Sacher Tortelets

Disclaimer: I am not claiming even for a second to have nailed the original Sachertorte recipe.  What follows is merely an homage to a cake not only riddled with childhood memories, but possibly one of the most delicious and elegant I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

Sacher Tortelets (makes 12)

Ingredients as for my chocolate cupcakes

plus

Apricot jam

200g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)

Following the method for my chocolate cupcakes, prepare the mix and spoon into cupcake cases, filling them half way. Then add a teaspoon of the apricot jam and cover with a final dollop of the chocolate cake mixture.

Bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack before carefully removing the paper cases.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and while it is still runny, dip the tortelets in upside down, coating the entire cake, except for the bottom.  Carefully place on a plate and into the fridge to set the melted chocolate.

Once the chocolate has set, remove from the fridge and serve at room temperature with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.

I was very happy with how these guys turned out.  Despite being dairy-free and with a ground almond base, which I'm sure a genuine Sacher is not, they actually tasted very similar to how I remember a Sachertorte should taste.  The slightly bitter dark chocolate coating is a welcome contrast to the sweetness of the apricot jam and although the chocolate should not technically be completely hard, I like the way it securely holds these little tortelets together, snapping ever so satisfyingly as you take a bite...

Recipe Revealed ~ The Most Delicious Dairy-Free Chocolate Cupcakes I've Ever Eaten

So I promised you the recipe for my insanely deliciously dense chocolate cupcakes (no dairy!)... Here it is. Get ready.

~ Chocolate Cupcakes (dairy-free) ~

50g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

30g cocoa powder

140g golden caster sugar

a pinch of salt

1 egg

200ml coconut milk (half a can)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

For the frosting:

Whipped coconut milk and cocoa frosting

or

300g icing sugar, sifted

100g dairy-free spread/goats butter

40g cocoa powder, sifted

40ml rice milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Line a cupcake tray and set aside.

In a bowl, sift together all dry ingredients and mix well.

In another bowl, combine wet ingredients.

Slowly add wet bowl to dry bowl and mix well until fully incorporated.

Spoon mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 mins (I like mine to have a bit of a gooey fondant-esque centre so I take them out after 15 mins.  If you like yours well done, bake for 20 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean).

A few words on frosting:  Dairy-free frosting can be tricky.  If you are substituting butter for a dairy-free alternative (which tend to have more of a soft margarine-like consistency) it can be much harder to achieve a firm frosting that keeps its shape once piped.  Make sure you refrigerate the frosting for a good hour or two before attempting to pipe, or alternatively, simply slather it on, Hummingbird Bakery style.  If you're using goats butter, the consistency will be fine, as if you were using regular butter, but watch out for a very subtle goaty kick!  I personally don't mind this, and if you're the kind of person who likes cream cheese frosting, you probably won't even notice.  Another option for frosting, my current favourite in fact, has a whipped coconut milk base (see above link for recipe).  You'll need to have a bit of foresight for this though as the opened, unshaken can of coconut milk needs to be in the fridge overnight to get sufficiently firm.  No impromptu cupcake baking with this method I'm afraid.

So there you have it my friends.  My secret recipe is out.  Spread the love.  Sharing is caring.  And above all, enjoy!

Actually Really Healthy Cupcakes

While most of us girls begin a new year with ambitious goals of health and fitness, all those Christmas feasts usually equal a stretched out stomach that insatiably screams to be fed for weeks after, making it very hard to curb the apetite... That, and certain Bourbon Custard recipes popping up on my reader...

And so it was on this grey afternoon, unable to shake that permanently peckish feeling, I gave in and made a batch of cupcakes.  However, having just seen a pretty healthy recipe over at Jennifer Casa's blog I was determined satisfy my cravings and do my body a favour at the same time.

Using Jennifer's recipe as a vague guide (omitting the yoghurt as my son is allergic to dairy), I came up with the following recipe which is not only delicious but really is packed with super healthy ingredients and not a gram of crap.  As most of the ingredients are wet, I have done the measurements in cups as opposed to weight.

~ Peanut Butter Cacao Cupcakes ~

1 egg

1/3 cup manuka honey (ultra antibacterial and immune system boosting)

1/3 cup agave nectar (honey-like syrup, very low GI, even ok for diabetics)

1/3 cup rapeseed oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup self raising flour

1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter or almond butter even better

2 tbsp ground flax

1/3 cup raw cacao nibs (insane health benefits)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Mix all wet ingredients in a bowl.

Sift in flour and incorporate.  

Mix in the peanut/almond butter, flax and cacao.

Spoon the mixture into 12 cupcake cases and bake for 15 mins.

Eat while still warm... and don't feel too bad about having another!

10 Days In The Life Of Herman

10 days ago my neighbour gave me a little tupperware containing "Herman" - a sourdough cake mix that has been fermenting, growing, being divided and passed on since I really don't know when.  Apparently these things can keep going for years.  As long as the batter is kept "alive" - at room temperature, stirred every day, added to on days 4 & 9, then divided into 4 equal parts, 3 of which are then passed on to friends and the remaining quarter kept, added to a little more and baked.  It's basically a batter consisting of flour, sugar and milk.  The milk ferments and that's what makes it bubble, what gives it that stench (which I've actually come to quite like now), and what essentially makes it a sourdough batter.

So I did my bit, loving the process - I always love to prolong any project with a process - waking each morning to see how my little Herman was bubbling and expanding, talking it up at the school gates to get some potential takers for Herman's next foster home.  And so, yesterday, three quarters of the litre of Herman I ended up with went on their way to three loving mothers, and this morning I completed the final stage of my task...

Adding yet more flour, sugar, eggs, oil, apples, sultanas, cinnamon, etc Herman was transformed from a putrid, bubbling slurp to a mouth watering, appropriately Autumnal, apple sourdough cake!

But what I want to know is, where did he get the name Herman??

Chain Cake

Maybe it's because All Hallow's Eve is upon us, but bizarre things are going over here...

In the early hours of this morning, my neighbour popped over and handed me, rather frantically, a tupperware holding a smelly, putrid "cake-mix" called Herman.  Yes, apparently this cake-mix is alive and male.

She explained that this was a chain cake: same idea as a chain email - pass it on to 10 friends or you get nothing but bad sex for the rest of your life - but with a chain cake someone makes the original mix, divides it into four (keeps one 1/4 and passes the other three on), the recipients add to the mix and stir it for a handful of days, divide it and pass it on... I have no idea how long ago the mother-mix was conceived, and judging by the bubbles my little Herman is producing, this cake-mix is most definitely alive; and going by the stink...  undoubtedly male.

These are my instructions:

Happy Halloween!

Caramel Apple Steamed Pudding or The Most Delicious Thing I've Ever Made. In My Life. Ever.

For a while now I have been aware of a distinctly fruity theme that seems to be at the heart of my baking.  Something about the way fruit reacts to being cooked, the soft squishyness of it, the way the flavours are dictated by the seasons... The silky smooth marriage of bananas and chocolate, the jewel-like glow of a plum upside-down cake, the sweet tang of baked apples... No surprise then, that my new favourite book is Rustic Fruit Desserts; arranged by season with recipes that make you want to lick the pages.

source

Since getting this book, one recipe has really sucked me in.  Maybe it's just because I love all things Autumnal, and I seem to have an endless supply of delicious Norfolk apples (thanks to a certain culinary friend)... And the Caramel Apple Steamed Pudding certainly did not disappoint.  Essentially an apple upside-down cake, but add to that a pudding mould that has been lined with homemade caramel, apple slices that have been caramelised, and a cake that has been steamed au bain marie for 90 minutes.  The texture reminded me of the sticky toffee puddings I used to have as a child at my Grandparents' house - soft, dense but fluffy (as much as I hate the word, it can only be described as moist), the sticky sweetness  perfectly balanced out by the ever so slightly tart apples.  In fact, it was so delicious that we ate in silent appreciation, with just grunts, groans and mmmm's being the only sounds to escape our lips.

Just When My Last Cake Couldn't Get Any Worse, I Go And Do Something Like This - And Totally Redeem Myself!

Practicing my wheat/gluten/dairy-free cupcake recipe for my son's 3rd birthday party this weekend.

Yuk

Looks delicious.  Smells delicious.  Tastes.  Like.  Shit.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for healthy eating, but there's something about (specifically sweet) Macrobiotic baking that puts me off.  I just don't ever salivate at the thought of things like couscous cake with a creamed tofu carob frosting, for example.

We have this book at home, The Natural Gourmet, which, if I'm in the right mood, is very appealing.  All the talk of elements and biorhythms is right up my street.  And the savoury recipes are genuinely delicious. But today I made the mistake of trying out an Orange and Walnut Loaf Cake recipe from this same book.  I made it so lovingly and entirely by hand, not an electric mixer in sight, and feeling so pleased with myself and how I'd picked a recipe who's "Major Phase" was Earth, apparently perfect for an Indian Summer blah blah blah...  And when it came out of the oven, it looked so perfectly rustic, smelled so fragrant and orangey...  And somehow it tastes like a tasteless gluey crunchy squelch with a hint of orange.  Exactly the kind of thing you'd buy - and quickly regret - in a health food store if you were feeling a bit peckish while paying for your echinacea/wheatgerm/organic cotton tampons.  Oh well.  You live and you learn.  No more hippie baking for me.

Jammy Almond Muffins on a Sunday Afternoon

After a massively salty Sunday lunch of gammon and roast potatoes, we were all left craving something sweet.  Not wanting to go down the heavy road of chocolate or frosting, I came up with a recipe that I think perfectly bridges the gap between fruity, light(ish) Summer baking and richer, Autumnal comfort cakes.  

~ Jammy Almond Muffins ~

110g butter or dairy-free spread

110g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp almond extract

40g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 generous tbsp plum jam (raspberry or apricot would work too)

flaked almonds for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.  Line a muffin tray with 9 muffin cases.

In the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar.

Slowly add in the eggs and almond extract.

Mix in all dry ingredients.

Mix in the jam, and spoon the mixture into the muffin cases.  Sprinkle a few almond flakes over each muffin.

Bake for about 15 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack.

Lavender Angel's Food Cake ~ Recipe

This was my first time baking with lavender, and also my first time baking Angel's Food Cake, so I was a little unsure as to how it would turn out, especially being a relatively improvised recipe.  The result, however, was divine... so deliciously light, and airy, and fragrant, and summery... 

~ Lavender Angel's Food Cake ~

for the cake:

140g plain flour

12 egg whites

1 tbsp warm lavender water (see below)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cream of tartar

300g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

a 25cm ring shaped cake tin, ungreased

for the lavender glaze:

icing sugar

lavender water

for the lavender water:

fill a ramekin with lavender flowers, then add boiling water and allow to steep for an hour or two.

ramekin with lavender flowers steeping in boiling water

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Sift the flour four times, set aside.

Using an electric whisk, beat the egg whites and warm lavender water on a low speed until foamy.

Add in the salt and cream of tartar and increase the speed until you get soft peaks.

Add in the sugar gradually and continue to beat until your mixture is stiff and glossy.

Beat in the vanilla essence.

Using a metal spoon, gently but thoroughly fold in the sifted flour.

Spoon the mixture into the ungreased cake ring, there should be enough to completely fill the tin.

Bake for 35-40 mins, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Now the cake needs to cool for about an hour... upside down. Invert the cake tin over the neck of a bottle.  Don't worry, the cake won't fall out, this is so the cake can cool without sinking down and losing its airy-ness.

my ring tin didn't actually have a hole all the way through, so here it is, balancing quite precariously on the top of a bottle...

Now when the cake has cooled, loosen the sides by running a knife inside the edges and invert onto a wire rack.  It doesn't come out so easily so you need to gently ease it out of the tin without breaking the sponge.

To make the lavender glaze, simply add the rest of the lavender water from the ramekin into a mixing bowl, and slowly go sifting some icing sugar in and mixing until you get a drizzlable glazey consistency.

Drizzle over the top of the cake, and finish by scattering some lavender over the top.

Riot Cake

Unaware of the hideous events that were beginning to unfold, I spent last Monday afternoon blissfully baking away in the safety of my kitchen.  It was only later that evening, boy sound asleep, that I turned on the news as I dusted my Chocolate Zucchini Cake.  Like most Londoners (who weren't either out on the streets or rioting) I spent the best part of Monday night watching the news, calling friends and family in affected areas and packing a just-in-case bag.

paper stars placed on the cake before dusting with icing sugar

Opinions and judgements aside, this last week has made me feel privileged and deeply grateful on so many levels.  The love and support from an unconditionally loving network of family and friends that surrounds me; the wonderful education I feel so lucky to have received; the responsibility and challenge that comes with Motherhood - and the opportunity that brings to pass on values of community and an appreciation of our environment to the next generation.

Any Excuse to Bake

I feel for the poor soul recovering from a major operation with twenty-two banana and chocolate cupcakes sitting in his kitchen.  One thing is for sure, he'll have a lot more working out to do when he's better.  Maybe I should swing by again tomorrow and see if he needs any help polishing them off...

Banana cupcakes with chocolate frosting, recipe courtesy of The Hummingbird Bakery.

Mini Upside-Down Peach Cake

When you love baking, but don't have an army of kids and dogs to feed, things can get a little dangerous... Of course, my one son would be more than happy to inhale an entire cake in an afternoon, but I do feel I have a duty as a parent to restrain his appetite for sugar.  So I end up doing what any loving, responsible mother would do: I cut him a slice, then eat the rest myself.  Like I said, this can get very dangerous.

So this morning at breakfast while I was flicking through my favourite cake book, Cakes To Celebrate Love and Life, which never fails to inspire me, I had an idea.  I'd make a mini-cake.  Substantial enough in its sliceable cake-ness, but small enough not to feel too guilty when you gobble it all up in the name of maternal self-sacrifice.

Mini Upside-Down Peach Cake (dairy free)

3 ripe peaches or nectarines, peeled and sliced

125g plain four

200g golden granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of salt

1 lemon, zest and juice

1 egg

75ml vegetable oil

75ml rice milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Line a 20cm cake tin with greaseproof paper and arrange peach slices in the bottom.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarb, salt, zest).

In a separate bowl, or the measuring jug used for the oil and milk, combine all wet ingredients (lemon juice, egg, oil, milk) and mix well.

Add wet mixture slowly to dry mixture and mix on a medium speed until fully incorporated.

Pour this batter over the peach slices and bake for 45 mins, or until an inserted skewer comes out cleanish (bear in mind this is quite a moist cake).

Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, then turn out onto a plate (peaches slices now facing up) and leave to cool further on a cooling rack.

Be careful when removing the greaseproof paper.

PS. This recipe was self-invented and does not come from the book I mentioned.