Cake #89 - Date and Time Cake

Tuesday Humour Cake - Date and Time Cake.

Had I dared to be more experimental, this would have been Date and Thyme Cake. I do suspect the family had appreciated that kind of experiment much. This cake with dates and white chocolate they loved.

Date and Time Cake

300 g butter
400 ml granulated sugar
4 eggs
600 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150 g chopped dates
150 ml cream

100 g white chocolate, melted

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F) and grease and flour a Ø 23 cm cake pan.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and chopped dates in a bowl.
3. Cream together butter and sugar.
4. Mix in eggs.
5. Add the dry ingredients together with the cream and mix well.
6. Bake the cake in the oven for 45-50 minutes and let cool on a rack before removing from the pan and piping the white chocolate on it,

Cake #88 - Sand Cake

Monday Mood Cake - Sand Cake

Dull, flat, grey mid-November. Sun and the beach!?

Never mind. I am patiently waiting for the summer, sun and the beach. Not going to Malta nor to Italia.

You can find the recipe for this cake here. No fork needed when eating it.

Potato starch is not easy to find in Ireland. This bag I bought at Oriental Emporium on Abbey St, Dublin 1. You can replace potato starch with cornstarch.

Cake #87 - Ellen Svinhufvud Cake

Sunday Classic Cake - Ellen Svinhufvud Cake.

Almond Meringue Cake with Coffee Buttercream and Toasted Almond Flakes.

Ellen Svinhufvud (1861-1953) was the wife of Finland's 3rd president, Pehr Evind Svinhufvud. History tells that Mrs Svinhufvud loved this almond meringue cake, made by Konditoria Stella, and the confectionary later named the cake Ellen Svinhufvud Cake after her.

Dress up (do not forget a hat with feathers!) and enjoy this cake on a Sunday afternoon. Serve coffee in golden cups and preferably speak Swedish. Cheers, ma'am! 

Ellen Svinhufvud Cake

Base
6 egg whites
350 ml icing sugar
150 g ground almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 125 С / 250 F.
2. Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.
3. Beat egg whites until firm adding icing sugar gradually.
4. Fold in ground almond.
5. Divide the batter evenly into 4 parts and spread each part into a rectangular about 20 cm x 30 cm, 5 mm thick.
6. Bake in the oven for about 90 minutes.
7. Let cool down on a rack.

Coffee Buttercream Filling
150 ml strong coffee
3 tbsp sugar
150 ml cream
100 g finely-ground almond
300 g soft butter

Topping
80 g toasted almond flakes
Icing sugar

1. Dissolve sugar in hot coffee and mix in cream. Let cool.
2. Beat butter until light and fluffy and then gradually pour in coffee with cream.
3. Fold in ground almonds.
4. To assemble the cake, spread the filling on the first layer, the cover with the second layer and top with filling, repeat.
5. Top the upper layer and sides of the cake with the filling.
6. Cover the cake with toasted almond flakes and finally sieve some icing sugar on top. Garnish, for example, with a fondant or marzipan rose.

Cake #86 - Courgette and Serrano Ham Cake

Savoury Saturday Cake - Courgette and Serrano Ham Cake, Served with Poached Egg.

I baked this cake only because I had just learned how to make a perfect poached egg and I needed a cake to go with one so  I could show you my new skill. It would have been a bit awkward to upload a picture of a single poached egg, wouldn't it? This is a cake challenge in a baking blog, after all.

By the way, the cake was very good! Even without the egg it would have been. It would not have looked that good, though, as the bright and nicely runny yolk made it more appealing. - Agree? I knew you would.

Courgette and Serrano Ham Cake

225 g grated courgette
½ tsp salt
300 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150 g cream cheese
100 ml rapeseed oil
80 g serrano ham, chopped
2 tsp dried herbs, I used parsley and basil

1. Grease and flour a Ø 20 cm springform  pan and preheat the oven to 175 C / 375 F.
2. Mix flour, salt and baking powder together.
2. Lightly whisk the eggs, milk and olive oil together in a jug.
3. Pour the liquid onto the dry ingredients and fold in.
4. Add the serrano ham and herbs together with the grated courgette.
6. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes.
7. Serve warm with poached eggs and serrano ham slices.

Cake #85 - Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cake

Friends First Friday Cake - Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cake.

For the Irish weather! I love you most of the time - pouring rain many days in a row can be truly inspirational but please give me a break every once and a while. 

'What an ugly cake' was my first thought when I got the pan out of the oven. 'What a truly ugly cake' was my second thought when I placed the cake on a plate and started taking pictures of it. 

But. Never judge a cake before a third thought! And first bite.

The cake looks dry but it was very moist in a nice way - not soaking wet like the Irish weather that day.

The cake looks dull and grey but it did look very appealing in real life - much more colourful than the Irish sky that day.

The cake was very tasty - far more tastier than the Irish rain water that day.

Note to self: if you think your cake looks dull, think about a grey day with pouring rain and have another look after that.

The recipe is from here. As I made a cake instead of muffins, I used a 23 cm x 23 cm square pan and baked the cake in 175 C / 375 F for about 40 minutes.

Cake #84 - Ice Cream Cat

Thursday Cat Theme Cake - Ice Cream Cat.

I do not like making cat faces on cakes because I can never get them look lively or lovely or soulful. Every now and then I try and every time the end result is just about like this one I created now. 

Which is good. Because if I ever managed to create a gorgeous and lively cat face on a cake I  could not eat it as cats are to be admired and worshipped, not to be eaten. [I am not mentioning Chinese food here, no.] Cakes, instead, are to be eaten!

Pastry

150 g butter

4 tbsp granulated sugar

350 ml plain flour

1 egg

1. Mix all ingredients together in a food processor and refrigerate for at least half an hour.

2. Divide the pastry into two balls.

3. Roll each ball into a circle, about Ø 28cm and cut the edges nicely. Use the leftovers for making the cat's ears.

4. Preheat the oven to 175 C / 350 F and bake the bases for 15-20 minutes.
5. Let cool before decorating.

I used white chocolate, milk chocolate and sprinkles for making the cat's edible face, Just before serving I scooped vanilla ice cream on the bottom layer of the cake and lifted the decorated one on top. 

Remember to eat this cake fast as the ice cream will melt in no time!

Cake #83 - Date and Walnut Cake

Wednesday Natural Ingredient / Healthy Cake - Date and Walnut Cake with Honey and Banana.

Banana cakes represent me autumn. Simply because when my younger daughter was born it was September, and a few weeks before she was actually born I started keeping bananas in the house to take some for me and The Husband to the hospital as an easy and nutritious snack when the time would come. It was a very warm autumn, back then in 2002, and the bananas got overripe too fast so I had to start making something (cakes, obviously) of the overripe ones - and keep buying new ones for the time to come. She was born one week before her due date but still it was a good few banana cakes I baked!

Date cakes, again, represent me Christmas because they remind me of the traditional Christmas Date Cake which I always bake for Christmas and which I already baked in September as cake #31 for this challenge .

In mid-November it is not quite Christmas yet but not autumn any more, either. I am definitely getting into Christmas mood more and more. So let this cake, made of both bananas and dates, be a rite of passage. A cake not autumny any more but not quite Christmassy yet. Until tomorrow comes and Christmas lights are set up all around the house. 

Recipe for this gooey cake is from here.