Birthday

Tiramisu Coffee Cake

3rd January 2016 by Rosie

It’s my husband’s birthday today and his requested treat was for a tiramisu, however I’ve made (& we’ve eaten) one over the Christmas / New Year period already, and birthdays are all about a cake, after all, aren’t they? So, with this in mind, I dug out my recipe notebook and went to find a recipe that I came up with a couple of years ago and made him a tiramisu inspired coffee cake instead; therefore we both win – he gets his tiramisu, and I get to make a cake! Here’s how:

280g Butter

280g Caster Sugar

280g Self Raising Flour

5 Eggs

5ml Baking Powder

15ml Camp coffee essence

2.5ml Nielsen Massey Coffee extract

To drizzle the cake with:

10ml Instant coffee

10ml Hot water

20ml Amaretto

Frosting:

250g Mascarpone cheesse

150ml Double cream

60ml Amaretto

5 Tbs icing sugar

To decorate:

Cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180℃.

2. Grease & line two 20cm/8″ round cake tins.

3. Using the all in one method, to a large bowl, add the butter, caster sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, Camp coffee and coffee extract. Using the all in one method, beat together until well combined (about 4-5 minutes).

4. Divide equally between your two cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until cooked.

5. Remove from the oven, allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove from the tins onto a wire cooling rack until cold.

6. Mix together the instant coffee and water, stir until dissolved. Add the amaretto and leave to cool.

7. For the frosting, beat together the mascarpone cheese, cream, amaretto and icing sugar.

8. Place half of the cake onto a serving plate and drizzle with half of the coffee and amaretto.

9. Spread the cake half with about a third of the mascarpone cheese frosting.

10. Top with the other half of the cake and drizzle this with the remaining half of the coffee and amaretto mixture.

11. Spread the cake with the remaining mascarpone cheese frosting and dust the cake with the cocoa.

12. Serve without guilt or attention to calorific value. Just enjoy!

Chocolate Fudge Cake

6th January 2014 by Freycob

This is an incredibly moist chocolate cake that’s not too sweet. The chocolate fudge icing is a wonderful topping which balances it out perfectly.

300g Plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
450g Granulated sugar
2 Eggs
5ml Bicarbonate of Soda
125ml Milk
15ml Lemon Juice
250ml Water
250g Butter
3tbs Cocoa
5ml Vanilla
Icing:
150g Butter
30ml Water
5ml Vanilla
30ml Cocoa
325g Icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 180C
2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, sugar, eggs, bi-carbonate of soda, milk and lemon juice.
3. Set aside for 5 minutes, whilst you:
4. Heat the water, butter, cocoa and vanilla extract together until the butter has melted.
5. Add the butter and water mix to the bowl and mix well to combine.
6. Grease a 25x30cm deep dish.
7. Pour the cake batter into the dish.
8. Cook for approximately 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
9. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the dish.
10. Melt together the butter with the water and vanilla.
11. In a large bowl, mix together the icing sugar and cocoa.
12. Add the water and butter mixture into the icing sugar and cocoa and beat until thoroughly mixed, with no lumps.
13. Pour over the cake and leave to set.

I chose to make this for my daughter’s 13th birthday in a bundt tin. After cooking, I left it in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on to a cooling rack until cold. It was then transferred to a cake stand and the fudge icing poured over the top. If you leave the fudge icing to set and cool for a few minutes you will find that it thickens up a bit and therefore coats the cake better.

Yule Log Birthday Bundt

1st January 2014 by Freycob

My hubby celebrates his birthday on 3rd January, and although I know this is after Christmas, I’d bought a new Nordic Ware Yule Log baking tin half price in the Lakeland sale, so just had to try it out today to make his cake, didn’t I?

I used the basic bundt cake recipe from Rachel McGrath (aka Dolly Bakes), but added 1/2 tsp of orange oil in with the yoghurt & vanilla to give it an added element.

If you’re careful to take the time to properly butter and flour the tin, as you can see here:

Then your cake will turn out a dream with not a crumb left sticking to the sides, as you can clearly see.

For a simple decoration (he doesn’t ‘do’ fussy cakes), I simply sprinkled it with a bit of icing sugar. I just wonder if it’ll last until his birthday on Friday or whether some (or indeed all) of it will have gone by then.

Clandestine Cake Club Northampton’s 1st Birthday Party

18th May 2013 by Freycob

For our club’s first birthday party, we returned to Jeyes of Earls Barton; the venue of our inaugural meeting, where we were once again extended a warm welcome from the Jeyes family.

Our meeting was sponsored by Yorkshire Tea, who had sent our fabulously dedicated organiser, Gillian, some wonderful decorations & products to adorn our table. These were coupled with table decorations that Jeyes had also kindly provided, along with a lovely goody bag that they had given every member. Not only that, but Jeyes had also provided us with sandwiches and crisps to accompany our wonderful array of cakes, tea and coffee.

I’m sure you’ll agree from the photos below that there were some beautiful cakes from our incredibly talented group of ladies. There must have been in excess of 20 cakes on the tables!

A HUGE thank you has to go to our organiser, Gillian, for her continued hard work & dedication to make the Northampton branch of the Clandestine Cake Club as large and successful as it has become.