Black Tea Velvet Cake

The car was vibrating, I was doing 40mph on an A road and there was this cake slash frosting tower sitting (rather unhygienically) on my passenger seat floor. I don’t think cars are supposed to shake at 40, but I’ll let mine off on the grounds of my horrific driving which has likely caused the thing a number of car-health related issues. Hannah from The Littlest Bakehouse and I are driving to Manchester from London in August for the Cake Hunter’s wedding (!!!), so this is my pre-warning to you both that we MAY not make it alive. 

Just a few fruit fell from the frankly pointless blueberry volcano I decided to fancifully pile the cake with. When I parked up, I quickly glued the bluebs back into place with icing, before the boyf jumped in and we made our way to Street Feast in Lewisham to celebrate his 24th day of birth. Suffice to say, he shortly followed with “Did you glue the blueberries on with icing by any chance?” (Face-palm). 

I never got to properly eat a slice of the cake, but he said it tasted pretty darn good, and we’ve been together since the exact birth of this blog - cue explanation as to why that is relevant…. Also I dipped syrupy offcuts into leftover icing ;)

We are that cringy ‘red velvet cake on Valentines’ couple. But last year, the Malteser chocolate malt cake I made on his birthday leaned to the left like a condensed leaning tower of Pisa performing a drag act. So I went with our valentine’s tradition but I cut out the food colouring, because the entire bottle, which is needed for a “proper” red velv, gives the cake a really noticeable sour tang. And regardless of the childish excitement a brilliant red cake instils in me to this day, I can no longer handle that tang.  

In with the tealeaves! The tea flavour is faint in this ‘tea velvet’, perhaps slightly masked by the cocoa powder, but we much prefer it to food colouring flavour. 

Black Tea Velvet Cake 

Inspired by the Pastry Affair's Black Tea Cake with Honey Buttercream

Ingredients

For the cake

• 250ml milk
• 150g high-grade tealeaves (or the leaves from 10 teabags)
• 180g unsalted butter 
• 420g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, large
• 485g plain flour
• 45g cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice/white wine vinegar 
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp white wine vinegar 

For the syrup

• 100g sugar
• 150ml water
• Handful of high-grade tealeaves

For the icing

• 100g unsalted butter, room temp
• 600g icing sugar
• 250g full fat cream cheese 
• Handful of blueberries and toasted coconut shavings to decorate

Notes: There are a few lengthy steps in this recipe, like steeping milk and letting the cakes rest in the fridge before slicing, so it's best to start making the cake layers and milk tea a day ahead. 

Notes II: I know you’re looking at that icing recipe and wondering whether it causes diabetes. The sad fact is that frostings with cream cheese aren’t sturdy enough to ice the walls of cakes/create rosettes without that much icing sugar.

Method

1. Place milk in heavy bottomed saucepan with tea leaves, let simmer on a low heat for five minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Cover and refrigerate overnight to further steep the milk, then strain the milk to remove the tea leaves. 
2. Line two 6 inch cake tins with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 160 C/180 Fan. Add lemon juice to tea milk and stir, then set aside.
3. Using either a freestanding mixer or electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, around 4 minutes. While mixing, add one egg at a time. 
4. In a bowl, sieve together cocoa and flour. On medium speed, add a third of the flour, then a third of the strained tea milk, alternating between both until everything is smoothly incorporated.  Take care not to over-mix!
5. In a small bowl, add the baking soda, then the white wine vinegar. It will immediately froth up, add it straight into the cake batter and gently fold in using a spatula. Divide among pans and bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake is coming away from the sides of the pan. 
6. Let the cakes cool to room temperature then cover in cling film and refrigerate for a few hours/overnight. Slice both cakes horizontally with a serrated knife so that you have four equal layers. 
7. Meanwhile, to make the syrup, add all of the ingredients into a saucepan and let simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes. Take off the heat, strain the tealeaves and pour into a jug and set aside. Poke several holes into the cakes and gently pour the slightly cooled syrup into the cakes – be sparing with the syrup – over soaking causes the cakes to tear. 
8. Beat the icing sugar, butter and just a tablespoon of the cream cheese together on high speed until light, fluffy and pale - around 2/3 minutes. Add the rest of the cream cheese and beat on medium speed until smooth and thick. 
9. Fill a piping bag fitted with a closed star tip (Wilton 2D) with a third of the icing. Build the cake layers by piping rosettes around the edges of each layer. Squeeze a dollop of icing in the middle of each layer and smooth off with a spatula before adding the next layer. Finish the top layer with the same effect and sprinkle with the toasted coconut and blueberries. 
10. Cake will keep for three days if kept covered and refrigerated. 

Love Em xx

Gingerbread Birthday/Christmas Cake with Mascarpone Frosting

Today, I have a cross between a birthday and Christmas cake to celebrate maaah biiirthdaaaaay! 

Salted Caramel Chocolate Doughnut Cake

It was mum’s birthday this month.

Obviously, mums deserve ‘showstopping’ cakes; do you think this covers it? I pretty much copied the style of this cake from Blue Bird Kisses, as you can see, hers looks like it was sent from heaven. 

Mine? It's pushing purgatory. 

I needed the cake to be nothing short of extravagant and mouthwatering down to the last crumb - so it had to be a tried and tested recipe. Something no fail and one I’d used before to ensure an all round success. 

The Sweet ‘n’ Salty Chocolate Cake from Hummingbird Bakery was my first, last and only option. It ticks all the boxes and has about 500 different steps to it so be prepared to spend your evening by the stove. 

To go the extra mile, I soaked the cakes in the homemade salted caramel as soon as they came out of the oven, knowing full well that it would cause me a cake covering disaster. That’s love, eh?

Salted Caramel Chocolate Doughnut Cake 

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's Sweet n Salty Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

For the caramel 

• 200g caster sugar 
• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)
• 120ml double cream
• 60ml soured cream
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt 

For the chocolate icing

• 200g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 360ml double cream
• 450g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 
• 450g unsalted butter, cubed and softened
• 1 tsp sea salt, for sprinkling
• Sainsbury's mini iced doughnuts, or any tiny doughnuts you can get hold of

For the cakes

• 300g unsalted butter, softened 
• 300g caster sugar
• 140g light soft brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 100g cocoa powder
• 160ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 330g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Note: You can halve the recipe for a 6 inch cake.

Recipe

1. Start with the caramel. In a medium saucepan add the sugar, golden syrup and 60ml water. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes until lightly browned. In another saucepan bring the double cream, sour cream and salt to a boil and then immediately remove from the heat and carefully pour into the caramel. Stir until smooth, pour into a jug, cover with cling film and set aside.
2. Make the chocolate icing. In a small, clean saucepan add the sugar, golden syrup and 60ml water. Heat gently for 10 minutes until golden and syrupy. In another pan, bring the cream to a boil and then immediately remove from the heat and carefully pour into the caramel. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool slightly. Put the chopped chocolate in the slightly cooled caramel and stir until the chocolate has melted. Whisk the mixture with an electric whisk for 5 minutes, until it cools down. Carry on whisking and add the butter piece by piece, keep going until the icing takes on the consistency of softly whipped cream. Transfer the mixture into a bowl, cover with cling film and place in the fridge to set. 
3. Preheat the oven to 170 C, grease and line two 8 inch cake pans, I used 6 inch pans for a taller cake. In a freestanding mixer or with an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugars for 4 minutes.  Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each. In a measuring jug add the cocoa powder, buttermilk, vanilla and 60ml water, stir with a fork to form a thick and smooth paste. In large bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, whisk to combine. Add half the cocoa paste to the butter and sugar mixture and stir to combine. Fold through all of the flour and then add the rest of the cocoa paste. Divide mixture among the pans and bake for 35/40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. 
4. As soon as the cakes are baked pierce them several times with a sharp knife and pour a thin layer of salted caramel over each. Transfer the cakes on a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To assemble the cake, spread 2 heaped tablespoons of icing between each layer and cover the sides and top using a cranked knife. Top with iced doughnuts and serve.

 Sweet 'n' Salty Chocolate Doughnut Cake 

Love Em xx

Extra Spicy Carrot and Walnut Birthday Cake

I am all birthday-d out. One sister. One brother in law (to be). Two days. Two birthdays. Too much cake.

For my sister, Monday marked the half-way line to 50. Least impressed was she on the age front that *hopefully* the present and cake front was a little more uplifting. To add to the Sunday-Monday celebrations, on Tuesday we met in London and rummaged through Soho to find the Tate & Lyle Edible Tasting House  followed by  a fat helping of Lobster in bread from the bustling Burger & Lobster - but more on that later…

For brother in law to be it had to be a homemade carrot cake – for two reasons. One; he expressed his love for such cake a week beforehand after enjoying a slice or two of M&S carrot cake and two; after tons of research and a whole blog post later I wanted to face my pathetic fear of cream cheese icing. We all came out of it with a pleasantly surprised BIL and icing successes.  2  peas in 1 delicious pod.

My recipe for cream cheese icing is a winner and I truly urge everyone to give it a go if they have ever come across this kind of gloop before.

This cake is overly nutty, spicy and indulgently rich and the walnuts go a bit soft on the outside when baked in cake, as if they’re fooling you into thinking: “That walnut might be a raisin, how shit would it be if it actually was.” Aaaaand then you are welcomed with the relief of a satisfying crunch.

The thing with CC is that it is such a simple recipe and a tea time favourite that as a baker/person you will find yourself baking it at some point. I’ve made it so many times now (here, and here) that I knew increasing the spice load would make a positively huge difference, an adaptation that I am going to stick to for the rest of my life – or at least until I hit the half-way line to 50.

The Recipe:

For the cake:

I dont know.

300ml sunflower oil or melted butter 

300g finely grated carrots 

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

300g plain/all purpose flour

180g dark brown, soft sugar

120g caster sugar, white

120g chopped walnuts

3 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp nutmeg 

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

1/2 tsp ground ginger 

3 1/2 tsp good quality ground cinnamon
For the icing:
850g icing sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
300g full fat cream cheese
1 tsp lemon juice
For the sides:
180g chopped walnuts

Special Equipment
Deep 23cm/8 inch round baking tin 

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and grease baking tin.

Grate the carrots, chop the walnuts and set aside.

In a freestanding mixer, beat the oil/melted butter and both types of sugar on high speed until pale - about 3 minutes.

In the mean time add the dry ingredients, including the spices, into a medium bowl and stir with a spoon - set aside.

Add the eggs & egg yolk one at a time into the oil mixture and beat for a further 4 minutes until fluffy and pale/r.

On low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 parts until just incorporated.

Take a metal spoon and fold in vanilla extract, then the carrots and lastly the walnuts.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean - maximum baking time is an hour.

Rest the cake as it is for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Whilst the cake is cooling, make the icing. 

In a freestanding mixer, throw in all of the ingredients except lemon juice and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Next, add the lemon juice and mixe on a higher speed until thick and smooth. Add more lemon juice to taste.

Once the cake is cooled, cut the cake straight through the middle and level the top. Add 4 heaped tbsp of icing in the middle and smooth with a spatula. Use the same spatula to cover the sides and top, do not worry about making the sides look neat if you are covering them in walnuts.

Walnut wall

Do you have a favourite carrot cake recipe?
Love Em xx

Happy Birthday to meeeeeee

Here is my absolutely gorgeous birthday cake from Wednesday, feast your eyes on its utter beauty and feel slightly jealous that you didn't have a slice.

Or... take a wild guess as to where its from and i'll personally mail you a slice! Go on... its only 2 days old. 

Lola's Birthday Cake

Lolas Bakery Chocolate Birthday Cake

Lolas Bakery Vanilla Buttercream 

Lolas Bakery Birthday Cake 

Love Em xx