the CAKE thread

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

This is the place for celebration of all things cakey, showing off your cakey creations and discussion of the mighty Duff Goldman and his oeuvre.

[bronze]

I'm rubbish at making cakes but I'm very good at eating them
Cake is to me what chocolate is to a lot of people.

Anyone needing a tester is welcome here

[Dandelion]

My eye has just strayed to the 'similar topic' column to the left, and has picked up 'Liver cake'. On clicking on this delicacy I discover that the ingredients are:

1lb (0.5kg) ox liver
2 eggs
tablespoon each olive oil and milk
small clove of garlic (optional but good for keeping fleas at bay)
1lb (0.5kg) plain flour

Fleas??? Than I discover it's from a dog rescue website!!

Liver cake aside, I think homemade cakes are very important for showing people that you love them.

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

Liver cake sounds rather like my Blood Loaf, which, strangely enough has a curiously sweet and dessert-like quality to it.

[Lakshmi]

Many british people find my cakes "not sweet enough".
they are made for continental taste and I rarely bother with icing.

[Dandelion]

I've just made a cake because DD2 is home for the weekend. I'm a very lazy cake maker - I have a tray bake recipe which is cooked in a small roasting tin, and is made in the food processor and use this all the time. It's such a reliable recipe that you can have fun changing the flavours and adding extras (haven't tried it with liver!)

BASIC TRAY BAKE
1. Line a small roasting tin (10"x7") with greaseproof paper
2. Pre heat the oven to gas mark 4 (350F 180C)
3. Mix together (either in the food processor or with a food mixer)
6oz butter or margarine
6oz caster sugar (granulated works fine too)
6oz SR flour seived with a teaspoon of baking powder
3 eggs
Whisk for three minutes until pale and creamy.
4.Spread mixture into the tin and bake for half an hour, until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
Ice or top with jam; cut into 12 - 16 pieces. It freezes well (freeze before icing), and a piece can be heated in the microwave for 20 seconds and eaten with custard for pudding!
I made cherry and almond today - I added 3oz of glace cherries before mixing, and a teaspoon of almond essence with the eggs. I sprinkled flaked almonds over the top before it went in the oven.

[Adrian]

Inspired by this thread and a 10 doz egg surplus..

Banana Muffins

Feed the eyes first they teach you in cooking school! When it comes to presentation these tasty crumbly top banana muffins are sure to be a hit!
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup vegetable oil/canola oil
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and the oil. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups.

3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Makes 12 Good Sized Muffins

[Dandelion]

Does All Purpose Flour = Self raising Flour? I wondered what the US/Canadian for SR flour was when I was writing out my recipe.

[Adrian]

All purpose flour is your regular ordinary flour and self raising is known here as Cake and Pastry flour

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

Had a visitor last week who was gulten-reactive so got gluten-free flour. It makes super light and fluffy cake.

[Jaded Green]

Planning a bit of baking here this afternoon. Starting with egg and dairy free tea bread and possibly a chocolate cake.

[Adrian]

I have a massive egg surplus at the moment - so got an egg rich Victoria sponge in the oven as we speak..

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

The red velvet bear cake, and its proud owner.

[Dandelion]

Lovely cake and lovely photo!!

[Dandelion]

A question about cake making equipment - are there any health concerns about baking using silicon moulds? To someone brought up to use metal tins, using what looks like rubber feels so...wrong! I have a silicon steamer which fits on the top of a saucepan for steaming vegetables, and I have managed not to melt it yet, but I'm not entirely convinced.

[polgara]

Read somewhere that for at least a few bakes they taste a bit & are not too much good with light & fluffy cakes but not bad with heavier cakes. Think Billy may come in on this.

[AngelinaJellyBeana]

Awww lovely pictures of Maxwell

Red velvet cake sounds interesting

Dandelion, I can't get my head round silicone cake moulds either, although I have seen some lovely pink ones, it seems so wrong to put them in the oven. I do, however, have a silicone spatula that I love, it's perfect for scraping all the last little bits of cake mix from the bowl.

I made Nigella's fab dense chocolate cake the other day and today I'm making a chilli chocolate cake for a friend's 50th birthday. I've candied some chillis and now I just need to find a good fudge icing recipe then I will decorate it with the candied chillis

[AngelinaJellyBeana]

[mr_sfstk8d]

WOW!! Chili-splosion!!!!

[AngelinaJellyBeana]

oh and before covering it with the fudge icing I poked holes in the cake and poured over some of the chilli flavoured sugar syrup that was left from doing the candied chillies

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

Hmmm attempt one of unicorn not going too well. I carved a good torso and head in two pieces and they fixed together quite well. Then I made the legs and it was all looking pretty good. affixed the legs on one side and realised tehre was no way it was going to support itself so slid some thin rigid wire throuh the legs into the body with enough 'foot' to anchor it to the cake. Then the legs fell apart. Have taken all off again and remolded but cracks oepning up and will not hold purchase on the body. Am having another attempt using layers of chocolate as glue. If it can stay together until the fondant is on that should tighten it all up a bit.


Oh and GvR has just popped in and pointed out the unicorn is slightly bigger than the top tier of cake. Buggerance.

[Dandelion]

Two suggestions - Mr D said could you do the unicorn in relief on top of the cake? And I was going to suggest that you had the unicorn rearing up against the side of the cake, so the cake acts as a support - who says the decoration has to be on the top??

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

I did think about the mounting the cake angle, Dandelion - but I have not baked the cake parts yet and it would need to be built to fit I think. Am going to do the cakes this evening and make all the faeries (had completely forgotten about them, but they should be realtively straightforward) and ice tomorrow.

Second attempt at the unicorn assembly has gone much better (touch wood). I resculpted the legs around the wire pieces then affixed them one at a time using loads of cooking chocolate as glue between and painted over the joins in multiple layers and cooled in teh fridge between each so it is set hard, supported by more bits of wire to keep the shape until set. I have gone for a three legs down, one leg cocked pose rather than rearing on hind legs because that was just not happening at all. Have just affixed the airborne leg - this is the tricky one as it is unsupported but we shall see. For some reason all the weight bearing legs are quite selnder and the unsupported one looks like a turkey drumstick. I was originally intending to do the fine sculpting once it was all assembled but it occurs to me now that having coated the thing in chocolate for stability, I can't really start paring bits away without compromising the structural integrity.
Hmmm. Where's Duff when I need him.
Never mind, It looks vaguely horsey, and once it is coated in fondant it will look, um... white. Or murky brown as the fondant and chocalte merge.
I think the problem is I built it too big. I should have done it about 4 or 5 inches long. Not 12. Hahaha. Bollocks.


Once the front leg has hardened up I will take a picture so you can see the work in progress (in case it collapses altogether before it is done).

On a plus point, the unicorn pinata arrived.

Next dilemma is this:
the order is for the bottom tier to be strawberry, then vanilla then chocolate. That's not too tricky, but I am slightly concerned about making a fresh strawberry and cream filling two days ahead of the party. I suspect th strawberries will suffer and being the bottom layer, if they start leaching water into the cream the whole bottom layer will slump a bit, causing the fondant to buckle on the outside... What does the panel think?

[Wilhelm Von Rhomboid]

okay, so this is where we are at so far. Slender waist and carthorse thighs. Going to whittle down that flying leg next because it look absurd.

[mr_sfstk8d]

Well, it's a bit like a standard poodle at the moment, what with the bumpy finish. But I'm sure that with the fondant coating and a magic horn, it will look ethaerially equine soon enough!

I'd rather agree about the strawberries. Once they begin to dessicate, it may mush the bottom layer rather like a strawberry shortcake that's been put into the fridge. Could you perhaps partially candy them a bit before, to displace some of the water with sugar first? Might that not help with the excess water run off? Just a thought. Blanched then soaked for a while in a super saturated simple syrup. Perhaps even a short lay out in the dehydrator to draw off some of the water. Kind of depends on just how "fresh" the strawberries are expected to be in the finished product.

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