Custard Cream Cake

This recipe is basically a large version of the cupcakes I created but never got round to blogging about after being inspired by the custard cream biscuits I made here: http://cloudninepointone.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/custard-creams-strawberry-milkshake.html.

I made this quick and simple cake on a whim while round my other half's after discovering he had custard powder in the cupboard and it was absolutely scrumptious with its light sponge, smooth icing and lovely vanilla flavour. If you want to make it a bit more of a 'show stopper' bake by all means double the quantities and make as a double layer cake sandwiched with extra custard buttercream and top with some custard cream biscuits or other decorations to finish, but if you're just after something delicious with minimal faff then look no further than the recipe below :)

I love the sunshine yellow colour!

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

• 160g self-raising flour
• 170g caster/granulated sugar
• 170g butter/margarine
• 3 eggs
• 2 heaped tbsp custard powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the custard buttercream icing:

• 100g icing sugar
• 50g butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 1 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

For the cake:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a round cake tin with baking parchment.
2. Whisk the butter/margarine and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, custard powder and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for around 20-25 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
5. When baked, leave to cool on a wire rack before turning the sponge out of the tin. At this stage the cake can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the icing:

1. Place the butter and vanilla extract into a bowl and whisk while gradually adding the icing sugar and custard powder until a thick, fluffy mixture has formed.
2. Spread the icing onto the top of the cooled cake using a palette knife, then dive in!

This recipe can also be used to make cupcakes (yields around 10-12) instead of one large cake:

Maria's Ridiculously Good Best Ever Blondies

I normally find it quite arrogant when people put their names on recipes but I couldn't resist putting my stamp on this one as it's my definite favourite of all the baked creations I've made up myself so far, and their irresistible butterscotchy flavour really makes them ridiculously good!

I was reluctant to reveal my secret ingredient to my eager samplers but I shall share it here for the benefit of the baking community at large (ahem). And that secret ingredient is...*drum roll*...custard powder. This idea came about when I was simply too lazy to look up a blondie recipe and decided just to go by my fail safe brownie recipe (available here: http://cloudninepointone.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/best-ever-jack-daniels-brownies ) and substitute the milk chocolate for the white variety. It then dawned on me that I had no idea what to add in place of the cocoa powder. There's no such thing as white cocoa powder (to my knowledge?!) and I was worried that making up the cocoa quantity with more flour would affect the flavour and make them too plain so, in the absence of butterscotch Angel Delight, I reached for the vanilla scented custard powder. And hey presto! The rest is scrumptious cakey history.

The lovely golden blondies pictured with their darker chocolate bretherin, pre-cutting...

INGREDIENTS

• 200g granulated/caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 80g self-raising flour
• 120ml cooking oil
• 130g white cooking chocolate
• 4.5 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Few drops of Lakeland buttery caramel flavouring (optional but really makes the butterscotchy flavour pop!)

METHOD

• Grease the baking tin with margarine/butter or line with baking parchment.
• Briefly whisk the sugar, eggs, oil, vanilla extract and caramel flavouring together in a large mixing bowl.
• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water or place in the microwave and heat in blasts of about 1 minute until smooth, then pour into the mixing bowl.
• Fold the flour and custard powder into the mixture and pour into the lined tin.
• Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the cake comes out pretty much clean then leave to cool.
• Cut the blondies into squares using a sharp knife and marvel at their deliciousness as you dive in.

Custard Creams & Strawberry Milkshake Creams

Although I try, as a rule I'm not one for aesthetic neatness and elegance when baking. Despite numerous attempts, my piping is never up to scratch and my cookies, though tasty, are always sloppy and uneven (in fact, this is the primary reason I have still not yet plucked up the courage to have a go at posh French macarons despite having bought a packet of ground almonds for this purpose over a month ago). But I impressed myself with these lovely little biscuits which were a bit of a labour of love. The secret of their prettiness is that the dough barely puffs up at all during baking which means the biscuits keep their beautiful even shape.

Although it took me a while to lovingly craft each button using a round scone cutter, a tiny espresso cup and a straw, these colourful treats certainly aren't complicated to make. And they were certainly worth the extra time as they received an abundance of compliments on both taste and appearance - in fact, Edd Kimber himself (whose recipe I used for the custard creams) saw them on Twitter and said they were fantastic! Praise indeed :)

The pink strawberry milkshake creams were an original invention of mine which I'm rather proud of though I say so myself - I simply followed the same recipe as I did for the custard creams but substituted the custard powder and vanilla extract for strawberry milkshake powder and strawberry extract respectively. The result was utterly delicious and I will definitely be making them again!

If you don't have the time or patience to make buttons, just use your favourite cookie cutters like I did for the mini stars and hearts below. To make a Bourbon cream-esque variation, you could substitute the custard/strawberry milkshake powder for chocolate milkshake powder or cocoa.

The yellow custard creams were made using Edd Kimber's fab recipe which can be found here - http://theboywhobakes.co.uk/2011/06/custard-creams/ - so I'm just going to post the recipe for my strawberry milkshake cream version.

Strawberry Milkshake Creams

INGREDIENTS - yield depends on the size and shape of cookie cutter used but the below quantities resulted in the number of pink biscuits seen in the photo above

For the biscuits:

• 230g plain flour
• 50g icing sugar
• 50g strawberry milkshake powder (I used Hello Kitty brand but any will do!)
• 180g margarine/butter
• 1 tsp strawberry extract
• Splash of red food colouring
  
  + cookies cutters of your choice or a round cutter, an espresso cup & a plastic straw if you want to make buttons like in the photo

For the filling:

• 100g icing sugar
• 25g butter (unsalted if preferred)
• 1.5 tbsp strawberry milkshake powder
• Splash of milk
• 0.5 tsp strawberry extract
• Drop of red food colouring

METHOD

For the biscuits:

1. Line two large rectangular baking trays with parchment.
2. Place the flour, icing sugar and strawberry milkshake powder into a large mixing bowl then add the margarine/butter and strawberry extract.
3. Rub the fat into the dry ingredients so that crumbs form and then squish together into a large ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add a little more flour. If it's too dry and crumbly, add a little milk.
4. Add the red food colouring, a tiny splash at a time, and knead the dough in the bowl until it turns your desired shade of pink.
5. Take the dough out of the bowl, wrap tightly in clingfilm and leave in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes to half an hour.
6. Sprinkle flour over your work surface to prevent sticking then roll the pink dough out until it's roughly 1cm in thickness (remember you'll be sandwiching them together two at a time so you don't want them too thick or they won't be pleasant to eat unless you have an extremely massive gob!)
7. Cut out as many circles as possible using the round cookie cutter and stamp each circle with the espresso cup, firmly enough that it makes a definite indent but not so hard that it cuts through the dough. Then use the end of a plastic straw to stamp out four tiny circles in the middle of each biscuit to make a button, transferring each one onto the baking trays as you go.
8. Squish all the off-cuts together then re-roll the dough and repeat the process. If you're lazy like me, cut out other small simple shapes such as hearts or stars once you've made 20 buttons.
9. Pop in the oven and bake at about 180 degrees C for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms have started to colour very slightly at the edges then transfer onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

For the filling:

1. Place the butter and strawberry extract into a bowl then add the icing sugar and strawberry milkshake powder gradually while stirring/whisking. Add a splash of milk and continue to stir/whisk until a smooth, spreadable mixture has formed.
2. Add the red food colouring a tiny drop at a time and stir until the mixture turns your desired shade of pink (you'll only need a very tiny bit).
3. Spread a small blob of the icing onto the back of one of the pink biscuits using a palette knife then sandwich together with another biscuit of the same shape and repeat until they've all been paired up.

Edit: I also used Edd's custard cream recipe to make these cute jammy heart biscuits - just make imprints in the dough with your thumb then fill with raspberry or strawberry jam :)