be the "glue".
13. "Glue" together your rectangles and press the cake gently but firmly on each side to make the parts stick together.
14. Mix the icing of icing sugar, water and food colouring and spread evenly on the cake.
15. Garnish with "girly stuff" and enjoy in a girly company wearing a crown! (a Burger King one will suit fine)

Cake #24 - Victoria Sandwich

Sunday Classic Cake - Victoria Sandwich.

I walk on the beach. I can feel that the summer is gone but the wind is not harsh yet. It is gentle. Like the sand I walk on. All sounds are gentle, too. A distant dog barking. A child playing with water. The soft and gentle wind on my hair. I can smell the sea and I can hear it, too. The sea is saying me something. I walk closer to hear.. and I hear the sea saying me gently:

- It is time to go home. Go home. Go home and bake a cake...cake...cake....

In the village, before going home, I go to the little flower market to see if they have any raspberries. None. But they have fresh strawberries. Tiny and so sweet. Perfect shape, each and every strawberry in the box I buy. I pay and say thank you, and when I am at the gate I turn around and say to the man at the market:

- It is time to go home. Go home. Go home and bake a cake...cake...cake....

Victoria Sandwich

Sponge

200 g soft butter

200 g granulated sugar

4 eggs

200 g self-raising flour

1,5 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cream or milk

400 g fresh strawberries

300 ml fresh cream

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 F) and grease and flour (I use dried and ground breadcrumbs) a Ø 24 cm cake pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients.

3. Cream together butter and sugar.

4. Add eggs and mix well.

5. Add the dry ingredients and cream or milk.

6. Pour the mixture into the pan. 

7. Bake in the oven for 35-30 minutes until solid in the middle.

8. Let cool completely on a rack.

9. Whip the cream together with sugars.

10. Cut the sponge in half.

11. Spread half of the whipped cream on the bottom layer, then place the strawberries on the cream and on top of the strawberries the rest of the cream.

12. Place carefully the other half of the cake on the filled half. Do not press - otherwise the cream and strawberries will come out...

13. Finally, sift icing sugar on top.

14. Stay home and eat the cake, cake, cake...

Cake #23 - Brie and Thyme Cake

Savoury Saturday Cake - Brie and Thyme Cake.

I had recently bought a few pots of herbs - parsley, basil, thyme and coriander. The smell of them now fill my kitchen and, unfortunately, not always in a good way. For some reason placing a pot of thyme beside a pot of basil has created an odour similar to cat pee and as we do have two cats I may have blamed the poor felines once or twice - although they are two responsible and mature adult cats who never pee in places where they should not. At least I believe so. Or want to believe so.

Now I wanted to use the thyme for something. My sons see red when they see green. Not that they would be colour-blind but they just hate fresh herbs. So no lamb stew with thyme,  too obvious. Pizza with thyme? No. 

Then I got the idea of hiding some thyme inside a cake together with some junks of Brie cheese. I combined some basic recipes and managed to create a savoury sweetish cake which I will definitely bake again some time! Yummy in everybody's tummy.

You can enjoy it with slices of parma ham and olives to get the savoury taste come through. Or you can enjoy it with some apple sauce or black cherry jam to jump to the sweeter side. 

Brie and Thyme Cake

150 g soft butter

100 ml demerara sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp salt

400 ml plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

50 ml milk

250 g Brie cheese, sliced 

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped

1. Heat the oven to 175 C / 350 F and grease and flour a Ø 24 cm springform pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients.

3. Cream together butter and sugar.

4. Add eggs and mix well.

5. Add the dry ingredients and milk.

6. Pour half of the mixture into the pan. 

7. Place the Brie slices on the dough, add honey drop by drop and then sprinkle the chopped thyme.

8. Pour the rest of the dough evenly into the pan so that it covers the cheese slices.

9. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes.

10. Let cool before removing from pan.

11. Serve with meats and olives as a savoury snack or with jam as a sweet one. We enjoyed the cake for brunch.