Chocolate Teacake Cake

Before Easter I was struck down with gastroentiritis and it was an utterly horrendous experience. Crippling stomach pains and the inability to eat anything but dry crackers and ginger nut biscuits for over a week meant I was fantasising about the day I could finally stuff my face with indulgent food again, and I swore I'd treat myself by making a big decadent cake when I was better. Luckily, I recovered in time for the Easter weekend and decided to set myself the challenge of baking something chocolatey that didn't involve Mini Eggs or Creme Eggs. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Mini Eggs and Creme Eggs but I thought it'd be fun to try something outside-the-box. The result was a creation inspired by one of my favourite treats, chocolate teacakes, with their heavenly combination of fluffy marshmallow filling, strawberry jam, biscuit base and a crisp chocolate coating. The flavours and textures transfer really well into cake form and it was a lot of fun to make, especially the mountain of meringue frosting topped with a chocolate shell!

Freezing the marshmallow frosting for five minutes before pouring on the melted chocolate is a great tip I picked up from a recipe for hi-hat cupcakes and it really works! Make sure you don't omit this step or you'll end up with a runny, melty mess. Also, as I mentioned in my Neapolitan Cake post, although beating egg white with icing sugar makes for a deliciously marshmallow-like frosting, it doesn't last well and will begin to shrink after a couple of days. The cake will still be delicious but it won't look as good!

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

• 225g self-raising flour
• 225g caster/granulated sugar
• 225g butter/margarine
• 4 eggs
• 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting/filling/topping:

• 2 egg whites
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp golden syrup
• 0.5 tsp cream of tartar (optional but helps to stabilise the mixture)
• 5 tbsp (approx.) strawberry jam
• 100g milk chocolate
• 3-4 milk chocolate or plain digestive biscuits

METHOD

For the cake:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and and line two round baking tins with parchment paper.
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, cocoa powder and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins then pop in the oven and bake for around 15-20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponges comes out clean.
5. When baked, leave the cakes to cool on a wire rack before turning them out of the tins. At this stage the sponges can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the frosting/filling/topping:

1. Spread the strawberry jam generously across the top of one of the cooled sponges.
2. Separate the egg whites into a clean bowl and whisk with the vanilla extract, golden syrup and cream of tartar, while adding the icing sugar a few teaspoons at a time, until stiff peaks form - you should ideally do this for a minimum of 7-10 minutes.
3. Spread about a third of the frosting on top of the jam-covered sponge using a palette knife then sandwich the other sponge on top. 
4. Spread the rest of the frosting on top of the cake to form a mountain - pile it up as high as possible - then place in the freezer for about 5 minutes until it's fairly firm.
5. While the cake is in the freezer, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of hot water or in the microwave in blasts of 30 seconds until smooth.
6. Remove the cake from the freezer and immediately pour the melted chocolate over the top of the frosting mountain so that it drizzles down the sides. 
7. Crush the digestive biscuits into chunks by hand and place on top of the chocolate covering then leave to set before serving.

Neapolitan Cake

I've been sticking to lower fat/sugar bakes for the last couple of months as part of my new year (mostly) healthy eating regime but last weekend while back home at my parents' I was desperate to just go nuts and make a proper double decker sponge with lashings of scrummy frosting. I've wanted to try a tri-colour Neapolitan ice cream inspired cake, with layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, for a while so this was the perfect time to give it a go. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and think it looks really pretty and cheery!

The frosting I used in this recipe is just egg white beaten with icing sugar plus flavouring and food colouring and this makes for a lovely light, almost marshmallow-like texture which is less sickly than buttercream. However, a word of warning: it starts to shrink and evaporate after 24 hours or so so if you're making the cake in advance I'd recommend using buttercream icing instead as it will last much longer.

Side note: A lot of my previous cake recipes on here have listed the quantities in ounces but I've decided to start using metric only from now on in order to be consistent.

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

• 225g self-rasing flour
• 225g caster/granulated sugar
• 225g butter/margarine
• 4 eggs
• 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g chocolate chips (optional but very yummy)

For the icing/jam filling:

• 1 egg white
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp strawberry extract
• Few drops of red food colouring
• Handful coloured vermicelli
• 4 tbsp (approx.) strawberry jam

METHOD

For the cake:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line two round baking tins with parchment paper.
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 and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Separate half of the mixture into a second bowl and and fold in the cocoa powder and chocolate chips.
5. Pour the mixtures one each into the two cake tins.
6. Pop in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
7. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool before turning the cakes out of the tins. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the icing/filling:

1. Spread the strawberry jam onto the top of the cooled chocolate sponge and sandwich the vanilla sponge on top.
2. Separate the egg white into a clean bowl and whisk with the strawberry extract until stiff peaks form while adding the icing sugar a few teaspoons at a time.
3. Add the food colouring a couple of drops at a time and whisk again until you have your desired shade of pink.
4. Spread the icing over the top of the cake using a palette knife - tap roughly with the palette knife to achieve the fluffy effect in the photo - and then sprinkle with vermicelli as a colourful finishing touch.

Plimmsberry Cupcakes

I've been on a bit of a baking hiatus recently due to the horrendously sweltering weather and so I've been indulging my cravings for homemade goodies by whipping up simple no-cook rocky road and cheesecake, but I realised I forgot to post the recipe for these lovely summery and quintessentially British cupcakes I made back when Wimbledon fever was abound here in the UK and I could still switch on the oven without melting. 

The Pimms jam filling was an impulse invention of mine that turned out deliciously but I don't think I'll be trying meringue icing again a hurry. Although it was light and tasty and significantly lower in fat than standard buttercream frosting, it was a bit of a fiddly faff-fest to make, and after being piped onto the cakes it shrunk within a few hours. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you don't frost the cakes until just before you serve them! I also ended up with an obscene amount left over; the recipe I originally used said it was just enough for 12 cupcakes but I've reduced the quantities below to a (hopefully) a more accurate estimate, although obviously it depends how much of the icing you want to top each cake with.

I have to confess that the redcurrants out of the garden were far too sharp to be edible and were just for decorative purposes only but I thought they made a rather spiffy finishing touch skewered on the wee cocktail sticks. Cheers!

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 12 small cupcakes

For the cakes:

• 4 oz self-raising flour
• 4 oz caster sugar
• 4 oz margarine/butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

For the jammy 'Plimmsberry' filling:

• 6 tsp (approx.) strawberry jam
• 6 tsp (approx.) plum jam
• 20 ml (approx.) Pimms

For the icing:

• 1 or 2 egg whites (depending on how much icing you want to cover the cakes in)
• 2 or 4 oz caster sugar
• 1/2 or 1 tsp vanilla extract

+ 12 cocktail sticks + 24 redcurrants (optional)

METHOD

For the cakes:

1. Line a baking tray with 12 paper cases.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
3. Fold in the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract until a batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed.
4. Drop the mixture into the cake cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
5. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
6. When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

For the filling/icing:

1. Roughly mix the two types of jam and the Pimms together in a small bowl.
2. Using a teaspoon or small sharp knife, carefully cut a small hole (about 2cm deep by 2cm wide) in the top of each cupcake. Don't discard the bits you've cut out!
3. Drop about a teaspoon of the 'Plimmsberry' jam into each hole and then gently push the sponge part that was cut out back into each one.
4. To create the meringue icing just before serving, separate the whites of 1 or 2 eggs into a heatproof bowl which can sit over the top of a saucepan of hot water without touching the water, and put the yolks to one side (these can be used to make choc mousse or eggy bread or something later!)
5. Boil the kettle and fill the saucepan with a small volume of water and leave to cool slightly on the hob (don't turn it on yet!) while beginning to whisk the egg whites on a high speed until they begin to stiffen and form peaks - this should be done for a minimum of 3 minutes.
6. Switch the hob onto a LOW heat and place the bowl of egg whites onto the saucepan, ensuring that the hot water does not touch the bottom and that the water does not boil, then begin whisking on high speed again while gradually adding the sugar and vanilla extract.
7. Continue to whisk thoroughly until all the sugar has dissolved - this will take at least 5 minutes or so. If, like me, you don't own a fancy sugar thermometer, you can test to see if the sugar's dissolved by pinching a small amount of the mixture between your fingers - if it feels gritty it needs further whisking. At this point the mixture may turn flat and runny but don't panic, just keep on whisking and it will thicken again.
8. Once all the sugar has dissolved and the egg whites have formed stiff, glossy peaks, switch the hob off and transfer the meringue into a piping bag with the nozzle of your choice (I used a star attachment) then pipe swirls onto each cake.
9. Spear two of the redcurrants onto each cocktail stick then insert into the cakes if you wish.

Remember, the icing doesn't keep well so make sure you scoff right away :)