Cake #76 - Bilberry Crumble Cake

Wednesday Natural Ingredient / Healthy Cake - Bilberry Crumble Cake.

Mystery Box ingredient used: dried bilberries.

They may be bilberries but I am not the only one calling them blueberries or wild blueberries. Just the way it was taught in English classes in primary school. Strawberry, raspberry, lingonberry, blueberry... 

Old habits die hard. Maybe I just call it the blue berry, to make it easier.

Bilberry Crumble Cake

Batter
200 g soft butter
200 ml  sugar
3 eggs
1  tsp vanilla extract
200 ml flour
2 tsp baking powder
150 ml Greek yogurt
50 g dried bilberries

Crumble
200 ml muscovado sugar
100 ml plain flour
100 ml rolled oats
100 g butter

1. Preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F.
2. Grease and flour a 1 kg loaf pan.
3. Cream together butter and sugar.
4. Add eggs and vanilla.
5. Beat in flour, baking powder and bilberries together with yogurt
6. Pour into pan and spread evenly.
7. Put all ingredients for the crumble  in a bowl and mix until it is crumbly.
8. Sprinkle on top of the cake.
9. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes and let cool before removing from pan.
10. Serve with Greek yogurt spiced with vanilla and mint.

Cake #75 - Happy Lemon

Tuesday Humour Cake - Happy Lemon.

Mystery Box ingredient used: white chocolate with a taste of lemon.


I love reading quotes. Especially witty ones. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they do not.

You probably know too well this one related to lemons:

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

But how about these ones:

If life gives you lemons, don’t settle for simply making lemonade – make a glorious scene at a lemonade stand.

When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.

When life gives you lemons, ask why not limes.

When life gives you lemons, bite them and make a funny face.

If life gives you melons, you might be dyslexic.

However, this time I am going to stick to this wonderful quote:

When life gives you lemon chocolate, bake a cake!

***

For the cake I baked two small sponges. The lemon slice is covered with melted lemon chocolate and decorated with yellow icing. The rest is covered with a mixture of whipped cream, cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and yellow food colouring. Simple, fresh taste. Happy Lemon!

Cake #74 - Licorice Rocky Road Cake

Monday Mood Cake - Licorice Rocky Road Cake.

Feeling grateful for thoughtful friends.

The postman brought me a surprise parcel this morning from a dear friend in Finland and it really made my day as the day did not only start as a Monday but the Monday after the kids' mid-term break which is always an extra effort to get things going smoothly again.

The parcel was a really inspirational Mystery Box. To be honest, that friend of mine had hinted earlier that she might at some point send me some dried wild mushrooms she had picked herself but the rest really was a surprise and an overwhelming one, too. Thank you again, Inari!

I have always loved those cooking programmes (for example Chopped) on TV where the contestants open a Mystery Box and then they have to cook something from scratch using the ingredients in the box. Of course they do have access to some basic kitchen cupboard stuff like flour and oil and tomato puree. I find that very entertaining and inspiring, and challenging, too. Not only what the contestants actually end up making but the way they approach the ingredients in the box - if they want to play it safe or take a small or bigger risk.

So now that I got a Mystery Box of my own, I am so going to entertain you by challenging myself and use the ingredients in the box for my cakes this week.

In the box there were the following goodies:

- wild mushrooms (porcinis and funnel chanterelles)
- milk chocolate
- white chocolate with lemon taste
- dried bilberries
- almond crocant crush
- crushed pepper candies
- licorice bars with lemon filling, blueberry-raspberry filling and wild strawberry filling

I decided to start with the licorice bars with blueberry-raspberry filling (the Moomin ones) and wild strawberry filling (the Angry Birds ones) as my elder daughter had some time ago suggested that I should bake a Rocky Road cake with licorice, and these bars looked more than suitable for such a cake!

To make it a cake instead of just Rocky Road, I baked a gooey base first.

After the base had cooled down, I topped it with chopped licorice, mini marshmallows and walnuts and then covered it with milk chocolate and put it in the fridge for an hour to set. 

The cake really turned out nice. Gooey and chewy as I wanted it to be and you could taste the berrylicious licorice well which was my aim. These Finnish licorice bars really rule!

Licorice Rocky Road Cake

Base
150 g butter
150 ml soft brown sugar
100 ml granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 egg
100 g milk chocolate, melted
300 ml plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Rocky Road Filling
200 g milk chocolate, melted
100 g (your favourite) licorice, chopped
100 g mini marshmallows
50 g walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C / 350 F.
2. Cream together butter and sugars.
3. Add yolks and egg and mix well.
4. Mix together flour and baking powder and add to the butter-sugar-egg mix together with the melted chocolate.
5. Line a square cake pan 23 cm x 23 cm with baking paper. My favourite way to do this is to wet a piece of baking paper and crumple it into a ball to get rid of the excess water and make it softer so it is easier to line the form.
6. Spoon the batter evenly in the pan and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. The base needs to be left a little sticky.
7. Let the base cool but do not remove it from the pan.
8. Spread some melted chocolate on the base and then evenly licorice, marshmallows and walnuts. Pour the rest of the chocolate on top evenly and press a little.
9. Place the pan in the fridge for an hour before serving.

Cake #73 - Pavlova

Sunday Classic Cake - Pavlova.

Light and fluffy. Elegant. Classy.

The Husband was cooking Chili con Carne for Sunday dinner, and he baked baguettes, too, so I thought I would not bake anything heavy for my Sunday cake. Pavlova seemed like the perfect choice and it was one, too! 

Pavlova reminds me of Pavlov. Which reminds me that I have not told you about the Pavlovian conditioning happening in my family. Nowadays, whenever a family member sees me holding a bowl in my hand (I may be emptying the dishwasher and therefore holding one) they eagerly ask me what cake (note, cake - they always say cake) I am baking today and when it is ready. This did not happen before my 365 Cakes / 365 Days challenge. I have always baked a lot but not until now the family has been madly interested in my bakings other than the edible results nicely set in front of them, and certainly the default has not been cake, but cookies, buns, donuts.

What will happen after the last cake for this challenge is baked?

The recipe for this Pavlova Cake is from here. Instead of berries, I used canned peaches and pears, and fresh pineapple, pomegranate seeds and bananas. 

Cake #72 - Potato and Bacon Pancake

Savoury Saturday Cake - Potato and Bacon Pancake.

Mashed potato can sometimes be endless. Luckily in our family it very rarely is but when it is, there is plenty of it. Leftovers, that is. The reason for it can be The Husband by accident peeling too many potatoes (unlike me he does not mind peeling potatoes - I would never-ever peel even one too many) but nowadays more often the reason is the teenagers of the family being elsewhere at dinner time. Elsewhere - like out for dinner with their boy/girlfriends and telling us five minutes before dinner is ready: "BTW I'm not eating home tonight".

On Saturday we had, for one reason or another - probably both - loads of leftover mash. Earlier that week I had already baked bread of previous leftover mash so I wanted to make something else like... cake? Why not. 

Ages ago I had made small potato pancakes on a crepe pan. This giant one I baked in the oven in a springform cake pan. We enjoyed it for Saturday evening snack and the few leftover slices for Sunday brunch. Without the bacon it would go well with jam, too, as a semi-sweet snack. Worth trying - as it is easy and a very affordable dish, too.

Potato and Bacon Pancake

300 ml mashed potatoes

250 ml milk

2 eggs

250 ml plain flour

½ tsp salt

50 g butter, melted

100g chopped and cooked bacon

1. Preheat the oven 225 C / 430 F and grease a Ø 30 cm springform cake pan.

2. Separate egg whites from yolks.

3. Beat egg yolks until fluffy.

4. Add milk, flour, salt and melted butter to the beaten egg yolks and mix well to make a smooth batter.

5. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold carefully into the batter.

6. Pour the batter into the cake pan, then sprinkle the chopped bacon on top,

7. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

8. Enjoy warm with salad, baked beans...

Cake #71 - Sea Buckthorn Mousse Cake

Friends First Friday Cake - Sea Buckthorn Mousse Cake.

To our friend Halloween for bringing brightness and colours in the middle of rain and darkness! 

Sea buckthorn is the perfect berry for Halloween for its colour and for its rich vitamin C content (darkness!). I have found frozen sea buckthorn berries in some of the Eastern European shops in Dublin and the price has been about 4 € / 500 g.

As the seeds in the berries are relatively big and hard (they are healthy, though), the best way to use sea buckthorn in a cake like this is to sieve the berries and then use the nectar you get.

Sea Buckthorn Mousse Cake

Crust
150 g Digestive cookies, crumbed
75 g butter, melted

Filling
8 gelatine leaves
500 ml fresh cream
150 ml granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
100 ml sea buckthorn nectar
3 egg whites

Jelly
4 gelatine leaves
300 ml sea buckthorn nectar
50 ml water
100 ml granulated sugar

1. Mix the digestive cookie crumbs and melted butter.  Press the mixture into the bottom of a Ø 23 cm springform pan, base covered with baking parchment. Let the crust cool and rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
2. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
3. Whip the cream together with sugar and vanilla sugar.
4. Heat up the sea buckthorn nectar and melt the soaked gelatine leaves in it. 
5. Let cool a little and then pour the smooth liquid into the whipped cream and mix well.
6. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them very gently into the cream trying to keep it ‘airy’.
7. Pour the filling on the crust and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
8. In the meantime make the jelly for the cake.
9. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes.
11. Heat up 50 ml water and melt the gelatine leaves in it and mix in the sugar and sea buckthorn nectar.
12. Pour on top of the cake and put the cake back into the fridge for at least 2 hours so that the jelly is completely set.
13. Remove the firm cake from the pan very carefully and place on a serving plate. 
14. Enjoy - not only the taste but the colour therapy, too!

Cake #70 - Happy Halloween

Thursday Cat Theme Cake - Happy Halloween aka Cat Litter Box Cake.

Mixed feelings having a cat litter box placed on your table? Even when you know it is a cake? 

Get real, it is just a delicious chocolate cake with whipped cream and crushed sweets on top.

I find this cake hilarious. I made my first ever litter box cake in 2005 and every time I make it I find it hilarious. Again and again. Even The Husband does. There are no cinnamon sticks, though.

Just want you to know that last year when my daughters made some cat poops of gingerbread dough and then placed them on the dining room carpet, I did not find it hilarious at all. So I really must have a weird sense of humour, right?

The base is a thin chocolate cake, on top there is a layer of whipped cream and then crushed Bull's Eyes sweets. The solids are made of chocolate cake softened with cream and some black food colouring, and the yellow liquid parts are syrup.